Sun, Dec 3, 2017
In an art gallery, a well-dressed young woman stands in front of a painting of a juggling woman. The man next to her says that the artist, Georges Rouault, was known for his fascination with the circus. He continues that the juggler's expression looks relaxed and joyful, but the woman disagrees.
She says that to her, the woman seems as if she's suffering from great pain, having to juggle so many balls with only two hands. She gives the man a triumphant smile, and thinks to herself that she won't have to spend her twenty-ninth birthday alone.
On her birthday, her boyfriend takes Yoon-yi to a hotel for an intimate getaway. He struggles to undo her blouse and accidentally rips off a button. It flies through the air, and they both cringe when it lands on her phone just as it rings with another call from the demanding boss.
The next morning, Yoon-yi is a mess as she rushes to work, half undressed and with wet hair. All over the city, women race around madly as Yoon-yi narrates that for some women, 7 A.M. is their busiest time of day.
She and an army of women walk into a fancy office building, YP Group's main office, as she continues that they do countless jobs for their bosses.
Nearby, a man drives to work while correcting the grammar of the radio news announcer. He's NAM CHI-WON (Daniel Choi), managing director at an advertising company under YB Group. He stops at a red light and answers a call from someone who chides him for running late, reminding him that the chairman delayed a flight just to see him.
It begins to rain, and Chi-won discovers that his windshield wipers are broken. He accelerates when the light turns green, but slams on the brakes again when he sees a woman fall in front of his car.
He gets out to find Yoon-yi on the pavement, soaking wet with a scraped and bruised knee. Chi-won wants to take her to the hospital, but she's got bigger concerns and refuses his help. He keeps insisting, worried that she'll cause trouble for him later, so Yoon-yi kicks him in the shin, declares them even, then runs off.
She gets to the office and, despite her injured knee, manages to make herself presentable in time to meet Director Bong's wife, aka "Misery," who's been calling her nonstop. Misery is angrily demanding to be let in to see her husband, and she turns her fury on Yoon-yi as she accuses her of ignoring her calls.
Misery wonders why Director Bong's phone GPS located him at a motel this morning, and Yoon-yi thinks quick, then says apologetically that she accidentally took the boss's phone home by mistake, and went to a rendezvous with her boyfriend. She says she owed her boyfriend some alone time because she's been so busy lately, and Misery wonders why, since nothing could be easier than being an assistant.
Misery falls for Yoon-yi's cover-up, and she even says that when her husband is promoted, Yoon-yi should be going with him to the executive floor. She gives Yoon-yi a VIP pass to her aesthetician, telling her to take care of herself. Once she leaves, Yoon-yi heaves a huge sigh of relief.
When Yoon-yi texts Director Bong that the coast is clear, he and his cronies leave work to visit a sauna. Staying behind to clean his office, Yoon-yi narrates that no boss can be a hero in front of his secretary. She says that when you look closely, a boss is really just a middle-aged cheater, and that a secretary always sees the boss's true face, the one she doesn't want to see.
In a different office, another secretary named MA BO-NA (Cha Joo-young) briefs her boss, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR JO, on his schedule for the day as he heads to his office. He completely ignores her until she's finished, then tells her to cancel the whole day because he feels like resting.
Bo-na is Yoon-yi's friend, and they get together that night at Yoon-yi's messy home to complain about their bosses, with their other friend PARK KYUNG-RYE (Jung Hye-in). Bo-na has the opposite problem as Yoon-yi-while Yoon-yi's boss expects her to do everything, Bo-na's boss thinks that her only job is to make tea.
Yoon-yi goes off on a rant about how Misery grows more annoying by the day, then shows her friends her injured knee. It looks pretty bad, but she says she doesn't have time for treatment, and Kyung-rye complains about her getting hurt while covering for her cheating boss.
She calls Yoon-yi an accomplice, but Yoon-yi argues that if he gets caught, the fallout will be worse than just a broken family. He won't get the promotion, which means that she won't get her own chance at the executive secretary's office.
She and Kyung-rye toast to that, but Bo-na is busy with her phone and says that she doesn't want to celebrate something that won't happen. She gets up to leave, and Kyung-rye decides to go too, refusing when Yoon-yi begs them to spend the night.
On their way out, they joke that Yoon-yi's house is haunted and laugh at her reciting the Lord's Prayer when she's the daughter of a shaman. But the idea of ghosts keeps her awake late into the night. She logs onto a website called Jugglers, which uses the Rouault painting as its logo. It's an advice website and forum for secretaries with work problems, and Yoon-yi busies herself answering questions as the site administrator.
Chi-won bikes to work the following morning, and as he's crossing a busy intersection, he sees a news story on a building's jumbo screen about an explosion in a chemical waste disposal factory that killed nine people. He stands, stunned, until a car honks and startles him back to reality.
He arrives at his office at YB Ad, where an employee attempts to talk to him about some work matters. Chi-won cuts the man off and tells him to email him instead, then goes into his office, slamming the door in the poor guy's face.
The employee, Gong Yoo (yes, really), looks to his coworkers for support in dealing with the taciturn boss, and they give him credit for at least trying to have some sort of friendly relationship with him. Locked in his office, Chi-won takes his time dressing in a snazzy three-piece suit and expensive shoes, only to spend his morning leafing through the classifieds.
Elsewhere, loan sharks gather at the door of a beautiful large home, yelling for the occupant to come out. Inside, the house is immaculate but for a pot of water boiling over on the stove.
The homeowner, WANG JUNG-AE (Kang Hye-jung) cowers in an upstairs closet. She calls Yoon-yi, who notes that her voice sounds strange. Struggling to sound fine, Jung-ae asks Yoon-yi to visit her this weekend, and Yoon-yi agrees.
While Yoon-yi is out running errands for her boss, someone takes several photos of her. She takes a call from her boss, who sends her lingerie shopping for his mistress, where more surreptitious photos are taken of her.
Back at the office, Director Bong is satisfied with the jeweled cuff links Yoon-yi picked up for him to give as a birthday gift for a colleague, and he grows disgustingly gleeful at the lingerie she purchased for his mistress. The cell phone she bought is also for him, and he reminds her that only the two of them and his mistress are to have the number.
On his way out of the office, Director Bong notices that Yoon-yi is wearing pants, so she explains that she has a bruised knee. He disapproves, complaining that secretaries should always wear skirts. (Seriously?)
Chi-won spends his afternoon at a comic book store, periodically stopping to write something down. He's not happy when he looks up to see his boss, VICE PRESIDENT DO, and he asks if the vice president is having him tailed.
Vice President Do says that he just wants to understand where Chi-won disappears to, and that he heard he comes here every day at lunch. He grabs Chi-won's notes and reads them out loud, and HAHA, they're lines from the comics that Chi-won thought sounded cool.
Annoyed at having his personal time ruined, Chi-won snatches his notes back and snaps at Vice President Do to mind his own business. Growing serious, Vice President Do says that people are complaining that he's worked at YB Ad for two months and they've never even had a conversation with him.
Chi-won asks who told him that, so Vice President Do names his assistant, Secretary Yoo. He says that secretaries know everything, but Chi-won retorts that he doesn't need a mole like that.
The "mole" in question drives them back to the office, and an amused Vice President Do tells him that Chi-won thinks he's a spy. He instructs Secretary Yoo to teach Chi-won what personal assistants do.
He asks why Chi-won doesn't have his car today, and he says he's taking a break from driving after almost getting into an accident. Vice President Do grumbles that preventing things before they even happen is Chi-won's specialty.
He asks Chi-won to come live at his house since he hasn't found a home yet, lamenting the fact that Chi-won lost his entire estate in his divorce and is living in a hotel. He even offers to lend him some money, but Chi-won vehemently refuses both offers and insists on being let out of the car.
As they drive away, Secretary Yoo notes that Vice President Do seems to have a special fondness for Chi-won. Vice President Do says, a bit sadly, that it's not good if it's obvious because Chi-won will only run away.
Word goes out across YB Group that a senior executive director's mother-in-law has passed away. Everyone who's anyone shows up for the funeral, all with their secretaries in tow, and Yoon-yi narrates that this is the sort of event where secretaries can showcase their support for their bosses.
She arrives and joins Director Bong, and from across the room, Chi-won spots her and stares. Everyone lines up to pay their respects to the deceased, and when it's Executive Director Jo's turn, he bites his tongue to induce tears while Bo-na resorts to eye drops.
They make a good show of sorrow, and Director Bong is up next. He makes his bows while Yoon-yi stands somberly behind him, and he shoots her a disapproving look for her lack of emotion. She thinks to herself that a single tear is more appreciated than a million words of consolation, and just at the perfect time, she releases that one tear.
But she's keeping her boss's and her own future salaries in mind, so she decides that a brief waste of emotion is worth it. She bursts into loud, dramatic sobs, hanging on the executive director's wife and wailing at the top of her lungs.
Chi-won happens by just in time to witness Yoon-yi's theatrical display, and her obviously fake sobs have him rolling his eyes in disgust.
Yoon-yi helps serve the guests later along with all of the other secretaries, which allows her to feed information to Director Bong as he greets his business colleagues. When he goes to talk to one too soon and nearly mentions his new hairdo, Yoon-yi leaps over to delicately slip in the fact that the man is undergoing chemotherapy, narrowly avoiding a grave insult.
At another table, Vice President Do introduces Chi-won to his colleagues, who are impressed by Chi-won's reputation. All except Executive Director Jo, who throws a tiny grumpy tantrum.
Yoon-yi points out Vice President Do to Director Bong, and suddenly recognizes Chi-won from their accident. She doesn't know who he is, so Director Bong assumes he's Vice President Do's assistant.
She sees Chi-won step out to the hall, so she follows to ask if he's the vice president's assistant. Chi-won only sighs and starts to walk away, but Yoon-yi grabs his arm and asks if he remembers her. Chi-won pops open his soda and drinks it in one gulp, maintaining defiant eye contact the whole time. Weird.
When he finishes, he asks if she's interested in him, saying that it's the only logical explanation for why she'd be nagging him to talk to her. He tells her she's not his type, making Yoon-yi huff indignantly and retort that he's not her type either.
She chastises him for not asking how her injury is or whether she went to the hospital. Chi-won reminds her that she kicked him, and that she herself declared them even.
She repeats that she just wants him to show some concern, so he asks in this hilariously disinterested voice, "How's your injury? Did you go to the hospital? Happy now?" Incredulous, Yoon-yi angrily accepts that that's all she's going to get from him, and says that words that lack sincerity aren't very consoling.
Chi-won suddenly swings his arm back as if to hit her, and Yoon-yi cowers against the vending machine. But he just slams his empty drink can into the trash and walks away, turning back to give her one last glare.
He mocks her performance from when she pretended to cry over the deceased, and repeats her words in that same emotionless voice, "Words that lack sincerity aren't consoling to anyone." He's got a point and Yoon-yi knows it, and she's left seething impotently.
Chi-won goes to his car, where he listens to a radio DJ talk about how difficult it is to find silence in our modern society. She plays Simon and Garfunkel's Sound of Silence, and Chi-won leans his seat back and sighs heavily.
At the YB Ad lobby cafe where Yoon-yi's friend Kyung-rye works, a man begs a secretary not to quit her job. But she's a nervous wreck, saying that she's losing hair and even has to wear a diaper because of her stress-induced irritable bowel syndrome. Ha, gross.
She refuses his offer of worker's comp and insists that he process her resignation. Her coworker pleads with her to just ignore the director, but she says he makes impossible requests, like demanding the sneakers that Kobe Bryant wore at his retirement game, or getting Park Ji-sung to coach his chaebol soccer team for free.
She says she can't stand it anymore and storms out. Kyung-rye sighs and tells her coworker that the boss they're talking about is a psycho who only shows up at work to eat.
Said psycho, HWANGBO YUL (Lee Won-geun), rides a fancy motorcycle to the YB Ad building and saunters confidently towards Chi-won's office. The man from the cafe confronts him about his secretary quitting, but Yul just tells him to hire someone new like usual.
When the man informs him that there's nobody left, Yul brings up the fact that his daughter bombed the college entrance exam again. The man stammers that she's too busy studying to work for him, but Yul tells him to find someone persistent like his daughter.
Yul lets himself into Chi-won's office to invite him to lunch. Chi-won says he already has plans, but Yul calls that a lie, since everyone knows he has no friends. He wheedles for Chi-won to cave, saying that they've been family for two months now but haven't shared one meal, but Chi-won just chides him to come to work on time in the future.
He informs Yul in no uncertain terms that he won't be eating with him, now or in the future. He also objects to Yul's clinginess, calling it gross, and walks out.
Yoon-yi enters Director Bong's office as he's pleading with his mistress to lay low for a few days and be patient while he stays home with his wife to avoid suspicion. She puts a note in front of him saying that someone named Henry has arrived at his hotel, but Director Bong tells her to handle Henry herself. She balks, since today's meeting is to finalize a contract, but he tells her to stall the guy.
As it turns out, Chi-won does have lunch plans-with his ex-wife. She takes in his pinched expression and quips that he looks like he's here to sell his body against his will, and he retorts that it's the same thing.
He's grumpy that she insisted on eating at this hotel, but she says it's because this is where they got married, and he grumbles that it's also where they signed the divorce papers. She admonishes him to play nice, since it's the last time they'll see each other before she leaves the country for three years.
Yoon-yi is also at that hotel, having lunch with Henry in Director Bong's place. She charms him with her thoughtful gift, and he jokingly tries to woo her to work for him.
Suddenly, Yoon-yi looks up to see Misery, her boss's wife, storming towards her looking like a woman on a mission. Misery grabs an ice bucket from a waiter without missing a beat, and flings the icy water into Yoon-yi's face. She announces that this must be what it feels like to throw water on the witch who's having an affair with her husband.
Misery accuses Yoon-yi of stabbing her in the back after she's been so nice to her, and she refuses to listen to Yoon-yi's explanations. Instead she decides to take Yoon-yi outside to settle this with their fists, so she grabs Yoon-yi's jacket collar and starts dragging her out of the restaurant.
Chi-won's lunch is interrupted by Yoon-yi's loud screeches, and he looks over to see her being forcibly hauled to the door by Misery. Yoon-yi loses a shoe on the way, and Chi-won stares at it for a moment before turning back to his food.
In the lobby, Yoon-yi manages to slide out of her jacket and free herself from Misery's death grip. She tries to tell Misery that this is all a misunderstanding, but Misery just screams that she stole her husband and shakes her violently by the hair.
Mon, Dec 4, 2017
After literally being dragged out of the restaurant, the boss's wife, "Misery," tells secretary Yoon-yi that she found the secret phone she bought for her husband. Unfortunately for Yoon-yi, hers is the only number that her boss Director Bong has saved in the phone, which is proof enough for Misery that Yoon-yi is the one having an affair with her husband.
As she walks home later in a daze, Yoon-yi narrates that there are times she wonders if she really has to go this far for her boss, but that she's always told herself that it's because he trusts her that much. But she also knows that the consequence for her foolish loyalty is unpredictable.
The next morning, Yoon-yi prepares the office like she always does. But when she checks the day's schedule, she's surprised to see that Director Bong is taking an unplanned day off. She texts him, then remembers that she's teaching a training class for new assistants this morning.
Over at ad managing director Chi-won's office, he rushes Team Leader Gong through a presentation, barely even interested. Afterward, he tells Team Leader Gong not to prepare any more complicated presentations in the future, but to just condense what he needs to know and email it to him.
When he leaves, the rest of the staff complain about the fact that they won't be having meetings anymore, when the boss hardly communicates with them as it is. Team Leader Gong decides that this is all because Chi-won doesn't have an assistant, who would work as a middleman between the boss and the team. But one employee, Soon-young, hyena-laughs and says that if Chi-won had an assistant, he'd only cut them down to size and render them useless.
In the middle of Yoon-yi's training class for the new secretaries, a wave of surprised murmuring suddenly breaks out. Yoon-yi looks at the screen of one trainee's computer, and she gapes to see that there's a series of photos of herself and Director Bong on the company website, looking distinctly couple-like.
She pleads her case to HR, insisting that she's never once seen Director Bong as a man. The HR representative tells her that this is not a court to decide guilt or innocence, and suggests that she take some time off. Yoon-yi asks why she has to take time off when she's done nothing wrong.
The HR rep says that Director Bong is about to be promoted, and he places the blame for the inappropriate situations squarely on Yoon-yi, saying that she should know better (grrrr). She's told that reassignments are coming up soon, and to wait to hear back from them.
She calls Director Bong, who doesn't answer, but texts her back immediately. He says that he'll get his promotion and bring her back to join him later, saying that they can't both die, adding, "You worked hard." It's the dismissive way he refers to her efforts that gets to Yoon-yi.
She packs up her things and says goodbye to her fellow secretaries, who seem genuinely sad to see her go. One of them brings the shoe she discarded after losing its mate, but she just tosses it in the garbage and leaves with her head held high. It's not until she's finally alone in the elevator that Yoon-yi lets herself cry.
She thinks about the pictures that made it look as if she and Director Bong were having an affair. In one, what looked like an intimate dinner was just Yoon-yi finishing up some work while her boss waited for his girlfriend to arrive. In another, she's leaning in close but only to clean his tie, and in the one where she looks like she's hugging him, she's really steadying him because he's too drunk to stand.
As she gets out of the elevator, the bottom of her box gives out, spilling her belongings all over the floor. She kneels to pick everything up, and someone stops to help her, though she's so upset that she never looks at his face. When she stands again, she sees her shoe in the box, and she looks up and recognizes Chi-won just as the elevator doors close on him.
On the bus home, Yoon-yi's mother calls her to ask what time she's arriving in town. When Yoon-yi is confused, her mom throws a fit at her for forgetting her father's memorial day for the third year in a row.
Her mother blames Yoon-yi's job, angry that her daughter remembers everything for her boss but not her own family. When she tells Yoon-yi that she should just quit, Yoon-yi loses her temper and yells that the company said that they don't need her.
She sobs that she doesn't know what she did wrong, admitting that she gave more than she received, but that she gave it her all only to be discarded when she became inconvenient. She hangs up on her mom, then spots the shoe Chi-won returned and hurls it out the bus window, where it lands in a tree.
Chi-won spends his afternoon at the gym, sparring in the boxing ring. Afterward he takes a gratifyingly long shower, and we see what looks like a large burn scar on his back. As he's dressing, he ignores a call from Vice President Do.
He visits the gravesite of his uncle, who looked to be relatively young when he died. He avoids another call from Vice President Do, then smiles at his uncle's photo and says that he has to go before Uncle's friend shows up.
He walks right into Vice President Do, who holds out his ringing phone accusingly. Chi-won has no choice but to join him for a drink, and when Vice President Do says that people will think he's stalking Chi-won, Chi-won deadpans that at least he admits it, ha.
Chi-won promises that he'll come to visit his uncle with Vice President Do next year if he stops nagging him, but Vice President Do counters that he shouldn't complain because when he dies, Chi-won won't have anyone left. Chi-won asks if that's a threat, and Vice President Do says he'd be moved if Chi-won took it that way. He does make one threat-for Chi-won to hire an assistant.
Chi-won starts to argue that he prefers to be alone, but he's suddenly distracted by the man at the next table, who's trying to light a cigarette. His friend tries to take the lighter from the man, who swings his arm wide, nearly hitting Chi-won in the face with the lit flame. Chi-won jerks away and cowers, looking terrified.
The man is led outside, and Vice President Do asks Chi-won how long he'll be like this. He says that his father-in-law's credo was to confront things head-on, and that when he first met him, he made Vice President Do eat a whole basket of peaches even though he was allergic to them.
Vice President Do ate them, even though he nearly died. But from that day on, he tells Chi-won, he's been able to eat peaches. He tells Chi-won again to face his fear head-on.
While golfing with some colleagues, YB Ad's sniveling Executive Director Jo is shown the latest company newsletter, which features Chi-won on the cover. Apparently he was recently voted Most Charming by female employees, but Executive Director Jo sneers that all Chi-won has is connections.
One coworker tells him of the rumor that Chi-won refuses to get an assistant, which could give him an advantage in being promoted to a vice president position, since assistants badmouth bad bosses and can damage their reputations within the company. Executive Director Jo imagines Chi-won's photo doing a taunting little dance for his benefit.
He finds a quiet spot and makes a call, telling the person on the other end to find Chi-won an assistant, someone that Chi-won would hate and who would be on their side. He hangs up and cackles like the evil little troll that he is, and in the middle of grocery shopping, Chi-won gets a sudden chill.
Yoon-yi's friends Bo-na and Kyung-rye quickly grow tired of Yoon-yi's moping in bed, so they toss cold water on her to get her up. They drive her to their friend Jung-ae's home for a change of scenery, and when Yoon-yi starts to get carsick, Kyung-rye says that she ought to feel sick to her stomach, after what she endured because of that jerk of a boss.
Bo-na grumbles that she wasn't laid off, that she's waiting reassignment. She and Kyung-rye bicker over the semantics, making the car swerve until Yoon-yi is forced to hurl out the backseat window.
When they get to Jung-ae's house, Yoon-yi is feeling a bit better, and Jung-ae feeds them a huge meal and sighs with happiness to see them. They note that she seems thin, but she insists that she's fine, although her smile is a bit weak when Yoon-yi says that she envies her.
Over beers, Jung-ae tells them that her son is staying with his grandmother at the moment. Bo-na asks when her husband is coming home after what feels like an extra-long business trip abroad, and Jung-ae looks nervous again before insisting that she's okay being alone.
Bo-na asks for an extra charger for her phone, and Jung-ae sends her to her bedroom to find it. While she's gone, Jung-ae asks the others what they think about her possibly getting a job.
While looking for a charger, Bo-na happens across Jung-ae's husband's passport in the dresser drawer. She goes back outside and asks Jung-ae where her husband is right now, and Jung-ae says again that he's overseas.
But Bo-na pulls out his passport, proving that he's not gone on business. Jung-ae starts crying and confesses that her husband left her two months ago and hasn't come home.
Days turn into weeks as Yoon-yi waits for a phone call from HR. Things look bleak as her mortgage and bills pile up, and even the secretaries on the Jugglers website gossip about the secretary who seduced her boss.
But eventually the call comes in that she's been reassigned, and she's issued a new employee ID at subsidiary company YB Ad. She's given a personnel file on her new boss, but told that it contains very little since he doesn't reveal much about himself. Yoon-yi isn't concerned though, saying that a boss is only as good as his secretary.
At the same time, Chi-won learns that he's been assigned a secretary whether he likes it or not. He storms into Vice President Do's office, exclaiming that he'll never stand for this, but Vice President Do looks delighted and just tells him to train his assistant well so that she'll be a good partner, saying that a secretary is only as good as their boss.
A befuddled Yoon-yi is called to the boiler room to meet with Executive Director Jo, who thinks he's in a spy movie and tells her dramatically that all of their conversations, now and in the future, will be off the record. Yoon-yi asks why he recommended her for this job, but he just hands her his cell phone. Ha, she thinks he wants her to take his picture, but he tells her to give him her number.
When she does, Executive Director Jo tells her to always pick up by the third ring. She asks why, and he rants that she should be grateful to him for getting her reassigned. Still confused, Yoon-yi asks what he wants from her.
Executive Director Jo tells her that he wants her to be a spy, and to send him information on her new boss when he asks. He makes it sound as though it's all about connections and clearing her reputation, threatening to cut her from the company if she doesn't become one of his people, adding that his nickname is "Cutter." Yoon-yi hardly takes him seriously, but decides to play along for now.
On her way up to her new office, she runs into Chi-won in the elevator. Yoon-yi is still under the misconception that Chi-won is Vice President Do's assistant, and she comments on the fact that he's dressed casually. When he ignores her, she asks how he got the shoe that he returned to her, and he says with a sigh that he was at the hotel the day she lost it.
She follows him out of the elevator, wondering why he's heading towards the managing director's office. She tries to stop him from going in, but Team Leader Gong rushes over to greet her, assuming that she's already met their boss. She and Chi-won stare at each other in horror. Yoon-yi discovers the hard way that Chi-won is her new boss
Yoon-yi does her best to recover and goes into secretary mode, giving Chi-won her biggest smile and offering to pick up lunch. He says curtly that he doesn't need anything from her and sends her out of his office.
She decides to organize her desk, and she nearly falls over when Yul pops up from behind her desk with a perky, "Hellooo!" Annoyed, she answers when he asks her name, then asks who he is with a smirk. He tells her not to be shocked and hands her his business card.
She gasps to see that he's a director. She quickly corrects herself and speaks to him more respectfully, but she gets his name wrong, calling him "Director Hwang." He corrects her that he's Director Hwangbo, and Yoon-yi makes the connection that he's in the Hwangbo family who owns YB Group, which explains his lofty job title at such a young age.
Yul is charmed by Yoon-yi, and he tells her that he's been looking for an assistant like her. He asks if she'd be willing to move her desk, pointing to his office. Chi-won leaves his office and walks past him, and Yul bounds after him like an eager puppy.
He follows Chi-won to the break room, complaining that Chi-won got the perfect assistant, while he's gone through eighty-eight of them. Chi-won asks if he knows that his former assistants made an anti-fan website about him.
Yul goes back to his office to look it up, and gets super excited when Yoon-yi comes to see him, hoping that she's decided to work for him. She's actually looking for information on Chi-won, but instead, Yul casually informs her that the executives are presenting strategy reports in a meeting this afternoon.
Yoon-yi runs out of his office to witness the entire team in a state of pandemonium. She runs around helping everyone get ready, so efficient that she seems to be in several places at once. It earns her a round of applause from the team, but they go silent when a stern-faced Chi-won approaches them.
He hands over a report that's full of mistakes and typos, expecting it to be ready before the meeting. Yoon-yi fixes it and even adds to it, narrating that doing exactly as you're told is the same as not working at all. She starts to follow Chi-won to the meeting, but he makes her get out of the elevator, saying that he doesn't bring assistants to meetings.
She decides to clean Chi-won's office while he's out, but when she sees her corrected report still on his desk, she rushes to take it to him. The elevator is closed for maintenance, so she walks up the stairs to the conference room, arriving out of breath to see the that meeting has already started.
When Yoon-yi peeks inside, she gapes to see that all of the other executives brought their secretaries. She sneaks in and creeps to Chi-won, sliding the report onto the table before retreating to stand by the wall.
When it's Chi-won's turn to present, he completely ignores the report that Yoon-yi brought to him, having already memorized his own talking points. After the meeting, she asks him why he said that assistants wouldn't be present, and he reminds her that he said he doesn't bring an assistant.
She asks if he left behind her report intentionally, and he says he did because it lacked credibility, since she's only worked there for half a day. Hurt and disappointed, Yoon-yi retreats to the stairwell, where she sits for a while to lick her wounds and wonder what to do when she's not needed.
When it starts to get late, she goes into Chi-won's office, and he assumes she's asking permission to go home. She says that actually, she was wondering if she should pick up dinner for him, but it's her own stomach that growls loudly. Chi-won surprises her by asking her to have dinner with him.
She texts her friends as she primps a bit, and Bo-na says that this is very unlike Chi-won, based on his reputation. Kyung-rye asks for his birthdate and time, thinking that they may be fated and wanting to check their compatibility. Yoon-yi just thinks he wants to make up for being mean to her.
During dinner, Yoon-yi tries to explain to Chi-won that the incident he witnessed at the hotel was a misunderstanding, but he says disinterestedly that it has nothing to do with him. Yoon-yi gets nervous when Chi-won just stares at her, and she claims to have lost her appetite.
Chi-won asks if her knee is better, actually sounding sincere, and she tells him that she's fine. He tells her not to wear high heels anymore, and when she argues that she has to so that she looks good, he says there's no need, especially if she's doing it for others. In fact, he tells her that she can wear slippers at the office, because the clicking sound of her heels is annoying.
Yoon-yi's smile falters as she realizes that he's not actually being nice. He continues that she looks silly when she smiles for no reason, and tells her not to come into his office anymore unless he calls her. He adds that the way she constantly asks if he needs anything is a nuisance, and that he's offended by the way she's been asking the other assistants about him, like she's doing a background check.
Stunned, Yoon-yi says that a big part of her job depends on knowing about him, but he doesn't understand why. Stunned, she asks if he just wants her to sit around doing nothing, protesting that she's not a flower in a vase.
Chi-won agrees, so he suggests that she speak to HR about getting another assignment. He concludes, "I'm sure there's a department that needs your talent and skill. I'm sorry, but I do not."
He says she worked hard today and gets up to leave. She sits there in shock, upset at having been blown off by a casual "thanks for your hard work" sendoff yet again. She gets a text from Kyung-rye, who's done the numbers and concluded that Chi-won is her soulmate, which just starts Yoon-yi sobbing.
As he's paying the check, Chi-won can hear Yoon-yi's wails, but he doesn't blink an eye as he walks out of the restaurant.
Sun, Dec 10, 2017
During a thunderstorm, Chi-won dreams of voices whispering, "How can he be the only one who didn't die?... He scares me... I feel unlucky just looking at him... How many people has he killed?" They call him a fake, saying that he has cold eyes and never smiles, and they can never tell what he's thinking.
As the voices turn into shrieks, Chi-won wakes with a start. After a moment of confusion, he drops his face into his hands and sobs.
Despite Chi-won telling his new assistant to request a change of assignment, Yoon-yi goes in to work the next morning. She hears Chi-won already in his office and starts to knock but pauses, remembering him telling her not to bother him.
Chi-won comes out and nearly runs into her, barely acknowledging her presence before going on his way. When he returns, he notices that Yoon-yi is wearing lower heels than usual, but just mutters that he won't read the newspaper clippings she's copying for him.
The newspaper headline announces that the job mostly likely to disappear soon is personal assistants, owing to the invention of the smartphone. But that may not be entirely true, going by the sequence of scenes showing Chi-won, Yul, and Executive Director Jo trying and failing to get their smartphones to understand their instructions. HA, Executive Director Jo's phone even sasses him in banmal. At her desk, Yoon-yi seethes at the announcement that Director Bong, her former cheating boss, has gotten his promotion. She vows not to let herself get pushed out by a smartphone, and storms into Chi-won's office to inform him that she won't be changing departments.
She explains that because she was branded a seductress, it won't be easy to find another assistant's position in the company. She tells Chi-won that if he wants to get rid of her, he'll have to fire her, practically daring him to find just cause.
Chi-won stares at Yoon-yi, then says blandly, "Do whatever you want." She's stunned at his easy agreement and leaves his office in a daze. After she's gone, Chi-won grins to himself just a bit and says he'll see how resilient she is.
Yul pops up at Yoon-yi's desk with a coffee for her, since she's always the one bringing the coffee. He yells pointedly at Chi-won's door that children only know how to receive, earning a loud HARRUMPH from inside the office. Yul makes a pun on Chi-won's name, calling him "Kindergarten." Yoon-yi giggles, then smacks her own mouth for laughing at her boss.
Yul tells Yoon-yi that she's pretty when she laughs, and when she stares, he whispers, "Your heart just fluttered, didn't it?" But Yoon-yi narrows her eyes at him and reminds him of the saying that the three people you can never fall in love with are your boss, your teacher, and your father.
She tells him that she'll never swoon for him (heh, he just blinks in confusion), but that she has something to ask him, and they relocate to his office. She wants to know how Yul and Chi-won became close, and anything else he can tell her about Chi-won.
Yul asks jealously why she wants to know, so Yoon-yi explains that she needs to know how best to support Chi-won. Yul throws a little tantrum asking why she's Chi-won's assistant and begs her to come work for him instead.
Yoon-yi begs right back for some intel, and since it's nearly lunchtime, Yul takes her to eat and finally tells her what she wants to know. He says he met Chi-won about a year ago, a day he describes as "the day the family prepared for war."
The men in his family had gathered with their patriarch, all dressed in identical traditional clothing including Yul himself. Chi-won was called in front of them about a news broadcast which had outed YB Group, the family business, for having quite a large slush fund.
Channel Y, the channel that broke the story, is an affiliate of YB Group, and Chi-won had been the managing editor of that channel at the time. Yul speaks up, calling him a sniper, and his father yells at him to keep quiet since they barely stopped an embarrassing story being aired about him.
But Chi-won says that in fact, he left the story about Yul out on purpose, because he felt that the petty story would weaken the report about the slush fund. The family patriarch, Yul's grandfather, lectures Chi-won on what it means to be family, and how shooting one's own family only creates a worse injury.
Chi-won says that he's a journalist who delivers facts, not someone to be led by emotions or relationships. He says their talk about family has nothing to do with him, so if they aren't happy with his work, they can fire him. He stands to leave, stopping to add that this is the last time he'll come to a meeting like this. He says that if they ever call him again, "I might air the real exclusive I found."
The patriarch chuckles that there's nothing left to report, but he looks extremely nervous. Chi-won asks if he should air an exclusive about why the company is called "YB Group," which sends the entire room of elders into fits.
Chi-won informs them that their family motto is misspelled, and that one stroke of the pen can change a word's entire meaning. He says that an outfit won't change who they are, then makes his grand exit.
Impressed and inspired, Yul calls for his elders to stop acting like noblemen, because the truth is that they're descended from a servant. His father desperately tries to shut him up, but he keeps yelling that he's not wearing a hanbok anymore, and will wear a wool suit from now on like Chi-won. LOL.
By the end of Yul's story, he and Yoon-yi have relocated to the coffee shop in the YB Group building, and have been joined by Yoon-yi's friend Kyung-rye, who works there. Yul explains that "YB" stands for "nobleman" (yangban), but Yoon-yi thinks it's not a very juicy secret. She asks if the chairman stepped down because of the shock from that meeting, but Yul says matter-of-factly that it's because he embezzled a lot of money.
He continues where he left off, telling the ladies that he followed Chi-won out of the meeting and introduced himself. He'd told Chi-won that his grandfather warned him against people who flattered him, and to stick close to those who acted the opposite.
He'd said that he was going to take Chi-won as his brother, and when he touched Chi-won's jacket, a cold, dramatic wind had kicked up. Chi-won had grabbed Yul's finger and twisted it hard, telling him to go play family with someone else.
Yoon-yi asks how Chi-won ended up working at YB Group, but Yul grins and says that information isn't free. He promises to tell her if she finds him an assistant who's just like her.
Which leads us to Yoon-yi's friend Jung-ae, who's taken a job wearing a pig costume and handing out flyers for a pork belly restaurant. When one woman gasps at the prices, Jung-ae points her to a cheaper place down the street, which gets her fired.
She also dismal at phone sales, and she loses a job at a plant nursery when she mistakes a hose for a snake and tramples the tender plants. She walks the streets and passes a photographer's studio, where a photo of her with her son and husband is displayed in the window.
Yoon-yi's mother visits Kyung-rye to ask if her daughter has found a man. She says she can smell a man at Yoon-yi's place, but Kyung-rye laughs and says it's just because Yoon-yi doesn't clean.
Mom tells Kyung-rye to find a tenant for the second-floor apartment, preferably a young man who can date Yoon-yi. Evidently, someone died there twenty years ago in a fire, but Mom thinks they should have someone living there until Yoon-yi's brother is discharged from the army.
Having lost his home in his divorce, Chi-won goes apartment-hunting, but he's so picky that his realtor ditches him. Meanwhile, Kyung-rye makes a sign listing the apartment for rent on Mom's instructions, specifying that young men are preferred and will get a discount on the deposit.
When Chi-won gets back to his office, he throws away a message to call someone named Lee Young-ran, then settles in to get some work done. He's annoyed to see his pen cup full of sharpened pencils instead of his preferred red pens, and he storms out to slam the pen cup in front of Yoon-yi. She says that she thought pencils would be easier to use and nicer than giving people's work back covered in red marks, but Chi-won demands his red pens back.
Vice President Do calls Chi-won, happy that Yoon-yi appears to be hanging in there. He invites Chi-won to dinner, insisting that Yoon-yi join them. He takes them out for intestines, but he wonders if he should have taken them for steak.
Yoon-yi assures him that she loves intestines and that beef actually makes her ill. Chi-won deadpans, "This is from cows, too." Yoon-yi insists that she prefers internal organs, which makes Vice President Do grin that Chi-won can't eat this kind of thing.
She asks why they're here if Chi-won can't eat, and Vice President Do says that it's because she can make Chi-won cook for her. HA, I like him. Annoyed, Chi-won slams some food onto Yoon-yi's plate and tells her sarcastically to enjoy it. Vice President Do orders some beer, and while Chi-won declines because he drove, Yoon-yi consents to one tiny drink.
About twenty beers later, Vice President Do is adorably pink-cheeked, and he slurs that Chi-won needs a tough woman like Yoon-yi and his ex-wife. Chi-won counters that it's not that he gets along with tough people, it's just that he doesn't know yet how to get rid of them. Vice President Do laughs at him, then passes out on the table.
Yoon-yi is in the bathroom trying to sober up, warning herself to get it under control or she'll be fired. She stumbles back out to find that Chi-won has called Vice President Do a designated driver, and she drops broad hints for a ride home, but Chi-won ignores them and leaves her to her own devices.
She tries unsuccessfully to hail a taxi, and she ends up lying down on the bus stop bench and falling asleep. Chi-won drives past and sees her, and soon he's stopping to wake her up. Yoon-yi mumbles the address to her "haunted house," thinking he's a cab driver, and he helps her into his car, complaining the whole time.
As Chi-won drives, the half-unconscious Yoon-yi whines about her awful boss, calling him a disrespectful, helpless, and cold-hearted jerk. She slurs that she'll be crazy good to him and then disappear without warning, so that he'll truly appreciate her and miss her when she's gone. Chi-won murmurs that she's entertaining and cracks the tiniest of smiles.
When he gets to her house, he stares at the tree in her yard like he's seeing a ghost, asking himself, "Why is this here, of all places?" Yoon-yi presses a 100-won coin into his hand, calling it his tip, then crawls up the stairs to her gate. She manages to get in without help, and when she slams the gate closed, the "Room for Rent" sign that Kyung-rye made comes off the door and blows into Chi-won's face.
In the morning, Kyung-rye calls Yoon-yi, who freaks out when she sees that it's nearly noon. She runs around in a panic, only to belatedly realize that it's a work holiday.
She goes to Kyung-rye and Bo-na's place, horribly hungover but swearing that she didn't do anything crazy to her boss while she was drunk. Kyung-rye reminds her of that one guy in college and Yoon-yi's drunken rant at him, which gets her chased around the room.
After being told that the employment agency refuses to place her anymore when she'll only get herself fired, Jung-ae slumps home to find her son Gun-woo being bullied by loan sharks at the front door. She throws herself in front of Gun-woo, and the loan shark marvels that they're finally getting a chance to see her.
Gun-woo glares angrily at the loan shark when he mentions that Jung-ae looks too young to be his real mother. The loan shark grabs the boy's collar, chastising him for daring to glare at him when his father took so much of their money. Jung-ae bites the man's arm and makes a run for it with her son in tow, and they manage to jump into a taxi and escape.
Jung-ae tells the taxi driver to take them to the bus station, intending to send Gun-woo to Seoul to stay with his grandmother for a while. He asks if his father really borrowed money from loan sharks, but she just tells him to let her worry about it. Gun-woo snaps that she can't do anything without his dad, hurting Jung-ae's feelings.
Later, Jung-ae shows up on Yoon-yi's doorstep, asking for a place to crash for a few days. Yoon-yi is happy to let her stay, joking that she can even turn the lights off to sleep since she won't be alone with the ghosts.
They settle down for the night in Yoon-yi's room, and Jung-ae says that she respects Yoon-yi and their friends a lot. She whispers that it's hard to make money while trying not to make your boss mad, and when you get kicked out you feel pathetic and hopeless.
She sighs that she only knows how to spend the money that her husband brings home, and that now she feels sorry and embarrassed about that. Yoon-yi pats her friend on the shoulder and tells her that she did the best she could, and that it's not easy becoming a mom at the young age of 22.
She reminds Jung-ae that she sacrificed her youth for her husband, nursed her sick in-laws for ten years, and is a great homemaker. She tells Jung-ae not to worry too much, and that her husband will come home soon and everything will go back to normal. Jung-ae smiles weakly.
Chi-won stands in his hotel room, thinking about Vice President Do telling him to stop being a coward and face his fears. The next morning, he has a meeting with Vice President Do and Executive Director Jo regarding a campaign ad, which has always been the responsibility of Executive Director Jo's department.
Vice President Do thinks that it's been their job for too long, because their ad proposal is weak. Chi-won is confident the video department can do a good job with it, but Executive Director Jo retorts that confidence isn't everything. Chi-won fires back that neither is experience, and Executive Director Jo gets this look on his face as if to say, challenge accepted.
