Shopping King Louis: Episode 9

by LollyPip

So much happens in this episode, my head is spinning. Louis’s and Bok-shil’s world is changing rapidly — just as Louis was learning to stand on his own two feet, he’s going to have to work even harder adjusting to life all over again. But as long as he doesn’t let anything change who he is on the inside, and as long as he has Bok-shil there to remind him to stay grounded, I don’t think we have anything to worry about.

EPISODE 9: “Can’t Smile Without You”

Let’s see that wonderful kiss again, shall we?

Meanwhile, Detective Joo-hyuk questions Jae-sook about Louis, and she tells him that Louis is the heir to Gold Group then asks if he’s really alive. Joo-hyuk confirms that he is.

As they walk home that night, Louis teases Bok-shil by creeping up on her and muttering, “What should I do?” just to get a reaction out of her. That’s hilarious. He asks her to make him ramyun, and sends her inside while he goes on a secret errand.

He wants to get her another orange rose (to symbolize that she’s his first love), but the flower shop is closed. He decides to come back tomorrow, and heads home where Bok-shil is waiting nervously.

Director Baek plans to get the Gold Group shares transferred to him while Grandma is in Seoul, which she’s not contesting, having lost her enthusiasm for the business when Louis disappeared. Jae-sook runs in while he’s meeting with the lawyer, and blurts that she’s found Louis.

Director Baek quickly dismisses the lawyer and asks his wife what she’s going on about. He’s horrified to hear that a detective searched her out, and he looks like he could cry when she says that she told Joo-hyuk about Louis’s connection to Gold Group. He tries frantically to come up with a new plan for getting rid of Louis.

Joo-hyuk looks into Gold Group, and discovers why nobody’s been searching for Louis — he supposedly died in a fiery car crash a month ago. He realizes that Bok-shil brought Louis to him the day after the accident, wearing Bok-nam’s jacket.

Bok-shil grows more and more anxious when Louis doesn’t come home, and calling him only reveals that he left his phone in their shopping bags. In fact he’s almost home, but he’s stopped on the stairs by a trio of suited men, who unceremoniously drag him to a nearby car. He calls for Bok-shil, and she hears his cries, but by the time she gets outside they’ve driven off with Louis.

She goes to In-sung’s place and tells him and his mom that Louis seems to be missing. In-sung wonders if he had another of his headaches and passed out, which worries Bok-shil even more. She runs out to look for Louis, with In-sung right behind her.

She finds the shoe he lost while being bundled into the car, and In-sung notes that it’s still warm from his body heat. He tries to reassure Bok-shil that Louis is probably just playing a prank, but he can’t even manage to convince himself. Bok-shil calls Joong-won to see if Louis is there, but Joong-won is just as worried as they are and heads over.

Bok-shil and In-sung go to the police, where Joo-hyuk tells them they’ve discovered Louis’s identity. They’re gobsmacked to learn that he’s a chaebol heir, and when In-sung mentions hearing that the Gold Group heir died, Joo-hyuk quickly changes the subject, darting worried glances at Bok-shil.

But Bok-shil is a smart cookie, and she asks why Louis was found wearing Bok-nam’s jacket. Joo-hyuk blusters that he could have picked it up somewhere, and In-sung’s excited chirping that he just knew Louis came from a rich family manages to distract Bok-shil.

Director Baek is forced to tell Grandma that Louis is alive, and that he never contacted them because he lost his memory. Grandma demands to see him, and Director Baek says he’s on his way right now. Excited, Grandma tells Jung-ran to make Louis’s favorite food, and sends Butler Kim to prepare his room.

Joong-won comes to support Bok-shil, and In-sung asks him how he didn’t recognize his own boss’s grandson, so he explains that nobody at Gold Group has ever seen Louis’s face. They only knew that he lived overseas and died in an accident after returning to Korea, so he had no reason to suspect anything.

Bok-shil is holding up well, and she says that she’s glad Louis found his family and now only needs to recover his memories. Joong-won watches her as if he suspects she’s not as together as she seems, but he doesn’t say anything. He just grumps that Louis’s going to be even more insufferable now.

