One More Happy Ending: Episode 12

by LollyPip

Time to put up or shut up, for all three legs of our love triangle. There’s been enough wailing and crying, and someone needs to actually use their words and talk about how they feel before I give up on all of them. Luckily, someone finally does just that, and it’s a big relief. Apparently I’m not the only one who was ready to start throwing my shoes at people’s heads.

EPISODE 12 RECAP

We go back a month to right after Soo-hyuk left for America, and Mi-mo is seeing his apparition everywhere she goes. She starts to leave notes on his apartment door — they start out questioning where he went and asking him to contact her, and devolving into angry rants and name-calling. The notes pile up as time passes, and the last one simply says, “I hope you come back soon.”

She gets a package from her old elementary school containing Soo-hyuk’s time capsule, which a teacher mistakenly assumed was hers. She opens it to find the jewelry box that she’d wanted so many years ago, and realizes that Soo-hyuk must have won it for her. Inside she finds her “wedding ring” from their night of drunken revelry, and that combined with the memory of herself pushing him away triggers her tears.

She goes to see Hyun-gi, and tells him that she’s upset because she said a lot of hurtful things to Soo-hyuk before he left. Hyun-gi jokes that she wasn’t the only one, but it’s not as cute as he thinks it is. He tells her that Soo-hyuk asked a favor of him before he went — he can’t tell her what it is, but assures her that she shouldn’t worry too much about what she said.

Later that day, Mi-mo takes all of her notes off of Soo-hyuk’s door.

Business is booming again, now that people have forgotten the accusation that Brave Wedding was taking bribes. They celebrate the successful matching of their two hundredth couple, and things seem to be going well.

Geun-hak comes to see Da-jung at work as if he were a client, and she tells him that they don’t take clients who are still married. With a tiny smile, he says that if he gets divorced he’d like them to find a woman of his choosing — specifically, one named Baek Da-jung.

Da-jung chides him a bit for joking around, and he smiles shyly, having hoped to just do something different to make her smile. He accepts her lack of amusement easily, saying that it’s only been a month, and promising to be patient and try harder.

Da-jung can tell that something’s on Mi-mo’s mind, and offers to be a listening ear after work. She wonders what happened to the old romantic Mi-mo, the one who would have flown to the U.S. after her man. Mi-mo admits sadly that she told Soo-hyuk that she didn’t want to see him, and all Da-jung can do is mix her favorite soju bomb. Even that reminds Mi-mo of Soo-hyuk.

She asks why Da-jung is still pushing Geun-hak away, when he’s obviously trying so hard. Da-jung admits that she still can’t soften towards him, and Mi-mo gently admonishes her to make an effort too, or he’ll give up again.

Dong-bae goes to see Ae-ran again, this time armed with her favorite snacks. I love how protective Dong-mi is, even sitting between them on the couch, hee. Ae-ran is still cool towards Dong-bae, but she’s slowly but surely losing her resolve.

Left with nothing but her thoughts, Mi-mo slowly starts to see past situations with Soo-hyuk in a different light. She understands now how her words and actions carelessly hurt him, which had previously gone right over her head.

She jumps and runs out the door when she hears someone key in Soo-hyuk’s door code, but it’s just a couple looking for a newlywed home. Wow, he didn’t just go visit family, he’s actually planning to move out.

One morning Mimo is greeted in the hallway with flying eggs, thrown by Hae-joon’s student admirer Yeon-mi. Now she’s angry that because Hae-joon is heartbroken, he’s not as handsome as before. Ugh ugh ugh. Mi-mo just casually greets her and grabs her throwing arm, and apologizes sincerely for hurting him.

She even offers to let the girl throw eggs at her, though she does request a new kind of egg at least. Ha. She manages to slink away when her fussy neighbor finds them and yells at Yeon-mi for making another big mess.

