Heart to Heart: Episode 10

by LollyPip

This episode is so full of cuteness, it makes me worry that it’s just the calm before the storm. But for now, Yi-seok and Hong-do are just enjoying their shiny new relationship, and trying not to worry about other issues that threaten to intrude. But life isn’t all hearts and kisses, and there are truths that need to be revealed before they can be together freely.

EPISODE 10 RECAP

Doo-soo, Yi-seok, Hong-do, and Se-ro stand in front of the police station in a four-way stand-off. Doo-soo has a grip on Hong-do’s wrist and glares at Yi-seok, while Yi-seok looks resigned and determined, and Se-ro seems disappointed. Hong-do moves towards Yi-seok, but Doo-soo yanks her back to his side, and all four stand in the street without saying a word.

Back in the supermarket, Hong-do is the center of attention as all of the made-up store employees gather around her and chatter, laughing about how funny they look. Hong-do seems relaxed and happy, and looks all of them in the eye without shrinking away or hiding.

Yi-seok walks Hong-do to his car and teases her about her jealousy over Yeon-woo, asking what she would do if he were just playing with her. Feeling confident and happy, Hong-do says she would hang onto him anyway — she says she plans to get cured, and forbids him to go with another woman. You go, girl.

She does ask him why he chooses her since Yeon-woo is clearly better than she is, but Yi-seok just smiles and invites her to dinner at his apartment. Hong-do says she’s a good cook, and now it’s Yi-seok’s turn to be jealous, reminded that she cooked for Doo-soo for seven years.

He makes Hong-do giggle by demanding details, asking whether she kissed Doo-soo or felt his ears like she did with Yi-seok. This is so cute I just can’t stand it, and Hong-do can’t hide her delight at being the object of someone’s jealousy for the first time.

Chairman Go is in the hospital recovering after his collapse outside Hong-do’s home, and I love how he brushes aside his slacker son to talk to Butler Ahn instead. He instructs Butler Ahn to call “Madam Oh,” but not to tell her that he’s sick.

Yi-seok and Hong-do arrive at his apartment, and Yi-seok gets all grabby-hands when she hides a call, trying to see if it was Doo-soo. She insists it wasn’t and Yi-seok orders her never to cheat, and he leans in for kisses — but this time it’s Yi-seok’s phone that rings, with the news that his grandfather is ill. He gets in a quick cuddle then sends her home, promising to pick this back up later. RAWR.

Doo-soo is waiting with takeout when Hong-do arrives home, and he says there’s not much else he can think of to do for her. He leaves her to go in alone, but there’s another package on her doorstep — the box from Chairman Go, which contains the outfit he intended her to wear to the concert.

She takes a call from Butler Ahn, who tells her that the chairman’s friend passed away and their plans are canceled. He keeps saying the wrong things, and the chairman hilariously hits him and makes horrified faces. Finally he just takes the phone himself and asks if she’s tried on the clothes, and tells her to just wear the outfit to work one day so he can see her in it.

Hong-do is worried but the chairman insists he’s fit as a fiddle, proving it by singing for her (and Butler Ahn’s fiercely bland expression is hilarious). He even asks her to go on a bike ride soon, to which she agrees, making the chairman adorably happy.

Hong-do sees a gift inside the package of food that Doo-soo brought, and moans to find a pretty butterfly hairpin. She sits with her face in her hands and wonders what to do, surrounded by gifts from men she’s not interested in.

Chairman Go attends his friend’s funeral, and ignores doctor’s orders to go straight back to the hospital in favor of going to work. He tells Butler Ahn that he’s worried he’ll die before making sure his company is secure, though Ahn is loyal and swears he won’t let that happen. Aww, Butler Ahn is a better son than the chairman’s real son.

Hong-do braves the bank to ask for a loan, without her helmet, though the bank employee has trouble hearing her through her thick scarf, hee. Yi-seok calls to pester her for a packed lunch, but she hangs up on him. He grumbles about her bad habits, which is funny considering the source, but he congratulates himself on his generosity in forgiving her.

