Answer Me 1988: Episode 6

by girlfriday

With the first snow of the year comes the start of heady first love—confessions come spilling out left and right, leaving one small street in one small neighborhood littered with broken hearts and the anticipation of new romance. Someone will cry, someone will laugh, someone will be brave, and someone will be surprised…

 
SONG OF THE DAY

Lee Moon-se – “눈오면 그 길을” (When it Snows on that Street) [ 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 6: “The first snow is coming”

After discovering the matching dictionaries on Sun-woo’s desk, Jung-hwan jumps to the obvious conclusion that Sun-woo’s been borrowing needless things from Deok-sun every day because he likes her. Jung-hwan mutters that this is 100 percent certain proof, though he doesn’t say out loud the conclusion he’s assuming.

Sun-woo starts to say that he’ll explain, but Jung-hwan cuts him off brusquely: “Why would I listen to someone else’s love life?” and walks away. Oh, puppy.

Sun-woo’s mom tells Taek’s dad that she’s making soup tonight and will send some over, and Taek’s dad puts up a very quiet show of polite protest until she’s out of earshot and then happily accepts her food.

He sets the table for dinner and calls Taek, but sighs to find him passed out in his room in front of his baduk board. Okay, he’s just sleeping, right? That scared me. Dad tucks him in with another little sigh.

It’s still November 1988 and it’s starting to get really cold. Deok-sun complains when they’ve already run out of hot water by the time she’s getting ready for school. Mom tells her to just wash her hair with cold water, lying that Dad did the same. (Dad did nothing of the kind, since he’s currently standing at the bus stop with bedhead.)

Her solution is an easy one—just go upstairs—and Jung-hwan does a double take when Deok-sun comes out of his bathroom in her pajamas while towel-drying her hair. He stands there like a doof and says she’s going to be late for school, and walks out before his brain melts.

Deok-sun’s friends ask if Sun-woo’s confessed his feelings yet, and when she says no, they hilariously decide that he’s being extra careful to protect her. Deok-sun says she can feel it coming that he’s going to confess soon, and her friends make her promise to tell her all about her first kiss.

Her friends ask for Taek’s autograph too, and sigh enviously that she gets to talk to him and stuff. Deok-sun says he’s not really much of a talker, but her friends are smitten anyway, saying that people call him a god. Deok-sun: “A god [shin]? He’s a moron [deung-shin].”

Cut to: Taek fumbling with a Walkman, trying to figure out why it won’t play his cassette. He tries all the buttons, and then Dong-ryong pulls it out of his hands to replace the batteries. Dong-ryong asks, “You’re only like this in front of us, right? You’re not going to do this stuff around other people, right? People really respect you, you know. They call you a god.”

Dong-ryong tells him not to touch anything or do anything when he’s out at competitions, and Taek says defensively, “I’m not an idiot.” He still can’t get the Walkman to play, and Dong-ryong shows him that his volume was turned down: “See, you’re an idiot. Idiot, right?”

Taek is headed back to China to compete in an international tournament, where he’s the last Korean player remaining. The commentators say that him winning the whole thing is a long shot at this point, and as Dong-ryong helps him pack, he tells Taek to just lose and come home sooner so they can go eat at the new pizza place that opened.

Taek asks what happens if he wins, and Dong-ryong says they’ll do whatever he wants. Taek: “Movie.” Dong-ryong: “A movie star?” Taek: “I wanna see a movie.” That is just so tiny and adorable. Dong-ryong sighs and agrees that they’ll go see a movie if he wins. But first, he stops to re-button Taek’s shirt, which he’s managed to screw up as well. Dong-ryong: “I don’t understand how other people lose to you.” Ha.

Taek’s tournament game begins, and though the Chinese player is surrounded by a team, Taek’s entrance is a lonely one. Back at home, Dad sits by the phone and radio just waiting for news, and Deok-sun runs in to ask if any of the boys are here. Dad says that Sun-woo is, so she primps and opens the door to Taek’s room, and her face falls to see Jung-hwan and Dong-ryong too.

She gets mad at them for eating ramyun without her, and Jung-hwan tells her she should’ve come sooner if she wanted any. They devolve into another bickering match, and Sun-woo offers to make her fresh ramyun to stop their fight, which doesn’t go unnoticed by Jung-hwan.

