When The Camellia Blooms: Episodes 5-6

by QueenVillain

Our heroine has a big task ahead of her if she wants to keep guard of her heart, as a certain zealous puppy of a cop is ready to sweep her off her feet if she’d let him. It’ll be an uphill battle since said he’s already willing to give her his all.

 
EPISODE 5: “The Mutt’s Strategy”

Dong-baek’s impulsive hand grab with Yong-shik is coincidentally witnessed by a good number of the neighborhood’s residents. Once everyone awkwardly makes their exit, Yong-shik ecstatically declares that he cannot, after all, stay just friends with her. Dong-baek sighs internally about how there are no secrets in this world, especially in a small town like Ongsan.

Sure enough, everyone is talking about the incident come morning. Dong-baek tries to walk down the alley unnoticed but the neighborhood ladies can’t help but stop and tease her, while also slipping in some derisive comments about her single mother status.

Yong-shik happens upon them and Dong-baek, noticing his presence, tries to scurry away but to no avail. He follows after her, shyly saying that they need to talk about the hand holding incident. With a trembling breath, he asks if this means they can now hold hands whenever they want. He’s so loud however that Dong-baek asks to speak to him somewhere more private, a statement that makes him blush.

In a deserted back alley, Dong-baek starts to apologize to him for not thinking her actions through, but Yong-shik interrupts her, sagely saying that he understands. Except, he’s gotten the wrong idea and thinks that she is apologizing for being forward with her skinship. He tells her that humankind was able to prosper because men and women were impulsive, so it’s better to not calculate such things.

At Dong-Baek’s confusion, he confesses that it was love at first sight for him. Yong-shik earnestly tells her he’s not the type to play hard to get and he’d made up his mind at the bookstore to go after her as long as she wasn’t already married.

The confession has Dong-baek basically clutching her figurative pearls at how direct Yong-shik is being. When he asks her out for lunch (getting the heart-flutters when she bluntly asks if he’s just going to confess to her again), Dong-baek tells him that she’s rejecting him in advance and leaves.

The neighborhood ladies gather to receive a delivery of crabs for their restaurants, and of course Dong-baek is still the topic of discussion. Chan-sook muses that all hell will break loose when Deok-soon finds out about her son and Dong-baek. It’s one thing being friends with someone; having that someone as a daughter-in-law is an entirely different matter.

That’s when Deok-soon enters, but she thankfully hasn’t heard anything. When one of the ajummas slyly asks her what kind of a daughter-in-law she’d like, but Deok-soon brushes her off by proudly declaring that she’s more modern than that. The only thing that matters is love.

That won’t be a problem with her son, and Yong-shik trails after Dong-baek after her rejection asking why she doesn’t like him. If he knows what her reason is, he can either change himself or give up entirely. Dong-baek decides to make him do the latter and tells him being a single mom doesn’t mean that she doesn’t have standards. He’s just not her style, she says, citing Gong Yoo as her ideal type. (HAHA they play his signature Goblin BGM.)

Yong-shik can only dramatically grab at his heart in pain at that. She continues that she likes men who are cold, prickly, and sensitive–pretty much the exact opposite of Yong-shik. At that bombshell, he whispers to himself in shock, how he could ever win against a goblin? He puts on a brave, obviously fake smile, and starts to leave.

However, he can’t stop himself from turning around one last time to tell Dong-baek that a mutt is the cutest type of dog, and that it’s the little things that grow on you without knowing. He tells her not to regret this later and start following him around, making a hurried, awkward exit.

Dong-baek is taken aback (again) by how he manages to make everything sound like a confession, but this time she can’t help but blush as well, hee!

Back at the Camellia, Dong-baek tells Hyang-mi to quickly pay back the money she owes the rice cake ajusshi. She offers Hyang-mi an advance on her paycheck, despite not having much money herself. Pil-gu overhears this as he wistfully looks at an ad for a tour to Qingdao, China.

At home, Ja-young calmly confronts Kyu-tae about his dine and dash at the Camellia, asking if he’s going to sue Yong-shik. Kyu-tae bluffs and says that he has to since his pride is on the line.

Ja-young asks him if he’s sure it’s not about an infatuation, brandishing the eye cream sample he gave her as evidence. She leaves after menacingly telling him to embarrass himself all he wants, but not her. Kyu-tae manages to squeak out, “Why do you even live with me?” But she’s already gone.

