It’s a bit of an angst-go-round this episode, as Shin faces some harsh truths and Kyu-won finally realizes her heart. Though it’s hard not to hate anyone who makes Kyu-won’s life difficult, I do appreciate their youthful journeys into and out of love.
Jung Yong-hwa – “Because I Missed You” [ Download ]
EPISODE 6: “With the feeling that it must be” [Also "…that I/you must be here." It's intentionally pronoun-less.]
Reeling from the sight of Yoon-su and Seok-hyun reuniting, Shin lashes out at Kyu-won, calling out her crush on him. She fights back angry tears, calling him an idiot.
The teachers walk out, blissfully unaware of all the heartache they’ve left in their wake.
Shin rides home in the rain, full of tears and angry shouts. Kyu-won cries too, sitting alone on the bus. It’s like a chain of heartbreak.
Shin goes to see Dad, who senses right away that it’s been a bad day for Shin, probably because of his lady troubles. He picks up his guitar and plays a melody that he’s written for the song Shin played for him, and it lifts his spirits.
He comes home in a funk, and Mom asks if he’s still going to guitar lessons, fishing to see if his teacher has said anything out of the ordinary. He tells her the story of him loving his friend’s girlfriend and stealing her away… which incenses Mom.
She tells him to stop going there, and he flatly refuses her. She hesitates… “Do you… know who he is?” He tells her that he knows, and that he’s going to keep going there, no matter what she says. Mom trembles, tears flooding her eyes. I honestly don’t know what you thought was going to happen when you introduced them, lady. Your son’s not an idiot.
He arrives at school just in time to see Seok-hyun dropping Yoon-su off, and then goes to confront her about it. He tosses out bitterly, “So you found one—an adult man.” You are such a punk sometimes.
He asks her what she likes so much about Seok-hyun, and Yoon-su tries to walk away from the conversation. But Shin is a dog with a bone, so she finally asks what he likes so much about her.
He says “Everything.” So she says that’s what she likes about Seok-hyun. “Everything. Being with him makes me happy. Him, not you.” Damn. I do admit that although she’s a downer, her set-downs are refreshingly direct and clear—the perfect thing to force the kid to move the hell on.
He tells her that he’ll do it then—he’ll give up and forget her. He says it defiantly, as if challenging her not to regret it. I love the realism of his youthful crush, because to him it’s life and death, and he can’t see beyond what he feels. It’s not his fault either, because he simply lacks the perspective to look beyond himself. It’s sweet and endearing.
Kyu-won comes to school coffee in hand, searching for Shin. She waits by his bike all morning, and ends up leaving his coffee there, unable to see him and clear the air.
He’s busy angsting it out on the field, and finally decides to toss the necklace away. Well at least he’s trying to actually move on.
Ki-young officially joins musical practice, and he gets a half-hearted welcome from everyone except Jun-hee, who bounces up and down and squees. He quickly points out Hee-joo as his Natasha, adding that she’s very shy but really pretty.
Ki-young gets filled in on the fact that Jun-hee is a few marbles short, so not to take anything he says very seriously. Well that’s a character in a nutshell.
Seok-hyun gets warned by his sunbae that trusting Ki-young is risky, and adds that Hee-joo needs to get the lead spot over Kyu-won, to keep the university president happy. That riles him up plenty, and then he comes to practice to find that Kyu-won and Shin are playing hooky.
Oooh, bad timing. He’s just gotten through defending your ass, and then you skip practice to chase Shin? He calls her in front of everyone, yelling into the phone that she’d better get to practice or she’ll be cut from the musical.
She’s too busy following Shin to listen, and just gives him an excuse over the phone. It starts pouring rain and finally Kyu-won shouts at Shin, wondering how long he’s going to keep being like this.
She tells him that he’s being pathetic and petty. I know he’s being a big mope, but I don’t see why it should matter so much to you. I mean, let the guy work through his feelings. It’s only been half a day.
He yells back that it’s over now, and that he’s decided to give it up. He starts to stalk off, but then turns around to take the gayageum out of her hands, to carry it for her. Aw.
They stand outside a music store, waiting out the rain under an awning. It’s a nice silent moment shared between them, as they stick their hands out to catch raindrops. They say nothing, but it’s the first moment of real connection between them.
It’s moving day for Shin’s family, and Kyu-won finds out when his bratty sister comes by asking for a hammer, with no manners whatsoever. Seriously, I’m beginning to think this family was raised badly, based on both kids’ demeanor towards adults. Makes me want to yell at their mom.
She breaks a vase and makes a run for it, so Grandpa chases her all the way to their house, and Kyu-won follows suit, trying to hide her face. Shin is shocked to see her, and now his brat sister recognizes her too: “Hey, it’s that Pumpkin Girl!”
Mom finally comes out and introduces herself to Gramps, and then we flash back to when they first met. Kyu-won’s dad had brought her home as the girl he was going to marry, and Grandpa had called her the band singer who seduced his son with that devil’s music.
Shin’s dad calls Kyu-won’s dad to ask him to visit, because there’s something he wants to tell him before he dies. Kyu-won’s dad isn’t keen on the idea, and makes excuses.
Kyu-won can’t believe that she’s neighbors with Shin now, and greatly regrets her wardrobe choice for the day. The next morning she peeks at Shin’s front door, only to have him come out to find her standing there, looking as if she waited to see him all morning.
She makes up an excuse about trash day, and I die in embarrassment for her, as she tries to leave nonchalantly, but then realizes she went the wrong way. Hee. I love that they’re neighbors now.
