Full Sun: Episode 8

by HeadsNo2

Our hero keeps digging his grave deeper and deeper when it comes to his growing feelings for Young-won as their relationship undergoes some interesting ups and downs this episode. It’s a Love That Can Probably Be, only everyone else is hell bent on making sure it won’t, whether it’s Young-won’s hateful family, Se-ro’s makeshift one, and/or Se-ro himself. He’s got ninety-nine problems, but a nice and totally respectable girl is the least of them.

Note: Wondering why I’m not gummimochi? Me too. Funny story though—she asked me to cover this recap weeks ago, but it was only days ago that I realized I hadn’t been keeping up with Full Sun (at all) and that I had a little less than forty-eight hours to catch up to all of it. So taking into account that I’ve had about that much time to reflect on my life choices, on with the show.

SONG OF THE DAY

Ga In – “For You Not To Know (너만은 모르길)” [ Download ]

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

 
EPISODE 8 RECAP

Young-won wakes up alone in a strange bed, and it seems telling that she immediately looks to the empty side of it as though expecting someone to be there. Omo. Did what I think happened… happen?

While Se-ro sits in the adjacent living room in silence, Young-won flashes back to the night before… and the kiss that started it all.

After Se-ro pulled away from the kiss, and after a charged look between them, he’d desperately pulled her into an embrace. Only afterward did they break the silence, with both of them awkwardly starting to speak at the same time. Ha.

Se-ro let Young-won go first, as she hesitantly broached, “I hope this doesn’t sound strange to you, but, just for tonight… can I spend the night at your place?” Embarrassment caused her to ask Se-ro what he wanted to say, only for him to ask the same question of her: “Can you stay with me tonight?”

Back in the present, Young-won tries to hide her embarrassment when Se-ro comes into the room to ask if she can cook rice. She’s all, Pssh, who CAN’T cook rice?

Cut to: The two of them eating cup ramen for breakfast, because she totally lied about being able to cook rice. Ha. Se-ro isn’t afraid to call her out on it either.

Their dynamic has changed, at least on Young-won’s side. She talks more freely with him, and half-jokingly asks him why he lied about seeing her five years ago—as he put it, “once when you were laughing and once when you were crying.”

With his eyes downcast, Se-ro admits that he saw her in her red dress at a hospital in Thailand where his father was being treated. He had noticed her especially because of her dress and her tears, and admits that he’d felt as though that girl was crying for him.

Young-won asks him if his father passed away there, and when he confirms, she notes how they both lost their loved ones at the same time and at the same place.

But Se-ro is much more rueful. “I should have said hello to you then. Or asked why you were crying. Back then, if I would’ve wiped away the tears from your eyes…” This is a refrain we’ve heard from him before, but if he had been considering finishing it and telling her the truth, he’s brought back down to reality when she calls him Eun-soo.

So the rest of his refrain is left unsaid: “Then, could I have lived as me, as Jung Se-ro?”

While little bro Young-joon looks at secret pictures taken of Se-ro and Kang-jae, Daddy Han barges in to order that he find Se-ro’s address so that they can fire him.

Young-joon decides to go himself, and is shocked when his older sister opens the door, since Se-ro has gone to the market. He drags his sister into his car and drives off before she can tell Se-ro goodbye. No matter that Se-ro watches all this take place.

Young-won is fed up with Young-joon’s attitude, especially when he brings up how quickly she’s moved on to Se-ro/Eun-soo after the fuss she’s made over Woo-jin all these years. Young-won: “What did I do so wrong to you?”

She brings up how she gave up her position at Belle la Fair without a fight for him, and compares it to the way he’s been treating her. Maybe Young-joon feels bad (or maybe he’s just looking at the big picture), because he tells her about their father’s plan to fire Se-ro and that he’ll do her a favor by not telling Daddy Han that he picked her up from Se-ro’s house—because they both know what happens to people when Daddy Dearest doesn’t approve of them.

His advice? Keep her head down, do what father wants. It’s that simple.

When Young-won returns home, Daddy Han immediately grounds her. He seems to know about her and Se-ro without her needing to tell him that there’s nothing between them, and is more than receptive to Young-won’s idea that she could leave the country on a vacation.

In fact, he tells Madame Baek to set everything up so Young-won can leave as soon as possible. What a lovely family.

While Young-joon meets with Se-ro to lay down the law, Jae-in and Hong wait in his office to talk to him. They both muse over how suspicious Young-joon is of them before Hong comes up with an entertaining idea: they can use the bug planted in Young-joon’s office to listen to his conversation with Se-ro. Ruh roh.

