Familiar Wife: Episode 11

by LollyPip

Joo-hyuk seems to have decided on how to go forward now that everything is falling down around his ears. But as far as he’s come in his awareness of how much his actions affect others, he doesn’t seem to have learned much about good decision-making. Luckily for him (and the universe in general), the decisions seem about to be taken out of his hands entirely.

 
EPISODE 11: “Should I say I love you again”

Drunk and upset, Woo-jin tells Joo-hyuk that no matter how hard she’s tried, she can’t help but have feelings for him. Joo-hyuk tells her that she shouldn’t like him and they can’t do this, but she pulls him down and kisses him anyway.

He kisses her back for a few seconds, forgetting himself, but then he stops and says they can’t be together. He runs back to the restaurant, leaving Woo-jin sitting on the ground alone.

The next morning, Jong-hoo proudly presents Joo-hyuk with a fried egg for breakfast, praising his own expertise after ten years of bachelorhood. Joo-hyuk jokes that he’d make a good wife, though when Jong-hoo wonders out loud if he should marry Woo-jin, Joo-hyuk’s smile turns a bit forced.

Joo-hyuk creeps into work looking surreptitiously for Woo-jin, but she startles him when she runs in behind him. They’re both feeling incredibly awkward, but Jong-hoo mistakes Woo-jin’s unhappy expression for a hangover. She doesn’t correct him, but she asks for some time to talk to him after work.

Jong-hoo cheerfully agrees, but in private, he paces and admits to Joo-hyuk that he’s nervous. He tells Joo-hyuk that they only agreed to date for a month and that month is nearly over, and begs Joo-hyuk to reassure him that she’s not planning to break up with him. Joo-hyuk reluctantly but dutifully complies (ten times in a row, hee), but it doesn’t calm Jong-hoo’s frazzled nerves.

Hye-jong and TL Jang watch as a female customer gives Hwan a gift when he’s finished setting up her loan terms. It’s mint chocolate, which he says he doesn’t care for. Hyang-sook says pointedly that she loves mint chocolate, but Hwan ignores her and gives the chocolate to Hye-jong. Hyang-sook makes a cranky face at Hye-jong’s conviction that this must be proof Hwan likes her.

Jong-hoo insists on taking Woo-jin to eat before they talk, then going to an arcade to digest, obviously putting off the Dreaded Conversation. He says he’s hungry again, but Woo-jin’s expression says that it’s time, so he braces himself. He looks desperately hopeful, but Woo-jin says that she can’t see him anymore, honestly admitting that her heart lies elsewhere.

Jong-hoo looks devastated, but he takes the news with a smile and says coolly that it’s not his first breakup. He says he’d like to go back to being friendly colleagues, but he ends up at Sang-shik’s bar, pounding down beers and trying not to cry.

He whines that he thinks Woo-jin likes someone else, making Sang-shik rant that Woo-jin is a cheater, which in turn makes Joo-hyuk choke. Jong-hoo confesses that he always felt uneasy while dating Woo-jin, sensing that he liked her more than she liked him, so he tried to give her even more in the hopes that it would make her like him more.

He asks Joo-hyuk if he tried to hard, and although Joo-hyuk tells him that he did his best, Jong-hoo isn’t consoled. He’s so pathetic that he even cries over the pupae in his soup and the dried squid on his plate, awww.

Sang-shik decides to find Jong-hoo a new lady, and the guys all wind up at a club. The club is full of beautiful women, but all three friends stand awkwardly at their table, despite their insistence that they’re total ladies’ men, ha. Joo-hyuk and Jong-hoo want to leave, but Sang-shik tells them to be confident and heads off into the sea of dancing bodies, but Jong-hoo keeps obsessing about how he’s supposed to act normal around Woo-jin at work tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Woo-jin goes for a run with Joo-eun, who can barely keep up. They stop to rest, and Woo-jin sighs that she feels guilty for even starting anything with Jong-hoo, but that she can’t control her heart, even though she feels that it’s steering her onto a difficult course.

