Triple Episode Recaps (source: dramabeans.com)

(I was ridiculously excited for this drama, but I have to be honest and say that it was a mighty struggle deciding whether to start Triple first, or finish Story of a Man. I will just say that I was away on vacation for four days and the first thing I wanted to do when I got back was get back in the game with Story of a Man. And then, bam, Triple was upon us! Oh, choices, choices.)

I was afraid that after all the hype (um, which I created for myself, I know), Triple might disappoint. I don’t think it performed well in the ratings, so I’ll add the caveat that the excitement for Triple is likely to be higher with me than with the average Korean viewer. But those trends never affect my viewing preferences, so that aside, I’m relieved that the first two episodes were exactly what I was hoping for — cute, playful, with a lovely indie soundtrack and the same plain-speaking dialogue and light, deft sensibility as Coffee Prince. The story is wholly different, as are the characters, but the atmosphere of the drama is very reminiscent of Coffee Prince. To me, that’s a good thing.

So what’s the big deal anyway?




EPISODE 13: “Step”

As Haru comes home, she’s surprised to see Hwal back, carrying several bags out of the car and into the house. She opens this episode with narration about the theme (“Step”), saying that people cheer on a baby’s first steps… “but when that turns into the second, third, and fourth step, that happiness fades.”

I suppose that correlates to her immediate gladness to see Hwal at home again, which soon fades as the implication of his return becomes clear.

Hwal tells his friends that he and Su-in broke up again, which Hyun-tae takes particularly hard. His frustration probably makes sense because he’s dying to be with Su-in but can’t, and it upsets him to see that Hwal gave it up just like that. But it still annoyed me to no end that his first response is to demand, “How could you do that to her?” — how could he leave her when she’s going through an already difficult time with her mother? (Hwal is clearly unhappy and has been Hyun-tae’s friend for seventeen years; you’d think he’d show a little concern for his friend first.) But at least he tacks on the afterthought, “Are you having a tough time too?”

How’s this for some manufactured drama? Hae-yoon and Sang-hee are all set to move into their new apartment in a day’s time, until Hae-yoon receives an upsetting phone call from home. His younger brother has gotten into some trouble and they are calling on big bro to pick up the slack and come up with the money to fix it — this nebulous, unspecified “it” that they don’t bother defining, whose only purpose is to throw a wrench in Hae-yoon’s life.

Without any great savings stowed away, Hae-yoon has to use the money he was going to use as their apartment deposit, and asks Sang-hee to understand about the delay. She takes it well, although she’s disappointed and had been looking forward to life as a non-married, living-together couple.

When Hwal checks on Haru, she asks if his breakup was because of her — it was because he was with her that he missed his anniversary. Hwal answers that she had nothing to do with it, and if his relationship had been steady in the first place, they would have been fine regardless of anyone else.

With both unable to sleep, they both turn to stargazing, leaning back and looking up at the sky. Hwal mentions having seen a comet once before, and comments that Haru would have liked it. He adds, “I’m sure we’ll see one together someday.”

They sit for a while and eventually fall asleep. Hwal wakes first in the morning, and Hae-yoon comes upon them while Haru is still sleeping. He jokingly comments on finding them together, but Hwal’s expression is decidedly grim, and he ignores his friend’s questions as he leaves the room.

Hae-yoon follows him, teasing him about Haru, and prodding, “It can’t be, right?” Yet the more he teases, the more grave Hwal becomes, and Hae-yoon catches on to his mood. His joking turns into disbelief, and finally he arrives at the conclusion we have already made, that Hwal has feelings for Haru. Throughout this all, Hwal doesn’t answer — it’s like he can’t confirm them, but he can’t lie and say it’s not true, either.

Another surprise arrives in the form of Sang-hee, who has come bearing her own luggage, announcing she’s moving in, too. It’s only for a short while, until they can move out to their own place as planned.

Everyone’s startled, particularly Hae-yoon, who is more frustrated than happy. It seems that he’s feeling guilty about not telling her exactly why they can’t move in right away, because he’d love to move in as planned, too. But it’s a private issue, and he doesn’t want to air his family’s dirty laundry, either.

Today, when Poong-ho greets Haru at the ice rink (he’s playing a game of “freeze” and asks her to unfreeze him), Haru tells him honestly that she still has feelings for Hwal. Poong-ho’s face falls, but per his normal upbeat personality, he accepts this and tells her that’s fine: “You can keep liking him, since I keep liking you.”

Haru sighs that it must be nice for Poong-ho, because he can keep liking her and approaching her despite her feelings for someone else. In contrast, she feels stuck with Hwal — she can’t leave, nor can she approach.

Hwal picks up Haru from the rink after practice, and as he waits outside, Su-in spots him as she exits the building. After gathering her nerves, she approaches with a friendly smile.

She keeps her tone light but it’s still awkward between them, and Haru senses Hwal’s heavy mood on the drive home. Haru tries lightening the atmosphere by enthusiastically breathing in the fresh, rain-damp air and suggesting a detour.

Thus Hwal and Haru stop for a while instead of heading straight home, walking barefoot on the wet grass while the rain comes down in a drizzle.

Haru brings up her training and her current difficulty in finding ways to express emotions through her skating. As Hwal has done in the past, he gives her some practical, common-sense advice: all she has to do is recall times in her life that evoked those emotions, and let those specific emotions come to her as she skates.

When they pull up at home, Poong-ho is waiting and asks for a word with Hwal. He tells him straight-out, “Do you know that Haru has been through a lot of tough times because of you? There’s something I want to ask you — do you like Haru?”

Rather than give a straight answer, Hwal smiles (almost to suggest this is such a ridiculous question that he has to laugh) and asks, “And if I do?” Poong-ho asks, a bit ticked off, “Do you think that you can feel that way, as her oppa?” Hwal says with another smile, “Of course not.” He advises Poong-ho to spend his time hanging out with Haru rather than asking him things like this. Hwal is friendly in a brotherly sort of way, but the way he responds has the effect of dismissing Poong-ho’s concerns as ridiculous and unfounded.

After Poong-ho leaves, Haru apologizes for him. Hwal tells her that when time passes, her feelings will change, and says that if she wants to go to Canada, he’ll send her. She understands that it’s another rejection of sorts, and feels slightly hurt.

Meanwhile, Su-in is starting to miss Hyun-tae now that he’s so completely removed himself from her life. When some neighborhood boys let a basketball roll onto her balcony, she’s reminded of the hoop that is no longer in her yard, and looks through the amusing text messages Hyun-tae had previously sent her.

For a second, she dials his number, but nervously hangs up mid-ring. However, the call goes through and alerts Hyun-tae, so he texts her a message, and what follows is a simple chain of short messages between them. The texts are nothing special, but the mere act of exchanging them leaves both feeling slightly giddy. The message exchange goes thus:

Hyun-tae: “Why did you call?”
Su-in: “I dialed the wrong number. I’m sorry.”
Hyun-tae: “I understand.”
Su-in: “How have you been?”
Hyun-tae: “How have you been?”

Haru tentatively asks Hwal to drop by practice if he has time, wanting to show him something. She half-expects a curt rejection from him, so she’s excited when he agrees.

Once there, she shows him the routine she’s been putting together using his advice. As she goes through each movement, she tells him what the basis is for the emotion — the butterflies she felt from liking him, the uneasiness that he would push her aside again, the happiness at being able to skate, and to be with him. At the end of this, she faces him and says, “Staying by your side because I like you must be difficult for you. I don’t want to do that to you. I’ll think about Canada.”

Su-in comes upon them as she arrives at the rink, and sits down for a talk with Hwal. It’s still uncomfortable between them, but they both admit that it’s not as bad as they thought it would be. Su-in feels more comfortable now than she did before, admitting that it’s a little lonely without him around, but she’s getting better.

It’s partly true and partly bravado, I think, because I think there’s a hint of fear or hope (or both) in Su-in’s eyes when Hwal calls out to tell her one last thing. He says, “You’re a woman with many good qualities.” She thanks him, and tells him likewise, “You’re a really good person.”

Hyun-tae and Su-in run into each other at the supermarket, and this time their interaction is warmer than in the past. The mood is lightly teasing, and they linger outside for coffee and a chat.

Again, their conversation is pretty ordinary, but it’s the company they enjoy as they sit together.

That night, Hyun-tae faces Hwal with a serious face, and Hwal guesses that he met up with Su-in. Hyun-tae answers yes, “because I thought I should tell you.” Hwal answers, “Why, do you want my approval to date her?”

I suppose he does, and Hwal gives it (sort of) in a roundabout way, admitting, “Thinking about it now, I wonder if I felt as strongly for Su-in as you do.” It’s not like he doesn’t have lingering feelings for her, because it’s natural that he does, “but I don’t know that I can tell you and Su-in whether or not to date. I don’t know about you, but I want Su-in to be happy.”

And lastly, Poong-ho returns to the house in the morning, having thought long and hard about Hwal’s dismissal of him the day before. Now he announces, “As you said, I’ll spend my time enjoying being with Haru. Even if she says she likes you, I won’t give up on my feelings. And whether you like her or not, whatever your feelings for her, I won’t let go of mine.”

Of course, in steps another plot contrivance of the day, as Coach Nam — in town for an undisclosed reason — overhears this last part and flips out. What?? Haru and Hwal like each other? Sputtering and shocked, he grabs Haru and drags her away.


COMMENTS

Ah, the plot contrivances.

Certain plot inevitabilities are fine; telegraphed endings are bearable; clichés are endured. A drama will usually have some points that we viewers feel are familiar, but if the rest of the story moves things along, we don’t necessarily mind. (It depends on the circumstances, but I know that I’ll forgive a lot when a drama is entertaining.)

However, Episode 13 felt so obvious in its manipulations that it seemed annoyingly desperate to me. What, you couldn’t think of a better reason to inject real, organic conflict into Hae-yoon’s relationship with Sang-hee, so you had to invent a wayward sibling to create an unexplained problem? (And then you didn’t bother to tie up the plot contrivance neatly and explain the whys or wherefores, but felt that we would just swallow your last-ditch plot-bump without complaint?) And you couldn’t think of a better way to “out” Haru and Hwal’s attraction other than to bring in a tertiary character from out of town to coincidentally overhear a damning conversation?

Clumsy, clumsy, clumsy. Or maybe the better word is lazy.

I have nothing against a foreshadowed plot point. What I find irritating is that this shows a lack of inventiveness?skill?trust? with the relationships that have been established, a lack of faith in one’s own stories and conflicts. For instance: Hae-yoon and Sang-hee’s relationship is so fraught with issues that they could have easily found a more logical reason to delay their move, one that comes from an organic place and reflects on the characters, instead of a simple phone call from a random outside party. Urg.

EPISODE 14 RECAP

After overhearing the conversation hinting that Hwal likes Haru, Coach Nam grabs Haru and takes her away, intent on taking her home to her father. He’s scandalized at the thought of funny business going on while she and Hwal live as siblings under the same roof.

Haru tries to tell him repeatedly that he’s jumped to the wrong conclusion, that she likes Hwal in an entirely one-sided way, and that Hwal doesn’t have any feelings for her.

You can see from Hae-yoon’s expression how he feels about this whole mess. He thinks Hwal should have just spoken out and told Coach Nam that he was wrong, and is frustrated at his silence. But Hwal can’t lie and say there’s nothing, even though I think he still doesn’t know what it is he feels. He does get a chance to talk to Coach Nam, however, when Haru sneaks away to use the phone. She asks Hwal to come to the terminal to discuss things with Coach Nam.

Hwal calmly explains that he thinks of Haru as a cute sister, and that she is doing well here with her coach. She is even considering heading to Canada for further training, and moving her back home would impede her progress. In the end, the conversation is enough to allay concerns, and Coach Nam heads back home alone, leaving Haru in Seoul.

Hwal again encourages Haru to go to Canada, and while it sorta feels like he’s pushing her to go in order to get her out of the way, he says it in a caring way. It’s really for her own good as well, because things will only become more difficult for her by staying; also, as they saw today, her continued feelings for Hwal could give rise to more misunderstandings. He advises her to think of her own future and skating aspirations.

Haru isn’t convinced that Canada is the answer, and asks, “If I go to Canada, do you think our relationship will be over?” Hwal doesn’t answer — you get the sense he both hopes for and fears that.

Haru makes up her mind to go, thinking that the opportunity will give her some time to mature and focus on her skating. And when she comes back, “I want to hold hands with you openly. I want to become a person you’re not embarrassed of.”

Maybe Hwal likes that idea, or maybe he likes the sweetly innocent way she says it. He pats her head softly.

Meanwhile, Poong-ho hears about Haru’s plan to train in Canada — he’s always up on the latest news involving her — and guesses that the suggestion was Hwal’s, and that she’d agreed because of him. He’s pretty perceptive, having gleaned the relationship dynamics through observation despite everyone’s denials, and says that he’ll follow her there. It isn’t that he has already made plans to follow her, but assures her that he’ll join her soon, somehow.

Sang-hee experiences her first brush with jealousy when she spots an invitation in the mail addressed to Hae-yoon. It’s for a piano recital performed by Hae-yoon’s ex-girlfriend and first love. Despite Hae-yoon’s repeated assurances that he hasn’t thought of her in years, Sang-hee remains insecure, comparing herself to the ex and looking her up on the internet (a losing game, always!). She’s further unsettled when Jae-wook tells her that all guys remember their first love in a romanticized light.

On the other hand, Hae-yoon finds this new side of Sang-hee hilarious. He laughs when Sang-hee toys with her appearance to look more sweet and innocent, like the ex, and spins off into a fantasy scenario wherein the ex’s reason for staying single was out of love for Hae-yoon.

Hyun-tae drops by Su-in’s house, where she finds him delivering breakfast. As usual, Hyun-tae is outrageous with his flirting, teasing that since she didn’t call him, she must have been waiting for him to call her. But unlike those times in the past, Su-in isn’t annoyed and finds his antics amusing.

When he asks what she’s doing in the afternoon and hears that she has plans, he accepts that as a no and starts to leave — so Su-in hurriedly blurts out that she’s free in the evening. They set a date for 5pm.

Perhaps Su-in was expecting something along the lines of a grand outing, given Hyun-tae’s history for romantic gestures. Instead, when they meet up, she’s taken by surprise to be challenged to a game of “rock-scissors-paper.” Upon her defeat, Hyun-tae makes her jog alongside him as he rides his bike to another destination.

She’s puzzled but complies, jogging for a while before challenging him to a rematch. She loses repeatedly, but when she finally wins one round, Hyun-tae accepts her win and gives up the bicycle to her.

At the park, he gives her a book — he tried skimming it but found it beyond him, so her “homework” is to read it, then explain it to him. It’s a bald excuse to get her to keep calling him, but neither really minds.

Arriving at Su-in’s house, Hyun-tae suggests one last round of rock-scissors-paper, this time to be done with eyes closed. After they separate, the loser has to wait and watch until the other person disappears from view. Again, Su-in loses, but Hyun-tae peeks down at the last minute and switches his move so she wins. He feigns disappointment (“Aw, I really wanted to win this one”), and although Su-in knows he cheated, she humors him.

That night, they text back and forth about random things like the book and what they were like in high school. Then Su-in wonders, “Do you ever wonder whether it’s okay for us to be like this?” He quips back, “I’m not sure. We’ll have to meet a few more times before I decide.”

Hyun-tae breaks the texting chain by calling, even if it’s just to marvel that she actually picked up and to wish her good night.

The next day, Hyun-tae brings back his basketball hoop (with Su-in’s permission) to Su-in’s front yard. In a roundabout way, she asks how Hwal is doing, and mentions how strange things were the night he left. Contrary to her expectation, she fell asleep comfortably that night, alone, which she finds odd.

Hyun-tae surmises, “I guess you need time to let go.”

With Haru’s Canada plans slowly solidifying (she’s to leave in two months), she makes one request regarding something she’d like to do before leaving: skate with Hwal. Haru enjoys being better at something for once, and coaches him through his beginner-level skills.

As she helps him along, Haru revels in this one time when it’s appropriate — or at least acceptable — to hold hands.

On the drive home, Hwal gives her a going-away gift: gloves and a knit hat. Explaining that they’re for the cold Toronto winters, Hwal compliments her, saying they look good on her. Haru turns sad at that remark, and says, “I wish they didn’t.”

Sang-hee finally decides to ignore her jealousy and be the bigger person by going to the piano recital. But at the last minute, as they walk to the concert hall, she resists going inside. Fidgeting in her uncomfortable “cute” dress (worn to appear more demure, like the ex), she suggests a short detour before the performance.

They have drinks — or rather, Sang-hee has drinks and Hae-yoon watches in amusement as she bemoans, “I want to hold onto you. I don’t want to lose you to someone else.” Her continued jealousy is so irrational and unexpected that it’s cute.

They end up missing the performance, which means Sang-hee’s mood is much improved as they sit outside later that evening, and she gleefully bids his first love goodbye. (Hae-yoon replies that he’d already bid her goodbye ten years ago: “Thanks to you, I have to say goodbye twice.”)

She warns playfully, “I’d better be your last love. If I see you with another woman, you’re dead! You can’t do that!” Hae-yoon teases back, “But can I marry?” In response, Sang-hee grabs him in a kiss.

Bond Factory. Yes, the guys still (apparently) have a job. Things hit a snag when their carefully prepared presentation for the K Oil company has to be redone from scratch — their idea is too close to an advertisement that has come out, and is therefore useless. Adding to the pressure is the fact that they are competing for the bid against their old boss.

With only a few days remaining, the guys scramble to come up with another concept. As they take their place before the K Oil president, they fight back their anxiety to be presented not only with a team of executives but even lower-level personnel. The president has invited the new hires to sit in on their presentation. Hwa, Hae-yoon, and Hyun-tae gulp nervously…

…and Haru takes a hard fall on the ice, clutching her knee.


COMMENTS

I suppose this whole rock-scissors-paper game parallels the real-life dynamic between Hyun-tae and Su-in, in that he willingly puts himself on the “losing” end to make Su-in feel more secure. All day, he has won numerous rounds but doesn’t press his advantage. He lets Su-in re-do her move as many times as it takes for her to “win,” and when she finally manages to beat him, he concedes right away. No matter that it’s her one win after a half-dozen or more losses. He likes her so much that he’s willing to make ten moves to her one, and to accommodate her hesitation until she is ready to face him.

This is a vast improvement over his earlier pushiness, because previously he had elbowed his way into her life without heeding her discomfort. He wasn’t blind to her circumstances — he recognized her protests — but he didn’t respect them, and thought he could keep going until he could overcome her resistance. It’s telling that it wasn’t until he backed off that Su-in had space to consider the possibility of liking him. (Her text message asking if it was okay for them to “be like this” is a pretty solid indicator that there’s something happening on both ends this time, not just his.) If I actually cared for their relationship development, I’d think this was a nicely poignant way to express it.


If you came late to this site, perhaps you haven’t been in on my Triple craze from the start and find the excitement perplexing. Or maybe you have been around, but you just don’t get the appeal. So here’s a rundown of why Triple is such a big deal (for me, and some others):

1. PD Lee Yoon-jung. She directed and produced Coffee Prince, and whether you liked it or not, it was a humungous success only recently matched in popularity and media frenzy by Boys Before Flowers. (Only, in comparison, Coffee Prince had great acting, great directing, great music, and a lovely romantic realism. Or maybe realistic romanticism. CP slowed down toward the end but I give Lee credit for resisting mightily when the station tried to force her to extend the uber-popular series, and when she eventually gave in after refusing more than three times, it was only to one additional episode.)
2. Writer Lee Jung-ah (pen name for Lee Sun-mi). She wrote the original Coffee Prince novel, then wrote the scripts to the drama series. She also wrote the novel for Capital Scandal, then wrote the scripts for its drama adaptation. And did I mention that she wrote both dramas at the same time? (For a short while the dramas overlapped and she was writing scripts for broadcasts every day from Monday through Thursday.)
3. The music. Coffee Prince drew much buzz for its indie-music soundtrack, curated by songwriter and music director Tearliner and used artfully by PD Lee. Triple also features indie musicians such as Tearliner and Zitten.
4. Actor Lee Jung-jae. Mostly a movie star, Lee Jung-jae didn’t have such a hot run with Air City, but he is a huge name and a charismatic presence, and it’s a welcome event to have him back on television. He starred in movies like Typhoon, Oh Brothers, Last Present, and Il Mare.
5. Actor Lee Seon-kyun. If you’ve heard him speak, you get it. He also has a nicely understated, natural way of acting. He has starred in all three of PD Lee’s drama projects (which include Taereung National Village and Coffee Prince).
6. Actress Lee Hana. She’s got a quirky vibe, loves music, and most recently made herself known in the revenge drama Women in the Sun.
7. Actor Yoon Kye-sang. Have you seen Who Are You? ‘Nuff said.
8. Newb Min Hyo-rin isn’t exactly a draw to the series, but more of a curiosity — would the singer-turned-actress be able to stay afloat amongst such a cast of experienced actors? And surprisingly — as the media and viewers are starting to also echo — she doesn’t suck. Not that I thought she’d be atrocious, because I had faith in PD Lee. (No, Lee’s not infallible, but she’s good. She also said she had such faith in Yoon Eun-hye’s commitment to Eun-chan in Coffee Prince that she would have cast her even if Yoon had been a rookie. That gave me hope that Min Hyo-rin wouldn’t totally sink.)



CHARACTERS


Characters Hwal, Haru, Su-in

Shin Hwal (Lee Jung-jae) is an ad executive (AE) and a team manager at his advertising firm. He works alongside his friends and colleagues Hae-yoon (Lee Seon-kyun) and Jang Hyun-tae (Yoon Kye-sang). Hwal generally reports to two superiors, the office director (with whom he is close) and the company director who makes the bigger decisions. He’s good at his job and enjoys a playful camaraderie with Hae-yoon and Hyun-tae, who also live in his house. However, he’s hardly ever home and chooses instead to sleep and live at the office. He has a bit of a temper when upset, as we see with his interactions with his ex-stepsister Haru. Hwal is generally a fun, cool guy, but his sometimes-reserved behavior hints at lingering emotional pain that he keeps hidden and locked inside.

Lee Haru (Min Hyo-rin, who’s actually quite cute!) is bubbly and energetic with a passion for figure skating. She used to be pretty promising, but following an accident that killed her mother and Hwal’s father (who were married at the time), she went to live with her father outside of Seoul and gave up thoughts of a serious skating career. Back when both parents were living, Haru had lived in the house Hwal currently resides in, but she never really had a relationship with him — he was always busy working and quite a bit older. She’s still in high school and teaches kids to skate at the rink with the local coach, who lives with Haru and her stern father.

We haven’t seen much of Choi Su-in (Lee Hana), but we will soon see that she is a famous former figure skater who is now coaching. She also has a history with Hwal (they are/were married), but something happened to sour the relationship. While she seems to want to make amends, he does not. It is also hinted that nobody knows of her and Hwal’s relationship (I suspect it may have been a secret, possibly whirlwindy affair).


Characters Hyun-tae, Sang-hee, Hae-yoon

Hyun-tae is the most junior of the bunch, and rather prone to making mistakes. Based on the way the guys talk together, they’re the same age (nobody calls anyone “hyung”) although they all have different job descriptions; Hyun-tae, for instance, is a copywriter. Hae-yoon is more serious about his job, while Hyun-tae’s got a goofy, energetic personality, and jokes around constantly with Sang-hee, another lower-level employee. He’s happy-go-lucky and more carefree than his two friends.

