Flowers For My Life: Episode 4

by javabeans

Hana and Ho Sang began warming up to each other in the last episode, but now we start seeing them starting to fall for each other more. In true Hana style, she handles it hilariously. Someone told me they had a good friend just like Hana, and I can only wish I had one too. She would be so awesome to behold.

(Random) SONG OF THE DAY

Lee Seung Hwan – “비 오는 구리” (bi oneun guri / wonder why it rains). An older song, but one that seems to fit the mood of this drama. [ zShare download ]

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EPISODE 4 SUMMARY

Later that night, Ho Sang smiles at the memory of Hana’s kiss, but quickly tries to get a grip on himself, reminding himself to focus. Come to his senses. He likes Nam Kyung. Meanwhile, Hana smiles at a job well done, but then frowns with concern, “Was it too weak?” Oh Hana. I wonder what Ho Sang would do with himself if you tried to be more aggressive. Wait, that sounds dirty. Nvmd.

The next morning, Ho Sang is jumpy and on edge around Hana, telling her not to touch him. She asks if it was his first kiss, and he defends himself saying he’s had tons of experience. Hana: “Then why was your kissing so weak?” Ho Sang insists if he really wanted to, he would’ve done it 100 times better.

Hana: “Then do it right next time.” Ho Sang automatically responds, “Okay.” Then: “No, that won’t happen again!” Hana asks if he’s kissed Nam Kyung yet, and is pleased that she was first, and also first to ask him to marry her. He protests, but Hana just thanks him for using her name for the first time rather than calling her Nurse Na.

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Ho Sang goes to buy a cell phone, but because he needs an ID to confirm purchase, he asks Hana for hers, saying his is in Seoul. He pays with cash, but worries that he’s running low (of what he took from Wang Dae Bak’s stash). He has a brief mental flash of himself as a poor beggar on the street, dying pathetically. He shudders at the thought, and bursts out to Hana that it’s because of her family that he’s started getting all these weird thoughts in his head.

Outside, a store owner yells at them for parking the funeral truck in front of his business and causing his sales to drop. Ho Sang indignantly talks back to the man, but Hana meekly says sorry and tells Ho Sang to leave quietly.

Hana explains to Ho Sang that it’s just the way things are. He was like that when he first met her family, too. All of a sudden, for no reason, he felt uneasy. People aren’t comfortable with death, so they don’t like being confronted with them. Ho Sang starts to understand how that feels, and asks Hana if it’s always been like that for her. Hana tells him she couldn’t even visit her cousin when she gave birth, because she felt the fear in the air, of having her touch a baby. As though she’d bring bad luck, or death. “They’re uncomfortable around me. I’m not welcome here. I had that feeling.”

Ho Sang apologizes for saying before that living with her family is making him imagine strange thoughts. His vision was of dying alone, pitifully. Hana takes his hand and tells him he won’t be lonely, not now or after he dies. Ho Sang thinks: “Strangely, that made me feel better. Even if it her remark was silly, it was comforting.” He looks at Hana thoughtfully as the wonders: “What would’ve happened if I hadn’t met Nam Kyung again? You’re the first person to say they loved me first. Would I have accepted your feelings?”

Nam Kyung calls to meet up, and Hana leaves him with one order: “Don’t kiss her.” Driving off, she wonders what’s so great about Nam Kyung. “Is she so different from me? We’re both women, we’re all more or less the same. Is she a lot nicer than me? We’re both human, it’s all the same thing.” Feeling the first pangs of jealousy, Hana goes to observe for herself.

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Ho Sang rides a paddling boat on the river with Nam Kyung, wishing he could take her on a yacht instead of the little “duck boat” (it’s shaped like a duck). Nam Kyung cheerfully contradicts him, saying he suits the duck boat better. He’s not happy to hear it, but she says it was supposed to be a compliment. He doesn’t need fancy yachts to be cool.

Just then, a boat overturns, and the person flails in the water. Nam Kyung’s seized with panicked motivation — she’s got to save him. She jumps into the water and swims frantically…

…and our suspicions are confirmed (because we all had suspicions about Nam Kyung, right?), as she swims desperately, thinking, “Hold on just a little longer… I’ll save you… you can’t die… no… don’t die… Kang Jae oppa!”

It definitely explains why she went into rescue services, and gives us an approximate timeline for her tragedy, as she started that line of work about a year ago.

Unfortunately, the man is too far away for her to reach him, and he drowns. Nam Kyung is devastated at her inability to save him, and Ho Sang tries to comfort her. Nam Kyung: “I should have saved him. I was supposed to save him.”

Watching from the sidelines, Hana sees Ho Sang holding Nam Kyung and walks away.

I love the parallel as Hana drives away, asking once again, “Is she so different from me? She cries over seeing someone die. Dummy. Is she nicer than me? She jumps to save someone without being paid to. Idiot.” But she consoles herself knowing she was first to kiss Ho Sang.

Dissatisfied, she asks her parents if they’ve ever seen her cry. Her mother says no — even when her grandmother died, she was the only one who didn’t shed a tear. Her mother was so embarrassed that she had to pinch Hana (to make her cry).

