High School King of Savvy: Episode 5

by dramallama

The rivalry has begun. Min-seok and Jin-woo have officially become frenemies, and they don’t miss a beat when it comes to insulting each other, whether it’s with a smile or a scowl. They’ve both got a point in their insults and arguments, but it’s pretty clear that they won’t be agreeing with each other anytime soon. Fierce rivalry also comes with sweet relationships, and Savvy doesn’t disappoint. It’s another lovely episode, where the characters become more endearing, new relationships bud, and family ties hold true.

 
EPISODE 5 RECAP

After hearing the news of Soo-young’s expiring contract, Min-seok finds her on the patio eating her feelings. She’s crying but insists that it’s because she’s hungry and because of the wind. Min-seok takes off his tie so that she can wipe off her tears, but she continues to insist that she’s fine.

Infuriated, Min-seok storms into President Yoo’s room, where Team Leader Kim is getting some document approvals. Team Leader Kim shoves the contentious Min-seok out of the room and assures President Yoo that everything is fine.

But once he’s out of the room, Team Leader Kim quietly scolds Min-seok and pushes him outside. They point fingers and walk in circles, accusing each other of heinous crimes. Min-seok argues that a company can’t just let go of an employee like that, and Team Leader Kim calls him crazy for bursting into the president’s room and thinking that he’s actually the chief director. Clearly agitated, Team Leader Kim warns him not to get involved in this issue, and Min-seok yells that he understands.

When Min-seok gets back to the office, Soo-young is gone. A team member tells him that she packed up her things to leave, and Min-seok runs out of the building, but just misses her.

As she walks out with her things, she broods over her one unlucky talent: to predict future events with dreams. She remembers back when her father passed away, she had an unlucky dream. Dreams told her that there would always be a new rock bottom she hadn’t planned on, and it happened this time as well. The free-falling bungee jump dream was the one to foreshadow her dismissal.

Min-seok looks dispirited as he walks into the office, and he notices that Soo-young left her moss plant. In his office, he calls and texts Soo-young about the plant, but she’s too busy changing and getting her head stuck in the arm hole of her shirt to pick up. Oh dear.

When the phone rings, Min-seok jumps to check his phone, but it’s the company line. He’s called to the president’s office with Jin-woo, and they’re ordered to work together on a mall remodeling project. President Yoo has big expectations, but Min-seok looks uneasy.

On the elevator ride down, Min-seok tells Jin-woo about Soo-young’s dismissal. The temporary contract employee on Jin-woo’s team wasn’t fired, so Min-seok wonders why Soo-young was. Seemingly unaffected by the mention of Soo-young, Jin-woo says that she was a hard-working employee and promises to let Min-seok know if he finds any open positions.

After Jin-woo gets off the elevator, Min-seok notes that Jin-woo doesn’t seem uncomfortable talking about Soo-young like she’d said. He assumes that Jin-woo has a professional separation of work and personal life, as he’s much older and more mature.

As Min-seok walks out after work, his friends – dressed up in his brother’s clothing – yell and wave at him excitedly. Duk-hwan comments that they could hold a fashion show with the clothes, and tall Tae-seok asks if short clothing is in fashion. “Nope, you’re just needlessly tall.”

Min-seok tries to bribe them away with his magic company credit card, but the Retail Team ladies catch up to them. The boys look mesmerized by the ladies and block all of Min-seok’s attempts to intervene. They mindlessly invite the ladies to dinner, and Min-seok looks irritated that he’s forced to babysit once more.

Everyone except for Min-seok looks delighted at dinner. The ladies ask where the boys work, and they quickly make things up. Tae-seok claims to be a Chinese restaurant CEO, when in reality he just delivers for a Chinese fast-food place. Duk-hwan claims to be a fitness center owner, but he’s just a fitness victim of hockey training. The ladies compliment the boys and order more food while Min-seok forces a smile and checks for Soo-young’s texts.

Min-seok arrives home with Soo-young’s moss plant, still checking his phone for her response. He goes into his room to find Grandpa, glasses on upside-down and playing with a hockey puck. Min-seok grabs the puck away from him, saying that it’s dangerous to play with, but Grandpa wants his Choco Pie (yum) back and runs away with it.

Min-seok puts his stuff down and looks at the plant. “Hey Broccoli, looks like your unni abandoned you. You can stay here for now.” He grabs a spray bottle, gives it a good watering, and runs out to play with Grandpa. Aw.

