Lucky Romance: Episode 13

by LollyPip

Things are looking up, as Su-ho and Bo-nui’s relationship progresses and Bo-ra’s condition slowly improves. In fact the romance is catching, and they may not be the only new couple at Zeze Factory these days. But it’s always nerve-racking when there’s too much happiness, because it makes me paranoid about getting blindsided by new threats, since simply being happy would be too easy.

 
EPISODE 13 RECAP

Su-ho surprises Bo-nui by coming home a half-day early, and he calls her from outside her apartment. When she finally admits that she misses him, so so so much, he grins and runs up the stairs to tell her to open her door. She jumps out of bed, finds him there, and jumps into his arms.

In the morning they’re cuddled into her tiny bunk bed, all curled around each other like contented kittens and holding hands in their sleep. We see the effect Su-ho’s had on Bo-nui’s life — his shoes in her entryway, his picture on her wall, his clothes on her bedpost.

Bo-nui wakes first and makes a big breakfast, then gently knocks to wake Su-ho. Hee, he looks so happy and contented to wake up at her place. They’re both so adorably morning-after shy, they can hardly look at each other’s faces, and when they finally make eye contact they get the giggles.

Su-ho is in a great mood as they drive to work, teasing Bo-nui and even mentioning fate. Bo-nui gets worried when she realizes she forgot the salt and red beans for luck, and asks Su-ho to go back for them. He pulls over, takes her hand, and sweetly promises that nothing bad will happen if they go without them, and Bo-nui decides to trust him.

He drops Bo-nui off first, promising to come in five minutes after her. Then he pretends to have lost something in the car just to get one more kiss out of her, hee.

He unapologetically shrugs as he walks into the office right behind Bo-nui and surprises everyone, and one of the employees jokes that he must be secretly dating someone. Bo-nui laughs nervously, but Su-ho stands right next to her and announces that they’re together. He tells them that he likes her a lot, which makes even Bo-nui smile.

The news that there’s a bad car crash near the airport has everyone glad that Su-ho came home early, but Dal-nim’s first thought is that Ryang-ha might be hurt. His phone is off, and Su-ho asks Bo-nui to call the police while he heads to the accident location.

But ohthankgoodness, Ryang-ha is in the lobby with his luggage, and Dal-nim nearly runs Su-ho over trying to get to him. She claims she’s just glad he didn’t die before she could punish him, but she backs off nervously when she realizes everyone is staring at her.

Ryang-ha looks a little stunned at the way Dal-nim was acting, and she runs to the bathroom to scrub her hands after touching all over his face, ha. Bo-nui asks Dal-nim if Ryang-ha is the guy she’s been crushing on for two years, but Dal-nim freaks out at the idea and swears she was just surprised.

Amy finally finds Gary, who’s pretty blasé about the fact that he’s been missing and worrying her. Not only is he heartbroken, but his father’s trail has gone cold, so he says he wants to go back to Canada as soon as his game is released. He refuses to go to the Zeze office with her, claiming he’s just tired, but his sad puppy-dog eyes give him away.

So Amy checks out the game beta herself, and pronounces it perfect. She makes a passive-aggressive comment that she thought Su-ho and Bo-nui would be too busy dating to work on the game, then claims it was just a joke. Ugh, go away, I hate girls like you.

Su-ho tells her to keep it professional, and Amy does make an effort to congratulate both of them, though it looks like it’s killing her. She says she and Gary are leaving right after game release, and that Gary isn’t doing well, but tells Bo-nui not to try to see him — it could just make him worse.

Awww, Gary — his place is a pigsty and he looks like hell. He tries to ignore the doorbell, but he finally gives in to the relentless ringing and finds Su-ho on his doorstep. Su-ho lets himself in and asks for a wish, his payout for the bet they made on the company retreat. His wish is for Gary not to stop looking for his father.

Su-ho says that he’s going to add Gary’s search into the game, and have the players looking for him in real life, like a secret mission. Gary can even check their progress from Canada. Gary pouts that it’s too late to add all that to the game, but Su-ho reminds him that he’s a genius, heh.

Su-ho gets to work adding the search for Gary’s father to the game, and Bo-nui watches him proudly. She wishes she could tell the whole world how awesome her boyfriend is, and Su-ho just grumbles that he’s working so she can give him a kiss if she likes him so much. Cuteness.

Amy meets with Dal-nim for coffee, and Dal-nim stays adorably loyal to Bo-nui and gives her a chilly greeting. They may have agreed to be friends when drunk, but now that she’s sober, she’s not so sure this is a good idea. Amy just pinches her cheeks and sighs that she’s jealous of Bo-nui, having such a good friend and boyfriend.

