Answer Me 1988: Episode 16

by girlfriday

This episode made me look like a crazy person today, because it’s one of those laugh-cry-laugh-cry-laugh ones. Some of our characters face major life decisions, while others become completely engrossed in the singing contest that comes to town, pitting neighbor against neighbor in a battle of tiny proportions.

Don’t forget: Next week there will be no episodes of Answer Me 1988, and the show will resume the following week with Episode 17 on January 8. It’s really not the best time to be taking a week off (there are lovelines needing a kick in the pants, and some of us don’t deal with withdrawal very well!), but I guess we don’t really have a say in the matter.

 
SONG OF THE DAY

Noel – “함께” (Together) for the Answer Me 1988 OST [ Download ]

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EPISODE 16: “Irony of life, Part 1”

Now that Taek has picked up on Jung-hwan’s feelings for Deok-sun, he starts to notice every little look on Jung-hwan’s face, like the way he immediately shows concern when Deok-sun has a bout of indigestion. But when she gets up, it’s Taek who follows her out.

He gives her medicine and asks her to leave next Saturday night free. For the big confession? She knows that he has a big match that ends the day before and thinks he should rest a day, but he insists on Saturday.

Sun-woo tells the other boys about Taek’s big movie date, and how he’s coming home straight after his match just to see Deok-sun. Dong-ryong suggests that they go too, and when Sun-woo nudges Jung-hwan to ask, he calls them crazy. They all laugh it off as a joke, but the way Jung-hwan’s fake smile fades when he turns away twists my heart.

The moms all stand in the middle of the street staring up at something that makes them wary. It’s a sign for the TV show National Singing Contest that’s coming to town, and they wonder if they could try out again and suffer the humiliation. They wonder what got into them last time…

Flashback to five years before, when the ajumma trio had formed a girl group, crimped their hair, and put on hanboks for their big audition. They were so nervous that they were shaking, and one by one started pulling out bottles of soju just to help calm their nerves.

At first it’s just one shot, and then another, and then another, and by the time their number gets called, Jung-hwan’s mom falls over drunk, Deok-sun’s mom is already passed out, and Sun-woo’s mom has somehow gone all the way home to pass out in her living room. Hahaha, these ajummas.

The dads are gathered in Jung-hwan’s dad’s hospital room, watching the latest news story about rising stock values. Taek’s dad wonders if he should start investing some of his money, and Jung-hwan’s dad says his friend suggested a few stocks, including an electronics company called Samsung. They all balk at the price of one stock (30,000 won back then) and Deok-sun’s dad says that stocks are a foolish investment and will never stick around, and tells them to put their money in the bank.

Jung-bong walks Mi-ok home after their date and they agree on a secret code for his phone calls so that she knows when he’s calling. He notices the way Mi-ok covers her mouth when she smiles because of her braces, and tells her that she’s prettier when she smiles wide. She finally smiles openly from ear to ear, and it’s adorable.

She’s surprised that Jung-bong knows her birthday is coming up, and he jokes that he’s developed the ability to read her mind because he likes her. But of course we see that he wrote down all the things Deok-sun told him about her friend, and that she suggested a birthday gift from the heart rather than something material.

So Jung-bong begins folding tiny paper cranes, which Jung-hwan walks in on one night. When Hyung tries to hide what he’s doing, Jung-hwan tells him he knows about his girlfriend. Jung-hwan clearly doesn’t want to hear the whole story of why he’s folding a gazillion paper cranes, but Hyung wants to tell it anyway and explains that he’s going to fold a thousand and grant her any wish she wants.

Jung-hwan offers to help and grabs an origami paper, and then folds an airplane because that’s the only thing he knows how to fold. I luff these brothers. They’re both a little wrong. Hyung draws their faces on the wings and remembers that Jung-hwan’s dream is to become an airplane pilot. Jung-hwan corrects him: He wants to be a fighter pilot. Lol, you just wanna be Top Gun.

Jung-hwan’s dad has heard about National Singing Contest coming to town and laments the horrible timing of his broken back, because he and Deok-sun had big plans to try out. He asks Mom to take his place and sign up, and though she hesitates at first, it doesn’t take much to convince her.

