High School King of Savvy: Episode 6

by purplecow

King of Savvy keeps bringing the magic with another fantastic episode. Jin-woo decides to be a little more subtle in his battle of wits with Min-seok, and the result pushes our fake director to wrestle with some unfamiliar emotions. Soo-young takes some convincing to begin work as a secretary, but she quickly shows that she’s got the skills — and the wardrobe! Rivalries, burgeoning affection, and warring loyalties make this hour fly by. And as always, the supporting cast contributes just as much as the leads. I just hope Yoo-ah decides to keep Duk-hwan and Tae-seok alive… the two of them are far too adorable to die!

 
EPISODE 6 RECAP

After Min-seok (re)introduces Soo-young as his secretary, everyone exclaims in surprise. Team Leader Kim stammers about how bold Director Lee is, and Soo-young is clearly uncomfortable with everyone staring. She says she shouldn’t have come, bows, and leaves, followed immediately by Min-seok. Team Leader Kim is forced to suggest that the meeting be postponed before following his impulsive director.

Min-seok doesn’t understand Soo-young’s reluctance, saying he only wanted to help an ally. She was wrongfully fired, and he wanted to make it right. But Soo-young believes that when bad things happen in life, there won’t always be a Min-seok to come along and help her up. She thanks him for trying to help her, but walks away from the company.

Team Leader Kim is lying in wait for Min-seok in the men’s restroom. After checking to make sure they’re alone, he begins upbraiding Min-seok for starting to act as if he’s a real director. Min-seok is still upset and in no mood for Team Leader Kim’s reprimands, so he takes off his jacket and says fine, he quits. He’s almost out the door when Team Leader Kim backhugs him (with an awkwardly sensual caress that had me busting a gut), crooning endearing compliments to get him to stay. Of course, at that exact moment Jin-woo comes walking down the hallway, and overhears Min-seok talking about how he can’t be caught.

The snippet of overheard information is tantalizing enough for Jin-woo to explore further. He calls a friend whose brother is an investigator, and asks if he knows about Lee Hyung-seok, possibly also known as Yali. His friend does know the name, saying that he believes Hyung-seok was seen at a symposium two weeks ago. Jin-woo is even more intrigued, because two weeks ago Hyung-seok was already working at Comfo.

Another phone call comes in for Jin-woo, this time from the rehab center where his mother is staying. Apparently her condition is getting worse.

Jin-woo gets onto a company elevator with President Yoo. He tells his father about his mother’s condition. At that moment, however, two female employees join them in the elevator and the president is quick to make small talk. Jin-woo looks aside, frustrated by the lack of response.

Soo-young goes back to the convenience store, only to be greeted like a customer. She persists, confused, until her boss clarifies that she’s fired. She lingers at a bus stop while calling about other job opportunities, until she receives a phone call from her mother. Mom is in town and wants to see Soo-young at her fancy company!

With her old employee card dangling around her neck, Soo-young rushes to intercept her mother and her friend. She ushers them into her workplace, hiding from the former members of her team on the way. They’re about to get in the elevator when Min-seok runs into them. Soo-young introduces him as “Director Lee… from my team,” and Min-seok, bless his loyal heart, goes with the flow.

Up on the rooftop, Min-seok delivers coffee to the ladies and good-heartedly sits through the inevitable questioning: he looks young to be a director, is he a chaebol heir, did his family have a lot of money to send him abroad? He is unfailingly kind and courteous. Meanwhile Soo-young has to be about dying from embarrassment, especially when Mom says that she doesn’t have a man chasing after her, so she should work hard.

After sending Mom off, Min-seok and Soo-young take a walk. Soo-young is grateful for the help, while Min-seok wants to apologize again for hurting her feelings with his impulsive actions. She says she knows he was just trying to help an ally, but Min-seok insists it was more than that. He has to hire a secretary anyway, and he’d rather it be Soo-young than anyone else. Aww… say yes, Soo-young!

