Temperature of Love: Episodes 37-38

by LollyPip

The cute is definitely back in full force as Jung-sun and Hyun-soo work together to redefine their relationship. Love involves learning to deal not just with each other, but all those connected with the one you love, which can be a daunting task. But with new attitudes and a stronger commitment, these two just might make it.

 
EPISODE 37 RECAP

Jung-woo jokingly threatens to beat up Jung-sun, who jokes back that he’d like a chance to talk his way out of it. When Jung-woo mentions that it’s his birthday, Jung-sun asks if he’s getting hit as payback for punching Jung-woo on his birthday last year. (Wow, it’s been that long?)

Instead, the two men shake hands and go to the roof. Jung-woo says that he always liked that Jung-sun never got swayed, and that he wanted to try swaying him because he thought it might change him. Jung-sun returns that he respected that Jung-woo never got hurt even when he was rejected.

Jung-sun muses that he feels more like himself than ever, and Jung-woo says that’s because he became better when he wasn’t swayed. He adds that Hyun-soo was never swayed by him, and congratulates Jung-sun on winning her.

Hyun-soo goes to see Jung-sun at Good Soup to complain that he didn’t update her after running off to check on his mother last night. He says that he’s still not good at this and that he didn’t want to worry her, and she confesses that she called his mother to check on her, without telling him.

But this time he’s not upset, and Hyun-soo says that they should have been this relaxed about it all along. Jung-sun argues that things improved between them because they fought, but Hyun-soo pouts that being broken up for two weeks was worse than being apart for five years.

She goes upstairs to see his mother, who asks Hyun-soo to spend some time with her. They go shopping, Hyun-soo gaping at the price tags on everything Jung-sun’s mother picks out. But they don’t buy anything, and Jung-sun’s mom is cheered up a bit when some handsome younger men check her out.

Jung-woo gets a visit from Hyun-soo’s mother, who brings him more of her homemade tea and thanks him for taking care of Hyun-soo. She asks him to continue looking after her daughter, being clear that she means as work partners.

The rude food blogger shows up at Good Soup again, and she tells Soo-jung that she wrote them a positive review, making it clear that she expects special treatment in return. Soo-jung asks Jung-sun what to do, but he says to carry on as usual.

Meanwhile, Hyun-soo’s mother calls the restaurant to make reservations for the next day, and she’s told that they’re closed. But Soo-jung takes a message to Jung-sun, and he goes to the walk-in to call Hyun-soo’s mother back. He tells her to just say the word, and he’ll open the restaurant for her.

Hyun-soo runs into Hong-ah in the elevator at On Entertainment, and when she mentions spending time with Jung-sun’s mother, Hong-ah criticizes her for not focusing on her work, and spending all her time on her love life. She gripes that Hyun-soo has to do her best so that Hong-ah will look good when her show does better.

As she grumbles about Hyun-soo being too focused on a man, Hyun-soo stares at her, then asks, “Aren’t you in love with Won-joon?” Hong-ah bristles at his name, but she complains about how unruffled Soo-jung is by her. She admits that she thinks she loves Won-joon because she wants him to meet a good woman.

Hyun-soo tells Hong-ah that love isn’t about a good man meeting a good woman, but a man and a woman who love each other. Hong-ah whines that Hyun-soo hasn’t written enough scripts to be teaching her about love, and Hyun-soo says that work and love happen at the same time, though she admits that she’s still learning.

The food blogger’s companion notices that they aren’t getting anything extra as they expected, but the blogger brags that they didn’t charge her last time because of who she is. They start to leave again without paying, but Soo-jung stops them and reminds them that they haven’t paid, handing them a bill for today’s meal plus the one they walked out on. HA.

The blogger warns Soo-jung that her article hasn’t been published yet, but Soo-jung just smiles and holds firm. The blogger pays, though she warns that they’ll regret this.

