Shut Up: Flower Boy Band: Episode 6

by girlfriday

So effing good. This episode rules! It’s bromance, romance, and rock ‘n’ roll. What’s not to love? It’s time for the big show, and a big showdown too, but not between the people you think. Sometimes when you don’t work out your issues off the stage, they follow you on, in a big, big way.

 
EPISODE 6 RECAP

Ji-hyuk rounds the corner just in time to see Seung-hoon pull Su-ah into a hug, and scoffs bitterly before stalking away in the other direction. That’s just what you want to see when you got your face beaten into a wall for a girl—her hugging the other guy.

What he doesn’t see is that she pulls away immediately, and backs away as she says goodbye. As soon as she reaches her rooftop she calls Ji-hyuk, and discovers his phone down in the street below.

Ji-hyuk stumbles over to Do-il’s pool hall and collapses on a table before Do-il finally sees his bloodied face. But Ji-hyuk doesn’t want to talk about it, and insists it’s no big deal.

The next morning Su-ah waits outside for Ji-hyuk to come back home, and just misses him yet again. He saunters into school in the foulest mood, pushing his luck with Teacher Grumpypants and wearing band-aids all over his face.

Su-ah waits impatiently, and he finally arrives to class. Ha-jin and Hyun-soo immediately ask what happened to his face, ready to rough up whatever hooligans—er, other hooligans—did this to him. Aw, gotta love bromantic solidarity.

Hyun-soo guesses right away that if it had been neighborhood punks, Ji-hyuk’s fists would’ve been bruised, not his face. He looks up at Su-ah tentatively approaching, and says pointedly that because of someone, scary thugs have been around an awful lot these days.

She comes up to Ji-hyuk and asks if that’s what happened—did he get beaten by the gangsters who were after her? He doesn’t answer. She returns his phone and Hyun-soo tells her to get lost. I do love that he’s antagonistic towards her. It’s a nice internal conflict within the band.

Seung-hoon steps up to defend her, and has a stare-down with Hyun-soo before Ha-jin intervenes to stop them from fighting.

Ji-hyuk’s bad mood hangs over him all the way through practice, and Hyun-soo calls him out on it, asking where his head is at. Ji-hyuk just blows off the rest of practice and storms out.

He walks home in a cloud of angst and sighs on his rooftop, and only heads inside after seeing Su-ah arrive home. She comes knocking a little later, to ask if he’s okay, if he’s not hurt.

He plays it off like it’s no big deal, but he’s gruff with her, or more gruff than usual. She says that they can switch back their rooms, since those guys won’t be around anymore. He jumps to conclusions and scoffs that her prince must’ve arrived, since she’s going to clean up her rooftop life and go back to where she came from.

She asks if he’s mad at her for something, because he’s clearly being passive-aggressive, but he denies it, all while flashing back to her hug with Seung-hoon. He leans in just to ask what on earth he’d be mad about. Rawr. Why you gotta lean in all close like that?

They gather up their things and make the switch, and Su-ah thanks him for his help, saying that she really wouldn’t have gotten through this rough patch without him. But he’s interrupted by a panicked phone call from Ha-jin, saying that Woo-kyung is in trouble. Ji-hyuk dashes off.

He finds Ha-jin trying to pry three angry fangirls off of Woo-kyung, or maybe the other way around; it’s hard to tell ’cause there’s just lots of yelling and screaming and hair-pulling going on. (It’s basically a fight that erupted because they all like Ji-hyuk, while Woo-kyung points out that they so very recently were Byun-hee’s fangirls. Ha.)

Ji-hyuk jumps into the fray, and finally the three of them sit on the steps in the aftermath, to lick their wounds. Ha-jin declares that nothing ever goes right when there are four girls, because girls are best enjoyed separately. Pfft. Spoken like a true playboy.

He jumps up at the sight of more girls passing by, not wanting to waste a good night alone. Well he did have to ditch a noona to help Woo-kyung out, so I guess he’s just righting wrongs?