At least Se-ro is sharp enough to cover for why he was caught meeting with Kang-jae and the other FL Gemstones crew, but he quickly gains the upper hand in what was supposed to be Young-joon’s power play when he dismisses Young-joon’s idle, disinterested threat that he would’ve fired Se-ro if it hadn’t been for his sister.

And after he warns Se-ro to stay away from Young-won yet again, Se-ro retorts that he’s not involved with Young-won in the way he thinks… but is reconsidering it now that he keeps getting told not to. “Don’t make Han Young-won pitiful in front of me,” he warns Young-joon, completely turning the tables on the insecure new president.

Se-ro knows Young-joon is merely putting on a show of confidence and calls him out on it, easily ending the conversation while adding insult to injury by acknowledging that he’s been speaking to him in banmal—as Young-won’s little brother, and not as the new president. Se-ro: “I trust that you’ll be able to differentiate between business and personal matters, President..”

Se-ro doesn’t understand Jae-in’s ire upon first returning to his office, until he realizes that she heard everything. He has to chase her outside, where she chastises him for fooling around with the daughter of his—their—enemy.

But as tears fall from her eyes, Jae-in can’t help but ask why it couldn’t have been her. She curses the unrequited love she has for him as she tries to get through to him: “You’re not Lee Eun-soo. Does she know that you’re Jung Se-ro?” And, “Can she forgive you?”

Se-ro’s excuses do no good, and Jae-in desperately hugs him with tears running down her cheeks. He pats her on the back as he says, “Jae-in-ah, Kang-jae hyung… is a very lonely person.” Aw, is this his answer to her unrequited feelings?

Speaking of, we next find Jae-in with Kang-jae, who adorably (and awkwardly) gives her tickets so they can go see a musical together. Hong calls during their outing to report that Se-ro was right—Young-joon is having them followed.

A cursory look around the cafe by Kang-jae confirms they’ve got a tail, so he and Jae-in high tail it out while trying to look natural. The reason they’re in extra deep is because, at President Shin Pil-do’s urging, Kang-jae has been trying to look into Daddy Han’s affairs. Now they’ve got to be extra careful.

Young-won can’t stop thinking of Se-ro that night, and feels guilty when she looks at the bracelet Woo-jin gave her. “I must be crazy,” she says to him and it, before slowly shutting it away in a drawer.

She runs into her brother as she heads out to meet Se-ro, and all but pleads with him to look the other way just this once. “I’m going to go overseas for a while. I’m just going to tell him that I’m leaving,” she claims.

After losing their tail (and convincing Jae-in to go to the musical with him), Kang-jae instructs the team on their next move. Even though they don’t have everything Woo-jin collected tying Daddy Han to a paper company he used for money laundering, they have enough copies of the originals to release in order to smear Daddy Han’s name—though it’s not enough to put him in prison.

Young-won rings the doorbell, and Se-ro purposefully goes outside to meet her so that Kang-jae & Co. won’t notice. She apologizes for not being able to say goodbye and assures him that she told her brother that there was nothing between them.

“What do you mean, nothing? Nothing really happened between us?” Se-ro questions, like he’s testing her. (So something did happen.) But then he turns cold by acting like they just got distracted, and that it has nothing to do with him—she has no reason to protect him or try to make excuses for him.

Young-won is especially taken aback when Se-ro tells her not to come to his house unannounced, but she wants to believe the best in him and assumes he’s just in a sour mood.

But again, when she tells him she’s going to England for an unspecified length of time, he doesn’t give her the reaction she’s looking for—in fact, he doesn’t seem to care much at all. Young-won leaves, unable to say anything else to a man-turned-brick-wall.

At least Se-ro is honest about who came to visit when he goes back inside, and though he seems to want to confess all to Kang-jae, Jae-in’s repeated warnings keep him quiet. Kang-jae remains none the wiser about Young-won and Se-ro’s relationship.

Daddy Han doesn’t even bother sending Young-won off on her overseas trip, so Madame Baek feigns motherly love in order to take her to the airport.

Meanwhile, a news story has come out about more blue diamonds being found, which has Young-joon worrying that it’s a scam. Se-ro doesn’t seem to be concerned one way or the other, and actually laughs when Young-joon segues into saying that his sister’s leaving the country today.

“I feel sorry for her,” Se-ro chuckles, causing Young-joon to muse that Se-ro’s even crazier than he is.

Madame Baek isn’t afraid to tell Young-won how she really feels, now that Young-won is leaving. It’s true that there’s no love between them, but when Young-won asks how many people would welcome her return—whenever that may be—Madame Baek says to count her out. Harsh.

“Whether it’s a day or a year, I’ll come back stronger,” Young-won promises. She remains unaware that Se-ro is watching her, and he keeps his eyes on her until she boards the plane.