Deok-sun asks why Taek would have to win five games in a row to win the tournament, and Sun-woo explains that he’s the last Korean player remaining, so he’d have to beat everyone else from China and Japan to win.

Dong-ryong doesn’t think it’s likely with so many challengers left and with Taek not at his best, but Sun-woo gets all riled up and asks, “Have you guys ever actually seen him play? He’s in a different class, you childish kindergarteners!”

Taek’s game begins, and an entire room full of reporters photographs every single move he makes. Guh, I can’t even imagine the pressure. Back at home, Dad gets a phone call.

The kids hang out in Taek’s room while listening to Lee Moon-se’s radio show (he did a voice cameo to recreate this broadcast), and Deok-sun spends the whole time making moony eyes at Sun-woo, though he seems oblivious to her.

When the DJ suggests snuggling up to the one you love on this cold night, Deok-sun scootches closer to Sun-woo. But he ignores that too and talks to Jung-hwan, so she inches away again, disappointed.

Sun-woo asks about Jung-hwan’s hyung Jung-bong and if he’s going to pass his college entrance exam this time around, and Jung-hwan says he’s likely going to fail because he’s just been writing postcards. Just then, the DJ reads a postcard from Jung-bong, and they all get up with a start.

Jung-bong says that Taek lives on his street and they’re very close, and he’s worried about Taek having to beat an opponent with a 160 IQ, and wanted to send Taek some encouragement. The DJ says that they actually received over 50 letters from people claiming to live on Taek’s street, and tells Jung-bong to send a picture next time. And that he’s won a Cabbage Patch doll for his troubles.

But the good news: Taek won his first game! The kids light up and happily snuggle under the blanket for warmth, fighting over the covers and being generally adorable.

But Taek… Taek is passed out alone in his hotel room, still wearing his suit. Packets of medicine are splayed out all over the table, and I’m starting to freak out now. What the hell is going on with him??

The kids head home later that night, and Deok-sun and Sun-woo walk out together, leaving Jung-hwan trailing behind them like a sad little puppy. He sees the way Deok-sun smiles at Sun-woo and hangs his head.

Taek has four more matches to win, and Deok-sun’s dad comes by to tell Taek’s dad that if he wins this time, a chicken won’t do. He asks for some nice liquor, and Taek’s dad agrees, though he’s far more pessimistic about the odds, and about Taek’s condition.

Deok-sun’s mom says she’d like to have Taek for a son-in-law, so Deok-sun offers to seduce him for Mom’s sake. They’re surprised when a car pulls up and Bora gets out to pose next to it, saying that it belongs to a sunbae who went somewhere for a few months. Deok-sun whisper-sings, “Prison! Prison!” Mom worries about Bora driving, but she says she’ll be careful, and then has to forcibly get Deok-sun and Mom to get in the car so she can drive them half a block home.

Taek wins another game and has three more to go. Jung-hwan is so engrossed in the radio commentary about Taek that he skips Mom’s snack, and Mom is happy when Hyung does the same because he’s so into studying. Mom and Dad are sure that he’ll get into college this time.

Dad thinks it’s hilarious to pretend to feed Mom cake and then stick his finger in her mouth instead, and she simply retaliates by chomping down hard. What they don’t know is that Jung-bong is hunched over his desk writing more postcards to Lee Moon-se.

Another of his postcards gets read on the radio that night, and this one is about Bora. He says that Bora is the smartest girl in their neighborhood and got into Seoul University, calling her brilliant among brilliant minds. Meanwhile, we see Bora go into her room, crack a window, and light up a cigarette.

Jung-bong says that lots of people are afraid of Bora, but he knows that she’s a girl with a warm heart. Bora blows smoke rings and spits in a can for effect. Little Bro No-eul freaks out that Dad’s gonna catch her, but she doesn’t seem to care.

He tells her that Mom’s aunt passed away so they have to go, and Bora says she’s on it. She piles the whole family into her car, and Dad looks pale as he suggests taking the bus instead. Bora insists that it’ll be fine, and Dad starts praying.

They go maybe five feet before she hits something that they think is a dog, and Bora panics so hard that she refuses to let anyone get out of the car or continue to drive, so they’re forced to just sit there in the car and wait for her panic to subside.

