Ho-gu’s Love: Episode 5

by javabeans

Every episode brings Ho-gu new lessons to learn, though I like to think that he’s teaching just as many to Do-hee, even if he doesn’t mean to be. Today we get a bit of satisfaction as he stands up for himself and what matters to him—even if, of course, it’s done in his customarily sideways and awkward way. But that’s just his charm.

 
SONG OF THE DAY

Linus’ Blanket – “Kangaroo” from the Ho-gu’s Love 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.

 
Fifth Foolish Act: “Let’s use condo(m)s”

Do-hee gives birth, and Ho-gu is an emotional wreck. He leaves the delivery room sobbing just as a woman is wheeled in, her husband calling encouraging words after her. He sees Ho-gu crying, and his concern turns to alarm when Ho-gu starts to explain that in that delivery room, the babies are… the babies are… The husband leans in agitatedly.

“…born!” Ho-gu wails, his cries growing louder. Wah-wahhhh. The husband inches away.

Over in his bachelor pad, uptight lawyer Kang-chul has a difficult time going to sleep that night, haunted by that text message hinting that a new member has just been born to his family.

While Do-hee sleeps, Ho-gu tidies her things, and a piece of paper flutters to the floor. An address is written on it on memo paper from Kang-chul’s firm, located in Yeosu.

Do-hee wakes, so Ho-gu pockets the paper. She sleepily asks for a fish-shaped sweet bun, and Ho-gu notes it with a smile. He walks home because he doesn’t have money for a taxi, and peers in on Ho-kyung’s room. He fondly starts to call her his “lovable little sister” just as she kicks him in her sleep, nailing him in the groin as he gasps on the word “lovable.”

Next he looks in on his sleeping parents, and gets teary as he places his hand over his mother’s stomach, thinking of the pain she endured to give birth to him. Then Mom wakes up, sees a figure in black touching her stomach, and freaks out, attacking Ho-gu with her pillow.

Ho-kyung runs in ready to beat the intruder over the head with a hair dryer, and then the screaming quiets as they realize who it is. They stare blankly at Ho-gu, who just curls up to his mother’s belly, crying, “It must’ve been so hard for you…”

Meanwhile, Kang-chul keeps staring intently at that text message. At the hospital Do-hee looks in on her baby in his incubator, wearing a curious (dark?) expression on her face.

At the breakfast table, Ho-gu picks at his food looking glum, and his family trades looks back and forth wondering what’s up. They have a silent conversation in increasingly wild gestures, though Ho-gu’s head remains bowed over his rice bowl while the family guesses that he got dumped by a girl.

“That’s not it,” Ho-gu says, surprising them all by following along. He explains that it’s not any of the things they guessed, and that he’s just thankful and amazed to have been born, and that this is his family. That makes his family well up with tears, while Ho-kyung checks the calendar wondering if they changed the date for Parents’ Day.

Despite Ho-gu’s statements, Ho-kyung reports to Mom that according to his buddies, the webtoon has been having trouble and they only barely managed to convince their editor to let them keep going. (There’s a running gag that Ho-kyung is unrecognizable with her full face of makeup, and based on the way Mom has vamped herself up, it must be a family thing.)

But Mom interprets Ho-gu’s crying differently, thinking it prompted by something much more significant. She remembers Dad crying like that when his kids were born, though Ho-kyung sniffs that Mom’s waaay overestimating Ho-gu if she thinks he had it in him to father a child. Mom laughs that that’s true.

Ho-gu finds his father at the gate by their family nameplate, and wonders why it’s in Mom’s name only, and why Dad always answers phones or makes dinner reservations with her name instead of his own. Dad leans in to share a secret that he was saving for Ho-gu’s wedding: “Women are much more amazing creatures than men.” Aw. Better yet is the way Ho-gu takes him completely seriously, asking, “Really?”

Dad points out how women are much more beautiful than men (and how Ho-kyung is proof that even if one isn’t necessarily pretty, women are capable of transformation), and moreover, women give birth. Dad says, “If you see a child being born once, you’ll think like me, Ah, I’d better listen to what women say.”

Ho-gu understands completely, and finishes Dad’s sentences for him about how it is to cut the umbilical cord, and how babies are amazing. Dad wonders how Ho-gu knows this, and Ho-gu hurriedly makes up an excuse about seeing it in manhwa books.

Then Dad gives Ho-gu some cash, and the first thing Ho-gu does is buy those hot buns Do-hee wanted. A TON of them. He hands them out to the hospital staff, making his way to Do-hee, who reads through the long string of distressed texts from her coach.

