[KD] Romance Town: Episode 3

YAHOOOOO! Soon Geum’s won the lottery! Young Hee hides from view,
making sure she doesn’t see him looking from above, and going so far as
covering his head with his jacket when she comes up to his grandfather
and father’s graves.
Spotting him, she asks, “Who are you?” He replies, “I’m the spirit of
the mountain.” Unbelievable… He reveals himself though, catching her
off guard. Sticking a pink flower in his hair, he informs her that she’s
bowing to his grandfather Kim Yuk and father Kim Han, and the reason
he’s around is because he needs to pluck off the weeds. So what’s her
deal?

Soon Geum plucks the flower from his hair and tucks it behind her ear. She says that she’s gone crazy after being kicked out by Gun Woo. She felt that she was so crazy she just had
to share it with the rest of the deceased elders too. Young Hee smiles
and adjusts the flower; “I never knew, but now I realize – you’re pretty
Ahjumma.”
Eeep! O_O

At work, Tae Won makes his rounds through the office and encourages
everyone to keep tabs on the stocks. If they can hit a certain goal, he
will treat the whole office dinner. Everyone cheers – except Gun Woo,
who looks on disinterestedly.
He barges into his father’s office later asking for the Hiro Fund
account to handle for himself. Tae Won tells him to take it easy on his
first day, and Gun Woo shoots back, “You’ll give me your son but not
this account?” Tae Won thinks Gun Woo is not ready, and learned nothing
in New York except how to steal business from others. But Gun Woo says
he just wants to be exactly – if not better than – Tae Won.

Hyun Joo is cleaning the bathroom at the Jang Residence, and removed
her giant pearl ring. She cleans until every surface sparkles, and then
leaves the bathroom – leaving behind the giant ring. When Mistress Boon
Ja enters, she coos, “So that’s where I left it!” and slips the ring on.

As she serves tea, Hyun Joo notices that Boon Ja is wearing her ring.
She belatedly realizes that she was not wearing her ring at all, and
goes back to the bathroom to look for it, thinking that perhaps Boon Ja
just has the same ring. Not so – back in the living room, Boon Ja
notices Soon Ok’s pearl ring and gushes that Soon Ok’s is as big as a
grape, while hers is teeny. That is – until she raises her hand and
realizes that her pearl is WAAAAY bigger. Woops!
Soon Ok’s annoyed; Boon Ja wants to trade rings to keep the peace; and Hyun Joo is miffed. Jang Chi Gook gave the same ring to each woman in the household!?
Jang Chi Gook insists that Soon Ok and Boon Ja only provide
friendship; he’s really in love with Hyun Joo! Pshhh – like she really
buys that.

In the Kim Residence, Da Kyum gets an unexpected visitor: Joo Won.
Joo Won waltzes in as if she’s the owner of the house and begins her
inspection. She makes sure the surfaces don’t have a single trace of
dust; the food is still fresh; and she fixes Young Hee’s un-made bed
with a purse of her lips. When she finally leaves, Da Kyum bitterly
wonders who the hell Joo Won thinks she is to be acting like she’s the
lady of the house.

Gun Woo heads over to the trading center to look at his stocks.
Suddenly, Soon Geum with Kang San sits next to him. She asks how his
stocks are, and Gun Woo can only stare wide-eyed. He blinks hard several
times; his eyes were playing tricks on him! It was really just another mother and son. HA! He’s hallucinating Soon Geum’s presence!
Young Hee plunks down next to him, gloating that his stocks are doing
well, and then laughing when he realizes Gun Woo’s are going down.
(Young Hee is an annoying but insanely fun friend.) Revenge: in an
elevator with cute girls, Gun Woo introduces Young Hee – a sloppy fellow
who does nothing but slack off. When he’s in need of money, he sells
one of his grandfather’s paintings for a quick fortune.
Revenge 2: Young Hee nags Gun Woo on the way to the bathroom, about
being as reckless as his stepmother. Gun Woo admits they’re similar to
some degree – both are ill-mannered, brainless, and unlucky – so he
tells Young Hee to go look for someone nicer instead of him. It’s funny
that Young Hee’s first thought is, “But what about Da Kyum? Without me,
she’ll have nothing!”

Hyun Joo returns to the neighborhood lugging two heavy bags of
groceries. She’s still mighty bitter about the rings, and then one of
the bags breaks in the middle of the road. Her day couldn’t get worse.
Meanwhile, Yoon Joo doesn’t know what to do with the dirty dishes and
with a kid calling her, “Grandma, I’m hungry.” She storms out of the
house angrily.
As Hyun Joo gathers the fallen vegetables in her skirt, she sees Yoon
Joo and asks her for help in picking up the eggs. Out of spite, Yoon
Joo steps on it instead and walks off. Hyun Joo mutters curses under her
breath, and that’s enough for Yoon Joo to turn around and slap her in
the face.
OOOOO – CAT FIGHT!