The reason Yeon-mi is so angry, is that she saw Hae-joon appearing to leave distraught messages for Mi-mo, upset that he’s become someone he doesn’t recognize because of her. But he wasn’t talking to Mi-mo — it was Yeon-soo on the other end of the phone, acting as his sounding board.

Yeon-mi proudly reports to Hae-joon that she taught Mi-mo a lesson for him, but it only makes him furious with her. He yells at her, making her cry in his office.

Dong-mi and Jung-woo go on another cute date, where he feeds her and she just eats it up, literally and figuratively. A friend of his runs into them and asks if Dong-mi is his noona, but Jung-woo proudly introduces her as his girlfriend. To his credit, the guy is very nice to her and even tells her what a great guy Jung-woo is, adding how mature he is for just being twenty-five. HA, I knew it.

Jung-woo shyly admits that he lied about his age — but hey, six years isn’t that big of an age gap. Dong-mi doesn’t confess her own real age, but asks him uncomfortably not to use banmal with her anymore. Awww, his sad little face.

She moans later to Ae-ran that she really thought she’d found a great guy to date this time, and even Ae-ran agrees that nine years is a pretty big age gap. She advises Dong-mi to break it off, because a guy that young isn’t interested in marriage anyway.

Geun-hak tentatively brings up the subject of couples’ counseling, afraid that he and Da-jung won’t be able to mend their relationship on their own. He’s sweetly hopeful as he suggests a relationship camp, and gives her a pair of couple t-shirts. It’s a wonderful gesture, especially from the guy who used to balk at wearing couples’ clothing.

Hae-joon can’t stay away, and he finds Mi-mo sitting on the bench outside her building. She gently touches the spot where Soo-hyuk usually sits when they would talk, and Hae-joon doesn’t approach her. He guiltily thinks about how he punched Soo-hyuk and told him to leave, and makes a call.

Soon after, as Mi-mo is rushing to work, she finds herself face-to-face with Soo-hyuk exiting the elevator. He looks at her with the same intensity as always, asking, “Goldfish, have you been well?” Startled, Mi-mo takes a step back and turns her ankle, and Soo-hyuk quickly catches her before she falls.

We go back to see that Hae-joon had called Soo-hyuk, asking if he left Korea just because of what he said. He tells Soo-hyuk to come back before “someone” forgets him.

Mi-mo is so surprised that she can barely speak, and Soo-hyuk jokes that she must have forgotten him just like the Goldfish she is. With a tiny smile, he says that he’ll just have to start bothering her again, and she’ll remember him soon enough. She should remember quickly after all, the guy she used to run into all the time, and even did something pretty stupid with.

Mi-mo’s eyes fill with tears, and Soo-hyuk starts to reach for her face to wipe them away. His hand hesitates like it did the last time she cried in front of him, still afraid to touch her. He seems disappointed at her non-reaction and tries to make light conversation, and walks towards his apartment. He waits for a long moment before going inside, as if hoping for Mi-mo to ask him to stop, but she can’t bring herself to speak and he goes in.

Mi-mo runs to his door and almost goes in after him, while at the same time Soo-hyuk stops himself from rushing back out. Neither of them have the courage — so close, and yet so far.

Mi-mo is approached for directions in her parking garage, and the woman seems familiar to her. She says she just has one of those faces, and goes on her way.

She goes straight to Soo-hyuk’s place, and as it turns out, she’s family. She pointedly mentions a friend of his, a family friend named So-eun that’s also coming to Korea for work. She seems to be studying his reaction, but Soo-hyuk shows little interest.

Hae-joon is called to the hospital chairman’s office, aware that this is supposedly Yeon-mi’s grandfather. But he’s quickly corrected — she’s actually his daughter. He heard that Hae-joon yelled at her and she ran out of the hospital crying, and now she won’t eat or go to school. He asks Hae-joon to do something to make her feel better.

Mi-mo debates whether to call Soo-hyuk, and chickens out again. She can’t concentrate on work for thinking of him, replaying this morning’s events in her head all day. Da-jung notices, but Mi-mo’s been so spaced out that she didn’t even realize she was spaced out.

