The Best Hit: Episodes 11-12

by gummimochi

As much as I enjoy watching Hyun-jae and his obsessive relationship with his smartphone, I have a greater appreciation for all the human relationships he’s either building or working hard to repair. Kwang-jae shines as the man of the hour acting as the best dad he can be, and though it may seem like Hyun-jae is the only one interested in learning about the past, the consequences of his mysterious disappearance are about to become everyone’s problem.

 
EPISODE 11 RECAP

Kwang-jae books his idol girl group for a bi-weekly gig at the shopping center stage and sees Ji-hoon dancing on that same stage and Hyun-jae waiting offstage for his turn. He heads downstairs to face them after the singing competition is over, and instead of lecturing Ji-hoon, he pulls Hyun-jae away to talk in private.

He tries to look composed while reprimanding Hyun-jae, knowing that the kids are watching them through the cafe window. But Hyun-jae thinks it’s odd that Ji-hoon would insist that his one and only engraved watch belonged to Ji-hoon’s “late father” when Kwang-jae is supposed to be Ji-hoon’s father. “Isn’t Ji-hoon your son?” he asks.

“Ji-hoon isn’t my son,” Kwang-jae confesses. He hesitates, but then finally adds, “Ji-hoon… is your son.” It takes a few seconds for Hyun-jae to catch on, and then he looks at Ji-hoon incredulously through the cafe window, saying, “He’s my what?!”

Hyun-jae keeps sending awkward glances at Ji-hoon in the minivan while Kwang-jae swears that he’s never met “this kid” Hyun-jae before. Hyun-jae uses that same informal speech to say that he’s never met “this kid” Kwang-jae either, and that disrespectful tone earns him a smack upside the head, so Hyun-jae begrudgingly issues a respectful apology.

When Woo-seung asks what they were talking about earlier, Kwang-jae says he thought about signing Hyun-jae to World Agency after seeing his performance earlier. But he found out that Hyun-jae was too rude and stresses the idea that he values a person’s character over talent.

Having seen Ji-hoon perform on stage too, Kwang-jae warns that he’d better not find out that Ji-hoon is secretly trying to break into the music industry. He accepts Woo-seung’s reasoning that Ji-hoon only entered the contest on her insistence to win the first place prize, and Ji-hoon asks Dad to drop them off so they can take the subway.

Later that night, Kwang-jae looks at his own fancy watch, which was given to him by Hyun-jae on the same day he received his engraved watch. He sighs thinking of how Hyun-jae had asked him to trust and follow him.

He’s drinking soju alone in the dark when Bo-hee emerges from her bedroom. Noticing his crestfallen expression, she offers to whip him up a snack, and as she rummages through the fridge, Hyun-jae pops his head into the house and quietly calls Kwang-jae outside.

Kwang-jae is gone by the time Bo-hee turns around, but now Grandpa is up too, and he scolds Bo-hee for indulging in a late-night snack. And then Mal-sook’s voice rings out asking if Grandpa is eating something.

Kwang-jae leads Hyun-jae out into the street, but the idea of being seen by anyone is the least of Hyun-jae’s worries. Hyun-jae leads him away, but then the dads double back and crouch behind the car upon seeing Woo-seung and Ji-hoon approach the building.

Woo-seung is still looking for a stable part-time job, ideally one with high pay and little work. She doesn’t want to get caught heading up to the rooftop with Ji-hoon when she’s supposed to be a secret roommate, but he pulls her back and places an arm around her and they head in together.

Once the coast is clear, the two dads crawl out of their hiding place. Kwang-jae notes how those two are spending a lot of time together, but Hyun-jae has more important things on his mind—namely how he has a grown son.

He asks who Ji-hoon’s mother is because he genuinely doesn’t know, then he remembers Bo-hee’s handwritten message behind the picture frame and makes the connection. The last thing he remembers is his announcement that he was moving agencies, so he has a hard time believing the story that he secretly dated Bo-hee for a year and disappeared without a trace while she was pregnant with Ji-hoon.

Kwang-jae says he searched the entire country looking for Hyun-jae, but none of that matters now. He says that Hyun-jae has no business caring about either Bo-hee or Ji-hoon, so the best thing he can do now is to do nothing and disappear quietly.

Hyun-jae tries to protest, but Kwang-jae won’t hear of it, citing that Hyun-jae has always lived for himself. “Just this once, for all of our sakes, please don’t do anything, keep quiet, and leave us,” Kwang-jae pleads.

Hyun-jae returns to the rooftop apartment to find his male roommates scrubbing the bathroom floor with toothbrushes. Woo-seung orders the boys to get rid of every speck of mold, and seeing Ji-hoon obey her commands makes Hyun-jae wonder how Ji-hoon could ever be his son.