Chan-sook and Jae-young seek out Ja-young to find out if the Camellia’s lease will be renewed, but Ja-young steadfastly refuses to humor them. At each subtle suggestion she get involved directly, Ja-young just repeats that her husband will take care of it.

The ladies won’t let it go though and start to openly talk about Kyu-tae possibly having an affair with Dong-baek.

Ja-young shuts it down by coolly saying that a man who wants to cheat will do so no matter how careful one is–but Kyu-tae isn’t that kind of a man. But it’s clear that they’ve managed to hurt her ego.

At the police station, a reporter is interviewing Chief Byun about the Joker case. He explains the biggest difficulty in the case: the victims share no apparent similarities, making it hard to deduce a motive.

The only constant was a note the Joker would leave behind telling his victims to not joke around, always ending with an ellipsis.

The reporter isn’t interested in any of this information since it’s public knowledge. What she actually wants is details about the Joker’s only survivor. Chief Byun’s face goes dark at and he aggressively shuts down the topic, but not before clarifying that the person was a witness and not a survivor.

Kyu-tae is over at the Camellia, simultaneously enquiring and ranting to Hyang-mi about Dong-baek and Yong-shik. He brings up the damn peanuts again, saying how she could at least give her customers free peanuts. It’s up to Hyang-mi to break the news to him–Dong-baek gives free food to other people all the time, regardless of how little they buy, if she likes them. Kyu-tae is crushed.

Hyang-mi sees the eye cream in his pocket which, Kyu-tae nonchalantly gifts her. He plays it off like it’s no big deal, saying that the limited edition eye cream isn’t anything fancy. He only bought it at a duty free shop because it was on sale but can’t give it to his wife anymore.

Ecstatic, Hyang-mi praises him, saying that he’s smart, rich, the future governor, and has thick hair. She stops Kyu-tae’s entire world with a killer comment, “I respect you.”

The euphoria doesn’t last long because Ja-young walks into the bar. They sit down to talk and Ja-young reminds him they both own the building when he asks why she’s at the Camellia. She then tells him to kick out Dong-baek.

Kyu-tae meekly, indirectly, refuses. She abruptly drops the topic, and noticing the eye cream at the cash counter, says the building will soon become hers anyways based on his behavior (I’d guess she’s thinking divorce settlement).

Yong-shik takes Chief Byun and another police officer to the Camellia for a cheap lunch, using it as an excuse to see Dong-baek. He suggests officially serving lunch at the Camellia to her, but she curtly tells him she’ll take care of her own business. Chief Byun catches on to Yong-shik’s true intentions–except he thinks he likes Hyang-mi, ha! The pitying look Yong-shik gives him is priceless.

Kyu-tae barges in with handyman Heung-shik in tow, taking note of all the damage to the building. He loudly complains about every little thing, getting on Yong-shik’s nerves, who then also loudly punctuates each complaint with his own jabs at Kyu-tae and his morals.

Dong-baek can only watch as the not-argument between the two men picks up steam. It all culminates in an angry order from Kyu-tae to repaint the Camellia’s walls by the next day, which Yong-shik volunteers to do. Kyu-tae finally leaves, pissed off, when Dong-baek offers food to Heung-shik but not him.

Poor Yong-shik is sweating buckets as he paints the Camellia’s walls. Dong-baek says that she’ll pay him for his work but he waves it off, saying that there’s no need given their relationship. Dong-baek retorts that they don’t have a relationship and walks away, making his face fall.

In the kitchen, she frustratedly tells Hyang-mi about the way that Yong-shik gets intimidated by everything she says, comparing him to Pil-gu. She even complains about his excessive sweating, pfft.

Hyang-mi intuitively remarks how she seems to get irritated over him for no reason. Dong-baek’s usually quiet around people, but is outspoken and blunt with Yong-shik, and Hyang-mi says it must be because she finds him comfortable.

EPISODE 6

While painting the walls, Yong-shik freezes when he notices the message that tells Dong-baek to not joke around. He uses a table to hide it from Dong-baek’s view and runs to the police station to look over the Joker’s case files. He compares the handwriting and sure enough, they’re the same.