Kang-jae and Jae-in are relaxed now that Belle la Fair has cut ties with them, even though they haven’t managed to shake their tail. Young-joon calls his man off for them, since the only thing that Kang-jae wants to hide from them is his fondness for Jae-in.

Right then, Madame Baek goes to her son to chastise him for ending things with FL Gemstones, especially when there’s no surefire evidence that they’re conmen.

Hong overhears their conversation by way of his bug, and calls up “my love” Hama to give him the good news: Young-joon has called off his tail, so Hama can finally leave the hideout and roam free, as free as the wind blows.

Hama is overjoyed that he gets to see his friends again, and it’s funny how the two talk like lovers excited for their reunion. And while they’ll be seeing each other later in the evening, Hama’s current task from Se-ro involves finding Grandma and giving her some money to live on, promising the worried woman that Se-ro will contact her soon.

That night, Se-ro agrees to send out Woo-jin’s damning e-mail to the press at Kang-jae’s suggestion. You’d think that’s the reason why Daddy Han goes storming into Se-ro’s office the next morning, but it isn’t—he’s demanding to know where Young-won is, because she never left Korea and they can only assume she’s been with him.

Se-ro, who had absolutely no idea about any of this, grows immediately concerned and rushes out. Only then does Daddy Han get the news about the dirt Woo-jin had on him getting released.

So far, the rumors circulating are mostly about Daddy Han’s paper company in Hong Kong. He wonders whether Se-ro (the real one) was involved, to which Secretary Ahn replies that if he was, then he likely has loads more important and damning documents he hasn’t released yet.

Young-joon only has one concern, as he asks his father: “Is Belle la Fair connected to this?” Daddy has no response.

Se-ro is able to track down Young-won’s actual location through Manager Min, and effectively gets her to return his calls when he texts her that he came to England to see her. (It’s like visiting your friend in Kentucky by going to New York and texting, “I’m here! Where are you?”)

Feeling guilty, she calls to tell him that she’s not anywhere near the UK—she’s actually in Korea. Se-ro has a super stalker-ish (or as they translate it in melos: completely normal) line/moment by knocking on the glass walls of her rented home.

She tells Se-ro that he’s the reason why she didn’t leave Korea, because she saw him that day at the airport. Remembering what he’d told her about seeing her in Thailand, she admits that a thought occurred to her as she followed, but just barely missed Se-ro out of the airport then: that maybe, just maybe, he was sent to her by Woo-jin.

I love that Se-ro asks all the real-world questions, like why she wouldn’t have just boarded another flight or why she holed herself up here, alone. She claims it’s so she wouldn’t be a burden on him, when really she doesn’t know the answers—she just didn’t want to go so far away.

As they take a long walk through the snow, Young-won finally has a reply to what Se-ro claimed was just a distraction when talking about the night they spent together. Compounding that with the couple of days that preceded it prompts Young-won to ask, “It’s not that we were distracted… weren’t we dating?”

Se-ro thinks about it for a second, then agrees. “Let’s break up,” she suddenly says with a smile. “Since we dated, let’s break up now.” But it turns out that she’s looking out for his best interests, since she wants him to find a girl less complicated than her.

To that, Se-ro just seems to be humoring her as he asks, “Can we break up tomorrow?” She’s more than happy with this idea since it means they’re still actively dating for one more fight, and a happy-go-lucky snowball fight ensues.

She suddenly finds herself with Se-ro’s whistle, which he explains as being the only thing that’s truly his and thus the only thing he can give her. Aww. We know how much this means, but I can’t blame her for being a bit puzzled.

At Scammers HQ, Kang-jae is furious now that Hong has spilled the beans about Se-ro and Young-won’s romance. He can’t wrap his head around Se-ro’s actions, especially because it’s Daddy Han’s daughter involved.

To make matters worse, he knows Jae-in was hiding the truth to protect Se-ro. He’s concerned about how this will affect their plans, while Jae-in finally admits that she was never in this for money—she was in this for Se-ro because she liked him. Aw.

Kang-jae tries to hide the fact that Jae-in’s just dealt him a major blow, and by his actions, he really didn’t seem to know this about her. No matter, because he clarifies that he’s definitely not in this for anyone or anything but diamonds.

Now that they’re being truthful, Kang-jae admits to being part of the reason why Dad is dead and why Se-ro isn’t a diplomat like he should’ve been. If he hadn’t stolen the diamonds, or if he hadn’t locked up Woo-jin, Se-ro wouldn’t have been framed. He lives with that guilt every day.

Jae-in still desperately clings to the belief that what happened to Se-ro wasn’t their fault and that they did what they could, but Kang-jae calls her out on whether she really believes her words. The only reason he’s going through with this plan is because he wants to end the lifestyle he’s been living with that one last job.

