My Daughter Seo-young: Episode 42

What a fun fuuun episode.  To tell you the truth, I didn’t think we would get this kind of cute from Seo-young at this stage in the drama.  Just goes to show you can never count anything out in Dramaland.

 

Episode 42

Woo-jae shows up at Seo-young’s office, bearing a gorgeous bouquet of flowers.  Seo-young can’t hide her surprise, which she tries to mask as anger, and Woo-jae nonchalantly replies that he thought they weren’t enemies.  Isn’t it quite cool that a guy comes to congratulate his ex-wife on her grand opening?  Hahahaa you are just too funny.  He quickly makes his exit as Seo-young’s first client comes in, leaving behind a very bewildered Seo-young.  The happiness on his face as he gets into his car, first mission accomplished, is just adorable.

While at Mr. Yoo’s convenience store, Papa Lee sees the newspaper article on Mama Kang’s generous donation to disadvantaged youths.  The article lists the names of the Kang family children, and a Miss Mi-kyung is mentioned as a resident of the surgery department at Hanjin University Hospital.  Oh noes.  Papa Lee confronts Sang-woo about his new realization, and a shocked Sang-woo quickly tries to assure his father that it is all in the past.  Yes, Ho-jung knew about everything, Sang-woo explains, but it is in the past and there is no need for Papa Lee to apologize.  Poor Papa Lee, though, can’t help but feel responsible.

The next morning, Woo-jae shows up again at Seo-young’s office as the representative for Seo-young’s new project.  Turns out that Wooin, the corporation that hired Seo-young for their free legal service project, is a subcontractor of Winners Group.  Woo-jae blithely explains that he wormed his way into the service project, which was already an established one – he didn’t manipulate a bunch of grandmas and grandpas.  Seo-young is somewhat appeased, and Woo-jae confesses this is the only way he could see her, at which Seo-young quickly says she’ll take her own car.  (The representative was supposed to pick her up.)  Woo-jae says he has business aspects to explain to her, so she needs to ride with him, and he quickly leaves to wait for her at the car before she can further protest.  Hee!  Seo-young is just dumbfounded, but Yeon-hee is already Team Woo-jae.

Seo-young comes downstairs and Woo-jae is waiting in front of the car with a café mocha in hand (it was what she ordered at their last pre-divorce meeting in Episode 40).  She’s surprised he remembers, but she coolly says she isn’t craving anything sweet right now, at which he offers the cup in his other hand: an Americano.  Hahahaa.  She asks why he’s acting this way, and he tells her not to worry since he’s not trying to ask her to start over again.  Your nose is growing!  Woo-jae says that he feels it was unfair he didn’t get to explain his actions and how he felt.  Seo-young thinks he is still determined to hear her explanation (for everything), but he insists it is he who wants to explain.  He doesn’t want to hear what she has to say; he wants to explain himself.  “Don’t you know me?  I do whatever it takes if there is something I want.  So I cheated a little.  I won’t interfere with your work or waste your time, so get in.”  Heee!  It’s so cute how he sounds like a petulant child.  Seo-young grabs the Americano and gets into the car, and Woo-jae closes the door behind her.  Chivalry is not dead!

Woo-jae only talks about the legal service project, and Seo-young impatiently tells him to get his explanation over with.  He replies that he has enough manners not to burden her with personal things while she’s on her way to work, and she coolly says she has no intention of meeting with him afterwards.  Woo-jae answers that he won’t take up her personal time, and Seo-young asks when, then, he is planning to do his explaining.  “I’ll figure it out, so don’t worry about it,” he happily answers.  LOL.  Once they arrive, Woo-jae introduces Seo-young to the on-site manager then quickly leaves without a backward glance when he gets a call from work.  The look of confusion on her face is just priceless.

Woo-jae is a busy, busy man, arriving late for meetings and leaving early from work, all in his mission to win Seo-young over again.  He gets stuck in traffic on his way to pick up Seo-young (who ordered a taxi), but our fairy godmother, in the form of Troubled Grandma (Ban Hyo-jung), keeps Seo-young at work a little longer than scheduled.  Troubled Grandma has a grandson who hit two people while driving under the influence, and she begs Seo-young to help her grandson, who has clammed up about the incident.  By the time Seo-young is finished meeting with Troubled Grandma, Woo-jae arrives to chauffeur her back to her office.

When Seo-young opens her eyes, though, they are at a restaurant instead of her office.  Woo-jae smoothly says it’s to wine and dine their lawyer, but she refuses so he says he didn’t get to eat lunch because he was running around all day.  “And I couldn’t eat breakfast because I was nervous.  I feel dizzy.”  Heehehehee.  Seo-young finally relents at his puppy dog expression, but once inside she orders “two of whatever takes the shortest time.”  Woo-jae asks for whatever takes the looongest, but at Seo-young’s glare, he meekly asks for whatever comes out fastest.  Hahaha.

Woo-jae: Don’t you think I have become a bit docile?  [no answer]  I thought about it a lot, and I think a person’s past shapes who they are right now.

Seo-young: Woo-jae-sshi.

