Just Between Lovers Ep 10

Just like the tides, meeting people is all about timing. So if no one steps forward, we might miss each other till the end. And what a pity, because there’s nothing like being with the ones you love.

 

Just Between Lovers Episode 10:

KangDoo turns his back on MoonSoo and gets on the boat, thinking to himself that his life might get tangled in even more misery and he doesn’t want her to suffer with him. Therefore, he’s running away. But just that moment of separation proves too much for him too and he turns around for a final look at MoonSoo. Speechless, she just stares at him as the boat takes off, angry and disappointed tears flowing down her cheeks.

SangMan’s Mom gets the shock of her life when she finds MoonSoo sleeping in KangDoo’s room. It’s news to MoonSoo that KangDoo will be working on a fishing boat for a few days and she asks the landlord if KangDoo’s lived there for a long time. Well, it’s been 7 years.

MoonSoo wonders why he lives apart from his sister and SangMan’s mother just nods and sighs, like it’s a mystery to her too. She laments that KangDoo’s sister looked like she was raised well, but KangDoo, when he first came, was all skin and bones. At least he grew well enough to look like a person while living with her and she quips that it’s why kids need their mothers. They have it too hard without their moms.

 

Having learnt all she needed, MoonSoo takes her leave.

On her way home, she passes by the alley she first found KangDoo, beat up and bloody, limp under the rain, and he’d grabbed her hand like she’s the only float in a wide empty ocean. Even the bus stop reminds her of KangDoo, where he’d once scoffed at the ridiculous name of “before S Mall”.

Out in the sea, KangDoo sleeps in the open and is thrown away roughly by a colleague when he accidentally steps on the net. It’s more worry for his safety than pure anger, because just one wrong move and he could be down in the treacherous waters, overboard.

MoonSoo sits on some steps, sighing over all the misery she and KangDoo and all the other victims of the mall have to face when a missionary passes her a leaflet, urging her to come to God. The missionary encourages her to come pray with them and assures her that she can be saved with faith even if she’s suffering now. But she says exactly the wrong thing (“God only gives you suffering that you can bear.”), and MoonSoo stares at the leaflet, almost full of resentment, and wonders what about the people who’ve passed away just because they couldn’t handle their suffering. What can God do for them? Returning the leaflet, she tells the missionary that she won’t believe in it.

 

Out in the sea, the waves rock the fishermen to sleep.

But KangDoo can’t get used to the enclosed sleeping quarters and heads out to the deck instead.

Alone, he recalls the desperate image of MoonSoo running after him, the thought of it paining him and lying on the deck, he closes his eyes, but her image is seared in his brain and heart.

Site Manager tries to persuade JooWon to call KangDoo back because no one else does work like him but JooWon can’t acquiesce, though not because he doesn’t want KangDoo back but because KangDoo himself is refusing to come back.

YooJin’s there at the site too, going through some matters with the workers there. In the site office, JooWon thanks YooJin for helping him push through with approval for a re-inspection of the ground, but she says that she was just doing her job and it’s not like he’ll give it up no matter how much the company opposes anyway. She tells him to come to her for any help regarding work, since he’ll really need her that way even if he can push her away with regards to personal matters.

MoonSoo spends her time making models at work but she accidentally cuts herself and out in the sea, KangDoo reels over taking his first sip of soju in life.

WanJin isn’t having a grand ol’ time too thanks to her Manhwa and MoonSoo who’s sighing non-stop on her bed. Annoyed, she asks MoonSoo what the problem is now that she’s got her memory back and snaps that she can just call KangDoo with her cell phone and ask the questions she wants to ask.

She gets straight to the point and asks why MoonSoo can’t meet him, telling her that she’s going to miss KangDoo at this rate. After all, the one who’s the real deal is the one who’s beside you when you’re desperate.

Something clicks in MoonSoo’s mind and she gets up to go to KangDoo instead of just waiting for him. And WanJin finally finds the inspiration for her Manhwa.

