Haeundae Lovers: Episode 10

by kaedejun

Cute episode! Why? Because finally our leads are being sweet with one another! I’m glad that Sora is getting over her prejudices towards Tae Sung, which always felt unfair and contrived. Tae Sung was nothing but kind to her, and he had amnesia! He never knew his real family, and no one can pick their family! But here’s to them finally acting like a cute newlywed couple.

EPISODE 10 RECAP

Sunlight streams through the windows and Sora wakes up with a start. Where is she!? Why – she’s in Tae Sung’s hotel room of course! Suddenly the memories from the night before come flooding back and she realizes that after the kiss, she drank flutes of champagne… ’cause that’s what you do when a hot chaebol kisses you.

Since she didn’t listen to Tae Sung’s advice to stop drinking, he took a cream pastry and stuffed it into her mouth. Then, he wiped the cream off her lips… and licked his fingers. Oh man – instead of the foam kiss, we have the cream-wipe-off-from-lips indirect kiss. Cue Secret Garden soundtrack!

Sora sneaks outside to find herself in a sleek and spacious apartment, and she can barely stop herself from gasping. Tae Sung’s already awake, and ordered her breakfast through room service. But more importantly – does she remember anything from last night? Sora says he should not count that kiss against her since it was done when they were drunk, and therefore none of it should count. Haha – actually, Tae Sung wants her to remember that their deal begins now. He’ll help her get back the hotel, and she just has to convince her uncles to agree.

Cue another cliche: contract marriage! They will act like the perfect couple in name, but they will not have any skinship with one another, or share a room. Well… Tae Sung admits he is a bit hopeful for some skinship, but Sora shoots down the possibility immediately. (The kiss, after all, did mean something to him.)

Back at the Fishery, the uncles send Joong Shik off to kindergarten with his kiddie friends so that he’ll stop complaining and have something to do, especially since Sora is not around. It’s hilarious how they give the teacher tips: give him the Pikachu doll if he causes any trouble, and Joong Shik is never to graduate to another grade. As soon as the school bus for the kindergarten pulls away, Tae Sung’s men arrive to pick up the uncles and bring them to the hotel.

The uncles barge into the apartment, all angry with Tae Sung and aghast that Sora is basically “eating with the enemy.” Sora intervenes before they can beat up Tae Sung and drags them to her room for a “talk.” She informs them of the plan, and of course, they’re initially against it. But they eventually warm up to the idea. Soon Shin even has a private chat with Tae Sung to make sure that nothing happened the night before.

Now on to the plan! While the uncles are “behind enemy lines,” they’re going to need a disguise. Soon Shin has the uniform for a general helper in the hotel, while Dong Baek is given a bellhop’s uniform. Uncle Hello Kitty is actually completely against the idea, not wanting to help spy on the Yang family and choosing to leave. Oh no – Uncle Hello Kitty really is disobeying Sora! The rest of the uncles do a team huddle and agree to meet every three hours in the afternoon to share what they find.

Tae Sung first heads to Joon Hyuk’s office, where he learns that Joon Hyuk has stepped out for an appointment. He tells Joo Hee that he’ll wait in the office, and does not need any refreshments from her to ensure complete privacy. He then starts searching through the entire office, looking for any possible evidence of a list of shareholders. Rifling through the drawers, he notices Joon Hyuk’s photos with his mother; “How could a woman so sweet have a jerk for a child?” Tae Sung wonders.

He finally finds the list of shareholders, and excitedly takes a picture of it. Flushed with victory, he finds the uncles, who are late for their first rendezvous meeting in the garden. Dong Baek and Soon Shin are excited when they hear of Tae Sung’s finds, but Sora doesn’t appear at the meeting place at all.

Turns out, Sora has gone back to Uncle’s Fishery and put a sign up about its temporary closure because everyone is at the hotel. She bumps into Joon Hyuk there, who’s been wanting to meet her since the night before. Sora immediately apologizes for standing him up the other night. You see… her marriage to Tae Sung suddenly became “real” last night. Hahah – that just sounds as if they consummated their marriage, and Joon Hyuk admits that it sounds like Tae Sung made Sora an offer she could not refuse. In that case, he has something to admit to her too…

He admits that he’s trying to acquire Haeundae Hotel for his father’s hotel chain. Whoa – talk about sharing secrets! While he’s doing that, he’ll help Sora get the hotel away from the Yang family’s hands – something that Tae Sung won’t be able to promise to her. But Sora respectfully declines his offer. No matter what happens in two months, she cannot break her promise to Tae Sung.