Woo-jae: I’m talking about myself.  Just listen until our food arrives.  I grew up with a father who was overly charismatic, whose decision was the law.  There was no dialogue between my parents.  It was the same, of course, for me as well.  I didn’t grow up discussing or sharing how I felt or what to do in certain situations.  Without realizing it, I became an autocratic person like my father.  I only thought and judged from my position… I always did what I wanted.  That was why when I found out about your father, I only thought from my perspective.

Their food arrives and Seo-young quickly begins to eat.

Woo-jae: Rather than thinking that there must have been extenuating circumstances, I only thought that the Lee Seo-young I knew did something she never should have – without even truly knowing who the Lee Seo-young was that I thought I knew.  I only saw you within the mold I had created of you.  I only viewed you through my perspective.  I didn’t think of how you felt, unable to tell me the truth; I only thought of my betrayal and your lack of trust in me.  I saw and judged solely by my standards.

Seo-young: You said you were going to explain – did you come to express remorse?

Woo-jae: Yes.  Thinking back, when the whole thing with Sung-jae happened, I, too, wanted to hide from you the fact that Sung-jae was Father’s son.  I didn’t want my father to be ridiculed.

Seo-young: [pause] Aren’t you going to eat?  You said you were hungry.

Woo-jae: I’m afraid Lee Seo-young will just leave if we finish eating.  Then we won’t have time to talk.   [his stomach growls]

Seo-young: Talk after you eat.

Woo-jae: No, it’s okay.  Eat.  Listen while you eat.  [his stomach growls again]

Seo-young: Talk after you eat.  I’ll wait as long as it takes for you to eat.

Woo-jae: Can I really?  How many minutes are you going to give me?  Fi-fi-  Just five minutes!

He starts eating like a starved man (which he was, I suppose), and Seo-young watches with surprise mixed with concern.

Seo-young: Slow down.  [Woo-jae looks up in surprise]  I’m not responsible if you get indigestion.

Woo-jae: [grinning] I won’t get indigestion.  It tastes like honey. (a Korean idiom for yummy yum yums)

He continues to scarf down his food while Seo-young watches with concern.

As they head back to Seoul, Woo-jae asks where he left off, and Seo-young says she heard enough.  He readily accepts her decline to hear more, which surprises her.  Seeing her shocked expression, Woo-jae explains that someone told him he always does what he wants and makes it hard for others to resist him.  “I’m gonna try and fix that,” he says, further shocking Seo-young.  He’s a changed man, I tell ya!

After dropping off a very corrrnfused Seo-young, Woo-jae goes to see Papa Lee.  Formally introducing himself for the first time as Papa Lee’s son-in-law, Woo-jae apologizes for everything and thanks Papa Lee for helping him understand Seo-young.  He explains he agreed to the divorce because he wanted to make Seo-young ‘comfortable’ (free from her burdens).  “I had no choice but to let her go.  You know how your daughter is.”  Woo-jae explains why he let Seo-young go, and Papa Lee in turn explains how Seo-young had nothing but her pride to lean on while carrying the heavy burdens of her family.  They share a heart-to-heart, and Woo-jae makes clear his intentions: “Though I failed in my marriage with Seo-young, I do not think we are over.”  Hawt stuff.

Mi-kyung continues to have a hard time at work, and the prickly Kyung-ho tells her to stop wallowing in self-pity – she lied, and it is only natural people feel betrayed.  Unable to take it any longer, she angrily asks why he always picks on her, and he freely admits he does so.  Before he can give his usual excuse about his responsibility as a doctor, Mi-kyung cuts him off and calls his bull.  “Before my responsibility as a doctor, I have a personal responsibility,” he finally answers.  Ooh la la.  “The Kang Mi-kyung I knew wasn’t like this Kang Mi-kyung,” he says, and Mi-kyung confusedly replies that she had never met him before he came to the hospital.  “Hmm, is that the truth?” he muses before walking away, leaving behind a bewildered Mi-kyung.  All our ladies are confused today, eh?

Mama Kang looks at her calendar, which is marked with Seo-young’s birthday on February 2.  Tears fill her eyes at memories of times spent together, and she goes up to Sung-jae’s room to ask him to go to the Kpop Concert with her.  (The concert tickets are the ones the Mysterious Gentleman gave her.)  Sung-jae, though, receives a phone call from Secretary Yoon just then, and Mama Kang ends up going to the concert alone.  As expected, the Mysterious Gentleman is there as well, and he puts up quite a show ‘coincidentally’ meeting her and ‘helping’ her leave behind her life as The Hermit.  Gah, I hope you disappear pronto creeper dude.

Sung-jae meets with Secretary Yoon, who asks him for just one day of doing whatever she wants.  They watch a movie together, and afterwards she takes him to her home and feeds him seaweed soup (traditionally eaten on your birthday).  She shares with him her own pain-filled past growing up as an orphan, and how that fueled her desire for him to grow up comfortably, in luxury, with the affluent Kang family and one day be given the reins to Winners Group.  She says she will leave, and that as long as he is happy, that is all that matters to her.