In a casting meeting, Hyun-soo decides to cast her roles with actors who fit the parts best, not just because they’re famous. Kyung sighs that Director Min landed a very famous actress for Hong-ah’s drama. She points at Joon-ha guiltily when Hyun-soo asks how she knows, and Hyun-soo teases Joon-ha for telling Kyung everything first.

But the actress’s agency CEO tells Jung-woo that he wants her to do Hyun-soo’s drama instead. Jung-woo informs Hyun-soo and her team, and when they tell him that they heard she already agreed to do Hong-ah’s drama, Jung-woo is obviously surprised.

Director Min and Hong-ah burst in, upset because the actress wants to star in Hong-ah’s drama, while her agency wants her to be in Hyun-soo’s. Hong-ah accuses Jung-woo of stealing her actress, but he says that the actress has chosen bad projects enough times not to be in a position to override her agent’s decisions.

Director Min knows this, and he pleads with Jung-woo to let the actress be in the show she wants. Jung-woo digs in his heels, but Hyun-soo says that she wasn’t even considering this actress for her show because she doesn’t want to cast just on star power.

Jung-woo decides to let Hong-ah cast the actress, which makes everyone happy. Out in the hall, Hyun-soo marvels at how the formerly maddening Director Min is so easily dominated by feisty Hong-ah.

Kyung and Joon-ha pick up their bickering where they left off, and Hyun-soo sighs that they need to decide if they’re dating or not. Joon-ha says they are, while Kyung says they aren’t, and they stare at each other in surprise.

Jung-sun delivers a cake to Jung-woo for his birthday, with a sweet little card. Jung-woo opens the cake and sticks his finger in the chocolate icing like a little kid.

That evening, Jung-sun calls Hyun-soo, who says she’s pulling an all-nighter. He brings her some food, and they talk about his mother as they eat. When Hyun-soo says that they need to find a way to be comfortable with her because they’ll have to deal with her for the rest of their lives, Jung-sun likes the sound of the word “we.”

They agree that his mother has a lot of positive qualities, like good fashion sense, cooking, and arranging flowers. Hyun-soo thinks that his mom should arrange flowers for a living, but Jung-sun reminds her that it’s hard for people to change.

In the conference room, Kyung wakes from a nap on the table to find Joon-ha staring at her. She asks why he likes her, and when he says he doesn’t know, she pouts cutely that it’s because she’s so pretty. Joon-ha scoffs that she’s not that pretty, but Kyung says she wants people to like her for that reason because it’s not calculating.

Joon-ha calls her a baby who wants unconditional love, while he’s been married and divorced and knows what it’s like to love even though it hurts. He asks if she’s only going to eat sweets for the rest of her life (meaning, have casual relationships), and leaves the room.

She follows him and says that she doesn’t want to date him, then asks him out to eat, hee. Joon-ha agrees that they can just have a fling and not date, taking Kyung’s lack of argument as agreement.

Hong-ah asks Soo-jung to meet, and when she asks how Won-joon is, Soo-jung tells her to ask him herself. Hong-ah sadly asks Soo-jung to be good to him because he suffered a lot when he liked her, and she promises not to bother them anymore.

Surprised, Soo-jung tells Hong-ah that she and Won-joon aren’t dating anymore. She says that when he heard Hong-ah was in an accident, he ran to be with her, even knowing that she probably wasn’t hurt. Soo-jung concludes that when someone runs to a person like that, it means the relationship isn’t over.

Hong-ah goes to Good Soup to find Won-joon and asks if he’s still mad at her. Looking exhausted, he says he’s fine since she wasn’t hurt, so she asks if he wants to go for tea. He turns her down, saying that he wants to go home and rest, and walks away without another word.

The next day, Jung-sun has tea with Hyun-soo and her mother at Good Soup. Hyun-soo’s mom thanks him for making food when she was in the hospital, and invites him to their house for dinner next time. She even gives him a thoughtful gift of hand cream and gloves, since he works with his hands.

