The Man Living in Our House: Episode 12

by LollyPip

The (loan) sharks are circling ever closer, and tension reaches a critical point. It’s time for Na-ri to face some cold, hard truths, and decide how she wants to proceed with her life and her relationship with Nan-gil. And with everyone grabbing for her land, Na-ri will need to start standing on her own two feet to protect what’s hers.

EPISODE 12 RECAP

When Nan-gil learns that Wan-shik is in the house with Na-ri, he runs to catch a taxi. He gets a call from Joon at that exact moment, whose kidnappers instruct him to have Nan-gil meet them. Nan-gil is torn between rescuing his friends or rescuing Na-ri, but then Joon pretends Nan-gil says he’s at the restaurant, and Nan-gil understands that his friend is telling him not to come.

Wan-shik closes in on Na-ri, and she stands up to him, asking where Nan-gil is and if he knows Wan-shik is here. Wan-shik’s phone rings with a call from Nan-gil, which he ignores. He warns Na-ri to stay away from Nan-gil, to just pay Dada Finance what she owes and leave.

Nan-gil calls Na-ri, who answers and thrusts the phone at Wan-shik. Nan-gil bellows at Wan-shik to pick up his phone, but Wan-shik only snarls into the phone that he won’t, and orders Na-ri to hang up. He grabs Na-ri’s arm when she tries to walk away, but she yanks her arm back and goes anyway. Good girl!

Yeo-joo ends up at the police station with Deok-bong’s friends from the club, looking like there’s been a mighty brawl. Her date calls Deok-bong to yell at him for setting him up with Yeo-joo, and tells him that the other clubbers were talking bad about Deok-bong, so Yeo-joo started literally flipping tables. HA.

Her date threatens to get Yeo-joo locked up, but Deok-bong warns that if he does, he’ll be in even bigger trouble. Evidently Deok-bong has something on the guy, and the threat works.

Na-ri escapes outside, but she doesn’t speak to Deok-bong, too distracted by what just happened inside. Nan-gil arrives and looks relieved to see Na-ri okay, and he runs in after Wan-shik without a word. Deok-bong wants to know why she came out of the restaurant just now, and whose strange car is in the street. Na-ri snaps that she doesn’t know what’s going on.

Nan-gil finds Wan-shik waiting patiently for him, and delivers a solid kick to the chest. He adds a few good punches just to make his point, then hands Wan-shik his phone with an order to tell his people to let Joon and Han-yi go.

Wan-shik smirks and says that Nan-gil hasn’t changed, that he’s still just a thug that uses his fists first. He says that Nan-gil should be thanking him, since he didn’t tell Na-ri that Nan-gil killed her father.

While Joon and Han-yi wait with their captors, Nan-gil asks Wan-shik what they plan to do with his chefs. Wan-shik only says that Nan-gil should stop before people get hurt, so Nan-gil calls CEO Bae and poses the same question. He asks if he should tell Wan-shik what he knows, and tells CEO Bae to let his boys go.

CEO Bae says it’s not that easy, so Nan-gil says he won’t send Wan-shik back, either. Nan-gil wins the standoff, and CEO Bae tells Nan-gil to send Wan-shik back to him. Nan-gil does, but not before telling Wan-shik to make his own choices, and that he can come to him if he’s scared.

Joon and Han-yi are set free, and Wan-shik can’t drive away from the restaurant fast enough. Deok-bong watches him leave, and angrily goes inside. He confronts Nan-gil, saying that if he can’t control these guys showing up, then he should at least keep Na-ri safe from them.

Na-ri quietly enters the restaurant in time to hear Deok-bong say that it’s time for Nan-gil to hand Na-ri’s land over to her and leave. He asks if Nan-gil thinks this is easy for him to watch, the way he feels about Na-ri.

Nan-gil says he’s jealous of Deok-bong, because he wishes he could look at Na-ri the way Deok-bong can. But protecting her mother’s land is all he can do for her, so that’s what he’s doing.

Nan-gil finds Na-ri at the house and asks if she’s okay, and she puts on a brave face for his benefit. He makes them some tea and asks if Deok-bong is mad at Na-ri because of him, but she avoids answering, then burns her fingers on her hot teacup.

Nan-gil jumps up and hovers, but Na-ri tells him not to treat her like a child. He moves to leave, but Na-ri remembers him saying he’s jealous of Deok-bong, and calls him back. She tells him not to worry about her because she’ll be fine.

Deok-bong goes to the police station in the morning as Yeo-joo’s lawyer. She’s still fuming that she’s the only one in trouble, but the cop tells Deok-bong that she hit several of the clubbers. She’s lucky they decided not to press charges, and that she’s only being charged with vandalism.

