Woohoo Waikiki: Episode 19

by LollyPip

They say to be careful what you wish for because you just might get it, and the Waikiki guesthouse crew are finding out the hard way exactly what that means. Sometimes, by the time you realize that your dream comes with strings that you never imagined and never wanted, it’s too late. All they can do is ride it out and see where they land, though they may decide that those dreams aren’t worth all the heartache they bring with them.

EPISODE 19: “The dancer in the dark/Misfortune always comes”

Joon-ki has to break yet another date with Seo-jin in order to meet with an agent, and although Seo-jin says she’s not upset, she has to convince herself that she’s okay. When he gets home, Joon-ki tells everyone that the company wants to sign him, and he apologizes again to Seo-jin. She says she understands, and that he needs a management company to help with his acting career.

Yoon-ah jokes that she should get Joon-ki’s autograph before he gets too famous, and he’s happy to give her the new autograph he’s been working on. As usual, it’s ridiculous, taking so long to write (and somehow involving singing) that Dong-gu wanders off bored, and Yoon-ah falls asleep.

Soo-ah excitedly tells Doo-shik that she’s going to start selling clothes she’s designed, and she shows him her first effort. She calls it an “ultra v-neck” sweater, and it’s open pretty much to the navel, hee. Doo-shik is skeptical since it’s so revealing, but Soo-ah argues that it has to be unconventional in order to sell.

Joon-ki reviews the contract with the management company, then starts to sign it with his new signature. It takes forever, and the CEO (cameo by Jung Kyu-soo), who folded a zillion paper cranes while he waited, is visibly relieved when he’s finished.

Back at the house, Dong-gu reads Sol a story about a daddy and baby tiger. He’s determined to teach her to call him “daddy,” but she remains stubbornly nonverbal.

Doo-shik comes in dressed in Soo-ah’s ultra v-neck sweater, making Dong-gu bust out laughing. Doo-shik complains that Soo-ah designed it and is making him wear it for publicity. Joon-ki arrives home and also cracks up, but when Soo-ah walks into the room, they all go quiet.

Because Dong-gu and Joon-ki aren’t idiots, they dutifully praise Soo-ah’s design attempt, but it only ends up with them being forced to wear one, too. Doo-shik is thrilled not to be the only one showing off his goods, and Seo-jin and Yoon-ah are hilariously entertained. Yoon-ah tries to tell Dong-gu he looks sexy, but she dissolved into giggles before she can finish the sentence.

They go silent again when Soo-ah walks in, and she assumes they were badmouthing her. Yoon-ah and Seo-jin say they were just talking about her awesome new sweater… and next thing the girls know, they’re wearing sweatshirts with lace sleeves that extend several feet past their fingertips (inspired by the Bongsan mask dance).

Joon-ki gets called to cover for actor Choi Min-shik, who was supposed to throw the first pitch at a baseball game but got sick. Joon-ki’s a little stunned at this positive benefit to having an agency. He’s surprised, though, to have to attend a big meeting regarding his first public exposure, but he figures it’s just part of having representation.

Celebrities who throw the first pitch usually enjoy a huge upsurge in popularity, so the executives brainstorm unique ways for Joon-ki to do it. During the meeting, the CEO gets a call from his wife to tell him that she wants to learn pole dancing, and it gives him an idea. Oh no…

Even Joon-ki thinks that a pole dancing first pitch is pretty weird, but the agency insists. They set up a pole in the guesthouse and bring in an instructor to teach him. She seems sweet at first, but she pushes him relentlessly.

Seo-jin is worried he’ll be hurt, but Joon-ki assures her that he’ll work hard and get famous so he can give her whatever she wants. He whines that the pain patches aren’t doing the job and begs for some healing kisses. So cute.

When the ultra v-neck sweaters fail to sell, Doo-shik decides to beg Soo-ah to take the pictures of him wearing it off the online mall site. But he finds her in her room, fast asleep and surrounded by design sketches, and he realizes how hard she’s working for this. Feeling all warm and fuzzy, he covers her with a blanket just as she rips a loud fart, HA.

