[KD] Scent of a Woman: Episode 3

Yeon-jae quite literally falls into Ji-wook’s arms when the yacht’s
engine roars to life. It’s not until they’re out in open water that she
realizes he’s mistaken her for the travel agent, which she didn’t pick
up on because he’s been calling her by their shared name, Ms. Lee.



She starts to explain the mix-up…but there he is, standing so
handsomely nearby, and she with the perfect excuse to prolong their
interaction. So she holds her tongue and whispers a quick apology to the
other Ms. Lee, but justifying that the name applies to her, too.

Yeon-jae enjoys the view and the ride, but Ji-wook says he’s had
enough; he’s here to scope out potential travel related events, and
doesn’t care to mix business with pleasure. He doesn’t see the point in
getting twenty more minutes of sea and wind, because to him those aren’t
things to be enjoyed. Oh, what a sad little rich boy you are.
Yeon-jae’s the one who says that being on a yacht is rare experience, so
they should use it.



He leaves her to enjoy it alone and heads below, where he takes a
call from his father and assures him sarcastically that he’s hard at
work, not fooling around: “If you find it so hard to trust me, then come
here yourself.”

Once they dock, he fields a call from the travel agency, who’s gotten
the call from Ms. Lee saying she couldn’t find Ji-wook. He assures them
that he has met her, continuing the misunderstanding, and asks Yeon-jae
what’s the next order of business.



Back in Seoul, the doctors working under Chae Eun-seok huddle around a
blog cartoon which depicts an assy doctor and speculate that it’s just
like their Dr. Chae, aka King of Bastards. Proving the comparison
correct, Eun-seok goes on his rounds to his various cancer patients,
treating them with cold disinterest as he delivers bad news in perhaps
the worst display of bedside manner since Dr. House. But at least House
is witty and sardonic; Eun-seok is utterly devoid of any expression,
like his patients are just numbers and charts to him. Or, in one
instance, hopeless cases taking up needed hospital beds.

Looks like Yeon-jae was right on the money when she said she pitied
any of his patients for the amount of care (read: none) he shows them. I
suspect Eun-seok actually cares about this negative image — there’s a
flicker of vulnerability when he catches people talking about him — but
he lacks the social skills or humility to correct it.



Yeon-jae takes Ji-wook to a folk dance performance, and again Ji-wook
takes one look and deems it sufficient; he’s ready to go. When she
walks around the marketplace, he scoffs that she’s wasting time, since
he’s here to work. Yeon-jae counters that he’s in the business of
promoting travel, and that experiencing firsthand the things he
recommends is kind of a gimme.

The ditched Ms. Lee calls her travel agency again to complain, so the
agent calls Ji-wook back to get a status update. Before he has a chance
to find out he’s with the wrong person, he’s targeted by a pickpocket,
who grabs his wallet and runs.

Ji-wook’s not hugely concerned, saying that it only contains cash and cards, while Yeon-jae’s like, Duh! And that’s not important? She goes running after the thief, and Ji-wook joins her in taking up the chase.



At one point the pickpocket heads toward Yeon-jae, so she thinks fast
and throws her shoe at him. Unfortunately, he veers out of the way and
it gets Ji-wook in the face instead.

Thankfully for them, the thief is stopped by a Japanese local, a
silent man who knocks down the gangster punk after confirming that the
thief is Tokyo yakuza. The man tosses the wallet to Ji-wook and goes off
without a word.



Ji-wook’s tired and a little cranky so he’s ready to call it a day,
but Yeon-jae persuades him to do one more activity, and they head off to
eat a particular Okinawan specialty. She entertains him with lame
Japanese-Korean language puns, which he hardly finds funny, but the mood
finally starts to lift when he laughs over her sauce-stained mouth, and
she retorts that he’s in the same state.

After lunch, Yeon-jae leads him to the beach, and he has to smile at
her enthusiasm as she frolics on the sand — he may not feel the same
exuberance over the little joys in life, but he’s starting to appreciate
her joie de vivre.



As they return to the hotel, Ji-wook asks if she’s staying here
because of him. He means it in a “Hope you weren’t too inconvenienced by
this job” way, but Yeon-jae thinks he’s realized who she really is, and
starts to explain that she didn’t even know he was going to be here.

When he asks if she’s lived in Okinawa long, she decides it’s time
to fess up and starts to explain, “I might not be the Ms. Lee you think I
am.”