Sang-hee acts like one of the guys and shares Hyun-tae’s extroverted, lively energy. She frequently jokes around with her co-workers and always drinks too much at company dinners.

Hae-yoon is a creative director (CD) and technically more senior to Hyun-tae and even Hwal, although they all treat each other as equals. Hae-yoon takes his work seriously and is a little more of a strait-laced type, although he does know how to have fun. Just not as often as the kiddos and not during worktime. He and Hwal in particular like to prod and tease at each other (most often when the other person is working or in a serious frame of mind), and act as equals; Hwal jokes in Episode 1 that the only reason Hae-yoon is technically ahead is because he got an army exemption while his buddies served.


EPISODE 1: “Triple Axel”

Lee Haru is upbeat, has a positive energy, and loves to skate although she gave up serious skating dreams five years ago and is content to teach kids at the local rink. But her desire to skate isn’t dead, just dormant, and it takes an encounter with a group of students from Seoul (she lives outside the city) to rekindle her ambitions.

Haru’s also overweight and loves to eat, but what I really appreciated about this setup is that she is perfectly happy with herself and doesn’t suffer from body image issues. She doesn’t hate being chubby, and doesn’t fat-shame herself. (When she eventually loses weight, it seems like a part of her training goals rather than an image-based decision.)

One of the older students from Seoul used to skate with Haru, back when Haru was the better pupil. But now she doesn’t even acknowledge having known Haru and puts on airs. Her condescending behavior grates on Haru, who rashly declares that she’s just as capable of landing a triple jump, and challenges the girl to a jump-off.

However, it’s been a long time since Haru really trained, and she can’t for the life of her land a jump. Over and over she crashes to the ice, but she’s grimly determined to prove herself and keeps getting up, only to fall again. The Seoul coach is impressed with Haru’s determination (more impressed than Haru’s own coach), but the other skater finally puts an end to the lopsided rivalry by landing a triple jump on the first try.

Haru is both disappointed and impressed, and keeps at it long after the rink has cleared out — she just wants to land it once, to prove herself. When the Seoul coach comes back looking for her forgotten cell phone, Haru asks why she can’t manage the triple. In an impromptu training session, the coach works with Haru and helps her practice. And while she never manages to land that triple, Haru is ecstatic when she finally manages to complete the full rotations. The coach admires her perseverance and tells her, “If only you were younger — what a waste.” But instead of taking this in a sad way, Haru is re-energized, taking it for encouragement that she does have talent.

The problem is, in order to train properly, she needs to live and train in Seoul. And in order to do that, she needs to know somebody in the city.

Meanwhile, Hwal is given a big opportunity at work to put on a presentation to win an advertising client, and throws himself into the work. It’s a big deal that he was entrusted with this task, to the extent that his boss, the office director, feels disappointed to have been passed over by his bright, competent junior. The director and Hwal have a good, friendly relationship, so this doesn’t cause a rift, but the director definitely feels the implication of this. Therefore, he later tells Hwal that he’s entertaining a serious offer to move elsewhere and take on a promotion.

The office is one of those workplaces bustling with youthful, creative energy — it’s more normal for employees to spend the night at their desks than going home. Even so, Hwal is a bit more extreme in that he hasn’t been home in two months.

When Haru sends her ex-stepbrother a box of Valentine chocolates (as she does every year), Hyun-tae intercepts them and eats them, then wonders if he and Hae-yoon ought to send a response.

When she receives the letter, she is extremely gratified, since Hwal has never bothered to write her or keep in touch. It also triggers the mental light bulb over her head, because Hwal is the one person she knows who lives in Seoul. Idea!

She begs her father to let her relocate to Seoul, but he remains stern on the matter.

Hwal’s presentation goes extremely well (despite a minor technical hiccup at Hyun-tae’s hands), and even his co-workers are impressed. They get the account, and everyone celebrates by having a party.

There, we see some more friendly camaraderie and bickering, and what’s nice to see is the subtle differences in dynamics between the three friends. For instance, in this scene, Hyun-tae (Yoon Kye-sang) is teased for messing up the presentation and Hae-yoon (Lee Seon-kyun) scolds both of them. They ignore his nagging, so it’s like Hwal and Hyun-tae are united (jokingly) against fuddy-duddy Hae-yoon.

Other scenes show the relationships from a slightly different angle. For instance, Hae-yoon and Hyun-tae talk about Hwal in a worried way, since he never comes home and has been acting different ever since returning home from a trip. And in yet other scenes, we see Hwal and Hae-yoon linked together by their devotion to their work. They engage in some good-natured bickering about their jobs, but they both share a sense of responsibility about their careers that Hyun-tae hasn’t developed yet.

With the big presentation over, Hwal finally returns home and settles back awkwardly with a beer — as though unused to relaxing — when he sees a new email message arrive.

He reads the message, which is a simple greeting from Choi Su-in (Lee Hana). When he looks at his inbox, however, we see that he has a whole slew of emails from Su-in, bearing subject titles like “Husband, are you alive?” “I remember our first meeting in Canada,” “Tonight I ate ramen for dinner, I wonder what you ate?” “You don’t have to email me back right away, but just confirm you got this” “When things are tough, I think of the road I walked with you…”

They’re all unread emails, and he deletes them.

Meanwhile, Hae-yoon is stuck with the task of carrying a drunk Sang-hee home. This is obviously a recurring thing, because the guys bicker over who has to do this today, trying to pass it off on each other. Hae-yoon loses the round of “rock scissors paper” and is forced to take her.

He watches with some disgust as she vomits into the toilet, then reluctantly helps her up. As he does, Sang-hee looks at him in a new way, and lurches forward to kiss his nose. She giggles that she’s always wanted to do that, and does it again. He sputters in indignation at first, but that leads to a spark of attraction, and then it’s kissy-time!

In the morning, Hae-yoon fixes breakfast while Sang-hee awakens groggily, wondering what happened. Seeing Hae-yoon in her kitchen, she’s mortified at the memory and tries to skirt the issue at first… but then decides it’s best to just put this behind them.

It seems like Hae-yoon is more willing to consider this a change in their relationship status, but at Sang-hee’s suggestion, he agrees to let her act however she wants. They can forget it, fine. (When they arrive at work, the guys notice the clothes are from yesterday, and Hae-yoon mumbles and tries to change the subject. But Sang-hee whispers the truth to Hyun-tae, who blurts aloud, “You slept together?” HAHA. Hae-yoon is so embarrassed.)

Haru’s father watches her skating every morning with determination, falling repeatedly at each jump attempt, and makes the decision to let her go. He sighs to her coach that keeping her from doing what she wants will just make her sick.

So he takes it up on himself to look up Hwal on the same day that Haru decides to do the same thing. Her father meets with cool reception from Hwal, who asserts that he’s never thought of Haru as his sister and cannot help him; he will not agree to house her for even a year. He has no obligation to her and refuses. Hwal will help him look into a boardinghouse situation, but no more.

On the other hand, Haru runs into Hae-yoon when she drops by the house, and their exchange is HILARIOUS. Hae-yoon is befuddled and fascinated by this perky, oddball girl who makes herself at home and talks about growing up in this house. He pieces together the situation and calls Hwal to let him know that his stepsister wants to move in with him. When Hwal barks at him to send her home and refuse, Hae-yoon decides this is too good to pass up and tells the girl that her brother would looooove having her live with him and that he says yes.

Excited, Haru goes back home and prepares for her move, practicing in all her spare moments until she finally lands her first triple jump.

That may as well be a sign that she’s ready for her move, and she ships all her stuff to Hwal’s house. He’s upset to see all her boxes arrive in his front yard and orders them returned to sender, then receives a call from Haru announcing that she’s arrived in Seoul.

Haru has a performance at the rink to attend to first, after which she’ll make her way home. Hwal tries to tell her no, but she’s calling from the pay phone at the station and she’s out of change, so she cuts out short.

Hae-yoon and Hyun-tae decide it would be fun to catch the little sister’s ice show, and hurry out to the rink. It’s there that Hyun-tae runs into Su-in and falls for her at first sight….

Meanwhile, we can tell from Hwal’s reaction to seeing Su-in’s photo on the wall of the rink that there’s some painful history there. He has decided to come to the show and confront Haru after all, and makes his way inside just as she takes to the ice.


COMMENTS

I’d wondered as to the pertinence of the title, and if it meant anything more than as a slight allusion to the sport. I’m glad that it does have a meaning, as it is sort of a metaphor for change, the renewal of Haru’s dreams and the start of her new life. The triple jump represents the dream she gave up, and attainment of that goal becomes synonymous with her resuming her dreams, as well as moving to Seoul, reuniting with her unwelcoming ex-stepbrother, and kicking off a whole series’ worth of events.

The acting is perfectly fine; nothing has been particularly challenging so I can’t say any more than that, but nobody’s blatantly out of place. Min Hyo-rin is a little cutesy, which I’d venture to guess will grate on certain people but endear her to others. I think it’s in Lee Da-hae territory in My Girl — she definitely overdoes the cute sometimes, but I am okay with that level of exaggeration, as it’s also part of Haru’s bubbly, youthful character. The casting is overall well-done, not that the casting was EVER a problem with this drama.

Actually, I’d say that the acting is un-”dramatic” and natural in such a way that it may not register that it’s being done well. Take Lee Jung-jae, for instance — already in Episode 1 we can see hints of his old pain poking through the surface, and while we don’t know what it is (I’m sure we can all guess), we don’t need to know the details to see how it affects Hwal. I’m interested in seeing what happened, but I’m not afraid of this being dragged into melodramatic, over-angsty territory, because that’s not how PD Lee tends to work.

Lee Seon-kyun is in a familiar role, but it’s nice to see him playing one of the guys rather than the eldest, most senior character like he did with his two most recent dramas, Coffee Prince and My Sweet Seoul. And after Yoon Kye-sang’s OCD-stricken cold businessman character in Who Are You, I LOVE seeing him playing the easy-going, happy-go-luckiest ball of energy here. Yay!

It’s the drama’s sense of playfulness that had me smiling throughout the first episode. Triple showcases PD Lee Yoon-jung’s trademark soft, detailed touches as well as her ear for music placement, and it’s very pretty to look at as well as listen to. She’s also got a talent for capturing the natural camaraderie between friends, and it’s always a delight to watch.

Onward, Triple!

EPISODE 2: “Kiss and Cry Zone”

Hwal arrives at the rink just as Haru takes to the ice for her routine. The other guys are already there, although it takes Hae-yoon a moment to recognize the newly slimmed Haru as the same chubby girl he ran into previously. Both he and Hyun-tae (who brings an overstuffed teddy bear as a gift) agree that Haru is cute and cheer for her enthusiastically.

Haru carries herself well and moves gracefully, but she falls on her first jump… and her second… and then again. The crowd feels bad for her, but she gets up after each miss and keeps going. When she reaches back for her last jump, everyone holds their breath… and she lands it! From the looks of it, it’s a rather difficult triple lutz, too.

She ends her routine with a happy flourish, which deflates when she soon finds out that she didn’t pass the test (I presume to advance to the next level). In fact, nobody did at this meet, which is a source of irritation for the other skating moms in the arena who push their little girls aggressively.

Hyun-tae looks down at the front of the rink and spies Su-in there, talking with the other coach. Their encounter at the vending machines was brief, but he already knows he’s interested in her and tries to get her attention.

However, Su-in looks up past Hyun-tae and fixates on someone just beyond him. The half-hidden face looks familiar… but Hwal spots Su-in and abruptly turns away before she can get a clear look at his face.

Hae-yoon and Hyun-tae congratulate Haru afterward, immediately taking to her with the affection of playful older brothers. They know that her (ex-step-)brother is angry with her for her sudden arrival, so they step aside when Hwal shows up with a stony expression. He grabs Haru and pulls her away, intending on delivering her immediately to the bus/train station to return home.

Hae-yoon feels particularly responsible, since he was the one who joked that she should come and assured her that Hwal wanted her to live with him. He steps in and keeps them from leaving, and urges Hwal to cut her some slack. Hyun-tae agrees, and both friends try to convince an unbudging Hwal to let Haru stay.

Hwal receives a phone call from Haru’s father, and he tells the older man curtly that he is completely unconnected to Haru legally or biologically, and therefore has no desire to house her. Haru realizes this was the result of a mix-up, but Hwal’s rejection isn’t enough to turn her away. She desperately wants this chance to pursue her dream, so she feigns a stomachache (from hunger) to stall. Hyun-tae and Hae-yoon approve of this tactic and encourage her.

When Hwal is called away to an important work meeting, the friends promise to buy her lunch, then send her off themselves. Reluctantly, Hwal leaves her in their care, while Hae-yoon assures him repeatedly that he can be trusted. And then he moves Haru into the house. LOL! He and Hyun-tae help move her things inside, then head out while Haru makes herself at home.

Haru spends all day putting her old room to rights, then turns her attention to the household laundry and cooking. When the guys come home that night, Hwal is unmoved by her helpfulness, while the other two guys are impressed and pleased. Since they can’t kick her out at night, Hae-yoon urges Hwal to let her sleep (the guys are clearly angling to draw out her visit, so as to increase Haru’s chances of staying). It’s also hilarious how Hyun-tae lies down next to Haru jokingly, but not in a skeevy way — he calls her a puppy.

Thinking to earn her keep by being useful, Haru gets up early to make the guys breakfast. Once again, Hae-yoon and Hyun-tae love this, while Hwal remains grumpy. He tells the guys that this doesn’t change anything, and that he’s going to take Haru back to the station later.

The guys wonder how to get Hwal to change his mind, and Hyun-tae — eager for an excuse to reconnect with Su-in — offers the idea that if they get Haru a skating coach, it’ll be harder for Hwal to uproot her and send her home. Hyun-tae volunteers to take care of that task.

Meanwhile, this is an extremely short bit but this guy will surely be more important later, so I’ll just point out that Haru has her first encounter with actor Song Joong-ki on her way inside the ice rink. We don’t yet know his name, but it’s Ji Poong-ho.

He is extremely popular among younger girl students, and is a short-track speed skater (which is the role vacated by Jung Il-woo when the latter left to do Return of Iljimae. It’s too bad Jung Il-woo couldn’t come back to Triple after it was pushed back, but I think his grown-up image for Iljimae matured him several years anyway, so Song Joong-ki seems to be a good fit). Poong-ho is immediately taken with Haru, but she is more concerned with retrieving her fallen glove and barely registers his presence.

Haru ignores Poong-ho because she’s much more interested in getting inside to greet the coach she’d met previously, Coach Shin (actress Park So-hyun). Haru announces that she’s here to train for good and asks if she can train with her, and also cheerfully greets Yoon Hye-jin (the snotty skater from Episode 1). Hye-jin is the same as before (patronizing, mocking), but good-natured Haru doesn’t care and is just excited to get her skating dreams off the ground.

Eager for an excuse to get in contact with Su-in, Hyun-tae calls her to propose that Su-in coach an up-and-coming young skater. Su-in has no intention of staying in Korea for long, so she turns him down flat. She’s only here for a short stay before returning to Toronto.

Hyun-tae isn’t deterred by her swift refusal, and follows her to the skating rink, where she drops by to visit Coach Shin (the two appear to be good friends). Hyun-tae spots Haru inside, and takes the opportunity to introduce Haru and Su-in before he’s called away to work. (It is adorable how he answers the phone and tries to brush off the call, saying, “Why would I go in to work on a Saturday? Wait, it’s Friday?”)

Hae-yoon and Hwal are both at the office, but when Hae-yoon hears that Sang-hee’s having trouble at a drinking meeting with a work associate, he’s much more bothered than usual. Ever since the night they spent together, Hae-yoon has been acting more like a boyfriend and less like a mere co-worker, and this is an example of his jealousy coming to the surface. Hwal figures Sang-hee will be fine, but Hae-yoon rushes out to collect her in a fit of worry.

Once he actually picks her up, the annoyance takes over. It strikes me that Hae-yoon is attracted to Sang-hee for the same reasons he tries not to be, because she’s so free-spirited and carefree that he finds it irritating. It’s probably partly due to that tendency of a man with a traditional bent believing (in theory) that women should be free to do what they want, but not actually liking it when HIS woman is too free. In this case, it’s Sang-hee’s lack of shame and drunkenness that turns him off.

But if that’s being a little hard on Hae-yoon, there’s also another side to Hae-yoon’s exasperation, which is because he isn’t happy with Sang-hee’s dismissal of him after their night together. (She’d told him there’s no need to feel “responsible” for sleeping with her, as though freeing him of any burden to her, but that isn’t what he wants.) She’s flirty with him in an outrageous way, which upsets him. He demands, “Are you trying to seduce me?”

Sang-hee wonders, “Why would I do that?” The answer sours his mood further, and he mutters for her to forget it. As he turns to leave, Sang-hee calls him back and asks, “If I told you to take responsibility for sleeping with me, would you like it?”

Hae-yoon doesn’t respond to that, but it’s clear that yes, he would like it. Just like that, his bad mood clears.

Su-in asks to meet Hwal, her happiness mixing with fear of facing him. A flashback shows us where things went wrong with them in a scene from their married life, when they had gone out to dinner together.

Hwal had been upset with Su-in for ditching him to meet up with her ex-boyfriend, but he’d been more irritated than furious. Su-in had kept her head bowed and repeatedly apologized, and although he’d been annoyed with her, Su-in’s level of guilt was disproportionate to her wrongdoing. He’d quipped in response, “What, it’s not like you slept with him.”

She hadn’t responded, and Hwal had looked at her sharply, reading the truth on her face. That signaled the end of their marriage, although Su-in had tried to beg for forgiveness and keep him from leaving. In the end, he left their home in Canada and returned to Korea, after which he had cut off contact.

Now in the present, Su-in meets with Hwal and apologizes again, saying she regrets everything: “I’m sorry for making you angry.” Hwal answers simply, “You did it because you wanted to.” Su-in tries to convince him that the situation wasn’t like that, and asks, “Can’t you believe that I love you?”

Feeling that he’s not able to face Su-in just yet, Hwal tells her that he’ll call her later when he’s ready emotionally, indicating that this is not the right time to talk about their past. When Su-in asks him, “Didn’t you miss me?” he pauses, but walks away without responding.

Therefore, Hwal comes home in a bad mood, still determined to send Haru away. She plucks up the courage to plead her case, but his bad mood makes him act colder than he perhaps intends to, and Haru finally lets her bravado fall and gives in to tears.

Haru: “I know everything. You think of how it would be if my mom didn’t marry your dad, right? If I didn’t skate, if I didn’t ask them to take me to the rink that day. I know, they might not have died then. That’s why I’m so sorry to you, but I don’t have anywhere to go, and you’re the only person I have. Just for one year. I don’t want to go back without even trying to skate properly. I want to skate so badly. Please, oppa.”

She runs out of the room sobbing, and her speech has Hwal feeling a little regretful — I think he probably hadn’t realized Haru knew this, if he was even aware of that himself.

By the next day, however, Haru is back to her normal upbeat self, and sets about cleaning the entire house. The fire she carefully sets in the yard starts to travel when the wind blows the burning newspapers up against the shed while Haru cleans the windows with her back turned. Meanwhile, Hwal is inside the shed, meticulously working on a shipbuilding project, and is likewise unaware that his curtains have caught on fire.

It’s only when Hae-yoon drives up and sees the blaze that they realize what’s going on, and Haru runs to douse the fire with water from the garden hose.

Hae-yoon tries to calm his friend down, but Hwal is too angry and grabs Haru’s bags and drags her toward the car, ready to send her back home immediately.

It’s a good thing for her that Hwal gets an urgent work phone call at that moment, which sends him and Hae-yoon rushing into the office to deal with the catastrophe.

Another commercial has come out that copies their recently shot ad exactly, even using the same images and copy. This is a huge deal — they’ve just spent a lot of money and time making their ad — and their douchey boss, Chief Kim, castigates them for their careless mistake.

As the one in charge of this account, Hwal bows his head penitently and swallows his pride to apologize, but Hae-yoon takes issue with Kim’s unfair and ungracious rebukes, and storms out angrily. Hwal, on the other hand, remains meek and kneels for forgiveness — a gesture that is so unexpected that it renders the older man speechless.

Hwal realizes that this isn’t a mere coincidence, and confronts his former boss (the man who resigned in Episode 1). The older man is unapologetic, saying that it’s competitive in the ad world and this is what the business is like. He again offers Hwal a position at his new firm, but Hwal stares at him with new eyes, disillusioned to see this man whom he’d respected as he truly is.

Hwal wonders, “Why did you turn out this way?” All the ex-boss says is, “Why, you wanna hit me?”

It’s a long, pensive drive back. Hwal ignores a phone call from Su-in as he thinks things over, so it’s a surprise when he arrives unexpectedly outside her place.

Su-in hadn’t dared hope that he’d come see her, and sees his gesture in a hopeful light. He lifts a hand to her cheek, and she hugs him. But then he pushes her away, and her hope turns into nervousness.

In a quiet voice, he says, “Go back to Canada. I’m not okay. I’m having trouble because of you. I can’t decide anything. Let’s live a little farther apart.”

She asks him not to push her away, saying, “I was wrong. I know I was wrong. Can’t you give me one chance?”

Hwal just hands her a packet of medicine and tells her, “Don’t get sick.” (I’m not sure if she has an illness or if this is has another meaning. We haven’t had any other signs that she’s ill, so we’ll have to wait and see.) He drives off again, leaving her watching sadly.

Haru sees Hwal’s car parked outside, and knocks on his window to ask him one more time to change his mind. Her wording is similar to Su-in’s in the previous scene, as she admits she was wrong and asks for another chance. (Hwal notes the similarity, although at this point he’s tired of being angry and reacts with exasperation rather than anger.)

Getting no response from him, Haru says glumly that she wishes he’d tell her what to do, so she could do it, and goes back into the house.

In the morning, she has decided to give up on Hwal, figuring there’s no way to change his mind, and tells Hae-yoon that she’s going to move out. She’ll take a rented room instead, even if her father won’t like it. Hae-yoon doesn’t like it, either, for that matter, saying with brotherly concern that that’s not the right solution. However, Haru answers that she can’t give up skating without giving it a proper try, so she has to stay in Seoul.

Therefore, when Hwal walks in, Hae-yoon tells him disapprovingly of Haru’s plans, wanting Hwal to change his mind. (In retaliation, Hwal tells him to mind his own business and dumps his milk into Hae-yoon’s soup. Heh.)

When Hwal shows up outside school to pick Haru up, she eyes the car with suspicion, thinking he’s probably taking her to the station. Not seeing her luggage, she gets in the car, though she remains wary.

Hwal asks about her plan to rent a room, pointing out that it’s a bad idea and that she has no money to pay for it. Haru counters that she has money saved from skating lessons, and tells him not to worry because she won’t ask him for money.

Hwal replies, “You don’t have to cook or clean or do the laundry, so don’t overdo it. If you cause one more accident, then I’m really going to kick you out.”

It takes a moment for his words to sink in, then Haru realizes he’s letting her stay — just for one year, he reminds her — and thanks him ecstatically.