A television station has decided to cover an arson case that Detective Yang and Doo-soo are investigating, which has Yang in a tizzy (“I washed my clothes!”) since they’ll be followed by news cameras for a while. They manage to get a good lead from some CCTV footage, and the cameraman tags along as they head out to intercept the suspect.

At the clinic, Hong-do is so focused on knitting a scarf that she doesn’t notice Yi-seok sneaking up on her, and she jumps three feet and hides her project when he knocks on her desk. He sits down with her and asks if it makes sense that they are all alone, they like each other, yet aren’t paying any attention to each other. He suggests they do something about it before they go crazy — ha, someone’s got smoochies on the brain.

Hong-do picks up what he’s puttin’ down and he teases her for having a dirty mind, insisting that he meant a consultation. I don’t know what kind of consultation involves sitting nose-to-nose, but the look on his face proves he’s enjoying Hong-do’s token resistance.

Yi-seok asks why she hung up on him before, and when she balks, he says honesty is important in a professional or personal relationship. She tells him that she wants to get a loan to pay Doo-soo back for the money he paid for her rent, which is the first Yi-seok has heard of this.

He’s too proud of her for getting the loan all on her own to be angry, though, and she says she’s got a good reputation with that bank because she’s a hard worker and regularly deposits her paychecks. He asks again what her other job is, and she almost tells him the truth. Yi-seok asks her to talk to him if something like Doo-soo’s loan happens again.

She flushes with happiness when he matter-of-factly says that’s his job as her boyfriend, to help her with things like that. Yi-seok peppers her face and lips with tiny kitten-kisses, but before it goes any further they’re interrupted by a surprise visit from Chairman Go and Butler Ahn.

HAHA, they jump apart like a pair of naughty teenagers, and Hong-do quickly hides behind her hair and makes herself scarce. The chairman tells Yi-seok that he’s arranged for his father to take over as president of the company, and asked him to move back home.

Intent on making sure everyone is settled before he dies, the chairman tells Yi-seok to bring that girl he was kissing over to meet the family. But he makes it clear that he expects Yi-seok to marry a more suitable girl, and he even has one in mind.

Yi-seok drives Hong-do home later, and he pegs her unusual quiet as worry over Yeon-woo. He assures her that Yeon-woo is only a client, and that she’s getting married soon anyway. He misinterprets Hong-do’s “it must be nice” as meaning “marrying a guy with money,” but she clarifies that she just means marriage, period.

Adorably, Yi-seok seems tickled that Hong-do’s thinking in that direction, and teases her for proposing to him. She’s too worried to play along, concerned that the chairman thought badly of her for not staying and introducing herself. Yi-seok assures her she’ll get another chance, and that she’ll like his grandfather a lot. He doesn’t know she already does!

Hong-do makes a detour to Doo-soo’s place to repay him, but he’s not home — he and Yang are staking out the arson suspect’s house, with the news cameraman recording them. She sends him a text asking where he is because she wants to return something, but he doesn’t respond.

Se-ro is studying for the police test when Yi-seok gets home, though she says it’s just for her acting role. This gal is always studying; I believe her when she says she has a high IQ! She’s happy to hear that her father is moving back in, though it’s mostly so she can use his apartment, which Yi-seok tells her isn’t happening.

Hong-do waits, and eventually Doo-soo answers her text. He says she doesn’t need to return anything, and thinks it will be hard seeing her today. With a sigh, Hong-do heads home.

Yi-seok idly rides his bike around the driveway, singing romantic songs to himself like a lovestruck doofus. He whines about how badly he wants to see Hong-do, and finally gives in and goes to her house. He hollers outside her window until she stumbles out, and when she does, it’s cute how he’s all, “Okay, I saw you, I’m done!”

