High School King of Savvy: Episode 3

by dramallama

Whether it’s physical training or presentations, Min-seok is stuck with PTs everywhere. Our double-identity hero is adjusting quite well to leading both lives, and his adaptable nature is proving to be a big advantage. Turns out, he’s pretty good at this whole workplace thing. But he’s not perfect, and he’s still young. There are barriers to break and keep when making connections with people, and Min-seok learns that not all is as it seems, with himself and those around him.

 
EPISODE 3 RECAP

Min-seok covers Soo-young’s mouth while desperately holding the stairwell door shut from Yoo-ah, who’s about to blow his cover. He gives staring Jin-woo a nervous laugh, but Jin-woo doesn’t seem to care about Soo-young being held hostage and just casually walks away.

On Min-seok’s order to shush, Soo-young holds her breath, and they listen for any sounds on the other side of the door. The sounds seem to have stopped, so Min-seok cautiously opens the door. He jumps back in surprise, but it’s only another employee, not Yoo-ah. Phew.

Thankfully, Yoo-ah has been caught by security and is dragged out of the building. Min-seok catches his breath but doesn’t explain anything to Soo-young, who’s dying of embarrassment.

The hockey game is on hold, as Min-seok isn’t there to face-off. He’s fiercely running to the game, barreling through construction barricades and pulling off his clothes. By the time he gets to the ice rink, the game is already over, and his team has lost 4-1.

Punishment time. The whole team suffers the consequences of Min-seok’s absence, and Coach reminds them that they have preliminaries for nationals next week and attendance will be strictly enforced. He gives Min-seok an extra word, threatening to kick him off the team if he has any more absences.

After Coach leaves, Min-seok attempts to apologize, but his sunbae is not amused. He’s punched in the face and warned that he could be kicked off before their coach gets a chance to. Better get your double-life straightened out.

Min-seok and his friends — JO DUK-HWAN (Kang Ki-young) and OH TAE-SUK (Lee Tae-hwan) — go to a Chinese restaurant afterwards, where Min-seok attends to his injury with a bag of ice while one of his friends digs into some jjambbong.

They’ve been friends for a while (“We’re together all the time, except for when we poop and sleep”), so they know something’s up. But Min-seok doesn’t give them a clear answer and walks out. Duk-hwan thinks he might be in slump and then smacks the Tae-suk for eating all the good food.

Min-seok stops by Dad’s cleaners, and the first thing Dad notices is his busted lip. He quickly covers it up by explaining that it was from practice and laments the impending doom that is practice hell week before prelims. Dad mentions that hyung sent in money, and Min-seok freaks out. “Hyung? When? From where? Germany?” He’s been regularly sending in money for the past eight years, so Dad finds Min-seok’s overreaction strange.

In his room, Min-seok thinks about the news. Since he just sent in the money, hyung must still be alive somewhere. He looks at his hyung’s picture and yells at him for smiling while he’s having a hard time. He puts the frame face-down but immediately puts it back up, telling hyung to hurry home. Aw.

Next thing we know, Min-seok’s playing a hockey game and — ace that he is — swiftly scores a goal. He looks to the crowd, expecting cheers, but they’re booing him. Suddenly, he’s in his work clothes, holding the hockey stick in a suit. The crowd throws something at his head, and the impact wakes him up.

It was just a dream, but for Min-seok, it felt too real. Dad barges in to wake him up, flailing a spoon around. And of course, Grandpa comes in a few seconds later, mimicking Dad. Min-seok reluctantly gets up and heads to school.

But only for a moment. As soon as he confirms his attendance, he sneaks out the window and runs off to work. A quick change of clothes and an elevator ride later, he’s ready for office work. Then back at school for hockey training. And repeat. It’s some impressive double-identity juggling but understandably tiring. He collapses as soon as he gets home, and Grandpa tries to poke him awake. Poke, poke.

Soo-young rushes into the building on the verge of tardiness but runs back behind a wall when she sees Jin-woo waiting for the elevator. She considers taking the stairs, but she convinces herself to walk up next to Jin-woo with a confident “Good morning!”… in her imagination. She’s still behind the wall giving herself a pep talk: “I’m a cool modern woman who doesn’t hold grudges and knows how to separate work from personal life.”

She walks towards Jin-woo telling herself to act natural, but she greets him with an awkward double hand wave. He doesn’t say anything and quietly waits for the elevator, but Soo-young isn’t done. She tries to explain the possible misunderstanding with what happened by the stairwell, but he cuts her off saying that he’s not interested enough to have such misunderstandings.

