Heart to Heart: Episode 5

by LollyPip

Look at that face — that’s a lovestruck boy if ever I saw one! Last week, we were treated to adults acting like adults in bed, and this week we get to see adults acting like adults OUT of bed, which is just as refreshing. This episode is all about frank talks and honesty, and finding out that sometimes the fear of something is a thousand times worse than the reality. But the best tactic is to face things head-on no matter what the outcome, because often you find that you have friends, and maybe more, in unexpected places.

EPISODE 5 RECAP

We’re taken back to seven years ago, on the night when Hong-do’s home was broken into and she met Doo-soo. There’s a crowd gathered, and Doo-soo finds Hong-do huddled in the crawlspace between homes, hiding in fear of either the home invader, the crowd, or both. He speaks to her soothingly and crawls in with her to cover her with a blanket.

Soon after, Doo-soo had delivered a cute pair of coffee mugs to Hong-do’s doorstep, with a note apologizing for a glass he broke while in her house. He’d come back later to replace the bulb in the street light over her front door, to make her place safer. That’s so thoughtful — no wonder she fell for him.

Back in the present, it’s the morning after Hong-do and Yi-seok went to bed together. Yi-seok’s phone rings, waking Hong-do, but Yi-seok ignores it to pull her in for sleepy cuddles and kisses. Hong-do stays frozen, looking unsure how to react.

Yeon-woo chooses this of all mornings to let herself into Yi-seok’s apartment, and is greeted by the sight of him and Hong-do in bed together. Hong-do spots her first and rolls out of bed to hide, while slower Yi-seok gets a pastry to the face, and follows Yeon-woo to the elevator.

He calls that it’s nothing serious with Hong-do, but Yeon-woo is more distraught by the fact that he slept in the same bed with Hong-do all night, when he never could do that with her. He doesn’t have a good answer for this, and just hangs his head as she gets in the elevator to leave. As the elevator door closes, she says this was the final step in their breaking-up process (wait, her getting engaged wasn’t?).

Hong-do uses Yi-seok’s distraction to slip behind him and into the stairwell, in no mood to talk about all this. Poor Yi-seok is left to snarl at his neighbor’s little girl, who adorably orders Oppa not to yell. Hong-do runs all the way home and all the way to her closet, shutting herself in the dark.

Butler Ahn is frustrated with Chairman Go, who nixes every assistant candidate that he puts in front of him. I love how comfortably Butler Ahn speaks to the chairman, saying that he’s frustrated that he fired “Madam Oh” and championing her when the chairman criticizes her.

Yi-seok spends the day grumbling that Hong-do didn’t come to work and calls her, though she never answers. He calls Doo-soo for her address, who refuses to give it, but does offer to check on her if something happened. Yi-seok sends a message with him, to either call him or show up for work tomorrow, or she’s fired.

Hong-do is still hanging out in her closet when Doo-soo calls her, though she cringes in horror from the phone instead of answering. Memories of the night before flood her mind, and she sees scenes of herself and Yi-seok in bed as if they’re projected on every wall. She may be embarrassed today, but they sure looked happy together last night.

Doo-soo and Yang sit on a bench on a semi-stakeout, and conversation turns to Hong-do. Doo-soo says he told her to stop bringing him things, but Yang is skeptical that she’ll be able to do that. Doo-soo says he’s worried about her, so Yang offers to check on her in his place since it might be awkward if Doo-soo goes to her place now. Doo-soo’s knee-jerk reaction makes Yang think he actually does like her.

Yi-seok visits Dr. Uhm, worried that he’s having trouble seeing patients since Hong-do isn’t around. He thinks whatever is causing him to react to people is getting worse, or that his nerves are more sensitive now that he knows Hong-do’s closeness calms his symptoms. Haha, Dr. Uhm is all, “Stop being so complicated, and just admit you like her.”

