Gaus Electronics: Episodes 9-10

by quirkycase

This week is full of secret dating hijinks as our main couple tries to navigate an office romance under their teammates’ noses. Meanwhile, our lovable chaebol finally gets a taste of what it truly means to be poor and proves himself more resilient than his family anticipated.

 
EPISODES 9-10 WEECAP

Since our couple can’t seem to kiss in private, they’re caught red-handed by a very drunk Manager Gi and Wa-wa. Lucky for them, Manager Gi is so drunk that he thinks Sang-shik and Na-rae are fighting again, and Wa-wa has his suspicions but is too drunk to argue much. Somehow, our couple is in the clear.

But Na-rae is now militant about keeping up pretenses at work, so Sang-shik comes up with this ridiculous “secret code” blinking system that makes them both look like they’ve got a bad case of eye twitching.

While Sang-shik and Na-rae work to keep everyone from discovering their relationship (let’s be real, the only real threat is Hyung-mi who doesn’t miss a thing), Ma-tan feels the economic struggle for the first time. Now that he’s been cut off from the family money, he has to pay all his bills with his meager paycheck like a normal person.

Despite the setback, Ma-tan is having too much fun being a commoner and learning life lessons to run back home – except for a free meal. At his parents’ house for dinner, we meet his fiancée Ro-ra who acts all sweet and accommodating but schemes to get Ma-tan back behind the scenes.

Ma-tan seems entirely uninterested in Ro-ra and flat out refuses when his father tells him to get a move on marrying her. Chairman Baek warns Ma-tan that he better not be having some romance with a pretty, poor, hardworking Candy (LOL). Of course, that’s exactly what Ma-tan hopes to do.

He’s off to a rocky start after his unfortunate method of confirming his feelings ended with Kang-mi making Ma-tan watch a video she made on sexual harassment at work. Even though she can clearly take care of herself, Ma-tan can’t help worrying about Kang-mi. He spends the bulk of his salary on streetlights for her street, but he buys lights as extra as he is and practically blinds the neighborhood.

Ma-tan isn’t the only one who can be a little extra. Once Na-rae finally accepts the situation and agrees to fully date Sang-shik, she’s all giddy grins and finger hearts. She even makes (inedible) lunch for him. Sang-shik is thrilled at this turn of events, but it makes their relationship even harder to hide. Hyung-mi is hot on it and guesses that Sang-shik is the neighbor Na-rae has been talking about dating.

Meanwhile, Manager Gi is shooting for a promotion and tries to win his team over so he can get good performance reviews. Wa-wa and Moon-hak suggest a rebranding, so Manager Gi starts doling out compliments and talking softly, creeping everyone out.

He’s such a terrible people manager that I can’t muster up any sympathy for him when he doesn’t get the promotion, but he is touched when he sees the nicer-than-he-deserves reviews from his underlings. Maybe he’ll stop taking everyone for granted and be a more caring boss.

Elsewhere, Chairman Baek makes a surprise TV appearance where he announces Power’s next project which is basically a carbon copy of Ma-tan’s project for Gaus. Director Choi has been feeding Chairman Baek information in exchange for a job opportunity, while Senior Manager Wi and Gaus’s chairman try to thwart their plans. Power seems to currently have the upper hand.

Chairman Baek hopes to lure Ma-tan back over to Power with the project and even states on TV that Ma-tan will make a public appearance soon. Until now, he’s never had a public debut, hence how Ma-tan was able to slip into Gaus.

In a fun development, Ma-tan decides his best bet at hiding from his father and solving his housing issue (he can’t afford his “studio” anymore) is to move in with Sang-shik. Of course, Sang-shik is nice enough to let him stay there, but Aziz is a hard no until Ma-tan offers to help with rent. Then, Aziz goes on a mini power trip by establishing the house pecking order where Ma-tan is the hoobae and therefore must share his expensive clothes and help with Aziz’s side jobs.

Ma-tan is there for all of five minutes when Ro-ra shows up at the door and informs him she’s already paid off Kang-mi to keep her distance. Ma-tan rushes to Kang-mi who hilariously thought that Ro-ra was being super nice by gifting her a pack of health drinks; she about has a heart attack when she sees that the box is filled with money instead.

Ma-tan takes this opportunity to confess his feelings for Kang-mi … and is immediately flat out rejected. HA, I didn’t see that coming. She bluntly tells Ma-tan he’s too puny to be her type, and he’s more like her weaker little brother. Poor Ma-tan has his first taste of heartbreak and pitifully cries it out in a cab.

To no one’s surprise, Sang-shik proves as clueless in dating as he is in everything else. With Ma-tan staying at his place, Na-rae invites Sang-shik into her apartment and tries hinting that it’ll be sooo crowded at his place overnight. I don’t know why she tries implying anything with him. She has to spell out that she has a double bed that can fit two people for him to get it, but he finally does.

They’re both giddy at work the next day, looking forward to using Ma-tan as an excuse to spend the night together again. But their happy bubble is quickly burst when they find the team gathered in a conference room looking at office CCTV footage. We end on Sang-shik and Na-rae lunging to cover the screen with their bodies.

I’m pretty sure that Sang-shik wouldn’t give up on the relationship even if it comes to light, but I’m not so sure about Na-rae. She’s been hesitant this whole time about an office romance, so I don’t know how she’ll handle everyone finding out.

Besides the likely relationship reveal, we’ve also got Ma-tan’s inevitable identity unveiling. I can’t wait to see everyone’s reactions to learning their aloof maknae is a powerful (heh) chaebol heir. Then there’s the fate of our marketing team under the duplicitous Director Choi and the Gaus power struggle. There’s quite a bit to wrap up in the final week, but I have confidence that the drama can give us a satisfying ending for our endearing hot mess of a marketing team.

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