Witch’s Romance: Episode 10

by odilettante

Dong-ha continues his dark descent into drunken depression (how’s that for some alliteration?), while Ji-yeon struggles to reconcile what it means to have Shi-hoon officially back in her life. Neither of our leads is very happy this episode, except for when they get to momentarily forget everything except each other, and then they practically glow brighter than the sun. Until Shi-hoon invariably shows his pretty face, and then we’re back to doom-and-gloom. On the plus side, our supporting characters get to experience buckets of ridiculous cuteness as just about everyone gets a love interest, and, oh yeah, there may — or may not be — some kissing.

EPISODE 10 RECAP

The morning after Dong-ha and Ji-yeon’s emotional confrontation, Ji-yeon sees Shi-hoon waiting for her outside her apartment, having sacrificed his dislike of early mornings to give her a ride to work. Dong-ha is also on his way to work, and as he and his scooter pull up to the same stoplight, he looks over to see a smiling Ji-yeon as Shi-hoon’s passenger.

At their restaurant, Na-rae and Min-goo prep their fishcakes (and she thinks they’re spoiled, but Min-goo tells her that her sense of smell must be off). She tells him that Ji-yeon and Shi-hoon will be stopping by later, and threatens her husband with bodily harm if he lets on that she used to live with Dong-ha.

Ji-yeon tries to get Dong-ha’s attention as she’s looking for a file, but he pointedly ignores her. Rushing in, Young-sik informs Ji-yeon of a juicy news tip, and as they prepare to leave, she gets a text from Shi-hoon letting her know he’s waiting out front. Much to Young-sik’s astonishment, she tells him that he’ll have to go and take pictures on his own, since she has to leave.

Shi-hoon and Ji-yeon arrive at Na-rae’s restaurant (and aw, Ji-yeon says that Min-goo is a talented cook — even if his looks leave something to be desired, pffft). The two couples enjoy a meal together, and when Na-rae asks about Shi-hoon’s adventures in Africa, he admits that he really liked living there and would be happy to stay there the rest of his life.

Ji-yeon warns him if he keeps bringing up Africa, she won’t leave him alone. He teasingly admits his surprise that Ji-yeon never acted in that forceful way before with him, but he’s beginning to like it. (And Min-goo is fascinated with the idea that she wasn’t scary before, pfft.)

Noting something off about Na-rae, Ji-yeon asks after her health. But she shrugs it off, thinking it’s just because their restaurant has been so busy that she hasn’t had time to take care of herself properly. At the suggestion that they should hire a part-timer, Min-goo gets excited when he remembers that Dong-ha will be out of a job soon. Aw, Min-goo being on Team Dong-ha is just the cutest.

But he’s the only one at the table who’s happy at the thought of Dong-ha, and Na-rae gives him the “be quiet, my beloved idiot husband” look as she tries to cover the awkwardness.

Speak of the devil, Dong-ha is on his way to the restaurant to eat dinner with Soo-chul and Eun-chae (who just “happened” to show up at Soo-chul’s restaurant just as he was closing up, uh-huh, sure), but when he sees through the window a happy Ji-yeon with Shi-hoon, his face falls. He gets Soo-chul and Eun-chae to agree to go somewhere else, and they end up in a noisy, crowded club.

When Eun-chae excuses herself to go to the restroom (with Soo-chul shouting warnings about how all men are wolves), he asks why Dong-ha, of all people, would want to come to a club. Dong-ha says it’s the only place he could be sure he wouldn’t run into “those two.” Soo-chul cheerily admits that’s true, and encourages him to enjoy the nightclub atmosphere (especially the pretty young women dancing around them).

But Dong-ha is still in a somber mood when they leave, and when Soo-chul is busy retrieving his car, Eun-chae asks Dong-ha if he’s had his heart broken. He sighs that it’s something like that, but before she can press any further, two skeevy guys who had been hitting on her earlier show up. They continue to pester Eun-chae, and Dong-ha steps in, insisting that they should leave her alone and ordering them to get lost.