She reminds Yi-seok not to cross a line since Hong-do is also his patient, and he admits he already slept with her. He’s so cutely befuddled as to why though; I love it. He wonders out loud why things progressed so fast in spite of her emotional issues, and wonders if Hong-do intentionally came on to him, which earns him a painful double-ear-twist from Dr. Uhm.

Doo-soo caves and goes to Hong-do’s house, calling to her from outside. She slides open the closet door to listen but doesn’t answer him, and he sits on the wall to talk. Doo-soo chatters about things like her disguise and how smart she seems, while Hong-do despairs to herself that he’ll never like her if he finds out she slept with Yi-seok.

Doo-soo says that in his opinion, when Hong-do finally comes out into the world, she’ll do great things because she’s so smart and clever. He apologizes for upsetting her, and says that she should forget about him and stop locking herself up, and come out for herself and nobody else.

Yi-seok visits his sick grandfather, and it’s really sweet how doting and caring he is with the chairman. The chairman asks if he smells anything, but Yi-seok gets a good whiff and says that he just smells like an old man. Hee. He promises to buy him some cologne to mask the old man smell. These two are cute together. Yi-seok tries to call Hong-do again but she’s still not answering.

In the morning, Butler Ahn calls her, confused because the home address she gave him is actually the bakery. This finally gets her out of her Closet of Shame, and she gets in her disguise to meet him at the bakery for coffee. He tells her (with kind laughter) that the chairman is very upset because he thinks she looks down on him, which she vehemently denies.

Hong-do tells Butler Ahn that she thinks the chairman misunderstood something, and he gives her a tip: First give the chairman a compliment, then be honest. If you always give him a compliment first, then you can pretty much say whatever you want. He suggests that she go apologize in person and she may get her job back.

Hong-do cringes at the thought, but Butler Ahn matter-of-factly says that he’ll die if they don’t hire someone, soon. Hong-do still tries to decline citing personal reasons, but Butler Ahn’s good-natured, “I didn’t peg you as a quitter,” gets her back to the house.

She gingerly enters the chairman’s bedroom, where he’s still sleeping like a Victorian lady with the vapors. In trying to adjust his covers, Hong-do loses her balance and falls on him, waking him up. He tells her to leave but she launches into her apology, and explains that she wasn’t implying that he smelled, but that it was actually herself who reeked of alcohol that day.

Hong-do uses Butler Ahn’s advice and compliments the chairman on firing her in that situation, but regrets that she can’t do the job anymore. She starts to go but the chairman grumbles that he read her wrong, and says that when a person starts something, they should finish it. There’s that prod to her pride again, and it stops her.

At his office, Yi-seok stares at Hong-do’s empty chair, then gets an idea. He sets up a helmet-shaped lamp and pillows in her chair, arranges her coat around it, and gives it some work and a pen. A bit less lonely, he pats Lamp Hong-do and gets back to work. Cute.

Hong-do heads home but runs into her landlord, who has evidently met “Hong-do’s grandmother” before. She reminds her that the rent has been raised and is due immediately or she’s out. She has no pity, and tells her to just do whatever she has to do to get the money.

Later Hong-do listens to a voicemail from Yi-seok, telling her she’s overreacting to their night together. He grouches that she’d better not try to hang onto him or tell him to take responsibility or, God forbid, say she loves him. Ha, it sounds more like he’s trying to convince himself, and Hong-do marvels at his behavior, worried that he thinks she likes him.

Doo-soo and Yang have dinner, where Yang tells Doo-soo that it’s always the one who did the dumping that feels worse. Doo-soo is all, “Who dumped what?” and says that since she’s so closed-off to the world, their relationship isn’t a simple man-woman one. Yang tells him that he’d better just leave her alone or things could get worse, but Doo-soo insists he’s just worried something bad happened to her. Uh-huh.

