Just Between Lovers Ep 6

There’s just way too much pain and thankfully, KangDoo and MoonSoo finally find someone who helps keep it all manageable. Don’t be scared to scream when you want to scream, because I will still go to the ends of the world to be you.

 

Just Between Lovers Episode 6:

The lights go out and KangDoo’s imagination takes over. Choi SungJae’s ghost stands before him, solid and real, looking nothing like a mirage. He demands to know if KangDoo can’t see him… and KangDoo’s sent back to that fateful day more than a decade ago.

MoonSoo had been carried out, but KangDoo wasn’t left alone under the rubble. SungJae had been there, pinned under huge cement blocks, struggling to get KangDoo’s attention. He begs KangDoo to free his leg from the heavy blocks, and KangDoo crawls over them to find SungJae’s foot as indicated by the once pure white canvas shoes that KangDoo had envied over now grey with dirt. Just days ago, he’d been intimidated by all the expensive clothes SungJae had been wearing. But now, he’s horrified by the poor boy’s dismembered foot. Oof.

In the present, KangDoo storms right back into his site office, throwing all his work things whichever way and storming right out. He marches all the way home, running straight into some drunkards and intentionally picks a fight with them.

“YAAAAH!!! You’d hit me?! IF YOU HIT ME, YOU SHOULD PAY!”

He crumples to the ground sobbing, fresh new cuts on his face. Madame strolls up, witnessing his pathetic state, and sympathetic, she wonders how he could still remain the same from 10 years ago and now.

Early dawn, MoonSoo surprises her helper Ajumma when she runs out of the house in a tizzy, desperate.

JooWon comes to find Director Jeong, trying to persuade him to approve new funds for a deeper investigation on site’s ground, since the landfill areas there are deeper than usual and the original report failed to measure some important aspects. As expected, Director Jeong isn’t welcoming of the idea, but the child in him has to bring up JooWon’s father as a sore point and refuses to let JooWon go before he says he can. Tsk tsk tsk.

Ahh, apparently, MoonSoo was rushing to find KangDoo but when she gets to the site office, he’s nowhere to be found. So MoonSoo leaves the popsicles that she bought in the freezer there and sighs as she tidies up after KangDoo’s mess.

 

Granny’s surprisingly outside the site screaming to be let in, but the Site Manager refuses and she wonders what so wrong with wanting to see her own land. Oh. OH. There. We get confirmation that the 1/5^th land that Director Jeong wants is under her name.

MoonSoo finds her near catatonic after her sudden work up and takes her to a bus stop for a mouthful of drink. Granny offers 10 bucks for that cup, of the view that there’s no free drink in the world before leaving. But a few steps later, her legs go soft and she begins to fall to the ground, luckily caught in time by MoonSoo.

She awakes at a nearby hospital and is moved that MoonSoo actually waited and spent so much time on her. She tells MoonSoo to go already but MoonSoo wants to wait till Granny’s guardian arrives. Granny snaps that she’s her own guardian, so MoonSoo replies that she’s going to wait till Granny’s IV is done, insisting that she’s doing it more for her own sake rather than Granny’s. Because she’s not okay with Granny trying to chase her away thinking she’s inconveniencing her and then feeling sorrow when she actually does leave.

 

Speaking Granny’s language, MoonSoo asks her for what she wants, assuring that she’ll get it all back with interest and Granny asks for canned peaches as she grabs MoonSoo’s hands for comfort.

MoonSoo passes by KangDoo’s sister on her way out and when Granny doesn’t respond to her prodding, KangDoo’s sister orders an emergency exam for her.

KangDoo wakes up in Madame’s office, completely unable to remember why he’s there. Madame side-eyes him, sighing that this is not her first time picking him off the streets and tries to tell him not to get into more trouble. She dresses up, preparing for her next appointment which happens to be with Director Jeong on a fishing trip. Pfft, did he not tell her the agenda, because a bright red power suit is hardly fishing attire.