The skeevy guy grabs Dong-ha’s collar, and Dong-ha just smiles, saying he’s been waiting for someone to mess with him — and then punches the guy in the face. He’s ready to continue the fight with a few kicks to the defenseless dude on the ground, but Soo-chul arrives just then and pulls Dong-ha away.

As Shi-hoon walks Ji-yeon back to her apartment, he promises that he’ll take her to work again tomorrow morning, but she teasingly asks him how long that will last (knowing how much he hates early mornings). Her phone rings, and it’s Young-sik, excited to report that the embezzling businessman she had ordered him to track has just been arrested. The reporter in her is delighting in all the ways she’ll be able to reveal his scandal as Shi-hoon gives her a ride to the police station.

Young-sik meets her out front with confirmation that he got the photos, and she hurries inside to get the attention of a detective, who breaks free from the reporters surrounding him to meet privately with her. Clearly this isn’t the first time he’s been her anonymous inside source, and he agrees to give her access to photos of the evidence so she can get the scoop over the daily papers.

Inside that very same police station (oh how convenient!), Dong-ha sits stoically while Soo-chul argues that the nightclub guys were the ones who started the fight. But the police officer says Dong-ha is still responsible for an assault case, due to giving the guy injuries that will take at least three weeks to heal.

A distinguished older man walks in, declaring himself “this bastard’s father,” and hands over a business card (which says he’s the director of One Light Medical Center), informing the policeman that their lawyer will be in soon with a settlement agreement.

Dong-ha doesn’t acknowledge his father (or even blink!) when he angrily asks his son if, after quitting school and leaving home, all he can do now is fight. From the hallway of the police station, Ji-yeon looks on with concern, and when the detective returns with her evidence photo, she asks him to look into the situation with Dong-ha.

As they leave the police station, Dong-ha’s father asks him if he’s ever going to back to school, or just live his life like this. Dong-ha cuts him off, saying he doesn’t want to talk about it. Dad asks if he still resents him for “the incident,” but Dong-ha interrupts once more, saying that he never asked his father to worry about him, and that he’ll pay back the settlement fee as soon as he can.

In the police station, the detective informs Ji-yeon about the assault case, adding that the perpetrator is the son of the director of the hospital where the victim got his injuries checked out, and so the hospital lawyers managed to get a settlement within minutes. He marvels at the power of money as he asks Ji-yeon if it’s anyone she knows, but she denies it.

Papa Yoon gets into his car (chauffeured, of course) with one final remonstrance that Dong-ha is wasting his youth, but Dong-ha continues to stare straight ahead, not once looking at his father.

Ji-yeon follows after Dong-ha, calling out his name. She tells him she was at the station for an interview, asking if he’s on his way home.

He ignores her and continues walking, before spinning back around, wanting to know if she’s following him. She points out that they live in the same direction, so he turns and starts heading the opposite way. She continues to follow him, and this time when he turns around to ask her why, she says, “Just because.” Aw.

But he’s not too happy about it, and furiously demands to know if his words mean nothing to her, reminding her that he’d asked her to stop paying attention to him.

This time she’s the one who anxiously paces back and forth in the courtyard of their apartment complex as she waits for him to return — and then goes scurrying off to hide when he arrives. Soo-chul is also waiting for him like a mama hen, and when Dong-ha grabs a beer from the fridge, he snatches it away and gives him some water instead. Aw, true friendship.

He insists that he didn’t call Dong-ha’s father, and as he babbles on about how scary Papa Yoon is, Dong-ha retreats to his bedroom to brood.

The next day, Ji-yeon notes that Dong-ha isn’t at work, and asks Eun-chae if she’s seen him. Eun-chae bravely confronts Ji-yeon, asking if she’s being a little too hard on Dong-ha. He’s been going through so much lately, but Ji-yeon seems to not even care.

Troubled, she messages him, asking if he’s coming to work, then bombards him with a dozen other texts (“Are you sick? Did something happen to you?”). She’s like a nervous schoolgirl as she literally bites her nails, watching the texts be confirmed as read, but still receiving no reply.

