Ki-joon makes his proposal to continue the married act for another
month or two, trying to make himself sound the generous soul for
agreeing to HER dear wish. Ah-jung bursts into laughter, not buying it
for a second, and wants to know the real reason: “Since you know all
about my messy story, let’s hear your messy story.”
Unwilling to give her the upper hand, he blusters that he’d rather
call it off, but Ah-jung calls his bluff, knowing he can’t walk away
now.
A contract it is. Ah-jung agrees to put on the act — or rather, to
refrain from clearing up the truth about the lie — until the issue of
the Chinese investors is decided, while Ki-joon will play along until
So-ran leaves the country.
For a guy so keen on bringing a lawsuit against her, Ki-joon is
pretty loose with the contract, not wanting to bother with the details.
It’s Ah-jung who points out the need to nail down the particulars like
the reason for the “secrecy” behind their marriage.
He says that if they keep mum, people will come to their own
conclusions, but she doesn’t like the idea that they’ll presume his aunt
opposed the match. Half-offended at this imaginary slight, she protests
that there’s nothing wrong with her, and proposes that her father be
the one to fake-oppose their marriage instead.
Ki-joon shows his contract to Hoon, who approves this move and
suggests that he take advantage of this situation by bringing along his
wife whenever meeting the Chens, since they like her so much. When
Ki-joon says he’s not necessarily going to drop his lawsuit against
Ah-jung, Hoon clucks that he’s being particularly mean.
Ah-jung decides to enjoy this development to the fullest, and calls
out So-ran for a day of shopping. She uses every opportunity to rub her
marriage in So-ran’s face, which would be more irritating if not for
So-ran’s own need to act in kind, being hell-bent on one-upping Ah-jung.
When the ladies head to the menswear department, it becomes clear
that Ah-jung has no idea about men’s clothing sizes, much less
Ki-joon’s. She covers by saying that her husband’s secretary takes care
of all his tailoring, but wonders under her breath about how men’s
shirts are measured.
A helpful voice chimes in — it’s Yoon-ju, also shopping here, who explains that shirts go by neck size, and Ah-jung thanks her.
So-ran actually gives Ah-jung a small gift in thanks for visiting her
at the hospital, which makes Ah-jung think in dismay that she actually
does like it. Hm, are these two going to become grudging friends after
all? Jae-bum joins them to pick up So-ran, and although the couple is
exerting themselves to put on the lovey-dovey act, they’ve perfected the
farce and Ah-jung is left feeling cranky at their outward appearance of
marital bliss.
The truth is a whole other story, though, and So-ran seethes on the
way home, complaining about how Ah-jung has reached beyond her status.
Jae-bum reasons that So-ran can just stop seeing her, then. Alas, those
words have too much sense to resonate with So-ran’s brain.
At the cafe, Ah-jung asks if ajumma Ae-kyung knows her father’s size,
and when she does, Ah-jung sighs glumly, “Knowing his size means love.”
To rectify this, she texts Ki-joon (“What is your size?”), who happens
to be golfing with the Chens.
Scoffing, he ignores her question…and hits the ball right into the
pond. And the sand pit. And away from the can’t-miss-it hole right in
front of him. Looks like her effect on his mental state isn’t as
marginal as he’d like.
Ki-joon asks Hoon if he knows his size, and Hoon immediately spits
out numbers: “37, 107, 31, 86, 110, 275.” Some of those are numbers even
Ki-joon doesn’t know himself, while Hoon worries, “Why, is there a size
I missed?” Ki-joon wonders, “Why do you know them so well?” Hoon: “Good
question.”
Ki-joon starts to text the info back to Ah-jung, then catches himself and stops.
A phone call throws him into sudden chaos: It’s Yoon-ju, announcing
her return. Immediately he bursts out of his office in a panic, too
impatient to wait for the elevator. As he runs up the stairs to the
rooftop, he flashes back to another time he’d run like this — to meet
Yoon-ju, who’d accepted his proposal and flashed the ring.
This time, she’s waiting in the same place, sans diamond ring. Their greetings are tentative, but happy.
At the cafe, Ah-jung waits for Ki-joon’s reply, annoyed when she
doesn’t get one. Sang-hee finds her here, and she asks if he knew that
those Chinese guests were big investors who were important to Ki-joon.
When he says yes, she jumps to the conclusion that he’s some kind of
corporate spy and orders him to stay away — she can’t be involved in
white-collar crime! She’s a government employee! She storms out, leaving
Sang-hee chuckling in her wake at her overreaction.
