Oh My Venus: Episode 8

by LollyPip

If the previous episode focused on the cute flirting, this one is all about the sizzling chemistry, and how to go about starting a new relationship. Luckily, in spite of all the personal conflict occurring in the background, our leads are starting off with a solid foundation and a habit of actually talking things out, which will serve them well as they navigate new emotional waters.

EPISODE 8 RECAP

Getting in his car in the morning, Young-ho wilts when his garage door opens to reveal Manager Min with several minions waiting for him. He wants to drive himself to his meeting, but Min insists on driving for him. On the way, Min explains that they’ve hired this legal team just as a precaution in case word gets out about Young-ho’s taking over the company.

Young-ho is more interested in reading and re-reading Joo-eun’s text from the night before, thanking him for everything he’s done for her. So cute. He texts her that he’ll be late today, but that he wants to talk to her about something. She doesn’t see that text, as it comes in right as she’s entering the meeting room.

Both Young-ho and Joo-eun are shocked and surprised to find themselves at the same meeting, and Joo-eun has to leave to collect herself. She realizes that Young-ho’s seemingly-throwaway comments about being rich aren’t just jokes. He stops her before she can get on the elevator, and apologizes for surprising her like this.

After gasping for breath and brushing Young-ho’s worried hand away, Joo-eun voices her real concern, “You really were someone beyond the limits of my own world.” Soo-jin follows them to eavesdrop but Manager Min, bless him, draws her away before she hears anything.

Young-ho pulls Joo-eun into the elevator, calling Min to ask for ten minutes. Joo-eun is upset, and says that he lied, then he tricked her, and now he’s betrayed her. Did he think his being the director of Gahong would also intimidate her? Young-ho apologies for lying, and says that he was planning on telling her the truth about himself.

But he points out that he never asked her to marry him or gave her a ring, so why is she acting like this, ready to run away at the first sign of trouble? He wants to just keep on as they were, whether dieting or dating, “…because I’ve finally gotten a taste of the sweetness that life has to offer.” Okay, he’s good.

But Joo-eun says that withholding information is the same as lying, when the other person feels deceived. And she doesn’t date liars. And like he said, they never made any promises, so she’s just overreacting. With that, she heads back to the meeting.

Joo-eun spends the whole meeting ducking her head away from Young-ho’s laser-sharp stare, while he barely pays attention to the legal talk. Joo-eun tries to excuse herself from lunch, but Soo-jin tells her to tell the client herself, since they seem close. Young-ho wants to talk some more, but Joo-eun leaves instead. It’s only after she gets in her car that she sees Young-ho’s text that he’d wanted to talk about something with her.

After wrapping things up, Young-ho leaves alone, asking Manager Min not to follow him this time. Joo-eun’s not at his place, so he calls her but she doesn’t answer. He calls Ji-woong, and luckily Joon-sung knows that Joo-eun was planning to go home to Daegu today. Young-ho sits silently for a while, remembering the times that Joo-eun mentioned how she hates being deceived. His knee pains him, and he says sadly that he’s being punished.

Joon-sung does the photo shoot with Yi-jin, who uses the opportunity to get as close to him as she can. Ha, even her manager looks embarrassed. She bribes Ji-woong into leaving her alone with Joon-sung (seriously, if I were him I’d be furious by now… he’s got the patience of a saint) and then recites So Ji-sub’s famous dialogue from I’m Sorry, I Love You that’s basically a roundabout way of asking him out.

The poor girl looks about to explode with nerves, but her manager retrieves her before she gets an answer on any of those things. Not that Joon-sung has any idea what just happened. But he does laugh at her antics, which is something.

Joo-eun arrives at her brother’s new chicken place, which looks really nice and is bustling with customers. But her mother’s friends ask when she’s getting married, and Mom acts like Joo-eun and Woo-shik are still dating. She kindly lets Mom save face with her friends, and her brother’s fiancee, Eun-bi, gives her a little gift. Aww, she’s sweet.

