Today is all about moving forward and maybe, just maybe, being happy. Our characters get past their current misery, and in the end, form what could potentially be my favorite Kdrama law firm ever. 

Even though we start with what could be a setback for our mopey lawyer, this writer doesn’t let a silly thing like a cheating and clingy ex-girlfriend stand in the way of character progress. When Ji Wook does his walk of shame (he still has no idea if they slept together the night before) he comes face to face with his cheating ex. Even though Bong Hee immediately goes into savior mode, she gives them a moment alone by sneaking by them, but then she hears how persistent Yoo Jung is so she calls out “jagiya!” and bounces up pretending to be his girlfriend.

He’s quicker on the uptake than Bong Hee was when he did the same thing, but while he doesn’t really play along, he also doesn’t deny that they’re dating outright. Once they’re alone in his car Ji Wook asked why she did it and that’s when she reminds him that he did the same thing for her so she was just returning the favor. He’s so lost in thought that when she indicates she needs to be let out he doesn’t stop and just carts her all the way to where he’s going. When he gets out of the car he’s stunned to see her there and asks why she followed him. As you can imagine she’s annoyed because the only reason she’s there is Ji Wook kind of kidnapped her.

He scuttles away and Eun Hyuk pulls up wondering why Bong Hee’s there. Ha! She’s exasperated and just rambles before walking away to catch the bus or taxi to wherever she really needed to go.

Ji Wook and Eun Hyuk meet CEO Byeon for a birthday lunch and Ji Wook gives Byeon a gift along with his resignation. I’m dying. The poor guy looks like a kicked puppy and now he’s spreading his sadness by quitting on the old guy’s birthday. Byeon, of course, doesn’t want him to and tries to convince him to stay.

That night Ji Wook listens to vinyl while lounging on that one type of chair that a lot of Kdrama male leads have. Its purpose is to make them look contemplative and smart while giving us the best view of his long body. Bong Hee watches him from around the corner (as one does when they stalk their roommate) and says that while trying to catch the killer she listened to almost every song in the world, and the one he’s currently listening to is the saddest one she’s ever heard.

Ji Wook catches her watching him, and just thinks she’s hungry. He starts cooking, and then stops all the sudden and wonders why he always cooks for her. She just says it’s because he’s a much better cook. I really want to know why all the moms in dramaland teach their sons to cook and not their daughters. I know it’s because women find a man who can cook sexy, but it still cracks me up every time.

While they’re eating he notices the way she keeps looking at him, and tells her to stop asking about his ex. She says she wasn’t, but he says she is with her eyes. She decides to just ask him why the broke up. He tells her about how he went over to her house and found her in bed with another man. Bong Hee launches into a string of curses and that brings a much needed smile to his face. He says this must be why people confide in others. Duh! She starts right back into cursing her again, but he stops her and says it’s weird. Bong Hee makes sure he knows that he can confide in her anytime.

Bong Hee meets up with the CSI, aka the real murderer, for dinner. Why doesn’t she think it’s weird that he wants to eat dinner with her? He returns her shoes and presses to see if she’ll give up now that there wasn’t any evidence. She’s adamant that she’ll never rest until the finds the real killer and clears her name. He gets a creepy look on his sweet boyish face and offers to give her a ride home. NO!!! He’ll either kill you before you get there or he’ll come back later since he will now know where you live.

Thankfully, Ji Wook found out that she’d be meeting up with the CSI about her case, and shows up just in time to stop her from being killed. The adoration in Bong Hee’s eyes when he says the reason he showed up is that they were supposed to do this together is priceless.

I’ll take this moment to comment about the older generation in the drama (minus the dad of the murdered ex). They are all kind of wacky yet endearing. CEO Byeon meets up with Ji Wook’s mom and tells her about her son quitting and asks her to do something about it. But mom says some of the coolest things I’ve heard from a male lead’s mom. She assures Byeon that Ji Wook is a smart and capable person and she trusts him no matter what, and won’t be interfering. His mom seems to manage (or own?) a Papa John’s and when she sees Bong Hee’s mom among the applicants she gets giddy. I can see a very strange relationship forming in their future.

Bong Hee has packed up all her stuff at work and sells off all her office furniture. She doesn’t get that much for it, but what she does get, she spends when she runs into Ji Wook at the grocery store. She tells him she’ll pay for his stuff too since he always feeds her and he proceeds to load his cart up. What he doesn’t know is that this was her farewell gift to him. She does the lame-o thing and just leaves a note. But it is pretty sweet because she places little things all around the house to help with his insomnia or just make him feel better.

He doesn’t chase after her but goes about enacting the next part of his plan. Yes, when he quit the other law firm he had a plan. He turns his house into an office, and he invites his friend from the prosecutor’s office to work with him in the most awkwardly spy like way possible. Next, he seeks Bong Hee out and finds her filling in for a pregnant friend teaching Taekwondo.

