Heart to Heart: Episode 12

by LollyPip

Love is a very healing thing, and its effects are evident as we start to see exactly how far Hong-do has come. She never wears her helmet anymore, she’s able to talk to new people in stressful situations and look them in the eye, and she’s even dressing better. But just when it looks like Hong-do and Yi-seok can relax and be happy together, a secret from both their pasts surfaces to threaten everything.

EPISODE 12 RECAP

Two little boys plan their hide-and-go-seek strategy, while a girl several years their junior (whom one of the boys addresses as Young-ji) counts against a tree. The boys hide in a shed in a field of dry grass, and Young-ji finishes counting and starts searching for them.

She’s distracted by a box of matches in the grass, and lights one out of curiosity, then another. Before she knows it, she’s dropped a match and can only watch helplessly as the fire races towards the shed where the boys are hiding.

Hong-do and Yi-seok sit to dinner at his place, but are interrupted by a call from the chairman. He angrily orders Yi-seok home, but when Yi-seok hangs up he just calmly tells Hong-do that his grandfather is a bit upset from losing Madam Oh. He tells her to eat alone and runs out, making Hong-do suspicious.

Butler Ahn and Chairman Go look over Madam Oh’s resume, only now catching some discrepancies they missed before. Apparently the housekeeper (whose name is Geum-shim) vouched for her, since Madam Oh is well-known as a great employee in her circle.

The chairman concludes that she’s really a con-artist and a golddigger, and tells Butler Ahn that she’s really the same young woman who they saw kissing Yi-seok in his office. Yeah, it does look bad, when you say it that way. When Yi-seok arrives, Butler Ahn manages to intercept him before he goes upstairs and sits him down to talk.

He tells Yi-seok that the chairman knows that it was Hong-do dressing as Madam Oh, and impresses upon him the seriousness of the situation. He tells him how hard it is for his grandfather to know that the woman he wanted to spend his twilight years with is really his grandson’s girlfriend.

Yi-seok apologizes to the chairman and tells him that he didn’t mean to deceive him, and explains Hong-do’s phobia and her reasoning for dressing in disguise. He says that he told her to tell the truth once he found out, but that he also understands why she did it.

The chairman allows that even he thought it was strange that an older woman was so good at typing and using smartphones, but that was why he liked her so much. Yi-seok says that he feels bad for stealing one of his grandfather’s friends, which is so sweet. He throws in a little aegyo and says he should send Hong-do to jail for tricking them. It works, and the chairman waves him off saying he doesn’t like him right now. Hee.

The next day, Se-ro goes to Doo-soo’s place dressed as a policewoman and throws pebbles at his window until he comes out. He thanks her for bringing him home the other night, and she asks haltingly if he remembers hugging Hong-do. He doesn’t answer and heads to work, but he stops and goes back to adjust her uniform, making her adorably happy.

Housekeeper Geum-shim finds Hong-do’s resume in the chairman’s study, and gets upset that he must be saving it to look at her picture. She’s so upset that by mealtime, even Yi-seok’s mother picks up on it. She slams the chairman’s plates down in front of him, and when he complains about the food, she blows up at him and quits on the spot. HA, his face is priceless.

I thought Se-ro said she had already been cast as a police officer, but apparently she’s still only auditioning, and she’s already been turned down twice before. She goes for her third try and the producer says wearily that they’re not looking for female officers, but Se-ro begs for one last chance. They let her, and she totally nails it, to the point that they change the role to a woman on the spot.

Housekeeper Geum-shim stomps into the chairman’s library with her suitcases, determined to have her say. She rants that he can’t treat her this way, sounding like a crazy person and getting the serious side-eye from the chairman, who has no earthly clue what she’s upset about. She finally blurts that she loves him, but leaves before he can formulate a response.

Butler Ahn gets a call confirming that the real Oh Young-rae is dead, but something is strange… for a period of time, her address was the same as the chairman’s. His memory is stirred and Butler Ahn goes through some old photos, and finds a photo of Yi-seok and Il-seok — and Ahn is in the picture too, holding a small girl.

Yi-seok finds Hong-do at the clinic and assures her that his grandfather isn’t too angry with her, or he’d have summoned her too. His mother shows up before he can say more, and he starts to introduce Hong-do but she actually speaks up and introduces herself. Yi-seok says shyly that this is his girlfriend, and pushes a surprised Hong-do into a bow. Hee.