The next morning, Yoo-ah happily reads her comic books, and Soo-young scolds her sister for reading them all the time. Still recovering from surgery, Yoo-ah relaxes on the couch and continues to read. She tells her sister to get ready for work, and Soo-young assures her that of course she’s going to work. It’s not like she was fired or anything.

Yoo-ah urgently calls out for her sister, and Soo-young runs over, thinking something’s terribly wrong. But she just can’t reach the next comic book in the series and can’t move out of her spot on the couch because of her surgical wound. Soo-young tells her to stop reading, so Yoo-ah plays the role of a poor patient who’s going to risk her recovery to reach for the book. Soo-young reluctantly agrees to Yoo-ah’s requests, which include the next book and two pieces of bread. Ha.

Before Soo-young leaves for “work,” Yoo-ah tells her to leave her money to order food, since she can’t move or go to school. Soo-young digs into her wallet and leaves most of her money before heading out. She walks aimlessly and does a little “eeny, meeny, miny, moe,” to figure out which direction to go in.

Min-seok’s friends converse about how great those “female people” were yesterday. They’re envious of Min-seok, who gets to eat with them every day. Then, they look around at the girls at their school and express their disapproval at their youth. Min-seok’s had enough of their chatter and drags them to class. Tsk tsk.

With his friends in the loop, everything’s become routine. As soon as Min-seok’s name is called for attendance, he sneaks out the window, his friends wave goodbye, and the Min-seok dummy is set up. Min-seok goes through an elevator change of identity, and he’s off to work.

The retail team members are pondering whether or not to go on the company weekend biking trip. They go around asking, and Assistant Park decides he’s not going. He’s not giving up his weekends for these endless trips, and the rest of the team jumps on his bandwagon.

When Min-seok arrives, they tell him about the trip, and he finds it exciting. He decides that he wants to go, and the rest of them change their minds just like that. Before Min-seok goes into his office, he looks back at Soo-young’s empty desk.

Speaking of, Soo-young is sitting on a bench searching the newspaper for a new job. But she’s not having any luck because it seems like many of the employers aren’t counting her temporary employment as experience. She takes a sip from her instant udon, and someone comments that her food looks good. It’s none other than our lovable Gramps.

She gives her food to Grandpa, and he takes it happily. He eats the rest of the noodles and asks how much it costs. Soo-young rejects his offer to pay her, but he does anyway. With the hockey puck. He thanks the pretty unni and gets up to leave, but he can’t remember where his house is. Uh-oh.

Soo-young leads Grandpa through the neighborhood asking around where he thinks his house is. But he only asks, “Where’s my house, Pretty Unni? Where? Where?” Thankfully, Dad finds them and thanks Soo-young for her kindness. As they leave, Soo-young thinks that she recognizes Dad, but she can’t seem to place him.

Min-seok’s falling asleep in his office, so he heads to the patio. While taking a break there, he overhears two employees talking about a rumor going around about Soo-young’s dismissal. They say that Jin-woo was the one who ordered it, and it seems that she was specifically picked, since none of the other temporary contract employees were dismissed. Min-seok get up and immediately heads off on a mission.

Jin-woo is approving documents, and when his employee sticks out his pen to offer, Jin-woo instinctively knocks it out of his hands. He takes out his own pen and signs the documents just as Min-seok storms in.

He accuses Jin-woo of firing Soo-young and acting like the nice guy, offering to find another position for her. But Jin-woo simply says he’s not the culprit. He gets a call from his director and heads out without further addressing Min-seok’s accusations.

Min-seok follows him out, accusing him of first Assistant Manager Yoon’s situation and now this. He grabs Jin-woo’s arm and calls him a coward for avoiding the truth. Jin-woo tries to leave, but Min-seok grabs him again. That makes Jin-woo yell his confession that he did fire her. He asks why just a temporary contract employee is so important, and Min-seok replies, “That just a contract employee is important to me! You fired a member of my team. It’d be foolish of me not to say anything.” Jin-woo tells him to think however he wants and walks away.

While walking along, Soo-young finds a café that’s hiring. She walks in excitedly but quickly walks back out. She’s rejected because of her lack of experience and her age. As she walks away in frustration, the café lady comes out to edit her hiring sign to specify people ages 20-25.

