Que Sera Sera: Episode 12

by javabeans

SONG OF THE DAY

M.C. the Max – “가슴아 그만해” (gaseum-ah geuman hae / ‘stop it, my heart’ as in ‘heart, that’s enough’) [ zShare download ]

So things get deeper for what I’ve started calling (in my head) our 80% Couples, mostly because I like the current pairings — they seem to work well on the outside, especially in the case of Eun Soo and Joon Hyuk — but no matter what, they’re never going to breach that point of being completely together, emotionally and mentally. They are relationships that may have worked in a world where Eun Soo and Tae Joo had never met, in the absence of something deeper and more heartfelt to contrast their current lovers against. You can make up a difference of personality or �suitability� with an abundance of love… but you can’t make up a difference of love by overcompensating with other things. Which is why Eun Soo-Joon Hyuk and Tae Joo-Hye Rin are, in my mind, 80% Couples.

EPISODE 12 SUMMARY

Eun Soo is introduced as Joon Hyuk’s girlfriend, and she holds up pretty well. Whether or not Hye Rin is knowingly flaunting her relationship, I think she’s genuinely happy — and you know how happy people can be so annoying telling everyone how happy they are.

Noting that the foursome all traveled to Singapore together, Hye Rin’s mother says they must all be pretty close. Hye Rin: �Too close.�

The family dinner seems to be roughest on Tae Joo — aside from the shock of seeing Eun Soo arrive with Joon Hyuk, President Cha tells Tae Joo that he’d like him to move into the family house after they’re formally engaged. After all, Tae Joo’s living on his own, so it would be nice to live as one family.

Eun Soo tells Tae Joo that his relationship with Hye Rin has him looking happier these days. Feeling stifled, Tae Joo excuses himself to go to the restroom, where he tries to get a grip on himself.

After the parents leave, Hye Rin scolds Joon Hyuk for springing this on everyone so suddenly. Joon Hyuk says Eun Soo was someone he’d be introducing to the family eventually anyway, and he chose to do so while they were out (rather than bringing her to the house) to make things easier for Eun Soo.

Tae Joo can’t stand hearing the pseudo-siblings talk about Eun Soo, and edges away, finally interrupting to call Hye Rin over. As the couple drives home, Hye Rin asks if he’s okay, seeing his shaken reaction earlier, and he snaps at her to stop talking about it — he’s tired of it. Hye Rin apologizes and says she’ll do her best to hold it in: �I can handle it, as long as you don’t leave me.�

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Tae Joo can’t resist checking in on Eun Soo, and asks if she would consider working somewhere else, offering to help her find a similar job. Things must be hard for her; it’s hard for Hye Rin, too. Eun Soo: “So you’re asking me to leave to make things easier on her?” She accuses him of only thinking of his own position — “You’re saying you don’t want to have to think about me, so I should get lost.”

Eun Soo basically answers “Thanks but no thanks,” telling him sarcastically how great it is that he’d bother to worry about someone so unconnected with himself. She also tells him not to use her name so familiarly. As she turns to leave, Tae Joo says sorry — whenever he talks to her, things end up complicated. “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. I’m sorry.” And he uses polite speech to say sorry one last time.

The point of switching from his customary banmal (familiar) address is that he’s adding both politeness but also distance. He goes from saying, “Mi-an-hae, Eun Soo ya” (“Sorry, Eun Soo”) to “Mi-an-hae-yo, Han Eun Soo sshi” (“I’m sorry, Ms. Han Eun Soo”).

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Tae Joo’s hyung helps Eun Soo’s mother find a new apartment — a nice, three-room place that’s way beyond their means. Eun Soo’s mother hesitates to take Tae Joo’s help again, but in the end she can’t refuse, telling her daughters that her cousin heard of Ji Soo’s condition and wept with sympathy, and offered a place to stay. Ji Soo points out how weird the change of heart is — the cousin had cut off ties 10 years ago when Eun Soo’s mother ran off with debt. Eun Soo’s mother uneasily says things have been smoothed over (and tells Ji Soo, �I wish your heart could be as strong as your mouth�).