She wakes up as he’s reeling from the stink, and he has to tell her that they haven’t gotten any orders for the sweater. She decides they need more exposure, which leads to Doo-shik strutting in the middle of a shopping center with most of his chest showing. HAHA, he keeps hiding his face, but he strikes a sexy model pose whenever Soo-ah glares at him.

Eventually, Joon-ki gets the hang of the pole (snerk) and proudly shows off his new moves to Seo-jin. He’s still unsure about throwing a ball at the same time, so she offers to help him. They head to the park, where Joon-ki slithers inappropriately on the jungle gym while tossing pitches in Seo-jin’s general direction. Eventually he gets one right, and they celebrate.

Soo-ah ducks under the kitchen table to pick up a dropped juice lid, and she overhears Dong-gu and Doo-shik complaining about how embarrassed they are to be wearing her sweater. She stands and apologizes sarcastically for making them wear embarrassing clothing, then storms out.

They guys follow her upstairs to apologize, blaming their embarrassment on their bodies for looking bad in her unconventional designs. Soo-ah sighs that she’s just a bad designer, but just then she gets an order for several sweaters and hoodies. Her confidence restored, she adds cutoff denim “fire pants” to the guys’ ultra v-necks. LOL, for some reason, their knees crack me up.

Joon-ki asks Seo-jin to come cheer for him at his first pitch event, but she has to work. Instead she gives him a lucky charm bracelet shaped like a mustache, hee, sending him off with a kiss for luck.

Later, Soo-ah catches Dong-gu changing out of her revealing clothing and planning to sneak out his bedroom window. Thinking fast, he says he was actually putting the sweater on, and with Soo-ah watching, he’s forced to head to work like that.

Soo-ah goes looking for Doo-shik’s laptop and finds several girls’ Bongsan-sleeve hoodies and ultra v-neck sweaters stashed in his room. Awww, he had a friend place the orders, and when he meets the friend to take the clothing from him, the friend complains that he’s too embarrassed to be seen with Doo-shik dressed that way.

Doo-shik defends Soo-ah’s clothes, saying that unconventional styles are in. Having followed, Soo-ah sees him trying to convince the other guy to wear the sweater, and she wilts. But she thinks about how Doo-shik encouraged her to keep trying until she finds the thing that will make her happy, and how supportive he’s been about her online shopping mall, and she smiles.

She suddenly looks very uncomfortable as she remembers how hot Doo-shik looked all cleaned up. When he finds her and invites her to play video games with him, she nearly bites his head off before fleeing the room.

Joon-ki is proud to tell his agency CEO that he’s practiced his pole-dancing baseball pitch. But when the stylist shows up with his outfit, he freaks out — it’s Soo-ah’s ultra v-line sweater and fire pants, HA. The stylist says that now that the owner of Soorgio Armhany shopping mall is designing her own brand, the site has become popular among stylists.

After work, Seo-jin runs to catch Joon-ki’s press conference after his first pitch performance. Surprisingly, it went off well and he was a hit. He says that he wants to thank someone who helped him practice every day, but when the reporter asks if it’s his girlfriend, his CEO gives him a quick shake of the head. So Joon-ki says he doesn’t have a girlfriend, and Seo-jin just stares in shock.

That evening, Joon-ki’s pole-dancing pitch is very popular online, but Dong-gu notices that he said he doesn’t have a girlfriend and asks if he’s ready to die now. Joon-ki explains that he was told to say that and apologizes to Seo-jin for not telling her, then tells Doo-shik how all the stylists are going nuts over Soo-ah’s designs.