It keeps him up all night, and he’s still convinced that Ji-hoon isn’t his son when he runs into him exiting the bathroom the following morning. Unable to move forward one step because they keep sidestepping in the same direction, Ji-hoon tells him to pick a side. Hyun-jae suddenly takes issue with his disrespectful tone, but Ji-hoon doesn’t know what he’s talking about and pushes him aside.

Little Mal-sook enlists Grandpa to help with her spelling homework, but just as he’d about to read the list aloud, he answers a phone call, and Mal-sook writes down every angry word he spouts.

Grandpa finishes the call outside, where Young-jae’s rich wife Cathy greets him as “oppa.” She can’t talk long because Young-jae is here to pick her up, and once they’re gone Grandpa tells Kwang-jae that he pities Young-jae because his wife is so afraid that he’ll run away with her money that she won’t get their marriage legalized.

In his office, Young-jae complains about Cathy talking to CEO Lee and Kwang-jae, but she doesn’t see anything wrong with it since they’ve known each other for years. She doesn’t think her husband will get CEO Lee to sell him that building so that he can set up a new training facility in its place, and promises to find him someplace better.

She tries to feed him some food, but Young-jae refuses like a petulant child, complaining about her always treating him like a kid. He’s surprised when she agrees not to get involved with the building then, and he obediently eats the sushi she guides into his mouth.

Cathy pushes him aside and opens his safe to grab the seal inside, and Young-jae is shocked to learn that she knows the combination. She shifts uncomfortably when she’s accused of doodling in Hyun-jae’s music notebook, but she replies that her scribbles were just a joke.

Knowing that Young-jae needs his seal for his business deals, she teases that he can have it back if he catches her. While he’s busy chasing her around the office, the camera zooms in on the notebook. Under Cathy’s message on the back cover, a new inscription from Hyun-jae magically appears: “Son???”

At the same time, Hyun-jae sprawls out on the floor after having written that note, wondering what horrible thing he could’ve done that led him to be sent to the future where he has a grown son.

Speaking of whom, Ji-hoon practices alone and gets frustrated when he slips on his own sweat. MC Drill finds his buddy looking discouraged and proposes they go shopping to blow off some steam.

They’re both taken aback when Hye-ri pops out of seemingly nowhere. She asks to borrow Ji-hoon and distracts MC Drill with an online shopping mall. They head to the roof, where Hye-ri passes Ji-hoon a box of pastries she claims she received from her fans. She can’t eat any because she’s on a pre-debut diet, so she asks Ji-hoon to tell her how they taste.

She disagrees with Ji-hoon’s assessment of her always appearing confident and superbly talented, bringing up how she always sympathized with the evil queen in Snow White because she was always anxiously asking for reassurance to the magic mirror.

She figured that that was how everyone kept their anxieties hidden from the world, an idea she found comforting. Ji-hoon nods along, and when she asks if that makes her sound crazy, he jokes that it does. She then pesters him to describe the pastries in great detail, only to say that she’ll tell her fans that they were “good.”

Bo-hee notices Kwang-jae acting strangely in the bakery as if he has something to tell her. Kwang-jae insists that it’s nothing and promises to ensure that her belching parade during her filming of Challenge! Go Star gets edited out.

She doesn’t think it’s a big deal, unaware that Hyun-jae appears in the window behind her and mouths to Kwang-jae to meet him outside. By the time she pops her head back up, Kwang-jae is gone again.

Kwang-jae pulls Hyun-jae to an alley and berates him for not doing as he’s told. But Hyun-jae pouts because he has no way of contacting Kwang-jae otherwise, so Kwang-jae gets the new phone Hyun-jae won at the singing contest activated.

He also enables the GPS tracker so that he can always keep an eye on where Hyun-jae goes, and while Hyun-jae excitedly giggles over having mobile data, Kwang-jae quietly explains to the sales rep that his younger brother is unwell.

He has Hyun-jae promise to keep this activated phone a secret from the kids and to only call him for emergencies. He wonders what was so urgent that Hyun-jae wanted to talk to him, and when Hyun-jae says he wants to meet Bo-hee, Kwang-jae grabs him by the collar.

Kwang-jae reiterates that the best thing Hyun-jae can do for her is to stay out of her life because whether or not Hyun-jae can remember, Bo-hee was the one who suffered most following his disappearance. Hyun-jae concedes.

Elsewhere, Woo-seung gears up for one of her odd-end part-time jobs of distributing flyers in the sweltering heat wearing a full-body animal costume. While she tries to stay focused as the temperature rises, Grandpa sits Kwang-jae down to confront him about his longtime crush on Bo-hee.