Ho-gu cheerfully hands her the snacks, tells her to share with the other mothers, and heads out to hand out the rest. He makes a slip of the tongue and says “our baby” before catching himself, and Do-hee’s voice grows hard as she asks why he has any business seeing her baby.

She reminds him that he was only going to stay until she had her baby, as friend and emergency contact. He understands that she’s asking him to leave, and awkwardly agrees to go. Do-hee does thank him sincerely, promising to repay him for all he’s done for her.

Ho-gu leaves with a heavy heart, but ends up heading back in to see her baby anyway, enamored at first sight. He pulls out that note from Do-hee’s jacket and recalls their overnight beach visit, and how Do-hee had said she had to get surgery to get rid of a small lump.

Do-hee reaches for a hot bun, and the bite is so hot that she reaches for her water, sending the whole bunch into the trash. That’s when Ho-gu returns, and he sees them sitting in the bin. Aww.

He asks if the reason she wanted to go to Yeosu in the first place was to get her surgery. She admits that she was going to get an abortion, and he just asks “Why?” when she says that she couldn’t have it, that she didn’t want it. Do-hee bursts out that news of her having a baby would have ruined her life, and that it was “just a mistake” on both parents’ parts.

Ho-gu just picks the bag of buns out of the trash, telling her, “These aren’t buns you can throw away so easily.” She hadn’t even realized they’d fallen, and he gets emotional as he says his parents worked hard so he could buy them. So even if she doesn’t want them, she shouldn’t just toss them. He takes them and tells her not to repay his favor: “Because I don’t want to see you again.”

Do-hee watches him leave, chastened and teary-eyed.

In a courtroom, a lawyer asks if it’s a crime for a single woman to have a baby, arguing that her client was unlawfully fired merely for having a child. Kang-chul is opposing counsel defending the employer, and he takes his turn before the court.

Kang-chul references an instance when the plaintiff’s single-motherhood resulted in business consequences for her company. She admits that it did, but as she tells her story, it’s clear to all in the courtroom—or almost all—that there were extenuating circumstances, because her contact in a deal verbally abused her, saying that she wasn’t fit to handle business operations when she “couldn’t even manage her own body” (to, you know, not be pregnant while unmarried). The audience gasps in sympathy, and it’s understandable that her temper caused her to talk back, and the deal fell through.

But Kang-chul is unbending, hammering in that she must take responsibility for the consequences of her actions, since being maligned doesn’t retroactively make the deal go through. He coldly calls her “irrational” for being a single mother in the first place (which is therefore a sign of her compromised judgment), since it’s an abnormal state that nobody in her sane mind would choose. Oh, you are the worst kind of ass—the kind who thinks you’re right. I can’t wait for you to be painfully and miserably torn to shreds by Ho-kyung. I’m already sad in advance that it won’t be as gruesome as you deserve.

When opposing counsel objects, he thunders at her that a man and a woman dating, marrying, and having babies is “this nation’s correct order.” No, I’m pretty sure that’s just a nursery rhyme. But apparently they hand you morality badges with law degrees now, and Kang-chul sneers at the plaintiff with contempt for daring to contradict society’s proper order.

The angry plaintiff asks Kang-chul if he’s saying she should have aborted her baby. He looks at her in honest-to-goodness confusion and asks, “Why are you asking me that?” OH MY GOD.

As they leave the courtroom, his disgusted secretary, Gong-mi, sarcastically congratulates him on a job well done. He just replies, “I know.” And then he tells her she needs to lose weight, because it looks like she’s put on six kilograms. Oh god, I can’t be responsible for all the bloodthirsty fantasies I’m having from here on out. If entrails aren’t involved it’s not nearly violent enough.

Gong-mi calls him out for harassment, though he says it’s not harassment for a designer to tell his model to lose weight. He only hired her because she’s pretty—he doesn’t need a capable secretary since he’s good on his own. To my great dismay, she’s totally mollified by the backhanded nonpliment. At least, until he says he wanted a generically pretty face, and losing some of her looks takes away from the desired effect.

Gong-mi is still raging as she goes shopping later with Ho-kyung, seething that she’ll rip him to shreds. It makes her want to become a lawyer to crush him on his own turf. But Ho-kyung says that won’t cut it: “I have to be the one to exact revenge on that bastard. Only I can do it!” She growls that she’s been waiting for this day, so she could get payback on her high school enemy.

Ho-kyung imagines herself as a fierce warrior in a historical piece, out for satisfaction, and promises her friend to avenge today’s affront as well. Gong-mi’s surprised to hear that she already knows Kang-chul, but Ho-kyung adds that he won’t (or shouldn’t) know her.

Flashback to high school. Rankings are posted, and Tae-hee’s only a few places higher than Ho-gu near the bottom of the pile. Hilariously, while Tae-hee gulps in dismay, Ho-gu’s beaming because this is actually an improvement for him. On the other hand, Kang-chul sits at the very top of the list in first place.