Joo-eun tentatively asks if this is because of Joo-hyuk, and she can see from Woo-jin’s expression that she’s guessed correctly . Woo-jin admits that she feels even worse that Joo-hyuk is Jong-hoo’s best friend, because she usually hates love triangles in dramas.

But Joo-eun says that there would be a lot fewer love stories if everyone could control their hearts. Given that the man involved is her brother, Joo-eun tells Woo-jin kindly that she can’t support her, but she won’t criticize her, either.

Jong-hoo shows up in the morning with a smile on his face and a coffee for everyone, and TL Jang jokes that he only brought them all coffee as an excuse to buy Woo-jin her strawberry smoothie. Jong-hoo casually announces that they broke up, but Joo-hyuk watches Jong-hoo closely, not falling for his “I’m totally fine” act.

While on a break, the other employees gossip that Woo-jin must be the one who got dumped, since Jong-hoo seems pretty cheerful. Manager Byun says sagely that this is why he never dates coworkers, and TL Jang chirps that it’s not a matter of doesn’t, but can’t, ha. They leave and Hye-jong asks Hyang-sook if she should accept Hwan’s feelings, but she only gets a baleful glare in answer.

Only Hwan figures out the truth — he confronts Jong-hoo with a blunt, “You got dumped, didn’t you?” He says it’s obvious with the way Jong-hoo is on his phone looking for new classes or activities to keep himself busy, but Jong-hoo swears that the breakup was mutual.

Woo-jin takes her break on the roof, getting some fresh air, and Joo-hyuk follows her up there. He asks her to give Jong-hoo another chance, and not to be bothered by what happened between them, because everyone makes mistakes. Woo-jin says that it wasn’t a mistake, but that she’s not expecting anything from Joo-hyuk because he’s been through a lot lately, and she knows he’s close with Jong-hoo.

She says she just doesn’t want him to force anything, or to feel uncomfortable around her. She gives him permission to pretend the kiss didn’t happen, and consider it a drunken mistake if it makes him feel better.

They don’t notice Jong-hoo standing nearby, listening to every word as his heart breaks.

While at a gas station, Hye-won spots Hyun-soo and guesses that this is the only job he could find after being fired as a valet. He’s being falsely accused of scratching a haughty woman’s car while washing it (she’s hoping to get compensation money from his employer), and when she insults his parents, he loses his temper and talks back.

The woman starts shoving him, but Hye-won walks up and throws some money at the woman. She tells Hyun-soo that the car is paid for now, so he can smash it if he likes, and she even whacks the side mirror with her purse a few times. Hyun-soo joins in and kicks the mirror clean off the car.

Hye-won informs the woman that rich people use their money to protect their pride instead of hurting their pride for money, like she was doing. Hyun-soo grins, but she turns to him and tells him not to let anyone like this woman look down on him. She heads to her car without looking back, leaving him gaping appreciatively.

After work, Joo-hyuk invites Jong-hoo to have dinner. Jong-hoo won’t look at him or speak to him, and when Joo-hyuk wheedles him to talk about what’s wrong, he hauls off and punches Joo-hyuk in the face. He asks how he could do this to him, saying that you can’t control your feelings, but Joo-hyuk should have at least told him himself.

He accuses Joo-hyuk of getting a thrill from telling him that Woo-jin liked him, but Joo-hyuk insists that it’s not like that. He almost tells Jong-hoo the truth but stops himself, and Jong-hoo snarls that he’s a jerk and kicks him out of his apartment. Joo-hyuk packs hurriedly, telling Jong-hoo that it’s really not what he thinks, but Jong-hoo refuses to acknowledge him.

Joo-hyuk wheels his suitcase into the hall, where it bursts open, dumping his belongings everywhere. He sits to dejectedly pack it all up again, and only a few moments later, Jong-hoo comes out to help. He says angrily that this doesn’t mean he forgives Joo-hyuk, but he still can’t kick him out when he has nowhere to go.

