Shopping King Louis: Episode 8

by LollyPip

Growing pains are rough, especially when you have no past to speak of. But it’s time for Louis to grow up, and begin to be the man he instinctively longs to be. That will involve taking on a lot of new experiences, but he can do it with the people he loves by his side. He may not know who he used to be, but that hardly matters when he’s finally discovering who he’s meant to be.

EPISODE 8: “Be My Baby”

We back up to the previous morning, when Louis petulantly insists on riding to work with Joong-won and Bok-shil. He has to stop when they get to work, and he watches Bok-shil go inside with Joong-won. He takes the bus home alone, not feeling any better.

He takes In-sung out shopping and wonders what he used to do for work before he lost his memory. He tells In-sung that he suddenly wanted to go to work this morning, and In-sung says that as a “job seeker,” he knows how Louis feels. Louis thinks to himself that he wants to be a better person: “Then, I’ll tell her.”

Ma-ri uses In-sung’s crush on her learn that Bok-shil is staying with Joong-won, and that Joong-won likes her. In-sung mentions that a guy named Louis is staying with Bok-shil at Joong-won’s place, and that he’s really sweet but kind of strange.

Ma-ri calls her dad the moment she’s alone to tell him that Louis is at Joong-won’s, and Director Baek tells her to leave everything to him. He goes straight to Joong-won’s home and rings the doorbell, waking the whole house.

When Joong-won sees his boss at the door he sends Bok-shil and Louis to hide in his office. Bok-shil thinks to grab their shoes from the entryway and ushers Louis into the office, shutting the blinds. Joong-won lets Director Baek in, and he peers around to see if anyone else is here.

Louis loudly asks Bok-shil a question, and she claps her hand over his mouth to shush him. He drops their shoes and Director Baek hears the clatter, but Joong-won insists he lives alone.

There’s another noise and Director Baek pushes his way into the office, but whew, the room looks empty. Baek apologizes for being twitchy, explaining that he’s heard rumors that make him nervous, but then he notices Bok-shil’s blankets on the couch. Oops. Joong-won stammers that he sometimes naps in here while he’s working.

Director Baek sits down at the desk, and we see that Bok-shil and Louis are hiding under it, and are now only inches from discovery. Director Baek asks Joong-won about the rumors that he’s living with Bok-shil, but says that he doesn’t believe Joong-won would hire a woman under false pretenses.

Joong-won sticks up for Bok-shil, saying that he believes she’ll be a great merchandiser. He tells Director Baek not to accuse him of having ulterior motives, and Director Baek agrees that Joong-won is highly trustworthy. But he warns him about letting the rumors go unaddressed, or his image could be destroyed.

Under the desk, Bok-shil’s eyes go wide when Director Baek asks Joong-won if he’d like to send her to the Shanghai branch. Joong-won is too surprised to say anything, so Director Baek asks him to think about it. As he leaves, he looks back at the house with a sly grin.

Bok-shil and Louis apologize to Joong-won for putting him in a bad position at work, prepared to leave and go back home. But Joong-won stops them and says that he’s fine, rumors or no. He tells them to stay, and to stop being so dramatic. Bok-shil starts to insist, but Louis thanks him for letting them stay. But he takes the opportunity to ask Joong-won if he likes Bok-shil as a woman, and Joong-won doesn’t answer for several moments.

He remembers how the two of them looked at each other after Louis burnt his hand saving his coin from the grill, and after a glance in Bok-shil’s direction, he finally says, “Of course not.” Louis also asks if he’s going to send Bok-shil to Shanghai, but Joong-won says no to that too, and tells them to stop worrying and go back to bed.

Back home, Director Baek explains his plan to Ma-ri — if Bok-shil is sent to Shanghai, Louis will go with her, and they can stop worrying about the family finding him. All they have to do is make sure Louis isn’t found before the company shares transfer into their hands.

Ma-ri brings up Louis’s lack of an ID and the fact that Bok-shil won’t be keen to leave the country, since she still hasn’t found her brother. Director Baek tells Ma-ri to inform Bok-shil of her brother’s death (they believe he died in the crash), so she won’t want to stay in the country any longer.