And if Se-ro gets in the way, Kang-jae claims that he’ll choose diamonds over his friend if he had to. But it’s clear that he doesn’t want to, nor does he know a better way to help Se-ro.

But he wants, above all else, for Jae-in to acknowledge him. Without her, he has no one. “Why not just be mine?” he asks pitifully. “Why don’t we love each other? Let’s live together. Is that wrong?” But Jae-in can only ask him to stop, which causes Kang-jae to leave, all while blinking back his own tears.

Se-ro explains the significance of the whistle to Young-won, and how his father would always respond by putting him on his back and running away. Likewise, he tells her that if in the future she should find out everything about him and still accept him, she can blow the whistle and he’ll come to her just like his father did.

When she asks what he’d say to his father now if he could, Se-ro thinks about it for a moment before replying, “‘Let’s live together again.’” Aww.

With his emotions laid so bare, Young-won comforts him by first touching his face, before she leans in to place a gentle kiss on his lips. Se-ro responds in kind.

She wakes the next morning (from her own separate sleeping quarters) and calls her brother due to a note Se-ro left behind. Young-joon tells her to hurry home fast, because Belle la Fair won’t be safe when the news about their father hits.

As Young-won rushes home to protect Belle la Fair, Se-ro is attacked and abducted by Daddy Han’s henchmen, who take him to an abandoned farmhouse to beat him up further.

Meanwhile, Kang-jae is made aware of Se-ro’s plight as well as who’s behind it, though he angrily insists that there’s nothing he can do.

Though the henchmen haven’t said anything, Se-ro knows Daddy Han is pulling their strings. And with a face dripping in blood, he demands that they bring Daddy Han to him so they can meet face-to-face.

“I… have a lot of questions to ask him,” Se-ro adds, his voice and body trembling with rage.

 
COMMENTS

You go, Se-ro! He seemed downright excited at the prospect of meeting Daddy Han and talking things out, which I can’t blame the guy for. Though I don’t really know what Se-ro’s full revenge plan entails (aside from the usual Justice And Truth) and whether airing out everything with Daddy Han would help or hinder that cause, I do want to see him take Daddy Han down, if only because he dared to make Grandma suffer. And okay, maybe that whole framing-our-hero-for-murder thing. And that actual murder thing. The man’s got a lot to pay for.

What’s more interesting is how Se-ro’s semi-ambiguous revenge plan intersects with Kang-jae’s semi-ambiguous scam plan, since so far their goals seemed to at least have been slightly intersecting—after all, it was Kang-jae’s idea to release the first wave of dirt on Daddy Han. And whatever Kang-jae’s got planned has something or everything to do with Belle la Fair’s downfall, because he seemed inordinately angry with Se-ro for romancing the daughter of their(?) enemy. If that’s not it, then why would their coupledom be such a threat to him?

Regardless of the plot mechanics, I really liked Kang-jae’s breakthrough this episode and how it was played. As a character Kang-jae always comes off as frenetic and nervous, though he covers those feelings with false bravado when he can. It’s because he’s so flawed and broken inside that I want him to get the girl and be happy, because he could’ve easily been that guy who said, “It wasn’t my fault.”

Instead we learned how much he considers everything to be his fault, from Dad’s death to Se-ro’s current circumstances, as well as the effect that amount of guilt has had on him. Whether he turns out to be a friend or foe when the going gets tough is still up for grabs, but his conversation with Jae-in went a long way toward letting us know how he thinks, even if the thinking itself is flawed. Because as much as he feels responsible for what happened to Se-ro, it’s not enough to make him charitable toward his friend-turned-romantic-rival. Even he admits that he’s only in on the plot for selfish gains, but what was so great about that scene was how much Kang-jae wanted to believe that he could really put an end to his guilt with one last job and how aware he was that he’s going about it all wrong—which, of course, only further perpetuates his cycle of self-loathing.

On the other end of the spectrum are Se-ro and Young-won, both of whom are truly innocent. I hope that Young-won taking action to protect Belle la Fair goes further than her just thinking really hard about it, since she’s so far been letting herself be stepped on and controlled. It’s harder to fault her for her passivity when she does use what little agency she has to do good, especially with regards to Grandma and Se-ro. But since she’s helping Se-ro become the man he used to be, I can only hope that he’ll someday return the favor by helping her become the woman she needs to be.

 
RELATED POSTS

• Full Sun: Episode 7
• Full Sun: Episode 6
• Full Sun: Episode 5
• Full Sun: Episode 4
• Full Sun: Episode 3
• Full Sun: Episode 2
• Full Sun: Episode 1