Sungkyunkwan Scandal: Episode 15

by cassie.opeia

Sorry for the delay guys! Just…One word: Halle-freaking-lujah!

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LESSON 15 RECAP

Everyone’s waiting for Sun-joon’s eyewitness account but a shockwave travels through the room as he makes the claim that he is in fact the one guilty for homosexuality. A collective gasp!

But alas, Sun-joon begins to explain, “That night at Hyang-gwan-chung , it wasn’t just Moon Jae-shin and Kim Yoon-shik—I was there also. So, if these two are guilty of homosexuality, then I am too.” Boy, you really know how to scare the bejesus out of me… actually, out of everyone for that matter! Except maybe Professor Jung, who seems thoroughly amused.

Yong-ha nods his head in approval while In-soo reminds Sun-joon that he could be kicked out of the school, never to come back. Sun-joon realizes the consequences and is willing to comply if—and it’s a big if, Kim Yoon-shik and Moon Jae-shin did in fact take part in inappropriate behavior. In-soo thinks it’s a false testimony to protect Yoon-hee and Guh-ro, but Sun-joon points out that there were in fact witnesses who saw him coming out of Hyang-gwan-cheong that night—the three stooges(Do-hyun, Woo-tak, Hae-won) confirm the sighting.

Sun-joon: “Then why wasn’t I included in the rumors? It’s because the rumors aren’t true.”

Everyone murmurs in confusion when Sun-joon asks everyone in the room if anyone actually saw Kim Yoon-shik and Moon Jae-shin in action—but as with most rumors, everyone’s heard it from the next guy, who heard it from the next guy, with ultimately no real source. So now the question is: Is the whole homosexuality claim all just a huge scandal?

Myung-shik(the Soron) bumbles something about Neo-Confucian teachings, but smarty pants Sun-joon cuts in:

“In Neo-Confucianism, the highly prized principle of “In(仁)” stands for the endless care for a comrade. Am I wrong? Selflessness(In,仁), Righteousness(Eui,義), Propriety(Yae,禮), Wisdom(Ji,智), and Faith(Shin,信). These are the principles that every Confucian scholar should uphold—but instead of looking at the facts, you see what you want to see and believe what you want to believe, and thus you lack Wisdom. Without even realizing that your thoughtless curiosity is putting others in trouble and is in it of itself a sin, you just laugh and enjoy the show, and thus you lack Righteousness AND Propriety. And you distrust your comrades, thus you lack Faith and cannot be regarded as a true Confucian scholar. No one here has the right to point any fingers. If this is the Confucian way, than I’d rather choose homosexuality.”

You go, Smarty! Leave it to Sun-joon to find the best solution for every problem in the world! Who else loved the graphic effects with each character disintegrating into thin air?! So cool.

In-soo still doesn’t think it’s over—if it wasn’t homosexuality, then what were they doing in Hyang-gwan-cheong that night? It was reported that the Red Messenger entered the grounds with extensive injuries and Hyang-gwan-cheong was probably the best place to hide out and get medicinal herbs. So why were the two of them there that night? Could it be that one of them is the big Red himself?

Sun-joon is putting the missing pieces together as the rest of the scholars speculate who Red could be. In-soo orders the two of them to take their upper garments off to prove their innocence. (For once, In-soo and I are on the same page—take it off!!! Er… minus you, Yoon-hee. Just the rest of the J4, please!)

Yoon-hee panics and Guh-ro offers to take it off alone, but Smarty—who always has the better solution—cuts in and asks In-soo to answer his question first:

“Were you using the jae-hwe as an excuse to catch the Red Messenger? You’ve basically just admitted that you didn’t believe in the homosexuality scandal in the first place. No one can get involved in the jae-hwe, not even the King himself. That’s because it isn’t to be used for political gain. But you, as the president, have broken that code. If you undress Moon Jae-shin and there is no injury, you’ll have to pay the consequences. Aren’t I right?”

Ooohhh! In yo face, In-soo! I’m sorry, I do pity him sometimes, but he dug his own grave this time.