Chief Byun dismisses the similarity at first, saying there were a lot of copycats back then, but he becomes deadly serious when he notices that the message was addressed to Dong-baek. He abruptly leaves the police station and angrily tells Yong-shik to not dig any further, refusing to divulge any more information.

Jong-ryeol is looking at photos of Pil-gu on his school’s website, getting frustrated and upset at seeing him be the only one pictured without a father. He tries to discuss this with his baseball teammates, via the old “it’s about a friend,” but just the mention of a first love has everyone instantly guessing it’s about Dong-baek.

Turns out Jong-ryeol has been getting drunk and talking–and crying–about her for years. It’s a little sad to see him always come to the conclusion that nobody can replace Dong-baek.

The reporters from earlier are at the Camellia for lunch (aw, she listened to Yong-shik’s advice). They introduce themselves, addressing her as the sole witness of the Joker. Ohhh. Pil-gu’s studying close by, and Dong-baek looks over at him before firmly telling them to leave.

Pil-gu’s already noticed the tension in the air though and before leaving for his academy classes, he adorably tells her to punch them in the nose if they bother her. He gives the still-waiting reporters the stink eye as he walks away.

Protective Pil-gu seeks out Yong-shik on the way to class and after confirming that he’s on their side no matter what, asks him for a favor. Cut to: Yong-shik striding down the road as he narrates that he’s making an official move because of an official request by Dong-baek’s immediate family.

He comes upon the reporters still pestering Dong-baek and tells them to leave. It’s only then that he finds out about Dong-baek’s relation to the Joker case.

Dong-baek admonishes the reporters for their pushy behavior, calling them out for cornering her without notice or seeking advance permission. We go back to six years ago, right after the Joker’s last murder. The police shut down the Camellia to dust for prints and the media was speculating that the Joker’s preferred target was prostitutes.

Even though Dong-baek had only been a witness, they’d categorized her as a possible target and set up a police detail. Along with the 24/7 guard came assumptions about her “real” profession.

It all severely impacted her business, with people too scared to go to the Camellia anymore. Not only that, it gave way for even more gossip that turned her into the town’s icon of misfortune. Dong-baek finally broke down when she saw baby Pil-gu playing with old, broken toys.

The next day, she pushed out all the police officers, telling them that they weren’t protecting her, they were harming her. She’d cried as she told them she was just a normal person who wanted to live in peace with her child.

In the present, Dong-baek tells the reporters that their actions won’t protect her, they’ll brand her. The reporters still refuse to leave but Yong-shik firmly tells them to go, threatening to break their camera when he notices them trying to film Dong-baek surreptitiously.

The reporters challenge his authority but he shuts them up by saying that he’ll protect Dong-baek and that he’ll kill anyone who tries to bother her. This time, Dong-baek’s gaze is soft as she looks at him, grateful for someone standing up so strongly for her.

Sitting at a beautiful seaside place for some udon, Dong-baek thanks Yong-shik for what he did at the Camellia. When he asks if she really saw the Joker, she tells him that she’d only seen a glimpse from behind. She confesses that she was the one who had begged Chief Byun to keep her link with the case a secret.

She didn’t want Pil-gu to be known as the son of a woman who only brings disaster. Since childhood, people had never liked her and called her unlucky. But it’s not like she had wanted to be an orphan or a single mom. People would even say she looked unlucky, like she’d have a sorry life. At one point, she even started believing them.

Dear, sweet Yong-shik immediately curses them out, calling them morons. He vehemently tells her to ignore all that nonsense. Dong-baek laughs and says that he’s right. She’s lucky because she has Pil-gu; she wouldn’t trade him for anyone, not even G-Dragon or Kim Yuna. Thanks to Pil-gu, she’s blessed. Even as she talks about how lucky she is, a stray tear escapes from her eyes.

With the utmost sincerity, Yong-shik tells Dong-baek that he’d never trade her for anyone, not even if Princess Diana herself or Im Soo-jung were to declare their love for him. Dong-baek splashes some cold water onto the mood and sniffs that he’s talking as though she’s his. Besides, it’s not like Im Soo-jung would ever chase after him anyway.

He just says you never know what’ll happen in life and abruptly starts inhaling his noodles, both of them trying their best to hide their smiles.

Jong-ryeol is lurking outside the Camellia and spots Yong-shik walking Dong-baek home. Dong-baek insists that she doesn’t need his company, but Yong-shik says that his heart hurts just thinking about her being sad all alone.

