Revolutionary Love: Episode 2

by javabeans

This show can be silly and the humor fairly broad, but today we actually get a plot! A real, honest-to-goodness trajectory with motivations and goals, which is more than I had been expecting or hoping of this show. I’d thought there was enough feel-good comedy to carry me through this marshmallow of a show, plot or no, but now that we’re also shown some direction, I’m not letting them take that back.

 
EPISODE 2 RECAP

Hyuk’s words about falling in love with Joon haunt Je-hoon’s sleep—he keeps seeing Hyuk’s face in his mind, declaring her the woman of his fate, and it taunts him. Je-hoon snaps awake to find that it’s morning, and Hyuk is nowhere to be seen.

Hyuk chows down on breakfast, eating with Joon on the rooftop, and happily agrees to a refill (for a fee, of course). He chuckles to himself at the “paradise” he finds himself un, here with the woman of his fate and his only childhood friend in the same place.

Je-hoon storms up to the rooftop and glares daggers at Hyuk, who smiles innocently back at him. Still playing the part of the stranger, Hyuk thanks Je-hoon for putting him up for the night and enjoys using the word “friend” pointedly, and also drags out his polite jondae word endings so that they sound tacked-on. Which, of course, they are.

Je-hoon tells his “guest” that the considerate thing would be to tell him where he’s going and to clean up his bedding. He insists on it being done now, and Hyuk amiably agrees, getting up to head downstairs.

Just then, Joon, who’s watching the news on her phone, exclaims, “Did your company chairman’s son get in trouble again?” The airplane situation is blowing up in the media, and Joon tsk-tsks to hear about how money was used to hush up the incident.

The boys trade panicked looks, and Joon sighs that Je-hoon will be busy cleaning up after the “chaebol lout,” and that makes Hyuk freeze in shock. Aw, is it sadder that he’s hurt to be called that, or that he has no idea why anyone would call him that?

Joon continues her rant, saying that privileged rich kids should be grateful for their situations in life rather than causing trouble, and that people like that are deep-rooted evils who should be erased from the world. She makes angry slashes with her chopsticks, saying that if he showed up in front of her right now, he’d be dead. Hyuk gulps. She adds that Je-hoon’s bad, too, for using money to fix the punk’s problems, and that she’s tempted to report him to the media. Je-hoon surprises her by snapping at her to do as she wants.

Hyuk is so stunned by her description of him as a churlish lout and has to be pulled away by his friend. He decides that he can’t have Joon operating under the tragic “misunderstanding” that he’s some kind of degenerate and vows to correct it straightaway. Je-hoon, however, tells him sternly to not make things worse and just return to his hotel suite and stay there.

Je-hoon leaves for work, and Hyuk sits down to mull over his problem. He decides that he has to prove that he isn’t some kind of deep-rooted evil.

At a Gangsu Group executive meeting, the air is thick with tension over their current crisis. The conglomerate runs multiple companies, from home shopping to food, each run by a Byun sibling, and consumer response has been harsh all around.

Hyuk’s aunt snaps at the chairman (her brother) to keep his son in line, and then also at another president (her other brother) for chastising her, until it’s a full-on sibling bickering war. Finally, the chairman slams his fist down and yells at the room to make plans, not have a family squabble.

The doors burst open, and Hyuk comes striding in with purpose, declaring that he has a plan, and comes before his father.

The chairman asks skeptically what kind of plan he could have, and Hyuk replies that he will turn himself in to the authorities, accept his punishment, and explain the situation to keep the company from receiving censure. He bows low and asks to be allowed to handle it.

But his father tells him flatly, “Don’t. I don’t need you to surrender or any of that, so just do nothing.” Hyuk starts to protest, and his father delivers a thunderous slap to the face. The chairman asks, “Who the hell are you to explain anything? Who would believe what you say? Don’t say anything, and don’t do anything! Just do as you’re told, and quietly hunch down.”

Hyuk tries to say that he should fix the problem he created, but his father slaps his other cheek and asks if Hyuk knows how much financial damage he caused. Hyuk says that part of the accusations are unjust, but Dad hits him a third time, this time knocking him to the ground.

He starts kicking him, too, stomping on him violently while the rest of the room sits there uncomfortably.