Dong-mi sits next to a dejected little girl at recess, and asks what bothers her the most. “The fact that he’s two years younger than me.” Her crush just assumes she knows so much more, being an “older woman” and all, but she tells Dong-mi that it’s her first crush, too. Dong-mi totally feels her pain.

Dong-mi suggests that the girl just tell her little boyfriend the truth, but she says, with the wisdom of children, that the charm of an older woman is her maturity. It sounds like a lot of pressure coming from her, ha.

Soo-hyuk visits Hae-joon at work, and Hae-joon is quick to tell him that the person who’s missing him isn’t him. Soo-hyuk quips that he knows, but, “Nevertheless, I missed you.” Hae-joon may have called him back but he’s still holding some resentment, and mentions how Soo-hyuk stabbed him in the back.

Soo-hyuk apologizes, saying that he never meant for that to happen. Hae-joon reminds him that he extended the courtesy of asking Soo-hyuk before going after Mi-mo, and Soo-hyuk tells him that he regrets that moment deeply. He hasn’t dated in so long, he just denied his feelings before he realized it.

Hae-joon spits that it’s just excuses, and Soo-hyuk doesn’t deny it, only apologizing again. Hae-joon isn’t ready to resume their friendship, so Soo-hyuk just follows him around being adorable all day.

As he heads home later (promising to come back tomorrow, hee), Hae-joon says that he should have called him, that day that Mi-mo was attacked by the sasaeng fans. He’s angry that Soo-hyuk got the night in shining armor moment that should have been his place as her boyfriend. Ugh, it really is all about you, isn’t it?

Soo-hyuk argues that there was no time to call him when people were throwing eggs at Mi-mo, and Hae-joon finally blows up. He grabs Soo-hyuk by the collar and yells that that’s why Mi-mo fell for Soo-hyuk, and that if he’d been there, it would have been him.

Soo-hyuk reminds Hae-joon that people are watching him lose his cool, and suggests they go somewhere to talk. Hae-joon decides it’s time to duke this out, and leads him to… a ball pit. This is going to be good.

Soo-hyuk has some complaints as well, bringing up how Hae-joon and Mi-mo moved way too fast at the beginning, which didn’t even give him time to think about how he felt about her. He considers himself a victim here too, but he doesn’t want to fight.

He turns to leave, and Hae-joon beans him in the back of the head with a ball. Affronted, Soo-hyuk returns the favor, they both start hurling insults, and the fight devolves into a hilariously immature ball-throwing hissy fit. HAHA, they even play Chicken at one point. A crowd of kids get in on the action, and their dads nod wisely from the sidelines — definitely girl problems.

It just so happens that Mi-mo and Da-jung have brought Tae-yong to the same playhouse, and they arrive at the ball pit in time to see pure mayhem. The kids are now shooting water guns at the guys, and they re-enact the event of Soo-hyuk protecting Mi-mo, only this time Hae-joon gets his white knight moment.

After the excitement dies down, Hae-joon makes a comment that he hopes this doesn’t happen a third time. He finally tells Soo-hyuk that he also liked Seon-soo, and Soo-hyuk gently pops him with another ball. They agree never to let this happen again, unaware that Mi-mo has been listening in from around the corner.

Ae-ran presents Dong-bae with a list of conditions he must follow if she’s to give him another chance. He grumbles, but signs it without challenging any of her requirements, then has the guts to call the list cliché and Ae-ran’s imagination boring. Dude, seriously? And you were doing so well.

Mi-mo and Soo-hyuk share a silent ride in the elevator to their apartments, and Soo-hyuk just smiles enigmatically but doesn’t speak. Mi-mo notices he’s a mess and asks if he jumped into the ocean to save someone again, ha. He just fires back that his clothes never stay clean, thanks to someone.