Joon-ki’s drama’s ratings increase after his pitch, and he gets the chance to be in some scenes opposite a famous actress named Cindy (cameo by Yoon Jin-sol). She’s particularly popular among middle-aged men, who cheer like teenaged girls when she walks into the building. Cindy and Joon-ki’s characters are old friends with a romantic connection, and every time they shoot a scene, Joon-ki spots several ajusshis glaring at him jealously.

It’s time for Yoon-ah to take the test for her baking license, and Dong-gu performs elaborate prayers outside her testing room. She comes out worried that she made a lot of mistakes and is going to fail, crying at the thought of letting Sol down. Dong-gu says that he’s sure she’ll pass and hugs her while she sobs.

When the housemates watch the episode featuring Cindy, they tease Seo-jin that she must be jealous, but she scoffs and says it’s just acting. Joon-ki invites her to a nice restaurant for her birthday, promising to show up this time, no matter what. Yoon-ah is still depressed about her test, and Dong-gu says that he’s tried everything to cheer her up and nothing works.

On the way to today’s shoot, Joon-ki is nearly hit from above by a falling vase. Shaken, he grabs a taxi, and the driver recognizes him and gives Joon-ki a wild ride that leaves him carsick. When he gets to his shoot, he realizes that he saw both the taxi driver and the man who dropped the vase in the crowd of ajusshis, chanting for Cindy.

Soo-ah flips through the pictures from her photo shoot with Doo-shik. She scoffs that she can’t possibly like him when he isn’t even good-looking (beg to differ). She does sigh dreamily that he’s cute in his own way, then freaks out that she must be going crazy. Oh how embarrassing — Doo-shik catches her looking at his picture and telling herself to get a grip. She snaps that she was erasing his pictures because he’s so ugly, calling him a pig and kicking him out of her room.

At work, Seo-jin scrolls through articles about Joon-ki’s pole-dance pitch. Mean Sunbae strolls over and sees Joon-ki’s picture on Seo-jin’s computer screen, and she recognizes him. Seo-jin starts to say that he’s her boyfriend, but she ends up just calling him her brother’s friend.

A rising rap star called MC Dacopy (cameo by comedian Kim Ki-ri) is in charge of the soundtrack for Dong-gu’s movie, so Dong-gu goes to meet him and listen to a sample he’s prepared. The song is just Psy’s “Champion” with MC Dacopy’s voice repeating “Dubai” in place of the lyrics, and when Dong-gu politely points out this fact, MC Dacopy gets offended.

MC Dacopy plays the next song, which is an obvious rip-off of Big Bang’s song, “Lies.” MC Dacopy promises that the third song is something brand new, and this time Dong-gu keeps his mouth shut when he recognizes iKon’s “Love Scenario.”

Joon-ki has to shoot a kissing scene with Cindy, but before their lips even meet, the boom operator drops the mike on Joon-ki’s head, ha. As he’s setting up to start over, Joon-ki sees the “Cindy” tattoo on the man’s wrist. During the next take, the spotlight slams into Joon-ki’s face, and the lighting tech pulls out a handheld fan with Cindy’s picture on it.

They take a break, and Joon-ki tells his new manager that he thinks he’s surrounded by hostile Cindy fans. His manager assures him that that can’t be true and gives him a bottled drink, which tastes foul, as it expired over a year ago. Joon-ki spits it out and asks about his schedule this weekend, and on the back of his manager’s planner are multiple Cindy stickers. Yikes.

Soo-ah reassures herself of her excellent taste in men by looking at pictures of Park Seo-jin on her phone. But she starts seeing them with Doo-shik’s face and wails that she’s crazy. All Doo-shik does is walk into the room and she’s screaming again that he’s a pig and running away.

Joon-ki drags himself into the house, shaking in terror from being surrounded by violent Cindy fans. Doo-shik says he’s probably just paranoid from exhaustion and sends him to get some rest. Joon-ki jumps into bed, but he comes up screaming when he finds pictures of himself under the covers, with “I’ll kill you. Lee Joon-ki,” and “Cindy is mine, get away from her,” scrawled on them in red ink.