Out at Madame’s bar, Director Jeong smiles as he watches Madame deal with some work matters through the crack of a door, remembering how gentle she was with the kittens. He looks like a complete fool in love.

 

He calls for another outing next week but while he’s all niceties and all, she’s prickly and sarcastic. He wonders why she’s being like this to him and she smiles though gritted teeth, asking if the person he talked about firing the other time was KangDoo. Director Jeong growls that there’s a reason for it and Madame sees through all his lies, asking if the reason is just because he doesn’t like KangDoo. Snubbing Director Jeong, she gets up to leave for another customer and he wonders what KangDoo is to her that she’s reacting like that.

Madame: “He’s my life saver.”

Amazingly, KangDoo’s lips haven’t frozen over yet and his colleague comes out to ask after him. He sighs at their less than ideal catch despite the work still being as draining. KangDoo feels it in his bones that it won’t rain tomorrow and wonders if it won’t be better, but the experienced senior just teaches him that the wind is scarier, and that the tides are what determine their rewards. Just like people, tides are unpredictable, and if you miss one, you’ll never know when you’ll see it again. You may never even see it ever again.

KangDoo thinks over that line as MoonSoo mulls in her bathhouse.

 

Granny pays her an unexpected visit which MoonSoo welcomes. Sipping over banana milk, Granny checks with MoonSoo that KangDoo’s gone off on a fishing boat and grumbles at the boy doing whatever he can to abuse his own body. MoonSoo sighs that she missed meeting KangDoo before he left and Granny just wisely says that it’s nothing to be downcast over.

MoonSoo’s more interested in knowing if Granny knew that they both were in the collapse in the past but Granny wonders what’s so important about that. It is to MoonSoo though, because she’s not sure if she forgot because she couldn’t or if it’s because she just wanted to be at peace alone.  Granny pulls her out of her pity party and refuses to let her feel guilty about it, telling her the story of a squirrel burying an acorn in the ground for winter but then forgetting all about it. That acorn in the ground grew into a tree after winter and became the start of a forest. So burying things and forgetting is not a bad thing. Who knows what might happen after all. It might be a blessing in disguise.

That puts a smile on MoonSoo’s face and she finally remembers to ask what Granny came for. Granny just took a taxi for a bath. Ha.

KangDoo’s hard at work on the boat and Granny has her hair cut by Mom. Mom’s cheerful around Granny, but when she asks MoonSoo how she knew the old lady, she wonders if Granny is sick or not, because that’s the feeling she got from her. MoonSoo doesn’t know about that, but Helper Ajumma suddenly comes screaming into the room because Granny has collapsed in the bathhouse. At the same time, KangDoo trips over the nets and goes sprawling, pain shooting up his knee.

Out at the hospital, MoonSoo finds Granny’s bed empty, the old lady already at the counter discharging herself. JaeYoung comes to find her and asks exasperated that she let herself be checked out because that tumour in her brain might kill her anytime.

 

That’s news to MoonSoo, but Granny just barks back that people don’t die of a stupid tumor. They don’t die because of cancer, because of accidents or suicide either, the old lady says. They die because of poverty. They die because they have no money to treat their cancer, they die while in an accident from working to desperately escape their poverty, they die because they cannot endure poverty any longer. With that, she shoves JaeYoung aside and storms off.

MoonSoo sits with JaeYoung, who tells her that Granny’s tumour is located in the hypothalamus and that she’s refusing surgery because she might lose her memories. Plus, there’s no guarantee that she’ll survive it at her age.

MoonSoo worries about KangDoo, asking if he knows of this but JaeYoung tries to keep to patient confidentiality, unable to tell him since Granny won’t let her. But MoonSoo replies that she’s a survivor of the S Mall collapse too and nothing scares her more than things that unpredictably happen out of the blue. She knows that KangDoo must feel the same too and urges JaeYoung to tell KangDoo too. Unable to commit, JaeYoung just sighs and walks away.

