This Week, My Wife Will Have an Affair: Episode 7

by CandidClown

When Soo-yeon makes a difficult decision, Hyun-woo is left scrambling to hold on to his marriage, which forces him to take a hard look at his own faults in the process. In the meantime, Joon-young fixates on a new obsession and debates on whether to come clean with his friends and colleagues. Thank goodness these guys have Bo-young around to provide some cool logic, though her solutions may not be what they were hoping for.

 
EPISODE 7 RECAP

Hyun-woo heads home, intending to follow TUNAMAYO’s advice and have a conversation with his wife. Instead, he arrives to find an empty house and divorce papers waiting for him, with Soo-yeon’s wedding ring sitting on top. He immediately calls his mom and is relieved to hear that Joon-soo is with her. His mom tells him that Soo-yeon said she needed some time alone, revealing that her daughter-in-law had told her the truth. She advises him to think about Joon-soo, and whether he wants his son to live in a broken home.

After he hangs up with his mother, Hyun-woo gets a text from Soo-yeon saying that she was afraid if they met in person, then they would end up fighting again. She continues that she doesn’t want to hurt him anymore, and asks him to contact her when he has his feelings sorted out. Hyun-woo angrily rips up the divorce papers, yelling, “Why do I have to get a divorce? Why me? What is it that I did so wrong? What the hell did I do that was so wrong?!”

Yoon-ki has his newest target in a hotel room, but the woman isn’t feeling very amorous and fends off his advances. Looking out the window, she says the lights remind her of Okinawa, and sighs that if she were to go there, then her heart and body would unfreeze. Yoon-ki jumps up like a dog that just heard the sound of kibble: “Even your body? Let’s Go!” They make plans to go that weekend.

Yoon-ki returns home and whines to Ara about the “nighttime hiking trip” that a certain Judge Kim is making him go on this weekend. He keeps ranting about how he’s so upset since he and Ara had planned to be together this weekend, and he’s really disappointed. Ever that supportive (and suspicious) wife, Ara sends her grouching husband to go wash up… then proceeds to sniff/inspect his clothing, finding a long, female hair on his tie.

Joon-young is well and truly drunk after the team dinner that night and sits crying to himself while an exasperated Bo-young watches over him. Sobbing about Hyun-woo’s pitiful life, he wails at Bo-young that she has no idea how pathetic his own life really is. Bo-young just sighs, asking if this is revenge for him taking her home when she was drunk. Heh.

Looking like she wants to be anywhere but there, Bo-young dashes off for a moment and returns to put a hangover cure in his hand and two heat packs in his jacket. She asks her semiconscious colleage to understand that this is the best she can do.

She starts to walk off but then comes back a moment later, looking torn.

Hyun-woo decides to stay the night at Joon-young’s again, wandering in and ranting that Soo-yeon asked for a divorce… only to realize that Joon-young isn’t home.

Back on the street, Bo-young walks away from Joon-young after wrapping a cardboard fence around him and sticking a post-it note to his forehead with the message: “Please wake me up at 7:30 a.m. I have to go to work.” Well, I suppose she tried.

Having asked her boss for a day off, Soo-yeon waits at a train station, bag in hand. Meanwhile, Hyun-woo sits amidst a clutter of empty beer cans, reading the responses to his post. More than a little tipsy, Hyun-woo scoffs at all the compliments to TUNAMAYO’s advice and types out a reply, accusing TUNAMAYO of just wanting attention.

All his many fans see his post and eagerly tune in to read Hyun-woo’s story, which is a criticism of TUNAMAYO’s bad advice. Hyun-woo flops back down on the couch while the tide turns in the chat room, with everyone criticizing TUNAMAYO for butting in.

Morning dawns, and a hungover Hyun-woo answers a call from Joon-young, who yells that their show’s premiere episode managed to get eleven percent ratings (translation: pretty good). Hyun-woo groggily asks where Joon-young is, but when Joon-young answers that he’s at home, Hyun-woo points out that he’s at his home, leading Joon-young to ask, “…Then, where am I?”

Cut to: Joon-young waking up in his cardboard fort on the sidewalk, getting stared at by pedestrians. Rocketing up, he finds the post-it that Bo-young left and sees that a number of people have added their own notes. The replies range from unhelpfully telling him to go to work, to apologizing for taking a sip of his drink. Hah.

Joon-young meets Hyun-woo for a convenience store breakfast, all the while ranting at Bo-young for leaving him in the cold when he took such good care of her before. His tirade is cut short when Hyun-woo shares that Soo-yeon asked for a divorce.