Doo-soo and Yang hear sounds of a struggle inside a suspect’s home, and Doo-soo is standing too close to the door when the suspect bursts out. He body-slams Yang and throws Doo-soo down the stairs, and escapes. Yang tries to wake Doo-soo, but he’s been knocked unconscious.

Yi-seok takes his mother and Hong-do to eat, and Mom asks gently why Hong-do’s face is so red. Ha, she even tells Yi-seok he’s being mean when he pokes Hong-do’s cheek and says it’s cute, and Hong-do is all, “It’s fine, I’m used to it.” Poor guy, the ladies in his life have barely met and they’re already ganging up on him. Instead of running and hiding, Hong-do actually makes eye contact with Mom and explains her condition, and Yi-seok says with pride that she’s working hard to overcome it.

Se-ro rushes to see the still-unconscious Doo-soo in the hospital, and Yang assures her he’s only got a bump on the head and a twisted ankle. She talks to Doo-soo as if he’s awake, telling him she got the part. She waves away Yang and stays to watch over Doo-soo while he sleeps.

After much prodding, Butler Ahn shares what he’s found with Chairman Go, and they put the clues together about Hong-do. Apparently Hong-do’s grandmother once worked for the chairman’s family, and they realize that Hong-do is that granddaughter they remember all those years ago. But Ahn says he believes Yi-seok’s version of recent events, that it’s just a coincidence that Hong-do met Yi-seok and started working for their family recently.

Yi-seok’s mom is understandably concerned about his dating Hong-do, since she’s clearly still got issues. She asks why he likes her so much, and he just says he doesn’t know — he just does. That’s all Mom needs to hear, and she says that if he’s happy, she’s happy. Okay, I officially love Mom.

Se-ro makes Doo-soo’s hospital bed more comfy, bringing him scented candles and a nice blanket. He wakes up and tells her to go, but he should know by now it’s not that easy, and instead she settles in for the night. Their power play is hilariously illustrated with the blanket, as Doo-soo pushes it off and Se-ro puts it back over him, over and over as they argue.

He tells her she just has a momentary crush, but Se-ro counters that she knows her own heart, thank-you-very-much-sir. She tells him to sleep, threatening to kiss him if he doesn’t obey and giving him a hilarious seductive look. Oh Doo-soo, you poor man — you are so not calling the shots right now. Or maybe ever again.

The next morning Yi-seok asks Hong-do what she thought about meeting his mother, and she admits she was nervous but liked his mom. He invites her to meet his family, at his home, but she feels it’s too soon. He tells her the chairman knows about her disguise, and that they should go and ask forgiveness sooner rather than later.

Yi-seok gives Hong-do a gift which turns out to be a necklace from his mother, which proves that she genuinely liked Hong-do. He puts it on her and assures her that his grandfather will, too.

The chairman marvels at the coincidence of Hong-do being back in their lives after all these years. Cryptically, he and Butler Ahn talk about “the situation,” and Ahn says that the granddaughter’s name was changed after they left the house and that she probably doesn’t remember anything. Chairman Go says that she and Yi-seok must be separated, no matter what.

Se-ro texts Doo-soo repeatedly from his favorite kimbap restaurant, and he groans at her tenacity. She texts in rapid succession, pestering him to order something, and he finally responds that he doesn’t want anything. It’s so cute how Se-ro doesn’t see this as rejection, and only gets excited that he answered. She keeps texting and Doo-soo whines, but I heard that laugh. You, sir, are toast.

Housekeeper Geum-shim jogs past the Go home, which is just an excuse to see how they’re doing without her. The chairman comes out while she’s stretching, and she whips off her sunglasses to reveal she’s wearing even more makeup than usual, which is saying something. She takes him to task for using banmal with her since she doesn’t work for him anymore, and breezily tells him about all the traveling she plans to do now.

HAHA, she doesn’t get the response she’s looking for, because the chairman is more annoyed than anything. She fusses over his clothes and he says this is why he doesn’t like her, because she doesn’t know her place. She says that falling for her boss was out of line, but he still shouldn’t treat her this way after twenty years, and jogs off as he wonders how she fit into those tight pants.

Se-ro goes back to Doo-soo’s hospital room with one of every kind of kimbap, but she’s had enough when he continues to complain and tells her again to go away. She slaps her hand over his mouth and orders him to stop saying hurtful things, since all she can do is either wait until he notices her, or her feelings go away.