Speaking of Tae Sung – he and the uncles are currently working to get Mr. Bae’s son out of the Haeundae Hotel casino and back to Mr. Bae’s shop. Tae Sung bans the son from ever returning to Haeundae Hotel, or entering any casino in Busan. With Tae Sung’s power, he can easily find the son and bring him back to Mr. Bae each time. Sora arrives a little late, having gotten Tae Sung’s message, and informs Mr. Bae that she’s helping him because she wants his help in return. Her goal is to get rid of the casino; it was a point of contention between Joong Shik and Man Ho back in the day, and because Joong Shik didn’t want it, he was violently ousted from the hotel.

Sora simply wants Mr. Bae to help back her up so that she and her family can take over the hotel again. Mr. Bae is just shocked that Joong Shik’s daughter and Man Ho’s son are working together.

Joon Hyuk is driving around Busan when he notices Se Na standing uncomfortably on the sidewalk. Wait – when did she come back to Busan!? He greets her, only to find out that her heel has been stuck in one of the grates around the trees. She’s been stuck for a while, and didn’t know what to do. (Um – so you were just gonna stand there all day ’til someone came?)

Joon Hyuk helps pull out her heel – only he ends up breaking it! They head to a department store to get her a new pair, and analyze each others’ personalities based on their shoes. Once they reach the store, Joon Hyuk finds out that Se Na is a top shoe designer. As a sign of gratitude, Se Na offers to give him a discount for a pair of shoes for his girlfriend. Well… there is a fisherman’s daughter he does want to get shoes for…

Sora, Tae Sung, and the uncles return to the hotel and bump into Tam Hee, which of course enrages her to no end. Tae Sung just tells her to stop getting angry – otherwise she’s going to need more botox shots! What’s with these mothers and botox shots!? Min Shik quietly tells Tam Hee not to worry – once it’s proven that Tae Sung is the son, he’ll break up with Sora and her family. Tam Hee: “Which side are you on!?!?” She then gets a call from a shareholder about Tae Sung and Sora wanting to speak with him. Tam Hee quickly says that he doesn’t have to meet with them, but she starts getting suspicious over how those two found the shareholders’ numbers.

Sora and Tae Sung drive off in his new swanky car, which is an upgrade from her fish truck. He even managed to get a license so that he could drive, with a new birthday courtesy of Granny. Tae Sung takes the opportunity to note that despite how ugly Sora becomes each time (lies…) he finds her hands the prettiest feature of her body – because she can put mackerels, her dad, and him to sleep with her gentle massages and comfort them when they’re lost.

Meanwhile – whatever happened to Uncle Hello Kitty? Well – he ended up going to the salon in the hotel and applied for a job there. The manager is skeptical that he could even fit in, but then they find a frantic customer in their hands who doesn’t like the haircut she got. Uncle Hello Kitty swoops in, notices her “delicate features” and gives her a “genius” haircut. (In my honest opinion – I liked her old hair better.) But everyone is happy, and Uncle Hello Kitty gets a job at the salon – to the tune of Psy’s “Gangnam Style.”

Sora and Tae Sung’s drive lasts all night (I wonder where they’re going), and she gets a call from Se Na. Se Na wants to catch up with Sora, so they make plans to meet at the bar. But guess what – Joon Hyuk is there too! He’s surprised that Se Na is so close to Sora as well. As for Tae Sung, he’s curious as to why Sora is so close to Se Na. Sora only feels sympathy for Se Na, who had gotten married to a prosecutor but he ended up dying while on a case.

Tae Sung: She’s ugly, isn’t she? If he left like that on their wedding day for the case, then it’s a 100% guarantee that she is.

Kaedejun: HA!

Sora: No – she’s really pretty.

Tae Sung: Really? Then that husband isn’t going to go up to heaven easily.

Kaedejun: NO KIDDING.

Tae Sung drives Sora to the bar, and as they arrive, they completely miss seeing Se Na, who stepped into a private hallway to take a business call. Tae Sung is miffed that Joon Hyuk is there too and separates him and Sora from sitting together. He even takes Sora’s shot of tequila for himself, and starts grinding the salt into a finer grain. Joon Hyuk informs them of a yacht party that weekend that was kept secret from the two of them, but Sora doesn’t want to go. Fearing that most of the guests will be from the Yang family or Yang gang, she might cause a ruckus with her presence. But Joon Hyuk convinces her: “The shareholders will all be there.”