Jung-sun’s mother shows up unexpectedly, and she has to be prompted to greet Hyun-soo’s mother. Neither mom looks thrilled to see each other, but they’re polite, and Jung-sun’s mother invites herself to tea. Hyun-soo escapes to the kitchen with Jung-sun, even though they both know it’s just a thin excuse not to be left alone with their mothers.

Out in the dining room, Jung-sun’s mom wonders why Hyun-soo’s mom didn’t hire a caregiver to take care of her in her recovery instead of her husband taking so much work leave to do it himself. Hyun-soo’s mom says that she and her husband are best friends, and she asks about Daniel.

Jung-sun’s mother has to admit that they broke up, comparing Daniel to a bird that flew away. Hyun-soo’s mother argues that he’s a man, not a bird, but Jung-sun’s mother just says that she’s learned in life that birds always fly, so she shouldn’t stop them when they do.

They each compliment the other’s child, then take the credit for their personalities. Hyun-soo’s mom surprises Jung-sun’s mom when she mentions that Hyun-soo asked Jung-sun to live together, and when Jung-sun’s mom asks why they aren’t, Hyun-soo’s mom changes the subject, ha.

Jung-sun and Hyun-soo bring out tea and fruit, and Jung-sun’s mother brags that he’s great husband material. HA, his expression is priceless.

 
EPISODE 38 RECAP

Jung-woo throws himself back into his work, reviewing possible advertisement contracts for Jung-sun. He chooses a refrigerator company and takes the contract to Jung-sun to look over. He also wants Jung-sun to consider doing a special talk geared towards teenagers, thinking that it would be good for both Jung-sun’s image and Good Soup.

Hyun-soo’s mother tells her husband that she saw Jung-sun’s mother today, and she expresses a little jealousy that Hyun-soo seems to like her so much. Dad asks if Mom thinks Hyun-soo and Jung-sun will get married, and she says that they should at their age. But she worries about Jung-sun’s complicated family background and wishes they would just date.

At Jung-sun’s place, Hyun-soo watches his mother arrange flowers and says that she has an adorable personality. Jung-sun’s mom jokes that Hyun-soo just hasn’t seen all of her sides yet. She says that she wishes she could have a job but that she could never work for someone else, giving Hyun-soo the opening to suggest that she start her own business flower arranging.

Mom likes the idea, and she asks Jung-sun what he thinks when he gets home. He’s immediately skeptical, so his mother says defensively that Hyun-soo likes the idea, and Hyun-soo looks like a deer in headlights. Jung-sun tells his mother to just stay still and not to cause trouble, and when it looks like a fight may escalate, Hyun-soo makes an awkward exit.

Jung-sun follows her and they go for coffee, and he admits that he’s a bit upset. Hyun-soo argues that his mother just wants to live for herself for once, but he says it’s hard for him to support her.

Hyun-soo notes that their relationship is more like father-daughter than mother-son, like he’s a father trying to keep his daughter from becoming independent out of worry. Jung-sun says that his mother has been in business before, and that she’s easily deceived and lends money as easily as she borrows it. He’s convinced she’ll fail, but Hyun-soo says that won’t happen because she’ll have a reliable customer—Good Soup.

Jung-sun stops arguing, seeming to cautiously accept the idea of helping his mother by helping her be successful. Hyun-soo says he’ll feel better once his mother is happier, and he even smiles a little. He goes home to find an arrangement of flowers from his mother with a note saying, “Don’t judge the days to come by the days you have lived.”

He goes to see Hyun-soo again, even though he just left her. He tells her that he saved her in his phone with simply her name, Lee Hyun-soo, because he wants to protect her forever as an individual so that she doesn’t lose herself. Touched, Hyun-soo says that she didn’t know her name could have such deep meaning.

Later she looks at his name in her phone, which is saved as “Jung-sun-sshi” with a heart after it, and she realizes that they have different ways of loving each other.