Woo-kyung buries her head, mortified that Ji-hyuk has seen her like this. She wonders how he could be so flaky on dates, and then show up like clockwork at times like this. Ha. Aw, poor Woo-kyung.

He doesn’t see what’s so embarrassing about it anyway, and pats her on the head like a little puppy. But she points out that she’s embarrassed about everything in front of him—that she doesn’t go to school, that she’s older than him, that she spends her days perming people’s hair.

“When you like somebody, you’re always embarrassed, because you always want to look good in front of them.” She finishes the thought with the even harsher truth: “But you don’t feel like that with me, ever.”

He just brushes it off as too complicated a way to think of things, true to form. She gets up to go home, and refuses to let him walk her there. She’s been embarrassed enough for one night, and wants it to end there.

At school the next day, news breaks that Su-ah’s dad has been hauled away in handcuffs and detained, and things go from bad to worse for her. Both Seung-hoon and Ji-hyuk note the new development silently. At least he knows the real reason why she’s not worried about the gangsters anymore.

Ha-jin and Kyung-jong shoot the breeze, and note Su-ah’s situation with some sympathy. Ha-jin sighs that the Rooftop Roomies situation is wasted on Ji-hyuk, because if he were there, he’d certainly comfort her. Yeah, I BET you would.

Kyung-jong just very innocently points out that it can’t be, because she’s Byung-hee’s muse. Ha-jin calls him naïve—affection is bound to grow when they see each other every day, living side by side. He jokingly imagines them as the Rooftop Couple.

What they don’t notice is that Pyo-joo has overheard their entire conversation with an evil glint in his eye. Uh-oh.

In gym class the teacher tells them to pair up, and Pyo-joo comes up behind Su-ah, shoving her right into Ji-hyuk’s arms. He calls them the Rooftop Couple and says that “like should be with like.”

He announces loud and clear for the whole class to hear that they live in a house so small they can’t even stretch their legs, scoffing that it might as well be a doghouse. Ji-hyuk grabs a nearby basketball… and chucks it right at Pyo-joo’s head. Damn, that’s satisfying.

They get up in each other’s faces, but then the teacher comes over. So Ji-hyuk reaches in for a hug as he says loudly, “I’m sorry,” while whispering into Pyo-joo’s ear to shut his trap or he’ll make him shut it. Okay, that’s even MORE satisfying.

With that, Ji-hyuk storms out of class. This time, it’s the girls’ turn to be nasty, as they gather around Su-ah and call her the Jungsang Two-Timer. Deo-mi rushes up to defend her, only her defense is that Seung-hoon declared in front of everyone that Su-ah is his girlfriend.

But what I love about Su-ah is that she stands up for herself. She looks the meangirl straight in the eyes and says yes, her father went bankrupt, yes she lives in a rooftop room… anything else she’d like to know?

She adds that for the record, the too-good-for-her Seung-hoon is not her boyfriend… which is right when Seung-hoon walks into class. Awkward.

Seung-hoon corners Ji-hyuk in the bathroom to tell him to stop telling everyone about the rooftop because he’s just making things harder for Su-ah. Ji-hyuk just laughs, wondering why the kids at this school have so many secrets. “I’ve never once been embarrassed about the fact that I live in a rooftop room.”

He doesn’t see what the big frickin’ deal is, because it’s true. He lives in a rooftop room. She lives in a rooftop room. Who cares? But the kicker, he points out, is that Seung-hoon DOES seem to care, because he’s embarrassed. Ooooh. One point, Ji-hyuk.

He wonders why Su-ah was so reluctant to tell him where she was living, and the reason is obvious—Seung-hoon is no different from the other kids at this school. He continues in his relaxed I’m-too-cool-for-this-shit tone that Seung-hoon shouldn’t waste his energy posturing in front of him, and should shut Pyo-joo up instead.