The two of them hurl insults at each other: Yoon Joo warns Hyun Joo
to watch her mouth and know her place, going so far as cracking an egg
over Hyun Joo’s head. The maid returns the favor, saying that even
though she’s only a maid, at least people won’t call her a
money-grubbing bitch. Hair tugging and pushing ensues, and the rest of
the maids gather around to pull the ladies apart.
Da Kyum grabs hold of Hyun Joo, pulling her off of Yoon Joo. Soo Jung
scolds Hyun Joo and tells her to apologize, but as she helps Yoon Joo
up, she takes a fierce hold of her hair to pull her up. Ouch! Then when
Yoon Joo goes to attack Hyun Joo again, Soo Jung pulls her backwards on
to her shoe’s heels. Petty revenge from the maids!

Hwang Yong and Jang Chi Gook notice the ruckus and help the ladies
up. Da Kyum, Soo Jung, and Zar Lin observe that Hwang Yong is gently
helping Yoon Joo back to her house. (Oooh – something going on there?)
They also note with interest that Jang Chi Gook is so concerned over
Hyun Joo’s welfare. (Definitely something there…)

Back in her room, Hyun Joo grabs a photo of her two boys and breaks
down into heaving sobs. Yoon Joo’s insult was right – as a maid she
can’t even cook a meal for her own sons. As for Yoon Joo, she’s been
stunned into silence by Hyun Joo’s statement that she only married for
money. Perhaps she never faced that fact directly, or she did think she
was in love. She requests Hwang Yong to forget the incident ever
happened, and he promises: “Everyone has something that they want to
hide or can’t admit.” He hands her his handkerchief, and his kind manner
touches Yoon Joo.
When Hyun Joo finally emerges from her room, Jang Chi Gook worriedly
asks if she’s OK. Hyun Joo admits that she wanted to be a woman for a
couple of days and wear the ring, but she was planning on selling it so
that she could support her sons. At the end of the day, she’s still a
maid, and if only she had saved enough money, she would have quit
tomorrow.

Soon Geum heads over to the company that hands out the winning
lottery. She is spotted by her dad’s friend, Choi Bong Yi. He wonders if
she’s there to see him, and Soon Geum cringes. Now she can’t collect
her winnings – especially in front of her dad’s buddy! He thinks that she’s there to borrow money because of her father, who just left, and that sets her off running after him.

She catches him, and they eat at a small restaurant. She’s annoyed
that he doesn’t even care for his own well-being, or even contact her,
or even visit her mother’s grave. Soon Geum asks him, does he like money
or go-stop better? Answer: go-stop, because it’s a more fun way to get
money. Does he like go-stop or his daughter more? Her father, Sang Hoon,
wisely answers: of course, daughter. If so, she logically concludes,
then he should quit playing go-stop for her.
Sang Hoon: “I play go-stop so you can stop being a housemaid.” He
then takes out her wallet from her bag; she assumes he’s going to take
more cash but instead, he puts money in. He had won a game. He then
notices the lottery ticket, and has enough time to see the circled
winning numbers before Soon Geum snatches it away.

While Soon Geum is annoyed with her father’s inability to stop
gambling (all in the name of needing to pay her back), another patron
drunkenly asks her to pour a drink for him. The guy wonders if Soon Geum
is a young miss or is an old maid, and that’s when Sang Hoon kicks the
guy off his chair, defending his daughter’s honor. It would have been a
heroic act – if only he weren’t so beaten easily by the young drunks and
kicked on the floor. Needless to say, he ends up in the hospital with a
broken nose and in need of surgery.

As for Gun Woo, he’s having a civilized dinner of sorts with his
father and Young Hee. Tae Won pours the boys a drink and tells them to
take it one shot. Of course, Gun Woo does it – even though he can’t
drink for his life – his father is not someone who cares enough about
him to remember these sorts of details. Tae Won informs Gun Woo that if
he so badly wants to be like his father, tomorrow he can start living
exactly in the way Tae Won had lived when he was thirty.
Gun Woo and Young Hee know that Tae Won is going to take everything
away, but they both don’t seem too worried about it. Young Hee wants to
know why Gun Woo lost all that weight. Gun Woo knew that no matter how
smart he was, no one would take him seriously if he remained heavy.
Except for Choon Jak – and that’s why he’s so desperate to find her and
repay her.