Chi-won suggests that they bid for the new ad campaign. Executive Director Jo accuses Chi-won of trying to compete with him, and Chi-won suavely pushes his glasses up-with his middle finger. PWAHAHA. As Executive Director Jo gapes like a fish, Vice President Do decides that the competition is a good idea.
He tells them to submit a final script by Monday, and they'll announce a decision on Tuesday. Satisfied with the timeline, Chi-won gets up to go, flipping the bird to Executive Director Jo one more time for good measure.
Filled with impotent rage, Executive Director Jo goes back to his office to throw a tantrum, and he vows to his assistant Bo-na that he'll acquire the whole video department within a year. He tells her to schedule a dinner for the people responsible for the campaign, and she says she'll book an escort bar for tonight.
Executive Director Jo orders her to be there as well, and she just barely keeps her eyes from rolling right out of her head. He notices that Bo-na looks angry, so she schools her expression and says she'll report back after making the reservations. She goes to the stairwell and texts an apology to her father, canceling their plans to celebrate his birthday tonight.
Jung-ae thinks about Yoon-yi's offer to let her live in the apartment on the second floor. She nervously texts her, asking if she can move her things in this weekend. Yoon-yi answers right away, saying that it's fine, and Jung-ae smiles with relief.
At the same time, Chi-won meets with Yoon-yi's mother, who's delighted to learn that he's 36 and single with a good job. She brags that her daughter has a good job too, and Chi-won doesn't let on that he's Yoon-yi's boss. Mom tells him that Yoon-yi owns the house, and she sends Chi-won in first, eyeing his butt appreciatively before following him upstairs.
It's obvious that nothing has been done with the apartment in the years since the fire that gutted it. Seeing the charred interior, Chi-won has a flashback of a fire, and a young boy screaming as someone breaks a window.
He recovers and looks around the place, noticing the skylight which lets the sunshine stream in. He picks up one of the discarded books on a table, seeming charmed by the pictures doodled in the margins. Then Yoon-yi's mom spoils his reverie by knocking the book out of his hands, sending a cloud of dust into his face, ha.
Chi-won steps onto the balcony and looks at the tree growing up beside the house. He notices one branch, which still looks burned from the fire all those years ago, and he nods to himself. Mom asks if he has a girlfriend, but then her dreams come crashing down when he says that he has an ex-wife. He gets called back to the office, and he tells Yoon-yi's mom that he'll be in touch.
The entire video team gathers in the conference room to plan their ad campaign proposal. Yoon-yi is kept busy supplying drinks and support as needed, and Chi-won's eyes keep finding her every time she enters the room. They work late into the night, until they're all exhausted and half asleep.
One team member goes to the break room to heat up a snack, but instead of his sausage, he sleepily puts the wrapper into the microwave. The resulting smoke sets off the fire alarm, which sends a cascade of water down on the conference room from the sprinklers.
The team rushes to protect their work, while Chi-won sits in a daze, barely reacting to the carnage. Suddenly he looks up to see Yoon-yi standing beside him, holding the hanky that he dropped to her over his head to shield him. It's tiny and does no good, and they both end up soaking wet.
The next morning, they're the only two left in the office, though Yoon-yi has nodded off in her chair. When she wakes, she smiles to see Chi-won using one of her pencils and offers to sharpen it for him.
He hands it over and tells her to go home when she's done, but she says she'll wait until he's finished. Chi-won watches her carefully sharpen the pencil, then turns back to his work.
Once she's finally home, Yoon-yi can't sleep because of the loud construction noises coming from the upstairs apartment. Her mom calls, and Yoon-yi whines that "unni" is making too much noise when she's trying to rest, thinking that Jung-ae moved in.
Mom is surprised, since the new tenant told her that he didn't have a girlfriend. Yoon-yi is all, "What tenant??" She storms upstairs to give the new tenant a piece of her mind, but she can only stare in surprise when Chi-won opens the door.
She grabs his cheek to see if he's real, yanking his face around until he informs her testily that this isn't a dream. He says that he's the new tenant, shocking Yoon-yi speechless.
As the voices turn into shrieks, Chi-won wakes with a start. After a moment of confusion, he drops his face into his hands and sobs.
Despite Chi-won telling his new assistant to request a change of assignment, Yoon-yi goes in to work the next morning. She hears Chi-won already in his office and starts to knock but pauses, remembering him telling her not to bother him.
Chi-won comes out and nearly runs into her, barely acknowledging her presence before going on his way. When he returns, he notices that Yoon-yi is wearing lower heels than usual, but just mutters that he won't read the newspaper clippings she's copying for him.
The newspaper headline announces that the job mostly likely to disappear soon is personal assistants, owing to the invention of the smartphone. But that may not be entirely true, going by the sequence of scenes showing Chi-won, Yul, and Executive Director Jo trying and failing to get their smartphones to understand their instructions. HA, Executive Director Jo's phone even sasses him in banmal. At her desk, Yoon-yi seethes at the announcement that Director Bong, her former cheating boss, has gotten his promotion. She vows not to let herself get pushed out by a smartphone, and storms into Chi-won's office to inform him that she won't be changing departments.
She explains that because she was branded a seductress, it won't be easy to find another assistant's position in the company. She tells Chi-won that if he wants to get rid of her, he'll have to fire her, practically daring him to find just cause.
Chi-won stares at Yoon-yi, then says blandly, "Do whatever you want." She's stunned at his easy agreement and leaves his office in a daze. After she's gone, Chi-won grins to himself just a bit and says he'll see how resilient she is.
Yul pops up at Yoon-yi's desk with a coffee for her, since she's always the one bringing the coffee. He yells pointedly at Chi-won's door that children only know how to receive, earning a loud HARRUMPH from inside the office. Yul makes a pun on Chi-won's name, calling him "Kindergarten." Yoon-yi giggles, then smacks her own mouth for laughing at her boss.
Yul tells Yoon-yi that she's pretty when she laughs, and when she stares, he whispers, "Your heart just fluttered, didn't it?" But Yoon-yi narrows her eyes at him and reminds him of the saying that the three people you can never fall in love with are your boss, your teacher, and your father.
She tells him that she'll never swoon for him (heh, he just blinks in confusion), but that she has something to ask him, and they relocate to his office. She wants to know how Yul and Chi-won became close, and anything else he can tell her about Chi-won.
Yul asks jealously why she wants to know, so Yoon-yi explains that she needs to know how best to support Chi-won. Yul throws a little tantrum asking why she's Chi-won's assistant and begs her to come work for him instead.
Yoon-yi begs right back for some intel, and since it's nearly lunchtime, Yul takes her to eat and finally tells her what she wants to know. He says he met Chi-won about a year ago, a day he describes as "the day the family prepared for war."
The men in his family had gathered with their patriarch, all dressed in identical traditional clothing including Yul himself. Chi-won was called in front of them about a news broadcast which had outed YB Group, the family business, for having quite a large slush fund.
Channel Y, the channel that broke the story, is an affiliate of YB Group, and Chi-won had been the managing editor of that channel at the time. Yul speaks up, calling him a sniper, and his father yells at him to keep quiet since they barely stopped an embarrassing story being aired about him.
But Chi-won says that in fact, he left the story about Yul out on purpose, because he felt that the petty story would weaken the report about the slush fund. The family patriarch, Yul's grandfather, lectures Chi-won on what it means to be family, and how shooting one's own family only creates a worse injury.
Chi-won says that he's a journalist who delivers facts, not someone to be led by emotions or relationships. He says their talk about family has nothing to do with him, so if they aren't happy with his work, they can fire him. He stands to leave, stopping to add that this is the last time he'll come to a meeting like this. He says that if they ever call him again, "I might air the real exclusive I found."
The patriarch chuckles that there's nothing left to report, but he looks extremely nervous. Chi-won asks if he should air an exclusive about why the company is called "YB Group," which sends the entire room of elders into fits.
Chi-won informs them that their family motto is misspelled, and that one stroke of the pen can change a word's entire meaning. He says that an outfit won't change who they are, then makes his grand exit.
Impressed and inspired, Yul calls for his elders to stop acting like noblemen, because the truth is that they're descended from a servant. His father desperately tries to shut him up, but he keeps yelling that he's not wearing a hanbok anymore, and will wear a wool suit from now on like Chi-won. LOL.
By the end of Yul's story, he and Yoon-yi have relocated to the coffee shop in the YB Group building, and have been joined by Yoon-yi's friend Kyung-rye, who works there. Yul explains that "YB" stands for "nobleman" (yangban), but Yoon-yi thinks it's not a very juicy secret. She asks if the chairman stepped down because of the shock from that meeting, but Yul says matter-of-factly that it's because he embezzled a lot of money.
He continues where he left off, telling the ladies that he followed Chi-won out of the meeting and introduced himself. He'd told Chi-won that his grandfather warned him against people who flattered him, and to stick close to those who acted the opposite.
He'd said that he was going to take Chi-won as his brother, and when he touched Chi-won's jacket, a cold, dramatic wind had kicked up. Chi-won had grabbed Yul's finger and twisted it hard, telling him to go play family with someone else.
Yoon-yi asks how Chi-won ended up working at YB Group, but Yul grins and says that information isn't free. He promises to tell her if she finds him an assistant who's just like her.
Which leads us to Yoon-yi's friend Jung-ae, who's taken a job wearing a pig costume and handing out flyers for a pork belly restaurant. When one woman gasps at the prices, Jung-ae points her to a cheaper place down the street, which gets her fired.
She also dismal at phone sales, and she loses a job at a plant nursery when she mistakes a hose for a snake and tramples the tender plants. She walks the streets and passes a photographer's studio, where a photo of her with her son and husband is displayed in the window.
Yoon-yi's mother visits Kyung-rye to ask if her daughter has found a man. She says she can smell a man at Yoon-yi's place, but Kyung-rye laughs and says it's just because Yoon-yi doesn't clean.
Mom tells Kyung-rye to find a tenant for the second-floor apartment, preferably a young man who can date Yoon-yi. Evidently, someone died there twenty years ago in a fire, but Mom thinks they should have someone living there until Yoon-yi's brother is discharged from the army.
Having lost his home in his divorce, Chi-won goes apartment-hunting, but he's so picky that his realtor ditches him. Meanwhile, Kyung-rye makes a sign listing the apartment for rent on Mom's instructions, specifying that young men are preferred and will get a discount on the deposit.
When Chi-won gets back to his office, he throws away a message to call someone named Lee Young-ran, then settles in to get some work done. He's annoyed to see his pen cup full of sharpened pencils instead of his preferred red pens, and he storms out to slam the pen cup in front of Yoon-yi. She says that she thought pencils would be easier to use and nicer than giving people's work back covered in red marks, but Chi-won demands his red pens back.
Vice President Do calls Chi-won, happy that Yoon-yi appears to be hanging in there. He invites Chi-won to dinner, insisting that Yoon-yi join them. He takes them out for intestines, but he wonders if he should have taken them for steak.
Yoon-yi assures him that she loves intestines and that beef actually makes her ill. Chi-won deadpans, "This is from cows, too." Yoon-yi insists that she prefers internal organs, which makes Vice President Do grin that Chi-won can't eat this kind of thing.
She asks why they're here if Chi-won can't eat, and Vice President Do says that it's because she can make Chi-won cook for her. HA, I like him. Annoyed, Chi-won slams some food onto Yoon-yi's plate and tells her sarcastically to enjoy it. Vice President Do orders some beer, and while Chi-won declines because he drove, Yoon-yi consents to one tiny drink.
About twenty beers later, Vice President Do is adorably pink-cheeked, and he slurs that Chi-won needs a tough woman like Yoon-yi and his ex-wife. Chi-won counters that it's not that he gets along with tough people, it's just that he doesn't know yet how to get rid of them. Vice President Do laughs at him, then passes out on the table.
Yoon-yi is in the bathroom trying to sober up, warning herself to get it under control or she'll be fired. She stumbles back out to find that Chi-won has called Vice President Do a designated driver, and she drops broad hints for a ride home, but Chi-won ignores them and leaves her to her own devices.
She tries unsuccessfully to hail a taxi, and she ends up lying down on the bus stop bench and falling asleep. Chi-won drives past and sees her, and soon he's stopping to wake her up. Yoon-yi mumbles the address to her "haunted house," thinking he's a cab driver, and he helps her into his car, complaining the whole time.
As Chi-won drives, the half-unconscious Yoon-yi whines about her awful boss, calling him a disrespectful, helpless, and cold-hearted jerk. She slurs that she'll be crazy good to him and then disappear without warning, so that he'll truly appreciate her and miss her when she's gone. Chi-won murmurs that she's entertaining and cracks the tiniest of smiles.
When he gets to her house, he stares at the tree in her yard like he's seeing a ghost, asking himself, "Why is this here, of all places?" Yoon-yi presses a 100-won coin into his hand, calling it his tip, then crawls up the stairs to her gate. She manages to get in without help, and when she slams the gate closed, the "Room for Rent" sign that Kyung-rye made comes off the door and blows into Chi-won's face.
In the morning, Kyung-rye calls Yoon-yi, who freaks out when she sees that it's nearly noon. She runs around in a panic, only to belatedly realize that it's a work holiday.
She goes to Kyung-rye and Bo-na's place, horribly hungover but swearing that she didn't do anything crazy to her boss while she was drunk. Kyung-rye reminds her of that one guy in college and Yoon-yi's drunken rant at him, which gets her chased around the room.
After being told that the employment agency refuses to place her anymore when she'll only get herself fired, Jung-ae slumps home to find her son Gun-woo being bullied by loan sharks at the front door. She throws herself in front of Gun-woo, and the loan shark marvels that they're finally getting a chance to see her.
Gun-woo glares angrily at the loan shark when he mentions that Jung-ae looks too young to be his real mother. The loan shark grabs the boy's collar, chastising him for daring to glare at him when his father took so much of their money. Jung-ae bites the man's arm and makes a run for it with her son in tow, and they manage to jump into a taxi and escape.
Jung-ae tells the taxi driver to take them to the bus station, intending to send Gun-woo to Seoul to stay with his grandmother for a while. He asks if his father really borrowed money from loan sharks, but she just tells him to let her worry about it. Gun-woo snaps that she can't do anything without his dad, hurting Jung-ae's feelings.
Later, Jung-ae shows up on Yoon-yi's doorstep, asking for a place to crash for a few days. Yoon-yi is happy to let her stay, joking that she can even turn the lights off to sleep since she won't be alone with the ghosts.
They settle down for the night in Yoon-yi's room, and Jung-ae says that she respects Yoon-yi and their friends a lot. She whispers that it's hard to make money while trying not to make your boss mad, and when you get kicked out you feel pathetic and hopeless.
She sighs that she only knows how to spend the money that her husband brings home, and that now she feels sorry and embarrassed about that. Yoon-yi pats her friend on the shoulder and tells her that she did the best she could, and that it's not easy becoming a mom at the young age of 22.
She reminds Jung-ae that she sacrificed her youth for her husband, nursed her sick in-laws for ten years, and is a great homemaker. She tells Jung-ae not to worry too much, and that her husband will come home soon and everything will go back to normal. Jung-ae smiles weakly.
Chi-won stands in his hotel room, thinking about Vice President Do telling him to stop being a coward and face his fears. The next morning, he has a meeting with Vice President Do and Executive Director Jo regarding a campaign ad, which has always been the responsibility of Executive Director Jo's department.
Vice President Do thinks that it's been their job for too long, because their ad proposal is weak. Chi-won is confident the video department can do a good job with it, but Executive Director Jo retorts that confidence isn't everything. Chi-won fires back that neither is experience, and Executive Director Jo gets this look on his face as if to say, challenge accepted.
Chi-won suggests that they bid for the new ad campaign. Executive Director Jo accuses Chi-won of trying to compete with him, and Chi-won suavely pushes his glasses up-with his middle finger. PWAHAHA. As Executive Director Jo gapes like a fish, Vice President Do decides that the competition is a good idea.
He tells them to submit a final script by Monday, and they'll announce a decision on Tuesday. Satisfied with the timeline, Chi-won gets up to go, flipping the bird to Executive Director Jo one more time for good measure.
Filled with impotent rage, Executive Director Jo goes back to his office to throw a tantrum, and he vows to his assistant Bo-na that he'll acquire the whole video department within a year. He tells her to schedule a dinner for the people responsible for the campaign, and she says she'll book an escort bar for tonight.
Executive Director Jo orders her to be there as well, and she just barely keeps her eyes from rolling right out of her head. He notices that Bo-na looks angry, so she schools her expression and says she'll report back after making the reservations. She goes to the stairwell and texts an apology to her father, canceling their plans to celebrate his birthday tonight.
Jung-ae thinks about Yoon-yi's offer to let her live in the apartment on the second floor. She nervously texts her, asking if she can move her things in this weekend. Yoon-yi answers right away, saying that it's fine, and Jung-ae smiles with relief.
At the same time, Chi-won meets with Yoon-yi's mother, who's delighted to learn that he's 36 and single with a good job. She brags that her daughter has a good job too, and Chi-won doesn't let on that he's Yoon-yi's boss. Mom tells him that Yoon-yi owns the house, and she sends Chi-won in first, eyeing his butt appreciatively before following him upstairs.
It's obvious that nothing has been done with the apartment in the years since the fire that gutted it. Seeing the charred interior, Chi-won has a flashback of a fire, and a young boy screaming as someone breaks a window.
He recovers and looks around the place, noticing the skylight which lets the sunshine stream in. He picks up one of the discarded books on a table, seeming charmed by the pictures doodled in the margins. Then Yoon-yi's mom spoils his reverie by knocking the book out of his hands, sending a cloud of dust into his face, ha.
Chi-won steps onto the balcony and looks at the tree growing up beside the house. He notices one branch, which still looks burned from the fire all those years ago, and he nods to himself. Mom asks if he has a girlfriend, but then her dreams come crashing down when he says that he has an ex-wife. He gets called back to the office, and he tells Yoon-yi's mom that he'll be in touch.
The entire video team gathers in the conference room to plan their ad campaign proposal. Yoon-yi is kept busy supplying drinks and support as needed, and Chi-won's eyes keep finding her every time she enters the room. They work late into the night, until they're all exhausted and half asleep.
One team member goes to the break room to heat up a snack, but instead of his sausage, he sleepily puts the wrapper into the microwave. The resulting smoke sets off the fire alarm, which sends a cascade of water down on the conference room from the sprinklers.
The team rushes to protect their work, while Chi-won sits in a daze, barely reacting to the carnage. Suddenly he looks up to see Yoon-yi standing beside him, holding the hanky that he dropped to her over his head to shield him. It's tiny and does no good, and they both end up soaking wet.
The next morning, they're the only two left in the office, though Yoon-yi has nodded off in her chair. When she wakes, she smiles to see Chi-won using one of her pencils and offers to sharpen it for him.
He hands it over and tells her to go home when she's done, but she says she'll wait until he's finished. Chi-won watches her carefully sharpen the pencil, then turns back to his work.
Once she's finally home, Yoon-yi can't sleep because of the loud construction noises coming from the upstairs apartment. Her mom calls, and Yoon-yi whines that "unni" is making too much noise when she's trying to rest, thinking that Jung-ae moved in.
Mom is surprised, since the new tenant told her that he didn't have a girlfriend. Yoon-yi is all, "What tenant??" She storms upstairs to give the new tenant a piece of her mind, but she can only stare in surprise when Chi-won opens the door.
She grabs his cheek to see if he's real, yanking his face around until he informs her testily that this isn't a dream. He says that he's the new tenant, shocking Yoon-yi speechless.
Mon, Dec 11, 2017
Still in her tracksuit, Yoon-yi accompanies Chi-won to a coffee shop to discuss their new tenant/landlord situation. Chi-won says that he'd like to keep their work and home roles separate, and be Yoon-yi's boss at work, but her tenant at home.
Yoon-yi asks how he ended up signing a lease with her mother, so Chi-won shows her the handwritten "Room for Rent" sign that was on her gate. Yoon-yi says that she didn't write it, and she asks how he saw it on her gate in the first place.
Chi-won sighs, then reminds her about the night she got drunk and he drove her home. Yoon-yi stops him, embarrassed, and says she'd rather not know the details. Curious, Chi-won asks about the sign, which describes the landlord as "pretty and sweet." He says that "pretty" is subjective and asks how she intends to compensate him for his disappointment because she's not exactly Jeon Ji-hyun or Song Hye-gyo. He's totally serious, and Yoon-yi sheepishly apologizes for not living up to his standard.
He's most concerned about the statement that young men would get a discount, asking Yoon-yi to clarify the term "young." HA, he's grouchy that her mother decided that being a divorcé disqualifies him.
Yoon-yi promises to try and persuade her mom to change her mind, and gets up to leave. Chi-won doesn't follow her, saying that he'll wait until the renovation is finished: "The drilling is too loud."
As soon as she leaves the coffee shop, Yoon-yi breaks into a boisterous happy dance, thrilled to hold the power at home as Chi-won's landlord.
Later she goes upstairs to talk to Chi-won, who barely sticks his head out and prevents her from seeing inside. Yoon-yi plays the landlord card to lure him out, then presents him with the list of house rules she's drawn up.
Chi-won asks dryly if this is revenge for his office rules (like wearing low heels and not entering his office), and Yoon-yi denies it just a bit too emphatically. She says it's normal for people who share a house to live by a set of rules, and Chi-won sarcastically agrees before going back inside. He looks over her rules, which start with keeping noise to a minimum. Yoon-yi specifies that he's to wear slippers with a thick sole so she can't hear him moving around, so Chi-won is reduced to going around on his tippy-toes to avoid making any noise.
The next rule details how much water Chi-won can use and when, so that Yoon-yi has water in the mornings and evenings when she needs it. He's forced to take a shower under a slow trickle of water, which looks extremely annoying.
As they head out to work at the same time, Yoon-yi grins to herself about the third rule, which instructs Chi-won to make sure the rusty front gate is locked before he leaves. He gets stuck when the lock won't turn, and Yoon-yi trots off to work without helping him.
At the office, Chi-won calls Yoon-yi into his office to request that she buy him some thick-soled slippers. He goes into detail regarding the type of fibers they should be made of, and specifies that he wants them to be "smooth and silky black, like a panther." Oh, I just love this childish side of him.
Dismayed at having her own revenge used against her so perfectly, Yoon-yi goes out shopping, but she can't find any silky black slippers with thick enough soles. She gives up and heads back to the office, running into Team Leader Baek at the elevators.
He's down in the dumps because he's just had to inform the YB handball team that their funding has been terminated, and they didn't take it well. But he says it's easy compared to the search for Yul's new assistant, even though they're desperate enough to hire whoever wants the job at this point, regardless of qualifications.
Yoon-yi says that she's asked around, but it's difficult to find anyone with the rumors about how hard Yul is to work for. Team Leader Baek sighs that they need someone patient enough to ignore Yul's brutal attacks, or just too dumb to notice them.
Suddenly Yoon-yi is reminded of the perfect person: Jung-ae. Later that night, Kyung-rye and Bo-na object to the idea, since Jung-ae has never had a real job in her life. Bo-na points out that Jung-ae doesn't even know how to use a smartphone, calling it cruel to offer her the job.
Jung-ae is actually sitting right there, and she's all, Um, guys, do I need to be here for this? Yoon-yi tells her to face that fact that with her husband gone, she's now the head of the family, burdened with a mountain of debt and no income.
Kyung-rye asks Jung-ae how, when she can't even communicate with her own son, she plans to communicate with someone with no sense? Jung-ae asks if he's really that bad, and Yoon-yi tries to downplay Yul's reputation for being difficult.
While they're discussing the problem, Chi-won arrives home to find a gift bag on his front door. Inside is a pair of black slippers... in the shape of fuzzy panthers. Awesome. The best part is that Chi-won actually likes them, and he jumps around his apartment testing how much noise they make.
The ladies can hear him bouncing around up there, but Yoon-yi sighs that it's not important compared to Jung-ae's situation. Bo-na is worried that even without needing qualifications, Yul will still have some hiring conditions, but luckily Yoon-yi already thought to ask him.
He'd said that he couldn't afford to be picky since all assistants hate him, but that there are two things he insists on-that the new hire be unmarried, and under age 30. Jung-ae pouts that she doesn't even meet those simple requirements.
Annoyed, Bo-na asks them not to call her over for useless meetings like this anymore. (Why is she even their friend? She acts like she hates being around them.) But then Yoon-yi gets the idea for Jung-ae to pretend to be her little sister Mi-ae to get the job.
The next morning, Vice President Do informs Chi-won that his ad campaign proposal wasn't chosen, even though it was better than Executive Director Jo's. Vice President Do tries to explain that when something changes in a large organization, then they have to change everything related to it, and Chi-won isn't powerful enough to warrant those changes.
Chi-won scoffs that it sounds like he lost because he didn't have Executive Director Jo's connections, and Vice President Do doesn't say otherwise. He refuses to explain it in detail and just tells Chi-won to accept it. Chi-won says that he needs an explanation so that his team can accept it, but Vice President Do tells him that what his team needs isn't an explanation, but for Chi-won to buy them drinks and encourage them to do better next time.
Meanwhile, Executive Director Jo does a joyful shimmy in his office to celebrate his department's win. He tells Bo-na to plan a team dinner, then changes his mind and says he wants to buy Chi-won drinks to comfort him.
Upset and frustrated, Chi-won sinks to his heels in the hallway, only to have Yul join him to deliver the good news that he's getting a new assistant. Chi-won quips that he's too burdened by his own problems to console the poor thing.
He gives Yoon-yi his credit card to buy the team dinner, and she tentatively asks him to join them. He asks if she was happy when they ate together, and she can't bring herself to answer honestly. Chi-won tells her to just let the team eat comfortably.
Downstairs in the coffee shop, Bo-na tells Yoon-yi about the drinks invitation from Executive Director Jo. Yoon-yi whines that Chi-won won't agree to it, knowing it's just an excuse to taunt him. Kyung-rye runs over to tell Bo-na that Chi-won is Yoon-yi's new tenant, and Yoon-yi blames her for that fact.
Suddenly, the phone that Executive Director Jo gave to Yoon-yi lights up, and she finds a private place to talk to him. He tells her to pretend they've never met tonight over drinks, but she says that Chi-won probably won't come. Executive Director Jo just says that her first mission is to make him come out.
So she tells Chi-won that she'll give him the ten percent discount on his security deposit, but only if he goes out with Executive Director Jo tonight. At first he refuses, but at the thought of all the money he'll save, he reluctantly agrees to go for an hour.
Jung-ae gets all primped up, even cutting her hair, then heads over to YB Ad. She interviews with Team Leader Baek and Yul, who's immediately suspicious of her high-pitched voice and furious blinking, which were Yoon-yi's suggestions to make her seem younger.
Yul tells Jung-ae that he doesn't want the assistant's desk to be empty for more than three minutes at a time, and that she has to remain in close radius at all times. His phone alerts him that it's almost noon, and he jumps up to go to lunch, taking Jung-ae and his team along with him. He yells at the restaurant owner for leaving the bones in his fish, then frowns down at his meal like a pouty child. Team Leader Baek explains that Yul can't use chopsticks well, having grown up abroad, and patiently starts to debone the fish for him.
Jung-ae passes her fish to Yul, already deboned and ready to eat. Yul watches her with awe as she explains how to do it properly, and as he tucks into his meal, he tells Jung-ae that she can start on Monday.
After lunch, Jung-ae calls Yoon-yi in tears. She's terrified that her lies will be discovered, but Yoon-yi reassures her that getting hired is a good thing, and that she'll be there to help her.
Team Leader Gong confirms with Yoon-yi that Chi-won is having drinks with Executive Director Jo tonight. He's upset that Chi-won never goes out with his own team, but he'll socialize with the man who's always trying to tear their team down. Yoon-yi can't explain the real reason Chi-won is going out with Executive Director Jo.
She tells him that Chi-won gave her his card to treat them, but he argues that a credit card won't heal a broken heart. Aaaand then he realizes that Chi-won is standing right behind him. Chi-won says to bring his complaints directly to him, because Yoon-yi isn't his messenger or venting station.
On their way to meet Executive Director Jo and Bo-na, Yoon-yi tells Chi-won that she won't hold him to the entire hour if it's too uncomfortable. She accidentally steps into the vestibule of the revolving door with him, and in her attempt to keep as far back from him as possible, the door hits her heels and stops, trapping them.
If you're going to come close, come closer
Chi-won steps a bit closer to her than necessary and says, "If you're going to come close, come closer. If you're going to go away, go farther away. I can't stand being neither this nor that." Wanna bet those words come back to haunt him later?
With a tiny smile, Yoon-yi steps closer to Chi-won's back, and they exit the revolving door together.
Once they're settled with drinks and snacks, Executive Director Jo kicks Yoon-yi under the table, but she doesn't know what he wants. He says that Chi-won must be used to entertainment rooms like this from his days as a reporter, then asks Yoon-yi if it's true they're meeting for the very first time tonight. Oh nice, very smooth.
He picks up on her discomfort and attributes it to their surroundings, pointing out that Bo-na has been to places like this a lot thanks to him. Bo-na starts to pour drinks, but Executive Director Jo takes the bottle from her, saying that Chi-won doesn't like it when women serve him.
With Chi-won flashing some pretty hard side-eye, Executive Director Jo pours him a drink, then one for Bo-na and Yoon-yi. Chi-won reaches for the bottle, but Executive Director Jo yanks it away and says that unlike someone, he loves it when women serve him. Gross.
Yoon-yi dutifully starts to pour a shot for Executive Director Jo, but Chi-won suddenly grabs the bottle and slams it down on the table. Executive Director Jo is startled, but he recovers quickly and tells Chi-won that he was too arrogant in his trust in Vice President Do, asking if the wake-up call was painful.
Chi-won retorts that he knows Executive Director Jo sucks up to clients and executives, then uses their influence to pressure the station for projects, but that seeing it with his own eyes is indeed a wake-up call. Executive Director Jo nods in satisfaction, but Chi-won isn't finished.
Standing, he says that people say history is made at night, where there's alcohol and beautiful women. He tells Executive Director Jo that if he knew how those people are remembered by history, he'd be the one waking up.
He turns to Yoon-yi and tells her that he'll forfeit that discount, then takes her by the wrist to lead her out of the room. Executive Director Jo yells at him to come back, but Chi-won doesn't even pause, and Executive Director Jo is left spluttering indignantly.
Chi-won doesn't want Yoon-yi pouring a drink for Executive Director Jo
Chi-won takes Yoon-yi to a pojangmacha, though he leaves her to pour her own drink. Downing a shot of soju, he asks if Yoon-yi is offended when she's expected to pour drinks in places like that. She tells him honestly that she's more upset when she has to pour her own drink while sitting with someone.
He doesn't catch her hint, and she pours herself another shot with a heavy sigh. She asks Chi-won why someone else's boss should treat her with respect when her own boss disrespects her. She reaches for the soju bottle again, but Chi-won beats her to it this time and pours her a drink. Okay, I totally just swooned. He asks Yoon-yi what she wants from him, and she tells him, "I want to know everything about you."
A little while later, Yoon-yi is asleep with a satisfied smile on her face. She nuzzles her cheek into the warm body heat beneath her head, then suddenly wakes to realize that she's in a car with her head in Chi-won's lap.
She has a mini internal freakout and pretends to still be asleep, while Chi-won gives himself cramps in his arm trying not to touch her. He thinks about how she told him she wants to know where he is, what music he likes, his hobbies, and what makes him happy.
I want to know everything about you
Almost as an afterthought, she'd added that she wants to know why he always wants to be alone. Chi-won had gone all twitchy and slammed another shot, stammering that he finds people's meddling to be very uncomfortable. Yoon-yi had told him not to think of it as meddling, but interest that allows her to do her job properly.
Chi-won carries Yoon-yi up the stairs to her house while she flails and chants for round two. He plops her down on a bench and says she can stop pretending to be drunk now, and Yoon-yi slinks inside, completely sober and thoroughly embarrassed.
Back at her own house, Jung-ae cleans out her husband's closet and burns all of his clothes. Yul sits alone at dinner, practicing Jung-ae's method for de-boning a fish with only a puppet for company. Bo-na drives a drunk and mumbling Executive Director Jo home, while Chi-won's team has dinner together, complaining that Chi-won never joins them.
Upstairs, Chi-won organizes his extensive library of comic books, and downstairs, Yoon-yi lies in bed looking up at the ceiling. She knows that Chi-won is up there somewhere, and wishes him a good night.
Yul and Chi-won arrive at work at the same time the following morning, and Yul pretends to be disappointed when Chi-won isn't curious why he's there so early. He mock-whines, "You have so little interest in me," and it reminds Chi-won of Yoon-yi saying there's a difference between interest and meddling.
He asks Yul what he thinks, and Yul actually takes the question seriously. He tells Chi-won that interest is exchanged with someone you like, while meddling is more like parent to child.
In the elevator, Yul tells Chi-won that his morning drama ended, so he didn't have anything else to do this morning but come to work. Chi-won doesn't care, but Yul keeps chattering at him, asking if he found a place to live and pushing for details.
Annoyed, Chi-won blows up at him, and Yul says that that's what meddling feels like. But he explains that his questions came from a place of concern for Chi-won, which is interest. Chi-won stares like he just got a brick upside the head and sighs to himself that Yul isn't stupid.
He's as taciturn as ever on his way to his office, breezing by Yoon-yi with hardly a word of greeting. As he's suiting up for the day, he frowns at a little cactus Yoon-yi left on his desk with a cute note saying it will thrive without his care.
Yoon-yi messages Bo-na asking her to lunch, but her messages go unanswered. Bo-na deliberately ignores her, bothered by the events of the previous night and the way Chi-won stood up for Yoon-yi.
An alert goes out from the president's secretary, ordering all of the executive assistants to the roof. They rush to make themselves as presentable as possible, eager to impress the secretary with the highest rank.
When the president's secretary arrives (cameo by Choi Yeo-jin), she leads them in their motto: For the boss, of the boss, by the boss. She explains that she calls these unexpected meetings to ensure that they're presenting the best possible image at all times.
She stops at one point to fix an assistant's smudged mascara, but it turns out to be a bruise from botox injections, and chastises the girl for risking her looks. She continues on, but stops again when she sees that Yoon-yi is wearing flats instead of heels.
Yoon-yi tells her that her boss hates high heels, because the clacking noise annoys him. But the president's secretary yells that even when wearing the highest heels, a good assistant should float like a butterfly.
She asks who Yoon-yi's boss is, faltering when she hears that it's Nam Chi-won, the "wall" who refused to ever have an assistant. Yoon-yi is held back after the meeting, and the president's secretary tells her that they live in an age where information equals money, power, and competence, and that a boss's competence varies depending on his or her assistant's ability to gather information.
She calls information the assistant's bullet, and continues to explain that the president's secretary is like a control tower that needs to know what every YB executive is doing. But she says there's one "bullet" that she lacks, and that's detailed information on Nam Chi-won. She tells Yoon-yi to find out everything about him, and to have it to her by Monday morning.
That evening, Chi-won finds Yoon-yi going through his trash looking for something that will tell her a bit about him. Yoon-yi fibs that she's just making sure he's recycling correctly and runs inside before he can ask any questions.
Later, Yoon-yi lurks outside Chi-won's office after work, hoping he'll leave so she can search his office. He catches her and asks why she's digging in his garbage and peeking in his office, so she sheepishly admits that she's trying to gather information about him.
Chi-won gives Yoon-yi an envelope, calling it interest to her, but meddling to him. He tells her to open it after he's gone, "Because it's embarrassing." Cute.
Yoon-yi pulls some papers out of the envelope to find that it's a list: "100 Facts About Nam Chi-won." Excuse me while I melt into a puddle. The list includes things like his favorite movie (Home Alone), his favorite drama (Baby-Faced Beauty, hur), and his habits (pushing his glasses up by his middle finger), and Yoon-yi smiles happily.
Yoon-yi asks how he ended up signing a lease with her mother, so Chi-won shows her the handwritten "Room for Rent" sign that was on her gate. Yoon-yi says that she didn't write it, and she asks how he saw it on her gate in the first place.
Chi-won sighs, then reminds her about the night she got drunk and he drove her home. Yoon-yi stops him, embarrassed, and says she'd rather not know the details. Curious, Chi-won asks about the sign, which describes the landlord as "pretty and sweet." He says that "pretty" is subjective and asks how she intends to compensate him for his disappointment because she's not exactly Jeon Ji-hyun or Song Hye-gyo. He's totally serious, and Yoon-yi sheepishly apologizes for not living up to his standard.
He's most concerned about the statement that young men would get a discount, asking Yoon-yi to clarify the term "young." HA, he's grouchy that her mother decided that being a divorcé disqualifies him.
Yoon-yi promises to try and persuade her mom to change her mind, and gets up to leave. Chi-won doesn't follow her, saying that he'll wait until the renovation is finished: "The drilling is too loud."
As soon as she leaves the coffee shop, Yoon-yi breaks into a boisterous happy dance, thrilled to hold the power at home as Chi-won's landlord.
Later she goes upstairs to talk to Chi-won, who barely sticks his head out and prevents her from seeing inside. Yoon-yi plays the landlord card to lure him out, then presents him with the list of house rules she's drawn up.
Chi-won asks dryly if this is revenge for his office rules (like wearing low heels and not entering his office), and Yoon-yi denies it just a bit too emphatically. She says it's normal for people who share a house to live by a set of rules, and Chi-won sarcastically agrees before going back inside. He looks over her rules, which start with keeping noise to a minimum. Yoon-yi specifies that he's to wear slippers with a thick sole so she can't hear him moving around, so Chi-won is reduced to going around on his tippy-toes to avoid making any noise.
The next rule details how much water Chi-won can use and when, so that Yoon-yi has water in the mornings and evenings when she needs it. He's forced to take a shower under a slow trickle of water, which looks extremely annoying.
As they head out to work at the same time, Yoon-yi grins to herself about the third rule, which instructs Chi-won to make sure the rusty front gate is locked before he leaves. He gets stuck when the lock won't turn, and Yoon-yi trots off to work without helping him.
At the office, Chi-won calls Yoon-yi into his office to request that she buy him some thick-soled slippers. He goes into detail regarding the type of fibers they should be made of, and specifies that he wants them to be "smooth and silky black, like a panther." Oh, I just love this childish side of him.
Dismayed at having her own revenge used against her so perfectly, Yoon-yi goes out shopping, but she can't find any silky black slippers with thick enough soles. She gives up and heads back to the office, running into Team Leader Baek at the elevators.
He's down in the dumps because he's just had to inform the YB handball team that their funding has been terminated, and they didn't take it well. But he says it's easy compared to the search for Yul's new assistant, even though they're desperate enough to hire whoever wants the job at this point, regardless of qualifications.
Yoon-yi says that she's asked around, but it's difficult to find anyone with the rumors about how hard Yul is to work for. Team Leader Baek sighs that they need someone patient enough to ignore Yul's brutal attacks, or just too dumb to notice them.
Suddenly Yoon-yi is reminded of the perfect person: Jung-ae. Later that night, Kyung-rye and Bo-na object to the idea, since Jung-ae has never had a real job in her life. Bo-na points out that Jung-ae doesn't even know how to use a smartphone, calling it cruel to offer her the job.
Jung-ae is actually sitting right there, and she's all, Um, guys, do I need to be here for this? Yoon-yi tells her to face that fact that with her husband gone, she's now the head of the family, burdened with a mountain of debt and no income.
Kyung-rye asks Jung-ae how, when she can't even communicate with her own son, she plans to communicate with someone with no sense? Jung-ae asks if he's really that bad, and Yoon-yi tries to downplay Yul's reputation for being difficult.
While they're discussing the problem, Chi-won arrives home to find a gift bag on his front door. Inside is a pair of black slippers... in the shape of fuzzy panthers. Awesome. The best part is that Chi-won actually likes them, and he jumps around his apartment testing how much noise they make.
The ladies can hear him bouncing around up there, but Yoon-yi sighs that it's not important compared to Jung-ae's situation. Bo-na is worried that even without needing qualifications, Yul will still have some hiring conditions, but luckily Yoon-yi already thought to ask him.
He'd said that he couldn't afford to be picky since all assistants hate him, but that there are two things he insists on-that the new hire be unmarried, and under age 30. Jung-ae pouts that she doesn't even meet those simple requirements.
Annoyed, Bo-na asks them not to call her over for useless meetings like this anymore. (Why is she even their friend? She acts like she hates being around them.) But then Yoon-yi gets the idea for Jung-ae to pretend to be her little sister Mi-ae to get the job.
The next morning, Vice President Do informs Chi-won that his ad campaign proposal wasn't chosen, even though it was better than Executive Director Jo's. Vice President Do tries to explain that when something changes in a large organization, then they have to change everything related to it, and Chi-won isn't powerful enough to warrant those changes.
