Woohoo Waikiki: Episode 15

by LollyPip

It’s spring at the Waikiki guesthouse, which means it’s time for a vacation! Unfortunately, things have a way of going wrong even outside the house, and their restful vacation is anything but restful. But some good things come from the chaos, as injured feelings get a chance to mend and others are forced to face how they truly feel.

 
EPISODE 15: “Hide-and-seek”

Dong-gu shows Seo-jin a guesthouse he’s been looking at online for ideas of how to spruce up Waikiki Guesthouse for the spring season. She gets a text and slips out to the park to meet Joon-ki, who grabs her ankle and scares the bejeezus out of her. He’s nervous, but she assures him that Dong-gu didn’t follow her.

They both realize that they have this weekend free, so Seo-jin suggests they go away for a little trip. Joon-ki gets excited until she informs him that they’ll be sleeping in separate rooms, ha.

Suddenly, Dong-gu shows up, having tracked Seo-jin here. Seo-jin and Joon-ki hide while Dong-gu growls like a caveman on the hunt that he’ll catch them together eventually.

The next day, the group complains that they have to clean even though the weather is nice and they haven’t any guests. Hyun-joon calls Yoon-ah to invite her to an overnight MT with him and the baking class, so Dong-gu quickly thinks of an excuse to keep her away from his rival.

He says that he’s planning a surprise workshop for the Waikiki crew on the same days, and Yoon-ah says that of course she’ll go. But Seo-jin, having already planned a trip with Joon-ki, claims that she has to stay home to cover a story. Joon-ki chimes in that he’s got drama shoots this weekend.

Suspicious, Dong-gu questions Seo-jin’s claim that she’s on standby to cover a funeral for someone who isn’t dead yet. He calls her bluff, threatening to call her boss and ask, so Seo-jin shoves her phone at him and tells him to call. Joon-ki looks like he’s going to pass out as Dong-gu starts to make the call… then he backs down and says he trusts Seo-jin. Whew.

Doo-shik is so excited he can barely stand it when the time finally comes for their trip. Soo-ah brings along two huge suitcases full of clothing, so that she and Doo-shik can take pictures for the online shopping mall.

Seo-jin comes out with a massive backpack, which she fibs to Dong-gu is full of things she needs for working overnight. Dong-gu warns that she’d better not hang out with Joon-ki while he’s gone, so she snaps that she won’t go anywhere near Joon-ki and stomps off.

Yoon-ah’s phone rings while she’s checking on Sol, and seeing that it’s Hyun-joon, Dong-gu picks up. Hyun-joon says he was calling to wish Yoon-ah a good time at their workshop, and Dong-gu sarcastically wishes him the same before hanging up on him.

Seo-jin sneaks out to meet up with Joon-ki, who pops out at her from a cover he’s thrown over his car, Rebecca. Seo-jin notices the nasty smell, and Joon-ki says it’s smelled like that since Soo-ah and Doo-shik borrowed Rebecca. Ew. They take off slowly, Rebecca balking every few feet, hee.

They arrive at their destination, the same guesthouse that Dong-gu was recently checking out, which Seo-jin liked enough to want to visit. Oh no, I see where this is going… and sure enough, Dong-gu soon pulls up with the rest of the crew.

Doo-shik staggers out of the van, his bouncy enthusiasm lost to a severe bout of car sickness. Soo-ah complains about staying at a guesthouse when they already live in a guesthouse, but Yoon-ah says it’s beautiful. Soo-ah makes Doo-shik carry her bags inside, even though he’s deathly sick.

Seo-jin settles into the ladies’ bedroom and starts to pretty up for her weekend with Joon-ki, but she panics when she hears Soo-ah and Yoon-ah approaching. She dives into a bed and pretends to be sleeping as they let themselves in and unpack.

In the men’s bedroom, Joon-ki does the same thing when he hears Dong-gu and Doo-shik in the hallway. Doo-shik wants to stay and rest, but Dong-gu drags him out to look around the place, giving Joon-ki a chance to escape (once he’s finished freaking out).

Dong-gu and the others take a look around the guesthouse, and they run into the owner, who says that he manages the place alone with just his wife. Dong-gu tells him that they run a guesthouse in Seoul, and the owner is surprised that Dong-gu made the reservations at the last minute — but Dong-gu yelps to stop him talking, having told the others that he’d been planning this for a while.

Seo-jin creeps to the men’s bedroom looking for Joon-ki, where she hears Dong-gu bringing Doo-shik back to the room to rest. She crawls into the bed and hides, and they assume she’s the same “guest” who was there before. Dong-gu leaves Doo-shik alone and goes looking for the ladies.