The retail and project teams are getting ready for their joint planning meeting, but Min-seok doesn’t look too pleased to be working with Jin-woo. During the meeting, he gives Jin-woo dirty looks and comments on how Jin-woo’s upgrade remodeling plan will make some merchants jobless, which is quite selfish. Team Leader Kim covers up the awkwardness with a big laugh, mentioning that Min-seok’s jokes always sound so serious.

Everyone laughs it off, but Jin-woo’s got a comeback: he calls Min-seok an amateur. This remodeling project has only one goal, which is to increase profit, and his upgrade will be favorable to most merchants. Min-seok comments that he’s still taking advantage of the weak; cowardice seems to be a trend for him. Team Leader Kim tries to shut him up with a cookie, but Min-seok shoves the cookie in Team Leader Kim’s mouth instead.

Jin-woo takes another jab at him, stating that Min-seok takes everything personally and emotionally, reacting with immediate opposition. He calls Min-seok childish and asks how he succeeded in Germany with his unprofessional manner.

After the meeting, the retail team rushes out discussing the awkwardness and discomfort in that room. Assistant Park complains about how uncomfortable it is for them, and Jin-woo overhears their conversations but looks pretty satisfied as he walks away.

Min-seok looks pouty as Team Leader Kim fumes over his behavior in the meeting. He asks Min-seok the reasoning behind his behavior, and Min-seok answers that he should have had a better comeback to Jin-woo’s last statement. Team Leader Kim reminds him to do nothing and say nothing at work, so Min-seok walks off, yelling that he’ll disappear by going to hockey practice.

As Min-seok runs to catch the elevator, Jin-woo walks in and rapidly pushes the button to close the door. The elevator closes just as Min-seok gets to it, and he starts cursing. He’s had enough and starts yelling his profanity rant by the elevator so that Jin-woo can hear him, loud and clear. Haha.

Min-seok lets out his anger at hockey practice, showing quite a performance with the resistance bands. The coach looks impressed and tells him to try harder, which results in Min-seok running away in the resistance bands and his partner, Duk-hwan, being dragged in the dirt before he lets go.

Still angry, Min-seok walks around his neighborhood and seems annoyed that Soo-young hasn’t responded yet. He calls her just as she rounds the corner, so he confronts her avoidance of his calls. She’s surprised to see him in the neighborhood this early, and Min-seok goes along with her assumption that he’s been exercising.

He asks her how she’s been, and she assures him that she’s fine. “I’ve been eating well, sleeping well, and poo-…” And she lies that she’s been hired at a very good place, where the work is fun and convenient. She runs off in a hurry, and Min-seok belatedly wonders what to do with Broccoli.

The good and fun workplace ends up being the local convenience store, where Soo-young is moving boxes. Min-seok barges into the store and moves the boxes for her. He notes that the work is indeed convenient and rambles on about her horrible taste in men, especially that two-faced one. He orders her to prepare some instant ramen, and she reluctantly does so.

While Min-seok enjoys his ramen, Soo-young rings up a customer, who’s completely distracted by her dog. The customer claims that she was given incorrect change. She starts to get belligerent, and Min-seok takes out his phone to record the scene. The customer ends up slapping Soo-young, but Min-seok’s got it all on camera.

He asks the customer to keep going and asks for suggestions on what the video should be called. He gives her the choice to apologize or keep adding to the blackmail footage. Flustered, she apologizes to Soo-young and leaves. Min-seok asks Soo-young if she’s okay, but she just looks down and asks him to leave. He stays a while longer outside the store and eventually leaves.

On his walk back, Min-seok gets a call from Yoo-ah, who assures him that she’s recovering well from her appendectomy. He tells her not to move around and worsen her surgical wound, which is exactly what Soo-young told her. Yoo-ah adds that she’s applying lots of ointment on her scar and tells Min-seok not be surprised when he sees it later. HA.

Min-seok scowls, asking why he would see it later, and hangs up. Yoo-ah finds Min-seok’s embarrassment cute and walks over to the kitchen for some food. She finds Soo-young’s company card and then looks down to find her box of belongings. Her suspicions are confirmed when she calls the retail team; her sister’s lost her job.

Soo-young finishes up her shift, and Min-seok purposefully runs into her. He offers to buy some beer, but she refuses and walks off. He continues to follow her, offering to buy her popcorn or spicy food. She refuses it all, so Min-seok comes up with another way to cheer her up.