As Butler Kim makes Louis’s bed, he thinks that something feels off about Director Baek. But he thinks maybe he was wrong to suspect him, since after all, Director Baek did find Louis and bring him home.

Director Baek calls Ma-ri to come to Grandma’s house, and she freaks out when she hears that Louis is on his way there. Her father says he’ll explain everything later, and Ma-ri flails, scared that Louis will recognize her.

In-sung reports back to his mother about Louis, and they’re both elated to hear that he’s rich. They chatter excitedly about how loyal Louis is and how much he loves to spend money, certain that they’ll soon be benefiting from Louis’s newfound access to unlimited funds.

Butler Kim practically bursts into tears to see Louis alive and well, and he grabs him in a hug, wailing about how much he’s missed him. Louis shrinks away, having no idea who this guy is, but Butler Kim takes it well and says he’ll be back to his old self, the heir to Gold Group, in no time.

This is the first Louis has heard of this, and he reels to hear that he’s the missing Gold Group heir. He mutters that he just knew he used to be rich, and his first instinct is to call Bok-shil and tell her the good news. He remembers leaving his phone behind and asks Butler Kim to take him home so Bok-shil won’t worry, but Butler Kim promises he can call Bok-shil after seeing his grandmother.

Back at home, Bok-shil tosses out the ramyun she made for Louis and finally allows herself to miss him.

The whole family, minus Ma-ri, is gathered to see Louis’s homecoming, and Grandma embraces him gratefully as soon as he walks in. Louis is taken aback, and his head begins to pound as he looks around at all the strange faces. Seeing them triggers a few flashes of memory, but when Ma-ri enters the room, her face entirely hidden by a scarf, he passes out cold.

Jae-sook blames Ma-ri for Louis’s collapse and tries to take off her scarf and sunglasses, but Ma-ri snatches them back, snapping that she has her reasons for wearing them. Louis is taken to his bed, where Grandma hovers over him.

Joong-won goes to see Joo-hyuk at the station, to ask why Louis wasn’t in the car that exploded. Joo-hyuk also wants to know why, and how Louis hurt his head and was found wearing Bok-nam’s clothing, and says he’s looking into it. Joong-won asks him not to say anything about Bok-nam to Bok-shil just yet.

Bok-shil goes to bed alone, missing Louis’s comforting presence beside her. She remembers how he came back to her after going to Joong-won’s house the first time, and his promise to help her find her brother. In the morning everything reminds Bok-shil of Louis, from breakfast, to the soul chair, even the bus stop.

Director Baek storms into the office with a determined expression, looking ready to do battle. But he doesn’t say a word at the shareholders’ meeting, as Grandma announces that Louis has been found. She says that he’ll be learning the business, leaving out his memory loss.

Director Baek goes to Grandma after the meeting, and she tells him that she’s decided to split her shares evenly between him and Louis. She asks him to help Louis, and there’s nothing he can do but agree.

Mr. Lee is still floating after receiving a five-star review from part-timer Louis, and he tells Do-jin that it’s the first compliment anyone has given him in ages. Ma-ri arrives to work in a stormy mood, and she bites Mr. Lee’s head off when he asks for her help with a draft.

Louis wakes to see Butler Kim waiting by his bed, and it’s cute that the first thing he wants to know is if he’s married or has a girlfriend. Butler Kim jokes that he’s forty years old with a wife and three kids in France, scaring Louis half to death, but he finally takes pity and tells Louis the truth.

Relieved, Louis leaps out of bed to run to Bok-shil, but Butler Kim bars his way out. Louis slips by with the “Eek a bug!” trick, but he’s stopped again at the door by Jung-ran brandishing a baseball bat. She politely introduces herself, terrifying Louis, and tells him that he needs to eat before he can go anywhere.

Joong-won takes Bok-shil to the lobby coffee shop, and she pretends to be glad that freeloading Louis is finally off her hands. She asks Louis’s real name, and Joong-won says it’s Kang Ji-sung, but tells her to ask Louis her questions from now on.

