Woohoo Waikiki 2: Episode 10

by LollyPip

The Waikiki housemates have always struggled with their careers, and this season is no exception. Even when things seem to be going well, they still manage to find a way to mess things up, no matter how hard they try not to. One housemate is having a particularly hard time lately, but it’s amazing what can happen when one has friends who truly care.

 
EPISODE 10: “Grown-ups Just Don’t Understand/The Culprit Is You

The guys and Yu-ri watch a quiz show on TV, and they’re shocked to see the size of the grand prize (about $40,000 U.S. dollars). They switch over to see Soo-yeon’s show, but instead, they see Joon-ki in a kids’ show playing a silly character called “Nice Man,” where he teaches kids how to behave. They all collapse with laughter and tease him mercilessly.

Poor Joon-ki only took the job because he wasn’t getting any other offers, but he gets pretty popular and starts to get fan mail. His PD tells him that lots of celebrities got their start on kids’ shows, and Joon-ki gets excited at the thought of finally becoming a star.

He carries his huge box of fan letters and gifts home, and on the way, a kid recognizes him at a crosswalk (Joon-ki: “Wow, I’m like BTS for little kids!” HAHA). The boy asks Joon-ki to autograph his backpack, so Joon-ki does his famous super-long signature. He continues on his way across the street, and the kid’s eyes bug out in surprise at something.

At dinner, Joon-ki gets a message from a girl he recently had a blind date with, Soo-mi. He really likes her, which makes Jung-eun grouchy, so she slams off to her room to blow her alphorn.

Yu-ri tells Ki-bong and Joon-ki that she applied to be on that quiz show — she wants to win the prize money and use it to open her restaurant — but she hasn’t heard back yet. Ki-bong warns her that the questions are really hard, but she fires back that she’s not stupid like him.

Just then, Ki-bong gets a call from the quiz show that he’s been chosen to be a contestant, which is weird since he didn’t even apply. Yu-ri chirps that she sent in an application for everyone in the house, trying to maximize her chances at the prize money.

But then she realizes that it’s Ki-bong who’ll be on the show, so she offers (okay, threatens) to train him. Hilariously, Ki-bong gets the concept of her practice questions right, but keeps getting the answers slightly wrong, like calling it “paying dirty” instead of “paying Dutch.”

When Joon-ki arrives on the set the next day, his PD is angry because the website is flooded with complaints — when he crossed the street in front of the kid yesterday, he didn’t look both ways first, like his character Nice Man instructs. He gets a lecture to be on his best behavior when out in public from now on.

While on a lunch date with Soo-mi, Joon-ki gets recognized by another child. The little boy asks why he didn’t clean his plate like Nice Man says, so Joon-ki explains that the parsley is just a decoration. But the boy insists, and rather than get in trouble again, Joon-ki eats the garnish, then asks Soo-mi to eat hers, too.

He apologizes to her as he’s walking her home, but she doesn’t seem to mind. A little girl across the street sees Soo-mi give him a kiss on the cheek and drops her yogurt in shock.

Yu-ri blows Jung-eun’s alphorn in Ki-bong’s face (from waaaay across the room, hee) when he falls asleep studying on the night before the show. He complains that he doesn’t even want to be on the show, so she gives him some free samples from a new rice cake shop nearby to help him study.

On the way to the show the next day, Ki-bong is reluctant and whiny, but Yu-ri tries to bolster his confidence. She shows him a cafe that’s close to her vision for her restaurant, and seeing her so happy makes Ki-bong decide to do his best to win that prize money for her. OMG, could they be any cuter?

Joon-ki gets in trouble again, this time for the kiss after the bedtime that Nice Man advocates. Joon-ki reminds his PD that he’s a grown man who’s allowed to date and be out past nine o’clock, but the PD tells Joon-ki that if this happens again, he’ll be replaced.

Joon-ki shows up for a movie date with Soo-mi later in a hat, sunglasses, and mask, late because he kept having to avoid small kids. He’s recognized anyway by a girl who heard his voice, and when he growls that it’s not him, she fusses that Nice Man says never to lie.

She asks him to help her find the owner of a dog she found, but Joon-ki says he’s busy. The girl whines that Nice Man says to always help animals in need, so he asks Soo-mi if she minds seeing the movie another time, but she’s tired of their dates being interrupted and walks away.