He tells her that anytime she’s frustrated and needs to vent, she can just…poop it all out on him, with this big bright smile on his face hahaha. Dong-baek facepalms at the use of such a colorful expression.

She asks who Yong-shik is to be getting so upset, it’s not like their friends or family after all. His actions will just feed the gossip machine. Yong-shik looks at her for a moment then decisively asks, “You like good reasons, right?” He leads her into the Camellia and Jong-ryeol, having witnessed the whole thing, finds himself getting a little annoyed at seeing her live so well without him.

Inside, Yong-shik shows Dong-baek the Joker’s message, saying she needs to know about it. He tells her that as a police officer, he’ll protect her. He stumbles a bit as he continues that protecting her is how he plans to win her over. He declares whether it’s the Joker or a North Korean invasion, he’ll protect no matter what. Dong-baek flushes as she thinks to herself, “He really is a weird ajusshi.”

July 9, 2013
Dong-baek serves beer and free peanuts to one of her regulars. When she bends down to pick something up, she notices what looks like flour on that person’s shoes. After Dong-baek leaves, the patron takes a marker and writes down the Joker message.

 
COMMENTS

First of all, can we all just say a big hallelujah for the female lead finally being told early on that she might be in danger? Dramas always frustrate me to no end when important information is held back from them in the name of “protection,” even when danger is lurking nearby. Why? We have weak sensibilities and won’t be able to handle it? It’s ridiculous beyond measure. If I were anywhere near a murderer, I BETTER BE INFORMED. So thank you, Yong-shik. You just became 10 times cooler in my eyes.

I had initially been worried about how the show would incorporate the thriller aspect into this otherwise fun, quirky story that feels like a lovely, quaint romance, but this episode managed to gel the two aspects together well. The scene from 2013 hints at the Joker being a resident of Ongsan, and that makes me nervous. The neighborhood and its residents have been so well fleshed out that they feel like one big family, albeit with problems, something that is very hard to find nowadays. So it saddens me to think about how this might change once distrust and fear come into the mix.

I really do like the way that the show is exploring some societal issues. I feel for Dong-baek. Her being a single mother is hard enough, but she’s also the youngest and the newest of the matriarchs. It puts her in a position where even speaking up for herself could be tricky and have a huge impact on how even little Pil-gu is treated. That, coupled with her timid personality, makes me understand her behavior, even if it frustrates me. It’s easy to wish that she would be more aggressive like Yong-shik, but that’s not always the right answer. More importantly, Yong-shik can afford to behave the way he does because he grew up in Ongsan and, quite simply, he’s a man. So all things considered, she really is doing the best that she can under the circumstances. Dong-baek is not a doormat. She may be timid, but she still has a spine of steel. It is just that she shows it in a way different to others, like with Kyu-tae and the peanuts. It cracks me up how she does it with such a guileless expression on her face!

There is a wistful romanticism that runs through the show and nowhere is it more apparent than in Dong-baek. Even the way that she’s been styled, it’s been in a manner very distinct from the other characters of the show. Despite everything, Dong-baek seems to have held on to a bit of romantic optimism instead of becoming jaded. I think that may be a major reason as to why she refuses to fight for herself. What she wants is their love and support, to become a part of their makeshift family. I am dreading the moment when Deok-soon finds out about her and Yong-shik. Deok-soon had been the one person who stood up for her, something that has clearly been a rarity in her life, and so her reaction to the news might just hurt Dong-baek very deeply.

There’s obviously another person who stands up for Dong-baek no matter what, and it’s our dear old Yong-shik. He is an absolute delight to watch. I wish I could write in detail about each and every one of his meme-able facial expressions. He’s adorable in his earnestness and unconditional support for Dong-baek. But what makes him even more special is that he has a strong sense of justice, so it’s not like he’d ignore anyone being bullied or taken advantage of. It just so happens that being in love with the town outcast makes him especially passionate in his efforts to help. It’s pretty apparent that Dong-baek’s not as unaffected by him as she likes to pretend she is. He’s the type of person she seems to have been craving for her whole life: someone who’s transparent and wouldn’t give up on her easily. These two together are one zany couple that make me laugh, but also swoon with all. the. damn. feels.

 
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