Seok-hyun’s sunbae has had enough of watching the musical go down the tubes, and decides to form his own separate musical, to debut a month before Seok-hyun’s. HA. Oh that’s not petty or anything. It’s hilariously transparent, but whatever—it just means we’ll get some Dream High misfit/cool kids action, which is fine by me.
Kyu-won gets chewed out for missing practice, but Seok-hyun has such a soft spot for her that he lets it go once he sees how sorry she is. But she’s warned that one more missed practice really means that she’s out.
He says the same to Shin when he and Yoon-su pass him in the halls, and Shin just gives a half-hearted okay as he watches them walk off, happily in love.
Kyu-won’s dad finally goes to see Shin’s father, and flips his lid at his request for him to look out for Shin and his mom. Oh that’s a low blow. So you’re gonna steal your best friend’s girl, ruin both their lives, and then swoop in right before dying and pretend to be the noble one? Blech.
Kyu-won’s dad basically has an outburst for good reason, although he’s not exempt from being a martyr and an idiot either, so whatever.
He walks out just as Shin walks in, and his father has a seizure. He waits all day to try and see him, to no avail. So he leaves a music notebook for the nurse, to ask him to take a look at it when he’s awake.
The Brat decides she’s hungry and abuses Shin’s slave privileges to get Kyu-won to cook for her, and of course Kyu-won falls for it, thinking that she’s cooking for Shin. Oy. Mom comes home just in time to see Kyu-won get a call from her dad and run out to meet him.
Shin takes out one of his dad’s old albums that he discovered while unpacking Mom’s stuff, and remembers his short time with Dad wistfully.
The next day at school, Kyu-won reminds Shin that it’s the last day of her slave contract. He almost lets it slide, and then asks if she can find a necklace that he lost in the field. No! Don’t do that!
He rethinks it and tells her not to find it and walks off. But of course, Kyu-won doesn’t let it rest, and gets her friends to help her search the whole field. Problem is, she doesn’t know what it looks like.
Shin gets a call from Mom and then attends a funeral with her… only to find once he’s there that it’s for his father. What, you didn’t even tell him whose funeral he was going to? You are the suckiest mom ever.
They pay their respects, and Dad’s wife hands Shin his music notebook and Dad’s guitar, insisting that he take it. At home Shin asks Mom if those people know who they are, and she nods. He asks if alcoholism is hereditary, and she tells him tearfully that he’s not the same.
He caresses Dad’s album and asks his sister if he looks like him. She asks if that means it’s his father, and wonders what’s going on with him and Mom. He skips school for a few days, and slowly word spreads of the news.
Shin finally cries, looking at the song that he had given to Dad, looking at the changes had made to help him fix it. He pictures Dad’s shaking hand as he added notes and fixed his song, just before dying.
He goes to the club and plays the song, crying and thinking of Dad as he sends him off in his own way. (The song is posted above).
Kyu-won searches again for the necklace and finally finds it. She’s disappointed to discover that it’s a woman’s. She hears that Shin came to the club and rushes over there, but he’s already played and left.
She runs out to the street to find him.
He’s sitting in the rain in the same spot they were before. Only Yoon-su finds him first and hands him an umbrella and turns to go. He stops her and puts his arms around, not in a I-want-you way, but in a really vulnerable I-need-a-shoulder-to-cry-on way.
It still infuriates me that she’s even there, but it breaks my heart to see him finally cry like a little boy on her shoulder.
Kyu-won runs up clutching the necklace, only she’s too late.
Kyu-won: Shin is crying. I wanted to run and tell him before anyone else… “Are you okay? It’ll be okay.” Right now Shin is in someone else’s arms. Not mine… someone else’s.
COMMENTS
Aw, I love the moment of Kyu-won’s heartbreaking realization. She’s denied her growing crush and been able to chalk it up to hurt pride or simply trying to be a good friend, but it’s the first moment of real heartbreak for her, and it’s played beautifully by Park Shin-hye.
I know he’s lost his dad and she’s worried, but it aggravates me to no end that Yoon-su is even giving him an opportunity to hold onto her. I spent the entire episode liking her as much as can be liked because she was so firm and clear in rejecting him, only to have her turn around and do this, which just puts her right back in the doghouse. Grar.
So going in I knew this was going to be a youth melodrama, so I’m okay with any angst having to do with the youthful discovery of love, first heartbreak, confusing feelings and all that, but I certainly hope that the parental angst is going to take a backseat after this. Shin’s relationship with Dad was played nicely, but it’s the Mom-Dad-Kyu-won’s dad triangle that drives me bonkers.
I get that Shin’s going through a rough patch, but I wonder if it’s necessary for Kyu-won to be down just because he’s down. It’s not that I don’t understand her angst—it’s just that I want it to be her OWN. Right now she seems swayed by his emotions rather than acting based on her own, so I’d like to see more development for her, and storylines for her to act independently of Shin. Because a crush is a crush, but girl’s gotta live a life, yeah? I’m looking forward to more of her journey in doing the musical and spreading her wings a bit. And while we’re at it, let’s bring back Gukak vs. Rock.
So we’ve been keeping the recaps warm for the first few weeks until Romance Town ended, because this series was always kaedejun‘s to begin with (she has a love for Kang Min-hyuk that we’d be crazy to mess with). She’ll be taking over the recaps from here on out, but we’ll be watching and commenting along with the rest of you. (Especially since I have no plans to relinquish Song Chang-eui.) Initiate: baton pass!
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