Sighing, she sits to make some coffee for him but Director Jeong just lies his head on her lap and asks for her to stroke his head. What?  He complains that no one’s ever on his side and so needs some comforting right now. Madame wonders why he can’t just ask his wife to do this for him but the poor guy’s response is that it would feel too much like begging. Aw. What a sucky marriage.

MoonSoo waits in the lobby for Granny, threatening KangDoo by text to contact her as soon as possible otherwise she’d go stalk him. But he doesn’t reply her messages and Granny comes out, stunned to see that MoonSoo actually waited for her the whole time without even knowing if she’d left earlier or not.

They head out to a park to share the canned peaches, peaches for MoonSoo and sugar-syrup for Granny. This Grandma, seriously. Touched by what a good person MoonSoo is, she asks MoonSoo if she has a man and when MoonSoo laughs no, she asks for MoonSoo’s number and tries to play matchmaker like a good ol’ Korean Grandma, although what she says is, “if I don’t repay this debt, this guy will.” Granny, KangDoo has got enough debt.

Granny loudly declares that she guarantees this guy even though she’s not normally one who does that, but because the boy’s so responsible and reliable, Granny announces her pride for him.

And then we have that object of pride kicking vending machines again. Pfft.

This time, the machine isn’t managed by CheongYoo, so it doesn’t relent and KangDoo ambles down the lane, forlorn and drinkless.

JooWon comes into MoonSoo’s office but is told that she’s called for an urgent off day. SoMi muses that she’s probably off with KangDoo “Oppa” since they’re suspiciously close lately and JooWon just tells her to convey to MoonSoo that they have an important event tomorrow. Then he takes issue with her calling KangDoo “Oppa”. I don’t like this.

Finally, after a long day, KangDoo shuffles into his residence, running to his room when a female shout suddenly comes from it.

 

Hahahaha, he opens the door to see SangMan in some KungFu stance and MoonSoo kneeling before him and he gapes. MoonSoo’s more interested in the fresh cuts on his face though and KangDoo tries to change the topic by putting the focus on his opponents. (SangMan: “they must have died.” HAHAHAHAHA. I love this running gag.)

MoonSoo rolls her eyes at the two kids and scolds KangDoo for not picking up her calls or even texting back. He tries to find his phone to no avail and SangMan tattles that he didn’t even come home yesterday. PFFFT, he hides behind MoonSoo who holds her arms out protectively when KangDoo moves to hit him. Is this like a Mom, Dad and Kid scenario? Because I’m laughing my butt off at how spontaneous and natural it is.

KangDoo tries to chase them all out and SangMan tackles him with some judo moves, telling him that he gets hit because he’s too rash. KangDoo smacks him upside the head.

 

It’s late at night, so KangDoo takes MoonSoo home. She’s quiet the whole way through and suddenly stops, just to tell him that the lady whom they found yesterday got cremated this morning by her neighbours. She apologises, though he doesn’t know what for, and she replies that she’s sorry for letting him discover her dead body himself. “You must have been scared.”

She walks ahead, but KangDoo doesn’t follow.

When her bus passes by though, he grabs her by the hand and together, they run for it. KangDoo just manages to put her on the last bus, but she never tears her eyes off him till he’s just a tiny speck in the street. Slumping into her seat, she mumbles that could have taken a taxi too though. Aw, someone wants more time with KangDoong-ie.

KangDoo sits at the bus stop he left her, finally seeing all her messages. He smiles, reading on as each message gets sterner and sterner. He finds a missed call from JooWon and calls back, but all JooWon wants to know is where he is and whether he’s with MoonSoo. KangDoo replies no and JooWon lets it go. Oh no, please don’t tell me.

On the bus, MoonSoo gets a sweet message from KangDoo saying that she worked hard today too and she texts back that they should be together the next time. Because they’re one team. Hee.

