Woohoo Waikiki: Episode 16

by LollyPip

This episode feels like a contest to see which housemate can be the most stubborn, and believe me, there’s more than one strong contender for the title. Emotions run high after the events of their ill-fated vacation, with nobody willing to back down or admit they were wrong. But not all of the emotions flying around the house are negative, as spring fever starts to hit some of the housemates and turn their thoughts to romance.

 
EPISODE 16: “Their wretched love/A simple confession 2”

Everyone arrives home with silent, heavy hearts after their weekend away. Dong-gu asks Joon-ki and Seo-jin how long they’ve been lying to him about dating. Joon-ki explains that they were afraid he’d be angry, but Dong-gu says that in that case, they should never have started anything.

He says he’ll never accept their relationship, but Seo-jin demands to know his reason and refuses to break up just because he says so, and Joon-ki backs her up. Dong-gu declares that Seo-jin is no longer his sister, and that Joon-ki doesn’t exist to him at all. When the others say he’s going too far, he yells that he’ll cut them all out of his life.

Later, Seo-jin and Joon-ki are still moping despite the pottery scene from Ghost that’s playing on TV. Soo-ah sighs happily at the romance onscreen, and Doo-shik wonders dreamily when he’ll experience such a love. Meanwhile, he seems to be having an affair with a pair of shoes that his first love, Mal-geum, sent to him, cherishing them so much that he doesn’t even wear them.

Joon-ki takes a call from a friend in his gaming guild, turning down his offer to come play today. Doo-shik explains to Soo-ah that in the gaming world, Joon-ki’s character is so important that they can’t play without him. Soo-ah thinks he could get a lot of money selling it, but Joon-ki snaps that he’ll never sell.

Seo-jin gets fed up with Dong-gu pouting in bed, so she stomps into his room, and demands that he talk to her. He pretends she’s not even there, so she decides that until he approves of her and Joon-ki, she’s going on a shaving strike. Joon-ki and Dong-gu both look horrified, but Dong-gu holds firm in his resolve not to speak to Seo-jin.

Joon-ki and Seo-jin argue in the living room over her refusing to shave, and Seo-jin insists that she has to protest against Dong-gu’s behavior. He hates when she doesn’t shave, so she considers it a visual weapon. She even decides to take time off work, determined to win this stand-off.

To further their online shopping mall, Doo-shik hires a famous shopping mall model named Philip (cameo by Shin Hyun-soo). When Soo-ah gets a look at Philip’s handsome face, she goes all girly and silly, earning weird looks from Doo-shik. She passes Philip a cup of coffee and giggles at how nice it smells, but Philip says that he’s got allergies and can’t smell anything.

Soo-ah politely alerts Philip to the fact that he’s got something stuck between his front teeth, and she and Doo-shik are shocked when Philip gets angry and offended. He says that he won’t model for them and starts to walk out, but Doo-shik apologizes profusely and convinces him to change his mind.

They head back home for the shoot, and Philip takes off his shoes and goes into the house. Doo-shik and Soo-ah reel as they’re assaulted by a horrible stench, which Soo-ah tracks back to Philip’s shoes. Since he can’t smell anything, they figure that he’s unaware of how awful his feet stink, but they’re afraid to say anything for fear of upsetting him.

Dong-gu grumbles his resolve not to speak to either Joon-ki or Seo-jin while he’s in the bathroom, but he nearly forgets and calls out for Joon-ki when he realizes he’s out of toilet paper. He catches himself, but it leaves him with the dilemma of having nothing to wipe with. A few minutes later, he exits the bathroom in only his undershirt. Oh gross, he didn’t.

When Philip enters the room ready to model their clothing, Doo-shik and Soo-ah can barely breathe around the smell of his feet. Doo-shik notices that the jeans Philip is wearing aren’t rolled up properly, so Soo-ah has to roll them for him. The brown miasma rising from his feet wafts right into her face, and she nearly passes out, hee.

Downstairs, Dong-gu constructs a ball pit for Sol in her playpen, and he sits in it with her to pout (and with his nose stuffed with tissue to block the mysterious stank, ha). He complains to Sol about Seo-jin and Joon-ki’s relationship, and when he smacks the playpen wall in frustration, he knocks over the barrier holding in the toy balls.

He sticks his head out through the playpen bars to reach the balls and ends up getting his head stuck. Joon-ki wanders by and offers to help, but Dong-gu stubbornly refuses to acknowledge him. They’re both startled by Seo-jin, who pops up with several days’ worth of stubble just to taunt Dong-gu.

Dong-gu has to go to work, so he wears the playpen wall as he walks to the office, lol. He has a meeting with the actors for their movie, so he finds some construction workers and asks them to saw the bars off and free him.

