To the Beautiful You: Episode 5

by gummimochi

This is the episode where a powerpoint presentation will win you the boy of your dreams. Where it’s okay if you scale the walls to sneak into your Oppa’s room and sleep in his bed until he comes back. And just saying that you found a reason to want to do something again is enough for your coach to give you another shot. Because you can tell me your wish and somehow, we’ll make it come true. Because this is Genie High.

Episode 5 trailed with a crushing 4.8% in ratings.

SONG OF THE DAY
Girls Generation – “소원을 말해봐 (Tell Me Your Wish)” [ Download ]

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EPISODE 5 RECAP

Alone in the room, Tae-joon picks up the lighted bracelet, thinking back to when Jae-hee happily fastened it onto his wrist. He opens Jae-hee’s laptop to find a presentation written for Coach Holton, the famous coach he’d hoped to work with.

As Jae-hee’s voice recites how she hated that she looked different from her peers, we glimpse into what life in the States was like for her as an object of ridicule. “An ugly duckling doesn’t turn into a beautiful swan in a heartbeat. Because in reality, miracles don’t really happen.”

But seeing Tae-joon jump, she started to believe that, “A miracle is just hard work by another name,” Those words encouraged her to join the track team and the courage to stand up to others.

And though nothing had changed, she became her own miracle. With a final address to Coach Holton, she asks that he help Tae-joon fly again.

Jae-hee bids goodbye to Sangchu, wondering if she was wrong from the start. Reading headlines about Tae-joon’s injury, she decided to snip her hair and fly halfway around the world to see him jump again.

At the same time, Tae-joon recalls Jae-hee’s persistence on seeing him high jump again and how that iconic phrase not only helped her get through her rough patches but also finish the marathon. He runs out.

Tae-joon catches her by the steps where they first met, grabbing her by the wrist. Out of breath, he asks if she really plans to leave without seeing him jump. He breathes, “Don’t go, Gu Jae-hee.”

The thought of the almost kiss leaves Eun-gyul scratching his head and Hyun-jae asks what the deal is. Eun-gyul hesitates a few times before he finally broaches the subject, “By any chance…”

He’s got Hyun-jae’s attention, albeit annoyed, and Eun-gyul says what if you wanted… to lock lips with a guy… They both stop as those words settle in awkwardly and Eun-gyul backs off to go to sleep. And then hilariously, Hyun-jae pulls up his shirt and puts on a sweater to cover himself.

In bed, Eun-gyul updates his status, “Life… is like an espress without any sugar.” (He unknowingly makes this typo.)

Tae-joon nearly walks into the bathroom while Jae-hee is taking a shower, muttering how “Grungy” isn’t being careful as a girl. He lets out a deep breath, thinking back to when he caught her in a towel. Inside, Jae-hee smiles at the thought that Tae-joon will jump again.

In the morning, Jae-hee ignores another call from Daniel and finds Tae-joon missing. Where could he have gone so early in the morning?

The answer is that he’s busy training, suddenly have found a reason to high jump again. Clasping the ring on his silver necklace, he says, “You’re going to keep watch over me, right?”

Tae-joon gives us a play by play of what it takes to clear the bar in high jump. The fancy display is cool but it seems like an excuse to insert some CG effects. As expected, his reality doesn’t quite match up to his expectations and he looks at the fallen bar with a, Darn, didn’t make it this time expression.

Jae-hee is pleasantly surprised to find the bathroom door fixed and locks it with a peace of mind. That means her morning visitors Eun-gyul and Seung-ri are left suffering outside the door, wondering why in the world Jae-hee would suddenly lock them out.

Tae-joon simply ignores Hyun-jae when he mentions that the use of the gymnasium is reserved for athletic training. And since he’s not an athlete anymore, Tae-joon can get lost. They’re two seconds away from another fight when a word from Coach Baek stops them.

Naturally, Coach Baek doesn’t believe Tae-joon’s change of heart. He reminds Tae-joon that he was the one who decided to quit. He dismisses Tae-joon coldly.

Jae-hee continues to screen Daniel’s calls and Eun-gyul wonders how there could be calls that aren’t important to pick up. But he does the same thing when “Hong Dan-mu” (the girl he used to tease when he was in grade school) and Jae-hee calls him out on it.

Eun-gyul defends that it’s all part of the give-and-take in a relationship. Jae-hee doesn’t agree with this logic – if you like someone, you tell them.

Eun-gyul raises his eyebrows, “Do you know anything about girls?” Believe me, I think she knows more than you do, lover boy.

