Boys Over Flowers’s Blog

EPISODE 5 RECAP

Jan-di’s bike is set on fire, while she is assaulted with water balloons and blasted with a fire extinguisher. Seriously, are these Shinhwa kids all sociopaths? Regular bullying and taunting is bad enough, but they seem to be particularly malicious — like in Episode 1, when everyone watched the guy about to commit suicide and found it entertaining.

After being spurned by Jun-pyo and abused by her classmates, Jan-di tries to maintain a fierce exterior but is near her breaking point. She thinks to herself, “Please stop. Help me.” That plea is directed at Ji-hoo, since he’d come to her rescue several times in the past. She knows he can’t save her now, but pleads internally, “Nobody’s coming. But still… please…”

But she is not alone, because she has Jun-pyo! He bursts in on the scene, furiously shoving her tormenters away and beating them up (rather violently, I might add).

Jun-pyo kneels and takes Jan-di into his arms, saying, “I’m sorry.” Picking her up, he walks away from the now-subdued crowd.

Jan-di, thinking of the hotel pictures, tells him, “I didn’t do it, really.” He tells her, “It doesn’t matter. So keep your mouth shut.” She mumbles, “You still don’t believe me, do you?” Jun-pyo, looking upset with himself, says, “I do, I believe you!”

(I’m a little annoyed at how they took this potentially great scene and totally ruined it with ridiculous cheesy music. It’s so tragic and heartbroken, you’d think they both found out they had cancer or something. With 90 days left to live. And are also siblings.)

Back at his mansion, Jun-pyo insists on tending to her wounds himself. When she tries to take over, he asks, “Wanna sit still, or wanna be tied up?” (Why Jun-pyo, you say that like it’s a bad thing.)

Now that she’s safe, they can get back to their mating dance bickering: he reproaches her for not learning from the past and letting herself be bullied, saying she must have the learning ability of an orangutan. They argue some more until he takes a towel to wipe Jan-di’s face, and his heart starts pounding.

Rattled, Jun-pyo shoves the towel in her face and tells her to do it, then walks outside, where he clutches his heart and takes a deep breath. (So. Sweet.)

After tracing the guy in the photos to Oh Min-ji (who masterminded the plan), Yi-jung and Woo-bin now deliver Min-ji to Jun-pyo, along with her kindergarten yearbook. Inside, Min-ji’s picture has been scratched out, which takes them to a kindergarten flashback to explain why Min-ji would have done such a thing:

Cute Little Ji-hoo — wearing all white, of course! — is playing the violin, and faking it just as badly as Grown-up Ji-hoo. Little Yi-jung is playing with clay, and Little Woo-bin is counting his fake money with the board game Life. HA.

But they don’t have anything on Little Jun-pyo, who is OMG so adorable. And also afraid of bugs. Attacked by a buzzing insect, he tries to shoo it away, when Min-ji joins in and swats at the bug with her sketchbook. She assures Jun-pyo that the bug is gone now and looks at him hopefully. He catches a glimpse of the page she’d been drawing, which shows a couple labeled with their names. (She’s supposed to be ugly, which they’ve enhanced with makeup and freckles.)

Offended, Little Jun-pyo throws the sketchbook down and stomps on it. He demands, “How dare an ugly thing like you consider me for a husband?” It’s kind of weird hearing such harsh words come out of the mouth of babes, but I suppose that’s the point; he tells her to get lost, that he will never like her.

Min-ji recounts how that after that day, she was ashamed to be seen. She ended up going to Germany and underwent multiple surgeries and intense pain: “Do you know how I put up with it? That look on your face. The look when you ran away from me like I was some bug or a monster. I haven’t forgotten a moment.”

Jun-pyo has been eyeing Min-ji with cold contempt, but at this, he says, “I don’t remember, but I’m sorry for it.” Min-ji protests, “No! That’s not it. The words I want to hear from you aren’t that you’re sorry!”

Crying now, she approaches Jun-pyo: “Look at me. Aren’t I pretty? I’ve become so pretty. Don’t you want me? I came back for you. This is the moment I’ve been dreaming of. Tell me you want me!”

Coolly, Jun-pyo responds, “I feel sorry for you. Do you know why? You’re still a monster, like you were then. No — you’re worse now. The kid back then still had a good heart.”

(GREAT SCENE. Lee Shi-young as Min-ji is very good, showing how she’s been twisted as a result of the trauma without being over-the-top eeeevil, and the whole exchange is well-played. For those of us who’ve started thinking Jun-pyo is all warm and fuzzy, this is a great reminder that even if he’s not wrong, he can still be so cold as to be cruel. I suppose this means that it’s not as though Jun-pyo is exceptionally cruel to Min-ji when he’s normally so warm; it’s the reverse — he’s exceptionally warm with Jan-di when he’s normally so cold-hearted.)

Jan-di’s been put in a spare room and wears his pajamas. Jun-pyo has taken the liberty of calling her parents (if she went home in her condition, they’d freak out) and throwing away her clothes. She shouts at him for getting rid of perfectly mendable clothing, at which he claps a hand over her mouth and says, “It sounds like you ate the heart of a train.” She corrects his misspoken adage: “It’s a train smokestack!” (He laughs that she’s wrong — you can’t eat a smokestack!)

There’s a moment when he leans over Jan-di, freaking her out, but it turns out he’s not making a pass but grabbing the first aid kit. Again, he tends to her injuries.

By the time he’s done patching her up, Jan-di has fallen asleep. He tucks her in, then leans down and presses a kiss to her forehead.

After he leaves, Jan-di opens her eyes.

In the morning, Jan-di awakens to find the staff at her disposal. Jun-pyo has ordered his butler to find exact replicas of everything that had been thrown away, with the exception of one thing: her bicycle.

Unable to find the exact same model, the butler parades a whole roomful of bicycles out for her appraisal. She tries them out with excitement, but then sees the price tag: 18 million won ($13,000). Her bike was much, much cheaper and very ordinary.

To encourage her to accept the expensive gift, the butler diplomatically asks her to be tolerant of the difference (like it’s doing HIM a favor) because they couldn’t find the exact match.

While Jan-di eats (a lavish, gourmet) breakfast, Jun-pyo pays a visit to Jan-di’s place.

The family is thrilled (and flustered) to receive him, and serve him a very plain breakfast. The foods are common, everyday dishes, but the Almighty Jun-pyo has never eaten anything like it, and he tries them cautiously after inspecting each one quizzically.

At school, the fickle crowd embraces Jan-di again, since (1) Jun-pyo came to her rescue and (2) there’s a new target to gang up on: Min-ji. The Catty Trio (Hateful Threesome? Evil Troika? Wicked Wenches? Vicious Bishes?) crowd Jan-di, faking concern over how much Min-ji hurt her. They rip on Min-ji for her surgeries, saying, “If I looked like her, I would’ve killed myself already.”

Not amused, Jan-di turns to them and points out, “You guys buy whatever you want, but beauty doesn’t count? You’ve all done plastic surgery too, but you mock Min-ji for it? It’s okay for pretty girls to use it to be prettier, but not for an ugly person?”

Jan-di turns to leave as Min-ji steps up quietly, eyes lowered: “I won’t ask you to forgive me.” Jan-di slaps her.

Min-ji adds, “I can’t say I’m sorry either.” Jan-di slaps her again and says she shouldn’t expect to be forgiven.

But when Jan-di comes to her desk, she finds the stuffed sheep there bearing a new message: “Jan-di, thanks. Let’s meet again.” Min-ji sings the song Jan-di once sang to make her feel better, which brings a smile to Jan-di’s face.

Jun-pyo has an announcement to make: Jan-di is now officially his girlfriend. The Gin-Sun-Mi trio collapses in disbelief and Jan-di protests, but she’s ignored while the rest of the students clap and hoot.

Jun-pyo adds, “From now on, I’ll take anything you say or do to Jan-di as an act against me, so don’t mess around.”

And then, Ji-hoo makes his reappearance.

Though everyone’s glad to have him back, this puts Jan-di into a gloomy mood. Ga-eul wonders if she’s over Ji-hoo now that Jun-pyo’s in the picture, which Jan-di denies is the reason for her distress. She worries that something feels different about Ji-hoo.

At home, the entire apartment has been crammed full of new appliances and furniture — courtesy of Jun-pyo. The whole family is ecstatic — they even had to turn some of it away because it wouldn’t fit through their doors — but Jan-di finds this wildly inappropriate.

Too enamored of the extravagance, her parents try to justify it through excuses (i.e., returning it looks bad for Jun-pyo, it would be rude), but she’s not having it.

Jan-di storms into the F4 recreation room, which has a few extra female guests today. She yells at Jun-pyo for ordering new things for her family without even telling her, and he completely misses the point by asking, “Was there something you didn’t like? Tell me and I’ll switch it.” After all, he’s her boyfriend.

She retorts, “Are you like that with all your girlfriends? Did you buy them clothes and cars and swap out all their furniture? In a little while you’ll be getting me a new house too, I bet.”

He says thoughtfully, “Actually, I was going to start with the new house, but Mr. Jung stopped me and told me to do it later since it’s attached to the dry cleaner’s.”

Jan-di reminds him, “I told you that you can’t buy friends, that you bond through your feelings. I don’t know how you were with all your previous girlfriends, but stuff like this pisses me off!”

He answers, “I don’t have any previous girlfriends.” At that, Jan-di’s ire deflates, and she says she can let it go this time — but he’d better watch it!

Looking around, Jan-di seems perturbed to see Ji-hoo flirting with a group of girls, although Yi-jung and Jun-pyo think it’s good to see him acting like a person instead of just sleeping all the time.

Sensing that things with Seo-hyun may have not gone well in Paris, Jan-di asks him when he’s going back. He has no plans to.

Asking whether she’s really dating Jun-pyo, Ji-hoo muses, “Was I too late? I was going to ask you to date me.” Jan-di’s shocked, but he smiles and tells her it was a joke. He suggests, “Then what about dating behind Jun-pyo’s back?” which she again takes for real. He laughs that she’s the same as ever, then says, “I missed you” as he leaves.

Jun-pyo sneaks up on Jan-di on her way to her job, laughing to see how excited she is to find a coin on the ground (which he dropped).

Armed with a mysterious mission, Jun-pyo grabs Jan-di and drags her along on an errand, which doesn’t turn out to be an errand so much as it’s a shopping spree. (To ensure that they have the run of the department store, Jun-pyo sets off a fire alarm, which sends everyone running to evacuate and leaves them alone.) He entrusts the next part of his plan to Yi-jung.