 

At the fishing boat, KangDoo carries their catch of the day over to another boat that’ll sell it on land and goes to collect the fishing logbook. But an incoming call on the captain’s phone makes him pause and suddenly, he’s back on the lands of South Korea, running through the hospital where JaeYoung works.

JaeYoung doesn’t mince things and tells KangDoo straight that Granny’s brain tumour is malignant and growing fast. Even with surgery, she’ll live at most a year and all KangDoo hears is that Granny is dying. Slumping over the railings, tears pool in his eyes.

He goes to Granny’s place where she’s carting all her boxes of money here and there and grumbles that she sure is energetic for a sick person. He demands to know where she’s going when she says that she’s going to brag about all that money to her husband and she just snaps that she’s not dying right now when the boy acts up. So KangDoo tells her to make more money here so that she can brag more, not amused when Granny laughs.

Granny wonders if her looks will remain like now when she dies and KangDoo childishly retorts that he doesn’t know because he’s never died before. He’s even more unamused when Granny’s worried about that only because of her husband who died young and probably still has his good looks in the other world. So he snaps that the husband she loves is probably busy living the life with other women of all kinds over there and tells her to stay instead of going to her dashing husband who’ll just ignore the old and wrinkly her. Pfft. How am I crying and laughing at the same time?

After all the ranting, he comes out to head home, only to see MoonSoo waiting outside. He marches off without a single word and she just follows. So he turns to ask straightforwardly why she’s following him and replies that he’s fine when she says that she was worried about him.

Still, she follows him all the way home, but only till the steps of his motel.

His landlord comes out of his room, startled to see that he’s back already. But all KangDoo asks about is SangMan, whom he’s told hasn’t had it good the past few days and is now sleeping after taking some medicine. SangMan mother offers to feed him, which he rejects, so she just tells him to give her his clothes and go wash up since he stinks. Also, she doesn’t mind of the rent comes late, so he doesn’t have to go so far to do such hard work. Aw. She leaves, and KangDoo looks back, disappointed to see the hallway empty.

 

Later in his shower, he sobs quietly to himself, finally letting the tears that he’s been keeping in, flow.

He goes up to the rooftop and finds MoonSoo there, but this stupid child tries to run again, till MoonSoo steps right up, close to him, and asks that they were together under the shopping mall years ago, weren’t they? Unable to lie, he just asks “so what?” To him, several people died in the shopping mall, several people were trapped and survived and they’re just two of those. “What’s so special about us?”

But MoonSoo asks if their meeting was nothing and defiantly asks if she’s nothing to him. “All those times, was I excited all on my own?” He still doesn’t reply.

Upset, she beats him on the chest, almost crying at him for making her confused. But he grabs her hand and just says that he’s plenty confused himself with recent events and doesn’t have time to think about the past. So she leaves, actually crying now, and KangDoo can only watch her go from the rooftop.

The picture of her lonely back against the narrow alleyway is all that KangDoo sees, but when MoonSoo turns back to look up at the roof, he’s disappeared, because he’s hidden himself in an effort to make her let go.

JooWon holes himself up in his office too, and his Mom comes to ask why he changed the passcode to his house and if he also works on weekends. She leaves him a lunch box, weakly telling him to take it easy, if only for his father who would worry about him if he could see his son like this. She broaches the topic about his relationship with YooJin but JooWon cuts her off, telling her to just go home since though he’s still his father’s son, she isn’t his father’s family any more. That’s not nice.

She can’t do anything, so she just tells him to eat first before she’ll go.

 

MoonSoo finds her father waiting for her outside her home too, there to ask if her mom knows that she works at the place where the mall collapsed. He orders her to stop working there but she refuses to, since it’s not like it’s a place where she can’t go. She points out that he sells noodles near that place (noodles signify long life) too, unable to cut his ties to the place, and Dad just passes her a bag of ingredients so that she can make hangover soup for her mom and leaves.