Butler Kim and Jung-ran are shockingly close to finding Louis, having posted his photo online and gotten some leads. They find the flower shop where Louis bought the rose for Bok-shil, and when told that Louis bought an orange rose, Butler Kim remembers a time when Louis had told him that orange roses signify first love. Louis had wondered if he would ever fall in love, and decided that when he does, he’ll give the girl he loves one perfect orange rose. Oh, swoon.

Butler Kim knows that the orange rose means it was certainly Louis, and the shop owner tells them that Louis had said he was going to give the rose to the woman he lives with. Jung-ran thinks that Louis wouldn’t be living with a woman, nor would he have paid in coins, but Butler Kim is sure it’s him.

Louis and In-sung are back at the street vendor looking at clothing, and one sweatshirt calls out to Louis. He tells In-sung that he literally hears quality items calling his name, and In-sung quips that Louis is mentally ill, ha. Louis pays for the shirt, and they move on.

Louis wonders why the killer hasn’t been caught yet after he gave the cops such a big clue regarding the shoes. But they’re closer than he thinks — Detective Joo-hyuk learns the address of the suspect, and the cops move out to make the arrest.

At the office, Joong-won’s team is getting ready for Black Friday, and the office is full of samples. Joong-won orders the place cleaned up, but Bok-shil reports that the part-time helper they hired can’t make it. Joong-won says that he’ll find someone else, and rushes off.

Hot on Louis’s tail, Butler Kim’s next lead is the vendor who sold Louis the sweatshirt. He says that Louis shops there often and always pays with coins, and Jung-ran wonders if he’s earning money by begging. They learn that Louis was there less than twenty minutes ago, and run off after him.

They get within mere feet of Louis on the crowded street, but just as they’re about to see him, Butler Kim is knocked down by a pedestrian. Jung-ran screeches at the guy, but Butler Kim pulls her away to remind her of their mission. Something about Jung-ran’s expression stops him, and his cyborg-like brain analyzes her face and determines that she’s not angry, but worried about him. He wonders why she cares so much.

Louis gets a call that he’s landed a part-time job for the day at Goldline, and he makes straight for Joong-won’s closet, picking out a suit and a pair of shoes. He checks himself out in the mirror, liking what he sees, and with his trademark “Perfect!” he heads to his first day at work.

He struts into the Goldline office like he owns the place (HA), making the entire team wonder who he is. When he hears that both Joong-won and Bok-shil are out, he casually orders a cup of his favorite instant coffee, and skips off to wait in Joong-won’s office.

Joong-won is furious to see Louis wearing his clothes and grabs his lapels, but Louis’s pointed look reminds him that the whole office is watching. Joong-won backs off and introduces Louis as the new part-timer, and everyone gasps, having thought he was someone important.

When asked his family name, Louis thinks fast and says it’s Wang, which means “king.” Bok-shil’s amused snicker earns a hilarious glare from Louis. Team member Hye-joo suddenly remembers seeing Louis holding Bok-shil’s hand a while back, and she blurts out that he’s Bok-shil’s boyfriend.

Louis smirks, pleased, and says he’s even more than a boyfriend. He starts to say they live together, and Bok-shil practically teleports across the room to cover his big fat mouth. She explains that he’s just helping her look for her brother.

Team member Do-jin recognizes Joong-won’s suit, and this time Joong-won covers Louis’s mouth when he starts to say they live together. He orders everyone back to work, but they’re distracted when Mr. Lee brings Louis his coffee. Mr. Lee simpers like he’s serving a celebrity, and the poor man’s knees buckle when he learns that he just served the part-timer.

The team is curious about Louis and pepper him with questions, but Joong-won sends them away grouchily. He gives Louis the job of organizing the samples, then seems annoyed when Louis doesn’t appear worried by the task.

Ma-ri hasn’t met the new guy yet, and she brings more samples to the storage room where he’s working. He turns to face her and they both have a moment of recognition, then Ma-ri accidentally knocks a stack of boxes over onto him. She flees the room, leaving Louis huddled under a mountain of samples.

Ma-ri runs screaming into her father’s office, and tells Director Baek that Louis is at the Goldline office right now. She guesses he’s here for the part-time job, and Director Baek decides they have to get rid of Bok-shil, and thus Louis, immediately.

When Louis is finally rescued from underneath the sample boxes, he tells the team that a familiar-seeming woman attacked him. He suddenly remembers that she’s the one who nearly ran over him, and the team can’t think of who it may have been.

