Shopping King Louis: Episode 5

by LollyPip

Louis’s memories, both forgotten and remembered, continue to plague him as he tries to piece together his shattered past. And Bok-shil is busy trying to make a career for herself, though neither of them lets their problems stop them from having fun when they get the chance. But they don’t realize that there are big players circling around them like sharks, growing ever closer, and sooner or later someone’s going to get bitten.

 
EPISODE 5: “Starry, Starry Night”

Louis stays up all night nursing Bok-shil while she’s sick, running through the rain to get medicine and putting cool cloths on her forehead. Bok-shil has feverish dreams, remembering the night her parents died in a car accident, and how she’d shielded little Bok-nam’s eyes as their grandmother wailed over their parents’ bodies.

In the morning, Bok-shil wakes to see Louis sleeping by her side on the cold floor, and she covers him with a blanket. She thinks to herself that she was scared all night, but Louis protected her.

She goes to work, but Joong-won sees her clutching her still-aching head and tells her sternly to go home and rest. When she says she took medicine, he takes that as proof she’s sick, and yells at her to get out. Heh, overreact much?

Louis is worried when he wakes and Bok-shil is gone, so he goes to the Gold Group building looking for her. Just as Director Baek gets the call that the person who died in the car crash wasn’t Louis, he sees the real Louis standing in front of him, and he freezes in shock.

Director Baek looks like he wants to scream, as Louis walks right up to him, bows, and says a cheerful hello. But Bok-shil walks out of the elevator just then, and Louis runs over to her — he didn’t recognize Director Baek at all.

He pulls Bok-shil over to Baek, who he knows from the television interview is the CEO of the company. Bok-shil is mortified and steers Louis out of there, while he waves an innocent goodbye.

Louis takes Bok-shil’s hand as if it’s no big deal, though it looks like it’s a very big deal to her. They walk past Bok-shil’s teammate Hye-joo in the lobby, who immediately clocks their entwined hands and asks who Louis is. Bok-shil tries to pull her hand away, but Louis holds it tighter and says he’s her guardian. Hye-joo runs squealing back to the office to report that Bok-shil has a beau, and Joong-won frowns.

Director Baek meets with his scar-faced minion and tells him that he saw Louis, who didn’t recognize him. Baek gives Scarface Bok-shil’s information and instructs him to keep an eye on her — he suspects Joong-won of knowing something, since he hired Bok-shil right after Louis’s funeral.

Still weak from her illness, Bok-shil has trouble climbing the stairs to their apartment, so Louis offers to piggyback her. She refuses, embarrassed, but he yanks her onto his back and proceeds to climb the stairs as slowly as possible, hee.

He teases that she’s heavy, then honestly says that he’s never felt this strange before. “My body feels heavy and tired, but my heart feels hot.” Whoa there, big fella. Bok-shil smiles and nestles into his neck, and Louis continues on with renewed energy.

He’s in the doghouse again when they get inside, and Bok-shil sees the mess Louis left. He’s sheepish, but wants Bok-shil to eat the porridge he brought for her before cleaning, and they argue over which to do first. The argument gets a little physical, and Louis ends up splashing the hot porridge all over himself.

He quickly strips to avoid getting burned, while Bok-shil tries to wipe the scalding porridge off of him. Of course that’s the exact moment when Joong-won lets himself in, here to check up on Bok-shil, and ends up walking into what looks like a hot-and-heavy moment between lovers.

He makes Louis dress and kicks him out, and Louis slumps downstairs to In-sung’s place to pout. In-sung’s mom knows Joong-won from when Bok-shil passed out and she met him at the hospital, which is news to Louis. They wonder if Joong-won likes Bok-shil, and Louis looks a little frantic at the idea.

Scarface is watching as instructed, and he reports back to Director Baek that Joong-won just came to see Bok-shil. Baek wonders what Joong-won is up to with Bok-shil and Louis — it does look bad from his angle.

Joong-won demands to know if Bok-shil and Louis are living together, which she confirms. She fills Joong-won in on Louis’s situation and how she’s helping him until he gets his memory back, so that he can help her find her brother.

Joong-won thinks she’s crazy, but she innocently wonders what’s so bad about a man and a woman living together. She assures Joong-won that Louis is a good person, and says she feels sorry for him.