He borrows Tae-seok’s delivery motorcycle and tells Soo-young to hop on. She doubts that she’ll feel better by getting on, but the next thing we know, she’s having a blast. They both enjoy the ride through the city lights, all while cursing that rude customer. Soo-young shouts a compliment, “You’re a little… a little bit cute.” And Min-seok returns the favor, “You’re a little… a bit stupid.” Haha. It’s a sweet and vulgar moment.

They stop by the river, where Soo-young admits to feeling refreshed. Min-seok asks if she wants to try riding alone, and although she refuses at first, she decides to give it a try. Only a few seconds on the motorcycle, Soo-young fails, and Min-seok jumps in to catch her fall. While getting up, she elbows him (ouch) and shows him her injury. He tells her she won’t die and walks off.

While walking back with the motorcycle, she thanks him for the ride, saying that the wind and speed really felt refreshing. She also says that Min-seok was pretty unique as a chief director. He was different, fun, and a bit childlike.

He stops her there and rides off to return the bike. She shouts after him that he’s a good person, and Min-seok stops, remembering that he forgot to mention the moss plant again. He shrugs it off and rides away.

When Soo-young returns home, she finds everything clean. From her reaction, it’s totally abnormal for Yoo-ah to clean, and she assumes Yoo-ah ran into some mishap. Yoo-ah assures her that nothing’s wrong, but Soo-young can’t believe it. The bathroom’s clean, and the laundry’s done. Downright outrageous.

When Soo-young falls asleep, Yoo-ah gets up to cover her sister with the blanket, calling her stupid for not telling her about work. They fall asleep hugging each other in true sisterly fashion.

Min-seok’s up early the next morning, ready to go to work. Dad sticks his finger in Min-seok’s big yawn and asks why he’s up so early on the weekend. Min-seok lies that he has hockey training and heads to his room, where Grandpa is waving his hands over Broccoli. He wants to give it to Pretty Unni, but Min-seok snatches it away from him, explaining that it already has an owner.

Min-seok notes that Pretty Unni must be really pretty, seeing Grandpa’s reddening face at the mention of her. Grandpa tries to take the plant again, but Min-seok doesn’t let him, so he angrily walks out of the room.

Soo-young draws a face on the puck that Grandpa gave her, and Yoo-ah asks where she got the ice hockey puck from. Just like Grandpa, Soo-young thinks that the puck looks like Choco Pie. Yoo-ah tells her sister to come out for breakfast, but Soo-young stops her. What did she do wrong? Was it a big accident? Yoo-ah assures her that nothing’s wrong, but Soo-young comes to the conclusion that she made an appointment for double eyelid surgery, refusing to believe she just cleaned for no reason.

The Comfo employees have gathered in their biking gear for their weekend bike ride. Director Nam comments that Director Han looks like a big fly in tights, which, I must admit, is a pretty accurate description. Team Leader Kim arrives, and Director Han expresses his betrayal, seeing that he didn’t dress up in the tight biking gear they’d promised to wear. Now he’s the only fly in tights of the group.

Min-seok and Jin-woo arrive, both giving each other looks, and President Yoo welcomes the group. For whichever team that wins, he offers to pay for a team dinner. The group cheers, and they’re off!

Most of the group stays behind President Yoo for obvious reasons, but a retail team member passes him, clearly missing the memo. Min-seok and Jin-woo also race ahead to face off. They both try to trip and provoke each other, but it looks quite playful compared to the intensity in the meeting room. Not one to lose in sports, Min-seok races ahead and waits at the finish line with ice cream for everyone, even the detestable Jin-woo.

The biking trip concludes with a meal. Jin-woo and Min-seok end up sitting next to each other, exchanging looks of hatred. President Yoo awards Min-seok with money for a team dinner and compliments his all-around talents. Min-seok accepts the compliment and takes a moment to dis Jin-woo’s inferior biking skills.

Team Leader Kim looks bitterly at the retail team member who beat President Yoo for third place. He seems proud but chokes on his food when President Yoo indicates his disappointment.

As Min-seok walks out of the bathroom, he runs into Jin-woo, who comments again on his childish tendencies. He asks why Min-seok is so attached to Soo-young’s dismissal; she was of no importance. Min-seok looks bothered by Jin-woo’s two-faced nature and argues that employees are like family. Jin-woo takes his attachment to Soo-young as affection and says that Soo-young has a great talent for seducing men.

