The Man Living in Our House: Episode 6

by LollyPip

Trust is a slippery beast, and people often place trust in someone based more on gut feeling than fact and logic. It’s easy to say the words “trust me,” and easy to fall for them, but who’s to say who is trustworthy and who isn’t? Na-ri’s future depends on trusting the right person, and she’ll have to decide on her own if Nan-gil can be trusted, or if his past and motives are suspect.

 
EPISODE 6 RECAP

Na-ri thinks about Nan-gil, going over everything she knows and doesn’t know about him. Wan-shik had told her to ask Nan-gil about his legend herself, because he promised not to say anything. He does accuse her of using Nan-gil just because her mother used to take care of him, and that’s enough to trigger her memories of the small boy who used to occasionally approach her.

She jumps up and runs towards the house, and doesn’t stop until she’s found Nan-gil. She reaches up and hugs him hard, apologizing repeatedly for not recognizing him. Nan-gil wants to talk in private, but Na-ri feels so terrible, she doesn’t care who sees. Still a little drunk from drinking with the town elders, she hollers that he can’t win against Dada Finance, and begs him to walk away right now.

Nan-gil grabs her hand and she hilariously sits right down in the road, hanging from his arm. He lets go, dumping her on her butt, then tosses her over his shoulder and carries her to her yard. Nan-gil argues that he worked too hard to save the restaurant to just go, and angrily says that this is his home. Na-ri counters that it’s her home, and what happens to her family is her responsibility.

She tells Nan-gil that she remembers him now, how he was always following her around. Nan-gil goes silent, then laughs nervously, but Na-ri is onto him. He finally admits it, but says that what he’s doing now is only what’s right.

Na-ri yells that it’s dangerous, and Nan-gil grabs her arms and looks her straight in the eye. He says not to listen to other people, only to him, and only to trust him.

Later, Na-ri asks a photo of her mother what she should do, because she’s worried about Nan-gil.

That night, loud banging on the gate brings Nan-gil out to find Yeo-joo, drunk and happy to see him. She latches onto his waist, snuggling her face into his chest, and no matter how hard he struggles he can’t break free. Na-ri is drawn out by the commotion, and Nan-gil’s expression of wide-eyed panic is hysterical.

Na-ri coming running across the lawn, and Nan-gil manages to toss Yeo-joo away just before Na-ri tackles him. She lands on top of him, and the two stare at each other, affected by the close proximity, until Yeo-joo finally says something.

They all stand, and Yeo-joo only has eyes for Nan-gil, though Na-ri is standing right there screaming her name. Na-ri smacks her upside the head to get her attention, and Yeo-joo latches onto her and bursts into tears, screaming about how everyone is picking on her at work.

Nan-gil and Na-ri have this hilarious silent conversation, and it takes Nan-gil a minute to understand that Na-ri is shooing him away and he slinks back to the restaurant. As soon as he’s gone, Yeo-joo drops the aegyo and throws herself dramatically to the ground. She continues screaming at Na-ri, blaming her for her treatment at work.

Eventually they put Yeo-joo to sleep in the house, but Na-ri is annoyed with Nan-gil for being too nice to Yeo-joo. Nan-gil snaps sarcastically that people just keep falling into his arms today, ha. Na-ri tells him to stay away from Yeo-joo, because she has a bad habit of stealing other people’s belongings.

Nan-gil looks pretty pleased that Na-ri considers him her belonging, but Na-ri just sheepishly sends him back to work, hee. Once he’s gone, Na-ri berates herself for slipping like that, ha.

The boys are getting pretty sick of oxtail soup, though none of them say anything to Na-ri. She gets a text from her sunbae, reporting that Yeo-joo is posting online about being at her house and acting like they’re friends.

Na-ri confronts Yeo-joo, ignoring her attempts to snuggle up to her and ordering her to get out. She drags Yeo-joo downstairs by the collar, and Yeo-joo grabs a post when she sees the four handsome chefs standing in the kitchen. She appeals to Nan-gil for help, but Nan-gil is not a stupid man, and he shoves the chefs out of the room.

Na-ri and Yeo-joo sit to talk, and Na-ri says that coming home made her feel like a glass of clear water. But now that Yeo-joo is here, the water is tainted, and she pours something dark and nasty into the glass to demonstrate. She orders Yeo-joo to drink the liquid.

