Youths Over Flowers: Episode 9

by girlfriday

girlfriday: This episode begins with an ominous tone, introducing each of the boys as “informants,” which must be a meta reference to Yeon-seok’s latest movie.

javabeans: Oh right, we pick up after that night out at the club—and from their reactions (“He said that? I told him not to tell”), I hope we’re in for some juicy stories.

girlfriday: Yes, they are youths after all. We go back to the bar in the middle of their kayaking trip, where “the incident” began, starting with the invitation that Yeon-seok gets to a party later that night.

javabeans: I love that they head to a store to spend some of their precious allowance money on hair products. Because while it’s totally fine to look disheveled for all of Korea, heaven forbid they not try their best for a few pretty girls.

girlfriday: I know, that cracks me up. We watch them dance around the room while getting ready, and then they toss their guidebook aside to head out for the night.

javabeans: It’s great that these boys are thrown by the reality-variety divide, because we don’t see what happens in the 2.5 hours that they’re out at the club, and when they’re back in interview mode, they’re unsure how much they ought to reveal. I fully expect the PD to use the ole “He already told me, so you may as well talk” line that you see in those cop movies, where it’s just a trick to get you to spill.

girlfriday: Totally. And we already know they’re quite susceptible to being guilted into things, so I predict they’ll cave in no time. We start with PD Shin the next morning, as he goes to wake up the boys. He coaxes Yeon-seok out of the room, which seems odd, but then we see why: He’s wearing nothing but a towel, and has to come out of the room to get their clothes.

javabeans: They’re checking out today and have to get packing, but they’ve accumulated more stuff than they can hold. The mood turns uneasy as Yeon-seok rifles around the trash can, lined with a plastic bag. Eep! You hear him shaking it out, then flipping it inside-out to use for their stuff, which is both smart and a little gross. Which may end up being a theme of this trip.

girlfriday: They check out and buy bus tickets for later that day, but they have a lot of time so they wander around looking for food, and pretty much die of happiness over a few sandwiches.

javabeans: And for good reason. I’m eating, and it’s making me hungry. Every time they eat something tasty, they say, “These would be really popular in Korea…”

girlfriday: Suddenly after lunch, Ho-joon busts out some BB cream, and somehow it goes from bad to worse when he tries to cover up his face and turns into a pancaked ghost instead.

javabeans: It’s awesome. He borrowed the BB cream from the writer, and her complexion must be way fairer than his, and now he looks like something out of Kabuki theater.

girlfriday: I thought they had given up on makeup by this point. Ha, after all that, he ends up having to take it all off.

javabeans: They decide to rent some buggy cars today and set off cruising. This looks like so much fun. It’s cute how Yeon-seok is in the driver’s seat (metaphorically and literally) and Ho-joon just tags along. I know the show has dubbed them a mommy-daddy pair, but in my mind it’s more like Yeon-seok is the mommy and Baro and Ho-joon are the kids, because he takes care of them and they do nothing, haha.

girlfriday: We see his mommy side come out again when they have to stop because it’s raining, and he makes sure that everyone puts on ponchos. It seems like a bad idea to go back to the lagoon on a day like this, but that’s where they’re headed.

javabeans: They swap seats a few times as they make the drive up, zooming through a bunch of muddy puddles, and you can see the camera lenses getting progressively dirtier. Yeon-seok says that being splattered in mud was fun—I guess once you give up any attempt to stay clean, it’s fun to wallow.

girlfriday: It does look really fun, mud and all.

javabeans: I think the rain and mud make things more fun, strangely. Baro interviews about the drive, and all he can say is “I think I’d come back just because I missed this.”

girlfriday: And then the best part is that after being doused in mud, they get to jump into the lagoon. Well, except for Ho-joon, who stands at the edge watching the other boys use the swing and not moving.

javabeans: After being ribbed by the PDs a bit, he tries getting up on the swing with an inner tube around his waist (I don’t think he can swim), but that’s awkward and cumbersome… so instead, the boys place the tube in the water and then he swings into it. Which, by the way, is waaaay cooler anyway!

girlfriday: This is random, but did you die laughing at the other ajusshi who got on the swing but wouldn’t let go for like five rotations?

javabeans: I’m dying laughing because Baro was cracking up at him, but when it’s his turn he does the same thing, swinging back and forth because he missed his chance to jump. Then Yeon-seok climbs up onto that super-high branch and makes a monster jump, enough to worry the producers, who check on him. He’s in the water with Ho-joon and the captions note that he looks uncomfortable. I’m so cracking up in anticipation for the reveal.

girlfriday: Hee. So they just float along in the tube for a long while, and then later in an interview, Ho-joon says that Yeon-seokie didn’t wear any underwear this morning… and then of course that monster jump into the lagoon split his pants. So then Ho-joon offers Yeon-seok his underwear (LOL, I’m dying) and they start to swim to shore to go take care of their pants-swapping.

javabeans: Omg. I love this quote: “I don’t have a lot of friends who would take off their underwear to give to me… wait, that sounds funny.” Meanwhile, Ho-joon is just beaming at the idea of being able to do something for Yeon-seok, who has spent the trip taking care of him.

