Romance in the House: Episodes 5-6

by Unit

We learn more about our returnee dad’s time away from his family, as he ramps up his effort to win his ex-wife’s heart. Fortunately — and unfortunately — for him, his daughter is no longer the biggest resistance he faces in his quest, as she is too busy catching feelings of her own.

 
EPISODES 5-6

This week, Ae-yeon steps into the front seat of her family, her life, and well, the drama as a whole. She starts by reminding Mi-rae that she’s capable of taking care of herself, thank you very much. She encourages her daughter to spend her money on herself instead of “engaging in a childish battle of wits with Moo-jin,” but the latter does not take the “childish” part too well. Later on, Mi-rae asks if her mom got divorced because she pressured her to end things with their dad, and Mom replies that the divorce is not because of Mi-rae, it’s thanks to her. Ae-yeon explains that she held out in the marriage because of her children and she also made up her mind to divorce because of them. And with this explanation, I hope Mi-rae can stop feeling guilty about her parent’s divorce.

Moo-jin treats Ae-yeon to an expensive meal, and she calls him out on his lavish spending. I mean, there’s people out there taking advantage of his recklessly bountiful pockets! Moo-jin says that he knows people are taking advantage of him — does he know about Jae-geol? — and he doesn’t mind. But what if he goes bankrupt again? “Then you should keep me in check,” Moo-jin replies, and this is why they got divorced in the first place. No one wants to clean up after a financially irresponsible man. It’s clear that Moo-jin has learnt nothing over the years, and Ae-yeon tells him in clear terms that she has no intention of getting back together with him. Dearest customer, your romance card just declined. Oops!

On the other hand, things are slowly heating up with our elevator couple. Mi-rae catches herself smiling at Tae-pyeong and feeling upset when they part ways, and she realizes she’s treading on dangerous waters. She draws the “Don’t be too nice to me” line between them, and leaves Tae-pyeong feeling very confused because my boy is also catching feelings. Aww. Tae-pyeong offers to go with Mi-rae on a work trip that proves she’s terrible at aegyo but very good at her job. Afterwards, they stop by the beach for a date, or to take in the scenery, or whatever it is the kids call it these days.

Unfortunately, Moo-jin is also at the beach to soothe his broken heart after Ae-yeon’s rejection, and Mi-rae cannot believe the man screaming his lungs out in the sand is her father. This is way too embarrassing for her and hilarious for me. Heh. Despite going through a lot, Moo-jin still manages to look good in his scruff and leather jacket, but that’s not the point. The point is, Mi-rae tells her father that he should just have stayed dead, and Moo-jin sadly replies that he only intended to make amends with his return.

Afterwards, Mr. Former Baseball player tells Mr. Taekwondo Instructor that things won’t work out between him and Mi-rae because the women in her household are sick and tired of athletes — and I want to knock Moo-jin upside the head for projecting his marital issues on Tae-pyeong. *Violently burns sage and sprinkles holy water* If you ruin my ship, sir, I will push you inside this water.

Mi-rae soon finds out that Hyun-jae took a leave of absence and spent his tuition on some nonsense entrepreneurship endeavor. “8 million won is nothing,” Hyun-jae replies, confident that their rich dad will invest in him and he can pay back his sister. But this is not a case of counting chickens before they’re hatched, it’s counting before the eggs are laid. Sigh.

Mi-rae reports Hyun-jae to Moo-jin — who has already filled out the paperwork for transfer of ownership of Family Villa to Ae-yeon, as per the pledge — and she tells him to fix his son before he even thinks of leaving. “Even though you never wanted it, you’re a parent. So take responsibility,” Mi-rae says, but she doesn’t get to elaborate on what she means by her statement because father and daughter suddenly have to hide from Ae-yeon — who will surely kill them both if she finds out they made a bet on her behind her back. Lol.

Meanwhile, Ae-yeon is too busy trying to make sense of her discovery that Moo-jin and Hairdresser Tenant are acquainted — after seeing a picture of them together in Thailand. Ae-yeon recalls that Hairdresser Tenant was pregnant when she moved into Family Villa (although she had a miscarriage later), and she wonders if Moo-jin is the bastard that knocked Hairdresser Tenant up and abandoned her. Unable to confront Hairdresser Tenant, Ae-yeon asks Moo-jin about what happened in Thailand. But he senses a hint of jealousy behind the question, and refuses to answer — because according to Moo-jin math, jealousy = Ae-yeon still has feelings for him.

Hairdresser Tenant finds out that Ae-yeon has seen the picture, and she clears the air: Moo-jin is not her baby daddy. Phew! I didn’t doubt him for a second, but it’s still nice to get the confirmation. Hairdresser Tenant explains that she and Moo-jin became friends in Thailand, and the reason she kept the picture is because she was pregnant at the time, and since she never took a sonogram, it’s the only picture she has with her baby.