He follows her and denies the whole spy theory, pointing out that
she’s mighty unperceptive. The answer’s quite simple, and he alludes to
his brotherly relationship with Ki-joon, though his hints fly right over
Ah-jung’s head.
In any case, Sang-hee congratulates her for settling matters with
Ki-joon, and guesses that Ah-jung will enjoy gloating to her frenemy.
Well, put like
that it sounds pretty childish, and Ah-jung
mutters that she doesn’t want to do that, which I suppose isn’t entirely
a lie since she’s already done it.
Sang-hee declares a celebration in order, so they hit up a noraebang,
which starts out with loud, happy tunes and turns into a ballad-fest
where she sings her heart out. (Hee. It’s totally the thing that happens
in noraebangs — at some point, the mood turns, which can be a little
cathartic and a little embarrassing when you catch yourself getting
emotionally invested in a cheesy power ballad.)
Sang-hee reads between the lines and guesses that there’s something
that didn’t quite work out. She tries to explain that being “married”
isn’t what she thought it would be. What did she think it would be like?
Well, in Ah-jung’s fantasy, she’d meet up with her married friends
and discuss the ins and outs of being married, bragging a little (“He
takes out the trash so well!”) and worrying a little about petty
concerns. (Ha, even in her fantasy, So-ran is sitting there tied up in
knots to see Ah-jung happy.) Then, Ah-jung would be the first to leave,
saying her husband’s waiting at home.
Sang-hee calls her out for being kinda bratty, which is true enough.
When Ah-jung sighs, “Ah, must nice to be So-ran,” Sang-hee wisely says
that he’s pretty sure that her friend’s life isn’t all puppies and
roses, either.
Ain’t that the truth: Cut to So-ran, discovering a lipstick stain on
Jae-bum’s shirt. Overwhelmed with betrayal, she takes out her anger out
on the washing machine while hubby scratches his ass on the couch.
Driving crazily out of anger, So-ran arrives at a bridge that evening to
vent her frustrations.
Meanwhile, Ki-joon and Yoon-ju catch up on the past three years,
their mood light until he accidentally mentions Sang-hee’s name. That
causes the smiles to drop from their faces, and suddenly the air is
awkward and heavy with the reminder of what split them up.
Ki-joon starts to change the subject, but thankfully Yoon-ju doesn’t
ignore the elephant in the room and tells him she tried to find a better
man, “But there was no one better than you.”
Yoon-ju reaches a hand to touch his face…and that’s the scene So-ran
witnesses. Gleefully. Gah, why is everyone so irritatingly spiteful?
So of course So-ran calls Ah-jung out to “comfort” her in her time of
difficulty, saying with false sincerity that it’s not her fault her
husband’s a cheater. In her world, that doesn’t mean the guy’s a jerk so
much as it means that Ah-jung is undesirable, and she confirms that she
saw the couple together with her very own eyes.
Furious, Ah-jung bursts into Ki-joon’s office and yells at him to
stay away from women, before realizing he’s in a meeting with Chairman
Chen. Abashed, she leaves quietly, but Ki-joon follows her out, takes
her aside, and confronts her angrily.
Ah-jung orders him to stay away from other women, declaring that she
can’t put up with cheaters, leaving him seething. Just as she grumbles
to herself that all men have the instinct to cheat — “Except sunbae, I
mean!” — that sunbae steps into the elevator with another woman.
Seriously, does this guy have coincidence radar or something?
At the cafe, Sang-hee and Ae-kyung chat together over lunch, and he
asks why she never married. She says she wanted to once, but there was a
lot of opposition. Their parents eventually relented, but his daughter
refused, so she gave up. Sang-hee guesses that the daughter was Ah-jung,
just as Dad comes in to take Ae-kyung out to lunch, much to lovelorn
Seok-bong’s dismay.
Ki-joon runs into manager Ji-yoon in the parking lot, and since it’s
just the two of them after hours, they drop the formalities and talk as
friends. He advises her not to work too hard, while she asks how he’s
holding up, having seen Yoon-ju at the hotel.
He avoids the question, then goes home to brood, which is when Ah-jung calls him out for a drink. After revisiting her old
gosiwon, her idealized image of Jae-bum now destroyed, Ah-jung has relocated to a bar to drown her disillusionment in drink.
