Search Query: WWW: Episode 6

by LollyPip

This episode gives us viewers a lot of insight into why several of the characters behave the way they do, which goes a long way toward understanding why they behave the way they do. Life doesn’t always work out the way we hoped and planned, but how we respond to the differences determines what kind of person we become. Pain and disappointment can change us for the worse, but it’s up to us to let it ruin everything, or to conquer the past and still try to be the best person we can be.

 
EPISODE 6 RECAP

Ta-mi confronts Jin-woo, Ga-kyung’s husband, and he admits that he paid to have her name put on the real-time rankings in order to protect Ga-kyung, the true subject of the tabloid article. Ga-kyung tells Jin-woo to apologize, but Ta-mi says she’s already been compensated by Jin-woo in the form of a bag full of cash.

After she leaves, Jin-woo apologizes to Ga-kyung, too, but only for not being more careful. He asks Ga-kyung what Han Min-kyu is to her and she reminds him that they agreed not to pry into each other’s personal business. But Jin-woo says that if Min-kyu is someone she cares for, he’ll find him a role and help him make a comeback.

Ta-mi goes outside and calls Hyun, who shows up with a pair of baseball bats. Ta-mi and Hyun proceed to gleefully smash Jin-woo’s car to a pulp — until he and Ga-kyung come out and see them. Ta-mi tosses the bag of money at Jin-woo’s feet and tells him to use it to buy a new car.

Later, Ta-mi apologizes to Hyun for getting her involved and forgetting about her relationship with Ga-kyung. Hyun says it’s fine, and Ta-mi tells her why Jin-woo put her name on the rankings. Hyun wonders why he’d do that, and Ta-mi guesses that he cares for Ga-kyung, but Hyun snarls that if that were true, he’d free her from his family.

Ta-mi says that Ga-kyung was a good person before she became a member of the KU Group family, and Hyun says she was an even better person a long time ago. A wistful look spreads over her face as she says she met Ga-kyung when she started judo back in high school.

In flashback, we see that Hyun was practicing judo in the school auditorium when she saw Ga-kyung at the podium. She’d been mesmerized by Ga-kyung’s beauty, unable to take her eyes off her even after being thrown to the mat. She’d been surprised to hear that Ga-kyung was the chaebol daughter of a battery conglomerate, and she’d assumed that Ga-kyung lived in a whole different world.

On another day, Hyun had been up for a school award for her judo, but she was embarrassed because she’d lost her tie. Ga-kyung had received a mathematics award, and as she stepped off the stage, she’d removed her own tie and given it to Hyun. Hyun tells Ta-mi that she’d thought Ga-kyung would be someone who would change the world — but instead, the world changed her.

She takes offense when Ta-mi calls Ga-kyung vulnerable. Ta-mi argues that she’s the result of her own choices and shouldn’t blame the world, since she’s also benefiting from it.

Ta-mi meets with Mo-gun outside his place, and he notices a messy bandage on her hand. She says she came to return his hat, and tells him that she’s found someone else to blame instead of herself. She thanks him for saving her, giving her a place to sleep, and getting soaked in the rain with her.

She starts to go, but Mo-gun takes her inside so he can re-bandage her hand. One of his employees is still there, Sun-woo, who acts like a proud papa to see Mo-gun bringing a lady home. Sun-woo asks if anyone ever tells her that she looks like Bae Ta-mi, and she says no, they just go ahead and call her Ta-mi, ha.

At Sun-woo’s shock, Mo-gun clarifies that he’s in Ta-mi’s fish tank. Sun-woo is surprised that Mo-gun is in the fish tank and not the owner of it, and Mo-gun is all When did I ever?! Sun-woo high-fives Ta-mi and says that Mo-gun is getting what he deserves for all the hearts he’s broken, and Mo-gun looks like he wants to sink into the floor, LOL.

To restore his pride, Mo-gun takes a marker and draws a heart on Ta-mi’s bandage to match the one he drew on her ankle. He offers to help her shower since she only has one hand, and Ta-mi retorts that it’s lines like that that are the reason he’s broken so many hearts.

She admits that he’s made her cry, too, and asks him to stop being nice to her because she’s starting to want him. She thanks him for today and stands to go, making Mo-gun pout that he’s not driving her home and that he hates her, which is the cutest thing ever.

The next day, Ta-mi finds Brian, who asks if she understands why he decided not to help her further. She reminds him that he once said that no matter what he does, at least one person will think he’s a bastard, and she says that in this situation, they each took that blow. Brian chuckles and apologizes, then thanks her for understanding.

Ta-mi is curious about one thing — why did Brian include Hyun in their conversation when he said he couldn’t help her anymore? She asks if it’s because he knew she’d take her own action and wanted Hyun to help her. Brian says he’s not that insightful, he just knew that Hyun would take Ta-mi’s side. Okay, awww.