Later, at the restaurant, Na-rae can’t believe that Dong-ha beat someone up, but Ji-yeon can’t believe he ignored the thirty text messages she sent him. Ha!

Na-rae points out that it makes sense — after all, Ji-yeon rejected him, and then he didn’t exactly show his best self at the police station. Ji-yeon is still worried that he continues to stay out late, drinking — but sighs as she says that he’s still young, so he’ll forget her soon and meet someone better.

A text message pops up on her phone and she frantically opens it, and then tosses her phone aside in disgust when it’s just an automated message (instead of the anticipated text from Dong-ha).

Since Na-rae found out earlier that her health issues were due to pregnancy, Ji-yeon leaps up to help Min-goo serve a few patrons (and tells them instead of asking for a refill on their soup, they should just order another item off the menu, ha). She defends her desire to help, saying that Na-rae has to be extra careful to not over-exert herself, and she argues with Min-goo that they should really consider hiring someone part-time to help out.

But Na-rae gets them to call a truce by pretending “the baby” needs peace and quiet, and Ji-yeon leaves after saying a sincere good-bye to “the baby.” Ji-yeon is totally going to be the cool aunt.

Returning home, she stops at Dong-ha’s door instead of going straight to her own. He tries to ignore her persistent ringing of the doorbell, until he finally calls through the intercom that he has nothing to say to her, so she should just leave.

Offended that he’s home and won’t speak to her face-to face, she pulls out the emergency alarm he gave her. He can’t ignore that high-pitched noise, even though he tries. She lets herself in the apartment, dangling the alarm in his face, saying she wouldn’t have had to use it if he’d answered the door in the first place.

She then asks why he wasn’t at work today and ignored all her texts. Even if he’s only working there for a few more days, she was still worried about him. She adds reluctantly that Eun-chae was worried about him, too, and trails off as she describes her as being pretty, with a good personality.

Dong-ha asks in disbelief if she’s trying to now hook him up with Eun-chae or push him towards any random person instead. Since she’s happy, he guesses she can’t care about how he feels.

Ji-yeon protests that she’s just concerned about him, since he’s been a walking time-bomb ever since Shi-hoon returned. She’s worried he’s headed in the wrong direction, but every time she tries to say something to him, he just gets angry and yells at her to get lost.

She starts to cry as she says she doesn’t want to be doing this with him, but what can she do — should she just move? After she storms out out of the apartment, Dong-ha says to himself that he never asked her to worry about him — she should just live happily with the polar bear.

Ji-yeon’s mother pays Na-rae a visit, having now learned about her pregnancy, and sighs, wondering when Ji-yeon will ever get married and give her a grandchild of her own. Na-rae assures her that it will probably be soon, and Mom admits that she thinks “Mr. Yoon” is a pretty good choice (and Na-rae and Min-goo exchange pained glances).

At the Trouble Maker office, Ji-yeon panics when she realizes she somehow lost the article she’d spent all day working on, and Young-sik isn’t there to fix it for her. But Dong-ha breaks his silence to go over and help her find it on her computer, and Ji-yeon is very, very aware of the way he leans over her, placing his hand over hers so he can move the mouse.

She’s totally focused on her work as the hours pass by, and Dong-ha silently hands her a necessary file and fresh cup of coffee as needed. Eventually she stops to stretch and realizes he’s still there. He gasps in mock horror at how late she’s made him stay on his last day of work, and tells her she at least owes him dinner.

They end up at a fancy restaurant, and Ji-yeon marvels at the array of dishes that fill their table, wondering how he can possibly eat it all. He says that since it’s the very last meal she’ll buy for him, he’ll eat until he explodes. Ji-yeon’s competitiveness rears its head as she says they should see who can eat the most. Dong-ha asks if she has to be the first in eating, too, and she reminds him that he’s never seen her lose.

Dong-ha suddenly says that the loser pays for the second round, and quickly digs in. Ji-yeon hurries to catch up, grumbling about his cheating head-start. They can’t help but laugh as they inelegantly stuff their faces and try to block the other from taking bites. Hahaha!

