We’re at the end! You know, I’m not a big fan of rushed endings (unless done right), but I’ll take what I get for this one. You’ve Fallen For Me is too lovable for me to ditch it in the dust after all I’ve been through. At least we do get a nice, neat ending tied up in a little fancy bow!
Kyu-won, Yoon-su, and Seok-hyun quickly rush the stage to Shin’s side. However, he immediately lets go of his wrist and pretends he had an intense stomachache. He goes on with the show, albeit with a grimace. His girlfriend’s not stupid though; she pieces together that her fall might have caused his sprained wrist. After the show, she tries to get him to admit it, but he won’t.
On the way home, Yoon-su frets about Shin’s condition. His injury could affect his future, and it reminds her so much of her own accident. Seok-hyun tells her not to worry, but when we see Shin trying to play at home, we know it’s something to be worried about.
Kyu-won meets with the record producer about her contract. He’ll be sending her to the UK for a year, with six months devoted to vocal and dance lessons, and watching as many musicals as she can for experience. It will also mean that she has to take a leave of absence from school. The producer tells her that she’s to leave next month, which is a bit too sudden for her.
When Kyu-won breaks the news to Grandpa about her departure, he pays her no heed. He’s got someone new to worry about – Jung Hyun. She then breaks the news to Shin at a cafe, and he says he’s not the least bit sad at her going away. I highly doubt that, and Kyu-won is quite unhappy at the prospect of being away from him for so long. However, he’s got other things to stress about…
Shin visits the doctor again, and it turns out one of his nerves is being pressed down upon. He will need surgery to correct the injury. Though he should be able to play the guitar again, the doctor warns him that there’s a likelihood of losing all sense of touch. Of course Doc – you just had to give us that worst case scenario, right? He wants to hold off the surgery for at least a month though; that way Kyu-won will never have to know about his injury. Being a bit of a Noble Idiot here, aren’t we?
Now on to the other characters: Seok-hyun and Yoon-su inform the school Chancellor that they’ll be gone for about a year, as he’s going to have to spend extra time getting the musical ready on Broadway. Yoon-su will simply be taking a vacation. Hee-joo is out of the hospital but her throat is still sore. She’s sad and a bit jealous at the news that Kyu-won will be going abroad to become a famous singer/actress, but Jun-hee cheers her on, saying that Hee-joo can be better than Kyu-won after she’s all better. And the Windflowers meet up with Kyu-won for one more time before she leaves. They’re the ones who tell her that The Stupid will no longer be playing at Catharsis. The “official” reason? Because Shin wants to take the summer off.
Before Seok-hyun leaves Korea, he wants to affirm just one more thing with Shin. He grabs the boy’s wrist, and Shin gasps out in pain. Yup – just as Kyu-won had feared, Shin really did injure his wrist. He makes Seok-hyun promise never to tell Kyu-won about his condition or the fact that he’s going to have surgery. Understanding him, Seok-hyun promises.
Now Shin goes to meet Kyu-won for a shaved ice date, but because his wrist can’t handle the weight of the tray, everything falls to the ground and shatters. Kyu-won immediately scolds him for not taking care of his wrist; she knows his wrist was hurt because of her, but Shin says that’s not true at all.
Kyu-won takes the matter into her own hands. She goes to the music producer to turn him down, willing to pay the penalty for breaking off the contract so soon to the date. However, the one person that she’s doing all this for is not happy. Shin doesn’t want her to give up her dreams for him, so with some difficulty, he once again lies that his hand is fine – and that he wants to break up with her. ARGH! Using the feeble excuse that his heart will change after not seeing her for a year, he ends things with her abruptly, giving her back the teddy bear charm.
So they mope, heartbroken – needlessly, and uselessly.
With nothing holding her back anymore, Kyu-won leaves for the UK. Shin gets his surgery, and makes sure his mom never told Kyu-won about it.
ONE YEAR LATER.