Deok-bong signs the settlement agreement on her behalf, which makes her angry because she can’t possibly pay it. Yeo-joo grumbles that this is all his fault for calling her easy — she was upset and drank too much, then overreacted when his friends said negative things about him.

Deok-bong figures that Yeo-joo was upset when he said that she’s simpler than Na-ri, and calls her pathetic for competing with someone who doesn’t care. Yeo-joo loudly denies that she’s competing, but Deok-bong isn’t buying it.

He’s surprised when Yeo-joo hops into his car and asks him to take her to the department store. She says she needs to replace the clothes and bag his friends destroyed, and mentions that he could use a style update to something that Na-ri likes.

Na-ri goes to the restaurant when Nan-gil doesn’t show up for breakfast, but finds the back door locked. The outdoor takeout stand isn’t set up either, because Young-gyu hasn’t shown up to work yet. Na-ri tries to chip in and bus some tables, but Nan-gil immediately stops her.

She grows upset when he tells her to leave and won’t answer her questions, and tells him that she’s seeing Deok-bong later. She asks Nan-gil to go with her to settle the land issue, and he just glares at her.

Yeo-joo dissolves into giggle fits when she sees Deok-bong dressed like Nan-gil, in an oversized sweater and ripped jeans. He whines that he can’t dress like this, but Yeo-joo threatens to change his hair, as well.

Young-gyu is lurking outside the restaurant, still traumatized from the night before and hurt that Nan-gil didn’t call him. Deok-shim walks up and nearly scares him into a backflip, and tells him to stop slacking off. Ha.

Deok-shim finally gives Na-ri her apology in the form of a USB file. But instead of a letter, it’s a series of photos of Nan-gil, captioned with whatever Deok-shim was thinking when she took the picture. The last photo is of Nan-gil staring up at Na-ri’s room, the longing on his face nearly palpable. The “letter” explains that this (her crush on Nan-gil) is why Deok-shim locked up Na-ri, and ran her off the road on her bike.

Na-ri calls Deok-shim to the playground, and says that that wasn’t an apology letter — she knows Deok-shim wants her to show Nan-gil those pictures. She asks if Nan-gil is a good person, and Deok-shim answers that he’s like the breeze in May.

Na-ri asks why Deok-shim lives here and not with her parents, and wonders what happened in Seoul. Deok-shim jumps up, kicks the swingset, and bolts away.

Deok-bong’s father bursts into Deok-bong’s office in a rage, having heard that he helped Nan-gil keep the land his father wants. Deok-bong asks why they can’t just make the land a park, reminding his father that their company buried explosives there which killed a whole building full of children.

Dad says that Deok-bong’s grandfather is dead, and there’s no evidence that they did any such thing. But a voice calls out, “I know,” and Dad whirls to see Secretary Kwon entering the room. She tells him that she’s the only survivor of that fire, and Dad looks stricken.

Na-ri shows Nan-gil the photos that Deok-shim gave to her. He flips through the pictures, and something in one shot catches his eye — the ajumma who claims that Na-ri’s father is dead, standing in front of Hong Mandoo. Na-ri tries to say something, but she stops when she realizes that Nan-gil is preoccupied.

Na-ri eventually says that she thinks she shouldn’t have suggested they end things so easily. She realizes that she doesn’t know much about him, so she tells him that she wants an hour a day so that they can learn more about each other. Nan-gil agrees, though he complains about her habit of switching from jondaemal to banmal and back, and Na-ri just says that’s family.

Deok-bong feels terrible about making Secretary Kwon do research on her own life tragedy, and she tells him and his father to leave that land alone. Dad leaves, telling Deok-bong to pay her off. She overhears and quits on the spot,

Na-ri does some research on panic disorders, and Deok-bong calls to remind her of her appointment with him. She says she’ll come by later with Nan-gil, since she’s going to meet with Uncle now, so Deok-bong insists on going along as her lawyer.

Nan-gil goes back to the dry cleaners where the ajumma works, but it’s closed. He leaves behind a note, saying that he knows she’s been to Hong Mandoo and asking her to call him.

CEO Bae orders Wan-shik’s accounts investigated, and of course Wan-shik assumes this is Nan-gil’s doing. In retaliation he calls Uncle, and orders him to tell Na-ri about Nan-gil’s involvement in her father’s death.

Deok-bong and Na-ri meet up with Uncle and Dada Finance’s lawyer. The lawyer says that Uncle intends to appeal the court decision, and Uncle pulls Na-ri aside to speak privately. He tells her right away that Nan-gil killed her father, and Na-ri freezes in shock.