All ready to be flustered on his hyung’s behalf, Joon-young’s righteous fury gets interrupted when the pair overhear two customers discussing TOYCRANE’s latest post, gossiping that he’s about to get dumped by the woman who divorced him.

Hyun-woo and Joon-young quickly duck down, and Joon-young reads over Hyun-woo’s post, awed that he’s become a celebrity overnight. Joon-young asks if he’s really getting a divorce, but Hyun-woo snarls back that he’ll never get a divorce: “I’ll keep her by my side until I’ve sucked all the happiness out of her!” Yup, that’s healthy.

Soo-yeon arrives at her father’s house in the countryside. He greets her warmly, but there seems to be a polite tension between them. Soo-yeon’s dad makes her some food while Soo-yeon goes back to her childhood room, looking at all her old photos.

Hyun-woo and Joon-young arrive at work, and the whole team is abuzz to see the positive response that their program is receiving. Hyun-woo encourages everyone to keep working hard, but Joon-young is busy eerily glaring at Bo-young.

Back in the country, Soo-yeon’s dad brings a tray of food to his daughter’s room, but finds her sound asleep on the floor.

Getting ready for his Okinawa getaway, Yoon-ki goes to a tanning salon. He gets called away soon after by one of his many girlfriends. The two meet in a car, with Yoon-ki bemoaning how all the location shooting has led him to getting a tan in winter. Puh.

His girlfriend whines that he’s been ignoring her lately and asks him to go on a trip with her, but when he agrees that of course they should go, she grins and chirps that they should go this weekend. Since this clashes with Yoon-ki’s Okinawa plans, he distracts the young thing with a make-out session, covering her protests with rather forceful kisses.

Hyun-woo comes across Joon-young crying over his phone. Hyun-woo disbelievingly asks if he’s crying on his behalf (again), but it turns out that this time, Joon-young’s sobbing over the thoughtful and well-meaning comment that TUANMAYO posted in response to Hyun-woo’s criticism.

Joon-young is in awe of the magnanimous response to Hyun-woo’s tirade and starts berating his hyung for his harsh words, but Hyun-woo is more concerned to hear that TUNAMAYO responded to his new posts.

Back at his desk, Hyun-woo reads TUNAMAYO’s response: “You must be devastated. Wouldn’t the reason that you’re so angry be that you still love your wife? No matter what choice you make, please choose the one that leaves you with the least regret.” Hyun-woo remains unmoved by the touching words, interpreting it as a refusal on TUNAMAYO’s part to admit she was wrong in front of the other netizens.

In contrast, Joon-young has tipped over into worship mode, praising the glory of TUNAMAYO. (Oy.) Ignoring his converted hoobae, Hyun-woo angrily writes back that he followed TUNAMAYO’s suggestion, and now his wife is asking for a divorce.

At his post, all of Hyun-woo’s fans tune in, reading as Hyun-woo continues writing that he tried to be understanding of his wife and do all the things TUNAMAYO suggested, but now she’s asking for a divorce anyway.

Yoon-ki stops by the team’s office, and the sight of his browned complexion causes Hyun-woo and Joon-young to ask if he got hit by lightning. Yoon-ki’s airily explains today’s tanning trend, but Bo-young interrupts to tell them that their new husband for the show is here to be interviewed.

The team’s new spouse proves to be no weakling, angrily saying that his wife had an affair and is now asking him for a divorce. Hyun-woo and Joon-young exchange glances over the parallels as the man continues to yell that he’ll never give his wife the divorce.

Yoon-ki steps in to point out that as the cheating spouse, the man’s wife has no grounds to ask for a divorce. However, the man admits that, actually, he cheated on his wife three years prior. (Pot, meet kettle.)

After the interview, Joon-young can’t understand it: They both cheated on each other, so why won’t they just divorce? Bo-young says that it’s because a divorce means everything is over, and the man clearly still loves his wife.

At Joon-young’s disbelieving look, Bo-young points out, “Seeing how he’s still getting that angry, he must still love her.” Her words jolt Joon-young with how similar they sound to TUNAMAYO’s advice.

Soo-yeon is awakened from her deep sleep and heads out to her father, smiling to hear him playing the harmonica. Soo-yeon asks if he isn’t lonely living out here by himself, but he assures her that he’s fine before asking after his grandson.

The father-daughter moment is interrupted when Hyun-woo calls his father-in-law. Fishing to see if his wife is there, Hyun-woo keeps the conversation light, but Soo-yeon’s dad doesn’t reveal that she’s with him.