Je-hoon hears of Hyuk’s appearance and races toward the conference room. Hyuk, slumped on the ground being trampled, recites another poem (Park Hyo-geun’s “Of Wounds”):

All wounds are like flowers,
the color of flowers
The more the blood flows
the scent of flowers remains
The scent spreads inside the person,
and in their heart is a large wound
a well-ripened wound
which smells of flowers.

Growing increasingly enraged, Chairman Byun screams for Hyuk to die and grabs a heavy metal chair. As he raises it above his head, Je-hoon reaches the room and rushes forward, blocking the chairman with arms outstretched.

The chairman calms at the interruption, and from the floor, Hyuk smiles up at his friend. The chairman barks at Je-hoon to take Hyuk and hide him away—out of sight, unreachable, unseeable. He stomps out, and the meeting disperses.

Hyung Woo-sung steps over to look down at Hyuk, bloodied on the ground, and just sighs as he walks away. Okay hyung, you go on the shit list now.

When it’s just the two of them left, Hyuk calls up to Je-hoon, “My friend.” He laughs off his pain, saying this is nothing, and even quips that his father’s fists have weakened, which is why he’s switched to using his feet. Je-hoon looks more upset than Hyuk does, and he helps him to his feet.

Joon drops by Je-hoon’s office again to pass out drinks, though she finds his desk empty. For the second time today, she gets a call from her mother, whom she seems to be ignoring.

Je-hoon tends to the cuts on Hyuk’s face and asks why he came here. Hyuk says he wanted to prove that he isn’t the punk Joon thinks he is. Je-hoon assures him that his brother worked to keep him from being arrested, and that he’ll get off with probation. He tells him to take the car that’s been prepared for him and avoid the reporters.

Hyuk asks if there’s really nothing he can do of his own accord. Je-hoon just hands him a new phone and puts a cap on his head. As they walk off together, they spot Joon in the distance, being pushed out of the office by an irritated manager.

Even as she’s being told to go away, she tries to sell her juice to the man, reminding him that he enjoyed her freebies earlier. Fed up, he grabs her bag and upends it onto the floor, sending juice cartons flying everywhere, and demands that security be called.

The exchange angers both Hyuk and Je-hoon, but while Je-hoon just stands there clenching his fist, Hyuk steps forward and helps collect juice cartons. Joon’s startled to see him, but he tells her to wait, then goes off after the man, delivering one juice carton to his desk.

The man barks, “What the hell–!” before looking up to recognize the chairman’s son. Hyuk tells him to just buy the juice, since the vendor is just trying to make an honest living, and the man readily agrees.

Just then, Joon slaps a hand on the back of Hyuk’s head and forces him into a deep bow, apologizing to the man. HA! She pulls Hyuk aside wearing her frowniest face, tsking disapprovingly.

The astonished employee gets on his phone to spread the news that the infamous son has made an appearance. Je-hoon swipes the phone before he uploads the message, warning him not to spread rumors.

Joon chastises Hyuk for trying to strong-arm a customer into a purchase, telling him that’s not how sales works. Then she registers the bruises and cuts on Hyuk’s face, and asks what happened.

He starts to explain that his father works here, and when she asks which department, he replies vaguely that he’s sort of all around. She guesses he means janitorial or security, and Hyuk lets her believe that his father works in security. She assumes that Dad was so disappointed that Hyuk got fired from the hotel that he hit him.

Hyuk concedes, “I am a son who’s only ever disappointed him.” Then Je-hoon calls to tell him to return to the hotel, and he starts to head off—but Joon grabs him at the last second and cites a sum for a day’s wages.

Je-hoon takes a private meeting with his prosecutor sunbae, both of them in damage-control mode. The media has caught wind of the incident and the cover-up, but they both agree that it would be much worse if they discovered any more—particularly the prosecutor’s involvement. So while Je-hoon asks if the leak came from the prosecutor’s office, he believes the prosecutor’s denial when he points out that they have more to lose.

The prosecutor adds that in his experience, incidents like this come from the inside, and that the enemy could be closer than expected.

Je-hoon takes this information to Woo-sung, and checks that hyung made sure to keep that USB file carefully under wraps. Woo-sung assures him that he put it in his safe immediately, and tells Je-hoon to check that the flight attendant is keeping her mouth shut. Asked where Hyuk is now, Je-hoon says he’s probably back at the hotel.

But nope, Hyuk is at a construction site with Joon. He breaks the fourth wall to mouth at the camera incredulously, “What’s going on?”