Unable to convince Bok-shil, Joong-won talks to Louis next, and tells him to come live with him. Louis hilariously assumes that Joong-won likes him and gently lets him down, saying that Joong-won isn’t his type. He cracks his back and complains that he didn’t sleep all night, making Joong-won wonder what he did all last night, pfft.

Joong-won tries one last time by telling Louis how huge his place is, even offering him the room with an attached bathroom and free access to the refrigerator. Louis just tells Joong-won not to brag, and heads home to Bok-shil.

Joong-won ends up stewing in his car, frustrated beyond belief but also thinking that Louis looks very familiar. But he can’t recall where he’s seen him other than at the Gold Group building.

Louis’s grandma talks to his portrait as if it’s Louis, and her assistant Jung-ran offers to get him a brand-new gold frame. Butler Kim thinks a platinum frame crusted with diamonds would be more suitable, and Grandma agrees while Jung-ran oh-so-politely invites Butler Kim to the beach for a chat. Uh oh.

HAHA, Jung-ran looks like a gangster as she menaces Butler Kim on the beach, telling him to remember his place. Everything he says in his own defense is taken as insult by Jung-ran, and Kim resigns himself to the beating he’s about to get. Jung-ran comes at him with a heavy stick and a primal scream, and Butler Kim flees in terror.

In-sung thinks Louis is nuts for turning down Joong-won’s offer to live with him, and tells him that it’s not that Joong-won wanted Louis to live at this place — he just wants him out of Bok-shil’s place. Joong-won likes Bok-shil, and Louis’s presence is a threat to him. But Louis has no intention of leaving Bok-shil’s side.

Scarface approaches In-sung’s mom, asking for an introduction to the couple who live in the rooftop apartment. She refuses until he passes her an envelope stuffed full of cash, then she spills everything she knows.

Scarface takes the info back to Director Baek, and tells him about Louis’s memory loss and how he came to live with Bok-shil. Baek wonders who died in the crash, but tells Scarface not to bother looking into it.

That night Louis tells Bok-shil about Joong-won’s offer to live with him, and that In-sung says it’s because Joong-won likes her. Bok-shil denies it, but Louis says that even if Joong-won does like her, she can’t like him back, because it would make him sad. Awww, sweet puppy.

Bok-shil grins though, and says that she can’t make him feel sad when he protected her all last night. She tells Louis that she’s scared of thunder and lightning, because it was a thunderstorm that caused the landslide that killed her parents. Since then, whenever it storms, she feels sick.

Louis leans across the curtain barrier to take Bok-shil’s hand comfortingly. She says she’s better now, and that he’s her last lead to find her only remaining family member. Louis promises again to help her find her brother, and they lay down to sleep.

Louis lies down facing Bok-shil, and opens the curtain just enough to watch her face while she sleeps.

Joong-won has panda-eyes the next morning from thinking about Bok-shil and Louis all night. He pictures them snuggled up under the same blanket, and shudders in horror.

The moment Bok-shil gets to work, Joong-won informs her that she’s going on a business trip to Busan with him and Ma-ri. Ma-ri is distinctly un-pleased, having planned to make Joong-won fall for her on this trip, and glares daggers at Joong-won.

Bok-shil texts Louis to tell him she won’t be home tonight, and Louis freaks out about her going on a trip with Joong-won. In-sung wonders if it’s a date in disguise, which does nothing to calm Louis, and he decides they’re going to Busan, too.

Scarface sees them leaving and calls Director Baek. Knowing that Grandma lives in Busan, Director Baek worries that Joong-won is going down there to meet with her. Wow, he’s super paranoid.

Bok-shil is enchanted by her first glimpse of the ocean, which makes Joong-won smile and Ma-ri look sour. Joong-won tells Bok-shil to go wait for him at the beach while he and Ma-ri go to their meeting, and he has no good answer when Ma-ri asks why he even brought her. Hee.

Butler Kim is sporting a brand-new shiner, and he looks scared when Jung-ran enters the room. She’s just bringing him a cold egg to put on his bruise, and we see that she didn’t give him that black eye — he fell on the beach and hit his face on a rock. She scoffs that she doesn’t hit people…. anymore.