Yeo-joo balks, and Na-ri tells her to stop being so dramatic — it’s just arrowroot for her hangover. Yeo-joo informs her that Dong-jin is being transferred to the Hong Kong office, so once they’re married she won’t bother Na-ri anymore. She says that she doesn’t care, but Dong-jin doesn’t want to be seen as the bad guy.

She begs Na-ri to pretend they’re on good terms for Dong-jin’s sake, and Na-ri has to admit that she respects Yeo-joo’s nerve. Yeo-joo admits that she just doesn’t want a wedding where nobody shows up.

Na-ri makes a fist to demonstrate how a tiny eggplant flower can become strong and mature. Ha, point taken. Before she goes, Yeo-joo tells Na-ri that her strength is that she has no pride. At least she’s honest.

Deok-bong and Secretary Kwon have a town meeting at Hong Mandoo, and Deok-bong asks Nan-gil to join them. Nan-gil actually agrees to sell, on one condition–– the lake and forest remain untouched. Deok-bong balks, and Nan-gil calls him a liar.

Deok-bong accuses Nan-gil of making decisions based on his first love, which of course, Na-ri overhears. Deok-bong cheerily waves while Nan-gil looks like he wants to hide under the table, hee. Na-ri escapes outside, flustered to hear that she’s Nan-gil’s first love.

Deok-bong runs into Yeo-joo outside, though he doesn’t seem the least bit interested in talking to her. Nan-gil and Secretary Kwon also come out, and Deok-bong notices that Secretary Kwon still has the sale contract. He insults her and takes the contract, making her storm off.

Deok-bong walks away to call Na-ri, and Yeo-joo sidles up to Nan-gil to ask how Deok-bong knows Na-ri. She says that they seemed really close at the airport, making Nan-gil frown. He jumps away from her when Na-ri steps out and glares at him.

Deok-bong gives Na-ri the contract and tells her to have a family meeting. Na-ri claps a hand over Deok-bong’s mouth when he calls Nan-gil her stepfather in front of Yeo-joo, and injects a noona tone into her voice to order Nan-gil back to work. Nan-gil looks a bit confused, but complies.

Yeo-joo marches to Na-ri and says she’s going to tell everyone that she’s dating Deok-bong. Deok-bong smiles, aww, and Yeo-joo takes their combined silence as confirmation. To shut her up, Na-ri agrees to pose for selcas and pretend to be friends, so Yeo-joo can have her nice little wedding.

Na-ri pettily introduces Deok-bong and lists all of his fancy connections, which makes Deok-bong happy that she looked him up. She apologizes for using him like that, but he tells her she did well when faced with someone like Yeo-joo.

She hands back the contract when Nan-gil comes harrumphing out to loudly ignore them. Deok-bong drags Nan-gil over to discuss things openly, but both Nan-gil and Na-ri refuse to say a word. Deok-bong asks Na-ri if she’s too afraid of Nan-gil to read the contract, then tells Nan-gil that he can’t sell the house without Na-ri’s approval.

He asks if Nan-gil is being a good stepfather to Na-ri, and both Nan-gil and Na-ri look anywhere but at each other. Deok-bong sighs and gives Na-ri the contract, tells them to talk things over, then pushes them together. He leaves, and the two break apart nervously.

In the morning, the boys look like the constant oxtail soup is killing them, and Nan-gil doesn’t even show up for breakfast. Young-gyu fibs that he said he’s sick of the soup, hoping Na-ri will stop serving it, but the other two rat him out, ha.

Na-ri relents and starts serving something different, and Young-gyu goes to Nan-gil to try and figure out why he still won’t speak to Na-ri. He figures either Nan-gil is uncomfortable around her, still has feelings for her, or wants her to miss him. He says he thinks Na-ri does miss him, and Nan-gil growls at him.

Deok-shim watches as Na-ri enters the greenhouse, then hides when Nan-gil also steps inside. Na-ri pops out, daring him to avoid her here, but he just sidesteps around her. Na-ri says that Deok-bong only came to the airport to talk to her about selling the land, assuming that’s why Nan-gil has been avoiding her.

She says that she’s not on Deok-bong’s side, and that she really doesn’t care if Nan-gil sells the land. He tells her to just go drink with the elders, and Na-ri explains that she’s doing that because she misses her mom. She regrets spending so many years planning a wedding that never happened, but never once going on a trip with her mom.

She sinks into a guilt spiral, and Nan-gil relents and asks about a package of seeds that she brought. She says she wanted to make a bit of this land hers, and starts dumping the seeds onto the dirt. Nan-gil hollers, and shows her how to plant them properly.