Ho-gu waits for his sister after school, and Tae-hee is shocked at his first glimpse of Ho-kyung, looking tough and weird and wild. Kang-chul’s chauffeured car screeches to a halt to barely avoid hitting her, and the driver screams at her to watch where she’s going. Ho-kyung screams in outrage, ready to go punch out some lights.

In the present day, Kang-chul texts Ho-kyung a request to meet this weekend, and she crows in excitement. Let the revenge begin.

Meanwhile, her professor (Kang-chul’s mother) is busily working on a report regarding the condom usage study when her husband comes home and demands food. He notices the condoms on the table and asks about them, then tunes out halfway through her sentence and demands food again. Well we know where the son got his manners. Mom tries to suggest that her husband can take some condoms if he wants to use any (with her, she means), but he just blankly says he has no use for them, and she heaves a sigh.

Dad asks about Kang-chul’s upcoming blind date and says he wants grandchildren soon. Mom points out that he dislikes kids, but Dad says he still wants them—to brag about, since all his colleagues are full of nonstop bragging over their grandkids. Dad grumbles that Kang-chul’s wasting his good years working late when he could be off making babies—and Mom snaps at him in horror. Hm, her reaction seems rather strong—does she know anything?

At the office, Kang-chul asks his secretary to track down everyone in a messenging program whose IDs are listed as “X,” since that’s the name on the mysterious text sent to him. He also asks for phone number for the ex-girlfriend who came looking for him.

Ho-gu has that number stored in his phone, and he goes back and forth trying to decide whether to delete it. A kid bumps into him, and when Ho-gu sees that Do-hee’s number has been deleted, he howls in dismay. He tries to tell himself it’s for the best. The kids look curiously at the fish-shaped buns he’s eating and ask for a taste, so he hands them out as they mill around.

He gets a call from the hospital because “Elise” isn’t feeling well and the nurse wants to know if he’ll be by tonight. He says he won’t be going anymore, but asks if the condition is serious. The nurse says it’s not, but that a woman may experience afterpain following delivery that’s alleviated with massages.

That weighs on his mind all evening, and he declines to join in on the family Go-Stop game. Ho-kyung drops her purse and scatters its contents, so he helps retrieve them and is shocked at all the condoms she’s carrying, saying he’s confiscating them. Ho-kyung matter-of-factly tells him that they’re leftovers from her research and that she’d have more use for them than he would.

Ho-gu scolds her, saying that guys would think she’s careless and easy if they knew she carried condoms, and Ho-kyung retorts that the people who are actually easy are the ones who don’t use condoms. Furthermore, these are made to protect her body from selfish men who don’t want to be bothered with the hassle.

Ho-gu sputters in affront, though it’s gratifying to see his parents nodding in agreement with her. Ho-kyung asks if she’s supposed to walk around unprepared, or spend her life “saving it” and dying old and alone. Mom: “Is it water or electricity? Why would you save it up? Life’s short enough just to enjoy it!”

Ho-kyung tells Ho-gu not to become one of those selfish men and offers him a condom. Dad urges him to take it, and Mom offers him a strawberry-flavored one instead. LOL.

Do-hee endures the pains with difficulty, and sees the half-eaten fish bun she’d dropped on the floor. Picking it up, she thinks of Ho-gu arguing to stay with her through labor, because it would be scary for her to do it alone. She starts to cry while holding it close, and when someone pushes aside her bed curtain, she looks up hopefully and asks, “Ho-gu?” But it’s not him.

Ho-gu isn’t far, though, and comes to the hospital clutching a fresh bag of hot buns. The nurse advises him to wait before going to see Do-hee, because a visitor is here and the air seems a bit tense.

So he waits outside the door for a while before heading inside. The curtains are drawn closed, but he can hear a man asking furiously if she’s in her right mind, and that she should have done as he said and aborted the baby. Ho-gu can’t see, though we can, that it’s Kang-chul here to berate Do-hee for going through with the pregnancy, though Do-hee says the baby is hers and he has no place telling her what to do.

Kang-chul agrees that he has no responsibility, reminding her that she came to him that night. She reminds him that she asked him to use “that” and he refused. He sneers that he doesn’t use condoms—he’s never used one and never will. I really hope that’s because you’ll never get laid again. She tells him to go, and that he’s no longer involved.

Ho-gu ducks around the corner as Kang-chul stalks out of the room, and as he follows Kang-chul out wearing a dark expression, he reminds himself of words his father once told him: that a man mustn’t act rashly, that he must focus on facts. Do-hee’s and Kang-chul’s words float in his head, of how it was a simple mistake, how the baby shouldn’t have been born, how Kang-chul bears no responsibility for it.