Young Hee comments that Soon Geum isn’t too bad either, but Gun Woo
thinks it’s wasteful for her to spend her life being a maid to his
horrible family. Young Hee also notes that Gun Woo’s language has become
ruder the skinnier he got.
At the hospital, Bong Yi thinks Soon Geum’s father is too troublesome
for his own good. He wonders aloud where they could get the money to
pay for the hospital bill. Without telling him she won the lottery, she
says she’ll find a way. She heads over to a nearby convenience store,
reasoning that perhaps the other maids will lend her money. She’ll be
able to pay them back anyways since she’s got the lottery money.
Young Hee drives up to the same convenience store – he’s madly
hopping to go to the bathroom! Gun Woo goes inside to grab a drink and
that’s when he gets a call from a friend who found Choon Jak’s phone
number. He has bad memory though, and can’t memorize the number.

Soon Geum takes out her lottery ticket, musing over the winning
numbers, when it’s suddenly snatched out of her hands. Gun Woo flips it
around and writes down the phone number. She tries to grab it back, but
he raises it above his head. Danggit! Why is he so tall!? And dark?! And
handsome!?

He enjoys tormenting her, and asks her to give him the ticket. UHHHHH
– I don’t think so, fella. She jams her heel on his foot, and he bends
over in pain. Snatch! – and out she runs. Gun Woo hobbles after her and
yells for Young Hee to go catch her. Confused because he just came out
of the bathroom, Young Hee runs after her without knowing why. He grabs
her vest easily, and she pleads with “the spirit of the mountain” to
just let her go. She tries to continue her crazy act, saying that she’s a
rabbit and will give her liver to him if he lets her go. Young Hee
makes her promise before letting go.
HMMM – is the boy getting himself involved in a love triangle?!
Tae Won returns home to the sight of Yoon Joo sitting on the couch,
waiting for him, clutching Hwang Yong’s handkerchief. She begins making
demands: she wants a new car, and unlimited credit for her credit card.
Tae Won acquiesces, and she’s frustrated that he never says no to her.
She asks if he’s hiding anything from her, but he thinks she’s being
needlessly naggy. He just wants to know what she really wants. Surprisingly, she says she wants Soon Geum back.
Soon Geum visits each house, hoping that one of the maids will lend
her money. All of them say they don’t have cash to spare. Zar Lin takes
pity on her and hands her a card to a loan shark company; she found the
business card on her master’s desk.

Soon Geum makes her way to the office, which is completely empty. The
banners and signs about money lending freak her out a bit, and when she
steps on an ID card with the face cut in half, she decides she’s had
enough and runs out the door – slamming it against none other than Hwang
Yong.
They’re shocked to see each other, and Soon Geum immediately assumes
that Hwang Yong might want to borrow money too. When he starts bleeding
from the bruise on his head, Soon Geum thinks he got beaten up by the
loan sharks; ha! I love she’s so oblivious to the possibility that she
did this to him. As she helps stop the bleeding, Hwang Yong tries to
get her to leave by saying that these loan sharks have really high
interest rates. But that’s when the loan sharks arrive and say,
“President!”
So THIS is how Hwang Yong made his money!
In the office, Soon Geum sits uncomfortably, sneaking peeks at the
ominous-looking men behind Hwang Yong. Noticing this, he hands his men
some candy, telling them to smile (or try to) and get back to work. He
then breaks the ice: if she’s scared, well, he’s scared too that his
neighbors will find out about his line of work. He suggests she go to
the bank and borrow money instead, but she has no collateral. That’s
when she notices a sign stating he accepts lottery tickets as collateral
– if they’re first place though.

Perfect! 14.2 billion Won that reduces to 9.5 billion after taxes.
Soon Geum gives him a sly smile. Hwang Yong says he’ll give her an
additional 500 million, which confuses her – why is he giving her
additional money? She’s afraid he’s going to use it against her in the
future (perhaps), or use it as a bribe to keep her mouth shut in front
of the neighbors (maybe). Soon Geum is so hesitant that Hwang Yong is
ready to break off the deal…when she finally relents.

They go to a storage facility where Hwang Yong uses his thumbprint
and key to open the storage room. He hands Soon Geum a piece of gum,
saying it’ll help her later, but she refuses. OK then – in they go.
Inside are sealed boxes full of 50,000 Won bills. Soon Geum is beyond
shocked – she’s never seen so much money in her life! She becomes
light-headed, and Hwang Yong stuffs the gum in her mouth: “Chew! See,
this is why you should have accepted it when I tried to give it to you
before.”
They count out 10 billion in front of her. At that moment, Gun Woo is
calling her frantically for Choon Jak’s number. Soon Geum accidentally
accepts the call, but Gun Woo could only hear the bills being counted in
an automatic machine before she ends the call. 10 billion counted out,
Hwang Yong hands her the key to her future, and she hands over the
lottery ticket.