Ryang-ha stops by to say hello, and he and Dal-nim both blush, hee. Amy gives Dal-nim a bag of clothes, the new ones she bought when she came to Korea, having decided to adopt a more comfortable style.

Since they’ve both been recently dumped by their crushes, Amy suggests they go on blind dates. Um, aren’t you about to move back to Canada? Ha, Ryang-ha’s eyes flick over when he overhears this, and he scoffs when Dal-nim agrees.

Bo-nui goes to see Gary, and they’re both sad this might be the last time they see each other, though for different reasons. Gary says that he realized Bo-nui was right — he was confused about his feelings. He’s embarrassed that he cried in front of Bo-nui that time when they first reconnected, and he confused his feelings of closeness with Bo-nui for romantic ones.

He promises to go back to his place as her younger sibling, and says that he’ll come any time she needs him. Bo-nui seems to know that he’s not telling the truth, but she thanks him anyway.

Later Bo-nui runs into a man in the hall outside Gary’s apartment, and she recognizes him as Gary’s father. She stops him, and when Gary comes out just then, father and son see each other for the first time in years.

Gary looks stricken, and his father just says a simple, heartfelt, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Gary runs to him and hugs him, saying that he’s here now and that’s all that matters. Father and son both hold each other, looking relieved and cautiously happy.

Gary gets the chance to give his father his first international medal, like he’s always wanted. He wants to know where his dad’s been all this time, saying that he’s not a kid anymore and he can handle it if it’s not pretty.

Bo-ra is more alert these days, sitting up and looking at those around her, and Su-ho goes along and takes pictures of the sisters. They even pose for a photo of all three of them together, and Su-ho calls himself Bo-ra’s brother-in-law. So. Cute.

It’s the day before game release, and the whole Zeze team marvel at their excellent work. Bo-nui suddenly realizes she’s missing her tiger pendant, but luckily she finds it on the floor and sets it aside on her desk. Su-ho compliments the team on a good job, and they joke that he’s a nicer boss now that he’s in love.

Su-ho gives them a bland look, and starts to rattle off all the chemicals that make a person feel like they’re in love. But he says stiffly that he’s Je Su-ho, and he doesn’t let himself be affected by such things. Regardless of those kinds of distractions, this project is objectively their best.

They clear out in about five seconds when he gives them the rest of the day off, leaving him alone with Bo-nui. He pouts when she says it’s not the game she originally imagined, but smiles again when she says it’s a hundred times better. He sends Bo-nui home too, explaining that Ryang-ha isn’t himself lately and he needs to talk to him.

Bo-nui acts fine, but she shuffles home and pouts, complaining that he could have invited her, too. She perks up a little when Su-ho calls and asks what she’s doing tonight, but he says he can’t come over, reminds her to eat, and hangs up on her mid-sentence. He’s up to something…

The shifty-looking electrician (and now I recognize him — he is one of the programmers who ruined Su-ho’s last game) brings Boss Won a drink, seeming a little too interested in making sure he drinks it. He digs for information on the big game release tomorrow, and notices Boss Won’s master key card on his belt.

He talks Boss Won into letting him into the Zeze Factory office, claiming that he’s here to fix some faulty wiring. Boss Won gets a conveniently-ill-timed stomachache and runs to the restroom, leaving Shifty Electrician alone in the office.

Bo-nui realizes she left her tiger pendant on her desk and heads back to the Zeze office. She walks in on Shifty Electrician just as he’s finishing up whatever he was doing, but his presence doesn’t worry her and he quickly leaves. She thanks Boss Won for all his help, then he runs to the bathroom again.

Amy and Dal-nim go on a double blind date, and Amy urges Dal-nim to split up and go alone with her date. Dal-nim is shy and Amy has to push her, but suddenly a hand grabs her wrist — it’s Ryang-ha, and he looks furious. He takes offense at her calling him “just the cafe owner,” and tells her date that they even spent a night together. “You even said it was your first time!” Hee.

Ryang-ha tells Dal-nim not to go on a blind date again, and yanks her away from the group. They run down the street as overly-dramatic music plays, and Dal-nim starts to get a little moony-eyed when Ryang-ha loosens his grip on her wrist and takes her hand.

Bo-nui thanks the spirits that night for all the good things that have come to her lately. She prays that Su-ho will be protected from harm, and just then she gets a text from him calling her out to the rooftop. I knew it!

She gets to the roof to find it covered in stars and twinkle lights, and Su-ho appears, saying that people believe that good luck comes from the stars. But we don’t really know if stars are bright or dark, if they’re close or far away, so he says to Bo-nui, “Don’t rely on the stars. Rely on me.”

He gives Bo-nui a beautiful bouquet of flowers, then complains that he’s tired from putting all these lights up. HAHA, Su-ho, never change. He gives Bo-nui a backhug and she cries into his arms.