Se-ro says he should know how that feels, and calls him her sunbae-nim (in unrequited love) as she asks him what she should do. He says that she has to stay too busy to think about the person she likes — but if she still thinks of them, just endure the pain. She hugs him and offers to be his drinking buddy, and Doo-soo just grumbles at her to go practice. Cute.

Yi-seok takes Hong-do shopping for acceptable clothes to wear to officially meet his family (hey, at least she’s finally wearing clothes that fit. She looks good!), and it’s sweet how he asks the store employee to leave them to shop alone since Hong-do is shy. They have an adorable Pretty Woman moment as Yi-seok nixes every outfit she tries on.

Oh no, they didn’t tell the chairman ahead of time that they were coming? That’s a bad decision, and in his surprise he overreacts, ordering Hong-do loudly to leave immediately. Hong-do drops to her knees to apologize and beg forgiveness, but he tells her his resistance isn’t because of her working there in disguise.

The chairman starts throwing insults about her lack of parents or education, and for the first time in a long time, Hong-do’s face blazes bright red. Yi-seok’s mother tries to smooth things over, but the chairman suddenly clutches his chest and starts to collapse.

Yi-seok and Mom are frozen, but Hong-do thinks fast and brings the chairman’s medicine. His attack eases, but the chairman is determined to finish this, and he takes Hong-do’s hand to beg her to leave his grandson.

Yi-seok follows Hong-do as she flees the house, insisting that his grandfather only said those things because he was hurting. Hong-do counters that everything he said about her being a nothing with no education, and with a mental illness on top of it, was all true. Yi-seok tells her not to listen to anyone other than the person who loves and cherishes her more than anyone, and holds her as she cries.

Mom tells Chairman Go that even though she understands his objections to Hong-do based on her lack of qualifications, she’s on Yi-seok’s side, because she wants him to decide for himself who to marry. Because of Hong-do, Yi-seok isn’t struggling or unhappy anymore. She asks him to trust Yi-seok and respect his choice.

Se-ro is a little droopy the next morning, and she asks Yi-seok if he’s certain about his feelings for Hong-do. She says that she asks because Doo-soo is in the hospital and he misses Hong-do, and she thinks it would help if Hong-do visited him. She says she’s jealous and sad, but she doesn’t like seeing him hurting.

Yi-seok tells Hong-do about Doo-soo being in the hospital, then bristles with adorable jealousy when she asks about him. She swears she only likes Yi-seok, and he brightens up to hear it again.

Yang helps Doo-soo pack up all the stuff Se-ro brought, saying that it’s strange that she left all these things but she’s not here to see him discharged. Yi-seok and Hong-do come to see Doo-soo, and they aren’t there ten seconds before Yi-seok is all, “Okay, there you are, let’s go.” HA.

The three of them sit awkwardly on a bench in the hall, and Yi-seok sends Hong-do for coffee. Doo-soo grudgingly admits that Hong-do has gotten a lot better, but Yi-seok says he really came because of Se-ro. He asks if Doo-soo intends to use his sister to get revenge, but Doo-soo flares up and says that people see themselves in others — he doesn’t know about Yi-seok, but normal people just see each other because they like each other. Ooo, burn.

He assures Yi-seok that he’s not interested in Se-ro, but that makes Yi-seok mad too, for messing with his sister’s heart (“Are you a male Candy?” HAHA). He calls Doo-soo the real player, going from Hong-do to Se-ro so quickly, but he’s interrupted by a call from the chairman.

Apparently his grandfather has decided to take matters into his own hands, and has already arranged an acceptable wife for Yi-seok. Yi-seok just sighs and reminds his grandfather that he fell for Hong-do too, as Madam Oh, and that there’s nothing wrong with liking someone for who they are instead of what they do or don’t have. The chairman warns him that they’ll regret it, and snaps at Yi-seok to end things with her now.

Doo-soo is still alone when Hong-do brings the coffee, and they make awkward small talk. Doo-soo jokes that he never used to have trouble filling the silence when she didn’t speak, which only invites more silence. Eventually Hong-do finds Yi-seok outside, and he admits he left them alone to talk.

She asks after his grandfather, saying that she regrets going to see him too soon. Yi-seok tells her it’s her fault he has to go on a marriage date tomorrow, and cutely asks her if he should go meet the woman. She says that hey, he chose her, but he should go ahead and go since she can’t stop him.

Yi-seok expresses his confusion over his grandfather’s objections, since even he liked Hong-do enough to want to marry her as Madam Oh. Yi-seok decides he needs to take drastic action, and warns Hong-do that they can’t waver.

