Brewing Love: Episodes 5-6

by Unit

This week, our brew master wrestles with his growing feelings for our beer saleswoman, while she is forced to choose between her promise to him and her promise to save her beloved sales team.

 
EPISODES 5-6

After wrestling with his feelings in response to Yong-joo’s hoobae’s supposed crush on her, Min-joo concludes that the emotions coursing through his veins aren’t his. There’s no way he likes Yong-joo. But when he asks the hoobae, KANG BEOM (Ryu Won-woo), about his feelings for Yong-joo, Beom laughs off the idea and insists that it’s just respect and admiration for his sunbae. Min-joo doesn’t believe him, though. I mean, Mr. Empath’s spiking heart rate has to be a side effect of his absorption of Beom’s emotions, right? Hehe.

The TF team meets to fix a six-month timeline to launch the Min-joo × Jisang collaboration beer, and Ah-reum’s Gen Z hoobae refuses to be assigned any extracurricular tasks during the meeting. Yong-joo is a little upset when she thinks about it, and she gets into another round of “I’m fine” vs. “you are not fine” with Min-joo. Yong-joo expels the negative emotions when she joins Beom to — non-maliciously — badmouth Gen Z, and she thanks him for trying to make her feel better. But Min-joo turns pouty because he wasn’t the one who made her feel better. Lol. Maybe next time he will actively think of ways to lift Yong-joo’s mood instead of simply calling her out on whatever emotions she’s trying to hide.

JooJoo end up having drinks together at the village pub (thanks to the matchmaking ahjummas), and Yong-joo shares her K-drama female lead story of growing up without parents and having to work multiple part-time jobs — which is how she learned to hide her feelings because she didn’t want others to see her as weak or pitiful. Min-joo shares that he doesn’t drink as much because it makes him have a headache. However, he likes the buzzy feeling that accompanies heavy drinking, because he’s able to drown out external voices and focus on the sound of his breathing. Yong-joo tells Min-joo to let her know if he ever needs time alone while working with the team, and in return, he tells her to let him know if she ever needs company.

At this point, Min-joo’s grin is wider than a ten-lane highway, but our brew master denies his feelings for Yong-joo — even when he spots his stupid-in-love reflection in the glass. Smh. Min-joo is further charmed when Yong-joo (and Chan-hwi) save a drowning lady at the beach during the TF team’s workshop — and here, we learn that Chan-hwi was also former special forces. No wonder he easily won all the games at the team dinner last week. For what it’s worth, Min-joo is not the only one participating in the falling-in-love Olympics because Ah-reum is starting to feel a little something for Chan-hwi. (By the way, Chan-hwi already found out that Ah-reum is rich after trailing her to one of the convenience stores she owns.)

Oblivious to the ping-pong match between Min-joo’s heart and his brain, Yong-joo lives her best and charming and badass life throughout the workshop — and we get more scenes of Min-joo falling harder in love, catching himself in the act and spiraling at the realization. Lol. For a photography enthusiast who never takes pictures of people, Min-joo captures Yong-joo with his lens, and by the end of the workshop, he comes to terms with his feelings for her.

Min-joo returns from the trip to the news that the villagers have accepted a large order from wholesalers who fell in love with Naro beer at the village festival. They’d need to put in a lot of work to handle the volume of orders, and the village head is skeptical about Jisang’s commitment not to interfere with Min-joo’s work at the brewery. Min-joo affirms his trust in Yong-joo and assures the villagers that she won’t let that happen. Unfortunately, Jisang’s competitor announces their plan to release a new beer, and the TF team is ordered to shorten their launch timeline from six to three months to beat out the competition. Uh-oh.

Yong-joo’s protest falls on deaf ears, and the marketing director reminds her that the faster she launches the collaboration beer, the faster she can save the Busan branch. A helpless Yong-joo visits Min-joo to apologize for not being able to keep her promise, but he makes her leave and she assumes he’s disappointed in her. But while Min-joo is indeed disappointed, his anger is directed at the situation itself, and his curt dismissal is because he doesn’t want Yong-joo to run into the villagers — who are upset with her because the shortened timeline will affect their production at the brewery.