She practically flies out of the car when Hwal drops her off at the skating rink, and bounds up the stairs, where she greets Su-in. The latter has just done a double take to see Haru leaving Hwal’s car, and asks who dropped her off. Su-in learns that Haru is living with her brother (whom she describes as “my biological brother” rather than ex-stepbrother).

This gives Su-in an idea — and an opportunity to gain more time to smooth out her rough patch with Hwal. Making the decision quickly, Su-in enters the rink and calls Haru over to her.

All this while, Su-in has intended to return to Canada immediately, especially after her failed reconciliation. Therefore, she has turned down requests to coach young skaters, including a request from Hye-jin’s mother. Now she asks Haru, “Do you really want to train with me?” Haru nods excitedly, “Yes!”

Su-in turns to Hye-jin’s pushy mother and offers to take Hye-jin on, too — on the condition that she teaches the two girls together. Hye-jin balks while Haru happily accepts the condition, but this is too great of an opportunity to pass up, so Hye-jin’s mother hurriedly accepts.

Watching Haru skate, Su-in muses to herself, “You’ll be the one to save me.”

A couple things happen at the ad office, the first of which is a senior director taking Sang-hee to task for her ungainly behavior. She scolds Sang-hee for acting too wildly and giving women a bad name, and tells her to look elsewhere for a job. The criticism is partly understandable (it’s true Sang-hee doesn’t do much work) but mostly out of line, so Sang-hee complies and prepares her resignation letter — written a bit sarcastically in handwriting with hearts drawn on the paper.

Second, the pushy Chief Kim accepts Hwal’s apology for the ad mishap, but also takes advantage of this situation to demand that Hwal arrange for a particular model to come out drinking with them. Hwal does his best to contact the model’s people, but can’t get through in time to arrange the drinking engagement, so he shows up to the bar that night alone. Chief Kim is miffed, having expected grand treatment.

Hwal has had enough of office politics and chastises his boss, saying he’s not going to just sit back and take this anymore. He points out that Chief Kim has a wife, and tells him to get his act together. Hwal stalks out of the bar knowing he’s probably lost his job (or suffered a grave career setback), but at least he’s feeling freed from one burden.

Hwal calls Hae-yoon to announce: “Let’s leave the company and start one ourselves. Let’s go independent.”

Meanwhile, Hae-yoon and Sang-hee take another step toward coupledom… and while the episode wraps up, we have a montage of our characters as Haru’s voiceover ties the events into the episode’s theme of “kiss and cry,” which is the nickname given to the area where skaters await their scores:

Haru (voiceover): “From here, we head toward the kiss and cry zone. How far away is that? Do we just begin the journey like this? What’s it like inside that area? You’ll probably either let loose with kisses because you’re thrilled to death, or burst into tears with sadness.”

The girls train with Su-in, Hwal drives on. His expression takes on relief and excitement (and a little bit of that trembling fear he so eloquently described in his Episode 1 presentation)…

Haru (voiceover): “But you keep going. The kiss or cry zone may be scary, but first you have to step inside. Kiss or cry, aja!”


COMMENTS

I’m a little surprised that they actually made Su-in into a cheater. Whatever you feel about cheaters in real life, I kind of think from a television standpoint that once a character crosses that line, it’s really difficult to get the audience on his/her side. Even if Su-in had a really good explanation, she slept with a man while married to another, so it’s rather difficult to forgive her as a character (not to mention for Hwal to forgive her).

Then again, I think it helps to know that she doesn’t appear to be heading for a Hwal reunion, which may mitigate the blow. If Hwal has such a hard time forgiving her, it would be difficult to bring them back together, but if her new love interest accepts her as is, perhaps it doesn’t quite meet with the same narrative difficulties.

Also, correction regarding the friends’ jobs: The three are the same age, but it’s Hae-yoon (Lee Seon-kyun) who is the most senior position at the ad firm, although they all talk to each other as though they’re on the same level. They’re old friends, and Hwal explains that they don’t treat Hae-yoon like the senior because the only reason he got ahead of them career-wise is because he was exempt from army duty. Presumably they’d be at similar levels if Hwal and Hyun-tae hadn’t served. (I’d initially thought Hwal was the leader because he’s put in charge of the particular project; he’s an account exec, while Hae-yoon is creative director.) But this is probably a moot point since they’ll be striking out on their own.

Which, by the way, is a plot point I really enjoyed and was pleasantly surprised by. I had assumed we’d be seeing them navigating their jobs at their current firm, but if they all split off into an independent firm, this opens things up to a lot more possibility, and turns our successful ad execs into struggling underdogs.

(Yes, I realize this puts our setup firmly into Coffee Prince territory. I DON’T CARE! That’s cool with me because the nature of the business is a pretty far cry from a coffee house, and while this allows some of the same themes to emerge — getting a business off the ground, marketing themselves, teamwork — the specifics are pretty different. Also, no pseudohomoerotic tensions. Also, figure skating. I’m enjoying this drama enough that I just want more of our guys, more story, more music, moar moar moar.)

EPISODE 3: “Compulsory”

As Episode 3 opens, our characters are getting used to their new decisions, starting with Hwal and Hyun-tae’s resignations from the ad firm so they can start their own company.

All three guys have to get used to having a girl’s presence in the house. For instance, Hae-yoon freezes in shock as Haru walks in while he’s on the toilet, and Hyun-tae attempts to laugh off being caught watching porn on his computer.

While Haru isn’t a fan of the porn, she’s adjusted fairly well to the living situation. The guys are a little slower in that regard — for instance, she’s not fazed at all to walk in on Hae-yoon’s bathroom time. Lucky for him he had a newspaper.

She’s kicked outside to clean the shed, which she starts by painting an (angry) illustration of Hwal on the window. Peering inside, she finds a stray puppy, which she immediately bonds with and names “Wal” (because it’s similar to her brother’s name), giving her an excuse to call out the name jokingly. She can’t do that with Hwal, whom she calls “oppa.”

Hae-yoon is the only one who thinks leaving the firm is a bad idea; he doesn’t resign and advises his friends to beg for their jobs back. Hwal has resigned out of personal pride and a desire to be independent, while the less ambitious Hyun-tae follows Hwal out of loyalty. Hyun-tae also figures it’ll be fun working on their own without office schedules.

There’s a humorous moment when a customer at the bar calls out for service, and Sang-hee answers. They gape to realize that she’s now the manager of this place. Hae-yoon’s already reserved mood sours further when a man drops by who’s obviously friendly with Sang-hee; this is one of Sang-hee’s sunbaes, and Hae-yoon gives the two a dour look. He’s Manager Park, who heads the promotional team for a beer company. He’s also familiar with the guys’ former company, since they outsource a lot of their publicity.

At the rink, a group of younger girl skaters mock Haru behind her back; Haru’s an easy target since she’s older and relatively behind in her skating training. Still, she doesn’t let it get her down and merely ignores them.

She can’t ignore Ji Poong-ho, though, who has taken notice of her and tries to get her attention by bumping into her purposely. As we’ve seen, Poong-ho often fends off adoring girls, which, as we can imagine, has given him something of an ego. Therefore he expects the same sort of recognition from Haru, and has to face letdown when she doesn’t give it.

Poong-ho’s like, “Don’t you know who I am?” and cites the Olympics where he won gold as a short-track speed skater. Haru deflates his ego by informing him that she didn’t watch his win.

He hands her his phone and tells her to give him her number (although he plays it cool by saying, “I probably won’t call you first, but…”). Haru again bursts his bubble by saying she doesn’t have a cell phone. She disdains his immaturity and brushes past him, not the least bit flattered at his attention.

Haru waits outside for her ride following practice; it was supposed to be Hyun-tae, but he has forgotten. When Su-in passes by, she asks whether Haru’s waiting for her brother to pick her up, then offers to take her home. In the car ride, she prods for information about Hwal — trying for nonchalance, but not really achieving it — and asks how Haru is related to him.

Hyun-tae calls Su-in and confirms that Haru has gotten a ride home. He awaits their arrival with eagerness, and when Su-in tries to immediately leave, he refuses to take no for an answer and pushes her to come inside. Su-in protests, knowing Hwal won’t like seeing her, but since nobody else knows that, they urge her to stay awhile.

Inside the house, Su-in tenses to come face to face with Hwal, expecting him to be angry. Perhaps more hurtful than his anger, though, is that he holds out a hand and introduces himself as though this is their very first encounter.

Still, he can’t help getting in a dig at her, and bitterness creeps back into his tone before he stalks off. Haru chides him for being rude to her guest, not understanding his harsh reaction to her coach.

When Haru goes to feed the puppy Wal in the shed, she finds that he’s brought friends. She feeds and bathes them, but they slip through the bathroom door and tear through the house.

Naturally, the guys are not happy about the damage to their things, least of all Hwal.

Hyun-tae shows up unannounced at Su-in’s house and cheerfully invites himself inside. Since she never invited him (or gave him her address), Su-in is surprised and balks at his forward behavior.

The thing about Hyun-tae is that he does come on pretty aggressively, which would be annoying if he weren’t so damn adorable. On the other hand, from Su-in’s perspective, he IS just that annoying, so I can understand her reaction. It eases a bit when Hyun-tae produces a toolbox and tells her he’s here to fix her boiler. Afterward, she offers him food as thanks, but tells him that his actions were pushy.

The “compulsory” theme comes into play as Haru trains and, as with the previous episode titles/themes, this one is a figure skating term extrapolated to life in general. Haru thinks she’s above basic skating drills, but Su-in proves her point by having Haru weave in and out of cones. While the younger skater aces the drill, Haru’s cone course goes sadly off-track. Haru hangs her head as Su-in reminds her that this is her level, hence these compulsory exercises.

After running into the Taeyang Beer company executive (Manager Park) at the bar, Hwal seeks him out to aggressively push for the job managing their ad campaigns. Hwal calls Hae-yoon to talk it over, but Hae-yoon maintains that he’s not involved in their new solo venture.

Therefore Hae-yoon continues to work at the ad firm while Hyun-tae and Hwal set up shop at home, working on a presentation for Taeyang although they haven’t even gotten the account yet. But Manager Park likes their energy, and gives them the account.

In contrast to his friends’ excitement over their new account, Hae-yoon’s feeling bored and listless. Sang-hee tells him it’s because it’s unnatural for the three friends to not be working together.

Hae-yoon brings up the topic of their relationship, which has been bugging him ever since the appearance of Sang-hee’s sunbae. The last time he’d seen them drinking together, he had walked out in jealous irritation, which both he and Sang-hee recognized was immature of him. This time, he asks what she thinks of their relationship; Sang-hee answers that they shouldn’t date, because they’re totally wrong for each other.

This isn’t what Hae-yoon wants to hear, but I like that this drama lets this relationship play out realistically. By which I mean, relationships are treated as growing, changing entities, not Fateful Encounters That Are Meant To Be (or Cannot Be). Hae-yoon may like Sang-hee but he’s not going to cling to someone who doesn’t want him, and he accepts her decision, but clarifies that this means they won’t be sleeping together anymore.

Haru comes home to find her dogs being taken away — they’d been reported. She knows who’s responsible for this, and angrily confronts Hwal, calling him cold and mean: “What’s so bad about giving food to some hungry guys?” While Hwal has a point in sending the strays away, his own reaction suggests that he feels guilty after seeing how upset Haru is.

Miffed, Haru finds Hae-yoon a sympathetic listener to her gripes about her brother. Hwal, meanwhile, calls his friend a traitor for continuing to work at the firm and not joining their foray into independence. Figuring he could use some outside help, Hwal asks Sang-hee to do her best to convince Hae-yoon to join their new company, since she might have some influence that he doesn’t.

Poong-ho continues to try to get Haru’s attention, which is really cute because he is totally unsuccessful. Well, he’s successful in getting her attention — he marks up her training diagrams on the ice with goofy graffiti and swipes her skate blade covers — but not necessarily her admiration. He skates off with her blade covers playfully, while Haru, unamused, chases him and knocks him down on the ice in annoyance.

She continues to be the object of pranks at the rink, and has her skates stolen. She’s annoyed but not devastated because she takes it for a silly prank rather than a malicious theft. The younger girls all giggle at her predicament, and Haru is forced to use borrowed skates for the day. Su-in tells her that she ought to order new skates right away, since a skate’s fit is extremely important.

When Hwal drops by the skating rink that night, he encounters Su-in, who returns his discourtesy from before by walking right by him, ignoring his presence. But she turns back to see him, hoping for a positive reaction, deflating a bit when he asks, “Are you really not going back home?” He tells her that by staying here, she’s only making their relationship worse, and wants her to stop coaching Haru.

Su-in admits that he’s the reason she took on the job, and announces that she’s going to stay until he comes around to her. That angers him: “You’re determined to do it your way, no matter how I feel.”

Haru comes out of the shower to her (now-graffiti’d) locker, only to find that her clothes have been stolen. She wanders through the darkened hallways, calling out for anyone, asking for the young girls (whom she rightly assumes took her clothes) to return them.

She runs into Hwal, who lends her his clothing — and seeing how she’s barefoot, is forced to give her a piggyback ride. As she enjoys her ride, she muses that there’s power in the word “oppa,” which is what she calls him. (As the reluctant oppa, Hwal isn’t interested in hearing that and none-too-gently drops her to her feet.)

But contrary to Hwal’s outer gruffness, he shows a flash of his inner teddy bear, and it is SO HEARTWARMING. I think tears even came to my eyes as Hwal comes into Haru’s room that night while she’s sleeping to paint her feet and press their imprint on a piece of paper. (He’s getting her new boots! But instead of just offering, he’s going through this trouble to make it a surprise. Aww.)

In the morning, Haru sees her stained feet and wonders if she’s a sleepwalker, making Hwal smile. He gets a kick out of fake-scolding her for dirtying the floor with her footprints, amused at how perplexed she is.

Per Hwal’s request, Sang-hee attempts to persuade Hae-yoon to join his friends with their company, and puts up a sign on the front of Hwal’s house which reads “Bond Factory.” It’s the new name for their business, which she came up with. The guys are Bond (she decrees Hae-yoon the “7″ in 007) and she’s the Bond Girl.

Hae-yoon heads off grumpily for work and Sang-hee wonders if her tactic failed, but Hwal tells her she did the trick.

I doubt her action alone would have convinced Hae-yoon, but it does push him over the edge onto their side. That day at work, Hae-yoon looks over his friends’ presentation prep work for the Taeyang Beer campaign and sighs in worry. He tells his junior colleague that their firm would do fine without him, but he feels uneasy about how his friends will fare alone.

It’s a valid concern, since at that moment Hwal is explaining their work to Manager Park, who asks a skeptical question. Hwal tries to come up with a convincing answer, which is when Hae-yoon swoops in and joins the group, smoothly taking over and giving a good answer. Bond Factory complete!

Assuming that her missing skates are another of Poong-ho’s pranks, Haru confronts him, knocking him over and yelling at him to return them. He doesn’t know what’s going on and seems genuinely confused. He does notice, though, that the ever-present group of giggly little girls gets particular enjoyment out of Haru’s aggravation.

So, he takes it upon himself to punish the true wrongdoers, and makes the girls do duck-walk laps in contrition. He makes sure to get Haru’s attention when she exits from practice after a very good day — Su-in has given her replacement skates as a gift and agreed to let her advance from compulsory exercises to jumps.

What’s particularly adorable about Poong-ho is how important it is for her to understand he’s not the bad guy. (Other people might be angry at being wrongly accused, but Poong-ho is more worried she’ll hate him.) At his prodding, the girls admit that they took her skates. (He watches with smug satisfaction.)

Haru makes the girls apologize by saying, loudly, “I’m sorry, unni!” then lets them off the hook. After they scamper off, Poong-ho turns to her expectantly, wanting the same sort of apology. She mumbles “I’m sorry,” but when he demands a more satisfactory apology, she shouts loudly, “I’m sorry, oppa!”

His reaction to that is just about the cutest thing ever, as we are shown proof that yes, there is indeed power in the word “oppa.” All of a sudden his cockiness transforms into bashful giddiness, and he makes her repeat it. (Poong-ho: “What did you say after ‘I’m sorry’?” Haru: “Oppa?”)

Unable to contain his glee, Poong-ho gets swept up in his excitement: He distracts her for a moment, then grabs her into his arms and plants a big kiss on her lips, exclaiming, “Oh, you cute thing!” Haru shrieks while Poong-ho rains a bunch of kisses on her face like an overexcited puppy. OMG SO CUTE.

Even more cuteness awaits as Haru walks home, a little dazed. She finds Hwal talking to his car, but when he sees her, he hurriedly directs her into the house. When she’s safely inside, he peers inside to check on the puppy Wal, recovered from the pound.

Led by Hwal, Bond Factory gives their presentation, which they feel very positive about. That night, they await the news together at Sang-hee’s bar. The preliminary call comes from Manager Park informing them that while they still have to wait for the final result, he feels they did an excellent job and hit a home run.

Now that they’ve got a reason to feel hopeful, Hwal and Hyun-tae decide to head out, and leave the bar without explanation.

Hyun-tae arrives at Su-in’s door to share the celebratory moment with her. She still finds him overly pushy, although it doesn’t seem like she dislikes him — he’s just moving really fast — and protests. When he faces her, she nervously claps her hand over her mouth as though to ward off a kiss, and he laughs, planting a kiss on her forehead instead.

Hyun-tae pulls her hands from her face, and starts to move in for a real kiss, and Su-in head-butts him — and suddenly, Hwal is there, punching Su-in’s accoster and sending him sprawling to the ground.

I think Hyun-tae totally jumped the gun and came on way too strong even when seeing things from his point of view, so it’s no surprise that it looks even worse to an outsider. Hwal only sees that there’s a man trying to move in on a struggling female and reacts instinctively. It’s only after Hyun-tae falls to the ground that he recognizes him. He looks at Su-in, who stares back in shock.

Now reading the situation, Hwal turns and walks away without a word, leaving Hyun-tae calling after him in puzzlement.

Su-in doesn’t know how to react to Hyun-tae’s question, “Do you know what just happened?” She shoves Hyun-tae onto the porch and closes the door on him, leaving him utterly confused.

As the episode wraps, Haru’s narration brings us back to the theme of “compulsory,” and how a person might feel a sense of being trapped on a day when things seem to be spinning out of control. If you decided to put your name and reputation on the line, would things feel more bearable?

Haru finds the puppy in her room, and chases it happily through the house into Hwal’s room, where she sees a box on the floor. In it are her footprints and a brand-new set of skates. Realizing they fit her, she singsongs, “My brother bought me skates!” as she dances through the house, clutching them to her in happiness.


COMMENTS

When Triple was first announced, I remember feeling dubious over the casting of Min Hyo-rin, who was until that point merely a B-list (or C-list?) pop singer who hadn’t gained much traction, was promoted more via gimmicks than music, and had earned recognition mostly for her “luxury nose.” Well, I think she may have had an inauspicious start to her singing career, but she is really very cute in this drama, and (in my opinion) rather likable, even lovable. I like that her acting style comes across as unselfconscious and fairly natural, so maybe this is really the career she ought to be pursuing.

She also has good chemistry with each lead, and it’s fun to see the different dynamics between each of them. For instance, Hwal sees her as a constant annoyance, an uncontainable whirlwind crashing through his pleasant life. She gets the most sympathy from Hae-yoon (despite her constant interruptions into his bathroom time), and seems to view Hyun-tae as an irresponsible kid (which he sorta is). This is standard stuff — a rambunctious youngster turns the lives of adults upside-down and teaches them Important Things about themselves — but it’s always the execution that makes or breaks these kinds of stories. And so far, I really like the execution of this drama.

I’m not sure exactly what it is, but there’s something very pleasant about Triple. I’m not sure if it’ll incorporate anything more challenging or insightful — then again, I felt the same way at Episode 3 of Coffee Prince and that drama went on to exceed my expectations — but even if it didn’t, it would still be an enjoyable watch. It’s not simply a matter of being upbeat or cheery, because there’s an undercurrent of introspection running through. Andi t’s not just because the people are good-looking and funny, although that helps. I think it’s that Triple lets its characters breathe, and that’s a refreshing change — which is something that a drama can’t achieve without a certain measure of confidence in itself.



After Hwal punches Hyun-tae, he drives off in anger, but can’t tamp it down and returns to face Su-in. Although she meets his return with a hopeful face, that fades quickly as he demands, “Do you enjoy playing around with men?” He calls her shameless and a liar, and while she admits to the first, she defends herself against the latter.

Hwal tells her to live however she wants: “And keep me out of your life”

I think it’s adorable how Haru practices various ways of saying thank you in return for the skates (and the puppy), only by the time Hwal comes home, she’s fallen asleep under the desk (still clutching her skates).

As he takes her to her own room, he encounters Hyun-tae in the hallway. The air is awkward for a moment, until Hwal apologizes for hitting Hyun-tae, who guesses that Hwal and Su-in know each other.

Hae-yoon waits in the lobby of a movie theater for Sang-hee, who fails to show. He finds her at the bar, and is irritated to see Sang-hee enthusiastically entertaining a group of young hockey players (students, I believe).

As she closes up later, Sang-hee suggests that Hae-yoon could help her, but he’s not feeling generous at the moment and reminds her that she’s not his girlfriend. She points out that she’s a friend, and he says he’s never slept with a woman and become (just) friends afterward. As with many of their interactions, this one isn’t angry or even upset; Hae-yoon tends to go between treating Sang-hee with boyfriendy affection and resignation when she flakes on him.

As Su-in waters her yard that night, still smarting from Hwal’s reaction, she notices the basketball hoop that has been set up but doesn’t know where it came from. (Hyun-tae had previously wondered if he looked cool playing basketball and had dragged over a hoop to her yard.)

She gets a joking text message from Hyun-tae to cheer her up; the message reads, “Head-butt queen, do you like raccoons?” Su-in has to laugh-cry at that — and while I think Hyun-tae is rather forward, I think her reaction shows that she isn’t totally UN-interested in him. (The timing’s bad, and she doesn’t really think of him in the way he thinks of her, but I think there’s hope for him despite his unsuccessful attempts to draw her out.)

In the morning, Haru continues brainstorming to figure out how to show Hwal her thanks. I think she’s lovable and plucky, but she does have a history of accidents, so my immediate reaction to her exclamation “I got it!” was a cautious “Uh-oh…”

Thankfully, the task is simple: She washes his car. And Wal must be the most well-behaved puppy ever because it’s a wonder that he sits patiently as she washes the car while holding him.

Haru finds tufts of dog fur in the car, which confirms that Hwal was the one who brought Wal back home. She wants to hear him say it, though, so when he walks by, she prods, “Oppa, some really strange things happened yesterday! My skates appeared, and so did Wal. What do you think happened?”

Hwal is a bit embarrassed to admit he did that for her, so he ignores her and changes the subject. Haru isn’t daunted, knowing he cares even if he doesn’t want to admit it, and grabs him in a hug. She pledges her loyalty from now on.

The new company suffers a setback, however, when Hwal gets a call from Manager Park of the beer company reneging on the deal. Now that he’s had time to think, he concludes that they were both overreaching their capabilities, and feels uneasy about the fact that the ad company is so new and small. When Hwal tries to understand what prompted this change of heart, Manager Park blows him off and doesn’t offer much of an explanation.