He tries to protest, but Joon pays him no mind and introduces him to her fellow construction workers. The ajusshis feel up his muscles and find them lacking, which piques his pride and prompts Hyuk to flex. Joon leaves Hyuk to her team’s care, and overrides his protests by reminding him that this is a way for him to earn money right away.

So Hyuk finds himself loaded up with bricks and pipes and dirt, staggering across the site all day. Finally he declares that he can’t continue, just as Joon calls out to him from above and cheers him on.

Hyuk slips away to call in an SOS to Je-hoon, begging to be saved from this “hell.” He explains how he got stuck here by following Joon, but cuts the call short when he’s caught by his coworker, who scolds him for shirking his work and points to Joon nearby, working hard as usual.

At the sight of her, Hyuk’s face breaks into a lovesick grin. He sees poetry in her every movement, and thinks, “Joonie, everything you do is beautiful…”

Je-hoon goes to the airport to meet the flight attendant from Hyuk’s incident, HA YEON-HEE (Kim Ye-won). She takes offense to his questions about the leaked video and the implication that she was the source, and says she’s trying hard to forget the encounter. Yeon-hee asks him not to seek her out again, warning that she can break the contract that bought her silence.

Je-hoon tells her she may be approached by the media, and tells her not to give any interviews or say anything. He warns that they can just as easily break their agreement if she violates the contract.

At the end of the workday, Hyuk is so exhausted that he can barely move. Joon shows him the cash he earned today, which makes him happy—but then she deducts every little fee and claims half the bills for herself. Hyuk stares at his paltry earnings, registering that he worked all day for this.

That night, flight attendant Yeon-hee pulls her suitcase along, heading toward an apartment building, drinking soju out of a bottle through a straw.

As they walk home, Joon asks Hyuk if he’s called his father yet. Hyuk keeps it vague but alludes to them having a bad relationship, and Joon urges him to treat him well while he’s still alive, because it won’t matter when he’s gone. He asks about her father, and she says that he was an ordinary father, kind but timid. Mom found that frustrating, but Joon says he was the best father to her. She explains that he was hurt by the world, and starts to say, “That’s why I…”

Hyuk stops her suddenly, before she steps on dandelions growing through a crack in the street. He pulls them up and blows on the seeds, sending them flying through the air.

He explains how he always feels the urge to blow on dandelion flowers: “It feels like a wounded soul is flying freely somewhere.” When the seeds take root elsewhere, it can forget its painful past.

Je-hoon arrives at his building, and his face darkens to see Hyuk still with Joon. He asks what Hyuk is still doing here, and Joon explains that they’re working together and asks Je-hoon to put him up again. Je-hoon refuses, so Joon offers her place—she can sleep with a friend on the third floor—and suggests a small fee to cover the cost. Hyuk happily agrees and counts out the cash.

Next thing we know, Je-hoon is shoving him into his apartment instead, while Hyuk cries that he already paid. Heh.

Joon’s mother calls again, and after considering it, she rejects the call. Noticing a bit of dandelion fluff on her sleeve, she pulls it off and blows it into the wind. Then she turns, and starts in surprise to find someone else on the rooftop—flight attendant Yeon-hee, sipping her soju. Ah, so she’s the third-floor friend.

Joon joins her for a drink (pouring herself a tiny capful of soju, heh), and guesses that Yeon-hee has something on her mind. Yeon-hee brings up the chaebol airplane incident and admits that the flight attendant being manhandled in the video is actually her.

Meanwhile, Hyuk stares at one of his hard-earned bills and tells Je-hoon that this is the first money he’s ever earned with his own efforts. He decides he’ll keep it as his lucky bill rather than spend it.

Je-hoon tells him that most people can’t keep as mementoes the cash they work so hard to earn, because they have to spend it to live. Hyuk notes that, then his eyes fly open with new understanding. He exclaims, “Hell Joseon!” and says that he feels like Neo who’s just swallowed the red pill, because “the Matrix I’ve lived in has just shattered.”

He credits his “woman of fate” for being the one to give him this pill of truth, and gets up to have a drink with Joon. Je-hoon vetoes that plan, so Hyuk says that while Je-hoon is 99 percent an excellent friend, he is 1 percent flawed, being way too stuffy and uptight. That seems really generous to me.

Up on the rooftop, Yeon-hee is three sheets to the wind as Joon reads through the contract she signed agreeing to keep the airline incident quiet. Yeon-hee says she didn’t want to sign, but her superiors ordered her to.