He tells Na-ri that Mom didn’t want to go on trips, because this place was her whole world. Furthermore, she didn’t brag about Na-ri because the other townsfolk’s kids weren’t nearly as successful, so she called Na-ri “insect” to make them feel better. And she called her a pig’s toenail to Nan-gil because he was so jealous of her.

They relax and talk about their childhood, Na-ri asking Nan-gil if all the pranks played on her were his doing. He says it was never him, then asks if she’s ever going back to Seoul. She says she will, but he doesn’t believe her anymore, and they bicker comfortably.

They’re unaware of Deok-shim standing outside, seething at their closeness. She remembers meeting Nan-gil a year ago, when she’d attacked a scarecrow in a field for no apparent reason, and he’d helped her avoid being caught.

He’d brought her to this greenhouse and hosed the muddy evidence off her boots and hands. He’d asked why she’s been damaging local farms, and she’d admitted she was getting revenge on the farm owners’ kids who were picking on her.

Nan-gil told her not to waste her time worrying about those kids, who don’t realize their lives won’t amount to much. He’d said he’d be watching her, and Deok-shim’s crush on him was born.

Wan-shik finds Uncle hiding in a sauna, and takes him to CEO Bae, still in his sauna clothes. CEO Bae says they’ve met before, but Uncle doesn’t recall, so CEO Bae reminds him that he came with Na-ri’s father when he borrowed money.

He screams at Uncle for not looking him in the eye, asking why he doesn’t pay back the debt if he’s that scared of him. He mentions Na-ri and threatens to ruin her life, and says that Uncle shouldn’t trust Nan-gil. He tells Uncle that if he really knew Nan-gil, he wouldn’t let him near Na-ri. Uncle agrees to obey CEO Bae, to protect his niece.

Na-ri asks Nan-gil to teach her to ride a bike, and when he says she already knows how, she playfully accuses him of following her around when they were kids. They go for a ride, just enjoying the day and each other’s company.

Nan-gil is amused when Na-ri turns out to have no stamina. He takes adorable peeks at her while they breathe, then suddenly gets nervous and leaves to go “knead dough.” Na-ri is left to make her way home alone.

Nan-gil takes a call from CEO Bae, who tells him that Uncle is with him. He says that he’s realized that Na-ri is actually the biggest victim of events that happened long ago, and that Nan-gil and Na-ri should never even have met. “Don’t make me dredge that up, too.”

Na-ri enjoys her ride home, until she’s run off the road by a vengeful Deok-shim. She slides down an embankment, hurting her back, and Deok-shim goes back to check on her. She didn’t mean for Na-ri to be seriously hurt, so she calls her brother for help.

Deok-shim helps Na-ri sit up and gets her phone from her bag, and listens as Na-ri calls Nan-gil. She’s all sweetness when Na-ri lets her tells Nan-gil where they are, then quickly memorizes his number before Na-ri takes back the phone.

Na-ri realizes that Deok-shim is the one who ran her off the road in the first place, and they argue over whether it was an accident. Deok-shim helps Na-ri back up to the road just as Deok-bong arrives, and Na-ri hilariously shoves Deok-bong away when Nan-gil shows up.

The two of them completely forget Deok-bong and Deok-shim are even there, as Nan-gil fusses over Na-ri. He rides with her in the ambulance, worriedly staring at her, and she’s given a brace for her back at the hospital.

Deok-bong drags Deok-shim to the hospital, not buying her story that Na-ri fell on her own. He tells her that Na-ri may press charges, but Deok-shim doesn’t care — until he mentions that Nan-gil will think she did it on purpose.

Nan-gil helps Na-ri into her hospital bed, the closeness flustering them both. Deok-bong brings Deok-shim in and says the accident was his sister’s fault, and Na-ri and Nan-gil are both surprised to hear they’re siblings.

Na-ri asks the guys to leave, and once they’re alone, she confronts Deok-shim. She accuses her of causing her accident, sending those love notes to Nan-gil, and locking Na-ri in the shed.

She asks why Deok-shim did such dangerous things to her. Deok-shim snaps that she latched onto Nan-gil after being dumped, and flirts with Deok-bong, which is an insult to women. She’s a tiny little ball of fury, and Na-ri struggles not to laugh at her.

She yells at Na-ri to just grant the divorce, and Na-ri says Deok-shim has it all wrong, demanding an apology. She threatens to press charges against Deok-shim, which makes Deok-shim snarl.