 

WanJin’s woken up early morning by a pair of police officers, Keyboard Warrior (Kim Min-Kyu) in their clutches. Ha, he was reported for creeping around her house and when the police ask if she knows him, he lies that he’s her sister. WanJin glares, but goes along with the story and sends the police off, though not without telling them to check back in 5 minutes because “there are times when family is scarier”. Heh.

Keyboard Warrior asks her why she withdrew the lawsuit against him, upset at what he deems an undeserved act of kindness. She scoffs, saying that she just couldn’t be bothered by the likes of him and he blurts out that she was the one who commented on a webtoon he’d submitted for a competition, saying that he had potential.

Pfft, she has no recollection of it and he barges in, ordering her to put him to work because he’s going to do his social service right here in this house. Hahahaha. But the police’s check-up call comes and all bravado leaves him.

MoonSoo’s at her work event with JooWon, whom she spies speaking with YooJin.

 

The air is tense between them, with YooJin demanding that KangDoo be fired while JooWon resists. She weighs the impact of losing between KangDoo from the security team against losing her Construction Site Manager and tells JooWon that the business with the falling wall can be covered if someone’s fired but JooWon’s simple line that she’s the same as back then shuts her up.

And for good reason because when the mall collapsed, she’d come to JooWon’s father to try and get him to take responsibility for the collapse, doing her best to wash her father’s company’s hands off everything. That is just shitty.

And so JooWon’s father bows at the investigative press conference, his pathetic state seen by his own son. MoonSoo’s father had been there to grab him by the collars, screaming in grief, but all YooJin did when she saw was stay far away and JooWon could only stare at her in despair.

In the present, YooJin bites back that JooWon would have done the same in her position, but he denies, saying that he would have stayed with her. It would have been difficult, but they would have become better people for it. At least better than now.

Round the corner, MoonSoo hears everything.

 

Out at the construction site, even mere workers are complaining that the higher ups aren’t doing things right, leaving an anchor out and just covering wet soil with cement. Another one sighs that the missing anchor must have become smuggled money shared between the supplier and the project manager and… everything’s overheard by KangDoo.

So of course this active monkey goes round climbing into the supplier’s trucks and checking their materials out himself. The banker son that MoonSoo met before suddenly appears and he takes a weirdly long look at KangDoo, commenting that he looks “similar”. But he’s pulled away by the Project Manager and KangDoo heads back to the site office only to find that Site Manager has already called for just his own portion of food and is happily eating alone.

Complaining in banmal (hahahaha, this boy), he searches he fridge for something to eat and finally finds the popsicles that MoonSoo left, gladly biting into them while ignoring his superior’s jabber.

CheongYoo’s important event with their investors finally ends and while YooTaek tries to get JooWon to come with him for his next meeting, MoonSoo takes one look at him on her way out and allows JooWon to help her, thereby giving him the excuse to escape.

 

Not knowing when to stop, Director Jeong condescendingly asks his sister if MoonSoo isn’t too far a drop in standards as JooWon’s next girlfriend compared to her and YooJin just ignores him as usual while YooTaek shouts after her that he just got a new car, along with the important fact that there’re only just 4 in Korea. Lol.

JooWon drives MoonSoo back to the office and asks her why she didn’t pick up his calls yesterday. He insists that it’s okay for her to call him late at night and wonders if he didn’t seem to be acting too tough earlier with Director Jeong.

Looking ahead at yet another apartment building under construction, MoonSoo sighs that it would be good to have buildings that are 100 or even 200 hundred years old, so JooWon brings her to his favourite place, a little café that’s way older than him.

They look outside the window to gaze enviously at a loving old couple, which makes MoonSoo admit that her parents are separated and JooWon admit that his father’s passed away.

MoonSoo tells JooWon that she looks forward to the building that he’ll build one day while JooWon modestly demurs, sighing that his father used to scold him a lot when they were working together. It’s a surprise to MoonSoo that his father was in the same line.