Sang-hee realizes she’d flaked on their planned date and apologizes to Hae-yoon. He’s feeling down from losing out on the ad account, and she cheers him up, telling him how fantastic their company is and assuring him that they’ll get back on their feet.

Maybe it’s what he needs to hear, or maybe her supportive speech is the kind of thing a girlfriend would say, but it does the trick in lifting Hae-yoon’s mood.

Hyun-tae again waits outside to catch Su-in on her way out from coaching practice. She’s pretty tired of him showing up unexpectedly and tries to ignore him, but her car has trouble starting up, and he takes it upon himself to fix it.

As he works, Su-in broaches the subject of the run-in the night before, wondering if Hwal explained everything to Hyun-tae. She admits that she messed everything up, but doesn’t explain further. Hyun-tae doesn’t know the full story yet, but he says that he couldn’t sleep that night because he was preoccupied wondering about her. Despite her irritation with his pushiness, Su-in is a little touched to hear him say he came to see her today because he missed her.

Haru invites Hwal to see her next performance (which is also a chance for her to repeat the test she failed in Episode 2). He notices how she had time to wash his car today because she skipped the school picnic, and asks if she’s a loner at school. He already knows she’s a loner at the rink because he saw her being pranked, and it’s sorta sweet to see him worry about her, even if he won’t admit it. Haru isn’t concerned about not having friends, though, and instead chatters on about her improved jumping levels.

There’s a hilarious moment when Hwal looks over to see that Haru is standing on a tilted chair in order to reach the curtains, and is balancing perfectly on the back two legs. After she leaves, he eyes the chair and attempts the trick himself, but struggles — which is when Haru pokes her head back in and catches him mid-attempt.

In the morning, Hwal is revved up about work and determined to give things another try. He’s not about to let one failure stop him cold.

Hyun-tae’s working on a plan of his own, but he doesn’t let his friends know what it is just yet. He does ask Hwal for presentation tips, however, and takes to heart the advice, “Don’t take your eye off your opponent.”

The head of Bokman Chicken is a friend of his father’s, and now Hyun-tae attempts to present his ad ideas in a bid to get their account. His idea is good, though the execution a little sloppy — he tosses one ball at the president, who catches it. He then starts launching a barrage of balls at the men as an analogy to demonstrate how merely throwing ads and ideas at the consumer is an ineffective technique. The president finds the concept interesting, but it isn’t quite developed enough yet. Hyun-tae has to return in defeat.

Hwal gets to work trying to woo another client, and has his sights set on a brand of “kiddie juice” called Kokoma juice. Hae-yoon is the least enthusiastic about this idea because it’s a tough gig (and most of its ad campaigns have met with crushing failure), but Hwal says that if the guys can find another project, they can do that instead.

Despite knowing Hwal is angry at her, Su-in calls him for a little support when her mother is admitted to the hospital for a chronic (and seemingly terminal) illness. Her mother either doesn’t know or doesn’t accept that Su-in’s marriage is over, and grumbles at how it’s rude for her son-in-law not to visit. (I’m not quite sure if Hwal and Su-in are divorced, or still married and estranged.)

Hwal seeks out the president of the kiddie juice company at the gym, coming on assertively (but respectfully) with his pitch. After seeing a mother’s reaction to the juice in the supermarket, Hwal recognizes that the juice has a branding problem, and suggests that the company redesign their bottles to change its image. Hwal asks to be included in the competition to bid for the account, and gets his wish.

Hyun-tae returns to pitch to the chicken company boss again, and soldiers on through his presentation even though the man doesn’t seem to be paying attention. He’s prepared five approaches to market the brand, and when he presents the last idea, he readies himself for defeat. Contrary to his expectation, the president takes a liking to the tactics presented, and tells Hyun-tae he’s brilliant for thinking of a way to market all five ideas in one ad. Hyun-tae unsuccessfully starts to correct him — they were five separate ideas! — but is ignored, and gulps nervously.

One of the hockey players from the other night returns to Sang-hee’s bar, and Hae-yoon (who’s working upstairs in her private room) does not look favorably upon the new guy. His name is Jae-wook and he’s a little goofy, impressing Sang-hee with tricks like stuffing multiple cookies into his mouth.

In his jealousy, Hae-yoon interrupts their conversation several times by dropping (on purpose) a pen and papers and getting Sang-hee to retrieve them for him. So immature, but hilarious.

With her test/performance coming up, Haru wants to beef up her program and try more advanced elements, like the sort of things Hye-jin does. She entreats her coach several times, invoking Hwal’s words that she won’t know if she can do it or not until she tries for herself. Su-in says those are nice words, but they’re also dangerous because she’s putting herself at risk by rushing into things; she thinks Haru is reaching beyond her capabilities and tells her no.

Since his advice was only half-effective, Haru goes back to Hwal to ask for clarification, because her coach told her that it was rash advice. Hwal retorts that sometimes without rash actions, one cannot achieve great progress, and Haru likes that answer.

In her excitement, she tosses a toy basketball at the wall, where it knocks over a picture frame and breaks the glass. She’s immediately contrite, but I suppose Hwal is used to her accidents by now and sighs that he’ll clean it up.

Haru wants to catch up to Hye-jin’s level of skating, so she follows the other girl when she attempts a triple combination jump. After Hye-jin falls, Haru tries the same combo, and falls as well. Although Haru’s intentions are good, Hye-jin is annoyed at her for following her, and slaps her.

I suppose you could see Hye-jin as a snooty bitch character, but her actions are given more explanation later, when she and Su-in watch Haru on the ice. Su-in finally relents and tells Haru she can attempt the jump — as long as she doesn’t regret it if she fails — and now Haru is busy working on them. She falls down but gets up laughing, which strikes Su-in as remarkable.

Hye-jin grumps, “Honestly, I can’t understand. You’re all strange.” But Su-in sees through Hye-jin’s attitude and commiserates, saying she knows that the rink seems like hell right now. Hye-jin’s face starts to contort in tears as Su-in gives her advice: “Don’t be afraid you won’t meet up to your mother’s expectations. Don’t try to become the skater that other people want you to be. Be the skater you really want to be, and then this hell-like rink will become a lot better. It might even feel like heaven.”

The guys are feeling particularly lethargic on a rainy day (and the rain becomes sort of a centerpiece for this episode), not able to come up with any good ideas.

Hwal wanders over and notices something near the window: the paper with the painted footprints (Haru’s) mark a spot on the ground, and when he steps on them, his face looks out of a rectangle toward the shed, framing Haru’s goofy painting of Hwal. It’s Haru’s response to breaking his photo frame the night before, and Hwal has to smile.

Hwal calls over the guys, and they laugh at the sight, their lethargic mood uplifting. Jokingly, they hold up colored plastic sheets to the frame to add a tint to Hwal’s portrait — which gives Hwal an idea.

Haru appears at the window to prod Hwal to come jogging with her.

Haru’s energy is infectious as she dances around Hwal, running in the rain. Even when he jerks her to a stop by pulling her hood over her head (saying, “You’ll catch a cold”), Haru takes that as encouragement, saying, “Are you worrying about me?”

When Hwal returns from his run, he’s invigorated and armed with a new idea for the juice presentation — and it centers around Haru.

As I said, the rain is something of a centerpiece for character developments in this episode, bringing a measure of clarity to the relationships. Hae-yoon calls Sang-hee out to reclaim their missed date, and sit outside drinking wine, enjoying the rain.

Hyun-tae plays basketball in his yard, while Su-in looks outside at her own front yard.

Now getting down to business, Hwal recruits Haru for a part in the presentation. Not one to let opportunity pass her by, Haru tries to strike a bargain — if she helps him, will he come see her performance? He isn’t willing, so she starts to walk off, and he grudgingly agrees to her terms.

As he explains her role, Haru gives him a long look, and it’s here that we start to see the suggestion of something more developing between them. But it’s just for a brief moment, and she shakes it off saying it’s good to see this (nicer) side of him.

When it’s time to give the presentation, it starts with Haru entering the room, carrying an umbrella and strolling in to the strains of “Singin’ in the Rain.” The mood is light and easy, but suddenly changes to an action-movie vibe as the lights change, and she launches into an acrobatic sequence that mimics the sequence — you know, that one — from Entrapment.

When Haru completes her gymnastic bit, Hwal takes over, explaining that kids like the juice but there’s an image issue with the colors, which give it an unhealthy image. They’ll turn that perception around and use the colors — vibrant, energetic, healthy — as a key point in promoting the drink.

The presentation is a hit, and the guys can all feel that they’ve done a fantastic job. The response is so good that the call comes immediately, and the president congratulates them for a job well done.

However, he explains that his son — who is in advertising — recently came to him and begged him for the job. While the son has never been particularly talented, the president can’t turn down his own child, so he proposes that the two groups work together. While the words make it sound like “collaboration,” Hwal understands that this means that the president wants to use their idea and let his son take credit for it. Regretfully, he turns down the offer.

Hwal lies moping in bed when a knock sounds at the door, and a note slides underneath. He opens it and finds a message from Haru:

Haru’s note: “Oppa. Since living with you, I’ve been learning lots of things, and I learned something this time, too. Thanks, oppa. I’m competing today. You don’t have to come. I’ll wear the skates you bought me and work hard like you do.”

That, of course, prompts Hwal to get out of bed and head over to the rink. He watches as Haru performs — and lands her jump, to her own joy and Su-in’s excitement. He claps for her, approval mixing with pride.

Haru steps off the ice in tears of joy at landing the jump, which intensify when she looks up and sees Hwal watching. He waves, and gives her a thumbs-up.

Meanwhile, Hyun-tae once again comes to the rink to see Su-in, but this time, he doesn’t approach. He tells himself that he just wants to see her, nothing more, seemingly having decided to give up on her. However, at the last moment, he decides he can’t just leave like this and follows her car.

Su-in heads to the hospital, where she finds Hwal visiting her mother; Mom had called him to tell him to drop by. Su-in is mortified and apologetic that Hwal felt obligated to come, and tells him not to worry about anything her mother might say.

The two head outside after visiting, and they stop and stare for a moment when they see Hyun-tae waiting outside. He’d taken up a spot on the bench to await Su-in. The two guys look at each other for a long, wordless beat; Hyun-tae marks the moment with a wry half-smile.

And finally, sometime later that night, Haru assists Hwal to his room, his dragging feet and slumped posture suggesting he has gotten drunk.

She tucks him into bed and watches affectionately as he sleeps, and falls asleep next to him.


COMMENTS

As I mentioned, I’m not really feeling Su-in that much. I want to like her, but she is so… gahhh. Down. Gloomy. Energy-sucking. The scenes with the three guys are enjoyable, and Haru is a burst of energy. I’m on the fence about Sang-hee but she has her cute moments. Yet Su-in is just… blah.

Please, Lee Hana, can you drink a Red Bull or something or otherwise find a way to amp up that energy level? I have liked her in the past, but I think she’s wrong for this role and I don’t see a lot of chemistry with her and any of the actors. Min Hyo-rin, the utter newbie, has a lot more chemistry with everyone.

I think Su-in’s lackluster quality also drags down Hyun-tae, and makes his actions seem even more dissonant with reality than they actually are. He’s an endearing guy, both actor and character, and while I definitely wish he’d back off a little, he’s harmless enough. He’s open and honest and totally up-front about his intentions, but watching him trying to court Su-in begs the question, “Why?” It’s a little like trying to woo a brick wall. The brick wall seems hard and unmoving, while the adorable guy trying to win it over looks foolish for the attempt.

I was thinking back to all those other kdramas that feature women who return after leaving their men and want reconciliation, and it’s a hard thing to pull off successfully. They are characters you’re meant to like less than the main heroine, and her reason for leaving the hero has to be pretty bad for him to have been so hurt by her. But since these women are meant to stick around all series long, they should still be sympathetic on some level, otherwise you’re watching a cartoon and she’s merely the Evil Bish. I think Lee Hana has to be added to the list of misfires with these types of characters, in addition to those like Park Shi-yeon in My Girl, Cha Soo-yeon in The World They Live In, Byun Jung-soo in Last Scandal, Park Han-byul in Fantasy Couple, and so on.

The only instance I can think of where the returned ex-girlfriend worked is My Name In Kim Sam-soon, and that’s because Jung Ryeo-won was given a chance for her character to show her friendly, warm side before we discovered why she did what she did. Chae Jung-ahn in Coffee Prince sorta worked in that I came around to her character, although I never fully warmed to her and liked her mostly because Lee Seon-kyun’s character was so in love with her.

Meanwhile, the hint of something more developing with Hwal and Haru is… while not totally surprising, a little unexpected. I had wondered whether they’d pair up when the drama first started, but the appearance of Song Joong-ki (so cute!) as the speed-skating Poong-ho seemed to suggest he’d be the age-appropriate love interest for Haru. And they’re so cute together that I’m rooting for them.

On the other hand, Lee Jung-jae is fabulous at giving his character depth — if you’re picky, you might say he’s the only one who is doing that — and it’s meaningful how much Haru has already changed him. I’m not icked out by the age difference — Yoon Kye-sang and Go Ara were fine in Who Are You — or the pseudo-sibling thing because they barely know each other, in addition to sharing no blood. (It’s like Cher and Josh in Clueless, which I never had an issue with.) Plus Min Hyo-rin is 23 and Lee Jung-jae 36 in real life, which is not an unheard-of age gap. But maybe with BOTH aspects working at once, it feels a little weird. I dunno. But I’m open to it, so we’ll see what happens.

The episode’s theme of “warm up” leads us into the opening scene: An athlete can use the warm-up time to prepare for actual competition, but in real life, you can’t prepare for the big shocks.

We start at the confrontation that ended the previous episode, as Hwal approaches Hyun-tae outside the hospital. The atmosphere is subdued; Hyun-tae already knows about the marriage, and wonders, “How can you get married in secret? Is it a joke to you?” Hwal takes his unsentimental approach: “Nothing would change by talking about it.”

Hyun-tae tells Hwal to handle the matter as he wants, and he’ll pretend not to know. When he gets up to leave, Hwal suggests a drink, but Hyun-tae’s not up for drinking with him tonight.

Hwal heads off to get drunk at Sang-hee’s bar instead, where he wonders if he should get a divorce (this answers one question for those of us wondering at the state of his marriage — they’re separated, but still legally married). Sang-hee gapes in shock to hear that Haru’s coach is his wife, particularly since that’s the woman Hyun-tae has a crush on.

At the hospital, Su-in feels the need to explain to her mother why Hwal dropped by, since she’s never confided the story of their breakup. She says it’s her fault, but her mother has already guessed that Su-in did something to hurt him; she urges Su-in to beg his forgiveness, since he’s a good man.

After leaving, Hyun-tae returns to the hospital and calls Su-in out. She thinks that since the truth is out in the open now, he should understand clearly why they can’t be involved, and why they shouldn’t even be talking like this. (I don’t read her position to mean that it’s inappropriate for a woman to talk with her husband’s friend, but more of a reminder that both of their loyalties should be stronger with Hwal than with each other.)

Hyun-tae has recovered some of his good humor and hands her some flowers (picked, not bought) and chats lightly with her. This confuses Su-in — shouldn’t he have gotten the point already? Hyun-tae, on the other hand, isn’t exactly flirting with her — okay, he is, but it’s as though he likes her so much that he’s like an eager dog unwilling to think about the problems and just wants to enjoy the moment.

In the morning, Hwal is severely hungover, to the point that he has trouble picking up food with his chopsticks. Haru sees him fumble, and hesitantly puts some food into his bowl (like she’s expecting him to scold her). (He gives up on the chopsticks and goes for a spoon instead.) Since he accepts her offering, Haru tries again, putting more food in his bowl. Normally Hwal might bark at her gruffly, but today he’s feeling sick and accepts her help, which makes her happy.

After breakfast, the guys get to work. Or at least, they try to. Hyun-tae meets with the president of the Bok Man Chicken company, for whom he had done a very small flyer ad, against his own judgment. (He and Hae-yoon keep the flyer a secret from Hwal, who looks down on flyers as beneath them.) The president likes Hyun-tae’s ad, but he isn’t really after aggressive promotion and only requests really small things. It’s a far cry from the big campaigns they’re used to working on.

Feeling chagrined, Hyun-tae blows off some steam by playing basketball with the hoop he set up in Su-in’s front yard. She threatens (weakly) to call the police, and tries to shoo him off. Her protests go ignored, and Hyun-tae replies cheerfully that he’s merely here because he had a down day and wanted to see her and play some basketball.

Actor Song Joong-ki continues to be absolutely adorable as Poong-ho. This time, Poong-ho makes all the young skaters cry by decorating Haru’s locker with photos of himself that are cut and pasted to spell out “HARU,” and one large photo in the shape of a heart. He’s plastered the inside with more photos of himself, and waits outside for her to emerge.

Haru’s too preoccupied with other news to register him at first, because Coach Su-in has just told her to apply to compete at the national level. Poong-ho tells her not to worry, that she’ll make it and then they’ll both be national athletes. When she chides him for messing with her locker, he tells her that those are her “guardian angels” — “Since I can’t always be there to watch over you.” (He then skips off in a great mood, slips, and falls down. LOL.)

We get another cute scene that evening, when Sang-hee drops by with dinner for the guys. Not realizing that the two ladies haven’t been introduced yet, the guys don’t notice that Haru is growing increasingly unhappy with the way Sang-hee is so easy with them — but that isn’t anything compared to how Haru pouts when Hwal walks into the room. She watches as Sang-hee whispers into Hwal’s ear and talks to him affectionately and does not like it, no no not at all.

Sang-hee is on a mission to bridge the conflict between Hwal and Hyun-tae, although she doesn’t say anything outwardly since she’s not supposed to know about Hwal and Su-in’s marriage. Plus, the others are still unaware. But she makes them toast and drink to friendship, which they do a little reluctantly.

It’s hilarious how Hae-yoon doesn’t like Sang-hee being attentive to Hyun-tae (which she does out of pity, for being in love with a married woman). Meanwhile, Haru dislikes when she’s attentive to Hwal, because she feels left out and possessive of someone else looking after HER oppa.

The next morning, Haru takes particular care with her clothing and puts on (way too much) makeup in a bid to appear more like a woman to Hwal. The guys have no idea why Haru giggles and attempts to flirt (badly) with Hwal over breakfast, and gape in bewilderment. Eventually she has to give up, unsuccessful.

One more surprise is in store for the household when Haru’s father and Coach Nam arrive unannounced. It sure doesn’t make Dad happy to discover that three single men are living in the household with his daugther, one of whom likes looking at pictures of scantily clad women (Hyun-tae). He looks disapprovingly at the connecting door between Hwal’s and Haru’s rooms, and balks at her doing the household’s laundry and cooking.

Haru takes the visitors with her to the ice rink, and her entry is immediately greeted by a suspended basket of food, lowered to her from above by Poong-ho. He urges her to take it, since he spent so much time making it, although she bats it away in annoyance.

The instant he hears Haru call to her father, he hurries to make his greeting and drops to make a formal bow — which is hilaaaarious since he bows from the second floor. Gaaah, Poong-ho is too cute.

He also introduces himself enthusiastically as Haru’s boyfriend — earning him a glare from her — and offers them the contents of the basket while they watch Haru skate. Even Coach Nam can see right away how much she’s improved in the past few months.

That’s one of the arguments in favor of keeping Haru here, although she senses that her father’s objections are growing and tries to smooth over his possible complaints. However, at the end of the day, he’s made his assessment and decides that Haru should move out into a rented room.

Almost everyone speaks up immediately to try to convince him otherwise; Hae-yoon and Hyun-tae assure Dad that they see her as a younger sister and look after her. Haru appeals to Hwal, asking him to speak up for her — but he agrees with her father. Rubbing salt into that wound is the very brusque (almost rude) way he addresses Haru’s father (there are clearly lingering issues there) and says that he never wanted to take her in the first place, and that he thinks she should move into a rented room.

Not only is Haru hurt by his curtness, Hae-yoon is displeased with him, too. Of the three roommates, he’s the one who tries to convince Dad to change his mind and is most upset with this turn of events.

Trying to be extra-solicitous, Hae-yoon offers his room to the visitors, and heads off to stay with Sang-hee at the bar until they leave. He has a guarded reaction to Sang-hee’s new helper, the hockey player Jae-wook from a previous episode, and while I wouldn’t call Hae-yoon’s behavior possessive, there’s definitely a little masculine power assertion here. (Jae-wook refers to Hae-yoon as Sang-hee’s boyfriend, so I would say he’s probably got a harmless crush on her but isn’t going to try anything sneaky.)

Oh! And Lee Seon-kyun sings. *swoon*

Hae-yoon does his work from Sang-hee’s place while the other guys work out of their headquarters, and all of them set out to bring in new clients. As mentioned, Hyun-tae hasn’t fared well with the chicken man, while Hwal and Hae-yoon are rebuffed by the contacts they try to meet with. They’re not asking for specific campaigns, but trying to talk with companies they have worked with in the past to see if they can lure them away. Unfortunately, most of them are fine sticking with their former ad agency, Koryeo.

When Haru has difficulty hanging the curtains in the kitchen and asks for Hwal’s help, he brushes her off and says he’ll do it later. Still hurt by Hwal’s eagerness to get rid of her, Haru asks, “Are you really okay with me going?” He looks a little uncomfortable with the question, but at his non-response, she concludes, “You really must not care whether I stay or go.”

He feels a pang of compunction after she leaves. Coming out into the hallway, he sees Haru still struggling with the curtain and steps in to help. As he does, he feels how hot she is and realizes she’s burning with fever — she’d been gradually growing sick all episode long, but had ignored it because she was insistent on continuing to train for her next competition.

Hwal gives her medicine and tends to her fever, staying by her bed while she sleeps. A while later, as he changes her washcloth, Hwal chides that she’s always causing trouble and giving him a headache. The bite is out of his voice, but Haru takes it at face value and says, “That’s harsh.”

Haru: “To me, you’re a rope from heaven. But to you, I must be useless. Because of you I could skate, you say nice things to me, you gave me a room to sleep in. You’re a rope I’m thankful for — if you were me, would you have let go? Are you a rotten rope? Is that why?”
Hwal: “If I were you… I’d hold on even to a rotten rope.”

He says that last bit with a hint of a smile. Haru thanks him, and he leaves her to sleep.

Outside, Hwal comes face to face with Haru’s father, who has gotten up to pace outside in the night air. Hwal tells him Haru’s sick, and directs him up to her room.

In the morning, Haru is better, and she again asks her father if she can stay behind. It seems like he’s already made up his mind to relent, and when he and Coach Nam leave, it’s to go home rather than apartment-hunting. Dad tells Haru to take care, and the guys send them off.

It’s back to work for the Bond Factory men, and contrary to Hwal’s insistence earlier that they not go back to their old companies begging for work, he’s pretty desperate. He had warned Hae-yoon and Hyun-tae not to do that, but finds himself meeting with his old boss at Koryeo to ask if they can take on some of their work, sort of in a hand-me-down capacity. Unfortunately, ad agencies are facing tough times, and the answer is no.

On his way out, he runs into Hae-yoon, who’s on his way in… and both men are a little abashed to be caught doing something they promised not to do.

Meanwhile, Hyun-tae again heads over to see Su-in, catching her as she’s up on her roof to retrieve a ball for some neighborhood kids. He climbs the ladder before she has a chance to get down, purposely kicking it away to leave them stranded on the roof.