Hye-joo tells her teammate Mi-young that she was jealous of Bok-shil for having such a handsome boyfriend, but now he seems a little weird. Louis overhears them wondering where they’ve seen him before, and pokes his head between them, hoping for a clue to his identity. But the movement reminds them of their first time seeing him, when he’d been filthy and begging for their coffee, and they recall him as “that pervert,” hee.

Bok-shil makes it back to the office with more samples and finds Louis pouting that he got hit with boxes. Upset, he grumbles that she’s the only one who believes what he says. Bok-shil says that he only needs one person to believe him, and Louis gives her a big beautiful smile when she says that that person is herself.

When confronted by Mr. Lee and Do-jin, Ma-ri denies that she hit Louis with her car, and lies that she hasn’t even met him yet. Do-jin falls for it, but Mr. Lee gives her a suspicious side-eye. Ma-ri creeps back to the office and tries to eavesdrop on Louis and Bok-shil, and she nearly has a heart attack when Joong-won asks what she’s doing.

In-sung hears that the police have caught the suspect who attacked the man in Bok-shil and Louis’s apartment, and he watches the news with his mother. They learn that the killer was identified by a shoe-print left in some powder on the apartment floor, and Mom wonders what it was since Bok-shil keeps the place so clean.

We go back to that night, and we finally see exactly what happened. Louis had been outside practicing with his new lightsaber (ha, that was his “safety equipment?”) while he waited for Bok-shil to come home, still stiff and sore from his one day of work.

He’d gone inside and made a cup of instant coffee with the lightsaber tucked under his arm, but when he’d turned to get the hot water, the lightsaber knocked the cup of powder onto the floor. He’d done the exact same thing a second time, knocking a second cup to the floor, before getting a clue and putting down the lightsaber. PFFT.

Louis had gone to the bus stop to wait for Bok-shil, leaving the floor covered in powdered coffee. Scarface had crept into their apartment to look around, and it was him who was attacked. The killer had left his footprint in the powdered coffee, and it was Louis’s knowledge of shoes that led to his arrest. Scarface is still in a coma, and the detectives are trying to discover exactly who he is and why he was there that night. Detective Joo-hyuk asks his chief to give Louis the reward money for catching the killer, since they couldn’t have caught the guy without him, and the chief says he’ll look into a partial reward.

Butler Kim and Jung-ran’s next few leads are duds, and the PD of the TV show that was helping them look for Louis says that they’re taking the info off the website. Jung-ran thinks it’s time to stop — she believes Louis is dead.

Jung-ran calls Director Baek to report that the man they saw on television wasn’t Louis, and she’s caught by Butler Kim. Director Baek calls his wife Jae-sook, who’s still in Busan, to tell her to bring Grandma up to Seoul.

Butler Kim asks Jung-ran who she keeps calling, and she lies that it’s just a friend. She’s a terrible liar, and Butler Kim asks again who she’s reporting to, but she just blows up at him and runs away. He wonders if she’s talking to a boyfriend.

The Goldline team come back to the office after dinner, and they each find a note on their desk from Louis. The notes award them stars, with comments like “You talk too much” or “I only like your sense of style,” HAHA. Mr. Lee likes his note, which gives him five stars and says that he’s kind. Awww, he’s so happy.

Do-jin sees another note from Louis, saying that he’s picked out which products they should promote. They scoff that a part-timer would know anything about their work, until they look at the products and realize that Louis has a gift. Joong-won also find a note on his desk which we don’t see, but it makes him snarl.

Ma-ri takes Bok-shil to a coffee shop to put her dad’s plan into effect, and she starts by asking Bok-shil why she lied about her relationship with Joong-won. Bok-shil asks her not to tell anyone else, since she’s moving out today anyway, and Ma-ri nastily says to stop inconveniencing people.

She brings up her other reason for coming here, intending to tell Bok-shil that her brother is dead. But before she can say anything Louis knocks on the window, and Ma-ri scurries to hide before he can see her. She holds a tray in front of her face and tries to slink past him, but Bok-shil calls Ma-ri “Team Leader” so he keeps cutting her off, trying to introduce himself. HAHA, seeing Ma-ri scuttling around the coffee shop holding a tray in front of her face is just hysterical.

Butler Kim apologizes to Grandma when she gets to Seoul, deeply sorry that he couldn’t find Louis for her. She thanks them for trying, and she asks after Director Baek and Ma-ri.