Meanwhile Joon-ki ends up in the women’s bedroom, also hiding under the covers when the others come back in. Soo-ah gets upset when she finds her camera missing, so Dong-gu asks the “sleeping guest” if they’ve seen it, and Joon-ki tries to wave them off.

It offends Dong-gu, who rips the blanket away, exposing Joon-ki. He pretends that he’s staying here for an outdoor shoot that’s taking place nearby, and that the guesthouse owner sent him to the wrong room. Dong-gu is happy to see Joon-ki, though Joon-ki is miserable to realize that his romantic weekend won’t be happening.

They head outside to look at the view. Dong-gu sees a rope hanging in an odd place, so he gives it a curious tug, thinking it’s a bell. Unfortunately the guesthouse owner is attached to the other end, and he comes crashing down from the second floor, injuring his foot. He wails that he still has to clean and do the shopping for some guests that are coming later.

Everyone glares at Dong-gu as they’re forced to do the work while the owner goes to the hospital — ha, some vacation. Only Yoon-ah doesn’t seem very upset to be missing her baking class outing, and she’s even happy to go with Dong-gu to do the shopping when the owner calls to say he’ll be back later than expected (Dong-gu is pretty happy, too).

Joon-ki gets a text from Seo-jin begging for help, and he and Doo-shik are equally surprised to see each other when he gets to the bedroom. Joon-ki tries to entice Doo-shik out of bed, but he’s still feeling pretty sick and insists on staying. Pretending to be talking to Doo-shik, Joon-ki loudly bellows for Seo-jin’s benefit, “Don’t move. Stay here a while. I’ll find a way to get you out of here. You trust me, right? Just wait a while.”

At the market, Dong-gu and Yoon-ah are mistaken for newlyweds by a vendor. Dong-gu is about to correct her, but seeing that she’s giving them extra lettuce for free, Yoon-ah pretends that she and Dong-gu are married.

Afterward, Dong-gu protests that lying is wrong, then proceeds to continue faking that they’re poor newlyweds to every vendor in the hopes of free food. HAHA, his aegyo is embarrassingly over-the-top, but Yoon-ah just shakes her head at him when it keeps working.

Dong-gu notices that Yoon-ah’s hair keeps falling in her face, so he leads her to a vendor table covered in pretty barrettes. He picks out a delicate gold and pearl clip and pins her hair back with it, causing Yoon-ah to go a little slack-jawed at the intimate contact. Dong-gu nervously tells her not to read anything into it, but she lets herself enjoy the feeling.

They stop for some soondae, and Dong-gu notices Yoon-ah thirstily eying the makgeolli at a nearby table. He orders a bottle for her, and after downing one bowl in a single gulp, he pours her a second, saying that it’s okay if she gets a little drunk on vacation. As she drinks it, Dong-gu’s voice from the future says, “I shouldn’t have given her that second bowl of makgeolli…”

Back at the guesthouse, Soo-ah complains about having to feed the other guests, while Joon-ki looks downright depressed to have had his first weekend away with Seo-jin ruined. Soo-ah worries that Doo-shik may be hungry, so Joon-ki offers to go to the room to lure him out (and hopefully free Seo-jin at the same time).

Doo-shik still feels sick to his stomach and refuses to get up. Joon-ki says again for Seo-jin’s benefit that he’ll find a way to get her out of the room, making Doo-shik think he’s lost his mind. At a text from Seo-jin, he fills a cup full of pork belly and takes it back to the room, pretending to do a magic trick as he holds it behind his back for her to take.

Hilariously, Doo-shik finds the magic trick fascinating, so when Seo-jin requests lettuce, Joon-ki performs another magic trick for him. Next Seo-jin wants garlic and ssamjang, resulting in the crankiest magic trick ever, heh. Joon-ki cries that he can’t do it anymore and storms out, but Seo-jin is happy with her dinner.

Yoon-ah gets pretty drunk on makgeolli before Dong-gu finally cuts her off. She invites him to play a game of hide-and-seek, which he declines, but when he’s finished paying for their meal she’s nowhere to be found. Frantic, Dong-gu runs through the market calling for Yoon-ah until the vendor who mistook them for a married couple points him to her.

PWAHAHA, she’s hiding in plain sight, holding a head of cabbage in front of her face. She tells Dong-gu that it’s his turn to hide, then when he looks away for five seconds to buy some onions, she’s gone again… if by “gone,” you mean “ten feet away hiding behind a leaf of lettuce,” lol.

To keep her from “hiding” again, Dong-gu ties a length of rope between their waists and leads her back to the car, whining and flouncing the entire way. When they get to the van, she ducks behind the bumper, and when Dong-gu finds her, she says it’s his turn.