The Dubious Duo of Duk-hwan and Tae-seok spy Min-seok sitting with a girl, and sneak up on the two of them. They get Min-seok’s attention, and he stammers to Soo-young that he forgot to meet his friends, who are ten years younger. He tosses them his stuff and hustles them away from Soo-young.

When Soo-young returns to her apartment, Yoo-ah is diligently trying to repair her school uniform, even though sewing doesn’t appear to be her favorite activity. Soo-young offers to buy her a new one, and Yoo-ah replies absentmindedly that Soo-young should look out for herself. “Do you know?” Soo-young asks, referring to the fact that she lost her job, and Yoo-ah realizes her mistake. She hastily tries to distract her sister with kimchi fried rice that she prepared. Soo-young’s not fooled — later that night, when Yoo-ah is sleeping, Soo-young watches her wistfully and says that her little sister has grown up a lot.

A groggy Min-seok wakes up the next morning to a phone call. A cheery voice says, “Morning call, Director! It’s time to get ready for work!” Min-seok checks the phone, disoriented, and sits up in bed. Meanwhile, Soo-young appears to have found a new lease on life. She prepares for the day with vigor, embracing her new role of secretary.

She gives herself a hilarious pep-talk while brushing her teeth and getting dressed, adopting a new style for the new job. Dramatic music and epic slo-mo creates an added sense of purpose, as Secretary Soo-young gets ready for her first day at work.

Soo-young introduces herself formally to the Retail Team. Her reception is mostly lukewarm with the exception of Assistant Manager Yoon, who claps wildly. Team Leader Kim gives an impassioned speech about how they’re all family, with Min-seok giving him a sidelong glance as if to say, Would you look at this guy? Soo-young gets her new desk, and the Retail Team is reunited at last.

Soo-young takes to her secretary job with her usual vigor, staying close to Min-seok and going over every detail of his schedule. He finally snaps, telling her to take it easy, speak normally, and for heaven’s sake wear her glasses if she needs them to see. “How far are you going to follow me?” he asks, and we see that they’ve arrived at the men’s restroom. “Take care!” she says with a bow as he heads into the loo. HA!

Jin-woo, lurking as usual around the corner, witnesses this exchange and realizes that Soo-young has accepted the secretary position. He follows her to the vending machine. First he buys her a juice, then he offers an apology for his behavior before, and finally he asks her out to dinner that night. Flustered, she tries to refuse, but he says he’ll meet her at a nearby Italian restaurant and walks away with a devilish smile. What are you up to, Jin-woo?!

A call comes in for Min-seok about a meeting with clients from Spain that has been moved to that night. Soo-young’s colleague receives it, and because she resents Soo-young’s good fortune she throws a post-it note rather carelessly, and it falls accidentally to the floor. Soo-young comes in, all in a tizzy over the dinner invitation, and doesn’t see the message.

Yoo-ah corners Duk-hwan and Tae-seok in an alley, and demands to know what her “Husband Lee” has been doing lately. She doesn’t mess around, and when she gets a brick Duk-hwan spits out a plausible lie: “He’s got a part-time job!” The two friends spin a tall tale about Min-seok trying to help out his family with a demanding delivery job that calls him out at all hours. Yoo-ah stalks away with a purposeful look, not responding to her friends when they ask what’s wrong.

Min-seok leaves to inspect a mall for work, just before Team Leader Kim bursts in with news of the meeting that evening. He demands to know why Min-seok didn’t get the message, and Soo-young’s colleague confesses that she left a post-it note rather than passing the message to Soo-young directly. After trying to call a few times, Soo-young charges out of the office. She even leaves her phone behind, forgetting about the half-finished message that she was about to send to Jin-woo requesting a rain check for their dinner.

Soo-young just misses Min-seok as he gets into a taxi, but she manages to snag a scooter from a delivery guy. She tosses him her ID card and yells, “I’m not a bad person!” before speeding away.