They’re on their way, though Ma-ri doesn’t really want to go. Her dad says that they’re finalizing the shares transfer tomorrow, and Ma-ri worries about leaving Louis adrift like this. Director Baek says to leave it all up to him and just pretend not to know anything in front of Grandma.

Louis is thrilled to get his reward money for helping catch the killer, and tells Detective Joo-hyuk that he plans to spend it all on Bok-shil. Meanwhile Bok-shil lugs their belongings out of Joong-won’s place, and she thanks him for letting them live here. He says she can always stay, but she says that won’t be necessary, and also informs him that she won’t be going to the Shanghai branch.

Joong-won says that he doesn’t want her to go either, and he looks sad for just a moment. But he’s quickly back to himself, sternly saying that she has too much to learn and she’ll never escape his training program. With one last warning for Bok-shil to stay focused on work, Joong-won sends her home.

Louis meets Bok-shil on the steps, and takes all of their bags to carry the rest of the way. She asks if he feels okay, and he says she can put more pain patches on for him, and they head home together.

They’re surprised to find In-sung’s mom inside, just finishing cleaning the place. She sweetly says there’s nothing better than to come home to a clean house, and Louis gratefully flops in her lap like a big puppy. In-sung runs in yelling, “That’s my mom!” and kicks Louis away, and they fight over her lap until she finally grabs them both affectionately by the hair. Aw, this family.

Louis orders what looks like every possible kind of late-night delivery food for his own little family, and In-sung is convinced again that he comes from a rich family the way he spends money. In-sung’s mom says that he’s finally growing up, spending his own hard-earned money on them, and Louis says that the can’t be incompetent forever. He introduces himself formally as Shopping King Louis, and gets teased for his ego, hee.

Joong-won glares at the surprise fried chicken Louis sent him, having no intention of eating it in the middle of the night, and he aggressively tells the chicken so. Next thing you know he’s chowing down like he hasn’t eaten in days, complaining the whole time about the extra calories.

Louis and Bok-shil are delighted to be home, though Louis says that it’s being alone with Bok-shil that makes him happy. She stares at him with big wide eyes and he suddenly realizes what he said, and backtracks to say that he’s happy she’ll only be cooking for him. Aww, Bok-shil’s face falls.

Louis says that it upset him the way Director Baek picked on her, so he decides she can quit her job and they’ll open a shopping mall. He thinks he’d be good at that. Bok-shil says that of course she believes in him, but she still has a lot to learn, and he sulks that she’s choosing Joong-won over him.

He asks what she wants to do most, so that he can make it happen. She wants to see the ocean, so the next day they take a trip to a beach. Louis buys Bok-shil some cotton candy from a vendor, and they dance in the sand to a radio playing “Be My Baby” by The Ronettes.

Louis runs into the water and splashes Bok-shil, and she loses a shoe in the waves. She sends him in to retrieve it, which he does, then when she says the shoes were a gift from Joong-won, he hurls it into deeper water. That starts a more serious splash fight, and they both end up soaking wet and having the time of their lives.

There’s a small moment that passes between them when they’re helping squeeze the ocean water out of each other’s clothes, and their bodies are close and their faces even closer. But the moment passes, and when Bok-shil pouts that she only has one shoe, Louis carries her on his back up the beach.

He takes Bok-shil shopping for a new pair of shoes, but when she says that her grandmother said that giving shoes meant that you’d eventually say goodbye to that person, he refuses to pay for them, ha. But she doesn’t have any money, so he pays, though he’s not happy about it (and now I’m worried, too).

Detective Joo-hyuk goes to the Hong Franc bookstore, and this time he sees Jae-sook inside. She looks up as he walks in, and stares at the beautiful backlit man who looks like something out of a fairytale. Then he says he’s a cop, and reality screeches back.

He asks if she has one of the music boxes that Gold Department Store made for its thirtieth anniversary, and she points out the small penguin statue. Next he asks if she knows the name Louis, but we don’t hear her answer.

Louis and Bok-shil walk past a bookstore carrying foreign books, and Louis picks one up and starts reading. It takes a second for them to realize he’s reading in Japanese, and Louis freezes in surprise. He grabs a book in Spanish and reads it just as easily, and German too. Ha, Louis is all, I’m so cool!