Sun-woo talks to Bora on the phone and hears about how busy she is with all her bar exam prep work. She makes plans to meet on Friday night, and he starts to pull away a little, offering to meet less frequently if she’s too busy. But she insists on keeping their date, and he agrees happily, though he still looks heavy-hearted when he hangs up.

Deok-sun’s parents announce that Bora will be studying for the bar, and Deok-sun is mostly excited that Bora will be staying at a gosiwon during the weekdays to focus on her studying. Deok-sun laughs at Dad’s new dress shirt (from Bora) fitting too tightly, and right as he argues that it’s the perfect size, a button goes flying off.

Bora runs out to the kitchen, embarrassed, and feels a pang of guilt when she overhears Mom and Dad tell the others that they can’t enroll in tutoring academies for another month because of the gosiwon fees.

Taek and Dad sit down to breakfast and Taek asks if it’s okay that Sun-woo’s mom keeps feeding them. Dad says he’s always grateful, and then starts to bring up something else… but decides against it. Tell him! Tell him you lurve her!

Dong-ryong has his sights set on a dance contest and ropes Jung-hwan and Sun-woo into going with him. He’s convinced that he’ll win first place in a snap and figures they can watch a few acts just to check out the competition.

Cut to: Dong-ryong walking out of the club pale-faced, as Sun-woo and Jung-hwan marvel at fellow contestants Hyun Jin-young and Park Jin-young (aka JYP), and wonder where they came from. Ha.

Deok-sun stares at the school form that all seniors have to fill out, asking for their dream colleges. She’s envious that Ja-hyun knows she wants to be a hairdresser, because Deok-sun still has no clue what she wants to be when she grows up, let alone a college to write down that she’d get into.

The boys cuddle up in Taek’s room to watch Dirty Dancing, and Dong-ryong says that if they had seen this movie before Top Gun, Jung-hwan might’ve wanted to become a dancer instead. Jung-hwan says defensively that he wanted to be a fighter pilot way before then, but Sun-woo points out that he wanted to be a soccer player in grade school and Taek remembers that he wanted to be a basketball player in middle school, heh.

Dong-ryong’s dream is to be famous enough to be on the front page of the newspaper, not that he knows what he wants to be famous for. He just plans to be even more famous than Taek.

They ask what Sun-woo’s going to be, and he says he’s decided on med school because it’s Mom’s dream for him. He doesn’t really want to be anything in particular, so he figured that was good. Dong-ryong scoffs that Sun-woo can “settle” on becoming a doctor, and says he suddenly misses Deok-sun.

The dads drink beers in the hospital and make bets on the upcoming baseball season, while the moms watch Jung-hwan’s mom practice for her singing contest routine. They worry that her tape has stretched out from overplaying, when Jung-bong shuffles out of his room, puts the tape in the freezer, and tells them it’ll be good as new in fifteen minutes. He makes another gross sandwich and continues folding paper cranes though he can barely keep his eyes open.

The boys head home and run into Deok-sun out in the street, and she raises her voice to tattle on them for skipping night class and hanging out at Taek’s instead. Dong-ryong tries to cover her mouth and gets bitten for his trouble, though he’s appeased with a pastry.

Deok-sun stops by to give the rest of the pastries to Taek, and makes sure that they didn’t watch another racy movie. She asks if Taek’s teacher is coming along on his match to take care of him, and he tells her not to worry, and that he’ll call before their date on Saturday. He hands her Jung-hwan’s wallet and asks her to return it on her way home, because he dropped it while he was here.

Deok-sun drops the wallet off and it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but once she’s gone, Jung-hwan sits in his room staring at it like something important just happened. Hm.

Mi-ok stops by Deok-sun’s classroom to share the vitamins that her dad gave her to encourage her studying, and they worry about what her dad will do if she doesn’t get into college. Apparently Mi-ok’s grades are in even worse shape than Deok-sun’s, and she sighs that she half expects Dad to get her a bunch of tutors for her birthday.

The girls look forward to music class, but then their homeroom teacher enters and says that from now on, all their PE and music classes will be study hall. They all groan, and Teacher tells them that someday they’ll look back on this time and see how great it was. She sighs, “How could you possibly know now, how great now is?”