Soon, the casting is finished for both Hyun-soo and Hong-ah’s dramas, and their script readings are scheduled for the same day. Jung-sun drives Hyun-soo and Kyung to their reading, and Hyun-soo asks for some music. Jung-sun turns on the radio, but at the first few notes of “Back to Black,” they agree to turn the music off again, ha.

Jung-sun and Hyun-soo run into Jung-woo in the building’s lobby, and there’s a moment of awkwardness as the three are together for the first time in a long time. Jung-woo says that he’s already greeted everyone in Hyun-soo’s show, and he hurriedly heads to Hong-ah’s reading.

At the reading, Joon-ha learns that Jung-woo left already, and he wonders why, when Hong-ah’s reading isn’t for several more hours. He calls Jung-woo, who only says that he reserved a restaurant for everyone to go to after the reading.

Hyun-soo sees Jung-sun out, promising to see him after she’s finished for the day. As he leaves, he turns to wave goodbye one more time, and Hyun-soo thinks again that love is about two people in love coming together.

Jung-sun heads back to Good Soup, where Won-joon peppers him with questions about the actors at the reading. Jung-sun asks if Hong-ah called him, knowing that her reading is also today, but Won-joon sighs that he was mean to her so it will be difficult for her to contact him. He looks unhappy as he says that he keeps acting like Hong-ah when things don’t go his way.

Making a decision, Jung-sun visits Jung-woo to tell him that he’ll do the refrigerator ads. He also agrees to the lectures, and Jung-woo says it’s strange to see him being so obedient. Jung-sun says he was always obedient, and Jung-woo quips, “Think again.”

Over coffee, Jung-sun complains that he won’t be able to sleep from the caffeine. Jung-woo asks why he’s drinking it, so Jung-sun makes big doe eyes at him and says that he wanted to do something Jung-woo likes to do. Jung-woo looks mildly horrified, then shudders and tells him to knock it off, ha.

Jung-sun hands over a card, a free pass to eat at Good Soup any time. Jung-woo says that the thought of Jung-sun making this is embarrassing, and Jung-sun agrees that making it was very embarrassing. LOL, I love these two when they’re getting along.

After the reading and the after party, Hyun-soo, Joon-ha, and Kyung are all pretty drunk as they start to stagger home. Joon-ha blames Hyun-soo for Jung-woo leaving, since she brought Jung-sun along, but she says Jung-woo left because she’s been so mean to him.

A bit more sober at home, Hyun-soo waters her flower from Jung-sun and remembers the ring he gave her at the same time. She thinks that he was right to be scared that she’d push him away again, and she calls him to ask if they can meet tomorrow, because she has something to say to him.

The next day, Jung-woo receives an advance copy of the rude blogger’s review of Good Soup, which she’s changed since she was made to pay for her meals. In it, she criticizes the restaurant for not knowing how to grill steak, questioning the competence of the line cooks in general and Jung-sun in particular.

The article hasn’t published yet, but Jung-woo’s informant says that once it does, it could be as bad for Good Soup as the allergy incident. Jung-woo tells him to contact the legal team and schedule an appointment with the blogger. Later he’s told that the lawyers are advising that they settle with the blogger, but that she’s refusing to talk to them.

Hyun-soo gets ready to see Jung-sun, and the last thing she does before leaving is to slip a plain silver band over her thumb. She keeps the ring hidden as she and Jung-sun have tea and talk about family, and Jung-sun grows anxious about whatever she wanted to discuss.

Jung-woo arrives at Good Soup to find that Jung-sun and Hyun-soo are the only two there. He says he’s not here to use his free pass, and good-naturedly gives Hyun-soo a hard time for slacking off instead of working.

He says he’s going, and Jung-sun asks why he came for no reason. He starts to stand, but Jung-woo claps a hand on his shoulder to stop him. He puts a hand on Hyun-soo’s shoulder as well, mirroring the time he called them his favorite man and woman in the world, then makes a cool exit.