Joo-eun arrives at her family home to find a meal set out, under a little umbrella. It’s her deceased father’s birthday, and she apologizes to his photo for forgetting. Mom texts her telling her to eat the food — diet or not, when you’re at home you have to eat “real” food.

There’s also a serious of nervous-chihuahua texts from Ji-woong asking if she’s coming home soon, and Joo-eun re-reads Young-ho’s text asking her to talk today. She sees that he called, and is actually a bit miffed that he only tried to call once. Cute. She jumps when she gets another text, but it’s only Hyun-woo.

Joo-eun can’t sleep, and wails to herself that she’s letting this get to her like she’s a teenager. She even cries a little, but a text from Young-ho, figuring she must be in Daegu, perks her right up. OMG he actually came all the way to Daegu, and he calls her out to talk.

Joo-eun prances around her room in confusion and excitement, and ends up running outside in her pajamas and catching a cab. She finds Young-ho on a bridge and awww, the way his face changes when he sees her. He says that she could come a little closer, since he came all the way from Seoul to see her (it’s about a three-hour drive).

And then he opens his arms wide, an obvious invitation. Joo-eun runs into them, and Young-ho wraps his coat around them both. They stay that way for a long time, then Joo-eun backs up and Young-ho hands over his scarf… aww, he’s got two, and they match. Couple scarves! Neither of them speaks, needing no words — their feelings are clear.

As they walk together later, Young-ho notices that Joo-eun is wearing makeup and not her glasses. Was she expecting something (like another kiss)? Joo-eun explains that her eyes aren’t that bad, but she wears them to look wise, and it’s now a habit. She says she’s not a loose woman, and Young-ho just takes her hand and puts it in his pocket, saying that she seems loose enough to him. How can he say stuff like that and it just sounds cute?

He gets to the reason he came, saying straight-out that he was very sick when he was young, and then his mother passed away. He was scared of his father and pitied his grandmother, and hid from the world. He doesn’t come from a happy family, and avoided them for years, but he ended up coming back to them anyway. Suddenly his earlier statement that he has a soft spot for weak and endangered people makes a lot of sense to Joo-eun.

He says that he didn’t keep this a secret because he didn’t want to tell her, but because it was hard to say. So can’t she let him off the hook this once? Joo-eun only asks if he’s okay now, and no longer in pain, and he actually lets her feel his abs to prove how healthy he is now. Hee, he earned that punch to the gut.

Young-ho drives Joo-eun to her mother’s home and there’s a moment of awkward silence, then they both agree that it would be strange to go backwards at this point. Joo-eun starts to go inside, but stops and turns back. She tells Young-ho not to take what she’s about to say the wrong way — she’s just worried about him. Does he want to sleep here, just holding hands?

The answer must be a resounding Yes, because Ji-woong reports to Joon-sung that Young-ho isn’t coming home tonight. Ji-woong takes this as their big chance to eat whatever they want, dragging Joon-sung into his plans.

And sure enough, Joo-eun and Young-ho spend the night together, holding hands and with their eyes wide open. Ha, with their chemistry, of course they can’t sleep. Joo-eun comments that driving sleepy would be dangerous, and Young-ho retorts that what they’re doing is way more dangerous. I’ll say, especially since Mom isn’t here tonight and they have the house to themselves.

Joo-eun asks why he’s not making her exercise today, and Young-ho admits that that’s why he had her walk to him. She scoffs, but he reminds her that her body is his, as he sweetly holds her hand. She asks if he really has to take over the family business, and he asks if she’s worried since she’s met a real prince.

She says she can tell he doesn’t really want to do it, and he admits that he’s more confident with his body than his brains. And then he slides right over to her side of the bed, pressing that confident body right up against her and offering to show her. RAWR. But we’ve previously estabished that Joo-eun is insane, and she turns her back on him primly. Which he takes as an opening to spoon. Good man.

Relaxing, Young-ho whispers in Joo-eun’s ear not to get sick — to him, being healthy is the prettiest and sexiest thing a woman can be. He snuggles right up on her and tells her not to turn off the light or things could get erotic — um, that’s your signal to turn off the light, Joo-eun. She doesn’t, of course.