Joon is appalled to see Je-hoon’s business card attached to the contract, and Yeon-hee adds that he even sought her out today to threaten her and accuse her of leaking the video. Fuming, Joon vows to kill him and gets up to confront Je-hoon.

That’s when Hyuk bounds up to the rooftop, calling Joon’s name and clamoring for a drink. Yeon-hee squints at Hyuk and seems to recognize him, and when she gets up, the soju bottle falls from her hand. It rolls right into Hyuk’s path, and when he steps on it, he goes flying into the air, arms flailing.

Joon does a Matrix-style backbend out of his path, which sends him barreling straight for Yeon-hee…’s chest. He knocks her down and lands on top of her, and when they both register what’s happened, they erupt into screams.

Je-hoon arrives on the rooftop just in time to take in the situation, and Hyuk swears this was an accident. Glaring at Hyuk, Yeon-hee declares that he’s him—that third-generation chaebol bastard.

Those words fill the night air, then land on top of Hyuk’s head like a damning label. Hyuk swears he’s not that guy, rather pathetically.

Joon asks incredulously if he’s that chaebol, and Yeon-hee wails that he is. Hyuk begs her to believe him, but she tells him to shut up and clocks him in the face. He goes down like a rock.

Across town, Hyuk’s mother bolts up in bed, having dreamed a bad dream about Hyuk. Dad tells her it was a nonsense dream, but she decides to return to the fortuneteller-guru for help.

Joon asks Je-hoon if this is really the chaebol he works for, and Je-hoon confirms it. Now she’s furious at both of them for lying to her, and when Hyuk tells her it all started with a tiny misunderstanding back at the hotel, she’s reminded all over again how far back his lies go.

Hyuk tries to explain that she has the wrong idea of his chaebol self, and that he really isn’t that much of a bastard. But at that, Yeon-hee breaks a soju bottle and holds up the jagged side like a weapon, advancing on the guys.

Joon tells the guys to kneel and apologize to Yeon-hee, and Hyuk goes down in a flash and apologizes. But Je-hoon balks, saying he did nothing wrong.

So Yeon-hee takes the agreement she signed and rips it to shreds, then throws them at Je-hoon. He snaps that she can’t do this after accepting the compensation money, so Yeon-hee grabs cash from the drink box and flings it at him. Je-hoon just keeps pouring fuel on that fire, asking angrily why she took the money in the first place.

Joon pulls out her phone to report them both to the police, and while Hyuk pleads for her not to, Je-hoon challenges her to go ahead—and then threatens to name her as an accomplice, saying that he’ll tell them she knew who Hyuk was and harbored him willingly. Wow, you’re just digging that grave deeper.

But then Yeon-hee falls over unconscious, and Joon rushes to her side. Hyuk offers to help but gets ordered to stay away and called a pervert. Joon’s words sting.

Hyuk asks Je-hoon he provoked Joon, because she might really report them. Hyuk says he’s okay with being taken into custody, but Je-hoon will find himself in trouble at the office. Je-hoon says that the worst thing that could happen is being fired, sighing that he’s tired of being responsible for all of Hyuk’s messes.

“Now I want to see what happens to my life if I let you go,” Je-hoon says. Hyuk hangs his head and searches for words, and says that he knows he’s caused his friend a lot of grief, but they should ride this crisis out together. Je-hoon just rolls over in bed and turns his back.

Joon carries Yoon-hee inside, fuming over the two guys: one a pervert, one heartless. She balks at the idea that they’re her friends, and although her mind briefly flashes to the dandelion-blowing moment with Hyuk, that’s cut short when Yeon-hee kicks her in her sleep.

Hyuk heads upstairs and hesitates outside Joon’s door, just as she steps outside. He starts in on the explanations, apologizing for not telling her who he was and accepting responsibility for his wrongs. Still, he wants to correct the misconception that he’s a pervert and reminds her that the soju bottle was the reason he fell. She calls them cheap excuses, and says that he’d better apologize to Yeon-hee before she stops considering him a pervert.

As she turns to leave, Hyuk gets down on his knees and swears not to move until she forgives him. “Whatever,” she mutters, and heads off.

Joon is busy distributing cards for her designated driving gig when her mother texts her asking for a call. Joon asks what the matter is, and Mom writes back, “Do you… have any money?”

So Joon picks up the phone and asks indignantly what it is this time. Apparently Mom asks for money frequently, and Joon snaps that if Mom threw away her daughter to marry again and have a new family, she should have at least lived well.

