God of Study: Episode 8

by nokcha icecream

My apologies for the sudden hiatus. The academic year is coming to a close and I finally passed my last few hurdles. Hello summer, and hello new God of Study recaps!

Episode 8 Recap

The series starts back up with Hyun-jung surrounded by what seem like old classmates -old classmates who still hold a grudge against her. As the puncher is counting down, Pul-ip thinks fast and chunks a shoe at her head, successfully stopping the attack. Pul-ip and Hyun-jung run off, but are stopped short when Pul-ip -wearing only one shoe- steps on something sharp and hurts her foot.

Once they escape, Hyun-jung takes Pul-ip to her home, evidently very far away from the school, and Pul-ip is surprised to find out that she is the first friend to ever visit there. She’s even more surprised when Hyun-jung confesses that Pul-ip is her first real friend. A first real friend who got hurt for her. Pul-ip asks about Baek-hyun, but Hyun-jung responds saying “Baek-hyun’s my suhbang. How can a suhbang be your friend?” Pul-ip is happy to have made Hyun-jung happy, but she feels a sense of emptiness and longing from Hyun-jung. The apartment is pretty and full of nice things, but it still feels empty. Once they’re all settled they decide to take a short nap in the apartment, and they’ll be back before anyone notices they left.

Of course they wake up too late and it’s a scramble to get to school. The boys of the F5 are already out and about, getting ready for their morning exercises. Teacher Soo-jung comes rushing up to them freaking out about Pul-ip and Hyun-jung; she can’t find them anywhere. Seok-ho comes out and notices they’re gone, but they carefully evade any further questioning.

The girls try to sneak in a secret entrance, but everyone is already there waiting for them. For their punishment, the F5 is to run around the gym memorizing English vocabulary. Once they pass a quiz -given by Seok-ho- they can stop running. Hyun-jung tells him Pul-ip is hurt, which causes a reaction out of Baek-hyun and Chan-doo. But Pul-ip decides to run and she wobbles around the gym. Baek-hyun is the first to pass, then Pul-ip, then Chan-doo. Hyun-jung struggles with the word “wig”, but Baek-hyun is quick to give her a clue, which helps her to pass. Heh. The four go back to the sleeping room, but quickly return when they find out Bong-goo is still running. Poor kid.

Seok-ho quizzes Bong-goo again, and it seems like he’s going to pass, but he gets stuck on “quarrel”. Seok-ho even spells it out in English for him, but Bong-goo’s clueless. “Hungry?” Seok-ho gives up and let’s them eat breakfast.

When the crew is preparing breakfast, Baek-hyun finds Seok-ho’s tray and oozes a generous amount of spicy mustard in his soup. The other watch -at first in shock- but then in amusement. No one attempts to stop him. Seok-ho tries the soup and silently suffers while the F5 snicker.

Later when Anthony is teaching, Soo-jung looks in the window. She’s tries to understand how he teaches, but she’s still a little melancholy about losing to him. So she goes to the bathroom and tries to cheer herself up by practicing the dances he taught them. Hahahaha. She strikes a pose but catches something in the corner of her eye. Some creep is standing on a bathroom stall! She screams, and he falls to the ground. She runs out in a fit of terror with him chasing her, but Teacher Eun-yoo single-handedly knocks him down. Owned.

In Eun-yoo’s class, she tells them the grades the made in Korean Literature would be impossible to improve. But they will take the steps necessary to change the impossible into the possible. She starts by handing them what look like enormous dictionaries telling them to simply memorize it. Bong-goo asks her if she has any secret methods, and she answers, “If I didn’t have any secret methods, Seok-ho would be a crazy bastard to bring me here.” Hahaha.

Soo-jung wakes up in a hospital bed and recognizes the sleeping guy next to her. It’s the creeper! He also wakes up and is shocked to see her. She instinctively begins throwing things at him (how dare he traumatize the female gender) and Seok-ho restrains her telling her he’s the new special class science teacher Young-shik. Young-shik tells her he was in the bathroom because he saw a rare butterfly fly into the vents, and he was simply following it. As they walk out of the nursing area, they run into Teacher Eun-yoo who is quite embarrassed now realizing who he is. She gravely asks him to forget what she did to him. It’s funny how he cowers in fear of Teacher Eun-yoo. Well, if someone owned you in the neck, you’d be scared of them too.

Young-shik cautiously enters the classroom and stutters on every word making it painful to watch. Baek-hyun becomes tired of this joke and suddenly interrupts, telling the science teacher how they don’t have much time to waste (stop stuttering and teach us already). Young-shik’s face crumples up and he leaves the classroom. Soo-jung tries to stop him, but he keeps trying to pull away. The kids are too intimidating, and it’s like being in a war zone. He doesn’t like war zones. She softens at this statement and tells him how she doesn’t like war zones either. He’s not really teaching them, it’ll be more like a hyung or oppa watching over them. She successfully changes his mind, and he decides to give it a try.