The guys talk in the hallway, where Nan-gil objects to Deok-bong’s casually mean treatment of his sister. They run back into Na-ri’s room when she hollers for Nan-gil to call the police, but Deok-shim quickly gets on her knees and bursts into tears, making it looks like Na-ri was being horrible to her.

She runs out and Nan-gil fusses at Na-ri, saying that Deok-shim didn’t do it on purpose, though both she and Deok-bong say she did, ha. Na-ri sends Deok-bong to his sister, saying that she didn’t apologize and she still needs to talk to her. Nan-gil still thinks she’s an innocent kid, and laughs when Na-ri goes on a rant.

On the ride home, Deok-bong tells his sister that crushes and jealousy are wastes of energy. Deok-shim asks if he likes Na-ri, noticing how he ran over when she said who was hurt, but he refuses to answer.

She’s under the impression that the petition he filed to dissolve a marriage was Na-ri’s marriage, so Deok-bong tells her that Nan-gil was married to her mother. Deok-shim screams until Deok-bong lets her out of the car, and rides away on her bike, smiling.

Nan-gil takes his role as Na-ri’s guardian seriously, making her go outside to exercise. Na-ri wonders if she should look for her father, remembering the good things about him, especially how he took her on her first plane trip. She wonders why her mother didn’t go with them.

She recalls that whenever she mentioned it to her mother, she would say she’d never flown with her dad, but Na-ri knows that she did. Nan-gil thinks that maybe Mom just didn’t like that they went without her.

Na-ri says that Mom kept a lot of secrets, and she wants to find her dad and ask him for answers. Nan-gil says he’s probably better off hiding from Dada Finance, and makes Na-ri start walking again.

Dong-jin and Yeo-joo go out, and Yeo-joo admits that she went to see Na-ri. He says he saw the picture, but Yeo-joo is surprised when he doesn’t ask how Na-ri is doing. She says that Na-ri even found a man, meaning Deok-bong, but Dong-jin is thinking of Nan-gil and says he’s not a “man” like that.

He seems a bit shaken when Yeo-joo tells him about Deok-bong. Yeo-joo twists everything around, even implying that Na-ri may have been cheating first, but Dong-jin says that Na-ri isn’t a cheater. Yeo-joo gets jealous, and asks if he knows her as well as he knows Na-ri.

She complains about getting bullied at work, but Dong-jin just smiles and says she seems like her old self. He tells her to stop being jealous of Na-ri, and Yeo-joo simpers, then kisses him.

Na-ri wakes in the middle of the night to find Nan-gil sleeping sitting up next to her bed. His head lolls and he wakes, and she apologizes for not remembering him from when they were little. He says he doesn’t need her to apologize, but she continues that it feels nice to have someone remember her.

She says that it makes her feel like she was someone’s first love, and looks at him expectantly. Nan-gil stares at her for a long time, then mutters, “I’m going to knead dough,” and quickly leaves.

On his way out, he reminds himself that he’s moved on. Her words ring in his ears, but CEO Bae’s threat not to make him dredge up the past has Nan-gil worried, and he makes a call.

Wan-shik is urging Uncle to remember a time Nan-gil threatened him, when Nan-gil’s call comes through to CEO Bae. He tells CEO Bae to let Uncle go and stop threatening Na-ri, and to deal with him directly.

CEO Bae says he’s not threatening anyone, he’s just reminding Nan-gil that he’s the one who put her family in this position. Nan-gil asks what he means, but since Uncle is here he can’t go into detail, or Na-ri would find out as well.

The next day, feeling better, Na-ri heads to the toy museum to confront Deok-shim. The two face off while Deok-bong presents a settlement agreement, but all Na-ri wants is a sincere apology. Instead, Deok-shim tells her to get in shape, ha.

Through gritted teeth, Na-ri asks if she knows which emotion wastes the most energy, and Deok-shim shoots eye-daggers at her brother as she answers that it’s a crush and jealousy. Na-ri says that’s incorrect — it’s hating others.

She tells Deok-shim that if she hates someone else, she’s only making herself miserable. It’s an excellent point, one that Deok-bong seems to take seriously. Deok-shim asks if she’s really Nan-gil’s stepdaughter, and that truth has her apologizing sincerely.

It’s all for show, and she asks Na-ri to make sure and tell Nan-gil that she apologized. Na-ri snaps that he’s not her stepfather, ha.

Later Deok-bong does some research into Dada Finance, noting that their organizational chart lists a man named Bae Byung-suk as a director.

