It’s Okay, It’s Love: Episode 10

by HeadsNo2

This is one complicated couple, and not just because one of them sees imaginary people and invents entire lives for them. Hae-soo may be new to understanding relationships, but she isn’t new to understanding people—or so you’d think. Even with her fly-by-night ability to read the intentions of the man she doesn’t yet know if she loves, at least this hour makes some good headway as far as exploring Jae-yeol’s past goes. We get some answers, but mostly more questions, which at this stage of the game isn’t so bad. It’s enough to keep us intrigued, that’s for sure.

SONG OF THE DAY

Hong Dae-kwang – “I Feel You” from the OST [ Download ]

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

 
EPISODE 10 RECAP

While Hae-soo is still in shock over Jae-yeol’s cavalier attitude toward moving back into his old place, she finds him heading out with a bag of clothes.

He explains that since the construction noise can’t be heard after dark, he’ll spend the night in his house. Hae-soo tentatively asks when he’ll be back, only to get a shrug from Jae-yeol in return—if his work goes well, it could be a few days. Then, just like that, he leaves.

Hae-soo calls him in a huff later to ask where he is, and whether he has anything to say to her. “Yeah, I do,” he replies. “Sleep well.” Click. Even if she is not happy about his behavior, she can’t help but miss him.

Two days pass without Hae-soo getting a call from Jae-yeol, which has left her pretty exasperated. Jae-yeol, on the other hand, is looking a little rough around the edges and unshaven, even though he can’t help but smile as he remembers kissing Hae-soo on the couch in his living room.

He debates on whether to call Hae-soo with his finger hovering over the button, but eventually decides against it. Hae-soo is left to wander forlornly in his room at her house, and finds a note he left with the code (the flight number from their Okinawa trip) to his locked bathroom, as a way of opening himself up fully to her.

“Now there is no such thing as my private space. You can come in whenever,” the note reads. “But… when are you ever going to tell me that you love me, Ji Hae-soo?” After reading it she lies in his bed/bathtub, lost in thought.

At the prison, Sunbae Jo administers the truth serum to Jae-bum, who’s a little miffed at the idea that even if he’s able to prove that he was telling the truth about Jae-yeol’s involvement, nothing from the session would be permissible in court.

But he still relents to the drug, shrugging that he wants to try it anyway because he doesn’t trust himself anymore to know whether the memories he has are real or not.

Jae-yeol has a talk with PD Choi about featuring Jae-bum on his program—and even though PD Choi claims it’s suspicious that Jae-bum keeps implicating him as the true culprit, Jae-yeol claims it’s more suspicious that the prosecution was able to put his brother away for eleven years without solid evidence.

“I beg you. Clear my brother’s name from this crime. If you can do that for me, you’ll have my respect,” Jae-yeol says. “Also… stop coming around Hae-soo.” Huh, well that’s maybe not the best way to go about asking for a favor.

PD Choi gets on his high horse about how he won’t leave Hae-soo’s side until he’s positive that Jae-yeol isn’t dangerous, and warns him not to get too close to Hae-soo. “What are you going to do if I’ve gotten very close to her?” Jae-yeol retorts, prompting PD Choi to grab his arm violently as he asks if they slept together.

When Jae-yeol tries to just shake him off peacefully, PD Choi punches him in the face. Then he throws another punch, even after Jae-yeol tells him that they should just stop right now, forcing Jae-yeol to fight back in order to defend himself. But he overestimates his strength when he sends PD Choi flying into a stack of crates, knocking him out cold.

Jae-bum takes Sunbae Jo on a journey through his truth-serum-induced memories to the soothing sounds of electrorock. His jealousy of Mama Ok-ja’s favoritism when it came to his little brother over him becomes clear, as does his disdain for the way Jae-yeol would get beaten by their stepfather.

He remembers trying to defend his brother against his stepfather that fateful night, by throwing the oil he’d bought for Mama Ok-ja on him and threatening to set him on fire. But somehow their stepfather got the upper hand, and started beating the daylights out of Jae-bum while Jae-yeol watched.

That’s when Jae-yeol grabbed the knife, and how their stepfather was stabbed. Jae-bum was the one to pull their stepfather off Jae-yeol (since he’d sort of “fallen” onto the knife and his little brother), leading to the bits of flashback we’ve seen where Jae-bum took the knife out.