Brat girl -of all people- decides to make a comeback, spilling the beans about how Hyun-jung may not be alone in liking Baek-hyun. Brat eyes Pul-ip as she says this, and Pul-ip is flabbergasted. Pul-ip tries to steer away from the subject, but Hyun-jung is still absorbed in it. Hyun-jung notices later in math class how Baek-hyun and Pul-ip playfully fight with each other while trying to solve a math problem, which she never did with Baek-hyun. She stares at them wistfully until Ki-bong grabs her attention.

After dinner Pul-ip and Hyun-jung play around while doing the dishes, and Hyun-jung shyly asks Pul-ip if she likes Baek-hyun. Sometimes Hyun-jung sees that Pul-ip and Baek-hyun enjoy each other’s company, which Pul-ip tries to deny. But Hyun-jung isn’t trying to pick a fight. She’s ok with Pul-ip liking Baek-hyun, and she’s even going limit acting out her feelings towards him anymore because Pul-ip is her best friend. Pul-ip is clearly touched.

When Hyun-jung asks again, Pul-ip slowly says “yes.” Hyun-jung’s mood almost comes to a screeching halt. But Pul-ip’s not done. “Yes. Like Chan-doo and Bong-goo. Like a friend.” Hyun-jung immediately brightens, and they play around happily again. But in the background listening, we see another sad person. Why must they do this to Chan-doo? He’s too cute and innocent to be feeling such sad things.

Baek-hyun catches him listening and goes into the kitchen thinking nothing of it. Baek-hyun scolds the girls for taking so long to wash the dishes, and Pul-ip immediately leaves the picture so Hyun-jung and Baek-hyun can spend time together. Such a nice friend. Hyun-jung tries to play with Baek-hyun but he just tells her to stop all while Pul-ip looks back on them quietly. Aw.

After checking the journals, Soo-jung heads back to the workroom and stumbles upon Young-shik worrying about trying to make his lesson plans. He has numerous ideas -all of which he tries to tell her- but Soo-jung just suggests he teach them the way he studied in high school. Genius.

Teacher Young-sook arrives at school early the next morning, and she trips over a log blocking the doorway. She unzips the sleeping bag to find Young-shik. Her initial anger quickly subsides into amazement of his good? looks.

Today is Young-shik’s first day of teaching, and he introduces the idea of a “Memory Tree” to help them study. While he pours out his heart for science to the kids, he does not stutter at all, and his sentences flow smoothly and connected. Maybe science is where he finally blooms. And then Baek-hyun cuts him down saying they have too much information and not enough time to put information into trees. Young-shik nearly leaves the classroom again. But before he does anything, Soo-jung saves the day. She suggests they use a method that she used in high school. They will split up the work and each make a memory tree over different material. Even Seok-ho will contribute. He is later seen in his office struggling over his memory tree. Soo-jung takes pleasure in this and stops to take a photo.

That night Hyun-jung and Pul-ip can’t sleep. Hyun-jung loves spending all day at school and doesn’t want to leave the study camps. There’s Pul-ip, Baek-hyun…she never has to go home. They listen to Pul-ip’s mp3 player, and Hyun-jung asks why Pul-ip always listens to trot music. Pul-ip’s so use to hearing it when she sleeps in her home, so it’s gotten hard for her to sleep without it. They giggle to themselves, and Baek-hyun smiles as he listens.

The recent grades in the class have been abysmal, and Seok-ho is not happy. The midterm is so close and yet they are scoring so badly. And just at this moment The parents decide to plan a surprise party for the special class. They head into the school, and Seok-ho is busy…punishing the kids. Soo-jung tries to stop him, but he continues to have the kids struggle. So Soo-jung follows the girls in the punishment, angering Baek-hyun. The parents carefully walk down the hallway, but are stopped short at the sound of Seok-ho shouting. They hurridly enter and are shocked to see what their kids are going through. Most parents yell at Seok-ho and try to save their children, but one of them isn’t do that. Grandma is still standing in the doorway looking at Baek-hyun. A voiceover tells what she is thinking to Baek-hyun.

“You have to stand it, right? You have to learn to stand it to be the best. My Baek-hyun, you’re strong.”

Baek-hyun regains strength from his Grandma’s confidence in him, and he continues to study, tears forming in his eyes. With that, Grandma quietly places her food outside the classroom and leaves. But a group of people pass her in the hallway. Chan-doo’s father brought evidence of something. Pictures of the kids doing their English exercises have surfaced on the internet, advertising Anthony’s class. Soo-jung tries to contact him, but he chooses not to answer. The now angrier parents try to take their kids home, but they all refuse. Chan-doo’s father even slaps him.

But Baek-hyun decides to say something. Did they forget about the perfect score? Did they forget how much they have to work? When Seok-ho tries to make him be quiet, Baek-hyun looks at him and shouts, “I’m going to go ahead and make that perfect score!”

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