It’s a reminder for Soo-young that he’s not interested in her, and she silently boards the elevator. Just as the elevator is about to close, Min-seok squeezes in, and he boards the elevator of awkward and rejected pheromones.

Jin-woo compliments Min-seok’s tie, to which Min-seok says that it’s becoming a problem: The ladies at the office like him too much. Heh. Jin-woo gets off, leaving Min-seok to poke fun at Soo-young’s one-sided love.

He says that Jin-woo’s a handsome guy and asks if Soo-young thinks the same. Realizing his mistake, he says that he should’ve known to take the stairs instead of taking the elevator with them two. Min-seok says that he can tell Soo-young likes Jin-woo, but she completely denies it.

Min-seok agrees to play along with her claims and adds that he’s a little disappointed that she doesn’t show him some of that affection. They walk out of the elevator, and Soo-young trails behind Min-seok, insisting that she doesn’t like Jin-woo. But he continues to give her sarcastic replies: “Let’s just pretend that you don’t like him.”

When Min-seok arrives, the ladies enthusiastically greet him and one of the team members notifies him of a conference call. It’s clear that he has no idea what a conference call is, so Team Leader Kim jumps in to save his ass. He reminds Min-seok of all the “work” he has in his office and offers to take the call for him.

Soo-young hands out everyone’s one paper cup for the day, and while some complain, Grumpy compliments her efforts. At times like this, she seems quite organized and almost a neat freak, as she asks a team member to keep his feet off the tables.

Team Leader Kim sneaks into Min-seok’s office, where he’s doing push-ups. Min-seok asks him to knock, but he just scoffs at his illusion that he’s actually the retail team director. As Min-seok moves onto squats, Team Leader Kim tells him not to interfere with any actual work. Min-seok starts to argue, but he’s immediately shut down. Don’t take part; just sit there and secure the position.

Upset by his neglected opinion, Min-seok sits at his desk chair with a sulky pout. He tells Team Leader Kim that he won’t be at work Wednesday because of hockey prelims, but he’s ordered to come right back when the game is over.

Then Team Leader Kim reluctantly takes out a credit card, and Min-seok pounces. After a quick tug-of-war, he gets his hands on the Director’s Credit Card. He’s warned not to use it recklessly, but his eyes look like he’s just won the jackpot. Team Leader Kim looks at him nervously.

And rightly so, as Min-seok treats his whole team to lunch. Team Leader Kim quietly mumbles a warning to Min-seok through his teeth, and Min-seok’s obnoxious “Whaa?” makes him yell the warning, which he quickly covers up with a big laugh. Haha.

Min-seok’s friends are enjoying their no-practice good-weather day when Yoo-ah grabs them and takes them out to some barbecue, seemingly in a good mood. They devour the meat and thank her, but her expression suddenly changes. Tae-suk notices the change and nudges Duk-hwan: She would never just buy us food. What were we thinking?

Yoo-ah demands to know what’s going on with her Hubby. They have no idea and suggest that it could just be a slump, but Yoo-ah knows there’s more going on. She threatens to not pay for their meal, and that gets them to offer their help. She orders them to find out what’s going on with Min-seok within the next three days.

Min-seok sits through a meeting, where Jin-woo gives a presentation on his new shopping mall project. Jin-woo shows confidence in getting it through in the final competitive presentation for the project approval, but President Yoo expresses some doubts in its pretty ordinary merits. President Yoo hears Min-seok comment something and asks him to elaborate.

Next to him, Director Han quietly signals him to shut his mouth, but Min-seok nervously starts his commentary. “Everything multi-functional nowadays is the best. In sports, a multi-player is the best, and in games, a multi-tasker is the best. Therefore, the multi-space shopping mall should do well.” President Yoo approves of Min-seok’s commentary and compliments his speaking skills. He should be the one to give the final presentation this Wednesday.

Min-seok shakes his head, and the opposing Director Nam protests, but Jin-woo agrees. He wants to see Min-seok’s presentation skills as well and learn a couple things. And so the PT goes to Min-seok. Jin-woo looks pretty nonchalant about the whole thing until he gets back to his office. He’s visibly irritated and throws his folder at the wall. You mad, bro?

After the meeting, Min-seok, confused by the company’s lingo, asks Director Han what a PT is. The only PT he knows is physical training. He starts doing jumping jacks and asks, “It’s not this PT, right?” Haha.