Su-in is alarmed to be stuck there, but Hyun-tae settles back in a leisurely pose, enjoying the day. They stay up there for a while — I’d guess a few hours — until finally, Hyun-tae is ready to get back on solid ground. He jokes that he’ll jump off the roof — which prompts her to reflexively grab him back — but then actually does jump down.

Once on the ground, he opens his arms and urges Su-in to jump into them, assuring her that he’ll catch her. She prods him to get the ladder instead.

Back at home, Hwal comes upon Haru in the hallway while she’s kneeling with the puppy, and surprises her by tucking back a strand of hair behind her ear with his finger. He tells her, “Hold onto that rotten rope” — his way of making amends.

Haru giggles softly as she dances around with her puppy, singsonging, “Wal, we’re not getting kicked out!”

Hyun-tae’s behavior all episode long suggests that he’s going back and forth between clinging to Su-in and trying to let her go. This time it’s a little bit of both — he follows her around as he notes what she does over the course of her day, but keeps out of sight and at a distance.

At the end of the day, as he watches from outside her house, Hyun-tae thinks: “She moves in time with my watch. That’s good enough. No, it’s not. Let’s be honest. The good thing is being together.”

However, when Su-in next opens her door, it’s Hwal sitting there, not Hyun-tae. Immediately, she’s relieved and happy, telling him she had a feeling she’d find someone on the other side that she wanted to see.

You get the sense that Hwal is feeling conflicted, both wanting to see her and upset for wanting to see her. It appears the former has won out, at least for now, because he asks her to make some time for him on the weekend. He says, “I don’t know either why we don’t divorce. I’ll call you on the weekend.” With that, he heads off, leaving Su-in smiling with happiness.

Once again, as the episode wraps, Haru’s voiceover ties in the theme of today’s episode:

Haru’s narration: “The last time I can inspect myself is six minutes before competing.”

Poong-ho stops her, and says seriously, “Let’s go steady.”

After a beat, Haru answers simply, “I’m sorry, there’s someone I like.” His smile fades as she walks away, but her mood is upbeat:

Haru’s narration: “Warm-up is over — now is the start. I’m shaking.”


COMMENTS

(Song Joong-ki = So. Cute.)

I realized while writing this recap that Triple is somewhat difficult to recap properly because mere summary doesn’t capture mood. While I’ve enjoyed writing about ti, I can’t help but feel the recaps are missing something, and I think it’s the drama’s atmosphere, its sense of pacing. When summarized in recap form, some scenes can seem like they were pointless, because they’re slice-of-life rather than plot-driving. I don’t think the scenes are actually pointless, but it’s that they sometimes end without a definitive period on the interaction. They lie there, in the process of development, like the relationships they represent. I enjoy this aspect in the watching, but it’s a little harder to appreciate in the re-telling. (In my opinion.)

As much as I’m enjoying this drama, I have to admit when something strikes me as a flaw, and I think it’s the construction of the Hyun-tae/Su-in romance. You know when you see a character in a scene, and he may only say a few lines but you already know who he is? Some actors and characters can do this well. When I say “you know who he is,” I don’t mean we know everything about the character — but at least the personality feels real. There’s a reality and a presence that makes that character relatable; you can believe that once they leave the scene, they continue to live out their lives.

Hyun-tae and Su-in perplex me, in that I have no idea what their “continued lives” would be like. I get a better sense of Hyun-tae, but both are still leaving me hanging in the emotion department. Why exactly does Hyun-tae like Su-in, other than that he thinks she’s pretty? I don’t think a person has to be able to list the reasons he/she finds someone appealing, but I should at least believe the connection in the context of the drama, and I don’t really understand this one. I kind of feel like Lee Hana and Yoon Kye-sang are only living out the characters in their scenes, rather than making them real people. What do they believe, what do they want, who are they outside of their interactions? I … hope the drama addresses this, because I want to see Yoon Kye-sang do what I know he’s capable of doing!

EPISODE 4: “Gala Show”

After Hwal punches Hyun-tae, he drives off in anger, but can’t tamp it down and returns to face Su-in. Although she meets his return with a hopeful face, that fades quickly as he demands, “Do you enjoy playing around with men?” He calls her shameless and a liar, and while she admits to the first, she defends herself against the latter.

Hwal tells her to live however she wants: “And keep me out of your life”

I think it’s adorable how Haru practices various ways of saying thank you in return for the skates (and the puppy), only by the time Hwal comes home, she’s fallen asleep under the desk (still clutching her skates).

As he takes her to her own room, he encounters Hyun-tae in the hallway. The air is awkward for a moment, until Hwal apologizes for hitting Hyun-tae, who guesses that Hwal and Su-in know each other.

Hae-yoon waits in the lobby of a movie theater for Sang-hee, who fails to show. He finds her at the bar, and is irritated to see Sang-hee enthusiastically entertaining a group of young hockey players (students, I believe).

As she closes up later, Sang-hee suggests that Hae-yoon could help her, but he’s not feeling generous at the moment and reminds her that she’s not his girlfriend. She points out that she’s a friend, and he says he’s never slept with a woman and become (just) friends afterward. As with many of their interactions, this one isn’t angry or even upset; Hae-yoon tends to go between treating Sang-hee with boyfriendy affection and resignation when she flakes on him.

As Su-in waters her yard that night, still smarting from Hwal’s reaction, she notices the basketball hoop that has been set up but doesn’t know where it came from. (Hyun-tae had previously wondered if he looked cool playing basketball and had dragged over a hoop to her yard.)

She gets a joking text message from Hyun-tae to cheer her up; the message reads, “Head-butt queen, do you like raccoons?” Su-in has to laugh-cry at that — and while I think Hyun-tae is rather forward, I think her reaction shows that she isn’t totally UN-interested in him. (The timing’s bad, and she doesn’t really think of him in the way he thinks of her, but I think there’s hope for him despite his unsuccessful attempts to draw her out.)

In the morning, Haru continues brainstorming to figure out how to show Hwal her thanks. I think she’s lovable and plucky, but she does have a history of accidents, so my immediate reaction to her exclamation “I got it!” was a cautious “Uh-oh…”

Thankfully, the task is simple: She washes his car. And Wal must be the most well-behaved puppy ever because it’s a wonder that he sits patiently as she washes the car while holding him.

Haru finds tufts of dog fur in the car, which confirms that Hwal was the one who brought Wal back home. She wants to hear him say it, though, so when he walks by, she prods, “Oppa, some really strange things happened yesterday! My skates appeared, and so did Wal. What do you think happened?”

Hwal is a bit embarrassed to admit he did that for her, so he ignores her and changes the subject. Haru isn’t daunted, knowing he cares even if he doesn’t want to admit it, and grabs him in a hug. She pledges her loyalty from now on.

The new company suffers a setback, however, when Hwal gets a call from Manager Park of the beer company reneging on the deal. Now that he’s had time to think, he concludes that they were both overreaching their capabilities, and feels uneasy about the fact that the ad company is so new and small. When Hwal tries to understand what prompted this change of heart, Manager Park blows him off and doesn’t offer much of an explanation.

Sang-hee realizes she’d flaked on their planned date and apologizes to Hae-yoon. He’s feeling down from losing out on the ad account, and she cheers him up, telling him how fantastic their company is and assuring him that they’ll get back on their feet.

Maybe it’s what he needs to hear, or maybe her supportive speech is the kind of thing a girlfriend would say, but it does the trick in lifting Hae-yoon’s mood.

Hyun-tae again waits outside to catch Su-in on her way out from coaching practice. She’s pretty tired of him showing up unexpectedly and tries to ignore him, but her car has trouble starting up, and he takes it upon himself to fix it.

As he works, Su-in broaches the subject of the run-in the night before, wondering if Hwal explained everything to Hyun-tae. She admits that she messed everything up, but doesn’t explain further. Hyun-tae doesn’t know the full story yet, but he says that he couldn’t sleep that night because he was preoccupied wondering about her. Despite her irritation with his pushiness, Su-in is a little touched to hear him say he came to see her today because he missed her.

Haru invites Hwal to see her next performance (which is also a chance for her to repeat the test she failed in Episode 2). He notices how she had time to wash his car today because she skipped the school picnic, and asks if she’s a loner at school. He already knows she’s a loner at the rink because he saw her being pranked, and it’s sorta sweet to see him worry about her, even if he won’t admit it. Haru isn’t concerned about not having friends, though, and instead chatters on about her improved jumping levels.

There’s a hilarious moment when Hwal looks over to see that Haru is standing on a tilted chair in order to reach the curtains, and is balancing perfectly on the back two legs. After she leaves, he eyes the chair and attempts the trick himself, but struggles — which is when Haru pokes her head back in and catches him mid-attempt.

In the morning, Hwal is revved up about work and determined to give things another try. He’s not about to let one failure stop him cold.

Hyun-tae’s working on a plan of his own, but he doesn’t let his friends know what it is just yet. He does ask Hwal for presentation tips, however, and takes to heart the advice, “Don’t take your eye off your opponent.”

The head of Bokman Chicken is a friend of his father’s, and now Hyun-tae attempts to present his ad ideas in a bid to get their account. His idea is good, though the execution a little sloppy — he tosses one ball at the president, who catches it. He then starts launching a barrage of balls at the men as an analogy to demonstrate how merely throwing ads and ideas at the consumer is an ineffective technique. The president finds the concept interesting, but it isn’t quite developed enough yet. Hyun-tae has to return in defeat.

Hwal gets to work trying to woo another client, and has his sights set on a brand of “kiddie juice” called Kokoma juice. Hae-yoon is the least enthusiastic about this idea because it’s a tough gig (and most of its ad campaigns have met with crushing failure), but Hwal says that if the guys can find another project, they can do that instead.

Despite knowing Hwal is angry at her, Su-in calls him for a little support when her mother is admitted to the hospital for a chronic (and seemingly terminal) illness. Her mother either doesn’t know or doesn’t accept that Su-in’s marriage is over, and grumbles at how it’s rude for her son-in-law not to visit. (I’m not quite sure if Hwal and Su-in are divorced, or still married and estranged.)

Hwal seeks out the president of the kiddie juice company at the gym, coming on assertively (but respectfully) with his pitch. After seeing a mother’s reaction to the juice in the supermarket, Hwal recognizes that the juice has a branding problem, and suggests that the company redesign their bottles to change its image. Hwal asks to be included in the competition to bid for the account, and gets his wish.

Hyun-tae returns to pitch to the chicken company boss again, and soldiers on through his presentation even though the man doesn’t seem to be paying attention. He’s prepared five approaches to market the brand, and when he presents the last idea, he readies himself for defeat. Contrary to his expectation, the president takes a liking to the tactics presented, and tells Hyun-tae he’s brilliant for thinking of a way to market all five ideas in one ad. Hyun-tae unsuccessfully starts to correct him — they were five separate ideas! — but is ignored, and gulps nervously.

One of the hockey players from the other night returns to Sang-hee’s bar, and Hae-yoon (who’s working upstairs in her private room) does not look favorably upon the new guy. His name is Jae-wook and he’s a little goofy, impressing Sang-hee with tricks like stuffing multiple cookies into his mouth.

In his jealousy, Hae-yoon interrupts their conversation several times by dropping (on purpose) a pen and papers and getting Sang-hee to retrieve them for him. So immature, but hilarious.

With her test/performance coming up, Haru wants to beef up her program and try more advanced elements, like the sort of things Hye-jin does. She entreats her coach several times, invoking Hwal’s words that she won’t know if she can do it or not until she tries for herself. Su-in says those are nice words, but they’re also dangerous because she’s putting herself at risk by rushing into things; she thinks Haru is reaching beyond her capabilities and tells her no.

Since his advice was only half-effective, Haru goes back to Hwal to ask for clarification, because her coach told her that it was rash advice. Hwal retorts that sometimes without rash actions, one cannot achieve great progress, and Haru likes that answer.

In her excitement, she tosses a toy basketball at the wall, where it knocks over a picture frame and breaks the glass. She’s immediately contrite, but I suppose Hwal is used to her accidents by now and sighs that he’ll clean it up.

Haru wants to catch up to Hye-jin’s level of skating, so she follows the other girl when she attempts a triple combination jump. After Hye-jin falls, Haru tries the same combo, and falls as well. Although Haru’s intentions are good, Hye-jin is annoyed at her for following her, and slaps her.

I suppose you could see Hye-jin as a snooty bitch character, but her actions are given more explanation later, when she and Su-in watch Haru on the ice. Su-in finally relents and tells Haru she can attempt the jump — as long as she doesn’t regret it if she fails — and now Haru is busy working on them. She falls down but gets up laughing, which strikes Su-in as remarkable.

Hye-jin grumps, “Honestly, I can’t understand. You’re all strange.” But Su-in sees through Hye-jin’s attitude and commiserates, saying she knows that the rink seems like hell right now. Hye-jin’s face starts to contort in tears as Su-in gives her advice: “Don’t be afraid you won’t meet up to your mother’s expectations. Don’t try to become the skater that other people want you to be. Be the skater you really want to be, and then this hell-like rink will become a lot better. It might even feel like heaven.”

The guys are feeling particularly lethargic on a rainy day (and the rain becomes sort of a centerpiece for this episode), not able to come up with any good ideas.

Hwal wanders over and notices something near the window: the paper with the painted footprints (Haru’s) mark a spot on the ground, and when he steps on them, his face looks out of a rectangle toward the shed, framing Haru’s goofy painting of Hwal. It’s Haru’s response to breaking his photo frame the night before, and Hwal has to smile.

Hwal calls over the guys, and they laugh at the sight, their lethargic mood uplifting. Jokingly, they hold up colored plastic sheets to the frame to add a tint to Hwal’s portrait — which gives Hwal an idea.

Haru appears at the window to prod Hwal to come jogging with her.

Haru’s energy is infectious as she dances around Hwal, running in the rain. Even when he jerks her to a stop by pulling her hood over her head (saying, “You’ll catch a cold”), Haru takes that as encouragement, saying, “Are you worrying about me?”

When Hwal returns from his run, he’s invigorated and armed with a new idea for the juice presentation — and it centers around Haru.

As I said, the rain is something of a centerpiece for character developments in this episode, bringing a measure of clarity to the relationships. Hae-yoon calls Sang-hee out to reclaim their missed date, and sit outside drinking wine, enjoying the rain.

Hyun-tae plays basketball in his yard, while Su-in looks outside at her own front yard.

Now getting down to business, Hwal recruits Haru for a part in the presentation. Not one to let opportunity pass her by, Haru tries to strike a bargain — if she helps him, will he come see her performance? He isn’t willing, so she starts to walk off, and he grudgingly agrees to her terms.

As he explains her role, Haru gives him a long look, and it’s here that we start to see the suggestion of something more developing between them. But it’s just for a brief moment, and she shakes it off saying it’s good to see this (nicer) side of him.

When it’s time to give the presentation, it starts with Haru entering the room, carrying an umbrella and strolling in to the strains of “Singin’ in the Rain.” The mood is light and easy, but suddenly changes to an action-movie vibe as the lights change, and she launches into an acrobatic sequence that mimics the sequence — you know, that one — from Entrapment.

When Haru completes her gymnastic bit, Hwal takes over, explaining that kids like the juice but there’s an image issue with the colors, which give it an unhealthy image. They’ll turn that perception around and use the colors — vibrant, energetic, healthy — as a key point in promoting the drink.

The presentation is a hit, and the guys can all feel that they’ve done a fantastic job. The response is so good that the call comes immediately, and the president congratulates them for a job well done.

However, he explains that his son — who is in advertising — recently came to him and begged him for the job. While the son has never been particularly talented, the president can’t turn down his own child, so he proposes that the two groups work together. While the words make it sound like “collaboration,” Hwal understands that this means that the president wants to use their idea and let his son take credit for it. Regretfully, he turns down the offer.

Hwal lies moping in bed when a knock sounds at the door, and a note slides underneath. He opens it and finds a message from Haru:

Haru’s note: “Oppa. Since living with you, I’ve been learning lots of things, and I learned something this time, too. Thanks, oppa. I’m competing today. You don’t have to come. I’ll wear the skates you bought me and work hard like you do.”

That, of course, prompts Hwal to get out of bed and head over to the rink. He watches as Haru performs — and lands her jump, to her own joy and Su-in’s excitement. He claps for her, approval mixing with pride.

Haru steps off the ice in tears of joy at landing the jump, which intensify when she looks up and sees Hwal watching. He waves, and gives her a thumbs-up.

Meanwhile, Hyun-tae once again comes to the rink to see Su-in, but this time, he doesn’t approach. He tells himself that he just wants to see her, nothing more, seemingly having decided to give up on her. However, at the last moment, he decides he can’t just leave like this and follows her car.

Su-in heads to the hospital, where she finds Hwal visiting her mother; Mom had called him to tell him to drop by. Su-in is mortified and apologetic that Hwal felt obligated to come, and tells him not to worry about anything her mother might say.

The two head outside after visiting, and they stop and stare for a moment when they see Hyun-tae waiting outside. He’d taken up a spot on the bench to await Su-in. The two guys look at each other for a long, wordless beat; Hyun-tae marks the moment with a wry half-smile.

And finally, sometime later that night, Haru assists Hwal to his room, his dragging feet and slumped posture suggesting he has gotten drunk.

She tucks him into bed and watches affectionately as he sleeps, and falls asleep next to him.


COMMENTS

As I mentioned, I’m not really feeling Su-in that much. I want to like her, but she is so… gahhh. Down. Gloomy. Energy-sucking. The scenes with the three guys are enjoyable, and Haru is a burst of energy. I’m on the fence about Sang-hee but she has her cute moments. Yet Su-in is just… blah.

Please, Lee Hana, can you drink a Red Bull or something or otherwise find a way to amp up that energy level? I have liked her in the past, but I think she’s wrong for this role and I don’t see a lot of chemistry with her and any of the actors. Min Hyo-rin, the utter newbie, has a lot more chemistry with everyone.

I think Su-in’s lackluster quality also drags down Hyun-tae, and makes his actions seem even more dissonant with reality than they actually are. He’s an endearing guy, both actor and character, and while I definitely wish he’d back off a little, he’s harmless enough. He’s open and honest and totally up-front about his intentions, but watching him trying to court Su-in begs the question, “Why?” It’s a little like trying to woo a brick wall. The brick wall seems hard and unmoving, while the adorable guy trying to win it over looks foolish for the attempt.

I was thinking back to all those other kdramas that feature women who return after leaving their men and want reconciliation, and it’s a hard thing to pull off successfully. They are characters you’re meant to like less than the main heroine, and her reason for leaving the hero has to be pretty bad for him to have been so hurt by her. But since these women are meant to stick around all series long, they should still be sympathetic on some level, otherwise you’re watching a cartoon and she’s merely the Evil Bish. I think Lee Hana has to be added to the list of misfires with these types of characters, in addition to those like Park Shi-yeon in My Girl, Cha Soo-yeon in The World They Live In, Byun Jung-soo in Last Scandal, Park Han-byul in Fantasy Couple, and so on.

The only instance I can think of where the returned ex-girlfriend worked is My Name In Kim Sam-soon, and that’s because Jung Ryeo-won was given a chance for her character to show her friendly, warm side before we discovered why she did what she did. Chae Jung-ahn in Coffee Prince sorta worked in that I came around to her character, although I never fully warmed to her and liked her mostly because Lee Seon-kyun’s character was so in love with her.

Meanwhile, the hint of something more developing with Hwal and Haru is… while not totally surprising, a little unexpected. I had wondered whether they’d pair up when the drama first started, but the appearance of Song Joong-ki (so cute!) as the speed-skating Poong-ho seemed to suggest he’d be the age-appropriate love interest for Haru. And they’re so cute together that I’m rooting for them.

On the other hand, Lee Jung-jae is fabulous at giving his character depth — if you’re picky, you might say he’s the only one who is doing that — and it’s meaningful how much Haru has already changed him. I’m not icked out by the age difference — Yoon Kye-sang and Go Ara were fine in Who Are You — or the pseudo-sibling thing because they barely know each other, in addition to sharing no blood. (It’s like Cher and Josh in Clueless, which I never had an issue with.) Plus Min Hyo-rin is 23 and Lee Jung-jae 36 in real life, which is not an unheard-of age gap. But maybe with BOTH aspects working at once, it feels a little weird. I dunno. But I’m open to it, so we’ll see what happens.


EPISODE 5: “Warm up”

The episode’s theme of “warm up” leads us into the opening scene: An athlete can use the warm-up time to prepare for actual competition, but in real life, you can’t prepare for the big shocks.

We start at the confrontation that ended the previous episode, as Hwal approaches Hyun-tae outside the hospital. The atmosphere is subdued; Hyun-tae already knows about the marriage, and wonders, “How can you get married in secret? Is it a joke to you?” Hwal takes his unsentimental approach: “Nothing would change by talking about it.”

Hyun-tae tells Hwal to handle the matter as he wants, and he’ll pretend not to know. When he gets up to leave, Hwal suggests a drink, but Hyun-tae’s not up for drinking with him tonight.

Hwal heads off to get drunk at Sang-hee’s bar instead, where he wonders if he should get a divorce (this answers one question for those of us wondering at the state of his marriage — they’re separated, but still legally married). Sang-hee gapes in shock to hear that Haru’s coach is his wife, particularly since that’s the woman Hyun-tae has a crush on.

At the hospital, Su-in feels the need to explain to her mother why Hwal dropped by, since she’s never confided the story of their breakup. She says it’s her fault, but her mother has already guessed that Su-in did something to hurt him; she urges Su-in to beg his forgiveness, since he’s a good man.

After leaving, Hyun-tae returns to the hospital and calls Su-in out. She thinks that since the truth is out in the open now, he should understand clearly why they can’t be involved, and why they shouldn’t even be talking like this. (I don’t read her position to mean that it’s inappropriate for a woman to talk with her husband’s friend, but more of a reminder that both of their loyalties should be stronger with Hwal than with each other.)

Hyun-tae has recovered some of his good humor and hands her some flowers (picked, not bought) and chats lightly with her. This confuses Su-in — shouldn’t he have gotten the point already? Hyun-tae, on the other hand, isn’t exactly flirting with her — okay, he is, but it’s as though he likes her so much that he’s like an eager dog unwilling to think about the problems and just wants to enjoy the moment.

In the morning, Hwal is severely hungover, to the point that he has trouble picking up food with his chopsticks. Haru sees him fumble, and hesitantly puts some food into his bowl (like she’s expecting him to scold her). (He gives up on the chopsticks and goes for a spoon instead.) Since he accepts her offering, Haru tries again, putting more food in his bowl. Normally Hwal might bark at her gruffly, but today he’s feeling sick and accepts her help, which makes her happy.

After breakfast, the guys get to work. Or at least, they try to. Hyun-tae meets with the president of the Bok Man Chicken company, for whom he had done a very small flyer ad, against his own judgment. (He and Hae-yoon keep the flyer a secret from Hwal, who looks down on flyers as beneath them.) The president likes Hyun-tae’s ad, but he isn’t really after aggressive promotion and only requests really small things. It’s a far cry from the big campaigns they’re used to working on.