They head out so that MoonSoo can take pictures for WanJin to use as inspiration, though when WanJin sees them, she’s only interested in the fact that JooWon was pictured in one of them and that he was looking at MoonSoo like she’s the most precious person on earth. Just the way a man would look at a woman. I don’t like where this is going.

MoonSoo deflects, saying that a good person should meet a good person and the world’s best friend informs her that she is a good person.

Meanwhile, KangDoo is at the site office focusing on something that seems very important. His superior comes in looking for popsicles… but there’s none because KangDoo’s eaten them all just to make this:

PFFT.

MoonSoo smiles to see it, but sends him a simple text indicating only the address of their next appointment.

It puts KangDoo in a sour mood and Granny flings her rag at his face to get him to work cleaning her place. Hahaha. She orders him around but all he’s interested in is his phone and she tries to tell him where all her important documents are while he’s like her bratty grandson, fiddling with his phone and ignoring her.

She finally smacks him and he wonders why she’s being weird, asking if she’s going somewhere. She scoffs that she can go wherever she wants and KangDoo starts pitching a fit, messing everything up so that she can’t go anywhere. I’m half laughing and half crying, seeing KangDoo act so childishly and yet knowing that something’s probably very wrong with Granny.

Madame and her girls are at MoonSoo’s Dad’s restaurant for dinner and KangDoo comes in with a huge temper. One of the girls keeps drinking and KangDoo warns her to at least eat something with it. But Dad does something even sweeter and puts a cup of warmed milk before her and she turns into mush at the gesture, reminded of her mom, while Madame worries about her giving into her weaknesses.

Dad comes out to put the trash out and KangDoo tries to explain his seedy referrals but Madame grabs him by the arm and asks him to take her home. He’s powerless, heh.

Down the street they walk, hand in arm, and Madame says that she’s going off to work and not home. KangDoo guesses that work is Director Jeong and sighs that she’s too good for him. Good for her that Director Jeong’s not a man and she swears that she’s going to date only a bachelor without issues. She urges KangDoo to be open to dating, putting down his pessimism when he gripes that you can’t do everything you want in life.

 

“It’s because you can’t do what you want to do that you therefore become determined to live! You don’t know what’s going to happen in life. That’s why life is fun!”

He watches her go, a soft expression on his face.

MoonSoo’s at home trying to wear a mask and spitting when it gets into her mouth. Are you for real lady. Your mom does facials for work.

Heh, she ends up sleeping with the mask on and Mom wanders along. Seeing her daughter like that, she steps into her room and drinks in the sight of her, a pitiful hangdog expression on her face.

The next morning, Mom’s stranded outside her bathhouse with Helper Ajumma as their boiler’s gone bust. Mom starts drinking soju (“what else would I do all day”) and MoonSoo comes out for her appointment with KangDoo.

 

Helper Ajumma tries to prettify her, but hearing Helper Ajumma coo at how pretty MoonSoo looks with lipstick on makes Mom remember that last time she did the same to YeonSoo and she leaps up and crazily wipes the lipstick all off her daughter’s face, screaming that MoonSoo can’t wear make-up, ever. When asked why, she yells back, “BECAUSE YOU CAN’T LEAVE ME TOO!” OH. And oof.

Her legs become jelly and lost in the memory of the past, Mom cries to herself that she was crazy to have gone round prettifying YeonSoo and ignoring the saying that “pretty flowers die faster”. She blames herself for YeonSoo’s death, hitting herself over and over and Helper Ajumma cries beside her, wailing that she was wrong.

MoonSoo watches over them, tears escaping her eyes. Then she escapes the scene as KangDoo watches silently from afar and turns back, having initially come here to pick her up.