Ma-ri spies them talking and wonders why she’s always seeing Joong-won with Bok-shil. Mi-young asks her what’s going on with all the executives in the building today, and Ma-ri smugly tells her to prepare for a surprising announcement.

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Joo-hyuk visits the site of the car crash, but he already knows that CCTV footage didn’t turn up anything suspicious. He thinks that something must have happened before the accident, and drives the route from the airport to the accident scene, looking for hints.

Back at the station he pulls up CCTV footage from a certain intersection along the route, and sees a motorcycle gang following the car Louis was driving that day (verified by Louis’s notes, where he’d written a license plate number that felt familiar). On the video, Joo-hyuk can clearly see that one of the riders was Bok-nam.

Butler Kim and Jung-ran watch in amazement as Louis eats breakfast, stuffing his face and getting food all over himself. Louis notices the nice dish set, and asks Butler Kim to bag them up for him to take to Bok-shil.

Butler Kim helps Louis suit up, and Louis grabs several suits, ties, and pairs of shoes, asking for those to be packed up as well. He requests enough money to repay Bok-shil for everything she’s spent on him, as well as what he lost.

Jung-ran asks Butler Kim if he’s positive that that’s Louis, worried that he might be a con artist the way he’s taking things and asking for money. Butler Kim placidly says that Louis just lost his memory, and that she shouldn’t let her imagination run wild.

But Jung-ran does exactly that, wondering who this Bok-shil person is. She imagines Bok-shil dressed in leather, cracking a whip and feeding Louis crumbs of bread while forcing him to beg for coins in the street. HAHA, that’s hysterical. Then she imagines Bok-shil sending him to this house and ordering him to come back with money, and as many expensive things as possible.

The real Bok-shil is at work, where In-sung’s mom asks if she’s heard from Louis yet. She’s surprised when Bok-shil says she hasn’t, since she knows how attached Louis is to her, and wonders if he’ll pretend not to know them now that he’s rich.

That worries Bok-shil, but later the Goldline team finds several new reviews on their product site, all from someone posting as “Louis the 25th.” Bok-shil reads the reviews, which seem to send a message: “I want to buy the wild ginseng you found.” “I won’t return it this time.”

They continue, referring to cooking and coffee and even making a reference to Joong-won by saying he’ll buy her nicer appliances than Joong-won did. Then in a message directly to Bok-shil, Louis says he’s doing well and that he’ll see her soon, adding that she should call him oppa now. Heh, he called himself Louis the 25th as a pun on his age, 25 years old, which Bok-shil figures out.

Joo-hyuk finds the owner of a taxi that regularly drives the route Louis took the day of his accident, and obtains the black box footage from the day of the accident. He’s hot on the case, getting closer and closer to learning exactly what happened that night.

Joong-won’s parents let themselves into his house again, and his mom finds a bag of clothing that Bok-shil left behind. She sees Bok-shil’s blue dress inside and screams for her husband, and they both rejoice — it looks like Joong-won is dating someone.

Ma-ri tries to assign Bok-shil to heavily discount an item to meet their sales goals, while Bok-shil points out that it’s not fair to their customers who have already purchased it at a higher price. Ma-ri sweetly asks if she’s talking back, and tells Bok-shil not to think, just obey.

Bok-shil heads home after her awful day, to find the steps outside her apartment newly adorned with a red carpet. She walks up beside the carpet, avoiding stepping on it, and Louis steps out in his suit, looking impossibly handsome and holding a single orange rose. Then he ruins his own romantic image by whining to Bok-shil, “Hey dummy! I rolled it out for you to walk on!”

Startled, Bok-shil scoots over to climb the steps on the carpet, and Louis walks down to meet her. In-sung and his mom pop out to watch, and also Butler Kim and Jung-ran. Okay, this is the best thing ever.

Louis and Bok-shil stop with one landing between them, and Louis opens his arms wide and says, “Come to Oppa.” I love how tickled he is to be her oppa, hee. Grinning madly, Bok-shil runs into his embrace, and Louis spins her around happily.

