Just Between Lovers Ep 3

“I didn’t want to die.”

 

Just Between Lovers Episode 3:

10 years ago.

Teenage KangDoo lies prone under the rubble, weakly calling out for anyone to come save him. But the one carried out is a barely conscious MoonSoo. She tries to point to the building, but she’s too weak and no one notices her barely lifted finger, especially not when the building continues to crumble behind her. The rescuers run around, hurrying to send her off and secure the site while down below, KangDoo holds up a falling wall and cries desperately for anyone to come. But no one does.

In the present, MoonSoo’s sent to the construction site by JooWon, who means to introduce her to his new employee at the site, KangDoo. While KangDoo takes records of all the vehicles entering the site personally and takes a walk around, JooWon’s words that only innocent, responsible workers were harmed by the mall’s collapse while those who looked the other way got away float around in his head. A worker tosses him a piece of bread, proving that even though time passes, things don’t change – site workers are just ordinary people who look forward to going home after a long day. They too shouldn’t be in danger.

 

MoonSoo rifles through WanJin’s fridge and steals a drink, grumbling about having to work with KangDoo and wonders what happened to him that his personality is so “messed up”. WanJin warns her to be on her guard because people tend to end up liking things that are bad for them – like how girls like bad boys and MoonSoo points out that WanJin makes no sense, since she told her to be wary of good people with JooWon and now she’s telling her to be wary of bad people with KangDoo. Is she supposed to date nobody? WanJin barks at her for thinking about dating so soon after her friend’s heartbreak and somehow their chatter turns into deciding whether WanJin should turn her ManHwa R-rated. Ha!

But the moment is spoiled when WanJin starts gasping.

At the hospital, KangDoo’s sister tends to WanJin and tells the two girls that WanJin’s body just stiffened temporarily due to her irritated stomach, something that’s common in paralysis patients. MoonSoo gets so guilty for letting WanJin drink so much the night before though WanJin insists that it was all her choice. She tries to send MoonSoo home and forbids her to call WanJin’s parents but MoonSoo just stays and massages her friend’s leg in apology.

 

Later, KangDoo’s sister follows MoonSoo out to ask if they’ve met before, but MoonSoo doesn’t remember such an encounter and they part ways.

KangDoo is having his facial scratch tended to by Madame who’s got a permanent smile plastered on her face because of the saying “you can’t spit on a smiling face”. Haha. He scoffs at her but she’s impressed that he held his temper in and didn’t cause more trouble, her lessons getting to him after all. She sighs that it’s hard to take another person’s money and laments that though her girls smile brightly for their customers all day as if they have no care in the world, behind the scenes, they all take heartburn medication every day.

That reminds her that their medication provider, “Mama” to her, hadn’t been contactable all day and that night, KangDoo bangs on some gates, screaming for Granny.

He ends up breaking in and Granny just side eyes him from her place on her bed.

Her body just gave out that day which is why she closed shop and seeing that she’s fine, KangDoo starts nagging at her again, complaining about her living in such shabby quarters when she makes so much money off selling medicine to other people.

She tells him to just go but he refuses and crawls into bed with her, even after she whacks him with her pillow for taking up what little space she has left.

Shoulder to shoulder, KangDoo simply announces that he’s working at the site of the mall’s collapse and Granny sits up immediately, wondering if he’s crazy, knowing what it means to him. But well, you know, you do anything to survive.

The next day, WanJin is discharged from the hospital and MoonSoo’s there to help. They flag a taxi down but it drives past them after seeing WanJin’s wheelchair and the next one drops KangDoo off. He gallantly carries WanJin into the taxi and even packs her wheelchair for her. MoonSoo is speechless and he walks off after hearing his sister call for him.

 

Heh, WanJin giggles to herself in the taxi, charmed by KangDoo. She happily chirps that she knew MoonSoo wasn’t a good judge of character after MoonSoo shares that KangDoo was the guy she wanted to avoid and WanJin actually calls dibs on KangDoo and worries if her doctor is KangDoo’s girlfriend. Ha!

KangDoo’s sister is interested to know more about MoonSoo too, though she sniffs when she learns that KangDoo came all the way here just to ask her to make a house visit for a “woman he knows”. She tells him not to come to the hospital just for such minor things and he jokingly asks if she’s embarrassed of him. Sheesh, she snaps at him, asking if he doesn’t know and tells him to go.

MoonSoo is having problems with her lady co-worker (SoMi) too. After having her looks dissed, SoMi is pissy and shares just how much effort she spends on taking care of her looks, wrongly assuming that MoonSoo thought less of her for doing so. Regardless, she puts out a little sample bottle of moisturizer for MoonSoo to use. MoonSoo smiles, but SoMi misunderstands it to be a belittling smirk and throws the bottle in anger before stalking out.