Chi-won scoffs that it sounds like he lost because he didn't have Executive Director Jo's connections, and Vice President Do doesn't say otherwise. He refuses to explain it in detail and just tells Chi-won to accept it. Chi-won says that he needs an explanation so that his team can accept it, but Vice President Do tells him that what his team needs isn't an explanation, but for Chi-won to buy them drinks and encourage them to do better next time.
Meanwhile, Executive Director Jo does a joyful shimmy in his office to celebrate his department's win. He tells Bo-na to plan a team dinner, then changes his mind and says he wants to buy Chi-won drinks to comfort him.
Upset and frustrated, Chi-won sinks to his heels in the hallway, only to have Yul join him to deliver the good news that he's getting a new assistant. Chi-won quips that he's too burdened by his own problems to console the poor thing.
He gives Yoon-yi his credit card to buy the team dinner, and she tentatively asks him to join them. He asks if she was happy when they ate together, and she can't bring herself to answer honestly. Chi-won tells her to just let the team eat comfortably.
Downstairs in the coffee shop, Bo-na tells Yoon-yi about the drinks invitation from Executive Director Jo. Yoon-yi whines that Chi-won won't agree to it, knowing it's just an excuse to taunt him. Kyung-rye runs over to tell Bo-na that Chi-won is Yoon-yi's new tenant, and Yoon-yi blames her for that fact.
Suddenly, the phone that Executive Director Jo gave to Yoon-yi lights up, and she finds a private place to talk to him. He tells her to pretend they've never met tonight over drinks, but she says that Chi-won probably won't come. Executive Director Jo just says that her first mission is to make him come out.
So she tells Chi-won that she'll give him the ten percent discount on his security deposit, but only if he goes out with Executive Director Jo tonight. At first he refuses, but at the thought of all the money he'll save, he reluctantly agrees to go for an hour.
Jung-ae gets all primped up, even cutting her hair, then heads over to YB Ad. She interviews with Team Leader Baek and Yul, who's immediately suspicious of her high-pitched voice and furious blinking, which were Yoon-yi's suggestions to make her seem younger.
Yul tells Jung-ae that he doesn't want the assistant's desk to be empty for more than three minutes at a time, and that she has to remain in close radius at all times. His phone alerts him that it's almost noon, and he jumps up to go to lunch, taking Jung-ae and his team along with him. He yells at the restaurant owner for leaving the bones in his fish, then frowns down at his meal like a pouty child. Team Leader Baek explains that Yul can't use chopsticks well, having grown up abroad, and patiently starts to debone the fish for him.
Jung-ae passes her fish to Yul, already deboned and ready to eat. Yul watches her with awe as she explains how to do it properly, and as he tucks into his meal, he tells Jung-ae that she can start on Monday.
After lunch, Jung-ae calls Yoon-yi in tears. She's terrified that her lies will be discovered, but Yoon-yi reassures her that getting hired is a good thing, and that she'll be there to help her.
Team Leader Gong confirms with Yoon-yi that Chi-won is having drinks with Executive Director Jo tonight. He's upset that Chi-won never goes out with his own team, but he'll socialize with the man who's always trying to tear their team down. Yoon-yi can't explain the real reason Chi-won is going out with Executive Director Jo.
She tells him that Chi-won gave her his card to treat them, but he argues that a credit card won't heal a broken heart. Aaaand then he realizes that Chi-won is standing right behind him. Chi-won says to bring his complaints directly to him, because Yoon-yi isn't his messenger or venting station.
On their way to meet Executive Director Jo and Bo-na, Yoon-yi tells Chi-won that she won't hold him to the entire hour if it's too uncomfortable. She accidentally steps into the vestibule of the revolving door with him, and in her attempt to keep as far back from him as possible, the door hits her heels and stops, trapping them.
If you're going to come close, come closer
Chi-won steps a bit closer to her than necessary and says, "If you're going to come close, come closer. If you're going to go away, go farther away. I can't stand being neither this nor that." Wanna bet those words come back to haunt him later?
With a tiny smile, Yoon-yi steps closer to Chi-won's back, and they exit the revolving door together.
Once they're settled with drinks and snacks, Executive Director Jo kicks Yoon-yi under the table, but she doesn't know what he wants. He says that Chi-won must be used to entertainment rooms like this from his days as a reporter, then asks Yoon-yi if it's true they're meeting for the very first time tonight. Oh nice, very smooth.
He picks up on her discomfort and attributes it to their surroundings, pointing out that Bo-na has been to places like this a lot thanks to him. Bo-na starts to pour drinks, but Executive Director Jo takes the bottle from her, saying that Chi-won doesn't like it when women serve him.
With Chi-won flashing some pretty hard side-eye, Executive Director Jo pours him a drink, then one for Bo-na and Yoon-yi. Chi-won reaches for the bottle, but Executive Director Jo yanks it away and says that unlike someone, he loves it when women serve him. Gross.
Yoon-yi dutifully starts to pour a shot for Executive Director Jo, but Chi-won suddenly grabs the bottle and slams it down on the table. Executive Director Jo is startled, but he recovers quickly and tells Chi-won that he was too arrogant in his trust in Vice President Do, asking if the wake-up call was painful.
Chi-won retorts that he knows Executive Director Jo sucks up to clients and executives, then uses their influence to pressure the station for projects, but that seeing it with his own eyes is indeed a wake-up call. Executive Director Jo nods in satisfaction, but Chi-won isn't finished.
Standing, he says that people say history is made at night, where there's alcohol and beautiful women. He tells Executive Director Jo that if he knew how those people are remembered by history, he'd be the one waking up.
He turns to Yoon-yi and tells her that he'll forfeit that discount, then takes her by the wrist to lead her out of the room. Executive Director Jo yells at him to come back, but Chi-won doesn't even pause, and Executive Director Jo is left spluttering indignantly.
Chi-won doesn't want Yoon-yi pouring a drink for Executive Director Jo
Chi-won takes Yoon-yi to a pojangmacha, though he leaves her to pour her own drink. Downing a shot of soju, he asks if Yoon-yi is offended when she's expected to pour drinks in places like that. She tells him honestly that she's more upset when she has to pour her own drink while sitting with someone.
He doesn't catch her hint, and she pours herself another shot with a heavy sigh. She asks Chi-won why someone else's boss should treat her with respect when her own boss disrespects her. She reaches for the soju bottle again, but Chi-won beats her to it this time and pours her a drink. Okay, I totally just swooned. He asks Yoon-yi what she wants from him, and she tells him, "I want to know everything about you."
A little while later, Yoon-yi is asleep with a satisfied smile on her face. She nuzzles her cheek into the warm body heat beneath her head, then suddenly wakes to realize that she's in a car with her head in Chi-won's lap.
She has a mini internal freakout and pretends to still be asleep, while Chi-won gives himself cramps in his arm trying not to touch her. He thinks about how she told him she wants to know where he is, what music he likes, his hobbies, and what makes him happy.
I want to know everything about you
Almost as an afterthought, she'd added that she wants to know why he always wants to be alone. Chi-won had gone all twitchy and slammed another shot, stammering that he finds people's meddling to be very uncomfortable. Yoon-yi had told him not to think of it as meddling, but interest that allows her to do her job properly.
Chi-won carries Yoon-yi up the stairs to her house while she flails and chants for round two. He plops her down on a bench and says she can stop pretending to be drunk now, and Yoon-yi slinks inside, completely sober and thoroughly embarrassed.
Back at her own house, Jung-ae cleans out her husband's closet and burns all of his clothes. Yul sits alone at dinner, practicing Jung-ae's method for de-boning a fish with only a puppet for company. Bo-na drives a drunk and mumbling Executive Director Jo home, while Chi-won's team has dinner together, complaining that Chi-won never joins them.
Upstairs, Chi-won organizes his extensive library of comic books, and downstairs, Yoon-yi lies in bed looking up at the ceiling. She knows that Chi-won is up there somewhere, and wishes him a good night.
Yul and Chi-won arrive at work at the same time the following morning, and Yul pretends to be disappointed when Chi-won isn't curious why he's there so early. He mock-whines, "You have so little interest in me," and it reminds Chi-won of Yoon-yi saying there's a difference between interest and meddling.
He asks Yul what he thinks, and Yul actually takes the question seriously. He tells Chi-won that interest is exchanged with someone you like, while meddling is more like parent to child.
In the elevator, Yul tells Chi-won that his morning drama ended, so he didn't have anything else to do this morning but come to work. Chi-won doesn't care, but Yul keeps chattering at him, asking if he found a place to live and pushing for details.
Annoyed, Chi-won blows up at him, and Yul says that that's what meddling feels like. But he explains that his questions came from a place of concern for Chi-won, which is interest. Chi-won stares like he just got a brick upside the head and sighs to himself that Yul isn't stupid.
He's as taciturn as ever on his way to his office, breezing by Yoon-yi with hardly a word of greeting. As he's suiting up for the day, he frowns at a little cactus Yoon-yi left on his desk with a cute note saying it will thrive without his care.
Yoon-yi messages Bo-na asking her to lunch, but her messages go unanswered. Bo-na deliberately ignores her, bothered by the events of the previous night and the way Chi-won stood up for Yoon-yi.
An alert goes out from the president's secretary, ordering all of the executive assistants to the roof. They rush to make themselves as presentable as possible, eager to impress the secretary with the highest rank.
When the president's secretary arrives (cameo by Choi Yeo-jin), she leads them in their motto: For the boss, of the boss, by the boss. She explains that she calls these unexpected meetings to ensure that they're presenting the best possible image at all times.
She stops at one point to fix an assistant's smudged mascara, but it turns out to be a bruise from botox injections, and chastises the girl for risking her looks. She continues on, but stops again when she sees that Yoon-yi is wearing flats instead of heels.
Yoon-yi tells her that her boss hates high heels, because the clacking noise annoys him. But the president's secretary yells that even when wearing the highest heels, a good assistant should float like a butterfly.
She asks who Yoon-yi's boss is, faltering when she hears that it's Nam Chi-won, the "wall" who refused to ever have an assistant. Yoon-yi is held back after the meeting, and the president's secretary tells her that they live in an age where information equals money, power, and competence, and that a boss's competence varies depending on his or her assistant's ability to gather information.
She calls information the assistant's bullet, and continues to explain that the president's secretary is like a control tower that needs to know what every YB executive is doing. But she says there's one "bullet" that she lacks, and that's detailed information on Nam Chi-won. She tells Yoon-yi to find out everything about him, and to have it to her by Monday morning.
That evening, Chi-won finds Yoon-yi going through his trash looking for something that will tell her a bit about him. Yoon-yi fibs that she's just making sure he's recycling correctly and runs inside before he can ask any questions.
Later, Yoon-yi lurks outside Chi-won's office after work, hoping he'll leave so she can search his office. He catches her and asks why she's digging in his garbage and peeking in his office, so she sheepishly admits that she's trying to gather information about him.
Chi-won gives Yoon-yi an envelope, calling it interest to her, but meddling to him. He tells her to open it after he's gone, "Because it's embarrassing." Cute.
Yoon-yi pulls some papers out of the envelope to find that it's a list: "100 Facts About Nam Chi-won." Excuse me while I melt into a puddle. The list includes things like his favorite movie (Home Alone), his favorite drama (Baby-Faced Beauty, hur), and his habits (pushing his glasses up by his middle finger), and Yoon-yi smiles happily.
Sun, Dec 17, 2017
On the bus ride home, Yoon-yi smiles over the questionnaire that Chi-won wrote out for her. That is, until she sees that he listed his most awkward moment as "the first time I met my assistant." Such a smartass. She's surprised that his first love was in middle school, and was an older woman.
She gets frustrated when all he says about his first kiss is that it was nice, having hoped for more details like when, where, and with whom. But Chi-won does answer all of the questions honestly, like admitting that he feels pathetic when he says things he doesn't mean, and that if he could go back to any point in time, he'd go to the time before he was born.
When she gets to work the next morning, Yoon-yi sends a report on Chi-won to the president's secretary, as she was ordered. She starts to send it to Executive Director Jo as well, but she feels weird about it and doesn't send it.
She straightens up Chi-won's office and gives his little cactus a spritz of water. When she goes in to talk to him later, she sees that he's turned the cactus so that the cute note faces him, though he stammers that he was just letting the other side of the plant get some light.
She thanks him for the list of facts about himself and offers to treat him to lunch, but he says curtly that he has plans. Deflated, Yoon-yi turns to go, but Chi-won keeps talking. He tells her that he has to pick up some shoes that are being repaired, then he has to go drinking after work, although he doesn't want to. He asks her not to misunderstand and think he's making an excuse to get out of eating with her.
Encouraged, Yoon-yi asks Chi-won to share his schedule with her, but instead, he reminds her of the answer to the last question on the questionnaire. It was a prompt to give a final statement to the reader, and he'd written, "Whatever it is you want, I can't give it to you."
Yoon-yi leaves Chi-won's office and runs into her friend Jung-ae, who's worn way too much makeup for her first day as Yul's assistant. Yoon-yi redoes it for her, telling her that the smiling people she saw on the way to work were probably laughing at her, but good-natured Jung-ae takes that in stride. She tells Yoon-yi that she's moving to the basement apartment of Kyung-rye and Bo-na's building, and Yoon-yi frowns, wondering how to respond. Jung-ae introduces herself to Yul's team, and Team Leader Baek tells her right away that if she does well in her year-long contract, he will renew it until the day he quits. The rest of the team give her a listless round of "Fighting" and ask when Team Leader Baek intends to turn in one of those resignation letters he writes all day long. LOL.
Team Leader Baek introduces Gye-young, who is in charge of sports marketing, and who won't get married until her savings account matures. Next is Shi-won, the company's team manager and known blabbermouth, and Ban-mi, manager of general affairs and web novel writer (ha, she offers to email Jung-ae something "for mature readers"). Last is the intern and only guy, Deul-rae.
At her new desk, Jung-ae marvels at all the buttons on the phone. When it rings, she panics and finally starts to rattle off the greeting she's been given, but she bolts to her feet when it turns out to be Yul himself. He calls her outside, where he rolls up on his motorcycle, tosses her a helmet, and tells her to get on.
Yoon-yi brings Bo-na coffee, cutely pouting that she must be in a one-sided love because her calls are going ignored, until Bo-na says that she's not ignoring her, she's just been busy. She reassures Yoon-yi that Executive Director Jo didn't take it out on her when Chi-won dragged Yoon-yi out of the club the other night. Executive Director Jo walks past them, ignoring Yoon-yi, then calls Bo-na to send her into his office.
He's upset that she left with Chi-won the other night, reminding her that he's the one who got her a new job at YB Ad. She argues that an assistant is meant to be her boss's partner, though she has to admit that Chi-won doesn't actually see her that way. Executive Director Jo says she should make Chi-won accept her as his partner, so that they can get even more information about him. He tells her to remain loyal to him first, then a mysterious text about a "black file" has him dismissing her. It turns out that Yul brought Jung-ae out to have her break up with his girlfriend for him. She plays it like a makjang drama, sliding the woman an envelope full of money and telling her dramatically to go. Yul is outside feeding Jung-ae lines through an earpiece, and she does a decent job repeating his messages.
The girlfriend tells Jung-ae to give Yul a message, then flings a glass of water into her face. She calls a friend for help, and soon three huge thugs are chasing Jung-ae down the street.
She catches a heel in a manhole cover and falls, and as she's trying to save her shoe, Yul pulls up on his motorcycle and yells at her to get on. She does, but only after breaking the heel off her shoe and leaving it behind. At the end of the day, Chi-won closes his office door when he leaves like usual. But he remembers Yoon-yi telling him that most bosses leave the door open as a sign, and he goes back to crack his office door open a bit.
Yoon-yi surprises him by popping up to thank him, and Chi-won tells her that she thanks people too easily. She gives him a couple of tonics since he's going out drinking (one for his liver and one for the inevitable hangover), and retorts that he's too stingy with his thanks.
He says dryly that she's compensated for the drinks and paid for her work, so there's no reason for him to be thankful. Yoon-yi says that's true, but that a single word goes a long way. Chi-won argues that he learned while working at the news station that a single word can get you in a lot of trouble. Before he goes, he reminds her of the number one condition for her job-silence. Yoon-yi makes a face, but Chi-won actually lets slip a tiny smile.
As they wait for Jung-ae's shoe to be repaired, Yul acknowledges that what happened was upsetting, but he's mostly interested in making sure she noticed how cool he looked when he rode in to save her. He tells her she'd better not quit, and when she says she won't, he gives her a thumbs-up for her tenacity.
He declares that he's going to call her "Queen" (wangbi), which is short for "Secretary Wang," then says he has to leave for an appointment. As he goes, he promises to buy Jung-ae a new pair of heels as thanks for today. Yul turns out to be the drinking date that Chi-won's been dreading, ha. Chi-won says he'll only stay an hour, and he stands to leave when Yul rejects that limitation. But he turns back when Yul mentions that he wants repayment for helping him find the questionnaire.
Yul guesses that it was for Yoon-yi, and he asks if Chi-won plans to date her. Chi-won says he doesn't, so Yul calls dibs on her as his next assistant. Chi-won asks Yul about Jung-ae, but Yul says she's too innocent for his taste-he prefers someone with pride, who stands up for herself. Meanwhile, Jung-ae wanders the city shops, looking at new shoes in store windows and flipping through books about being a good assistant. Outside the police station she finds a photo of her husband on a wanted poster, and she stares at it sadly.
Yul tells Chi-won that after having gone through so many assistants, he knows how to read a person, and Yoon-yi is exactly what he wants. Noting Chi-won's discomfort, he offers to make a bet: If Chi-won loses he has to finish his shot, but if Yul loses, he'll give up on Yoon-yi.
Annoyed, Chi-won says that Yoon-yi's future is her own to choose and can't be decided by them over drinks. Yul accuses him of being scared he'll lose, and Chi-won's pride goads him into agreeing to the bet.
One of the things Yoon-yi learned from the questionnaire is Chi-won's birthday, which is in a few days, and she wonders how to celebrate. Her planning is interrupted by a call from Yul, who's got his hands full with a very drunk Chi-won. Yul wants Chi-won's new address, but since she doesn't wish to reveal that he's her tenant, she instead meets them outside the restaurant. Chi-won is rip-roaring drunk, barely aware of what's happening as Yoon-yi bundles him into a taxi and sends Yul home on his own. As the taxi pulls away, Yul busts out laughing at a video he took of Chi-won bellowing at their waitress that he loves her.
On the drive, Chi-won's head falls onto Yoon-yi's shoulder, making her face grow hot. He's a bit more awake when they arrive home, and he insists on getting himself upstairs. Yoon-yi goes inside, but she keeps hearing thumping noises, and it takes her a minute to realize that they aren't coming from Chi-won's place, but from the basement. Someone is down there, and they take a loud tumble, sending Yoon-yi flying upstairs to pound on Chi-won's door. He doesn't respond so she calls him, but he falls asleep again while she's telling him about the intruder. She ends up creeping to the basement by herself, using her phone as a flashlight, until someone grabs her from behind.
Oh whew, it's only Chi-won, who shushes Yoon-yi and motions for her to leave. After she goes, he flings a sheet off of a suspicious lump in a corner, and out pops the intruder. They grapple in the dark for a minute until the intruder breaks free and escapes upstairs, bowling over Yoon-yi on his flight out of the yard.
Chi-won chases him, but he trips over Yoon-yi and lands on the ground next to her. He asks if she's okay, holding up the fistful of hair he pulled from the intruder's head. The police are called and they promise to install a CCTV camera right outside, but they can't do it until tomorrow.
Scared that the intruder will return tonight, Yoon-yi follows Chi-won upstairs and nervously blurts out, "Let's sleep together!" She quickly clarifies that she means actual sleep, not sex, but Chi-won just goes inside and shuts the door in her face. Once he's alone, he realizes that he's got a bad scratch on his arm. He flops in bed and tries to fall back asleep, but strange noises keep him awake. He goes outside to investigate, and finds Yoon-yi huddled in front of his door, wrapped in an old cardboard box for warmth. Awww.
He grudgingly lets her in, but only until morning. Yoon-yi marvels at Chi-won's extensive comic book collection (one of his answers on the questionnaire was that he wants to own a comic book store), but he redirects her to a chair she can sleep in. He crawls back into bed, but he wakes not long after to find Yoon-yi reading a stack of his comics.
He gives up and joins her, taking serious notes like he normally does, while Yoon-yi giggles over her selection. She notices the blood on his sleeve, and Chi-won jumps to hide whatever he's writing as she approaches.
But she just wants to patch up his cut, reassuring him that he won the fight, based on the sheer volume of hair he ripped from the intruder's head. Chi-won says that only counts when women fight, but when men fight, the loser is the one who bleeds first. Yoon-yi argues that since his cut was from a fingernail, and scratching is cheating, that he still won. Cute.
Chi-won actually smiles at her as she grumbles at his cut, and when she blows on it, he jumps like she goosed him. They go back to their comics, but this time Chi-won keeps peeking at Yoon-yi over his book, and once she even catches him at it.
In a group meeting the next day, they both fall asleep on the table, making the team wonder what's going on. An alarm goes off, and Chi-won and Yoon-yi jump up, Chi-won with paper stuck to his lip and Yoon-yi typing sleepily on the cover of her closed laptop. LOL.
The alarm is the president's secretary, calling all of the assistants to the roof so that she can announce that it's time for the Best Boss Award competition. Yoon-yi is chosen to explain it to the new assistants, and she says that the "BBAs" are a competition in which the best boss is chosen, and that the winner will be fast-tracked for promotions along with his assistant.
In the elevator, the assistants discuss which bosses plan to enter the competition. Bo-na says that Executive Director Jo wouldn't miss it, and Jung-ae is dismayed to learn that she can't opt out, because it's the boss who decides. Bo-na tells Yoon-yi that her old boss, Director Bong, has decided to compete. She looks almost gleeful as she says that with someone from the chairman's office participating, the competition should be fierce.
Yoon-yi tries to convince Chi-won to compete, but he completely ignores her as she bounces around him excitedly. She keeps talking anyway, telling him that there are three rounds of missions, and that they should focus on the second mission, "A boss who understands."
Eventually Chi-won asks if Yoon-yi has a lot more to explain, and she says she's finished. He asks about the application and she lights up, but he refuses to sign it. Yoon-yi retreats to the break room to fume at how he trolled her.
She goes back to argue the point, but he has no interest in a promotion, fame, power, or popularity, not counting it worth the sacrifice of his precious time. Not even Yoon-yi's mention that he'd gain memories can move him, because he doesn't see the point in making memories with her. Yoon-yi briefly vows to give up, but after work she takes Chi-won some stew to try and butter him up. He just gargles his mouthwash in her face, grossing her out. She even has a very loud phone conversation with Bo-na about how Executive Director Jo got promoted after winning Best Boss, hoping that Chi-won will overhear and become interested, but he just thinks she's being weird again.
Jung-ae goes around the office passing out her new business card to everyone, excited even though it's technically her sister's name on the card. Team Leader Baek asks her to make copies of an email he sent to her, but the whole team is away so there's nobody to ask for help. She gets a call to come into Yul's office, so she hastily hits print, not noticing that instead of ten copies, she's told the computer to make a thousand.
Yul holds up a BBA entry form, asking if she filled it out, but Jung-ae says she didn't because she heard he's never competed. He pouts that it's only because his assistants always ran away when he tried, but he wants to try again this year.
He explains that if he wins, then maybe the family elders will let him do business his way, promising to explain later. He holds out a hand to shake Jung-ae's, then peers at her hand closely. He comments that her hands look like she's done housework for a decade, and Jung-ae just says she's lived a rough life.
She leaves his office to find paper everywhere, and Team Leader Baek trying to stop the copy machine that's spitting out a stream of paper. He orders Jung-ae to cancel the print job, but she has no idea how to do that, and later the team members gossip on instant messenger about how clueless she is.
Jung-ae and Yoon-yi end up downstairs in the cafe, complaining to Kyung-rye about their crappy day. Yoon-yi is upset that her boss won't even consider entering the competition, while Jung-ae whines that she's not qualified to compete alongside her boss. Kyung-rye's solution is for them to swap bosses, and when they scoff, she reminds them that there's someone with an even worse boss.
Cut to: Bo-na, having lunch with Executive Director Jo, who's treating her suspiciously well. He says he really wants to win Best Boss again, which would make him the first three-time winner in the history of the company. He tells Bo-na that his goal is to be the youngest vice president ever at YG Group, and she promises to do her best. It's late when Chi-won finally leaves work, and he surprises Yoon-yi by offering her a ride home. She accepts, though she hopes that people won't misunderstand, and Chi-won says they haven't done anything to be misunderstood. Yoon-yi hesitantly explains that she's been terribly misunderstood in the past.
She tells him that her old boss is going to compete in the Best Boss competition, and that she just wanted him to see her win. She's confesses that she wanted revenge, and she apologizes for dragging him into it. Yoon-yi struggles to stifle her triumphant smirk when Chi-won asks when the entry deadline is. She pouts that it's this Friday, and with a sigh, Chi-won pulls over and kicks her out of the car. PFFT. As he drives off, leaving her to catch the last bus, he mutters with a touch of amusement that Yoon-yi should have gone into acting.
Yoon-yi is incandescent with rage by the time she gets home, and nearly breaks a lamp in her fury. Her phone reminds her that tomorrow is Chi-won's birthday, and she decides to use this last chance to convince him to enter the competition.
She goes shopping for a cake and gifts, and calls the whole department together for a meeting. They have a serious discussion about how much Chi-won is going to hate this, but Yoon-yi overrides their concerns.
They find Chi-won in the meeting room and come in singing "Happy Birthday," with Yoon-yi right in front carrying the giant cake with lit candles. The flames cause Chi-won to have a flashback, and he suddenly finds himself trapped while his home burns down around him.
His uncle finds him unconscious and frantically slaps his face until he wakes up. He pushes Little Chi-won out the window and onto the balcony, but when Chi-won turns back to help his uncle escape, some beams fall and block the window. He wails in fear as his uncle yells at him to run.
Chi-won's only escape route is a tree near the balcony, so he climbs into the branches to avoid the flames. But he gets stuck and can't climb down, so he's forced to sit in the tree and watch, screaming, as his uncle perishes in the inferno.
Chi-won snaps back to the present, and he lashes out, swiping the cake out of Yoon-yi's arms and sending it crashing to the floor. Shaking and sweating in front of the entire team, he asks if Yoon-yi became an assistant to plan stupid events, making her cry. With his usual lack of awareness, Yul bounces into the room, yelling "Happy Birthday!" and setting off a party cracker. Chi-won flees to his office, and once he's alone, he sinks to the floor with a heavy sigh.
When she gets to work the next morning, Yoon-yi sends a report on Chi-won to the president's secretary, as she was ordered. She starts to send it to Executive Director Jo as well, but she feels weird about it and doesn't send it.
She straightens up Chi-won's office and gives his little cactus a spritz of water. When she goes in to talk to him later, she sees that he's turned the cactus so that the cute note faces him, though he stammers that he was just letting the other side of the plant get some light.
She thanks him for the list of facts about himself and offers to treat him to lunch, but he says curtly that he has plans. Deflated, Yoon-yi turns to go, but Chi-won keeps talking. He tells her that he has to pick up some shoes that are being repaired, then he has to go drinking after work, although he doesn't want to. He asks her not to misunderstand and think he's making an excuse to get out of eating with her.
Encouraged, Yoon-yi asks Chi-won to share his schedule with her, but instead, he reminds her of the answer to the last question on the questionnaire. It was a prompt to give a final statement to the reader, and he'd written, "Whatever it is you want, I can't give it to you."
Yoon-yi leaves Chi-won's office and runs into her friend Jung-ae, who's worn way too much makeup for her first day as Yul's assistant. Yoon-yi redoes it for her, telling her that the smiling people she saw on the way to work were probably laughing at her, but good-natured Jung-ae takes that in stride. She tells Yoon-yi that she's moving to the basement apartment of Kyung-rye and Bo-na's building, and Yoon-yi frowns, wondering how to respond. Jung-ae introduces herself to Yul's team, and Team Leader Baek tells her right away that if she does well in her year-long contract, he will renew it until the day he quits. The rest of the team give her a listless round of "Fighting" and ask when Team Leader Baek intends to turn in one of those resignation letters he writes all day long. LOL.
Team Leader Baek introduces Gye-young, who is in charge of sports marketing, and who won't get married until her savings account matures. Next is Shi-won, the company's team manager and known blabbermouth, and Ban-mi, manager of general affairs and web novel writer (ha, she offers to email Jung-ae something "for mature readers"). Last is the intern and only guy, Deul-rae.
At her new desk, Jung-ae marvels at all the buttons on the phone. When it rings, she panics and finally starts to rattle off the greeting she's been given, but she bolts to her feet when it turns out to be Yul himself. He calls her outside, where he rolls up on his motorcycle, tosses her a helmet, and tells her to get on.
Yoon-yi brings Bo-na coffee, cutely pouting that she must be in a one-sided love because her calls are going ignored, until Bo-na says that she's not ignoring her, she's just been busy. She reassures Yoon-yi that Executive Director Jo didn't take it out on her when Chi-won dragged Yoon-yi out of the club the other night. Executive Director Jo walks past them, ignoring Yoon-yi, then calls Bo-na to send her into his office.
He's upset that she left with Chi-won the other night, reminding her that he's the one who got her a new job at YB Ad. She argues that an assistant is meant to be her boss's partner, though she has to admit that Chi-won doesn't actually see her that way. Executive Director Jo says she should make Chi-won accept her as his partner, so that they can get even more information about him. He tells her to remain loyal to him first, then a mysterious text about a "black file" has him dismissing her. It turns out that Yul brought Jung-ae out to have her break up with his girlfriend for him. She plays it like a makjang drama, sliding the woman an envelope full of money and telling her dramatically to go. Yul is outside feeding Jung-ae lines through an earpiece, and she does a decent job repeating his messages.
The girlfriend tells Jung-ae to give Yul a message, then flings a glass of water into her face. She calls a friend for help, and soon three huge thugs are chasing Jung-ae down the street.
She catches a heel in a manhole cover and falls, and as she's trying to save her shoe, Yul pulls up on his motorcycle and yells at her to get on. She does, but only after breaking the heel off her shoe and leaving it behind. At the end of the day, Chi-won closes his office door when he leaves like usual. But he remembers Yoon-yi telling him that most bosses leave the door open as a sign, and he goes back to crack his office door open a bit.
Yoon-yi surprises him by popping up to thank him, and Chi-won tells her that she thanks people too easily. She gives him a couple of tonics since he's going out drinking (one for his liver and one for the inevitable hangover), and retorts that he's too stingy with his thanks.
He says dryly that she's compensated for the drinks and paid for her work, so there's no reason for him to be thankful. Yoon-yi says that's true, but that a single word goes a long way. Chi-won argues that he learned while working at the news station that a single word can get you in a lot of trouble. Before he goes, he reminds her of the number one condition for her job-silence. Yoon-yi makes a face, but Chi-won actually lets slip a tiny smile.
As they wait for Jung-ae's shoe to be repaired, Yul acknowledges that what happened was upsetting, but he's mostly interested in making sure she noticed how cool he looked when he rode in to save her. He tells her she'd better not quit, and when she says she won't, he gives her a thumbs-up for her tenacity.
He declares that he's going to call her "Queen" (wangbi), which is short for "Secretary Wang," then says he has to leave for an appointment. As he goes, he promises to buy Jung-ae a new pair of heels as thanks for today. Yul turns out to be the drinking date that Chi-won's been dreading, ha. Chi-won says he'll only stay an hour, and he stands to leave when Yul rejects that limitation. But he turns back when Yul mentions that he wants repayment for helping him find the questionnaire.
Yul guesses that it was for Yoon-yi, and he asks if Chi-won plans to date her. Chi-won says he doesn't, so Yul calls dibs on her as his next assistant. Chi-won asks Yul about Jung-ae, but Yul says she's too innocent for his taste-he prefers someone with pride, who stands up for herself. Meanwhile, Jung-ae wanders the city shops, looking at new shoes in store windows and flipping through books about being a good assistant. Outside the police station she finds a photo of her husband on a wanted poster, and she stares at it sadly.
Yul tells Chi-won that after having gone through so many assistants, he knows how to read a person, and Yoon-yi is exactly what he wants. Noting Chi-won's discomfort, he offers to make a bet: If Chi-won loses he has to finish his shot, but if Yul loses, he'll give up on Yoon-yi.
Annoyed, Chi-won says that Yoon-yi's future is her own to choose and can't be decided by them over drinks. Yul accuses him of being scared he'll lose, and Chi-won's pride goads him into agreeing to the bet.
One of the things Yoon-yi learned from the questionnaire is Chi-won's birthday, which is in a few days, and she wonders how to celebrate. Her planning is interrupted by a call from Yul, who's got his hands full with a very drunk Chi-won. Yul wants Chi-won's new address, but since she doesn't wish to reveal that he's her tenant, she instead meets them outside the restaurant. Chi-won is rip-roaring drunk, barely aware of what's happening as Yoon-yi bundles him into a taxi and sends Yul home on his own. As the taxi pulls away, Yul busts out laughing at a video he took of Chi-won bellowing at their waitress that he loves her.
On the drive, Chi-won's head falls onto Yoon-yi's shoulder, making her face grow hot. He's a bit more awake when they arrive home, and he insists on getting himself upstairs. Yoon-yi goes inside, but she keeps hearing thumping noises, and it takes her a minute to realize that they aren't coming from Chi-won's place, but from the basement. Someone is down there, and they take a loud tumble, sending Yoon-yi flying upstairs to pound on Chi-won's door. He doesn't respond so she calls him, but he falls asleep again while she's telling him about the intruder. She ends up creeping to the basement by herself, using her phone as a flashlight, until someone grabs her from behind.
Oh whew, it's only Chi-won, who shushes Yoon-yi and motions for her to leave. After she goes, he flings a sheet off of a suspicious lump in a corner, and out pops the intruder. They grapple in the dark for a minute until the intruder breaks free and escapes upstairs, bowling over Yoon-yi on his flight out of the yard.
Chi-won chases him, but he trips over Yoon-yi and lands on the ground next to her. He asks if she's okay, holding up the fistful of hair he pulled from the intruder's head. The police are called and they promise to install a CCTV camera right outside, but they can't do it until tomorrow.
Scared that the intruder will return tonight, Yoon-yi follows Chi-won upstairs and nervously blurts out, "Let's sleep together!" She quickly clarifies that she means actual sleep, not sex, but Chi-won just goes inside and shuts the door in her face. Once he's alone, he realizes that he's got a bad scratch on his arm. He flops in bed and tries to fall back asleep, but strange noises keep him awake. He goes outside to investigate, and finds Yoon-yi huddled in front of his door, wrapped in an old cardboard box for warmth. Awww.
He grudgingly lets her in, but only until morning. Yoon-yi marvels at Chi-won's extensive comic book collection (one of his answers on the questionnaire was that he wants to own a comic book store), but he redirects her to a chair she can sleep in. He crawls back into bed, but he wakes not long after to find Yoon-yi reading a stack of his comics.
He gives up and joins her, taking serious notes like he normally does, while Yoon-yi giggles over her selection. She notices the blood on his sleeve, and Chi-won jumps to hide whatever he's writing as she approaches.
But she just wants to patch up his cut, reassuring him that he won the fight, based on the sheer volume of hair he ripped from the intruder's head. Chi-won says that only counts when women fight, but when men fight, the loser is the one who bleeds first. Yoon-yi argues that since his cut was from a fingernail, and scratching is cheating, that he still won. Cute.
Chi-won actually smiles at her as she grumbles at his cut, and when she blows on it, he jumps like she goosed him. They go back to their comics, but this time Chi-won keeps peeking at Yoon-yi over his book, and once she even catches him at it.
In a group meeting the next day, they both fall asleep on the table, making the team wonder what's going on. An alarm goes off, and Chi-won and Yoon-yi jump up, Chi-won with paper stuck to his lip and Yoon-yi typing sleepily on the cover of her closed laptop. LOL.
The alarm is the president's secretary, calling all of the assistants to the roof so that she can announce that it's time for the Best Boss Award competition. Yoon-yi is chosen to explain it to the new assistants, and she says that the "BBAs" are a competition in which the best boss is chosen, and that the winner will be fast-tracked for promotions along with his assistant.
In the elevator, the assistants discuss which bosses plan to enter the competition. Bo-na says that Executive Director Jo wouldn't miss it, and Jung-ae is dismayed to learn that she can't opt out, because it's the boss who decides. Bo-na tells Yoon-yi that her old boss, Director Bong, has decided to compete. She looks almost gleeful as she says that with someone from the chairman's office participating, the competition should be fierce.
Yoon-yi tries to convince Chi-won to compete, but he completely ignores her as she bounces around him excitedly. She keeps talking anyway, telling him that there are three rounds of missions, and that they should focus on the second mission, "A boss who understands."
Eventually Chi-won asks if Yoon-yi has a lot more to explain, and she says she's finished. He asks about the application and she lights up, but he refuses to sign it. Yoon-yi retreats to the break room to fume at how he trolled her.
She goes back to argue the point, but he has no interest in a promotion, fame, power, or popularity, not counting it worth the sacrifice of his precious time. Not even Yoon-yi's mention that he'd gain memories can move him, because he doesn't see the point in making memories with her. Yoon-yi briefly vows to give up, but after work she takes Chi-won some stew to try and butter him up. He just gargles his mouthwash in her face, grossing her out. She even has a very loud phone conversation with Bo-na about how Executive Director Jo got promoted after winning Best Boss, hoping that Chi-won will overhear and become interested, but he just thinks she's being weird again.
Jung-ae goes around the office passing out her new business card to everyone, excited even though it's technically her sister's name on the card. Team Leader Baek asks her to make copies of an email he sent to her, but the whole team is away so there's nobody to ask for help. She gets a call to come into Yul's office, so she hastily hits print, not noticing that instead of ten copies, she's told the computer to make a thousand.
Yul holds up a BBA entry form, asking if she filled it out, but Jung-ae says she didn't because she heard he's never competed. He pouts that it's only because his assistants always ran away when he tried, but he wants to try again this year.
He explains that if he wins, then maybe the family elders will let him do business his way, promising to explain later. He holds out a hand to shake Jung-ae's, then peers at her hand closely. He comments that her hands look like she's done housework for a decade, and Jung-ae just says she's lived a rough life.
She leaves his office to find paper everywhere, and Team Leader Baek trying to stop the copy machine that's spitting out a stream of paper. He orders Jung-ae to cancel the print job, but she has no idea how to do that, and later the team members gossip on instant messenger about how clueless she is.
Jung-ae and Yoon-yi end up downstairs in the cafe, complaining to Kyung-rye about their crappy day. Yoon-yi is upset that her boss won't even consider entering the competition, while Jung-ae whines that she's not qualified to compete alongside her boss. Kyung-rye's solution is for them to swap bosses, and when they scoff, she reminds them that there's someone with an even worse boss.
Cut to: Bo-na, having lunch with Executive Director Jo, who's treating her suspiciously well. He says he really wants to win Best Boss again, which would make him the first three-time winner in the history of the company. He tells Bo-na that his goal is to be the youngest vice president ever at YG Group, and she promises to do her best. It's late when Chi-won finally leaves work, and he surprises Yoon-yi by offering her a ride home. She accepts, though she hopes that people won't misunderstand, and Chi-won says they haven't done anything to be misunderstood. Yoon-yi hesitantly explains that she's been terribly misunderstood in the past.
She tells him that her old boss is going to compete in the Best Boss competition, and that she just wanted him to see her win. She's confesses that she wanted revenge, and she apologizes for dragging him into it. Yoon-yi struggles to stifle her triumphant smirk when Chi-won asks when the entry deadline is. She pouts that it's this Friday, and with a sigh, Chi-won pulls over and kicks her out of the car. PFFT. As he drives off, leaving her to catch the last bus, he mutters with a touch of amusement that Yoon-yi should have gone into acting.
Yoon-yi is incandescent with rage by the time she gets home, and nearly breaks a lamp in her fury. Her phone reminds her that tomorrow is Chi-won's birthday, and she decides to use this last chance to convince him to enter the competition.
She goes shopping for a cake and gifts, and calls the whole department together for a meeting. They have a serious discussion about how much Chi-won is going to hate this, but Yoon-yi overrides their concerns.
They find Chi-won in the meeting room and come in singing "Happy Birthday," with Yoon-yi right in front carrying the giant cake with lit candles. The flames cause Chi-won to have a flashback, and he suddenly finds himself trapped while his home burns down around him.
His uncle finds him unconscious and frantically slaps his face until he wakes up. He pushes Little Chi-won out the window and onto the balcony, but when Chi-won turns back to help his uncle escape, some beams fall and block the window. He wails in fear as his uncle yells at him to run.