In the present, Jae-bum cries, “Jae-yeol is the one who killed him. Jae-yeol killed him. Jae-yeol killed him. Jae-yeol killed him!!” Sunbae Jo’s eyes go wide in shock. Could it be that this is the real truth?

Hae-soo talks a suicidal patient down successfully, but is reminded of finding Jae-yeol slumped in the park bathroom corner when the patient also falls asleep in the hospital bathroom.

After So-nyeo catches Soo-kwang trying his best to help her father curb his trash hoarding habits, he tsks at a bruised PD Choi sitting in the cafe. Jae-yeol and PD Choi have reached a tentative truce/understanding, even though PD Choi won’t let the matter with Hae-soo rest as he asks, “Do you love Ji Hae-soo? You really aren’t just toying with her?”

Jae-yeol knows that PD Choi would get angry no matter his answer, and refuses to pass on Choi’s message to Hae-soo that while he doesn’t think he can forget her easily, he won’t be bothering her with his presence if she doesn’t like it.

But Jae-yeol does tell him not to rush, because Hae-soo isn’t a girl who could be forgotten so easily. Even after all the animosity, Jae-yeol still asks PD Choi to do well with his brother’s TV interview—and while making the promise to buy him a drink in payment sometime, he sees Kang-woo outside the cafe and gestures to him. PD Choi looks where he pointed and finds no one there.

PD Choi rushes out of the cafe when he gets a call that his team found the lawyer who handled Jae-bum’s case, passing by Jae-yeol and the imaginary Kang-woo engaged in conversation.

Kang-woo just wants Jae-yeol to tell him if his writing would pass or fail in his eyes (since he recently gave him a manuscript), only to erupt in elation when Jae-yeol tells him the truth: He’d pass.

Soo-kwang watches the “exchange” with interest, obviously because Jae-yeol is talking to no one in his eyes. Afterward, Tae-yong calls Jae-yeol to double check if he really needs his business card wallet back, because if so, it means Tae-yong has to go to the rural police station to get it.

When Jae-bum starts coming-to from the truth serum, he’s more like a child flooded with tentative relief—because now he can believe himself when he claims he didn’t kill his stepfather.

Sunbae Jo empathizes with him as he notes, “You must have felt so lonely all this time. Don’t be lonely anymore. I know how you feel, Jae-bum.” Jae-bum can’t help himself and breaks down into pitiful sobs. Sunbae Jo gives him some space to sort his feelings, but expresses his hope that they’ll meet again.

Jae-bum flashes back to how his mother found him holding the knife over their stepfather and immediately went to tend to the unconscious Jae-yeol. But just when you think all of this was based off Mama Ok-ja’s misconceptions about who did the deed, we find out it was Jae-bum who told her that Jae-yeol stabbed him… but that he’d take the fall with the police for his little brother.

He then explains that he thought he’d only be in prison for a few years, but when he was served with eleven, he decided to tell the truth: that Jae-yeol killed their stepfather. It was then that both Jae-yeol and Mama Ok-ja turned their backs on him and called him a liar. No wonder he feels so betrayed.

Jae-yeol calls Hae-soo for the first time in five days to tell her that his producer liked the talk show they did before and wants to invite her back as a guest. Hae-soo asks what he’ll do for her if she agrees to do this for him—will he decide not to move? “I can’t do that,” Jae-yeol replies.

“You, do you even love me?” Hae-soo challenges. Jae-yeol: “Like crazy. I wish you were here with me right now.” While his tone is romantic and wistful, Hae-soo isn’t having it.

Taking Hae-soo’s bluster as proof that she won’t do the show, Jae-yeol hangs up just like that, leaving Hae-soo to sigh about how much she misses him.

Hae-soo counsels the married couple with shared psychotic disorder after a week of keeping them separated, proving that the wife wouldn’t see the imaginary cockroaches unless she was with her husband. Her husband, even while separated, saw the hallucinations every night still.

To try and get to the bottom of the disorder, Hae-soo asks both of them what happened right before they started seeing these cockroaches—but they’re both reluctant to say, with the husband telling Hae-soo that she wouldn’t understand unless she was married.