Seung-hoon calls after him to say they’ll see who’s the bigger help to Su-ah, but dude, you’ve already lost that game. He warns Pyo-joo to stop pestering Su-ah, and says it’s his final warning. Hasn’t this guy had one too many final warnings?

Seung-hoon waits outside for Su-ah to finish her shift at the restaurant, and tells her that she was really brave today. He remembers that she was always really brave, recalling the time she saved him from ridicule and piggybacked him away, when they were young and he was shorter than her. Aw.

He admits that he doesn’t mind being thought of as her boyfriend, and she tells him that he’s a really good friend, but she doesn’t want to hide behind him anymore. She does promise him that she’ll show up to the rock festival, though I don’t think she’s goin’ there to see you, buddy.

Eye Candy scrapes through another practice feeling off, and Ha-jin tells Hyun-soo to give it up and just let Ji-hyuk do the guitar solo. Ooh. Ouch. Hyun-soo just ice-beams him and Kyung-jong reminds the guys that Hyun-soo’s just been really busy taking care of his sister and stuff.

The festival’s in two days so everyone’s on edge, and Ji-hyuk abruptly puts an end to practice for the day, telling Hyun-soo to put in more solo practice time. To that end, Hyun-soo skips school the next day, not moving an inch from their practice space, and not even answering the guys’ calls.

The principal hears about both bands entering the festival, and calls them into his office to congratulate them. Well, he congratulates Strawberry Fields. And then he turns to Eye Candy and says that maybe it’d be best if the school only put forth one entry in the competition, yunno, for a united front and all that. URG. Imma throttle you, Turtle Man.

Thankfully Seung-hoon speaks up to put an end to that nonsense, saying that everyone should play fairly. Teacher Kim also pipes up to tell the principal that actually, Eye Candy enters the competition in second place, while Strawberries enter at fourth. The principal clears his throat awkwardly.

Out in the hall the two bands throw insults and challenges back and forth, and Ji-hyuk just tells Seung-hoon to do whatever he wants, like he’s talking at a buzzing fly. Ha, I love that Seung-hoon’s more invested in this rivalry than Ji-hyuk is, because he’s doing this for Byung-hee.

They put in their last practice before the big day, and Ji-hyuk wonders why they’re not even complaining when they’ve never worked this hard before. But Hyun-soo says it’s because they have something to prove, “to Byung-hee.”

Oof, that just gets you in the heart. I love that you think he’s gonna say that they have something to prove to the rich bastards at school, but they don’t—they’re in this for their friend. Ji-hyuk raises his hand, rock on, at the mention of Byung-hee.

He walks home, and Su-ah catches up to him on their street, calling out to him over and over. He wonders why she sounds so excited to see him and tells her to stop being so friendly, especially at school, since “it doesn’t do you any good either.”

But she doesn’t see any reason for that, and says she’s super happy to see him, even if he’s not. She adds that he was right—now that she’s finally told the truth to everyone at school, she feels so much freer.

He asks if she’s going to the rock festival, and she says of course, she begged for the day off because she has a band to cheer on… Eye Candy. He stops in his tracks. You can literally feel the smile about to erupt on his face, only then she tags on, “and Strawberry Fields too.” Aw, you pooped on his parade!

She says she’s been meaning to ask, but does he know of anyone who has the same voice as him? She says that the guy singing Seung-hoon’s song sounds just like him, and lets him listen.

He recognizes it immediately, of course. “Is this that song? The one you like and have been listening to all the time?”

Su-ah: “Yeah. This voice is so strange—when I’m lonely it makes my heart feel warm, and when I’m excited it makes my heart race, and when I’m sad it makes me want to cry.”

He keeps his poker face and wonders why she doesn’t ask Seung-hoon who it is. She says he doesn’t know either. Ji-hyuk finally breaks out into a little secret smile.

They share headphones as they walk home together listening to the song, and Ji-hyuk grins like a fool the whole way. So. Cute.