In a team meeting, they learn that Barro’s market shares have gone up again, putting them within five percent of Unicon. Ta-mi says that it’s time to let people know they’re on the rise, so they agree to some articles and a press release. Ta-mi also wants to hire some webtoon artists away from Unicon to bring in the younger crowd, and when Hyun asks how she plans to get them to switch platforms, Ta-mi says she’s got something better than money — threats.

Hyun disagrees as usual, but her arguments are calm and rational now. She suggests they take a less risky strategy (in terms of professional courtesy and moral standards) if they can get the same results, and Ta-mi promises to give it some thought.

Joon-soo follows his girlfriend Dong-joo to where she’s filming her mukbang show, but she’s still mad at him after finding out from Mo-gun that he’s been cheating on her. She says she wants to date other guys, too, and she’s already got her eye on Mo-gun himself. While he’s in the restroom, Dong-joo swipes his phone.

Ta-mi takes Ah-ra with her to scout the first webtoon artist, Count Kim, since Ah-ra is a big fan. Ta-mi lets AH fangirl at Count Kim a little, hoping to butter him up. But he’s annoyed that Ta-mi is letting a rookie pitch to him, and he even insults her cheap canvas bag and inexpensive clothes.

In an offended tone, Ta-mi asks if an old bag disrupts his work, or if old clothes keep his brain from working. She says that she hired Ah-ra without a resume or interview, and that while Ah-ra may not be the best in their field, Count Kim wouldn’t do very well working for their company, either. She slams the contract in front of him and tells him to get back to them.

After he’s gone, Ta-mi dumps everything from her and Ah-ra’s bags onto the table and switches them, giving Ah-ra her nice, expensive bag. She tells Ah-ra that she’s young and doesn’t have much, but that young people buy nice bags to hide that fact.

Ah-ra cries on the bus, clutching her new bag gratefully. As she walks home, Ta-mi remembers when Mo-gun accused her of thinking him dumb and immature, yet he manages to make very mature decisions.

The next day, Hyun calls a meeting over an emoticon that’s being released soon. Half the team are disgusted by it, while the other half don’t see a problem — LOL, it’s a bunny pouring sauce over his sweet and sour pork. It’s the old “dip versus pour” controversy, guaranteed to cause impassioned arguments, and Ta-mi’s team immediately splits into two factions.

As dippers, Ta-mi, Jenny, and Bong-ki are offended by the emoticon, while Brian, Alex, and Ah-ra think they’re overreacting to the “right” way to eat sweet and sour pork. The controversy amuses Hyun, who decides to release the emoticon as-is, and to publish an official apology to the dippers that’s so serious it’s funny.

The next morning, Hyun is upset to learn that her favorite makjang drama, What’s Wrong With My Mother-In-Law?, has been canceled. But she cheers up when Jenny calls to tell her that the emoticon is causing exactly the controversy Hyun hoped for, and even made it onto the real-time rankings.

To round out the crazy morning, Joon-soo’s girlfriend Dong-joo has used his phone to send a company-wide email outing Joon-soo as a cheater, and she names Hyun as his side piece. Hyun charges into work and beelines for Joon-soo, who still hasn’t seen the email because he “lost” his phone.

Hyun doesn’t even pause as she smacks Joon-soo upside the head with her tablet and screams that the least he could do if he was going to cheat is not get caught. Joon-soo asks if she heard about it from Ta-mi, so Hyun confronts Ta-mi next, for knowing and not telling her that Joon-soo was cheating.

Ta-mi backs away slowly as she tries to explain, but Hyun chases her out of the office and all over the Barro building, hee. Ta-mi appeals to Hyun by reminding her that there are CCTV cameras everywhere and she’s an ex-con, but Hyun screeches that she should have thought of that before withholding information.

Ta-mi insists that she threatened Joon-soo to make him tell Hyun the truth. Hyun suddenly puts the clues together and figures out that Ta-mi used to date Joon-soo, but Ta-mi says it was only a month and he cheated on her, too. She actually aegyos at Hyun as she says they’re both victims, but Hyun just leaps over a desk at her.

The team go out for beers after work, minus Hyun, and Ta-mi gasps that she hasn’t run this much since her last college track meet, ha. Alex notices that the controversial emoji has gone up a few rungs in the rankings, which just sets off the dip-versus-pour argument again.

Ta-mi tunes them out when she sees Ga-kyung walk into the bar with Mo-gun, both of them smiling and laughing. She goes to the restroom to avoid them, but Ga-kyung enters right after her, and asks if Ta-mi is avoiding her or Mo-gun. Ta-mi retorts that she’s equally curious why Ga-kyung isn’t avoiding her, asking if Ga-kyung is even embarrassed by what her husband did.