The director is having a private meeting with an actor, Seo Jin-woo (cameo by Lee Ha-yul), telling him that they wrote the script with him in mind. Dong-gu comes in just as Jin-woo ducks under the table to pick up his dropped keys.

He overhears Dong-gu complaining that they have to cast him because every single actor they’ve offered the part to has turned it down, even though he’s not handsome and has a nasty personality. Jin-woo stands up and storms out, and the director tells Dong-gu not to come back until he’s gotten Jin-woo to agree to star in the movie.

Unable to handle the stink anymore, Doo-shik gives Philip a break so that he and Soo-ah can breathe. Soo-ah concocts a plan to make Philip wash his feet, and when he comes back, she spills juice all over his socks.

Unfortunately, Philip has another shoot after this one, so he just takes off his socks and hand them to Soo-ah, making the situation a hundred times worse. Not to mention traumatizing Soo-ah from touching the manky socks.

Dong-gu waits at Jin-woo’s house, and he’s surprised to see Joon-ki come home with him. It turns out that Jin-woo is in Joon-ki’s gaming guild, and when he asks if Joon-ki knows Dong-gu, Joon-ki says that he doesn’t anymore. Ouch.

Hyun-joon finds Yoon-ah in his bakery just as she’s leaving to cook for Dong-gu, who hasn’t eaten since they came home. Hyun-joon says that Dong-gu isn’t a child, but Yoon-ah says fondly that he’s like one sometimes.

Hyun-joon reminds Yoon-ah that she said she’s scared to trust anyone and get hurt, and he asks what she would do if she found someone she could trust, who would never hurt her. She says that would be nice, but she hasn’t found anyone like that yet. She leaves, and Hyun-joon pulls out a diamond necklace he’s planning to give to her.

During another break, Soo-ah begs Doo-shik to stop the shoot because she can’t bear Philip’s smelly feet anymore. He reminds her angrily that she promised to take this seriously. He says that doing business involves hardships, so if she can’t handle stinky feet, then she may as well give up now.

He says he’s disappointed in her and goes to finish the shoot alone, leaving her feeling terrible.

But when he gets back upstairs, he sees Philip wearing the precious shoes that Mal-geum sent him, the ones that he’s never even worn himself. Doo-shik sees red, and he unleashes a string of profanities so foul that Philip’s hair blows back, telling Philip in vivid detail exactly how horrid his feet smell.

Dong-gu talks to his director, who tells him that he’d better apologize to Jin-woo as soon as possible. Joon-ki comes in, and Dong-gu thinks that he might help, but he can’t quite bring himself to break his vow of silence. Instead, he texts Joon-ki from only a few feet away to ask him to help him with Jin-woo.

Joon-ki offers to help in exchange for Dong-gu’s acceptance of his relationship with Seo-jin. They glare at each other, then Dong-gu texts Forget it. I’ll curse you until the day I die! and storms out.

Soo-ah yells at Doo-shik for running off their model, angry with him for making her feel bad then ruining their chances with Philip. Doo-shik meekly apologizes, but the damage is done, and they still have several products that they need pictures of for uploading. Yoon-ah suggests Doo-shik model the clothing, thinking him handsome, but Soo-ah squishes his face and wails that Yoon-ah has bad taste in men.

But they don’t have any other choice, so Doo-shik dresses in jeans and a leather jacket and nervously presents himself to Soo-ah. Hot damn, the boy cleans up gooood. Soo-ah is shocked into speaking jondae to this new, gorgeous Doo-shik, unable to do anything but stare helplessly at the pretty.

Dong-gu gives up and presents himself to his director to admit defeat. He’s surprised to find Jin-woo in the office, having decided to star in their film after all. He tells Dong-gu to thank Joon-ki for changing his mind, saying that Joon-ki even traded him his precious game character.

Back home, Dong-gu finds Joon-ki and texts him, asking why he talked to Jin-woo and saying that he’s still not going to acknowledge him and Seo-jin. Joon-ki is disappointed, but he says that he only did it because Dong-gu was having a hard time, not to gain anything. Dong-gu finally breaks and says they need to talk.

He asks Joon-ki if he really wants to date Seo-jin that badly, and Joon-ki says that he won’t give up on her, even if it means losing Dong-gu. He says that his feelings are sincere, and asks if he’s honestly not good enough for Dong-gu.

Dong-gu says that that’s not why he objects, because of course it’s a good thing for his sister and his best friend to be together. “But what if you two break up? What would I do? I won’t be able to see you again.” Oh, you giant marshmallow, you.