She says primly that she never asked him to do all that, and his gaze goes all swoony and intense. He says that she didn’t ask, she just made him want to do those things.

At their doors, Soo-hyuk asks Mi-mo to cook dinner for him, as thanks for protecting her against the eggs. While they eat she asks what he plans to do for a living now, and he just tells her not to worry about him.

By the time they’re having tea, Mi-mo feels comfortable enough to ask why Soo-hyuk left without telling her. He says that he got lost and ran in circles, but, “I’m back now.” He tells her that from now on, he’s going to take life seriously, work as well as love.

His intense gaze reminds her of their first kiss, right in this same spot, and they both stare at each other, hearts pounding… and jump when Soo-hyuk’s phone goes off. ARGH, it’s just Hyun-gi calling to complain that Soo-hyuk hasn’t come to see him.

For some inexplicable reason, Soo-hyuk leaves Mi-mo and meets Hyun-gi for drinks, and they both proceed to get drunk and sentimental. Soo-hyuk reveals that he thinks he’s been stuck as his twenty-one-year-old self, ever since Seon-soo died. He made a mistake with Seon-soo by being too serious, and then made another with Mi-mo by not being serious enough.

Hyun-gi asks what he plans to do now, and Soo-hyuk declares that he’ll do both. He’ll be serious when he needs to, and relax when he can. Hyun-gi tells him that he’s been taking care of Mi-mo unseen while Soo-hyuk was gone, getting rid of any threats and anti-fans. Awww. was that his favor?

Yeon-soo is impressed to see this side of Hae-joon, though she admits that she’s jealous it’s not because of her. He says that he never knew he made her so lonely, and that now that he thinks about it, she’s the person he should feel most guilty towards.

Mi-mo sits up late thinking about Soo-hyuk, and eventually she stops fighting sleep and goes out for a walk. On her way back home she finds Hyun-gi piggybacking a happily drunk Soo-hyuk home, but the security guard stops her before she approaches them.

He asks if she knows Hyun-gi, relieved that she does, saying that he’s been thinking he was a stalker. Mi-mo is surprised to hear that he’s been following her.

Soo-hyuk is called to have dinner with his parents, and finds himself sitting next to So-eun, the pretty family friend who’s newly back in Korea. He’s criticized for quitting his job, apparently known as the family black sheep for running off to America and coming back with a baby.

His mother tells him not to even think about showing up on her doorstep a third time, and So-eun pipes up that that won’t happen with her by his side. What in the what now? She says that she’s trying to find an apartment in his building, and Soo-hyuk’s mom tells her not to be too obvious.

Mom says to Soo-hyuk that it’s time Min-woo had a mother, and Soo-hyuk finally figures out what this dinner is about. So-eun says that she’s perfect for the job of his wife — she’s pretty, has a good job, and she spent so much time babysitting Min-woo that she practically raised him. Soo-hyuk just says that he’s grateful, but he doesn’t date a woman out of appreciation.

Hyun-gi admits to Mi-mo that Soo-hyuk asked him to follow her and make sure she was okay while he was gone. He reveals that Soo-hyuk was in a lot of pain to leave the way he did, but he was also worried about her.

She walks home and finds Soo-hyuk sitting on their bench, lightly touching the spot where she usually sits, just as she’s been doing for the past month. He gets up to leave with a sigh, and suddenly hears, “SONG SOO-HYUK!” as he’s hit in the back of the head with a high heel.

He turns to see Mi-mo standing there with a hurt look on her face, and she says to him, “Don’t show your back to me.” She admits that she’s too scared to move towards him, and that she’s worried of what may happen if she runs too fast. “for the remaining distance, you should come to me.”

Soo-hyuk hesitates, and Mi-mo continues. She tells him that she’s saying to come to her, that she wants him to come to her even if he’s slow. Even though he put a hole in her heart, she waited for him, and she came this far to him, so he should come the rest of the way.

Soo-hyuk wastes no time — he closes the distance between them, and swoops in for a kiss. It’s a tentative, careful kiss, but it’s a start.