He tricks her into getting in the van by telling her it’s a hiding place where he’ll never find her, and she’s just drunk enough to fall for it. She doesn’t realize that it was a trap until Dong-gu gets into the driver’s seat and buckles her seat belt. She suddenly asks Dong-gu if he’s mad at her, and even though he says he’s not, she starts apologizing.

But she’s not talking about the game as she says sadly, “I know I’m giving you a hard time, but I’m scared. I’m scared that you’ll get hurt again. I’m really scared. So don’t hate me, okay?” Awww, she’s so sweet. She falls asleep, a tear running down her cheek as Dong-gu stares at her incredulously.

Doo-shik is finally feeling better when Soo-ah and Joon-ki go to check on him. Ha, Seo-jin starts snoring in the bed where she’s hiding, and when she shifts and uncovers her hair and leg, Soo-ah notices that the sleeping guest doesn’t seem very masculine.

Joon-ki argues that unisex is a thing now, and Seo-jin moves again, revealing her chin from under her pillow — including her now-visible five o’clock shadow. That convinces Soo-ah that it’s a man in the bed, and Joon-ki staggers in relief.

Yoon-ah is still sleeping when they get back to the guesthouse, so Dong-gu gently carries her inside and tucks her into bed. He sits to look at her for a minute, and when he reaches out to touch her hair, she wakes up. He puts on his old gruff demeanor and complains that she got drunk and played hide-and-seek all over the market.

She apologizes for her weird drinking habit and asks nervously if anything else happened. Dong-gu looks a little sad as he says it didn’t. He tells Yoon-ah to rest, but she insists on getting up and going out to help.

They’re the first one to greet tonight’s guests — Hyun-joon and the bakery class. Because of course it’s Hyun-joon. He and Yoon-ah are happy to see each other, Dong-gu much less so.

Soo-ah and Doo-shik finally leave the room, and Joon-ki wakes up Seo-jin. They try to leave the room, but Doo-shik is sitting in the hall rubbing his tummy again, and the window is locked. Joon-ki gets the bright idea to empty one of Soo-ah’s huge suitcases and hide Seo-jin inside, and get her out that way. Yeah, there’s no way this plan could possibly go pear-shaped.

Joon-ki zips her in and wheels the suitcase outside, past the bakery class and down the stairs. He runs into Soo-ah, who assumes he’s helping take her bags to where they plan to take pictures. She heads off with Doo-shik lugging her other suitcase, and Joon-ki offers to go along and help.

The bakery class decides to play a game to pass the time until dinner. Yoon-ah gets the idea to play charades and invites Dong-gu to join them. He agrees, confident that he can guess everything Yoon-ah acts out, only to get them all wrong as Hyun-joon correctly guesses every single clue.

While Soo-ah models and Doo-shik snaps photos, Joon-ki reassures Seo-jin inside the suitcase that he’ll get her out as soon as he can. Soo-ah wants to change into another outfit, but Joon-ki screams that she can’t open the suitcase and runs off with it.

He hides until Doo-shik and Soo-ah give up chasing him, but when he open the suitcase, he’s horrified to realize that he stole the wrong one.

After the game, Hyun-joon offers to cook for everyone, and Dong-gu can’t resist challenging him to a cook-off. They both plan to make kimchi stew, though Hyun-joon’s will include pork while Dong-gu’s features fish. Hyun-joon looks a little nervous as Dong-gu performs a series of dramatic flourishes and knife skills, and soon their stews are ready.

They ask the guests to settle their bet as to which tastes better. Unfortunately, Dong-gu’s fish stew is greasy so Hyun-joon’s pork stew is declared the winner, and Yoon-ah admits that she doesn’t actually like fish.

Hyun-joon magnanimously says that winning isn’t important, though Yoon-ah instinctively knows that Dong-gu’s stew was the loser. Dong-gu smiles as if he doesn’t care and says he’s going for some fresh air, and little Sol cries as he leaves.

Everyone eats Hyun-joon’s stew while Dong-gu’s is left untouched, so Yoon-ah offers to eat it even though she doesn’t care for fish. From a short distance away, Hyun-joon sees her eating Dong-gu’s stew, and he nods sadly to himself.

Soo-ah complains about Joon-ki’s odd behavior, but Doo-shik advises her not to try to figure him out. Joon-ki runs up and tries to steal her suitcase, and he and Soo-ah end up yanking it back and forth until they accidentally toss it into the air and it lands in the pool.

As the suitcase sinks, Joon-ki bravely jumps into the water to rescue it (to the soundtrack from The Bodyguard, lol).Everyone is shocked when the waterlogged suitcase contains not clothes, but Seo-jin. Luckily she’s fine, if cold and soaked, but not so luckily, Dong-gu saw the whole thing.

