Oh My Lady: Episode 11

by javabeans

Little feetsies! He’s thinking, “How can such a teeny little thing cause so much trouble?” And I’m thinking, “Boy, just wait until she learns to talk back!”

This drama isn’t moving as quickly as I’d like it to, but I do think it’s picking up ever so slightly. It probably helps that there are more Min-woo/Ye-eun scenes today, which have always been the highlight.

SONG OF THE DAY

Creamchou – “샤워” (Shower) [ Download ]

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EPISODE 11 RECAP

Shi-joon escorts Kae-hwa out of the room (by the wrist, natch) while Min-woo stays behind to confront his manager. He asks, is Yoon-seok still doing shady stuff like this? He used to leverage Min-woo’s weaknesses against him when he was a newcomer, but I’m guessing Min-woo’s been too wrapped up in his star life to care much about how his manager conducts business these days.

He tears up the contract Kae-hwa was forced to sign, and warns Yoon-seok to back off. If he does this again, Min-woo will reveal everything and make sure Yoon-seok is ruined with him. He storms out, and he must have been expecting Shi-joon and Kae-hwa to be waiting for him because he looks chagrined to find that they’ve already gone.

After stopping to allow her to calm down, Shi-joon asks Kae-hwa what that was about. Kae-hwa can’t tell the full truth because Ye-eun’s existence isn’t for her to reveal, so she gives him a vague half-truth as an answer. She says that Yoon-seok doesn’t like Min-woo doing the musical and has been messing with Min-woo’s scheduling, so she argued with him. Yoon-seok hadn’t taken kindly to that and made her sign a contract saying she’d stop interfering.

Min-woo’s detour to rescue Kae-hwa means he has stood up Yura, who figures that he’s not coming and leaves the airport annoyed. She’s certainly not in the mood to indulge the pesky Reporter Han, who sides with her by saying sympathetically that Min-woo was rude to stand her up. Of course, she doesn’t like hearing that from him and insists that something important came up at the last minute.

That night, Min-woo is in a subdued mood, and he apologizes for Kae-hwa having to go through that nasty encounter because of him. In addition, he also asks her to forget all his awful words and actions, meaning with regard to giving Ye-eun to an orphanage. Kae-hwa softens at that, and thanks Min-woo for apologizing.

Jung-ah has heard that the company got their investor onboard, and just when she was about to insist she would help. She congratulates Shi-joon, and for once it’s nice to see these two actually talking instead of just angsting at each other.

I love this moment of awkwardness as Min-woo walks out of his room to see Ye-eun sitting quietly, just staring at him. Thinking to try engaging with her, he musters the nerve and kneels in front of her. It takes him a moment to figure out what to say, and he only gets out her name before Kae-hwa, not seeing the exchange, calls Ye-eun to eat. Min-woo quickly turns away to avoid the embarrassment of being caught. Aw, we won’t think less of you for being a good father!

Kae-hwa’s a little uncertain as she brings up the matter of the musical re-starting its practices, since Min-woo had said he would quit the last time. She’s therefore relieved when he agrees to go to whatever rehearsals are scheduled.

It also gives her the little push to press her luck with him, and Kae-hwa presents Min-woo with a contract to sign. While it’s not meant to be legally binding, it’s for her peace of mind to ensure that Min-woo will (1) throw himself into musical rehearsals without goofing off, (2) be on time to all rehearsals, and (3) dedicate his body to the success of All That Love. After he signs, she adds a postscript: “If I don’t keep this promise, I’m not even a man.” Although Min-woo protests at the unfairness of altering a contract after he has signed, he smiles when he reads the amendment, amused at her pluck.

Shi-joon meets with Yoon-seok to find out more about the encounter yesterday, since he can sense that Kae-hwa didn’t tell him the full story. Yoon-seok merely offers up non-answers, saying that if he and Kae-hwa know something else, it’s something they’re not at liberty to disclose. He warns that Kae-hwa seems much more innocent than she is, however, and tells him not to trust her too much. (Shi-joon doesn’t give his words any weight, but I think they do come back to him later in the episode.)