She asks Uncle why he’s even here if he killed her father, hoping for a way not to believe it’s true. Uncle explains that Dada Finance covered everything up, but he can’t explain to her satisfaction why he hasn’t said anything before now. She wants to confront CEO Bae right now, and takes Uncle with her.

Young-gyu mentions the television show which is airing today, and asks where Nan-gil plans to watch. He wants to have a viewing party at the house, and when Nan-gil says no, Young-gyu chirps that he’ll just ask the real boss, ha.

Nan-gil ignores him and takes Deok-shim outside to tell her he saw her apology letter. He compliments her on her photography, but he tells her not to take his pictures secretly anymore — it’s not okay, even if she likes him.

He gently says that the way she feels about him, is how he’s felt about someone else for his whole life. He explains that he considers Deok-shim an adult, so he’s being straight with her, and she sadly nods her agreement.

CEO Bae sits down with Na-ri and Wan-shik, who confirms that he saw Nan-gil kill her father. She asks why he wasn’t punished, and CEO Bae explains that they said it was suicide and got the woman he was living with to agree. He says with great emotion that it’s not the first time Nan-gil drove someone to suicide.

He tells Na-ri that that’s why he canceled the adoption and let Nan-gil go. He says that Nan-gil is just trying to get control of her land for his own ends, and says that Uncle is free to go whenever he wants, but he’s scared to live with Nan-gil.

Deok-bong is led into the room, having followed Na-ri and Uncle. He introduces himself as Na-ri’s lawyer, and demands to see the documents on Na-ri’s father’s and uncle’s debts. CEO Bae clams right up.

Deok-bong takes Na-ri home, where she finds Young-gyu still excited about their TV show. He asks if they can have a viewing party at her place and she agrees, so he invites everyone over. HAHA, he’s so excited, but they’re all playing on their phones in their own little worlds.

Na-ri goes up to her room and finds a box of photos of herself and her father. She doesn’t know what to believe, between Uncle’s claims to have seen her dad last year, and CEO Bae’s story that he’s dead.

Yeo-joo joins the group downstairs, having come for Deok-shim and found the restaurant closed. Maknae Han-yi invites her to stay and watch the show with them, earning eyerolls all around when he happily calls her “Noona.”

She pops upstairs to see Na-ri, and isn’t the least bit hurt when Na-ri tells her to get lost. Nan-gil comes up next to ask her what’s wrong, and she pouts that they can talk later. He asks when they’re going to do their one hour a day, and Na-ri sighs that they may as well do it now.

CEO Bae discovers Wan-shik’s freelance deals, and slaps him hard across the face. Wan-shik says that he just got tired of watching Nan-gil run the show, and CEO Bae snarls that Wan-shik could never beat Nan-gil.

Wan-shik retorts that CEO Bae always liked Nan-gil more, and asks if that’s why CEO Bae believed Nan-gil and tracked his accounts. CEO Bae says that they’re all pocketing money on the side and he knows it, and asks what Wan-shik has to hide.

The lawyer hands Wan-shik a document and CEO Bae tells him to sign it, which will make him Dada Finance’s new CEO. CEO Bae tells him that all he has to do is go to prison for a few years, and the company will be his when he gets out.

We don’t see if Wan-shik signs the document, but later one of the other lackeys tells him that CEO Bae is hiding their money-laundering ledger. He asks if Wan-shik will be okay, and Wan-shik just says that once you start suspecting each other, both sides will die. He calls Nan-gil and says he sent him an address, but that’s all he can do.

Nan-gil and Na-ri sit to talk, and Nan-gil says that Na-ri’s silence is making him nervous. She tells him that she’s alone now that her father’s passed away, and that she went to Dada Finance today and heard another lie — that Nan-gil killed her father.

She wants him to deny it, but Nan-gil can’t do that. She asks why he looked for her father if he knows he’s dead, and he says that not one hospital has a record of him being brought in that day, so he wanted to believe her father is still alive.

At a nursing home not too far away, the ajumma from the dry cleaners saunters into the building and finds one of the janitors. He approaches her and they both smile widely — it’s Dad, and he is alive!

Nan-gil tells Na-ri everything about the day (he believes) her father died — the fight with their rivals, chasing her father to the roof, and how he’d jumped. He remembers the fear in the man’s eyes, all because of Nan-gil. He tells Na-ri that he saw the blood, and that it was his fault her father jumped.

Nan-gil says in a shaking voice that he tried to convince himself that he wasn’t to blame, but he can’t forgive himself. Na-ri cries silently for a minute, then walks away without a word.

The TV show airs while Nan-gil and Na-ri are talking, and the chefs find Nan-gil to report that their website is blowing up. Nan-gil leaves without comment, and Young-gyu is the only one who doesn’t realize that something is wrong.