She tries to convince him to stay, the invitation obvious, but Yi-seok says that as much as he wants to, the timing isn’t right because he’s emotionally vulnerable today. He folds her in a bear hug and says, “Let’s go slowly.”

He lightens up a bit, grabs her hair, and asks why she doesn’t say she loves him. Disappointed, she doesn’t answer, and he turns to go. He stops at the bottom of the stairs and looks back up at her, and complains that she always makes him say things first… “I love you, Cha Hong-do!” OMG he said it!

In fact, he can’t seem to stop saying it as he runs off, hollering at the top of his lungs, “I LOVE YOU!!” and turning back to make giant arm-hearts at her. It’s the cutest thing ever, and Hong-do forgets her disappointment to grin at him as he runs home, screaming his love for her.

In the morning Hong-do walks to work in her grandma disguise and decides she’ll quit today, because she wants to come to this house as herself. Doo-soo calls to apologize for the night before, and says he’s only acting this way because he likes her. She offers to come to the station later, but he says he’ll find her.

Doo-soo gets to work to find Se-ro passing out coffee and flowers, and Yang seems fascinated by her. Doo-soo warns Se-ro that there are criminals here who could use that glass flower vase as a weapon, and she apologizes. Yang pulls rank on the department maknae to impress Se-ro, but he swaggers a bit too hard and bruises his leg on a table corner.

Doo-soo tries to regain control by bringing the topic back to their arson suspect, worried that he’ll claim a mental illness and get a light sentence. He’s distracted when Se-ro picks up one of the mittens that Hong-do knitted, and snatches it back.

Hong-do impresses the chairman when she knows the lyrics to an old favorite poem, but she bites the bullet and tells him that she’s quitting this job. He clutches his chest and scares her to death, but when she pats his back he says he feels better.

Yi-seok goes to Dr. Uhm as a patient, and admits he’s always had a fear of patients. He says he became a psychologist to cure his mother, but his inability to help her made him afraid that his patients would find out he was a bad doctor. He says that when he met Hong-do, for the first time, he was the person he wanted to be.

Dr. Uhm says that must be why his phobia of patients disappears when Hong-do is with him, and asks if he’s told her this. He says he hasn’t because he’s only focused on being with her, and Dr. Uhm suggests he tell her how he feels.

Hong-do comes to work in her scarf and without her helmet, even nodding and greeting the hospital employees. Yi-seok pretends offense that she didn’t call him after his loud confession last night, and she admits she really wanted to grab hold of him. She shows him the lunch box she finally made for him, but Dr. Uhm interrupts to tell Yi-seok that he has to go to the police station immediately.

He whines like a baby but Hong-do tells him to go, and he drags her with him to the station. I love how he asks Doo-soo about aaallll of his bruises from the night they fought. Hong-do and Doo-soo argue over whether he’ll accept her money, and Doo-soo ignores the fact that her boyfriend is right there, flirting that she has to keep it so he can keep seeing her.

Yi-seok talks to the arson suspect, who meekly mutters that he doesn’t want a reduced sentence, he only wants to know why he’s like this. He says he used a lighter to start the fires, and tells a sob story about an abusive father and a mother who died in a fire. Yi-seok shows him a video of a fire, clocks his reaction, and declares the suspect a pathological arsonist.

From the corner, Hong-do notices the suspect twitching one foot and sees something important. She says the word “match,” and the suspect flies into a rage. He shoves the table into Yi-seok and grabs Hong-do, using his handcuffs to cut off her airway.

Doo-soo and Yang burst into the room and freeze when they see the man holding Hong-do. When Yi-seok gathers his wits again, he launches over the table and attacks the arsonist, biting the suspect’s nose and giving Hong-do a chance to wriggle free (she’s also cussing an impressively creative blue streak, HAHA).