Min-woo throws himself into rehearsals, performing with much more dedication than he has done in the past. His effort wins favor with Jung-ah, who likens him to West Side Story‘s Tony, and he wins more points by having smoothies delivered for the rest of the cast. Kae-hwa is duly impressed.

What’s cute is that Min-woo has no idea who this Tony dude is, and goes out to buy the DVD for West Side Story just to check. Haha.

Shi-joon takes Kae-hwa with him when he goes to check on the construction of their stage, but as it happens they are early. To kill time before meeting with the crew, they stop for lunch, where Shi-joon orders for them. Kae-hwa is a little hesitant at his choice, but rather than protest, she goes along with it and winds up sick from the lunch.

They stop at a pharmacy to get something to settle her stomach, and she admits that this was what she had been eating with her husband when he told her he had another woman. She thought she had gotten over it by now, but this proves that it still bothers her. What she’s angriest about is that Byung-hak had never apologized for hurting her, and she felt belittled that he didn’t even see fit to say that.

She apologizes for burdening Shi-joon with these personal thoughts, saying, “I know I’m not an impressive person…” but Shi-joon contradicts her. She is, because she’s sincere and therefore lifts people’s spirits. Therefore, she should remember to value herself.

Kae-hwa receives a call from the teacher that Ye-eun is starting to come down with signs of a cold, and will have to go home. However, she’s at the set with Shi-joon overseeing the construction, and can’t go to pick up the girl. She therefore asks Bok-nim for the favor, and her friend is only too happy to comply, since this means she’ll get to meet Min-woo in the flesh.

As they pull up in the parking lot, Bok-nim casts a wary glance at Reporter Han, who has again taken up residence waiting for signs of Min-woo. Although he thinks that Ye-eun reminds him of the girl Min-woo was with, it’s a good thing for everyone that he’s not too bright and doesn’t connect the dots.

And of course, we can imagine how fluttery and giddy Bok-nim — a professional, thirtysomething doctor, mind you — gets to come face to face with Min-woo.

She puts aside her fangirliness enough to speak with him for a moment regarding the girl’s care, and gives him advice on bonding with her. For instance, it’s important for the adult to apologize if he has wronged the child, and to make sure not to lose his temper when the child makes mistakes.

Keeping that in mind, Min-woo gives this bonding thing a try, telling Ye-eun that he’s sorry he messed up her paper animals, and for thinking mean thoughts. In response, Ye-eun takes out her origami book and points to a picture. She wants him to fold the animal for her.

Min-woo gamely gives it a go, only he’s not very skilled and he’s certainly not very patient, and soon the ground is littered with crumpled origami paper.

Then, he feeds her spaghetti and pizza (oh, dads), and she accidentally knocks a plate of the noodles to the floor. Recalling Bok-nim’s words, he holds back his temper and forces a smiles to say that it’s fine. And then she knocks over the milk.

Ye-eun isn’t intentionally trying Min-woo’s patience, but I’m going to say this is a good sign that she feels comfortable enough to bounce around freely, knocking things over carelessly. Min-woo follows her around to right the damage she makes, but she’s a fast little thing. When he finds that she has puts onion ring chips on everything, Min-woo clamps a towel in his mouth to keep from yelling, but she just sticks her tongue out at him. LOL! Little girl totally knows she’s got him wrapped around her little finger.

Finally, he settles her in bed and reads her fairy tales (on his e-reader — that doesn’t have quite the same old-fashioned touch of bedtime stories, does it?). After he goes through several, they both fall asleep, and this is the scene that greets Kae-hwa when she comes home. Needless to say, she’s extremely gratified at how far they’ve progressed.

In the ensuing days, Min-woo goes through more training sessions; his vocals are already pretty good, but his acting starts out laughably bad. It’s the same overacty stuff of Episode 1, but to his acting coach’s surprise, he soon improves substantially, having learned how to tone down his deliveries to sound sincere.