Dad is screaming, Bora is screaming, No-eul is crying, and Deok-sun gets so fed up that she blasts the radio to have something else to do. And of course, while they’re all trapped inside, we see that the thing she ran over was a stuffed toy dog. Pffft.

Dong-ryong dances because he’s so happy about Taek winning his last game, which takes us to Taek’s third match in three days.

Deok-sun hears that Bora borrowed her new jacket today, and as promised, Deok-sun goes to borrow Unni’s white dress since that was the agreement they made. Only when she gets to the closet, she discovers that Bora simply wore both the dress and the jacket, and Deok-sun screeeeeams that she’s going to kill her.

Jung-bong runs into a couple of boys from the high school smoking in an alley, and stops to call them out on smoking and littering. It all goes sideways when the high school boys just challenge him to do something about it and raise a fist, and Jung-bong flinches and backpedals quickly.

But a hand comes flying in to smack the high school boys upside the head: It’s badass Bora to the rescue, and she singlehandedly puts the boys in their place and confiscates their cigarettes. She sneers at their love of American brands (and Jung-bong quickly hides his Nike shirt, ha) and forces them to chant along with her like she’s leading them in a student demonstration.

Taek wins his next two games, which means he’s down to the final championship match against a star rookie. Jung-hwan runs into Deok-sun at his house again that morning, and he snarks that she should just live there. Would you like that.

Deok-sun says she’s here to see Jung-bong this time, because she wants to know how he keeps getting his postcards read by Lee Moon-se and wants to borrow one to send in. Mom sighs to learn that Jung-bong hasn’t been studying all this time.

Deok-sun’s dad stops by to chat with Taek’s dad about today’s match, and his father says that Taek has a jinx—his one weakness is rookies, because he doesn’t know what to expect with newbie players.

The opponent is already seated at the table, and he looks kind of like a Taek clone. It’s worrisome that Taek isn’t in his seat yet, but his teacher tells a reporter from the sidelines that Taek is never early—he’s always just exactly on time.

Oh phew, Taek walks in, but he looks so worn out and sleep-deprived. Five days straight of competitions has clearly taken its toll, and he looks like he’s barely able to sit up. His teacher asks the reporter to write a good story even if Taek loses, and the reporter refuses to believe that Taek would lose. The teacher sighs that this kind of expectation is why Taek can’t sleep.

Taek draws black stones, which is another bad portent—he always does better when he’s white stones. The game begins amidst camera flashes, and I’m so nervous I can’t watch. Dad sits in his shop just checking the phone over and over to make sure he gets a dial tone.

One by one, all of the neighbors drop in to ask if Taek won or lost, and Dad tells them over and over that he doesn’t know yet. Dong-ryong (dragged in by scary Teacher Dad), Deok-sun’s dad, Sun-woo, Deok-sun, Jung-hwan, Deok-sun’s dad again… And in China, the game goes on for hours.

Jung-hwan rounds the corner to his street, and stops when he sees Sun-woo and Deok-sun on his front steps, smiling at each other as Sun-woo pats her on the arm and says goodnight. Sun-woo heads home and waves at Jung-hwan when he sees him, and Jung-hwan gives a tiny wave back, looking dejected.

He trudges home and picks up the mail on his way in, and laughs to see that Deok-sun’s postcard to Lee Moon-se’s radio show got returned because of postage. He flips it around to read it…

Deok-sun says she’s experiencing her first love right now, and that she’s come to like a childhood friend so much that she’s happy just to see him, and she thinks of him when she’s eating or studying: “Oppa, this is love, right? The boy that I like is named S.W.” Oh noes.

She says that he’s even more handsome than his name, and wants to tell him, “Thank you for liking me, and I like you too!” Aaauuugh. There go the pieces of Jung-hwan’s heart. I can’t. I can’t. Is it over yet?

Taek’s dad comes out and tells Jung-hwan that he got the call. Ack, why do you not look happy? Great, I can’t watch this either. Am I going to have to watch the rest of this episode through my fingers?

The match is over, and the rookie Chinese player is surrounded by cameras, while Taek is alone in the bathroom, splashing water on his face. He stares long and hard at his reflection, and then his teacher comes in to tell him solemnly that he worked hard. Aw, he lost, didn’t he?