He thinks Kwang-jae has waited long enough and urges Kwang-jae to “confess” anything he’s still got on his chest because life is short. He doesn’t know that Kwang-jae has more than his own feelings to relay to Bo-hee, like how Hyun-jae is very much alive and in their midst.

Meanwhile, Hyun-jae goes to his own online fan cafe and types in “peanut butter,” hoping that will give him access. But then another window pops up prompting him to wait for an email invitation to be a member, which leaves Hyun-jae frustrated.

He peruses the study guides on Ji-hoon’s bookshelf and flips open a spiral notebook which depicts dance choreography diagrams. But his curiosity is piqued when he starts to read the rap lyrics written inside.

Woo-seung receives an alert that one of her academy lectures has been moved up, then answers a call from Hyun-jae. Realizing that she isn’t supposed to know about his new number, Hyun-jae lies that he borrowed someone else’s phone.

She snaps at him when he asks to hang out because he’s bored, but before she hangs up, she gets an idea. She offers to cut his debt to her in half if he helps her out.

Grandpa dresses up to attend another manager meeting and reminds Bo-hee that tomorrow is Kwang-jae’s birthday. He makes her feel guilty for forgetting every year, instead remembering it as the day Hyun-jae went missing, but he hopes that Bo-hee will prepare a birthday meal for Kwang-jae this year.

Bo-hee says nothing at first, then breezily says she’ll take care of it. Grandpa asks if she doesn’t ever feel bad that Kwang-jae works so hard, and adds that if he were in her shoes, he would’ve already gotten together with Kwang-jae, before dropping the subject mid-sentence.

Hyun-jae shows up where Woo-seung is working and reels in disgust when the life-size raccoon removes one of her eyes to drink some water through the eye hole. He makes his presence known and expresses that he really doesn’t want to do this, but Woo-seung looks up at him and reminds him of the debt he owes her.

Woo-seung changes into her normal clothes and gets a call from her mom asking if she can borrow her daughter’s savings to avoid going to jail. Mom promises to pay her back with interest as soon as things look up again, but Woo-seung has had enough of Mom trying to mooch off of her and bitterly levels at her, “If it looks like you’re about to go to jail, you should just go.”

Tears welling up in her eyes, Woo-seung asks how Mom’s initial questions aren’t to check how her daughter is doing, to ask if she’s been eating properly, or to ask how her exam went.

She hangs up and swallows her oncoming sobs. Hyun-jae, who has since returned wearing the raccoon outfit and overheard the entire conversation, places the raccoon head over Woo-seung’s head, parks a seat next to her, and matter-of-factly explains, “I thought you might need that.” Aw.

 
EPISODE 12 RECAP

After Kwang-jae returns some sponsored jewelry to the jeweler, he asks to see their ring collection. Later that night, Woo-seung walks home with Hyun-jae and remarks that his hard work today earned her a bonus. Hyun-jae scoffs that he’s good at anything he puts his mind to.

Hyun-jae asks if Ji-hoon is studying for the civil service exam and learns that Ji-hoon is actually aspiring to break into the music industry. The words “idol” and “trainee” sound foreign to his ears, along with the idea that anyone would train for years to become a singer.

He’s told that Kwang-jae has always been staunchly against the idea, which is why Ji-hoon has kept his dreams a secret from his family. She bops Hyun-jae on the head when he refers to Kwang-jae by name, then shares how Kwang-jae caused a scene at every one of Ji-hoon’s auditions when he was in high school.

Woo-seung wonders why Hyun-jae has taken a sudden interest in Ji-hoon, to which Hyun-jae blusters that he isn’t at all interested. Then she tells him that she bought him something “brand new” that he’ll like as a bonus for working so hard today.

He runs home and sees a shopping bag by the bed, and thinking that this must be what Woo-seung was talking about, he opens the box to find a pair of sneakers. Hey, those are for Kwang-jae!

He tries them on and notes how she correctly guessed his shoe size. Ji-hoon returns and sees the sneakers meant for Dad and yanks them off of Hyun-jae’s feet, saying that they can’t continue being roommates if Hyun-jae keeps overstepping his bounds.

Woo-seung arrives home just as Ji-hoon storms out, and explains to Hyun-jae that the new sneakers are Dad Kwang-jae’s birthday gift. She points to the “brand new” gift she left him on the desk: a melon and spicy beef triangle kimbap. Yay…?

She then joins Ji-hoon outside, and he stiffens when she places her head in his lap. She tells him not to dwell on Hyun-jae’s misunderstanding about the sneakers and says she’s still doing odd-end jobs. If she could, she’d travel to an island and sleep for four days straight.