Chi-won's only escape route is a tree near the balcony, so he climbs into the branches to avoid the flames. But he gets stuck and can't climb down, so he's forced to sit in the tree and watch, screaming, as his uncle perishes in the inferno.
Chi-won snaps back to the present, and he lashes out, swiping the cake out of Yoon-yi's arms and sending it crashing to the floor. Shaking and sweating in front of the entire team, he asks if Yoon-yi became an assistant to plan stupid events, making her cry. With his usual lack of awareness, Yul bounces into the room, yelling "Happy Birthday!" and setting off a party cracker. Chi-won flees to his office, and once he's alone, he sinks to the floor with a heavy sigh.
Mon, Dec 18, 2017
Yoon-yi cries as she cleans up the mess after Chi-won's emotional explosion during his surprise birthday celebration. She texts her friends, who call him crazy, arrogant, and ungrateful. They even warn her not to upset him again or he may hit her, and suggest that he needs a mental hospital.
Jung-ae finds Yoon-yi to tell her that everyone is in the conference room. Yoon-yi panics when she realizes that Chi-won took her laptop to the meeting to make a presentation, and she runs in to stop him, but she's too late-the entire chat conversation bashing Chi-won has been displayed for the whole team to see.
Yoon-yi shuts down the computer and turns to Chi-won, ashamed, but he doesn't even look at her. Instead he introduces the new team member, CHANG-SOO (Min Jin-woong). Chang-soo gives Yoon-yi a tiny smile, and she stares at him incredulously. Do they know each other?
On her walk home, Yoon-yi thinks of Chang-soo, wondering why that jerk showed up at her office, of all places. He sends her a text, addressing her familiarly and saying that he's happy to have returned to her.
As she nears her house, Yoon-yi doesn't see Chi-won watching her from his balcony. He meets her at the gate and asks to talk, but he can't seem to decide what to say. Finally he just admits that he can't find the right words, so Yoon-yi suggests that he feels bad about the cake and is thankful for the mug.
Relieved, Chi-won agrees, but when Yoon-yi starts to go inside, he clutches at her arm to stop her. She asks why those simple things were so hard to say, and Chi-won looks sheepish when she guesses that it hurts his ego to apologize to a lowly secretary. She asks if it's because he hates her, or because she didn't change departments when he told her to, not letting him get a word in edgewise.
Yoon-yi decides she's right and promises to put in for a transfer as soon as possible. Chi-won jumps up, alarmed, and says emphatically that he doesn't hate her, he's just a loser who only amounts to this. He says sadly that she can transfer if she doesn't want to work with him anymore. But Yoon-yi reminds Chi-won that in the business world, the assistant suggests options and the boss makes the final decision. She tells him to decide, and without missing a beat, he says, "Then stay with me, like you are now."
Yoon-yi is clearly relieved, but she puts on a determined expression and says she has a condition: that he enter the Best Boss competition. Chi-won laughs wryly then makes his own request, that she compensate for her friends having publicly insulted him. HA, he's enjoying this. Getting an idea, Yoon-yi invites Chi-won into her apartment and rushes around to clean up the ever-present mess. Chi-won loiters uncomfortably in the entryway, and when he opens the closet door, he's nearly flattened by an avalanche of shoes.
He finally gets in and sits at the kitchen table while Yoon-yi cooks up a storm for his birthday meal. He notes how filthy her place is, and she explains that she's too busy organizing his life to manage her own. She rattles on about how her taxes are always late, she forgets to pay her bills, and boyfriends always leave her, until Chi-won asks if she's finished whining so he can eat.
He tries the soup, then looks like he's struggling not to gag at how salty it is, though he tries to save Yoon-yi's feelings by saying it's just hot. She urges him to try an egg roll, and his hand actually shakes as he forces it into his mouth, then he swallows without even chewing it. LOL. Back at his place later, Chi-won chugs water, trying to rid his mouth of the salty aftertaste. He even gets up several times during the night to drink more water, poor thing.
The next morning, Yoon-yi runs to catch the elevator with Chi-won, but she stops short to see that new employee Chang-soo is there, too. She ignores his cheerful greeting and smacks his hand when he tries to secretly hold hers, but when Chi-won gets off at their floor, Yoon-yi stays in the elevator with Chang-soo.
They find a private place to talk, and Yoon-yi tells Chang-soo to transfer to another department. Chang-soo argues that he worked really hard to get this job working with her, and asks if they can start over. He promises that he's changed, and that he isn't a loser or a moocher anymore.
She snaps that he's being a loser right now, but he says that he wants to transition from their former campus couple status to a company couple. He reveals that an army sunbae who works for YB Group told him that she's single, and when she frowns angrily, he says at least her hating him is better than indifference.
Yoon-yi tells him that as far as anyone at the company is to know, they just met today. She leaves, and Chang-soo smiles at her back and says that today is their first day. He's giving me the creeps.
Back at her desk, a fuming Yoon-yi doodles Chang-soo's name surrounded by insults. Yul sneaks up and grabs her notebook, and she grabs it back saying there are a lot of secrets in there. He assumes she means Chi-won's secrets and holds up his phone, saying that he's got a few secrets, too.
Chi-won comes out to give Yoon-yi the ID and password for his schedule, making both Yoon-yi and Yul gape incredulously. Yul invites Chi-won to lunch, but Chi-won just walks off, leaving Yul to marvel at how much he's changed. Alone in the elevator, Chi-won looks up at the scrolling sign and imagines it mocking his words to Yoon-yi from last night: "Stay with me! Stay with me!" He feels embarrassed and bangs his head on the wall, and gets caught by a couple of employees when the door opens, ha.
Yul follows Yoon-yi around the office, begging her to tell him how she got Chi-won to show her his schedule (which he compares to showing her his underwear). He even offers to show her the video of drunk Chi-won on his phone, but she says he owes her for finding his 89th secretary.
She wants to know how Chi-won ended up leaving Channel Y and working for YB Group. Yul just says it was a trick of the elders, quoting the old adage to keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. Yoon-yi is sure it wasn't that easy, and Yul lets slip that there was a "broker."
Cut to: VP Do, having lunch with Chi-won. He gives him a birthday gift of a vinyl record and says it's from his ex-wife. He sighs that she's terrible at wrapping gifts and doesn't take after him at all, and Chi-won quips that that's why she's so pretty. VP Do is Chi-won's ex-father-in-law! They argue over whether Chi-won should call his ex to thank her for the gift, and VP Do sighs that Chi-won doesn't know women at all if he thought she really didn't want him to call. He adds sarcastically that their divorce got them both what they wanted-Chi-won's freedom and his daughter's life back.
We visit the night when Chi-won told VP Do that he was divorcing his daughter in a flashback. VP Do said he was against it but that they should do what they want, on one condition: that Chi-won join the new broadcasting team at YB Ad for one year. He told Chi-won that if he hated the way the company runs so much, to do something about it from the inside.
Chi-won said that he didn't get along with conglomerates, and VP Do lost his temper. He yelled that it was lack of effort, just like he didn't put effort into his marriage, then gulped straight from the soju bottle. Ouch. Back in the present, VP Do offers Chi-won coffee after their meal, but Chi-won takes two yogurt drinks instead.
While at lunch with her friends, Yoon-yi giggles and moons over Chi-won's schedule, opening herself up to a whole boatload of teasing. She tells them how he asked her to stay with him, and that sharing his schedule is his way of showing his sincerity.
When she says that Chi-won isn't interested in the Best Boss competition, Bo-na says she was looking forward to their bosses competing, though her expression seems triumphant. Kyung-rye jokes that it would have been more fun seeing Bo-na and Yoon-yi compete, and Jung-ae's squeaks of "I'm competing too," go ignored as Bo-na gets angry at Kyung-rye.
Bo-na snaps that the competition is really stressful, but Jung-ae remembers her saying on the elevator that it would be fun (when she heard that Director Bong was entering). As her friends continue to bicker, Yoon-yi frowns at Chang-soo, who's standing at the window holding up a yogurt drink and shooting finger-hearts at her.
When she gets back to her desk, there's a yogurt drink waiting for her, and Yoon-yi assumes it's from Chang-soo and throws it out. Chi-won watches her from inside his office, drinking one of the yogurts he got and wondering why Yoon-yi threw away his little gift.
Yul gets bored during a yearly planning meeting and decides that they're going to start doing things differently. He says he wants to start a new sports business, and draws them close to whisper his idea of... e-sports (competitive video games). It goes over like a lead balloon, and he storms back to his office, vowing to win the BBA and make his idea a reality. He asks Jung-ae what she thinks of his e-sports idea, and she clearly has no clue what he's talking about. Yul gets a text and grows very excited to learn that a famous designer will be selling limited-edition sneakers. He sees that there will only be five pairs in the whole country, and he tells Jung-ae she'd better get in line now.
There are now two cacti on Chi-won's desk when he tells Yoon-yi that he won't be at the team dinner tonight. She sees his discarded yogurt drink, and he fibs that the restaurant gave him two even though he totally didn't want them. But he can't hide his annoyance that she threw hers away, and she goes back to look for it in her trash can. She's upset that the trash has already been taken out, and Chang-soo slides over to say he'll buy her a whole pack of yogurt drinks.
When Yoon-yi finds Jung-ae in the break room, she shows her the online forum she moderates, Jugglers. She tells Jung-ae to post a question asking how to buy limited-edition sneakers, promising that she'll get plenty of help that way. Yoon-yi is at the team dinner with the rest of her coworkers when she gets a call from Chi-won. He's lost his keys and wants her to bring him a spare, but she reminds him that it's after work hours, which makes her his landlord.
He tries ordering her, but Yoon-yi doesn't bite. She says that the tenant should come get the key himself, otherwise he's welcome to go to a sauna until she gets home, then hangs up on him. HAHA.
After getting advice from other secretaries, Jung-ae heads to the shoe store to wait in line for Yul's shoes. She's dismayed to see more than five people already camped out, but she was told not to give up because some people will bail. She settles in and steels herself against her three biggest challenges: cold, hunger and sleepiness.
Chi-won's team bolts to attention when he actually shows up at the bar, and Yoon-yi makes it sound as if he purposely joined them. He declines a seat at the head of the table and sits next to Yoon-yi so that he can demand the gate key.
But Yoon-yi says that's not how you ask a favor, and promises to give him the key after dinner. Chi-won stays, and even shocks the entire team by pouring each of them a drink. Afterward, Yoon-yi changes her mind and says Chi-won can't have the key until after round two, and he starts plotting revenge when they get back to the office. Round two is at a noraebang, where Chi-won is roped into singing. He's horrible, so Yoon-yi quickly jumps in to finish the song. Soon the whole team is singing and dancing, all except for Chang-soo.
He gets up to croon a series of ballads, all of them about a guy pining for a girl. Yoon-yi just rolls her eyes at him as she chatters to Chi-won, so the next time she steps out to the restroom, Chang-soo corners her in the hallway. He asks if she likes Chi-won, and she mutters that he's crazy and tries to pass him. But Chang-soo grabs her wrist and yanks her back, saying that he knows that where her eyes go, her heart follows. Yoon-yi refuses to dignify that with an answer and demands that he let her go, but he only tightens his grip.
Suddenly a hand clamps down on Chang-soo's own wrist-it's Chi-won, and he orders Chang-soo to let go of Yoon-yi. Chang-soo doesn't, instead telling Chi-won to stay out of their private conversation. Chi-won repeats his order to let go, but Chang-soo tells him to let go first. Locked in a three-way standoff, Chang-soo asks Chi-won if he likes Yoon-yi. Chi-won hesitates, but he answers no, and Chang-soo says that he does. Chi-won doesn't think they've known each other long enough for that, but Chang-soo retorts that he feels a connection to Yoon-yi, as if they've known each other for years.
Chi-won says that as her boss, he's obligated to step in, so he asks Yoon-yi if she likes Chang-soo. She says she doesn't, and Chang-soo blurts out, "She'll like me again!" It nearly gives away their history together, but he says he misspoke, and Chi-won tells him that if the feelings aren't mutual, then his actions are assault.
He says that he has a nasty habit of meeting violence with violence, and squeezes Chang-soo's wrist until he finally lets go of Yoon-yi. They're stopped from escalating any further when the team comes out, ready to leave.
Chi-won and Yoon-yi walk home together, and she finally gives his keys back. He thinks she swiped them on purpose, but she swears she found them in his office after he left. She says she knew he'd think to call her first, because he tends to think of her when he feels helpless or embarrassed. She tells Chi-won not to take it personally, because a lot of bosses call their assistants in those situations. She thanks him for standing up for her with Chang-soo and says he looked cool. He gives her a box containing a beautiful star-shaped crystal necklace, and when she grows flustered, he says that it's a souvenir from a convention and he didn't have anyone else to give it to. He tells her not to throw this gift away, and she thanks him with a giant smile.
As they walk on, Chi-won asks why Chang-soo is acting like he is towards her. He still thinks they just met, and he says that Yoon-yi isn't exactly a femme fatale, so he thinks she must be sending him mixed signals. Yoon-yi gets angry at the implication that she's leading Chang-soo on, and she barks that it's none of his business if she does or doesn't, since he said he's not interested in her. She stomps off, and when Chi-won asks where she's going, she yells back, "To drink alone!" As the night wears on, Jung-ae starts to get hungry. She reminds herself that she'll need to use the bathroom if she eats too much, but she weakens at the sight of a nearby food cart. A little while later, a guy on a delivery scooter pulls up and starts to set a table in front of Jung-ae.
He says that her boyfriend ordered the food, and despite her protests that she has no boyfriend, he lays out enough food for an army. Seeing their hungry faces, she invites the other people in line to help her eat it all. At the house, Chi-won waits for Yoon-yi on his balcony. He notices a young man in a soldier's uniform loitering around the front gate, so he goes out to ask what he's doing here. The guy answers that he used to live here with Yoon-yi, which shocks him.
Chi-won calls her for confirmation and says that some guy named Tae-yi is at the house, and she confirms that yes, she lived with him. Chi-won hangs up on her and invites Tae-yi in, and the two guys eyeball each other suspiciously until Chi-won notices what looks like a bruise on Tae-yi's neck.
He remembers the intruder the other night, and he instantly suspects that it was Tae-yi. He asks if he's on leave and Tae-yi says yes, then Chi-won suddenly lunges. Tae-yi leaps back, and Chi-won asks if he's scared he'll choke him again. He manages to grab Tae-yi and confirm that he does have a bruised neck. He asks how his hair is so long if he's out on leave, and even finds the long fingernails Tae-yi scratched him with. The kid tries to escape, but Chi-won throws him to the ground, then trips and falls next to him. Yoon-yi arrives home to find the two moaning in pain, and Tae-yi cries a plaintive, "Noona!" Chi-won finally sees the surname on Tae-yi's uniform, Jwa, and belatedly realizes that this is Yoon-yi's brother.
Yoon-yi takes them inside and plugs up Tae-yi's bleeding nose with tissue. She learns that he took an early medical discharge and has been living in the basement for three months, and he whines that the base where he was stationed was soooo hard. He makes it sound like hell, until Chi-won pipes up, "That's where I served."
Jung-ae is still hanging in there in line the next morning, but all the food she ate is beginning to make her uncomfortable. She holds out while a few people give up and run for a bathroom, putting her at fifth place in line just as the store opens. Yul is so thrilled to have the coveted shoes that he picks up Jung-ae and spins her around the room. He reminds her that she promised to help him with the Best Boss competition, and Jung-ae just blinks at him dizzily.
In the morning, Chi-won gives Yoon-yi a ride to work, though she peevishly refuses to sit in the front seat because, "I don't want to give mixed signals." They're headed to a meeting at the main YG Group building, and Yoon-yi is overwhelmed with memories as soon as she walks into the lobby. Chi-won calls her into the elevator, and they're joined by her old boss, Director Bong. He doesn't say anything to Yoon-yi, who looks like she wants to cry. She follows Chi-won out of the elevator, and Director Bong calls out to her, asking her to come see him later. When Chi-won gets out of his meeting, he texts Yoon-yi, and she replies that she's on the roof. She's there with Director Bong, who calls her rude for ignoring him. He reminds her that he promised to pull her up with him when the time was right, questioning her honor for taking another position.
Yoon-yi says that it's funny to hear him talk of honor, when he dumped her after she was loyal to him for three years. He tells her not to blame her for his wife's actions, but she says that she knows it was him who posted those photos of them together. She knows that she knew too much about him, so he decided to get rid of her.
Sure enough, we see that it was Director Bong who anonymously posted those pictures on the company website. but he lies to Yoon-yi's face, swearing it wasn't him. She demands an apology, and Director Bong gets offended. He says that she did like him, because only someone who liked him would have been more devoted than his wife.
He accuses her of giving off mixed signals, claiming that his morals were too high to fall for it. He sarcastically wishes her luck as the secretary who seduced her boss, and leaves her speechless and crying. As he storms back to the elevator, he doesn't notice that Chi-won is nearby and heard every word.
Applying lessons learned from comic books Chi-won follows Director Bong into the elevator and calmly stops it mid-floor. He asks if Director Bong likes comic books, and quotes the character Usopp from One Piece: "There comes a time in a man's life when he must never avoid a fight. When his friend's dreams are laughed at."
As he's speaking, he stalks Director Bong around the elevator, and his voice rises until he's shouting the last word, punctuating it with a fist into the wall right by Director Bong's head. Director Bong shrieks and cringes like a wuss. Chi-won tells him that this was just the preliminary round, and that he won't miss during the main round.
On her walk home, Yoon-yi thinks of Chang-soo, wondering why that jerk showed up at her office, of all places. He sends her a text, addressing her familiarly and saying that he's happy to have returned to her.
As she nears her house, Yoon-yi doesn't see Chi-won watching her from his balcony. He meets her at the gate and asks to talk, but he can't seem to decide what to say. Finally he just admits that he can't find the right words, so Yoon-yi suggests that he feels bad about the cake and is thankful for the mug.
Relieved, Chi-won agrees, but when Yoon-yi starts to go inside, he clutches at her arm to stop her. She asks why those simple things were so hard to say, and Chi-won looks sheepish when she guesses that it hurts his ego to apologize to a lowly secretary. She asks if it's because he hates her, or because she didn't change departments when he told her to, not letting him get a word in edgewise.
Yoon-yi decides she's right and promises to put in for a transfer as soon as possible. Chi-won jumps up, alarmed, and says emphatically that he doesn't hate her, he's just a loser who only amounts to this. He says sadly that she can transfer if she doesn't want to work with him anymore. But Yoon-yi reminds Chi-won that in the business world, the assistant suggests options and the boss makes the final decision. She tells him to decide, and without missing a beat, he says, "Then stay with me, like you are now."
Yoon-yi is clearly relieved, but she puts on a determined expression and says she has a condition: that he enter the Best Boss competition. Chi-won laughs wryly then makes his own request, that she compensate for her friends having publicly insulted him. HA, he's enjoying this. Getting an idea, Yoon-yi invites Chi-won into her apartment and rushes around to clean up the ever-present mess. Chi-won loiters uncomfortably in the entryway, and when he opens the closet door, he's nearly flattened by an avalanche of shoes.
He finally gets in and sits at the kitchen table while Yoon-yi cooks up a storm for his birthday meal. He notes how filthy her place is, and she explains that she's too busy organizing his life to manage her own. She rattles on about how her taxes are always late, she forgets to pay her bills, and boyfriends always leave her, until Chi-won asks if she's finished whining so he can eat.
He tries the soup, then looks like he's struggling not to gag at how salty it is, though he tries to save Yoon-yi's feelings by saying it's just hot. She urges him to try an egg roll, and his hand actually shakes as he forces it into his mouth, then he swallows without even chewing it. LOL. Back at his place later, Chi-won chugs water, trying to rid his mouth of the salty aftertaste. He even gets up several times during the night to drink more water, poor thing.
The next morning, Yoon-yi runs to catch the elevator with Chi-won, but she stops short to see that new employee Chang-soo is there, too. She ignores his cheerful greeting and smacks his hand when he tries to secretly hold hers, but when Chi-won gets off at their floor, Yoon-yi stays in the elevator with Chang-soo.
They find a private place to talk, and Yoon-yi tells Chang-soo to transfer to another department. Chang-soo argues that he worked really hard to get this job working with her, and asks if they can start over. He promises that he's changed, and that he isn't a loser or a moocher anymore.
She snaps that he's being a loser right now, but he says that he wants to transition from their former campus couple status to a company couple. He reveals that an army sunbae who works for YB Group told him that she's single, and when she frowns angrily, he says at least her hating him is better than indifference.
Yoon-yi tells him that as far as anyone at the company is to know, they just met today. She leaves, and Chang-soo smiles at her back and says that today is their first day. He's giving me the creeps.
Back at her desk, a fuming Yoon-yi doodles Chang-soo's name surrounded by insults. Yul sneaks up and grabs her notebook, and she grabs it back saying there are a lot of secrets in there. He assumes she means Chi-won's secrets and holds up his phone, saying that he's got a few secrets, too.
Chi-won comes out to give Yoon-yi the ID and password for his schedule, making both Yoon-yi and Yul gape incredulously. Yul invites Chi-won to lunch, but Chi-won just walks off, leaving Yul to marvel at how much he's changed. Alone in the elevator, Chi-won looks up at the scrolling sign and imagines it mocking his words to Yoon-yi from last night: "Stay with me! Stay with me!" He feels embarrassed and bangs his head on the wall, and gets caught by a couple of employees when the door opens, ha.
Yul follows Yoon-yi around the office, begging her to tell him how she got Chi-won to show her his schedule (which he compares to showing her his underwear). He even offers to show her the video of drunk Chi-won on his phone, but she says he owes her for finding his 89th secretary.
She wants to know how Chi-won ended up leaving Channel Y and working for YB Group. Yul just says it was a trick of the elders, quoting the old adage to keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. Yoon-yi is sure it wasn't that easy, and Yul lets slip that there was a "broker."
Cut to: VP Do, having lunch with Chi-won. He gives him a birthday gift of a vinyl record and says it's from his ex-wife. He sighs that she's terrible at wrapping gifts and doesn't take after him at all, and Chi-won quips that that's why she's so pretty. VP Do is Chi-won's ex-father-in-law! They argue over whether Chi-won should call his ex to thank her for the gift, and VP Do sighs that Chi-won doesn't know women at all if he thought she really didn't want him to call. He adds sarcastically that their divorce got them both what they wanted-Chi-won's freedom and his daughter's life back.
We visit the night when Chi-won told VP Do that he was divorcing his daughter in a flashback. VP Do said he was against it but that they should do what they want, on one condition: that Chi-won join the new broadcasting team at YB Ad for one year. He told Chi-won that if he hated the way the company runs so much, to do something about it from the inside.
Chi-won said that he didn't get along with conglomerates, and VP Do lost his temper. He yelled that it was lack of effort, just like he didn't put effort into his marriage, then gulped straight from the soju bottle. Ouch. Back in the present, VP Do offers Chi-won coffee after their meal, but Chi-won takes two yogurt drinks instead.
While at lunch with her friends, Yoon-yi giggles and moons over Chi-won's schedule, opening herself up to a whole boatload of teasing. She tells them how he asked her to stay with him, and that sharing his schedule is his way of showing his sincerity.
When she says that Chi-won isn't interested in the Best Boss competition, Bo-na says she was looking forward to their bosses competing, though her expression seems triumphant. Kyung-rye jokes that it would have been more fun seeing Bo-na and Yoon-yi compete, and Jung-ae's squeaks of "I'm competing too," go ignored as Bo-na gets angry at Kyung-rye.
Bo-na snaps that the competition is really stressful, but Jung-ae remembers her saying on the elevator that it would be fun (when she heard that Director Bong was entering). As her friends continue to bicker, Yoon-yi frowns at Chang-soo, who's standing at the window holding up a yogurt drink and shooting finger-hearts at her.
When she gets back to her desk, there's a yogurt drink waiting for her, and Yoon-yi assumes it's from Chang-soo and throws it out. Chi-won watches her from inside his office, drinking one of the yogurts he got and wondering why Yoon-yi threw away his little gift.
Yul gets bored during a yearly planning meeting and decides that they're going to start doing things differently. He says he wants to start a new sports business, and draws them close to whisper his idea of... e-sports (competitive video games). It goes over like a lead balloon, and he storms back to his office, vowing to win the BBA and make his idea a reality. He asks Jung-ae what she thinks of his e-sports idea, and she clearly has no clue what he's talking about. Yul gets a text and grows very excited to learn that a famous designer will be selling limited-edition sneakers. He sees that there will only be five pairs in the whole country, and he tells Jung-ae she'd better get in line now.
There are now two cacti on Chi-won's desk when he tells Yoon-yi that he won't be at the team dinner tonight. She sees his discarded yogurt drink, and he fibs that the restaurant gave him two even though he totally didn't want them. But he can't hide his annoyance that she threw hers away, and she goes back to look for it in her trash can. She's upset that the trash has already been taken out, and Chang-soo slides over to say he'll buy her a whole pack of yogurt drinks.
When Yoon-yi finds Jung-ae in the break room, she shows her the online forum she moderates, Jugglers. She tells Jung-ae to post a question asking how to buy limited-edition sneakers, promising that she'll get plenty of help that way. Yoon-yi is at the team dinner with the rest of her coworkers when she gets a call from Chi-won. He's lost his keys and wants her to bring him a spare, but she reminds him that it's after work hours, which makes her his landlord.
He tries ordering her, but Yoon-yi doesn't bite. She says that the tenant should come get the key himself, otherwise he's welcome to go to a sauna until she gets home, then hangs up on him. HAHA.
After getting advice from other secretaries, Jung-ae heads to the shoe store to wait in line for Yul's shoes. She's dismayed to see more than five people already camped out, but she was told not to give up because some people will bail. She settles in and steels herself against her three biggest challenges: cold, hunger and sleepiness.
Chi-won's team bolts to attention when he actually shows up at the bar, and Yoon-yi makes it sound as if he purposely joined them. He declines a seat at the head of the table and sits next to Yoon-yi so that he can demand the gate key.
But Yoon-yi says that's not how you ask a favor, and promises to give him the key after dinner. Chi-won stays, and even shocks the entire team by pouring each of them a drink. Afterward, Yoon-yi changes her mind and says Chi-won can't have the key until after round two, and he starts plotting revenge when they get back to the office. Round two is at a noraebang, where Chi-won is roped into singing. He's horrible, so Yoon-yi quickly jumps in to finish the song. Soon the whole team is singing and dancing, all except for Chang-soo.
He gets up to croon a series of ballads, all of them about a guy pining for a girl. Yoon-yi just rolls her eyes at him as she chatters to Chi-won, so the next time she steps out to the restroom, Chang-soo corners her in the hallway. He asks if she likes Chi-won, and she mutters that he's crazy and tries to pass him. But Chang-soo grabs her wrist and yanks her back, saying that he knows that where her eyes go, her heart follows. Yoon-yi refuses to dignify that with an answer and demands that he let her go, but he only tightens his grip.
Suddenly a hand clamps down on Chang-soo's own wrist-it's Chi-won, and he orders Chang-soo to let go of Yoon-yi. Chang-soo doesn't, instead telling Chi-won to stay out of their private conversation. Chi-won repeats his order to let go, but Chang-soo tells him to let go first. Locked in a three-way standoff, Chang-soo asks Chi-won if he likes Yoon-yi. Chi-won hesitates, but he answers no, and Chang-soo says that he does. Chi-won doesn't think they've known each other long enough for that, but Chang-soo retorts that he feels a connection to Yoon-yi, as if they've known each other for years.
Chi-won says that as her boss, he's obligated to step in, so he asks Yoon-yi if she likes Chang-soo. She says she doesn't, and Chang-soo blurts out, "She'll like me again!" It nearly gives away their history together, but he says he misspoke, and Chi-won tells him that if the feelings aren't mutual, then his actions are assault.
He says that he has a nasty habit of meeting violence with violence, and squeezes Chang-soo's wrist until he finally lets go of Yoon-yi. They're stopped from escalating any further when the team comes out, ready to leave.
Chi-won and Yoon-yi walk home together, and she finally gives his keys back. He thinks she swiped them on purpose, but she swears she found them in his office after he left. She says she knew he'd think to call her first, because he tends to think of her when he feels helpless or embarrassed. She tells Chi-won not to take it personally, because a lot of bosses call their assistants in those situations. She thanks him for standing up for her with Chang-soo and says he looked cool. He gives her a box containing a beautiful star-shaped crystal necklace, and when she grows flustered, he says that it's a souvenir from a convention and he didn't have anyone else to give it to. He tells her not to throw this gift away, and she thanks him with a giant smile.
As they walk on, Chi-won asks why Chang-soo is acting like he is towards her. He still thinks they just met, and he says that Yoon-yi isn't exactly a femme fatale, so he thinks she must be sending him mixed signals. Yoon-yi gets angry at the implication that she's leading Chang-soo on, and she barks that it's none of his business if she does or doesn't, since he said he's not interested in her. She stomps off, and when Chi-won asks where she's going, she yells back, "To drink alone!" As the night wears on, Jung-ae starts to get hungry. She reminds herself that she'll need to use the bathroom if she eats too much, but she weakens at the sight of a nearby food cart. A little while later, a guy on a delivery scooter pulls up and starts to set a table in front of Jung-ae.
He says that her boyfriend ordered the food, and despite her protests that she has no boyfriend, he lays out enough food for an army. Seeing their hungry faces, she invites the other people in line to help her eat it all. At the house, Chi-won waits for Yoon-yi on his balcony. He notices a young man in a soldier's uniform loitering around the front gate, so he goes out to ask what he's doing here. The guy answers that he used to live here with Yoon-yi, which shocks him.
Chi-won calls her for confirmation and says that some guy named Tae-yi is at the house, and she confirms that yes, she lived with him. Chi-won hangs up on her and invites Tae-yi in, and the two guys eyeball each other suspiciously until Chi-won notices what looks like a bruise on Tae-yi's neck.
He remembers the intruder the other night, and he instantly suspects that it was Tae-yi. He asks if he's on leave and Tae-yi says yes, then Chi-won suddenly lunges. Tae-yi leaps back, and Chi-won asks if he's scared he'll choke him again. He manages to grab Tae-yi and confirm that he does have a bruised neck. He asks how his hair is so long if he's out on leave, and even finds the long fingernails Tae-yi scratched him with. The kid tries to escape, but Chi-won throws him to the ground, then trips and falls next to him. Yoon-yi arrives home to find the two moaning in pain, and Tae-yi cries a plaintive, "Noona!" Chi-won finally sees the surname on Tae-yi's uniform, Jwa, and belatedly realizes that this is Yoon-yi's brother.
Yoon-yi takes them inside and plugs up Tae-yi's bleeding nose with tissue. She learns that he took an early medical discharge and has been living in the basement for three months, and he whines that the base where he was stationed was soooo hard. He makes it sound like hell, until Chi-won pipes up, "That's where I served."
Jung-ae is still hanging in there in line the next morning, but all the food she ate is beginning to make her uncomfortable. She holds out while a few people give up and run for a bathroom, putting her at fifth place in line just as the store opens. Yul is so thrilled to have the coveted shoes that he picks up Jung-ae and spins her around the room. He reminds her that she promised to help him with the Best Boss competition, and Jung-ae just blinks at him dizzily.
In the morning, Chi-won gives Yoon-yi a ride to work, though she peevishly refuses to sit in the front seat because, "I don't want to give mixed signals." They're headed to a meeting at the main YG Group building, and Yoon-yi is overwhelmed with memories as soon as she walks into the lobby. Chi-won calls her into the elevator, and they're joined by her old boss, Director Bong. He doesn't say anything to Yoon-yi, who looks like she wants to cry. She follows Chi-won out of the elevator, and Director Bong calls out to her, asking her to come see him later. When Chi-won gets out of his meeting, he texts Yoon-yi, and she replies that she's on the roof. She's there with Director Bong, who calls her rude for ignoring him. He reminds her that he promised to pull her up with him when the time was right, questioning her honor for taking another position.
Yoon-yi says that it's funny to hear him talk of honor, when he dumped her after she was loyal to him for three years. He tells her not to blame her for his wife's actions, but she says that she knows it was him who posted those photos of them together. She knows that she knew too much about him, so he decided to get rid of her.
Sure enough, we see that it was Director Bong who anonymously posted those pictures on the company website. but he lies to Yoon-yi's face, swearing it wasn't him. She demands an apology, and Director Bong gets offended. He says that she did like him, because only someone who liked him would have been more devoted than his wife.
He accuses her of giving off mixed signals, claiming that his morals were too high to fall for it. He sarcastically wishes her luck as the secretary who seduced her boss, and leaves her speechless and crying. As he storms back to the elevator, he doesn't notice that Chi-won is nearby and heard every word.
Applying lessons learned from comic books Chi-won follows Director Bong into the elevator and calmly stops it mid-floor. He asks if Director Bong likes comic books, and quotes the character Usopp from One Piece: "There comes a time in a man's life when he must never avoid a fight. When his friend's dreams are laughed at."
As he's speaking, he stalks Director Bong around the elevator, and his voice rises until he's shouting the last word, punctuating it with a fist into the wall right by Director Bong's head. Director Bong shrieks and cringes like a wuss. Chi-won tells him that this was just the preliminary round, and that he won't miss during the main round.
Sun, Dec 24, 2017
After his meeting, Chi-won goes looking for Yoon-yi on the building's roof. He finds her in the midst of being berated by her old boss, Director Bong, just as he accuses her of giving mixed signals, which he took as proof that she liked him.
It reminds Chi-won that he similarly accused Yoon-yi of sending mixed signals to Chang-soo, her ex-boyfriend. He follows Director Bong into the elevator, and quotes Usopp from One Piece ("There comes a time in a man's life when he must never avoid a fight. When his friend's dreams are laughed at.") before slamming his fist into the wall next to Director Bong's head.
As fear reduces Director Bong to a quivering excuse for a man, Chi-won tells him that this is just the preliminary round, and that he won't miss during the final round. He warns Director Bong never to mistreat his assistant again and leaves him huffing impotently.
Unaware of the confrontation, Yoon-yi heads to the lobby in a daze after Director Bong's verbal attack. She sees Chi-won waiting for her, looking like an angel with a beautiful backlit glow, and she smiles at him as if she's finally found a safe place to relax.
They go to a convenience store for ramyun, and when Yoon-yi asks why they're eating hangover food, he says that he just thought she needed it. Awww. Chi-won surprises Yoon-yi by apologizing for his mixed signals comment, admitting that he made a mistaken assumption and that it was a terrible thing to say. Later, Bo-na sees Chi-won turning in an application for the Best Boss Award competition (BBA). She finds Yoon-yi having coffee with Jung-ae and Kyung-rye, and asks accusingly why Yoon-yi didn't mention it. It's a complete surprise to Yoon-yi, who picks up on Bo-na's annoyed tone.
She asks if Bo-na is upset that she and Chi-won will be competing against her and Assistant Director Jo, noting that she often speaks negatively about Chi-won. Bo-na says defensively that they all talk about their bosses behind their backs, then she realizes that Yoon-yi never does that and asks if she's dating Chi-won.
Just when it looks like things might get really nasty, Bo-na rushes off at the sound of Assistant Director Jo's laughter. He's excited that his department swept the Cannes Lions awards (a prestigious global advertising festival), and his toadies, including Bo-na, all say that he'll win the BBA and become vice-president in no time. Yoon-yi asks Chi-won why he had a change of heart about the BBA, and as usual he asks if he has to explain himself, though he can't hide his mischievous grin at her obvious delight. She does a little happy dance at her desk, then gets to work planning.
But Team Leader Gong is worried about something, and whatever it is upsets Assistant Director Jo so badly that he storms into Chi-won's office, literally kicking the door down. He's angry that today's news didn't include his Cannes Lions wins, and Chi-won calmly explains that he removed that segment from the broadcast because his work was all plagiarized.
He reminds Assistant Director Jo that whenever they hold a student contest, he declares no winner, then edits the contestants' work and turns it into ads. Assistant Director Jo pales, then splutters it's an homage, not plagiarism. Chi-won says that gives him a good idea for next week's feature, asking Assistant Director Jo how he likes the sound of "Is It Okay for Companies to Steal Ideas," hee.
Later Yoon-yi reminds Chi-won that she has to do a presentation about him in the third round of the BBA competition. She asks if she can interview him, but before she even completes the sentence, he refuses. He tells her to stop trying to learn more about him and just to present what she sees and feels.
She actually likes the idea and gets to work, but she's interrupted by a summons by Assistant Director Jo. In the boiler room, he asks dramatically if it's true that Chi-won is participating in the BBA, then he lunges at Yoon-yi... but only to give her an aggressive thumbs-up.
He assumes she persuaded Chi-won and applauds her skills, elated to have a chance to crush Chi-won in front of the entire company. Assuming that Chi-won is so secretive because he has a dark background, Assistant Director Jo tells Yoon-yi to do some digging and see what she can find. After Yoon-yi leaves, Assistant Director Jo makes a call to someone, telling them to find out what Chi-won and Yoon-yi do every day and report back to him.
Yul grows frustrated when he loses yet again to his online gaming nemesis, a player who goes by the handle "T-Rex Claw." He's grumpy enough to instant message T-Rex Claw and invite him to fight, and surprisingly, the player tells him to meet him at a nearby internet cafe.
While making Yul a drink (with about six inches of whipped cream), Jung-ae gets a call from her younger sister, Mi-ae, who lives in Chicago and whose identity Jung-ae used to get this job. Mi-ae complains that she hasn't been able to reach Jung-ae's husband and has been worried sick, but when a coworker enters the break room, Jung-ae loudly calls Mi-ae "unni" and hangs up on her. Chang-soo, Yoon-yi's ex, brings a gift of dried persimmons for her mother. Yoon-yi rolls her eyes and shoves the box back at him (nearly hitting him in the jewels, ouch!) and snaps to give them to his mother, but he just says she's thoughtful to think of his mom.
During a meeting, Chi-won glares at Chang-soo as he gets up in Yoon-yi's personal space, inviting her to spend Christmas with him. Chi-won peevishly assigns Chang-soo to cover an out-of-town story over Christmas, making Chang-soo pout and Yoon-yi grin in amusement. It's obvious to everyone that Chi-won gave Chang-soo the assignment as retaliation for something, but although he remembers the confrontation with Yoon-yi and Chi-won at the team dinner, he acts as though he did nothing to deserve being sent away. Chi-won spends the afternoon at his boxing gym, and he turns down an invitation to go out for beers afterward. His buddy complains that he always says he's busy, and Chi-won just quips, "I know, it sounds like a lie, doesn't it?" HA.
His water is out when he gets home, and the plumber tells Yoon-yi that the repairs will take some time. Since Chi-won refuses to go to a sauna, she invites him to use her shower. It's hard to say which scandalizes Chi-won more - her filthy bathroom, or her bras and panties hanging all over the room.
While Chi-won is showering, Yoon-yi's mother calls to yell at her for not having a date on Christmas. During Mom's tirade, Chi-won steps out of the bathroom and thanks Yoon-yi, and although she frantically shushes him, Mom hears him. Yoon-yi quickly hangs up, but her mother is too happy to care.
Over coffee, Yoon-yi apologizes for the old pipes in the house, complaining that nobody wants to buy it. Chi-won is surprised that she's trying to sell the house, but she says that it's too locally famous for being haunted after a fire where someone died. When Chi-won stiffens, Yoon-yi apologizes for not telling him sooner, but he says flatly that he doesn't care.
She asks why he wants to live here when he could afford a much nicer place with his salary. Chi-won sighs, then says that the ginkgo tree in the courtyard must have possessed him. On Christmas morning, Yul goes to the internet cafe to meet with "T-rex Claw," the online gamer. He finds him, and HAHA, it's Gun-woo, Jung-ae's son. Yul challenges Gun-woo to a game, and gets soundly trounced by the kid.
He hands over his business card and brags that he's going to turn his department into an e-sports business. He starts to ask if Gun-woo would be interested in playing for him, but Gun-woo just rolls his eyes and walks away while Yul is still talking. He runs into some older boys on his way outside, who have apparently been shaking him down for cash regularly. They start to bully him, but the leader suddenly finds his hand in Yul's death-grip.
Evidently Yul is a better talker than a fighter, because they all end up at the police station, Yul sporting the most bruises. Jung-ae runs in to fawn over her baby, and she and Yul freeze when they recognize each other. The cop asks whose guardian she is, and she thinks fast and answers, "Both of them." At Yul's questioning look, Gun-woo says that Jung-ae is his aunt. After they're released, Yul invites Gun-woo and Jung-ae to eat, but Jung-ae says they have plans to eat at home. Yul says sadly that you should be with family on Christmas, and he turns to go.
