You’ve Fallen For Me: Episode 11

It’s all dates and scandals in this episode. One of the strengths of this series is the comedy and the young romance – Park Shin Hye and Jung Yong Hwa really sell it when it comes to the romance because they are comfortable around each other – on and off screen. The melodramatics? Not so much. All this scandal-mongering from Team Hee-joo is actually quite banal…

This has got to be the most awkward kiss ever. Eyes wide open as they peck each other on the lips and frozen as statues. But the girls scream “GET AWAY FROM SHIN!!!” like no other. Bo-woon arrives (HA!) with the other Windflower girls to see this shocking scene.

Shin pulls away, and tells Kyu-won she’s in big trouble now. And he goes back to his seat and starts singing “You’ve Fallen for Me.” How appropriate! And he only has eyes for Kyu-won. Suddenly, because he’s singing his hit song, everyone’s back to rocking out without a care in the world.

They walk home, holding hands. Kyu-won is a tad worried she may need to wear a swimming cap tomorrow to protect her hair, but she trusts Shin when he promises that nothing will happen. He wants to see her go in first. Even though all she has to do is open the door, he’s worried she may trip over the door going in. Ha!

And before she leaves, he kisses her on the forehead and bids her goodnight. That sends her running into her house. EEEP so cute! I love Shin’s bashful smile after he kisses her too.

Too bad she needs to report to Grandpa, who wants to know why she came home late. She makes up the excuse that she couldn’t get a part on the gayageum right, and was practicing all night. As soon as she enters her room though, she starts giggling like a fool. Shin goes home, whistling, and his mother catches on. She offers him two tickets to an art gallery, and he eagerly snatches them. When he goes into his room, he can’t stop smiling like a fool either. Aww – why is this couple so cute?

Hilariously, as soon as Shin calls Kyu-won, she fixes her hair and straightens her clothes – as if he’s going to see her over the phone. Pfft. He tries to act cool, saying that he can’t throw away these tickets his mom gave him, so he invites her to go to the art gallery. Kyu-won: “I don’t really want to go, but we can’t throw them away.” (Oh my God it’s so hard to contain my giddiness right now…)

Suddenly Jung-hyun bursts into Shin’s room. He kissed Kyu-won!?!? (She heard from her friends.) He tells her to shut it, and he’ll pay for all those autographs and compensate her losses. In front of money, Jung-hyun shuts up. And she promises not to tell mom. When Shin goes to wash up, Jung-hyun realizes she might have just landed on a cash cow with this new development.

The next morning, Jung-hyun waits outside of Kyu-won’s home, giving her a fright when she goes out. She wants to talk to Grandpa and tell him allllll about Kyu-won and Shin going out, and kissing. Kyu-won’s eyes widen, and then Jung-hyun complains about no longer being able to make money from the autographs. So of course, Kyu-won says she’ll give her allowance. After all, they’re neighbors! Kyu-won initially offers $5 dollars, but Jung-hyun scoffs. Only $10 appeases her. For the day…

Yoon-su visits Seok-hyun at the office and notices him reading a postcard from a close friend back in the States. With a smile, Yoon-su asks if it’s the girl he had a scandal with back in Broadway. She admits she heard it through Tae-joon, and was afraid that it might become a serious rumor that could damage his reputation. Seok-hyun tells her not to worry about it.

Tae-joon instructs Young-min to spread the rumor that no one called for Hee-joo on the day of the performance for the sponsors – rather, the director didn’t call Hee-joo because he wanted Kyu-won onstage. Young-min isn’t too keen on lying, but Tae-joon threatens that the guy has a review coming up soon… Young-min goes running to spread the lie.

Kyu-won goes shopping early in the morning, trying to find something suitable to wear for her art gallery date. He notices her new dress – literally, because he sees the tag hanging from the back! So she totally helped Grandpa get music sheets riiight? And that dress seems so new! It must be trendy to wear tags on the back, huh?

Kyu-won dashes into the gallery, embarrassed like hell.

They go on the coolest – date ever. 3D paintings where you can actually step into them?! Did my Harry Potter dream come true in this drama or what!? She even catches Shin in an awkward pose as he bends down to tie his shoelaces, and there’s a painted cupid cupping his butt. Of course, she hurts herself again, bumping her head against one of the back of the paintings.

The school chancellor informs Seok-hyun about the rumors of Hee-joo never getting a call. Seok-hyun wants to confront her, but Hee-joo is out sick. He calls Hee-joo’s phone, and her mother picks up, but she hangs up on him. Soo-myung and Ki-young are shocked, and Soo-myung has his phone records to prove that he’s called her. Soo-myung wants to go and confront her, but Ki-young remembers that Hee-joo went somewhere with Jun-hee. They need to find him, fast.