“Lee Ji-hoon, are you happy right now?” Woo-seung asks. He thinks there isn’t much when it comes to happiness, and she agrees, “I’ve learned that in life, happiness isn’t something that’s far away. Happiness is neither around us nor is it far away. It just doesn’t exist.”

He admits it hurts him to hear her say that, since she should at least think it’s nice to have a friend to lean on at times like this. But he looks down to see Woo-seung fast asleep.

MC Drill entrusts Hyun-jae to pass along Ji-hoon’s belongings that he left behind in the Star Punch locker room. Problem is, the black bag and white shoebox containing Ji-hoon’s ID card and training schedule look identical to the shopping bag with Kwang-jae’s birthday gift, and Hyun-jae tosses that bag next to Ji-hoon’s backpack before checking to see if he’s been granted access into the online fan cafe.

Naturally, Ji-hoon takes the bag next to his backpack and presents it to Kwang-jae for his birthday, who’s moved by the thoughtful gesture. But Kwang-jae doesn’t get to check what’s inside because he’s called downstairs by his idol girl group. Grandpa tells him to come home early so they can enjoy a family dinner.

Woo-seung comes across an online posting for an intern at Star Punch Entertainment while Hyun-jae sits at home and realizes that Ji-hoon took the wrong black bag to Kwang-jae. He puts it aside, deciding not to worry about it, but the idea of Kwang-jae flipping his lid to find out that Ji-hoon is an idol trainee nags at him, so he tiptoes downstairs with the right bag.

He sneaks into Kwang-jae’s bedroom and carefully switches out the bags before slipping out into the hall. But when he hears footsteps approach, he panics and hides in the bathroom. It’s Bo-hee, who unloads her heavy bags of groceries before answering a call from Kwang-jae.

Kwang-jae is hoping to surprise Ji-hoon at the academy with lunch. Ji-hoon freaks out when he gets a text from Dad saying that he’s downstairs in the lobby. He calls Dad back to lie that class is still in session, hoping that will buy him some time while he runs over from the Star Punch building.

But as luck would have it, the dismissal bell rings seconds later, and Ji-hoon hollers at Dad to wait in the lobby. Dad is already on his way to Ji-hoon’s classroom by the time Ji-hoon arrives at the academy, out of breath and ragged.

Lying that he’s on a different floor, Ji-hoon tells Dad that he’ll meet him on the same floor and arrives dripping in sweat and gasping for air. He attributes his flustered appearance to bowel movements, then takes the lunch Dad bought him.

Dad is pleasantly surprised when Woo-seung runs into them and he learns that she also attends this academy. Then to make matters worse, a lecturer approaches Woo-seung and asks if “Ji-hoon” has completed the printout.

To avoid outing Woo-seung as the Fake Ji-hoon, Ji-hoon answers by speaking in the third person: “Ji-hoon hasn’t had a chance to solve those problems, but Ji-hoon will finish them today.” When asked who he is, Ji-hoon carefully explains, “Ji-hoon’s friend… Woo-seung.” It’s definitely odd, but it works and they manage to get through the encounter.

Trapped inside the bathroom for hours now, Hyun-jae carefully turns on the faucet to drink some water from the sink, and when he neither hears nor sees anyone in the house, he figures it’s safe to venture outside.

He hops toward the front door, only to retreat into the living room when Grandpa enters. He hides behind the couch and waits until Grandpa is gone before attempting another escape. But then he hears Mal-sook’s voice calling out to Grandpa, and Hyun-jae hides underneath the dining room table.

Hyun-jae crawls out from underneath the table while their backs are turned, but he’s unable to escape because Bo-hee arrives, forcing him to retreat back to the bathroom. Back in the living room, Grandpa keeps a sharp eye out, assessing if each ingredient Bo-hee is cooking with is meant for a birthday meal or a memorial service.

Upon learning that Young-jae plans on tearing down the World Agency building to construct a new training facility, Kwang-jae beelines for the Star Punch building. Ji-hoon has to think fast when sees Dad coming up in the elevator, so he runs in front of the pre-debut group standing nearby, pulls his shirt over his head, and asks them for an autograph. With a permanent marker.

Kwang-jae witnesses the strange sight of the boys signing a faceless boy’s bare stomach and joins the other trainees in the elevator. Ji-hoon barely escapes another run-in with Dad, but he cringes in embarrassment over what he had to do.