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Hye Rin apologizes to Eun Soo for her strong words earlier, and expresses her desire to be on good terms. Eun Soo answers with some relief that she’s happy to hear that — she wants the same thing. I really like this scene — it shows that women aren’t all shrill harpies who hate each other. Granted, Hye Rin can be truly awful when she feels threatened, but at least it’s not her natural state. Her generous spirit might be tinged with a sense of superiority, but hey, she’s trying to be nice.

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Hye Rin’s mother is immediately suspicious seeing Joon Hyuk with Mr. (Director?) Choi, aka That Creepy Bald Guy. She asks Joon Hyuk why he hangs around him, knowing that he has a rocky relationship with President Cha. Joon Hyuk asks her why she’s always disliked him. “Is the fact that my father committed suicide such a horrible thought for you?”

She informs her husband of the encounter, and President Cha asks if Joon Hyuk has possibly recovered his memory, but she doesn’t think so. Based on her reaction (“Does he think we hid it from him on purpose? We didn’t tell him to spare him the shock”), I think it’s safe to guess that she doesn’t know the whole story (whatever that is), although she knows enough to be suspicious that Dir. Choi might have told Joon Hyuk something weird.

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Hye Rin shows Tae Joo his new room — he’ll move into the house next week. He isn’t particularly disturbed to hear it’s Joon Hyuk’s old room, and Hye Rin tells him she likes how he’s not difficult about things like that. That’s why her mother likes him, too — and why she didn’t like Joon Hyuk, who’s a lot more fussy.

Tae Joo: “Do you still have feelings for him?”
Hye Rin: “Are you jealous? It feels nice, you being jealous.”

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When Joon Hyuk asks Eun Soo if there’s anything particular she wants to do, she tells him she wants to ride the tour boats on the Han River. On the boat, she recalls how Tae Joo had told her they’re no fun; she tells Joon Hyuk: “It would’ve been so unfair, if I’d believed those words and never ridden these boats.”

Joon Hyuk expresses how he’s never felt a sense of real family, living in the Cha household. That’s why he grew up looking forward to building his own family and household: “Eun Soo, I want to become a family with you.” She resists when he takes her hand, saying she’s not ready, but he tells her not to worry — he’s not proposing. “I can do this much for my girlfriend. I’m just telling you that that’s how I feel.”

Joon Hyuk: “How difficult it’s been, to come this far. I love you.”

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The President asks Joon Hyuk how he felt, learning of his father’s death. He wanted Joon Hyuk to never find out, as there’s nothing good that would have come from telling him. He prods, wondering if Dir. Choi told him anything else, but doesn’t press further to avoid rousing Joon Hyuk’s suspicions. He asks, “Can I trust you?” Joon Hyuk answers, “Do you think I could betray you? I’m your son, as you’ve always said.”

But all is not well. President Cha takes Tae Joo to dinner, under the guise of a friendly father-son meal, but tells him to keep an eye on Joon Hyuk…

…and Tae Joo understands that the President intends to use him as his spy for Joon Hyuk. He may be sensing he’s gotten himself into something deep without even realizing it.

At home with Hye Rin, Tae Joo casually asks about Joon Hyuk. Hye Rin answers that her father has always doted on him, to such an extent that she and her mother felt jealous. Tae Joo asks why he didn’t approve of him as a son-in-law, then, and Hye Rin answers that it didn’t fit his political intentions. He wanted to marry them off in matches that would be advantageous to the business, so there was no point to having them marry each other.

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Eun Soo gets a call from the hospital saying they received a double payment for Ji Soo’s expenses, and will refund one of the charges. She sees the receipt, signed with Tae Joo’s name…

…and confronts her contrite mother, who apologizes but felt she had no choice in such a desperate situation: “I didn’t want to either. But what could I do? I would even sit in the street and beg — what’s the point in pride?”

Eun Soo: “If I’d been your blood daughter, would you have acted differently? No matter how hard you made things for me, I’ve only ever had you and Ji Soo. I’ve never thought you weren’t my mom. So I beg you, please stop doing this. Don’t make me sad anymore. I’m so embarrassed and miserable, I really think I’m going crazy.�

(I’d thought they were half-sisters by their mother, but it appears from this conversation that they’re half-sisters by their deceased father.)

Next, Eun Soo confronts Tae Joo, saying she understands that he wanted to help someone in need, but she can’t bring herself to accept. He says he couldn’t just pass by seeing her in such distress, and she asks, �Are we beggars? Who are we, that you find it difficult to pass by without helping?”