Before she has a chance to explain, the very put-out, very indignant
other Ms. Lee makes her appearance and accuses Ji-wook of giving her the
runaround all day. Now realizing the mix-up, Ji-wook asks why Yeon-jae
spent the day with him, then, and she muddles through an explanation of
not having the chance. Plus, she was glad to see him. (She uses the word
that implies they’re already acquainted, although it’s a subtle enough
implication that he doesn’t realize they’ve met before — sorta — at the
company. That’s a revelation I’m looking forward to seeing, though it’ll
have to wait for another day.)

Ji-wook calmly tells Ms. Lee that he’ll see her tomorrow for the
guided tour, then heads to his suite. He’s cool-headed enough to think
back to the meeting on the dock and realize that it wasn’t Yeon-jae’s
fault he’d assumed she was the travel guide.



Back in Seoul, Sae-kyung meets with her brother, who’s heard the
story of her ex-boyfriend-slash-extortionist. Having him remind her of
that folly picks at her wounds, and she deletes all the photos of her
happier times with the boyfriend, then contemplates the theater tickets
Ji-wook had given her. Perhaps it’s time to move on and look forward?

That evening, Yeon-jae calls her mother to check in, only to have Mom
immediately snap at her. She’s in the middle of a emergency with a
malfunctioning toilet and complains about her daughter flitting off on
vacation, then hangs up in a snit. Yeon-jae sighs, “What did I expect
from Mom?”



She wanders outside listlessly, and sees a couple walking through a
wedding rehearsal. Watching wistfully as they exchange rings, she
notices someone else looking in on the happy pair — the man who rescued
Ji-wook’s wallet. She thanks him warmly for his help and asks if he
knows the couple, but he just moves on in his silent, unresponsive way.

Yeon-jae continues her aimless stroll of the grounds, in the midst of
wishing for stars to fall when she runs into Ji-wook. She apologizes
for ruining his plans today, but he says it’s not a big deal — he doubts
he would’ve seen anything more interesting with a different guide.



His calm reaction to her lie may seem like an act of kindness, but
for the overall tone of ennui that ruins that thought. Rather, it’s like
he couldn’t be bothered to care one way or the other, and he says that
as a tourist, “It’s all the same.”

Politely, Yeon-jae tells him that she knows this is overstepping her
bounds, but advises him to go sightseeing tomorrow with a different
attitude. His indifference won’t do him any good in planning travels for
others, not when he won’t bother to feel, taste, or experience anything
firsthand. She urges him to enjoy himself, in the name of making a
better travel product: “The travel plans you create on this trip could
be the very first trip of somebody’s life…or the last one they have
before they die.”



She leaves him thinking that over, and in the morning, Ji-wook meets
Ms. Lee for their day of beach tours, having prepared a swimsuit per her
recommendation. He points out that her heavily made-up face isn’t
exactly snorkel-ready, and she says that she won’t be participating,
since she hates tanning. A stark contrast to somebody else’s advice
about the value of personal experience.

Just then, he sees Yeon-jae walk by and makes a last-minute
adjustment to his plans. He heads outside just as Yeon-jae is getting
into a taxi, and joins her inside. She gapes in surprise, but he smiles,
“I think I’d have more fun with the fake Ms. Lee than the real one.”





That takes them snorkeling, and then to a bluff to admire the view.
At Yeon-jae’s enthusiastic response to the sights, Ji-wook notes that
she must enjoy life, since everything’s new and amazing to her.

She agrees readily, “Yes! Life really is fun.” She tells him she
never dreamed a day like this could happen, which prompts his question
of what today is like.

Yeon-jae: “A kind of day where I can forget everything about who I am, and what’s happening.”



Eun-seok’s supervisor advises him persuade Yeon-jae to participate in
the trial of a new drug. Thus pressured, Eun-seok starts to call, but
chickens out and instead asks a nurse to make the call. He gets a
reprieve, though, because the calls go unanswered.

Eun-seok steps in to handle an argument that’s growing heated, and
addresses the frantic husband of a cancer patient. His wife’s
prescriptions have been cut off, to which Eun-seok tells him coldly that
they weren’t forgotten, but discontinued. The drugs haven’t been
working, and she’s going to die in days anyway so there’s no use for
them.