Deok-sun looks out the window with a sigh, and over in the boys’ classroom, Jung-hwan picks up his paper airplane to fly out the window, but decides to save it.

No-eul forgets to bring his recorder for music class and lines up to get caned as a punishment, but when his teacher’s cane breaks, he tells No-eul to sing a song in front of the class instead. He looks terrified and begs to be hit instead, but he has no choice and braces himself. We cut away before he begins.

Sun-woo’s mom brings over some abalone porridge for Taek before he leaves, and as they eat, Dad finally brings up the thing he wants to tell Taek. Taek sees Dad hesitating and assures him that he’s not a kid, and that Dad can tell him anything.

Dad finally gets up the nerve to say, “I’d like to have a good friend by my side, like you.” It’s painfully difficult for Dad to get the words out, but he says that he’d like to live the rest of his life with a friend like Sun-woo’s mom by his side to talk to.

But he quickly adds that if Taek doesn’t want him to, he won’t, and that he hasn’t said anything to Sun-woo’s mom because he wanted to get Taek’s permission first. He swears that he’d never do anything to make Taek uncomfortable and that he won’t make friends if Taek doesn’t want him to.

Taek finally puts Dad out of his misery and speaks up, thank goodness. I thought Dad might crawl into a hole next. Taek’s voice is choked up but he’s got a big smile on his face, and he says, “Dad, I’d like it if you ate warm rice even when I’m not here.” Great, now I’m crying.

Dad’s eyes well up with tears, and Taek says warmly, “It’s your life, Dad. I’d like it if you were happy. I’m okay with anything as long as you’re happy.” Dad smiles back gratefully and they finish their dinner in good spirits.

The next morning, Deok-sun and Dong-ryong are both late for school and catch the bus together. He asks what she’s doing tomorrow and when she mentions maybe meeting up with Taek, he says cryptically that Taek has to win today. Deok-sun scowls and says that Taek doesn’t always have to win.

Dong-ryong tells her that Taek isn’t good at baduk because he’s smart—it’s because of his competitive streak. He says that there are two guys like this on their street, and Deok-sun readily names Jung-bong as the other. Dong-ryong says that one time Jung-bong was obsessed with Galaga and finally got to be the top scorer, but when he came back the next morning, someone had already beaten him and taken over first place. Jung-bong staked out the arcade until he discovered that it was Taek.

Dong-ryong says it was the day of a baduk match too, and Deok-sun calls him a crazy bastard. Dong-ryong agrees: “He’d rather die than be second place.” He declares that Taek will definitely win today, because now he has a goal.

Taek arrives for his big game surrounded by reporters, and Dong-ryong listens to the radio while the other boys study. They ask if Taek is winning, and discover that Dong-ryong has been listening to music this whole time, knowing that the results won’t come out until later.

Dong-ryong has decided to give up on dance and try out for the National Singing Contest instead, and busts out his best Stevie Wonder impression in the middle of class. Jung-hwan is skeptical that he can beat his mom, heh. Jung-hwan’s dad coaches Mom on her routine, and swears that she can beat Dong-ryong with her dance routine.

Taek’s dad brings Jin-ju over and tucks her into bed once Sun-woo’s mom comes home from work, and he lingers at her front door like he wants to tell her something… but he chickens out and scurries away.

Dong-ryong is the only one who notices that Jung-hwan has been working on the same math problem for days now. He tells Jung-hwan to just move on already, but we know it’s not math that’s got him stumped.

Jung-bong is bleary-eyed but has a big pile of cranes now, and he calls Mi-ok to make plans for her birthday. They’re interrupted when her scary dad picks up the phone and asks who this is, and Jung-bong hangs up and hides, terrified.

Deok-sun waits by the phone for Taek to call, wondering whether he won and why he isn’t calling. Mom is wrapping up new blankets for Bora to take to the gosiwon, and tells Dad to come home from work early tomorrow so they can see Bora off properly. He grouses that it’s not like she’s leaving the country, and thinks it’s not a thing they need to make a fuss over.

Taek wins his match, and afterwards sits alone in his hotel room, deep in thought. After a while, he picks up the phone and calls Deok-sun, though we don’t get to hear the conversation.