After her baby daddy ran away, Hairdresser Tenant wanted to return home but couldn’t afford the flight ticket, so Moo-jin gave her all the money he had. Back then, he told her that she reminded him of a woman who’s struggling to raise her kids alone after meeting the wrong man. And in the present, she realizes that he gave her the money with Ae-yeon in mind.

Hairdresser Tenant fills in some of the “what did Moo-jin do for money” blanks, and it turns out that he sold something. No, it’s not drugs, and it’s not his kidney either. Mr. Presumed Gangster actually sold ladies shoes, and he was a foot model for them shoes. LMAO! I about died at the visuals of Moo-jin strutting the makeshift runway in red heels, a straight face and soulless eyes. But selling shoes at the local market does not explain how he made enough money to buy a building.

Speaking of Thailand, Mi-rae books flight tickets for herself and her mom. Lol. And to ensure their mini vacation is not disrupted, she pushes up a product launch at work which results in overtime, overwork, and zero sleep. Tae-pyeong offers to drive Mi-rae home so she doesn’t sleep off on the wheels, and she worries that she’s being a nuisance. Like he can read her mind, Tae-pyeong assures her that she’s not a nuisance. If anything, he finds her cool for living a very diligent life. According to Mi-rae, delay is pointless because her future self will have to take care of procrastinated issues anyway, and taking those words to heart, Tae-pyeong decides to honor his father’s invitation for a family function.

Tae-pyeong suits up to the temple for his late grandfather’s memorial service, and here, we find out that: 1) Grandpa is Tae-pyeong’s birth father; 2) CEO Nam is actually his older half-brother; 3) CEO Nam put Tae-pyeong on his family register as a son in exchange for his CEO position. Daebak! The late chairman most likely had an affair, and the grandpa-fication of his own son was done to cover up the affair.

It’s ridiculous how the extended family blames Tae-pyeong for being born instead of directing the heat to GrandpaDaddy who couldn’t keep it in his pants. And to make matters worse, CEO Nam makes the birth conspiracy sound like it’s no big deal — to him, it probably isn’t, since chaebol families are weird — and he gives Tae-pyeong the “grow up and stop acting out” speech after the latter storms out of the pretentious memorial service. Tae-pyeong tells his DaddyBrother to stop feeling a sense of responsibility towards him because he can live well on his own, and CEO Nam returns to the memorial, clearly upset. Sigh. Not my elevator couple individually having daddy issues.

As the week draws to a close, Ae-yeon also finds out that Hyun-jae plans to quit school, and she goes out for a drink. As the active parent in the kids’ lives, she feels it’s her fault that Mi-rae grew up too fast and Hyun-jae is growing up too slow. But Moo-jin does not agree with her assessment, and he assures her that she raised the kids well. The jury might be out on whether or not Moo-jin’s return is beneficial to the family, but it’s in times like this that I don’t mind his return because Ae-yeon might not have been able to freely vent about her perceived failings as a parent to anyone else.

A song comes on in the bar bringing up past memories of their love story, and Moo-jin asks if Ae-yeon never felt lonely while he was away. She replies in the negative, but she admits that she was bored from time to time because she didn’t have anyone to fight with. By this time, Ae-yeon is already drunk and Moo-jin calls it a night.

Similarly, Mi-rae is on her way home when she spots a wasted Tae-pyeong sleeping on the road after the disastrous memorial service. As she drags him home, he asks how old she is, and he drops to banmal on learning that he’s a year older. “Mi-rae-ah,” he addresses her, in informal speech, and my good sis instantly folds. Lol. Tae-pyeong collapses into Mi-rae’s shoulder, and when he nuzzles in further, she reminds him that she has a plane to catch in a few hours. “Don’t go,” Tae-pyeong says, and I swooned.

Mi-rae decides to drop Tae-pyeong off at a motel since she doesn’t know where he lives, and Moo-jin has a similar idea with Ae-yeon because she doesn’t want to go home. The quartet run into each other in the hallway, and the alcohol instantly clears from their eyes. Lol. Tae-pyeong and Moo-jin fall over themselves as they try to explain the situation to Ae-yeon and Mi-rae respectively, but mother and daughter are furious with each other and their current life choices. The lights in the hallway go out as Ae-yeon charges towards Mi-rae and Tae-pyeong, and I love this brand of chaos! Hehe.

Tune in next week to find out which side comes tops: Second-chance couple or Elevator couple? Ae-yeon and Moo-jin are nowhere close to starting anew because while Moo-jin is remorseful for his past actions, he has shown no signs of improvement in the present. He keeps dodging the most important questions, and I am tired of waiting for him to come clean about his mysterious money. On the other hand, the elevator couple continues to give me all the feels. I love the natural progression of their romance, and I cannot wait for their slow burn to escalate into fireworks.

 
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