My Absolute Boyfriend: Episodes 29-30

by LollyPip

The problem with having a lovebot as a boyfriend is the high expectations, especially when you’ve been disappointed by love in the past. A robot just can’t love like a human, and everyone in her life tries to warn our heroine that she’s heading down a dangerous path.

 
EPISODES 29-30 RECAP

While doing Young-gu’s makeup for today’s scenes, Kyu-ri mentions how much Da-da loved Wang-joon while they were together. Young-gu feels something seize in his chest, then he completely locks up and goes unresponsive. Kyu-ri thinks he’s playing a joke, but when Da-da walks in, she panics.

She sends Yoo-jin for Bo-won, who returns with Young-gu’s tablet and soon has him back in working order. Unfortunately Kyu-ri, Yoo-jin, and Yeo-woong all witnessed the repair, so Da-da has no choice but to tell them that Young-gu is a robot. She asks them to help her protect Young-gu’s secret in case something like this happens again.

Bo-won informs Director Go that a few more people learned about Young-gu because he ran his pause safeguard in front of them. That’s only supposed to happen in dangerous situations, but Bo-won says it was just an error. Director Go grows worried about the possibility of a meltdown and instructs Bo-won to keep a close eye on Young-gu’s emotions.

The Real team gather at Da-da’s house that evening. Yoo-jin is fascinated by how Young-gu works, but Bo-won won’t let Young-gu reveal any company secrets. Kyu-ri leans close to Bo-won (nearly giving him a heart attack), wondering if he’s a robot too, and he giggles that he’s human.

Da-da passes out next week’s drama projects, and on the way out, Kyu-ri notices Young-gu’s Love Room. She stays to talk to Da-da, saying that she understands that she’s dating a robot because Wang-joon hurt her, but she doesn’t think it’s right. She accuses Da-da of expecting a perfect love, but says that such a thing doesn’t exist, and that getting hurt and moving on is how you grow.

Young-gu listens as Kyu-ri tells Da-da that she’s just avoiding reality, and it makes him feel terrible. But he says to Da-da later that he feels more comfortable now that more people know about him. He can see that Da-da is worried and he asks if it’s because of what Kyu-ri said. Da-da doesn’t answer, she just says she has a headache and goes to bed. She knocks her Young-gu doll onto the floor and just leaves it there, frustrated.

Wang-joon comes to the studio in the morning to warn Da-da that reporters are waiting around the corner to ambush her. She’s annoyed with him, since it’s his fault, but he just pulls her along with him.

On set, Kyu-ri gives Bo-won the stink-eye, demanding to know if there’s anything else he’s hiding. She gets in his face again but he just stammers that there aren’t anymore secrets. Kyu-ri orders him to get her coffee as punishment for lying, but Yeo-woong snaps at Kyu-ri to get her own coffee instead of treating Bo-won like a slave.

Poor Bo-won doesn’t know which of the ladies to obey. Kyu-ri asks Yeo-woong why she even cares since she’s not a member of their team, and Yeo-woong says bluntly, “Because I like Bo-won, and I can’t stand seeing you treat the guy I like as a minion.” Welp, that answers that.

While Da-da preps to do Wang-joon’s makeup, he thanks her for exposing Hwa-ni’s tricks and asks if she was worried about him. Da-da says it was because Wang-joon saved her from Zero-Ten, and Wang-joon finishes, “… because I like you.” With an annoyed sigh, Da-da packs up and tells Da-da to have Kyu-ri do his makeup.

Wang-joon brings up the fact that more people know about Young-gu and asks Da-da if they’re supportive of their relationship. Da-da says that majority opinion isn’t always correct, but Wang-joon argues that there’s a reason it’s the majority opinion. He asks Da-da to think carefully, and says that he’ll always be there for her to come back to.