Doo-soo and Yang wrestle the suspect to the floor as Yi-seok checks on Hong-do, and she points to the suspect’s foot which was twitching earlier. They pull his sock down to find a hidden pack of matches. Doo-soo turns to ask if Hong-do is okay, but he stops when he sees Yi-seok fawning over her like a worried mother hen.

The news team interviews Yi-seok and he says it became obvious that he wasn’t a pathological arsonist when he showed no interest in the fire video — instead he’s a pathological liar, more interested in the impact of his lies than in the fire. He’d flipped out because he’d been caught in a lie by Hong-do, who’d seen his matches when he’d said he used a lighter to start the fires.

After the interview, Yi-seok notices Se-ro making bubble-wrap bumpers for the station tables. He’s annoyed that she’s getting experience at this station of all places, but Se-ro says she used a connection through Dr. Uhm to be allowed to observe here. Yi-seok doesn’t believe it for a second, and accuses her of dating Doo-soo.

Doo-soo finds Hong-do outside getting some fresh air, and she insists he take the money. He gets genuinely upset this time, asking angrily why she can’t just accept this one thing and puts the money in her pocket.

Hurt, he says it’s not true that he’ll wait for her — he can’t let her go at all. Hong-do only repeats how sorry she is, but Doo-soo says those words hurt him. She looks him right in the eye to say she can’t help it, and Doo-soo responds, “I wish… you’d stayed broken.”

He says he wants to go back to when she made him snacks and wrote notes for him, but Hong-do is saved from having to hear any more when Yi-seok and Se-ro find them. Doo-soo grabs Hong-do by the wrist, declaring that he won’t let her go to Yi-seok. Yi-seok doesn’t even deign to look at Doo-soo and instructs Hong-do firmly, “Come here,” telling a curious Se-ro that this woman is his girlfriend.

He tells Hong-do again to come to him, and Hong-do pleads with Doo-soo to let her go. She pulls her wrist out of his hand, and follows Yi-seok as he walks away. Se-ro hangs back to ask if Doo-soo is okay, but Yi-seok grabs her too and leaves with both women in tow. He pushes Se-ro into her car and orders her home, and gets in his own car with Hong-do.

Yi-seok takes Hong-do home, and she pulls out the pink scarf she’s been knitting and gives it to him. He sweetly says it’s the color he hates most, but he’ll wear it because she knitted it. He forbids Hong-do to see Doo-soo again and huffs when she defends him, and asks who she would save if they were both drowning.

Hong-do kisses him and says she would save Yi-seok, and they hold eye contact for a long beat. Yi-seok leans in for more slow kisses, and promises Hong-do that he won’t ever regret choosing her. They go in for a long hug and Yi-seok asks how she knew it was a match box in the suspect’s sock, praising her for her keen observations.

The next day the police station is completely bubble-wrapped and there are flowers on the desks in milk cartons this time, with notes to the officers to take care of Se-ro’s first love and she’ll hook them up with her pretty friends. Okay, that’s pretty cute. Doo-soo sees the notes and the flowers, and for the first time he doesn’t seem annoyed by Se-ro’s overtures.

The chairman gets all spiffed up for a lunch date with Hong-do/Madam Oh, and he’s adorably nervous but very gentlemanly when she arrives. He gets right to the point and proposes, presenting her with a gigantic pearl engagement ring.

Hong-do’s phone rings before she can do anything but look shocked, and the poor chairman excuses himself. It’s Yi-seok on the phone, and he starts to tell her a funny story about what his grandfather is doing right now. The waitress near Hong-do spills water on a patron, and Yi-seok is confused to hear the screeching over the phone, as well as in person.

He looks over at his grandfather’s assistant at the next table and asks Hong-do where she is, and tells her to lift her hand. He sees the grandma lift her hand, and starts to walk towards her as he tells her to lift the other hand. He slowly approaches and she looks up at him, and they stare in horror at each other, as it dawns on Yi-seok that this “old woman” is Hong-do.