I love how seriously Yi-jung bursts in on the restaurant to get Ga-eul. He tells her to hurry; it’s an emergency. Ga-eul guesses, “Has something happened to Jan-di?” She frets over the possibility of an accident, to which Yi-jung tells her grimly, “If we’re late, you might not get to see her. Hurry!”

So when Jan-di and Ga-eul are driven onto the tarmac of a private runway and deposited at a private jet — where F4 awaits — they’re completely baffled. Jun-pyo announces, “We’re going on a trip.”

Jan-di sputters, no way! But what about her parents? How can she leave so suddenly?

Jun-pyo replies, proud of himself, that he’s already gotten her parents’ permission, and to keep them from worrying, he brought along her best friend, too. (He’s even made allowances for her job, providing a staff of modelesque waitresses to replace the girls, who bring in a wave of new customers.)

Jan-di can’t believe he wouldn’t even ask her first, or find out when she can make time for a trip. Jun-pyo responds, “I wanted to go someplace nice together, all the preparations were made, and it’s not like Korea will be in trouble without you. What’s the problem?”

And then, they’re in New Caledonia. It really is gorgeous.

After arriving at the Shinhwa private resort, the group goes sight-seeing and browsing.

Outside one particular shop, Jan-di spies Ji-hoo taking a look at a potted flower. After he leaves, Jan-di takes a closer look, so the flower girl gives it to her with the instructions: “Give it to your lover.” (The scene is kind of random, but I mention it because I suspect it will come into play later…)

The girls wander by a fortune-teller who is purported to be extremely accurate, and have Jan-di’s palm read. The woman foretells, “I see a man. Your future husband.” Not only that, but he’s here with her: “A soulmate.”

Ga-eul thinks that’s great — that means Jan-di will marry her soulmate. But the woman contradicts her, saying, “Two different men” — Jan-di’s soulmate and husband are not the same man.

The woman finishes with one last bit: “You’re losing something important, as a woman.” The girls wonder what that means, then shriek, their minds jumping to (probably) sex.

And then, Jan-di wakes up. It was all a dream!

Still, it’s creepy and realistic, and with the woman’s last words on her mind, Jan-di panics when Jun-pyo takes her away, jumping to the conclusion that he’s just trying to get her alone to make some moves. Jun-pyo asks Yi-jung to watch after Ga-eul, which is how Yi-jung gets reluctantly stuck with her.

Following their initial encounter, I think Yi-jung has convinced himself he dislikes Ga-eul. He sees her posing goofily and disdains that she’s acting like a corny tourist. Undaunted, Ga-eul suggests taking a hike to the top of a hill, which does not interest Yi-jung in the least.

Ga-eul goes off anyway but shortly thereafter lets out a scream. Yi-jung runs after her, looking around worriedly, when Ga-eul appears and asks, “Aren’t you glad you came up here?”

Ga-eul tells Yi-jung that it’s his punishment for lying and tricking them into coming on the trip, to which Yi-jung says that it wasn’t a complete lie. “It seems like it’s just a matter of time before the two of them get into trouble.” (His wording can mean any kind of trouble, but hints at the, er, hormonally driven variety.)

Ga-eul is immediately concerned: “No!” He laughs at her wild imagination.

Meanwhile, Jun-pyo takes Jan-di along a stretch of deserted beach. During the walk, Jan-di imagines all sorts of wild possibilities and warns Jun-pyo not to indulge in any dark, ulterior motives. Thus she is shocked to see him bringing her to a simple, lovely table set for two.

Jun-pyo tells her she acts tough but is pretty shocked at little things. Jan-di: “This is a little thing?” She marvels that it’s like magic: “Are you a genie?” Jun-pyo’s jealousy flares: “Who the hell is he? Is he better than me?” Jan-di clarifies that she meant the genie from Aladdin, who could do almost everything save three things: He couldn’t kill, raise people from the dead, or make someone fall in love against their will.

The last part seems to get through to Jun-pyo, although he’d previously insisted that people could be bought (and his actions all episode long have been proof of that).

Jun-pyo puts in a phone call to Jan-di’s family, who urge her to have a fun time and not worry about them. Afterward, Jun-pyo sees her subdued reaction and wonders, “Did I do something wrong?” It looks like she’s about to cry.

Jan-di answers, “It’s because it’s so nice here. I wondered when my parents would have a chance to come to a place like this. My family would love to see it.” Jun-pyo: “Let’s come with them. We can come back with your family.”

And then, Jun-pyo walks toward the water, unbuttoning his shirt, and announces it’s time to get down to business.

EPISODE 4 RECAP

After Ji-hoo yells at Jan-di for interfering, she walks off with tears in her eyes. He looks upset with himself, but the next day, when everyone gathers at the airport to send Seo-hyun off, Ji-hoo is conspicuously absent.

Jan-di is in a mopey mood, thinking of Ji-hoo. She asks Jun-pyo in a dejected voice, “Can I ask you something?” Jun-pyo responds, “If I said no, are you going to not ask?” Referring to her (formerly assertive) attitude, he tells her, “Just act like you did before. This doesn’t suit you.” For what it’s worth, Jun-pyo has said this a couple times before, which I think is telling — he might complain about how she always talks back but that’s obviously why he likes her. He’s got no use for weak, defeated girls.

Jan-di asks if it’s a good idea to “push down your feelings and not show any emotion” when you like somebody a lot. He tells her that’s crap; it’s the same as ignoring them. If the earth caved in the next day, wouldn’t she die of regret?

A little surprised, Jan-di responds, “You know, you may not be an idiot in everything.” He acts as though that’s a compliment, and says he’d rather regret doing something than regret not doing something.

Seo-hyun says her goodbyes to F4 (I suppose it’s F3 right now), and it’s nice to see them acting like longtime friends. She hugs Jan-di and asks her to remember her request (to make Ji-hoo smile again).

As she walks to her gate, she looks around, hoping to see Ji-hoo and disappointed when he doesn’t appear.

Just as the guys sigh that Ji-hoo’s acting pretty cold by not coming, he appears. He’s actually been here for hours.

Jan-di thinks Ji-hoo’s being a coward, and takes him to task: “What are you doing? Is this all you can do? Follow her!”

At that, Ji-hoo produces his ticket and passport: “I’m taking the next flight.” Woo-bin wonders what made him change his mind; Ji-hoo says that Jan-di did.

Before leaving, Ji-hoo turns to Jan-di: “Thank you. It’s because of you that I realized I’d have to be honest. You taught me that sometimes you need the courage to hang on. I’m glad I got to know a girl like you.”

He leans forward and kisses her on the forehead — Jun-pyo watches, bothered — then leaves.

Afterward, Jun-pyo and Jan-di stand outside his car, watching airplanes take off. He breaks the silence by facing her, leaning over her to say something. Unlike the last time he tried (and failed) to kiss her, this time her heart starts pounding.

Jun-pyo: “I’m only going to say this once, so listen up.” She nods nervously, and he continues: “Geum Jan-di, ___ with me.”

And just when he says that bit, a plane flies above and drowns out his words. BWAHAHA. (I think he says, “Go out with me,” but we can’t be sure.)

Jan-di blinks uncomprehendingly, not having heard those crucial words. But Jun-pyo straightens and smiles in satisfaction to himself.

So while it’s no surprise to us, it is to her when Jun-pyo walks up to her in the lunchroom and says, without preamble: “Saturday, 4 pm, in front of Namsan Tower.”

He starts to leave, then turns back: “If you’re even one minute late, you’re dead.”

Jan-di looks after him, a little confused but mostly unimpressed with his high-handedness. She doesn’t notice that Min-ji is looking on with a stricken expression on her face.

Since Jun-pyo doesn’t give Jan-di any chance to respond, she dismisses it from her mind, going shopping with her mother instead on a bargain-sale hunt. And I do mean hunt. They grapple with other thrift-loving ajummas for the massive discounts, and by the time they leave, it’s evening. It’s also snowing.

Feeling guilty pangs for ignoring Jun-pyo, Jan-di asks her mother if anyone would wait in the snow for four hours for a promise that was never made. Her mom says that’s crazy, but Jan-di isn’t reassured. Making a sudden decision, she tells her mother she has to go somewhere and runs off, heading toward Namsan Tower.

Jan-di looks almost disappointed to find the courtyard empty, until she spots Jun-pyo huddled on the side, shivering in the cold.

She holds her umbrella over his head; he asks where the hell she’s been: “Didn’t I tell you not to be late?” He isn’t outright angry — irritated might be a better word. Jan-di returns, “When did I say I would come?” He replies, “You’re here.”

She protests, because she wasn’t intending to come. He persists, “But you did.”

Feeling bad, she offers to buy him a hot drink and helps him up. He staggers to his feet and leans heavily into her. Misinterpreting his intentions, she kicks him to get him off.

Indoors, she buys him coffee from a vending machine and calls it “thirty thousand won coffee” (about twenty bucks). By way of explanation, she tells him to follow along.

On top of the building, they look at the cityscape from the observation deck — this is just like watching from the expensive Sky Lounge.

She marvels at all the stars. Jun-pyo laughs at her, “Those aren’t stars, those are satellites, you stupid girl!” Jan-di retorts, “Aren’t you the idiot? You think there are that many satellites?”

The watchman comes up to the doors to lock up for the night. He only gives the deck a cursory look and is distracted by a phone call, so he misses the two of them.

The lights shut off, alerting Jan-di and Jun-pyo, and they hurry to the doors. The handles have been chained together, and there’s no way to get out.

Jun-pyo doesn’t panic, since they can always call for help. Unfortunately, he left his phone behind, and Jan-di doesn’t own one.

Now worried, he blames her; she says it’s his fault for waiting foolishly for hours. He protests, “This is the first time I’ve ever waited for anyone.”

They wander into an enclosed area, which offers a little shelter but is still freezing cold. Jan-di tries to keep her distance while Jun-pyo starts to cough, and says, “Sorry.” When she asks where his driver is, Jun-pyo answers that he sent him home — he wanted to try things commoner-style.

Shivering, Jun-pyo asks, “Can I be honest?” She eyes him warily as Jun-pyo leans in her direction, then collapses on top of her.

Thinking he’s trying to get fresh, Jan-di shoves him aside, then realizes he’s burning up with fever.

She takes out some of her new purchases — a woman’s scarf and shawl — and wraps him with them. They fall asleep like that until morning, when they are let out.