Hee-joo is locked up at home until the whole scandal is over, but of her own choice. She calls up Jun-hee, and blames him for getting her in trouble. Eager to help her, she tells him to deny that he was ever with her that day, to anyone who asks. He is to feign ignorance about her phone being off or people searching for her. The devil…

During lunch, Shin asks why Kyu-won lives apart from her dad. She says it’s because her father and Grandpa fight way too much. Shin admits that he has a different father from Jung-hyun, but she already knows that. They find out that Jung-hyun has gotten a total of $30 from the both of them. Heh. When they go back to school holding hands, they have to part ways in the hallways, and Shin sends her off first. Kyu-won doesn’t think it’s dangerous in the hallways, but after seeing all those stares, she rethinks it and leaves first. No one touches a hair on her head under Shin’s watchful eye.

Soo-myung tracks Jun-hee down in the band practice room, but the drummer lies that he was never with Hee-joo. When Shin comes in, Soo-myung asks if Kyu-won is okay. There’s been some misunderstandings, and he mutters that some people can’t stand to see others succeed. He tells Shin to take care of Kyu-won at this time, and Jun-hee looks away, troubled.

The Three Angry Girls confront Kyu-won on the grounds; guess school’s not too safe after all! But they’re not just attacking her for getting together with Shin. Rather, they think that she’s seduced the director so that she could get the lead role. Things have only turned worse because Hee-joo won’t be coming into school, and so Kyu-won will have to do the practice as the main lead.

But Kyu-won knows she’s not doing anything wrong, and so she’s going to keep going to practice, even if it makes her look bad. As for Seok-hyun, Yoon-su is willing to talk to Tae-joon for him but Seok-hyun’s going to go to practice anyways. He doesn’t like that Tae-joon is using Kyu-won for his petty jealousies, but he can deal with it.

At practice, the rest of the actors think Kyu-won won’t show up, if she has any dignity. But she shows up. Her only supporters in the room? Ki-young and Shin. When Seok-hyun enters and calls for Kyu-won to step forward as lead, Shin notes the jeers in the room, and also wonders what Seok-hyun’s aim is.

After practice, he grabs Kyu-won aside – can she not do this performance? It’s not worth all this trouble and abuse, and Hee-joo will be in it anyways. But Kyu-won wants to stick with it. She’s actually having fun performing, even if she knows that she’s only an understudy. Also, if she leaves now, it will put Seok-hyun in an awkward position. She leaves, insisting that he stop thinking about things only in his perspective, and he gets a call from Seok-hyun.

Seok-hyun wants to listen to the ending song mix. He thinks that there’s too many stringed instruments in the piece – guitar and gayageum – but Shin sees no problem with it. Seok-hyun wants a little piano intro before the guitar, and since he’s the songwriter and overall director of the performance, Shin’s gotta do it.

Shin then asks if Kyu-won can be out of the performance, because he wants her to. Seok-hyun reminds him to not be so controlling – they just started going out.

Tae-joon visits Seok-hyun in the office, pretending that he doesn’t want any misunderstandings to arise between Seok-hyun and Hee-joo. Hmph. He wants a drink, since he’s been working soooo hard for Seok-hyun, and so the director goes out. Tae-joon steals Seok-hyun’s phone on his desk and quickly taps out a message to Kyu-won, telling her to meet him at the hotel at 7pm. Uh-oh…

Hee-joo’s mother is informed, and she texts the exact same message to Seok-hyun. Of course, he’ll go, since he wants to find out what Hee-joo’s mother wants. But Yoon-su comes into his office – they have a date at 6pm! Unfortunately he has to cancel on her again, and he comes up with the excuse that a journalist is here to interview him.

Shin comes home and bumps into Kyu-won and her father outside their house. The father decides to leave the two of them, noting their awkward glances and lack of eye-contact. When Shin asks, she says that she’s going to visit a friend that’s not Bo-woon. He apologizes again, and tells her to just do the musical if she likes it so much. He just didn’t want her getting hurt because of others.

She asks when he was born, and it turns out he’s three months younger than her. Therefore, he’s got no right to tell her what to do! And she can take care of herself, thanks very much!

Seok-hyun waits at the hotel bar, but no one arrives. He then spots Kyu-won coming in, and both are surprised to see each other. He’s puzzled when she says that he had texted her to meet. When she shows him the proof, he realizes it’s the exact same message he got, and immediately he pricks up to the danger impending. He makes the excuse that he sent the text to the wrong person, and then rushes the both of them out of there. He pats her on the shoulder to rush her out, but too late – someone’s snapped a photo of them.