Joon exclaims, “I’m struggling to live too! I’m having a really hard time!” Her hand drops, and we see that she was yelling into the phone without calling.

As Joon blinks back tears, she flashes back to when she was young, and had come home from school to find her mother yelling at her father for being excessively loyal to his company, only to be let go without warning. Mom had cried at the unjustness of it all, while Dad just sighed.

Joon picks up a customer at a restaurant and drives him home, while in the backseat his girlfriend says sympathetically that he must be struggling after his brother kicked up such a fuss and then disappeared. Aha, the passenger is Woo-sung, and he says he’s not worried because it’ll all be settled tomorrow. The girlfriend asks if Gangsu Group will be his now, and Joon starts in recognition.

Woo-sung warns her to watch what she says, but the girlfriend assures him that she knows the driver, who wouldn’t be able to work for the company if they gossiped about their passengers. All Woo-sung says is that his plan doesn’t exactly involve voluntary surrender.

On the rooftop, Hyuk remains kneeling despite complaining about the cold, telling himself he has to stay out here to prove his sincerity. Then lightning flashes and thunder booms, and he bellows Joon’s name into the sky.

By morning, the rain has stopped and Hyuk is huddled over on the rooftop, asleep. Je-hoon kicks him awake and tells him to go to the hotel, but Hyuk swears he’ll stay till Joon returns. Frustrated, Je-hoon tells him, “If you’re going to be so stubborn, you may as well cut all ties with me.” When Je-hoon barks at him to get up, this time he does.

Joon thinks of Hyuk’s description of his relationship with his father, and remembers how she’d sobbed when her father died. She ends up calling her mother for real this time, though we don’t catch the conversation.

Later that morning, Joon arrives for her drink delivery job at Je-hoon’s office, and he pulls her aside to ask if she really means to report them. She asks how much hush money he’d give, since she could use some extra cash. He points out that she’s not the injured party and doesn’t have a reason to intervene, and she retorts that there’s justice and the social good.

Je-hoon says that this is why people need to take the standard path—because living in instable conditions for too long makes them disgruntled with society. I keep thinking he hits bottom, but then he keep digging new bottom. Joon just offers to share the story of a runaway chaebol getting caught by a disgruntled part-timer with the reporters surrounding the building.

Je-hoon asks if she’s serious about the part where she needs money. The question gives Joon pause, and she realizes, “You’re not on the same side.” He’s confused by that—but ahh, she thinks he’s in league with the hyung.

She shares what she overheard Woo-sung saying last night, and asks what he thinks Woo-sung’s plan is. Je-hoon remembers the prosecutor’s tip that often the enemy is on the inside.

At the hotel, a police officer inquires into Hyuk sightings, and Manager Lee Yoon-ji nervously lies that she hasn’t seen him. The officer informs her of a report that Hyuk was recently kicked out of this hotel, but that makes her remember Je-hoon’s reaction earlier, when he insinuated that the chairman would be very displeased to hear how she treated a VIP.

She swears that they’ve never kicked anyone out here, just as Hyuk walks right up to the front desk next to them. The clerks’ eyes widen in recognition, and the manager sweats, hoping the officer doesn’t notice.

Je-hoon drives himself and Joon to the hotel, recalling the prosecutor’s warning of possible police involvement. So when he sees Hyuk in the lobby with a police officer nearby, his main concern is getting Hyuk out of there before the officer recognizes him.

The cop compares Hyuk to the picture, though admittedly he doesn’t have the bleached hair or vampire complexion today, so the dots haven’t been fully connected yet.

Hyuk heads off with his room key, and the officer starts to follow—so the manager throws a vase in his path, making him stop to catch it. It buys just enough time for Hyuk to walk away to the elevators, but the officer remains determined to check with him anyway.

Je-hoon doesn’t make it to Hyuk’s elevator in time, and neither does the officer. The officer waits for the next elevator while Je-hoon takes the stairs, and they arrive within moments of each other. Je-hoon ducks out of sight and tries to figure out how to get to Hyuk unseen.

All the while, Hyuk remains unaware of all the activity around him, and settles into his room.

Suddenly, a maid’s cart goes rolling by, and Je-hoon is startled to see Joon pushing it, dressed in her housekeeping uniform. She tells Je-hoon to get the car ready while she escorts Hyuk out.