girlfriday: It’s simultaneously hysterical and touching. They really do have the cutest real-life bromance.

javabeans: Afterward, Baro asks if they can stay another day here, but Yeon-seok points out that all they’ve done here is play in the water, drive buggies, “and drink at a club and talk to girls!” Whoopsy, somebody spilled a little more than he meant to. At that, Ho-joon jumps in to embarrass Yeon-seok, tattling on how he was hilariously drunk and offering to buy girls drinks. Ho-joon: “This is the guy who kept trying to get discounts on everything!”

girlfriday: Haha, once he starts, the staff just has to prod him a little for Ho-joon to start spilling the beans about how Yeon-seok does this all the time, and he actually gets hit for that.

javabeans: Yes, there’s a difference between spilling what he did last night on the show, and spilling how he is in his personal life. So Ho-joon just leaves it at that, while the chyrons tell us that the producers were too curious to leave it that and had to ask Yeon-seok again later. Lol, Yeon-seok is good at damage control. He says in this earnestly sheepish way that he only bought a girl one drink, and it was because she was the one who’d given them directions earlier and he was grateful to recognize someone at the club.

girlfriday: And then back at the lagoon, Ho-joon says the girls invited them to another party the next night and egged them on to stay another day, and that Yeon-seok totally considered it and asked them what they should do. Yeon-seok dies of embarrassment, but behind them, Baro is all, “But can’t we stay another day?” Amidst giggles, Yeon-seok declares, “Vang Vieng is heaven!”

javabeans: After the water play, they drive back to the city and literally hose off, ha.

girlfriday: There’s still some time before they have to leave, so they grab a room for a few hours just to shower and rest. Meanwhile, a torrential downpour begins outside.

javabeans: Yikes, it looks pretty fierce outside, and they have an all-night bus ride coming up. They stop for a quick dinner, which Yeon-seok orders in English, and Baro chimes in in this hilarious way at the end of every sentence as though he totally could have done the ordering too.

girlfriday: It’s such a little brother thing to do. They talk about how much fun they had over a few beers, as we watch highlights from the past few days.

javabeans: Ha, you know they’re feeling tipsy and sentimental when they start saying how it feels like Vang Vieng is crying to signal their departure from it. They make their way to the bus station and watch the sky light up with big flashes of lightning, and Ho-joon half-jokes that it’s like they’re being warned not to go to that jungle party tonight. For their own good!

girlfriday: Fate’s a spoilsport like that. Apparently, part of the crew began the drive on their own, and ran into car trouble on the winding mountain road in the rain. The rest of the staff start to worry about the bus, and whether it’s safe to travel tonight.

javabeans: The staff proposes that they stay here for the night, and Ho-joon and Baro both look to Yeon-seok for permission, and Ho-joon realizes this and starts cracking up.

girlfriday: It’s a really funny moment because they both do it so naturally at the same time, because duh, Yeon-seok makes the decisions.

javabeans: Yeon-seok can’t even keep up the straight face as he says, “Then I suppose we have no choice… but to go to the jungle party.” Ho-joon and Baro jump right in: “We really don’t have a choice.”

girlfriday: HA. I guess heaven’s on their side after all.

javabeans: They decide to find lodgings first, but Baro just stands there blankly (“Guy With No Thoughts No. 1”) while Ho-joon fiddles with his phone (“Guy With No Thoughts No. 2”). The camera peers around his shoulder to show him playing Anipang, ha.

girlfriday: So Yeon-seok finds a room, and when they go to check it out, it’s the nicest place they’ve seen on this whole trip. They talk over how they’re going to ask for a discount, and when Yeon-seok insists that it’s pricey for them, Ho-joon starts teasing again about how once he gets a drink in him, he’ll be slurring, “Let’s buy them a drink!”

javabeans: I feel like Ho-joon’s mocking of Yeon-seok’s drink-buying is going to become a thing with them, in real life.

girlfriday: Baro: “Hyungs, don’t fight!” They get the room for a good price, and I love that Mommy Yeon-seok’s favorite thing about it is the fridge, even though they point out they have nothing to put inside. Then talk turns to whether or not to go on to Luang Prabang tomorrow as planned. Baro is content to stay in Vang Vieng (possibly forever), and seems reluctant to leave in case the rest of the trip isn’t as fulfilling as the first part. It’s a curious thing to worry about, but he feels pretty strongly about it.

javabeans: I can see his reasoning, like this has been so perfect a trip that he wants to go home with the memory of it untainted by disappointment, even though he notes that Luang Prabang could add to his enjoyment too. Ho-joon says he doesn’t have an opinion either way, but the show reminds us in clips that he’d wanted to see the waterfalls there. He interviews that he’s content to just go along, and doesn’t have huge expectations for what to do or see.

girlfriday: We see that he’s mostly just thrilled to be on the first trip of his entire life, and he says that he knew he wasn’t going to be of much help, so he figured his best would be to not become a burden. To that end, he sort of quietly took up laundry duty for the whole trip, and spent every night washing all their clothes. Aw.