Da-da runs into Yeo-woong on her way out of the dressing room and asks her if she’s against her dating Young-gu. Yeo-woong says she has no problem with the fact that he’s a robot – her reservations are because initially, she was glad to hear that Da-da was dating a regular guy. But now she knows that Young-gu isn’t a regular guy, and that he’s just another secret that Da-da has to keep. She tells Da-da sweetly that she just wants her to have a normal relationship.

Da-da thinks about the things Wang-joon, Kyu-ri, and Yeo-woong have said about her relationship with Young-gu, knowing that they’re right — Young-gu will never be a normal man who ages and changes with her, and there’s no guarantee that she won’t be hurt. She remembers how her dad used to listen to the song “Unforgettable” over and over again because it reminded him of her mother.

She had asked him if he regretted loving and marrying a woman who’d been sick from the day they’d met. He’d said that he didn’t, because he was the only person her mother ever loved, and that the chances of receiving that kind of love for your entire life are as rare as her growing up to be a special effects artist like him.

As she’s thinking, Da-da overhears a couple talking about some guy who’s lying in the middle of the road nearby. She gets a bad feeling and runs towards home, but the guy turns out to be someone she doesn’t know. Young-gu is out looking for her, and Da-da bursts into tears, sobbing that she thought something had happened to him.

Young-gu tells her that he’s not going anywhere, and will stay and love her forever. Da-da says that her father told her to find someone who would stay by her side and love her, like Young-gu does.

She says, “You may be a robot… no, since you are who you are, that’s why I love you.” Young-gu whispers that he loves her, too, and Da-da pulls him down for a kiss. He doesn’t respond, so Da-da backs up, looking disappointed. But once he gets over the shock, Young-gu kisses her again, and this time he means it.

When they get home, Da-da barely makes it to her room before breaking into a fit of the giggles. She’s happy to see that her Young-gu doll is back on her bed, his lights working again. Young-gu spends the night in his Love Room, grinning happily to himself.

In the morning, Young-gu tells Bo-won that the whirring in his chest stopped last night. Bo-won checks the tablet and sees that Young-gu’s diagnostics are indeed back to normal. Young-gu tells him that last night, he became certain about the relationship between him and Da-da, so he’s not scared anymore.

They all head to work, and Da-da asks Young-gu to go on an official date with her later. After the filming, Da-da and the Real team plan to meet at her studio to travel to tomorrow’s countryside filming location, and when she says she’ll get everything ready herself, Yoo-jin and Kyu-ri figure out that she has a date tonight. Kyu-ri objects loud enough for Young-gu to hear her from the hall, but when Da-da joins him, he doesn’t mention it.

They go to a movie, and Young-gu grows noticeably nervous during a hot-and-heavy scene, but he says adorably that this is his “R-rated movie mode,” hee. Afterward they play games at an arcade, Young-gu’s robot reflexes making him good at just about everything.

Yeo-woong brings Wang-joon a suitcase for the out-of-town shoot tomorrow, and he’s lowkey scared to see her wearing a pretty dress and even earrings. She grumbles that she just wanted to look nice for someone, but Wang-joon tells her to give up before she gets hurt like he’s been hurt.

The cast and crew go to the seaside to film, and Yeo-woong preens when Bo-won says she looks different… until he chirps that her face looks really puffy. Ugh, someone smack him, please.

Wang-joon and Ruby (his costar) film a scene in which he fights off a trio of attackers, only for her to die in his arms. When they wrap for the day, Wang-joon watches jealously as Da-da praises Young-gu for his work as one of the attackers. They’ve even finished filming early so they have tomorrow free, so Kyu-ri wants to stay for a mini-vacation.

Wang-joon rents a really nice villa nearby where the Real team can stay. Kyu-ri has an ulterior motive when she tells Wang-joon and Da-da to stay and rest while the others all go shopping for food and drinks, leaving them alone together. Wang-joon tells Da-da that he didn’t do this for her — he did it because he’s genuinely grateful to her team, and to help Yeo-woong with her one-sided love.