A few steps down the street he doubles over, clutching his side. Jung-ae takes pity on him and says they can go eat together somewhere nearby, making Gun-woo glare and Yul grin. He insists on serving Jung-ae and Gun-woo at the restaurant, saying that he's not her boss on their days off. Gun-woo gives Jung-ae major side-eye when Yul calls her "Mi-ae," which makes Yul scold him and say that he's probably bad to his mother, too.
He tells Gun-woo to be a good son, adding, "I can't be no matter how much I want to. She died so young." Still smiling, he says they should invite Gun-woo's mother too, but Jung-ae fibs that she's at home cooking for the holiday. Yul tells Gun-woo that he's jealous that he has a mother waiting with a home-cooked meal and he's a good gamer, and his smile falters a bit when he says that he never ate his own mother's cooking.
The plumber took the day off for Christmas even though Chi-won's pipes are still broken, so Chi-won says he'll just stay at a motel. But they all turn out to be booked for the holiday, so Yoon-yi sets up a tent in her living room for him to sleep in. Chi-won seems nervous that she might have canceled plans because of him, but she assures him that's not the case. It's a big fat lie - Yoon-yi was supposed to go to a party with her friends, but she tells them she can't make it. Chi-won loses sight of Yoon-yi as he's looking at her old photos, so he creeps around the tent looking for her. She pops up right in his face, and they freeze there, nose-to-nose, Yoon-yi stammering and Chi-won just staring.
The moment is broken when Yoon-yi's brother Tae-yi walks in unexpectedly. Yoon-yi shoves Chi-won into the tent and zips them both in so that all Tae-yi can see is her face. She claims she's sleeping in the tent tonight because it's warm, so Tae-yi climbs in too and finds Chi-won inside, looking guilty as sin. Yoon-yi pulls Tae-yi aside to explain the situation, warning him not to think anything strange, and above all, not to tell their mother. Tae-yi solemnly swears, then immediately texts their mom to tattle that Big Sis has a man, who just happens to be the upstairs tenant.
In the middle of the night, Yoon-yi stirs at the sound of Chi-won's coughing. She takes him some extra blankets, tucking him in without waking him, then zips him back into the tent and tiptoes off. The next day, Yoon-yi's mom goes to Kyung-rye again for information about her daughter's love life. Kyung-rye accidentally lets slip that not only is Chi-won Yoon-yi's tenant, but he's also her boss, which makes Mom even more upset.
At the office, Yul narrows his eyes at Chi-won and Yoon-yi, then gives them both a good sniff. He asks why they both smell like the same shampoo, starting the office rumor mill churning and Chang-soo banging his head on his desk. Luckily the team isn't too bright, and concludes that they just bought shampoo together in a buy-one-get-one deal.
But someone sends out an email blast to the whole company, mentioning that Chi-won and Yoon-yi use the same shampoo and attaching a picture of them leaving Yoon-yi's house together. When he sees the email, Assistant Director Jo lets loose an evil cackle, which Bo-na witnesses from her desk.
At lunchtime, Yul's team all make excuses so they won't have to eat with him, making him sigh heavily (I don't understand why nobody likes him, he's such a sweetheart). Jung-ae takes him to the break room and unpacks a home-made feast, and when he tastes the food, Yul looks for a moment as though he might cry. But he perks up and says it's delicious, digging in gratefully.
Jung-ae confesses that she's nervous about the BBA presentation, but Yul tells her not to copy what the others are doing, but to just be herself. So she shuts off the computer and takes out a simple pen and paper, and gets to work.
Yoon-yi's mom goes right to the source, meeting Chi-won for lunch to ask why he didn't mention that he's Yoon-yi's boss when he signed the lease. Hee doesn't offer excuses, but just apologizes. Mom asks why he's renting such a run-down place, but Yoon-yi arrives, having been alerted by Kyung-rye. She's frantic to get her mother away from Chi-won, but Chi-won calmly invites her to sit. Her mom asks again why Chi-won moved into their tiny apartment, and he says hesitantly, "It's... where I used to live."
Putting that information together with Chi-won's cryptic statement that the ginkgo tree possessed him, Yoon-yi starts to look very uncomfortable. Her mother keeps pushing for information, so Chi-won tells her that he lived there with his uncle, but that he has no family now. Yoon-yi finally gets her mother to leave, and once they're out of the restaurant, her mom orders her to kick Chi-won out immediately. Yoon-yi refuses, saying that it's her house, and her mother accuses her of having feelings for Chi-won.
She forbids Yoon-yi to have any kind of relationship with Chi-won, saying that he must have gotten divorced because he's either poor, abusive, or a cheater. Yoon-yi jumps to his defense, but when her mother asks what she knows about him, there's nothing she can say. She still refuses to kick him out, so her mother says that it's that, or go on a blind date.
Back at the office, Yoon-yi finds Chi-won and apologizes. He says that it's natural for her mother to be curious about him, but Yoon-yi asks why he was so honest, when he's been so vague with her. He says, "Because she's your mother. She was worried about her child, and left early to take the first bus from the suburbs, so I couldn't lie to her. I'm not that shameless." He says it with adorable sheepish smile, and Yoon-yi can't think of anything to say. She stays up late that night working on her BBA presentation, and she texts Chi-won to look forward to it. She promises to show his humane side that nobody knows, and he grins as he stands there in his poofy panther slippers.
The BBA competition begins the next day, and each boss starts by making a speech about what it means to be a leader. It turns into a bit of a debate between Chi-won and Assistant Director Jo, with Director Bong growing agitated as he tries to get a word in edgewise.
Director Bong finally demands a chance to speak, but as soon as he starts, Yul stands up and bellows loudly, "Your Majesty! We still have twelve ships remaining!" HA, he's quoting General Lee Soon-shin, which gives Vice President Do a fit of the giggles. After the first round, Chi-won is in first place, followed by Assistant Director Jo, Director Bong, and Yul, in that order.
When it's time for the assistant's speeches, Bo-na goes first, and her presentation about the kind of boss Assistant Director Jo is, is obviously geared more towards winning than truth. Jung-ae does a Love, Actually-inspired presentation, listing Yul's faults honestly on a series of poster boards, like how he gets to work just in time to eat. She describes how he's always asking people, "Did you eat?" She says that she realized after coming to work for Yul that nobody had asked her that in a long time, and she thanks him for asking if she's eaten and showing that he cares. That's super sweet.
Yoon-yi's speech is last, and she begins by saying that assistants change the soles on their shoes more often than anything else. She calls them the most pathetic things an assistant owns, something they don't want others to see, and tells the story about how Chi-won rescued her shoe when she was fired. Yoon-yi says that despite his cold exterior, Chi-won has a surprising twist hidden deep inside. She turns on the video projector, but instead of whatever she'd prepared, an old news story about a tragic car accident begins to play. Chi-won sits, bewildered, as the newscaster describes the couple and their twelve-year-old daughter were killed, and that their eight-year-old son was rescued after spending nearly twenty-two hours trapped in the vehicle. Oh damn, this is horrifying.
The audience puts the clues together, guessing that Chi-won is the little boy who survived. Yoon-yi is shocked, and she tries to explain to Chi-won that this isn't what she prepared, but he's too far inside himself to hear her. He just stares at her, then turns away just as fireworks start to fly from the edge of the stage. The fireworks trigger Chi-won's flashbacks, and he sees flashes of a fire and a mangled car, and hears voices calling him bad luck and asking how many people he's killed. Chi-won rears back from the flying sparks, then falls to the stage, unconscious. Yoon-yi hovers over him, begging him to wake up.
It reminds Chi-won that he similarly accused Yoon-yi of sending mixed signals to Chang-soo, her ex-boyfriend. He follows Director Bong into the elevator, and quotes Usopp from One Piece ("There comes a time in a man's life when he must never avoid a fight. When his friend's dreams are laughed at.") before slamming his fist into the wall next to Director Bong's head.
As fear reduces Director Bong to a quivering excuse for a man, Chi-won tells him that this is just the preliminary round, and that he won't miss during the final round. He warns Director Bong never to mistreat his assistant again and leaves him huffing impotently.
Unaware of the confrontation, Yoon-yi heads to the lobby in a daze after Director Bong's verbal attack. She sees Chi-won waiting for her, looking like an angel with a beautiful backlit glow, and she smiles at him as if she's finally found a safe place to relax.
They go to a convenience store for ramyun, and when Yoon-yi asks why they're eating hangover food, he says that he just thought she needed it. Awww. Chi-won surprises Yoon-yi by apologizing for his mixed signals comment, admitting that he made a mistaken assumption and that it was a terrible thing to say. Later, Bo-na sees Chi-won turning in an application for the Best Boss Award competition (BBA). She finds Yoon-yi having coffee with Jung-ae and Kyung-rye, and asks accusingly why Yoon-yi didn't mention it. It's a complete surprise to Yoon-yi, who picks up on Bo-na's annoyed tone.
She asks if Bo-na is upset that she and Chi-won will be competing against her and Assistant Director Jo, noting that she often speaks negatively about Chi-won. Bo-na says defensively that they all talk about their bosses behind their backs, then she realizes that Yoon-yi never does that and asks if she's dating Chi-won.
Just when it looks like things might get really nasty, Bo-na rushes off at the sound of Assistant Director Jo's laughter. He's excited that his department swept the Cannes Lions awards (a prestigious global advertising festival), and his toadies, including Bo-na, all say that he'll win the BBA and become vice-president in no time. Yoon-yi asks Chi-won why he had a change of heart about the BBA, and as usual he asks if he has to explain himself, though he can't hide his mischievous grin at her obvious delight. She does a little happy dance at her desk, then gets to work planning.
But Team Leader Gong is worried about something, and whatever it is upsets Assistant Director Jo so badly that he storms into Chi-won's office, literally kicking the door down. He's angry that today's news didn't include his Cannes Lions wins, and Chi-won calmly explains that he removed that segment from the broadcast because his work was all plagiarized.
He reminds Assistant Director Jo that whenever they hold a student contest, he declares no winner, then edits the contestants' work and turns it into ads. Assistant Director Jo pales, then splutters it's an homage, not plagiarism. Chi-won says that gives him a good idea for next week's feature, asking Assistant Director Jo how he likes the sound of "Is It Okay for Companies to Steal Ideas," hee.
Later Yoon-yi reminds Chi-won that she has to do a presentation about him in the third round of the BBA competition. She asks if she can interview him, but before she even completes the sentence, he refuses. He tells her to stop trying to learn more about him and just to present what she sees and feels.
She actually likes the idea and gets to work, but she's interrupted by a summons by Assistant Director Jo. In the boiler room, he asks dramatically if it's true that Chi-won is participating in the BBA, then he lunges at Yoon-yi... but only to give her an aggressive thumbs-up.
He assumes she persuaded Chi-won and applauds her skills, elated to have a chance to crush Chi-won in front of the entire company. Assuming that Chi-won is so secretive because he has a dark background, Assistant Director Jo tells Yoon-yi to do some digging and see what she can find. After Yoon-yi leaves, Assistant Director Jo makes a call to someone, telling them to find out what Chi-won and Yoon-yi do every day and report back to him.
Yul grows frustrated when he loses yet again to his online gaming nemesis, a player who goes by the handle "T-Rex Claw." He's grumpy enough to instant message T-Rex Claw and invite him to fight, and surprisingly, the player tells him to meet him at a nearby internet cafe.
While making Yul a drink (with about six inches of whipped cream), Jung-ae gets a call from her younger sister, Mi-ae, who lives in Chicago and whose identity Jung-ae used to get this job. Mi-ae complains that she hasn't been able to reach Jung-ae's husband and has been worried sick, but when a coworker enters the break room, Jung-ae loudly calls Mi-ae "unni" and hangs up on her. Chang-soo, Yoon-yi's ex, brings a gift of dried persimmons for her mother. Yoon-yi rolls her eyes and shoves the box back at him (nearly hitting him in the jewels, ouch!) and snaps to give them to his mother, but he just says she's thoughtful to think of his mom.
During a meeting, Chi-won glares at Chang-soo as he gets up in Yoon-yi's personal space, inviting her to spend Christmas with him. Chi-won peevishly assigns Chang-soo to cover an out-of-town story over Christmas, making Chang-soo pout and Yoon-yi grin in amusement. It's obvious to everyone that Chi-won gave Chang-soo the assignment as retaliation for something, but although he remembers the confrontation with Yoon-yi and Chi-won at the team dinner, he acts as though he did nothing to deserve being sent away. Chi-won spends the afternoon at his boxing gym, and he turns down an invitation to go out for beers afterward. His buddy complains that he always says he's busy, and Chi-won just quips, "I know, it sounds like a lie, doesn't it?" HA.
His water is out when he gets home, and the plumber tells Yoon-yi that the repairs will take some time. Since Chi-won refuses to go to a sauna, she invites him to use her shower. It's hard to say which scandalizes Chi-won more - her filthy bathroom, or her bras and panties hanging all over the room.
While Chi-won is showering, Yoon-yi's mother calls to yell at her for not having a date on Christmas. During Mom's tirade, Chi-won steps out of the bathroom and thanks Yoon-yi, and although she frantically shushes him, Mom hears him. Yoon-yi quickly hangs up, but her mother is too happy to care.
Over coffee, Yoon-yi apologizes for the old pipes in the house, complaining that nobody wants to buy it. Chi-won is surprised that she's trying to sell the house, but she says that it's too locally famous for being haunted after a fire where someone died. When Chi-won stiffens, Yoon-yi apologizes for not telling him sooner, but he says flatly that he doesn't care.
She asks why he wants to live here when he could afford a much nicer place with his salary. Chi-won sighs, then says that the ginkgo tree in the courtyard must have possessed him. On Christmas morning, Yul goes to the internet cafe to meet with "T-rex Claw," the online gamer. He finds him, and HAHA, it's Gun-woo, Jung-ae's son. Yul challenges Gun-woo to a game, and gets soundly trounced by the kid.
He hands over his business card and brags that he's going to turn his department into an e-sports business. He starts to ask if Gun-woo would be interested in playing for him, but Gun-woo just rolls his eyes and walks away while Yul is still talking. He runs into some older boys on his way outside, who have apparently been shaking him down for cash regularly. They start to bully him, but the leader suddenly finds his hand in Yul's death-grip.
Evidently Yul is a better talker than a fighter, because they all end up at the police station, Yul sporting the most bruises. Jung-ae runs in to fawn over her baby, and she and Yul freeze when they recognize each other. The cop asks whose guardian she is, and she thinks fast and answers, "Both of them." At Yul's questioning look, Gun-woo says that Jung-ae is his aunt. After they're released, Yul invites Gun-woo and Jung-ae to eat, but Jung-ae says they have plans to eat at home. Yul says sadly that you should be with family on Christmas, and he turns to go.
A few steps down the street he doubles over, clutching his side. Jung-ae takes pity on him and says they can go eat together somewhere nearby, making Gun-woo glare and Yul grin. He insists on serving Jung-ae and Gun-woo at the restaurant, saying that he's not her boss on their days off. Gun-woo gives Jung-ae major side-eye when Yul calls her "Mi-ae," which makes Yul scold him and say that he's probably bad to his mother, too.
He tells Gun-woo to be a good son, adding, "I can't be no matter how much I want to. She died so young." Still smiling, he says they should invite Gun-woo's mother too, but Jung-ae fibs that she's at home cooking for the holiday. Yul tells Gun-woo that he's jealous that he has a mother waiting with a home-cooked meal and he's a good gamer, and his smile falters a bit when he says that he never ate his own mother's cooking.
The plumber took the day off for Christmas even though Chi-won's pipes are still broken, so Chi-won says he'll just stay at a motel. But they all turn out to be booked for the holiday, so Yoon-yi sets up a tent in her living room for him to sleep in. Chi-won seems nervous that she might have canceled plans because of him, but she assures him that's not the case. It's a big fat lie - Yoon-yi was supposed to go to a party with her friends, but she tells them she can't make it. Chi-won loses sight of Yoon-yi as he's looking at her old photos, so he creeps around the tent looking for her. She pops up right in his face, and they freeze there, nose-to-nose, Yoon-yi stammering and Chi-won just staring.
The moment is broken when Yoon-yi's brother Tae-yi walks in unexpectedly. Yoon-yi shoves Chi-won into the tent and zips them both in so that all Tae-yi can see is her face. She claims she's sleeping in the tent tonight because it's warm, so Tae-yi climbs in too and finds Chi-won inside, looking guilty as sin. Yoon-yi pulls Tae-yi aside to explain the situation, warning him not to think anything strange, and above all, not to tell their mother. Tae-yi solemnly swears, then immediately texts their mom to tattle that Big Sis has a man, who just happens to be the upstairs tenant.
In the middle of the night, Yoon-yi stirs at the sound of Chi-won's coughing. She takes him some extra blankets, tucking him in without waking him, then zips him back into the tent and tiptoes off. The next day, Yoon-yi's mom goes to Kyung-rye again for information about her daughter's love life. Kyung-rye accidentally lets slip that not only is Chi-won Yoon-yi's tenant, but he's also her boss, which makes Mom even more upset.
At the office, Yul narrows his eyes at Chi-won and Yoon-yi, then gives them both a good sniff. He asks why they both smell like the same shampoo, starting the office rumor mill churning and Chang-soo banging his head on his desk. Luckily the team isn't too bright, and concludes that they just bought shampoo together in a buy-one-get-one deal.
But someone sends out an email blast to the whole company, mentioning that Chi-won and Yoon-yi use the same shampoo and attaching a picture of them leaving Yoon-yi's house together. When he sees the email, Assistant Director Jo lets loose an evil cackle, which Bo-na witnesses from her desk.
At lunchtime, Yul's team all make excuses so they won't have to eat with him, making him sigh heavily (I don't understand why nobody likes him, he's such a sweetheart). Jung-ae takes him to the break room and unpacks a home-made feast, and when he tastes the food, Yul looks for a moment as though he might cry. But he perks up and says it's delicious, digging in gratefully.
Jung-ae confesses that she's nervous about the BBA presentation, but Yul tells her not to copy what the others are doing, but to just be herself. So she shuts off the computer and takes out a simple pen and paper, and gets to work.
Yoon-yi's mom goes right to the source, meeting Chi-won for lunch to ask why he didn't mention that he's Yoon-yi's boss when he signed the lease. Hee doesn't offer excuses, but just apologizes. Mom asks why he's renting such a run-down place, but Yoon-yi arrives, having been alerted by Kyung-rye. She's frantic to get her mother away from Chi-won, but Chi-won calmly invites her to sit. Her mom asks again why Chi-won moved into their tiny apartment, and he says hesitantly, "It's... where I used to live."
Putting that information together with Chi-won's cryptic statement that the ginkgo tree possessed him, Yoon-yi starts to look very uncomfortable. Her mother keeps pushing for information, so Chi-won tells her that he lived there with his uncle, but that he has no family now. Yoon-yi finally gets her mother to leave, and once they're out of the restaurant, her mom orders her to kick Chi-won out immediately. Yoon-yi refuses, saying that it's her house, and her mother accuses her of having feelings for Chi-won.
She forbids Yoon-yi to have any kind of relationship with Chi-won, saying that he must have gotten divorced because he's either poor, abusive, or a cheater. Yoon-yi jumps to his defense, but when her mother asks what she knows about him, there's nothing she can say. She still refuses to kick him out, so her mother says that it's that, or go on a blind date.
Back at the office, Yoon-yi finds Chi-won and apologizes. He says that it's natural for her mother to be curious about him, but Yoon-yi asks why he was so honest, when he's been so vague with her. He says, "Because she's your mother. She was worried about her child, and left early to take the first bus from the suburbs, so I couldn't lie to her. I'm not that shameless." He says it with adorable sheepish smile, and Yoon-yi can't think of anything to say. She stays up late that night working on her BBA presentation, and she texts Chi-won to look forward to it. She promises to show his humane side that nobody knows, and he grins as he stands there in his poofy panther slippers.
The BBA competition begins the next day, and each boss starts by making a speech about what it means to be a leader. It turns into a bit of a debate between Chi-won and Assistant Director Jo, with Director Bong growing agitated as he tries to get a word in edgewise.
Director Bong finally demands a chance to speak, but as soon as he starts, Yul stands up and bellows loudly, "Your Majesty! We still have twelve ships remaining!" HA, he's quoting General Lee Soon-shin, which gives Vice President Do a fit of the giggles. After the first round, Chi-won is in first place, followed by Assistant Director Jo, Director Bong, and Yul, in that order.
When it's time for the assistant's speeches, Bo-na goes first, and her presentation about the kind of boss Assistant Director Jo is, is obviously geared more towards winning than truth. Jung-ae does a Love, Actually-inspired presentation, listing Yul's faults honestly on a series of poster boards, like how he gets to work just in time to eat. She describes how he's always asking people, "Did you eat?" She says that she realized after coming to work for Yul that nobody had asked her that in a long time, and she thanks him for asking if she's eaten and showing that he cares. That's super sweet.
Yoon-yi's speech is last, and she begins by saying that assistants change the soles on their shoes more often than anything else. She calls them the most pathetic things an assistant owns, something they don't want others to see, and tells the story about how Chi-won rescued her shoe when she was fired. Yoon-yi says that despite his cold exterior, Chi-won has a surprising twist hidden deep inside. She turns on the video projector, but instead of whatever she'd prepared, an old news story about a tragic car accident begins to play. Chi-won sits, bewildered, as the newscaster describes the couple and their twelve-year-old daughter were killed, and that their eight-year-old son was rescued after spending nearly twenty-two hours trapped in the vehicle. Oh damn, this is horrifying.
The audience puts the clues together, guessing that Chi-won is the little boy who survived. Yoon-yi is shocked, and she tries to explain to Chi-won that this isn't what she prepared, but he's too far inside himself to hear her. He just stares at her, then turns away just as fireworks start to fly from the edge of the stage. The fireworks trigger Chi-won's flashbacks, and he sees flashes of a fire and a mangled car, and hears voices calling him bad luck and asking how many people he's killed. Chi-won rears back from the flying sparks, then falls to the stage, unconscious. Yoon-yi hovers over him, begging him to wake up.
Mon, Dec 25, 2017
Young Chi-won sits at a triple funeral, alone and in tears. He overhears mourners saying that it would have been kinder if he'd died as well, and that nobody will want him after he killed his entire family.
A pair of paint-splattered hands covers his ears, and he looks up into the kind face of his uncle. Chi-won cries that it's all his fault, asking if he'll truly never see his family again, but his uncle says that from now on he'll be his father and his mother.
But only a few years later, Chi-won and his uncle are trapped in a house fire. His uncle saves Chi-won's life, but he dies in the blaze as Chi-won watches helplessly.
In the present, Yoon-yi watches over Chi-won as he lies in the hospital, still unconscious after the attack at the BBA competition. She leaves the room briefly, and he's gone when she comes back. Frantic with worry, she searches the hospital, until she gets a call from Vice President Do asking to meet with him. He kindly acknowledges that she must have been shocked, then tells her that he was once friends with Chi-won's uncle. He says his friend was a street artist who drew murals and portraits, and once he was commissioned to draw a movie sign for a children's film.
Being only eight years old, Chi-won had begged and whined to see the movie. So the whole family had driven to Seoul together, where they got into the accident that killed his parents and older sister. Vice President Do tells Yoon-yi that Chi-won lived with his uncle for a while, until his death in the fire.
Recalling that Chi-won told her mother that he'd lived in the upstairs apartment with his uncle, Yoon-yi realizes to her horror that his uncle was the man who died in the fire all those years ago. It explains Chi-won's extreme terror of flames, and Vice President Do asks Yoon-yi to stay by his side as a source of strength in spite of his many scars.
Chi-won visits an old mural that his uncle drew, smiling wistfully as he remembers his uncle bragging over his own artistic spirit. Yoon-yi finds him there, having been tipped off by Vice President Do, and she approaches him with an expression of sorrow and pity. Chi-won says that she probably knows everything she wanted to know about him now, but Yoon-yi says that this isn't what she wanted to know, or how she wanted to learn it. Seeming not to hear her, Chi-won continues, "I don't think I should have let you stay by my side from the start. Ever since I met you, everything's been a mess."
Yoon-yi asks tearfully what she can to do make him feel better, and he says coldly, "Disappear from my sight." Panic rising in her voice, Yoon-yi insists that she isn't responsible for the video about his family's accident. She begs him to believe her, but he just says,"I can't trust you anymore," and walks away leaving her stricken.
He finds Vice President Do and yells at him for telling Yoon-yi about his past, and for making her pity him. Vice President Do snaps that there's nothing wrong with pity, because pity just means that someone cares. Chi-won tells Vice President Do to stay out of his business and turns his back on him.
He sits in his car that night, recalling the moment he lost his trust in Yoon-yi. Assistant Director Jo had called him while he was still in the hospital, and had played the recording of his and Yoon-yi's first meeting, when he'd told her to be his spy. Chi-won had paled as he heard Yoon-yi asking Assistant Director Jo what he wanted her to do.
Yoon-yi takes a taxi home, sobbing her heart out as she also thinks about that conversation with Assistant Director Jo. He hadn't played the end of their conversation for Chi-won in which Yoon-yi had firmly refused to report anything to Assistant Director Jo, willing to lose her job rather than be disloyal, even to a boss she barely knew.
The next morning, Chi-won's team discusses the debacle at the BBA competition, which was canceled after Chi-won passed out. Assistant Director Jo tries to wheedle Vice President Do into declaring him the winner, arguing that a boss who passes out isn't a good leader, but Vice President Do sends him out with a one-finger salute worthy of Chi-won.
Yoon-yi braves Chi-won's office, intending to give him his schedule, but he cuts her off. She asks if he's okay, but he just takes a folder from her and heads off to a meeting without a word. Yoon-yi follows him, but he holds the doors open for her to get out, the way he did when they first met. Then Yul and Jung-ae join them, and she has to stay or draw their attention to the fact that something is wrong.
After the meeting, the assistants gossip about Chi-won as they straighten the conference room. Yoon-yi gets fed up with their negative chatter and orders them to stop talking bad about her boss, but they just accuse her of staying with Chi-won because she pities him. Yoon-yi's temper flares, and she threatens to rip the lips off the most outspoken of the assistants. The woman grabs her by the hair, Yoon-yi grabs her back, and it's not long before all the assistants are brawling.
Meanwhile, Chi-won pulls Assistant Director Jo aside and tells him not to use Yoon-yi to get to him again. Assistant Director Jo lies that he only asked her to keep an eye on him, blaming her for taking it too far. He claims that he was as shocked to see that news clip as anyone, and Chi-won says with deceptive calmness, "Then should I put you on the news, too?"
He tells Assistant Director Jo that the real reason he transferred to this job from Channel Y is to reveal the people like him, who use their title to oppress the weak. He says that he'll do things his way from now on, and all Assistant Director Jo has to do is look forward to it. Bo-na had entered the room at some point during their argument, and she'd crept back out again, unseen. Her father texts her asking for help with his rent, and she replies for him not to worry.
On his way back to his office, Chi-won hears shrieking, and he goes to the conference room to find Yoon-yi pinned to the floor by four other assistants. He bellows, and Yoon-yi shakes off her attackers then stands in front of him, shivering. But instead of yelling at her, he whispers, "Let's go," and leads her out with an arm around her shoulders and a parting glare for the other assistants.
In the elevator, Yoon-yi thanks Chi-won for coming to her rescue. She tries again to tell him that what happened at the BBA competition wasn't her doing, and she swears that even though Assistant Director Jo recommended her as Chi-won's assistant, she's never betrayed him. Chi-won only tells her to treat her hand, having noticed that she got badly scratched during the fight.
Assistant Director Jo confirms with Bo-na that she's good friends with Yoon-yi, saying that friends are just enemies you haven't attacked yet. He tells Bo-na that Vice President Do is retiring next year, and that if he gets promoted, so will she. He makes it clear that if she wants to improve her situation, she'll find out why Chi-won fainted on stage.
On payday, Jung-ae beams at her bankbook, excited to have received her first paycheck ever - until her teammates expect her to buy them treats, ha. She asks Yul for advice on choosing pair of sneakers as a gift, but he offers to go shopping with her instead, assuming the sneakers are for him.
He'd sent Chi-won the video from the night he got drunk, and Chi-won winces to see himself sloppily yelling "I love you!" at the ajumma server that night. Yul joins him for lunch, grinning that he's holding onto the original as blackmail material.
While they eat, Yul's usual cheerful mood fades. He says that he has no siblings, his father was always busy, and his mother died when he was barely two. He tells Chi-won that he doesn't even know what his mother looked like because his father had all of her pictures destroyed. He continues that at least Chi-won was loved by his parents and has memories of them, which makes him far better off then Yul. This seems to resonate with Chi-won, who tells Yul that his mother must have been beautiful because Yul has such a pretty face. Yul brightens, saying that Chi-won has good insight. He asks if Chi-won is using that insight to see what kind of person Yoon-yi is, because it's hard to find an assistant like her, as he well knows.
Back at the office, Team Leader Gong gives Chi-won the news that they've found a buyer for some video content. The only hitch is that they want to be shown a good time tonight, so Chi-won tells him to book a hostess bar and he'll join them after an offsite meeting. Yoon-yi is having a terrible day - Chi-won continues to ignore her, and her mother sends a text that she's lined up a blind date. After work, Team Leader Gong calls her at the last minute to ask her to go to the hostess bar in his place, as his mother is ill. When Chi-won arrives, he finds a wild party in progress, with Yoon-yi pouring drinks for a guy who's slobbering all over her. All business, he sits down with the contract for the client to sign, which he does quickly before turning the music back on.
The man that Yoon-yi was serving pours his drink all over her skirt, and instead of apologizing, he just whines that the liquor was wasted. Yoon-yi is dragged onstage under protest, and Chi-won hits the boiling point. He turns off the music and announces that he's leaving, and he takes Yoon-yi with him.
He rounds on her once they're outside, asking why she does things he didn't tell her to do, angry that she didn't call him first. Yoon-yi apologizes, but then she flares up at Chi-won, asking why he's so mad when she was only trying to help the team close the deal.
He yells back, "I hate it! I hate people treating my assistant that way." He loses momentum, and he puts his coat over Yoon-yi's shoulders and tells her to go home. She smiles as she walks, and when she finds medicine and bandages in the coat's pocket, she realizes that he got them for her injured hand.
Chi-won goes back to the office, where Vice President Do finds him brooding. He says that he knows Chi-won is living at Yoon-yi's house, and teases that he must like being stuck to her day and night because he wouldn't spend an hour with someone he didn't like. Staying in his office late into the night, Chi-won imagines Yoon-yi there with him. She brings him a third cactus and tends to the growing garden, straightens his desk, and replenishes his pencils. She brings him coffee and he stands to talk to her, but she disappears. He eventually goes home, stopping in the yard to touch the ginkgo tree, and thinking about Vice President Do saying that he must like being around Yoon-yi all the time. Yoon-yi steps outside to return his coat and thank him for the medicine, making him smile. But he shocks her by telling her to find a new tenant as soon as possible. She asks why, and he says that being around her at work and at home has grown uncomfortable.
In the morning, Jung-ae finds Gun-woo in his room and says she's throwing away his worn-out sneakers. She asks why he said she's his aunt at the police station, and he asks if it hurt her that he didn't say she's his mother. She assures him that it didn't, and that she'll explain everything later.
She meets Yul at the shoe store, where he picks out a sharp pair of sneakers, and Jung-ae gapes at the price tag. Yul gives the saleswoman his own shoe size, which is when Jung-ae realizes that he thinks the shoes are for him, but she can't bring herself to let him down and blows her paycheck buying two pairs.
Over coffee afterward, she goes a bit starry-eyed over a happy couple sitting together nearby. Yul notices the mark on her finger where she used to wear a ring, but he assumes it was a couple ring, and he says that people date and break up all the time as if it's nothing. But Jung-ae says sadly that there's nobody that isn't affected by a breakup.
Which brings us to Yoon-yi, sobbing at the top of her lungs to Bo-na and Kyung-rye over Chi-won's decision to move out. A true friend, Kyung-rye totally takes her side, while Bo-na sees an opportunity to learn more about Chi-won and asks why Yoon-yi thinks he fainted the other day.
Yoon-yi just sobs not to bring it up, because it breaks her heart. Kyung-rye asks why she's crying so hard, but she says she just doesn't want him to leave. It occurs to Kyung-rye that Yoon-yi likes Chi-won, making her recite her rules about not falling for her boss, but Bo-na mutters that she seems to have broken that rule. Yoon-yi is thoroughly drunk by the time she gets home, and she drags herself up the stairs to confront Chi-won. He's not home, so she flops onto the landing slurring that she's not returning his deposit, hee.
Chi-won arrives later to find her still there, and she asks what it is about her that's so uncomfortable. He says the whole thing is uncomfortable, but she asks him not to move out, knowing the house is special to him. She slumps over and falls back to sleep as he says that it's not because of her, but because of him, and she mutters a tiny, sad, "Don't go. Please don't go."
He carries her downstairs and tucks her into bed. Before he goes, he turns back to switch on a lamp, knowing Yoon-yi is scared of the dark. Her mother calls the next morning to remind her of her blind date tonight. Yoon-yi mumbles confirmation and drops the phone, barely conscious.
On his way to work, Chi-won snags the last yogurt drink right out from under Chang-soo, then shuts the elevator doors in his face. Heh, he's so immature. He notices that Yoon-yi isn't at her desk and all of his pencils are dull, and he frowns when Team Leader Gong informs him that she called in sick. Yoon-yi lies in bed all day, unaware of her friends' attempts to reach her. Chang-soo even starts to leave her a message offering to bring her favorite sick food after work, but Chi-won shoulder-checks him and makes him drop the call, ha.
During a meeting, Chi-won rips Chang-soo's video to shreds and tells him to completely redo it. He starts several texts to Yoon-yi but ends up erasing them, and a quick flashback shows that he found her phone on his landing after he tucked her in bed. Chang-soo had called, and Chi-won had listened incredulously as he reminded Yoon-yi that they dated for over five years. Giving up on texting her, Chi-won makes clumsy attempts at the tasks she usually does, like watering the cacti and sharpening his pencils. At the same time, Yoon-yi drags herself out of bed to listlessly prepare for her blind date.
Kyung-rye is surprised to find Tae-yi, Yoon-yi's little brother, sitting in her cafe. He says he's thinking of asking Chi-won for a job, and she snaps that Yoon-yi is sick because of that jerk. Surprised, Tae-yi asks about Yoon-yi's blind date, then runs off before Kyung-rye can get anything else out of him.
He catches up to Chi-won in the lobby, and Chi-won immediately nails him for tattling on him to his mother. Tae-yi swears that he doesn't think divorce is a big deal like his mom does, and he tells Chi-won that their mom gave Yoon-yi an ultimatum - to kick out Chi-won, or go on a blind date. He says the date is tonight, and when Chi-won asks why he's telling him this, Tae-yi hands over his resume hopefully. Chi-won glances at it, hands it back, and walks away.
Chi-won goes to Yul, who figures out that he feels uncomfortable without Yoon-yi. Yul does a hilarious song and dance about a guy who acts like he doesn't like a girl - excuse me, I have to go watch that five more times.
Chi-won sits in his office, obsessing about Yoon-yi. After a while he gets a text from her, apologizing for making him uncomfortable and telling him to do what he wants. He looks at the coffee mug she made that says he can get anything he wants.... then he jumps up, throws on his coat, and storms out of the office. He finds Yoon-yi on her blind date, still looking pale and sick. Without a word he grabs her arm, pulls her up, and leads her out of the restaurant. He doesn't let go until they're alone, and he asks angrily why she's on this blind date when he said he'd move out.
Instead of answering, Yoon-yi asks Chi-won why he came here. Looking a little confused, he says, "I couldn't see you, so I was nervous. You said you were sick so I was worried. You told me to do what I want to do." And then, to both of their surprise, he leans down and kisses her.
In the present, Yoon-yi watches over Chi-won as he lies in the hospital, still unconscious after the attack at the BBA competition. She leaves the room briefly, and he's gone when she comes back. Frantic with worry, she searches the hospital, until she gets a call from Vice President Do asking to meet with him. He kindly acknowledges that she must have been shocked, then tells her that he was once friends with Chi-won's uncle. He says his friend was a street artist who drew murals and portraits, and once he was commissioned to draw a movie sign for a children's film.
Being only eight years old, Chi-won had begged and whined to see the movie. So the whole family had driven to Seoul together, where they got into the accident that killed his parents and older sister. Vice President Do tells Yoon-yi that Chi-won lived with his uncle for a while, until his death in the fire.
Recalling that Chi-won told her mother that he'd lived in the upstairs apartment with his uncle, Yoon-yi realizes to her horror that his uncle was the man who died in the fire all those years ago. It explains Chi-won's extreme terror of flames, and Vice President Do asks Yoon-yi to stay by his side as a source of strength in spite of his many scars.
Chi-won visits an old mural that his uncle drew, smiling wistfully as he remembers his uncle bragging over his own artistic spirit. Yoon-yi finds him there, having been tipped off by Vice President Do, and she approaches him with an expression of sorrow and pity. Chi-won says that she probably knows everything she wanted to know about him now, but Yoon-yi says that this isn't what she wanted to know, or how she wanted to learn it. Seeming not to hear her, Chi-won continues, "I don't think I should have let you stay by my side from the start. Ever since I met you, everything's been a mess."
Yoon-yi asks tearfully what she can to do make him feel better, and he says coldly, "Disappear from my sight." Panic rising in her voice, Yoon-yi insists that she isn't responsible for the video about his family's accident. She begs him to believe her, but he just says,"I can't trust you anymore," and walks away leaving her stricken.
He finds Vice President Do and yells at him for telling Yoon-yi about his past, and for making her pity him. Vice President Do snaps that there's nothing wrong with pity, because pity just means that someone cares. Chi-won tells Vice President Do to stay out of his business and turns his back on him.
He sits in his car that night, recalling the moment he lost his trust in Yoon-yi. Assistant Director Jo had called him while he was still in the hospital, and had played the recording of his and Yoon-yi's first meeting, when he'd told her to be his spy. Chi-won had paled as he heard Yoon-yi asking Assistant Director Jo what he wanted her to do.
Yoon-yi takes a taxi home, sobbing her heart out as she also thinks about that conversation with Assistant Director Jo. He hadn't played the end of their conversation for Chi-won in which Yoon-yi had firmly refused to report anything to Assistant Director Jo, willing to lose her job rather than be disloyal, even to a boss she barely knew.
The next morning, Chi-won's team discusses the debacle at the BBA competition, which was canceled after Chi-won passed out. Assistant Director Jo tries to wheedle Vice President Do into declaring him the winner, arguing that a boss who passes out isn't a good leader, but Vice President Do sends him out with a one-finger salute worthy of Chi-won.
Yoon-yi braves Chi-won's office, intending to give him his schedule, but he cuts her off. She asks if he's okay, but he just takes a folder from her and heads off to a meeting without a word. Yoon-yi follows him, but he holds the doors open for her to get out, the way he did when they first met. Then Yul and Jung-ae join them, and she has to stay or draw their attention to the fact that something is wrong.
After the meeting, the assistants gossip about Chi-won as they straighten the conference room. Yoon-yi gets fed up with their negative chatter and orders them to stop talking bad about her boss, but they just accuse her of staying with Chi-won because she pities him. Yoon-yi's temper flares, and she threatens to rip the lips off the most outspoken of the assistants. The woman grabs her by the hair, Yoon-yi grabs her back, and it's not long before all the assistants are brawling.
Meanwhile, Chi-won pulls Assistant Director Jo aside and tells him not to use Yoon-yi to get to him again. Assistant Director Jo lies that he only asked her to keep an eye on him, blaming her for taking it too far. He claims that he was as shocked to see that news clip as anyone, and Chi-won says with deceptive calmness, "Then should I put you on the news, too?"
He tells Assistant Director Jo that the real reason he transferred to this job from Channel Y is to reveal the people like him, who use their title to oppress the weak. He says that he'll do things his way from now on, and all Assistant Director Jo has to do is look forward to it. Bo-na had entered the room at some point during their argument, and she'd crept back out again, unseen. Her father texts her asking for help with his rent, and she replies for him not to worry.
On his way back to his office, Chi-won hears shrieking, and he goes to the conference room to find Yoon-yi pinned to the floor by four other assistants. He bellows, and Yoon-yi shakes off her attackers then stands in front of him, shivering. But instead of yelling at her, he whispers, "Let's go," and leads her out with an arm around her shoulders and a parting glare for the other assistants.
In the elevator, Yoon-yi thanks Chi-won for coming to her rescue. She tries again to tell him that what happened at the BBA competition wasn't her doing, and she swears that even though Assistant Director Jo recommended her as Chi-won's assistant, she's never betrayed him. Chi-won only tells her to treat her hand, having noticed that she got badly scratched during the fight.