As usual, MoonSoo finds Mom passed out on the couch and tucks her in to sleep, replying that Granny does have someone really good by her side when Mom asks after Granny. Slipping into bed after a long day, MoonSoo recalls how she spotted KangDoo trying to hide and understands what Granny meant when she said that KangDoo pushes away people he likes.

So she goes to him instead the next morning and waits outside his motel so that the first person he meets the moment he gets out of his house is her. She tells him to do whatever he wants, because she’s going to do the same and she follows him all the way to an ice cream shop where she buys a cup for him.

 

Noting the cuts on his hands, she pulls him over to put medicine on them, scoffing that he keeps getting into trouble. Haha, he defensively says that these aren’t from fights and asks if she does this for just anyone.

MoonSoo: “Are you just anyone?”

And KangDoo just lets her clean his wounds, drinking in the sight of her as much as he can while she’s not looking.

She leaves him there though, but not without saying that she’ll see him again.

At work, YooJin asks MoonSoo when KangDoo’s coming back to work at the site but MoonSoo doesn’t know either. Assuming that they’re still fighting, YooJin muses that their relationship has to be good in order for her to still have a chance with JooWon, who likes MoonSoo.

 

MoonSoo replies that she likes JooWon too though, but so does everyone in the office since he’s a nice person, and tells YooJin that she doesn’t have to worry too much about them. YooJin spots JooWon in the doorway, and so purposely asks if it’s the same for KangDoo. MoonSoo looks her in the eyes and says, “KangDoo is different. When I don’t see him, I get curious about him, worry about him and think of him.”

Having heard what she wanted, she sends MoonSoo off and JooWon just grits his teeth and bows when she passes by.

JooWon demands to know what YooJin is doing and the lady just smirks that she worried for nothing, after quipping that she doesn’t let anyone get what she can’t get.

LOL, SoMi’s staring in her mirror, sighing about her aging self. MoonSoo smiles that she’s still as pretty as ever and SoMi the gossip shares the story about how JooWon and YooJin the lovers ended up as siblings and ends it with another sigh about it means there’s no chance for her and JooWon. HAHAHAHA.

KangDoo pays Granny another visit and when he doesn’t find her, he gets into a mini panic and calls her. But she hasn’t brought her phone with her and he stares at her vibrating phone, useless without its owner.

He slams Madame’s door open, demanding to know if Granny’s here, but there’s no reason for an old lady to be at a hostess bar and Madame scolds KangDoo for getting on that fishing boat, yelling that he’s just as rash as Granny.

He’s suspicious that she knew about Granny’s illness too and Madame admits she had an inkling and got confirmation only a few days earlier. She knows that Granny’s refusing treatment too, understanding of Granny’s fear that the surgery will make her forget all the people she loves, but KangDoo won’t be reasoned with and is determined to drag granny to the hospital, no matter what it takes. Even Madame’s words that wanting Granny to get treatment so that she’ll live even if she becomes a shell of herself is just their greed doesn’t move KangDoo.

He storms right out to the playground Granny frequents and finds her there, sneaking a puff on a swing, deep in thoughts.

He abruptly asks for one from her, knowing that she won’t stop no matter what he says, scaring the wits out of her.

Finally unable to take it anymore, she yells at him to go find MoonSoo instead of chasing her everywhere, asking if he doesn’t have any confidence.

“No! I don’t!”

“WHY?! What’s wrong with you?!”

“Just look at me! Would anyone like me?!”

“Who asked about your circumstances?! I’m asking about how you feel!”

“Crazy bastard. Even though I’m worried that you’re sick, I keep thinking about how I’ll be able to see MoonSoo if I go, a total crazy bastard.”

 

That makes Granny laugh, as she cackles that there’s something good out of her getting ill after all. KangDoo gripes that it was so uncool of him and Granny retorts that it’s for MoonSoo to decide, not him. (HAHAHAHA!) She screams at him to get himself back together and face life like a rat that’s scared of nothing like he always did and he screams back at she needs continue doing exactly this for him, scolding him, doting him and so on so will she PLEASE just go to the hospital with him?! For him, for his happiness! PLEASE!