He tells Joo-hyuk to consider the discomfort he’ll feel while staying with him as punishment, and carries his busted suitcase back inside. Joo-hyuk spends that night on the floor, neither he nor Jong-hoo getting any sleep, and in the morning, there’s no fancy fried egg for him for breakfast.

At work, Jong-hoo does the bare minimum when it comes to interacting with Joo-hyuk, refusing to look at or speak to him, so Hwan asks Joo-hyuk if they had a fight. Hwan also volunteers to take lunch with Woo-jin when both Joo-hyuk and Jong-hoo decline, and while they’re out, he asks her if she and Jong-hoo are feeling awkward.

He accurately guesses that Woo-jin did the dumping, because the one who did the breaking up usually feels worse. He complains that the bank’s at fault for putting attractive people together for long hours until they develop feelings. He laments that he never would have fallen for someone if he’d met her somewhere else, then backpedals and says he’s just ranting.

Things are definitely awkward, with Joo-hyuk obviously dodging eye contact with Woo-jin, and Jong-hoo practically twisting himself into a pretzel to avoid going near her. She volunteers to take on a huge organizing project, and although TL Jang tries to guilt-trip someone into helping her, nobody steps up.

But Woo-jin enjoys the solitary work, so much that when TL Jang sends Hye-jong and Hyang-sook to help, she begs them to let her finish it alone. TL Jang doesn’t believe them and sends them back to their desks, where Hwan asks them to help pass out flyers.

He makes a show of only speaking to Hye-jong, reinforcing her conviction that he’s got the hots for her. She decides to go for it and asks Hwan to the movies, and she preens when he accepts while Hyang-sook just gets more and more upset.

After class, Hye-won finds Hyun-soo waiting to talk to her. She says that she’s not interested in talking to him, but he gives her some money and promises to pay her the same amount every month until he’s paid back what she gave him (including the money she spent so he could kick the car’s mirror off). He just says that he hates living like a fraud because he gets treated like a fraud, then leaves.

Sang-shik calls Jong-hoo to the bar to feed him samgyetang (I love that his love language is food), which he tells Jong-hoo that he slaved over for two hours until Joo-eun tattles that he bought it, ha. He also called Joo-hyuk over in an attempt to get the two friends to talk, but when Joo-hyuk arrives, Jong-hoo suddenly leaves.

Joo-hyuk also leaves, and Joo-eun sighs that “it finally happened.” Sang-shik whines until she makes him promise not to freak out if she tells him what she means. A few seconds later, Sang-shik runs at Joo-hyuk and drops him with a flying leap-kick, calling him a bastard for stealing his friend’s girlfriend. He says they’re no longer friends and forbids Joo-hyuk from coming to the bar ever again.

After their movie, Hwan tries to pay Hye-jong for his ticket, but she tells him that this is what it’s like to date an older woman. He’s confused, but she just apologizes for playing dumb and says she wants to try dating him.

Hwan is all What now?, and he tells Hye-jong that he likes someone else. They both feel super awkward, but Hye-jong asks if Hwan will keep being nice to her for a while to save her from embarrassment in front of someone she bragged to.

Sang-shik goes back to the bar to drink, but Joo-eun tells him that he has no right to be more upset than the people directly involved. He snaps at her to leave him alone so he can process things, which just gets him locked out in the cold, heh.

Even though it’s late, Joo-hyuk calls someone at the main office to ask if he can be transferred to a bank branch outside of Seoul. She says she can do it and asks for a little time to make some calls. Jong-hoo overhears Joo-hyuk’s plan to move out of the city, but he doesn’t say anything.

In the morning, Joo-hyuk waits for Hye-won outside their house. He tells her that he just wanted to see her face, and apologizes for making her unhappy before leaving again.

Hye-jong pointedly greets Hwan when he arrives at work, and winks at him until he asks if she got home okay last night. Hyang-sook asks her if they’re going to keep dating, and Hye-jong fibs that she’s not that into him, but she’ll see.