Wang-joon says that this place reminds him of their first beach trip back before he was famous. They remember things like how they missed their train because Wang-joon couldn’t decide what to wear, and how Da-da didn’t speak to Wang-joon for a whole day after she lost a card game and he flicked her forehead.

Growing serious, Wang-joon asks if they can ever go back to how they were then. He says that he’s realized what’s important and what can’t be replaced.

After shopping for food, Kyu-ri stalls for more time by insisting they visit the ocean before returning to the villa. She’s pretty obvious about it until eventually Yoo-jin calls her out, and a worried Young-gu runs back to the villa alone. When he gets there, Wang-joon and Da-da are in their own rooms, making Young-gu look silly for his concern.

Over dinner later, Yeo-woong gets annoyed with the way Bo-won stares at Kyu-ri, so when Wang-joon goes for a walk, Yeo-woong goes with him. Kyu-ri sends Da-da for more beer, then grills Young-gu on what exactly happens in Da-da’s house when the two of them are alone. Yoo-jin angrily informs her that Da-da and Young-gu have separate rooms, which Kyu-ri interprets to mean that Da-da isn’t completely into Young-gu yet.

When Da-da returns, she and Young-gu go to sit and look at the ocean together. Da-da says that she’d decided love didn’t exist, but then Young-gu taught her that it does, and turned her life into a fairy tale. Young-gu thanks Da-da for teaching him how to feel so many different emotions.

Wang-joon notices Da-da and Young-gu together and thinks back to this afternoon, when he’d asked Da-da if they could go back to how they were. She’d said that he’s only acting this way because he feels guilty, but that she’d been very happy when they were together.

Now he smiles and says that Da-da looks very pretty when she laughs like that. Yeo-woong tells Wang-joon that she laughed like that when she was with him, too, but he was just too busy to notice.

Back at the table, Kyu-ri’s had a few too many and she starts to sob that everyone is dating but her. Bo-won says that he’s always been single, and that the last girl he loved was his friend back in kindergarten. Kyu-ri vows to stop judging men by their looks and start judging them by their hearts.

The three singles clink beers, and Bo-won’s sprays all over his shirt. He stands to take it off, revealing quite an impressive set of abs (and pecs, and arms and… damn). Kyu-ri can’t look away, and when Yoo-jin reminds her that she just said she’d stop judging men by their looks, she completely ignores him.

Hearing the noise, Da-da heads back to the villa to check up on everyone. Wang-joon approaches Young-gu and admits that he’s lost, and that maybe he was never going to win against a robot made to love. He says that he hopes Da-da is always happy like she was today, but that if Young-gu ever makes her cry, he’ll be right there to take her back. Young-gu promises that that will never happen.

Still drunk, Kyu-ri slurs to Bo-won that she’s decided he’s not so bad. Bo-won is sobering up and says they should go inside, and Kyu-ri assumes he’s trying to seduce her. He says there’s someone he can’t stop thinking about, and Kyu-ri grabs his face to kiss him.

Yeo-woong, who was nearby, hurries away, telling herself to let Bo-won go. But Bo-won follows her, saying that he’s been worried about her wandering around outside. She tells him to stop confusing her, and that she saw him with Kyu-ri, so she’s giving up on him. Bo-won says that he’s not confused anymore, and we see that he refused Kyu-ri’s kiss.

He tells Yeo-woong that she’s the one he can’t stop thinking about. Yeo-woong sobs that he said he likes pretty women, and he says that’s true — and that she’s pretty. She yanks him in for a hug, and he smiles as she squishes him.

At Kronos Heaven, Director Go receives a report on Young-gu’s data, which shows some very dangerous numbers. He tries to call Bo-won, who doesn’t answer, as In-hyuk watches him surreptitiously.