Fearing her parents’ reaction, Jan-di declines Jun-pyo’s offer of a ride home; she’ll use the bus ride to think of an excuse to tell her mother.

Jun-pyo moves closer to tell her the excuse he’d make: “Since we spent the night together, I’ll take responsibility.” (That phrase, used in that context, is misleading and suggests that something actually DID happen between them. Jan-di kicks him in response.)

Unbeknownst to them, they are seen, and photos are taken.

When she gets home, Jan-di falls on her knees and begs forgiveness, but her family is in fantastic spirits. The guy she saved is the heir to Shinhwa Group! Of all the people to help!

Furthermore, they’ve received a whole slew of gifts in gratitude. Jan-di is bewildered — how did they know? Where did this come from?

Her parents rave about Jun-pyo, who dropped by — taking advantage of her slow bus ride home, no doubt — to ask them not to scold Jan-di because she’d been helping him all night.

News spreads quickly, labeling Jan-di as Jun-pyo’s new girlfriend. Suddenly, everyone is eager to befriend Jan-di (except the mean girls, that is), and the unexplained attention creeps her out.

Jan-di discovers the reason when she comes to the TV screen in the lobby. Displayed onscreen are the pictures of her and Jun-pyo that morning, making them look a lot chummier than they are. When the F4 guys arrive, Yi-jung asks Jun-pyo if the rumors are true.

Jan-di hurriedly insists, “No, it’s not! It’s not what you think at all!”

Jun-pyo ruins that by interrupting, “Yes, it’s true.” Everyone gasps in amazement, and Jun-pyo slings an arm around her shoulders and steers her (unwillingly) down the hall. The students gossip in excitement, with one notable exception: Min-ji, who watches tearily.

Min-ji goes home early that day, so Jan-di drops by with the same consolatory stuffed sheep that Min-ji had previously given her. Withdrawn and depressed, Min-ji asks cautiously if the gossip is true.

Jan-di hesitates, then answers that it’s all a coincidence and an accident. Min-ji says, “But it looked like he liked you.” Jan-di says no way — even the idea is absurd. Jun-pyo was just playing around. At the denial, Min-ji laughs in relief, suddenly much cheerier. She hops out of bed and announces that she’s all better now. She wants to go out and have some fun.

While Jan-di waits for Min-ji to get ready, she looks around and spots a Shinhwa Kindergarten yearbook. Curious, she pulls it from the shelf just as Min-ji walks in. Panicking, she grabs it from Jan-di, yelling at her not to go through other people’s things.

Taken aback to see this side of the normally demure Min-ji, Jan-di apologizes. Min-ji recovers, saying more calmly that she’d written weird comments in the book, so she doesn’t want anyone to read them. She apologizes.

Whereas Woo-bin and Yi-jung took a lot of amusement in Jun-pyo’s clashes with Jan-di, now they ask more seriously if he’s “for real” about her. Yi-jung reminds him that where they’re concerned, their parents have final say in their relationships.

Jun-pyo scoffs, as this is a bit weak coming from two supposed players:

Jun-pyo: “Were you just calling yourselves men in name? Were you acting all cocky without being real men?”
Yi-jung: “What’s a real man to you?”
Jun-pyo: “A man takes responsibility from the beginning to the end.”
Woo-bin: “To the end?”
Jun-pyo: “Yeah. To the end.”

Min-ji takes Jan-di to a club featuring live performers and suggests they dance. Jan-di declines, so she sits out while Min-ji goes out on the floor. When Min-ji looks back, she sees Jan-di wandering around, and is bumped by another woman.

Unexpectedly, Min-ji slaps the girl. Suddenly she’s no longer sweet and shy, but a stone-cold bitch. She sneers, “If you’re ugly, you should at least dance well.”

Worried about Jun-pyo’s latest comments, Yi-jung drops by the restaurant looking for Jan-di. Ga-eul tells him Jan-di’s not working today, so he asks if she’s her friend, and how long they’ve known each other.

At her answer (”Since kindergarten”), he smiles and figures that’s good enough: “So you’re best friends. Then let’s go.”

At his pottery studio, Yi-jung explains that he’s afraid that Jan-di will get hurt, and asks Ga-eul to advise her friend. Initially dazzled by the tall, handsome, rich guy, Ga-eul’s opinion drops once she gets his drift: “What kind of advice? That she can’t climb that tree, so don’t bother trying?”

Yi-jung ups the charisma, smiling at her and saying that cute girls like her are scary when angry. She sees through the charm and tells him that he must have thought he could fool everyone with his pretty face, but he misjudged her. She’ll pretend this conversation never happened.

Ga-eul gets up to leave, but stops and comes back for one last word, temper flaring. After all, Jun-pyo’s the one who likes Jan-di, not the other way around: “Jan-di doesn’t care to climb that tree.”

As she’s exiting, she runs into Woo-bin, who wonders what that’s all about. Yi-jung says it’s nothing, and that she’s exactly the type of girl he dislikes (backwards and unfashionable). And yet, his eyes say otherwise…

Jan-di roams the club, feeling bored and out of place. She encounters one of the performers, who senses her discomfort and suggests they head outside, where he plays her a song on his guitar. (I don’t think she really cares for the stranger, but appreciates the reprieve from the club.)

Seeing that her water bottle is empty, the guy hands her his. She sips the water, her vision goes blurry, and she blacks out.

In the morning, Jan-di awakens in an unfamiliar hotel room with no recollection of the night before. On the mirror, written in lipstick are the words, “Thanks for last night.”

She frets all morning about those words, trying to convince herself that nothing happened, wondering why she can’t remember anything.

Of course, this is also the day that Jun-pyo decides to make a little change in his appearance. He remembers Jan-di’s rant against him, when she said she hated “everything about him” from his curly hair to the fact that F4 always dresses in normal clothes when the rest of them are required to wear uniforms.

So that morning, he takes an extra two hours to get ready, wearing his uniform for once and having his hair straightened.

Jan-di is accosted by students, but whereas her reception the day before was sycophantic, today the Bimbo Threesome are furious at her for insulting Jun-pyo and therefore, by extension, everyone at the school.

Jan-di is totally baffled at their attitude until they drag her to the television. On it, photos are splashed of herself and the strange guy from the night before — in bed, half-clothed.

F4 arrives to see Jan-di surrounded by hostile faces, and Jun-pyo steps forward to defend her. Ginger tells him, “Don’t be fooled! Look at this and come to your senses!” And she points at the TV.

Jun-pyo glances over. Jan-di jumps in front of the screen, trying to block it and insist that it’s all a misunderstanding. He pushes her away and stares grimly at the photos, then turns to her: “What kind of mistake could lead to these pictures?”

Jan-di shakes her head, confused, and says, “I think someone set up a trap for me.” In a hard voice, he asks, “Was this all you were?”

Hurt that he’s so quick to condemn her, Jan-di fires back with tears in her eyes, “I don’t care whether you believe me or not. I don’t even know why I have to explain such an absurd situation to you. But this isn’t the truth.”

Jun-pyo grabs her shirt and clenches his jaw. He says in a low voice, “I’ll just ask one thing. Is the girl in that picture you?” Jan-di can’t say no, and a tear falls.

He shoves her back and glowers, “You said you didn’t care whether I believe you or not. You’re right. Geum Jan-di, from here on, I don’t know who you are.”

After he leaves, the mob descends on Jan-di, but you get the sense she doesn’t really care — the damage has been done with Jun-pyo’s dismissal of her.

Jun-pyo’s fury is so extreme that his friends worry about him, never having seen him so upset about anything before. They decide that they’d better get to the bottom of this before someone winds up seriously hurt, and head over to solve the mystery.

Woo-bin, Yi-jung, Ga-eul, and Jan-di look closely at the photos and ask if Jan-di can remember anything odd about the night before. Jan-di recalls the message scrawled in lipstick, which is odd, since it wasn’t hers. Why would a guy be carrying lipstick around?

Furthermore, the way the pictures are shot requires a third person to have taken them, which means there was somebody else involved. The guys take note of the mystery man’s tattoo, and use a combination of their brains and lots of money to get information.

The music club owner isn’t as helpful as they’d like, so the guys use a form of polite blackmail. If they aren’t pleased with the guy’s cooperation, they might as well run him out of business. Yi-jung: “Two weeks should do it.” Woo-bin: “We’ve got our reputation. We’ll have to make it a week.”

Woo-bin owns the neighboring building, which would make a nice venue to set up a competitor to drive this guy bankrupt.

What follows is some of the most ridiculous tomfoolery I ever did saw. To prove their point, Yi-jung displays some of his saxophone skills (to prove they’d be willing and able to make good on their threat). So now the pottery genius is also Kenny G? Look, I ignored the atrocity that is Ji-hoo’s violin-playing, but here I cannot remain silent. THAT’S NOT EVEN THE RIGHT KIND OF SAXOPHONE.

Woo-bin does his part by dancing… is that the Charleston? To cha-cha music?

Naturally, the two guys are successful. (Oh, the power of elevator jazz and ballroom dance!) They track down the guy in no time.

 

On the other hand, Jun-pyo is still working out his aggression. First it was guns, now it’s a sword.

Min-ji shows up unannounced to hand him a hotel key, which leads him to the room where Jan-di’s photos were taken.

The photos are piled in the center of the bed. Jun-pyo recognizes the familiar setting in the pictures, and his temper erupts. He throws things around the room — pillows, bedcovers, sheets — and after his tantrum, Min-ji steps into the room and tells him, “Please don’t be hurt. It’s ridiculous for you to be like this over a bitch like her.”

Min-ji appeals to Jun-pyo to calm down, saying this is too unfair for him to be so hurt over Jan-di.

Glaring at her with contempt, Jun-pyo grabs her and asks, “Weren’t you her friend? Can a friend talk like that?”

Min-ji whispers, “She stole you from me.”

Jun-pyo shoves her to the ground and heads to the door. Min-ji grabs him from behind and begs him not to go. He breaks free of her grasp and she cries, “Why her, but not me?”

He walks away, remembering Jan-di’s insistence that she was set up and that this is all a misunderstanding.

At school, it’s a free-for-all as Jan-di is knocked from her bike and jeered at. It’s like she’s come full circle, back to how she was tormented as a result of the red card, only this time the harassment is more malicious because she dared make a fool of the Great Jun-pyo.

Jan-di yells back at them, “Is this all you can do? Do more! Go on!” So they do, pelting her with water balloons shooting a fire hydrant at her, till she collapses on the ground.