Assistant Director Jo confirms with Bo-na that she's good friends with Yoon-yi, saying that friends are just enemies you haven't attacked yet. He tells Bo-na that Vice President Do is retiring next year, and that if he gets promoted, so will she. He makes it clear that if she wants to improve her situation, she'll find out why Chi-won fainted on stage.
On payday, Jung-ae beams at her bankbook, excited to have received her first paycheck ever - until her teammates expect her to buy them treats, ha. She asks Yul for advice on choosing pair of sneakers as a gift, but he offers to go shopping with her instead, assuming the sneakers are for him.
He'd sent Chi-won the video from the night he got drunk, and Chi-won winces to see himself sloppily yelling "I love you!" at the ajumma server that night. Yul joins him for lunch, grinning that he's holding onto the original as blackmail material.
While they eat, Yul's usual cheerful mood fades. He says that he has no siblings, his father was always busy, and his mother died when he was barely two. He tells Chi-won that he doesn't even know what his mother looked like because his father had all of her pictures destroyed. He continues that at least Chi-won was loved by his parents and has memories of them, which makes him far better off then Yul. This seems to resonate with Chi-won, who tells Yul that his mother must have been beautiful because Yul has such a pretty face. Yul brightens, saying that Chi-won has good insight. He asks if Chi-won is using that insight to see what kind of person Yoon-yi is, because it's hard to find an assistant like her, as he well knows.
Back at the office, Team Leader Gong gives Chi-won the news that they've found a buyer for some video content. The only hitch is that they want to be shown a good time tonight, so Chi-won tells him to book a hostess bar and he'll join them after an offsite meeting. Yoon-yi is having a terrible day - Chi-won continues to ignore her, and her mother sends a text that she's lined up a blind date. After work, Team Leader Gong calls her at the last minute to ask her to go to the hostess bar in his place, as his mother is ill. When Chi-won arrives, he finds a wild party in progress, with Yoon-yi pouring drinks for a guy who's slobbering all over her. All business, he sits down with the contract for the client to sign, which he does quickly before turning the music back on.
The man that Yoon-yi was serving pours his drink all over her skirt, and instead of apologizing, he just whines that the liquor was wasted. Yoon-yi is dragged onstage under protest, and Chi-won hits the boiling point. He turns off the music and announces that he's leaving, and he takes Yoon-yi with him.
He rounds on her once they're outside, asking why she does things he didn't tell her to do, angry that she didn't call him first. Yoon-yi apologizes, but then she flares up at Chi-won, asking why he's so mad when she was only trying to help the team close the deal.
He yells back, "I hate it! I hate people treating my assistant that way." He loses momentum, and he puts his coat over Yoon-yi's shoulders and tells her to go home. She smiles as she walks, and when she finds medicine and bandages in the coat's pocket, she realizes that he got them for her injured hand.
Chi-won goes back to the office, where Vice President Do finds him brooding. He says that he knows Chi-won is living at Yoon-yi's house, and teases that he must like being stuck to her day and night because he wouldn't spend an hour with someone he didn't like. Staying in his office late into the night, Chi-won imagines Yoon-yi there with him. She brings him a third cactus and tends to the growing garden, straightens his desk, and replenishes his pencils. She brings him coffee and he stands to talk to her, but she disappears. He eventually goes home, stopping in the yard to touch the ginkgo tree, and thinking about Vice President Do saying that he must like being around Yoon-yi all the time. Yoon-yi steps outside to return his coat and thank him for the medicine, making him smile. But he shocks her by telling her to find a new tenant as soon as possible. She asks why, and he says that being around her at work and at home has grown uncomfortable.
In the morning, Jung-ae finds Gun-woo in his room and says she's throwing away his worn-out sneakers. She asks why he said she's his aunt at the police station, and he asks if it hurt her that he didn't say she's his mother. She assures him that it didn't, and that she'll explain everything later.
She meets Yul at the shoe store, where he picks out a sharp pair of sneakers, and Jung-ae gapes at the price tag. Yul gives the saleswoman his own shoe size, which is when Jung-ae realizes that he thinks the shoes are for him, but she can't bring herself to let him down and blows her paycheck buying two pairs.
Over coffee afterward, she goes a bit starry-eyed over a happy couple sitting together nearby. Yul notices the mark on her finger where she used to wear a ring, but he assumes it was a couple ring, and he says that people date and break up all the time as if it's nothing. But Jung-ae says sadly that there's nobody that isn't affected by a breakup.
Which brings us to Yoon-yi, sobbing at the top of her lungs to Bo-na and Kyung-rye over Chi-won's decision to move out. A true friend, Kyung-rye totally takes her side, while Bo-na sees an opportunity to learn more about Chi-won and asks why Yoon-yi thinks he fainted the other day.
Yoon-yi just sobs not to bring it up, because it breaks her heart. Kyung-rye asks why she's crying so hard, but she says she just doesn't want him to leave. It occurs to Kyung-rye that Yoon-yi likes Chi-won, making her recite her rules about not falling for her boss, but Bo-na mutters that she seems to have broken that rule. Yoon-yi is thoroughly drunk by the time she gets home, and she drags herself up the stairs to confront Chi-won. He's not home, so she flops onto the landing slurring that she's not returning his deposit, hee.
Chi-won arrives later to find her still there, and she asks what it is about her that's so uncomfortable. He says the whole thing is uncomfortable, but she asks him not to move out, knowing the house is special to him. She slumps over and falls back to sleep as he says that it's not because of her, but because of him, and she mutters a tiny, sad, "Don't go. Please don't go."
He carries her downstairs and tucks her into bed. Before he goes, he turns back to switch on a lamp, knowing Yoon-yi is scared of the dark. Her mother calls the next morning to remind her of her blind date tonight. Yoon-yi mumbles confirmation and drops the phone, barely conscious.
On his way to work, Chi-won snags the last yogurt drink right out from under Chang-soo, then shuts the elevator doors in his face. Heh, he's so immature. He notices that Yoon-yi isn't at her desk and all of his pencils are dull, and he frowns when Team Leader Gong informs him that she called in sick. Yoon-yi lies in bed all day, unaware of her friends' attempts to reach her. Chang-soo even starts to leave her a message offering to bring her favorite sick food after work, but Chi-won shoulder-checks him and makes him drop the call, ha.
During a meeting, Chi-won rips Chang-soo's video to shreds and tells him to completely redo it. He starts several texts to Yoon-yi but ends up erasing them, and a quick flashback shows that he found her phone on his landing after he tucked her in bed. Chang-soo had called, and Chi-won had listened incredulously as he reminded Yoon-yi that they dated for over five years. Giving up on texting her, Chi-won makes clumsy attempts at the tasks she usually does, like watering the cacti and sharpening his pencils. At the same time, Yoon-yi drags herself out of bed to listlessly prepare for her blind date.
Kyung-rye is surprised to find Tae-yi, Yoon-yi's little brother, sitting in her cafe. He says he's thinking of asking Chi-won for a job, and she snaps that Yoon-yi is sick because of that jerk. Surprised, Tae-yi asks about Yoon-yi's blind date, then runs off before Kyung-rye can get anything else out of him.
He catches up to Chi-won in the lobby, and Chi-won immediately nails him for tattling on him to his mother. Tae-yi swears that he doesn't think divorce is a big deal like his mom does, and he tells Chi-won that their mom gave Yoon-yi an ultimatum - to kick out Chi-won, or go on a blind date. He says the date is tonight, and when Chi-won asks why he's telling him this, Tae-yi hands over his resume hopefully. Chi-won glances at it, hands it back, and walks away.
Chi-won goes to Yul, who figures out that he feels uncomfortable without Yoon-yi. Yul does a hilarious song and dance about a guy who acts like he doesn't like a girl - excuse me, I have to go watch that five more times.
Chi-won sits in his office, obsessing about Yoon-yi. After a while he gets a text from her, apologizing for making him uncomfortable and telling him to do what he wants. He looks at the coffee mug she made that says he can get anything he wants.... then he jumps up, throws on his coat, and storms out of the office. He finds Yoon-yi on her blind date, still looking pale and sick. Without a word he grabs her arm, pulls her up, and leads her out of the restaurant. He doesn't let go until they're alone, and he asks angrily why she's on this blind date when he said he'd move out.
Instead of answering, Yoon-yi asks Chi-won why he came here. Looking a little confused, he says, "I couldn't see you, so I was nervous. You said you were sick so I was worried. You told me to do what I want to do." And then, to both of their surprise, he leans down and kisses her.
Sun, Dec 31, 2017
After their unplanned kiss, the drive home is silent and awkward for Chi-won and Yoon-yi. They both end up in their own rooms wondering what on earth just happened and what they're supposed to do now.
They wake in the morning still thinking about it, and when they start to leave at the same time, they both make excuses to go back inside. Chi-won sneaks out first, but only because Yoon-yi is peeking to make sure he's gone. He has trouble with his bike, and rather than run into
Yoon-yi again, he just picks the whole thing up and runs with it.
Yoon-yi rushes through her morning routine of preparing Chi-won's office, and when she spots him in the hall, she actually hides under her desk. Chi-won notices that there are three cacti now, and that his pencil cup is full again. He smiles to himself - then he sneezes. Oh no, he caught Yoon-yi's cold!
Chang-soo brings thirty cans of peaches for Yoon-yi, her favorite sick food. She purposely coughs and sneezes all over him, even wiping her nose and flinging it at him, but he just calls her cute and asks for more.
Chi-won and Yoon-yi are both obviously sick at the team meeting, so the employees offer to hold the meeting without them and email them the notes later. Unable to think of a reasonable argument, they comply, leaving the team to speculate on why they're sick at the same time. With their usual sharp insight, they conclude that Yoon-yi must have spit in Chi-won's coffee.
Yoon-yi brings Chi-won a bowl of peaches, saying that they always make her feel better when she's got a cold. Spying Chang-soo through the window and remembering that he called Yoon-yi and offered to bring her peaches, he asks where she got them. She fibs that she bought them herself. Chi-won gives the peaches to Yul, who obliviously enjoys them right in front of his hungry-looking team, joking that his song yesterday made Chi-won love him. They get down to work, discussing whether Yul's e-sports idea is wise. Nobody is in favor of it, except for Jung-ae, who says that many kids play video games these days, and she thinks it's a good idea to nurture that interest.
She's interrupted by a call, and her phone gets stuck in speaker mode, allowing the entire team to hear the caller address her as Wang Jung-ae. She quickly hangs up and says it was a wrong number, but Yul stares at her narrowly, and later he asks if Wang Jung-ae is her sister.
She jumps on the explanation, but he keeps giving her that suspicious glare. He asks, "It's not your husband, is it?" Horrified, Jung-ae denies it, and Yul instantly smiles his crinkly smile and thanks her for taking his side regarding e-sports. He tells her to come to his house over the weekend so they can start preparing.
Vice President Do introduces Executive Director Jo to an executive from YB's electronic department. They're about to release their new smart TV and want to hire Executive Director Jo to handle the PR. Executive Director Jo does another happy dance in his office, knowing this project will make him the top performer in YG Group history.
He gets an idea, and offers to let Bo-na come up with the marketing plan for the smart TV. If it works out, he promises that she can do the presentation for the domestic portion.
Too shy to go into his office herself, Yoon-yi asks Team Leader Gong to take Chi-won a file. He does, then Chi-won has him relay a message to Yoon-yi, pretending his cough is too bad to talk to her himself. They send him back and forth until Team Leader Gong gets fed up and snaps that he should be a carrier pigeon in his next life.
Later, Chi-won is stopped in the lobby by Channel Y's new correspondent. They go to the coffee shop, and the correspondent asks if it's true that the new smart TV has a defect. He's curious why the release date hasn't been changed and the TVs are still being manufactured. He tells Chi-won that an informant told him that a rival company is also releasing a smart TV, and that YB Electronics is trying to put their product out first. Chi-won asks to be introduced to the informant.
Yoon-yi finds Ms. Moon in the ladies room, upset after an argument with her husband. She says that Yoon-yi is lucky to be single, and warns her to watch out for men who act impulsive, initiate skinship, then ignore her. That reminds Yoon-yi of Chi-won grabbing her wrist and kissing her, and how he's avoiding her today.
Back at her desk, she finds a note from Chi-won saying that he's going straight home from an offsite meeting today. She gets on her advice site, Jugglers, and asks what she should do after kissing her boss. Predictably, the advice is to remember her motto: Boss, teacher, and father are one. She goes to the coffee shop, but Chi-won is still there, so she tries to slip away without being seen. But Kyung-rye calls out her name, making Chi-won turn and look. As she's leaving the building, someone steps into the revolving door with her and makes it stop turning. Yoon-yi turns to see Chi-won right up close, and when he says her name, all she can see is those lips. She snaps out of it, and he says he doesn't want to feel awkward anymore.
They go home to talk, but Yoon-yi stops Chi-won when he mentions the kiss, and she babbles that she was just being impulsive. Chi-won seems upset that she only sees the kiss as an impulse, and he asks if she wants to pretend it never happened.
With a sigh, Chi-won stands and says that they shouldn't let this make them awkward or affect their work. Yoon-yi stops him from leaving, telling him that her motto forbids falling for her boss because it's immoral. Chi-won just says, "Okay," and Yoon-yi grabs him again, sounding frantic now as she explains that she was once accused of having an affair with her boss.
Again, Chi-won just says, "Okay," and goes up to his apartment. Yoon-yi whines that it seems so easy for him, but once he's alone, he starts ranting about the fact that she closed her eyes and didn't push him away. He kicks off his fluffy panther slippers in a tantrum, grumbling about her motto. As for Yoon-yi, she berates herself for not asking Chi-won why he kissed her, and why he said he was nervous without her. She flops into bed, screaming in frustration.
They spend the next morning at work trying not to get caught staring at each other. Chi-won brings what he learned about YG Electronics' plan to release a flawed product to the team meeting, and they ask what he wants to do about it. He says that they have to find a way to stop the promotion of the smart TV.
Team Leader Gong respectfully argues that they're not a newsroom, but Chi-won reminds him that their job is to deliver news from their affiliates to the company, and Team Leader Gong changes his tune. Chi-won hands out fact-gathering assignments, warning everyone to keep this quiet.
The executive from YG Electronics tells Executive Director Jo about the defective part in the televisions. Executive Director Jo argues that they can't afford to delay release or he'll lose his bid for vice president. The executive catches his slip-up, but Executive Director Jo says they can continue with the promotions, and fix the defect before release.
Chi-won and Vice President Do meet up, and Vice President Do says that his daughter Do-hee (Chi-won's ex-wife) may be coming to Korea soon. Yoon-yi brings them tea, and Vice President Do tries to read Chi-won's mug, the one Yoon-yi made. Chi-won slaps his hand over the inscription and eyeballs Vice President Do suspiciously. Yoon-yi says it was a birthday present, and Vice President Do cracks a knowing grin. His phone rings, and when he sees that it's Do-hee, Vice President Do hands the phone to Chi-won. He notices Yoon-yi's curiosity and says it's his daughter, and she goes back to her desk wondering if Chi-won is close to her.
When Chi-won ends the call, Vice President Do sighs that his feelings are all over the place lately. He says he feels bad for his daughter, but he's also glad that Chi-won is developing feelings for someone. With a tiny smile, Chi-won tells him not to feel bad, because he's not planning to be happy with "his other half," as Vice President Do put it. Vice President Do tells him to stop being stubborn and just do whatever he wants.
Yoon-yi decides to clean up Chi-won's email inbox, deleting spam and sorting the important messages. She spots an unread email from Do-hee, recognizing the name from Vice President Do's phone. She starts to sort it into "personal," but Chang-soo suddenly leans on her and she accidentally clicks, opening the email.
Freaking out, Yoon-yi tries to sort the email without actually looking at it, but she ends up peeking and reads it. Do-hee mentions their wedding anniversary and says she misses Chi-won, and Yoon-yi realizes that Chi-won was married to the vice president's daughter. She slumps to the break room, wondering how she could ever compete with a woman like that. Jung-ae joins her, so Yoon-yi asks if she's ever impulsively kissed someone. Jung-ae says that she hasn't, but she did sleep with someone out of impulse, which is how her son was conceived.
Yoon-yi already knows, and she asks if Jung-ae ever regrets it. Jung-ae thinks, then she shakes her head no, because you only act impulsively when you have feelings for the person. Thinking of Chi-won's divorce, Yoon-yi asks if married couples can't get over each other even after they part ways. Jung-ae answers that family isn't something you just forget, even when you try.
On the bus home, Yoon-yi writes "Boss, teacher, and father are one" in the condensation on the window, telling herself not to forget it. Suddenly she hears a voice say, "That's enough," and she looks up to see Chi-won standing over her. He sits next to her and asks why she read his email.
Yoon-yi says truthfully that it was an accidental click, and Chi-won just says, "Okay." Yoon-yi asks if they're still close, since they email and talk on the phone, and Chi-won says it's not like they broke up because they hated each other. Yoon-yi asks why, then remembers his rule about no personal questions, and takes it back.
But Chi-won tells her that his ex-wife was too good to him, but he had nothing to give back, so he felt bad. He adds there's always one person in any relationship who loves more, and that person starts to feel resentful, while the one who loves less feels sorry. Eventually the one who cares less feels guilty, and they break up. When they arrive home, Chi-won asks Yoon-yi to have ramyun with him. She thinks he means "have ramyun" and protests that she's not that kind of girl, but he meant it literally, and she finds herself sitting in a ramyun restaurant feeling sheepish.
She orders the spicy ramyun, saying that the capsaicin is good for fighting colds and stress. But she regrets her choice with her first bite, and Chi-won asks if she often acts impulsively then regrets it later. He switches bowls with her, giving her his mild ramyun, muttering that he's not impulsive like someone. That weekend, Jung-ae spends time at Yul's house working on his e-sports plans. He works harder than she's ever seen now that it's something he's interested in, and Jung-ae says that he seems like a different person.
She tells him that if the board would help him if they could see his enthusiasm, but he says that he only needs someone who believes in him and not his money. "Someone who won't betray me, that's all I need. Like you." Later, Yul wakes from a nap on the couch to find himself alone. There's a note from Jung-ae that she finished the documents and made him a meal. As he settles to eat, he notices that the puppet that sits on his table has had his ripped sweater repaired.
Jung-ae had seen it earlier and asked about it. Yul had told her that his mother made the puppet and used it to coax him to eat when he was little. Aww. After he eats, Yul sends Jung-ae a cute video of the puppet, thanking her for the food and asking her to cook for him again. So cute.
Yoon-yi is surprised when her mother decides to move her brother Tae-yi into her house. Her mom says that since Yoon-yi won't answer her calls, she needs Tae-yi here to report on Yoon-yi's dating activities, and Yoon-yi threatens to murder her little brother. Mom orders Tae-yi to get Chi-won, so he goes up to warn Chi-won to evacuate immediately. He tells a confused Chi-won that he's on his side and gives him another copy of his resume.
A few seconds later, Mom comes storming upstairs, Yoon-yi in tow. Mom tells Chi-won that he has to move out because she and Tae-yi are both moving in. Chi-won refuses, threatening to demand she pay him damages if she breaks his lease. Mo clutches her neck, and at a tiny nod from Chi-won, Tae-yi leads her back downstairs.
Yoon-yi hangs back to ask Chi-won why he said he won't move, when he recently told her she makes him uncomfortable. Chi-won is practically smirking as he says that he doesn't care anymore if he's uncomfortable.
Later, Jung-ae is having dinner to Kyung-rye, Bo-na, and Gun-woo when she gets a call. The caller introduces himself as an investigator from a life insurance company. Jung-ae meets with him (ha, it's Yoo Ji-tae in a cameo as his character from Mad Dog), and he tells her that her husband Jun-pyo opened multiple life insurance policies on himself in the months before he went missing.
He says that Jung-ae is the beneficiary, and that they'll be opening an investigation soon to check for possible fraud. Jung-ae remembers that before Jun-pyo disappeared, he'd told her he was leaving the country. He'd confessed that he has another family, and that he was choosing them. He'd told Jung-ae of his plan - she would report him missing, then collect on the insurance policy to pay for Gun-woo's college. In return, he would take all the money they had at the time. Jung-ae had begged him not to go, sobbing and promising to be a better wife. He'd left her there with only the life insurance policy, which she'd torn to shreds.
Back in the present, her friends console Jung-ae as she cries again at having been abandoned. Gun-woo goes to his room, throws away a picture of himself with his mother and father, and crawls into bed.
At the office, Executive Director Jo gets an email that someone is looking into the new smart TV's defective component. He calls Chi-won to his office and accuses him of deliberately looking for ways to sabotage him. Chi-won just says that liars often talk too much and asks him to keep it short, ha. Executive Director Jo snarls that business is about making money, asking if Chi-won understands how big that contract is. Chi-won says that he does, but that the company's reputation is worth more. Executive Director Jo yells that they'll fix the defect before the TVs are released, and Chi-won affably says he'll check to see if that's even possible. Executive Director Jo lunges, fist raised, but he stops himself at the last second. He smiles at Chi-won, saying that they're family. Chi-won calls him "hyung," then says not to do that because he's grossing him out. After he leaves, Executive Director Jo vows to destroy both Chi-won and Yoon-yi if things go wrong.
Chi-won arrives back at his office to find his team beaming at him, then they all grab him in a group hug. He shoots a desperate look to Yoon-yi, who shrugs knowingly. Later she tells him that she gave everyone year's-end gifts, saying they were from Chi-won. She explains that she was just doing her job as his assistant and starts to apologize, but he stops her and thanks her.
Yoon-yi heads out on New Year's Eve for an overnight trip with her friends. She runs into Chi-won in the courtyard, who says shyly that he's just staying home and eating ramyun. He gives her a bag, having noticed that Yoon-yi didn't get herself a years-end gift, and tells her to open it later. She waits just long enough for him to get upstairs before peeking. Oh, he didn't... it's a pair of white fluffy bunny slippers to match his panther slippers. I'm dying.
Yoon-yi doesn't open the card that came with the slippers until she's in the car with her friends. When she does, she reads that Chi-won has written, "For being by my side, thank you." She yells for them to drop her off and grabs a taxi to the ramyun restaurant. Chi-won isn't there, and Yoon-yi wilts in disappointment. She steps outside, where it starts to rain, and she futilely shields her eyes with a gloved hand. Suddenly she notices an umbrella over her head, and she turns to see Chi-won. He stares curiously for a long moment, then shifts the umbrella to cover her better. Chi-won smiles a tiny smile, and Yoon-yi steps into his arms. She nestles her face into his chest as his arms encircle her, and he breaks into a genuine, uninhibited grin.
Yoon-yi rushes through her morning routine of preparing Chi-won's office, and when she spots him in the hall, she actually hides under her desk. Chi-won notices that there are three cacti now, and that his pencil cup is full again. He smiles to himself - then he sneezes. Oh no, he caught Yoon-yi's cold!
Chang-soo brings thirty cans of peaches for Yoon-yi, her favorite sick food. She purposely coughs and sneezes all over him, even wiping her nose and flinging it at him, but he just calls her cute and asks for more.
Chi-won and Yoon-yi are both obviously sick at the team meeting, so the employees offer to hold the meeting without them and email them the notes later. Unable to think of a reasonable argument, they comply, leaving the team to speculate on why they're sick at the same time. With their usual sharp insight, they conclude that Yoon-yi must have spit in Chi-won's coffee.
Yoon-yi brings Chi-won a bowl of peaches, saying that they always make her feel better when she's got a cold. Spying Chang-soo through the window and remembering that he called Yoon-yi and offered to bring her peaches, he asks where she got them. She fibs that she bought them herself. Chi-won gives the peaches to Yul, who obliviously enjoys them right in front of his hungry-looking team, joking that his song yesterday made Chi-won love him. They get down to work, discussing whether Yul's e-sports idea is wise. Nobody is in favor of it, except for Jung-ae, who says that many kids play video games these days, and she thinks it's a good idea to nurture that interest.
She's interrupted by a call, and her phone gets stuck in speaker mode, allowing the entire team to hear the caller address her as Wang Jung-ae. She quickly hangs up and says it was a wrong number, but Yul stares at her narrowly, and later he asks if Wang Jung-ae is her sister.
She jumps on the explanation, but he keeps giving her that suspicious glare. He asks, "It's not your husband, is it?" Horrified, Jung-ae denies it, and Yul instantly smiles his crinkly smile and thanks her for taking his side regarding e-sports. He tells her to come to his house over the weekend so they can start preparing.
Vice President Do introduces Executive Director Jo to an executive from YB's electronic department. They're about to release their new smart TV and want to hire Executive Director Jo to handle the PR. Executive Director Jo does another happy dance in his office, knowing this project will make him the top performer in YG Group history.
He gets an idea, and offers to let Bo-na come up with the marketing plan for the smart TV. If it works out, he promises that she can do the presentation for the domestic portion.
Too shy to go into his office herself, Yoon-yi asks Team Leader Gong to take Chi-won a file. He does, then Chi-won has him relay a message to Yoon-yi, pretending his cough is too bad to talk to her himself. They send him back and forth until Team Leader Gong gets fed up and snaps that he should be a carrier pigeon in his next life.
Later, Chi-won is stopped in the lobby by Channel Y's new correspondent. They go to the coffee shop, and the correspondent asks if it's true that the new smart TV has a defect. He's curious why the release date hasn't been changed and the TVs are still being manufactured. He tells Chi-won that an informant told him that a rival company is also releasing a smart TV, and that YB Electronics is trying to put their product out first. Chi-won asks to be introduced to the informant.
Yoon-yi finds Ms. Moon in the ladies room, upset after an argument with her husband. She says that Yoon-yi is lucky to be single, and warns her to watch out for men who act impulsive, initiate skinship, then ignore her. That reminds Yoon-yi of Chi-won grabbing her wrist and kissing her, and how he's avoiding her today.
Back at her desk, she finds a note from Chi-won saying that he's going straight home from an offsite meeting today. She gets on her advice site, Jugglers, and asks what she should do after kissing her boss. Predictably, the advice is to remember her motto: Boss, teacher, and father are one. She goes to the coffee shop, but Chi-won is still there, so she tries to slip away without being seen. But Kyung-rye calls out her name, making Chi-won turn and look. As she's leaving the building, someone steps into the revolving door with her and makes it stop turning. Yoon-yi turns to see Chi-won right up close, and when he says her name, all she can see is those lips. She snaps out of it, and he says he doesn't want to feel awkward anymore.
They go home to talk, but Yoon-yi stops Chi-won when he mentions the kiss, and she babbles that she was just being impulsive. Chi-won seems upset that she only sees the kiss as an impulse, and he asks if she wants to pretend it never happened.
With a sigh, Chi-won stands and says that they shouldn't let this make them awkward or affect their work. Yoon-yi stops him from leaving, telling him that her motto forbids falling for her boss because it's immoral. Chi-won just says, "Okay," and Yoon-yi grabs him again, sounding frantic now as she explains that she was once accused of having an affair with her boss.
Again, Chi-won just says, "Okay," and goes up to his apartment. Yoon-yi whines that it seems so easy for him, but once he's alone, he starts ranting about the fact that she closed her eyes and didn't push him away. He kicks off his fluffy panther slippers in a tantrum, grumbling about her motto. As for Yoon-yi, she berates herself for not asking Chi-won why he kissed her, and why he said he was nervous without her. She flops into bed, screaming in frustration.
They spend the next morning at work trying not to get caught staring at each other. Chi-won brings what he learned about YG Electronics' plan to release a flawed product to the team meeting, and they ask what he wants to do about it. He says that they have to find a way to stop the promotion of the smart TV.
Team Leader Gong respectfully argues that they're not a newsroom, but Chi-won reminds him that their job is to deliver news from their affiliates to the company, and Team Leader Gong changes his tune. Chi-won hands out fact-gathering assignments, warning everyone to keep this quiet.
The executive from YG Electronics tells Executive Director Jo about the defective part in the televisions. Executive Director Jo argues that they can't afford to delay release or he'll lose his bid for vice president. The executive catches his slip-up, but Executive Director Jo says they can continue with the promotions, and fix the defect before release.
Chi-won and Vice President Do meet up, and Vice President Do says that his daughter Do-hee (Chi-won's ex-wife) may be coming to Korea soon. Yoon-yi brings them tea, and Vice President Do tries to read Chi-won's mug, the one Yoon-yi made. Chi-won slaps his hand over the inscription and eyeballs Vice President Do suspiciously. Yoon-yi says it was a birthday present, and Vice President Do cracks a knowing grin. His phone rings, and when he sees that it's Do-hee, Vice President Do hands the phone to Chi-won. He notices Yoon-yi's curiosity and says it's his daughter, and she goes back to her desk wondering if Chi-won is close to her.
When Chi-won ends the call, Vice President Do sighs that his feelings are all over the place lately. He says he feels bad for his daughter, but he's also glad that Chi-won is developing feelings for someone. With a tiny smile, Chi-won tells him not to feel bad, because he's not planning to be happy with "his other half," as Vice President Do put it. Vice President Do tells him to stop being stubborn and just do whatever he wants.
Yoon-yi decides to clean up Chi-won's email inbox, deleting spam and sorting the important messages. She spots an unread email from Do-hee, recognizing the name from Vice President Do's phone. She starts to sort it into "personal," but Chang-soo suddenly leans on her and she accidentally clicks, opening the email.
Freaking out, Yoon-yi tries to sort the email without actually looking at it, but she ends up peeking and reads it. Do-hee mentions their wedding anniversary and says she misses Chi-won, and Yoon-yi realizes that Chi-won was married to the vice president's daughter. She slumps to the break room, wondering how she could ever compete with a woman like that. Jung-ae joins her, so Yoon-yi asks if she's ever impulsively kissed someone. Jung-ae says that she hasn't, but she did sleep with someone out of impulse, which is how her son was conceived.
Yoon-yi already knows, and she asks if Jung-ae ever regrets it. Jung-ae thinks, then she shakes her head no, because you only act impulsively when you have feelings for the person. Thinking of Chi-won's divorce, Yoon-yi asks if married couples can't get over each other even after they part ways. Jung-ae answers that family isn't something you just forget, even when you try.
On the bus home, Yoon-yi writes "Boss, teacher, and father are one" in the condensation on the window, telling herself not to forget it. Suddenly she hears a voice say, "That's enough," and she looks up to see Chi-won standing over her. He sits next to her and asks why she read his email.
Yoon-yi says truthfully that it was an accidental click, and Chi-won just says, "Okay." Yoon-yi asks if they're still close, since they email and talk on the phone, and Chi-won says it's not like they broke up because they hated each other. Yoon-yi asks why, then remembers his rule about no personal questions, and takes it back.
But Chi-won tells her that his ex-wife was too good to him, but he had nothing to give back, so he felt bad. He adds there's always one person in any relationship who loves more, and that person starts to feel resentful, while the one who loves less feels sorry. Eventually the one who cares less feels guilty, and they break up. When they arrive home, Chi-won asks Yoon-yi to have ramyun with him. She thinks he means "have ramyun" and protests that she's not that kind of girl, but he meant it literally, and she finds herself sitting in a ramyun restaurant feeling sheepish.
She orders the spicy ramyun, saying that the capsaicin is good for fighting colds and stress. But she regrets her choice with her first bite, and Chi-won asks if she often acts impulsively then regrets it later. He switches bowls with her, giving her his mild ramyun, muttering that he's not impulsive like someone. That weekend, Jung-ae spends time at Yul's house working on his e-sports plans. He works harder than she's ever seen now that it's something he's interested in, and Jung-ae says that he seems like a different person.
She tells him that if the board would help him if they could see his enthusiasm, but he says that he only needs someone who believes in him and not his money. "Someone who won't betray me, that's all I need. Like you." Later, Yul wakes from a nap on the couch to find himself alone. There's a note from Jung-ae that she finished the documents and made him a meal. As he settles to eat, he notices that the puppet that sits on his table has had his ripped sweater repaired.
Jung-ae had seen it earlier and asked about it. Yul had told her that his mother made the puppet and used it to coax him to eat when he was little. Aww. After he eats, Yul sends Jung-ae a cute video of the puppet, thanking her for the food and asking her to cook for him again. So cute.
Yoon-yi is surprised when her mother decides to move her brother Tae-yi into her house. Her mom says that since Yoon-yi won't answer her calls, she needs Tae-yi here to report on Yoon-yi's dating activities, and Yoon-yi threatens to murder her little brother. Mom orders Tae-yi to get Chi-won, so he goes up to warn Chi-won to evacuate immediately. He tells a confused Chi-won that he's on his side and gives him another copy of his resume.
A few seconds later, Mom comes storming upstairs, Yoon-yi in tow. Mom tells Chi-won that he has to move out because she and Tae-yi are both moving in. Chi-won refuses, threatening to demand she pay him damages if she breaks his lease. Mo clutches her neck, and at a tiny nod from Chi-won, Tae-yi leads her back downstairs.
Yoon-yi hangs back to ask Chi-won why he said he won't move, when he recently told her she makes him uncomfortable. Chi-won is practically smirking as he says that he doesn't care anymore if he's uncomfortable.
Later, Jung-ae is having dinner to Kyung-rye, Bo-na, and Gun-woo when she gets a call. The caller introduces himself as an investigator from a life insurance company. Jung-ae meets with him (ha, it's Yoo Ji-tae in a cameo as his character from Mad Dog), and he tells her that her husband Jun-pyo opened multiple life insurance policies on himself in the months before he went missing.
He says that Jung-ae is the beneficiary, and that they'll be opening an investigation soon to check for possible fraud. Jung-ae remembers that before Jun-pyo disappeared, he'd told her he was leaving the country. He'd confessed that he has another family, and that he was choosing them. He'd told Jung-ae of his plan - she would report him missing, then collect on the insurance policy to pay for Gun-woo's college. In return, he would take all the money they had at the time. Jung-ae had begged him not to go, sobbing and promising to be a better wife. He'd left her there with only the life insurance policy, which she'd torn to shreds.
Back in the present, her friends console Jung-ae as she cries again at having been abandoned. Gun-woo goes to his room, throws away a picture of himself with his mother and father, and crawls into bed.
At the office, Executive Director Jo gets an email that someone is looking into the new smart TV's defective component. He calls Chi-won to his office and accuses him of deliberately looking for ways to sabotage him. Chi-won just says that liars often talk too much and asks him to keep it short, ha. Executive Director Jo snarls that business is about making money, asking if Chi-won understands how big that contract is. Chi-won says that he does, but that the company's reputation is worth more. Executive Director Jo yells that they'll fix the defect before the TVs are released, and Chi-won affably says he'll check to see if that's even possible. Executive Director Jo lunges, fist raised, but he stops himself at the last second. He smiles at Chi-won, saying that they're family. Chi-won calls him "hyung," then says not to do that because he's grossing him out. After he leaves, Executive Director Jo vows to destroy both Chi-won and Yoon-yi if things go wrong.
Chi-won arrives back at his office to find his team beaming at him, then they all grab him in a group hug. He shoots a desperate look to Yoon-yi, who shrugs knowingly. Later she tells him that she gave everyone year's-end gifts, saying they were from Chi-won. She explains that she was just doing her job as his assistant and starts to apologize, but he stops her and thanks her.
Yoon-yi heads out on New Year's Eve for an overnight trip with her friends. She runs into Chi-won in the courtyard, who says shyly that he's just staying home and eating ramyun. He gives her a bag, having noticed that Yoon-yi didn't get herself a years-end gift, and tells her to open it later. She waits just long enough for him to get upstairs before peeking. Oh, he didn't... it's a pair of white fluffy bunny slippers to match his panther slippers. I'm dying.
Yoon-yi doesn't open the card that came with the slippers until she's in the car with her friends. When she does, she reads that Chi-won has written, "For being by my side, thank you." She yells for them to drop her off and grabs a taxi to the ramyun restaurant. Chi-won isn't there, and Yoon-yi wilts in disappointment. She steps outside, where it starts to rain, and she futilely shields her eyes with a gloved hand. Suddenly she notices an umbrella over her head, and she turns to see Chi-won. He stares curiously for a long moment, then shifts the umbrella to cover her better. Chi-won smiles a tiny smile, and Yoon-yi steps into his arms. She nestles her face into his chest as his arms encircle her, and he breaks into a genuine, uninhibited grin.
Mon, Jan 1, 2018
Chi-won takes Yoon-yi home and dries her wet hair, then mentions getting out of wet clothes. She simpers and says it's a bit soon for that, but he's all, "I meant me..." As he goes, he asks if she was having naughty thoughts, and he obviously doesn't believe her too-emphatic denials.
While he's changing, Yoon-yi rushes around, changing into a fancy outfit and doing her makeup and hair. Chi-won stares, then tells her to put everything back where it was, because he likes the original Yoon-yi. They spend the evening in comfy sweats, watching TV and drinking beer. Chi-won channel-surfs, looking for a movie, and accidentally lands on a sex scene. They both freeze and Chi-won goes bright red, his glasses steaming up, while Yoon-yi anxiously chews on her hair.
Yoon-yi suggests they make up pet names for each other, but Chi-won thinks that referring to each other as food is silly when they have perfectly good names. Yoon-yi peevishly threatens to call him Mr. Nitpicky, which he grumbles is better than food.
At midnight, they count down the end of the year together, then Chi-won congratulates Yoon-yi on turning thirty, heh. Yoon-yi is upset that she's not getting a kiss, so Chi-won leans over to give her a little peck on the cheek. But Yoon-yi turns into him and makes it a real kiss. She pulls him close for another, longer one, and soon they're too busy for TV.
Yoon-yi wears the necklace that Chi-won gave her the next morning, and she finds him waiting gallantly to drive her to work. He calls her "Raccoon," joking that she looks like one and making her beam to have a cute pet name. He notices that she's wearing the necklace, and Yoon-yi pouts that it's only a souvenir. But Chi-won confesses that after he blew up at her on his birthday, he worried that she might transfer departments. So he went online to ask how to fix things, and a necklace was the most popular suggestion. That is adorable. Yoon-yi says that he can't buy a necklace for every woman he upsets, only his girlfriend, and Chi-won grins at her.
He hits a speed bump, making his passenger-side mirror nearly fall off. Yoon-yi ends up hanging out the window, waving and screaming at other drivers, and her face is freezing by the time they get to work. Alone in the elevator, Chi-won reaches out a hand to warm her cheek, but they jump away from each other guiltily when Team Leader Gong steps into the elevator with them.
In his office, Yoon-yi gives Chi-won his schedule for the day as he tends to his now seven-strong cactus garden. She tacks a dinner-and-a-movie date onto his schedule while he stares at her adoringly. Teasing her about her nasal aegyo voice, he pinches her nose, which is when Team Leader Gong walks in. To cover, Chi-won barks something at Yoon-yi about taking care of her sinus infection. He asks Team Leader Gong why he didn't knock, and Team Leader Gong is all, "I knocked several times..." whoops.
After Chi-won leaves, Team Leader Gong pulls Yoon-yi aside to talk. Thinking she and Chi-won have been discovered, she begs him to pretend he doesn't know, but he's too upset to agree. He asks her, "On the elevator earlier... he slapped you, right?" Oh no, he thinks Chi-won is hitting her. Yoon-yi assures him that everything is fine and she'll handle it, and he backs down, but he makes her promise to tell him if it happens again.
A well-dressed man enters the building, jaws dropping as he passes. It's Yul, suited up proper and acting like a professional, which shocks his entire team. He asks Jung-ae for the morning paper and an espresso, and she brings him the research she did on the games that kids are playing most. But Yul is still Yul, and he stamps her report with a kids' "good work" stamp.
In the break room, Jung-ae tells Yoon-yi that Yul decides to wear a suit because they make him want to work harder. They talk about how nice a man looks in a good suit, and Chi-won eavesdrops as Yoon-yi says that her favorite thing is when a man rolls up his sleeves to show off his arm muscles. He goes in, soon followed by some male employees carrying a box of fancy apples. Team Leader Baek tells Jung-ae and Yoon-yi to cut them for everyone, but Chi-won takes exception. He asks why they have to do it, saying that anyone who wants some fruit can cut it up for themselves. He clarifies that an assistant is the boss's partner, not a maid, and he leaves with a cheeky wink in Yoon-yi's direction.
Over dinner that evening, Yoon-yi chirps happily that it felt good when Chi-won took her side, and that keeping things a secret at work is a bit thrilling. But a familiar cackle rings out, and they discover to their horror that Executive Director Jo is sitting at a nearby table with Bo-na, discussing their upcoming presentation. Chi-won gives Yoon-yi his coat and motions for her to leave first, so she slinks out with his coat over her head because that's not obvious in the least. She bumps into something in the lobby, and she looks up to see Executive Director Jo scowling down at her.