Her tears make Su-ho worry that he did something wrong, but she says she’s just crying because she’s so happy. She’s glad she’s alive, that she gave living a normal life a chance because of him.

Everyone is nervous as the time for the game launch approaches, and it seems like everyone downloads the game the moment it’s released. Ryang-ha brings a reporter to interview Su-ho, and he sighs in disappointment when Dal-nim quickly runs past him without a word. Su-ho invites Bo-nui to the interview as the person who thought up the game, wanting to make sure she gets full credit.

The Zeze team head to 01 Fried Chicken to celebrate, which seems a little premature considering people haven’t even finished downloading the game yet, and Chicken Ajusshi is the first to notice that the game doesn’t work. Instead, it uploads a ransomware program, which holds your computer hostage until you pay money to have it released.

Su-ho and Bo-nui head to the chicken shop, where Chicken Ajusshi shows them the ransomware error. Su-ho runs back to the office and finds himself mobbed by reporters, but he pushes through and rushes upstairs to find out what’s wrong. His fingers fly as he fights to take down the ransomware, and Bo-nui accidentally knocks his lucky cactus off his desk and it shatters on the floor.

Su-ho doesn’t even register this, but Bo-nui looks extremely nervous. The team tell her that over four hundred thousand people have been infected with the ransomware, and Su-ho comes out of his office to announce that they’re being blackmailed for the equivalent of five million dollars. Ouch.

Ryang-ha lets the police in, explaining that he called them to come investigate. Su-ho tells the team to release an apology statement and cooperate with the police, so that they can figure out who did this and form a plan.

He spends all day and night on his computers trying to find a way to break the ransomware, but nothing works. He does know this wasn’t done online — someone did this in person — and the investigator shows him the video of Boss Won letting Shifty Electrician into the office.

When Bo-nui shows up at the office, she learns that Boss Won quit the previous day through text message, just saying that he hit the jackpot. Oh, that sounds so bad. Bo-nui is really worried now, remembering that her fortuneteller warned her not to try to fly too high.

Su-ho finds Bo-nui on the roof and asks if she’s feeling nervous, which she denies. He hugs her and says this isn’t her fault, and Bo-nui hugs him back, though she doesn’t seem convinced.

The next morning, Su-ho has to admit to Ryang-ha that he can’t break the ransomware. And if he can’t do it, nobody can. They’ll have to find another way to solve this problem. Ryang-ha thinks it will be too expensive, especially after their last game ended in disaster, but Su-ho still thinks they can save IF.

They head to a shareholder’s meeting to explain things, and Amy and Gary show up unexpectedly. Amy has to tell Su-ho that her parent company is suing Zeze Factory, and that she couldn’t do anything to stop it. Gary wants to meet with the shareholders and offer to do a press conference, but Su-ho says he’ll handle this himself.

The Zeze team are worried they’ll lose their jobs, and even they know that Su-ho can’t break this ransomware. It gets worse — now more than half of the people who downloaded the game are preparing to sue Zeze Factory as well.

The shareholders’ meeting is a bloodbath… they all yell while Su-ho sits in silence, and he finally stands to apologize. He promises to take responsibility for everything by stepping down from his president position, effective immediately. The shareholders accuse him of running away, but he says he’ll cover all damages with his personal money.

Ryang-ha is upset, since this isn’t even Su-ho’s fault, but Su-ho thinks it’s the right thing to do. Bo-nui overhears them talking, but when Su-ho looks over and sees her, all he can do is smile.

They go to the park and he holds her hand, and asks for her to lean on his shoulder. He forbids her to worry or doubt him, and reminds her to believe in him no matter what. Bo-nui smiles and nods, and they sit, quietly holding each other up.

Later Su-ho packs up his desk, saving Bo-nui’s jar of salt for last. He watches his team working furiously for a minute, then tells them to write a press release explaining that he’s resigning and promising to take care of everything personally. Everyone is shocked, and they beg him not to leave, but he says that they’re as important as he is and that Zeze Factory can go on without him.

Su-ho’s mother comes to the office to ask Bo-nui what’s happening, and Bo-nui assures her that Su-ho will take care of everything. Su-ho’s mother gives her a talisman and says that the fortuneteller blames the raccoon for Su-ho’s misfortune.

Dal-nim calls Bo-nui to tell her that Su-ho is leaving and using his personal money to pay the damages, and Bo-nui runs straight to the fortuneteller. He says that she was too greedy and should have only spent one night with the tiger, and she begs him to say it’s not true, that she’s not the reason this is happening.