Sunbae Jo enters Jae-yeol’s room when he isn’t there, happening across a published collection of Jae-yeol’s memories he wrote when he was fifteen. With Jae-bum’s confession fresh in his mind, he sits down to read it, focusing specifically on Jae-yeol’s use of the term “self-defense.”

Luckily, Sunbae Jo is able to cover for himself when Jae-yeol finds him reading in his room by acting like his usual eccentric self, though he does ask about the manuscript—how did he know about how self-defense worked at such a young age?

Jae-yeol claims he saw it in the news relating to a rape victim who wasn’t found guilty after taking revenge on her rapist, because it was considered an act of self-defense. He tells Sunbae Jo that it made him think the law was fair, at least until Jae-bum’s case changed that.

Hae-soo appears in the doorway and asks Sunbae Jo, “What do you think about Jang Jae-yeol moving out of here and leaving me behind?” Sunbae Jo hurriedly says he’d come to her defense, then gets the heck out of dodge.

Jae-yeol tries to be affectionate with Hae-soo like nothing’s wrong, even though the very reason she’s angry is the moving box staring them both in the face. When she mentions his unshaven face, he asks if she doesn’t find it sexy, to which she replies with that same, same, SAME old refrain: “Why, did your other women think it was sexy?”

Still, Jae-yeol hasn’t been able to get past his writer’s block, and just the thought of it has him flexing that hand that’s always spasming on him. Hae-soo gets upset that Jae-yeol has been having nightmares because he’s been sleeping in his office chair, and tsks that she can’t be in a relationship with him… before ordering him down to the kitchen so she can make him a proper meal.

Sunbae Jo discusses the Jae-yeol/Jae-bum case with Doctor Lee (leaving the names out for confidentiality), and how it was less of a murder and more of an accident, since their stepfather fell onto the knife the younger brother was holding. His hyung, though, still saw it as murder.

Doctor Lee guesses that their mother didn’t testify on the older brother’s behalf because she walked in on the scene when he was holding the bloody knife in his hand. But when she asks what Sunbae Jo thinks about why the little brother lied in court, he presents a few theories:

The first is that the little brother could’ve thought the accident was actually murder and framed his hyung to get out of it—but Sunbae Jo knows that isn’t true now that he’s read Jae-yeol’s memoirs, since even then, Jae-yeol knew the difference between an accident and a murder and how that’d be taken in court.

So that leaves him with the second theory, which is the one Jae-bum posits: That framing him was a premeditated act by Jae-yeol (I’m using their names to make it easier, but know that he isn’t) done in an effort to get rid of his abusive stepfather and abusive brother. But again, Sunbae Jo doesn’t believe this either.

The reason he doesn’t is because it wouldn’t make sense for Jae-yeol to want Jae-bum freed from prison if it was all a cover-up, since he’s seen firsthand how much Jae-yeol actually cares for Jae-bum. Which leaves the question of why Jae-yeol would’ve lied about his brother committing the murder in the first place.

While Doctor Lee is more concerned with the official crime committed, Sunbae Jo’s interests lie in caring for the two brothers’ pain and suffering. How can he treat Jae-bum, who’s been rotting in prison for fourteen years under false charges? How can he treat Jae-yeol, who may pretend to be optimistic on the outside, even though there’s no way he could’ve escaped being traumatized?

Doctor Lee is of the belief that even if Jae-yeol/the younger brother isn’t showing signs now, that kind of trauma is bound to surface sometime. Sunbae Jo at least seems confident that both brothers will have help and support, even if he’s less worried about the younger of the two, because he has a good person (Hae-soo) by his side.

Since she’d told Hae-soo as much last episode, Doctor Lee finally works up the courage to apologize to her ex-husband not only about bringing up their feelings the other day, but for using contraceptives against his wishes when they were still married.

Sunbae Jo treats the subject with the utmost understanding, and acknowledges that she wouldn’t have become the doctor she is today if she’d had a baby then. “I really do love you very much,” he says, before adding that if there’s one thing he’s learned through loving her, it’s that the sexiest kind of relationship is a true friendship between a man and a woman—and that he won’t ruin their friendship by giving into the physical desires he still has for her.

Jae-yeol can’t understand why Hae-soo is so upset with him about his move, but at least he’s not alone. Soo-kwang tells Hae-soo to ask herself if she really thought that Jae-yeol would live in their house forever—and besides, it’ll make it easier for them to have sexy times if they’re not having to worry about him or Sunbae Jo being around. Win/win, right?