 

MoonSoo and JooWon discuss about checking the ground under the site and when he suggests that they visit the site together, YooJin walks in and offers to bring MoonSoo tomorrow herself. She tries to talk shop with JooWon but he brushes her aside to follow MoonSoo just to praise her for a job well done. YooJin isn’t happy.

That night, JooWon follows the elegant and pretty YooJin into her car, witnessed by MoonSoo and in the morning, MoonSoo spends a little more time dressing up for work before heading straight to the worksite.

YooJin drives up in her fancy red car with a sulky SoMi in tow. Ha, MoonSoo turns when KangDoo comes by but he just gets right up and calls her out for pretending not to know him. YooJin notes the tense air between them then follows KangDoo to visit the ruined memorial.

MoonSoo and SoMi walk through the site, choosing to stop by to check out ground water levels on the way. SoMi whines and whines the entire way about not preparing enough for the hot sun and dust, so MoonSoo decides to just send her to the office and continue alone. As MoonSoo walks further into the site, SoMi turns, but finds a sign under her foot warning people away from the area. Shrugging, she just continues on her way. (WHAT?! LADY, THIS IS A DANGEROUS CONSTRUCTION SITE, NOT SOME LITTLE SCHOOL!)

YooJin visits the ruined memorial and is offended when KangDoo calls it “useless”. She snaps that it’s uncomfortable just glossing over the deaths and KangDoo emphasizes it again, implying that they’re the ones doing just that. Looking up, she grits out that he must know what must be useful then, but KangDoo questions what it means to be useful at all.

MoonSoo checks out the site and takes notes. Over a deep well of water, one of her papers go flying and while trying to reach for it, she falls in.

 

KangDoo finds SoMi in the office alone, playing on her phone. He demands she call MoonSoo but she doesn’t have MoonSoo’s number and annoyed by how nonchalant she is, he decides to just search for her himself.

Thank goodness he did, because she’s trapped in the well. It’s too deep and the walls are too smooth and far apart for her to climb out. She calls out for anyone, but that only reminds her of the time she was trapped under the rubble doing the exact same thing and calling out the exact same phrases. Panicking, her cries grow louder and frenzied. When no one answers, her legs give out under her and she sinks into the water, helpless.

KangDoo reaches the line where SoMi and MoonSoo parted. Looking up at the cloudy dark sky, he half-kneels, his aching knees acting up again.

He finds MoonSoo huddling in the well and holds out his hand for her to grab. Mustering all their strengths, they manage to get her out, with MoonSoo falling atop KangDoo, their faces only inches apart.

 

KangDoo asks why she went alone and why she was sitting there like she was waiting for death when she actually had her co-worker with her. He actually asks if she wanted to die and he helped for no reason so MoonSoo just repeats his words about not trusting anybody back at him and he goes quiet.

Rain pours and seeing her all wet as they walk back, he takes his coat and helmet off for her, saying that his debt to her is all paid.

SoMi is shocked to see MoonSoo walk through the door looking wretched and leaves the office guiltily. KangDoo passes her his sweater to wear over and outside, he gets in SoMi’s face, livid that she left someone alone in a restricted area, especially after she tries to fob off all responsibility by saying that it was MoonSoo who insisted on going there herself.

YooJin drives up and offers MoonSoo a ride home but MoonSoo rejects and sends SoMi instead. SoMi tries to slink away but KangDoo has her take all the equipment with her before leaving.

MoonSoo and KangDoo sit together at the bus stop, with him asking her where she lives and her suddenly revealing everything about her residence, like how it has a female-only bath house. Hee. The bus comes and KangDoo sends her up before walking off towards home. That confuses MoonSoo since the last time he “went home”, he took the bus with her.

Pfft, she apparently got off the bus and chased after him, springing up on him right after he buys some sugar doughnuts. SangMan runs up with a hi-five and asks if the pretty lady is Hyung’s girlfriend, since she’s got a doughnut and KangDoo only buys them for him. So cute. KangDoo just stuffs the doughnuts in his arms and shuffles away with him but MoonSoo stops him to admit that she was prepared to die in the well, though she hadn’t wanted to. So she thanks him for saving her life and his expression goes a little soft at that. He smiles as he watches her waddle away.

In a bar, YooJin and JooWon share a drink, though he’s not happy that they’re meeting for personal reasons. YooJin asks him to call her name again after he sighed it. She tries to convince him to restart their relationship again but JooWon puts a lid on it by asking if she can tell her father that. If they’re not going to be able to reveal their relationship, it’s best not to start at all, he says, and leaves her drinking alone.