Feeling chagrined, Hyun-tae blows off some steam by playing basketball with the hoop he set up in Su-in’s front yard. She threatens (weakly) to call the police, and tries to shoo him off. Her protests go ignored, and Hyun-tae replies cheerfully that he’s merely here because he had a down day and wanted to see her and play some basketball.

Actor Song Joong-ki continues to be absolutely adorable as Poong-ho. This time, Poong-ho makes all the young skaters cry by decorating Haru’s locker with photos of himself that are cut and pasted to spell out “HARU,” and one large photo in the shape of a heart. He’s plastered the inside with more photos of himself, and waits outside for her to emerge.

Haru’s too preoccupied with other news to register him at first, because Coach Su-in has just told her to apply to compete at the national level. Poong-ho tells her not to worry, that she’ll make it and then they’ll both be national athletes. When she chides him for messing with her locker, he tells her that those are her “guardian angels” — “Since I can’t always be there to watch over you.” (He then skips off in a great mood, slips, and falls down. LOL.)

We get another cute scene that evening, when Sang-hee drops by with dinner for the guys. Not realizing that the two ladies haven’t been introduced yet, the guys don’t notice that Haru is growing increasingly unhappy with the way Sang-hee is so easy with them — but that isn’t anything compared to how Haru pouts when Hwal walks into the room. She watches as Sang-hee whispers into Hwal’s ear and talks to him affectionately and does not like it, no no not at all.

Sang-hee is on a mission to bridge the conflict between Hwal and Hyun-tae, although she doesn’t say anything outwardly since she’s not supposed to know about Hwal and Su-in’s marriage. Plus, the others are still unaware. But she makes them toast and drink to friendship, which they do a little reluctantly.

It’s hilarious how Hae-yoon doesn’t like Sang-hee being attentive to Hyun-tae (which she does out of pity, for being in love with a married woman). Meanwhile, Haru dislikes when she’s attentive to Hwal, because she feels left out and possessive of someone else looking after HER oppa.

The next morning, Haru takes particular care with her clothing and puts on (way too much) makeup in a bid to appear more like a woman to Hwal. The guys have no idea why Haru giggles and attempts to flirt (badly) with Hwal over breakfast, and gape in bewilderment. Eventually she has to give up, unsuccessful.

One more surprise is in store for the household when Haru’s father and Coach Nam arrive unannounced. It sure doesn’t make Dad happy to discover that three single men are living in the household with his daugther, one of whom likes looking at pictures of scantily clad women (Hyun-tae). He looks disapprovingly at the connecting door between Hwal’s and Haru’s rooms, and balks at her doing the household’s laundry and cooking.

Haru takes the visitors with her to the ice rink, and her entry is immediately greeted by a suspended basket of food, lowered to her from above by Poong-ho. He urges her to take it, since he spent so much time making it, although she bats it away in annoyance.

The instant he hears Haru call to her father, he hurries to make his greeting and drops to make a formal bow — which is hilaaaarious since he bows from the second floor. Gaaah, Poong-ho is too cute.

He also introduces himself enthusiastically as Haru’s boyfriend — earning him a glare from her — and offers them the contents of the basket while they watch Haru skate. Even Coach Nam can see right away how much she’s improved in the past few months.

That’s one of the arguments in favor of keeping Haru here, although she senses that her father’s objections are growing and tries to smooth over his possible complaints. However, at the end of the day, he’s made his assessment and decides that Haru should move out into a rented room.

Almost everyone speaks up immediately to try to convince him otherwise; Hae-yoon and Hyun-tae assure Dad that they see her as a younger sister and look after her. Haru appeals to Hwal, asking him to speak up for her — but he agrees with her father. Rubbing salt into that wound is the very brusque (almost rude) way he addresses Haru’s father (there are clearly lingering issues there) and says that he never wanted to take her in the first place, and that he thinks she should move into a rented room.

Not only is Haru hurt by his curtness, Hae-yoon is displeased with him, too. Of the three roommates, he’s the one who tries to convince Dad to change his mind and is most upset with this turn of events.

Trying to be extra-solicitous, Hae-yoon offers his room to the visitors, and heads off to stay with Sang-hee at the bar until they leave. He has a guarded reaction to Sang-hee’s new helper, the hockey player Jae-wook from a previous episode, and while I wouldn’t call Hae-yoon’s behavior possessive, there’s definitely a little masculine power assertion here. (Jae-wook refers to Hae-yoon as Sang-hee’s boyfriend, so I would say he’s probably got a harmless crush on her but isn’t going to try anything sneaky.)

Oh! And Lee Seon-kyun sings. *swoon*

Hae-yoon does his work from Sang-hee’s place while the other guys work out of their headquarters, and all of them set out to bring in new clients. As mentioned, Hyun-tae hasn’t fared well with the chicken man, while Hwal and Hae-yoon are rebuffed by the contacts they try to meet with. They’re not asking for specific campaigns, but trying to talk with companies they have worked with in the past to see if they can lure them away. Unfortunately, most of them are fine sticking with their former ad agency, Koryeo.

When Haru has difficulty hanging the curtains in the kitchen and asks for Hwal’s help, he brushes her off and says he’ll do it later. Still hurt by Hwal’s eagerness to get rid of her, Haru asks, “Are you really okay with me going?” He looks a little uncomfortable with the question, but at his non-response, she concludes, “You really must not care whether I stay or go.”

He feels a pang of compunction after she leaves. Coming out into the hallway, he sees Haru still struggling with the curtain and steps in to help. As he does, he feels how hot she is and realizes she’s burning with fever — she’d been gradually growing sick all episode long, but had ignored it because she was insistent on continuing to train for her next competition.

Hwal gives her medicine and tends to her fever, staying by her bed while she sleeps. A while later, as he changes her washcloth, Hwal chides that she’s always causing trouble and giving him a headache. The bite is out of his voice, but Haru takes it at face value and says, “That’s harsh.”

Haru: “To me, you’re a rope from heaven. But to you, I must be useless. Because of you I could skate, you say nice things to me, you gave me a room to sleep in. You’re a rope I’m thankful for — if you were me, would you have let go? Are you a rotten rope? Is that why?”
Hwal: “If I were you… I’d hold on even to a rotten rope.”

He says that last bit with a hint of a smile. Haru thanks him, and he leaves her to sleep.

Outside, Hwal comes face to face with Haru’s father, who has gotten up to pace outside in the night air. Hwal tells him Haru’s sick, and directs him up to her room.

In the morning, Haru is better, and she again asks her father if she can stay behind. It seems like he’s already made up his mind to relent, and when he and Coach Nam leave, it’s to go home rather than apartment-hunting. Dad tells Haru to take care, and the guys send them off.

It’s back to work for the Bond Factory men, and contrary to Hwal’s insistence earlier that they not go back to their old companies begging for work, he’s pretty desperate. He had warned Hae-yoon and Hyun-tae not to do that, but finds himself meeting with his old boss at Koryeo to ask if they can take on some of their work, sort of in a hand-me-down capacity. Unfortunately, ad agencies are facing tough times, and the answer is no.

On his way out, he runs into Hae-yoon, who’s on his way in… and both men are a little abashed to be caught doing something they promised not to do.

Meanwhile, Hyun-tae again heads over to see Su-in, catching her as she’s up on her roof to retrieve a ball for some neighborhood kids. He climbs the ladder before she has a chance to get down, purposely kicking it away to leave them stranded on the roof.

Su-in is alarmed to be stuck there, but Hyun-tae settles back in a leisurely pose, enjoying the day. They stay up there for a while — I’d guess a few hours — until finally, Hyun-tae is ready to get back on solid ground. He jokes that he’ll jump off the roof — which prompts her to reflexively grab him back — but then actually does jump down.

Once on the ground, he opens his arms and urges Su-in to jump into them, assuring her that he’ll catch her. She prods him to get the ladder instead.

Back at home, Hwal comes upon Haru in the hallway while she’s kneeling with the puppy, and surprises her by tucking back a strand of hair behind her ear with his finger. He tells her, “Hold onto that rotten rope” — his way of making amends.

Haru giggles softly as she dances around with her puppy, singsonging, “Wal, we’re not getting kicked out!”

Hyun-tae’s behavior all episode long suggests that he’s going back and forth between clinging to Su-in and trying to let her go. This time it’s a little bit of both — he follows her around as he notes what she does over the course of her day, but keeps out of sight and at a distance.

At the end of the day, as he watches from outside her house, Hyun-tae thinks: “She moves in time with my watch. That’s good enough. No, it’s not. Let’s be honest. The good thing is being together.”

However, when Su-in next opens her door, it’s Hwal sitting there, not Hyun-tae. Immediately, she’s relieved and happy, telling him she had a feeling she’d find someone on the other side that she wanted to see.

You get the sense that Hwal is feeling conflicted, both wanting to see her and upset for wanting to see her. It appears the former has won out, at least for now, because he asks her to make some time for him on the weekend. He says, “I don’t know either why we don’t divorce. I’ll call you on the weekend.” With that, he heads off, leaving Su-in smiling with happiness.

Once again, as the episode wraps, Haru’s voiceover ties in the theme of today’s episode:

Haru’s narration: “The last time I can inspect myself is six minutes before competing.”

Poong-ho stops her, and says seriously, “Let’s go steady.”

After a beat, Haru answers simply, “I’m sorry, there’s someone I like.” His smile fades as she walks away, but her mood is upbeat:

Haru’s narration: “Warm-up is over — now is the start. I’m shaking.”


COMMENTS

(Song Joong-ki = So. Cute.)

I realized while writing this recap that Triple is somewhat difficult to recap properly because mere summary doesn’t capture mood. While I’ve enjoyed writing about ti, I can’t help but feel the recaps are missing something, and I think it’s the drama’s atmosphere, its sense of pacing. When summarized in recap form, some scenes can seem like they were pointless, because they’re slice-of-life rather than plot-driving. I don’t think the scenes are actually pointless, but it’s that they sometimes end without a definitive period on the interaction. They lie there, in the process of development, like the relationships they represent. I enjoy this aspect in the watching, but it’s a little harder to appreciate in the re-telling. (In my opinion.)

As much as I’m enjoying this drama, I have to admit when something strikes me as a flaw, and I think it’s the construction of the Hyun-tae/Su-in romance. You know when you see a character in a scene, and he may only say a few lines but you already know who he is? Some actors and characters can do this well. When I say “you know who he is,” I don’t mean we know everything about the character — but at least the personality feels real. There’s a reality and a presence that makes that character relatable; you can believe that once they leave the scene, they continue to live out their lives.

Hyun-tae and Su-in perplex me, in that I have no idea what their “continued lives” would be like. I get a better sense of Hyun-tae, but both are still leaving me hanging in the emotion department. Why exactly does Hyun-tae like Su-in, other than that he thinks she’s pretty? I don’t think a person has to be able to list the reasons he/she finds someone appealing, but I should at least believe the connection in the context of the drama, and I don’t really understand this one. I kind of feel like Lee Hana and Yoon Kye-sang are only living out the characters in their scenes, rather than making them real people. What do they believe, what do they want, who are they outside of their interactions? I … hope the drama addresses this, because I want to see Yoon Kye-sang do what I know he’s capable of doing!

EPISODE 6: “Jump”

The theme for today’s episode is “jump,” as Haru explains that it’s important to attempt a jump, but more important to do so safely and beautifully. Don’t think of falling, and reach for the highest.

Without any advertising work to do, Hae-yoon spends a lot of time at Sang-hee’s. Their relationship has settled into a comfortable groove — that is, until Jae-wook drops by and asks if he can crash at the bar. At Sang-hee’s easy consent, Hae-yoon looks at her incredulously and asks, “Are you crazy?”

Meanwhile, Hwal and Hyun-tae hang around at the office doing nothing. When Hwal leaves to pick up Haru from the rink, Hyun-tae voices the concern they’ve all been skirting: “How long do you think we can hold out like this?”

Su-in hands Haru a CD and tells her to familiarize herself with it — it’s music for her big competition. Listening to it in the car ride home, Haru starts to mentally choreograph her program. She’s a little startled when Hwal corrects one of her ideas, surprised he knows skating terms so well, but on the whole is pleased to think, “You studied because of me, right?”

That brings out his gruffness again (he’s not comfortable with the idea of bonding) and he ejects the CD. (Unfazed, she puts it back in.)

Hae-yoon is thrilllllled when Haru calls him oppa, and he repeats it over and over happily. (The reason he’s pleased is different than the reason Poong-ho loved being called oppa; while Poong-ho’s interest is romantic, Hae-yoon’s pleasure derives from the fact that the alternative is being called “ajusshi,” and “oppa” makes him seem younger.) Too bad Hwal ruins his enjoyment by commenting that the pair of them look like father and daughter, to which Hae-yoon retorts that he’s an oppa, not an appa (father).

Hae-yoon asks Haru (casually) what she thinks of Sang-hee letting Jae-wook stay at her place, and is gratified that Haru also thinks it’s weird — it validates that he’s not being out of line for having trouble with it.

Su-in anticipates her date with Hwal with nervous excitement, and the evening goes off uneventfully, if a bit awkwardly. For instance, she tries to tell a funny story but the atmosphere is forced and it doesn’t go off smoothly. It’s a little cute when she asks hopefully, “Are you maybe really having tons of fun but pretending not to?” At least Hwal laughs at that.

She wonders if things were this awkward the first time they met, and is pleased at his answer: “I don’t know, when I first saw you I was so nervous the only thing I could hear was my heart pounding.”

Hae-yoon was already unhappy with Jae-wook staying at Sang-hee’s bar, but was under the impression it was only temporary and is displeased to see he’s still there; he finds Jae-wook’s toothbrush in the bathroom, alongside his own and Sang-hee’s. He shows it to Sang-hee, and is frustrated when her only reaction is to the interesting color. (Hae-yoo’s reaction isn’t just because Jae-wook is staying over but also because Sang-hee sees nothing odd about the arrangement; moreover, she doesn’t understand why he would have problems with it.)

Losing his temper, he demands, “How understanding do I have to be?” He starts to yell, then cuts himself off. He throws the toothbrush aside and walks out.

At skating practice, both girls are having a bad day: Haru keeps falling, while Su-in pesters Hye-jin to smile and show some emotion in her skating. This leads to an air of frustration, which is broken when Hyun-tae suddenly shows up on the ice, stumbling and sliding, here for beginners’ classes.

Haru welcomes him with her usual warmth, but Su-in is annoyed since she knows this is because of her. Typical of Hyun-tae, he isn’t deterred at her cool response and tells her that his persistence is part of his appeal.

Afterward, Hyun-tae takes Haru home, and as they’re getting ready to take off on his motorcycle, Poong-ho rides by on his bicycle and does a double-take. Immediately threatened, he demands to know how “this jerk” is and wonders if this is the guy she had told him she liked. Haru just rolls her eyes at his childishness, and the two drive off together. Alarmed, Poong-ho pedals furiously after them and arrives at the house much later, sweating and out of breath. Muttering his dissatisfaction all the while, Poong-ho jumps the fence and heads inside, where he sees Hyun-tae again and starts to shout accusingly. But at Hae-yoon’s authoritative bearing, Poong-ho shrinks back, mindful of his elders. (HE. IS. SO. CUTE.)

A little calmer now, Poong-ho introduces himself as Haru’s boyfriend (to her irritation), and asks who the guys are. They don’t look like brothers — are they uncles? (Hae-yoon is chagrined to be bumped out of the oppa class and relegated to the older generation once again.)

The guys find Poong-ho and his youthful ardor entertaining, and Hyun-tae has some fun at his expense, introducing himself as Haru’s husband. Poong-ho gapes disbelievingly while Hyun-tae continues with the joke, introducing Hae-yoon as Haru’s ex-husband. Haru’s a little young, but she’s mature for her age, and they all live together as a cool modern family of sorts. Lastly, Hwal is identified as Haru’s brother — her younger brother, who despite his appearances is still a teenager.

Poong-ho is gullible enough to buy the first two, and only gets that they’re pulling his leg with the third explanation. But by the time he leaves, he’s back to being cheerful (now that these potential threats to his suit have been mitigated). He announces his intentions, asking, “Hyungnim! Could I be Haru’s first husband eventually?” Hwal tells him to go to the army first, then they’ll talk, which is a way of pointing out how young they still are.

The anniversary of Haru’s mother’s death is approaching, so her father tells her to go to pay her respects this year with Hwal. (All these years, he’s taken Haru to her mother’s grave, but now that she has Hwal, it’s more appropriate for her to go with him.)

Haru tries to broach the subject of visiting their parents’ graves, but senses Hwal won’t be receptive and stops herself. Instead, Hwal asks about her training, and she tells him that her initial intentions were to focus only on skating, but now that she’s improving and experiencing more, she’s also getting more ambitious. With his trademark bluntness, Hwal replies, “If you want to do those things, just do it, what’s the problem?”

To Haru, it’s not that simple — people don’t automatically get everything they want — but his philosophy has a nice ring of truth to it, and she takes it to heart.

Once more, skating practice is not going well — Su-in is frustrated with her skaters again — when Hyun-tae shows up for his lesson. This time, he steps onto the ice and imitates Su-in’s shrill nagging, pointing out how useless it is to angrily demand someone to smile, but doing it with enough good-natured cheer that the girls laugh at his imitation. He tells the girls that their coach means well, but reminds them to smile, buoying the serious atmosphere.

After practice, Su-in decides to take a different approach to Hye-jin (and improving her surliness) by asking her to come in an hour early the next day to teach the beginners’ class. Naturally, her overbearing stage mother balks at this, but Su-in tells Hye-jin to think it over.

Hwal’s birthday is approaching, and Haru enlists Hae-yoon’s help in planning a party. Hae-yoon tells her that Hwal hasn’t celebrated the day in five years, because their parents died the following day and darkened the memory. Still, Haru insists on a small celebration, and pores through some of the middle school photos depicting the three guys and Sang-hee as teenagers.

While they’re going over some ideas, Hwal enters the room, sending the two co-conspirators into a hurry to cover up their planning materials. HA! at Hae-yoon’s idea of a casual playing-it-cool pose:

Lovelorn Hyun-tae is having trouble sleeping, so he arrives (unnanounced, of course) that night in Su-in’s yard with a sleeping bag. He ignores Su-in’s protests and tells her good night, zipping up the bag to sleep.

Honestly, it’s a good thing Yoon Kye-sang is so cute, because his character is being pretty ridiculous — it’s one thing to feel infatuation with a person (hey, who hasn’t been there?), but quite another to be stalking them daily and literally trespassing on their property.

The next day at practice, Hye-jin is smiling happily for once, after teaching the younger class. Not only was it fun engaging with the youngsters, for some reason it’s also helped loosen her tight shoulder, which had been bothering her. (The point of the exercise was to get Hye-jin out of her grim mood and skating more freely, laughing more, so in that respect this experiment has been a resounding success.)

Haru asks Hye-jin, who’s still much more advanced than she is, whether there’s anything about her skating that gives her trouble. For Haru, the spiral is the easiest, so Hye-jin tells her to give it a try, then pushes her to hold her leg higher, higher, higher, until Haru falls to the ice. Using this as an example, Hye-jin says that even the easy tasks are difficult.

As for the Bond Factory: With work nonexistent, Hwal hits upon a new idea, spawned by seeing a collection of cheap flyers stuck onto his car window. He remembers what their old boss said he did when he started their former firm, Koryeo — he went around and looked at the flyers put out by businesses, then used those as a starting point to offer his own services. The guys are not enthusiastic — this kind of work is scraping the bottom of the barrel — but Hwal pushes on.

Thus Hwal approaches a restaurant owner, offering ideas for improving upon their previous advertisements, and their revised product earns the owner’s approval. It’s a small job, but at least it’s work.

He also takes a meeting with the Bok Man Chicken president, hoping to lure him into a television ad campaign. He’s not optimistic, since they know the guy is stingy and resistant to fancy campaigns, but Hwal takes an assertive approach and shows a competitor’s television ad. It rankles the president, because the ad spot earned his competition good business, but he gripes that the ad isn’t even that good. Hwal commiserates, saying that he understands how frustrating it is to see bad work earn success for a rival. The president takes well to Hwal’s no-nonsense, straightforward approach.

Then, it’s skating competition day. In more adorableness, Poong-ho enlists his friends to help cheer on Haru with a sign that says “Lee Haru ♥ Ji Poong-ho.” (LOL. It would be cute enough if the sign were backward — Poong-ho loves Haru — but the fact that he put it the other way makes it funnier. Oh, youthful confidence.)

Haru competes in the last group of skaters (ostensibly in the most skilled group), and fights her considerable nerves as she steps onto the ice, skating to the program that she (and Hwal) designed. Her jumps are clean, and she’s worked hard on her elements — even her spiral is higher than before — and ends the program to much approval and applause.

Hye-jin is next, and Haru wishes her good luck. They still bicker back and forth, but they’ve reached a certain level of respect, and Hye-jin has seen Haru’s impressive program. While Hye-jin has been skating better, when she steps onto the ice, she falls on two jumps and stumbles on another, and when she finishes her program, she knows how badly she’s screwed up. Furthermore, everyone’s startled — Haru had always been the wild card between the two of them, and if someone were to have problems, one would have expected it to be Haru, not Hye-jin.

Haru wins the gold medal, which she regards with awe, but her mood is subdued because it’s mixed with sorriness at Hye-jin’s unexpected bad performance. Su-in congratulates her on a job well done, and Hye-jin’s mother overhears, bursting out angrily that she hadn’t been coaching Hye-jin properly and that she will be changing coaches immediately.

Haru approaches the car hesitantly to talk to a devastated Hye-jin, but Hye-jin doesn’t say anything and closes the door in tears.

Unexpectedly, the guys are called in by the Bok Man Chicken president, and they all wonder nervously what the occasion is. They fear it’s bad news, particularly when the president starts off by complaining of the rival’s ad, which kept him awake all night. Therefore, he tells them they’d better do a good job and at least be better than the competition, and the guys take a moment to realize that they’ve just scored a television ad. As they walk out, they marvel at this turn — it’s been a long time since they’ve worked on a television ad, which is much more creatively interesting and satisfying work than printing out coupons and flyers.

The president even loads them up with boxes of chicken to take home as a gift — and it’s then that Hyun-tae and Hae-yoon (reacting to the word “gift”) realize something. They exchange looks, hand over their piles of boxes to Hwal, and make a quick getaway, telling Hwal to share the chicken with whomever and that they’ll see him at home.

This leaves Hwal bewildered, and he doesn’t understand their sudden departure until he arrives at home. The lights are all off, as he tries to flick them on, he is led inside to where a large projection screen is set up.

When he sees the screen, it starts playing a slideshow of old photos of Hwal from middle school, and a recording of Haru’s voice kicks in:

Haru’s recording: “See, oppa — it’s really interesting that I could see a side of you I didn’t know. The oppa back then seems like my friend, and also like my younger brother. Teenage Shin Hwal, Jo Hae-yoon, Jang Hyun-tae, Kang Sang-hee — I like it. But why were you born so early? It would have been nice if you were born a little later. Then I could talk with the oppa in these pictures and we could have hung out together. Too bad. Thanks for letting me stay with you. Happy birthday, oppa.”

When the slideshow ends, Haru pops up from her hiding place and wishes him happy birthday: “From now on, I’ll help celebrate the birthday you lost because of me.”