Director Jang gives a deep sigh at Tae-joon’s wish to start training again. She reminds him that the outside world still believes he has the yips. If he doesn’t jump like he did before, it could hurt him even more.

Tae-joon simply answers that he found a reason to start jumping again – isn’t that enough? Director Jang asks if his father knows about Tae-joon’s decision and he replies that it’s not his concern.

She finally asks, “Are you sure?” and he gives a smile and nod. She caves in and warns him that she’ll have higher expectations this time around.

Hanna, you seriously give sasaeng fans a run for their money. She sneaks onto campus and using her gymnastic skills to stay out of sight, scaling the walls. She saunters into Tae-joon’s room and gives Jae-hee a fright.

Jae-hee notes that Hanna is bound to get caught but Hanna sighs that she wouldn’t step foot in the school if it weren’t for Tae-joon. She’s still caught up over the uniform-snatching incident and how the school is just a den of perverts.

Hanna is flabbergasted at the possibility that the student had no other choice. She narrows her eyes at Jae-hee – why is she defending the thieving perv?

But she lets the matter drop, figuring that she’ll wait in Tae-joon’s bed until he comes back. Which is when Jae-hee notices the uniform hanging off from her loft and hurries to hide it before Hanna notices.

Meanwhile, Eun-gyul waits on pins and needles for Hong Dan-mu to show up, worried that she’ll be really scary. He gapes when a larger girl waves in his direction and breathes a sigh of relief when she runs towards someone else.

Then he turns around to see Hong Dan-mu smiling back at him.

After Jae-hee uses a distracted moment to return Hanna’s uniform, she ignores another one of Daniel’s calls. Only this time, he’s caught her screening his calls. Whoops.

He’s here to transfer her out today and demands to know where the office is. Ignoring Jae-hee’s pleas, he marches up to the first teacher he sees, intending to find out himself.

What ensues is a hilarious exchange with the actual principal who stammers that his English is superb. Daniel confesses that he’s here to transfer his sister out of the school as the principal just listens and nods. Afterwards, the principal turns to Jae-hee, “What did he just say?”

Jae-hee pulls her brother out of there and they continue to argue about whether she stays or not. Then she spots Doc in the distance and decides he’s the best person to talk to.

The dorm leaders gather in the fancy cafeteria. I can seriously watch these three bicker all day. Dorm 3 tries to introduce himself to the ladies and Young-man barks: “Charles? You’re Chul-soo!”

Seung-ri has a small epiphany about Jae-hee but instead, cuts to the chase. Genie High will be participating in the regional athletic championships and he wants the entire school involved.

Jae-hee pleads with Doc to help her out and he reluctantly complies. Inside, he leeeans over to sniff Daniel and then asks, “What cologne do you use?” Pfft.

Daniel tells him to put the transfer request and Doc just changes the subject, “Do you like to drink?” Daniel sighs, exasperated.

Which begs the question Daniel – if you knew how to ask for a transfer request in Korean, why didn’t you just ask earlier?

Eun-gyul sits outside with Hong Dan-mu (whose real name is Da-hae), chatting about old classmates. Da-hae is back in Korea for good and Eun-gyul finds it hard to believe that she pursues music now.

She asks what he thought she might do instead and he blubbers, “Martial arts…” before he remembers himself and corrects, “The arts…”

She puffs up that she’s a pretty decent violinist and he just shrugs, Sure I’ll believe you. So she pulls out her violin and starts playing right then and there, attracting a small crowd and Eun-gyul’s impressed smile.

Back at school, Jae-hee pouts when she overhears some other students gossip about how the legendary Kang Tae-joon was refused from rejoining the athletic team.

In an effort to uplift his spirits, Jae-hee surprises him with a cake when he returns to the room. He tells her not to overreact since his decision to high jump again isn’t a call for celebration in his eyes.

But she pouts again, telling him that she went through so much trouble. She trips on her own two feet and in slo-mo, she falls face first into the cake.

Tae-joon runs over, concerned and holds his laughter at her frosting caked face. He wipes a little off of her nose with her finger and comments, “It… tastes good.”

They celebrate with the ruined cake anyway (aw) and Tae-joon smiles to see how happy it makes Jae-hee. He warns her not to dab his face with frosting with a glare… and she does anyway. So he chases her around the room with a cake. Cute, cute.

While they wait at the bus station, Da-hae politely declines Eun-gyul’s offer that he’ll carry her violin. With a smile, she tells him she’ll ask his help if she really needs it.

Da-hae says her goodbye when her bus comes but before she leaves, she quips, “By the way it’s ‘espresso’ not ‘espress.'” Omo, look who’s been following Eun-gyul’s statuses?