Joon-ki breaks into a huge grin and crows that he’s never going to break up with Seo-jin or make her cry — in fact, he’s more likely to be the one to end up crying. Dong-gu darkly observes that Joon-ki should be speaking to him more respectfully, and he snaps that he was going to approve, but now…

Joon-ki leaps up with a joyful, “Hyung-nim!!” and grabs Dong-gu in a bouncy hug. He runs downstairs to tell Seo-jin the good news, but he screams when he gets a look at her beard, quite bushy after several days without shaving. He tells her that they have Dong-gu’s approval, and Seo-jin is thrilled that now they can go on dates and she can call him her boyfriend.

She jumps up to go shave, but Joon-ki stops her. He says he’s always wanted to shave her himself, and they share a romantic shaving moment to the love theme from Ghost. I can’t breathe, this is the funniest thing ever.

Dong-gu tells Yoon-ah that he knows he was being stubborn, but he could see the sincerity in Joon-ki’s eyes and knew he could trust him. A second later, they’re running through the house, fighting because Joon-ki cut Seo-jin while shaving her face.

They bicker and insult each other until Seo-jin screeches that she’s breaking up with Joon-ki, and Joon-ki angrily informs Dong-gu that it’s over. Dong-gu just calmly whips his cane at them until they plaster on happy grins and swear they were only kidding.

Seo-jin’s boss threatens to fire her if she doesn’t get a scoop, so she asks Joon-ki if he’s heard anything at the broadcasting station. He tells her about a top star who’s rumored to have a secret baby with the chairman of a conglomerate, which he heard about from a security guard. Seo-jin begs him to tell her where to find the guy.

Dong-gu shows up at the bakery to find Hyun-joon and Yoon-ah on their way out. Hyun-joon tells Dong-gu that he and Yoon-ah are going out for drinks to celebrate the fact that a store wants to sell Yoon-ah’s muffins, so Dong-gu invites himself along.

Hyun-joon says it’s not a good day, since he has something to tell Yoon-ah. But Dong-gu insists, so they all end up at a fancy restaurant together. Yoon-ah steps away to take a call, and when Hyun-joon offers to pour a glass of wine for Dong-gu, he haughtily says that he doesn’t want to drink anything Hyun-joon is paying for.

He calls for the wine menu, but all he can afford is one glass of the cheapest wine. He’s short a few won, so he instructs the waitress to pour a bit less than a full glass, ha. Hyun-joon is hilariously eye-rolly as Dong-gu acts all pretentious about the wine, and when Yoon-ah asks what Hyun-joon wanted to say, he decides that he’ll tell her another time.

Before they leave, Dong-gu gulps down the remainder of his glass of wine, and Hyun-joon tells him that he already paid. Dong-gu insists on giving him cash for his wine, determined not to owe him anything.

He runs into the guesthouse to get money to pay for his and Yoon-ah’s portion of the taxi, and when the meter runs up a few more won as they stand talking, he even pays half of that. He tells Hyun-joon to stop interfering with his business by taking his employee out, but Hyun-joon grumbles that Dong-gu was the one interfering today.

Seo-jin meets with the security guard to ask about the secret baby rumor, promising not to reveal his identity. The guard says that he heard the rumor from the top star’s hairstylist’s assistant, so Seo-jin goes to question her next. The assistant tells Seo-jin that she heard about the secret baby from the star’s agency’s cafeteria chef’s favorite jjampong place’s delivery boy. LOL, this is beyond ridiculous.

The delivery boy says that he heard about the star’s secret baby from a student who audits a certain celebrity model’s classroom lectures. He tells Seo-jin that the modeling student was swindled by her boyfriend and now lives off her ex… wait, this sounds familiar.

At first Soo-ah claims that she never passed on any such rumor, but eventually Seo-jin cracks her, and she swears that she heard it from a reliable witness. Seo-jin whines that everyone’s heard it from someone else but nobody’s actually seen anything. Soo-ah says that she heard it from the very nurse that delivered the baby, and Seo-jin gets excited again.

Yoon-ah borrows Rebecca to deliver her muffins to the new store. On the way, she accidentally hits a pedestrian, who ends up with a badly broken leg. The doctor says he’ll need surgery and may be permanently crippled, and the man demands that Yoon-ah take responsibility.

She’s dazed and worried when she gets back to the guesthouse, but she tells Dong-gu that she’s just tired. She sits in her room, wondering dejectedly how on earth she’s going to pay for the man’s surgery.

Seo-jin visits the hospital to ask Soo-ah’s nurse friend about the star’s secret baby. The nurse says that she did, in fact, deliver the star’s baby… in a dream. Seo-jin confronts Soo-ah, who admits that she was drunk when she heard the story and must have misunderstood. ARGH.

