Witch’s Romance: Episode 13

by LollyPip

Breakups and comebacks and parties, oh my! A lot happens in this episode, all the better to bring our two leads closer together again after so many weeks of estrangement. And not a moment too soon, as I was starting to worry that we’d never see Dong-ha and Ji-yeon smile and have fun together again. And best of all — the Witch is back!

 
EPISODE 13 RECAP

Ji-yeon slowly walks home after Shi-hoon breaks off their engagement, so dazed that she doesn’t even see Dong-ha standing in their courtyard next to his suitcase. He stops her and asks her why she always cries when she’s been with Shi-hoon. She doesn’t answer and just goes upstairs.

She goes inside and sits, remembering how Shi-hoon broke things off. He says for her to consider that their engagement never happened, and she finally shows a spark of life. She surges to her feet and calls him shameless for making her wait six years, then not even being able to wait a few hours. She calls him selfish and a bastard (cheer).

Shi-hoon won’t even look at her, and just asks her to leave. Ji-yeon grabs one of her wedding shoes and throws it at him, screaming his name. She asks why he’s pretending to be the bad guy when she’s the bad one (so she does understand he’s playing the Noble Idiot card), but he insists that he’s bad for trying to hold onto her.

He picks up the shoe and says that her mother told him that she was happy when she used to try them on, but that now she only looks nervous. Shi-hoon says that she’s in the future he imagined, but that if she’s not happy in that future, then it’s not a dream he wants. Ji-yeon sobs that he’s in the future she dreamed too, but he just tells her that she was beautiful today and thanks her for wearing the dress for him. Back at her home, Ji-yeon sits in shock, then begins to cry giant, gasping sobs.

The next day, Dong-ha shows up at his new apartment to find a strange man already there, claiming to be the new tenant. The landlord tells Dong-ha that since he was late signing the lease, he rented the place to someone else. The other guy refuses to leave and Dong-ha is forced to head back to Soo-chul’s apartment.

Soo-chul is there pouting at Dong-ha’s suitcase, but perks up when he hears that Dong-ha lost the apartment. He says it’s Heaven telling Dong-ha to stay, calling him a coward since he knows he’s only leaving because Ji-yeon is getting married. Soo-chul insists that Dong-ha stay, and Dong-ha caves in the face of the childish nagging. Hooray!

The next day, Ji-yeon doesn’t show up for work or answer her phone, which gets the whole team worried and speculating over her whereabouts. They assume she’s gone on a lover’s retreat with Shi-hoon, but Director Kwon says that she’s never been gone from work a single day and orders them to find her.

Young-sik calls Dong-ha who’s out running errands, but the news that Ji-yeon didn’t show up for work worries him and he races home. He rings her doorbell and calls her name, and inside the house a very sick-looking Ji-yeon can’t even muster the energy to get out of bed to answer the door.

Dong-ha lets himself in and finds her barely holding herself up against a wall, and when she sees him she slumps to the floor. He gets her back in bed and wonders to himself why she’s all alone like this with no Polar Bear to take care of her.

He nurses her while she sleeps, and when she wakes up she asks weakly why he’s here. She asks why he keeps showing up in her dreams (interesting) and he says it’s not a dream, telling her to go to the hospital or at least call someone when she’s sick like this.

Dong-ha stares at her intently, saying that he’s curious about two things but will only ask about one, and asks if he really shows up in her dreams. His face is so guardedly hopeful, it kills me. Ji-yeon denies it, but she can’t look him in the eye when she tells the lie.

Right then Ji-yeon’s mom lets herself in and Dong-ha goes to greet her. He tells her that Ji-yeon is very sick, and she goes rushing to see her daughter. Ji-yeon manages to sit up but still looks terrible, and Mom asks if she’s exhausted from wedding planning. Ji-yeon says in a tiny voice, “Mom. We’re not getting married.”

Outside the door, Dong-ha hears this and skids to a stop mid-step. A strange look crosses his face, and he leaves in a hurry. Mom asks Ji-yeon what happened and she takes the blame, saying it was her fault. She stammers that her heart has changed, and starts to cry.

Mom goes to see Shi-hoon, who looks pretty terrible himself. He apologizes for not going to see her himself, but he was too ashamed. Mom tells him that she always thought of him as a son, not a son-in-law, and that’s why she was so angry with him. He says that he knows, and she hugs him goodbye.

Ji-yeon goes to work the next day and deflects everyone’s attempts to show concern. (Random side note: does Rin-ji only own that one red skirt?) At the staff meeting, Team Leader Byul proposes an interesting story, one about a ghost that supposedly haunts One Light Hospital’s emergency room. Director Kwon remembers a story about a patient who died after being transferred because there was no doctor to treat them.