EPISODE 3 RECAP

At Seo-hyun’s prodding, Ji-hoo asks Jan-di to dance. Jan-di gets swept up in the romanticism of the moment, dancing with her pretty-boy crush, while he’s less enthused (she’s dancing on his feet). I suppose the entire sequence is supposed to be magical and dream-like, but when everyone on the dance floor is bumbling around in a stiff, bobbing box-step, it does kind of suck the elegance out of the moment.

Not keen to watch Jan-di dancing with his best friend, Jun-pyo leaves the ballroom and ends up by the pool, where he takes out his frustration on the poolside furniture. At least they can’t fight back. His anger turns to wussy-boy fear when he sees a bug, and freaks out when it flies toward him. He makes wild swatting motions and tries to ward off the bug, jerking around in a panic.

After her dance, Jan-di sits out and watches Ji-hoo dance next with Seo-hyun. I’m guessing she is supposed to feel wistful that Ji-hoo dances so much more wonderfully with Seo-hyun, but as that’s just not true, I’m making a guess here. Not keen to watch her crush dancing around with his lady-love, Jan-di wanders outside and hears a loud splash.

The next thing we know, a student bursts into the ballroom to announce that Jun-pyo has fallen into the pool. Dude, I’m sure announcing his humiliation is ever so much more helpful than actually, yunno, helping. Yi-jung notes that Jun-pyo cannot swim, and everyone stampedes outside.

When they arrive outside, Jan-di is dripping wet, having dragged Jun-pyo out of the pool, and shouts at him worriedly to wake up. He lies there, unmoving, so she starts performing CPR, pushing down on his chest and breathing into his mouth.

Only, well, he doesn’t exactly need the CPR. Not that he’s going to tell her that, of course. Why ruin a good thing?

Jan-di sees that that his eyes have opened and stops immediately — but he grabs her shoulder, puckers up, and tries to pull her back down toward him for a kiss. It’s hilarious, because it doesn’t work, and Jan-di punches him in the face, disgusted, thinking he was faking the entire thing. (I’m not sure how much he was faking, but I’m sure the part about him not being able to swim was real. So at least she did save him on that score.)

She storms off in a huff, but Jun-pyo is still exceedingly pleased with his one stolen “kiss.”

He remains in a fabulous mood the next morning, even surprising his butler with his eagerness to get to school early. Jun-pyo mangles the “early bird” adage by saying knowingly that there’s a proverb about “the early bug gets dead first.”

He’s feeling so cheerful that when a maid spills his tea — a previously fire-able offense — he barely notices. When his butler assures him that the maid will be fired, Jun-pyo tells him magnanimously that the household is run too strictly — loosen up!

He grins and walks off, announcing, “What great weather!” just as thunder rumbles in the distance.

Because, y’see, Jun-pyo has great things planned for today! He plays more practical jokes on Jan-di, first smearing the locker room door with what appears to be Vaseline, then filling the pool with ducks. He watches her irate reaction on his lounge television, chuckling to himself all the while. Yi-jung and Woo-bin marvel that this is the hardest they’ve ever seen him work at anything.

(In his mangled reasoning, Jun-pyo feels this is his way of expressing his “gratitude.” Well, I suppose if throwing trash in the pool is his way of tormenting her, then tossing cute live animals is a step up. Never mind the fact that she can’t swim in either scenario.)

Ji-hoo has been particularly withdrawn recently, spending more time than usual away from F4. Instead, he chooses to play his violin outside in the snow. (Who doesn’t love that?)

Jan-di comes upon him as his string breaks, cutting his finger. She senses he doesn’t want her there, so she tells him she’ll just attend to his hand, then go. She takes the handkerchief that Ji-hoo had previously lent her and wraps it around his finger, then takes out an umbrella and places it over the violin to protect it from the snow.

Little does she know that they’re being watched and taped on Ginger’s phone. Although her encounter with Ji-hoo isn’t very warm or friendly — mostly prolonged silence — it looks more suggestive from a distance, and the Bimbos Three are determined to bring Jan-di down.

Jun-pyo’s great mood lasts while he basks in the pool, anticipating Jan-di’s arrival.

When he hears someone approach, he automatically assumes it’s her, and starts to chide her for her late arrival and lax training (his equivalent to a little boy pulling a girl’s hair, or perhaps calling her “Carrots”).

But instead of Jan-di, it’s the mean girls, who eagerly show Jun-pyo the video clip. As his mood darkens, they fan the flames, adding that it looked like Ji-hoo and Jan-di have been dating for a while, calling her a gold-digger.

Coldly, he tells them to shut up, then throws the phone to the ground, breaking it. He stalks out.

Jun-pyo surprises Jan-di outside, where she has returned in hopes of talking to Ji-hoo (who has already left). Pride and feelings hurt, he lashes out mockingly: “Are you disappointed I’m not who you were hoping for?”

She starts to walk away, so he grabs her arm and demands to know, “Where are you going?” She retorts, “I have nothing to say to you so I’m going home.” Well, he has something to say to her, and sneers that she was playing around with him. He was going to make allowances for her and treat her nicely, but now he feels ridiculed.

Jun-pyo grabs her tightly and tries to force a kiss on her. Alarmed, Jan-di struggles against him, shaking her head back and forth so he can’t kiss her. She yells in a panicked voice, “No! I don’t want to! No!”

That stops him, and Jun-pyo slowly lets her go. He asks her, this time without anger, “Do you hate it that much?” He walks off.

This is easily the best scene of the episode. What could have been unintentionally funny or cheesy comes off instead with a lot of tension, a lot of conflicting emotions, great chemistry, and (for once!) a nice piece of score. Now, if only the rest of the series could be like this.

As a result, the next morning, Jan-di is mortified and refuses to go to school. Her parents are ready to force her to go anyway, but are distracted by the arrival of a fancy invitation: it’s for Seo-hyun’s birthday party.

Jan-di’s parents are immediately excited at this proof of their daughter’s social success, and look into “borrowing” a formal dress for the occasion. From their dry-cleaning service. I’m sure this is completely against their own rules, but it doesn’t matter because all the dresses suck.

Plot contrivance to the rescue! A special package saves the day: a lovely formal dress sent from Seo-hyun. (I suppose they do get points for making up reasons, however obvious, for dressing up the poor girl in rich clothes, instead of just glossing over that point as is so often the case.)

Jan-di arrives alone at the party, and is soon whisked off to the F4 table by Yi-jung, who uses her as an excuse to get away from a group of women he’d promised to call but never did.

She and Jun-pyo look at each other warily, a bit uncomfortable after their last encounter but managing to resume their bickering dynamic. To Jun-pyo’s surprise, Yi-jung and Woo-bin lavish praise on Jan-di, calling her “really pretty” and “the cutest in the room” (Jun-pyo scoffs his disagreement).

Seo-hyun arrives on the arm of Ji-hoo, and a cake is brought out. Seo-hyun thanks everyone for coming, then makes a startling announcement — she’s planning on leaving for Paris, for good. She wants to succeed on her own terms, without inheriting her parents’ law firm — she has goals for bigger and brighter things.

The F4 guys suddenly realize why Ji-hoo’s been so down lately, and Jan-di’s eyes fill in tears in empathy for his pain. She watches Ji-hoo leave the party early. Seo-hyun finishes her speech, then follows him up to a hotel room.

Ji-hoo fiddles with an old toy, a puppet she’d given to him when they were kids. “That was when you stopped calling me ‘noona,’” she reminds him (which was an indication that he had started to harbor feelings for her).

Ji-hoo angrily throws the toy in the trash and says, “I feel like I’m being abandoned.” Seo-hyun tries to tell him gently, “If there’s anything here I can’t leave, it’s you.”

Ji-hoo tells her not to lie; she responds that if it was a lie, she wouldn’t have been so bothered to see him looking at somebody else: Jan-di. She admits, “When you went running to her, I found my heart falling with a thump. Isn’t that funny?”

Ji-hoo accuses her of treating him as a toy, and argues that he’d spent the past fifteen years looking only at her, “And that’s not enough? I’m a man too.” Seo-hyun hugs him, and apologizes.

As they pull apart, Ji-hoo kisses her. (And Han Chae-young again proves she can’t kiss worth a damn onscreen. Oy, this scene is painfully awkward at points. If the earlier Jun-pyo & Jan-di argument was an example of great, intense chemistry, here we have an example of… well, uncomfortable non-chemistry.)

Jan-di arrives at the doorway to see the kiss. She retreats, closing the door quietly, then starts to beat her head into the wall. Jun-pyo calls from behind her, “If you collapse here, it’ll be really embarrassing.”

Hearing the others moving inside the room, Jan-di hurries away from the door, but not quickly enough to escape being seen. She pretends she just arrived to spare everyone the embarrassment of mentioning the kiss.

Seo-hyun mentions that she and Ji-hoo are on their way out for a drive, and invites Jan-di along. Not wanting to be the third wheel, Jan-di stutters no thanks, and Jun-pyo answers smoothly, “We’re on our way somewhere too.”

Relieved to be given an exit strategy, Jan-di jumps to agree. To make the “act” more convincing, Jun-pyo puts his arm around her, which Ji-hoo notices with… interest?

When they’re out of earshot, Jun-pyo tells Jan-di that this act of kindness makes them even; he has now paid her back for saving him from the pool. Jan-di protests that they are in no way comparable acts, and concedes that this is worth perhaps 10% of a payback. Jun-pyo: “Fifty percent.” Jan-di: “Twenty-five.”

Jun-pyo takes Jan-di to a fancy bar, which is empty of patrons because he bought the place for the night. It’s a romantic gesture, but Jun-pyo tells her in his typical (unsentimental) way that she can shout or cry or do whatever she wants.

Jan-di wonders why she would do any of that, and Jun-pyo reminds her of the kiss she witnessed. Morosely, Jan-di says she is no competition against Seo-hyun: “I’m not pretty, I’m not smart, my family is poor…” “Your figure’s not that great either,” Jun-pyo adds, “and your temper’s bad too.”

She retorts, “Fine. How can such a worthless person like me be jealous of her? I don’t even have a right to feel jealous.”

Jun-pyo says matter-of-factly that she’s right about not being that special, “But you’re not worthless. You have a right.” He continues, saying that if Ji-hoo had met her before Seo-hyun, he’d have liked her. Sure, her looks and her family circumstances suck, “But you’re the first girl the Almighty Jun-pyo has acknowledged.”