After a while, Dong-ha surrenders, and Ji-yeon cheers her victory. As they laugh at the ridiculousness of it all (and their overstuffed bellies), Dong-ha admits that the first time he saw her, he thought she was a witch with no blood or tears. She says that the first time she saw him, she thought he was a crazy Santa. Who would have thought that Santa would fight a suspicious thug to save an evil witch?

They head to a nearby bar for a second round of drinks, and Dong-ha wonders about their fate: If their phones hadn’t been switched, if she hadn’t been followed and attacked in her apartment, if he wasn’t the Master of Part-Time, if she wasn’t the witch — would they be standing here today? Internally, Dong-ha asks himself if that means he wouldn’t have ended up liking her, and she asks herself if that means their kiss would have never happened, either.

As they stare at each other over their wine glasses, the MC announces a surprise event — the most romantic couple in the bar will win a bottle of champagne. Remembering back to their first kiss, Dong-ha and Ji-yeon get the giggles (and I have to wonder if this couple-competition is super trendy, or if they need to start going to a new venue). The MC notices them smiling at each other, and pulls them out for special attention.

The bar patrons (and the rest of the viewing audience) start chanting “Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” and Dong-ha pulls Ji-yeon in close as he repeats that every time he gets entangled with her, it seems to come to this. Then leans in for a kiss on the lips…

…before pulling back slightly to give her a gentle kiss on her forehead.

The bar patrons and MC (and the rest of the viewing audience) are disappointed with Dong-ha’s gentlemanly restraint. He takes the microphone to announce to Ji-yeon actually has a really great boyfriend, and that he hopes she’ll be happy with him from now on. But he sure doesn’t seem thrilled to be giving Shi-hoon his blessing.

Speaking of whom, Shi-hoon is lurking in the courtyard of their apartment, all ready to be a party-pooper to Dong-ha and Ji-yeon’s comfortable familiarity as they return home. Dong-ha excuses himself to go home first, and Ji-yeon invites Shi-hoon into her apartment.

She tells him he should have called first, and he says he did, but she didn’t answer. He admits he’s jealous that she and Dong-ha are so close, and she takes the safe route by teasing him, saying she didn’t know it was possible for him to be jealous.

Mom happily barges into the apartment, thinking that Dong-ha is there because she saw a pair of men’s shoes at the door — but is shocked to see that it’s Shi-hoon instead. She reminds him that she told him never to see Ji-yeon again, and he begs for her forgiveness. But she coldly tells him that she doesn’t like him: “I still hate that you never called during all that time, and you appeared only now.”

She then turns to Ji-yeon, fighting back tears as she reminds her daughter how much time she spent resenting and hating Shi-hoon — did she think those years would be so easily erased? Even though she would prefer it if they stopped seeing each other, she admits in defeat that they’re both adults who are capable of making their own choices. Her only request is that, if they really love each other, to get married by next year.

Shi-hoon immediately kneels in gratitude (and Mom still refuses to look at him), but Ji-yeon’s face seems awfully sad and pensive for someone who knows that she’s going to be marrying her first love.

The Trouble Maker office throws Dong-ha a farewell party at Na-rae’s restaurant, and he cheerfully helps out even though he’s the guest of honor. Ji-yeon tells him that he’s worked hard, and pauses a moment before adding, “I’m sorry.” When he asks about what, she vaguely replies, “For this, that, everything.” They toast each other, and her phone buzzes.

She walks away to answer it — it’s Shi-hoon, asking if she’s finished with the party yet, but she tells him she’ll be late and he can just go on home. Dong-ha watches her as he gulps down glass after glass of alcohol. The rest of the Trouble Maker staff are ready to continue their party at another establishment, but Dong-ha drunkenly passes out at the table.

Soo-chul drives them home (with Eun-chae tagging along, of course), and Ji-yeon tries to stagger her way to the apartment while supporting Dong-ha’s unconscious body. Eun-chae discovers that Ji-yeon left her phone in the car, and that her boyfriend is calling. Soo-chul deduces that it must be “the polar bear.”