 

Helper Ajumma brings out the Makgeolli to share with Mom and Mom warns her not to steal MoonSoo from her or to look prettily at MoonSoo because MoonSoo is hers. Helper Ajumma swears never to and cries when she thinks of YeonSoo, telling Mom that even with her grief, she envies her because she’s got a daughter who cares so much for her. Mom replies that Helper Ajumma is better for having a husband and they just conclude that neither husband nor kids are good because they all leave you and all you have are friends in the end.

MoonSoo gets some unexpected news from KangDoo that the family they were appointed to meet has cancelled on them (are you sure it wasn’t the other way around) and he brings her out to play at the amusement park.

Heh, she refuses to wear the cute hairbands he bought so he does and the two of them wander around leisurely, avoiding all the rollercoasters and going for the merry-go-round. They’re both deep in thoughts on the merry-go-round and KangDoo thinks back to a moment with MoonSoo under the rubble.

She’d craved for octopus, sliced thinly and completed with scallion salad, so he’d grossed her out by informing her that octopuses have IQ’s higher than dogs and even recognise people’s faces. Thus, she goes on to dream about oysters, heh, but he doesn’t have any come back for that.

So in the present, he brings her to eat oyster soup, though he can’t eat oyster himself. MoonSoo notices and tries to order him something else but he gives the excuse that it’s hot and that he’s just waiting for it to cool down.

While he goes off to wash his hands, a peddler comes by to try and sell MoonSoo pineapples. He’s being pushy and when MoonSoo tries to reject, she accidentally drops one. He gets irrationally angry at the loss of his “baby” and waves his knife in her face, though he’s not satisfied when she tries to pay for the damage either.

KangDoo comes back to see that and the hot head goes Bruce Lee on the peddler again.

 

He storms out, with MoonSoo chasing after him, assuring him that she’s fine, so why is he overreacting like that. He turns on his heel and grabs her tight by the shoulders, demanding to know if she’s really fine, even after being treated like that. He shouts at her, veins popping, not believing that she’s fine, convinced that she’s forcing everything inside. Nobody cares for her if she insists on acting nice like that, he yells. You’re not talking about the pineapple incident anymore are you?

He doesn’t relent, becoming scarier and scarier by the second and MoonSoo pushes him off. He goes flying to the ground and gets up again, screaming at her and she screams back at him.

“You do well, huh. Is that it? Shout it out instead of pretending to be normal, you stupid!”

 

The sun falls and they end up at a road side stall drinking alcohol and having dinner. Soju for MoonSoo, beer for KangDoo.

MoonSoo thoroughly enjoys her soju and KangDoo wonders what’s so great about it. She replies that it makes her refreshed and muses that it must be why her mom drinks so much alcohol. Because then she can laugh as much as she wants, cry as much as she wants. She can just say that she was like that because she was drunk.

KangDoo contemplates her words… and soon she’s two bottles deep and drunk enough.

He eats a stick of carrot and she suddenly declares that she likes men who eat carrots. Haha. Weirded out by her behaviour (she’s trying to seduce him!), he calls for the bill and escorts her home.

But they pass by a convenience store and she calls out for more alcohol, waddling all the way to the bench in front. Pfft, she calls his lips “sausages” and orders him into the store to buy alcohol and sausages.

He comes out just in time to catch her from falling off the steps and then sighs when she goes off running again. Drunk MoonSoo is so cute.

They arrive at the Han River, with MoonSoo singing while he keeps guard from behind.

She finally drops into a bench and KangDoo sits beside her, asking if she’s feeling refreshed now. She stares at him… and takes his arm in hers. Looking straight at his lips, she stares for a long time… then plants a soft kiss on them.

“Thank you,” she whispers, and her head lolls onto his shoulder as she falls asleep.

They stay like that the whole night, with KangDoo covering her with his jacket. And in the morning when she awakes, her head hangs, but KangDoo doesn’t say a word and just holds out a hand so that they can go home together.