A heartbeat starts pounding loudly. It’s unclear whose it is, but I think it could be either of them — or, more probably, both. Suddenly feeling overheated, Jun-pyo excuses himself to the men’s room, where he fans his face. Outside, Jan-di does the same, then reaches for a class of clear liquid and gulps it down.

By the time Jun-pyo comes back, she’s totally wasted, her head lolling around like it’s too heavy for her neck. Impatiently, he prods her: “Hey, come on, woman!”

That word (woman) gets Jan-di’s attention, and she slurs back, “Yeah, I’m a woman. Can’t a commoner be a woman too? My family, my looks, and my brain suck, I know. Even if you didn’t point it out so clearly, I already know, got it, punk?”

Now Jun-pyo’s amused. Jan-di continues rambling about her woes — her family, money. Suddenly, she jerks up and starts laughing ruefully, saying, “I’m sad today.” She pats his face (slaps it, more like) affectionately, and concedes, “All right, let’s say you’ve paid me back fifty percent.”

She continues, “Thanks, Gu Jun-pyo, for saving me today. I can’t do anything for you, but instead…”

And she learns forward… grabs him by the lapels… and smacks her lips together.

Jun-pyo waits to see what she’ll do, and she smiles at him… and vomits all over his suit.

Jan-di awakens in the morning in a strange bed in a strange room.

Upon seeing Jun-pyo sitting nearby, she immediately jumps to conclusions and demands to know why she’s here. He reminds her of the night’s events, and the details start to flash back to her. He brought her home after the bar, and called her parents to let them know. She hangs her head, embarrassed, and mumbles her thanks.

Jan-di would leave if she could, but Jun-pyo is alerted to his mother’s return home. We get the sense that this is an unusual occurrence. Today, she’s here to host a charity auction that evening. Anticipating Jun-pyo’s reaction, Mom has ordered her men to watch over him to keep him from leaving the house — which now means that Jan-di can’t leave without being seen, either.

Jun-pyo panics and immediately calls F4 for help. The friends join Jan-di and Jun-pyo to try to brainstorm a way out of this, knowing that Mom’s reaction will be fearful to behold if she were to somehow find out the truth — not only is there a strange girl with Jun-pyo, but she’s a poor, nameless, insignificant commoner to boot.

Jan-di is dressed up in one of the fancy dresses to be auctioned off that night, and the F4 friends do their best to pass her off as a new friend. Naturally she’s from a rich and prestigious family.

Mom is coolly polite, and inquires about her family background, prompting the F4 guys to jump in and fill in the details, describing Jan-di’s father as a businessman in the fashion industry. Ji-hoo puts his arm on her shoulder and says Jan-di’s like their “F4 mascot.” (Yeah, I dare anybody to use that on a parent and see how well that works. “Mascot,” indeed!)

Thankfully, the questioning is kept short. Just as Mom seems ready to sharpen her interrogation, she is called away, and tells everyone to join her downstairs for the auction.

The first item for auction is a pair of Olympic gold medalist Park Tae-hwan’s goggles. Jan-di’s mouth drops open as the bidding climbs up from an opening bid of 500,000 won (approximately $365) and skyrockets into the millions. Jun-pyo notices her reaction as a phone bid wins the goggles for 10 million won ($7,500).

The auction continues. Jun-pyo models his suit, followed by Jan-di modeling her dress (albeit reluctantly).

Mom eyes her with suspicion and asks her secretary, Mr. Jung, if he recognizes the girl. The man does remember her as the “Wonder Woman” who was given the Shinhwa scholarship. But unlike Mom, he’s got a heart and chooses, for now, to lie and say that all he knows is that she’s supposedly a student at Shinhwa High School. She orders him to look into the girl’s background.

After the auction, Jan-di thanks Jun-pyo again, somewhat grudgingly. Jun-pyo pretends not to hear, and forces her to repeat it twice.

It’s rather cute, actually, how he calls her “Jan-di baht,” which means “grassy lawn.” He tosses her a package and says, “Don’t drink when I’m not around.” (No doubt he wants to keep her from kissing other guys under the influence.)

After he leaves, Jan-di opens the bag to find the auctioned swimming goggles in the bag.

At home, her family oohs and ahhs over the acquisition, and urges her to sell them online since they’re worth a lot. Jan-di’s unwilling to part with them, though, and fumbles around for an excuse, saying that the goggles are worth “so much more than money” and shouldn’t be sold. She also distracts her parents so she can grab back the goggles, then runs off hoarding her prize.

Alone in her room, Jan-di opens her desk drawer. As though to show us how much this means, the space formerly used to hold Ji-hoo’s handkerchief is now given to the goggles. (Oh! The! Symbolism! Let me hit you with it.)

The next day, Jan-di has a visitor: It’s Seo-hyun (wearing a fur bib), here to say her last goodbyes, since she’s leaving the next day. Stunned to hear how suddenly she’s moving away, Jan-di tries to express her thanks.

Seo-hyun tells her, “I knew from the first time I saw you that you were the girl Ji-hoo always talked about with a smile.”

Speaking of whom, Ji-hoo spots Seo-hyun’s car outside and heads toward the pool, just in time to see Jan-di fall to her knees in front of Seo-hyun.

Jan-di explains that she’d been her fan for a long time, and understands her decision. “But let me ask a favor. Please don’t leave.”

Jan-di: “I know I don’t have a right to ask such a favor of you, but if I don’t ask…”
Seo-hyun: “Is it because of Ji-hoo?”
Jan-di: “I don’t know anything about him. But I know how special you are to him. He looks so sad to me, but there are times when he smiles, warmly enough to melt the heart of anyone who sees. You’re the only one who can make him smile. If you leave like this, he may not smile again.”

Seo-hyun explains that her decision is “like buying something in a foreign country. If you don’t buy it right then, there’s no next chance. I know too well how cruel that regret can be. Ji-hoo is dear to me, and I believe I am to him. That’s why I think he wouldn’t want me to face that regret.”

Subdued, Jan-di apologizes. Seo-hyun assures her, “No, I’m glad to hear you talk like that. Thank you.” She takes out a strappy set of heels and gives them to Jan-di: “I hope these shoes will take you to good places. I have something to ask you, too. Please make Ji-hoo smile again.”

When Jan-di walks out, Ji-hoo confronts her, asking angrily, “Who do you think you are to do that? Who asked you to make that kind of favor? It’s not even a favor, it’s begging. Don’t you have any pride?”

Jan-di: “It’s not because I have no pride. It’s because you looked so pained, like you’d die of sadness.”
Ji-hoo: “What is that to you? It has nothing to do with you. Get lost.”

EPISODE 2 RECAP

Jan-di fights off her trio of attackers, who grab her from the girls’ locker room and hold her down.

They stop at the arrival of Ji-hoo, who asks what they’re doing in his languid, casual manner. His presence flusters the guys, because they’re acting on Jun-pyo’s orders, and Ji-hoo is obviously Jun-pyo’s friend. As though oblivious to the scene going on in front of him, Ji-hoo peers down at Jan-di and asks if she’d left something out of her pancake recipe from before. Something went wrong when he tried it. Still held down by her attackers, bewildered at the non sequitur, Jan-di mentions baking powder. Rather an awkward way to discuss cooking techniques.

Ji-hoo addresses the three minions: “Why are you still here?” Faced with disobeying Ji-hoo to his face or Jun-pyo behind his back, they skedaddle.

Ji-hoo covers her in a towel, and as he turns to leave, Jan-di tells him, “Thank you.” In his even tone, he answers, “I wasn’t helping. These things just annoy me.”

In his mansion, Jun-pyo hears of Ji-hoo’s interference. To show us that Jun-pyo isn’t completely heartless, he criticizes his minions for their extreme measures — he’d merely instructed that they scare her (to show her a “bitter taste”).

Ji-hoo’s kindness lingers in Jan-di’s mind for the rest of the day. She happens to come across him when she bicycles past him fondling a poster of a famous model at a bus stop. Not so sure you want to be getting that intimate with anything at a bus stop, buddy.

Jan-di says as much, telling him that a bus stop poster is bound to blacken his hands with dirt. Still, she admires the poster of Min Seo-hyun, who is not only famous for her beauty but also for her charity donations and her brains; she recently passed the law exam in France. Ji-hoo asks, “Do you know her?” Jan-di answers, “Of course. She’s my idol.”

Ji-hoo enjoys her reaction, smiling at Jan-di’s wide-eyed adulation. But his smile fades when she says that Seo-hyun, who is bound for great things, could marry royalty, or a president, or something of that sort to become a “world’s princess” like Princess Di. At that, Ji-hoo says, “She’s just a model.”

Jan-di sticks to her fantasy of a foreign prince falling for her idol. Mood killed, Ji-hoo turns to leave with the parting shot, “What do you know?”

At home, Jan-di’s computer-obsessed brother finds scandalous news online about one of the students at Shinhwa High School, a second-year who’s supposedly pregnant. Identified merely as Miss “K,” the family tries to guess who it could be, like a Miss Kim or Kwon (or Keum — which I wrote as “geum” since it’s closer to the phonetic reading).

The next day, Jan-di notices the stares of the other students, but is busy wondering which of them is the notorious Miss K.

Jun-pyo is in a good mood, and when Yi-jung asks what’s up with “2,500 Won” (Jan-di) today, he says, “Just wait. She’ll come here soon.” (It’s too cute to see that this — her coming to see him — is his obvious goal, although he convinces himself that it’s all because Jan-di needs to be humbled.) Ji-hoo wonders, “What prank have you pulled this time?” Jun-pyo: “Why, so you can save her again?”

Yi-jung and Woo-bin wonder what that means, while Ji-hoo says that picking on one girl like this “is ridiculous and childish.” Jun-pyo retorts, “Do you see her as a girl?” because to him, she’s like a horse, or a dog. After all, she dared defy the Great Jun-pyo-nim (using the “nim” suffix on himself is, as one might guess, exceedingly arrogant).

Jan-di’s classmates identify her as the notorious Miss K, and news spreads fast. In class, both chalkboards have been covered in slurs like “filthy,” “get lost,” “who’s the daddy?” “crazy bitch,” etc.

The Tarty Trio leave a pile of dirty rags on her desk and taunt her. Pushed too far, Jan-di fumes, “I can’t take this anymore!” Ginger mocks, “So what are you going to do about it?”

Jan-di’s arrival at the F4 lounge brings Jun-pyo much satisfaction, but he covers it with disdain: “If you came to apologize, you’re too late.” She throws the dirty rags in his face and warns him that she won’t sit back and take his abuse anymore.