Young-jae is in a meeting with MJ when Kwang-jae barges in, which MJ takes as his cue to leave. Kwang-jae gets right to the point, asking how Young-jae could go behind their backs and plan on constructing a new building where World Agency stands now. Young-jae fires back that Kwang-jae should be arguing with the bank about this matter, and has his secretary drag Kwang-jae away.

Back at home, Bo-hee struggles with the locked bathroom door. On the other side, Hyun-jae looks around anxiously for an escape route and spots the vent above him. So he’s gone when Bo-hee successfully gains entry, and Grandpa is so relieved… that he relieves himself then and there.

Kwang-jae returns that night and places the ring he bought for Bo-hee in the glove compartment of his van. In Bo-hee’s bedroom, we see a date circled on her calendar: June 17th. Is that for the day Hyun-jae disappeared?

Grandpa is disappointed when he finds out that Bo-hee has spent all day cooking to prepare a memorial table for Hyun-jae instead of Kwang-jae’s birthday feast.

She replies that Hyun-jae didn’t have any family and she never once set up a memorial table for him because she held onto the belief that he was still alive somewhere. She calls this her way of accepting that Hyun-jae is dead, so that she can move on.

Despite getting an alert from the bank that their building will be repossessed, Kwang-jae slaps on a smile for the family. He’s told that they’ll be having a memorial service for Hyun-jae before they celebrate his birthday.

No one knows that Hyun-jae is trying to navigate the narrow vents above them while Ji-hoon is instructed to help pour the liquor, and everyone bows in respect. Hyun-jae happens to see his own memorial service taking place through the vent above the living room and tries to cross above them in silence…

…But then there’s a loud crack and Hyun-jae falls through the ceiling and lands right on top of his own memorial table, to everyone’s shock.

Epilogue

Hyun-jae sits in front of the laptop and looks up how to create an email account. We also see Hyun-jae look up birthday present ideas for Dad and ways to win a female friend’s heart. Later, MC Drill inputs his name into the search bar, but there are no results other than for the word “drill.” Aw.

MC Drill quickly shuts the laptop when Woo-seung emerges from her room. He vehemently denies that he was looking at porn and opens the laptop again to show her the truth. And in the corner of the screen, an email notification pops up for Hyun-jae—it’s a welcome email for Hyun-jae’s online fan cafe.

 
COMMENTS

Well, that’s one way to drop in. I honestly find this scenario of Hyun-jae accidentally crashing his own memorial service rather hilarious since I was worried that he might have to spend more time sneaking around the house and end up revealing himself to Bo-hee in a more dramatic moment. Now is he going to tell the family the same honest tale he told Kwang-jae?

I must say I really appreciate how The Best Hit has hit many a possible burning question head-on. Even in this hour, Kwang-jae leveled with Hyun-jae and named him as Ji-hoon’s biological father right away. Hearing that actually makes me admire Kwang-jae even more because he’s dedicated his life to raise the son of the woman he loves. A part of me can’t help but wonder if there’s a twist regarding Ji-hoon’s parentage on the horizon, not because I don’t trust Bo-hee’s claims, but because I’ve been trained as a viewer to be suspicious whenever a story keeps driving a point home, like Hyun-jae being told that he is Ji-hoon’s father. His response is understandable since he had no idea that he was involved in any kind of romance with Bo-hee, but now I question if what I’m being told isn’t actually what’s true.

Of course, it’d be simpler if Hyun-jae remains as Ji-hoon’s father because I think they do have a lot to learn from one another. Even though Hyun-jae may doubt that Ji-hoon resembles him that much, he doesn’t take into account that Ji-hoon grew up in a different family environment and that some quirks (like their unique sleeping positions) have been passed on without him knowing. And it looks like the songwriting gene may have been passed down as well, which is hopefully something that Hyun-jae will foster in Ji-hoon.

As Hyun-jae spends more time in the present, I do have to wonder how the passage of time works in this dramaverse. If Ji-hoon is Bo-hee and Hyun-jae’s son, it would mean that Hyun-jae would either still need to be alive in 1993 or that Hyun-jae somehow returns to the past to conceive Ji-hoon. It occurs to me that Ji-hoon’s entire existence is dependent on Hyun-jae returning if he had no idea that he fathered a child, unless time has stopped altogether until Hyun-jae’s return.

That’s the tricky thing with time travel stories, because it seems like life went on for Hyun-jae up until 1994, and he didn’t even know it. I’m hoping his fan cafe will be able to give him some clues because I don’t feel enough of an urgency in figuring out why Hyun-jae was sent to the 21st century. Solving that mystery and searching the web seems to take up most of Hyun-jae’s time here (and seriously, what happened to that other broken watch?), but I love that he’s doing it all while rocking those classic ’90s bangs.

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