Na-ri’s dad seems to be living in one of the unused rooms in the nursing home, where he’s set up a small television. Dad and the ajumma catch the cooking show on TV, and the ajumma tells Dad that she has his daughter’s phone number. He reminds her that they agreed to forget all that, but the ajumma is moved by Na-ri’s wish to find her father.

Na-ri walks past Yeo-joo and Deok-shim on her way to her room, and they follow her upstairs to see what’s wrong. Na-ri doesn’t answer Yeo-joo though, and her door is locked.

Nan-gil calls Joon to say that he’s found the ledger that will help him take down Dada Finance for good. He tells Joon to send all of their files to the prosecutor, and vows to end things once and for all.

Na-ri is lost in memories of her father, recalling how he used to push her on the swings at the playground. She gets a call from the ajumma, who says that she knows where she can find her father. She sends Na-ri the address to the nursing home and tells her to come alone, because her dad is afraid of people.

Na-ri tries to tell Nan-gil where she’s going, but finds his office empty. He doesn’t answer his phone either, so she heads out on her own. She finds the nursing home, and almost immediately sees her father walking towards her. She recognizes him, and as he nears her, his eyes flick up to her face.

Nan-gil has gone to Dada Finance, and he braces himself before entering the bar room. His thoughts are full of Na-ri’s confession that she loves him, as he walks into the fight of his life. He takes on all of Dada’s thugs at once, and he’s holding his own pretty well until one sneaks up behind him and cracks a bottle over his head.

Nan-gil goes down, and his last conscious thought is an apology to Na-ri for making her cry.

COMMENTS

It’s no surprise to learn that Na-ri’s father is alive, and I’m very curious to hear what really happened to him and why he’s still in hiding. I want to know his reasons for running in the first place all those years ago, and why he’s still running now. I have no doubt he’s hiding from Dada Finance and his old debts, but I do wonder why he never once tried to contact Na-ri and tell her he’s alive. He seemed like a loving father when he still lived with his family, so whatever is keeping him from his daughter so many years later must be pretty horrific to have him faking his own death and planning to avoid her for what seems like the rest of his life.

I agree with many commentors that I wish we’d seen why Na-ri fell in love with Nan-gil (beyond his obvious attractiveness and just the fact that they were together a lot), because it does feel like we were just told that she fell for him, but not shown. It’s lazy storytelling, especially when the drama had plenty of time to show us Na-ri falling for Nan-gil. When that happens, there’s a disconnect between what we as viewers are told to believe within the story, and what we feel on a visceral level. So we know she loves him, because she told us she does, but we never really saw it happen and were never given any reasons why Na-ri loves Nan-gil. It’s hard to believe in a couple when you don’t feel in your gut that they belong together. In real life, things happen that way, and sometimes you just love someone for no real specific reason, and that’s okay. But it’s confusing in a show like this, where we were shown why Nan-gil loves Na-ri, so we’re really invested in his love for her, but it doesn’t evolve the same way on the other side of the romance.

That said, it’s not like Na-ri is a weak or badly written character — I really like how Na-ri never loses her spine of steel or her determination to go after what she wants. She never gives up or lets go, and she’s decided to stay and fight for Nan-gil in whatever way she can, even if it’s only as a close friend and “family” member. But again, because she’s such a strong character who tells us straight out what she wants and how she intends to get it, it makes it that much more difficult to believe why she loves Nan-gil because it’s the one thing she hasn’t told us. She even said she doesn’t know why she loves him.

I think that I’m suffering from a case of Be careful what you wish for when it comes to the plot of the show. Early on, I really enjoyed the light, breezy humor and cute shenanigans of our characters, but I wished for the plot to give us something a bit more meaty to sink our teeth into when it came to Nan-gil’s reasons for marrying Mom. Then the show gave us exactly that, a unique and interesting backstory that I find pretty compelling. But now I’m missing the fun, lighthearted humor of the first few weeks, when the most Na-ri had to worry about was why this handsome stranger was saying he’s her father.

It’s not that I feel like either sides of the coin are lacking — in fact, I like the show as much now as I did when it started. But the tonal shift from easy comedy to dark and brooding melo is just so abrupt and final, it’s like we lost everything that made us fall in love with the show in the first place. It’s possible to delve into some deeper topics without losing that spark of fun and romance, as some recent shows have proved, but for some reason it’s like all the sweetness and cuteness and fun were just tossed out the window in favor of loan sharks and thugs. Even the token characters who are just there for humor, like Deok-shim and Yeo-joo, have faded in both interest and spirit. So while I do find this section of the plot necessary and interesting, I don’t look forward to the show like I did just a few short weeks ago, because all of the brightness is gone. I only hope it comes back soon.

 
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