Doo-soo tells Yang that she’s being treated by Yi-seok, and Yang tells him about all the bad rumors saying that Yi-seok’s a player. Ha, he uses face-reading to “prove” it, and concludes that he probably seduced Hong-do. This gives Doo-soo something new to worry about.

He calls Yi-seok out to talk, but Yi-seok says he’s already fired Hong-do and it’s all over. He says the only reason she got treatment from him was because of Doo-soo, figuring that Doo-soo must secretly like that she’s so fixated on him. He advises Doo-soo to forget her and just get married, and hangs up on him. (Actually, he always hangs up on him, which totally gets Doo-soo’s goat every time.)

Later that night, Yi-seok is woken by another, more drunken call from Doo-soo, who’s waiting outside his house. He demands to know if Yi-seok did anything he shouldn’t have done to Hong-do, and Yi-seok is sick of all these games so he baldly admits to sleeping with her. Doo-soo responds with a right hook, but Yi-seok doesn’t rise to the bait and determines that he’s upset that Hong-do stopped speaking to him.

He avoids another punch and Doo-soo accuses him of trying to scar him on purpose, but Yi-seok (rightly) asks what’s scarring about two people having sex by mutual agreement. He claims he’s the injured party in all this, not Hong-do, but laughs in Doo-soo’s face when he asks if Yi-seok loves her.

Doo-soo hollers that it’s not normal to have sex with someone without any feelings attached, and asks if he’s not guilty that someone who only just came out of her house is now confined again because of him. This renders Yi-seok speechless, and Doo-soo just calls him a dog and leaves. I can’t help but laugh at Yi-seok’s need to get the last word, but he’s only able to call a feeble, “You too!”

Yi-seok retires to his car, gasping at the giant raspberry Doo-soo’s fist gave him. He closes his eyes, but startles when a finger touches his sore cheek. It’s Hong-do, who kisses his boo-boo before laying her head on his chest, and they both drift off to sleep. Of course, we see that he’s dreaming, and is actually alone in the car.

Yi-seok is given tea and a lecture by the housekeeper for sleeping in his car and thoroughly chilling himself. Grandma Hong-do tries to sneak past (having gotten a call from Chairman Go to come talk) but Yi-seok spots her and greets her politely. She flies up the stairs when just glimpsing his face brings back the sexy memories.

The chairman tells Hong-do that he’s thinking of re-hiring her, offering her one more chance. She tells him that she thinks kitchen work suits her better, and that this job scares her. He tells her that life is about taking risks, giving her something to ponder.

She goes to the bank to ask for a loan, but they say that since the lease is under her “granddaughter’s” name, she has to come apply for the loan. Hong-do lays on the concerned grandmother act with a huge side of guilt, but she’s distracted by a text from Yi-seok telling her to just come apologize and he’ll give her her job back.

Se-ro is at another audition, telling the interviewers honestly that she’s not afraid of taking her clothes off for her art. She’s ready to disrobe right there to prove it, but they stop her to read a scene instead. Something about the scene involving the death of an older brother makes her uncomfortable, and she asks if she can make it a sister instead.

Yi-seok spends a productive day reading manhwas in his office until Hong-do shows up, and his smile is so cute when he sees her. Ohmygosh this is the best thing ever, because Hong-so actually apologizes for getting drunk and using Yi-seok, HAHA. His expression is priceless, but she explains that when she realized Doo-soo was getting married, she went a little crazy. He’s still confused, so she says she feels bad because it seemed like he likes her. Oh, you think?

She says that she doesn’t see anyone but Doo-soo as a man, which makes Yi-seok scoff (a bit too loudly?) and insist that he most certainly does not like her. But Hong-do calls him out for the way he looked at her that night, like she was precious, though Yi-seok insists that she misunderstood because she’s inexperienced. They both decide to just agree that they don’t like each other and pretend it never happened. Yi-seok laughs Hong-do out the door, but when she’s gone he stares like a confused puppy, wondering what he’s feeling right now.