Dad closes up shop for the night, when Deok-sun’s dad and Jung-hwan’s dad pop by for the final verdict: win or lose? Deok-sun’s dad yells at him to spit it out already before he dies of suspense, and Taek’s dad pauses… and then beams, “He won!” You faker! They bust bottles of liquor out of their jackets for a celebration.

Taek and his teacher come out of the bathroom, and all the cameras turn on him for his big moment. He’s as solemn as ever, and it’s only when the elevator doors close that he lets go a little and leans on the wall, looking so very tired.

Teacher asks what his plans are since he doesn’t have any upcoming competitions, and at that, Taek finally breaks into a smile: “I have something to do.”

All the families are gathered around their TVs watching stories about Taek’s monumental win, but all the kids are just sitting by their phones and refusing to eat. Finally Sun-woo’s phone rings, then Jung-hwan’s, then Deok-sun’s, and they all go flying out of their houses.

They’re lined up like little ducks at Taek’s door, and he greets them with a huge grin. It’s too cute. Dong-ryong and Sun-woo hug him on their way in, so Jung-hwan makes a move to hug him too, which he can’t manage to do without two awkward false starts. Deok-sun just starts to walk past him, but Taek grabs her for a hug too. Omo.

He turns around to find them already digging into the celebratory pizza, which I suspect is responsible for about 90 percent of their excitement level today. As always, there’s zero fanfare here, and they tell Taek to hurry up and eat.

In no time they’re down to the last slice of pizza, and when Dong-ryong makes a move to take it, Deok-sun stops him. They all challenge him for it, so then it starts them on a game of Poor Me, and everyone starts trotting out sob stories to win the last slice.

Dong-ryong says he confessed to a noona yesterday and got rejected, Deok-sun says she lives in a half-basement and her unni is Bora. Dong-ryong runs out of his own things so then he starts saying that Jung-hwan’s entire family used to live in a single room, and his hyung is Jung-bong. Jung-hwan: “I like my brother.”

Dong-ryong prompts Sun-woo to challenge Deok-sun, but then he amends the rules: “But you can’t say your dad!” And to Taek: “Or your mom! That’s cheating!” Sun-woo thinks long and hard and then says, “I like someone, but I haven’t been able to confess for two years.”

Deok-sun smiles, Jung-hwan loses his appetite, and Dong-ryong gives up the last slice to Sun-woo. Sun-woo says he doesn’t know what to do, and Deok-sun tells him, “Confess! On the first day of snow!”

The parents celebrate too, and Deok-sun’s dad asks Taek’s dad to trade kids, sighing that raising daughters is just too hard. When they run out of liquor, Deok-sun’s mom prods Dad to go call Bora and have her bring over a jar, and the parents all cringe to hear Bora yelling over the phone in complaint. Mom says that Bora’s got a warm heart and she’ll still show up, and she does, just like Mom predicted.

Sun-woo’s mom gets a call that her daughter Jin-ju is running a fever while staying over at Grandma’s, and frets over not being able to get there till the first train the next morning. She packs her bag and sits by the phone that night.

Taek’s dad comes home and says goodnight to his son, and laughs when four boys respond to say goodnight. Jung-hwan is still awake and asks Sun-woo to swap places with him, but Sun-woo throws an arm around Taek and refuses to give up his spot: “No, I’m gonna sleep next to Taek! He’s warm and perfect for hugging while you sleep.” Oh, I bet he is.

Jung-hwan tells the others, “This bastard farted again,” and kindly airs the smell of Dong-ryong’s fart out to the rest of the room, and they groan and attack him with pillows.

Sun-woo’s mom looks like she’s going to spend the entire night waiting by the phone for the morning train, but then she gets a call that shocks her. She steps outside cautiously a moment later, and there’s Bora waiting by her car. She knows that Sun-woo’s mom would spend the night awake and worrying, and insists on driving her tonight. Aw.

Ha, Jung-bong sits at home with his new Cabbage Patch doll in his arms. Mom tells him to call Dad home for dinner, and when Dad asks what they’re eating and what kind of meat she bought, Mom snatches the phone and shouts, “COW! Cow cow cow cow cow! Get home!” She’s disappointed when Jung-hwan isn’t interested in eating at all though, and he spends the evening just lying in bed and lost in thought.