The high-speed chase is on, and Soo-young maneuvers through the streets after the taxi. Her skirt splits along the way, but she only grits her teeth and keeps going. She even activates the loudspeaker, calling out for the taxi to stop. Min-seok finally hears her and, utterly flabbergasted, gets out of the taxi. She yells at him to get on the scooter without explaining why.

Back at the company, Team Leader Kim and Director Han wait in expectant misery. President Yoo will arrive any minute, and they really need Hyung-seok to be present to meet this particular client. Then, just as the president and his entourage come into view in the lobby, Soo-young and Min-seok arrive on the borrowed scooter. The day is saved!

After returning exhausted to the office, Soo-young sees her phone and remembers her dinner date with Jin-woo. Off to the Italian restaurant she goes, and even though it’s late he’s still there when she arrives. She offers to buy him dinner to make up for being late, and he says that there’s another place he knows.

Next stop: Jin-woo’s apartment. He ushers her inside despite her polite protests, and tells her to wash up since she already knows where the bathroom is. Soo-young takes the opportunity to fix her windswept hair and pluck at her eyebrows (A for effort, but is this really the time?), then joins Jin-woo in the kitchen.

He seems to be fishing for information, as he asks about Director Lee and says they seem close. When Soo-young doesn’t know how much spaghetti they’ll need, he shows her how to measure servings by putting different fingers together. Even if it’s only part of a dastardly plot, hurray for Spaghetti Skinship!

After dinner, they talk a little bit about their different tastes in music. Jin-woo puts on a classical song that he enjoys, and opens up a bit about his difficult childhood, since Soo-young already witnessed his strained relationship with his father. Soo-young says that the song is beautiful. Jin-woo: “It’s beautiful, and that makes it more sorrowful… like my mother.”

Jin-woo drops Soo-young off at home, and even gives her a gift to congratulate her on getting her new job. Yoo-ah arrives in time to greet Jin-woo, expressing surprise that this director isn’t the director who re-hired her sister.

After Jin-woo leaves, Yoo-ah teases her sis that she keeps getting directors to fall for her. “When are you getting paid?” she asks, as they walk up the street together. “Can you give me an advance on my allowance?” Aren’t these sisters just the cutest?

Min-seok gets a wake-up call from Soo-young the next morning, though he’s already awake. He hangs up and comments to her potted moss that she’s not really secretary material. He waters the moss carefully, which is pretty much the sweetest thing ever. Dad calls him down to breakfast, and Gramps joyfully echoes the call.

Dad asks Min-seok to call his hyung, because a package he sent got returned. Min-seok says it’s because Hyung-seok moved, but that doesn’t keep Dad from worrying. Gramps tries to steal the plate of fish, saying it’s for Hyung-seok.

Min-seok takes the fish back, claiming to like it more than his brother, to which Gramps responds: “Hyung, first. Dongsaeng, second.” Min-seok keeps a smile on his face, eating the fish to keep Gramps distracted. But man that has to hurt, especially when Min-seok is the one making all the sacrifices to protect his family.

Min-seok’s father follows him outside. He’s uneasy about Hyung-seok, not just because of the package but because of bad dreams he’s been having. “It’s just ‘cause you’re getting old,” Min-seok assures him. “Why not start dating like Tae-seok’s mom?” He tells his father to not worry and go seduce women, then rushes off. “Take care of yourself!” Dad yells after him. “Be careful while playing sports!”

When he’s alone, Min-seok tries to call his brother, but he doesn’t answer. As much as he might deny it to his father, Min-seok is getting worried too. He goes to school, and his friends help with the roll-call-window-escape routine that he’s got mastered by now.

As luck would have it, Min-seok enters the lobby right after Soo-young and Jin-woo. He hears them as Soo-young thanks Jin-woo for the lovely dinner, and Jin-woo returns a watch she left in the bathroom of his apartment. Min-seok stands there in the lobby after they leave, perplexed and definitely NOT happy.