She fibs that she's here on a blind date, as inside the dining room, Bo-na spots Chi-won sneaking out. Chi-won sees Yoon-yi and Executive Director Jo talking, so he slips out a side door, narrowly escaping Executive Director Jo's sharp eyes. Executive Director Jo asks Yoon-yi how many men she's dating, adding a smarmy comment that she's looking especially pretty lately. He leaves her confused, and she and Chi-won end up going back to her house.
She makes a bowl of bibimbap, which Chi-won attempts to decline, remembering how bad her cooking is. He takes one test bite, but by the grimace on his face, it's as bad as he remembers, ha. Yoon-yi worries that Executive Director Jo is onto them based on the weird way he acted, but Chi-won tells her not to worry, that he'll take care of everything and all she has to do is trust him. Reassured, Yoon-yi urges another bite on him as he whimpers.
Executive Director Jo is unhappy with his holiday gifts, which are only half of what he got last year. On the other hand, Chi-won tells Yoon-yi to return all of his, but she advises him that a more diplomatic approach would be to return the expensive ones and donate the rest. Chi-won says it's a great idea, making exaggerated hand motions to show off his rolled-up sleeves and muscular arms, and he pouts when Yoon-yi doesn't seem to notice.
Things get serious in the team meeting, where they discuss their investigation into YG Electronics' plan to release a smart TV with known defects. It's not going well, with the factory's CCTV film reportedly deleted and the informant not showing up to work. Chi-won says he'll talk to the informant himself, and Yoon-yi volunteers to go with him.
On the way, she tells Chi-won that according to the assistants' network, the informant suddenly took long-term leave. She heard that he's been taking care of his sick mother, and suggests they hook him up with a medical foundation they've been donating to in order to encourage him to talk.
At the board meeting, Executive Director Jo makes his big presentation regarding the smart TV launch. Team Leader Gong is the only one from Chi-won's team that's there, since they're all frantically doing last-second preparations. When Executive Director Jo finishes, Team Leader Gong stalls by inventing an internal performance contest on the fly, making everyone gape at him like he's lost his marbles.
The team finally finishes, and they stride into the meeting just in time. Chi-won breathlessly says that he has something to tell them about the TV launch, and Yoon-yi hands out packets of information while a video plays. The video is an interview with the informant, whose identity is kept secret. He says that there's no way the defective part can be fixed before the launch date, because they still don't know the source of the defect.
He adds that the company is planning to launch the TV on time, then blame the factory for the faulty product. Executive Director Jo looks stunned, Vice President Do looks thunderous, and Bo-na gives Yoon-yi a look that could kill. Back in her office, Bo-na is kept busy with call after call, but all she can say is that the launch has been postponed indefinitely. Executive Director Jo returns to find a worker exiting his office, and he stops the man before he can leave.
He yells at Bo-na for letting a stranger into his office, angry that she jeopardized the security of his (probably fraudulent) confidential documents. He calls her incompetent since she didn't know that Yoon-yi and Chi-won were planning to stab him in the back. He storms into his office, and she wipes her tears, embarrassed in front of the worker.
That evening Yoon-yi tells Chi-won that she thinks she she should go see Bo-na, and all four friends end up together at Bo-na and Kyung-rye's place. Their intent is to be supportive as they tell Bo-na that Executive Director Jo is treating her unfairly. But Bo-na lashes out at Yoon-yi, who apologizes for letting Bo-na get blindsided. But Bo-na doesn't believe that Yoon-yi would tell her that she was planning to stab her in the back. Yoon-yi clarifies that they weren't planning to ruin Executive Director Jo's plans, but to right a wrong.
Bo-na scoffs that everything comes easily to Yoon-yi - she has a boss who respects her even though she doesn't work hard, and everyone likes her. Hurt, Yoon-yi asks if Bo-na really means that, and Bo-na yells that she just got lucky to get a good boss instead of a rat like Executive Director Jo. Bo-na leaves, and she heads to a dingy part of town. Soon she sees her father heading her way, and she calls out to him several times, but he doesn't respond. He looks up when he gets close, and ohhh, he's the worker from Executive Director Jo's office. No wonder she's so upset.
She takes him for a modest dinner, where he doesn't say anything for a long time. When he does, he communicates in sign language, which explains why he didn't hear her calling to him. He says he's sorry that she got in trouble at work because of him, but she tells him that it's okay because her boss apologized after he left.
She gives him some money for his landlord and tells him that if he wants to raise the rent deposit again, to say he'll move into an apartment his daughter will buy for him. Her father apologizes again, but Bo-na tells him that it's good that his daughter works for a large company.
She walks him partway home and sends him off alone. As he goes, she calls out, "Dad. Dad!" But she knows he can't hear her, and she screams at the top of her lungs, "It's so hard! It's too hard for me, Dad!!"
Yoon-yi arrives home to find Chi-won waiting for her (and yay, he's reading a comic and laughing, for once). Yoon-yi throws herself at him and sobs on his chest, and all he can do is comfort her. He takes her inside and tucks her under a blanket on the couch. She tells him that she always liked watching people and wondering what was happening in their lives. She says that you can see people's flaws, and that she found it rewarding to help them, which is why she became an assistant. But says sadly that feels stupid because she couldn't read how her friend was feeling. Chi-won quotes a line from one of his favorite comics: "Promise me you'll always remember that you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."
Yoon-yi likes the sound of that, and she asks what it's from. She giggles when Chi-won tells her it's from "Winnie-the-Pooh,".
At the office the next day, a stranger shows up at Yul's office door. Yul knows him and comes out yelling, and the messenger pulls out an actual silk scroll and reads a message from his father: "The e-sports business that you are pushing does not fit with our family's image. Thus, it is absolutely forbidden." He tells Yul to just do as he's told.
Yul's team silently celebrates, but Jung-ae recognizes the defeat on Yul's face. In a quiet voice, she asks why people can't do what they like. Her voice gains strength as she tells the messenger that Yul is working very hard on the e-sports business, and that he should believe in him just this once.
Further, she presents the messenger with her business card, standing between him and Yul. She tells him firmly not to show up unannounced again, but to call her first if he needs to speak with Yul. The messenger makes a call, probably to Yul's father. He says that Yul's new assistant seems different from the others and suggests that he look into her.
After nearly running into Bo-na while looking for Kyung-rye at the coffee shop, Yoon-yi goes up to Chi-won's office, needing reassurance. She sees him going through papers on his desk and sneaks up behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist... which is when Chi-won walks in and sees Yoon-yi backhugging Chang-soo. Oops. It's hard to say who looks more busted; Yoon-yi for hugging another guy, Chi-won and Yoon-yi for having their relationship outed, or Chang-soo for getting caught going through his boss's documents.
Chi-won takes Chang-soo aside, and Chang-soo asks how long they've been dating. Chi-won refuses to give him any details, only saying that Chang-soo is the past, and he's the present. Chang-soo asks why Chi-won is always picking on him, but Chi-won just asks why he broke his car's mirror.
A flashback shows that it was Chang-soo who broke the mirror. He'd gone to Yoon-yi's house with roses and witnessed her going inside with Chi-won, and he'd taken his anger out on Chi-won's car. Chi-won tells Chang-soo that it was caught on his car's black box, but instead of being petty about it, he suggests they start acting professional. Chang-soo pouts that he doesn't know if he can, but Chi-won reminds him that he's still his boss.
Yoon-yi tries to explain what happened, but Chi-won tells her the same thing he told Chang-soo - that the present is what matters.
Executive Director Jo has gotten hold of pictures of Chi-won and Yoon-yi going in and out of Yoon-yi's house together. He throws darts at the photos, vowing to get rid of both of them. He gets a call from an informant and asks what "he" likes, and he frowns at the answer. But he tells himself that Vice President Do only has a month left and that this is the easiest route.
Yul takes his e-sports business proposal to Chi-won, who looks it over while Yul chatters nervously, saying that he wants to collaborate with Chi-won's team because he'd like to make an e-sports specialty channel. Chi-won says that the content is very different from their usual work, but he agrees to look at it.
Iron Man walks up to Jung-ae's desk - well, it's actually Executive Director Jo with a life-sized bust of Iron Man for Yul. Yul loves the gift, but he's oblivious to Executive Director Jo's attempts to get information about Vice President Do out of him. He tells Executive Director Jo to friend him on social media, but Executive Director Jo just holds up his outdated flip phone.
Executive Director Jo asks Yul about his e-sports business and offers his department to produce the video content. In exchange, he asks for a future favor from Yul. Yul completely ignores him and just pokes at Iron Man, asking if Executive Director Jo brought the rest of the set.
Chi-won takes Yul's proposal back to his office and tells him that his idea has potential. Overjoyed, Yul swings Chi-won in circles, and their teams go out together after work to celebrate their collaboration. At one point in the evening, the theme song from the anime Slam Dunk begins to play, and Jung-ae gets all excited. She says that she used to sing the song with her friends at the noraebang, which makes Yul asks how she knows it so well, since the show aired in the early '90s. Jung-ae freezes, panicking at nearly revealing her true age.
Chi-won asks suspiciously if she likes the anime show, and she nervously says that she loves it. He leans in close, but only to agree that the show was great, and they start geeking out right in front of everyone. They stand to sing along with the song, making Yoon-yi growl to Chi-won that he seems drunk.
The younger employees decide to go clubbing, leaving the older team members at the restaurant. Before long most of them are staggering drunk, and they decide to play a game where the employees get to speak disrespectfully to the boss without repercussions.
Chang-soo takes advantage of the opportunity to confront Chi-won, calling him a thief with no conscience. He says that he'll never give up, because Chi-won isn't sincere, accusing him of messing around with an innocent girl.
Chi-won clenches a fist and angrily invites Chang-soo to keep talking. He does, telling Chi-won that Yoon-yi doesn't love him, she just feels sorry for him.
The other employee diplomatically pretend not to listen, except for Yul, who watches the conversation closely. Team Leader Baek trips into Chang-soo, giving him an excuse to take a swing at Chi-won, and the fight is on. It quickly degenerates into a no-holds-barred brawl, with the guys attacking each other while the ladies throw food, and Yul doing his best to shield the sleeping Jung-ae.
Yoon-yi helps Chi-won stumble home later, assuring him that he most definitely won the fight. She dumps him on his bed and settles his head in her lap to doctor his injuries, grumbling about how many years she spent supporting that jerk Chang-soo.
Chi-won rouses, and he asks weakly if Yoon-yi will call him thirty times too, and give him money to make sure he eats (things she did for Chang-soo). He asks in a pitiful voice, "You won't tame me and then disappear, will you?" Amused, Yoon-yi says she'll see how he does. As he drifts off to sleep, Chi-won slurs, "Just stick to me like glue, just like you do now."
The following morning, Yoon-yi passes Vice President Do on her way in to work. She sees his daughter, Do-hee, arrive and give him a big hug, then she gives Chi-won another one when he joins them. Yoon-yi watches, unseen, as the three link arms and leave the building together.
While he's changing, Yoon-yi rushes around, changing into a fancy outfit and doing her makeup and hair. Chi-won stares, then tells her to put everything back where it was, because he likes the original Yoon-yi. They spend the evening in comfy sweats, watching TV and drinking beer. Chi-won channel-surfs, looking for a movie, and accidentally lands on a sex scene. They both freeze and Chi-won goes bright red, his glasses steaming up, while Yoon-yi anxiously chews on her hair.
Yoon-yi suggests they make up pet names for each other, but Chi-won thinks that referring to each other as food is silly when they have perfectly good names. Yoon-yi peevishly threatens to call him Mr. Nitpicky, which he grumbles is better than food.
At midnight, they count down the end of the year together, then Chi-won congratulates Yoon-yi on turning thirty, heh. Yoon-yi is upset that she's not getting a kiss, so Chi-won leans over to give her a little peck on the cheek. But Yoon-yi turns into him and makes it a real kiss. She pulls him close for another, longer one, and soon they're too busy for TV.
Yoon-yi wears the necklace that Chi-won gave her the next morning, and she finds him waiting gallantly to drive her to work. He calls her "Raccoon," joking that she looks like one and making her beam to have a cute pet name. He notices that she's wearing the necklace, and Yoon-yi pouts that it's only a souvenir. But Chi-won confesses that after he blew up at her on his birthday, he worried that she might transfer departments. So he went online to ask how to fix things, and a necklace was the most popular suggestion. That is adorable. Yoon-yi says that he can't buy a necklace for every woman he upsets, only his girlfriend, and Chi-won grins at her.
He hits a speed bump, making his passenger-side mirror nearly fall off. Yoon-yi ends up hanging out the window, waving and screaming at other drivers, and her face is freezing by the time they get to work. Alone in the elevator, Chi-won reaches out a hand to warm her cheek, but they jump away from each other guiltily when Team Leader Gong steps into the elevator with them.
In his office, Yoon-yi gives Chi-won his schedule for the day as he tends to his now seven-strong cactus garden. She tacks a dinner-and-a-movie date onto his schedule while he stares at her adoringly. Teasing her about her nasal aegyo voice, he pinches her nose, which is when Team Leader Gong walks in. To cover, Chi-won barks something at Yoon-yi about taking care of her sinus infection. He asks Team Leader Gong why he didn't knock, and Team Leader Gong is all, "I knocked several times..." whoops.
After Chi-won leaves, Team Leader Gong pulls Yoon-yi aside to talk. Thinking she and Chi-won have been discovered, she begs him to pretend he doesn't know, but he's too upset to agree. He asks her, "On the elevator earlier... he slapped you, right?" Oh no, he thinks Chi-won is hitting her. Yoon-yi assures him that everything is fine and she'll handle it, and he backs down, but he makes her promise to tell him if it happens again.
A well-dressed man enters the building, jaws dropping as he passes. It's Yul, suited up proper and acting like a professional, which shocks his entire team. He asks Jung-ae for the morning paper and an espresso, and she brings him the research she did on the games that kids are playing most. But Yul is still Yul, and he stamps her report with a kids' "good work" stamp.
In the break room, Jung-ae tells Yoon-yi that Yul decides to wear a suit because they make him want to work harder. They talk about how nice a man looks in a good suit, and Chi-won eavesdrops as Yoon-yi says that her favorite thing is when a man rolls up his sleeves to show off his arm muscles. He goes in, soon followed by some male employees carrying a box of fancy apples. Team Leader Baek tells Jung-ae and Yoon-yi to cut them for everyone, but Chi-won takes exception. He asks why they have to do it, saying that anyone who wants some fruit can cut it up for themselves. He clarifies that an assistant is the boss's partner, not a maid, and he leaves with a cheeky wink in Yoon-yi's direction.
Over dinner that evening, Yoon-yi chirps happily that it felt good when Chi-won took her side, and that keeping things a secret at work is a bit thrilling. But a familiar cackle rings out, and they discover to their horror that Executive Director Jo is sitting at a nearby table with Bo-na, discussing their upcoming presentation. Chi-won gives Yoon-yi his coat and motions for her to leave first, so she slinks out with his coat over her head because that's not obvious in the least. She bumps into something in the lobby, and she looks up to see Executive Director Jo scowling down at her.
She fibs that she's here on a blind date, as inside the dining room, Bo-na spots Chi-won sneaking out. Chi-won sees Yoon-yi and Executive Director Jo talking, so he slips out a side door, narrowly escaping Executive Director Jo's sharp eyes. Executive Director Jo asks Yoon-yi how many men she's dating, adding a smarmy comment that she's looking especially pretty lately. He leaves her confused, and she and Chi-won end up going back to her house.
She makes a bowl of bibimbap, which Chi-won attempts to decline, remembering how bad her cooking is. He takes one test bite, but by the grimace on his face, it's as bad as he remembers, ha. Yoon-yi worries that Executive Director Jo is onto them based on the weird way he acted, but Chi-won tells her not to worry, that he'll take care of everything and all she has to do is trust him. Reassured, Yoon-yi urges another bite on him as he whimpers.
Executive Director Jo is unhappy with his holiday gifts, which are only half of what he got last year. On the other hand, Chi-won tells Yoon-yi to return all of his, but she advises him that a more diplomatic approach would be to return the expensive ones and donate the rest. Chi-won says it's a great idea, making exaggerated hand motions to show off his rolled-up sleeves and muscular arms, and he pouts when Yoon-yi doesn't seem to notice.
Things get serious in the team meeting, where they discuss their investigation into YG Electronics' plan to release a smart TV with known defects. It's not going well, with the factory's CCTV film reportedly deleted and the informant not showing up to work. Chi-won says he'll talk to the informant himself, and Yoon-yi volunteers to go with him.
On the way, she tells Chi-won that according to the assistants' network, the informant suddenly took long-term leave. She heard that he's been taking care of his sick mother, and suggests they hook him up with a medical foundation they've been donating to in order to encourage him to talk.
At the board meeting, Executive Director Jo makes his big presentation regarding the smart TV launch. Team Leader Gong is the only one from Chi-won's team that's there, since they're all frantically doing last-second preparations. When Executive Director Jo finishes, Team Leader Gong stalls by inventing an internal performance contest on the fly, making everyone gape at him like he's lost his marbles.
The team finally finishes, and they stride into the meeting just in time. Chi-won breathlessly says that he has something to tell them about the TV launch, and Yoon-yi hands out packets of information while a video plays. The video is an interview with the informant, whose identity is kept secret. He says that there's no way the defective part can be fixed before the launch date, because they still don't know the source of the defect.
He adds that the company is planning to launch the TV on time, then blame the factory for the faulty product. Executive Director Jo looks stunned, Vice President Do looks thunderous, and Bo-na gives Yoon-yi a look that could kill. Back in her office, Bo-na is kept busy with call after call, but all she can say is that the launch has been postponed indefinitely. Executive Director Jo returns to find a worker exiting his office, and he stops the man before he can leave.
He yells at Bo-na for letting a stranger into his office, angry that she jeopardized the security of his (probably fraudulent) confidential documents. He calls her incompetent since she didn't know that Yoon-yi and Chi-won were planning to stab him in the back. He storms into his office, and she wipes her tears, embarrassed in front of the worker.
That evening Yoon-yi tells Chi-won that she thinks she she should go see Bo-na, and all four friends end up together at Bo-na and Kyung-rye's place. Their intent is to be supportive as they tell Bo-na that Executive Director Jo is treating her unfairly. But Bo-na lashes out at Yoon-yi, who apologizes for letting Bo-na get blindsided. But Bo-na doesn't believe that Yoon-yi would tell her that she was planning to stab her in the back. Yoon-yi clarifies that they weren't planning to ruin Executive Director Jo's plans, but to right a wrong.
Bo-na scoffs that everything comes easily to Yoon-yi - she has a boss who respects her even though she doesn't work hard, and everyone likes her. Hurt, Yoon-yi asks if Bo-na really means that, and Bo-na yells that she just got lucky to get a good boss instead of a rat like Executive Director Jo. Bo-na leaves, and she heads to a dingy part of town. Soon she sees her father heading her way, and she calls out to him several times, but he doesn't respond. He looks up when he gets close, and ohhh, he's the worker from Executive Director Jo's office. No wonder she's so upset.
She takes him for a modest dinner, where he doesn't say anything for a long time. When he does, he communicates in sign language, which explains why he didn't hear her calling to him. He says he's sorry that she got in trouble at work because of him, but she tells him that it's okay because her boss apologized after he left.
She gives him some money for his landlord and tells him that if he wants to raise the rent deposit again, to say he'll move into an apartment his daughter will buy for him. Her father apologizes again, but Bo-na tells him that it's good that his daughter works for a large company.
She walks him partway home and sends him off alone. As he goes, she calls out, "Dad. Dad!" But she knows he can't hear her, and she screams at the top of her lungs, "It's so hard! It's too hard for me, Dad!!"
Yoon-yi arrives home to find Chi-won waiting for her (and yay, he's reading a comic and laughing, for once). Yoon-yi throws herself at him and sobs on his chest, and all he can do is comfort her. He takes her inside and tucks her under a blanket on the couch. She tells him that she always liked watching people and wondering what was happening in their lives. She says that you can see people's flaws, and that she found it rewarding to help them, which is why she became an assistant. But says sadly that feels stupid because she couldn't read how her friend was feeling. Chi-won quotes a line from one of his favorite comics: "Promise me you'll always remember that you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."
Yoon-yi likes the sound of that, and she asks what it's from. She giggles when Chi-won tells her it's from "Winnie-the-Pooh,".
At the office the next day, a stranger shows up at Yul's office door. Yul knows him and comes out yelling, and the messenger pulls out an actual silk scroll and reads a message from his father: "The e-sports business that you are pushing does not fit with our family's image. Thus, it is absolutely forbidden." He tells Yul to just do as he's told.
Yul's team silently celebrates, but Jung-ae recognizes the defeat on Yul's face. In a quiet voice, she asks why people can't do what they like. Her voice gains strength as she tells the messenger that Yul is working very hard on the e-sports business, and that he should believe in him just this once.
Further, she presents the messenger with her business card, standing between him and Yul. She tells him firmly not to show up unannounced again, but to call her first if he needs to speak with Yul. The messenger makes a call, probably to Yul's father. He says that Yul's new assistant seems different from the others and suggests that he look into her.
After nearly running into Bo-na while looking for Kyung-rye at the coffee shop, Yoon-yi goes up to Chi-won's office, needing reassurance. She sees him going through papers on his desk and sneaks up behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist... which is when Chi-won walks in and sees Yoon-yi backhugging Chang-soo. Oops. It's hard to say who looks more busted; Yoon-yi for hugging another guy, Chi-won and Yoon-yi for having their relationship outed, or Chang-soo for getting caught going through his boss's documents.
Chi-won takes Chang-soo aside, and Chang-soo asks how long they've been dating. Chi-won refuses to give him any details, only saying that Chang-soo is the past, and he's the present. Chang-soo asks why Chi-won is always picking on him, but Chi-won just asks why he broke his car's mirror.
A flashback shows that it was Chang-soo who broke the mirror. He'd gone to Yoon-yi's house with roses and witnessed her going inside with Chi-won, and he'd taken his anger out on Chi-won's car. Chi-won tells Chang-soo that it was caught on his car's black box, but instead of being petty about it, he suggests they start acting professional. Chang-soo pouts that he doesn't know if he can, but Chi-won reminds him that he's still his boss.
Yoon-yi tries to explain what happened, but Chi-won tells her the same thing he told Chang-soo - that the present is what matters.
Executive Director Jo has gotten hold of pictures of Chi-won and Yoon-yi going in and out of Yoon-yi's house together. He throws darts at the photos, vowing to get rid of both of them. He gets a call from an informant and asks what "he" likes, and he frowns at the answer. But he tells himself that Vice President Do only has a month left and that this is the easiest route.
Yul takes his e-sports business proposal to Chi-won, who looks it over while Yul chatters nervously, saying that he wants to collaborate with Chi-won's team because he'd like to make an e-sports specialty channel. Chi-won says that the content is very different from their usual work, but he agrees to look at it.
Iron Man walks up to Jung-ae's desk - well, it's actually Executive Director Jo with a life-sized bust of Iron Man for Yul. Yul loves the gift, but he's oblivious to Executive Director Jo's attempts to get information about Vice President Do out of him. He tells Executive Director Jo to friend him on social media, but Executive Director Jo just holds up his outdated flip phone.
Executive Director Jo asks Yul about his e-sports business and offers his department to produce the video content. In exchange, he asks for a future favor from Yul. Yul completely ignores him and just pokes at Iron Man, asking if Executive Director Jo brought the rest of the set.
Chi-won takes Yul's proposal back to his office and tells him that his idea has potential. Overjoyed, Yul swings Chi-won in circles, and their teams go out together after work to celebrate their collaboration. At one point in the evening, the theme song from the anime Slam Dunk begins to play, and Jung-ae gets all excited. She says that she used to sing the song with her friends at the noraebang, which makes Yul asks how she knows it so well, since the show aired in the early '90s. Jung-ae freezes, panicking at nearly revealing her true age.
Chi-won asks suspiciously if she likes the anime show, and she nervously says that she loves it. He leans in close, but only to agree that the show was great, and they start geeking out right in front of everyone. They stand to sing along with the song, making Yoon-yi growl to Chi-won that he seems drunk.
The younger employees decide to go clubbing, leaving the older team members at the restaurant. Before long most of them are staggering drunk, and they decide to play a game where the employees get to speak disrespectfully to the boss without repercussions.
Chang-soo takes advantage of the opportunity to confront Chi-won, calling him a thief with no conscience. He says that he'll never give up, because Chi-won isn't sincere, accusing him of messing around with an innocent girl.
Chi-won clenches a fist and angrily invites Chang-soo to keep talking. He does, telling Chi-won that Yoon-yi doesn't love him, she just feels sorry for him.
The other employee diplomatically pretend not to listen, except for Yul, who watches the conversation closely. Team Leader Baek trips into Chang-soo, giving him an excuse to take a swing at Chi-won, and the fight is on. It quickly degenerates into a no-holds-barred brawl, with the guys attacking each other while the ladies throw food, and Yul doing his best to shield the sleeping Jung-ae.
Yoon-yi helps Chi-won stumble home later, assuring him that he most definitely won the fight. She dumps him on his bed and settles his head in her lap to doctor his injuries, grumbling about how many years she spent supporting that jerk Chang-soo.
Chi-won rouses, and he asks weakly if Yoon-yi will call him thirty times too, and give him money to make sure he eats (things she did for Chang-soo). He asks in a pitiful voice, "You won't tame me and then disappear, will you?" Amused, Yoon-yi says she'll see how he does. As he drifts off to sleep, Chi-won slurs, "Just stick to me like glue, just like you do now."
The following morning, Yoon-yi passes Vice President Do on her way in to work. She sees his daughter, Do-hee, arrive and give him a big hug, then she gives Chi-won another one when he joins them. Yoon-yi watches, unseen, as the three link arms and leave the building together.
Sun, Jan 7, 2018
Chi-won meets up with his ex-wife in the building's lobby, and she gives him a big hug and a smile. She links arms with him and her father, Vice President Do, and the three head out together. Yoon-yi watches them go, dismay written all over her face.
The older team members are all stiff and sore after their drunken brawl the night before, though nobody really remembers exactly what happened. They do know that Chang-soo started it, but they can't figure out why, since it's not like they'd be fighting over a girl. Ha, way off as usual. Yoon-yi brings tea to Chi-won as he inspects his bruises, and she grins and says that they're kinda sexy. Flattered, Chi-won tries to roll his sleeves up to impress her with is bare forearms, but fails since he's still wearing his jacket.
He invites her to come watch him box, but she declines, since he'd have to take his glasses off and she prefers him with them on. She leaves as Chi-won wonders if that was an insult or a compliment.
Chang-soo approaches Yoon-yi in the break room, but his attempts to garner sympathy for his own injuries go unacknowledged. Instead, Yoon-yi snaps at him to stop drinking, because he lets his temper get the better of him when he drinks. To his credit, Chang-soo looks chastened, and he goes to Chi-won's office to apologize.
He offers to write an apology note, but Chi-won tells him that he should resign. If he doesn't, Chi-won says that another incident will definitely call for his resignation. He adds an admonishment for Chang-soo not to embarrass Yoon-yi again, or make her ashamed of the five years she spent with him.
Chang-soo goes out to tell Yoon-yi that he apologized, looking for her approval. She rewards him with a genuine smile, then growls at him to get lost.
Yul's team gossips in the elevator, wondering why Chi-won decided to team up on Yul's project. They conclude that he's gunning for the vice president position, which would mean that Executive Director Jo is done for.
After they leave, Executive Director Jo comes out from behind his newspaper where he was eavesdropping. He sees the scrolling sign taunting him with a vicious, "Cut, cut, cut!" The door opens and Chi-won catches him trying to knock it down.
Chi-won says that he's headed to the vice president's office, and Executive Director Jo snarls that he'll become the chairman before too long. He warns Chi-won not to fall while climbing that ladder, and Chi-won says casually, "Oh right, like you?"
He finds Vice President Do having porridge for breakfast, and he makes him laugh by asking if his bruises are sexy. Vice President Do mentions his collaboration with Yul's e-sports project, and the fact that he even went to a team dinner and got in a fight.
Chi-won asks if Vice President Do is stalking him, but Vice President Do says that he's just showing interest and that Chi-won should show some interest in him, too. Chi-won grabs a spoon and digs into Vice President Do's porridge, and he looks startled when Vice President Do says that Do-hee, Chi-won's ex-wife, is visiting today.
Executive Director Jo heads to the basement, where he meets with two informants that we only see as vague shadows. He threatens to "cut" them from his line if they don't produce a picture of Chi-won and Yoon-yi together, and when they argue that they're busy with work (in cartoonish squeaks instead of words), he kicks them in the shins.
Jung-ae's son Gun-woo visits her at work unexpectedly, and she takes him to lunch to get him away from the building. She asks where he was yesterday when she couldn't find him, and he says that he went to see his grandmother. But when Jung-ae asks if they discussed his father, Gun-woo spits angrily that his father is dead.
She has to go back to work, so she gives Gun-woo the little cash she has and asks if he's hanging out with a bad crowd. He retorts that she doesn't care, that she's just using him as an excuse to pose as Mi-ae the same way his father used him as an excuse to leave, and he storms out.
The team invites Chi-won to lunch, but he says he has plans to meet with his landlord. Hee, cute. Yoon-yi gets his drift, and he mock-chastises her for forgetting. A few seconds later he texts her a map to his "hideout," and when she arrives, she finds him settled in a chair at his favorite comic book store.
He pretends to be offended when Yoon-yi says she was expecting someplace fancier, and he imperiously calls for an employer to bring her "Set A," which turns out to be ramyun and boiled eggs. As she eats, she asks Chi-won what he likes about comic books.
He says he likes the interesting worlds they portray, so Yoon-yi asks what about Chi-won's world. He says seriously, "It's about to get more interesting, thanks to someone." Then he cringes at his own cheesiness and hides behind his book.
Charmed, Yoon-yi asks what kind of genre he likes - comedy, romance, fantasy, thriller... or maybe an "adult" theme? Chi-won says that he likes office romance comedies, and Yoon-yi agrees.
She asks him to draw her as a character, and though Chi-won objects that he can't draw, he complies. Yoon-yi is less than impressed, asking how it looks like her, and Chi-won proudly points out her full lips.
Back at the office, the team are trying to figure out who could have sent the love note addressed to "Mr. Nitpicky." They work out an elaborate plan to determine the writer and the recipient, until Chang-soo wanders by, recognizes Yoon-yi's handwriting, and eats the note.
Yul orders two of the coffee shop's sweetest drinks as Jung-ae stands nearby looking crestfallen. Kyung-rye assumes that her mood is because of Yul, but Jung-ae tries to explain that it was Gun-woo. Yul interrupts and proudly hands Jung-ae one of the drinks, saying that sweets are the best thing when you're down.
As they head back to the elevators, a woman recognizes Jung-ae and calls out to her, calling her "Gun-woo's mom." Jung-ae hides her face and pounds on the elevator button, and when Yul asks (he thinks Gun-woo is her nephew), she says that she looks almost identical to her sister.
He asks why she ran away from the woman, so she claims a stomachache. He appears to buy her story, blaming the extra whipped cream.
Executive Director Jo happens by Bo-na's father's shoe repair shop just as Bo-na is having lunch with her dad. He recognizes him as the man who was in his office the night he yelled at Bo-na, and he makes a call to to the YG security office. Bo-na answers a summons from Kyung-rye, and she's not happy to find that it's a setup to get her and Yoon-yi to talk. Yoon-yi starts by saying that she should have told her about the product defect before they revealed it to the entire company.
She's shocked when Bo-na says that she already knew Yoon-yi was one of Executive Director Jo's informants, and that she and Chi-won are dating. She says that she kept quiet to preserve Yoon-yi's feelings, accusing Yoon-yi of never even thinking about her while everything was going down. She says coldly that unless they get new bosses, they're heading in different directions, and she walks away without a backward glance. That's when Yoon-yi sees Chi-won leaving with his ex-wife, and the double-blow leaves Yoon-yi reeling.
Over tea, Vice President Do tells Chi-won petulantly that he's using up his sick days before he retires by going on a trip with his daughter, "since you won't play with me." He leaves abruptly, stranding Chi-won with his ex-wife. Do-hee tells Chi-won that she can't live without him, and she wants to reconcile.
Yoon-yi finds reasons to be in Chi-won's office, and she brightens when she gets a text from him. But all it says is to cancel his appointments for the day, and she resists the urge to ask why, and when he's coming back.
That afternoon Bo-na gets a text, and she runs out while Executive Director Jo smirks in his office. She finds her father being manhandled by two security guards, who tell her that they've been ordered not to let him in the building because a confidential document disappeared after he'd been in an executive's office.
Executive Director Jo waits a few minutes then heads downstairs, flubbing his dramatic coat-flip. He arrives in the lobby as Bo-na struggles to free herself from a guard's wrist-grab, and he clamps down on the guard's arm in a hilarious parody of Chi-won's dramatic rescue of Yoon-yi at the noraebang.
He threatens the guard, who lets go of Bo-na, while Bo-na looks at him admiringly. He leads her to his office where he promises to straighten everything out, calling her an admirable daughter whose father should be proud. He mentions that she could be the vice president's assistant soon, sending her emotions into a tailspin.
Yoon-yi offers to handle some paperwork for Ms. Moon just for the excuse to call Chi-won. He's driving when he answers, and he says stiffly that he doesn't know when he's going back to the office. Suddenly a woman's voice cries out, calling him "oppa," as he nearly rear-ends another car.
Chi-won hangs up when Yoon-yi asks who's with him, saying he'll call her later. She sits at her desk obsessing about that female voice, then she goes to the break room to gulp down an entire bottle of water. Chang-soo sneaks up to talk to her, and sneaks right back out again at the fierce look on her face.
After thinking about it, Bo-na goes to Executive Director Jo and tells him that she's with him. Grinning triumphantly, he shows her a photo of Chi-won and Yoon-yi outside the house and says that he needs something more incriminating to prove that they're living together. True to her word to think only of herself from now on, she agrees to help.
As she walks home that night, Yoon-yi is still seething over that feminine "oppa." Suddenly, she sees Chi-won and Do-hee, just as Chi-won is telling his ex that it's over between them. He says he's seeing someone, but Do-hee refuses to accept it, and she pulls him close for a kiss.
Yoon-yi screams, "NOOO!" and runs over, but oops, it's just a random couple. She walks away still ranting about Do-hee and why she'd come back to confuse Chi-won. She works herself in to a frenzy, and by the time she's done, she's calling Chi-won a wishy-washy loser and snarling that she hates him.
She arrives home to find her brother Tae-yi lying around in the middle of a mess, and she directs her fury at him. He tells her that Chi-won was considered a "legend of legends" in his army unit because he had a gorgeous girlfriend who always sent letters and gifts.
He yammers carelessly that someone with such an incredible girlfriend could never be satisfied with her, until she screams profanities at him and kicks him out into the cold.
Chi-won is still with Do-hee, and they end up at the hospital, where Vice President Do is sleeping in a patient room. When he wakes, Vice President Do says that the doctors found something that might be cancer, so he's here for tests.
Upset, Chi-won yells that he's told Vice President Do to stop smoking and drinking, and take better care of himself. He gets choked up at the thought of something happening to Vice President Do, who he's calling "uncle" now, and Vice President Do jokes that he's already trying to send him off before they even know if he's sick.
Later Do-hee finds Chi-won in the lobby, and they try to reassure each other that Vice President Do will be okay. Do-hee says that she's less afraid with Chi-won here, but he asks if he was ever really someone she could rely on. She says he was, but that he also made her lonely.
Chi-won checks his watch, and when Do-hee asks if someone is waiting for him, he just tells her to go rest and relieve him in the morning. She correctly guesses that his changing the subject means there's a girlfriend waiting. She admits that hearing that hurts because she doesn't want to lose him to another woman.
Chi-won stays at the hospital all night, watching over Vice President Do as he sleeps. He tucks Vice President Do in when he shucks off his covers, smiling as he asks wistfully, "When did you get so old?"
Worried sick, Yoon-yi stays up all night, and she rushes out when Chi-won finally arrives home in the early morning. He teases her about the dark circles under her eyes, and she blasts him for making her worry by not calling like he promised.
When she finally stops for breath, Chi-won knows she's not finished, and he asks, "And?" Yoon-yi asks why his ex-wife was at the office and why he hugged her in front of everyone. Chi-won just hugs her tightly, not letting go when she struggles, then he backs up to look her in the eyes as he says sincerely, "I'm sorry." They go upstairs and lie face-to-face on Chi-won's bed as he tells her that he was at the hospital. He admits that he feels bad for never playing with Vice President Do when he asked, saying that he was having so much fun with Yoon-yi that he forgot about his friend.
He explains that that's why he felt too guilty to call her while he was at the hospital with Vice President Do. Yoon-yi tells him to make time for Vice President Do from now on, and Chi-won touches her face and says sleepily that he wants to keep looking at her but he's too tired. Before he falls asleep he promises to do everything Yoon-yi wants to do tomorrow.
Jung-ae goes to Gun-woo's room to tell him that she has to work today, but he hides under the covers and refuses to speak to her. She gets a call from Team Leader Baek, asking her to stop by Yul's house on her way into the office, since he hasn't shown up and isn't answering his phone.
Executive Director Jo stakes out Yoon-yi's house wearing the worst fake mustache ever. He aims his camera at the gate, crooning for them to come out. But Yoon-yi's idea of having Chi-won do whatever she wants all day is to stay in while he cleans her house.
He's confused, having assumed that she'd want to go on a date. Yoon-yi lounges around eating snacks and playing on her phone while Chi-won whines about the filth. This is the best.
She offers to cook for him and starts grabbing ingredients from the fridge. Chi-won notices that everything has expiration dates from over a decade ago, and he understands why her cooking is so bad. He slams the food down and says, "Yoon-yi, let's..." She looks nervous, but he finishes with "... go out to eat."
Yul dresses in his nicest suit and lays out a tiny tray of food, placing his puppet on the tray. He says, "Mom, it's not much, but eat a lot." Oh, how sad. Yul frowns at the puppet and chides his mother for not leaving behind at least one photo. His chin wobbles as he adds that if his mom wants a better memorial offering, she should send him a nice girl to be her daughter-in-law.
When Jung-ae arrives, she sees the scant offering and asks Yul if he's okay. He pastes on a smile, pretending it's no big deal. She prepares a warm meal for Yul to share with his mother, and he looks shaken for a moment before asking her to eat with them.
She sets herself a place and joins him, and Yul starts to cry. He fibs that he's just tearing up because the food tastes so good, but then he starts sobbing in earnest. Jung-ae rubs his back as he wails for his mother like a lost child.
Jung-ae tells him gently, "If a mother sees her son crying so sadly, she'll be more heartbroken. So cry today, and be strong again starting tomorrow." Yul sniffles and asks her not to tell anyone he cried, and she agrees that it's their secret.
Outside, Yul's father's minion shows up and sees Yul and Jung-ae eating together. He makes a call and tells the other person that their relationship seems suspicious, advising them to "make the announcement now."
After lunch, Yoon-yi and Chi-won each get a different flavor of steamed bun and split them, and Yoon-yi says this is the best part about having a boyfriend. Always practical, Chi-won says that she could just eat two, making Yoon-yi grumble that he's got no idea how dating works.
She asks if he did things like this with his ex-wife, and when he says Do-hee didn't eat much, Yoon-yi protests that she was only making herself eat for his sake, ha. But Chi-won interjects that he likes women who eat a lot, and Yoon-yi starts stuffing her face again.
Suddenly she stops, realizing that she left her phone at home. She misses an SOS message from Tae-yi alerting her that their mother is in town and warning her not to get caught with Chi-won.
Mom arrives at the house to find Executive Director Jo still lurking in his car, having fallen asleep and missed Chi-won and Yoon-yi leaving together. She confronts him, and when he tells her to buzz off, she loses her temper and starts shaking him through the car window. She rips off the mustache and sees his face, and he drives away in a panic as she chases him on foot.
Do-hee is waiting in the courtyard when Chi-won and Yoon-yi arrive home, using the excuse of returning the scarf he left behind at the hospital to see him again. She notices that he's holding Yoon-yi's hand, and Yoon-yi tugs his hand closer defensively.
Chi-won tells Yoon-yi that he'll talk to Do-hee privately and then come inside. He lets go of Yoon-yi's hand and turns to lead Do-hee to the street, but Yoon-yi grabs his hand back and says, "No. You said you'd do everything I want today. Just stay with me. I... I won't let you go."
The older team members are all stiff and sore after their drunken brawl the night before, though nobody really remembers exactly what happened. They do know that Chang-soo started it, but they can't figure out why, since it's not like they'd be fighting over a girl. Ha, way off as usual. Yoon-yi brings tea to Chi-won as he inspects his bruises, and she grins and says that they're kinda sexy. Flattered, Chi-won tries to roll his sleeves up to impress her with is bare forearms, but fails since he's still wearing his jacket.