That’s it – Tae Sung says they’re going. He has to leave first, so he warns Joon Hyuk to stay away from Sora, and warns her not to drink any alcohol. He leaves the bar, and passes right by Se Na, who’s coming out of the private hallway. She’s stunned for a moment, thinking that she saw Tae Sung, but she goes back to Joon Hyuk and Sora. She notices the finely ground salt in front of her – her Tae Sung drank like this too! But she doesn’t make the connection between Sora’s “Nam Hae” and her Tae Sung. Joon Hyuk is starting to get annoyed that there’s so many “Tae Sung’s” in his life though… haha…

Se Na wants to celebrate the two of them for saving her life at different instances, so they’ll drink like crazy! At least Joon Hyuk can handle his liquor, but Sora and Se Na can’t! Both of them start murmuring and putting their heads down on the table, and that’s when Se Na notices that Sora is not wearing rain boots. She has very small feet… hmm – an idea for Joon Hyuk perhaps? Se Na admits in her drunken state that her marriage was an arranged marriage between the families. Another drama cliche! She knew that he never liked her, because they never went away together, and they never could sit through an entire movie together. Sora can sympathize – her situation is kind of like that, and she knows a man who keeps thinking about himself rather than anyone else.

I wish you two could just see Tae Sung together!

Se Na very cutely says that she wanted to be a gangster – just so Tae Sung would chase her once! Since he seemed to like gangsters so much, perhaps he would like her as much if she were one too! It’s a desperate act, but funny and true. Sora tells her to never become one – being a gangster ruins your fashion sense, and you’d die if you disobey once!

Meanwhile, Tae Sung left early because he went to meet up with Soon Shin and Dong Baek. Soon Shin had given the list of shareholders to one of his errand boys and they found out their locations right away. One of them is President Jo – the same man who contacted Tam Hee earlier – and they locate him at a nice apartment building that he shares with… his mistress! As he leaves the building, a bunch of ahjummas – his previous wives? – all come attacking him and his mistress. Yeah, they’re not pleased. The uncles and Tae Sung quickly act and save President Jo from this mess. Score!

Back at the bar, Sora and Se Na pass out from drinking, and Joo Hee finally arrives to come pick them up. Joon Hyuk hands Se Na off to her for responsibility, as he’ll take care of Sora (of course). By the time Tae Sung returns, he finds the bar empty: “Choi Joon Hyuk… you!”

As Joon Hyuk walks Sora home, she starts singing and giving him a very enjoyable performance. Tripping included. Joon Hyuk tells her that the first time he saw her, she was a high schooler and had come up to him and his family during their vacation, looking for her mother. Despite not being the one who abandoned her, he does feel bad about it. Tae Sung arrives just in time and tells Joon Hyuk to get his hands off of her.

Joon Hyuk: You know why I haven’t said anything about your fake marriage yet? Because in two months, if it’s proven that you’re the son of Yang Man Ho, you two will break up. And even if you’re not the son, you’ll both break up anyways because I’ll reveal your fake marriage.

Kaedejun: What’s gotten bunched up in your pants?

Sora goes off wandering while these two men have their little “I’m better than you”-off, leaving Tae Sung to go looking for her. She ends up near a large stone fountain and starts talking to it as if it were Tae Sung: “Why are you following me? Is this the first time you’ve ever felt this way too?” She tells the fountain to not like her, since she’s a bit pitiful. She had found her mother while in high school and approached her for the first time, but her mother had denied ever knowing her. She felt so humiliated and hurt after that.

Sitting down, Sora starts throwing her shoes all over the place, and then falls asleep. Tae Sung quickly saves her from falling down completely and carries her home on his back. Yay – we have the piggy-back scene, people! He finds one shoe, and then brings her back home. (Joon Hyuk finds her other shoe instead and gives it to Se Na to use as reference when getting a pair of shoes made for Sora. He evades her prying questions though, and says he’ll explain it all in two months.)

Since Sora was wailing about how her hands were so ugly compared to Joo Hee’s and Se Na’s, Tae Sung decides to paint her nails while she’s asleep. So cute! He falls asleep beside her, holding her hand, as he doesn’t want her moving about and ruining the manicure he just gave her.

The next morning, a maid for Tae Sung’s apartment reports back to Tam Hee that it looks like Sora and Tae Sung are not sharing a room at all. Tam Hee orders her to dig even deeper about their relationship, and then meets Sora and Tae Sung in the lobby. Tam Hee: “Do you know what is the number one problem of our hotel, because we’re so near to the ocean? Sand grains!” No matter how much the floor is cleaned, there’s still sand everywhere. She hands the two of them some duct tape – gather all the sand grains with the duct tape! Tae Sung doesn’t want Sora to do any of the work, but she decides to help anyways, especially since Tae Sung has “work training” on top of this menial task. Besides, if her nails get ruined, Tae Sung can do it for her again!

Aww – finally some cute, lovey-dovey action for the two!