In an effort to push Hana toward Eun Tak, her father sends them on an errand together. To kill some time, Hana goes to the movies and asks for the saddest movie in the theater, one guaranteed to make you sob buckets. Alas, while everyone weeps around her, Hana can only will herself to muster tears: “I can cry. I can cry. I can cry.” And JUST as I’m about to crack a joke about her constipation face, Eun Tak tells her, “Just go to the bathroom, don’t hold it in.” HAHA. I knew Eun Tak was my kind of guy.

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Ho Sang walks Nam Kyung home, and fumbles for his words at her doorstop. Nam Kyung beats him to it, asking if he likes her, and he says yes. Just when he thinks of kissing Nam Kyung good night, he recalls Hana’s warning not to kiss her, missing his chance. D’oh!

Eun Tak sees Hana preparing some medicine for Ho Sang and gives her some advice about her approach with men. Women like men who are like puppies (loyal, always eager), but guys like women who are like cats (the moment you want to hold on, she moves just out of reach). Hana’s a puppy. Worse still, she’s a jindo breed. (Jindos are a type of dog Koreans particularly love, which is the what Hana’s dog, Kkulkkuri (piggie) is, noted particularly for being faithful. My friends used to joke that Koreans who make dog-stew will use any dog but the jindo.)

Hana suspiciously asks if he’s purposely giving her bad advice to split her up from Ho Sang, but Eun Tak informs her he’s not interested in her. Hana knows that — “No men are interested in me” — but he could be after her family’s business. If he wants to prove he’s not after the business, he’d help her with Ho Sang. Naturally he refuses, but Hana threatens that if he doesn’t help, she’ll tell her father Eun Tak wants to marry her. How like Hana to coerce a guy into helping by blackmailing him with marriage!

So, Eun Tak is forced to pretend he is interested in Hana — just for one week, he insists — to arouse jealousy. And while Ho Sang isn’t willing to admit it, it totally works.

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The business runs into difficulty to find that a competitor is aggressively marketing their business (Funeral advertising? How is this NOT funny?). Worried, they ask Mr. Rich Businessman Wang Dae Bak for business advice. He fudges an answer, saying they need to fight fire with fire, and promote their own business. But to market themselves, they’ll need some promotional funds… They hand over a large sum and entrust the task to Ho Sang.

First measure of business is going to an old folks’ home, where Ho Sang has set up karaoke activities to warm themselves up to the elderly citizens. He makes Eun Tak start off, but Mr. Sexy chooses a slow-tempo song that the old folks misinterpret as offending. For instance, he sings “Let’s go…” and an old woman is insulted, thinking he’s insinuating that she’s about to “go” and die of old age. Ho Sang takes over and does a pretty good job lightening the mood into something much more friendly and festive.

I was just thinking it was nice seeing Ho Sang do something WELL for a change, when he ends the activities and delights the senior citizens by announcing a prize for the top three singers. And the prize turns out to be… funeral certificates! HAHAHA.

The three youngsters run out as the old folks hobble after in an enraged frenzy.

Ho Sang works hard drafting flyers and promotional posters for the funeral business. With Hana’s help, he distributes them on the street, even getting into trouble after they rip down posters of their competitor’s business to post up their own.

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Nam Kyung invites Ho Sang over to dinner because she has something she wants to tell him. He arrives with roses (not all mangled like last time), and happily wonders what it could mean. Nam Kyung starts to speak, but he interrupts, asking if he can speak first.

He confesses his feelings for her, apologizing for not being able to do it right the night before. He admits that he first met her a year before she remembers, fell for her on first sight, and purposely joined the club to meet her. “My feelings for you are that old. Wine gets more expensive with age, too. I’m not saying my feelings are expensive, but I’ve had these feelings for so long, I hope you can accept them.”

His confession causes Nam Kyung to tear up, and while she excuses herself for a moment, Ho Sang looks around and spies the photo of Nam Kyung with the “My Wedding” backdrop. Seeing him with the picture, Nam Kyung says that’s what she wanted to tell him — she’s engaged.

Dully, Ho Sang asks if they can postpone the rest of their conversation for later, and wanders around, alone, depressed and dispirited.

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Hana tells herself not to wait up for Ho Sang, but finds herself lingering outside anyway. She wanders around the neighborhood and runs into a young Vietnamese girl, who’s singing and waiting alone in the dark. They sit side by side in silence for a while, then the girl tells her (in pretty good Korean) that she can’t speak Korean well. Hana: “That’s okay. I’m not so great with it either.” The girl says (in Vietnamese) she’s waiting for her husband, and Hana sighs, “I wasn’t going to wait for him today.”

When Hana gets up to leave, she says, “It’s nice not to have to talk.” The girl, however, says, “Thank you for talking to me.”

Hana arrives home, happy to see that Ho Sang’s light is on.

He’s sleeping when she checks on him, and she wonders if he’s going to spend the remainder of his short life in a drunken stupor. Ho Sang awakens, and asks Hana if she was serious when she said she loved him. And if she truly wants to marry him. Hana nods yes.

Ho Sang: “You mean it? It’s not a lie, right?” and he grabs her, bringing her next to him, as he moves in closer…