Yoon-ki is having some trouble keeping up with all his mistresses. Exhausted from his girlfriend, he tries to beg off on a date with the flower arrangement teacher, but the woman says they can just meet over the weekend. Unwilling to compromise his Okinawa trip, Yoon-ki gives in, and the two retire for hanky-panky.

Struggling to stay awake, Yoon-ki goes bathing suit shopping with the client he’s trying to seduce, who seems to like the idea of seeing him in an itty bitty speedo.

The film team discusses whether to use the two cheating spouses as this week’s topic, but Joon-young can’t stop staring at Bo-young, convinced she’s TUNAMAYO. After fumbling through the meeting, he asks Bo-young if she’s a member of the stocks chat room (where Hyun-woo posted). When she affirms it, he tentatively inquires if her username is a food.

Bo-young nods, asking if he knows her ID, and Joon-young looks like his world is imploding. After Bo-young leaves, Joon-young stares after her, whimpering that his precious TUNAMAYO can’t possibly be her.

Oh boy. In preparation for his new speedo, Yoon-ki goes to get a Brazilian wax. He’s happy to see that his attendant is a pretty woman, but she’s soon replaced by a burly man who unmercifully yanks the wax strips from Yoon-ki’s not-so-happy place (eeouch!).

At the team office, Joon-young grins/glares at Bo-young, believing he’s caught on to her TUNAMAYO identity. The grinning glare is so creepy that she confronts him over it, and Joon-young just goes off, calling her a hypocrite and demanding back his “days’ worth of touched feelings.” Bo-young just sighs to see Joon-young reach yet another level of crazy.

On a roll, Joon-young “outs” Bo-young as TUNAMAYO, whisper-yelling at her, “You knew that Hyun-woo is TOYCRANE and posted comments while pretending to be someone else, didn’t you?” He grins again, asking how long she’s known, but Bo-young snarks back, “What would I know? I just found out that [Hyun-woo] is TOYCRANE from you.”

Joon-young still doesn’t believe her, so she walks off, shaking her head at his antics and calling him a mental patient. Yeesh, the laugh he gives to her retreating form is alarmingly insane.

Hyun-woo and Joon-young share some couch time, both pouting over their prospective problems. Joon-young is still convinced that Bo-young is TUNAMAYO and sends an angry post about her, determined to make her respond to him.

Meanwhile, Soo-yeon turns her phone back on and calls Hyun-woo, who leaps up to answer it.

Hyun-woo immediately starts a mini-rant on the phone, asking how she could just take off and leave divorce papers behind. He reminds her about Joon-soo, and yells that he hasn’t done anything wrong to be punished with a divorce.

Soo-yeon asks him what he wants to do then, but Hyun-woo can only answer that he doesn’t know. He says he can no longer tell what’s right or wrong, but he doesn’t want Soo-yeon to decide on her own either. Aww, his words are angry, but more than anything, he sounds scared that his wife won’t come back.

Out of the blue, Soo-yeon asks her husband, “You’ve never cheated on me?” Hyun-woo stands shocked, unable to answer as Soo-yeon tells him to forget she asked before hanging up.

Hyun-woo wanders back to the couch in a daze and asks Joon-young, “Have I ever had an affair?” He tells him about Soo-yeon’s question, and how he got tongue-tied and couldn’t answer.

Because he couldn’t answer her right away, Hyun-woo starts second-guessing himself, telling Joon-young in a puzzled voice that surely, if he’d had an affair, he should remember… right?

Yoon-ki waddles to dinner with Ara, lying that his limping is due to pulling a muscle and not from have the hair yanked from little Yoon-ki. Ara drops the hint that her father was planning to come for dinner this weekend and was very disappointed to have to cancel, which has Yoon-ki hastily telling her to reschedule. He promises that he can come home in time for dinner with his father-in-law.

Ara starts to call her father to ask him to make Judge Kim cancel the “hiking trip” anyways, so Yoon-ki wincingly scoops her up and carries her to the bedroom, distracting her the best way he knows how. Later, as Ara is sleeping, Yoon-ki lies awake with a nosebleed from exhaustion. As a string of texts from his many mistresses beep onto his phone, Yoon-ki whimpers, “Because of Okinawa, I’m burnt to ashes.”

Still at her father’s house, Soo-yeon starts to read a book, but stops when she sees that Hyun-woo had written a note on the back page: “Don’t just look at books, come look at the stars with me.”