 

Comments:

I’m going to echo a sentiment I read somewhere: KangDoo’s such a gentleman. Not only does he not tease MoonSoo for kissing him in a moment of vulnerability, he lets her take her anger out on him too. Maybe it’s the pain stamped on him, but he’s sensitive enough to walk off upon seeing MoonSoo’s family’s breakdown, hiding the fact that he was there and letting MoonSoo keep her dignity because most people aren’t emotionally ready to have someone walk into such a raw moment. He lets her let off steam without directly addressing the cause… that’s like, incredible wisdom.

I’ve been holding it off for a while already, but I guess it’s now clear that JooWon’s interested in MoonSoo and possibly possessive of her too. He’s not done anything that would warrant rebuke yet though, but it will pain my heart to see these two guys get into a conflict over her when they should be comforting each other. Much has been said about MoonSoo and KangDoo’s grief, but I should also touch on JooWon’s which is really not very outright like KangDoo’s or quiet and hidden like MoonSoo’s. His grief and sorrow simmer on the surface, but is actually potent and deep. While KangDoo and MoonSoo couldn’t do anything about their misfortune, JooWon’s grief is that he (or his dad) had a part in the tragedy and at the same time, he knows who else is to blame and yet he cannot blame. It’s a kind of anguish for a son to be unable to take revenge for his father even if he wants to. There is no… closure.

And now knowing what I know of YooJin, even if their parents never married, she and JooWon could never have gotten back together. It’s what you choose to do in your moments of desperation that determines whether you’re a hero or a coward and CheongYoo, and by extension, YooJin, was a coward.

I think the reason both guys gravitate towards MoonSoo is because she’s very motherly. I wouldn’t say that she’s like a mother, but her first instinct is to care, and I guess that’s how she must have coped with her trauma. She pushes her own feelings aside and keeps busy by caring for others. Like with Granny this episode which proved that she is very sensitive to people’s emotions and motivations. Like just last episode, when KangDoo ended it off by being all alone and lonely and at the start of this, MoonSoo’s scurrying out just to go find him, harassing and even threatening him to come find her which ultimately ended up in her finding her way to his room because she worried so much for him. I don’t think anyone’s ever done that for KangDoo before (after the disaster, I mean) – not Granny, not Madame. Yes, they pick him off the streets, but they never rush to him and this affection-starved kid needs someone to do that for him. He needs someone to prove that he’s precious and treasured and not just cared for and definitely not just a money-making machine. MoonSoo does the same for JooWon too, but to a lesser extent (at “pick you off the streets” extent) and the poor guy’s so lonely that he’s falling for her already. But we all know where her heart lies and it’s squeezing my heart to know of the heartbreak that’s inevitably coming for JooWon.

This world is filled with hurt people from all levels, from the average like KangDoo and MoonSoo and Mom and Dad to those a little richer like JooWon to even those born with a golden spoon in their mouths like Jeong YooTaek. But life still goes on, hmm, and all you can do is let out a few loud shouts every once in a while to release stress and go on as usual.

I’ve never experienced trauma on this scale before, so I never realised that the reason MoonSoo goes round without dolling up or even never wore a mask before was because of Mom. It reminded me again that pain permeates all part of your lives and affects those close by too. It’s because Mom irrationally believed that her dolling up YeonSoo was the reason she was taken away that she forbids MoonSoo from any beautifying product too. It puts her forlorn gaze at MoonSoo’s masked-face in a whole new perspective for me because now I understand that there’s pain, sorrow and even guilt in it. Pain because it reminds her of YeonSoo, sorrow because of her loss, and guilt, because she’s short-changing the beautiful daughter she has left but she can’t help doing so. So actually when SoMi offered that sample-bottle of moisturiser in episode 2, MoonSoo went silent and became incredibly touched because it’s been a long time since someone did that for her, concerned for something as trivial as her skincare. I thought it was a personal choice that she chooses plain patterns and clothing, but maybe it was all influenced by the aftermath of the disaster. To that, I say, “oof”.