He demands to know why Seo-jin is here instead of at home working, getting a bad feeling as he sees Joon-ki and Seo-jin together. Seo-jin begs Joon-ki to tell the truth, but when he just stammers, she snaps that they should just end things now.

Joon-ki grabs her hand, laces his fingers through hers, and looks up at Dong-gu bravely. He tells his friend, “Dong-gu, I like Seo-jin. I, Lee Joon-ki, like your sister, Kang Seo-jin. No, I love her.” Swooning… I’m swooning.

It’s Dong-gu’s turn to stammer, and he asks if Joon-ki is serious, so Joon-ki repeats that he loves Seo-jin. He says, “So you can choose to either kill me, or keep me alive. Do whatever you want.”

Dong-gu weighs his options, then he lunges at Joon-ki, screaming, “Then die!” Seo-jin throws herself in front of Joon-ki, who doesn’t move a muscle as Soo-ah and Doo-shik barely hold Dong-gu back from ripping him to shreds.

COMMENTS

I don’t fully understand Dong-gu’s objection to Joon-ki dating Seo-jin, unless it’s just a general “no guy I know that well is good enough for my sister” objection, or just that he’s squicked out to think of his best friend and his sister together. I think he’s taking it a bit far, although I admire that he’s taking his responsibility towards his sister very seriously, as the head of the family. But I hope that he sees how sincere Joon-ki is about Seo-jin, and vice versa, and that Joon-ki’s declaration that he loves her (!!!) carries some weight once Dong-gu calms down. If nothing else, Seo-jin is strong enough that she wouldn’t let Joon-ki treat her badly, though I don’t think he ever would. Just in this episode he’s shown how much he cares for her well-being, and I think they make a really cute couple. They balance each other nicely.

I do think that last week’s episodes suffered just a bit from the extension, between a distinct lack of Yoon-ah and a bit too much Sad Joon-ki. But I also think that “suffered” is a matter of degree — even with a small dip in humor and storytelling, Woohoo Waikiki is still top-quality when it comes to humor and entertainment. I would support extensions for a lot more shows if they gave us great moments like to Dong-gu and Hyun-joon’s accidental chick-shirt date (and subsequent cuddlefest), Joon-ki and Seo-jin’s “dates interrupted,” or the sweet reunion of Doo-shik and Joon-ki’s bromance.

I’m glad that Dong-gu and Yoon-ah got to have some time alone again, because I’ve missed their growing friendship. They were just beginning to get close when Dong-gu’s confession and Yoon-ah’s refusal threw up a wall between them, and I’ve missed their awkward but sweet interactions. Seeing them just having fun doing something simple and relaxing together felt like a step towards being friends again, and allowed Yoon-ah to relax and let herself enjoy her obvious attraction to Dong-gu. Even though I’m sure they’re endgame, I was worried that they’d have a long way to go to even get back to normal, but Yoon-ah’s drunken confession gives me hope that she won’t be able to stay away from Dong-gu for much longer.

Speaking of which, Drunk Yoon-ah is probably the cutest thing I’ve ever seen, but oh boy, was I glad that it was Dong-gu who had to wrangle her and not me! I loved how she kept hiding behind lettuce leaves like a toddler that thinks if they can’t see you, you can’t see them. But then the show flipped it on me and got me right in the feels when she confessed that she turned Dong-gu down because she’s scared she’ll hurt him. Just the fact that her reason for turning him down is out of concern for him and not herself… well, it’s pure Yoon-ah. I feel bad now for being angry with her for the way she turned him down (though I still feel she was a bit harsh), because she was, in large part, thinking about how heartbroken he was over Soo-ah when they first met, and that she doesn’t want to end up making him feel that way again. It’s a valid concern when she comes as a package deal with a small baby, because even a baby you love is a lifechanger when it’s a baby you’re suddenly responsible for. It’s fair that Yoon-ah doesn’t want to jump into something that has a good chance of not working out if Dong-gu decides he’s not ready to be responsible for a whole family, but I’m glad that Dong-gu knows that she worries about him.

That’s the thing that makes Woohoo Waikiki so great, the way it lulls you into complacency with the humor then POW, it gets you right in the heart. The emotional beats carry that much more impact because I was just laughing so hard my stomach hurt, then suddenly I’ve got goosebumps and I’m tearing up. Those moments come out of nowhere, yet they never feel heavy-handed or manipulative. I also love how the writer plays the long game with some of the jokes, like how Seo-jin having a beard finally paid off by keeping her from being discovered at the guesthouse. There are so many examples of this, and I could go on forever listing everything that’s great about this show, but I have a feeling that at this point, I’m just preaching to the choir.

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