Everyone’s offended at In-soo’s power trip but Sun-joon offers to turn a blind eye if In-soo does likewise. The students all unanimously vote in Yoon-hee and Guh-ro’s favor (not even In-soo’s minions can refute the decision) and the jae-hwe is over.

Afterwards, Yoon-hee is on a desperate search for Sun-joon(who’s already walked off whilst scolding his exaggerated imagination) while Guh-ro, who’s been waiting outside for her, watches her ask around for the former. Agh, the second lead heartbreak! His bitter smile makes it worse!

Sun-joon’s on his way out of the school when Yong-ha stops him, “What a surprise. A stiff neck like Lee Sun-joon doesn’t mind becoming a homosexual.” Sun-joon begins to protest but Yong-ha continues, “Ah~ You were just trying to stick to your principles? If that were true, you shouldn’t have lied. Afterall, the claim that you were with Kim Yoon-shik and Guh-ro the whole time is a lie isn’t it?”

Yong-ha wonders why someone like Lee Sun-joon, who’s guaranteed to move up in the world, would risk it all and lie, but Sun-joon ignores him and continues to walk on. He’s not one to step down, that Yong-ha, and continues to poke around, “So I hear you’re getting engaged tomorrow, with the Ha family—how unlikely. Is it because their household was of similar status, or because it didn’t matter who it was—as long as you can run away? So, are you happy Ga-rang?”

When Sun-joon can’t answer, Yong-ha sighs, “Look at you. You can’t even lie such a petty lie—so how do you expect to lie the rest of your life? Who is that for?”

Sun-joon’s not taking an overnight leave like Yong-ha thought, but is actually leaving Sungkyunkwan for good, which has Headmaster Choi in a panic. The word is that Sun-joon will continue his studies alone at Juk-jeon-sa temple in Gurim.

Yoon-hee, who’s still unaware of the news, is waiting for Sun-joon in the library but finally hears the news from the school-keeper when he comes for closing time.

Yong-ha and Guh-ro are sharing drinks—er, more like Yong-ha drinking his drinks, then taking Guh-ro’s drink away and drinking them himself—as they discuss the mok-go-ji: an outing to restore merriment and camaraderie after the jae-hwe. Love Yong-ha’s thoughtfulness for Guh-ro!

Yoon-hee enters in a daze as she delivers the shocking news. Yong-ha expresses his surprise, since he thought Sun-joon was leaving for his engagement—but of course that news shoots another dagger into Yoon-hee’s delicate heart. In the privacy of her own room, she begins to cry unaware that Guh-ro is sitting outside. (Did anyone else notice the silhouette thing was impossible?! Her lights were off!)

Sun-joon is pensive over Yong-ha’s words, even while his father is giving him last words of advice about marriage and its purpose in one’s life—which, according to him, doesn’t serve much purpose but teach one a sense of responsibility. Sun-joon asks his father, “So, are you happy?” His father merely laughs, but when Sun-joon asks him to answer, Minister Lee replies, “That question isn’t even worth me answering. For such embarrassing words that silly women chatter over to come out of your mouth…I’ve never wasted my time thinking about such trivial things.” Cynical much?

The next day, Yoon-hee reminisces her time with Sun-joon as the three stooges gossip over the news. Unable to take it anymore, she leaves the school without even telling Guh-ro where she’s going.

Hyo-eun is busy pretty-fying herself as she waits for Sun-joon to arrive but she’s not the only one—Yoon-hee’s waiting outside the house hoping to catch a glimpse of him. He finally arrives but when he looks her direction, she quickly hides behind a tree. Sun-joon continues on his way, looks again, and she hides again. Thinking he’s finally gone in, Yoon-hee sneaks another peak but lo and behold! He’s right there.

Sun-joon:“So I was right…I thought I’d maybe been seeing things.”
Yoon-hee: “What a coincidence! What are you doing here? I-I’m…just on my way to get some work from the book store. Ha ha…” (Oh brother… she’s too cute!)