Mo-gun sees Ta-mi leaving the restroom and breaks into a huge grin, which fades as Ta-mi walks out. He follows her to the street, but she holds up a hand to warn him not to approach. They stand that way for a long time, each waiting to see what the other will do, and Mo-gun is the first to turn and walk away. Ta-mi whispers after him, “Stop playing with my heart. I’m so scared.”

Ta-mi throws herself into work the next day, but she can’t get the image of Ga-kyung and Mo-gun laughing together out of her mind. Today’s mini-crisis is that the rankings are being dominated by a story about a laptop whose battery exploded and injured a cat.

One problem is that when anyone tries to search the laptop model, a calculator is the first thing that pops up, so Ta-mi gives instructions to have the calculator excluded from searches matching the laptop model number. Belatedly, Ta-mi remembers that that laptop brand (Lex) is made by KU Group.

Ga-kyung also knows about the laptop, and she’s summoned to meet with Chairman Jang. She tells Chairman Jang that the laptop was two years old and the battery one year past its warranty, meaning that KU Group is not legally responsible. Chairman Jang snaps that they serve the people and shouldn’t make excuses.

However, she blames Ga-kyung’s father, whose company sells KU Group the laptop batteries. Both of Ga-kyung’s parents show up right on cue, and they grovel pathetically to Chairman Jang, offering to apologize and compensate the victim. Ga-kyung father says that this has never happened before so it’s likely user error, but Chairman Jang snarls that that attitude is why his business went under.

She asks Ga-kyung if the laptop is still in the rankings, and Ga-kyung says it is, but she can’t delete it or it will make things worse. Chairman Jang orders her to at least take down the articles, but Ga-kyung says they’ve already been warned by the head office not to manipulate rankings in any way. Chairman Jang nods, then says there’s no reason for Ga-kyung to be her daughter-in-law if that’s the case.

Jin-woo, who’s been listening in, finally speaks up and says that’s enough. Chairman Jang demands to speak to him in private, but he says he’ll drive Ga-kyung’s parents home first. Ga-kyung is annoyed by her parents’ subservience and storms out.

She goes to see In-kyung and remind her not to mess with the rankings or search results, and In-kyung is impressed that Ga-kyung stood up to Chairman Jang. Jin-woo stops when he sees her sitting alone at a bus stop. She says she last rode a bus in high school when Hyun invited her to Hongdae for pizza, and when he asks if that’s the same Hyun who smashes his car, she says not to take it personally — Hyun will smash anything if you just ask her to. Okay, that made me laugh.

Jin-woo takes Ga-kyung to a hotel and gets her a room so she doesn’t have to go home to either mother. He even pays the smoking fine in advance so she can smoke in the room all she wants, then he leaves her to enjoy a peaceful evening alone.

Ta-mi grows annoyed that Mo-gun hasn’t contacted her in several days, so she tries calling him, but it goes straight to voicemail. She goes to see Da-in and confesses that she never acts like this. She complains that she’s been focusing on work lately because the more she works, the better results she gets, while in love, the more she loves the more she gets hurt.

The game of phone tag with Mo-gun is driving her nuts, and Da-in says that if Mo-gun is ignoring Ta-mi’s calls, then he’s obviously playing push-and-pull with her. Ta-mi asks if she should just go see him, and Da-in says one of two things will happen… it will work out well, or it won’t. Ta-mi decides that either option is better than nothing.

But when she shows up at Mo-gun’s place, Sun-woo tells her that Mo-gun left town to go fishing. Disgusted with herself, Ta-mi goes looking for Mo-gun anyway. She paces the pier, watching every boat for a glimpse of him.

He’s still out on the water when he receives a message from Sun-woo that Ta-mi came by, and he sees that she tried to call him. He smiles the biggest happy-boy smile and tells the boat captain he won’t be back tomorrow as planned.

Tm finally sees his boat enter the marina, and when Mo-gun spots her, his eyes fly wide open. When he gets off the boat, he tells Ta-mi that she’s mean, but she replies that she resents him right now. He apologizes, and that makes Ta-mi even angrier as she asks why he’s being nice after turning his back on her the other night.

She admits that she’s mad because she’s embarrassed that he knows too much about her. She complains that he keeps tearing down her carefully-built walls, and when Mo-gun just grins, she snaps at him to say something. He tells her he didn’t catch any fish, so he buys some food and they sit to have a picnic.

