People with Flaws: Episodes 15-16

by LollyPip

Just because our hero has had a change of heart, doesn’t mean his lady is on board with his plans. She’s still angry and confused, and taking it all out of him. Her issues go deeper than even she understands, and it’s going to take a lot of work to get through to her if someone wants to win her heart.

 
EPISODE 15

Kang-woo offers Seo-yeon a sweet apology for everything that’s happened in the past, present, and what will happen in the future. He tells her he’ll get on her nerves and make her think about him, adding, “I’m sorry that I like you.” He smiles at Seo-yeon… who slaps him across the face then runs away, HA.

When she gets home, her heart is pounding, but she attributes it to the running. Meanwhile, Kang-woo delivers a heartfelt soliloquy, saying that he didn’t confess to Seo-yeon because of a bet, that he really didn’t know Hyun-soo had lied about them being a gay couple, and that he was being completely sincere that morning.

Hee, he’s practicing what to say to her to Doctor Kim, who yawns and tells Kang-woo not to make excuses, but just to keep showing Seo-yeon that his feelings are real. Ready to do whatever’s necessary, Kang-woo asks him how to do that.

Seo-yeon is distracted during lunch, and all day, every time Kang-woo tries to talk to her, she avoids him. Later Min-hyuk finds Seo-yeon hiding on the roof and asks what Kang-woo did to upset her, but Seo-yeon just stays quiet. He tries to help her stand, but she admits her legs fell asleep, so he laughs and helps her.

At the same time, Mi-kyung keeps declining Hyun-soo’s calls until he has a full-body hissy fit in his office out of frustration.

At the end of the day, Kang-woo is feeling smug, because Seo-yeon still has to report to him on the track team’s progress. But she even manages to sidestep that by sending it as an email file.

Won-jae is surprised when Kang-hee shows up at his car dealership. She offers to buy the most expensive car as an apology for misunderstanding his intentions regarding the drugged woman, leaving Won-jae both incredulous and impressed.

Jang-mi has dinner with her mother, who smacks her hand whenever she reaches for something fattening. She tells Jang-mi that her half-brother got in trouble with the law and that their father is very upset. She pointedly mentions that her father’s friend is still interested in her even though she previously turned him down, and warns Jang-mi to treat him better this time. Gross.

At home, Seo-yeon flops on her bed, wondering what Kang-woo is up to this time. He happens to be standing in the hall (having been let in by Joo-hee), and he says he’s not up to anything. Seo-yeon asks what he wants from her, but Kang-woo says he was being sincere, and that he’s glad she seems to be thinking about him. He steps close to take a good look at her, then leaves, having gotten what he came for.

Kang-woo passes Seo-joon on his way out, and Seo-joon is surprised when Joo-hee tells him that Kang-woo is their school’s chief director, not the CEO of his agency like he thought. Joo-hee asks if Seo-joon is going to ever tell Seo-yeon about his breakdown during the blackout, but he pretends not to know what she’s talking about.

Feeling unsettled, Seo-yeon asks Mi-kyung if it’s possible for someone who usually lies to suddenly start telling the truth. Mi-kyung guesses that Kang-woo confessed, and when Seo-yeon says she thinks he’s lying again, Mi-kyung tells her he’s not. She also reveals that Hyun-soo made up all that nonsense about being in a relationship with Kang-woo, and that Kang-woo knew nothing about it, so his confession at the mall was also real (“Winter is coming!” lol).

In his office, Hyun-soo listens to their established idol group Hi-Seven’s newest song, a ballad about one-sided love called “Sincerity.” He thinks it’s a bit old-fashioned, but Kang-woo, who’s there with him, sobs uncontrollably and wants to know if the singer gets his happily-ever-after.

When he gets home, Seo-yeon is waiting for him, saying that she didn’t want to keep avoiding him. She asks what really happened that day back in school, and we see in flashback that Kang-woo actually paid the other boys not to play the confession prank on Seo-yeon. He’d confessed in the hopes that she’d accept him, so that he could protect her as her boyfriend from then on.

Seo-yeon realizes that she’s been the bad guy all along, but Kang-woo takes the blame for not having explained himself. Seo-yeon says that he did the right thing, then and now, and that she’s sorry for not giving him an answer. Kang-woo looks hopeful at that, but she adds that she’s sorry for hurting him, then she walks out.

Kang-woo follows her, asking why she’s turning him down again. He thinks it’s because he’s been mean to her and promises to be nicer, but Seo-yeon tells him not to bother. She says bluntly that she doesn’t like handsome guys, and after she’s gone, Kang-woo asks himself why he’s been working so hard to make himself attractive.

The next day, Kang-woo calls Seo-joon to his office and jumps all over him, wanting to know what he did to Seo-yeon (to make her hate attractive guys). He heads to at Won-jae’s dealership and makes the same accusations, but when he shows up at Won-seok’s bar, he can’t intimidate Won-seok like he did the others.