He pulls out his phone for Bok-shil to record his new trick, and goes through several more books, tossing the camera triumphant looks after each one. He picks up another one whose title, In Search of Lost Time, makes him pause. He says it reminds him of his current situation, and he grows serious.

He tells Bok-shil that he wants to get his memory back, but that he’s also very happy with his life the way it is in the present. He says shyly that his heart feels joyful, and while he’s still being filmed, Bok-shil asks what his most memorable moment of his new life has been.

Louis thinks of all the time he’s spent waiting for Bok-shil — at home, on the street, at the bus stop. He recalls the moments when his waiting paid off, when he’d see Bok-shil coming home, and he’d fill up with happiness. He tells her that his best moments were the ones he spent waiting for her.

Bok-shil looks at Louis and he smiles, and he takes the phone and points it at her and asks the same question. Bok-shil’s answer is simple: “Right now.”

Louis just looks at her, not saying a word, and Bok-shil starts to grow nervous. He steps forward, and in a low voice he asks, “What should I do?” She asks if he feels sick, but he just steps forward, putting a hand on her arm to stop her from backing away.

Louis lowers his head slowly, so slowly, until finally their lips touch. His hand slides down to entwine their fingers together, as they share their first kiss.

COMMENTS

What an absolutely perfect, beautiful moment. Usually by the time the leading couple in a drama kisses, we’ve been feeling so much unresolved tension that it’s like a coil being tightened and finally let loose. But here it just feels like Louis and Bok-shil have been slowly moving towards each other for a long time, and it was just the right time for them to express their feelings, without pressure or anxiety. Not that they have no tension, it’s just that they’re so comfortable in their relationship, there’s been no rush to make things physical. They may not have discussed it, but it’s clear to anyone who sees them that they’ve loved each other since very early on in their friendship. So rather than feeling like they have to kiss to prove it, this kiss just feels like it was waiting for its proper time.

Ma-ri is just completely cracking me up. I still don’t know exactly what her motives are — does she want to inherit Gold Group? Does she have her eye on Joong-won? Both? — but whatever they are, she’s just so not-scary that I actually enjoy watching her try to manipulate everyone and totally fail. She’s almost an anti-villain, in that her ends are at odds with our protagonists, but every time she attempts to be all eeevil, she just ends up making herself look ridiculous. It’s highly entertaining to see her flail and get frustrated whenever her plans are foiled, and I’m loving every minute of it.

Not that her father is any better of a schemer — sending Bok-shil to Shanghai? Seriously, that’s his big nefarious plan to get rid of Louis? I’m starting to wonder if he actually did plan Louis’s accident, because he just doesn’t seem capable of killing anyone, even indirectly. We’re still very much in the dark in regards to the details of those events, like how Louis ended up in Bok-nam’s clothes and who exactly died in the crash that everyone thinks killed Louis. We do know that Director Baek let him drive alone when he wasn’t supposed to, and that he called Scarface to do… something… but that’s all we know for sure. We have a lot of theories and speculation, but I’m getting very eager to know what Director Baek’s plan was. Because he’s known for some time now that Louis is still alive and yet his whole plan is “send Bok-shil to Shanghai and Louis will follow her.” Something doesn’t add up.

I’m happy to see Louis starting to mature, and it was interesting that he felt so strongly about getting a job when he’s never had one in his life. It’s a reminder that the old Louis wasn’t so content in his sheltered, though luxurious, life. He’d longed to be able to control his own actions, unable to even open a window in the rain because of his grandmother’s fear of losing him. The new Louis still feels that discontent, and wants to have a reason for getting up in the morning. I think that Bok-shil (or rather, wanting to be a good man for her) has something to do with that, but the majority of it is just Louis’s subconscious longing to find a purpose in his life.

And while I’m happy to see Louis growing up, making a new little family, and finding love with Bok-shil, there’s a part of me that is almost ready for him to find his real family and get his old life back. Not because I want him to lose what he has now, but because I think that Louis will never be fully happy without knowing where he comes from. A couple of weeks ago I would have said that it would be okay if he never got his memory back and just lived with Bok-shil forever, but now I think Louis is feeling that his old life was missing something, and that there’s something deep inside him that wants to get his memory back so that he can discover what it was. So now I want him to remember himself, and find a way to merge his two half-lives into one fulfilling whole.

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