He makes his way home that night, but before he enters his motel, he glances around, disappointed when he doesn’t see even MoonSoo’s shadow. Hehe, thus, he can’t help but smile when he finds her waiting for him inside, but he refuses to admit that he was happy to see her and chases her away from his room. She just asks in her calm way if he came after meeting with Granny and tells him to just rest then. She’ll leave him alone for now, but:

“I’ll come again tomorrow. And the day after, and the day after. I’ll come until I don’t like you anymore.”

She turns and leaves, shuffling along quickly, like she didn’t just blow his mind. Looking on as she goes, KangDoo finally lets himself smile and laugh a little, unbelieving that someone would actually come to him, that she would choose him.

His room isn’t empty though, and he finds SangMan in his bed with a book that he wants to read with KangDoo. Pleased to see SangMan again, he pets his head and checks that he’s not ill anymore like his mom said.

KangDoo climbs into bed but stops SangMan from turning the lights off, muttering that he’s scared of the dark. So SangMan announces that he’s going to stay beside KangDoo and read him to sleep, and that sweet gesture has KangDoo telling SangMan to live a longer life than him. SangMan doesn’t want to grow old himself though, and asks if they can’t live long lives together. Aw.

KangDoo settles in bed and SangMan begins to read… a racy prose. KangDoo’s eyes snap open and he asks lamely whether SangMan is trying to make him sleep or do the opposite. HAHAH!

JooWon stands before his windows at home, thinking about MoonSoo’s obvious declaration of love for KangDoo. He downs his glass and draws the curtains, walking away from the view that MoonSoo brought to him, probably the first step to ending his feelings for her.

The next day, WanJin is driven to the hospital by Keyboard Warrior, who nags at her to get her jaw checked out the same time she checks her cold out, since it’s been a week of her being unable to eat or drink properly. He warns her to take care of her jaw and not have problems like him after ignoring his injuries from when he got beat by his uncle. Wut? WanJin complains about his cavalier way of revealing such a traumatic experience and he just laughs that it’s okay now. After all, his uncle passed away last year and the car that he’s driving now is actually his uncle’s too. WanJin looks around like the car has new meaning.

KangDoo’s finally dragged Granny all the way to the hospital and he sits beside her as she complains about the bland food. He picks on her food choices just as MoonSoo comes in and offers Granny a can of peach, but she doesn’t have much of an appetite and KangDoo wonders when they got so close. Granny grumbles at him and pops open the cupboard beside her, stuffed full with junk food. (Pwahahahahaha!) Shocked at the refugee-level mountain of stockpile, KangDoo picks one from the pile and hands it over to MoonSoo as Granny orders.

Outside, WanJin bumps into SangMan and in the ward, Madame applies the finishing touches of bright sparkly nail polish to Granny’s nails. Granny asks for MoonSoo to get her nails done too and though MoonSoo replies that it’s fine, Madame picks three colours and MoonSoo visibly lights up, leaning eagerly towards the nail polishes and KangDoo nods her choice to Madame. Heh, he can read her from behind already.

SangMan comes bouncing into the ward with WanJin and Keyboard Warrior in tow and MoonSoo grumbles to hear that WanJin cracked her molar and didn’t even know. Pfft, WanJin starts crowing over KangDoo’s boyish rugged look and SangMan interrupts to ask Granny if he doesn’t look exactly like Keyboard Warrior. Granny quips that he’s just a little prettier and SangMan goes bashful, hee.

WanJin sees the nail polish and requests that Madame helps her put some on just as JaeYoung comes in to check on Granny’s drip. The neighbouring patient comments happily that it’s quite a lovely sight to see Granny with all her grandchildren around her and Granny demurs politely, which KangDoo takes issue with and get his head bitten off for the trouble. He nags again as he passes her the Cola that she requested, and averts his eyes when MoonSoo’s smiles get too blinding for him.

He backs away to get a better look at all the people he loves basking in the love of each other and thinks to himself:

“Granny once said this: ‘Life is a repetition of regrets and failures.’