Mo-gun tells Ta-mi that he didn’t come closer the other night because he felt she was telling him not to. She takes a shot of soju and admits that seeing him with Ga-kyung really upset her, and she’s thought about whether it’s because he was there with someone she doesn’t like, or because he was with another woman. She says she’s still not sure, but she has figured out that Mo-gun means something to her.

Mo-gun says that’s because he’s been with her during some hard times, but not to get it confused with gratitude, and Ta-mi retorts that no woman would drive two hours just out of gratitude. She says that of course she enjoys being liked by a young, decent guy, so it’s natural that she likes him back.

She says that she’s risking a lot to be here, and that even after enjoying time with him, she still wants to go back to her everyday life. Mo-gun asks her to let him know when he becomes a part of that everyday life — he’s not an amusement park that you visit for fun then leave.

He says he wants her to confess that she likes him once he’s part of her regular life, instead of just running to yell at him when she’s upset. Ta-mi admits that Mo-gun makes her uncomfortable, but also excited. Mo-gun replies that he’ll tell her how he feels once he’s part of her everyday life.

He takes her to his hotel to get her a room, but she asks to sleep in the second bed in his room. Mo-gun asks if she’s not scared of him, and LOL, her face. He lets her stay in his room and gives her his shirt to sleep in, which leaves him shirtless, and when Ta-mi acts scandalized, Mo-gun reminds her that she’s already seen it all (and that she didn’t just look, either — cheeky boy).

As they lie in their separate beds later, Mo-gun thanks Ta-mi for coming for him. He turns to face her and says she looks really pretty from the back, but he’d love to see her face. Ta-mi turns over to face him, and after a long moment, Mo-gun gets up to sit on the floor by her bed.

He cracks open a beer and offers to share, so Ta-mi gets up to sit across from him. She answers his question now: “I’m not afraid of you. Ever since we met, all this time.” She reaches for the beer again but Mo-gun doesn’t let go, his expression growing intense as he tells her not to show her weak side, because it feels like an invitation.

 
COMMENTS

These two will be the death of me. Their chemistry is off the charts, and the way Mo-gun looks at Ta-mi… well, I don’t know how she’s not leaping at him right now. I don’t think that Ta-mi’s request to stay in Mo-gun’s room was as innocent as she pretends, but I do hope that if anything happens, she owns her part in it. Mo-gun is a very patient man, but I don’t think he’d take well to Ta-mi letting something happen between them, then putting the blame on him. I actually don’t anticipate anything physical happening between Mo-gun and Ta-mi quite yet, but it’s just a matter of time, and when it does happen I want it to be a happy thing.

This episode was great in that we got to learn more about why Ta-mi has been so resistant to Mo-gun despite the fact that she obviously likes him, and I completely empathize with her. Love has been painful for her, so she’s walled off her heart and focused on work for years. Then here comes this smart, handsome, charismatic kid who displays all the signs of being a major heart-breaker, and she can’t stop him from busting through the emotional barriers she’s put up. She’s scared to get hurt, on top of the humiliation she’d feel if she let herself fall for a younger guy, then got dumped and became a stereotype.

But she’s also gaining the courage to be honest with Mo-gun about how she feels, which is a huge improvement and really nice to see. And his reactions are perfect — he listens, he confirms that his feelings are real, but he doesn’t push her. In fact, I’ve forgiven him for being pushy in the beginning, because ever since Ta-mi clearly told him no then they naturally crossed paths again, Mo-gun has been a lot better about letting things happen instead of making them happen. Other than the two times Ta-mi was in a crisis, he’s refrained from approaching her without invitation. He tells Ta-mi in plain language what he wants from her and this relationship, but he gives her space to get there on her own time. And it’s paying off, because Ta-mi is now coming towards him instead of backing away, and she’s beginning to let him in on an emotional level. I think they still have a long way to go, but that if they keep up the communication and honesty, they’ll get there.

I’ll admit that I haven’t warmed up to Ga-kyung at all, because of the way she treats Ta-mi specifically and other people in general, but this episode went a long way towards explaining why she is the way she is. We saw that she used to be a kind and thoughtful girl, and we know that even when she first knew Ta-mi she had strong morals and ethical beliefs. But somewhere along the way she’s seen her family’s business break down, has watched her parents kowtow to Chairman Jang for work and money, and she was even sold to KU Group as a bride for a man she didn’t love. That would be enough to erode anyone’s good nature, but on top of that, Chairman Jang unabashedly uses Ga-kyung’s position at Unicon to keep anything negative about KU Group out of the public eye. I still can’t say I like Ga-kyung since, as Ta-mi said, she made her own choices, and she’s done plenty of awful things out of spite or hatred. But I do think there’s room for Ga-kyung to redeem herself if that’s where the show wants to take her character, though it’s going to take a lot of change on her part to convince Ta-mi to ever trust her again.

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