Sun-woo waits by the stairs for his date with Bora, but she’s studying late and doesn’t realize the time. She runs over out of breath and feeling terrible, and Sun-woo says that he’s okay and she doesn’t have to feel bad. She looks like she’s near tears though, so he just hugs her.

The day of the National Singing Contest auditions arrives, and Sun-woo’s mom comes over to be Jung-hwan’s mom’s manager for the day. They stop to go buy eggs from the egg vendor who drives by, and when they notice that his tape (chanting for people to buy eggs) is slow, Jung-hwan’s mom offers to stick it in the freezer and make it good as new.

The egg ajusshi gives her an extra crate of eggs to thank her and grabs his tape before leaving… but uh-oh, there are two identical tapes in that freezer. This is going to end very badly.

They run into Dong-ryong at the audition, and Jung-hwan’s mom gets hilariously competitive with Dong-ryong as they practice before their numbers get called.

Bora packs up her car and doesn’t get emotional about saying her goodbyes, though Mom regrets that Dad had to work late today. Mom makes her promise to call once a week from the gosiwon and Bora drives off, and Deok-sun comforts Mom as she lingers in the street trying not to cry.

Bora seems okay, but then when she gets down the street, she finds Dad standing there waiting for her to drive by. Hang on, I’m gonna need tissues. She’s already near tears when she stops to ask what he’s doing here, and he just quietly hands her a grocery bag. She opens it to find all sorts of medicine, labeled so that she knows which one to take when she has a cold, or a headache.

She says in her gruff way that they have pharmacies near the gosiwon too, but he just nods and hands her a wad of bills and tells her to eat some meat from time to time. Bora begins to cry, and Dad tells her to go on.

They argue about who should leave first, and Bora drives off before she bursts into tears. It’s only when she’s already out of earshot that Dad shouts after her to call if anything happens, and Bora breaks down as she looks at Dad getting smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror.

Dong-ryong and Jung-hwan’s mom finally get called in to audition, and the contestant ahead of Dong-ryong is a black man who can speak Korean, and lol, he picks the exact same song to sing. Dong-ryong has the unfortunate luck of having to go right after him with his Stevie Wonder song, and the judges cut him off after one line.

Jung-hwan’s mom and Sun-woo’s mom crack up from the sidelines, though they try not to laugh in his face about it. Jung-hwan’s dad is surprised when the egg vendor returns to the house, saying that there must’ve been some kind of mix-up with the tapes.

Jung-hwan’s mom, aka “Singing Cheetah,” is up next and waits for her cue in the most awesome pose ever. Sun-woo’s mom starts the tape and Jung-hwan’s mom starts dancing, but there’s just silence… followed by the egg ajusshi singing, “Eggs are here! Come and get your eggs!”

The best part: Mom starts slowing down her dance to match the egg song’s rhythm, hahahaha. The judges tell her she can sit down now, but Mom insists that she can do it without accompaniment, and proceeds to perform her dance song acapella. It’s as terrible as it sounds, and Dong-ryong and Sun-woo’s mom have to literally drag her off the stage like it’s a gong show. I’m so mortified for her, but I kinda want to rewind and rewatch it.

Dong-ryong is too traumatized by his audition to think of anything else that night at the library, and Jung-hwan continues to be distracted by Taek and Deok-sun and his wallet, for some reason. Sun-woo decides they need a break and they head out.

Jung-hwan’s dad gets the full report on the auditions and can’t believe that no one from their neighborhood made it. But Mom says that one person did: No-eul. Dad is shocked to hear that No-eul can sing, and we see in flashback that he was the final contestant. He showed up with his classmate who played guitar for him, and he sang “Sad Relationship.”

We flash back even further to No-eul’s punishment in front of his class, when he was terrified of being forced to sing in front of everyone. But then he balled up his fists and sang this ballad, and he wowed everyone, surprising even himself.

Back in the present, the boys leave the library and are surprised to see Deok-sun on her way in. Sun-woo asks why she isn’t with Taek, but she says that Taek had an important meeting and won’t be back home until tomorrow. She trudges up the stairs muttering that nothing’s going right for her lately, and Jung-hwan stands there for a long beat just looking conflicted.