Dong-gu answers Yoon-ah’s phone when he finds it ringing. It’s the man she hit with the car, and Dong-gu goes to see him in the hospital. He’s demanding a huge sum of money as settlement, claiming that he’s doing Yoon-ah a favor by not involving the police, so Dong-gu offers to pay it.

He rushes home to talk to her about the accident, and she apologizes for not telling him, because she didn’t want him to worry. They hold a house meeting, and everyone promises to get together what money they can to help raise the full amount. Dong-gu sweetly tells Yoon-ah not to worry.

He calls everyone he knows, and even goes to his director, but nobody can lend him any money, and the other housemates don’t have any luck, either. With only one option left, Dong-gu goes to talk to the last person in the world he wants to ask for help — Hyun-joon.

It looks like it kills Dong-gu to ask Hyun-joon for such a large loan, and Hyun-joon naturally wants to know what it’s for. When Dong-gu reveals that Yoon-ah had an accident and needs money for a settlement, Hyun-joon doesn’t even hesitate to offer the entire amount.

Meanwhile, Yoon-ah asks the man for some time to pay him, but he gets upset and threatens to call the police. Interestingly, the police walk in right on cue, but they’re not here for Yoon-ah — they’re arresting the man for insurance fraud. It turns out that he and the doctor stage car accidents and con people out of settlement money.

Hyun-joon and Dong-gu run in, frantic with worry, but Yoon-ah explains that the guy was a scam artist and she doesn’t have to pay anything. Hyun-joon offers to pay for a lawyer to go with her to the police station to give her statement, while Dong-gu hangs back looking ashamed.

Yoon-ah tells the whole story to the housemates when they get home, but Dong-gu slinks away, uncharacteristically quiet. Soo-ah goes to his room to ask why he’s upset, and he says that he feels pathetic because he couldn’t raise the money for Yoon-ah as he promised, while Hyun-joon had it within seconds.

Soo-ah says that it’s only natural since Hyun-joon is older, and a famous chef. Dong-gu sighs that something so normal doesn’t feel normal at all.

Hyun-joon treats Yoon-ah to lunch, where he plans to give her the diamond necklace and confess his feelings for her. After lunch, Hyun-joon is ready to confess, but Yoon-ah interrupts when she realizes that she’s lost the hairpin Dong-gu gave her (which she’s worn every day since their vacation).

She’s very upset, rushing around looking for it on the verge of tears. Hyun-joon offers to buy her a new one, but she wails that it’s the first gift Dong-gu ever bought for her. Oof, Hyun-joon looks like he was just punched in the gut.

They eventually leave without finding the hairpin, but as they walk, Hyun-joon spots the hairpin in Yoon-ah’s hoodie. She’s relieved to have it back, and Hyun-joon smiles to see her so happy, then he stops her and says he has something to say.

He brings up her statement again, that she’s scared to trust anyone. He says that he doesn’t want her to be scared of love for fear of being hurt, so she shouldn’t let go of the person she likes. Yoon-ah is confused, so Hyun-joon clarifies: “I’m talking about Dong-gu. You like Dong-gu.”

Yoon-ah looks stunned as Hyun-joon continues that she’s pushing Dong-gu away because she’s afraid, but that by pushing him away, she’s risking losing him. He points out that she’ll get hurt that way, too, and that it will probably hurt even more.

Before he goes, Hyun-joon tells Yoon-ah that Dong-gu refused to borrow even a few won for his taxi, but that when Yoon-ah needed help, he asked Hyun-joon for a huge loan. He says that Dong-gu would rather die than ask for his help, which proves how much he cares for her. He turns to go, only stopping for a moment to look at the necklace he bought for Yoon-ah one last time.

Yoon-ah stands alone for a long time, as memories of all the times Dong-gu was there for her, the times he worried about her, and the times he sacrificed for her flood her mind. She remembers his little smiles, and the way he looks at her when he forgets to be on his guard. She comes to a decision, lifts her head, and marches home.

She finds Dong-gu in the guesthouse media room, watching If Only for the zillionth time. She sits with him, and he wilts when she says she was out with Hyun-joon. Yoon-ah starts to say something, but Dong-gu blurts out that Hyun-joon is actually a pretty good guy, and that he treats her well.

Yoon-ah asks why he’s saying those things, getting annoyed. She calls Dong-gu an oblivious fool, then claims to be tired and stomps off downstairs. A few seconds later, Dong-gu’s phone chimes that he has a text, and he opens it to find that it’s a video of Yoon-ah, aegyoing over and over, “I like you, Dong-gu. I like you. I really like you!”