Bok-shil finds a pretty balcony overlooking the sea, and marvels at its beauty. She gets a call from Louis asking where she is, and she turns to ask a nearby woman. Coincidentally, it just happens to be Grandma, there on a walk with Jung-ran.

Bok-shil hangs up, and Grandma asks about her friend. Bok-shil says he doesn’t know how to do anything but spend money, and Grandma laughs, but she says that at least he stays and tries to do what Bok-shil asks.

She says that her grandson loved to shop, and sighs, “I miss you, my precious.” Bok-shil asks where her grandson is, and Grandma says sadly that she sent him away to keep him safe, but then he went even further away.

Butler Kim goes online for a pair of sunglasses to cover his shiner, and he sees a review on one pair by someone calling themselves Shopping King Louis. The review says he’d buy the sunglasses “a million times,” which is a phrase Louis used to use a lot, and it gives Butler Kim pause.

He’s distracted by a call from Director Baek, who wants to know why Grandma isn’t answering her phone. It looks like Baek is on his way to Busan as well, and Butler Kim tells him which hotel she’s near, which is the same hotel he knows Joong-won is staying at.

Louis and In-sung arrive at the hotel, and Louis thinks it feels familiar. He tries his hardest, but he can’t remember anything specific.

Director Baek finds Grandma at the hotel, and he looks surprised and alarmed to see her talking to Bok-shil. He rushes Grandma away from her, just as Louis finds Bok-shil and calls out her name. Grandma recognizes his voice, but Director Baek blocks her from taking another look back.

Louis finds Bok-shil and immediately forbids her to cook for anyone but him (HA, In-sung asks if that was a confession or abuse). Louis just demands food and stalks off, smiling secretly, and Bok-shil and In-sung trail after him.

Ma-ri’s mom Jae-sook and Joong-won’s mom Young-ae run into each other at the mall, both wearing the same jacket. They have tea, bonding over their love of the same fashion blog, and become instant friends.

Since everyone is in Busan, Joong-won is roped into having an incredibly awkward meal with Grandma, Director Baek, and Ma-ri. Joong-won texts Bok-shil hoping for a rescue, but she says she’s having a great time and not to worry about her. HA, Joong-won’s face.

Grandma talks Joong-won into having a drink, and his face goes beet-red and he passes out right there on the table. Nobody seems one bit concerned, since this happens every time he drinks.

Butler Kim finds the group to tell them that he’s found someone posting as Shopping King Louis on the internet. He says the person’s “voice” even sounds like Louis, and Ma-ri mentions that her team has seen the posts as well, but Director Baek snaps that it’s cruel to get Grandma’s hopes up this way.

Director Baek speaks to Jung-ran privately, building her up as Grandma’s right hand and putting a bug in her ear about Butler Kim being a problem. He mentions something else, but we don’t hear what he says.

Ma-ri gets to spend her alone time with Joong-won, though he’s still passed out on the bar, ha. She answers his phone when Bok-shil calls, and she tells Bok-shil that Joong-won is too busy to talk and orders her back to Seoul.

Bok-shil, Louis, and In-sung have a great time playing in Busan, shopping in the busy markets and acting like silly kids together. They take goofy selcas in front of the ocean, Louis and Bok-shil giggling like children when they scoot in close for a picture, then sit in the sand to enjoy the view.

Bok-shil asks Louis if he’s ever seen the sea before, then seems to realize that her question might upset him. But Louis laughs and says of course he has, and that this view looks familiar. In-sung asks if Louis could have lived in Busan, and Louis denies the possibility — in a heavy Busan accent. Well, that’s a pretty big clue.

Bok-shil smiles, enjoying the sea air, and Louis gets this soft, adoring look in his eyes as he watches her. In-sung leaves to find a restroom, leaving the two alone on the beach.

A woman calls out to her little boy, Ji-sung, and the sound of his own forgotten name triggers a memory in Louis. He sees a flash of himself as a child, playing on the beach with his parents when they were still alive. He clutches his suddenly-pounding head, and jumps up to follow the family on the beach.

He sees more flashes — a car hitting him then driving away, someone punching him, a little boy playing with a dog named Koboshi. He collapses in the sand and Bok-shil rushes to him, and he’s able to shake off the memories and sit up weakly.