They wave to each other with a smile and Eun-gyul thinks to himself in surprise, “Even Hong Dan-mu can become a woman when she grows up…” Oh you have much to learn, little Grasshopper.

Looks like Doc and Daniel went out for that drink after all. They go drink for drink until Doc finally asks if Daniel must take Jae-hee back with him. I love that Doc just insults him to his face calling him “a hopelessly stubborn mule with a stick up your ass.”

Turning serious, Doc asks if Daniel ever put himself in Jae-hee’s shoes. Sure it’s ridiculous that she entered a boys’ school but has he ever thought of what propelled her to do so? “It’s like something out of a manga (hur) , but have you ever asked yourself why she felt like she had no other choice?”

Doc tells him that Daniel doesn’t trust his sister. Daniel turns that statement back at him and Doc answers, “I’m not sure. But even if I don’t trust her, you should.”

Coach Baek steps into the gym storage room to find it oddly spic and span. He wonders if there’s a ghost living in the gym and then his eyes grow wide in realization.

Jae-hee asks Tae-joon about the silver necklace after she finds it in the bathroom. Tae-joon shares that it was from his mother. Though he doesn’t speak about it further, we flashback to when Mom gave it to him before he went to the Olympics.

She runs to catch up with Tae-joon but runs into Daniel. He’s got good news – Jae-hee can stay to watch Tae-joon jump. But on the condition that they leave together right after he jumps in the championship.

To further dampen her mood, she finds her gym clothes soaking wet in her locker.

Daniel’s words reverberate in her head as Jae-hee picks up one of Tae-joon’s shirts. He walks in while she’s still in a daze and he asks, “Are you smelling it?” Jae-hee covers that she’s just heading down to do laundry.

In the laundry room, Eun-gyul contemplates over Da-hae’s text about hanging out that weekend. With a sigh, he looks back over photos of Jae-hee. He’s scared half to death when she turns up asking if he’s watching porn on his phone now.

He defends, “Would a pure and innocent guy like me would watch something like that?” She nods. Hahaha.

While they wait for their laundry, Jae-hee asks how Eun-gyul would feel if he had to pretend he was a boy in a girls’ dormitory.

Yay another glimpse into Eun-gyul’s imagination! He turns out to be a fairly pretty girl and out of the dream, Eun-gyul says that though it’d be like heaven, he’d bound to get caught pretty quickly.

Jae-hee asks how things went with Da-hae and and Eun-gyul blushes that she’s so into him. They laugh and share the chocolate that Jong-min gave him. And then we see Jong-min right outside, scowling.

Jae-hee hangs her head, counting down the few days until the championship. She spots Tae-joon dressed up and asks if he can hang back to hang out today. He simply tells her that he’ll be late so there’s no need for her to wait up.

He walks up the entrance of his house and stops at the garden. His eyes grow wide to see his mother turn towards him, smiling. But alas, it’s just a figment of his imagination.

Ah, it’s Mom’s death anniversary and Tae-joon helps set up the memorial and pays his respects. At dinner, Dad is happy to hear that Tae-joon decided to stick with the sport.

Tae-joon gets up, not in the mood to hear an earful from Dad. Then Dad asks, “Do you still think your mother’s death was my fault?”

Before Tae-joon can answer, Hanna enters in a cheery mood but notes the tense air between the two.

She finds Tae-joon sitting outside, absentmindedly playing with an old toy. She tells him to try to get along with Dad – how would his mother feel if she were still around? Girl, as annoying as you are, you do make some sense.

How Jae-hee knows that Coach Holton read her email is beyond me but she pouts that he hasn’t replied yet. Eun-gyul drops by and notices that Tae-joon still isn’t back yet. But he mentions it’s understandable because he’s heard today is his mother’s death anniversary.

That’s news to Jae-hee (Really? As his #1 fan?) and when she gets a text from Tae-joon to come to the swimming pool, she runs out. Something definitely doesn’t feel right about this…

So Eun-gyul is confused when Tae-joon comes back alone and he has no idea what Eun-gyul is talking about. He recalls when Jae-hee mentioned that someone doused her gym clothes and Tae-joon runs out.

Jae-hee spots what looks like Tae-joon (but to us, clearly not) on the diving platform. She finds it empty and then steps out further to check. If you cannot SEE anyone there, there IS no one there!

There’s a note by the railing that reads, “Don’t mess with me.” Get off that platform already!

Then a mysterious hand pushes her off, sending her into the water, and Jae-hee floats, unconscious.

Just then, Tae-joon and Eun-gyul rush into the swimming pool as the offender runs off (Seriously Drama AGAIN!?). Both boys dive into the water and swim towards her. Tae-joon doesn’t notice that his silver necklace falls to the bottom of the pool in the process.