Louis whispers into Bok-shil’s ear, “What should I do?” and she rears back, knowing exactly what he’s planning to do. But he doesn’t let go of her and gives her a little peck (which makes In-sung and his mom squee in unison), then he goes back in to kiss her deeply. Butler Kim and Jung-ran are moved, and In-sung wonders when the puppy became a lion. Rawr indeed.

In-sung and his mom invite Butler Kim and Jung-ran into their home, where Butler Kim’s cyborg eyes scan In-sung’s old clothes and bare feet. He sizes them up, correctly guessing that In-sung is unemployed and his mom was a young mother.

Louis and Bok-shil go to their place, where Louis flops on the floor, happy to be home. Bok-shil worries about his expensive suit, but she tells him not to change because he looks so handsome. She asks if he wants to take his things back with him, which makes him frown.

Butler Kim is concerned that Louis has been living in such a tiny place, but In-sung’s mom says that Bok-shil’s been taking great care of him. When Jung-ran asks if Bok-shil treats Louis like a slave, In-sung says it’s the other way around — Louis follows her around like a puppy and she gives him food, money, and love.

Louis is upstairs pouting, but Bok-shil tells him that he should live with his family now. He decides she can just move in with him, but she says that they don’t have to live in the same house to be together, and reminds him of his promise to help her find her brother.

Louis promises, and tells her to trust him. He gets a naughty glint in his eye and says, “What should I do?” Okay, he’s getting silly now. Bok-shil backs away, but Louis just scoots across the floor at her, and asks for food.

Later Bok-shil goes through the bags Louis brought, full of fancy dishes and kitchen gadgets. In-sung and his mom also have gifts, and they squeal over the expensive clothes and sunglasses. On the ride home, Louis asks how much these homes cost, and says he wants to buy houses for Bok-shil and In-sung.

When Ma-ri shows up at Joong-won’s door, his parents automatically assume she must be his new girlfriend. Ma-ri is alarmed at their overly-enthusiastic greeting, but she plays along, letting them continue thinking she’s dating their son and even pretending the frumpy blue dress is hers.

She runs into Joong-won on her way out, and they relocate to a coffee shop when she can’t explain why she’s at his house. Ma-ri boldly says that she likes him, but Joong-won says that makes him uncomfortable and he’ll pretend she never said it.

Ma-ri asks him why he likes Bok-shil and not her, but instead of answering, he tells her that you can’t repackage sincere feelings. She flounces out of the shop, and throws away Bok-shil’s bag of clothes in a fit of pique.

Butler Kim overhears Jung-ran calling Director Baek again, gasping when she asks why they have to keep their relationship secret. He imagines the two of them carrying on a torrid affair, and screams in horror. He runs to Jung-ran and begs her to get out of that dangerous relationship and date him instead, and Jung-ran is simultaneously excited and confused.

Louis can’t sleep in his big comfy bed, so he texts Bok-shil to say that he wishes he were sleeping beside her. He complains that his room is too big, and she teases him for bragging. He tells her that he’s rich now, so he’s going to buy her a ring and anything she wants, and Bok-shil replies that he makes her feel safe and protected even when he’s not there. Awww.

When Louis sends her a kissing emoticon, Bok-shil has a fit of shyness and doesn’t answer right away, so Louis calls her. He whines that he can’t sleep, and when she asks what he’s doing tomorrow, he says he wants to see her. Satisfied, Louis finally settles down to sleep.

Joo-hyuk finds that the car’s black box footage shows Bok-nam and Louis, leaning on Louis’s car parked in the road. Film from later that night shows the car pulling away from that same spot, leaving Louis standing on the sidewalk wearing nothing but his boxers and holding Bok-nam’s tracksuit.

At some point that day, Louis and Bok-nam had switched places. Joo-hyuk makes the natural assumption, and concludes that it must have been Bok-nam who died in the crash.

Joo-hyuk finds Bok-shil the next morning, and she asks hopefully if he’s here because they found Bok-nam. He nods, but refrains from telling her details, and he takes her for a drive. Bok-shil chatters excitedly the whole way, but Joo-hyuk just looks sad.