Director Han and Team Leader Kim assemble in Min-seok’s office to figure out how to deal with this crisis. The director yells at Team Leader Kim, who relays the scolding to Min-seok. When he figures out what a PT is, Min-seok complains that he doesn’t like giving presentations and realizes that he has a hockey game that day. Team Leader Kim nervously glances at Director Han and orders Min-seok to come right to work after his morning hockey game to give a presentation in the afternoon.

Team Leader Kim tries to sneak out, saying that he has meetings all day, but Director Han yells at him to stay and prepare a Powerpoint presentation with Min-seok. Not understanding the urgency of the situation, Min-seok asks, “What’s a ppt?” That puts Director Han over the edge, and he stands slamming his head on the door.

They decide to make an action plan, but Min-seok tells them to plan elsewhere; this is his room. Team Leader Kim lifts his fist in frustration, and Director Han jumps onto the couch, squirming with anger. And of course Min-seok gives us an important observation: “Wow. He was flying. I saw it.” Bahaha.

Team Leader Kim asks if anyone on the team would be willing to create a Powerpoint presentation, and suddenly everyone is busy. The job eventually gets assigned to Soo-young, and she’s told to practice it with Min-seok when she’s done. She sighs while the rest of the ladies stew in jealousy, not having realized the project would get them face time with Min-seok.

Soo-young walks into Min-seok’s office with the completed presentation and again states that she does not like Jin-woo. Min-seok’s amused that she’s been thinking about clarifying that the whole day and quickly looks over the presentation notes.

She proceeds to go over the presentation, but Min-seok’s not interested. He plays with the laser pointer, aiming it on her face, and suggests that take a break. They just started, but he mentions their boss-subordinate relationship and she immediately agrees to his requests.

They try again, with Min-seok stumbling over the presentation language and Soo-young timing it, but he gives up again, saying he’s hungry. He’s the boss, so she’s off to get him food.

After the hamburgers, they try again. But this time, Min-seok is tired and heads to the roof for some warm-up sets. He gets Soo-young to follow him with squats, jumps, and burpees until she falls, refusing to do more.

He mentions Jin-woo again, and Soo-young’s reaction makes it clear that she does like him. He apologizes for his jokes and decides that it’s time to go home. When Soo-young asks about the presentation, he says that they’re already halfway done; starting is the first half, and they’ve already done that.

Feeling playful, Min-seok pretends that they’re locked outside on the roof. Soo-young starts to freak out, slamming on the door and yelling for help. But Min-seok pushes the other door, which opens perfectly well. Soo-young leaves in frustration while Min-seok enjoys his free entertainment.

Min-seok’s not done just yet. As they part ways, he asks Soo-young where she lives. He already knows that they’re neighbors, but he wants to make the point so that they can leave work together from now on. She’s unsatisfied by this dreadful news but reluctantly rides a taxi with Min-seok.

When Soo-young gets off the taxi, she crumbles to the ground and throws a fit. From behind, Yoo-ah greets her sister and wonders if she’s gone mad. Soo-young complains to her sister about her horrible boss, but Yoo-ah stops listening and gets excited talking about visiting her Hubby on the way home.

Min-seok walks home, back in his school clothes, and notices Soo-young and Yoo-ah coming out of Dad’s cleaners. He quickly hides as they pass by, but someone surprises him from behind. It’s Grandpa! Min-seok suggests that they head back home, and although Grandpa initially refuses, the chocolate offer gets him to gladly agree. Never say no to chocolate.

The next day, Min-seok is at hockey training when he gets a message to hurry and practice his presentation. Not this PT, but the other PT.

He finally gets the presentation down with Soo-young, and she attempts to leave quickly. Min-seok stops her so that they can leave work together, but Team Leader Kim excuses Soo-young and orders Min-seok to give the presentation again.

Soo-young has finally caught a break from mischievous Min-seok, but Director Han stops her on the way out. Pronouncing her name wrong, he asks her to pick up a small package from downstairs and deliver it to his room. She agrees, but it ends up being quite heavy and the elevators are closed. She uses the stairs — spilling the cleaning lady’s dirty water on the way up — and finally delivers it, but he then asks her to carry the box down to his car while he leisurely practices his golf putt. Ugh.

As he leaves work, Jin-woo sees Min-seok walking out of the building and offers him a ride home. In the car, Min-seok asks if he “intercepted” Jin-woo’s final presentation. Jin-woo assures him that it wasn’t an interception, and Min-seok looks relieved. Then he spots Soo-young on the way and asks Jin-woo to take her along, since she’s going in the same direction.