In the courtyard, Dong-ha sleeps on one of the benches with his head in Ji-yeon’s lap, and she quietly muses that normally she’s the one who specializes in getting drunk, but today it’s Dong-ha. She wonders out loud what would have happened if they had met under different circumstances — would things have turned out differently?

Gently, she shakes him awake and he groggily sits up. Just as she’s getting up from the bench, he grabs her wrist to pull her back down, and then slowly leans in for a kiss — and this time, it’s on the lips.

COMMENTS

So we finally get a kiss. Yay? Somehow, it’s not very satisfying. Not just because it’s a one of those “dead fish” kisses more suited to the main broadcast stations than for cable, but also there’s a sense of desperation from Dong-ha and emptiness from Ji-yeon. I want my kisses to sizzle, and this one just felt sad.

It doesn’t help that they had more chemistry earlier in the episode, from the sexual tension leading up to the forehead kiss (now that could have been an awesome kiss, particularly since you could see in Ji-yeon’s eyes that she was totally willing for it to happen), to the way he “accidentally” caressed her hand with his thumb as he fixed her computer.

Speaking of chemistry, how amazing is it that Ji-yeon goes through the entire episode declaring Shi-hoon as her boyfriend, and yet they hardly seem to touch each other. There’s always this barrier between them, be it a table or car or telephone or just three feet of air. I’m choosing to think this is a directorial choice, because it also emphasizes just how much Ji-yeon (whether knowingly or not) tries to separate Shi-hoon from the rest of her life. It’s like she’s giving him a second chance in theory, but not in reality.

She’s offended when he shows up, unannounced, to the Trouble Maker offices to try and become a part of the team; Mom only finds out they’re dating because she just happened to show up at the right time; she only introduces him to Na-rae who, yes, is her only friend, but is also the only person who really knew the Shi-hoon from ten years ago; whenever he calls, she slips away from whomever she’s with to quietly have a conversation with him. These are not the actions of a woman who is happy to have her first love back in her life.

Not only that, but Shi-hoon just seems to suck the joy out of her. Dong-ha may be a little distressed when he sees her smiling when she’s with Shi-hoon, but that’s nothing like those gloriously beaming goofy grins she has when she and Dong-ha are together. In fact, she seemed happier when she has the chance to track down breaking news about the embezzling business man than she did on her entire date with Shi-hoon (and, let’s face it: she had more chemistry in two minutes with her detective buddy than she has had with Shi-hoon so far).

If the show is trying to convince us that Shi-hoon is a viable threat, it’s failing spectacularly. I know LollyPip touched on a lot of issues surrounding Shi-hoon (and second leads) in the last recap, so I won’t repeat them here, except to say if he thinks rides to work and cups of coffee are enough to make up for the complete heartbreak and utter lack of communication for six years, well, he’s clearly delusional. Yes, they have “history” together, but Ji-yeon’s made her own history with Dong-ha, too, even it has only been for a few months. But those couple of months are just as important and viable because they are new and fresh, versus a longer history that has been dead for six years.

Speaking of history, I’m not sure how I feel about Papa Yoon making an appearance. For some reason, probably because of all the ties he has to the orphanage, I had it in my head that Dong-ha was an orphan himself. So I was a little thrown when I realized he’s yet another chaebol-type. I think I preferred him as the guy who worked like crazy to get into med school without any hint of assistance from a parent. Even though I’m sure “the incident” will be important (and probably has to do with Young-chae), it’s a backstory that seems unnecessary.

Because this story isn’t about the history the two of them have had independently of each other (which is why, again, Shi-hoon just doesn’t seem to fit). It’s about the two of them, today, figuring out a relationship that goes against societal norms and also challenges them on a personal level.

Although, thank goodness each episode seems to focus less and less on their age difference, because that’s never felt like a real stumbling block in the first place (especially since practically everyone in their world seems to approve of the two of them together; well everyone but Eun-chae and Shi-hoon). No; the only stumbling block right now is Ji-yeon’ s insecurity in figuring out how she truly feels about the men in her life.

But if the guy you’re trying very hard not to date manages to have more skinship (and shared laughter!) than the guy you supposedly will one day marry, well, that seems to be the answer right there.

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