HA, Joo-eun snores, and Young-ho sits up to wonder how she can fall asleep at a time like this. He turns her head to stop her snoring, and sweetly smooths her hair while she sleeps.

Soo-jin thinks about how Young-ho and Joo-eun reacted to each other, realizing that there must be something between them. She tries to call Woo-shik with no luck, so she leaves a confused How can you treat me like this? message before hanging up. She says to herself that she looks so different now, so how can he do this to her? She cries that she looks good now — she should have everything. So why has nothing changed?

Woo-shik is still trying to dig up dirt on Young-ho, and he finds out from Hyun-woo’s ex-husband that the house “John Kim” lived in is owned by Gahong Group. Also, even though he’s moved out, the home is still owned by Gahong. So wouldn’t that mean that John Kim is a family member? Woo-shik asks Producer Go not to release this information yet, at least not until he can verify the facts.

Young-ho decides to head home early the next morning, tucking in the still-sleeping Joo-eun. He looks around and notices the shabbiness of her family home, and leaves her medicine on her pillow. Manager Min drives him home, declining to comment, though he betrays a tiny smile.

At the driving range again, Woo-shik is informed by Uncle that their ace in the hole, CEO Choi, resigned when his slush fund was discovered. Uncle rants that Young-ho will become the new director, and he and Young-joon will be pushed out. Woo-shik tells Uncle of his suspicions that Young-ho is actually the famous trainer John Kim, and Uncle nearly cries with happiness. The shareholders certainly wouldn’t like it.

The boys have another “Kang Joo-eun Day,” laying around like slugs, and all three bounce upright adorably when Joo-eun finally arrives home. OMG they’re like three perky puppies, I can’t even. Young-ho holds back but opens his arms for his hug once they’re alone, but Joo-eun whispers that she’s too embarrassed in front of the guys. Young-ho tries to tease her into telling the guys about their new relationship, but Joo-eun manages to talk her way out of it for now. (Ji-woong takes the chance to tease Joon-sung about being asked out by Yi-jin, which ends up sounding a lot more like him mocking So Ji-sub using So Ji-sub’s dialogue. Young-ho even muses, “I’ve heard that before somewhere…”)

She goes to her room and hugs You Bastard, remembering how Young-ho looked the night before, inviting her to hug him. She falls asleep snuggling her sloth, napping until Young-ho comes to wake her to exercise.

I love that Joo-eun tries to flirt her way out of exercising, but it doesn’t work, as Young-ho declares their dating to be an entirely separate thing from her weight-loss regimen. Besides, he wants her to get healthy so he can enjoy “the sweetness life has to offer” for as long as possible. Why does that sound sexier every time he says it?

Now that Joo-eun has lost a lot of weight, they’re going to focus on muscle-building. Young-ho doesn’t cut her any slack, and it’s hilarious how their exercises are starting to look and sound more like… something else, lately.

At work, Soo-jin digs for details on Joo-eun’s relationship with Young-ho, mentioning their first meeting at the hotel a long time ago. I love that Joo-eun is all, You mean that time you and my ex were caught at a hotel together?, not letting Soo-jin get away with making her feel guilty. Soo-jin says that having a personal relationship with a client is inappropriate, but Joo-eun just says that her private matters are private.

Young-ho suits up, and enters the Gahong building with a full entourage. He’s introduced as the new director, but his expression definitely betrays that this is the last thing he wants. Uncle shrewdly clocks everyone’s reactions to the news.

Joon-sung calls Joo-eun at work to ask if she has time to talk, but of course he clams up when it’s time to use, you know, words. Joo-eun knows this is about his mother, and he says that he found her, but she doesn’t want to see him. But he’s worried that something seems to be wrong, and he wants to help her somehow. Joo-eun says that she’ll find out what she can.