Alarmed by Joon-ki’s screeches, Doo-shik runs to their room just as Joon-ki is running back out. Doo-shik finds the photos and his face goes dark… then he grins, and we see that he’s got a charm on his wallet with Cindy’s photo. Oh no, not Doo-shik, too!

To cheer up Yoon-ah, Dong-gu brings her her favorite food, soondae. He says that next week, he’s leaving for Dubai for a month for his movie, and that he’ll miss her and Sol. He tells her about meeting MC Dacopy and how he just changed the lyrics to others’ songs.

Yoon-ah gets excited, because MC Dacopy is the rapper who inspired her dream of rapping. Dong-gu is nonplussed, but he offers to introduce Yoon-ah to MC Dacopy when he sees how happy she is.

Poor Joon-ki is terrified on the set the next day when the entire crew glares daggers at him every time Cindy goes near him. He ends up yelling at Cindy and hurting her feelings, so she confronts him about it.

She bursts into tears, then complains of something in her eye. He leans close to check her eye, and someone takes pictures from an angle that makes it look like he’s kissing her passionately.

Doo-shik complains to Seo-jin about Soo-ah’s weird behavior lately, leaving all the online mall work to him and calling him a pig. He gets online and sees that Joon-ki’s name is at the top of the search engines, and he finds an article that Joon-ki and Cindy are dating, along with the picture that looks like they’re kissing.

Seo-jin runs over to take a look, and she barely has time to process it before Joon-ki comes home and sees the article himself. He’s horrified, and he swears that he wasn’t kissing Cindy, just blowing a speck out of her eye. He pleads with Seo-jin to believe him, and she looks skeptical but accepts his explanation.

Joon-ki calls his CEO to tell him that the article isn’t true and ask him to release a correction. But his CEO tells him to leave it, because a scandal with an actress as beloved as Cindy would be good for Joon-ki’s career. Joon-ki sadly tells Seo-jin that he’s not allowed to tell the truth because dating Cindy will make him famous.

She says she’s fine and tells Joon-ki not to worry, but Doo-shik can’t take it anymore. He informs Joon-ki that it’s not okay that Seo-jin can’t tell anyone he’s her boyfriend, and to make her put up with dating scandals is going too far. He says that Cindy’s fans may even try to kill Joon-ki, and it’s sweet that the first thing Joon-ki worries about is not being able to take Seo-jin out for her birthday.

When Dong-gu takes Yoon-ah to meet MC Dacopy, she’s so starstruck she can barely breathe. She tells him that he inspired her to dream of being a rapper, so he offers to let her record something. She goes into the studio to record MC Dacopy’s first song, “Mapo Bridge.”

After a few lines, MC Dacopy stops the music to tell her that her singing sounds like Zion.T’s “Yanghwa Bridge,” LOL. She tries again, but he stops her a second time to inform her that his song is completely different than Zion.T’s song because the bridges aren’t anywhere near each other, ha.

When Joon-ki picks up Seo-jin for their date, he wears a mask, sunglasses, and a hat to fool the paparazzi. He’s reserved a private dining room, but a reporter accidentally walks into the wrong room and recognizes him.

She’s the same reporter who took the scandalous photo of him and Cindy, and when Joon-ki steps out to the restroom, she stops him to ask about his love life. She tries to yank down his mask, so he fends her off and runs away. He calls Seo-jin to tell her that a reporter has him trapped outside, and that he won’t be able to go back in and finish their date.

She arrives home to find Joon-ki there before her, apologetic and miserable. Seo-jin suggests they take some time apart to think about whether this relationship is a good idea, and Joon-ki goes pale.

On their way home from the recording studio, Dong-gu complains about how rude MC Dacopy was to Yoon-ah when his song was a copy of Zion.T’s song. Yoon-ah says it’s okay since she gave up on her rapping dream, but she asks Dong-gu sadly why she’s not good at anything.