The fortuneteller says that nobody will tell her what she wants to hear, but Bo-nui argues that Bo-ra did wake up. She just wants him to tell her that she didn’t cause Su-ho’s misfortune, and the fortuneteller says sadly that she’s given her heart to him, acting as if this is the worst thing that could happen.

Su-ho calls Bo-nui to tell her that he’s unemployed, though he doesn’t seem all that upset about it. He says that he feels good. Zeze Factory was everything to him, but now he has a new everything — her. He’s fine as long as she’s with him.

As she waits for Su-ho, Bo-nui pulls leaves off a branch, designating every other one “no” and “it’s okay.” The last one tells her “no,” and she nods with resignation. She sets the branch down, and when Su-ho comes riding up to her, Bo-nui’s eyes go blank.

Epilogue. The morning after their first night together, Su-ho whines that he wants to hang out with Bo-nui and go to work later. Bo-nui has trouble putting her tiger pendant on so Su-ho helps her, and they take advantage of the closeness to give each other little love-pecks. They hug and giggle like goofballs, then we cut to the fortuneteller chastising Bo-nui for giving her heart to the tiger.

She tells him that no matter how hard he tries to scare her, she won’t change her mind. The fortuneteller says that since he’s put everything into this relationship, he’ll lose everything – his fame will be tarnished, his fortune will disappear, and even the last thing he has, his body, will be destroyed by Bo-nui’s bad luck.

COMMENTS

If we’re heading into Noble Idiot territory, I’m gonna be upset. Bo-nui has made such great strides towards actively living her life, and though I can understand her readiness to hide in her superstitions and remove herself from Su-ho, for (what she thinks is) his best interest, I just really want to smack some sense into her. He’s been so good for her, and she just promised to trust in him multiple times, so if she goes back on her word it will be difficult to watch Su-ho’s disappointment.

I’ve long appreciated about Su-ho that he’s been trying so hard, from the very beginning, to find a middle ground with Bo-nui in regards to her superstitions. At first he tried to beat her down with facts and logic, but she pointed out that faith, by definition, is believing in something without empirical truth. That was the point at which he quit trying to make her give up her superstitions, and instead started trying to work with them. Now that their feelings are involved, he’s subtly shifted from “stop believing in that,” to “believe in me first,” and I love it.

It’s not an unreasonable thing to ask of the one you love, to trust in you, so he’s not asking for anything Bo-nui isn’t willing to give. He’s no longer pushing her to do something she’s uncomfortable with, he’s just asking her to shift her trust from something intangible, to something tangible… him and his love for her. He knows her so well, and knows how she thinks – he knew without having to be told that she would jump to the erroneous conclusion that the game’s misfortune would be due to her bad luck, and even as his professionla life is crumbling all around him, Su-ho makes a point to reassure Bo-nui that it’s not her fault. It’s so beautiful, and for a guy who’s been so emotionally and socially stunted, it’s an amazing leap for Su-ho. I honestly expected Bo-nui to be the one to do the most changing for this relationship, but Su-ho is the one who’s come further, risking his closely-guarded heart for a chance at love.

And it’s wonderful that his love has changed Bo-nui’s life so much for the better, by convincing her that she deserves to have normal things like friends and love. She’s pretty much lived in fear for most of her life, afraid that even getting close to someone could put them in danger. But Su-ho is showing her that she can have a good life, and live normally, and that she’s not a bad-luck charm to those around her. It’s nice to see her relax and let herself enjoy even the simplest things like cooking breakfast for the man she loves, and be able to admit that she can have love and it’s okay. Su-ho has been a fantastic influence on her, and it shows on her face even when she’s not with him — it’s clear that she’s finally enjoying life on all levels, and not just living in constant damage-control mode when it’s not even necessary.

So it’s particularly frustrating that Bo-nui falls back on her superstitions the moment something goes wrong, though I guess I can’t blame her too much, since it’s all she’s had that she felt safe trusting for her whole life. And she did try to fight it, to put her trust in Su-ho. But I’ve never trusted that fortuneteller, who seems like he’s been winding Bo-nui up for years just to keep her coming back to him for more advice and talismans, and his “advice” is now actively ruining her life. I’m still unsure if he’s just being reckless with her, or if he’s actively working to keep her roped in and dependent on him, but either way he needs to get gone. At least Bo-nui seems to be standing up to him to a point, which is a step in the right direction.

All I can hope is that Su-ho refuses to let Bo-nui sink into Noble Idiot territory, and if she doesn’t have faith in him, at least I do. He didn’t let her deny her feelings before, and now that he knows for sure how she feels about him, he’s not about to go away without a fight. And Su-ho has a stubborn streak a mile wide — there’s no way Bo-nui can stand up to the force he’ll utilize to keep from losing her. Especially not to her superstitions.

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