That’s when Sunbae Jo cuts in to say that their house will be a place of total abstinence, and that he better not hear any suspicious sounds in the middle of the night. It doesn’t ease Hae-soo’s surly attitude, and Jae-yeol knows enough by now to tiptoe around her constantly-flaring temper.

But when Soo-kwang tries to make fun of him for being whipped, Jae-yeol throws a glass of water in his face to shut him up.

Hae-soo talks to Sunbae Jo about Jae-yeol’s deep-seated issues relating to his past and his current writer’s block, completely unaware that Sunbae Jo knows a lot more about him than she does. But, he agrees to take on Jae-yeol’s case for her, and right after gets a text from PD Choi asking him to meet with the lawyer who handled Jae-bum’s case.

At the rural police station, Tae-yong is unable to process the video of Jae-yeol fighting with thin air, but he refuses to let the officers think ill of his best friend even if he’s so scared by what he’s seen that he can’t help but cry.

He decides to trace down the location where the police found Jae-yeol’s wallet, and though they couldn’t find any evidence of Kang-woo, the camera that took the footage was stationed by a burned down house… which used to be Jae-yeol’s childhood home.

Tae-yong, very clearly afraid for his friend now, calls Jae-yeol to innocently ask him for Kang-woo’s high school name and phone number. Hae-soo backhugs Jae-yeol while he’s on the phone only to get flung away like a pest, leaving her more than a little bewildered.

As expected, the number Tae-yong dials for Kang-woo doesn’t exist. But it’s still sad to see his hope die with that call as the realization hits that something is very, very wrong with Jae-yeol.

Jae-yeol looks like a different version of himself when he finally addresses Hae-soo by asking if she misunderstood his profession of love to mean that she could treat him however she wanted—because if so, she needs to stop being so inconsiderate.

She interrupts him when he begins to say why he’s moving to ask if they are or aren’t dating. He’s upset that she’s confused about that even after they slept together, and points out how he’s extra considerate around her and her work when she doesn’t reciprocate. “The reason I’m moving—…”

“…Is because you can’t work here,” Hae-soo finishes for him. “It’s because of your work, isn’t it? I have a job of my own, did you think I wouldn’t understand?” Gee, I dunno. Did you just spend the last forty-five minutes acting like you understood?

She claims she would’ve pushed him to move out if he hadn’t brought it up, is how much she understands. He then asks her why she said he was the inconsiderate one, and she gets choked up when she says it’s because he makes her worry with how little he’s been taking care of himself lately. She cares too much, is why.

Jae-yeol’s anger fades with understanding as he sighs, “I missed you.” But Hae-soo’s not quite done, as she asks him why he treated the subject of moving so matter-of-factly. He replies that she’s always so cool about everything that he didn’t think she’d be all that shocked—but now that he knows, he’s glad. “It sounds like you love me.”

Hae-soo asks how he managed relationships with his previous women (*headdesk*) with work in the past, only for him to ask how she would even dare comparing herself with them when she’s on a completely different level.

So she works with him on setting a fixed weekly time for them to go on dates, with the condition that they’ll call ahead if they want an unscheduled date. Even though skinship is permitted, Hae-soo doesn’t let Jae-yeol kiss her, citing that she doesn’t like unplanned moves like that. Should the gentleman submit a request form a week prior, then?

Jae-yeol acknowledges how difficult and cruel she is with a resigned air, enough for her to acquiesce to granting him one wish. She’s actually disappointed when he doesn’t ask for a kiss, and instead asks her to appear on that talk show again with him.

“I love you,” Jae-yeol says. “I don’t yet,” she fires back. But she does finally admit that she’s been hard on him, especially when he admitted he loved her and lets her win most of their (many) arguments when she’s never returned the sentiment in words. So instead, she’ll return it with actions, and offers to turn off the lights—‘cause it’s business time.

While Tae-yong goes to the high school Jae-yeol claimed Kang-woo went to only to find that there’s no Kang-woo enrolled there, Jae-yeol pays a visit to Hae-soo’s mom and dad’s restaurant. Apparently, his visiting Mom is a regular occurrence now.

Hae-soo’s jealous brother-in-law puts Jae-yeol in the hot seat by mentioning marriage, which has Jae-yeol laughing nervously as he says that he and Hae-soo are more, uh, career-motivated right now.