They pull her out of the water and Eun-gyul says that she isn’t breathing. No kidding, Sherlock.

Time to perform CPR. Eun-gyul hesitates and Tae-joon takes over. Jae-hee finally coughs up water and opens her eyes. Eun-gyul can’t help but notice Tae-joon’s concern.

Back in the room, the boys ask if Jae-hee can think of anyone who might be targeting her. She can’t think of anyone and Eun-gyul insists, worried that the attacks might get worse. Tae-joon tells him to back off for now.

After Eun-gyul leaves, Jae-hee notices that Tae-joon’s silver necklace is missing. Did he perchance lose it in the swimming pool?

Tae-joon searches through his things frantically before he composes himself and tells her not to worry about it – it’ll show up. Jae-hee looks on, feeling guilty.

Tae-joon wakes up the next morning, annoyed at Jae-hee’s alarm. But he finds her gone.

That’s because Jae-hee is in the swimming pool, searching for his silver necklace. So you can swim? Okay.

Tae-joon dives in after her and pulls her out of the water. He shouts that he told her not to worry about it. But when did that ever stop her? She defends that it’s special to him especially because it was his mother’s death anniversary yesterday.

He dries her hair, asking if she’s an idiot for trying to find something that’s already lost. She apologizes and he assures her that it isn’t her fault. “So there’s no need to keep worrying about it or feel sorry about it.”

Coach Baek confronts Tae-joon about being the ghostly gymnasium janitor. He asks why Tae-joon wants to jump again. Tae-joon: “Because I found a reason to jump again.”

That’s somehow a good enough reason for Coach Baek and he agrees to let Tae-joon try out. If Tae-joon can beat Hyun-jae, then he’ll let Tae-joon back in.

Meanwhile, Seung-ri runs into Jae-hee in the hallway. As she leaves, he turns around with a smile. Wait, do you know she’s a girl too?

Jae-hee enters the darkened gymnasium and watches Tae-joon fail to clear the bar again and again. She packs her things and calls Daniel.

She runs into Eun-gyul just outside and then swoops in for a surprise backhug. You’re going to give this boy a heart attack. She tells him, “Thanks for everything. If it weren’t for you, I would’ve had a really hard time.”

He reels in shock, having no idea that it’s her goodbye.

Tae-joon gets ready in the dressing room and discovers a note from Jae-hee:

“I’m going back to the States. I might not be able to watch the meet because of my flight time. I wore these shoelaces in my first and last track meet that I won. Though my luck doesn’t amount to much… I’ll share that with you.”

We catch up with Jae-hee who sits at the steps waiting for Daniel. He pulls up with a taxi to pick her up and takes her bag.

COMMENTS

…and that’s the ending? Well, okay. PD-nim, it looks a lot like the previous ending but sure – we can have a repeat. It’s not like we forgot or anything.

What I’ve learned in this series is that I really have to throw logic out the window. But then that gets really hard when the show tries to Be Serious and then suffers from its own logic fail.

Case in point: Tae-joon has found a motivation to start high jumping again. This would be a cause for celebration since we were told that he doesn’t want to high jump anymore for reasons unknown. His mother’s death certainly plays a part in this, but after Jae-hee’s presentation for Coach Holton, he’s gung ho about getting a second shot. So no reason what caused his injury or facing his fear about the bar, just his newfound volition to give it another shot. And that is reason enough for Coach Baek who seemed pretty stern about telling him that chance was over. Because a miracle is people changing their minds by another name?

The only voice of reason we get is Daniel who asked those burning questions in the previous episode. I fear that he’ll only be around for a few more episodes and then disappear. Who will take your place! And Doc needs a drinking buddy – surely you can stick around.

Jae-hee, SIGH. You have a serious lack of judgment. What in your right mind did you think that mysterious looking figure on the platform would be Tae-joon? Why would the high jumper ask you to meet you in the swimming pool? It’s not a farfetched guess to say that the perpetrator is No Pants from Episode 1. Granted, Jae-hee has probably forgotten but why didn’t the boys grab the ONE boy escaping the pool? And… you know how to swim. My mind cannot compute this.

I find Tae-joon’s protective nature of Jae-hee to be sweet in this episode though it does disturb me how his “Don’t go” confession is the stuff of dreams for every sasaeng fan. But I love how by the end of the episode, Jae-hee is slowly becoming far more important in his life and that her life is more important than finding a necklace that is dear to his heart. Because his biggest cheerleader is now replaced by Jae-hee instead of Mom.

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