Then the guys emerge from their hiding places with a cake and sing him happy birthday, and this leads to a cake fight (smearing frosting on each others’ faces) and general conviviality.

When Sang-hee shows up to join the party, Hae-yoon ignores her, still upset about Jae-wook. Even when she tells him that Jae-wook found a new place to stay, he remains cool. Understanding that he’s still angry, Sang-hee talks to him tentatively, hoping for a truce or an opening. Instead, Hae-yoon tells her that they don’t suit each other — they may be okay dating, but “it’ll be difficult for us to develop into anything more.”

Sang-hee asks hesitantly, “Did I make a mistake?” He tells her flatly, “You didn’t make a mistake. It was my mistake for thinking you could change.”

Sang-hee keeps up a cheerful front with the other guys but makes an early exit. When Hwal gets a text message from Su-in, he also cuts out early, breaking up the party just as they’re cutting the cake.

After leaving, Sang-hee gets drunk and calls Hae-yoon from a street bench just outside a restaurant, slurring her apologies and asking him to pick her up. Hae-yoon battles indecision for a moment before he heads out to get her, but he’s not quick enough, because Jae-wook gets there first. Sang-hee hadn’t called him, but he says that Hae-yoon won’t be able to make it, and carries Sang-hee home.

Hwal arrives at Su-in’s place, where she greets him with birthday cupcakes. As he blows out the candles, Su-in looks outside to see Hyun-tae arriving in front of her house on his motorcycle. Hyun-tae sees the cozy scene inside, then turns around and leaves glumly. Su-in doesn’t react either, and while Hwal pretends he doesn’t notice, he has heard the sound and knows what’s just happened.

Therefore, when he comes home, he’s frustrated with Hyun-tae. He tells him, “Things are still complicated with me and Choi Su-in, so don’t get involved too.” Plus, he advises Hyun-tae to sleep at home, not in someone’s front yard, indicating he was aware of that as well.

Hwal heads to his room, still frustrated, where he sees a slice of cake left by Haru. She’s also left her skating medal with a note telling him she won first place; she’s a national skater now.

Perhaps this is a reminder, or just the prodding he needs, because Hwal eats the cake, then wakes Haru up to go visit their parents.

As they drive, Hwal thanks her for the party but tells her she doesn’t have to do that again. Haru answers, “I think I understand how you feel. I thought when five years passed, I wouldn’t be sad. But I keep thinking of Mom, every day. June is your least favorite month of the year too, isn’t it?”

When she asks where he went earlier, he replies, “My girlfriend.” At first she thinks he’s joking, but when she realizes he’s telling the truth, Haru grows sulky and refuses to look at him. (Her bubbly nature is too strong for that to last long, however, and she cheers up again in no time.)

The gravesite is a fair distance away, so Hwal pulls over for a nap break. Haru muses about their names, saying that she was named Haru (a day) because it took a whole day for her to be born. What does Hwal mean?, she wonders. (He doesn’t know and tells her to go to sleep.)

As he settles back in his seat and closes his eyes, Haru looks at him, tracing her finger in the air over his hand and face until he feels her presence and tells her to cut it out. He opens his eyes to see Haru looking at him intently, which gives him an odd feeling, so he turns away to face the door instead. His discomfort grows, so finally he gets out of the car for some air.

In the morning, they arrive at the cemetery and make their greetings to their parents, leaving flowers and cleaning off the headstone. Haru sees that their names are printed together on the marker and wonders (wistfully?), “Why am I your sister?”

They head back for home after their visit, and Haru’s narration ties in the episode’s theme to the latest developments. She recalls a book she once saw that said that falling has wings, which always struck her as a curious thing:

Haru’s narration: “Why would you fall when you have wings? But today, I suddenly wanted wings. Wings to let me fly high, strong wings to take me far away…”

The next day before practice, Su-in gives Haru good news: She has been granted a spot, alongside Hye-jin, in the upcoming Eurasian competition. Haru basks in the thrill while Su-in heads off to the office for a moment, until her attention is diverted by Su-in’s ringing phone. Curiously, she peers at the front display, which shows a photo with Su-in and Hwal and the descriptor, “My husband.”

Curious and surprised, Haru picks up the phone, just as her narration wraps up:

Haru’s narration: “…Even if I fall at some point.”


COMMENTS

Part of my satisfaction with this episode is in how well the theme plays in particularly nicely — “jump” in the context of skating is extrapolated to play on falling, as in love (or at least infatuation). That image comes into clarity in the last several scenes, when Haru looks up at the sky out the car window while narrating about falling, wondering why she and Hwal are in a sibling relationship, and then feeling that *koong* feeling of falling hard when she sees Su-in’s phone and realizing what that means.

On that note, Lee Jung-jae is doing such a good job as Hwal. I love Kang Ji-hwan, but I have to admit that I can’t see him doing a better job than Lee Jung-jae, who does that reluctant gruff guy so heartwarmingly well. I suppose Kang Ji-hwan may be able to pull it off — he IS a good actor, and as a good actor perhaps he’d do fine acting against type — but I keep seeing him as too cute to pull off perpetually grumpy. And I love Lee Jung-jae anyway, so I’m happy.

I was thinking of how much I adore the Haru & Poong-ho developing romance, and wondered why it comes off as sweet and endearing when I have so little patience for the Su-in and Hyun-tae storyline, which is developing along similar lines. In both cases, you have the guy falling for the girl right away; he announces his interest and persists despite the girl’s relative disinterest, and generally acts like an adorable pest. But Poong-ho doesn’t bother me at all, and I’m heartily rooting for him and Haru. I think it’s because Haru tolerates Poong-ho and doesn’t seem entirely turned off by his affections — she doesn’t like him in the same way, but she smiles in amusement, for instance, when he brings out his cheering party at her skating competition. Or when she laughs along with Hyun-tae’s invented story about how they’re married.

In contrast, Su-in is clearly not interested and is still in love with her husband. It’s not her fault that she doesn’t like Hyun-tae at this point, because if she did we’d hate her for having feelings for someone else while pursuing a reconciliation with Hwal. But she doesn’t have the same affectionate exasperation for Hyun-tae that Haru does for Poong-ho, so Hyun-tae seems like a creepy stalker who is incapable of respecting a woman’s wishes — or, worse yet, disregards them. They seem like an ill fit, and I think this is a writing problem more than an acting one, even though Lee Hana continues to bore me with her blandness. (She’s capable of more, and had a brief flash of likability in her date with Hwal, when she chattered in nervous giddiness. I want to see more of that cute, personable Su-in, not the dour one whose expressions are stuck in the range of “mild disapproval” and “mild disinterest.”)

EPISODE 7: “Edge”

This episode opens with another nice play on a skating metaphor (if a little overdone with the blood), as Haru practices her routine and grabs hold of one blade as she holds one leg in the air, musing about the importance of the edges on the skating blade, and how it’s important to distinguish between the inside and outside edges. As she narrates, “Sometimes we get hurt,” she notices that she has cut her hand holding the skate.

This brings us back to the scene that ended the last episode, as she peers at Su-in’s phone, hesitating for a moment before picking up the call. She hears Hwal’s voice and hangs up, frozen in surprise.

After practice, Haru remains deep in thought as Hyun-tae (fresh out of his beginners’ class) talks to her. Haru wonders why Hwal would call Su-in, asking why his profile was labeled “Husband.” Hyun-tae knows the answer, but hides his reaction and glosses it over, since it’s not his place to tell. Instead, when they arrive home, he tells Hwal that Haru has found out that he’s married, and advises him to explain it to her.

Hwal is taken aback, not used to Haru ignoring him, but today she’s in a dull mood and she walks by without speaking to him. That evening, he looks through his things and finds a photo of his wedding day.

He drops it on the breakfast table the next morning, and Hae-yoon picks it up curiously. At his reaction, Hwal says simply, “I got married.”

Hae-yoon laughs in disbelief, but clocks the non-reaction from the others (Hyun-tae and Haru continue eating silently) and joshes Hwal for telling the others and leaving him in the dark. Hwal explains, “We’re separated now, and we don’t know how things will happen in the future. Don’t ask more than that.”

Hae-yoon remembers that Hyun-tae likes Su-in, and now the reason for Hyun-tae’s reticence becomes clear. Oy, what a mess this is.

During the drive to the ice rink, Hwal asks whether Haru is surprised he’s married. Not knowing that Haru is starting to develop feelings for him, he assures her that there’s nothing to be surprised or worried about, since “nothing will change.”

Haru breaks her silence to ask why and when he got married. He answers that they’d met a year ago in Vancouver, and Haru lets loose with a barrage of questions — how did it happen? Was it love at first sight? Who fell for whom first? And perhaps most importantly, “What does it mean to be spouses?” She’s trying to grasp the extent of Hwal’s attachment to Su-in by parsing each component of their relationship, and frustrated because she doesn’t understand.

At the rink, Su-in is startled when Haru treats her normally in front of Haru (as in, he doesn’t hide that they know each other). He informs her that the cat is out of the bag now, and Haru knows the truth. Su-in feels abashed for pretending they were strangers, and Haru keeps her distance.

After practice, Su-in offers Haru a ride home, since none of her three ajusshi-oppas is picking her up today. Still aloof, Haru declines the ride, and Su-in apologizes for not telling her the truth. Haru answers (though unconvincingly), “At first I was shocked, but it’s not something that involves me anyway.”

So when Haru changes her mind and asks for a ride, Su-in is eager to comply — although Haru doesn’t want to go home. Instead, they arrive at Su-in’s house, where Haru asks all the questions she’d asked Hwal (which had gone unanswered) — how they met, fell in love, how their first kiss happened. Haru asks, “Do you love him?” Su-in nods and says, “Things ended up this way because I wronged him. But we started over, so things will improve now.”

Realizing that she’d forgotten to buy milk (they’re baking something in an exercise of girl-bonding), Su-in steps out, telling Haru she’ll be back right away. Haru looks around the room idly, spotting a videotape labeled “Asking for Choi Su-in’s forgiveness.” This piques her interest and she plays it, only to find it’s a homemade clip of Hwal and Su-in. In it, Su-in tosses out ideas for a skating program using Haru’s program music — Hwal had made the music with Su-in in mind.

Glumly, Haru leaves the house without waiting for Su-in to come back, and walks back home. She finds Poong-ho (SO CUTE — I should just nickname him that to spare myself the trouble of shouting it every time he appears) waiting outside for her.

Poong-ho has a competition coming up that will take him overseas, and tells Haru not to be too sad or miss him too much since he’ll be back soon. Haru scoffs, “Ha, sad? Why don’t you stay a few months while you’re at it?”

Poong-ho does that dawdling thing where it’s obvious that he wants to linger, but has no excuse to stay because Haru dismisses him. He wants a goodbye kiss, but as Haru doesn’t take his hint (or seem inclined to favor him with a kiss), he looks around and picks her up like last time, ready to plant one on her anyway…

…at which point a water bottle lands on his head. It’s been tossed down from the wall above, where Hwal is watching. Hehe — Poong-ho’s reaction is adorably flustered, as he tries to bow to his elder while still holding Haru. Immediately contrite, Poong-ho puts her down and hastens away.

As Hwal and Haru head toward the house, she asks about her skating music, now that she knows where it came from. She wonders, isn’t it ridiculous to have her skate to it when Hwal made it for Su-in?

Hwal agrees, but not for the reason Haru is hinting. He quips that it suits Su-in, who is tall and graceful, while Haru is short.

Hospital. Su-in’s mother tells the couple not to remain separated for too long and urges them to have children, because she wants to be a grandmother before she dies.

Her mother smells something funny and wonders if it’s coming from her clothing. Su-in sniffs and assures her mother that nothing is amiss, but when she and Hwal leave, she worries that her mother is starting to smell odd, not the clothing.

They share an elevator with an old, sickly man, and I’m fairly certain this is foreshadowing Su-in’s mother’s impending death. I have a feeling this may become one of those really obvious storylines, contrived as a way of keeping the couple together, and I confess to having little patience for it. I hope it will not last long.

Hae-yoon has been suffering from Sang-hee withdrawal, keeping away from her since their last falling-out. He doesn’t acknowledge that he misses her, but Hwal sees through him plainly — it’s pretty obvious that he’s distracted and bummed when he cooks with dishwashing soap instead of oil. Hwal calls Sang-hee to tell her to take care of Hae-yoon because he’s “sick” (he means lovesick, but doesn’t clarify that to her), prompting her to call him to check in.

Having ruined his food, Hae-yoon is hungry and they’re out of ramen, so he asks if Sang-hee has any and heads over. At first, Hae-yoon doesn’t look happy with Jae-wook joining them at the table, but he laughs it off and the mood lightens. Hwal and Su-in drop by the bar — this is Su-in’s first time meeting his friends — and join the party.

Sang-hee calls Hyun-tae to urge him to join in, thinking it’s big news that Hwal’s wife is there, but he declines. He and Haru are in the same boat, their curiosity over Hwal and Su-in’s date battling their distaste over their status as a happy couple. In the end, Haru pushes them to go.

It’s a little awkward to have everyone together with all the conflicting emotions in play, as we see when Haru comes upon Hwal outside on the deck as he’s finishing up a phone call.

Haru tells Hwal sadly, “Today you really seem married.” She reaches for his hand and starts to cry, “It’s strange. It’s too strange.” I love that she grasps hold of one finger and not his entire hand, which parallels the tentative way she’s reaching out to him, conflicted, afraid to confront things head-on but afraid to back away for fear of losing him.

Not understanding the source of her emotions, Hwal wipes her tears away and asks what’s wrong.

Sang-hee and Hae-yoon talk while clearing out the bar at the end of the impromptu party, and he apologizes for being a nag. Sang-hee’s just glad he’s not mad at her anymore and thanks him for that.

He brings up an instance a while back when she was dumped and had gotten completely drunk. They laugh over the memory, and he says, “I don’t know if my embrace is as wide as your father’s, but I’ll try.” Sang-hee grabs him in a hug and thanks him. He tells her, “Don’t make my heart hurt.”

This scene is probably my favorite in this episode, and I think it’s the mood that I like — it’s a meaningful exchange, but not acted too seriously or too heavily. Hae-yoon and Sang-hee are playful and affectionate, but their words are sincere. Lovely, downplayed scene.

The others leave the bar separately, but Hyun-tae’s motorcycle pulls up alongside Hwal’s car at a red light. The two men’s eyes meet — Hwal’s gaze is a little uncomfortable, Hyun-tae’s merely sad — while Haru turns away, and then the two vehicles take opposite paths and go their separate ways.

Her unhappiness growing, Haru tells Su-in that she wants to switch songs for her program. Clearly the associations are too strong for her, and she doesn’t want to skate with those strings attached. She explains that she can’t feel the music anymore.

Su-in doesn’t know the underlying reason for Haru’s adverse reaction to the song, and merely interprets this as a common case of nerves. In any case, it’s too late to switch the music now that the Euro-Asia competition is approaching fast.

Advertising firm. The Bond Factory guys have gotten Bok Man Chicken onboard for a television commercial, but the president is dissatisfied with Hwal’s proposed ideas. Those concepts are too common, and too similar to competitors’ ads. The president wants more than mere product promotion; he wants a really memorable ad as a proclamation that the company he worked so hard to build has become a success.

To honor the president’s wishes, Hwal decides to recruit the best commercial director they can find. He seeks him out on a commercial set and introduces himself, but is only able to give him a business card before the super-busy director is called away.

Thus he’s forced to try again, approaching him on another day. Hwal entreats the director for just one minute of his time, handing him the ad material. He presents his case and asks him to consider it. The director takes a liking to Hwal’s demeanor (respectful but assertive) and tells his assistant to keep the Bond Factory card handy. It’s not a promise, but the gesture shows that he’s considering it.

When Haru walks out of practice to see Hwal picking her up today, she perks up and runs excitedly to the car, but stops when Su-in gets there first and starts talking to him. Hwal offers a ride to Su-in, who accepts happily since she took the subway today.

Mood souring, Haru declines the ride, making the excuse that she has an errand to run. The two adults don’t get her change of attitude and urge her into the car, so Haru suddenly turns and runs the other way to keep them from following.

I confess I was loving the episode until this next scene, because I JUST. DON’T. GET. IT. Hwal drops Su-in off at home, where they are both disgruntled to find Hyun-tae playing basketball. (Hyun-tae, you are adorable but what the hell?)

Hwal has to figure out a way to nip this thing in the bud (too late for that?) and proposes a one-on-one game: winner gets one wish granted by the loser. Su-in shakes her head and withdraws, leaving the men to their game.

Hyun-tae wins, and as they sit to catch their breaths, he asks what Hwal would have asked for if he’d won. Hwal answers that he would’ve told Hyun-tae to remove the basketball hoop from Su-in’s yard. And now for Hyun-tae’s wish: “Give up Su-in to me.”

Hwal scoffs, saying that’s a ridiculous joke, and Hyun-tae relaxes (it was a joke), pointing out that Hwal probably felt a momentary lurch at his request. What if he’d been serious? For his real wish, Hyun-tae asks for leave from work this weekend, so he can act as Haru’s guardian for her skating competition. (Hwal understands that this means Hyun-tae wants to spend the weekend near Su-in.)

That night, Hwal hears Haru come home and checks in on her. She’s still feeling morose and asks, “Why did you get married? Why did you lie?” He replies (not getting why she cares so much), “What does that have to do with you?”

Haru agrees, “You’re right, it doesn’t. It shouldn’t mean anything to me.” She pauses, then starts again:

Haru: “I… like you. I like you so much, my heart… it hurts. Even though it hurts, I keep liking you. What do I do?”

Hwal is so taken aback that he doesn’t know how to react, and leaves abruptly after saying good night. He’s rendered nearly speechless, but by the next morning he seems to have recovered: When Hae-yoon wonders what’s with her these days, Hwal answers candidly that she confessed she likes him.

Hwal and Hae-yoon head to the commercial shoot, which puts the Bok Man president on a mini-obstacle course against a bluescreen. The hotshot CF director is dissatisfied with this model — he’s used to slick, good-looking promos — and the guys intervene to keep the situation running smoothly.

With his weekend off, Hyun-tae arrives with Haru and Su-in at the Euro-Asia Championship (and is put to work as baggage handler).

My irritation meter once again shot up when Hyun-tae calls Su-in out that night, forcing her to meet him by threatening to publicly serenade her if she doesn’t. She’s amazed at the audacity of his overtures — why her? “You know I’m your friend’s wife. How can you do this?”

Hyun-tae continues blithely along with his picnic and answers, as though this explains his behavior (my opinion: it totally doesn’t): “Because I fell for you at first sight. Is that possible? All I know is, if I think of you, my heart aches. Were we ill-fated in a past life?… If I’m with you, I don’t know why time goes so fast. Every minute, every second is precious.”

While Su-in is outside with Hyun-tae, Haru looks around the room they’re sharing, and sees some CDs. One is labeled, “I like you!” and turns out to be Haru’s skating music; a few seconds into the familiar song, Hwal’s voice comes on: “I made this thinking of you. Whenever you hear it, think of me. I love you, Choi Su-in.”

Haru stops the disc and angrily snaps it in half, throwing the pieces over the balcony.

In the morning, however, the competition’s copy of Haru’s music has a glitch, so Su-in goes to retrieve her back-up copy… but the disc is no longer in the case. Puzzled, Su-in figures she must have left it at home and tries to figure out a solution, and ends up calling Hwal. He finds another copy and drives to the competition to deliver the CD to Su-in, who breathes a sigh of relief. She invites Hwal to watch, but at the continued tension emanating from Haru, he declines and heads back.

With all her emotions in a knot, Haru’s performance at the competition is a big question mark, but surprisingly, it goes very well. She lands her jumps and skates smoothly despite the music… until she looks over and catches a glimpse of Su-in’s face. Her expression is happy and proud at Haru’s clean skate, but it makes Haru flash back to the video she’d seen of Hwal and Su-in.

With those images playing in her mind, it’s no wonder she falls on her last jump. Hyun-tae calls Hwal to let him know that Haru has been injured.

Haru remains lying on the ice until the medical staff comes out to help her, but the pain is more internal than external, and this fall is both symbolic of her feelings (recall the jumping and falling metaphor of Episode 6) and the catalyst to get her to realize where her true pain lies:

Haru’s narration: “When the body is injured, our bodies wisely turn all of our energies into looking after it. But injuries to the heart are easy to neglect. Is it that we’re clumsy at looking after our own hearts? Is that why we don’t even know that our hearts are injured?”


COMMENTS

Like I said, I’m really liking Triple.

The only aspect I’m actively disliking is the Hyun-tae storyline. The love triangle in and of itself isn’t the issue. What IS problematic is how one-sided (er, two-sided?) this love triangle is — it’s like the world’s acutest isosceles triangle with Hyun-tae being the super-short leg. By this I mean that they’re not doing a very good job of giving us a way to sympathize with Hyun-tae, and believe me, I want to. (Yoon Kye-sannnng!) In making his actions so outrageous, we have to take Hwal and Su-in’s side(s), but in so doing we get no logical explanation for Hyun-tae’s side. No matter how strongly in love he thinks he is, he has no claim on Su-in, and worse yet, she’s happy with Hwal. (At least, for now.) He makes no sense and I want him to start being relatable.

Aside from that, I like how things are developing and seeing a different side to Haru The drama isn’t about bold plot twists or dramatic confrontations, but gives me a rather jjan-han feeling. The translation is sort of hard to encapsulate in one word, but it’s like the dull ache brought on by a whole host of mixed emotions rather than a sharp pang of any single emotion. It’s both hopeful and despairing, lovely and awful. It’s *jjan.* The last drama to make me feel that was (the first half of) The Return of Iljimae, and as I mentioned up top, My Sweet Seoul had traces of that as well, although I think Seoul was breezier and less about pathos.

What PD Lee Yoon-jung has such a talent for isn’t particular shots or stories, but creating an atmosphere, which gives the drama an overall cohesion and flow. And Min Hyo-rin! What a nice surprise. Seeing her acting here makes me think she was woefully promoted as a singer, because she attracted a good share of derision as the “luxury nose” girl, and none of her ebullient charm came through.

EPISODE 8: “Injury”

Episode 8 opens with the theme of the day, as Haru narrates that one injury can lose an athlete her career, or require a long recovery period before she can jump again.

An injured Haru is taken to the hospital. Hwal bursts in and has to be told to leave the room while Haru is under examination; Haru keeps her face averted. He waits anxiously outside with Su-in and Hyun-tae for the results.

This collision of physical and mental pain has her directing her emotional outburst at Hwal: Hyun-tae offers to drive Su-in’s car back so the others can go together, but Haru pulls back and says she’d rather go with Hyun-tae. Hwal knows that Haru’s reaction is because of her feelings for him, but he doesn’t have the patience for her protests and picks her up to put her inside the car.

I think there were comments that blamed Haru for acting immaturely here, but I don’t know, I sympathize quite strongly with her. She’s an eighteen-year-old girl (which would make her seventeen by Western standards) who has just been injured, is scared that she’ll never skate again, and is being treated like a child by the person she likes (ostensibly her first love).

I find Haru’s reaction really realistic, to the extent where I was a bit angry with Hwal for putting her into the car — he knows Haru has feelings for him and that alone should make physical contact a particularly touchy issue, pardon the pun. She’s feeling raw and vulnerable, and Hwal just picks her up and deposits her in the car. (A guy who forcibly exerts his wishes without regard for the girl’s feelings would infuriate me.)