He tells her that he prepared something for her, then performs a terrible rap for her right in the street, encouraging her to follow her dream. Yoon-ah stares at him, then busts out laughing, and he sighs that she’s awfully hard to cheer up.

Suddenly, Yoon-ah gets a text congratulating her on passing her baking license test. Excited, Dong-gu says they need to have a party and runs off to buy a cake, while she waits, grinning at her text.

She hears a voice call her name, and she turns to see a man standing nearby. We don’t see his face, but Yoon-ah’s face falls as she stares at him in shock.

COMMENTS

Oh no, he’s Sol’s father, isn’t he? This is terrible. Yoon-ah is finally happy, she’s in love and has her life settled and a bright future, so why is he showing up now?? I’d just reconciled myself to believing that Yoon-ah’s past didn’t matter, but now this guy, whom she clearly doesn’t wish in her or her daughter’s life, is showing up to ruin everything at the last minute. And you know that Dong-gu is going to try to step back since the man is Sol’s father and all, when what he really needs to do is fight for the woman and the little girl he loves. Do you hear me Dong-gu — you’d better fight!

They’re really leaving Doo-shik and Soo-ah’s relationship to the very end, and I’m a bit concerned because right now, Doo-shik has displayed no attraction towards Soo-ah at all. I do think he likes her as a friend, because he voluntarily spends time with her playing games even though she’s mostly bossy and rude to him, but I don’t think it goes beyond that. The show has its work cut out for it to convince me that Doo-shik will fall for Soo-ah in the space of an hour, especially with all the other, bigger issues we also have to deal with in the finale. Of course, Doo-shik and Soo-ah may not end up together at all, and in this couple’s case I would be okay with an open-ended conclusion (though I understand why that would be traumatic to a certain fandom, lol).

I was all prepared to be unsupportive if Seo-jin decided to break up with Joon-ki because he missed a few dates right when his career was taking off. She’s shown before that she’s willing to sacrifice his passions for her comfort, and she didn’t really learn her lesson then, so I was ready to be angry with her for being selfish yet again. But when Joon-ki denied having a girlfriend… yeah, I’m on Seo-jin’s side on this one, and I think she actually handled it very maturely. Joon-ki should have told Seo-jin that if he ever denies dating her, that it’s just part of his actor persona and not to take it seriously. To blindside her that way wasn’t okay, and I don’t blame her for being hurt.

Not that Seo-jin has been displaying healthy behavior — she keeps telling Joon-ki that she’s fine, she’s not upset, everything is okay. It’s not her fault that he denied dating her, but she hasn’t exactly been honest with him, either, about how all this is affecting her. Joon-ki isn’t great at reading subtext, and when Seo-jin says she’s fine, he takes it on good faith that she’s telling the truth. She needs to tell him when something isn’t okay with her so they can work it out, not bottle everything inside then blow up at him all at once. They’re cute together, but they’re the actual worst when it comes to communication.

Then you add in Joon-ki’s growing fame and his inability to be in charge of his own decisions since he signed with an agency, and I honestly think I would be a lot more upset than Seo-jin has been. It’s a good thing to be understanding of your partner’s limitations, but if those limitations make Seo-jin miserable and lonely, then she isn’t obligated to accept the situation as it stands. She can’t, and shouldn’t, tell him to to give up his acting career for her, but she can decide that this isn’t the kind of relationship she wants. You can love someone and still be unable to make a relationship work, and if Seo-jin decides that she doesn’t want a life where she’s always waiting for Joon-ki and having to hide their relationship, then that’s her choice. And it’s not as if he’s happy either, always letting her down and spending most of their time together apologizing. Even though it would break my heart to see them break up, it might be for the best.

[geolocator_show for=”SG”]

 
RELATED POSTS

• Premiere Watch: Woohoo Waikiki
• High comedy and colorful shirts at guesthouse Waikiki
• Kim Jung-hyun leads trio of friends in new JTBC youth drama