During a meeting, Joo-hyuk is given a choice of which coworker to help him teach a finance class for small business owners. He chooses Woo-jin, surprising her and Jong-hoo.

Afterward, TL Jang finds Manager Byun in the hallway looking upset. He says that it’s his daughter’s birthday, and he’s been trying to call her, but his ex-wife has blocked his number. TL Jang asks for his ex’s number and calls her, pretending to be calling from an airline.

She says her daughter won a contest and they need to speak to her to confirm her identity, and when she comes to the phone, TL Jang hands it off to Manager Byun. Awww, he’s so adorably over-the-moon to hear his daughter’s voice.

TL Jang slips away, and soon Manager Byun returns her phone with an achingly sincere thanks. She jokes that he’d better not fall for her again and sails off, leaving Manager Byun to mutter, “It’s not ‘again’ — it’s the first time, woman.”

Joo-hyuk’s small business class goes well, and he tells Woo-jin that these classes result in loyal customers. He offers to take her to eat, and they go to a nearby market, where they graze on the varied foods offered by the vendors and sneak cute little peeks at each other.

Manager Byun invites TL Jang to dinner after work, his treat, to thank her for doing him such a huge favor. Jong-hoo leaves with barely a word to anyone, and Hye-jong is still acting flirtatious with Hwan. Hyang-sook has enough and stomps off, texting Hwan to meet her in the break room.

He finds her cranky and snappish, and she demands to know how he can hit on Hye-jong so soon after confessing to her. Hwan asks why she’s so mad, when she rejected him. She blurts out, “Because I like you!”

Backing up a little, Hyang-sook explains that she wasn’t sure at first, but seeing him with Hye-jong upset her. Hwan grins widely, looking tickled pink that she was so irritated. He says he wants to try that whole three seconds thing again, and that she can shove him away if she wants.

Hyang-sook doesn’t say anything, so Hwan slowly counts one… two… and she closes her eyes. But he waits until she opens them again before going in for the kiss, and this time, she doesn’t push him. Hwan ends the kiss and they smile at each other, then Hyang-sook throws her arms around his neck, and they don’t come up for air for quite some time.

Joo-hyuk drives Woo-jin home as she complains that she lost control and ate way too much. He says she was always like that, but he just smiles when she asks how he knows. Feeling impulsive, he decides to take Woo-jin for a walk through his old college campus, recalling their past in the original timeline when she says it feels familiar.

Hye-jong asks if Joo-hyuk was always in the library when he was in school, but he says he also had several part-time jobs. He watches her closely when he mentions tutoring, seeming pleased when she says she can picture him as a handsome tutor. Woo-jin starts to say something serious, but Joo-hyuk cuts her off and asks if they can just walk together and enjoy the atmosphere.

She gets a call from a coworker at the main office, who happens to be the same woman Joo-hyuk asked about a transfer. The woman asks Woo-jin if something happened at their branch, since a lot of people would be upset if Joo-hyuk left. After she hangs up, Woo-jin asks Joo-hyuk if he requested a transfer because of her, and he can’t deny it, though it’s not for the reason she thinks.

That night, Woo-jin again dreams of her faceless man. But this time she sees Joo-hyuk in all the scenes, which go all the way to the present, ending with her screaming and throwing things at him.

Woo-jin wakes, shaken to the core, so she texts Joo-hyuk and asks him to meet her downstairs. She’s jumpy as she tells him about her recurring dream about a man whom she dates, marries, and has children with, and how the dream always ends with her furious at him. She says she’s always wondered who the man is, and that tonight, she saw Joo-hyuk’s face.

Joo-hyuk grows nervous and tears fill his eyes as Woo-jin asks, “What is this? Is it just a coincidence? Is it just a dream? Do you know? There are other things that bother me, too. You knew where I live, you knew my habits, and things kept bothering me. The way my mom treats you, and calls you her son-in-law, all of it is weird. Nothing makes sense.”