COMMENTS

I literally just heaved a huge sigh of relief… finally! I was so worried that Soo-hyuk and Mi-mo were just too scared of being hurt again that we’d have to wait until the finale before we got to this point, so I’m happy that Mi-mo finally spoke up. I think that she was so brave, telling him that she was too afraid to go any closer, but letting him know in no uncertain terms that she wanted him to come to her. And I think that Soo-hyuk needed to hear that more than anything, especially from Mi-mo — she’s always jumped right into new relationships without hesitation, so it’s understandable that he would be unsure of her feelings when she’s been holding back from him. I’m looking forward to the final episodes being about their discovering how to be together.

Having said that, did we REALLY need the introduction of a disapproving mother-in-law and arranged marriage at this late point in the story? It just feels so tacked-on, since Soo-hyuk has never even talked about his family other than that they helped him when Min-woo was first born. Why wait until now, when the kid is only a few years from independence, to decide to push the issue of Soo-hyuk getting married? And I’m certain they’ll find Mi-mo entirely unsuitable, being divorced and all, which, ick. It’s a double standard, that a woman is tainted if she’s been married before, especially when Soo-hyuk has a kid out of wedlock for pete’s sake. And yeah, I’m projecting and assuming what will happen, but I’ve seen too many dramas not to know what the sudden introduction of pushy parents and a pure-as-the-driven-snow marriage prospect means to the future of the story.

But I am happy to see both Mi-mo and Soo-hyuk growing and learning from their mistakes, and trying to do better. Soo-hyuk in particular needed to realize that he’s been stuck in the past, and using Min-woo as a scapegoat to avoid living his own life. It’s no wonder Min-woo tries so hard to find his dad a good partner, because there’s no way such an intelligent boy doesn’t realize why his father never dates. But Soo-hyuk has been able to face his demons and determine to move past them, and I love him for that.

And Mi-mo has also shown a lot of mature growth in the course of the story — she’s not the same Goldfish who professed love to a man she just met a few minutes earlier. It’s probably due to the fact that this time, it actually is love, which means that for once there are real stakes for her. Of course she’s had her heart broken before, but I think that on some level, she knows that what she feels for Soo-hyuk is different. Yes, her hesitation at the end was fear, but she still had the guts to tell him what she wanted and needed. So she gets major brownie points with me for that.

Hae-joon though, is a very different story. You know, it’s not that I want to dislike Hae-joon, I really don’t. It’s just that every time he has an opportunity to change and be a better man, he just… doesn’t. Now he’s even calling Mi-mo and blaming her for his recent actions, like it’s her fault that he’s an emotional mess who ruined his relationship with his best friend. He could have seen this as his chance to change, to start treating people better, to think of others instead of just himself, and if he’d done that he might have even been able to hold onto Mi-mo. Yet his first instinct to feeling hurt is still to immediately make it someone else’s fault. He even can’t claim that he doesn’t know how to change — Yeon-soo is practically begging him to listen to her and see himself as others see him. But nope, it can’t possibly be his fault that he ruined his friendship with Soo-hyuk, so it must be Mi-mo’s. But then he goes and does something awesome, calling Soo-hyuk back on Mi-mo’s account, and I can’t help but continue to hope that he’ll eventually turn into a nice person. His admission to Yeon-soo, that he’s sorry for making her feel lonely when they were married, is a good start. I still have hope.

I’m so glad to see some of the humor coming back into the show, and at least it hasn’t lost its ability to weave the funny and the heartwarming together without making either feel out of place. The fight between Soo-hyuk and Hae-joon turning into a childish ball pit battle was just perfect, and it’s exactly the kind of thing I’ve missed for the last couple of weeks. It was a great blend of emotional turning point and laugh-out-loud silliness, which is the thing that captured my love when the show first started. I don’t know why we took that detour into Tearsville, but I hope this means we’re coming out of all that now.

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