As they work on the lobby, they meet Joo Hee as she exits the elevator. Joo Hee – always causing some trouble… She mentions that Joon Hyuk had to carry her out of the bar last night, and that it could have looked very suspicious. Sora should think of Tae Sung’s reputation! Of course, Tae Sung gets all jealous, but Sora brushes it off: “I don’t remember it… so it didn’t happen!”

That’s it – he drags her off… to go shopping! If she’s someone who can’t ruin his reputation, well then she’s going to need a makeover. He gets her a whole new wardrobe and pair of shoes, and brings her to Uncle Hello Kitty for a hair makeover. While Uncle Hello Kitty works his magic, Tae Sung goes and takes a panoramic photo of Gwanghan Bridge all lit up, because it looks like a huge diamond necklace. Of course, when he goes to pick Sora up, she’s a stunner. Close your mouth, Tae Sung…

They drive over to the yacht, and with some good ol’ product placement for the Samsung Galaxy phone, he presents to her his “gift” of a necklace. They joke around, and finally it’s nice to see the two of them smiling together.

Joon Hyuk greets them at the entrance of the yacht, and when Tam Hee sees them, she nearly throws a fit again. Tae Sung says he just came to this secret yacht party to meet the shareholders, since he ought to as heir. He goes off first to find the shareholders on another floor of the boat for the meeting, and tells Sora to meet him up there in three minutes. As he leaves, once again, Se Na arrives to the party! She hands over the gift of the shoes, saying that it’s her way of thanking Sora instead of outing Joon Hyuk. Sora gets excited and puts on the shoes right away – perfect fit! Se Na: “Of course. Not everyone can be a shoe designer.” Joo Hee: *Rolls Eyes.*

Tae Sung finds the shareholders all together in one room and Mr. Bae introduces him to everyone. Already, because he has one shareholder on his side, it’ll be easy for him to get in the others’ good graces. Tae Sung begins throwing out ideas to the shareholders on what family-oriented activities they can promote at the hotel to make it more friendly to more people. The shareholders like this idea, especially since it helps eliminate the reputation the hotel has as one run by gangsters. Tae Sung says that it was all his wife’s idea, and that she is the daughter of the former president.

The shareholders don’t really care about the feud between Yang and Go families, so they ask Tae Sung to bring her in to meet them.

Sora starts piling up food on a plate so that she can bring it up to Tae Sung. Knowing that Tae Sung likes meat, she loads up on it on the plate, and avoids getting anything shellfish because he’s allergic to it. This annoys Joon Hyuk even more because all she can ever talk about is Tae Sung – or “Nam Hae” for that matter. Sora doesn’t even call Joon Hyuk by his name, referring to him by his title as Vice President, and therefore distancing herself from him. The air becomes awkward, and Sora tries to make her escape. But he takes her outside to the deck instead.

Though he has no intentions of breaking Sora and Tae Sung up just yet, he can’t help but be drawn to her constantly. He wants to be in her eyes too, instead of her putting all her attention on Tae Sung. Can’t she tell that he’s doing a lot of things to help her? He promised that he’ll get the hotel back for her, so she might as well stop this two-month long marriage before she gets hurt. He inches closer to her, and she struggles to avoid his kiss.

And suddenly she looks up – Tae Sung is watching them from the stairs.

Comments

OK – Tae Sung better punch the living daylights out of Joon Hyuk. He was standing there for a while, and he could see that Sora was struggling against Joon Hyuk’s grasp. While I can understand Joon Hyuk’s frustration with Sora because of his one-sided love for her, forcing a girl to kiss you is a big no-no. Also, I never felt like Joon Hyuk was going to try and help Sora in the long run. He’s not like Tae Sung, who is clearly doing everything because he wants to genuinely save Haeundae Hotel and help Sora. There’s no selfish intention behind it. However with Joon Hyuk, he’s got other motivations that are driving him to take control over Haeundae, and other reasons for why he’s so interested in Sora.

I want Joon Hyuk out of the picture and no misunderstandings between the couple. I need more cute moments between the two of them!

As for Se Na, her character is starting to become useless in the sense that she appears when it’s convenient – which is almost all the time – and does nothing to help propel the story forward. If you’re going to plop her back in Busan (after I thought she was shuttled off to Seoul), shouldn’t Joo Hee be more annoyed, so that we can just see how evil of a character she is? And shouldn’t she at least see Tae Sung by now so that we can have an awkward love square? I had hoped she’d be a more interesting and useful character, but right now she’s being used as a crutch: if it’s about time for Tae Sung’s polygamy to be found out, then she’s there. If Joon Hyuk needs a shoe designer, then she’s there. But she needs to be more fully fleshed out and more interesting. I’m hoping that since they’re all on a boat, there’s less places for all the characters to avoid each other.

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