Ki-bong’s quiz show starts, and he looks nervous when the host introduces the other two contestants, a KAIST professor and a NASA researcher with a Harvard doctorate. Ha, the housemates are watching from home, and Woo-shik quips that it’s like an amateur soccer player going up against Ronaldo and Messi.

The rules are that contestants lose points for wrong answers. Ki-bong’s opponents keep giving wrong answers while he just passes on each question. Going into the final round, Ki-bong somehow finds himself in first place with zero points, hee.

Joon-ki hangs around outside Soo-mi’s house hoping to see her, and he catches her coming home after a date with another guy. Her date calls Joon-ki pathetic, so he shakes him by the lapels, which is of course witnessed by a whole van full of children. They pout at Joon-ki disappointedly for fighting, and he’s torn between keeping his job or his manly pride.

He has a stroke of genius — he snaps into his Nice Man persona and chides Soo-mi that nice grownups don’t go on dates behind their boyfriend’s back. He tells her date that nice grownups don’t steal other people’s girlfriends, and the kids echo his patronizing, “No no no no!”

He’s about to make his exit when one cheeky scamp reminds him that he forgot the last part. Joon-ki cringes, but he poses and makes his speedy car noise, then trots off. LOL.

In the final quiz round, Ki-bong has to get all three questions correct to win the grand prize, but if he answers any of them wrong, he loses the smaller prize he’s already won. From the wings, Yu-ri motions to him to stop and keep what he’s won, but he made her a promise so he says he’ll to the final round (and awww, he flashes her the sweetest smile).

The first question, the three things that Jeju Island is known for, is actually one of the practice questions Yu-ri gave him, and he miraculously remembers the answer (wind, rocks, and women). The second question asks the name of the world’s longest woodwind instrument — and Ki-bong immediately thinks of Yu-ri blasting Jung-eun’s alphorn in his ear.

He only needs to get one more question right to win the grand prize. The question is to name the war hero who ridiculed an invading general with a poem, and Ki-bong genuinely has no idea. But as a clue, the war hero’s picture is shown on the screen, and it’s the same picture from the box of rice cakes that Yu-ri gave him. He recalls that the rice cake shop had an unusual name, and he blurts out “Euljimun Rice Cakes!”

It’s a slight mispronunciation of the war hero’s name, so the host asks him to repeat himself more clearly. From the wings, Yu-ri imitates a duck, to try to get him to say “deok,” but instead he panics and yells “Euljimun Quack! I mean, Euljimun Mallard! Euljimun Donald Duck!” Well, at least he’s still cute.

That evening, Ki-bong pours Yu-ri shots with shaking hands. He apologizes for screwing up and promises to help her open her restaurant somehow. He misquotes another idiom, and Yu-ri loses it, chasing him around the house trying to kill him.

At Soo-yeon’s office, her PD passes out copies of his new book about famous restaurants, and her coworkers offer to buy more copies as a kiss-up tactic. He asks Soo-yeon how many copies she wants to buy, and he harshly criticizes her work after she says she doesn’t want any copies.

Yu-ri makes dinner for the housemates, who shower her with praise. She tells them that she’s naming her restaurant “Yu-ri’s Kitchen 31” in honor of her concept — thirty-one different spaghetti dishes. She says that this dish is called “Mom is a Spaghetti Alien,” and they all shake their heads at the obvious ripoff.

They notice that Jung-eun still isn’t eating, but Joon-ki tells them to leave her alone. Woo-shik mentions that Joon-ki got dumped, and Joon-ki whines tearfully that he dumped her. Jung-eun suddenly cheers up at this news and digs into her spaghetti.

Yu-ri is unsettled by one of their guests (cameo by Joo Ho), who gives off a strange vibe. While she’s out, she gets depressed when she sees an empty storefront that’s way too expensive. On the wall is a Wanted poster for a criminal… and the man in the picture resembles Waikiki’s strange houseguest, but with glasses and a mustache.

She takes a picture of the Wanted poster and tells the housemates her plan to catch the criminal and use the reward money to open her restaurant. Joon-ki warns her to be absolutely sure she’s got the right man or they could get sued.

Soo-yeon’s PD continues to be mean to her, and when her coworkers insist on a welcome meal for her, he takes them for chicken feet. Soo-yeon says this isn’t the kind of meat she wanted, but he just laughs at her.