Hae-soo’s unni, Yoon-soo, calls her to take her to task about sleeping with Jae-yeol and allowing him to get so close to their mother when she has no intention of marrying him. She claims that marriage is in their blood, it’s what they just do, and that she tolerates her husband’s alcoholism and poor financial decisions because she made a vow, damn it. And Hae-soo should too, or end things with Jae-yeol.

Both Hae-soo and Jae-yeol end up rushing to the station just in time to make their broadcast appearance, and Hae-soo gets denied for a quick elevator kiss when Jae-yeol turns her attention to the security camera because he only told the broadcasters that they met the last time they were on the show.

When Hae-soo asks why he didn’t just tell them they were dating, Jae-yeol replies in his usual devil-may-care way that he was simply too lazy. Hae-soo thinks back to her sister’s words of warning regarding Jae-yeol being a professional player, and makes him explain himself.

“‘She’s the woman I’m dating.’ Are those words bothersome to say? Or do you not want them to know because I’m a woman you’ll eventually break up with anyway?” She asks, her temper flaring.

He asks her for clarification, as if he can’t believe that she’d insinuate he was so insincere about her, and she doesn’t hesitate to give it to him: “If I’m not a woman you’re going to marry, then I’m a woman you’re going to break up with, aren’t I?”

Jae-yeol’s expression turns serious as he looks her straight in the eye. “What would I have to say? You’re right.”

 
COMMENTS

As much as I like Jae-yeol, I’ve been really looking forward to seeing his psychological issues come to the forefront if only because it’d add something new to the relationship dynamic that isn’t just a lather, rinse, repeat of Hae-soo being insecure and Jae-yeol either reassuring her, lecturing her, or using mind games to lead her to the right conclusion.

I’d really love it if this show didn’t make the act of liking Hae-soo more difficult by the hour, because watching her has turned tedious. It’s fine if she’s got a mountain of personal issues to overcome when it comes to her relationship with Jae-yeol, but lately it’s just boiled down to one issue lately (her debilitating sense of insecurity), and it keeps manifesting no matter the situation and despite what should be at least partially rational thoughts to the contrary. Never mind the fact that she has a degree in rational, levelheaded thinking.

But fine, let’s say we rolled with the idea that Hae-soo is incapable of self-therapy and that, at least when she’s with Jae-yeol, she can’t control her compulsion to mention his past with women or her inability to believe any word he says. She waffles between being an adult in a relationship to being a child engaged in a petty argument, and so far hasn’t found a grey area where she can just be. Heck, she even acknowledged that she’s unduly hard on him and that they bicker constantly—but that’s about it as far as development. I know relationships are a process, but why is it that this one feels especially processed?

I did enjoy all the developments that weren’t directly tied to their relationship though, like Tae-yong’s solo hunt for the truth, Sunbae Jo’s heart-to-heart with Doctor Lee, and Jae-bum’s journey back into his memories of that fateful night. The twist that he was the one who volunteered to take the blame for his brother was unexpected, and all the more tragic because of what Jae-yeol eventually did to him… if Jae-bum’s version of events is to be believed wholeheartedly. And I’m honestly inclined to trust anyone as a narrator in this show, even under the influence of truth-telling drugs.

It’s the questions posed during Sunbae Jo’s talk with Doctor Lee that keep me intrigued, because it’s honestly hard to form a theory with what piecemeal information we’ve been given. If the trauma of implicating his own brother for his crime is what caused Jae-yeol to disconnect from his past, then the question that remains is one of intent. Is Jae-yeol an honest and righteous person, or a cold-hearted schemer who’d frame his own brother to save his skin? There’s got to be more to it than that, and I can’t wait to find out what. Bring on the truth serum! Lord knows more dramas could use it.

 
RELATED POSTS

• It’s Okay, It’s Love: Episode 9
• It’s Okay, It’s Love: Episode 8
• It’s Okay, It’s Love: Episode 7
• It’s Okay, It’s Love: Episode 6
• It’s Okay, It’s Love: Episode 5
• It’s Okay, It’s Love: Episode 4
• It’s Okay, It’s Love: Episode 3
• It’s Okay, It’s Love: Episode 2
• It’s Okay, It’s Love: Episode 1