And I sarcastically asked, ‘Then what’s the point of living?’

Granny spoke again, saying, ‘It’s so to make even cooler regrets and mistakes. Therefore, don’t be scared.’”

And tears roll down KangDoo’s cheeks as he smiles at his very cool Granny.

The night deepens and KangDoo leaves Granny sleeping peacefully in her room. He takes a blue pill and goes to wash his face, but all of a sudden, his nose bleeds.

No matter how he washes, it keeps bleeding though, until he just ignores it and allows the blood to flow.

 

 

Comments:

PLEASE let that nosebleed just be from some fatigue or something equally as inconsequential. Granny is one thing but I won’t be able to take it if something happens to KangDoo too. The boy has had too much, please just let him have more than a moment’s worth of happiness!

But how much do I LOVE that MoonSoo just goes to KangDoo when it’s obvious that he’s being an idiot and pushing her away despite wanting her just as much as she wants him? This decisive lady is my role model and I give her special props for not being confused about what she wants or doesn’t like how she honestly if brutally shut down all of JooWon’s romantic feelings for her in no uncertain terms. She is the water to KangDoo’s fire, the only one who can manage him and calm him down. She waits for him to come to her on his own terms, but she’s not going to let him stew in his misery alone either. And still! She doesn’t let him bring her down, clearly expressing her anger and upset and walking away when he goes too far and breaks her heart. Her sensitivity and strength is amazing and sometimes I wonder if it isn’t the result of having to constantly walk on eggshells around her unpredictable and emotionally unstable mother.

It’s clear though, that the protagonist of this episode is the incredibly strong symbiotic relationship between KangDoo and Granny. Granny is not just some debt collector or some old lady to KangDoo. Her importance to the boy has been shown repeatedly and enforced through the previous episodes, but it is here where we see that KangDoo would absolutely collapse without his mother-figure. She doesn’t feed him every day, she doesn’t give him loving hugs and she doesn’t coo over his itty bitty hurts either. They’re even hilariously rude to each other. But she is the necessary nourishment for his weary and jaded soul. She is practically what kept him human and living till now, otherwise he’d probably only be a shell of himself, if he hadn’t chosen to just go on already. She roots him in the land of the living and gives him hope for tomorrow. It’s like her entire old wizened existence reminds him: “I’ve suffered through a lot too. But I’ve lived well till now, so you can too.” Every time he begins to shrink into himself, Granny is there is yank him right out with some very blunt morsels of advice which he readily accepts because they come from her experiences in life, a life that suffered just as much as his. Her advice isn’t the clichéd, shallow words that people who don’t know speak. Her words carry the equivalent weight of the earth to him. KangDoo has got a lot of strengths – tenacity, determination, confidence when dealing with other people and even good-nature. But a lot’s happened to him and he’s prone to anger and lashing out at the unfairness of it all. Granny, as the one who lived longer, reminds him that there are more days than just the ones he’s gone through, and he won’t know what lies ahead until he lives the next day too.

And while the relationship this way has been obvious, it took me a while to see that Granny needed KangDoo just as much too. Her affection and pride for the boy has been the reason she’s living satisfied, content and even happy in her older years instead of still slogging like a medicine peddling drug machine and she’ll give up anything not to forget him, even if that stupid tumour in her head kills her. She cares lesser for life than having this moment in time but the moment he just begs her to try anything to cure herself even if just for him, she gains courage and allows herself to dream possibilities, allowing herself to take the chance that just maybe, the surgery will work and she’ll get to spend more time with KangDoo and Madame and all whom she loves. She knows it may not work, but if she wants to do right by herself, if she wants to do right by KangDoo, she’s going to have to take the leap. After all, she’s already lived a full life, rather than leaving unexpectedly and hurting the ones she loved, wouldn’t it be okay too if she tried and managed to say goodbye first if things go wrong instead?

After all, what is better than basking in the love of your loved ones, all of them laughing and chatting all around you?

 

Nothing.