Louis stares at Bok-shil searchingly while she gently brushes the sand off his face. Bok-shil pulls him into a hug, crying that she was scared, and Louis hugs her back. He thinks that his scary, dark night was brightened by Bok-shil, and a tear rolls down his face.

Bok-shil starts to pull away, but Louis hugs her even tighter. He tucks his face into her neck and holds Bok-shil like she’s his only lifeline.

Back in Seoul, Bok-shil calls the team together to tell them that she has a presentation to make up for the one she couldn’t make before (when Ma-ri stole her water bottle idea). She tells them about her night in Busan, which gave her the idea to put together a tour package based on her experiences.

Ma-ri pokes holes in her idea, saying that tour packages like this already exist. Joong-won agrees, and Bok-shil wilts, until he points out that her package is based on her personal sensibilities, which should appeal to their customers.

Her approach is in line with the current trends, and Joong-won commends her on her idea. Not only that, but he announces that he’s extending Bok-shil’s contract from one month, to one year.

Ma-ri chases Joong-won down to criticize his decision to hire Bok-shil. But Joong-won says that Bok-shil has an instinct for creating innovative stories — even for water bottles. Oh, burn.

Bok-shil meets with Joong-won to thank him formally for extending her contract, and he tells her to do her best so she can be hired permanently. She runs home to give Louis the good news, and they bounce happily in the street like kids. In-sung joins them, just as thrilled for Bok-shil — I just love these three.

They go out to celebrate, though there’s an odd moment when Bok-shil looks upset. But she shakes it off and flashes her shiny new credit card, and In-sung snatches it back when Louis makes a grab for it, ha.

In-sung suggests they all get their hair done, and takes them to a stylist he knows. Her specialty is doing hair based on people’s names, which has her giving Louis a weird curly perm (to look like King Louis), and Bok-shil ends up with a wild, bushy mane like a poodle. Holy moly, they look awful.

Butler Kim makes a secret call to someone, and tells them that he hasn’t found Louis yet. Something about this feels wrong. Oh no, Butler Kim, don’t be a bad guy!

A hooded figure breaks into Louis and Bok-shil’s apartment, looking for something. He goes through their drawers, and takes out a hammer.

In-sung heads home to his mom, who tells him his new hairdo is hideous. She fusses at him for hanging out with Louis, ans he tells her that the “company” he works for (Bok-shil) just landed a new client (Bok-shil’s Seoul accent lessons).

Mom double-checks that In-sung hasn’t told Louis and Bok-shil about “the incident,” and he says that of course he hasn’t. He thinks if Louis finds out, he’d run away.

Ma-ri pulls Bok-shil into the stairwell the next morning to ask if she told Joong-won about the Gold Line bottle. She scoffs when Bok-shil denies it, and loudly demands to know how he found out. Bok-shil keeps her calm and says again that she never told anyone, but Ma-ri gets even more upset when she lets slip that Joong-won came to her place.

Bok-shil’s new hair startles Joong-won when he sees it, then he chuckles as he watches her fluff her curls. Ma-ri sees the whole thing and gapes at his reaction, sure he was going to tell Bok-shil she looks unprofessional.

Louis heads to the mall with Bok-shil’s credit card to pick up a designer bag that’s been calling to him. He’s surprised to learn that he can make payments, and chooses the longest option. Sweet thing, I’m sure he thinks he’s making a good choice.

He buys Bok-shil new clothes and shoes, and gives her the furry new bag. Bok-shil stands in shock, then asks how much this all cost, then gingerly sets the bag down when she hears the price. She asks how Louis intends to pay for all this, and bans him from the house until he gets refunds for everything.

She means it too, and Louis stands outside in the dark, whining that he doesn’t know how to get a refund. Bok-shil carefully packs everything, and thinks about something Grandma said — that watching what someone buys can tell you a lot about the person and what they need. Bok-shil realizes that everything Louis purchased, he bought for her.

It takes Louis a long time to get up the nerve to enter the store and return the purse, but he finally gets it done. Good boy!

Scarface meets with Director Baek, who says that Grandma will transfer all of her company shares to Director Baek. He emphasizes that Scarface has to find Louis before that happens.