Yong-joo belatedly realizes that she never reported the timeline to the higher-ups, so how did the CEO know their planned launch date was in six months? All roads lead back to Ah-reum — who was ordered to report the TF team’s activities to the planning director. That weasel director must have tattled to the CEO in his attempt to take all the credit for the development of the collaboration beer. Tsk. Yong-joo confronts the weasel and tells him to leave her people out of his fight with the marketing director. And yes, as a member of the TF team, Ah-reum is now part of her people, and she will no longer leak information to the planning team. *Mic drop*

Ah-reum apologizes for being a mole, and Yong-joo says to put it behind them and figure out a way to make the apology count. The TF team can’t do anything about the shortened timeline, so they decide to help out their brew master — who’s drowning in work because the villagers have abandoned the brewery in favor of massage chair PPL. Smh. Thankfully, Min-joo and the team are able to meet up with the wholesalers orders and all is well again.

Chan-hwi notices Ah-reum has been moody the whole time, and he goes down to the River of Isolation to cheer her up. According to Ah-reum, as she advanced in the ranks at work, her juniors looked up to her and she became afraid of making mistakes. It’s exhausting having to wear a facade of perfection, and she compares herself to Yong-joo who doesn’t care about whether or not she appears perfect to others. “[Yong-joo] neutralizes all the effort I put into appearing impressive,” Ah-reum says, and she admits to envying Yong-joo. It’s a vulnerable moment for Ah-reum, and Chan-hwi comforts her with a beer metaphor. But of course he finds time to flirt afterwards, and wraps up the conversation by saying she’s pretty. Heh.

Speaking of flirting, Min-joo proves to be more than just a master of brewing when he brings Yong-joo to the famous second floor of his house. “You’ve entered a place where no one can,” he replies, when she asks why he’s being so nice to her and why he took her picture at the workshop when people aren’t his photography subjects. Yong-joo immediately malfunctions on hearing Min-joo’s reply, and she decides to flee with the picture before her fluttering heart explodes. Min-joo refuses to yield the picture, and he goes on to say, “I don’t hold back on things I’m sure about. Because I really like it.” *Fans self* Yong-joo about dies at this point, and I think I died a little, too. It is always the quiet guys who do the most.

Anyway, before the tension in the room swallows us all, Min-joo clarifies that the thing he likes is the picture. Why, you little! Is my emotional investment in this scene a joke to this man? Yong-joo’s relief at the turn of events is as palpable as my disappointment. But I understand Min-joo’s intention to step back and give Yong-joo space to make sense of her feelings first. He clearly knows the effect he has on her, and between this brewmaster and his beer, I’m not sure which is smoother.

The week ends with Min-joo’s visit to Busan to see his kid brother. His stepmom informs him that his dad stepped out to escort a guest home — it’s the person who saved Min-joo six years ago, and he’s surprised that his dad is in contact with his savior. Dad returns with the savior in tow, and why of course, Min-joo’s savior is none other than Yong-joo! Ha! From drowning people to accident victims, Ms. Former Special Forces has saved so many people in her lifetime, she can’t keep count; neither can she remember their faces. Until now. But we can’t blame her because a certain dad told her that the son she saved travelled abroad, so she obviously wasn’t expecting to have been interacting with the dude in Korea.

It was fun watching Min-joo work his way up to the acceptance stage of his feelings for Yong-joo, but my good sis is still stuck in the denial stage. For someone who never drinks at home, Yong-joo had no problem drowning herself in soju after being forced to break her promise with Min-joo no thanks to the rescheduled timeline. Let’s not even talk about how she’s suddenly so self-conscious around him. Our brew master’s aura is intoxicating, and for the sake of our collective mental health, Yong-joo needs to accept her feelings so that their romance can kick off ASAP!

 
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