Kyu-won is now a famous musical star and her album is number 1 on the charts. She comes back to Korea for a new project, and to go back to school. Shin’s mother and Kyu-won’s father have been tracking her progress this past year, and the mother offers the father a job working for her at a new publication focusing on musicals. Well if they’re not to have a romantic relationship, they will have a work relationship!
As for Shin, he’s better after the surgery, but his playing is not back where it used to be. He’s still practicing, as his wrist would still get stiff. Well – if he’s no longer the music prodigy, then his sister can be! She’s now taking traditional music lessons under Grandpa’s watchful eye. Grandpa (as usual) butts in whenever she’s not doing well, but Jung-hyun is one smart aleck. Before Grandpa can go railing on about his life story, she interrupts and finishes it for him: “You know, I can memorize word for word the life of Lee Dong Jin the Great!”
Grandpa’s met his match!
Seok-hyun and Yoon-su also return from the States and get picked up by Soo-myung and his ratty old car. Seok-hyun complains that his friend hasn’t changed at all – but that’s not true! He’s now dating Sa-rang! And on top of that, they’re running Catharsis because Madam Goo ran off to Santiago, Chile for some girl. How freakin’ random.
As for some other characters – they do remain the same. Another performance is coming up at the art college, and Hee-joo’s mother is as pushy as ever. She’s pissed at seeing Kyu-won’s name all over the news so she’s already made a deal with Tae-joon to make sure Myung-joo (Hee-joo’s sister) is made the lead. (Myung-joo somehow gets Hee-joo’s room too.) As for Tae-joon, he’s trying to blackmail Young-min into helping him make Myung-joo the lead. Young-min reminds him that things are different this year – there’s no Seok-hyun to foil them!
Hi guys!” And Seok-hyun and Yoon-su arrive! HAHA!
But no worries again, because Seok-hyun isn’t interested in directing the annual performance again. This time, he has another project in mind, and hopes to make it the winter musical with all the students. The Chancellor gives him a go, and Seok-hyun starts recruiting.
First he goes to see Kyu-won. And my oh my Kyu-won has totally changed. She’s popping slinky moves left and right to Benny Benassi’s “Satisfaction.” She’s like Hee-joo, but her moves are much more frenetic and flexible. Seok-hyun is completely impressed with her, and gives her his script. Of course, he’s going to make her audition for the role first. He finds out from her that she and Shin have broken up, and that Shin no longer plays at Catharsis.
He seeks out Shin next, hoping that he could do the music. Shin has a few songs that he’s written, and will give them to Seok-hyun to check out. With a few questions, Seok-hyun figures out that Shin broke up with Kyu-won for her sake, so that she could leave for the UK and not be burdened by the fact that he had to get surgery for an accident she caused. Shin claims to have moved on, so he’s not really looking to get back with her. But when Seok-hyun mentions that Kyu-won may be the lead actress for this musical, Shin’s face darkens.
That evening there’s a mini reunion with the entire cast. Now that Ki-young has a job at a drama company, he buys Seok-hyun some beer. Hee-joo mentions that she wants to audition too and go against Kyu-won. But when they all find out that Shin might be doing the music, everyone goes quiet. It would be really nice if Kyu-won and Shin would get to work together again, and perhaps get back together.
Back at home, Kyu-won finds the old record Shin had given to her. She waits outside his home to give it back to him. The air is tense between them, and Kyu-won apologizes for not having returned his father’s record before she left for the UK. Shin takes it and tells her to go home.
But that one moment of interaction is enough to break Shin down into tears. Sheesh – these two are so clearly pining for each other – but they can’t get together for another twenty minutes or so…
Shin gives Seok-hyun some of his demos and then backs out of the production. Seok-hyun thinks it’s because of Kyu-won that he doesn’t want any part in it, but Shin attributes his backing out to also his wrist. He can’t play that well just yet, and if he does the musical Kyu-won is sure to find out. Urgh you Noble Idiot.