COMMENTS

Well, the jig is up. I’ll confess I’m glad, for multiple reasons. First, because the plot has sort of stalled in the last few episodes, with the same conflict and conversations being replayed over and over. I’m not bored and I adore the show, but I’m ready for something to shake things up. And second, because the whole Madam Oh cosplay has never been my favorite part of the show. I think it served its purpose as an explanation for Hong-do being able to make a living and leave the house occasionally, and the chairman’s crush on her is cute, but I do think it’s time we move on.

This was a sweet, snuggly episode for Hong-do and Yi-seok, and it’s huge that Yi-seok finally said he loves her. Hooray, he loves her! I mean, we knew it weeks ago, but it’s awesome how fully and enthusiastically he embraced it once he realized his feelings. Seeing him bounce down the street like a deranged Tigger, crowing that Hong-do belongs to him, was something I never expected — but yet still so in keeping with Yi-seok’s personality. If he’s anything, he’s fully committed once he decides something, and I think he’s enjoying this entirely new feeling even more than Hong-do.

His fascination with her made more sense after hearing him explain to Dr. Uhm that he feels more like himself when he’s with Hong-do — isn’t that what love really is, anyway? When you meet that one person who makes you into the best version of yourself, even when there’s no reason why this person is that person, you can’t help but love them. It’s obvious that Hong-do brings out the best in Yi-seok, as a doctor and as a person, and I absolutely adore that he knows it. He’s not perfect, and he still has the worst judgment I’ve ever seen when it comes to how to treat people sometimes, but you can’t deny that he’s a better person than when we, and Hong-do, met him.

As for Doo-soo, I almost feel like he’s a photo-negative of Yi-seok at this point. The more Hong-do loves Yi-eok, the better a man he becomes… but the further she gets from Doo-soo, the further he sinks. Any man who tells a woman that he preferred her when she was “broken,” and that if he had his wish she’d go back to being the reclusive, afraid, stunted person she used to be, isn’t someone who has that woman’s best interests at heart. That’s not love, that’s possession, and it’s not the first time he’s said or done something that makes me feel like he sees Hong-do as something to possess and control.

If he truly loved her, he would want her to be healthy and happy, even if it meant he lost her. I believe Yi-seok would give her up if it meant she would be whole and happy without him — just look at the confrontation outside the station. Doo-soo was physically restraining Hong-do and forbidding her to go, but Yi-seok gave her the choice to come with him or not. To me, that’s what makes Yi-seok the better man, that he loves her enough to let her be her own person without him if that’s what she wants. But to wish phobia and a stunted life on someone, just because you miss being the center of attention when they were emotionally crippled, is indefensible.

Not that I think Doo-soo is a horrible person, I just think he’s twisted up in feeling rejected and that he doesn’t know how to deal with it in a healthy way. I never thought I’d say this, but I actually think Se-ro would be good for him, because she’s pretty much the most emotionally balanced person in this whole show. She’s approaching Doo-soo in a very calm, rational way, with a goal in mind and a plan how to get there, and she won’t let a little thing like jealousy get in her way. I don’t think she’s an emotional robot or anything, but I do think she sees relationships through a very pragmatic lens, so her ability to think things through and behave maturely will be a good compass for Doo-soo to follow.

I do hope that Yi-seok finding out about Hong-do’s deception doesn’t cause a lot of drama in the upcoming episodes. They’ve been too open, honest, and understanding with each other to let this come between them, right? I don’t think I could stand for them to go back to fighting, not when they’ve come so far, and Hong-do hasn’t even had a chance to tell Yi-seok she loves him back!

 
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• Heart to Heart: Episode 9
• Heart to Heart: Episode 8
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• Heart to Heart: Episode 6
• Heart to Heart: Episode 5
• Heart to Heart: Episode 4
• Heart to Heart: Episode 3
• Heart to Heart: Episode 2
• Heart to Heart: Episode 1