Hyung comes running into his room to announce snow, and Jung-hwan peers out the window looking panicked. Hyung says he means that snow is due sometime tonight, and asks to be woken up. Jung-hwan just gazes out the window with a sigh.

Deok-sun is home alone when Sun-woo comes knocking, and she lets him in, practically bursting in anticipation. But when he comes inside, he asks for Bora noona. Ack. Deok-sun: “Sung Bora? Why?” Sun-woo points behind him to the sky: “Because it’s snowing…”

Deok-sun looks like she’s on the verge of tears as she looks out and sees snow. Aaaand, there go the pieces of Deok-sun’s heart.

Flashback to all the times Sun-woo came by to borrow something from Deok-sun: He’d timed it so that he’d always run into Bora, just so that he could see her once that day for a few seconds, talk to her about something, or check on her after she’d been injured in that student protest.

We see it now, clear as day—the way he looks at her, the little smiles, the nervous anticipation before seeing her, and joy when she says something back to him. He’s totally smitten.

But it’s heartbreaking for Deok-sun, who stands there sobbing. Sun-woo’s already gone, but she runs after him. Jung-hwan looks out his window at the falling snow, but then he sees Deok-sun running out with tears streaming down her face.

She catches up to Sun-woo in the street, and doesn’t bother hiding her tears. She shouts, “Why?! Why Sung Bora?!” He says he likes her, and calls her pretty and smart and nice. Deok-sun has a curse for every one of his responses.

He says that even the freckle next to her eyes is pretty, and Deok-sun screams that SHE gave Unni that freckle in a fight when they were kids. She wails, “Why is it Sung Bora?!” Why?!” She stomps away and then turns back to hit Sun-woo over the head, LOL, and declares that she’s never going to see him again. Yeah good luck with that.

She leaves him stunned and sobs again as she storms back into her yard. When she’s gone, the gate swings back closed… and behind it is Jung-hwan, who’s sporting a bloody nose because he got slammed in the face by the gate.

He doesn’t give a rat’s ass about that though, because he couldn’t possibly be any happier right now. He bursts into a giddy chuckle, and suddenly has an appetite again, which confuses Mom.

Deok-sun cries at her desk as Lee Moon-se finally reads one of the postcards that she sent into his radio show, hoping that the boy she likes will confess on the first day of snow. She asks Lee Moon-se oppa to please read her letter at the first snowfall, because she believes that he’ll help make her first love come true.

Taek steps outside and pauses to look at the snow, and back in the neighborhood, Sun-woo paces in the street waiting and waiting for Bora to come home. Lee Moon-se wonders what it’s like to get a confession in the snow, and guesses that they might be the two happiest people in the world tonight. Cut to: Deok-sun wailing in her room.

Lee Moon-se says that the success rate for a love confession in the snow is 90 percent, so now is the time to gather up your courage and do it. Bora rounds the corner and Sun-woo says he’s been waiting for her because he has something to say. He takes off his coat for her, and when she prompts him to talk, he just says it: “Noona, I like you.”

When he gets no response, he says again, “I said, I like you.” It finally registers, and her mouth opens in shock.

Lee Moon-se concludes his radio broadcast by saying that if you happen to be one of those people out there who have yet to receive a confession from the one you love, “Don’t be too sad. Someone else might be loving you right this minute… and might suddenly confess that they’ve liked you for a very long time.”

Right on cue, someone calls Deok-sun’s house and asks for her. She picks it up, and OMG—it’s Taekie! He’s on the payphone outside the baduk training center just looking out at the snow. She makes sure nothing’s wrong and tells him to hurry home because it’s after midnight.

Before she can hang up, he calls out, “Deok-sun-ah! Should we… go see a movie?” He then amends it to: “Let’s go see a movie.” You stealthy heartbreaker, you.

Fast-forward to November 2015. Deok-sun complains about someone blowing smoke in her face, and Unni Bora (Jeon Mi-sun) begs her to let it go because she can’t smoke at home. Bora’s phone rings with a video call from her husband, and Deok-sun has to remind her to put her cigarette out first.