Soo-yeon’s coworkers are called back to the office, leaving her alone with the PD. She suggests they also leave, but he assumes she can’t drink and starts insulting her again. Soo-yeon defiantly slams a shot, only for him to criticize her for having bad drinking manners. ARGH, this ass.

Yu-ri lets herself into the guest’s room and congratulates him for winning Waikiki Guesthouse’s one-year anniversary event. She gives him three bottles of beer as a “prize,” then offers to play a drinking game with him, and the winner gets to draw on the loser’s face.

She keeps losing and calling “do-over,” until she can’t use it as an excuse anymore. Later, the housemates tell her that it’s her own fault she’s now sporting a marker-drawn mustache and glasses, ha. Yu-ri is convinced that the guest’s skill at the game is just proof that he’s a con man.

Soo-yeon and her PD keep drinking until he’s pink-cheeked and her chicken feet keep running away from her. He’s still criticizing her nonstop, and finally she stands up and slaps him in the mouth with a chicken foot. She chicken-foot-slaps him several more times for good measure, then they both pass out on the table.

Yu-ri tries again, this time faking a Year of the Golden Pig game. Yu-ri loses several games, and ends up giving away a free week at the guesthouse and he’s written “idiot” on her forehead.

Her friends tell her to give up, since they’re not even sure the guest is the criminal, but Yu-ri is determined. Ki-bong offers himself up to play a physical game against the guest, since he’s confident of his strength. He runs upstairs… and comes back down sporting glasses, a goatee, and “fool” written across his cheeks, hee. Even Joon-ki and Jung-eun try their luck, and soon they all have marked-up faces.

Woo-shik shows up at the restaurant as Soo-yeon is starting to sober up. She recalls with horror that she chicken-foot-slapped her PD, scared of what he’ll do to her in retaliation. He rouses and complains that his lips are burning (from the sauce), but he says he blacks out when he drinks so all he remembers is that someone smacked him with chicken feet, but he doesn’t know who.

The housemates get the marker washed off their faces and try to think of another way to determine if their houseguest is the criminal. Unfortunately, he checked out unexpectedly, so they run outside to catch him before he grabs a taxi.

Yu-ri has Ki-bong and Joon-ki hold the guy while she goes through his backpack. She finds a Halloween mask, a knife, rope, and a wig, and just to make sure he’s the right guy, she draws a mustache and glasses on him.

They take him to the police station, but they learn that the real criminal was caught a few days ago. The stuff in the guy’s bag turn out to be magic trick props, which he uses in his job as a recreation instructor. Well, that explains why he’s so good at games.

As they walk home, they pass the storefront Yu-ri was interested in, and the landlord tells them that it’s been sold. Ki-bong sees Yu-ri’s disappointment and tells her that they’ll find another spot, but she says sadly that she has no money anyway.

Woo-shik gets pretty drunk himself trying to make Soo-yeon’s PD black out and forget who chicken-foot-slapped him. The PD yells at Soo-yeon when she nods off, making her curse, and he starts in on her again. This time she slaps him upside the face with a fish, and he threatens to fire her, so Woo-shik offers him another drink, ha.

Eventually Soo-yeon wakes up a little more sober, and PD has no clue who Woo-shik is when he wakes, even after drinking with him all night. He wonders all over again why his lips are burning, and Woo-shik slurs that he got “kizu” (a Japanese word that means “hurt” but also sounds like “kiss”).

The PD snaps at Woo-shik for mispronouncing “kizu,” and Woo-shik starts to get annoyed. He smacks the PD in the mouth with the gummy stick he’s been chewing on and says that he understands why Soo-yeon hit him with the chicken foot… oops. He realizes what he did and stage-whispers to Soo-yeon that he won’t tell the PD that she also hit him with a fish. OMG, stop talking!

Ki-bong finds Yu-ri drinking alone, and she tells him that she tried to find another job, but the chef she used to work for got her blackballed because she threw spaghetti in his face when she quit. Ki-bong asks why, so Yu-ri says that she worked for the chef for ten years, but when the sous chef position opened up (a kitchen’s second-in-command), he gave the job to someone who’d been there less than half the time she had.

She says that she’ll just take a part-time job and give up on her restaurant. Ki-bong asks if she’s okay with that, and she lies that she is. Ki-bong makes her look at him, then pokes her in the eyes like she did to him when he lost his baseball dream.