He takes her to a hillside and breaks the bad news — Bok-nam is dead. He tells her that Bok-nam was the one who died in the crash that everyone thought killed Louis. Bok-shil struggles to process this information, while at his house, Louis happily looks forward to seeing her soon.

COMMENTS

First off, I thought the show couldn’t possibly top that wonderful kiss from the last episode, then they went and did it anyway with Louis’s red carpet event for Bok-shil. It was so simple and yet so Louis, just something to prove to Bok-shil that he loves her even without having to say the words. It’s adorable that “What should I do?” has already become code for “Brace yourself, I’m going to kiss you now,” and I love how Louis uses it to fluster Bok-shil. I’d even argue that it’s his way of saying he loves her, and that she knows it.

But that ending worries me, because I’ve been so afraid of the possibility that Bok-nam died in Louis’s place in that fiery explosion. It’s logical to assume that Bok-nam took Louis’s limited edition tracksuit, left him the knockoff, and died in that crash wearing Louis’s clothes and watch. But I think there’s still room to consider that maybe it wasn’t Bok-nam who died that night — maybe one of his motorcycle gang friends took Louis’s clothes and watch, and died in Louis’s place. Could it be possible that Bok-nam’s been in hiding since then, afraid he’ll be in trouble for being involved in the death? I really hope so, and not just because his dying in Louis’s place could drive a wedge between Louis and Bok-shil, but because he’s just a kid and he doesn’t deserve to die in such a horrible way.

At least Louis and Bok-shil’s separation wasn’t overly traumatic, with one or both of them freaking out about being apart. Bok-shil took the news of Louis’s true identity with a lot of grace and poise, and Louis was good about trying not to upset anyone from Gold Group even though he had no clue who they were. I’d just assumed that when Louis found his family, they would object to his relationship with Bok-shil and try to bar him from seeing her, but I’m so glad I was wrong. On the contrary, in some ways the show ramped up the silliness even further (that seduction scene between Director Baek and Jung-ran, OMG), and the separation turned out to be just another obstacle for Louis and Bok-shil to tackle together.

Though it seems like all the puzzle pieces are falling into place neatly, there are still a lot of things about Louis’s situation that just feel off to me. As much as I really want to let myself love Butler Kim, there are times when his expression feels wrong for the situation, as if he’s thinking devious thoughts. I do believe he loves Louis, but I also wonder if there’s more going on beneath his simple-man exterior. And I still think that Director Baek is too ineffectual to be the one who ordered Louis’s death… if in fact, anyone did, and it wasn’t just a tragic accident. Some earlier conversations between Baek and Scarface seemed to have a deeper undercurrent of meaning, though I just can’t put my finger on why I feel that way.

And what’s the significance of the penguin statue? How did Louis hit his head on the fire hydrant right outside his aunt’s bookstore, which is nowhere near the place he was abandoned? There’s more, but the moments are so slight that I wonder if I’m not just being paranoid and that the show really is that simple. I just feel like the attention to detail in the writing — like Louis’s lightsaber and love of coffee turning out to be the clue that caught the killer — are too well-planned for these odd little wrongnesses to be accidents. I won’t be at all surprised if the show blows us away with a huge twist that we haven’t seen coming. I have my suspicions.

Sadly, I think the true separation comes now, with Bok-shil learning (or just believing?) that her brother died in Louis’s place. I hope that she doesn’t blame Louis for the accident or the fact that Bok-nam was in the car, but you never know what a shock like that will do to a person. Bok-nam was Bok-shil’s only family left in the world (well, her blood family) and her entire reason for taking in Louis in the first place. Now that she thinks she knows what happened to him, her original reason for keeping Louis around is gone. I want to believe that Bok-shil loves Louis enough to overcome her devastation at his connection to Bok-nam’s death, though it may take some time before she can disentangle her feelings for Louis from her grief over losing her brother. But the show hasn’t let us down yet when it comes to Louis and Bok-shil’s bond, and I’m choosing to trust that they won’t let this keep them apart for long.

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