Louis takes Bok-shil all the money he collected in refunds, and asks cutely for a pat on the head. Bok-shil points out that he wouldn’t have had to do it if he hadn’t bought everything in the first place. Louis pouts that he just wanted to get her a gift, and she says she knows.

But instead of a gift, she asks Louis to take her to a movie — she’s never been to one. Louis thinks hard, and says he doesn’t think he’s been to one, either. Strange. Bok-shil sets up to straighten Louis’s hair (oh thank goodness), and he offers to do hers afterward. They smile at each other, back on good terms again.

Some time later, Bok-shil waits at a movie theater for Louis to arrive and make good on his promise. He’s at a flower shop, and he demonstrates his newfound shopping restraint by buying her just one, perfect rose with the change he has in his pocket.

Louis literally skips down the street, excited for his first actual date with Bok-shil. He crosses the street with the light, but a car comes out of nowhere, and Louis leaps back, losing his balance.

Bok-shil’s rose goes flying, and Louis hits his head on the pavement, hard.

COMMENTS

Damn the preemption! Now we’re supposed to wait a whole week to find out the aftereffects of Louis’s latest head wound? This is so not fair…

Things are really amping up in the family/politics part of the show, but my fears that it would take over the cuteness and sweetness of Bok-shil and Louis’s budding relationship are unfounded, so far. There’s just enough of Grandma and Director Baek to keep me interested in the looming power-play, but not so much that I get bored of it. The show balances the two sides of the plot pretty well so far, and while I know that eventually we’ll get more into the fight for control over Gold Group (and does anyone else suspect that it’s actually Butler Kim on the wrong side of things, and Director Baek is trying to make things right? Is it just me?), I’m counting on the writer not to dampen what makes the show such a fun watch — the basket full of puppies that is Bok-shil and Louis.

But first — I was all set to hate In-sung when we first met him (mostly because Oh Dae-hwan always plays villains, so I’m hardwired to expect him to betray someone at the first opportunity) but the more we learn about In-sung, the more I like him. Yeah, he’s lazy and takes advantage, but he’s a good guy at heart and I think he truly likes Louis and Bok-shil. Seeing the three of them tooling around the city just having fun and being silly was the best, and made me fall in love with them as a friendship trio. There have never been three more unlikely friends, but together they make a pretty great team.

I just love and adore Louis’s complete and total lack of self-consciousness, the way he says exactly what he’s thinking and feeling at any given time. When he said that carrying Bok-shil makes his heart feel hot, I nearly melted on the spot. He’s not too shy to say that he likes Bok-shil, and that he’d be sad if she liked someone else. He hasn’t clearly confessed yet, but he may as well have, and Bok-shil seems to know it. She likes him just as much as he likes her, but I appreciate that neither of them pushes things, and are just letting their relationship unfold naturally.

It was a small moment, but I think that Bok-shil’s realization that Louis bought everything for her was a pretty big revelation. Everything he purchased was bought with Bok-shil in mind, which gives a pretty big clue as to what’s going on with Louis. He may have Bok-shil as a friend, but he’s still reliant on her for almost everything, from the roof over his head to the food in his belly. For a man who remembers subconsciously that he’s always had anything he wanted, it’s no wonder that Louis is terrified to lose Bok-shil.

Aside from Louis’s growing feelings for Bok-shil, she’s literally all he has in the world. He’s all tangled up between love and dependency, and I think he’s falling back on what he knows, shopping, in an attempt to get Bok-shil to bond to him and stay with him. He doesn’t yet realize that that’s not how you get a person to love you. Lucky for him, I think Bok-shil’s feelings for Louis are exactly in line with his for her, but I’m proud of her for not letting him get away with his shopping sprees or his inability to care for himself. He doesn’t need coddling, he needs guidance and someone to show him how to stand on his own two feet, and Bok-shil is exactly the right person to do that for him.

If I didn’t know that Louis was already sweet and innocent before his accident, I’d be super upset right now at the prospect of him getting his memory back so soon. Lucky for us, his amnesia didn’t change his personality all that much, so I’m confident he’ll still be the adorable Louis we’ve all come to love, including and most especially Bok-shil. I’m more concerned that he’ll forget all that’s happened to him while he couldn’t remember his past.

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