When they’re back in the city, Bo-won walks Yeo-woong home, and is excited to learn that she owns her own home in a nice neighborhood. He finally checks his phone and sees over twenty missed calls from Director Go.

Young-gu feeds Da-da then sends her off to bed, but she stops and asks him nervously if he wants to sleep with her tonight. As they lie in bed looking at each other later, Young-gu asks if this is what true love and happiness feel like, and Da-da admits that she feels the same way. They make plans to have a picnic together tomorrow and take a lot of pictures, since they don’t have any of them together.

When Da-da wakes up in the morning, Young-gu is still watching her, since he doesn’t need to sleep. He says it was the happiest night of his life, and Da-da says that this is her happiest morning. Young-gu gets up to prepare for their picnic, but something goes wrong, and he falls to his knees, knocking Da-da’s Young-gu doll off the table and breaking it.

Bo-won stops by Kronos Heaven, where Director Go says that they need to retrieve Young-gu immediately. He shows Bo-won the report and says that a robot with emotions is more dangerous than they thought. Bo-won asks what will happen to Young-gu, and Director Go says that the more he gains human emotions, and the more he loves Da-da, the more fragile he’ll become until he eventually melts down.

As Da-da watches in shock, Young-gu slowly slumps to the floor, and his eyes close.

 
COMMENTS

I’m feeling very conflicted about this episode, because Young-gu and Da-da are very together, and I enjoyed seeing them finally acting like a real couple, I feel like it took them way too long. I’ve been wondering why I couldn’t connect to Da-da and Young-gu’s romance, and it’s so obvious I’m embarrassed that it took me this long. It’s because they kept saying they care for each other, but we haven’t actually seen it. Aside from Young-gu looking at Da-da longingly, he hasn’t done anything for her or behaved in any way like a boyfriend ever since her decision to date him, despite it literally being his reason for existing. And Da-da also says she has feelings for Young-gu, but I’ve seen nothing to convince me.

In the beginning, Young-gu did act like a boyfriend — even if it was all programming, he was attentive, caring, and occasionally got a little handsy, just like an actual boyfriend would do. But as soon as they became a real item, all that stopped. Until this episode Young-gu and Da-da didn’t go on dates, they didn’t spend time together, they didn’t kiss or hold hands or even touch each other. Young-gu spent more time trying to be physically affectionate before they were technically a couple than he did after Da-da said she wanted to date him, so what little chemistry there was between them totally fizzled out. Now they’re finally doing those things, but it feels like too little, too late.

With that in mind, I wish we’d seen that scene between young Da-da and her father much sooner, because it explains a lot about why Da-da stayed with Wang-joon for so long, and why she’s clinging to Young-gu now. No doubt she’d seen Wang-joon as her chance to be loved the same way her father was loved by her mother, which is probably why she put up with so much for so long. But when she met Young-gu, she transferred that hope to him, believing that he would be able to give her that singular, unchanging love for her whole life, something her father was only able to have for a short time. And she may be happy now, but I’m worried that it’s not going to last. Sadly, I feel as though the show is preparing us for the eventual loss of Young-gu one way or another, because he’s cute and sweet but Da-da’s friends are correct — the way to handle fear of loss or rejection isn’t to pair up with a robot, but to face your fears and learn from them.

I still think the show is cute and I would still watch it if I weren’t recapping it… and let’s face it, the previous drama adaptations were mostly silly bits of fluff. I think that I just had higher expectations from a Korean remake, since (in my opinion) Korean dramas tend to be more thoughtful and generally tackle difficult issues while telling a story. My Absolute Boyfriend clearly started out with that intent, and I was looking forward to exploring those issues, but it feels like the show forgot what it was trying to say somewhere along the way. The problems I thought it was setting up to tackle have just been dropped, and others have been raised along the way that seem to have come out of nowhere. I’m still hanging in there in case I’m surprised, but for now, I’m just going to try to let go of my disappointment and enjoy the rest of the story without any higher expectations.

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