Jun-pyo’s arrogance turns to confusion when Jan-di clenches her fists and assumes a fighting stance. Puzzled, he asks what she’s doing, and she repeats: “I told you, I won’t sit back and take it anymore.” With a shriek, Jan-di jumps in the air, and whirls into a rather impressive spinning back kick — catching Jun-pyo right in the face.

The other F4 members look on in amazement as Jan-di clomps over to the fallen Jun-pyo, demanding, “Did you see me sleeping around with a man? Did you even see me holding hands? How dare you say all that about a chaste and pure girl who hasn’t even had her first kiss yet!”

She warns one last time, “If you keep up these filthy tricks, I’ll really kill you then!”

One might think that this show of defiance would piss off the Almighty Jun-pyo, but later that night, he sits alone, chuckling to himself. Woo-bin asks why he’s so amused. Jun-pyo: “Haven’t you guys caught on yet?”

With supreme satisfaction, he announces, “That chick’s totally into me.” That makes no sense to the other guys, but Jun-pyo elaborates:

Jun-pyo: “Think about it. She didn’t want the guy she likes to misunderstand, so she came herself to insist she was pure and innocent.”
Yi-jung: “Following that logic –”
Woo-bin: “– saying she hadn’t had her first kiss –”
Jun-pyo: “– is her way of saying she’s waiting for her first kiss from me.”
Yi-jung, clapping: “Bravo. Impressive, Gu Jun-pyo. You’re my friend, but that’s really something.”

Relieved at this gratifying revelation, Jun-pyo attributes Jan-di’s extreme hate of him to “thinking she could fool me by acting mad.” It is HILARIOUS, and Lee Min-ho is adorable.

The next day at school, Jan-di lies low, wanting to avoid more encounters with the Almighty Jun-pyo. Men in suits approach and ask her to accompany them, but won’t identify their boss.

She declines, and hides (in a painfully exaggerated sequence) as she sneaks her way across campus, only to be accosted at the last minute. She’s shoved into a waiting vehicle, then drugged.

She awakens on a massage table in a luxurious room, and is subjected to all sorts of painful beautifying processes like waxing.

Here, I wish they’d employed a bit more logic, because Jan-di goes along with the makeup, hair, and dressing sessions — confused, but not really protesting. Never mind that she still doesn’t know whose home she is in, or why she is there. Then again, I suppose if someone were lavishing clothes, jewels, and spa treatments on me, my guard would be down too.

The attendant (butler?) tells her that this is the first time that “the young master” has brought home a girl, although I suppose that requires a pretty loose definition of “bringing home.”

The butler can’t tell her why she’s here, because he doesn’t know, either. He deposits her at a door where someone is waiting for her; Jan-di enters cautiously and sees a tall figure standing at the window, and guesses, “Ji-hoo?”

Disappointedly realizing she’s at Jun-pyo’s family estate, Jan-di is immediately suspicious, and puts up her dukes: “What are you going to do this time?”

Jun-pyo turns her toward a mirror and tells her to look: “See, money can turn even an ugly duckling into a heron.” Jan-di: “Don’t you mean swan?”

Indignant, Jan-di retorts that she didn’t ask him for this, but he’s wrapped up in his own smug misconception, and tells her, “If you like me, just say so.” When she doesn’t respond, he recalls, “Right, you like to talk in opposites, don’t you?” (O, delusion, he is King of it.)

Jan-di accuses him of illegally kidnapping her. Jun-pyo assures her, “Nobody’s around, so you can be open about liking me here. From now on, I’ll be willing to make an exception and recognize you outside of school.”

Jan-di is completely speechless. He continues: “If you just do as I say, when nobody’s around I can treat you as the Almighty Jun-pyo’s girlfriend.”

Jan-di wonders if his brain has been addled by too much greasy food, and turns to leave.

Showing the first sign of anxiety, Jun-pyo blocks her from leaving. He tells her that she’s currently wearing 100 million won’s worth ($77,000), “But that’s nothing. If you’re with me, you can enjoy more than that every day. Are you saying you don’t want it? Are you crazy?”

Jan-di bristles: “The moment I see your face, it feels like bugs are crawling all over my body.” She takes off her jewelry and throws it on the ground, then reaches to unzip her dress (before remembering Jun-pyo’s watching — rather intently, I might add — and insists he return her uniform).

Jan-di: “You don’t seem to know this, but you can’t buy friends with money. Friends bond through feelings.” Jun-pyo replies, “There’s nothing you can’t buy,” and tells her to contradict him if she can. She can’t think of anything.

After Jan-di leaves, Jun-pyo rages against his employees, stomping on the discarded dress and telling his butler to throw away the dress and fire everyone who worked on Jan-di today.

Jan-di remembers too late that she’s still wearing the borrowed high heels, takes them off, and throws them over the gate — just as Ji-hoo finds her outside and wonders what she’s doing. He laughs: “You’re always in a dramatic situation.”

Jan-di asks Ji-hoo, “Is there anything in the world you can’t buy?” Dejected, she figures there isn’t, but perks up when Ji-hoo answers after a moment of thinking, “Air.”

Amused at her happy reaction to finding one unbuyable thing, Ji-hoo ruffles her hair and calls her “a really fun kid.” As he gets up to leave, he tosses her his sneakers, since she’s now barefoot. Jan-di watches him zoom off on his motorcycle with a smile.

She tries to return the shoes the next day by visiting the F4 lounge, but Yi-jung and Woo-bin inform her that Jun-pyo isn’t around. She grumbles that she doesn’t care about him, and asks them to give the shoes to Ji-hoo.

The guys know they owe their recent entertainment to Jan-di, and invite her to have some tea while she fills them in on her latest encounter with Jun-pyo. Seeing a commercial of Min Seo-hyun on TV, the guys mention that Ji-hoo ought to be happy that Seo-hyun is coming back to Korea soon.

She asks if Ji-hoo is acquainted with Seo-hyun, and learns that after his parents’ death, he’d retreated into autism (I remember hearing it was Asperger’s, which is a mild form of autism). Seo-hyun was the only one able to draw him out of himself, and became something of “a first love, girlfriend, and mother.” This information drags Jan-di into a funk, so much so that she even cuts dinner short, feeling inadequate next to the glamorous model.

In fact, she’s so distracted that in gym class, she fails to react swiftly when Ginger hurls a ball at her (in a game of dodgeball), and gets hit in the face. She leaves the group of laughing mean girls while the F4 guys watch, and Jun-pyo finds her washing up in the bathroom.

He tries to helpfully wipe the blood from her face, but Jan-di, fighting tears, doesn’t want his help. It’s clear (to us) that he wants to make her feel better but is woefully ill-equipped with the social skills; not knowing what to say, he chides her for being absent-minded enough to get hit in the face, and tells her not to cry. Jan-di counters, “Do I have to get your permission to cry now? And weren’t you the person who was happiest to see me crying and hurting?”

Jun-pyo: “Is that all you can say to the person who came to help?”
Jan-di: “Who asked for your help? If everyone died and you were the last person on earth, I still wouldn’t accept your help.”

It’s a bit cute — and sad — when Jun-pyo stops her from leaving and demands to know, uncertainly, “W-what is it you hate so much about me? I’m good-looking. I’m tall, I’m smart, I’m rich. How — how can you hate Gu Jun-pyo? Are you stupid?”

Jan-di shoots back that she dislikes the way he looks, the way he walks, his curly hair — “and picking on weak kids for fun with your red cards or whatever with your thoughtlessness — that’s the worst!”

Jun-pyo stutters in disbelief, but Jan-di’s not quite finished: “In short, I hate everything about you! Everything!”

Is the obligatory shower scene supposed to be moving? I don’t know; it was just so obvious that I had to laugh.

But shameless half-naked water shots aside, Lee Min-ho does a good job of showing Jun-pyo’s frustration, first as he engages in a particularly rough game of rugby, then as he stares in the mirror in self-loathing.

It’s only when Jun-pyo spies the notice for a class trip that he cheers up. All second- and third-years will have the chance to go on a month-long school trip to Europe.

It doesn’t even occur to Jun-pyo that 20 million won ($15,500) is a bit rich for a commoner like Jan-di. Thus on class trip day, he spends the whole time at the airport pacing anxiously, wondering where Jan-di is. Ji-hoo is similarly distracted, but for a different reason — today marks Min Seo-hyun’s return to Korea. Seo-hyun (Han Chae-young, looking gorgeous) greets Ji-hoo warmly.

With Jan-di nowhere to be seen, Jun-pyo is a fidgety ball of nerves until he receives a call, (ostensibly) informing him where Jan-di is.

Jan-di cannot afford to go on the trip, and to make things worse, her father has run afoul of some gambling debts (ah, it wouldn’t be a kdrama without gambling debts!).

Therefore, she and her friend Ga-eul decide to make this a working vacation, so they can enjoy themselves while earning some money. Through Ga-eul, they find a job on a fishing boat. They’re enjoying the experience, until one loud, obnoxious voice cuts in on their sleepytime.

To her shock, the entire class looks down on her from a Shinhwa cruiseliner, with Jun-pyo manning a loudspeaker. Now that he’s found her, he’s happily back to taunting her (like a little boy tormenting a little girl he likes, not knowing that chocolate and flowers FIX EVERYTHING. Oh, yeah, and also a little basic kindness.).

Jan-di can’t believe her vacation is to be ruined thusly. She asks why they aren’t on their class trip, and he replies that he’s been there before and wanted a new, interesting place. He’s here on “someone’s” recommendation: “What a total coincidence, huh? I had no idea you’d be here, Dry Cleaner.”

I don’t care if you think this is corny, it is TOO CUTE.

When Jan-di and Ga-eul dock for the night, they note with dismay that Jan-di’s classmates have arrived and seem to be waiting to check into a hotel (or something).

Jan-di’s spirits further sink when Ji-hoo arrives with the radiant Min Seo-hyun on his arm.

Jun-pyo addresses Jan-di, saying, “Dry Cleaner, be honest, aren’t you happy to run into me at a place like this?” Jan-di retorts that she was having a grand time before he came along.

Jun-pyo invites her (in his careless way) to join the rest of the class. While she’s quick to turn him down flat, she has an entirely different reception for Ji-hoo. Jun-pyo looks on in displeasure when Ji-hoo breezes past him, invites Jan-di to a welcome party for Seo-hyun, and sees Jan-di’s immediate acceptance: “Yes, I’ll go, absolutely.”