The sweet message from her husband reminds her of when the two were young. They’d been out looking at the stars, and the young couple had promised each other that, no matter how busy they get in the future with work and family, they’d make time to come look at the stars together.

Back in the present, Soo-yeon tears up at the memory.

The next morning, Joon-young waits for Bo-young with his late night post to TUNAMAYO up on his computer screen. Beckoning Bo-young over, he sighs at the mean things that people will say to each other online, but then gapes when Bo-young immediately writes a response to the mystery post, “I agree with this refreshing comment. Honestly, TUNAMAYO should mind [their] own business.”

Suddenly protective of his beloved TUNAMAYO, Joon-young pouts that they’re just trying to help, not be nosy. Bo-young is unapologetic as she states that the person had no right to butt into other people’s lives. She flounces off with Joon-young yelling after her, “What do you know about TUNAMAYO!?”

Hyun-woo scrolls through his phone as he tries to find out who he cheated with while Joon-young pouts that Bo-young isn’t TUNAMAYO after all. Hyun-woo distractedly says he thought she was TUNAMAYO too, but reveals that her ID is actually PUDDING.

Much relieved now, Joon-young helps Hyun-woo brainstorm over who he may have cheated with, but they come up empty. Joon-young decides that their only option is to ask Yoon-ki, claiming that their friend always remembers not only his own women, but other men’s women.

Unfortunately, the guru of infidelity is a bit of a mess. Joon-young and Hyun-woo even ask the exhausted man if he needs to go to the hospital, but Yoon-ki just groans cryptically that they don’t understand how tiring Okinawa is.

Hyun-woo shares Soo-yeon’s question, and Yoon-ki shoots out a number of establishments that Hyun-woo may have gone to that could be considered cheating (massage parlors, kissing rooms, etc.), but Hyun-woo hasn’t even heard of half those places, so that’s out.

Yoon-ki goes for a different tactic, telling Hyun-woo to picture all the girls he’s met in his life that he found attractive. Hyun-woo starts listing a few (and Yoon-ki and Joon-young immediately start judging him for each one), but then insists that nothing happened with those women.

At a loss, Joon-young suggests that if there wasn’t a woman, was it a man? Heh, Hyun-woo joins the ranks of people calling Joon-young crazy this week.

The time’s come for Soo-yeon to head back home. Her father puts a few dollars in her pocket and tells her to bring Joon-soo out to visit soon. There’s no hug goodbye, but as Soo-yeon’s taxi pulls away, her father follows the car down the driveway, and Soo-yeon can’t hold back her tears.

Joon-young sends a private message to TUNAMAYO that night, telling about how his wife left him and how he’s been living a lie ever since. TUNAMAYO responds by encouraging him to tell his friends, even if some leave his for it: “Don’t be afraid. It might be a good chance to find out who’s most precious to you.”

Yoon-ki finally leaves the office for Okinawa, but he runs into Ara on the way out. Knowing that he didn’t have any hiking gear, she brought some for him. With no choice but to accept it, Yoon-ki shows up at the airport looking like a pack mule on the way to Everest.

Still looking for answers, Joon-young and Hyun-woo ask Bo-young if, to her knowledge, Hyun-woo has ever had an affair. Stumping both of them, she asks what kind of affair they mean. Joon-young argues that an affair is an affair, but Bo-young fires back that there are many different kinds, and even just having your heart flutter can be an form of one.

When Hyun-woo scoffs that every man has had an affair then, Bo-young points out that men don’t show interest in women they don’t want to sleep with, so something as simple as a dinner date could be the basis of an affair.

Hyun-woo reads back through the online posts. Everyone seems to be firmly on his side, saying he did nothing wrong, but Bo-young’s words replay in his head. He calls Soo-yeon’s dad again, and this time the man readily says that Soo-yeon is on her way home now. Hyun-woo breathes a giant sigh of relief.

Soo-yeon picks Joon-soo up, and the little boy asks if his mom is coming home now. The pair are joined by Hyun-woo, who answers that of course she should come home.

Bo-young and Joon-young share a drink and discuss whether Hyun-woo should get divorced. Bo-young can tell that Hyun-woo has great love for his wife and that he bases every decision he makes off of that, but she says that his problem is that he can’t find the right way to tell Soo-yeon how he feels.

Joon-young asks if she got her own divorce for the same reason, and Bo-young states (in her regular blasé fashion) that her husband cheated, so she left him. Joon-young barely has time to choke down this news before Bo-young hits him with her own question, “You don’t have a wife, do you?” Joon-young sits stunned as Bo-young guesses that the story he told about his wife leaving him was true.