Papa Lee teaches Ho-jung how to make seaweed soup (since Sang-woo’s birthday is tomorrow as well), and Ho-jung asks why Sang-woo’s legal birthday is different from his actual birthday.  (I’m not too sure of the particulars, but in Korea your legal date of birth is determined by the form filled out by parents/family when registering your birth.  For whatever reason, some people register their children’s births a bit later than the day they are actually born.)  Papa Lee explains that when his twins were born, Seo-young got pneumonia and was forced to stay in an incubator.  The doctors had said she might die.  “I felt like Seo-young would die if I registered Sang-woo’s birth first.  So I pushed back Sang-woo’s registration as well.”  Gah, I was doing so well today!  Why are you making me cry?!

Early the next morning, Woo-jae secretly prepares seaweed soup for Seo-young with the help of the Kang family housekeeper.  Hehehee awww.  Sang-woo has his own seaweed soup with Papa Lee and Ho-jung, but there is a sadness that fills the dining table…  It is hard not to think of your daughter on her birthday.  Papa Lee tells Ho-jung and Sang-woo to have a nice celebration with the Choi family later tonight.

Woo-jae goes to Seo-young’s apartment, soup and a present in hand, and it’s so CUTE how he rings the doorbell then hides so Seo-young can’t see him through the peephole and refuse to open the door.  Uuunfortunately, Seo-young is out at a craft class, and the two barely miss each other as he dejectedly heads out to the car and she comes back home.

Papa and Mama Choi are still goin’ at it, and Mama Choi figures her husband will finally come home since they are celebrating Sang-woo’s birthday.  Hilariously, when Papa Choi gets her text about the family gathering, he goes to visit Sang-woo at the hospital instead, apologizing for not being able to make it that night.  He gives Sang-woo a gift (money), explaining that it is money he made for the first time doing what he truly enjoys.  Hahahaa.

Sang-woo calls Seo-young, who is at the office, wishing her a happy birthday.  Sung-tae walks in as Seo-young is wishing her brother a happy birthday as well, and he dramatically bemoans his fate: he just came up to let Seo-young and Yeon-hee know he’s off on a business trip to Europe on the morrow, but now he must stay to celebrate his first love’s birthday.  He takes the two down to his studio and outfits Seo-young in a scandalously red – and short! – dress.  The three friends go out to dinner and a club afterwards, where Sung-tae takes the mic to wish Seo-young a happy birthday.  Everyone cheers at the romantic gesture, while I scoff.  I’m sure Woo-jae can do waaay better.

Sang-woo and Ho-jung head over to the Choi residence for dinner, and Mama Choi presents quite an elaborate dinner table for her son-in-law.  Seriously, YUM.  But before they can eat, Mama Choi breaks down in tears as she tells Ho-jung, “Your dad left.”

Woo-jae races to Seo-young’s office after work, but she had already left by then.  He goes to her apartment complex but sees that her lights are out, so he settles in for a loooong wait.  As it nears midnight, Woo-jae’s adorable impatience grows – after all, once the clock strikes 12, he has missed out on his chance to celebrate her birthday.  Finally unable to wait any longer, he grabs the soup, present, and gorgeous bouquet of roses, and heads inside.

Just then, Sung-tae and Seo-young arrive at Seo-young’s apartment, and Sung-tae offers to take a picture as a birthday present – he’s a famous photographer, ya know.  Seo-young reluctantly agrees and awkwardly smiles at the camera, which prompts Sung-tae to tell her to smiiiiile and stand more naturally.  Woo-jae comes upon the pair at the complex entrance, and he is taken aback at Seo-young’s wide smile and easy manner with the strange man – not to mention her getup.  Seo-young spots Woo-jae and her smile quickly fades in shock, while Woo-jae’s own face hardens.  He walks towards Seo-young…

 

Quick Thoughts

I’ve said so much about all the different actors and actresses, but I don’t think I got much of a chance to talk about Song Ok-sook (Mama Choi).  She was hands down my favorite character in recently ended I Miss You, and I have never seen her be anything short of magnificent.  Her storyline is definitely weaker in Seo-young, even being pushed behind Mama Kang’s, but she still manages to command so much attention from the viewers.  Seriously, she is just *mwah*.  And though divorce is by no means a laughing matter – its portrayal as something so easy or lighthearted is one major issue I have with this drama – I can’t help but laugh at Mama Choi and her ongoing battle of wills with her husband.  They provide some much needed laughter in this emotionally taxing show, though Woo-jae is now starting to pull his weight in that department.

Speaking of Woo-jae: Eeeee!  I think I used the word “adorable” more times than I can count in this episode, and I really can’t think of a better word to describe him today.  Seriously, just absolutely ADORABLE.  Note to Sung-tae: You can make Woo-jae jealous, but pack your bags tonight – ’cause you better be backin’ off sooooon.

Just a reminder, we have a Discussion Board where some lively debates and lovely conversations are going on.  Thank you to all who have contributed their thoughts!  For those who have not yet done so, a little food for thought to jump-start the process: Should Woo-jae be the one to go all out to make our happy OTP dreams come true?  Or should Seo-young be making an effort as well?  Happy discussing! 😀