The Tarty Trio, however, seize the opportunity to have a little fun, and give Jan-di some “advice” for the dress code. It’s not too hard to predict that this goes awry, and that they must have told her it’s a costume party. The instant she walks in, she realizes she’s been tricked, and berates herself for falling for the lie.

Embarrassed, she tries to leave, but is forced to enter the room to escape Jun-pyo (who, by the way, spends all his time looking around for her). When the Mean Girls find her, they taunt her and try to pull her coat off her. The result is inevitable but still humiliating: They grab Jan-di’s jacket, she tries to escape, falls into a tray of hors d’oeuvres, and lands with a loud crash.

The girls laugh gleefully, calling her delusional — perhaps she started believing the hype that she truly was Wonder Woman? Others snort in amusement, but Jun-pyo looks angry (on her behalf). He’s about to move toward her, but once again is one-upped by Ji-hoo, who arrives at Jan-di’s side with Seo-hyun.

Seo-hyun sizes up the situation immediately, and faces the Mean Girls with disgust: “I know why you did this. But do you know that this proves how low you are, not her?”

With Ji-hoo and Seo-hyun by her side, Jan-di is ushered up to Seo-hyun’s room to clean up.

Seo-hyun takes an immediate liking to Jan-di as she dresses her up and helps her with her makeup, saying that any friend of Ji-hoo’s is a friend of hers.

Jan-di brushes off the compliments, saying Ji-hoo was just being nice, but Seo-hyun knows him better and assures her that he’s not that type. This is the first time she’s seen him step in to help someone else.

Jan-di doesn’t want to give herself too much credit, and answers, “But Ji-hoo’s just attentive by nature.” To Seo-hyun, this is just proof of the opposite, that Jan-di is an exception to the rule.

She also has heard of Jan-di’s vow not to let Jun-pyo beat her down. She voices her support and wishes Jan-di victory, but explains, “It’s because he’s lonely.” Being the child of a parents who are fixated solely on their business empire has made him lonely, and his outer demeanor is just a cover-up for it.

Seo-hyun finishes the look with a pair of shoes, telling her, “Good shoes take you to good places.”

When Jan-di is ushered back to the party, people look on in surprise, but no one’s more shocked than Jun-pyo — who drops his plate in his astonishment at the purty, purty girl.

And yet, he is beaten to the punch once more, because Seo-hyun pushes Ji-hoo toward Jan-di, saying that a gentleman doesn’t ignore such a beautiful lady. So Ji-hoo walks over to Jan-di and offers his arm.

 
COMMENTS

All through Episode 1, I was thinking Lee Min-ho reminded me of someone, and it kept niggling at the back of my mind. I finally put my finger on it, and it’s Lee Dong-wook (La Dolce Vita, My Girl — aka, this guy). Lee Min-ho isn’t nearly as good as Lee Dong-wook (yet?), but he shows a lot of promise, in addition to the fact that he delivers some of his lines in a similar way, and even has similar bone structure to boot.

Sorry to say, however, that while I was holding out hope for Kim Hyun-joong, I don’t think he is going to do much in this drama other than look pretty. In Episode 1, he was quiet and enigmatic. In Episode 2, the more lines he had, the more clear his inexperience became, which makes him seem stiff and unnatural. Let’s hope he’s given as few lines as possible, to let his quiet mystique carry him.

On the other hand, Kim Bum is doing all right playing Yi-jung (nothing to scream about, though), and I actually do like Kim Joon’s Woo-bin — in the absence of his gangsta “Yo, yo, yo!” posturing (which was still present in Episode 2, though pulled back a little). Unfortunately, Kim Bum looks years younger than his castmates, as he’s the only one actually playing his age (19), other than Ga-eul, who’s also 19. Speaking of whom, Kim So-eun is pretty good for the newbie she is, and she also happens to be currently acting in the large-scale sageuk drama Empress Cheon-chu, playing Chae Shi-ra’s childhood role.

EPISODE 1 RECAP

In this world, Shinhwa Group (”shinhwa” meaning “legend”) is the most powerful corporation in Korea, perhaps best compared to real-life Samsung, only bigger and more powerful. Shinhwa makes cars, owns department stores, and is virtually everywhere — its empire even includes an elite school. At the beautiful Shinhwa campus, pampered students flaunt their wealth and band together in cliques.

Unfortunately, just being rich isn’t enough to survive the teen tyranny at Shinhwa — outsiders or loners are often marked as targets by the bored uber-clique F4. Once a student is delivered F4’s “red card,” it signals the rest of the school to go all out in harassment and bullying.

This guy, having just received the dreaded red card, is immediately chased by students and beaten. He’s cornered into a bathroom, puts up a good fight, and manages to escape.

Geum Jan-di (actress Gu Hye-sun) arrives at the school bearing a dry-cleaning delivery, amazed at all the splendor. Students talk excitedly about the newest F4 victim, joking that they’d known he wouldn’t last long. Recognizing the boy’s name, Jan-di follows the crowd outside, where they all look up at the rooftop, where the battered guy stands poised to jump off the building.

The guy shouts to his audience, “This what you want, isn’t it? Fine, I’ll give you what you want.” He starts to step off the ledge — but Jan-di bursts on the scene, yelling to get his attention. She’s got his dry-cleaning! That’ll be $30, please!

Jan-di isn’t too quick on the uptake, because she doesn’t grasp the severity of the moment until the boy tells her to get the money from his family after he dies. At this, Jan-di gasps in horror: “Are you about to die? Why? You go to such a nice school.” He tells her, “This isn’t school, it’s hell.” Jan-di corrects him, saying, “Excuse me, but the real hell is outside.”

He asks if she knows what F4 is (she doesn’t), and explains that their red card makes you a hunted man. Finally realizing that this mysterious F4 is why he’s all bloody and ready to jump off a building, Jan-di indignantly asks, “And you’re going to let them get away with that?” If this was her school, she’d show them who was boss. The guy tells her that her friends are lucky to have a friend like her — and then jumps.

Everyone gasps — Jan-di lurches forward — and grabs him on his way over the ledge. Saved!

Photos are uploaded, news spreads quickly, and pretty soon, Jan-di is hailed as a hero in the media, a sort of Wonder Woman for the working class. As this occurred on a Shinhwa campus — and worse, a Shinhwa heir is involved (albeit indirectly as F4’s leader) — citizens denounce the Shinhwa Group. Housewives agree to boycott Shinhwa stores, candlelight vigils are held, people demonstrate.

Jan-di’s best friend Ga-eul and her boss cheer her on (the girls work after school at a neighborhood restaurant). Ga-eul wistfully wonders if the F4 boys are as cute as they say, but Jan-di is not at all impressed. She calls them Fly Four instead — dung flies.

Naturally, the outcry is a pain in the neck for Shinhwa Group’s CEO, Kang Hee-joo, who happens to be mother to F4 leader Gu Jun-pyo. She vents her ire on her secretary, Mr. Jung (perfectly cast, by the way): “You know why public opinion is frightening? Because they’re ignorant!”

What, then, can be done for damage control? Offer the commoner a scholarship to Shinhwa High School, of course!

Jan-di’s family is thrilled. Jan-di is not.

She refuses to go to the school, preferring her life as it is. Her parents, on the other hand, think it’s foolish for her to pass up a free education that even the rich and powerful would kill for. Plus, they wheedle, the school has a swimming pool… and remember how much she liked swimming? Jan-di is not so easily bought, but still, the end result is a foregone conclusion. The next day, she arrives at her new school.

Predictably, she is a complete fish out of water in this place where students flash luxury vehicles (Jun-pyo arrives by helicopter) and designer clothing.

Jan-di wanders around, searching for the swimming pool, when she hears the strains of a violin. Curious, she follows the sound and comes to its source: It’s Yoon Ji-hoo, dressed all in white, playing his violin out in the woods. As we all do.

When he sees her, she asks in a flustered tone for the pool, and he points her in the right direction. She runs off in mortification, but also impressed at Ji-hoo’s skills sensitivity pretty face.

Now for the Grand Entrance:

F4’s appearance sends all the girls squealing and everyone rushing to the entrance to welcome their overlords. No seriously, you practically expect somebody to genuflect at their feet. As it is, F4 arrives in a blaze of glory and glamour-shot backlighting.

Jun-pyo looks over at one of the bystanders, who immediately quivers in fear. In a supremely bored but authoritative voice, Jun-pyo asks Woo-bin for the rest of his juice, then pours it all over the hapless student.

(The guy had been bragging earlier about wearing a shirt only he and Jun-pyo owned, and Jun-pyo is not pleased to be caught similarly dressed.)

Afterward, Jan-di sputters at Jun-pyo’s assiness. She calls him a crazy bastard, then wonders if everyone else is also crazy, watching his reign of terror without saying anything.

This attracts the attention of the school’s three queen bees, who introduce themselves as Ginger (the leader), Sunny, and Miranda (or Shinhwa’s “jin, sun, and mi” — a way of saying they’re the most beautiful). Ginger’s affectation is to make horrified exclamations in English (e.g., “Oh. My. God.”), while Sunny’s my favorite because she seems vaguely dim. They stick up for F4 and tell Jan-di to watch what she says.

Deciding to acquaint herself with the members of F4, Jan-di and her brother surf the internet for their bios:

Song Woo-bin (actor Kim Joon) is heir to a construction enterprise; his father is a real estate magnate.

So Yi-jung (Kim Bum) is a pottery genius who comes from an artistic lineage; his grandfather also owns a famous art museum.

Yoon Ji-hoo (actor-singer Kim Hyun-joong) is the grandson of a former president, and the sole surviving descendant, as his parents died in car crash when he was five. His family owns a variety of rich-people toys, like an art center, a European soccer team, and a major league baseball team.

And then there’s Gu Jun-pyo (Lee Min-ho). The others are famous among rich society, but Jun-pyo, as the heir to Shinhwa Group, is known to practically the entire country.

Finding out how privileged F4 is sends Jan-di into a rage — life’s too unfair. She takes particular umbrage at Jun-pyo for being such an asshole, because if he was born so lucky, he should be thankful and act kindly to others.

Too late, Jan-di looks down the staircase and spots a set of legs — someone’s taking a nap on the landing below. It’s Ji-hoo, who saunters up to her, telling her in his soft-spoken way that she’s disrupted his sleep. He heard the whole tirade, such as her calling them flies, and tells her the guy’s name is Jun-pyo, not Jung-pyo — if she’s going to rail against him, she ought to at least get the name right.