Jung-sun leads Hyun-soo up to his apartment to finish their talk, joking that he’s a little scared. She says that for them to move forward they need to clean up the past, and she takes his hand as she admits that because she’s older than him, she thought she had more experience.

She continues that because she grew up loved by her parents, she thought she knew how to love. But she says that’s not the case, and tells Jung-sun that on her phone, he’s saved as “Jung-sun-sshi” with a heart. She tells him that when he told her that he has her saved with her full name, she realized that he had accepted her for who she was, and protected that while loving her.

She admits that she was in love with the feeling of love, like the moth that’s drawn to the flame, willing to die. She says, “I should have protected you, watched you, and waited for you, so that Ohn Jung-sun could be Ohn Jung-sun.”

She holds out her thumb and shows Jung-sun the ring she’s wearing. She asks him to take it, and to give her the ring he gave her once before. “You know what a ring means, right?” she asks. Jung-sun looks at the ring and breaks out into a beautiful smile.

 
COMMENTS

I’m so glad that Jung-woo and Jung-sun were able to reconcile their friendship, because honestly, I think the relationship between the two men has been my favorite of this whole show. For the most part, they regarded each other with the highest respect, and even when Jung-woo was trying to steal Hyun-soo away, Jung-sun never hated him for it. I still think that what Jung-woo did when he made Jung-sun plan his proposal to Hyun-soo was a pretty horrific thing to do to a friend, and it’s not something I expected Jung-sun to forgive. But to his credit, Jung-woo seemed to realize what he’d done, and after that night he really never bothered Jung-sun or Hyun-soo again. I think that he realized that what he did was unforgivable, and that he won’t take for granted the fact that both of them forgave him anyway.

That’s why I want to see something, anything, from Hong-ah before I’ll feel okay with her and Won-joon ending up together (if that’s what happens). Jung-woo did a terrible thing, but he knew it, he repented, and he even apologized in his way. Hong-ah still doesn’t even seem to realize that the way she treats people is wrong, and while I do think that she genuinely regrets having lost Won-joon, I haven’t seen any evidence that she knows why she lost him or that she plans to do anything to fix herself.

I’ve really enjoyed Jung-sun’s mother’s arc—you’d hardly believe that the woman who had a screaming fit because her son didn’t want to see her is the same woman who now seems mature enough to open her own business now. And it’s been interesting to watch Jung-sun go from never wanting to see his mother’s face, to slowly accepting that she is the way she is because of abuse, not because she wants to be a burden and a bother. Now he even wants to help her, and for once, Hyun-soo’s meddling actually did some good. She was right that it’s not fair for Jung-sun to tell his mother to just be still and let someone else do everything for her, because she’s still young and vibrant and has talents she can use to make others happy. It was a great idea to convince Jung-sun to shift his “helping” from just giving her money to throw away, to actually helping his mother by letting his business support her business.

And speaking of changing, I’m glad that Hyun-soo’s mother seems to be making an effort to let go of her own feelings about who Hyun-soo should be with, and to accept the man her daughter has chosen. I just wish there were a reason for it, but as far as I can tell, all that’s happened is that her husband told her that it’s Hyun-soo’s decision. Hyun-soo herself has said that several times, so I’m confused as to why her mother has had this sudden change of heart. Without a reason, it just feels like the show is running out of time and wants to tie everything up in neat little bows. And I have nothing against neat little bows, so long as they happen for logical reasons, and there are several situations in this drama which seem to be heading to neat-bow territory without any real purpose other than “must create happy ending.”

As much as this episode made me think about change, I really appreciated that Hyun-soo had an epiphany about love, and how it means protecting what you love, not trying to change it. She spent so much energy trying to change Jung-sun that she nearly lost him, and I’m happy that she understands that and knows that she was wrong. I’ve been very negative about Hyun-soo in this last third of the drama, and even in this episode she was still trying to convince Jung-sun that she knows more about his mother than he does. So I’m glad that she understands now that she was wrong, and that she has decided to love Jung-sun exactly as he is.

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