He turns around to find Yoon-ah still in the room, smiling at him expectantly. He tentatively asks what the video means, and Yoon-ah walks over to take him by the wrists. She says again, “I like you. I really like you, Dong-gu. Do you want to start a relationship with me?”

Dong-gu blinks at her, afraid to believe what she’s saying. Then a hopeful smile breaks over his face, and they stand there happily grinning at each other.

 
COMMENTS

Hooray, finally! But GAH, no kiss? Not even a hug? Imma need at least a hug in the first few seconds of the next episode or there’s going to be a reckoning, I tell you what. I just hope that Dong-gu doesn’t try to argue that he’s not worthy of Yoon-ah, because while he may not be rich and successful like Hyun-joon, he couldn’t possibly be more caring of Yoon-ah, which makes him completely worthy, in my book.

But before I get into that — can we talk about Hot Doo-shik for a second?! I was totally blindsided when he came out looking all sleek and handsome, because I’ve gotten so used to seeing him as the baby of the house, everyone’s pet cinnamon roll. I think I was as stunned as Soo-ah, who I fully believe already half-crushes on Doo-shik with the way she’s always dragging him around with her and worrying about him when he’s not around. She’s seen him being strong and forceful before, but he’s so squishy that I don’t think it ever occurred to her that he’s actually an attractive man. I don’t think that’s going to be a problem anymore… if anything, Soo-ah is going to have a difficult time getting Doo-shik to see her as more than his friend’s ex-girlfriend. I can’t wait to watch her grovel for his attention, and because he’s never even kissed a girl, he’s going to be hilariously oblivious.

As for Seo-jin and Joon-ki, I’m so happy that Joon-ki’s sincerity finally got through to Dong-gu. It was sweet that Dong-gu admitted that his objection was never that Joon-ki isn’t good enough for his baby sister, but because he was scared of losing his best friend if they ever broke up. I’m glad that Joon-ki’s response wasn’t, “If we break up, you and I will still be friends,” because I loved that his knee-jerk reaction was, “Don’t worry, we’re never breaking up!” And it was so cute how Joon-ki immediately started calling Dong-gu “hyung-nim.” No matter what happens, I have no fear of those two ever losing their friendship, especially not with Dong-gu making sure that Joon-ki and Seo-jin are never allowed to break up.

I’m so impressed with how much Dong-gu has grown up, at least where Yoon-ah is concerned. By letting go of his pride and going to Hyun-joon for help, the last person he would ever want to have to humble himself in front of, he’s proven that he truly cares for Yoon-ah more than himself. Dong-gu spends so much energy trying to look better than Hyun-joon in front of Yoon-ah, but when it really mattered, he was willing to let Hyun-joon be her hero because she’s more important to him than himself. He may still be petty and jealous and act like a child a lot of the time, but when it came down to it, he did what needed to be done. If that doesn’t show that he’s ready for the responsibility of an instant family, then I don’t know what does.

For that reason, I love the timing of Yoon-ah’s confession, coming right when Dong-gu feels like he wasn’t able to take care of her. He was so confident before that he could handle it, but he had no idea what he was promising. Now he knows, and he feels insecure because he understands what a huge responsibility it is. But what he doesn’t understand is that it’s not about whether he can pay for things — it’s about putting the other person’s needs before your own, and stepping up and doing whatever is necessary when it’s needed. Dong-gu’s inexpensive hair pin versus Hyun-joon’s diamond necklace just illustrates that it’s not the cost, but the sentiment that counts. Maybe Dong-gu couldn’t pay Yoon-ah’s (thankfully invalid) debt, but he showed that if anything serious happens in the future, that he’ll be there to make sure she’s safe and secure. And the best part is that he’s always been that guy — he takes care of his friends and loved ones, even when it’s not even his responsibility to do so. He’s a much better person than he gives himself credit for.

I do feel bad for Hyun-joon though, because he’s a genuinely great guy who would have been the perfect match for Yoon-ah if she hadn’t met Dong-gu first. He’s handsome, successful, shares her love of baking, and understands the struggles of being a single parent (though, whatever happened to his adorable son?). Hyun-joon has done so much for Yoon-ah, but he’s not there for the day-to-day things like Dong-gu is. Dong-gu and Yoon-ah live in the same house, have a lot of history together as enemies-turned-friends, and Dong-gu even loves and takes care of Sol like she’s his own child. I was proud of Hyun-joon for seeing Yoon-ah’s true feelings and for bowing out gracefully. He’ll find a good woman of his own — can we get Chef Handsome Dad his own show next?

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