Doo-soo and his fiancee (her name is Da-young) go to try on wedding dresses, but Doo-soo is so distracted that he literally doesn’t even notice when she’s revealed in all her wedding finery. He snaps to when she calls his name, and says all the right things, but Da-young unhappily watches him take a call as the curtains close again.

It’s Yang calling — a drunk Se-ro has shown up at the station to complain (in drunken English) that it’s all Doo-soo’s fault she lost another acting role. She’s slurring that she’s going to sue him again, as she starts taking off her clothes right there in front of everyone. Yang manages to steer her to the couch until Doo-soo can come help.

Hong-do folds laundry, grinning sheepishly when she gets to the pair of panties she wore the night she spent with Yi-seok. She notices a hole and wails, because of course Yi-seok must have seen it. Right then he sends her a text, cryptically telling her to keep a journal.

He’s currently home and bothered that she apologized first (uh, didn’t you TELL her to?). She texts him asking if he saw “it” that night, and he calls her for clarification. She’s evasive, so he tells her to just concentrate on writing a journal, expecting her to do it right now while they’re talking.

She pulls out a journal and he gives her an assignment: to write down her daily thoughts, especially everything she’s felt after meeting someone, or doing something new. This is such a transparent way for him to try to find out what she thought of him in bed, ha. He instructs her to be honest and use as much detail as possible.

Se-ro is asleep when Doo-soo gets to the station, and it’s funny how Yang loudly protests that he wasn’t the one who took her clothes off. Doo-soo lifts her to take her home, and Yang’s offer to take her himself gets him a knee in the stomach. At her house, Yang carries her in while Doo-soo makes the connection that she must be Yi-seok’s sister.

Hong-do outlines her day in the broadest of terms, knowing that Yi-seok will ask for details she can’t give without blowing her cover. She starts over but is distracted by a pair of knitted mittens. Later, Doo-soo arrives home to find those mittens hung on his door, with a long letter from Hong-do.

In the letter, she admits her feelings when they first met and how she would stake out his home to get a glimpse of him, and how back then that was enough for her. But now she’s getting greedy, even dreaming of marrying him. She says that dream helped her through her grandmother’s death, and his telling her to go out in the world gave her courage to get treatment.

We see her knitting those gloves during the day she spent in her closet, as she goes on to say in the letter that she wanted to get over her illness and stand confidently in front of him. But now, even if she got better, she wouldn’t be able to do that because she’s embarrassed. She thanks him for the last seven years, as we see that when she dropped off the mittens, she also took down the cooler that she’s been leaving snacks in for him all this time.

Dr. Uhm teeters up to Yi-seok’s house in high heels and turns an ankle, but she’s caught by Butler Ahn before she falls. He carries her to the door, adorably complimenting her on being so light and offering to carpet the whole grounds if she wants to wear those pretty heels here again. When did he get all swoony like that?!

She meets Yi-seok on his way out and asks about Hong-do, making him grump that he was fine until she made him think of it again, HA. He says that he doesn’t think Hong-do has anthrophobia (fear of people) after all, because she had no problem talking to him. (He even wonders if she has a split personality — a friendly poke at some other shows airing right now?).

Hong-do is already at his office when he gets there, and he asks if she wrote the journal. She did, though she says it was hard to write her emotions since they’re all alien and confused right now. He notices that she’s blushing, and she’s all, “Well duh, we slept together.” They both claim breezily that they’ve forgotten aaaall about that, while giving each other challenging eyes, and did it just get warm in here?

Yi-seok reluctantly holds a chair so Hong-do can change a lightbulb, and their faces end up very close when she reaches past him for a new one. She reaches out to touch his healing bruise — then, rather than pulling away, she leans in closer and stares at him with wide, curious eyes. She starts to touch his hair and face, saying that she’s testing her feelings, while Yi-seok protests (but does absolutely nothing to make her stop).