He wakes up at the crack of dawn the day of the festival, and finds his daily banana milk with a note this time: “Eye Candy Fighting!” He downs it and gives a big roar, ready to conquer the world.

Everyone arrives on time at the venue except for Hyun-soo, who’s got a last-minute sister crisis of course, because this is a drama. The boys call him frantically and make it through rehearsals without him, but soon enough it’s showtime.

Strawberry Fields plays before them. It’s a rather subdued performance for a rock festival, but they do well, and Ji-hyuk watches from the crowd.

They’re almost up and Hyun-soo runs through the streets to get there in time… and nearly gets hit by a van while crossing the street. He rolls to avoid getting hit, and gets a shard of glass in his hand for his trouble. Oh noes.

The van carries a mystery celebrity, who notes him with some curiosity. The manager offers to take Hyun-soo to the hospital, but he takes off running. The boys wait on pins and needles, and Hyun-soo finally arrives, with just seconds to spare.

They go onstage right away, and play Byung-hee’s song, finally in sync and all smiles. Here it is again in case you missed it:

Jaywalking [ 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.

Hyun-soo finally gets his guitar riffs just right, and seems happy… except we start to see that his hand is still bleeding, all over his guitar. It gets worse as he continues to play, and it’s starting to worry me—what if he ends up permanently damaging his hand that way? I can barely watch.

It finally comes to the guitar solo and Hyun-soo starts to play it through gritted teeth. His face twists in pain. Ji-hyuk finally has a moment to pause his singing and look over at Hyun-soo, which is when he sees his hand and guitar covered in blood.

Without hesitating, Ji-hyuk stops him in the middle of the song… by man-hugging him until my heart nearly bursts. Everything comes to screeching halt. Hyun-soo struggles, fighting to get free and keep playing like an obstinate fool, but Ji-hyuk just clutches him in that bear-hug, refusing to let go.

It’s long moment before the feral Hyun-soo finally calms down and lets Ji-hyuk win. He heads offstage in defeat, and Ji-hyuk looks out at the stunned audience.

He cues the rest of the guys, who are just as gobsmacked as the crowd, and they start playing where they left off, and finish the song. Ji-hyuk gives a bitter smile at the end before turning to walk off the stage. Urg, what a heart-wrenching performance.

And then as the judges (including Seung-hoon’s sister) tally the scores, the girl whose van nearly hit Hyun-soo takes to the stage for a special appearance. She’s announced as Kim Ye-rim (played by Kim Ye-rim, from Superstar K3).

The winner is announced: Strawberry Fields. The crowd cheers happily, though Seung-hoon doesn’t really look too ecstatic. Maybe he’s just used to winning and it doesn’t really mean much to him, or maybe he knows they would’ve lost had Eye Candy not caused the big commotion onstage? Who knows.

Su-ah smiles and cheers them on, but immediately starts looking around for Ji-hyuk.

Backstage the rest of the boys sigh at Hyun-soo’s doggedness to keep playing with a bloodied hand, and Do-il says it’s a good thing Ji-hyuk stopped him when he did. Hyun-soo doesn’t say anything, and just asks, “Where’s Ji-hyuk?”

Waah, what is it about that moment that kills me? I think I was scared that Hyun-soo might still be angry at Ji-hyuk (even though he’d have no right to be) but when he looks for him like that, it’s a sign that there’s no love lost in that bromance. The guys tell him that Ji-hyuk went home right away, wanting to be alone. Aw.

They head out, and Ye-rim comes to ask Hyun-soo if he’s okay. The other guys recognize her right away as a big star, but Hyun-soo just gives her his trademark icy stare-down and walks right past her.

She tells him that she’s sorry but that just unleashes his anger. He asks what sorry’s gonna do—is it going to put them back onstage or give them the win? “I wanted to give my friend one last gift, but it’s all ruined because of me. I’m about to go crazy right now so shut up and get lost!” I could swear he silently mouths shibal at the end of it, but maybe not.