Eun Soo: “Because you didn’t want to see me suffer… because you wanted me to live in comfort… Since you couldn’t do that using your own capabilities, did you think to use your fiancee’s money to help me?”

He tells her not to speak so lightly, but she counters that he treats her life lightly; she’s entitled to a few words.

Eun Soo: “I knew you were selfish, but I didn’t know you were this bad. How could you only think of yourself, your status, your feelings? You don’t even think of how your actions affect others — how heartbreaking it is for them.”
Tae Joo: “I know your feelings must be hurt, but think about this coolly. Think of how to save your sister’s life first — that’s not something you can solve by being stubborn. Can you fix that by your strength alone?”
Eun Soo: “That’s my business. It has nothing to do with you. We don’t mean anything to each other anymore!”
Tae Joo: “How can that be? How can you mean nothing to me? That’s not true. I can’t do that. I can’t act like you don’t mean anything to me. So Eun Soo, please just once, let this go.”
Eun Soo: “How can you be such a coward?”

Tae Joo’s hyung gives him the old �I told you so� as they drink together. With Eun Soo’s words still ringing in his ears, he asks if his actions were that bad — he can understand her being upset, but was it really so bad, enough to break someone’s heart?

He’s always thought he understood women well, but Eun Soo’s different — every time, he manages to get it wrong with her. With a smile, Tae Joo remembers how it was like that from the very start, how she always surprised his expectations.

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Eun Soo sits in the dark (don’t freak out, ginnie!) as she cries and remembers how Tae Joo said she doesn’t mean nothing to him it’s not true that she means nothing to him.

Ji Soo interrupts her crying and the ensuing conversation is really cute. I love the sisterly affection between them, like the fact that Eun Soo feels close enough to jokingly say she wishes Ji Soo weren’t sick (Ji Soo: “Is that something you can say to the one who’s sick?”). Ji Soo asks if Eun Soo wants her to follow Tae Joo and beat him up. Or maybe it’s better to go after Hye Rin and tell her not to marry such a rotten guy, using the excuse that they’re telling her for her own good.

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Eun Soo asks Joon Hyuk to dinner, where she brings up the topic of family. Joon Hyuk had said he’d longed for family, but she says that having one doesn’t only entail good things. Sometimes they can be too much to handle, and although it’s wrong to think so, sometimes she can’t help feeling that way about hers. Joon Hyuk says that’s what families are like — and it’s still better than not having one.

Eun Soo: “If I were to become your family… mine would be the difficult-to-handle type. Would you be okay with that?”
Joon Hyuk: “If it were yours, it doesn’t matter how difficult they are.”
Eun Soo: “I might not be able to provide much support for you.”
Joon Hyuk: “Just being by my side gives me strength.”
Eun Soo: “I could hurt you, too.”
Joon Hyuk: “I can take it.”
Eun Soo: “I thought I could stick it out. If I closed my eyes and clenched my teeth, I thought I could endure it all. But I keep faltering. If I collapse like this, I’m afraid I’ll fall into a deeper hell. I’m scared to death… Please hold onto me. Please take that person away from me.”

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Alone at home, Tae Joo is surprised (but glad) to get a call from Eun Soo, who has come to his apartment to talk to him. She starts by apologizing for getting angry at him before, to his relief, making him think she’s accepting his offer. But she cuts him off—

Eun Soo: “I think we would’ve been better off if we’d never met. They say some people’s fates are like that.”
Tae Joo: “What are you saying?”
Eun Soo: “Let’s act as though we’d never met. So you don’t have to know about my situation, worry about me, or feel guilty toward me.”
Tae Joo: “Eun Soo…”
Eun Soo: “I’m getting married. I’m marrying Joon Hyuk.”
Tae Joo: “What?”
Eun Soo: “I’m going to erase the life I’ve lived so far and start over. So Supervisor Kang, cut ties with me too. That’s what I came to say.”
Tae Joo: “You’re joking, right?”
Eun Soo: “I’m for real. You knew we were dating. Why are you so surprised?”
Tae Joo: “I can’t believe it. How could you—”
Eun Soo: “Did you think I couldn’t get married? I have to live my life too. So don’t involve yourself in my life anymore.”

And just as the song sings out, “Don’t go…” … Eun Soo goes.