Hyuk lies in bed thinking this can’t be the end with Joon, just as the doorbell rings—on the other side, Joon rings the bell insistently as the officer gets closer and closer to the door. Je-hoon calls and tells him to open the door, and Hyuk is astonished to see Joon standing there. She pushes her way in, and they shut the door before the officer sees anything.

Joon orders Hyuk to climb into the cart, while Je-hoon explains that the police have caught on that he’s staying here. Hyuk is touched at the idea that Joon came to help him, though she snaps that she just came for the money.

Hyuk’s mother hears from the fortuneteller that there’s a woman in the picture. The fortuneteller says that he has the fate of Ondal—a reference to the folktale fool who married a princess and, through her efforts, became a decent man. In short: Hyuk needs this woman to make a decent man of him. And in fact, the fortuneteller assures Mom that she’s already quite near.

Back in the hotel room, Joon states that she will be paid a large sum in exchange for helping him escape. From the look of surprise on Je-hoon’s face, I’m guessing she’s making this up on the fly, but it seems to be fine by Hyuk, who agrees to the deal.

He adds a condition of his own, that Joon stay with him until he returns home. He says he’s effectively a fugitive now, and it’ll be less scary with her at his side. He offers her the salary of a Gangsu Group secretary, and names her working hours as from the morning when he opens his eyes to the night when he closes them.

Over the phone, Je-hoon protests this turn in the discussion, but nobody hears him. Joon negotiates her hours from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. instead, with no personal conversations, no personal errands, and no friendly behavior. Hyuk pouts, but agrees to the terms.

He calls today their Day 1, and they shake on it.

COMMENTS

Ha, so Hyuk is Ondal the Fool, is he? That’s so fitting that I don’t know why I didn’t see it before. In a nutshell: The princess Pyeonggang married Ondal the Fool after she insisted her father honor his words (he’d threatened to marry her off to the fool when she was younger). Ondal was scorned for being a poor idiot, but Pyeonggang became a hard-working and thoughtful wife to him and, eventually, guided him into learning martial arts and becoming a skilled soldier.

I like this setup a lot, because it captures what I find sweet about Hyuk’s character, despite the fact that it sure sounds like he’s lived a reckless and ill-considered life. We can’t blame everything on bad luck or see him as a victim, because he does have a hand in his mistakes. But I believe him when he feels painted with the wrong brush—he’s a spoiled chaebol, but he’s not a malicious one. He’s not like those amoral villains of thrillers like Veteran or Remember—Son’s war who literally get away with murder, and he’s not as bad as the real-life chaebol in the nut-rage incident. He is misunderstood, but within a limit.

So I can appreciate the characterization of him as a fool who doesn’t know any better—not that that excuses him—who learns through a tough-minded woman how to be the good person he is underneath all the embarrassing outbursts. And while he has a tendency to be overly dramatic, it’s significant that he can actually see the world differently now, after just one small taste of hard work. His eyes are opened, and hopefully that guides him on a brighter path.

I still find Je-hoon to be more interesting in theory than in reality, but I can at least believe that he does care about Hyuk, even if he doesn’t show it. He seems like the kind of person who says the exact opposite of what he means, who can’t say a nice thing if his life depended on it, even if he really did want to say the nice thing. He carries too much baggage and too big an inferiority complex to be able to do that, I think. But when Hyuk was beaten, and his brother didn’t even look worried, and nobody said anything but Je-hoon, who put himself in the line of fire—okay, he won some points with me there. He seems to embody the concept of loving someone (even if it’s counter to his intention) without really liking them.

So while the story still feels a little flatter than I’d like and the comedy a titch overdone, I’m very glad to see things moving so quickly. Who knew she’d find out so soon about his true identity? I’d expected the show to milk that scenario for a few more episodes at least, so when they outed his identity and let the shit hit the fan with Joon, I was happy to be taken by surprise. It’s sort of like being taken on a brisk, refreshing ride that whisks around bends before you see what’s next, which I find more appealing than rides where you can see the road ahead for miles.

I also feel relieved that this is a show that’s got a good-natured tone and two really appealing characters driving the romance at the center. More than the loveline, even, I’m drawn to Hyuk’s growth story at the core, and feel like Siwon has enough nuance to make that journey compelling. You can already seem glimpses of Hyuk’s more somber, thoughtful nature behind the whiny facade, and that will be a major source of gratification, I suspect. I hope.

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