Lunchtime. The Bimbo Trio make it a point to hover and comment on Jan-di’s poor-person lunch. The cafeteria serves gourmet offerings, but Jan-di ignores them in favor of her plain lunchbox (rice, egg, Spam), which they now ridicule.

Unexpectedly, Jan-di receives a friendly overture from another new girl, Oh Min-ji, who is sweet, pretty, and recently transferred from Germany.

Ga-eul expresses relief that Jan-di made a friend; she was afraid she’d wind up an outsider. Jan-di replies glumly, “I am an outsider.” Still, she figures she can lie low until graduation, which prompts Ga-eul to ask what happened to the fearless protector who used to always stand up for her in elementary school.

But Jan-di figures she’ll have to stick it out. Her father’s absurdly proud of her fancy uniform (as a dry-cleaner, he can appreciate quality), while her mother pushes her to work on her looks so she can snag a rich boy. (Nobody ever said kdramas were feminist.)

Jan-di’s patience is tried the next day, when F4 struts in looking cool, as usual, and a shy student presents Jun-pyo with a homemade cake and hopes that he’ll “accept her feelings.” Jun-pyo stares at her in his blank, haughty way, and takes the cake, as though accepting — to the girl’s excitement and the Bimbo Trio’s horror — until he then smashes the cake into her face.

Jun-pyo walks off, only to find Jan-di in his path, trying to do her best to tamp down her fury. She unleashes a diatribe:

Jan-di: “You! Don’t you even have the barest human courtesy? I don’t bother hoping you’d have any humility for your riches. But if you didn’t want to eat it, you could have politely refused. Or, couldn’t you think of the feelings of the person who made the cake and accepted?”
Unfortunately, Jan-di’s tirade is only in her head. When it comes time to say it, she backs down and mutters, “Never mind.” As Ji-hoo passes, though, he gives her a smile, as if knowing what’s running through her mind.

The next encounter isn’t so easily dismissed. Min-ji and Jan-di eat ice cream cones and chat cheerfully, when Min-ji slips and falls at Jun-pyo’s feet, getting ice cream all over his shoe. Immediately scared and apologetic, Min-ji tries to offer to pay for new shoes, then offers to do “whatever I can” to rectify the situation. When he tells her to lick the ice cream off his shoe, Jan-di steps in, saying he should accept the apology — it’s not like Min-ji fell on purpose. So Jun-pyo turns his derision onto Jan-di instead:

Jun-pyo: “Is it your thing to be obtuse and interfering? Why butt into someone else’s business?”
Jan-di: “She’s not just anyone, she’s a friend. But I guess they don’t include words like ‘friend’ or ‘friendship’ in rich people’s dictionaries.”
Jun-pyo: “Friend? Let’s see some of that great friendship in action. You lick it.”
Jan-di: “What?”
Jun-pyo: “If you do it for her, I’ll let this go.”
Resignedly, Jan-di starts to bend over as Jun-pyo waits expectantly, but stops mid-bow. Instead, she shoves her ice cream cone in Jun-pyo’s face, causing him to fall over.

Jan-di scoffs, “So what, did you earn all that money yourself?” And no, her “thing” isn’t to interfere, it’s to stand up to the behavior of rich punks who rely on their rich parents.

Furthermore, she takes out a couple of bills (equivalent to a dollar) and throws three at him, referring to his stained clothing: “Our business charges 2,500 won, but I calculated using Kangnam [rich neighborhood] standards. If it still won’t clean, bring it by.”

That night, Jun-pyo remains in a dark mood, trying to figure out how to get back at Jan-di. I’ll admit I burst out laughing when the song “Never Say Goodbye” came on, since it’s one of the main themes of PD Jeon’s previous series, My Girl, and he likes giving little nods to his previous works. [ Download ]

As the rest of the guys aren’t taking this seriously, they find Jun-pyo unusually fixated. Yi-jung suggests that Jun-pyo act in their “usual way,” and Jun-pyo’s gleeful reaction gives us our first glimpse of his, uh, not-quite-bright tendencies.

The next day, Jan-di gets the red card, but it doesn’t really mean much to her and she just tosses it away.

She finds out what the effects of red-carding are when she walks into class and her desk is gone. One of her notebooks is lying on the ground, graffiti’d with hate words, and when she bends down to pick it up, it jumps out of reach — someone’s tied a string to it.

Jan-di follows the leaping notebook out into the hallway, where her equally defaced desk is parked. Students start pelting her with eggs — and then a bucket of flour is dumped over her from above.

It’s the despoiling of her uniform that gets to her — she remembers how her father so proudly ironed it — and Jan-di shouts at them defiantly, “Go on! Keep going!”

When she looks to the crowd around her, Min-ji rushes off, too scared to show her support.

Meanwhile, F4 watches the proceedings on a television in their lounge. The other two (Yi-jung, Woo-bin) figure that’s the end of story, but Jun-pyo corrects them — it’s over when Jan-di comes begging on her knees.

I admit this is the scene when I totally fell for Lee Min-ho’s dunderheaded charms, because he’s absolutely convinced Jan-di will come through the door any minute now. He counts down, and his consternation when she doesn’t is hilarious.

Jan-di retreats to her shouty stairwell (”Do you think because my name is Jan-di [grass], you can trample all over me?!”). Again, she’s interrupted by Ji-hoo, who’s relaxing on the landing below.

Oddly, he asks, “Do you know how to make pancakes?” Confused, Jan-di lists the ingredients. Taking in her appearance, Ji-hoo peers at her closely, then wipes the flour from her face and uniform with a handkerchief. Surprised and touched, she promises to return it later; he answers that he won’t be coming back, since the stairwell’s gotten a lot noisier recently.

Jan-di’s mood lifts when she goes back to the now-empty classroom and finds a set of gym clothing and a stuffed animal on her desk. The toy has a voice-recorded message from Min-ji, which tells her, “I’m sorry. Forgive me for being a coward.”

When she goes for a swim, Jan-di finds the pool littered with trash — it’s Jun-pyo’s next phase in the Jan-di Tormenting Regimen.

In fact, Jun-pyo’s so into his plans to ruin Jan-di’s life that even his friends are surprised he’s still so fixated on them, a week later. Yi-jung muses, “Isn’t she the first to really stand up to F4?”

(Ji-hoo isn’t with them because he’s off sleeping in a new location, although how anyone can sleep with legs crossed like that is a wonder. Way to flaunt that masculinity, Ji-hoo.)

All the while, Jan-di cleans out the pool, picking out all the empty bottles and soda cans. By the time she’s dressed in the locker room, she’s visited by more of Jun-pyo’s minions, who grab her, ignoring her screams, and start to carry her off.

 
THE BAD

(1) Why hello there, familiarity. Waaaaay too much direct cribbing from the Japanese Hanadan. I was hoping they wouldn’t, and unfortunately, there were enough similarities that none of the plot points packed any punch. I suspect the drama will take off once it sheds the similarities, or so goes the hope.

(2) Character mimicry. As with the point above, it seems like a few characters have been lifted directly from the Japanese drama. Kim Hyun-joong playing Ji-hoo is fantastically cast — he looks and sounds the part completely. Only, it’s kind of like him acting as Oguri Shun, more than him acting as Rui. He’s pretty good, but I wish he’d do something to distinguish himself — add a little character tic, a variation or nuance — so that he isn’t just going to be labeled Shun #2.

(3) The overacting. There’s a lot of it. Jan-di, Jan-di’s family, the Tarty Trio — everyone’s laying it on rather thick. Gu Hye-sun actually looks fine as a 2nd-year high school student — but it’s her acting that’s the problem, because it’s like she’s acting 12 to overcompensate for being 25. If she just pulls back, she ought to be fine.

If you base the story in real emotions, you can carry the audience through some extreme plot turns, but if you never ground those emotions (and keep exaggerating everything), it’s a lot harder for us to get invested. There were some moments that broke through that cartoonishness (Jan-di’s reaction to being egged, for one), so let’s hope they go in that direction.

(4) The English. Oh my God, the English. There’s a scene where Yi-jung, ever the player, makes a move on an older woman in a store as she shops for china plates. He, the ceramics expert, suggests a better selection, and combined with Kim Bum’s questionable English and the white lady’s questionable acting, the scene was unwatchable. (The mute button and embarrassed laughter came into play.) Ginger the English-spouting Mean Girl gets a little embarrassing as well, although I suppose it’s her character to be absurd.

(5) Kim Joon, wassup man, that’s da bomb, yo yo yo! Let me reiterate: Oh my God, the English. I wonder if they’re, um, incorporating Kim Joon’s pop-singing background into his character. And don’t get me wrong, I am ALL in favor of giving F4 some added flair — letting these actors make the characters their own, and whatnot. I am NOT, however, in favor of bastardized gangsta-rap-inflected Engrish. Please. Stop.

The apologist version: If one were to make a defense against those complaints, I suppose one could argue that some scenes are just so iconic that even if it’s a repetition, it’s so much a part of the story that one shouldn’t just ignore it. For instance, the red cards in the lockers. Also, I think that Episode 1 requires a lot of setting up, which necessitates repeating many elements that are familiar to those who know Hanadan. When Boys Before Flowers did diverge from the familiar moments, it did much better. Hopefully things will improve once the series really gets going.

 
THE GOOD

The casting, hands down.

Surprisingly, the best part of Boys Before Flowers (for me) was Lee Min-ho. I was worried about him the most, but ended up totally relieved. He — unlike Gu Hye-sun, the Tarty Trio, Jan-di’s parents — did not overact. Also, he — unlike Kim Hyun-joong — seems to embody his character more than as a mere imitation of the Japanese Hanadan. He’s great playing the snide, arrogant leader of F4, but he’s also showing real promise at the character’s thick-headed, slightly ignorant side — he doesn’t play the character’s dumbness as overtly as Matsumoto Jun did, but it’s enough to be pretty funny. He totally looks the part, and acts the part, but so far isn’t just copying Matsumoto’s interpretation.

Despite my comments in the “Bad” section above, I’m actually pretty pleased with the overall acting. There don’t appear to be any glaring, unfixable deficiencies — I think flaws can be adjusted with some toning down and fine-tuning. Kdramas have typically done better (in my opinion) when they focus on the down-to-earth aspects of stories rather than the outlandish — Goong was better when it was about the troubled teenage marriage than when it was about monarchial conspiracies — so once the story gets going in earnest, I hope the drama finds its feet.

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