 

MoonSoo looks at her swollen red ankle while relaxing in a bath, recalling KangDoo’s line about not leaving someone in danger even though you hate them. The day’s events weighing on her mind, MoonSoo sinks into the water, KangDoo questions about whether she takes her life lightly running through her mind.

So she later proposes to Mom that they go shopping tomorrow. Mom tries to push it to another time but their helper-ahjumma urges Mom to just do whatever she wants now because who knows when there will be another time.

And so Mom and MoonSoo have a day out, though Mom really doesn’t let MoonSoo buy any new clothes for her. So MoonSoo takes her out to eat. A few tables down, a family bickers over mundane little things and MoonSoo can’t help but overhear. She calls to Mom, who responds like she just woke up from sleep and to herself, MoonSoo thinks that now, there will never come a day as ordinary as that for them ever again.

 

KangDoo paces outside Granny’s abode while his doctor sister tends to her inside.

They don’t seem to have as good a relationship as Granny has with KangDoo, though KangDoo’s sister relents and prepares a drip. KangDoo’s sister is ashamed that her brother comes to such a dubious place for medicine when his own sister is a doctor and Granny jeers at the little girl acting all high and mighty when she only got to put on doctor robes because of her brother who’s wearing his body out to support her. She even has to teach KangDoo’s sister how to poke a vein.

But KangDoo’s sister’s medical training is not for naught, because she stiffens when she sees the label on the drip and Granny warns her not to reveal anything unnecessary to KangDoo. Oh no, Granny! His sister notes how Granny has grown old, compared to the past when she was always chasing after them for their debts as their creditor.

MoonSoo goes through her findings at the site with JooWon but all he’s interested in is whether she’s hurt or not, having heard about what happened from SoMi. He asks her to inform him of such things herself since he feels bad about knowing only through a second source and gets back to work worrying about the higher than expected levels of ground water.

 

When MoonSoo goes back to her table, SoMi casts guilty glances her way. She hangs her head and says that she didn’t leave her alone on purpose, nor did she expect that to happen to her. MoonSoo understands that she didn’t mean it since she’s not that rotten a person and gifts her a beauty product. In exchange, SoMi gifts MoonSoo her own three-in-one facial product and the air clears between them.

Their colleague comes by to inform them of a company dinner that night with Director Jeong and SoMi complains that YooJin is calling them out as extras and using the dinner as an excuse because the one she really wants to call out is their CEO. She’s indignant on JooWon’s behalf, having heard that it was YooJin who dumped him.

At the restaurant, YooJin sees KangDoo arrive with JooWon but leaves to head in before them.

In her absence, KangDoo shares with JooWon that she’d ask him whether they should rebuild the memorial or not. That’s a funny question to ask a mere site worker and JooWon wonders if she figured out that he was the one who ruined the memorial. KangDoo doesn’t think so and round the corner, MoonSoo overhears everything.

 

The office gang comes, but MoonSoo’s not with them, so KangDoo goes in first while MoonSoo continues standing at her spot, trying to take in everything.

Director Jeong comes to join and stops in his tracks to stare at KangDoo sitting and stuffing his face though everyone’s on their feet to welcome him. Well now that’s awkward, to learn that the person you bullied at a hostess bar has now become your staff. Hahaha, to cover up his embarrassment, Director Jeong snaps at tall JooWon to never stand in his presence.

Director Jeong rants without any tact that they should just demolish the memorial instead of spending more money on it. Glaring at his sister as the one who suggested erecting it and at JooWon as the one who designed it, he grumbles that his company shouldn’t be spending money fixing what a crazy man did nor should they be creating something to give those “greedy” victims reasons to ask for more compensation from them. Oh wow, you nasty, rude little bastard.

He continues to run his mouth, almost shouting that the mall’s collapse was the architect’s fault (and not his company’s) when MoonSoo cuts him off by accidentally burning herself while setting her BBQ plate on fire before JooWon can react (since his father was the architect and that hit a sore spot).

 

She’s deliciously snarky when Director Jeong accuses her of eating so much meat because she’s not the one paying, replying that it was them who asked her, at the end of the table, to cook all the meat and send it up to avoid the smoke. But rest assured, she won’t blame CheongYoo for her burn. Ha!

She walks off to order some drinks and KangDoo follows after.

MoonSoo ponders while staring at the red heel of her palm when JooWon comes down with her bags since he thought she wouldn’t return and KangDoo stops round the corner, seeing them smile at each other, burn medicine in his hand.