The husband pleads anyway, if just to appease his wife’s worries,
because she’s convinced she’ll die right away without them. Eun-seok
replies that she’ll die with them, too. Damn. That’s cold. He softens
that a little by adding that it’s the guardian’s role to help
the dying patient prepare herself for her passing, but really, this is
not his finest moment. Especially when the wife appears behind them,
having heard the exchange. She falls in shock. There’s a flicker of
apology on Eun-seok’s face, but he says nothing and leaves.

Next, Yeon-jae takes Ji-wook to see a chapel wedding, one of
Okinawa’s top attractions. The bride and groom are the couple from the
night before, and Yeon-jae sees that silent man outside again, although
today he watches with a tearful smile.



After the ceremony, Ji-wook notices the approach of a group of
gangsters, led by the pickpocket from the other day. Making a guess as
to their business here, Yeon-jae tears off to warn the wallet-rescuer —
Murakawa — of the danger. But they’re too late, and the gangsters
confront Murakawa and threaten to turn the wedding into a funeral.

Murakawa and Yeon-jae both decide that running away is their best
option, even though Ji-wook blankly wonders why. But the other two run
anyway, and he follows them, all the while asking, “Why are we running?
We’ve done nothing wrong!” My advice: Run now, questions later.



Murakawa jumps into a boat and urges the other two to hurry inside.
One gangster jumps onboard with them, but Ji-wook pulls an impressive
parry-punch combo and sends him into the water, and they pull away from
the dock with just seconds to spare.

Some time later, they dock and make their way through a wooded area,
following Murakawa. Ji-wook grumbles that he ought to have followed the
other Ms. Lee after all, but he’s not above feeling smug when Yeon-jae
compliments him on his awesome punch. Heh.

The trio arrives at a secluded house in a rural area, which turns out
to be Murakawa’s hometown. The older man who greets them is a father
figure to him and welcomes them in. It’s been 25 years since Murakawa
has been home, having had to flee after an accident killed somebody. It
hadn’t been his fault, but the yakuza guy had vowed to kill him, so he’d
gone to Tokyo, leaving behind a woman named Erika. Yeon-jae guesses
that the bride at the chapel was his daughter.



At the hospital, the cancer patient whose meds were discontinued dies
of a completely unrelated condition, but the timing makes this
coincidence look suspicious. Eun-seok’s superior doctor knows that this
could turn into a big problem for the hospital even though he
acknowledges that medically, there was no connection to the two events.

However, the distraught husband naturally assumes that one caused the
other, and is bound to cause a stink. Furthermore, the supervisor has
heard of Eun-seok’s encounter with the husband and warns him that he’s
got an attitude problem in dealing with patients.



Eun-seok finds the husband crying in the hallway, who accuses him of
killing his wife and lunges for him. Eun-seok shoves him off, and the
husband falls to the ground, crying that his wife had had such a strong
will to live, but after hearing Eun-seok’s declaration, she’d lost hope
and immediately worsened.

Eun-seok fires back — showing some emotion for once — “Does wanting
to live make everyone live? Is a strong will the only thing keeping
people alive? If that’s true, then there’d be no patients here! Stop
clinging to useless thoughts.”

He turns to go, and finds the hallway lined with silent patients and
doctors, all staring at him. He feels their condemning eyes on him as he
uneasily walks by, more shaken than he’d like to let on.



To their discomfort, Yeon-jae and Ji-wook find themselves sharing one
room, with the bedding set out as though for a married couple. The mood
is awkward until she laughs it off, likening their situation to a
hackneyed plot of one of those ’70s movies where a couple finds
themselves stranded after missing the last boat and having to share a
room.

She shares the story of how her father had done a similar thing on
purpose when he was dating her mother, and that night marked their first
kiss. And probably more, since they’ve hinted that she was conceived
during that trip. (The mood is light until she says that last tidbit,
and Ji-wook excuses himself to get some air. Ha.)



They settle down for the night, and after a while of lying there
awake, Yeon-jae turns to look at a sleeping Ji-wook. He turns toward her
in sleep, and hesitantly, she turns to face him too, looking intently
at his face. Thus she’s caught staring at him when he opens his eyes,
which makes her freeze, then turn away cringing.

They take a walk in the early morning, and Ji-wook shares the story
of how for a brief time in his childhood, he’d lived in the countryside
and walked on a path like this to school every day. He’d reveled in the
trip to school, which was rife with interesting things. Aw, it’s sad to
think of when he lost that interest in life, and how it came about. And
meaningful that he’d share it with her, since she’s one who understands
how it feels.