He calls her “Woo-jin-ah,” but she tells him not to call her that, because it confuses her and makes her feel sad. She begs him to tell her what’s happening, and Joo-hyuk tells her, “We were married, Woo-jin-ah. You and I were married.”

 
COMMENTS

I wasn’t expecting Joo-hyuk to tell Woo-jin the truth, not yet. I didn’t think he would ever tell her about the other timeline, and I’m not sure how he’s going to explain this, but I like the direction this is going. Joo-hyuk spent this episode looking like he was giving up, preparing to leave the city and live somewhere else alone, and while he seemed to accept his fate with grace, it’s not the right decision. Transferring to another bank and leaving would just be a cop-out, leaving everyone to deal with the consequences of his bad choice without trying to fix anything. But now that Joo-hyuk has been forced to tell Woo-jin (at least part of) the truth, he’s going to have to do something about it. Hopefully this is the first step towards him making things right with everyone.

Woo-jin has come under some hostile fire for confessing to and kissing Joo-hyuk, but I honestly think that what she did wasn’t that bad. I’ll agree that her timing was terrible, because the ink was barely dry on his divorce papers, but she did wait until he was a divorced man. While Joo-hyuk was married, Woo-jin kept her feelings to herself and even tried to forget about him by dating a guy who seemed perfect for her, but after thinking that Joo-hyuk had died during the marathon, I don’t blame her for blurting out her feelings, especially as drunk as she was. Woo-jin’s confession came at a bad time and under irresponsible circumstances, but I don’t think she did anything morally wrong — Joo-hyuk was single and she was only in a “contract” relationship that wasn’t working out (and she hadn’t even kissed Jong-hoo), so both of them were pretty free in that moment.

Poor Jong-hoo, I have felt bad for him for weeks now, but this episode just broke my heart. He’s such a sweet guy, and he genuinely liked Woo-jin (though I wonder how much of her allure was her emotional unavailability), and her breaking up with him was so hard on him. And that was before he found out about Joo-hyuk’s involvement. He’s been nothing but supportive to Joo-hyuk through his divorce, and he just felt so betrayed. We know that Joo-hyuk did everything he could to encourage Woo-jin towards Jong-hoo, but all Jong-hoo knows is that Joo-hyuk told him not to date her, only grudgingly accepted their relationship, then kissed her and caused her to break up with him. From his perspective, it looks like deliberate betrayal.

But the moment that genuinely made me cry was when Jong-hoo told Joo-hyuk that he wasn’t kicking him out, because it showed what a truly good man he is, and a truly good friend. I haven’t thought much about what Jong-hoo lost when Joo-hyuk made the changes to the timeline, but the truth is that Jong-hoo lost as much as Joo-hyuk did — a wife and two children — the only difference is that Jong-hoo doesn’t know it. But that doesn’t make his loss any less tragic, and I hope that Joo-hyuk acknowledges at some point that Jong-hoo is miserable and heartsick right now because of him (and not because of Woo-jin breaking up with him). The ripples of his decision affect more than just himself and Woo-jin, and putting things right means a lot more to a lot of people than just getting back the wife he belatedly realizes he loves.

All that aside, I love that Joo-hyuk and Woo-jin were finally able to be together for a little while, without a lot of baggage and heavy emotions between them. I liked the appreciative little glances he and Woo-jin shot at each other in the market, just enjoying each other’s company in a relaxed setting with no reason to feel guilty hanging over their heads. Joo-hyuk may have completely screwed up this second chance in amazingly varied ways, and Woo-jin has made a few mistakes herself, but the cosmic truth is that these two are meant to be together. They’re not perfect, in either timeline, but they’re perfect for each other. They both have a lot of making up to do to a lot of people in this timeline, then a lot more work when (I hope) Joo-hyuk returns to his original timeline and has to make Woo-jin fall for him again despite the years of neglect and pain between them. But I’m ready to see them start to mend from their hurts, in both timelines, and become a family again.

 
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