The Trouble Maker has already covered this story in the past, but Team Leader Byul claims to have new information from someone in the hospital’s housekeeping department. A familiar foxy look comes over Ji-yeon’s face as she challenges his information-gathering methods, and it’s enough to get Director Kwon to assign the story to her instead.

Ji-yeon assigns jobs relating to the hospital to each of her team, and it’s clear that the Witch is back! She’s fiery and bossy and takes no backtalk from her assistants. It’s great seeing her in her element again, strong and capable and in charge.

Soo-chul and Dong-ha check their website for errand requests, and find an errand specifically requesting Dong-ha, who frowns when he sees the address. It’s Shi-hoon’s address, and Dong-ha goes but he looks decidedly unhappy to be there. He says that a delivery service would have been faster, but Shi-hoon says that he particularly wanted Dong-ha.

Shi-hoon asks why he came if he didn’t want to do the job, and Dong-ha says it’s because he was curious about the errand. Shi-hoon hands him Ji-yeon’s wedding shoes, asking him to deliver them to her.

Dong-ha asks if it’s just a delivery, and Shi-hoon asks him to tell Ji-yeon that there’s no need to be sorry. He wants her to know that he was the one who was too late, but looks Dong-ha in the eye as he says that it’s not too late for Ji-yeon. It almost feels like he’s giving Dong-ha his blessing. Dong-ha sees Shi-hoon’s passport and a plane ticket on the table, and he turns to leave without a word.

Soo-chul shows up at the Trouble Maker office to deliver juice that Rin-ji ordered. Rin-ji gives him one of the juices, flirting as hard as she can, and I swear if she flips her hair one more time she’s going to wrench her neck.

Soo-chul smoothly says he can’t drink sour things and gives the juice to Eun-chae. Rin-ji tries one more time and asks what Soo-chul is doing that night, but he says that he has to walk his “sister” home, shooting meaningful glances at Eun-chae (whose bland expression is hilarious). He leaves, and Rin-ji snatches her juice right out of Eun-chae’s mouth, HA.

Ji-yeon breaks the news of her canceled wedding to Na-rae and Min-goo that night. Na-rae has clearly entered the weepy stage of her pregnancy as she blames herself, wailing that it’s because she made Ji-yeon miss her photo shoot.

Ji-yeon assures Na-rae it’s not her fault, and reminds her that she was the one who urged Ji-yeon to discover who was in her heart. Na-rae whines that Dong-ha must be in her heart, and breaks down again.

Min-goo asks how things are going with Dong-ha, and Na-rae completely switches off the tears and says matter-of-factly that it’s too soon for Ji-yeon to turn to him yet. Ji-yeon says that Dong-ha needs to live his life, which sends Na-rae into another round of tears. Ji-yeon hightails it out of range of the Crazy.

Dong-ha shuffles home, wondering to himself what Shi-hoon meant when he said it wasn’t too late for Ji-yeon and wondering what’s in the bag he’s delivering to her. He’s all business as he makes the delivery, but his voice softens as he passes on Shi-hoon’s message to Ji-yeon. Dong-ha asks if something happened between them, but Ji-yeon just says they had a fight, not knowing that Dong-ha already knows about the broken engagement.

At work the next day, Jae-woong tells Ji-yeon that he found a case from three years ago at the One Light Hospital that’s similar to the current scandal there. A girl with heart disease went to the ER, but died before having surgery. Oh no, it was Young-chae, wasn’t it? He says that her mother refuses to give any interviews about the incident.

Meanwhile Dong-ha and Soo-chul head to the hospital on a work errand to deliver flowers and a gift to a girl from her friends, and don’t they look handsome in their suits! Turns out the “self-defense oppas” are the gift, and they pose for selcas with the girl.

On their way out, they see a small but loud protest in progress, one man screaming about the hospital not having enough doctors to treat patients and having to turn ill people away. A car pulls up, and Soo-chul stops the driver from letting the passenger out while Dong-ha slides into the backseat — it’s his father.

Dong-ha tells his father that he saw the news, but Dad denies the accusations, saying he’s always kept to his principles. He starts to get out of the car and Dong-ha stops him with a hand on his arm, the contact making them both aware of the tension between them. Dad says he has nothing to hide and steps out, right into a small storm of protesters and reporters.

Ji-yeon calls Eun-chae’s mother and begins to ask questions about something that happened at One Light Hospital three years ago, but Eun-chae’s mom refuses to discuss it and hangs up.

Ji-yeon’s mom and Director Kwon go on the cutest date ever at the fishcake restaurant. Kwon solicitously sets up Mom’s utensils and pours her drink, but he notices that something is bothering her. He guesses it must be about Ji-yeon and praises her, which is just the perfect way to a mother’s heart. He also impresses Mom with his knowledge of cooking, and in their enthusiasm they end up nose-to-nose, both thinking, “This man/woman is perfect.”