She’s well into her cups by the time he arrives, and as her mood
turns heavier, Ah-jung wonders why men cheat. At his protest, she
clarifies that she doesn’t mean him (this time), but that she saw a man
earlier at the hotel in the midst of cheating. She acknowledges that
it’s not her husband — that he’s another woman’s husband — and her eyes
grow teary even as she wonders why she feels this way.
She walks out of the bar thoroughly drunk, though insistent that
she’s perfectly fine. She loudly slurs at Ki-joon not to cheat, and
unthinkingly steps into the busy road.
Ki-joon sees the car heading for her and yanks Ah-jung out of harm’s
way and into his arms. And then she vomits into those arms.
While Ki-joon washes up in a bathroom, Ah-jung comes (at least
partially) to her senses. With a jolt she remembers the vomiting, and
tries to slip away before he gets back. Too late!
She hurries away with a lame excuse and rushes to a pharmacy for some
hangover medicine, where she catches a glimpse of her reflection, to
her utter dismay.
A bit later, now sober and cleaned up, she takes a seat on a park
bench, only to have Ki-joon join her. She’s surprised; he explains that
he wasn’t
worried, per se, but that if something were to happen to her, he’d be the first suspect.
He’d clocked her emotional reaction to the story of the cheater at
the hotel, so now Ki-joon asks if she still has feelings for that guy.
Ah-jung clarifies that she cried not because she still liked him, but
because she was upset and disappointed in him.
She sighs, “People change, whether for better or worse. But he was my
first love — couldn’t he stay as cool as he was in my memory?” But
Ki-joon replies no — that that’s painful too, thinking of his own
unresolved first love.
The two sit back to enjoy their scenic environs, and while looking up
at the falling cherry blossoms, they happen to meet eyes. Ah-jung
thinks, “Today, finally, my first love ended.”
They get lost for a moment, looking at each other, and Ki-joon starts
to lean in, ever so slowly. Ah-jung closes her eyes, and he’s just
about to kiss her…when they both meet eyes again and are jolted out of
the moment.
Hurriedly they busy themselves straightening up and trying to ignore the almost-kiss.
In the morning, he’s mortified with himself, and therefore somewhat
flustered when he gets a call from Ah-jung asking to meet. He shows up
at the appointed cafe, surprised at her cheery mood, and starts to set
her straight in case she misinterpreted his feelings.
But just as he starts to say he got caught up in the ambiance last
night, she announces her reason for bringing him here. She has an
addition to write into their contract: that he’ll be careful not to be
seen with other women for the duration of the agreement.
And is he actually…disappointed that she’s not into him? Ha! On her
way out, she assures him not to worry, since she forgets about things
that occur when she’s drunk.
Next, Ah-jung enlists Sang-hee’s help in picking out a giant rock of a
ring, since So-ran noted her lack of one. She’ll use the money she’d
borrowed from the bank intending to use for a lawyer, and assures him
it’s fine.
Sang-hee tells her to just tell So-ran her husband’s cheating so they
can end this game, but Ah-jung sighs that she doesn’t want to become
like So-ran. Except for the fact that…she’s becoming just like her by
prolonging this useless oneupmanship, isn’t she?
Sang-hee calls in a favor and takes Ah-jung to an even nicer jeweler,
who’s allowing him to borrow the ring. Thrilled, Ah-jung calls him her
genie in the lamp, and he corrects her, saying he’s Cinderella’s fairy
godmother. You sure that’s an improvement, buddy?
Armed with new diamond-studded weapon, Ah-jung arrives at So-ran’s
place dressed up like the sophisticated trophy wife she’s not, and
greets her old friends warmly. So-ran has been quick to spread the story
of Ki-joon’s infidelity to her friends, under the guise of comforting
poor Ah-jung, so they’re all aware of the supposed situation. However,
to So-ran’s disgruntlement, they’re wowed at Ah-jung’s ring and
advancement in life, and heap on the compliments.
There’s an awkward moment when Jae-bum comes home (conspicuously
bearing roses, so as to stir envy among So-ran’s friends) and gulps to
see Ah-jung there. They haven’t spoken since their chance encounter at
the hotel, and Ah-jung looks away uncomfortably as well, not sure how to
act now that she knows his dirty little secret.
Eager to tilt the balance of power back in her favor, So-ran pastes
on a fake smile and asks Ah-jung when she’ll invite them all over to her
new home for a housewarming party. Ah-jung gulps — houswarming?!