I was tempted to leave out this scene, as it does very little in this episode, but I’ll include it because it’ll probably factor in at a later date. Jung-ah’s man has been admitted to the Broadway Dance Center in New York, and while she’s thrilled for him, he reminds her that at the outset she said they could go together. He figures she never really meant it, and her expression shows us that she’s sorry to disappoint.

Byung-hak is proving to be a big(ger) pain in the neck, bringing along his sister-in-law to meet with The Show Company for a role in the musical. The girl is pretty haughty, and Byung-hak says in his careless way that surely they can put in a good word with the director to satisfy their investor, no? It’s not only the request that is grating, but the crass way in which it is made that has the Show Company employees grimacing at Byung-hak’s nerve. Shi-joon tries to diplomatically decline responsibility for casting, but is forced to accept her resumé.

Kae-hwa is not having this, and she grabs her ex aside to scold him for his brash behavior. He’s such an arrogant douchebag that he acts like he’s their savior — as he is the one paying her paycheck, isn’t it her place to help her ex-husband’s wife’s younger sister’s debut? Coming from the adulterer, he sure has a skewed idea of propriety, eh?

When Yura calls, Min-woo hesitates to answer, feeling uneasy that she would still be spitting mad over their ruined vacation weekend. He apologizes to her and explains that he felt so bad that he couldn’t call her. Yura’s looking pretty peeved at first, particularly as he explains that his reason for skipping out was because Kae-hwa ran into trouble. He clarifies that the problem arose as a result of her helping him, and he therefore had to help her out.

But Yura is savvy enough to know that throwing a tantrum isn’t going to win her any brownie points, so she goes the other way and puts on a false front of understanding. And she’s successful in that, because her graciousness brings Min-woo back to his bashful self (urg, dummy) and he promises to explain these things to her in the future.

In the mood for a different kind of date, they engage in a game of racquetball at the gym, after which Min-woo drives her home. He’s visibly tired but chivalrous enough to know that the gentlemen ought to escort the lady home, although it’s obvious he’d rather not have to.

Yura brings up what a nice guy Yoon-seok is, since he seems quite considerate of Min-woo and even arranged for the vacation. Praise of the evil manager has got to be the oddest thing she could say after what just happened, but she can’t know what just went down so Min-woo doesn’t react. She suggests heading to dinner, but overrides his selection and opts for a salad bar — so he can maintain his physique — and therefore he barely hides his relief when she gets called in to work at the last minute.

No surprise that he then calls Kae-hwa, bored and hungry, and invites himself along to her office dinner. (Not that they mind; they consider it quite generous of him to show up, and he declares that tonight is his treat.)

Things get a little awkward when Jae-hee and Jin-ho suggest that their next round should be at Min-woo’s place, which makes Min-woo and Kae-hwa wide-eyed and nervous. To turn down the suggestion might appear rude (and even if not, it would kill the mood), so they fidget uneasily, trying to handle this appropriately. Shi-joon lets him off the hook by saying they don’t have to go, but after calming his initial reaction, Min-woo agrees and invites them over, and shoots Kae-hwa a look instructing her to go with it.

As they head out, Jae-hee angles for an invite to ride in Min-woo’s car, but Kae-hwa hurriedly claims the spot. As she is the most junior employee and supposedly not very acquainted with Min-woo, this is not quite the thing for her to do, but Min-woo and Kae-hwa have bigger concerns and they hurriedly leave. Hehe.

Speeding home, Min-woo and Kae-hwa clean up the place to make it presentable, hiding all traces of Ye-eun’s presence. There’s a bit of a hiccup when Kae-hwa reflexively answers Jin-ho’s question of where the bathroom is, but that’s easy enough to laugh off, saying she just used it.

It’s a little stranger when Jae-hee goes into the kitchen looking for cups and plates and Kae-hwa immediately points out where they are. Catching herself, Kae-hwa explains that all kitchens are laid out in the same way, which isn’t quite convincing, but thankfully that mostly goes forgotten and Jae-hee is soon drunk anyway.