Na-rae calls Ji-yeon to tell her about her mom and her boss on a date, and Ji-yeon is predictably horrified. Na-rae also asks Ji-yeon if she can borrow some books, and as she’s looking through her bookshelf she sees some wedding books and a wedding planner that she didn’t know were there. Na-rae tells her that Shi-hoon left them there for her since she was too busy for wedding planning.

Ji-yeon pulls out the wedding magazine and her mouth starts to quiver, and she drops it to the floor. She takes out the book that Dong-ha left for her and turns to the page where he wrote “Would you stay with me?” She remembers the message that Dong-ha delivered from Shi-hoon that it’s not too late for her, and clutches the book to her stomach while crying Shi-hoon’s name. It feels like she’s finally letting go of him.

Soo-chul and Dong-ha share chicken and beer to celebrate a rise in business for Master of Part-Time. Dong-ha pontificates that it was the change in CEO that caused the sales to increase, and Soo-chul threatens to call a board meeting. These two are so cute.

Soo-chul comments that considering all the drama with his dad’s hospital and with Ji-yeon, Dong-ha’s doing better than he expected. Dong-ha drops the bomb that Ji-yeon isn’t marrying Shi-hoon, and Soo-chul’s jaw drops. He pulls the cutest aegyo face and says that Dong-ha must not be moving out now, then pouts when Dong-ha continues to insist that he’s overstayed his welcome. Sweetie, when the guy who owns the place is literally begging you to stay, you haven’t overstayed your welcome!

Dong-ha goes to the Love You House the next day to bring some money, and Ji-yeon is there trying to speak with Eun-chae’s mother in person this time. She’s kind and gentle with her questions, but Eun-chae’s mom denies any wrongdoing by the hospital. She begs Ji-yeon not to dig up old incident that hurt so many people — but Ji-yeon wonders how, if nothing wrong happened, “so many people” got hurt. Eun-chae’s mom simply leaves.

Ji-yeon turns to go and sees Dong-ha leaving at the same time. He gives her a ride back to the Trouble Maker office and jokes that they’re probably not doing very well without him. He asks what she’s doing after work, saying that he wants the farewell party she offered him. Her face falls to hear he’s still moving and she says today is not a good day. He grumbles that he knows she’s just pretending to be busy, and leaves.

In the office, the whole Trouble Maker team is planning a wedding shower for Ji-yeon. When she walks in they scatter, and she knows something is up but Young-sik expertly turns her attention to the hospital story.

He shows her some pictures he got of the protesters, then says he got one shot that’s strange. He has another photo from an angle that shows Dong-ha sitting in the hospital director’s car. Young-sik wonders out loud what connection Dong-ha has to the hospital director, then realizes that they share the same family name.

In a stroke of luck, the Trouble Maker team called Master of Part-Time to help set up the wedding shower, so Soo-chul lets Dong-ha know that disaster is eminent. He says that he turned the job down and switches a job with Dong-ha so that he can go head off Ji-yeon.

At the office, Young-sik is doing a terrible job of being subtle as he throws out every reason he can think of for Ji-yeon to come back to the office that evening. She’s definitely suspicious, saying that he usually never works this hard.

After she leaves, the crew pull out supplies and decorate the office, complete with huge poster of Ji-yeon and Shi-hoon made up to look like a magazine cover with cutesy fake articles. (Random Side Note Follow-Up: Rin-ji totally only owns that one red skirt.)

Meanwhile Ji-yeon meets her detective friend at a cafe, where he delivers records from a car accident from three years ago. He wonders why she’s so curious, since there was nothing unusual about it. He describes the accident as a car hitting a bus from behind, but only the car driver was seriously injured.

Later though, a passenger from the bus was having seizures, and she was taken to One Light Hospital where she died. There was some disagreement over whether the passenger died from her chronic condition or whether the bus accident caused her death. A specialist determined that her illness was the ultimate cause of death and the driver of the car avoided criminal charges.

Ji-yeon reads in the report that the passenger who died was Jung Young-chae. Finally we know how she died. She reads on that the name of the person who called 119 when she seized was Dong-ha. As I don’t remember her ever hearing the name of Dong-ha’s lost love, this must be quite a shock.

Ji-yeon walks back to the office, putting the pieces together of what happened three years ago. Young-chae, the girl who died after the accident, was Dong-ha’s girlfriend. When she went to the hospital in distress, the doctor in charge was performing surgery on the driver of the car that caused the accident. She wonders if the doctor in charge was Yoon Se-joon, Dong-ha’s father. That would certainly explain…well, pretty much everything.

She arrives at the office with Dong-ha just a few steps behind her but manages to get in the elevator before he reaches her. Young-sik and the office crew all hide in the dark, waiting to jump out and surprise her. When they do, she just glares and asks what’s going on. She lectures them on wasting time at work and spending money on useless things, getting more and more worked up and angry.