Over in Okinawa, Yoon-ki’s conquest is successful, and he and the woman fall into bed together, both blissfully unaware of the typhoon making its way to the island’s coast.

Hyun-woo and Soo-yeon finally sit down to talk, and Hyun-woo apologizes if he ever hurt her by cheating in any way. He admits that he has thought about having an affair before, and if she considered that cheating, then he’s sorry for hurting her.

Soo-yeon doesn’t respond, so Hyun-woo pushes a bit, asking if she cheated for revenge. When she still doesn’t answer, Hyun-woo nearly begs her to tell him the reason, since he’s going crazy wondering what it is.

Soo-yeon slowly answers, “It just… It just happened.” Hyun-woo is understandably frustrated, saying that he thought they were doing well — so how could “it” have just happened?

Soo-yeon answers that she thought they were doing well too, but she never realized how thin she was stretching herself. We see flashes of her daily life as she describes how she went out of her way to smile and be relaxed even when she was exhausted. She adds that she was always running around to pick up Joon-soo and take care of their home while also having a career. She says that she thought that everyone lived like that, so it didn’t matter if she wasn’t particularly happy or unhappy.

It wasn’t until she met Sun-woo and he started noticing how overworked she was that things started to change, she claims. That a stranger could see what she couldn’t made her look at her life differently. He asked her what she wanted to do, and she realized she hadn’t thought about just herself in a long time.

Soo-yeon finishes, saying that she knows it isn’t an excuse. She apologizes again, and annoyed, Hyun-woo asks if she had an affair because he didn’t notice how tired she was. He says that that’s how it is for everyone, pointing out that he hasn’t had an easy life either, but he still makes an effort to help with Joon-soo and the house.

Soo-yeon tries to say that isn’t what she meant, but ends up just apologizing again, saying that she should have told him she was having a hard time. Still, she cries that she can’t face him anymore, and that it’s all too difficult. Taking a breath, she finally tells a stunned Hyun-woo, “Let’s just stop.”

The next day, Typhoon Hera crashes into Okinawa, and Yoon-ki’s new conquest snuggles happily into her morose lover. Realizing that there’s no way to fly back home in this storm, Yoon-ki breaks the fourth wall to whimper a weak “Dammit,” as the soundtrack plays, “This isn’t right, this isn’t right, this isn’t how life is supposed to go…”

 
COMMENTS

It’s sad to see that while Hyun-woo is fighting to hold on to his marriage and understand his wife, Soo-yeon just wants to end it. They’re both reflecting the different sides of a relationship that Bo-young and TUNAMAYO described: a spouse who gets angry still has love for their partner, while someone who calmly accepts the end no longer has any feelings for the other person. Hyun-woo may be hurt and furious with Soo-yeon, but he obviously still loves his wife and doesn’t want to lose her. He’s trying so hard to find a way to get past this that he’s even doubting his own faithfulness, desperately looking for a flaw in himself that could justify his wife’s infidelity. Soo-yeon’s decision to ask for a divorce seems to have shocked him out of his vindictive streak from last week, and now, in spite of her transgression, he’s attempting to work it out and hold onto his family.

In contrast, Soo-yeon is just done with the whole thing. There is no fire or passion to any of her actions, but rather a bleak acceptance that her marriage is over. After however many years of spreading herself too thin added to the stress of the affair coming out in the open, it appears that she would rather end everything and stop the pain rather than fight for whatever might be left. Even when she thought back on their early years together, there was no happiness at the memory — there was just a final sadness, as though it was already over.

I really don’t see the point of Yoon-ki anymore, especially since I’m now so disgusted by his philandering that the only comic relief he provides is when he’s physically injured. I know that he does give a view from the cheating side of the spectrum, but his views on adultery don’t exactly warrant the crazy amount of screen time he’s been getting, especially since his story line isn’t actually going anywhere. If Ara were any closer to discovering the truth or having an affair of her own, then I’d be somewhat invested in their plot line. But at this point, I’m more interested in finding out the identity of TUNAMAYO than watching Yoon-ki get a nosebleed from too much extramarital coitus.

In spite of that small complaint, I’m still loving how this show continues to give a real look at a husband who not only discovered his wife’s affair, but now has to face where their marriage and relationship goes from there. We all grow up hearing that if someone cheats on you, you leave them — no exceptions. But really, there is no template to follow in this situation: You do what is best for you and your partner or family. Sometimes, like TUNAMAYO said, the best you can do is pick the choice that leaves you with the fewest regrets. It may be painful and morally questionable, but life often is.

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