He invites her to come watch him box, but she declines, since he'd have to take his glasses off and she prefers him with them on. She leaves as Chi-won wonders if that was an insult or a compliment.
Chang-soo approaches Yoon-yi in the break room, but his attempts to garner sympathy for his own injuries go unacknowledged. Instead, Yoon-yi snaps at him to stop drinking, because he lets his temper get the better of him when he drinks. To his credit, Chang-soo looks chastened, and he goes to Chi-won's office to apologize.
He offers to write an apology note, but Chi-won tells him that he should resign. If he doesn't, Chi-won says that another incident will definitely call for his resignation. He adds an admonishment for Chang-soo not to embarrass Yoon-yi again, or make her ashamed of the five years she spent with him.
Chang-soo goes out to tell Yoon-yi that he apologized, looking for her approval. She rewards him with a genuine smile, then growls at him to get lost.
Yul's team gossips in the elevator, wondering why Chi-won decided to team up on Yul's project. They conclude that he's gunning for the vice president position, which would mean that Executive Director Jo is done for.
After they leave, Executive Director Jo comes out from behind his newspaper where he was eavesdropping. He sees the scrolling sign taunting him with a vicious, "Cut, cut, cut!" The door opens and Chi-won catches him trying to knock it down.
Chi-won says that he's headed to the vice president's office, and Executive Director Jo snarls that he'll become the chairman before too long. He warns Chi-won not to fall while climbing that ladder, and Chi-won says casually, "Oh right, like you?"
He finds Vice President Do having porridge for breakfast, and he makes him laugh by asking if his bruises are sexy. Vice President Do mentions his collaboration with Yul's e-sports project, and the fact that he even went to a team dinner and got in a fight.
Chi-won asks if Vice President Do is stalking him, but Vice President Do says that he's just showing interest and that Chi-won should show some interest in him, too. Chi-won grabs a spoon and digs into Vice President Do's porridge, and he looks startled when Vice President Do says that Do-hee, Chi-won's ex-wife, is visiting today.
Executive Director Jo heads to the basement, where he meets with two informants that we only see as vague shadows. He threatens to "cut" them from his line if they don't produce a picture of Chi-won and Yoon-yi together, and when they argue that they're busy with work (in cartoonish squeaks instead of words), he kicks them in the shins.
Jung-ae's son Gun-woo visits her at work unexpectedly, and she takes him to lunch to get him away from the building. She asks where he was yesterday when she couldn't find him, and he says that he went to see his grandmother. But when Jung-ae asks if they discussed his father, Gun-woo spits angrily that his father is dead.
She has to go back to work, so she gives Gun-woo the little cash she has and asks if he's hanging out with a bad crowd. He retorts that she doesn't care, that she's just using him as an excuse to pose as Mi-ae the same way his father used him as an excuse to leave, and he storms out.
The team invites Chi-won to lunch, but he says he has plans to meet with his landlord. Hee, cute. Yoon-yi gets his drift, and he mock-chastises her for forgetting. A few seconds later he texts her a map to his "hideout," and when she arrives, she finds him settled in a chair at his favorite comic book store.
He pretends to be offended when Yoon-yi says she was expecting someplace fancier, and he imperiously calls for an employer to bring her "Set A," which turns out to be ramyun and boiled eggs. As she eats, she asks Chi-won what he likes about comic books.
He says he likes the interesting worlds they portray, so Yoon-yi asks what about Chi-won's world. He says seriously, "It's about to get more interesting, thanks to someone." Then he cringes at his own cheesiness and hides behind his book.
Charmed, Yoon-yi asks what kind of genre he likes - comedy, romance, fantasy, thriller... or maybe an "adult" theme? Chi-won says that he likes office romance comedies, and Yoon-yi agrees.
She asks him to draw her as a character, and though Chi-won objects that he can't draw, he complies. Yoon-yi is less than impressed, asking how it looks like her, and Chi-won proudly points out her full lips.
Back at the office, the team are trying to figure out who could have sent the love note addressed to "Mr. Nitpicky." They work out an elaborate plan to determine the writer and the recipient, until Chang-soo wanders by, recognizes Yoon-yi's handwriting, and eats the note.
Yul orders two of the coffee shop's sweetest drinks as Jung-ae stands nearby looking crestfallen. Kyung-rye assumes that her mood is because of Yul, but Jung-ae tries to explain that it was Gun-woo. Yul interrupts and proudly hands Jung-ae one of the drinks, saying that sweets are the best thing when you're down.
As they head back to the elevators, a woman recognizes Jung-ae and calls out to her, calling her "Gun-woo's mom." Jung-ae hides her face and pounds on the elevator button, and when Yul asks (he thinks Gun-woo is her nephew), she says that she looks almost identical to her sister.
He asks why she ran away from the woman, so she claims a stomachache. He appears to buy her story, blaming the extra whipped cream.
Executive Director Jo happens by Bo-na's father's shoe repair shop just as Bo-na is having lunch with her dad. He recognizes him as the man who was in his office the night he yelled at Bo-na, and he makes a call to to the YG security office. Bo-na answers a summons from Kyung-rye, and she's not happy to find that it's a setup to get her and Yoon-yi to talk. Yoon-yi starts by saying that she should have told her about the product defect before they revealed it to the entire company.
She's shocked when Bo-na says that she already knew Yoon-yi was one of Executive Director Jo's informants, and that she and Chi-won are dating. She says that she kept quiet to preserve Yoon-yi's feelings, accusing Yoon-yi of never even thinking about her while everything was going down. She says coldly that unless they get new bosses, they're heading in different directions, and she walks away without a backward glance. That's when Yoon-yi sees Chi-won leaving with his ex-wife, and the double-blow leaves Yoon-yi reeling.
Over tea, Vice President Do tells Chi-won petulantly that he's using up his sick days before he retires by going on a trip with his daughter, "since you won't play with me." He leaves abruptly, stranding Chi-won with his ex-wife. Do-hee tells Chi-won that she can't live without him, and she wants to reconcile.
Yoon-yi finds reasons to be in Chi-won's office, and she brightens when she gets a text from him. But all it says is to cancel his appointments for the day, and she resists the urge to ask why, and when he's coming back.
That afternoon Bo-na gets a text, and she runs out while Executive Director Jo smirks in his office. She finds her father being manhandled by two security guards, who tell her that they've been ordered not to let him in the building because a confidential document disappeared after he'd been in an executive's office.
Executive Director Jo waits a few minutes then heads downstairs, flubbing his dramatic coat-flip. He arrives in the lobby as Bo-na struggles to free herself from a guard's wrist-grab, and he clamps down on the guard's arm in a hilarious parody of Chi-won's dramatic rescue of Yoon-yi at the noraebang.
He threatens the guard, who lets go of Bo-na, while Bo-na looks at him admiringly. He leads her to his office where he promises to straighten everything out, calling her an admirable daughter whose father should be proud. He mentions that she could be the vice president's assistant soon, sending her emotions into a tailspin.
Yoon-yi offers to handle some paperwork for Ms. Moon just for the excuse to call Chi-won. He's driving when he answers, and he says stiffly that he doesn't know when he's going back to the office. Suddenly a woman's voice cries out, calling him "oppa," as he nearly rear-ends another car.
Chi-won hangs up when Yoon-yi asks who's with him, saying he'll call her later. She sits at her desk obsessing about that female voice, then she goes to the break room to gulp down an entire bottle of water. Chang-soo sneaks up to talk to her, and sneaks right back out again at the fierce look on her face.
After thinking about it, Bo-na goes to Executive Director Jo and tells him that she's with him. Grinning triumphantly, he shows her a photo of Chi-won and Yoon-yi outside the house and says that he needs something more incriminating to prove that they're living together. True to her word to think only of herself from now on, she agrees to help.
As she walks home that night, Yoon-yi is still seething over that feminine "oppa." Suddenly, she sees Chi-won and Do-hee, just as Chi-won is telling his ex that it's over between them. He says he's seeing someone, but Do-hee refuses to accept it, and she pulls him close for a kiss.
Yoon-yi screams, "NOOO!" and runs over, but oops, it's just a random couple. She walks away still ranting about Do-hee and why she'd come back to confuse Chi-won. She works herself in to a frenzy, and by the time she's done, she's calling Chi-won a wishy-washy loser and snarling that she hates him.
She arrives home to find her brother Tae-yi lying around in the middle of a mess, and she directs her fury at him. He tells her that Chi-won was considered a "legend of legends" in his army unit because he had a gorgeous girlfriend who always sent letters and gifts.
He yammers carelessly that someone with such an incredible girlfriend could never be satisfied with her, until she screams profanities at him and kicks him out into the cold.
Chi-won is still with Do-hee, and they end up at the hospital, where Vice President Do is sleeping in a patient room. When he wakes, Vice President Do says that the doctors found something that might be cancer, so he's here for tests.
Upset, Chi-won yells that he's told Vice President Do to stop smoking and drinking, and take better care of himself. He gets choked up at the thought of something happening to Vice President Do, who he's calling "uncle" now, and Vice President Do jokes that he's already trying to send him off before they even know if he's sick.
Later Do-hee finds Chi-won in the lobby, and they try to reassure each other that Vice President Do will be okay. Do-hee says that she's less afraid with Chi-won here, but he asks if he was ever really someone she could rely on. She says he was, but that he also made her lonely.
Chi-won checks his watch, and when Do-hee asks if someone is waiting for him, he just tells her to go rest and relieve him in the morning. She correctly guesses that his changing the subject means there's a girlfriend waiting. She admits that hearing that hurts because she doesn't want to lose him to another woman.
Chi-won stays at the hospital all night, watching over Vice President Do as he sleeps. He tucks Vice President Do in when he shucks off his covers, smiling as he asks wistfully, "When did you get so old?"
Worried sick, Yoon-yi stays up all night, and she rushes out when Chi-won finally arrives home in the early morning. He teases her about the dark circles under her eyes, and she blasts him for making her worry by not calling like he promised.
When she finally stops for breath, Chi-won knows she's not finished, and he asks, "And?" Yoon-yi asks why his ex-wife was at the office and why he hugged her in front of everyone. Chi-won just hugs her tightly, not letting go when she struggles, then he backs up to look her in the eyes as he says sincerely, "I'm sorry." They go upstairs and lie face-to-face on Chi-won's bed as he tells her that he was at the hospital. He admits that he feels bad for never playing with Vice President Do when he asked, saying that he was having so much fun with Yoon-yi that he forgot about his friend.
He explains that that's why he felt too guilty to call her while he was at the hospital with Vice President Do. Yoon-yi tells him to make time for Vice President Do from now on, and Chi-won touches her face and says sleepily that he wants to keep looking at her but he's too tired. Before he falls asleep he promises to do everything Yoon-yi wants to do tomorrow.
Jung-ae goes to Gun-woo's room to tell him that she has to work today, but he hides under the covers and refuses to speak to her. She gets a call from Team Leader Baek, asking her to stop by Yul's house on her way into the office, since he hasn't shown up and isn't answering his phone.
Executive Director Jo stakes out Yoon-yi's house wearing the worst fake mustache ever. He aims his camera at the gate, crooning for them to come out. But Yoon-yi's idea of having Chi-won do whatever she wants all day is to stay in while he cleans her house.
He's confused, having assumed that she'd want to go on a date. Yoon-yi lounges around eating snacks and playing on her phone while Chi-won whines about the filth. This is the best.
She offers to cook for him and starts grabbing ingredients from the fridge. Chi-won notices that everything has expiration dates from over a decade ago, and he understands why her cooking is so bad. He slams the food down and says, "Yoon-yi, let's..." She looks nervous, but he finishes with "... go out to eat."
Yul dresses in his nicest suit and lays out a tiny tray of food, placing his puppet on the tray. He says, "Mom, it's not much, but eat a lot." Oh, how sad. Yul frowns at the puppet and chides his mother for not leaving behind at least one photo. His chin wobbles as he adds that if his mom wants a better memorial offering, she should send him a nice girl to be her daughter-in-law.
When Jung-ae arrives, she sees the scant offering and asks Yul if he's okay. He pastes on a smile, pretending it's no big deal. She prepares a warm meal for Yul to share with his mother, and he looks shaken for a moment before asking her to eat with them.
She sets herself a place and joins him, and Yul starts to cry. He fibs that he's just tearing up because the food tastes so good, but then he starts sobbing in earnest. Jung-ae rubs his back as he wails for his mother like a lost child.
Jung-ae tells him gently, "If a mother sees her son crying so sadly, she'll be more heartbroken. So cry today, and be strong again starting tomorrow." Yul sniffles and asks her not to tell anyone he cried, and she agrees that it's their secret.
Outside, Yul's father's minion shows up and sees Yul and Jung-ae eating together. He makes a call and tells the other person that their relationship seems suspicious, advising them to "make the announcement now."
After lunch, Yoon-yi and Chi-won each get a different flavor of steamed bun and split them, and Yoon-yi says this is the best part about having a boyfriend. Always practical, Chi-won says that she could just eat two, making Yoon-yi grumble that he's got no idea how dating works.
She asks if he did things like this with his ex-wife, and when he says Do-hee didn't eat much, Yoon-yi protests that she was only making herself eat for his sake, ha. But Chi-won interjects that he likes women who eat a lot, and Yoon-yi starts stuffing her face again.
Suddenly she stops, realizing that she left her phone at home. She misses an SOS message from Tae-yi alerting her that their mother is in town and warning her not to get caught with Chi-won.
Mom arrives at the house to find Executive Director Jo still lurking in his car, having fallen asleep and missed Chi-won and Yoon-yi leaving together. She confronts him, and when he tells her to buzz off, she loses her temper and starts shaking him through the car window. She rips off the mustache and sees his face, and he drives away in a panic as she chases him on foot.
Do-hee is waiting in the courtyard when Chi-won and Yoon-yi arrive home, using the excuse of returning the scarf he left behind at the hospital to see him again. She notices that he's holding Yoon-yi's hand, and Yoon-yi tugs his hand closer defensively.
Chi-won tells Yoon-yi that he'll talk to Do-hee privately and then come inside. He lets go of Yoon-yi's hand and turns to lead Do-hee to the street, but Yoon-yi grabs his hand back and says, "No. You said you'd do everything I want today. Just stay with me. I... I won't let you go."
Mon, Jan 8, 2018
While walking home after lunch, Chi-won suddenly tosses something out of his pockets and pretends to be surprised. Hee, it's a pair of raccoon keychains, and he asks Yoon-yi if she wants one.
She teases him, asking which drama he got this idea from and calling it tacky when he pouts that it was an online forum. Chi-won says shyly that since they can't wear couple rings, he thought it would be nice to have matching keychains.
Yoon-yi decides that these are better than rings, and they pose for some selfies with their raccoons. Yoon-yi has to remind Chi-won to smile, and the pictures turn out adorable.
When they arrive home they find Chi-won's ex-wife, Do-hee, waiting to see Chi-won. Yoon-yi refuses to let go of his hand and reminds him of his promise to do whatever she wants today, surprising both Chi-won and Do-hee with her assertiveness.
Undaunted, Do-hee says she'll stay too, and she asks Chi-won for a cup of tea in his apartment. Not about to leave them alone together, Yoon-yi says they can have tea at her place. Poor Chi-won looks like he wants to crawl inside his teacup as the ladies face off.
Do-hee notes that it's very clean, and Yoon-yi brags that Chi-won is very good at cleaning. It backfires when Do-hee purrs that Chi-won always did the cleaning when they were married, ha. Yoon-yi tries to take back control by asking Chi-won to fix their bench, but Do-hee fires back by noting that the staircase outside is different than the one she remembers.
Annoyed, Yoon-yi takes a huge gulp of tea and burns her mouth. Chi-won immediately jumps up for some cool water, and his attentiveness makes Do-hee glare at them, looking like she just sucked a lemon.
Vice President Do calls Chi-won looking for Do-hee, needing a guardian for an upcoming test. Yoon-yi tells Chi-won to go, saying that she'll be fine, and again Do-hee frowns as she sees how much they care about each other.
Still, she looks triumphant as she leaves with Chi-won, leaving Yoon-yi behind alone. Yoon-yi sighs sadly, but she cheers up when Chi-won pokes his head back in to give her his house key (already attached to his raccoon keychain) and permission to read his comics until he comes back.
On the drive to the hospital, Do-hee notes that Yoon-yi did well pretending she wasn't bothered by their leaving together. Chi-won says, "She's honest. That's why I like her."
Yoon-yi's mom is upset and preoccupied after having met Do-hee at Yoon-yi's house earlier. She'd let Do-hee into the courtyard to wait for Chi-won, mentioning that Chi-won told her that he used to live here with his uncle.
Do-he had said it was strange that Chi-won would return to the place where his uncle died. That bit of information was news to Yoon-yi's mom, who had only then realized that it was Chi-won's uncle who died in the fire years ago.
Yoon-yi goes up to Chi-won's apartment and has fun trying on his panther slippers, rolling around on his bed, and flipping through his comics. When she pulls out one book, a photo falls to the ground of a young Chi-won with his uncle, Vice President Do, and Do-hee as a little girl. Seeing how much history Chi-won and Do-hee have together dampens Yoon-yi's mood, and she slumps back downstairs.
At the hospital, Vice President Do explains that he told Do-hee where Chi-won lives now, never guessing she'd actually go there. Do-hee asks if Chi-won moved there because of Yoon-yi, but he's saved from answering by a phone call from Yoon-yi's mother, who asks to meet with him.
She's not angry this time, only sad and worried. She says that she knows that it was Chi-won's uncle who died in the apartment. She tells Chi-won that as a mother, she doesn't want to see her daughter live a difficult life, worried that being with him and sharing his pain would ultimately hurt her. Chi-won says he understands, and he stays there thinking long after Yoon-yi's mother leaves.
When he finally comes home, Yoon-yi has to tiptoe past her mother and Tae-yi sleeping in the living room to get outside. Chi-won silently holds out a hand, and Yoon-yi takes it, only for Chi-won to quip, "No, my key."
But he pulls her closer and tells her that she was cool when she held his hand and said she wouldn't let him go. He says he felt like a heroine in a drama, and Yoon-yi slings an arm around his neck and tells her to trust him, like a drama hero. Chi-won says seriously, "Of course I trust you. That's why I'm with you right now."
The following morning, he finds Yoon-yi at her desk looking at apartment ads. She says that they have to move out since her mother is selling her shop and moving back home.
Chi-won deadpans that he has no plans to live together with her, making Yoon-yi protest that she didn't mean they would live together, just move out together. He plays a corny prank on her and goes into his office, and at his desk nearby, team member Chi-woo pops up from where he's been sleeping at his desk again. Uh-oh, he heard them talking about living together.
Executive Director Jo is in his office, upset that he couldn't get any pictures of Chi-won and Yoon-yi before that lady chased him off. He calls in Bo-na and confirms that it was Yoon-yi's mother, and Bo-na offers to get some evidence for him. To start, she invites the other three friends to lunch.
Yoon-yi is too happy that Bo-na seems to be over her upset to be suspicious. Bo-na turns off her phone when nobody's looking, and she says it's not working and asks to borrow Yoon-yi's. She heads to the restroom with it and finds the selfies of Chi-won and Yoon-yi, texts them to herself, then deletes the text thread.
After lunch, the Hwangbo minion calls Jung-ae to ask her to meet with him, and not to mention it to Yul. She asks why, then refuses to meet with him without knowing the reason and says that she won't lie to her boss. She hangs up after firmly telling him to come to the office if he wants to talk to her.
Yul has an upcoming business trip to Hong Kong for an e-sports match. He marvels at how well Jung-ae has everything planned down to the tiniest detail, and he admits that he worried at first that she wouldn't make it. He declines a call (maybe from the Hwangbo minion?), and they head to a joint meeting with Chi-won's team.
All during the meeting, Chi-soo stares at Chi-won and idly doodles "living together" in his notebook over and over. Both Chang-soo and Team Leader Gong notice, and Team Leader Gong whispers that he's lost it.
Executive Director Jo is overjoyed by the obvious couple photos of Chi-won and Yoon-yi. He calls an emergency board meeting, where he goes on and on about sex scandals and ethical violations by corporate executives. When he gets to the part about bosses seducing their employees, he scratches his forehead with his middle finger in Chi-won's direction.
Nobody can figure out why that required an emergency meeting, but Yoon-yi remembers how Executive Director Jo seemed to be onto her and Chi-won, and she worries that he knows something. She gets a call later, and she asks Chi-won if she can leave a bit early to take care of something.
He heads to the hospital, where he Vice President Do jokes that he's getting spoiled when Chi-won helps him shave. He tells Chi-won to forget what he said about wishing he was his father-in-law again, and to ignore Do-hee. He tells Chi-won that it's his life to live as he pleases.
Yoon-yi's call was from Do-hee, who says that she was surprised to learn that Yoon-yi is Chi-won's assistant, and that he doesn't usually date. Yoon-yi replies that he even moved into her house, and that it's not really surprising anymore, but destiny. Do-hee asks how long they've dated, saying that her secret weapon is that she's known Chi-won for twenty years, and lived with him for two.
Chi-won calls Yoon-yi, who just says that she's busy and will call him later. Next he calls Do-hee, wondering why she's not back at the hospital yet, and she tells him that she's with Yoon-yi. When they hang up, Do-hee says that she and Chi-won have no secrets because Chi-won hates when people lie and talk behind his back.
She tells Yoon-yi that Chi-won appears cold and aloof at first, then he'll seem to open up once she pushes herself in. But over time she'll realize that he didn't really open up, but was only trying to, because he's not capable of opening his heart to anyone.
Meanwhile, Chi-won rushes to the cafe, but Yoon-yi is gone by the time he gets there. He sits down with Do-hee and says that he doesn't regret marrying her, and that he's sorry for making her lonely for all those years. He thanks her for caring for him, but he adds that that's all he feels for her.
She asks him how he feels about Yoon-yi, and he says honestly, "I'm nervous that she'll leave me. That I'll have to let her go. It scares me." He reminds Do-hee that she once said that they should be happy together, and he says that he wants to be happy separately now.
Do-hee is upset, but she acknowledges that Yoon-yi is pretty incredible. We see that after she told Yoon-yi that Chi-won can't open up to anyone, Yoon-yi had serenely disagreed. She'd said that Do-hee's many years with Chi-won have nothing to do with her, and that even though Do-hee gave up on Chi-won, she never will.
She'd added confidently, "You tried to change him, but I don't want to do that. I love that man, Nam Chi-won, as he is, with all of his scars. That's why I will never give up."
Chi-won arrives home to find Yoon-yi waiting outside his door. He hugs her tightly, and a bit desperately, and soon they're in his apartment, sitting on his bed and kissing passionately. Chi-won gently lays Yoon-yi back onto the pillows, and she unbuttons his shirt and removes his glasses.
Just when things are getting hot and heavy, Chi-won starts to struggle with Yoon-yi's stuck zipper, and the mood is broken. A knock on the door sends Chi-won lurching out to glare at Tae-yi, who proudly shows him the alcohol he brought. Chi-won just slams the door in his face.
But Tae-yi gets in by calling out that they need him if they want Mom on their side. He sits on the floor, drinking and reading Chi-won's comics, while Chi-won and Yoon-yi try to murder him with their brains.
Chi-won eventually asks Tae-yi why he's here, and Tae-yi hands over yet another copy of his resume. Chi-won just rips it up without looking at it, saying that he won't get a job through connections.
Tae-yi is still there in the morning when Yoon-yi wakes up alone in Chi-won's bed. She sneaks down to where Chi-won is asleep on the floor and little-spoons him, then flips over to grin at his adorable sleeping face.
But then she gets a text consisting of the three photos of her and Chi-won leaving the house, and it reminds her of the post on the company website accusing her of seducing her old boss. She spends the day obsessively checking the company site, wondering who in the office might already know. She can't even focus during a team meeting, which Chi-won notices.
The team discusses their new program, the purpose of which is to report corruption and impropriety in the company and discuss ways to prevent them. Chang-soo points out that they already have a lot on their plate, but Chi-won feels strongly that this is an important project.
Jung-ae gets a call and runs out of the office when she sees who it's from, so she misses an announcement that they'll be working late tonight. Yul's team whines that they miss the times when Yul never worked and they had it easy, and they blame Jung-ae for the change.
The call is from Gun-woo's school, and Jung-ae panics to hear that her son was hanging out with delinquents and was injured when he fell off a motorcycle. She runs to grab her things, and when Yul hears she has an emergency, he offers to give her a ride.
On the drive, Yul reassures Jung-ae that everything will be fine, and that he'll have a talk with Gun-woo. He sees that she's barely holding it together, and when she blames herself, he says she's a great aunt. He asks jokingly if she's really Gun-woo's mother, but she doesn't answer.
He drops her off at the school, and he's still there when she comes out a short while later chasing after Gun-woo, who storms off angrily.
When Jung-ae sinks to her heels and sobs, Yul goes to her and tries to comfort her. He says that she's crying much harder than he was, and he gives her his handkerchief. He tells her to stop crying, and Jung-ae nods but continues to cry while Yul pats her back.
Still preoccupied, Yoon-yi accidentally finds herself in the elevator alone with Executive Director Jo. She asks him nervously if one of his "lines" is in her department. He denies knowing what she's talking about, but she tells him that whatever he's up to, she won't tolerate it. As she steps out of the elevator, Executive Director Jo calls out that she must have a powerful backer.
She spends the afternoon glaring at her coworkers, wondering who could be the mole. She can't think of anyone who might know about her and Chi-won, until Chang-soo bounces over to tell her that he ate her love note to Chi-won. Chi-won catches Chang-soo singing to Yoon-yi and firmly escorts him away from her desk.
While driving back to the office alone, Yul tries to figure out why Jung-ae would be so upset about her nephew. He realizes that she left her phone in his car when it rings, and he picks it up to see that the call is from "my sister Mi-ae." Well, if he didn't know already, he will now.
Vice President Do is back at work, and has a meeting with with Chi-won and Executive Director Jo. Chi-won tells Executive Director Jo about his whistle-blowing program, and when Executive Director Jo objects, he says that this is the reason he came to YB Group.
Executive Director Jo complains that this is a waste of time, shooting Chi-won another thinly-disguised double bird. Chi-won just says that Executive Director Jo must have a lot of dirty laundry he doesn't want aired, and Executive Director Jo fires back that Chi-won must have nothing to hide.
Having kept quiet until now, Vice President Do tells Executive Director Jo that he should be thankful to Chi-won for uncovering the defective component in the TVs before they were sold. Executive Director Jo is forced to agree to support Chi-won on his project.
But on the way out, Executive Director Jo tells Chi-won that he has a death wish. Chi-won retorts that rot needs to be removed from the inside, and Executive Director Jo wonders if he's qualified to hold the knife. He asks if there's nothing Chi-won is ashamed of, and Chi-won says honestly that there isn't.
Angry at Chi-won's arrogance, Executive Director Jo makes a phone call and tells the person on the other line to get ready.
Chi-won and Yoon-yi leave work at the same time, but Yoon-yi hangs back. In the lobby, she urges Chi-won to go on ahead, and he leans down to ask her cheekily if she's done something wrong. She notices that everyone seems to be staring at her disapprovingly, and she pulls out her phone to check the company website.
There it is, the thing she's been dreading - an article about her and Chi-won living together, complete with their couple pics. Yoon-yi realizes that everyone is gossiping about her and the fact that this happened with her last boss, calling her names and making vulgar assumptions.
She staggers, and Chi-won catches her from falling. He sees what she's reading, then they both look up to find Executive Director Jo and Bo-na, standing nearby looking triumphantly smug.
She teases him, asking which drama he got this idea from and calling it tacky when he pouts that it was an online forum. Chi-won says shyly that since they can't wear couple rings, he thought it would be nice to have matching keychains.
Yoon-yi decides that these are better than rings, and they pose for some selfies with their raccoons. Yoon-yi has to remind Chi-won to smile, and the pictures turn out adorable.
When they arrive home they find Chi-won's ex-wife, Do-hee, waiting to see Chi-won. Yoon-yi refuses to let go of his hand and reminds him of his promise to do whatever she wants today, surprising both Chi-won and Do-hee with her assertiveness.
Undaunted, Do-hee says she'll stay too, and she asks Chi-won for a cup of tea in his apartment. Not about to leave them alone together, Yoon-yi says they can have tea at her place. Poor Chi-won looks like he wants to crawl inside his teacup as the ladies face off.
Do-hee notes that it's very clean, and Yoon-yi brags that Chi-won is very good at cleaning. It backfires when Do-hee purrs that Chi-won always did the cleaning when they were married, ha. Yoon-yi tries to take back control by asking Chi-won to fix their bench, but Do-hee fires back by noting that the staircase outside is different than the one she remembers.
Annoyed, Yoon-yi takes a huge gulp of tea and burns her mouth. Chi-won immediately jumps up for some cool water, and his attentiveness makes Do-hee glare at them, looking like she just sucked a lemon.
Vice President Do calls Chi-won looking for Do-hee, needing a guardian for an upcoming test. Yoon-yi tells Chi-won to go, saying that she'll be fine, and again Do-hee frowns as she sees how much they care about each other.
Still, she looks triumphant as she leaves with Chi-won, leaving Yoon-yi behind alone. Yoon-yi sighs sadly, but she cheers up when Chi-won pokes his head back in to give her his house key (already attached to his raccoon keychain) and permission to read his comics until he comes back.
On the drive to the hospital, Do-hee notes that Yoon-yi did well pretending she wasn't bothered by their leaving together. Chi-won says, "She's honest. That's why I like her."
Yoon-yi's mom is upset and preoccupied after having met Do-hee at Yoon-yi's house earlier. She'd let Do-hee into the courtyard to wait for Chi-won, mentioning that Chi-won told her that he used to live here with his uncle.
Do-he had said it was strange that Chi-won would return to the place where his uncle died. That bit of information was news to Yoon-yi's mom, who had only then realized that it was Chi-won's uncle who died in the fire years ago.
Yoon-yi goes up to Chi-won's apartment and has fun trying on his panther slippers, rolling around on his bed, and flipping through his comics. When she pulls out one book, a photo falls to the ground of a young Chi-won with his uncle, Vice President Do, and Do-hee as a little girl. Seeing how much history Chi-won and Do-hee have together dampens Yoon-yi's mood, and she slumps back downstairs.
At the hospital, Vice President Do explains that he told Do-hee where Chi-won lives now, never guessing she'd actually go there. Do-hee asks if Chi-won moved there because of Yoon-yi, but he's saved from answering by a phone call from Yoon-yi's mother, who asks to meet with him.
She's not angry this time, only sad and worried. She says that she knows that it was Chi-won's uncle who died in the apartment. She tells Chi-won that as a mother, she doesn't want to see her daughter live a difficult life, worried that being with him and sharing his pain would ultimately hurt her. Chi-won says he understands, and he stays there thinking long after Yoon-yi's mother leaves.
When he finally comes home, Yoon-yi has to tiptoe past her mother and Tae-yi sleeping in the living room to get outside. Chi-won silently holds out a hand, and Yoon-yi takes it, only for Chi-won to quip, "No, my key."
But he pulls her closer and tells her that she was cool when she held his hand and said she wouldn't let him go. He says he felt like a heroine in a drama, and Yoon-yi slings an arm around his neck and tells her to trust him, like a drama hero. Chi-won says seriously, "Of course I trust you. That's why I'm with you right now."
The following morning, he finds Yoon-yi at her desk looking at apartment ads. She says that they have to move out since her mother is selling her shop and moving back home.
Chi-won deadpans that he has no plans to live together with her, making Yoon-yi protest that she didn't mean they would live together, just move out together. He plays a corny prank on her and goes into his office, and at his desk nearby, team member Chi-woo pops up from where he's been sleeping at his desk again. Uh-oh, he heard them talking about living together.
Executive Director Jo is in his office, upset that he couldn't get any pictures of Chi-won and Yoon-yi before that lady chased him off. He calls in Bo-na and confirms that it was Yoon-yi's mother, and Bo-na offers to get some evidence for him. To start, she invites the other three friends to lunch.
Yoon-yi is too happy that Bo-na seems to be over her upset to be suspicious. Bo-na turns off her phone when nobody's looking, and she says it's not working and asks to borrow Yoon-yi's. She heads to the restroom with it and finds the selfies of Chi-won and Yoon-yi, texts them to herself, then deletes the text thread.
After lunch, the Hwangbo minion calls Jung-ae to ask her to meet with him, and not to mention it to Yul. She asks why, then refuses to meet with him without knowing the reason and says that she won't lie to her boss. She hangs up after firmly telling him to come to the office if he wants to talk to her.
Yul has an upcoming business trip to Hong Kong for an e-sports match. He marvels at how well Jung-ae has everything planned down to the tiniest detail, and he admits that he worried at first that she wouldn't make it. He declines a call (maybe from the Hwangbo minion?), and they head to a joint meeting with Chi-won's team.
All during the meeting, Chi-soo stares at Chi-won and idly doodles "living together" in his notebook over and over. Both Chang-soo and Team Leader Gong notice, and Team Leader Gong whispers that he's lost it.
Executive Director Jo is overjoyed by the obvious couple photos of Chi-won and Yoon-yi. He calls an emergency board meeting, where he goes on and on about sex scandals and ethical violations by corporate executives. When he gets to the part about bosses seducing their employees, he scratches his forehead with his middle finger in Chi-won's direction.
Nobody can figure out why that required an emergency meeting, but Yoon-yi remembers how Executive Director Jo seemed to be onto her and Chi-won, and she worries that he knows something. She gets a call later, and she asks Chi-won if she can leave a bit early to take care of something.
He heads to the hospital, where he Vice President Do jokes that he's getting spoiled when Chi-won helps him shave. He tells Chi-won to forget what he said about wishing he was his father-in-law again, and to ignore Do-hee. He tells Chi-won that it's his life to live as he pleases.
Yoon-yi's call was from Do-hee, who says that she was surprised to learn that Yoon-yi is Chi-won's assistant, and that he doesn't usually date. Yoon-yi replies that he even moved into her house, and that it's not really surprising anymore, but destiny. Do-hee asks how long they've dated, saying that her secret weapon is that she's known Chi-won for twenty years, and lived with him for two.
Chi-won calls Yoon-yi, who just says that she's busy and will call him later. Next he calls Do-hee, wondering why she's not back at the hospital yet, and she tells him that she's with Yoon-yi. When they hang up, Do-hee says that she and Chi-won have no secrets because Chi-won hates when people lie and talk behind his back.
She tells Yoon-yi that Chi-won appears cold and aloof at first, then he'll seem to open up once she pushes herself in. But over time she'll realize that he didn't really open up, but was only trying to, because he's not capable of opening his heart to anyone.
Meanwhile, Chi-won rushes to the cafe, but Yoon-yi is gone by the time he gets there. He sits down with Do-hee and says that he doesn't regret marrying her, and that he's sorry for making her lonely for all those years. He thanks her for caring for him, but he adds that that's all he feels for her.
She asks him how he feels about Yoon-yi, and he says honestly, "I'm nervous that she'll leave me. That I'll have to let her go. It scares me." He reminds Do-hee that she once said that they should be happy together, and he says that he wants to be happy separately now.
Do-hee is upset, but she acknowledges that Yoon-yi is pretty incredible. We see that after she told Yoon-yi that Chi-won can't open up to anyone, Yoon-yi had serenely disagreed. She'd said that Do-hee's many years with Chi-won have nothing to do with her, and that even though Do-hee gave up on Chi-won, she never will.
She'd added confidently, "You tried to change him, but I don't want to do that. I love that man, Nam Chi-won, as he is, with all of his scars. That's why I will never give up."
Chi-won arrives home to find Yoon-yi waiting outside his door. He hugs her tightly, and a bit desperately, and soon they're in his apartment, sitting on his bed and kissing passionately. Chi-won gently lays Yoon-yi back onto the pillows, and she unbuttons his shirt and removes his glasses.
Just when things are getting hot and heavy, Chi-won starts to struggle with Yoon-yi's stuck zipper, and the mood is broken. A knock on the door sends Chi-won lurching out to glare at Tae-yi, who proudly shows him the alcohol he brought. Chi-won just slams the door in his face.
But Tae-yi gets in by calling out that they need him if they want Mom on their side. He sits on the floor, drinking and reading Chi-won's comics, while Chi-won and Yoon-yi try to murder him with their brains.
Chi-won eventually asks Tae-yi why he's here, and Tae-yi hands over yet another copy of his resume. Chi-won just rips it up without looking at it, saying that he won't get a job through connections.
Tae-yi is still there in the morning when Yoon-yi wakes up alone in Chi-won's bed. She sneaks down to where Chi-won is asleep on the floor and little-spoons him, then flips over to grin at his adorable sleeping face.
But then she gets a text consisting of the three photos of her and Chi-won leaving the house, and it reminds her of the post on the company website accusing her of seducing her old boss. She spends the day obsessively checking the company site, wondering who in the office might already know. She can't even focus during a team meeting, which Chi-won notices.
The team discusses their new program, the purpose of which is to report corruption and impropriety in the company and discuss ways to prevent them. Chang-soo points out that they already have a lot on their plate, but Chi-won feels strongly that this is an important project.
Jung-ae gets a call and runs out of the office when she sees who it's from, so she misses an announcement that they'll be working late tonight. Yul's team whines that they miss the times when Yul never worked and they had it easy, and they blame Jung-ae for the change.
The call is from Gun-woo's school, and Jung-ae panics to hear that her son was hanging out with delinquents and was injured when he fell off a motorcycle. She runs to grab her things, and when Yul hears she has an emergency, he offers to give her a ride.
On the drive, Yul reassures Jung-ae that everything will be fine, and that he'll have a talk with Gun-woo. He sees that she's barely holding it together, and when she blames herself, he says she's a great aunt. He asks jokingly if she's really Gun-woo's mother, but she doesn't answer.
He drops her off at the school, and he's still there when she comes out a short while later chasing after Gun-woo, who storms off angrily.
When Jung-ae sinks to her heels and sobs, Yul goes to her and tries to comfort her. He says that she's crying much harder than he was, and he gives her his handkerchief. He tells her to stop crying, and Jung-ae nods but continues to cry while Yul pats her back.
Still preoccupied, Yoon-yi accidentally finds herself in the elevator alone with Executive Director Jo. She asks him nervously if one of his "lines" is in her department. He denies knowing what she's talking about, but she tells him that whatever he's up to, she won't tolerate it. As she steps out of the elevator, Executive Director Jo calls out that she must have a powerful backer.
She spends the afternoon glaring at her coworkers, wondering who could be the mole. She can't think of anyone who might know about her and Chi-won, until Chang-soo bounces over to tell her that he ate her love note to Chi-won. Chi-won catches Chang-soo singing to Yoon-yi and firmly escorts him away from her desk.
While driving back to the office alone, Yul tries to figure out why Jung-ae would be so upset about her nephew. He realizes that she left her phone in his car when it rings, and he picks it up to see that the call is from "my sister Mi-ae." Well, if he didn't know already, he will now.
Vice President Do is back at work, and has a meeting with with Chi-won and Executive Director Jo. Chi-won tells Executive Director Jo about his whistle-blowing program, and when Executive Director Jo objects, he says that this is the reason he came to YB Group.
Executive Director Jo complains that this is a waste of time, shooting Chi-won another thinly-disguised double bird. Chi-won just says that Executive Director Jo must have a lot of dirty laundry he doesn't want aired, and Executive Director Jo fires back that Chi-won must have nothing to hide.
Having kept quiet until now, Vice President Do tells Executive Director Jo that he should be thankful to Chi-won for uncovering the defective component in the TVs before they were sold. Executive Director Jo is forced to agree to support Chi-won on his project.
But on the way out, Executive Director Jo tells Chi-won that he has a death wish. Chi-won retorts that rot needs to be removed from the inside, and Executive Director Jo wonders if he's qualified to hold the knife. He asks if there's nothing Chi-won is ashamed of, and Chi-won says honestly that there isn't.
Angry at Chi-won's arrogance, Executive Director Jo makes a phone call and tells the person on the other line to get ready.
Chi-won and Yoon-yi leave work at the same time, but Yoon-yi hangs back. In the lobby, she urges Chi-won to go on ahead, and he leans down to ask her cheekily if she's done something wrong. She notices that everyone seems to be staring at her disapprovingly, and she pulls out her phone to check the company website.
There it is, the thing she's been dreading - an article about her and Chi-won living together, complete with their couple pics. Yoon-yi realizes that everyone is gossiping about her and the fact that this happened with her last boss, calling her names and making vulgar assumptions.
She staggers, and Chi-won catches her from falling. He sees what she's reading, then they both look up to find Executive Director Jo and Bo-na, standing nearby looking triumphantly smug.