Almost dreamily, Hong-do says that she thinks she liked “that moment.” She says she kept thinking about it and feeling weird, but she continues touching Yi-seok as she sighs that she really likes Doo-soo. They look into each other’s eyes for a long, charged moment, and Yi-seok breathes that he liked that moment, too. It definitely just got hot in here.

Doo-soo arrives at the hospital looking for Hong-do, and as he approaches Yi-seok’s office, he hears loud, suspicious noises coming from Hong-do and Yi-seok. As he rounds the doorway he sees them lying on the couch together — but instead of doing anything sexy, Yi-seok is lying on his back on top of a laughing Hong-do, pinning her to the couch and daring her to get free. HAHA, that’s hilarious.

Yi-seok spots Doo-soo first and asks why he’s here, but doesn’t make a move to get off of Hong-do. She sees Doo-soo standing there with a confused look on his face, and they all freeze, unsure what to do.

COMMENTS

Okay, first and foremost, I absolutely adore how many frank adult discussions went on in this episode. Nobody was coy or pretended to be all innocent, nobody acted like nothing happened, and nobody got all weird when it was time to work out the issues caused by Hong-do and Yi-seok’s night together. Well, maybe Doo-soo got all weird, but I’d argue that from his perpective, punching Yi-seok’s lights out was absolutely an appropriate reaction. He’s been Hong-do’s only protector all these years, and to watch some player come in and lure her into his sinful clutches would be hard to stomach, even if there weren’t all the confused feelings between them.

I feel bad for Doo-soo because, though he seems like he’s got it all — a good job, a stable future, and an upcoming marriage to a good woman — I think he must be as lonely as Hong-do is, in his way. He doesn’t really have anyone to talk to other than Yang, and yeah, I wouldn’t tell that guy my deepest feelings either. So instead, he goes to Hong-do’s house to talk to her wall. It seems like he’s there to help her, but the more I watch, the more I think he’s really doing it for himself. Doo-soo talks most when he’s talking to Hong-do, even though she’s not next to him, like she’s a safe place to let out his true feelings. It’s good that he has someone like that, in a way, but not so good because she’s never been able to respond. So it’s only an illusion of closeness, and I think that illusion is wearing thin for both of them. Hong-do is growing greedy for more, but her timing is terribly off, and Doo-soo can’t get her to actually meet him on common ground no matter how hard he tries.

Then on the other hand, the more time Hong-do and Yi-seok spend together, the more their interactions become not only comfortable, but honest and open. And rather than make things even more awkward, their spending the night together seems to have brought them closer. Under the circumstances, I think they both expected things to be weird afterward, but when they finally met face to face and had a frank discussion about it, they both seemed surprised at how easy it was and that they felt even more comfortable around each other. I loved how Yi-seok was so adamant that he didn’t have any feelings for Hong-do, and her being all, “Yeah, I saw how you looked at me, you’re not fooling anyone.” And he’s not… not even himself, anymore. He had to admit that he did feel something, when it came down to it.

I think one of the best things about this show is how it constantly subverts expectations, both ours as viewers but more interestingly, the characters themselves. Dramas seem to often follow such a formula: longing looks + admission of feelings = kisses, for example. It’s reliable and predictable and I have zero complaints about kisses in any form, but it’s not exactly exciting after you’ve seen it a few times. But in this case, I’ll admit I laughed out loud to see Hong-do and Yi-seok NOT making out after such a vulnerable moment, but just playing and laughing and having fun together. It’s that, more than anything, that makes me ship them so hard it almost hurts. Because first they’re friends, then they’re attracted to each other, which is just so healthy. So when those charged moments happen between them, all they have to do is look at each other and I’m swept away in their feelings, and I consistently find myself literally losing my breath at their intense chemistry. It’s the best kind of feeling as a viewer, to actually physically feel what the characters are feeling, and I think those moments are what keep me thinking about this show and these people long after the episode is over.

 
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