It’s way too obvious that she’s lying, so instead she thanks him for the jae-hwe. “I thought we should at least say goodbye. Thinking that this is it…that I’ll never get to see you again…I wanted to see you one last time. That’s why I was waiting. Whether it was as friends, or just as roommates…or even as one of many fellow classmates… however you think of me, I wanted to see Lee Sun-joon for the last time.”

Sun-joon tells her it was better if she didn’t come and that she should leave. “Go…And let’s never see each other again.” Agh! Dagger to the heart! Again!

Yoon-hee leaves in tears and Sun-joon enters Hyo-eun’s room looking grave. Hyo-eun, however, is overjoyed and comes to hug him as she tells him that she’s going to trust the promise he made to her. Lowering her arms, Sun-joon drops the bomb: “I don’t think I’ll be able to keep that promise.” And he runs out. Run, Forrest, Run!

Sun-joon searches the marketplace and finally catches up to Yoon-hee. With hands on both shoulders he tearfully tells her,

“I…like you, Kim Yoon-shik. I—who only walked where there was a road…who only acted according to the rules…who thought propriety was everything—have come to like you…a man. This is why I can’t keep you as a friend or even as a roommate. Because I no longer have the confidence to lie to myself and act like I’m ok when you’re with me.”

Yoon-hee can’t find any words to say but Sun-joon continues, “Don’t worry, Kim Yoon-shik. I won’t let you get hurt. I won’t let you be ostracized because of how I feel…This will be the last time I ever appear in front of you… Since that’s all I can do for you right now.” He walks away whilst Yoon-hee is frozen in place—and I’m screaming at my computer for her to run after him. Yes, I’m having another soul-out-of-body experience from the awesomeness.

Hyo-eun’s covering for Sun-joon as she feigns illness, but In-soo doesn’t buy it. He thinks something’s up and he’s right for once as Hyo-eun thinks back to her conversation with Sun-joon:

Sun-joon:“I don’t think I’ll be able to keep that promise. Will your family please break this engagement?”
Hyo-eun: “Did I do something wrong? If you tell me, I’ll fix it!”
Sun-joon: “I’m the one who’s in the wrong. So the one who is unworthy of this marriage is me. Unlike others, I’m unable to give my heart to a woman.”

Sun-joon’s surprised when his father tells him that it’d be better to move the marriage up instead of delaying the engagement. Of course it’s because Hyo-eun’s not one to give up—she won’t break the engagement, since Sun-joon won’t break it himself out of propriety. But her plans backfire when Sun-joon tells his father that they’ve decided the marriage is off.

Minister Lee won’t have it and begins questioning Sun-dol about the day’s events and learns that Sun-joon met with Yoon-hee before entering Minister Ha’s gates. On top of that, he also learns that Sun-joon set Yoon-hee up to take the Sungkyunkwan entrance exam. He’s already got records on Kim Yoon-shik from Headmaster Choi the day of the hockey tournament and knows that Yoon-shik is the son of former professor, Kim Seung-hun.

“Kim Yoon-shik… what a fatal coincidence.”

Back at the school, Yoon-hee’s dazed from the sudden confession and muses, “I must be being punished for tricking the world as I pleased.”

Guh-ro (squeal!) interrupts her thoughts, “Why so serious? Should I just leave?” He gets up to leave but she calls out to him and asks, “You said you read all the books in here right?” He nods.

Yoon-hee: “Then what should I do in this situation: I lied to someone and because of that lie, that person’s holding a very heavy burden. So heavy that they’ve had to give up their long time dream. I want to tell that person the truth so that they can lay that burden down…but I think it’s too late. I’m afraid that the person won’t forgive me. What should I do?”
Guh-ro: “What is there to think about? Just tell the person the truth. Tell the person you’re sorry and you want forgiveness—just show them how you feel, like you’re doing to me now.”
Yoon-hee: “It’s such a big lie… that person won’t be able to forgive me that easily. If I tell the truth… I’m afraid that person will turn their back on me forever.”
Guh-ro: “Is that person the one you like? Who? Cho-sun?”