Min-seok immediately confronts Jin-woo, demanding to know what he’s playing at with Soo-young. Jin-woo says it’s none of his business, but Min-seok insists and Jin-woo gives it to him straight. “It was awkward after she confessed her feelings, but seeing you so concerned about her made me curious,” he says. “She has a funny side, and she’s charming… as a woman.” Min-seok gets up in his grill, but Jin-woo accurately points out that he’s getting pretty worked up over his secretary.

In the Retail Team office, Team Leader Kim praises Soo-young for her quick thinking with the scooter the day before. Her colleagues see her in a new light. Han Sang-hee, the colleague who made the post-it note mistake, even comes over to thank her personally. The only person who isn’t overjoyed with Soo-young’s recent actions is Min-seok, who leans against the doorway with a skeptical look on his face.

Min-seok calls Soo-young in to talk privately in his office. He says he has something to tell her “for her own good,” and she obediently gets out her notebook to record it. He hesitates… but in the end he can’t say anything. He sends her out.

Now alone in the office, he laments that he can’t tell her the truth about who fired her, because she would only get hurt again. Soo-young begins working diligently on his schedule, but he interrupts her soon with an instant message asking what she’s up to. He says he’s only bored, but he’s still struggling with what to say to her.

Then Soo-young gets a message from Jin-woo, wishing her a happy afternoon and including the song he shared with her the other night. She happily gets out her earphones and starts listening. However, she mistakenly sends her message of gratitude to Min-seok instead of Jin-woo, and that’s enough to push the concerned fake director over the edge.

He calls her on the office phone and begins scolding her for not seeing through Jin-woo’s kindness. She rushes in to the office and he keeps shouting, telling her that she shouldn’t take what Jin-woo says at face value. Soo-young thinks he should be more forgiving of people’s faults, and further tells him that it’s inappropriate to lecture her this way. Before leaving she asks about her moss, and Min-seok snaps that he threw it away.

Our office gossipers pick up quickly on the odd relationship between the director and his secretary. There is some disagreement on whether anything is going on, and they would probably have kept arguing about it, but Assistant Manager Yoon cuts in and tells them to get back to work. From his expression, however, he knows that something is not right between the two allies.

Min-seok steams in his office. “Do as you like!” he says to the empty office. “It doesn’t matter to me if you get hurt!” He’s upset that she got angry at him when he thinks he was only trying to protect her.

Up on the rooftop, Soo-young is similarly puzzled and confused. Director Lee was nice to her, and then teased her, and now he gets mad at her, and she doesn’t know why he keeps changing. “It’s okay,” she says, as if trying to convince herself. “Everything’s okay.”

Soo-young asks to leave work, and Min-seok is still sulking with a video game in his office. He grunts a monosyllabic approval, and she bows and leaves. Then a call comes in about hockey practice, so Min-seok has to leave as well.

At practice he’s feeling more than the usual amount of frustration, and he picks a fight with his sunbae when he gets checked. Their teammates have to tear the two apart, and Min-seok is held back after practice by the coach to talk about his attitude.

Duk-hwan and Tae-seok wait for him afterwards with a band-aid for his face. They chatter about the “women people” at his office to try and lighten his mood. Min-seok just walks along in silence. Then Yoo-ah rushes up to them, delighted to see “Husband Lee” but upset about the scratch on his face. She offers to buy him dinner, which he turns down tersely. When she offers again, he snaps at her that he said he didn’t feel like it. “Why do you keep bothering me when I said I don’t feel like it?” he yells, losing his cool with her for perhaps the first time. For once, Yoo-ah is too shocked to say anything.

Later, Min-seok sees Soo-young getting out of Jin-woo’s car after another dinner together. He walks angrily down the street, kicks some boxes, and then comes to a stop. His expression fixes into one of resolve, and he runs off.

Soo-young sees a poster for a missing dog that’s about to fall down, and she gets on tip-toe to try and fix it. She receives a call from Min-seok, who asks whether she likes jjajangmyeon or jjampong more. “I’m someone who needs to know what I’m curious about,” he insists. She says jjajangmyeon, so he asks whether she prefers winter or summer. “Winter,” she answers, still trying to fix the poster with one hand. “Then there’s one more question I have to ask you,” Min-seok tells her.