He tells her to cry if she needs to, and she sobs that she’s feeling completely hopeless. Ki-bong holds Yu-ri as she cries, not sure what to say to help her feel better but able to do at least this much.

Back at the house, Soo-yeon tells Woo-shik that after he tattled on her, the PD went a little crazy, though she assures him that she took care of it. “Took care of it” evidently means feeding him so much soju that he’ll have trouble remembering his own name, ha.

She says she feels thankful to Woo-shik for letting her live in the guesthouse, and for helping her whenever she’s in trouble. Woo-shik says sleepily that he does it because he likes it, because seeing her in pain hurts him and seeing her smile makes him happy.

His words sound very much like a confession, so Soo-yeon teasingly asks if he likes her, expecting him to make a joke about it. He doesn’t say anything so she says that she was just kidding, but Woo-shik says softly, “I’m not kidding. Soo-yeon-ah, I have something to tell you.”

Yu-ri is woken the next morning by a call from Ki-bong, who tells her to hurry up and come outside. She drags herself out of bed and outside, where he’s standing in front of something hidden under a huge tarp. He dramatically removes it to reveal a food truck, painted with the name “Yu-ri’s Kitchen 31.”

Ki-bong says that he promised to help Yu-ri open a restaurant, and the truck is all he can afford right now. Yu-ri asks where he got the money, so he explains that he received his last paycheck as a baseball player yesterday, and he decided to invest in her.

Yu-ri bursts into tears and throws herself at Ki-bong, hugging him tightly. He hugs her back, a little confused that she’s crying, saying that he’s only keeping his promise.

Joon-ki finds Woo-shik sleeping on the couch and wakes him up. It takes Woo-shik a moment to recall that last night, he admitted to Soo-yeon that he likes her. “From the first moment we met,” he’d said, “I’ve never forgotten you for a single moment. I really mean it.”

Horrified, Woo-shik stammers to Joon-ki that he got drunk and confessed to Soo-yeon last night. Joon-ki asks what Soo-yeon’s response was, but Woo-shik can’t remember.

Soo-yeon comes into the room, and it’s obvious from her expression that she definitely remembers last night.

 
COMMENTS

Awww, Woo-shik finally confessed! A drunk confession, but still, he told Soo-yeon how he feels, and from that shy look on her face I think she remembers. This season seems more geared towards the potential romances in general than the first season did, but I don’t mind that at all. I’m glad we got that Woo-shik and Soo-yeon moment, because I was about to complain that nothing much was happening between them, especially considering that they’ve been waiting the longest for their happy ending. Soo-yeon has taken a while to see Woo-shik again in that way, but I do think that she recognizes that he treats her with more care and concern than he does his other friends. So his confession can’t have been a complete surprise — but the real question is, was it a welcome one?

I know I keep saying it, but Yu-ri and Ki-bong, amirite? How are they so awesome together? I can’t figure out what it is, but I know I’m not the only one who ships them the hardest of all three of the imminent house couples. I feel like the writer also has a soft spot for Yu-ri and Ki-bong, because they’ve gotten the most friendship/relationship advancement of all three guesthouse couples. They just seem to gravitate towards each other, despite continually getting on each other’s nerves. Yu-ri is critical and bossy, and Ki-bong is… well let’s just say it, he’s not the smartest. But he’s so sweet that it’s just hard to handle sometimes, and Yu-ri can be extremely supportive of Ki-bong, even to her own detriment. I loved their scene in this episode that perfectly mirrored the one where Yu-ri cheered up Ki-bong when he lost his dream of playing baseball. Ki-bong was there for Yu-ri when she needed a friend in the exact same way she was there for him, which to me says that any relationship between them will be equally nurturing and supportive.

I couldn’t believe that Ki-bong bought Yu-ri a food truck, but when I thought about it a little, it’s actually very in-character for him. Ki-bong is the guy who will give someone his last dollar just to help them, and that’s exactly what he did. He had the money and Yu-ri needed help, so he wouldn’t consider any option other than helping her. It feels especially meaningful that he used the last money he made as a baseball player to buy a food truck for Yu-ri, because to Ki-bong, her friendship is more important than that money. What’s crazy is that I don’t think either of them has romance on their radar yet, but it really feels like it’s only a matter of time. You get the feeling that they’ll be one of those couples that fights and insults each other constantly, but let anyone else try to hurt one of them and the other will take them down like a hyena on a limping wildebeest.

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