The pain!

Headmaster Choi is busy trying to “choose” the mok-go-ji locationand Yong-ha is bored at all the suggestions—he’d rather enjoy his merriment wherever there are gisaengs. But his interest is peaked when Headmaster Choi “just so happens” to choose the mountain that Sun-joon’s temple is on—it’s the Headmaster’s intention to try and get Sun-joon to come back by parading his classmates in front of him. You can already see Yong-ha’s trouble-making mind planning his own mischief, and I love it!

On Wul-chool-san, Sun-joon is mindlessly going through the motions when in actuality…he’s not studying, not sleeping, not playing, not eating (and instead drowning his rice in soup… ha!).

Sun-joon seems to be the center of everyone’s discussion, including the King’s. Jeong-jo tells Minister Lee that Sun-joon was told to study in Sungkyunkwan under his direct command—so he’ll be expecting Sun-joon back in school. Minister Lee tries to tell the king that it was Sun-joon’s passion for the studies that drove him to hermit himself in the mountains, with Minister Ha adding that Sun-joon was simply following in his father’s footsteps.

Jeong-jo replies, “Hm. Then I, too, intend to follow in my father’s footsteps and fulfill his dreams. I’m planning to move the capitol to Hwa-sung .” With that shocking blow, Jeong-jo also checkmates Minister Lee in their game of chess.

Moving the capitol to Hwa-sung is an outrage and according to Minister Lee is not an impossibility—as long as the King has the geum-deung-ji-sa. Minister Ha assures him that the geum-deung-ji-sa was destroyed the same night that Kim Seung-hun and Moon Young-shin was killed… but Minister Lee is still cautious and tells Ha that they’ll need a spy who the King puts his trust in. Uh-oh… not Sun-joon!

Jeong-jo intends to wait for Sun-joon, against the pleas of his advisor—after all, Sun-joon is the son of a Noron, isn’t he. But Jeong-jo’s already got his trust in him and won’t move forward with his plans until he has Sun-joon back. It’s not just the geum-deung-ji-sa he wants… he wants to secure the future of Joseon—and he needs a Noron on his side to truly fulfill his future dreams.

The next day, the Sungkyunkwan scholars are overjoyed and bust out in song and cheers as they set off to Wul-chool-san. Headmaster Choi leaves it up to Yong-ha to bring Sun-joon back to Sungkyunkwan—his whole career is in Yong-ha’s hands.

Yong-ha hurries away from Choi’s uncomfortable grasps and over to Yoon-hee and Guh-ro. He playfully observes that Yoon-hee looks like she’s off to the slaughter house rather than a mok-go-ji, “Come on, lighten up! After all, the great Guh-ro’s going to his first ever mok-go-ji just to see your smiling face…” but Guh-ro quickly shuts him up.

You’d think he shut his mouth, but this is Gu Yong-ha we’re talking about and he tells him he’s got something up his sleeve—so they should lighten up and look forward to it. I love you, Glue Yong-ha.

In the mountains, everyone’s at the river playing and they all invite Yoon-hee into the water. Obviously she refuses which buys their suspicion, “You actually…” Yoon-hee sweats, “can’t swim huh?” Phew. They finally let up on their invite, but Byung-choon and Go-bong are still suspicious over Yoon-hee’s refusal—she must be the Red Messenger. They plot to throw Yoon-hee in the water, forcing her to take her robes off and then they’ll have proof she’s Red—and ultimately win In-soo’s good graces.

Guh-ro adorably roasts Yoon-hee a potato, even blowing some of the heat away, and Yoon-hee tells him that he’ll make a great husband someday. He gets bashful as she bites into the potato and noticing that she’s got some char on her face, he moves to wipe it off, to which she moves away in surprise. Bashful again, he looks for Yong-ha.

So where is Yong-ha? He’s surrounded by gisaengs (no surprise), as he hands over a ring of coins to Sun-dol (surprise!), telling him that all he needs to do is bring Sun-joon out according to plan. Sun-dol just wants to cure his master of whatever sickness has got him in its grips. Yong-ha assures him that there’s no better doctor than he for what Sun-joon has—lovesickness.