He walks up and reaches over her, putting the poster back in place. He’s out of his business suit now, wearing a shirt that makes him look more like the high school student he is. “This one I need your help with,” he says. “Ten seconds… ten seconds would be enough.” Then he pulls her into an embrace.

 
COMMENTS

This drama. SO GOOD! Consistently funny, sometimes irreverent, yet always circling back to the real emotional struggles the characters face. Min-seok’s growing frustration, Jin-woo’s repressed anguish over his family, Yoo-ah’s surprising maturity and protectiveness when her sister’s having a hard time… it all gets me right in the heart.

It was nice that Soo-young didn’t immediately take the job that Min-seok offered her. Her comments about having to rely on yourself and weather adversity were right on the money, and it’s also true that Min-seok got carried away. He saw something he considered wrong, and wanted to fix it immediately by any means necessary. But in doing so, he didn’t consider any of the problems that might arise from his actions. Loyal and good-hearted he might be, but he has some growing to do.

The scene with Soo-young’s mother solved the dilemma really well, since Min-seok received a second chance to articulate his feelings. He apologized for being impulsive, then explained why he actually did need a secretary, and that he couldn’t think of anyone better than Soo-young. It was good practice for him, forcing him to think before he speaks, and speak before he acts. He’s going to need that practice if he wants to survive in the company, and even more if he wants to compete with Jin-woo for Soo-young’s affections.

Soo-young, as always, won me over with her somewhat clumsy but always sincere approach to life. Some people find Lee Hana’s acting a little over the top, and to a certain extent I agree, but for me it doesn’t detract from the endearing nature of her character. Soo-young throws herself headlong into everything she does, wearing her heart on her sleeve. She gets burned for it time and again, but it doesn’t make her bitter or turn her inward. She only tries harder, while holding to her sense of what is right. She’s as tenacious as her sister, only with none of the street smarts (or the dirty mouth).

The role of secretary suits her so well. Of course she tried too hard in the beginning, with the Extreme Secretary Makeover and the hardcore schedule organizing. But when the job calls for someone meticulous, someone who doesn’t give up, Soo-young really shines. It was SO satisfying to see the Retail Team acknowledge her after she saved the day with the scooter chase.

The love triangle is shaping up well, too. In the beginning of the episode I thought that Jin-woo was only intrigued by Min-seok, which is why he made overtures to Soo-young. I still believe that, but I think it’s harder to tell if, at some point during this episode, he started liking her for her. There was definitely some measure of vulnerability when he told her about his mother, for example. And it seems to me that for Jin-woo, a closed-off and hugely defensive introvert, Soo-young’s kind-hearted and relentless earnestness will eventually strike a chord with him. He might still have Min-seok in his crosshairs, but Soo-young will grow on him soon enough… she’s like moss that way!

As for Min-seok, I really felt for him this episode. He saves Soo-young’s job and even helps her save face in front of her mother, only to see her gravitating towards the director who fired her in the first place. For someone who places such value on loyalty, that had to have hurt. And then we factor in his growing attraction, which seemed to creep up on him unknowingly until the final moments. Min-seok is a barrel of teen angst right now, but he still does his best to follow his heart and his principles.

I like Min-seok better when he’s comically outraged, rather than dark and broody. It was painful to see him shout at Yoo-ah, who has really won me over in the last few episodes. It seems that no matter how things end up, someone is going to get hurt. But it’s a mark of this show’s quality that no matter who it is, even Jin-woo, we’re going to feel for them. Second leads and antagonists I can honestly root for… that is really rare in my experience, and it makes me love Savvy so much more. About the only people I genuinely want to punch right now are President Yoo and Hyung-seok. I have hope, however, that Jin-woo and Min-seok will take care of that for me in future episodes.

King of Savvy, thank you from the bottom of my heart for making me look forward to Mondays again!

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