Ho-gu covers his face with his scarf and hood, and prepares to act. Maybe he’s thinking to give Kang-chul a pounding, but then he recalls the comment about Do-hee coming to Kang-chul the night they conceived, and he imagines a Little Red Riding Hood scenario where Do-hee drops by to see grandma, only to find Kang-chul the wolf there.

Ho-gu shakes off the fantasy and follows Kang-chul into the elevator, warning himself to remain calm. But then Kang-chul says into the phone that he doesn’t use those things because they’re a hassle, and how he hates using condos, which sounds a lot like that other thing. So when he reiterates, “I will never use condos!” Ho-gu can’t hold back and grabs the bastard by the jacket, shoving him against the wall, demanding to know why he refuses.

Raising his fist, he bellows, “USE CONDOMS, you piece of trash!” and punches him in the face.

Today his voice is stronger: “My name is Ho-gu. Kang Ho-gu!”

 
COMMENTS

Ha, I love that Ho-gu was misled, of all things, by mishearing a word. But I’m supremely glad that he did, because I was itching to sock it to Kang-chul myself, and perhaps more importantly, it assures us that Ho-gu is willing and able to change his views. ‘Cause I won’t lie, this episode was hard for me to get through without throwing things, because of the toxic crapola spewed by some men about women and women’s bodies and women’s autonomies.

Most of that was Kang-chul, but Ho-gu also infuriated me with his pearl-clutching reaction to Ho-kyung’s condoms, as though sex makes a woman loose and easy and degraded in public valuation. At least his reaction was motivated by concern more than an inherent need to judge, because I didn’t get slut-shaming vibes from him. But being naive and innocent can translate into backwards ideas shaped by a more oppressive, patriarchal perspective, where people judge women for having sex before marriage and children out of wedlock, while men abdicate responsibility because their penises need to be free.

But I think the shape of Ho-gu’s arc saves him, aided in great part by his awesome family. Dad’s become a favorite, because he’s so quietly but steadfastly supportive, and he puts his money where his mouth is; he doesn’t order Mom around or view people as status markers the way Kang-chul’s father does. Instead, he shows his love by doing the dishes every day and putting Mom’s name front and center and instructing his son to treat women with that same mix of respect and reverence with which he does. So despite passing some disappointing judgments, in the end Ho-gu is pushed into action out of respect for women, showing that he was listening to Ho-kyung when she spoke of using condoms as a thing you do out of respect for yourself, not in degradation.

Because really, Kang-chul, you’re just going to huff that it’s Do-hee’s fault for having a child because you don’t like the feeling of condoms? I’d say fuck you, except that’s the exact opposite of the fate I wish upon you for all eternity. I know that he’s being written as an extreme character and that my buttons are being pushed intentionally, and that he’s meant to be a jackass whose face you want to smear in dog shit. But knowing that it’s part of his arc (…because there’d better be an arc) doesn’t mitigate the violent reaction he inspires in me.

It’s too bad because I really like Im Seul-ong and I thought his character was being set up to be cutely annoying. Instead I find him blood-boiling. I want Ho-kyung to wipe the floor with him, and merely “taming” him into a nicer version isn’t good enough. I must have blood! (On the other hand, I suppose if the drama manages to bring me around to liking him, it will have pulled off an amazing feat of character development.)

I find Do-hee a grimmer character than I thought we would be getting—the promos made her seem like a fun, sassy, foul-mouthed heroine. She’s a tough nut to crack because of her wall of pride, but I like that she’s got shades to her, and it’s interesting to me how she’s got a softer side that Ho-gu always misses seeing. He actually assumes better of her than perhaps he has reason to, and he’s held her up in his mind for years, so there was a bit of a fantasy luster to her image. But when we’re allowed to see Do-hee’s actual vulnerability, he misses those moments, like when he assumes she threw away the hot buns, and when she later cries over it. I was proud of Ho-gu for standing up to Do-hee, even if that particular reason was based on a misunderstanding, because we see now that there’s a limit to his niceness; when the line is crossed, he will stand up and defend. Just as he did for Do-hee in the last scene. Let’s hope that growth just continues.

RELATED POSTS

• Ho-gu’s Love: Episode 4
• Ho-gu’s Love: Episode 3
• Ho-gu’s Love: Episode 2
• Ho-gu’s Love: Episode 1
• Couple hearts and thumbs-up for Ho-gu’s Love press conference
• Swearing goddesses and bashful fools for Ho-gu’s Love
• Ho-gu’s foolish love takes off
• Ho-gu’s Love (and also his tiger, sword, and dupe)