He warily exits the hotel, and the photographer catches the two of them exiting, and Seok-hyun’s hand behind Kyu-won’s back, guiding her away.

At home, Shin musters the courage to phone Kyu-won. She lies about being with her friend, even though she’s being driven home by Seok-hyun. Since she’ll be home soon, Shin decides to wait outside for her.

On the other hand, Seok-hyun is all preoccupied, wondering if anyone else knew she was meeting him. Only her dad knows about their meeting, but not the location. Seok-hyun’s lips tighten – he clearly knows and has experienced the repercussions of such an incident…

Shin sees Seok-hyun and Kyu-won walking up her street, and he quickly hides around the corner. Seok-hyun apologizes for putting her through all that trouble, and insists that he sent the text to the wrong person. He tells her not to worry about anything that may happen. (Whew – I’m glad someone’s lying to protect her, rather than to sabotage her.)

She texts Shin when she gets home, but he doesn’t reply. Perhaps he’s asleep? And he replies with a simple “Yeah.” He’s actually moping outside her house, wondering why she lied to him and why she was with Seok-hyun.

The next morning, Jung-hyun is back! She wants to see Grandpa again, but Kyu-won is up to speed with her tricks. “You know what my grandpa’s wish is? It’s for me to get married so that he can see his great-grandson.” Kyu-won also adds that Grandpa really likes Shin for looking like him when he was younger. Heh – that’s enough to send Jung-hyun away!

At school, rumors have already spread of Kyu-won and Seok-hyun dating because of photos of them exiting a hotel. People look at Shin a little pitifully, and the Three Angry Girls tell him about Kyu-won “cheating” on him. The photos are incriminating alright, even though Soo-myung and Ki-young know that this can’t possibly be true. Soo-myung quickly suspects it’s Hee-joo behind all this.

Aaaand – Hee-joo comes back to school! Jun-hee catches her, and Hee-joo tells him that she can’t hang out with him anymore. If she does, she’ll never come back to school. What is she in, third grade? They can’t hang until the performance is over, and Jun-hee, the poor simple guy he is, agrees.

Shin chases Seok-hyun down, wanting an explanation for what happened last night. Seok-hyun sighs, immediately understanding that they were set up. He tells Shin he’ll take care of it, but Shin is too worried. This is exactly why he wanted Kyu-won out of the musical! He knew she’d end up getting hurt! He wants Seok-hyun’s car keys – he will keep Kyu-won away from the school for the day, until Seok-hyun resolves the problem.

Praise the Lord Almighty – Shin understands! No stupid misunderstandings and cold shoulders! Ack!

He hands it over, and with a sigh, he adds, “Please take care of Kyu-won.” Shin: “Do you only worry about Kyu-won? Shouldn’t you be thinking about how Professor Jung feels right now?”

He calls Kyu-won in time – she’s right outside the campus. He drives right up to her and makes up the excuse that the director especially asked him to take Kyu-won out. Ever since she got hurt, she’s been getting pummeled at all sides by her fellow classmates, and so Shin is going to take her out per director’s orders. Despite her insistence on not skipping class, she’s easily persuaded.

The phone rings, and Shin immediately guesses it’s Bo-woon. I mean, who else could it be? That girl has the best timing in the world! He confiscates her phone for the day.

Seok-hyun enters his office, where Yoon-su is waiting for him. He apologizes and tells her the truth, and Yoon-su figures out that they got set-up all because Hee-joo couldn’t perform that day in front of the sponsors. Seok-hyun thinks it’s unfair since Hee-joo will be starring in the actual show, but Yoon-su knows better: Hee-joo’s mother actually has no confidence in her daughter’s talents, and is afraid that Kyu-won truly is the more talented one.

Seok-hyun quitting will not solve the problem; he will have to tell Tae-joon that he’s taking Kyu-won out of the show. Of course, he doesn’t want to do that, but Yoon-su reminds him that Kyu-won isn’t his only student.

Shin and Kyu-won stop at a pit-stop for some lunch. He buys her a pair of awkward shades shaped like a TV, and then feeds her fries. Hee hee… She feeds him right back, and stuffs a bunch into his mouth. They play some of the arcade games – and Kyu-won proves to be way better than him. And thus they enjoy a wonderful day together!

Seok-hyun swallows up his pride and goes to Tae-joon. He denies there’s anything between him and Kyu-won, and that he’ll take Kyu-won out. They still need an understudy, so he’ll just pick anyone for it. Tae-joon can barely contain his smile, and says it’s all up to Seok-hyun. Though Seok-hyun thinks that will be enough for Hee-joo’s mother, Tae-joon says they’re all going to have a meeting about it soon.