The guys drive Joo-eun home, but they look unhappy when she says she’s found a new place to live and will be moving out in a week. It starts to snow — the first snow of the year, and Ji-woong is anxious to see if she lost five kilos so they can go camping. Joo-eun is sad, because she’s sure she hasn’t lost that much. So they decide that Young-ho probably hasn’t seen the snow, and they’ll pretend it’s not happening, to buy more time.

But when Joo-eun goes home, the snow is so magical that she decides it’s worth giving up camping to share the first snow with Young-ho. She sneaks into his room but he’s not there, so she calls him. His phone rings from inside his secret treatment room, and Joo-eun follows the sound.

She’s shocked to see the state-of-the-art equipment in the room, but even more shocked when she realizes that Young-ho is sitting on the floor, shaking and barely conscious. He gasps for her not to come any closer, but she steps into the room anyway. “DON’T COME CLOSER!” he roars, and Joo-eun stops still.

COMMENTS

Well, damn, that’s one hell of a cliffhanger. What’s wrong with Young-ho?? It looks as though he was trying to cut off his pants leg, so is he having some sort of relapse? Obviously he’s in a lot of pain, but I’m dying to know what’s happening and why he would scream at Joo-eun not to come any closer. And poor Joo-eun — what a frightening thing to see. I don’t know how I’m going to make it to next week.

It’s so sweet to watch Joo-eun and Young-ho’s relationship unfold so organically, just feeling like small, natural movements towards each other rather than some huge event declaring them Now A Couple. I love how they grow closer and closer as time goes by, becoming more comfortable with each other every day, and never denying their feelings. By the time Young-ho went to Daegu and opened his arms for a hug, it just felt like the most natural thing in the world for Joo-eun to go to him that way. No immature shying away, no fake-demure eyelash batting, just two adults who like each other and want to be together. They don’t even dance around the subject of sex — Young-ho has made his interest quite clear, and while Joo-eun obviously isn’t ready (I’m sure she and Woo-shik must have been physical in their fifteen years, but she’s only got experience with one man, so being with a different man would naturally make her nervous), they also know it’s something they’re moving towards. I love that their relationship feels adult, and that they don’t pretend the physcial chemistry between them doesn’t exist.

Just when I start to think that Woo-shik isn’t a bad guy, now he’s being all sneaky about trying to discredit Young-ho. What I don’t follow is how Young-ho taking over the company would effect Woo-shik in any way at all — he doesn’t seem in a position to benefit or lose from a change in directors. I can only guess that he’s been promised something by Uncle, though it would sure help the audience understand why Woo-shik cares so much (or at all) if we knew what the stakes were for him. I mean, we can make educated guesses, but some clear answers would be nice.

It’s really my only complaint about Oh My Venus, that while the romance is solid and interesting, I just don’t care about the family/company sideline. I get why Young-ho is opposed to being appointed Director — he doesn’t have the experience, training, or confidence that he can do the job — but all the machinations that other people are going through to make sure it happens or doesn’t happen just don’t make much sense. I don’t understand why Uncle is more threatened by Young-ho taking over than he was by Director Choi, because he also doesn’t seem to stand to benefit or not either way. Why does Uncle care so much who runs the company? If he had a job before, he’ll still have a job now. Ha, that’s a lot of commentary on something I said I didn’t care about. I guess what I mean is, I might care if I knew what the heck was happening.

But the highlight of this episode was Young-ho and Joo-eun acknowledging their interest and agreeing to date, and I love how real their relationship is. Even when they were fighting at the beginning, it was so cute how Joo-eun knew that she’d be hearing from Young-ho, and even grouched that he only tried to reach her once. It’s awesome that they know each other so well, and feel so comfortable even when fighting. I hope that whatever is going on with Young-ho (please drama gods, no relapse of his cancer, come on) doesn’t prove too much of an obstacle. The best part of this show is Young-ho and Joo-eun together, so I forbid the show to separate them!

RELATED POSTS

• Oh My Venus: Episode 7
• Oh My Venus: Episode 6
• Oh My Venus: Episode 5
• Oh My Venus: Episode 4
• Oh My Venus: Episode 3
• Oh My Venus: Episode 2
• Oh My Venus: Episode 1