He does go back to the practice room though, much to the joy of his bandmates. They hope that this means they can play at Catharsis again soon. Shin then gets a call from Kyu-won, who just found out that he’s dropping out of the musical. When they meet, Kyu-won tries to convince him to join the musical again. They can have a professional relationship, can’t they? Kyu-won promises to not cross paths with him too much. But Shin is stubborn – he refuses to work on it, and he tells her to never contact him again.
Afterwards, Kyu-won heads over to Catharsis with Bo-woon and drinks herself drunk. Bo-woon has no one else to help her bring Kyu-won home, so she phones up Shin. However instead of him showing up, he sends Kyu-won’s father instead to carry his daughter home. That’s not to say he wasn’t worried though; he waits outside her door until her father shows up, carrying Kyu-won on his back. After dropping her in her room, Kyu-won’s father comes out to thank Shin. He also hopes that perhaps the two of them can start over; he and Shin’s mother were like this years ago too. Because no one was brave enough to step forward about their feelings, they ended up never getting back together again. He doesn’t want Shin to live with that regret.
Seok-hyun listens to Shin’s songs, and he notes the sadness in it. Despite swearing himself off from getting involved in Shin and Kyu-won’s love lives, he finally can’t take it anymore and gives the music to Kyu-won. After one listen, she figures out that the song was written by Shin about her. Seok-hyun tells her that Shin had a surgery for his wrist, and broke up with her so that she could go to the UK.
(download – it’s a rip from the episode, so some dialogue is in it too)
Well Kyu-won’s had enough. She storms into Shin’s practice room and sees him playing with some pain in his wrist. How could he not tell her about his injury? How could he just break up with her like that? She tried so hard to hate him then, trying to understand why he broke up with her then, but couldn’t. Now with the truth, she can really hate him.
She leaves the school grounds, and passes by certain landmarks of their relationship: the balcony where she gave him coffee every morning, the store front where they had paused under the awning in the rain, and the park where they had their date when her scandal with Seok-hyun broke out.
Shin is on that very same Walk of Memories, and they see each other in the park. He can’t help but smile, realizing that the both of them were reminiscing about their relationship, and he makes the first move – he rushes up to her and hugs her.
Well yay! Someone did something proactive! “I missed you,” he says. “Me too,” she replies. Shin: “I love you,” and with that he kisses her.
Whew! Finally! That’s over and done with!
They go to Catharsis that evening. Kyu-won sings her song “To Love Me,” and Shin sings “You’ve Fallen for Me.”
The power couple is back! And everyone cheers.
Comments:
Well that was a very cheerful ending. The last episode piled on the angst that I felt dragged down the episode needlessly. Shin was such. a. Noble. Idiot. But I guess that’s what I should expect for a boyfriend who’s so supportive of his girlfriend’s dreams, right? Nevertheless, it was additional angst that I feel wasn’t necessary at all by this point. I’m happy to see that everyone has moved on in some way, though I feel like Kyu-won’s shot to stardom is a little too much. (She becomes insanely successful and everyone else is more or less the same?) Seeing Hee-joo not be catty and jealous was refreshing though, and her mother and Tae-joon were comical.
I feel like You’ve Fallen For Me started off decently, soared by midway through the series, and then ended flat. I kind of wish the writing wasn’t so lazy by the end of it. I think what really sold this drama for me was the actors. It was clear that the actors all had chemistry and got along behind the scenes – which is something to be immensely grateful for nowadays. Jung Yong Hwa wasn’t great (though much improved) and So Yi Hyun will forever be a plastic ballerina to me, but in the grand scheme of things, I think they had enough chemistry with their respective onscreen partners to help sell the drama. Even the secondary characters were incredibly fun – I mean, who can forget Soo-myung and Ki-young?! And as annoying as the Three Angry Girls were, they were definitely scene stealers. And Hee-joo managed to be a more three-dimensional “evil bitch” rather than a simple stereotype.
I really liked the relaxing, fresh vibe of this series, but for me, the series ended the moment Shin said to Kyu-won, “You are the best lead actress to me.” Everything else was just icing – some of which I would scrape off my cake, and some of which I would keep on.
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