Flashback to Taek’s phone call the other night: He told Deok-sun that he couldn’t make it to the movies because an important meeting came up, and she sounded disappointed but told him that it was okay and they’d see the movie another time. He said he was sorry, but she told him brightly not to worry about it, and to get some rest and not take any sleeping pills that night.

Taek held the receiver long after Deok-sun had hung up on the other end, and then when we finally panned over to him, a single tear trickled down his face. Awwww, Taekie.

Flashback-within-a-flashback to the night that Jung-hwan dropped his wallet in Taek’s room: Taek found it on the floor and opened it up… and tucked inside was the picture of Jung-hwan and Deok-sun at the radio concert. Taek asked Deok-sun to return it to Jung-hwan like it was no big deal, but looked distraught after she had gone.

And then we return to the hotel room after Taek’s phone call with Deok-sun. He asked to have his flight changed for the next day, clearly having lied about the important meeting. He asked not to be disturbed because he was going to sleep for a whole day, and then took a worrisome amount of pills and then passed out in his bed.

 
COMMENTS

Ack, quit with the pills, it freaks me out! That’s just mean, making us worry about Taek for two weeks. I mean, I get why they do it, but it’s not like I actually believe they’d kill off his character or anything. I just worry about him dealing with this alone and hiding his feelings. I should’ve known that Taek and Jung-hwan would choose to protect the other in exactly the same infuriating way. Can you just choose each other and be done with it? I don’t think anyone would be mad if you guys just loved each other and left the girl out of it. At this point it’s the stronger loveline anyway. Just sayin’.

In all seriousness though, the bromance is really the thing getting more narrative oomph this season, because this love triangle has a lot more to do with how much Taek and Jung-hwan love each other (and I do mean platonically, unless you’re writing fanfic), and less to do with Deok-sun. It’s not inherently a bad thing, because you get two really strong characters on equal footing with unrequited loves and all the attendant angst. But on the flipside, you get less of an actual relationship and very little insight into how Deok-sun feels about either of them, and after a while it feels like they’re getting ahead of themselves by going through all this bro-drama when the girl hasn’t been asked out yet.

I know, teenagers overthink this stuff, and that’s why I do find that the conflict is realistic in that regard, because at that age friendship is just as important as love, if not more so. I’d consider them more foolish if they thought that their first love would stand the test of time better than their friendships would. But if they never let the girl into the love triangle in the first place, then it only ensures that nobody gets to date, and what good does that do?

I did expect Taek to confess and make his move in a way that was consistent with his competitive nature, so the twist landed with me when he chose to step back for Jung-hwan’s sake. It’s still flawed thinking on both boys’ parts, but it made me think more of Taek that he wouldn’t let Jung-hwan put him first just because he would and always had. I had gotten used to everyone else taking care of Taek, but it was nice to see in recent episodes that he takes care of his friends just as much, in his own way. It makes me feel better that he doesn’t take Jung-hwan’s love for granted. I mean, you’re still both dummies; you’re just lovable, impossibly good-hearted dummies.

But the moment that brought me to tears was Taek’s conversation with Dad—the way he was so accepting and encouraging of Dad moving on and finding love again. He really is more mature than anyone gives him credit for, and it was so cute how Dad seemed like the little boy in that moment, over-explaining and asking for permission, and Taek was so measured and matter-of-fact about it. I can’t wait to see how Taek’s dad proposes, now that he has a green light.

And I knew that the Bora and Dad moment would come at some point, but agh, those two really get to me with their gruff, unshowy love. Sung Dong-il makes me cry the most when he’s not crying, when you can tell he’s trying not to cry, like a real dad would in real life? That never fails, and then when Bora does the same thing because she’s exactly like him, it just makes for a beautiful scene. This is what this show is best at—the simple, true-to-life moments where all of the emotion is under the surface, not spoken in words, and it’s evident that people are saying one thing but mean another. Oh, and of course, the other highlight was Ra Mi-ran and her awesomeness, which knows no bounds. I could watch an entire drama just about these ajummas trying to make it as a girl group. Spinoff, please!

 
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