Arriving at a secluded beach as the sun is rising, Yeon-jae marvels
in awe — it’s the scene from her dream: “I came on this trip to find
this place.”

He watches in amusement as she splashes in the water like a kid, and
she asks if he’s ever studied abroad (yes), and if he has an English
name (yes). It’s Willy, which gets her excited — perchance short for
William?

But no, to her disappointment, it’s not short for anything. Sadly,
there’s no real-life stand-in for her dream volleyball-turned-hunk, and
she sighs, “That’s too bad.” Ha. I love his puzzled look, because what
can he have to say to that?



As they look out at the sea, Yeon-jae tells him she’d traveled
frequently in her childhood, because her father enjoyed it. There was
nothing better than watching her father fish from a distance, while she
napped with Mom’s arm for a pillow.

Ji-wook tells her to bring her parents next time, since they can come
using the Line Tours package he’ll put together. She says ruefully that
she won’t be able to bring Dad, because he’s passed away, but suggests
he bring his parents as the very first guests on his travel package.

Using her words, he says that he won’t be able to bring Mom, because
she’s passed away. A moment of mutual understanding flickers between
them.



A sudden shower sends them under a tree for shelter, but he suggests
they just run through it. Aw, and then he offers her a corny pun-joke of
his own, which is an appropriate sort of olive branch given how he’d
been so surly when she’d shared her puns earlier. He takes her hand, and
they run through the rain like children.

In Seoul, Sae-kyung meets with Ji-wook’s father, Chairman Kang, and
both agree not to kick up a fuss over the Wilson issue. Instead, they’ll
both turn their attention to the finalization of the MOU between their
companies.

She’s surprised to hear of Ji-wook’s trip to Japan, so when she hears
that her meeting today has been postponed till next week, Sae-kyung
makes the last-minute decision to hop on a plane to Okinawa.



Ji-wook and Yeon-jae come across a beer-drinking contest just as the
MC is asking for participants. It’s Ji-wook who raises their hands,
ignoring Yeon-jae’s protests, reminding her that she was the one who
said he ought to experience things firsthand. Touché, my friend.

Ji-wook, the wuss, can only take a few gulps at a time before gasping
for breath, but Yeon-jae’s got a good lead. Ji-wook ditches his beer to
take up the role of cheerleader (hee), jumping and exulting when she
wins.



The prize is a necklace, which she fumbles with in her tipsy state,
and he takes over. There’s a moment of awareness between them as they
find their faces inches apart, and she leans in just the teeniest
bit…and hiccup-burps. They pull apart, and he forces a burp of his own
to ease her embarrassment, which gets them both laughing.

They make it back to the hotel in light spirits, talking about dinner
plans. Sae-kyung, waiting in the lobby, looks up at their arrival, her
expression darkening as she takes in their camaraderie.

Ji-wook teases Yeon-jae by pretending he’s just spotted their yakuza pursuers, and points off in the distance….



…right at Sae-kyung. Eep.

Sae-kyung approaches wearing a fierce glower, directed particularly
at Yeon-jae. She demands, “What are you two doing? Who do you think you
are?”




COMMENTS

Plot-wise, I don’t think there was much in this episode that was
surprising, exciting, or even that eventful. But thanks to the gorgeous
locale and the breezy directorial touch, I found it thoroughly enjoyable
to watch. This is a drama that lets you breathe, and I like that. It
doesn’t hurt that the main couple is showing some adorable chemistry; I
like that there’s no huge angst between them, as we see in so many
rom-coms where the opposites-attract setup often has them bickering at
every turn and denying their attraction.

With Scent of a Woman, I suppose the cancer provides enough
angst that we don’t need to pour it into the romantic interactions as
well, which is just ducky in my book. I like seeing these two adults go
from mild indifference to interest to attraction, without a whole lot of
fanfare. I find the Ji-wook character plenty fascinating because of his
detachment to life, and find his interest in Yeon-jae entirely
believable — she’s not his usual type, but given that he doesn’t really
show much interest in women anyway, that’s a good thing.

We’re clearly setting this pair up for an opposing-themes dynamic,
where she’s dying and wants to live, while he’s already living a
deadened (emotional) existence and learns how to live through her. It’s
not as pat as I-feel-only-pain-and-you-don’t-feel-any-pain or I-gave-you-my-eyes-so-you-could-see, but there’s enough of a contrast between their situations to let the themes play out over the course of the drama.