Sun-dol calls Sun-joon out, tricking him with a fib about his mother coming to visit—a household disaster, perhaps? Meanwhile Yoon-hee runs from the three stooges, who try to get her to go into the water, but with In-soo’s two minions trailing behind her. Alarmed at Yoon-hee’s dropped book, Guh-ro asks the stooges if they’ve seen her and runs after her when he hears that she’s gone to play with Byung-choon and Go-bong.

Sun-joon’s getting suspicious of Sun-dol when he finally spills the beans—the Sungkyunkwan scholars are here and he’s just brought his master out in an attempt to heal him of his sickness. Sun-joon begins to turn around but stops in his tracks when Sun-dol points Yoon-hee out in the distance.

Despite seeing Byung-choon and Go-bong in the woods snickering, Sun-joon walks away. Before he can get very far, however, he sends his manservant away and turns back.

Byung-choon and Go-bong make their approach but thankfully Guh-ro arrives just in time to silently drag them away. Always the hero in the background.

Yoon-hee hears the stir and decides to leave but loses her shoe in the river. She runs after it just as Sun-joon spots in floating down the stream. In alarm, he begins his desperate search for her and just when all seems lost, there she is standing not 100 yards from him, looking shocked to see him.

Sun-joon runs and embraces her. Moments pass before he pull away and tells her, “I can’t do this anymore Kim Yoon-shik. No matter how hard I try, I can’t help but desperately look for you. So, now it’s your turn. Run away from me, Kim Yoon-shik.” He turns to leave (wait… why. I thought you told her to run…) but Yoon-hee, who’s probably thinking the same thing I am, tells him to wait. He needs to hear her reply first.

She begins to run over to him, but her socks slip on the rocks and she falls into the river. Sun-joon dives in after her and carries her out of the waist-deep water (just…no words). She’s lost consciousness, so taking emergency measures, he begins to undress her.

Only to find a woman’s chest tightly bound…Gasp!

COMMENTS

Finally! The suspense is over! I’ve been waiting for the day that Sun-joon finds out that Yoon-hee is a girl and boy did I enjoy the build up to the great reveal. This episode’s angst wasn’t as infuriating as it was heartbreaking. Major kudos to Micky Yoochun for that tearful confession scene. It wasn’t just decent. I actually felt the sickening pain in my stomach from the heartbreak I felt for Sun-joon in that moment. I know there are a lot of you out there who haven’t felt the chemistry between Sun-joon and Yoon-hee but I don’t think you can deny the chemistry of that scene. I personally think the pairing has absolutely adorable chemistry, but I do hope you, reader, felt it at least in this scene.

I feel bad for Hyo-eun, and I also almost feel bad for In-soo. He’s really kind of lost the poison in his bite hasn’t he? And yes, as one commenter so hilariously mentioned, throw the guy some eyedrops! His eyes must be so tired from all those death glares.

As for Guh-ro, I love his crush on Yoon-hee. Most of the time, I get annoyed with Second-leads and how stalker-ish they can get. But Guh-ro plays it cool, no matter how much it pains him to do so. He hasn’t crossed the line between sweet and annoying yet and I love it. If he were to get all possessive of her, I don’t know how I’d feel about him. His “hero in the background” persona has got me smitten.

As always, I love Yuh-rim. Like I said earlier, he really is Glue Yong-ha isn’t he? If it weren’t for him, the Jalgeum Quartet might be no more. And I love that he’s not on anyone’s particular side in the love triangle (although, I realize that he’s always going to have a bias for Guh-ro). He just wants everyone to be true to their feelings, and that’s the advice he gives to all three of them.

Anyhow, I see stormy weather ahead. Especially with Minister Lee’s involvement in Yoon-hee’s father’s death and what seems to be his plot to use Sun-joon as a spy for the king. I’m thinking/hoping that Sun-joon won’t fall into his father’s antics.

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