Su-ah skips out on Strawberry Fields’ after-party and heads home, shocked to find Ji-hyuk standing up on top of his roof—the roof of the rooftop room, to be exact. She hurries upstairs and calls him down from there.

He says everything looks different from up here. He wonders how different things look when you’re looking down from the heavens. “What do you think it’s like… the world that Byung-hee sees? He saw our performance today, you think?”

He tells her she should come up too, “You can see all the things you couldn’t see before.” In this moment he has a bit of that Byung-hee flair.

Su-ah climbs up the ladder, though she’s too scared to make it all the way to the top without his help. He wonders why she came up here when she’s clearly afraid. Su-ah: “Because you wouldn’t come down.”

He asks why that matters to her—what is he, for her to care one way or the other? Su-ah: “Because I want to be with you.” Huck!

Without another word, he looks her in the eyes, and reaches for her hand, interlocking his fingers in hers. Goddamn that’s hot.

And with his other hand he pulls her in for a kiss. And then another.

That’s it. I’m moving to a rooftop immediately.

 
COMMENTS

I swear, if it’s one thing Jane Austen had right, it’s that a hand-hold can be just as hot as a kiss, and then some. Not that I would give back being in this century and having my kisses onscreen, mind you (blashphemy!), but there’s something so electrifying about that hand-hold that says everything, no kisses needed.

I love that Su-ah says it first. What’s nice about this pairing is that their feelings actually grew at the same time, so neither of them was pining away in secret while the other remained clueless. Ji-hyuk could’ve easily admitted his feelings first, but I like that she’s the more assertive one.

What feels genuine about her character is that she’s not too cool for school. She wants the normal things a teenager wants—to be liked, to get by without being labeled a laughingstock. If she were just a rebel to begin with, it wouldn’t mean as much when she starts to let it go and stands up for who she is, what she wants, who she wants to hang out with. Her choosing Ji-hyuk means more than liking him; it means she’s finally owning up to who she really is.

But the real heart of the episode was in the Hyun-soo/Ji-hyuk bromance, which is one of my favorite relationships of the show. It’s nice to have a character within the group cause some friction among the boys, and Hyun-soo is a fantastic character because he’s got a bit of that instability and mystery that Byung-hee had – you’re never quite sure when he’s gonna fly off the handle.

It gives the band an edge and a feeling of unease, which I think plays nicely to keep them from being too easy a friendship. Yes, they’d go to the ends of the earth for each other, but they aren’t always going to be happy playtime pals either. Hyun-soo’s conflict with Ji-hyuk has been escalating since the beginning of the show, but what I love is that the concert-bloody-hand resolution was unexpected.

I figured he’d be late and all that typical stuff, but I didn’t expect their tense and fractured relationship to take a dramatic turn in the middle of the freaking song, for crying out loud. But if it’s one thing that marks Ji-hyuk as a leader, it’s that he puts people before everything else. Yes, they’re here for the music, and yes, they made a promise to Byung-hee. But Hyun-soo matters more in that moment.

It’s what he did for Su-ah once, but this time it’s the full impact of that kind of gesture—because it’s official, onstage, and because no one else could’ve done it. It’s the very thing that causes them to fight every day, that ends up being the only thing to save Hyun-soo from himself: Ji-hyuk’s just as stubborn an ass as he is. Sealed with a hug. And they say two alphas can’t get along.

The best part is that Ji-hyuk still finishes the song. That totally wrenches my heart, because they know it doesn’t matter—they’re not going to win—but they still play anyway, to keep their promise to Byung-hee. Rock on.

 
RELATED POSTS

• Shut Up: Flower Boy Band: Episode 5
• Shut Up: Flower Boy Band: Episode 4
• Shut Up: Flower Boy Band: Episode 3
• Shut Up: Flower Boy Band: Episode 2
• Shut Up: Flower Boy Band: Episode 1
• Shut Up adds Loveholic rocker as music director, releases long preview
• Press conference day for cast of Shut Up: Flower Boy Band