Min-seok drags sweat-soaked Soo-young into the front seat and then leaves because he claims that he’s meeting up with a friend. He watches them leave and roots for her, unaware that Jin-woo already rejected her.

Judging from Min-seok’s awkward acting, Jin-woo assumes that Soo-young told her boss everything about her feelings for him. She starts to deny his reasoning when a motorcyclist cuts them off, and Soo-young reaches up for the handles to brace herself. But that exposes her soaking armpits, which, unfortunately, Jin-woo sees.

She asks him to drop her off on the side of the road, and Soo-young walks back, dejected. Soo-young narrates a flashback, in which we see how she and Jin-woo first “met.”

Soo-young: One of my favorite movies is one called Serendipity. It was two years ago, at a rescreening of that movie, when I first saw him. Although quite unrealistic, this movie shows a reunion of two lovers through serendipity. I guess I was still young, but at the time, I dreamed of this kind of love. Serendipity… I thought it was fate, but only today did I realize that maybe our reunion was not for better but for worse.

Soo-young thinks back to her first meeting with Jin-woo at work, when she’d been visibly thrilled to realize they worked at the same company. But now she’s been trampled on by reality, and she sadly walks back home.

Min-seok spots Soo-young and excitedly approaches her. He rambles on about how he wishes them the best and that she owes him, but then he notices her shoes and her entire state. He asks what happened, and Soo-young tells him everything. “I did like Jin-woo, but as soon as I confessed, he rejected me. And now he finds me uncomfortable. I understand you’re my boss, but I don’t think that allows you to humiliate me.” With that, she walks away, leaving Min-seok speechless and upset with himself.

Grandpa is waiting for Min-seok when he gets home, but Min-seok tells him that he’s not in the mood to play and heads to his room. But Grandpa waits outside and looks through his window, which prompts Min-seok to come out and play some cat’s cradle. When Min-seok asks why Grandpa wants to play, he implies that he’s playing to keep Min-seok company, not for himself. Aw.

Min-seok tells Grandpa that he made a big mistake today, not on purpose, but it’s making him feel bad. He can’t tell if it’s just because of that or because of the hockey game and presentation tomorrow as well, but life’s feeling a bit complicated at the moment. Min-seok complains that cat’s cradle is boring, but Grandpa smacks him on the head and keeps playing. Ha, way to wrap up a sweet moment.

The next day, Min-seok plays his hockey game, with Yoo-ah and the groupies cheering in the crowd. He scores a goal but one of the referees gets injured, which delays the game. Min-seok’s feeling antsy because he’s got to go be his brother, but the coach directs him to score another goal with the remaining time. He’s not going anywhere.

As soon as the game restarts, Min-seok plays aggressively, trying to get his one promised goal in. Thankfully, his ace skills allow him to score the goal pretty quickly, and then he’s off, even with time remaining in the game. He skates off the rink and runs off to give his presentation.

Meanwhile, Team Leader Kim and Director Han anxiously wait for Min-seok to arrive. But it’s already getting late, it seems like he might miss his presentation.

Min-seok changes and fixes his hair in the taxi, but they hit slow traffic. He decides to make a run for it. When he drops his access badge at the crosswalk, he grabs someone’s cane and skillfully hockey-pucks it through the crowd. He picks up the badge, leaves the cane for the owner, and continues on his way.

The presentation is about to start, but Min-seok is nowhere to be seen. Director Han orders Team Leader Kim to ask Jin-woo to substitute for Min-seok, and just as Jin-woo is about to stand up, Min-seok barrels into the room on a rolling cart.

Min-seok stands on stage and improvises. He explains that if he were to come on stage like any other person, he wouldn’t stand out. He would be obvious and predictable, not fun. The concept for their shopping mall is fun and comfort for everyone. Min-seok puts on a dynamic performance onstage, and the whole crowd bursts into applause after his presentation.

After his conclusion, he gives Soo-young his signature peace-out superhero pose, and she does the same, until she realizes what she was doing. Back at the office, Team Leader Kim nervously waits for the results on the phone. He bursts into happiness, and the whole team erupts into cheers. They did it!

The team goes out for dinner in high spirits. But when Soo-young makes eye contact with Min-seok, her smile quickly fades. Min-seok still looks regretful. But they’re better off than Jin-woo, who looks awfully lonely brooding to dramatic classical music.