Without letting them know, he heads back into the restaurant and announces that he’s leaving, disavowing all knowledge of where JooWon is. But before he leaves, he accidentally-on-purpose falls on top of Director Jeong and blames it on his drunkenness. HAHAHAHA!

JooWon insists on taking MoonSoo home and though he’s the one beside her, MoonSoo only has eyes for KangDoo whom she sees walking away. JooWon barely gets her attention back and smiles that she laughs whenever she’s uncomfortable.  In fact, she’s doing just that right now, but she sobers when JooWon correctly guesses that she won’t tell him why she does that even if he asks directly. Does she even understand why she does that?

MoonSoo arrives home but leaves her little sketchbook in JooWon’s car. Flipping through it, JooWon finds pictures of MoonSoo’s family’s bathhouse, refurbished how MoonSoo imagines it to be.

A long day comes to a close and MoonSoo pulls KangDoo’s sweater off the rack, remembering the revelation that KangDoo was the one who ruined the memorial.

 

Early next morning, KangDoo shuffles out of his room and wakes his landlady. She notes that he’s not sleeping well these days and yawns at him to eat before he goes. He just tells her to go back to sleep next to Cutie SangMan but she’s all ready for this scenario and hands him a huge foil-wrapped rice ball to eat on the way to work. Aw.

KangDoo changes in his office and MoonSoo barges in. He’s embarrassed, she’s not. And he rolls his eyes in defeat when she adds, unimpressed, that she’s seen it all when he was all whacked up. Hee.

She hands him his jacket and asks point-blank why he ruined the memorial.

Not taking the excuse that it was a misunderstood order from the Site Manager, MoonSoo asks if he recognizes a name on the memorial. Or… was he here? Seeing the expression on his face, she knows that he was once trapped there like her and the two survivors return back into the dark rubble 10 years earlier.

Young MoonSoo had been calling out for anyone who could hear her and KangDoo had heard her cries. Since she can move, he calls out for her to come while rescue work happens non-stop in contrastingly bright daylight above them.

MoonSoo gets scared when KangDoo says nothing, which is because KangDoo is in the throes of pain no thanks to the reinforcing bar stuck right through his knee. He’s not speaking too because he doesn’t know what to say and MoonSoo tells him to sing. So sing he does, and finally the two scared fawns find each other.

She asks what that weird song he was singing earlier was and in the present, adult KangDoo blurts out, “Bulldog Mansion”.

MoonSoo doesn’t know what that is, and KangDoo asks her once more, unbelieving.

“Bulldog Mansion, don’t you know it? Do you really not know?!”

 

 

Comments:

Oh my god, she’s got selective amnesia. You know, usually, this would be a cause to groan, but here, it all fits. The human brain is an incredibly resilient thing that blocks out memories its host can’t handle just so that survival can continue but K-drama had been using it as a plot-device for the feeblest reasons that we just end up groaning most of the time.

So KangDoo has known who she was for a while already, and it will come as a blow that the one person who knew, understood and felt exactly like him during that dark period in his life has forgotten it all. Who else can he turn to commiserate in that pain? But it seems like given how precious to him she is as a fellow survivor and source of comfort who was physically by his side when he was scared, he’ll want to do anything to spare her any pain, even at the expense of himself, seeing how he hasn’t yet confronted her at all. He doesn’t even ask anything of her, just that she doesn’t ignore him.

And how do you make amends for an accident that took away too much but can never return it all? It was clear in the debate about the memorial that YooJin is the one with more heart between herself and her blood brother, though her answer to KangDoo that erecting the memorial was because of the discomfort regarding all the lives lost uncovers the hypocrisy in her and maybe us too. How many times have we said that we’re doing something to comfort someone else, only to really take a step back and realise that it was just to assuage our own sense of discomfort? For KangDoo, that memorial does nothing, since it can return nothing back to its place and it does not even apologise for the lives lost and the hurt incurred. It does nothing to assuage his hurt and trauma and yet people think that erecting it up solves everything. Hmm. Who is the one the memorial supposed to comfort?

You know, I’ve worked on a construction project before as a mechanical engineer and I’ve never heard of an architectural company being so involved in groundwork. A construction project consists of many different companies, each with their own specialties and area of responsibility. Groundwork tends to be given to the groundwork company to handle, but considering that the CEO here was a victim of the collapse at the site that they’re working on and that MoonSoo herself was a survivor, I’m just going to chalk it all up to them being overcautious and being unable to let go, wanting absolutely everything to be perfect because they’re expecting the worst with each little mistake. But that kind of desperation can turn into something dangerous as they focus so much on the project and less on themselves, which resulted in MoonSoo going plop into the well.