Team Leader Byun gets angry back at her and soon they’re shouting in each other’s faces. She drops the bomb that she’s not getting married and Byun shouts that of course she’s not because nobody would marry the Witch. Ji-yeon has had it up to here and pops him a good one right in the nose. Good for her — he’s been asking for that for thirteen episodes!

But it’s all just in Dong-ha’s head as he imagines the worst if he doesn’t reach Ji-yeon before she gets to the office. He runs up the stairs and manages to intercept Ji-yeon in the hallway just in time, telling her that the “meeting” is a lie and dragging her out with him. This leaves the Trouble Maker crew huddled in the dark complaining about cramping and needing to pee, HA.

Dong-ha hauls Ji-yeon out of there practically kicking and screaming, but he just shushes her and tells her to get on the scooter with him. He takes her to a playground and finally explains that her colleagues were planning a wedding shower for her and that it’s better she not go since she’s not getting married. Ji-yeon asks how he knows that and he fesses up that he heard her tell her mother.

They sit on the swings and Ji-yeon wonders how they could be throwing her a party when not long ago they were hiring part-timers to publicly humiliate her. She demands to know why Dong-ha brought her here since it would have been better to get the embarrassment out all at once. Dong-ha chides her for pretending to be so strong and for getting sick and not asking for help.

Dong-ha says that he’s curious about two things but he’ll only ask her one, echoing his words from when he nursed Ji-yeon back to health. He deadpans, “Are you hungry?” and makes Ji-yeon laugh. They banter about nothing as they walk home, their old familiarity back.

Dong-ha carries a box into her place for her and she goes to the kitchen for juice. He heads to the bookshelf to see if she’s seen his book yet and finds it in the same spot where he left it. He opens it to the page where he wrote “Would you stay with me?” and is shocked to see the note she has written under it, stained with her teardrop: “I’m sorry… for being too late…”

When Ji-yeon comes back in the room, Dong-ha hides the book behind his back, but then gathers up his courage and places it on the table in front of her. She says they’ll talk about it later and starts to get up but he stops her and says again, “There’s something I’m curious about. By any chance, it it because of me? The reason you and [Shi-hoon] broke up?” The pleading in his voice for her to say Yes is killing me.

Ji-yeon can’t look at him as she lies that it’s not because of him, and turns to walk away. Dong-ha takes her arm and spins her back to him, pulling her into a hug. “I’m not a fool — it’s not too late for us,” he says. They pull apart just enough to look deeply into each other’s eyes.

 
COMMENTS

What? How can you stop there??? It’s not fair! There’s going to be a kiss, right? Right?!?! Okay I guess I’m not getting a kiss today. Show is a tease.

A lot happened in this episode and all of it for the better. I feel like Ji-yeon got to grieve for her broken engagement appropriately, instead of just rushing out of one relationship and into another, which was my fear when we were getting so close to the end with them still planning on getting hitched. But it feels like she’s closed that chapter and is ready to get on with her life again, both personally and professionally. I literally cheered when she gave Byul that little sneer in the staff meeting, because we hadn’t seen that side of Ji-yeon since Polar Bear showed up again, and I missed her! I much prefer the snarky, sly, kickass Ji-yeon who will throw anyone under the bus to get the story, even her own teammates.

At first I thought that Shi-hoon hiring Dong-ha to return Ji-yeon’s wedding shoes was another passive-aggressive asshat move on his part, but I think in reflection that he was actually doing a very difficult thing. This show leaves a lot of the characters’ motivations for us to interpret on our own, which can be frustrating (such as not making it clear why Ji-yeon let Shi-hoon get away with six years of no-contact) but also lets us assign our own conclusions to the characters’ actions as we understand them. My interpretation of Shi-hoon’s motive in that moment is that he was letting Dong-ha and Ji-yeon know that he had no hard feelings, and was giving his blessing to them should they choose to be together. His message that it’s not too late for Ji-yeon was pretty clear to me: Be happy with the man who loves you and who you love in return. I think Shi-hoon knew that Dong-ha loves Ji-yeon much more than he does, considering that he didn’t even really know her but loved a memory of her. And that memory wasn’t even the real Ji-yeon either, because even she admitted she was always doing “image management” when she was with him.

What Dong-ha and Ji-yeon have is so much more real and honest than what she has with Shi-hoon. It’s interesting to me how their age difference has ceased to be an issue at all, because it’s so obvious that they’re made for each other. They truly know and understand each other and don’t try to be someone they aren’t. They’ve seen each other at their drunken worst, their angry worst, their sick worst, and it only brings them closer together. Best of all, they always tell each other the truth even if it’s difficult to say and hear, and that level of trust is truly rare. There’s only one thing left that they need to do to become a true couple, and I trust that that’s coming soon. Very soon. Right, Show? Can we stop withholding the kisses now?

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