Won-seok pours Kang-woo a drink and tells him to leave Seo-yeon alone. He says that he and his brothers are only partially responsible for Seo-yeon’s attitude towards Seo-yeon’s prejudice against good-looking people, and that there’s something else going on, way down deep inside her.

Kang-woo goes home and pouts to Mr. Potato, wondering if there’s anything he can do to fix this situation, or if he truly has no chance. He calls Doctor Kim and bellows that he’s too handsome and that Seo-yeon will never like him, and Doctor Kim yells back, “If you don’t like that face, give it to me!” LOL.

Seo-yeon grows worried when Kang-woo doesn’t show up at school for a while again. She cheers up when she learns that not only did Seo-joon manage to raise his class rankings by a hundred places with his tutor, but Joo-hee also raised her ranking. Joo-hee starts to tell her about Seo-joon’s breakdown, but in the end, she doesn’t say anything.

During practice, Seo-joon is so distracted by thoughts of Joo-hee that he falls and gets scolded by the dance instructor. She tells the trainees that two of them will be chosen for Hi-Seven’s upcoming show, but even the promise of performing onstage doesn’t manage to focus Seo-joon, so he asks his friend Jung-ho if he can stay at his place for a while.

EPISODE 16

Kang-woo and Min-hyuk get into another childish shoving match (never not funny) as they arrive at Chairwoman Han’s house for dinner. Kang-woo’s mom asks Kang-hee to find out if Min-hyuk is dating anyone, complaining that her kids never give her any reason to worry about their love lives since they don’t have any. Kang-hee mutters that she may have reason to worry soon.

Over a horrifying crab-and-chocolate dinner made by Kang-woo’s dad, Chairwoman Han tells Min-hyuk that it’s his turn to choose a job befitting his position as the heir to Shinhwa foods. Min-hyuk tells Kang-woo later that he didn’t really want to be a doctor, he just went to medical school because that’s what the best students do, and he wanted to prove he was the best.

Kang-woo admits that he’s working for the company because there’s something he wants to get out of it. He tells Min-hyuk that if he doesn’t want to work for the family business, then he should do what he wants.

At Won-seok’s bar, Seo-yeon gets drunk and moans that Kang-woo probably won’t ever want to see her again. She answers a video call from Kang-woo in order to yell at him for disappearing again, lol. Won-seok grabs her phone and tells Kang-woo that Seo-yeon is just drunk, then he deletes the record of the call so she won’t be reminded of it when she’s sober.

Worried, Kang-woo waits at Seo-yeon’s house until she gets home. He asks why she’s acting like this when he’s the one who got turned down, but she just chirps, “You came back!” Kang-woo says he’s not back yet, because he’s only human and he needs some time. Seo-yeon asks sadly if he’ll be gone for fifteen years again, and he promises he won’t, pressing his thumb to her forehead and making her smile.

In the morning, Seo-yeon wakes up wondering if that really happened. She checks her phone and sees that there’s no call from Kang-woo, so she decides it was a dream.

Min-hyuk’s rich jerk friend shows up at school and mentions that Min-hyuk is the heir to Shinhwa Foods. Unfortunately for Min-hyuk, Seo-yeon overhears him, so Min-hyuk confesses to Seo-yeon that he’s also Kang-woo’s cousin. But Seo-yeon says she already knew — at the dinner, the jerk’s girlfriend told her while they were in the ladies’ room together.

She says she didn’t mention it because it doesn’t matter, and it doesn’t change who Min-hyuk is. At first she thinks he’s upset, but he says that people usually treat him differently when they find out about his family, and he thanks Seo-yeon for being different.

After work, Kang-woo is waiting at Seo-yeon’s house again, this time to fuss at her for not contacting him when he still hasn’t been back to work. HA, he’s so petty. She rushes over to him, and he hilariously cringes like he expects to get hit, but Seo-yeon just thanks him for coming to see her. He tells her to buy him dinner if she’s so thankful, and aww, look at her smile.

She takes him to a pojangmacha, embarrassed that it’s all she can afford, but Kang-woo says it’s perfect. He digs in, stuffing his face now that he’s realizing all his years of diet and exercise were for nothing. When Seo-yeon asks, he admits that he lost weight because of what she said fifteen years ago. She apologizes, but Kang-woo tells her that he became fit and handsome because of her (“Everyone but you loves this face and body!” hee).

Kang-woo takes Seo-yeon home, and she finds Jang-mi sitting on her porch with her bag. Jang-mi whines that she lost Seo-yeon’s number and has nowhere to go, so Seo-yeon calls a house meeting. Won-jae and Won-seok don’t care if they add one more stray to the house and Joo-hee doesn’t mind sharing her room, and Seo-yeon tells Seo-joon that he has no right to complain when he hasn’t slept at home for days.

As they settle down for the night, Joo-hee notices Jang-mi’s bag and recognizes it as the same one that was full of cash before. Seo-yeon calls Mi-kyung to tell her about the new houseguest, and Mi-kyung is suspicious, wondering how Jang-mi knows where Seo-yeon lives.