However, then it’s Min-woo’s turn to slip, as he makes requests of Kae-hwa that seem, to an outsider, quite presumptuous. For instance, it’s quite natural for him to ask her to fetch things for him or open his bottle, and Kae-hwa responds promptly. Neither catches themselves before Shi-joon’s quizzical gaze.

Shi-joon approves of Min-woo’s newfound work ethic, and smiles to see that he’s watching West Side Story. (Min-woo covers up, embarrassed to cop to it, saying that it’s an old DVD.) Shi-joon even offers to lend him DVDs of a few more musicals to help him, but he cautions Min-woo to watch how he talks to Kae-hwa, as she is his employee.

And just for fun: I love the little faces Min-woo makes at Kae-hwa throughout the night. The third one above comes when Kae-hwa is particularly solicitous of Shi-joon, which clearly Min-woo finds unnecessary. No, not jealous of her attention at all, is he?

The ruse gets inconvenient when Shi-joon offers Kae-hwa a ride home, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do to keep up appearances. At least she has kept up the habit of requesting he drop her off at the subway station, which makes the return walk home less of a burden.

While in the car, Shi-joon offers her an employee loan — indicating she’s going to be promoted as a full-timer — so she can set up her own place and live with Min-ji. She thinks that’s way too generous of him, but he calls her quite pure (a direct contradiction of Yoon-seok’s charge earlier that she’s more sly than she appears), and tells her that she has the ability to cheer him up.

Kae-hwa brings Ye-eun in and comes back to the messy apartment, where she starts cleaning. (Min-woo hasn’t lifted a finger, to her chagrin, and she’s quick to give him the job of taking out some trash.)

Meanwhile, Shi-joon thinks back to his conversation with Min-woo and looks at a couple of DVDs he has in his glove compartment, deciding he’ll lend them to him, and I’m sure we all see where this is going…

Complicating matters is the fact that Reporter Han, still camping out in the parking garage, finally decides to give up his pursuit of Min-woo gossip. He’s finally willing to concede that he may never get a story, and gets up to leave, which is when Shi-joon pulls up to the building.

Kae-hwa steps out into the hallway to take out some trash, just as Shi-joon steps out of the elevator and comes face to face with her. Ruh-roh!

She’s caught red-handed, and there’s no use trying to talk her way out of this. They relocate downstairs to avoid talking in the hallway, and Shi-joon guesses that she lives here with Min-woo. I have to say I greatly dislike that half-sneer on Shi-joon’s face, because he’s not angry at her for lying, or hurt or betrayed or even shocked. (Not that he’d be right to feel those emotions either, but at least we could understand them. I’m thinking he’s reminded of Yoon-seok words that Kae-hwa’s not as innocent as she seems, and is judging her accordingly.) No, it looks like downright disgust, and that just smacks of… superiority? Douchey condemnation?

Kae-hwa has no choice but to confirm this as true, and says, “It’s true I live here, but…”

And Reporter Han gets his scoop after all.

 
COMMENTS

I find this cliffhanger pretty lame, just because the very next sentence could very well be “I live here as his housekeeper,” which is not only true but perfectly believable. Plus, all along we have been reminded that she’s a common ajumma who would never be mistaken for Min-woo’s date anyway, so in this case I think the resulting scandal would be relatively toothless. The only way this “shocking reveal” would actually be threatening would be if there actually were some romantic business going on that would give a scandal a hint of realism.

But whatever, because airtight logic isn’t this drama’s charm — that would be the burgeoning relationship between father and daughter, of course! It’s nice to see Min-woo taking initiative to talk to Ye-eun, and now that the episode with Yoon-seok has blown up in the manager’s face, it seems like Min-woo has turned away from the orphanage idea. (He also tells Kae-hwa and Ye-eun separately that he’s sorry for thinking “mean thoughts,” which suggests he’s no longer thinking along those lines.)

I do think it’s a very good thing that there are plenty of cute and comic beats in this drama, because otherwise the plot is creeping along at an immensely slow pace, isn’t it?

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