That’s enough for Min-seok to get physical. He head-butts Jin-woo, who in turn throws a punch. They get into a fight while the rest of the company members enjoy their drunken state. The fight is eventually broken up by restaurant employees, and they’re dragged apart while throwing fits.

Min-seok watches Soo-young from outside the convenience store and thinks back to Jin-woo’s words. He sighs and walks away with conflicted feelings. Or should I say conflicted pheromones?

The next day at work, Min-seok and Jin-woo run into each other in front of the elevators. Min-seok has a busted lip and Jin-woo’s got a bandaged chin. President Yoo approaches them and notices their injuries, but they both give different excuses for them. On the elevator ride, President Yoo asks for updates on their joint remodeling project, and they both sarcastically note that they have a lot to learn from each other.

As Min-seok walks to his office, he hears someone calling out, “Secretary Hwang!” He pauses and a light bulb goes off. He rushes to Soo-young’s part-time job and drags her back to the office with him.

The project and retail teams are waiting on Min-seok, and just as they’re about to start the meeting without him, he runs in with Soo-young. Looking at Jin-woo, he introduces his new secretary: Jung Soo-young.

 
COMMENTS

Once again, a round of applause for this show. Nothing in the plot is too surprising, but we still manage to get a good dose of fun out of the episode. It’s pretty impressive that all the characters manage to grab some part of the spotlight, and I’m noticing that I start to look forward to seeing how the minor characters highlight their roles. I’m getting quite attached to the drama as a whole, which is a very good thing when you have so much more left to come.

I’m glad we got a better perspective on Yoo-ah because although she’s cute, she was kind of pushed to the side as Min-seok’s stalker girlfriend. We’ve seen this sister dynamic previously, where Yoo-ah and Soo-young seem to balance each other out, but this time we see why Yoo-ah’s side of the scale is so important. Most of the time, she’s that immature high school sister, but she knows what to do when Soo-young needs her. That may mean being out of character and cleaning the whole house, but nothing a little sisterly love can’t handle, right? I love how Soo-young automatically thinks the worst when she sees her sister out of character. Cleaning? Making breakfast? You must have done something terribly wrong. Ha. As the older sister, Soo-young obviously takes care of Yoo-ah, but we see that Yoo-ah does the same. It goes both ways.

But Min-seok clearly steals the show with his undying loyalty to family. Whether it’s his family at home or his work family, he’s got their back. Jin-woo appropriately points out that Min-seok is naïve and childish, but that’s what gives Min-seok his charm. Unlike the jaded Jin-woo, Min-seok holds onto his ideals about family and has no intention of giving into the harsh realities of life. He has a conviction about his values and persistently fights for what he believes is right. It seems out of place in an environment like Comfo, but it’s nothing out of the ordinary. Youth gives him an impassioned belief that everything he cares about is important, and that’s where he and Jin-woo clash.

Judging from his relationship to his father, Jin-woo doesn’t seem to hold the idea of family too dear to his heart. He’s immersed himself in the corporate world and become almost too realistic for his own good. The cynicism he expresses is clearly rooted in his upbringing, and at some points during his argument with Min-seok, I started to feel sorry for him because it almost seemed like he was resisting a concept he never understood and never had: family. I’m hoping that he’ll come to understand that by the end, maybe through a little bromance? I saw that potential during the bike race. They’re still enemies, but Jin-woo was smiling and enjoying himself.

I thought it was interesting to see Min-seok’s reactions to being called childish and childlike. Even though he is younger, Min-seok doesn’t seem to like those expressions. It’s almost like he wants to grow up and play with the big kids, but he’s just not mentally there yet. He doesn’t necessarily fit in with his high school friends either (or anymore), as it seems like he’s always the responsible one. Too responsible for high school, too childish for work, Min-seok’s just stuck in a weird limbo.

And I think his confused state contributes to his growing and conflicted feelings about Soo-young. He obviously cares about her, as a friend, a neighbor, and as a retail team family member. He’s definitely too young for her, but they’re compatible. They enjoy each other’s company (most of the time), and at the very least, their growing friendship is great to watch. I would love a friend with a motorcycle who’d take me for a ride on my bad days and curse anyone who ruined my day. That’s a true homie right there.

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