Determined to make up for his behavior, Min-seok follows Soo-young around after the team dinner. She grabs beer at the convenience store, and he continues to follow her. At one point, he tells her to just punch him, and after refusing a few times, she actually does.

Even after offering, Min-seok blames Soo-young for having such hard fist. She says that years of dealing with ropes at her mother’s bungee jumping facility made her hands strong and apologizes. He notes this odd fact, adding it to the list of unusual things he knows about Soo-young.

They end up on an empty field, where Soo-young continues to chug beer while Min-seok uses the cold beer can to massage his punched face. After a couple of cans, Soo-young has lost her filter and tells Min-seok that he’s kind of an unpleasant guy. But ultimately they agree to be friends.

Then she loses it. She starts crying and wailing over how cruel Jin-woo was to her, and Min-seok tries to get her up, only to get his hand bitten in the process. She’s a lovely drunk, ain’t she.

The next morning, Min-seok goes through another routine school attendance check-in, identity change, and office arrival. Min-seok spots Soo-young from a distance, but she actively avoids him and rides the elevator without waiting.

On his way, Min-seok runs into President Yoo, who compliments him on his performance yesterday. He says that he appreciates Min-seok’s refreshing nature, and asks him to play a round of golf sometime soon.

Min-seok prides himself in having so much popularity at work and heads to the elevator. But his friends approach from behind, calling him out, having followed him. Min-seok looks back, but headed his direction from the other side is Jin-woo and Director Nam. They look at him curiously as Min-seok tries to figure out what’s going on because this sure isn’t a dream.

 
COMMENTS

This just keeps getting better. It has comedy and amusement written everywhere, but now and then we get a couple moments of poignancy and reflection. Enough so that we remember that these are real people with emotions and sensitivities. Behind their comic or stoic façades, they all possess some sort of vulnerability. But without a doubt, the humor is definitely more apparent and quite enjoyable. We get plenty of it throughout, and I’m not complaining. I’m here for the chuckles.

This episode was quite heavy on the character development side, but it did a good job of it. I think it’s one of the advantages of having a pretty simple plot: more character time, less time needed for plot development. We get some good character time for both Min-seok and Soo-young, as we get a glimpse into their individual struggles and their budding friendship. We also get some consistent appearances from Grumpy, Director Han, hockey friends, and the smitten retail ladies. I love how we get a taste of all the characters, no matter how insignificant they really are.

I say this again, but Seo In-gook does a great job with being the immature high school boy stuck in a suit. Comments on flying, getting pouty for being disregarded, joking around… they’re all small yet wonderful touches on the whole double-identity dynamic. But when he delivers, he delivers, and I think it has to do with the fearlessness that comes from youth. He’s explosive on that presentation stage, and he looks so alive. I love seeing Min-seok’s candor at the workplace because it’s so uncommon. It’s beautifully refreshing to see someone be so clear with their confusions and disapprovals. He clearly has no idea what’s going on, and he’s not pretending to know. Ironic though, since he is pretending. But pretending and playing dress-up in the best way possible.

Minor yet very significant observation: Gramps is just adorable. He finds the greatest pleasure in the simplest things, like chocolate. His excitement in getting chocolate is probably one of my favorite moments in this episode. He doesn’t necessarily know what’s going on, but he doesn’t have to. He’s always there for Min-seok, and I would argue that he is Min-seok’s best friend. I mean, who else would wait up for you to play cat’s cradle after you’ve had a long day leading two lives? Best friend status right there.

Soo-young had a chance to shine in the episode, and I’m glad she did. She’s probably the most out there, so I needed something to remind me that she belongs in this workplace and this story. She is quite naïve in the sense that she wears her heart on her sleeve and can’t hide her emotions, but she’s waken up to the reality of her situation. Her whole narration on fate and serendipity with Jin-woo is profound, hopeful, yet melancholy, and it was a great way to wrap up a rather pitiful scene. And her consequent encounter with Min-seok shows a deeper sense of vulnerability she held from being rejected. True, she was rejected and Min-seok’s innocent jokes did turn into humiliation, but she also was slapped in the face by reality, in which fate and serendipity don’t come easy.

But nothing a few beers can’t handle, right? After a good punch and a couple beers, at least she’s got a new friend. And though Min-seok may be a dreadfully immature boss, we know that he’s loyal. He’ll joke around, play dress-up, sneak into hockey practice, illegally sign documents, and strike his peace out superhero pose, but he’s a keeper. I hope they become the best of friends.

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