He reminds her that he offered for them to work together but she says she thought he was joking because of how drunk he was. He says he was completely serious. You can tell she really wants to run right back to him, but says that it took a lot of courage to quit and if she were to go back to being a lawyer and then have to quit again then it would be way too hard.

He leaves and she rolls around on the floor of the dojang wrestling with her decision. Her friend gives her encouragement and that helps her make her decision. She runs outside with luggage in hand to catch a taxi, but Ji Wook was patiently waiting for her the whole time. Well, maybe not patiently. He says it only took her 7 minutes to decide.

On the way, he scolds her for leaving him and says that she’s his hostage until they solve the case. I volunteer as tribute!!!  Internally she swoons about being called his hostage and later that night in her room she squeals into her pillow about how sexy the word hostage is.

When they get back to his office/house the boys are all there to welcome them. CEO Byeon says Ji Wook can’t make money if Byeon doesn’t join his firm. Once they bring up Eun Hyuk working with them, Ji Wook promptly tosses him out on his ear. But he doesn’t leave and later when Ji Wook comes out he’s still there like a lost puppy. He asks to talk and they relocate to a park bench. But once they’re there Eun Hyuk doesn’t give any excuses out loud. Yeah, if you haven’t already guessed he’s the guy Ji Wook’s ex slept with. Instead of saying anything, he thinks to himself that he could give lots of excuses. Like that he was first. In flashback, they show us that he’d been on his way to see Cheating Ex, flowers in hand to confess to her, and found her confessing to Ji Wook instead. Eun Hyuk keeps thinking to himself that he had thought he was over his feelings but they just kept building. Yeah, the montage of all the times we saw Ji Wook and ex happy together left out how Eun Hyuk was always the third wheel. Not that it gives him the right to sleep with his best friend’s girlfriend, but you can see why he made the mistake.

Back in the present a group of high school kids come up and flick a cigarette near our boys. They reprimand the kids which eventually escalates into a fight. Ji Wook and Eun Hyuk stand back to back and you can tell they’ve done this before, back when they were besties. They whisper to each other that they have to let the kids hit first because they’re minors. It’s hilarious because more high school boys just keep popping out of nowhere. Ji Wook gets a few cool action moves in, but it soon devolves into both guys scratching and clawing for their lives.

They lay side by side on the ground and Eun Hyun says that he realized there really won’t ever be an excuse he can give Ji Wook for what he did. Sadly Ji Wook replies that he also can never forgive him. Internally though he admits that he can’t cut Eun Hyuk or his ex out of his life because they are the only friends he’s ever had. A cute montage of them as the three musketeers almost makes me think that in a different drama you could possibly root for the ex and him to get back together.

Bong Hee notices his banged up face when he gets back Ha! She doesn’t have contacts anymore so she has to get really close to see. She tends to his wounds and tells him to call on her next time he gets in a fight.

He falls asleep and she goes back into stalker mode, and watches him sleep thinking that sometimes it doesn’t seem like he has insomnia. Yeah, I think his lack of sleep has more to do with shoving all his feelings deep down and never letting them out.

The next day CEO Byeon and Bang (AsianWiki doesn’t give his first name and I have no idea what his title is now) come up with elaborate plan to get Ji Wook to let Eun Hyuk work with them. The CEO throws himself on the floor and Bang tries to knock over the desk. It’s all for not because Ji Wook casually agrees to hire him. Aw, a bestie bromance is just around the corner.

Bong Hee watches the news where they’re covering the death of a celebrity chef that she thought was good looking. Both Ji Wook and Eun Hyuk think she has bad taste. Please, writer, do not have Eun Hyuk and Ji Wook fall for the same girl.

I didn’t mention it earlier but at the beginning of the episode, we saw the baby-faced killer in the chef’s house standing over the dead body. So it looks like our killer has struck again. Just like before someone else is arrested for the murder. We find out in a voiceover from Ji Wook that this will be their first client.

MY THOUGHTS

Before this episode, this show was all about the crackle and fizz of our OTP (One True Pairing) but now that we have the gang all working together my heart is consumed by the potential of this team.

I’m glad we finally got the mystery of what caused the bad blood between Ji Wook and Eun Hyuk out of the way. It was just as KMUSE called it. Normally I would say Ji Wook should move on from both people after something like that, but you can tell that Eun Hyuk is genuinely sorry for his mistake. Unlike ex who seems offended that Ji Wook isn’t over it already.

I am currently squealing because when I finish writing this I get to watch the next episode. I think the romance train is about to take off, and there is nothing I like more than to watch Ji Chang Wook fall in love.

Until the next Wook suit,

Drama Geek