At practice, the Three Angry Girls are now sympathetic and nicer to Hee-joo. After all, she must have suffered so much from Kyu-won’s backstabbing right? Ugh – excuse me while I go to the kitchen to grab some eggs to throw at them…

Jun-hee overhears this and looks quite uneasy. When Seok-hyun arrives for practice, he dismisses the bands, and then asks if Hee-joo’s feeling better. Of course that brat is – she friggin’ has her part back. Even Ki-young can see through her. But Jun-hee is conflicted, fully aware that the reason why Hee-joo missed the performance was because of him. I don’t think he’s figured it out completely yet, but he does think the whole situation is a little weird.

Shin and Kyu-won stroll down a shaded lane, talking about their respectively-deceased father and mother. They promise to show each other a photo of their father/mother, but Shin only wants to go over when Grandpa isn’t around. Kyu-won thinks dirty – but that’s totally not what he meant. He just doesn’t want to hear Grandpa’s life stories!

Then again, maybe it’s better if Grandpa is around, because otherwise he won’t be able to control himself!

The Chancellor holds a meeting with Tae-joon, Young-min, Seok-hyun, and Yoon-su. Tae-joon suggests that Kyu-won leave the school for a while. Even if she’s not in the performance, her presence in the school is not going to quell the rumors. (Is this how he slyly got Ki-young kicked out too?)

He wants her to take a leave of absence for the rest of the semester, and for the fall semester. The Chancellor agrees that this is a good idea, but Seok-hyun is outraged. Is Tae-joon seriously going to ruin a girl’s future like this? He grabs Tae-joon by the shirt and says, “It was you wasn’t it? You’re the one who sent the text with my phone to Kyu-won.”

Furious, he tells the Chancellor that he quits. No one can touch Kyu-won – he’ll just quit instead.

Whaaat?!!?!?

Yoon-su chases after him. What’s he going to do now? He doesn’t know either, so she proposes to him – how about they get married? (!!!!!) If they announce their engagement, then both Kyu-won and Seok-hyun can stay on the team. They’ll be rid of the scandal again. (Hey – I kinda like this plan…)

But Seok-hyun apologizes – he can’t do that. Can’t marry her, or can’t compromise his honesty like that? Either way, she’s hurt he would choose Kyu-won’s status in the production over her.

Hee-joo practices scales by herself, but is having trouble reaching the higher notes. Jun-hee comes in (even though he’s not supposed to visit her) and confronts her. Can’t he just tell the truth about being with her that day the sponsor came? He feels like Kyu-won and Seok-hyun are suffering because he lied, but Hee-joo yells for him to not say anything still.

When Shin goes off to the bathroom, Kyu-won decides to search for her phone in his bag. She finds a whole bunch of missed calls and texts from Bo-woon, and finally calls her back. She finds out that Seok-hyun just quit, and when Shin comes back, she tells him that they need to rush back to school.

Shin wants her to sit down; he saw her come home last night with the director. He knows what happened, so they can skip the explaining part. He purposely took her far away, and the director knew it too. Kyu-won doesn’t want Seok-hyun to take all the blame himself, and she insists on going back.

Shin grabs her: “Don’t go. If you go, it’s over between us.” WHAT!? Are you really going to hang that threat over her head?

Kyu-won keeps going. Shin stops her again and grabs her into a hug: “Lee Kyu-won. Please don’t go.”

Comments:

Erm. Eh? I think the ending kind of put me on a bit of a tailspin there.

This episode went from awesomely adorable to oddly dramatic. There’s tension and conflict, but it feels forced. Everyone seems to pick up on the truth that Team Hee-joo is orchestrating this scandal, but then their actions seem to be an overreaction to the problem. Especially in Seok-hyun’s case – must he really need to quit? Why is he giving up his position of power? I thought Yoon-su’s plan was perfectly valid and a good one; it seems like he rejected that plan more because he doesn’t want to marry her (which in that case, ouch). It doesn’t help that he’s so gosh-darn confusing in regards to his feelings towards Kyu-won.

And Shin – why did he have to threaten that they’ll break up if she goes to Seok-hyun? Why go to that extreme? He has this tendency of needing to overprotect the object of his affection, and while it’s sweet, I feel like he could have helped a lot more in supporting her in front of everyone. Shin and Seok-hyun seem to be increasing the scandal’s power by running away from it, and by going to any lengths to protect Kyu-won. I was kind of hoping that for a drama with such honest characters, maybe we could have tension through confrontation instead.

Jun-hee needs to grow a spine and stop listening to Hee-joo. And Hee-joo can go croak like a toad for all I care.