As Soon Geum becomes rich, Gun Woo is being stripped of his
belongings. Tae Won wants all of Gun Woo’s credit cards. The gas in his
car will run out by the end of the night. If Gun Woo wants to be just
like his father, he will become penniless, and has to fight his way to
the top. Though Tae Won acts like he’s doing Gun Woo a favor, Gun Woo
knows his father doesn’t really care if Gun Woo succeeds or not. He will
“disappoint” Tae Won by truly succeeding.
Soon Geum informs her father that he’ll be staying in the hospital
for a while. As soon as she leaves to get some food, he rifles through
her bag for the lottery ticket. It’s gone, but he’s putting two and two
together.

He gets a surprise visit from all the other maids. Soo Jung and Hyun
Joo immediately entertain him with some go-stop, while Zar Lin is made
lookout and Da Kyum replenishes the fridge with food. Da Kyum
disapproves of their actions, but she can’t do anything to stop them.
They hide the cards when the nurse comes in to get his blood pressure,
but resume immediately thereafter. Unfortunately – they don’t notice
Soon Geum entering.
Sheepishly, Soo Jung and Hyun Joo gather their winnings. Soon Geum
screams in frustration – why can’t they all just stop gambling for
once!? Hyun Joo whispers to the father that Soon Geum is short-tempered
because she lost her job, and that’s when Soon Geum pushes them all out.
She didn’t tell her father that yet.

When they’re all gone, Sang Hoon hands her an envelope filled with
cash. The maids had all brought it in for her, and Soon Geum feels a
twinge of regret at cashing in the lottery with the loan sharks. He asks
if Soon Geum was afraid he’d take all of her winnings, and Soon Geum
defensively says she didn’t quit at all. In fact – she was just about to
head back to work!
Once alone, Sang Hoon makes a call to his friend Bong Yi, fishing for
details about the first prize winner for the lottery. Bong Yi only
knows that the winner is from Chungdam-dong, the rich area where Soon
Geum works, and that the first prize winner won 14.2 billion Won. That’s
enough to make Sang Hoon’s heart stop – and the doctors have to shock
him back to life.

Outside, Soon Geum receives a call from Yoon Joo, but it’s actually
San on the other line! He sweetly calls out, “Ahjumma~!” and Yoon Joo
tries to guide the little boy to say that he wants to see her. (Little
boy’s vocabulary isn’t that sophisticated yet!)
The other maids are all putting on make-up at a cosmetics store. Soo
Jung is about to put on some pale pink lipstick when she hesitates and
puts it back down. She has no master or mistresses to impress, and no
reason for her to put on any. Hyun Joo notes her sadness and purchases
the lipstick for Soo Jung. Later on, she has Soo Jung hold her sweater
and look in the right pocket; it’s a bright red lipstick. It’s totally
not to Soo Jung’s taste, and so Hyun Joo explains she should look on the
left pocket; it’s the wearer’s right side, the onlooker’s left side.
All this explains to us is that at least one of the maids is cognizant
of the pocket mix-up.

Soon Geum returns to her storage room and hugs a few wads of 50000
Won. She then gets a call that her father is missing from the hospital.
Where’d Sang Hoon go!? Why, to the Kang Residence of course! He goes to
find out whether Soon Geum quit or not, and Yoon Joo actually says that
Soon Geum never quit. (Well, that is true, but she never mentions that Soon Geum got fired either.)
Soon Geum is racing to the Kang Residence, having deduced her father
was heading over there. Also returning home is Gun Woo, who drives up
alongside her until he finally gets her attention. She tries to run from
him, but he stops her. He’ll drive her home – it’s faster, and they’re
going the same way.

Ha! As soon as she’s settled in the car, he locks the doors and
drives right past their home. He makes the excuse that the foot she
stepped on is still in pain, and the brakes aren’t working. They circle
around the cul-de-sac, and he wants to know what Choon Jak’s number is.
Unfortunately, she no longer has the lottery ticket and so can’t tell
him that.
As he drives around, Soon Geum receives a text from Soo Jung. The
money in the envelope was actually from Gun Woo; he had told the maids
to give it to Soon Geum but not mention that it came from him. Soo Jung
thinks it must be severance pay. This is puzzling news for Soon Geum,
who’s currently under the impression that he hates her.
Seeing as she doesn’t have the number, he takes out a blanket (aw –
no snacks?!) and reclines in his seat. They’ll have to camp out for the
night until she figures out the number.

Soon Geum: Do you really like Choon Jak that much, even though she’s a maid?
Gun Woo: Of course.
Soon Geum: Then what about me? We’re both similar, and were unfairly fired on the spot.
Gun Woo: … I like you and hate you. I hate you and like you.
Soon Geum: So…do you like me or hate me?
Gun Woo: Are you curious?
Soon Geum: Yes.
Gun Woo: Then try to make me fall in love with you.
Kaedejun: !?!?!?!?! AJHDSFA;JLGHAW;EFJJGJFKA;DG;UIAWUGJA!!!!!!!

Soon Geum burns up in embarrassment.