The next day, Seo-yeon and the track team prepare to travel to their track meet. Kang-woo invites himself along, having heard that Min-hyuk is also going as the school’s doctor. He gets carsick and admits that he hasn’t been on a bus since that fateful school trip, but he’s adorably happy when Seo-yeon sits next to him to massage a pressure point on his hand. He’s scandalized by the cheap motel the team is planning to stay in due to their low budget, so he takes them to a nice resort on his own dime.

Min-hyuk isn’t coming until the next day — his father is in town, and they’ve arranged to have dinner together. His father starts fussing at Min-hyuk right away for thinking about quitting medicine, and Min-hyuk deflates. He says that his dad has never given him a compliment yet scolds him easily, and he asks if he’s even curious why Min-hyuk is thinking of quitting.

Dad is not at all curious and even calls Min-hyuk ungrateful. Min-hyuk gets a text from Seo-yeon about the hotel change, and he tells his father that he finally understands what he’s been missing in life, then he gets up and walks out.

In the morning, Kang-woo finds Seo-yeon playing on the beach. He teases her, so she throws her shoes at him then goes back to splashing in the water. She trips and dunks herself, so Kang-woo gets over his fear of the dirty ocean water and wades in to give her his jacket.

He leads her back to shore, and when she starts to turn and face him, he stops her. He lays his head on her shoulder and asks her to let him stay like this just for a minute, where she can’t see his face. They don’t see Min-hyuk looking down at them, a stricken expression on his face. Min-hyuk goes inside, then calls Chairwoman Han and says he knows what position he wants.

Seo-yeon goes back to her room, rattled, while Kang-woo walks out onto a pier and asks himself if it’s really over. Seo-yeon follows him and demands to know why he keeps annoying her, making her worried, and making her think about him.

Kang-woo says she doesn’t have to see him if she doesn’t want to, and that he’ll make sure she doesn’t see him. He walks over to her, puts a hand over her eyes, and kisses her.

 
COMMENTS

Oh, finally. It’s about time Kang-woo did something to prove to Seo-yeon that she doesn’t really hate him — what she’s feeling is much more complex than hate. I like that twice now, he’s done something where she couldn’t see his face but could only feel his emotions… it’s a reminder that he’s the same boy she knew and liked back in school, and that how he looks now doesn’t matter. Seo-yeon is so hung up on looks that she doesn’t even let herself consider that good-looking men might also be good people, and I still think Seo-yeon is subconsciously associating Kang-woo with her parents’ accident. From the little snippets of information we’ve gotten, I think that Seo-yeon was on her way to Kang-woo’s house to talk about his misunderstood confession, but I think her parent’s accident stopped her from ever arriving, and that she was somehow there when it happened. So in Seo-yeon’s mind, Kang-woo is a reminder of that painful night, and whatever guilt she seems to be feeling about it.

There is definitely something going on with Seo-yeon, as Won-seok says… something much deeper than disliking handsome guys because her good-looking brothers treat their admirers casually. Kang-woo is her oldest friend, she likes him as a person and she knows for a fact that he’s more than his looks, and she’s clearly attracted to him. But she still turns him down, stating his appearance as the reason, but I don’t think that’s really true. I think Seo-yeon believes it’s true, but that there’s something else in her psyche making her feel a visceral dislike for attractive men. I’m pretty sure it’s related to her parents’ deaths, though I can’t figure out how looks would enter into it unless the drunk driver who killed them was exceptionally handsome, but that sounds pretty implausible.

I’m not worried anymore that Jang-mi is dangerous, now that we’ve seen how she’s treated at home. She seems to live alone with unlimited funds, and without supervision unless her mother is trying to prostitute her out for whatever her reasons are. Jang-mi’s father doesn’t seem to be present in her life (he’s got fifteen illegitimate children?!) and her mother is abusive, so it’s no wonder she doesn’t have even a basic understanding of normal boundaries. I don’t think she’s a threat to Seo-yeon, I think she’s just desperate to be near the one person who’s shown her kindness. I think though, that it’s not Seo-yeon she needs — it’s Kang-hee, who appears to be a champion for mistreated women like her.

I do like Kang-woo and want him to get the girl he’s loved his whole life, but I still can’t help but get Second Lead Syndrome for Min-hyuk. It’s so hard to watch him tragically misunderstand everything Seo-yeon says about looks being important to him and how being the their doesn’t change how she sees him. She means the appearance thing the other way around, that she doesn’t like handsome guys, and she means the part about him being a chaebol literally — she genuinely doesn’t care, because to her, he’s barely even a friend. I know Min-hyuk never had a chance against Seo-yeon’s residual feelings for Kang-woo, not to mention Kang-woo’s endearing openness and honesty now that he’s decided not to hide his feelings, but it’s still going to hurt when Min-hyuk realizes that he’s never even registered on Seo-yeon’s radar.

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