javabeans: Aw, and then he shares the story that if it weren’t for (U-Know) Yunho, he’d have starved to death by now. Once in his penniless days, he’d been crashing with Yunho, who had to go to Japan for three months. And knowing Ho-joon was broke, Yunho bought him boxes and boxes of ramyun and instant rice, to last him until he got back. I didn’t even know they were friends!

girlfriday: Omg that’s so sweet and sad and cute.

javabeans: The Yunho you see from variety shows is so different from the Yunho you see in dramas—he just seems like this really nice, hardworking guy. Anyway, the reason this story ties in is because the writer asks about his ambition, because Ho-joon is so nice that it doesn’t seem like he’s as greedy for success as other actors. Ho-joon says that he has exactly one reason he wants to succeed, and it’s because when he’s given things, he has to repay them. “I’ve received so much that if I were to repay it all, I have to succeed more than I have so far.”

girlfriday: They ask Baro about his goals, and he’s surprisingly mature about his future — he says that he’s in a field where he doesn’t know if he’ll be around in a few years, and that he knows popularity is fleeting. Because he has to take care of his family, his main goal right now is just to provide for them and buy a house.

javabeans: I like that he acknowledges that of course there are things he wants to buy himself too, but that he decided what his priorities were because he can’t know his own future.

girlfriday: Yeon-seok says the first time he was able to give his parents money was after Answer Me, when his bank account went into the black for the first time ever.

javabeans: Oh no, he gets teary-eyed talking about his mother, and you know that’s just going to make YOU teary-eyed to hear it. He says that once he’d seen the notice of a meal purchase that was roughly $7. Because his mother’s extremely frugal (which explains where he got it from), she always ordered the $5 instead of the $7 dish she really wanted. But his mom said that she used the card he gave her to eat what she wanted for the first time.

girlfriday: Great, now I have to call my mother.

javabeans: And apologize for being selfish without even knowing it. I mean, I AM selfish, but usually I know why! I feel like I have to eat instant food for a month in penance or something.

girlfriday: Suddenly I feel like a terrible daughter for not giving my mom a credit card. Though the difference would be, my mom wouldn’t be buying $7 meals.

javabeans: And my mom would just laugh at me for being cute when my credit limit would be a fraction of hers. Can I just buy Yeon-seokie’s mom meals?

girlfriday: “Thank you for Yeon-seokie.”

javabeans: Pretty much. Also, “I’ll take good care of him!”

girlfriday: WE. WE will take good care of him! I thought we just had a conversation about being selfish.

javabeans: Yes, but I’m okay with it when it’s intentional.

girlfriday: In the morning, they decide to take the bus to Luang Prabang, and judging from the quick flash-forwards, it’ll be worth the journey. The bus ride is long and bumpy, and Yeon-seok nearly cries to discover that he can’t get a signal on his phone to look up hostels.

javabeans: Isn’t it hilarious how Baro and Ho-joon are completely unworried? Of course they’re not, because Yeon-seok is always the one who handles it.

girlfriday: It’s entertaining how completely different they are — Yeon-seok worries about everything, to the point that he over-prepares for every occasion, while the other guys are like, “What’s there to worry about?” So of course they sleep, while Yeon-seok reads his guidebook and stares at his phone the whole way.

javabeans: When they arrive, they go hostel-hopping. In the past they’ve been pretty lucky with getting a room right away, but it takes them a while until Yeon-seok happens upon this really nice, spacious room and finagles a discount on top of it. It’s funny to see Yeon-seok getting increasingly stressed out and then suddenly breaking into smiles once the room is theirs.

girlfriday: I was feeling stressed, because it’s entirely on his shoulders to make the decision, and the other guys are growing more tired by the minute, while he seems like he’s searching for something perfect.

javabeans: I did wonder why Yeon-seok seemed pickier today, but he says that it’s their last night and he wanted to make sure they wouldn’t be disappointed.

girlfriday: Once they get the room, he collapses on the bed, and we see that he’s covered in sweat like he just ran some torturous hostel marathon.

javabeans: He interviews that he really wanted to make their memories even better. It’s not his responsibility to make the trip extra-awesome, but I suppose he wants to do the best with what he can do. And we see a montage of the places they’ve stayed at, which keep getting better as they go, which adds to their expectations.

girlfriday: Yeon-seok says that worrying about that stuff makes him happy, because he feels great when the guys are happy about stuff that he’s planned, whether it’s a trip destination or a room.

javabeans: And then…. the tone turns ominous and the show wonders how on earth they could be upgrading their rooms when their allowance is so stingy. The PD points this out in interview, and then Yeon-seok just starts laughing.

girlfriday: LOL, has he been sneak-spending his own money this whole time?

javabeans: He shows the crew the awesome river view they have, which prompts the question of how much it cost. And instead of answering, he hems and haws and answers in dollars. Asked on the bus ride about it, he says evasively, “There’s one secret, but I’ll tell you tomorrow night.”

girlfriday: I thought Na PD cleaned out their wallets before they got on the plane. Does he keep money in his underwear or something?

javabeans: I don’t know if that’s the better image, or the reminder that Yeon-seokie sometimes goes commando. In any case, desperate times call for desperate measures…

 
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