Awww, Yang is a good friend, and he assures Doo-soo that Yi-seok and Hong-do don’t look good together at all and they’ll certainly break up soon. Doo-soo just tells him it’s over with Hong-do and to stop talking about it. Yang hands him a bag of Se-ro’s things and tells him that she’s a lot nicer than he thought.

Se-ro decides to cut her hair short since she’s way too cute to be taken seriously by a man, but a text from Doo-soo asking where to send her things has her running out to meet him at the station instead. He offers to buy her coffee, and she turns down the expensive coffee shop stuff in favor of cheap vending machine coffee… which she wants him to buy her every day. He runs off a couple of colleagues when they flirt with Se-ro a bit too much. Se-ro offers to wear skimpy clothes more often if he’ll keep getting jealous, and he’s forced to admit she’s cute — oh yeah, he’s definitely toast.

That night, Yi-seok tells his grandfather he’s moving out. It’s the only way he can assert his independence, though he does it with the utmost respect. He says that he wasn’t thinking of marriage but because of his grandfather, he’ll be thinking of it now. He’s not just moving out… he’s going to move in with Hong-do.

The chairman explodes, and Yi-seok calmly tells his mother this is the only way he can get his grandfather to stop sending him on marriage dates. He tells her to explain that he’s doing this to avoid fighting, and leaves.

The chairman orders Mom to go after Yi-seok, but she reminds him that she’s on her son’s side. In fact, if he doesn’t come around, she’ll even leave the house as well. The chairman asks if she knows exactly who that girl is, and spits out that she’s the granddaughter of their old housekeeper. Mom stops in her tracks, shocked and confused.

Mom shakes as she stammers — does he mean that the girl that Yi-seok brought home is the same girl that killed his brother Il-seok? His silence is her answer and she collapses and screams, devastated.

Yi-seok knocks on Hong-do’s door, and he’s standing there with a suitcase and a giant grin when she opens. He tells her that he’s made his stand and moved out, and asks her to let him stay.

COMMENTS

Well now, I hope that’s the last secret, because this is a lot of drama landing on this poor family in such a short period of time. For once I actually can see where the family is coming from, and why they would object to Hong-do and Yi-seok being together. It’s bad enough that they lost their firstborn son to a tragic childhood accident, and it’s a loss that’s haunted all of them for over twenty years. Yi-seok has been the most affected by it, as he’s spent his whole life trying to be the golden child that his brother used to be. But for the same girl who caused Il-seok’s death, even if by accident, to show up and threaten to take their remaining son from them… well, I don’t agree with their trying to break them up without telling them why, but I can’t entirely fault them for how they feel, either.

But one of the things I love most about this show is how all the usual tropes are there, but the main characters just sigh and roll their eyes when faced with them. We have the typical “you can’t marry the poor simple girl you love, instead you must marry this chaebol daughter and do your duty to your family” situation, but nobody goes into histrionics, flails around trying to convince the stubborn head of the family, or goes all Noble Idiot and tries to break up so their love can marry up. Well, Hong-do tried for about thirty seconds, but all it took was a reminder that the man who loves her is the only one whose opinion matters and everything was right again. I love how, no matter what happens, Yi-seok and Hong-do will just make jokes, tease each other, sigh and then do whatever they damn well want to do.

I can only hope that, once they’re faced with the ultimate trope (I’m Directly Responsible for the Death of your Loved One When We Were Children), that that holds true. It’s going to be hard for Yi-seok to face the fact that the woman he loves killed his brother, whose death has shaped his entire adult life and made it hard for him to even know who he truly is. Not to mention what it’s going to do to Hong-do herself — she doesn’t even remember that time, or the incident, or even the fact that she used to have a different name. And I’m fairly certain that her phobias and extreme blushing date back directly to the accident. Certainly having caused a fire that killed your friend would create some deep-seated feelings of guilt and shame that could cause both of those issues and make it difficult to face the world. And if that’s the root of her issues, I’m also sure that, at least subconsciously, that it’s Yi-seok’s acceptance and love that are responsible for her amazing recovery so far. Deep down, he’s the only one who could offer her the forgiveness she needed to move on.

But I also think that Hong-do has found enough confidence and strength within herself by now, to be able to deal with what’s coming next. Yi-seok’s love helped heal her, and fighting to keep that love will be what helps her heal him in turn. Even though they were split up as children by a terrible tragedy, I think that same tragedy, and (hopefully) their willingness to overcome it, will be what brings them together in the end.

 
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