Na-ri calls Nan-gil to meet her in her room, and says she’s planning to leave her things here when she goes back to Seoul. Nan-gil foils her plans by saying he’ll send them to her, but she says that she planted seeds so she has to come back. Nan-gil tells her to cut all ties with this place if she wants to be free of Dada, and promises to keep them from contacting her.

He tells her to think of him as a stranger, and she says that she never saw him as a stepfather. She says that she doesn’t buy his cold-hearted act anymore because she knows how he really feels.

Outside, a cop car pulls up just as Deok-bong arrives at the restaurant. The policemen ask for Nan-gil.

Na-ri says she doesn’t really know how Nan-gil feels, but she’s been curious. She thinks she’ll regret not asking, so she’s decided to ask him openly. “Go Nan-gil, you’ve liked me since you were young, haven’t you? I’m your first love, aren’t I?”

Tentatively, Nan-gil asks why she’s curious about that, since it’s all in the past. “Let’s say you were my first love. Let’s say I followed you around and bothered you. What of it?”

Na-ri agrees to forget the past, and she’ll just ask the Nan-gil standing in front of her. “What about now? You remembered me for all those years. Do you still like me?”

COMMENTS

That’s what I love most about Na-ri — you know where you stand with her. She’s honest to a fault, she says what she’s thinking, and she asks questions without hesitation or fear of the answers. I don’t doubt that she’s asking Nan-gil about his feelings because they are all wrapped up in what’s happening with Dada Finance and she wants to know everything, but by now I’m positive there’s also a personal motivation behind her question. She’s developing feelings for Nan-gil, and in true Na-ri fashion, she’s going to confront those feelings head-on. You go, girl.

Nan-gil’s love for Na-ri is killing me, how it’s so quiet, but yet so deep that he’s willing to give up his love for her just to preserve her home. It’s getting harder for both of them to hide their growing attraction, but it’s going to be crucial that they keep it under wraps if they want to convince CEO Bae that Nan-gil is the one in charge. Nan-gil’s struggle to hide what he feels is difficult to watch, but necessary if they don’t want to lose everything. Once he knows that Na-ri returns his feelings, it’s going to make Nan-gil’s life that much harder.

I’m dying of curiosity to know how Nan-gil is supposedly responsible for Na-ri’s family’s position. Her father borrowed the money when Na-ri was young and Nan-gil even younger, so how could he have been responsible? I’m guessing he has some birth secret that can be twisted to seem as if it’s his fault for just being born, since we really don’t know anything about where he came from. I have a feeling we haven’t hit the tip of the iceberg in terms of Nan-gil’s secrets.

I’m so happy that Na-ri finally remembers Nan-gil, because I think it’s lent a certain closeness to their relationship that they didn’t have before. She knows now that he’s someone from her past, someone who cared about her and her mother, and it’s interesting to see that knowledge relaxing her around him. It also seems to have strapped a rocket to her feelings for him, because she’s already considering him “hers” and feeling jealousy, and this time she’s not about to let Yeo-joo take what’s hers.

I just hope that McCreepy Wan-shik isn’t as bad as he tries to look, because I think he could become an ally to Nan-gil and Na-ri. He does seem to genuinely respect Nan-gil, and though he creeped me out mightily last week, this week I find myself hoping he can be redeemed. His talk with Na-ri revealed some things about him that made him seem like he’s just stuck, and occasionally something flickers in his eyes, almost as if he envies Nan-gil for gaining his freedom. Nan-gil would be just like him if he hadn’t managed to escape CEO Bae’s clutches, and it would be great if he could help Wan-shik find that same freedom.

I’m a big fan of the direction the show is taking with Yeo-joo – I wasn’t loving her as a sly crafty villain, but I find her hilarious as the crazypants man-stealing child who can’t understand that her own actions cause others to treat her badly. Drunk screaming Yeo-joo is my favorite, because she really lets it all out and we get glimpses of the hurt little girl on the inside, who can’t understand why everyone hates her even as she prances their ex-boyfriends right under their noses. Seeing her be a little vulnerable, now I kind of want her to become part of Na-ri and Nan-gil’s growing family.

I really like the underlying theme of trust running through the entire show. Everyone acts (or doesn’t) based on trust, and that trust leads them to do some pretty crazy and ill-advised things. But it’s also nice to see Na-ri trusting Nan-gil for no other reason than because her mother trusted him, even when those around her are warning her not to do it. I think Na-ri’s independence will serve her well in this regard, and she’ll eventually find her trust in Nan-gil well-founded.

 
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