Bora tells her husband to come over to Deok-sun’s house and says super sweetly that she misses him. Later, the interview continues with Deok-sun and her husband, and the interviewer asks what first snow reminds them of.

Husband: “Throwing yourself at Sun-woo and getting rejected?” Pwahahaha. That’s mean! Also, now we know you’re not Sun-woo, so thanks for that. He teases her mercilessly for sending postcards into Lee Moon-se’s radio show and the whole deal, and Deok-sun asks how he knows any of that. Hm, how do you know all that?

He says there’s nothing about her that he doesn’t know, and says she should be good to him for being so understanding. Deok-sun scoffs, “Do you want me to name all the people you dated before we got married? Shall we stay up all night?”

He quickly changes the subject and asks if they went to the College Music Festival in ’88, and Deok-sun asks what other girl he went with. She reminds him that they all watched it together on TV that year, correctly remembering the winner (Shin Hae-chul’s Infinite Track) and proceeds to dance to the song, thoroughly embarrassing him.

 
COMMENTS

Ack, I knew Taek smelled of Chilbongie! I’m not sure I can handle it, guys. I just want him to not be sad and lonely anymore, and if he gets his heart broken too, I just can’t. Honestly though, at this point I’m still with Jung-hwan because his is the crush that gets me in the heart, and I feel like we’ve been with him every step of the way as he discovered his feelings. His unrequited love for Deok-sun is still the emotional center of the romance for me, and it hurt to see him watching Sun-woo and Deok-sun thinking that they liked each other and not being able to do a damned thing about it. Though who knows what’ll change now that Deok-sun can start getting over Sun-woo and move on. I think she’ll be okay in no time—her feelings for Sun-woo seemed very superficial (as in not deep, not that she liked him for superficial reasons), and I thought her rejection scene was adorable and funny rather than sad.

I mostly felt bad that she’d have to lose yet again to her sister, which is a tough pill for her swallow as the kid sister who always gets the raw end of the deal. I’m not all that shocked that Sun-woo likes Bora—I wasn’t keeping track of all the little hints like many of guys had been pointing out, but I just never felt anything from him towards Deok-sun, which had already made him less of a romantic contender in my book. And now we know for sure that he’s out of the running to be her future husband, though really, that only moves him over to the Unni’s husband-contender line, because apparently now we’re playing TWO rounds of Who’s the Husband. Grar.

Sun-woo’s crush is cute (mostly because he’s so cute), but I was laughing so hard when Deok-sun called him crazy as he listed all of Bora’s good traits. I guess it just goes to show how loving someone can really make you see only the best, because I’m so confused as to how he thinks she’s nice. Badass, yes. Nice? Not so much. She did earn some major points when she drove Sun-woo’s mom and didn’t even take credit for it later, and we did see that she sometimes lets down her guard and smiles when she thinks no one is looking. I like that we’re seeing tiny glimpses of a more thoughtful side, but prickly doesn’t even begin to cover it with her. She makes Jung-hwan look like a freaking teddy bear in a tutu. I think a romance with Sun-woo would soften up the way we see her character though, so I’m looking forward to that (and also the comedy that’s sure to ensue).

Taek’s storyline really grabbed me in this episode, because I can’t get over how unhappy he looks at the top of the world. And I need to know why he’s passing out—is it because he’s just working himself to the bone, or is it something more serious? It’s more than a little worrying that he’s always taking medicine and looking like his head might explode from the pressure. Becoming a world champion is amazing, but he didn’t seem half as happy about the big win as he did when he was thinking about plans with his friends and the “thing” he wanted to do. That the thing turned out to be a movie date with Deok-sun was the bigger surprise of the episode than Sun-woo, really. I mean, there’s playing it close to the vest and then there’s Taek. Right now I’m just grateful for his friendships, because I’m sure we’re headed for some major love triangle angst from this point forward, and I have a feeling that I’m going to need all the happy memories I can muster. I’m just glad that he has true friends to come home to and be himself around, who think that he’s just perfect for spooning.

 
RELATED POSTS

• Answer Me 1988: Episode 5
• Answer Me 1988: Episode 4
• Answer Me 1988: Episode 3
• Answer Me 1988: Episode 2
• Answer Me 1988: Episode 1