Hyun-tae is the odd one out in this situation, having less of a claim to either Haru or Su-in, and therefore he comes home separately. As he mopes, Hae-yoon seems to take a sympathetic line… until he pantses (pants?) him, yanking down his sweats and telling him to get his act together. HA. Thank goodness Hae-yoon isn’t just The Voice, but also the Voice of Reason.

Back at the hospital, Su-in and Hwal speak with the doctor and are told that Haru has had a weak knee ever since the car accident five years ago. Haru has never shown signs of pain, and Hwal frustratedly says that she should have spoken up if she was hurting. Su-in blames herself, thinking that Haru was particularly stressed out over the music glitch.

When they tell Haru her diagnosis — it’s mostly inflammation and she is prescribed rest — she perks up because she doesn’t think it’s serious. She wants to head back to practice immediately, which sparks Hwal’s temper because he feels she’s being foolish and stubborn.

During the drive home, Su-in makes an attempt at a friendly gesture by suggesting they all go out to eat. Haru turns her down, preferring to go home; her resentment is left unspoken but fills the air with tension.

In contrast, Haru brightens to her normal upbeat self when greeting Hae-yoon and Hyun-tae. While Hwal is partly to blame for Haru’s coolness to him, I think he feels left out by the slight — as though he had taken her sunny attitude for granted and now misses it. Not that he’d ever admit that.

But once in her own room, Haru takes down her Euro-Asia skating poster and lets herself cry.

Hye-jin surprises Su-in by showing up unannounced at her house and asking her to be her coach again. If Su-in agrees, Hye-jin is sure she can persuade her mother to agree. The request takes Su-in by surprise and she asks, “Didn’t you hate training with me?”

Hye-jin had done well at the competition without Su-in, but she feels the difference with a new coach and replies, “You’re right, I was really annoyed and I hated you a lot, but I don’t think there’s anyone who’s as good as you. So much that it’s embarrassing. Please make me into a much better skater than I am now.”

The next morning, Hae-yoon goes looking for Haru to announce breakfast, but finds that she’s gone. She has gone to the ice rink alone, and skates around the empty rink.

When she comes home, she finds Hyun-tae in the yard and wonders how he’s handling the fact that the person he likes likes someone else: “Don’t you want to split them apart?” He says yes, but advises her not to give her coach a hard time, even if she’s hurting.

She jokes that Hyun-tae’s a fool, and he concedes, “Well, people in love are fools. Haru, you’re a fool.” Haru teases back, “Oppa, you’re a fool too.”

Hae-yoon chides her gently for leaving the house without notice. Hwal is less gentle; he glowers and scolds her, saying that she worried them by slipping away. Haru retorts, “Since when did you worry like that?”

This sparks a more serious argument, and he yells that she’s not supposed to skate. Defiantly, she throws back at him the words he’d once said to her: “It’s none of your business so butt out.”

(Again, I can see where some might see Haru as a brat here, but I cheered her on in this exchange.)

Haru continues to ignore the recommendation to rest and shows up at the ice rink again, surprising Su-in and Hye-jin. Frustrated with her stubbornness, Su-in pulls her aside and instructs her to keep off the ice until she gives her consent. Haru protests — she’s fine, so why can’t she skate?

Haru seems shaken when Su-in tells her heatedly that she might put herself at risk for good, but she gets on the ice anyway (with tears in her eyes).

Unable to get through to Haru, Su-in calls Hwal, who is in a celebratory meeting with the Bok Man Chicken president. Tonight is the premiere of their commercial, and they have gathered in the office to watch it during the 9pm news hour. Hwal hesitates when he sees the call, but this is an important moment and he puts the phone away.

Su-in tries Hyun-tae next, who steps aside to take the call. Hearing the problem, he excuses himself from the gathering and heads over to the rink, where he assures Su-in that he’ll get Haru off the ice.

The guys face a problem when the ad doesn’t air in the news hour, so Hwal assures them that they must have meant the ad would show in the post-news slot. So they wait another hour, but still no ad airs. Hae-yoon gets on the phone to see what happened, but the president exhibits his indignation by pouring a bottle of beer over Hwal’s head.

Hyun-tae’s method of getting Haru off the ice is hardly subtle, but therein lies its effectiveness. He falls purposely, exaggerating his groans of pain. Hyun-tae tells Haru sympathetically that he understands that she’s pushed herself into a corner with her pride and can’t back down now, even though she wants to. After all, she’s been on the ice for hours, and she must be tired.

He leans in and says conspiratorially, “In times like this, just pretend you’re beat. Watch.” Then Hyun-tae makes a big show of saying he wants to continue skating, making it seem like Haru is insisting that he stop because he’s hurt. He pretends that Haru is steering him off the ice and then “concedes” that they can both stop because he’s not up for it.

When they arrive home that night, Hyun-tae tells Hwal, “You should answer your phone.” Then he reconsiders, “No, don’t.”

Hwal looks at his call log, finding it full of missed calls from Su-in, and calls back. She explains what happened, and asks him not to get upset with Hyun-tae since he helped.

Although Haru and Hyun-tae don’t have any romantic chemistry going on, I really like their interactions together, since they seem to understand each other. Take this scene when Hyun-tae shows Haru a mock presentation of her skating career on the blackboard, tracing the trajectory of her injuries.

When the graph is done, it resembles a skate, and he asks, “Do you remember every moment when you hit the very bottom?” (She answers no.) He continues, “Aren’t you just one moment in that graph now?” It’s a nice way of getting his point across as he reminds her that her injuries are just one moment, but that it’s important to take care of herself now.

Haru goes to Su-in, but rather than treating her with surliness like last time, now she is contrite as she admits that she was afraid when she fell. She’d worked so hard to resume her skating that she feared that if she stopped, even for a short while, she might not be able to find her way back.

Su-in suggests that Haru take a break to be with her family for a while. Haru says, “I was punished. I think that’s why I was hurt. I destroyed that CD. I’m sorry.” Su-in is baffled at why Haru would do that, but Haru keeps her head down regretfully.

Having failed in their last attempt to show their chicken ad, the Bond Factory guys again convene in the Bok Man president’s office to screen the finished product. The mood is tense as they anxiously await the president’s reaction, which is — thankfully! — pleased. He thanks them for a job well done, and they sigh in relief.

In a good mood from that success, Hae-yoon goes to Sang-hee’s bar, where Jae-wook (a hockey player) makes him think of Haru. He asks, “When athletes get injured, do they get depressed? Do they suddenly get angry or upset, like they’d want to die?” Jae-wook responds that he’d rather get revenge than die, which amuses Hae-yoon.

Feeling generous, Hae-yoon tells Jae-wook to move back in, knowing he’s roaming around without a permanent place to live. Jae-wook declines, saying he prefers the jimjilbang (public sauna), but Hae-yoon chides him for being foolish and tells him to move back. Sang-hee looks at him, touched at his thoughtfulness because she wanted to say the same thing but had been holding back.

And then she wonders, “Wait. This is my place, so why do I have to get your permission?” She turns to Jae-wook and tells him, “Sleep here, with MY permission.” It’s cute.

That night, Haru looks past the closet separating her room from Hwal’s and calls over tentatively, “Can I go over to you?” It’s nice how such a simple statement carries a clear double meaning, which you can read in Hwal’s (amusingly) alarmed expression.

Haru makes her way to his room, and when she stops in front of him, she raises a hand to his face. Uncomfortable, he holds her hand to pull it away, and she asks, “What should I do? Can I really go?” She’s referring to the suggestion to go back down to her father’s house, and Hwal advises her to take some time to recover and work things over in her mind (as in, to get over her feelings for him).

She’s not sure she can get over her feelings and says, “Words like ‘You’ll forget in time’ or ‘Later on, you’ll be able to talk about this with a smile’ all seem like a lie.” Still, she’s going to give it a try because she agrees to return home tomorrow. Haru hugs him and apologizes for acting like a brat.

The next morning, Haru leaves the house, driven by Hae-yoon who jokingly tells her that if she doesn’t return, he’ll kidnap her back. As she goes, Hwal calls Haru’s father to let him know that Haru has had a minor injury and is on her way down for a temporary stay.

I like that Hwal calls from Haru’s empty room, and that he feels her absence but can’t quite bring himself to see her off with friendliness like Hae-yoon or Hyun-tae. They’ve always been the affectionate big brothers to her so they can tease her now, but Hwal has difficulty overcoming his own gruff nature. (And Lee Jung-jae does such a great job showing that conflict naturally within the character.)

Back after winning the gold medal, Poong-ho bursts into the rink looking for Haru, only to hear that she’s been injured and went back to her father’s house. Alarmed, he pesters Hye-jin for details, causing her to snap in annoyance, “If you want to know, ask her yourself!”

He does just that, making his way to Haru’s family home, and the adorable thing is how he keeps his gold medal out even though it’s raining and he’s wearing a plastic parka.

It’s also hilarious how quickly and eagerly Poong-ho prostrates himself on the floor as he greets Haru’s father and Coach Nam, then joins them for dinner (keeping the medal on). When asked about it, he puts it on Haru and announces that it’s a gift for her, since he promised to win it on her behalf.

The adults laugh in amusement as Poong-ho continues in his childlike courtship. He says things like, “Promise me that you won’t ever get hurt again, and I promise not to leave your side ever again.” Haru’s reaction is to point out that he can’t go to overseas meets anymore, then, and he corrects her: “No, I’ll take you with me in my bag.”

Haru may not be happy to see Poong-ho, but let it be noted that her protests are fairly weak. (While she used to shove him aside in annoyance, now her reaction is more like an eye-roll.)

He prods her, “Tell me the truth, you’re glad I’m here, right?” He sets out their schedule for the next day, starting with a morning jog and training session. As promised, he wakes Haru up early (with Wal) and drags her along for a jog.

I admit the editing is pretty abrupt as the puppy runs into the street just as an incoming truck screeches to a halt. Shaken, they rush over, and Poong-ho keeps Haru away from the sight — his solemn reaction scares her and tells her everything she needs to know.

Hyun-tae drops by the rink, this time to let her know that Haru has gone home. While I wouldn’t say she’s glad to see him, at least by now she’s no longer upset at his constant appearances, and she feels grateful for his help in managing Haru.

Their conversation is interrupted by a phone call from the hospital that sends her into a panic over her mother’s health. Hyun-tae guesses the nature of the call and offers a ride on his motorcycle — it’s rush hour, so car traffic will be bad.

She arrives at the hospital to find that her mother has lost consciousness and is hooked up to a respirator. Su-in calls Hwal in tears, and he agrees to come out right away. All the while, Hyun-tae keeps a respectful distance, quietly offering her a seat and a drink.

(I think the point is that Hyun-tae is always there, anticipating her needs while Hwal is far away. When Hwal decided — however reluctantly — not to pick up her phone call, Hyun-tae answered his phone and came out to save the day. I don’t think the point has been handled particularly skillfully, though, because it’s not like Hwal is away out of disinterest or lack of concern — the circumstances have just placed Hyun-tae closer.)

Following the car accident, Poong-ho and Haru dig a grave in the backyard and give Wal a funeral. (I wonder if this is a symbolic gesture for her feelings for Hwal?)

Poong-ho apologizes for dragging her along on the run, while Haru says she’d like to meet Wal again in the next life. She wonders sadly, “Am I not supposed to like someone? If I like something, why does it leave so quickly?”

Poong-ho guesses (not that it’s much of a guess), “You like somebody, don’t you? And you’re having a hard time because of that?”

He pulls her to him in a hug. Haru balks at first, but she makes no move to push him away or leave as he continues:

Poong-ho: “It doesn’t matter to me who you like. Right now is what’s most important to me. I want to do everything without regrets. I won’t give up on you. Don’t talk about next lives or the next chance or whatever. What’s most important to you right now is skating. Focus on skating. I’ll protect you.”

Now that Sang-hee’s relationship with Hae-yoon is on solid ground, she wants to make some kind of gesture, and asks Jae-wook what guys like. His fantasy involves a woman waking him up and cooing that breakfast is ready, dressed as Catwoman; imo it’s kind of lame, but it’s worth it to see Sang-hee dressed (kind of) as a cat that night, sneaking to Hae-yoon’s room by way of the roof. She grunts and awkwardly makes her way into the room, which is cute for its unromantic-ness.

And then, when she drops inside the window, it’s the wrong room. HAHA. She’s climbed into Haru’s empty room, so she creeps along until she enters Hae-yoon’s.

She wakes him up, and as he mutters groggily, she announces cheerily, “Jo-kun! This is a dream.”

While he’s still grumpily waking up, she kisses his forehead and tells him, “You’ve been upset a lot because of me, but I’m so thankful that you were patient and stayed with me. Who else would put up with me? Let’s live happily for a long, long time. Jo-kun, you’re the best.”

At that, he has to burst out laughing. A little while later, he looks over at her while she’s sound asleep, and thanks her for putting up with his temper. He asks, knowing she can’t hear, “Should we live together?”

When Su-in’s mother wakes up, she speaks alone with Hwal for a moment, telling him that he’s the only person Su-in has. She asks him to be accepting of Su-in and to stay with her.

(Dying mother’s deathbed request = not burdensome, no not at ALL!)

That evening, as Hwal walks around deep in thought, he takes out Haru’s trampoline on a whim and starts to jump on it. His phone rings, and he answers — it’s Haru.

She tells him, “Like you said, I’ve worked things out. I’m only going to think about skating now. Can I come back to Seoul?”

It’s my inference that Hwal is relieved that (1) Haru is speaking to him normally again, and (2) that she’s returning, but with his reticent nature he doesn’t tell her that. He answers that she can do whatever she wants because it doesn’t matter to him, but his words have no bite to them, so Haru understands that he’s okay with it.

Haru’s narration: “When you pass through a dark, difficult tunnel, the most important attitude to have is composure. Get rid of impatience, and when you’re facing difficult moments, at some point the end of the tunnel will appear. And if you’re a little lucky, you might be able to see a beautiful clear sky.”


COMMENTS

I must confess that the level of disgust leveled by some at the Haru-Hwal storyline has me perplexed. Maybe I don’t feel that disgust because it has never been my opinion that these two are being paired together for an eventual relationship. I say this without knowing any particular spoilers, but based on Lee Jung-jae’s comments in a recent interview, I really don’t think the series is going there.

Even if they did go there, I’m not against the pairing, age gap be damned. I just don’t think it will happen. For one, the romantic feelings are entirely on Haru’s side — and who among us has not felt an adolescent crush on somebody much older? One of my first celebrity crushes was in fact on Lee Jung-jae, soon followed by Keanu Reeves back in his Speed days (hey, he was hot) — and he was probably more than double my age at that point. For that matter, how many of the fans who have actor-crushes on Kang Ji-hwan (32) or Song Seung-heon (32) or Jang Dong-gun (37) or Lee Byung-heon (39) are in their teens? Is that creepy too, or just part of teenage emotions?

Triple is laying out Haru’s feelings for Hwal, not pushing us to accept them as right or wrong. I find it similar to Jung Il-woo and Seo Min-jung in High Kick — he was the rebellious high school student, she was his sweet, well-meaning teacher — and no way that was going to happen, but I thrilled at every development just the same. It also has shades of the pseudo-romantic connection in Lost in Translation or Beautiful Girls — at best, there may be romance in the moment but not a realistic future.

As to the other charge, that Haru is behaving like a brat — well, she is. But I don’t find her any less likable for it, and actually identify with her a lot. Maybe I feel a bias because I think I’d react in a similar way, but I can see things from her point of view. She’s not blaming Hwal for not liking her back — she’s trying to figure out how to deal with her feelings and feels hurt when Hwal (inadvertently, or unknowingly) disregards her for someone else. She’s trying to keep to herself and Hwal doesn’t let her (with his hot temper, he’s the type to confront), and it’s when he pushes her that she acts out. If he’d left her alone, she’d brood quietly, out of his way.

When she does snap at him — like when she retorts for him to mind his own business — I think she has a legitimate point. Hwal has treated her like a dispensable being, and we see that he’s growing fond of her but he isn’t willing to admit it just yet, so in that respect he has been taking her cheerfulness and attention for granted. (By “taking for granted” I’m referring to the way Haru looks after Hwal, not just in doing house chores but in the way she goes out of her way to be solicitous and thoughtful.)

Despite all this, I don’t dislike Hwal, and I think he’s caught in a truly difficult spot. I appreciate that Hwal is put into an awkward position, because he doesn’t want to encourage her feelings, but he also doesn’t want to hurt her unduly with a harsh rejection. Yet while this is all initiated by Haru, I don’t see the conflict as purely the result of a bratty girl throwing a silly tantrum, either. It’s more complicated than that, as is the case with messy human emotions.



The episode is lighter on the theme today (Haru starts the episode ruminating on amount of time she’s spent on the ice), and soon transitions to the rest of the plot.

Hae-yoon enjoys lazing around in the morning with Sang-hee, who frets about getting out of the house without the others seeing her. In the end, she and Hae-yoon present themselves together, confirming that she spent the night before they both make a hasty exit, leaving Hwal and Hyun-tae gaping in surprise.

The scene in the car is adorable because they are completely swept up in the giddiness of being together; Sang-hee feeds Hae-yoon as he announces to nobody in particular, “I’m Kang Sang-hee’s boyfriend!” She follows with “I’m Jo Hae-yoon’s girlfriend!” which is an announcement they repeat enthusiastically to the man in the car beside them. They are such dorks and it’s cute.

Back in the countryside, Poong-ho leaves Haru’s father’s house, after which Haru announces that she’s ready to go back to Seoul. Her father, being perceptive to her mood, asks if she’s dealing with any problems in Seoul, but she says no and tells him not to worry.

Outwardly, Hwal acts unaffected by Haru’s return, but it’s evident (to us, at least) that he really is glad to see her back. Therefore, he’s put out when she treats Hae-yoon and Hyun-tae with friendliness but gives him the cold shoulder.

It’s not a familiar feeling for Hwal to want to reach out to somebody who wants to withdraw, and particularly so with Haru since their dynamic is usually the other way around. So he finds himself in awkward territory when he attempts — cutely, but ineffectively — to engage Haru in conversation. He checks in on her and asks what she wants to eat, trying to be solicitous, but Haru declines food and responds with disinterest.

Hae-yoon is becoming my favorite character, mostly because I like that he’s honest about his feelings (even when losing his temper) without being childish about them. He’s also the only character with a real commonsense approach to things, such as when Hwal is called to the hospital by a worried Su-in. Hae-yoon clocks Hyun-tae’s interest and levels with him: “Just butt out.”

Furthermore, Hae-yoon doesn’t have a lot of patience for Su-in, either, which prompts Hyun-tae to jump to her defense because she’s going through a lot right now. That is a weak argument, and Hae-yoon responds, “Even if she and Hwal divorced, I’d be against you having a relationship with her. What the heck are you doing over one woman?”

Su-in’s already frayed nerves take a hit when the doctor cautions her to prepare herself for the end; her mother’s cancer is in the last stages. Surprisingly, Su-in holds up pretty well at the hospital, even managing a relatively cheery tone.

That mood lasts as Hwal drops her off at home. Yet when Hwal heads to the door to return her forgotten phone, she lets her emotions go now that she’s alone. Hwal sees her sobbing and draws her to him in a comforting hug.

Haru jogs up to Hwal on their morning run, but she’s not here to join him; she intends to go her separate way. She explains, “I won’t annoy you anymore. I’m going to focus on training now.”

By now, we can see that Hwal misses the old, bubbly Haru, but he doesn’t know how to bring her back. Trying to draw her into conversation, he asks for her new training schedule so he can pick her up from practice. Haru declines, intending to bike to practice from now on, and asks him not to say (nice) things like that — she’s already feeling vulnerable, and she’d rather avoid him for the time being.

Hwal’s not exactly happy about that, but what can he do? Haru’s logic makes sense — she’ll be able to get over her feelings more easily without him hovering. Still, he frowns when Poong-ho comes by and grabs Haru in an enthusiastic hug, greeting everyone exuberantly.

Poong-ho’s insistence on helping Haru through her injury wasn’t mere talk, as he takes an active hand in helping out in her training sessions. Haru is impatient to get back on the ice, but Su-in is firm in building up Haru’s strength off the ice first. I assume that Su-in knows what it’s like to suffer an injury, but Poong-ho is particularly helpful because he relates to Haru. Using his own tactics to make the exercises more interesting, Poong-ho turns Haru’s dismay into amusement. Su-in is pleased to see how well they get along together.

There are many differences between Poong-ho and Hwal, but a main one that stands out is in the way that both address Haru’s current emotional state: Poong-ho adjusts the situation to work with Haru’s frustrations, but Hwal doesn’t know how to get what he wants and just tries to order her around. Therefore, when he confronts her about her sulkiness, it’s like they’re on completely different wavelengths. Hwal doesn’t see what’s so difficult; he is simply her oppa, and girls shouldn’t fall for their brother figures.

Haru replies, “What can I do about something I can’t control?” She understands what he’s saying but can’t just make it happen, so she tells him to stop pushing.

Hae-yoon and Sang-hee’s relationship has its share of bumps, but I love how refreshing it is. For instance, Hae-yoon decides to buy Sang-hee a nice gift, but wonders if jewelry is too common and sappy. He plans a romantic evening out, then arrives at the bar near closing time to sweep her away for the night. However, one of the remaining drunk patrons decides to hit on Sang-hee, which Hae-yoon steps in to prevent. He speaks calmly at first but the man turns belligerent, sending Hae-yoon lunging at him angrily… which lands everyone at the police station.

When the officer asks for Hae-yoon’s identification, Sang-hee looks through his bag, spotting a ring box that Hae-yoon quickly snatches back.

Later, he’s put into a holding area for the night. Before sending Sang-hee home, he asks for his bag, takes out the ring, and slides it on her finger. His tone is resigned — he’d planned on a romantic night, but since those plans were ruined, this is the best he can do. He tells her, “It’s yours.”

Hae-yoon may not have been able to pull out a grand gesture, but Sang-hee still gazes at the ring in wonder. He tells her, “Let’s get married. I’ll treat you well.” Sang-hee tells him she’ll wait for him until he’s let out in the morning.

It’s amusing to see Hwal’s reaction when Sang-hee calls him about Hae-yoon’s brawl; seeing Haru walk by, he decides to use this as bait to pique her curiosity. Hwal raises his voice purposely, saying, “Of course I have to go to the police station” and drops Hae-yoon’s name deliberately.

After he hangs up the phone, Haru’s curiosity prompts her to break her silence. She asks what happened, and I literally laughed out loud at Hwal’s somewhat childish response, all false innocence: “You told me not to talk to you. Can I talk now?” But Haru reads the teasing tone in his voice and walks away.

Following Hae-yoon’s release, he and Sang-hee eat breakfast together and both smile to see the ring on her finger. But Hae-yoon has to ruin it for himself by telling her she should quit her job — he doesn’t like the idea of her running a bar. She doesn’t see the connection between her working and getting married, and asks simply, “Am I supposed to get rid of my space if I marry? Then I don’t want to marry.” Hae-yoon suggests that she set up a different type of store (it’s the bar aspect that bothers him), and while she thinks the idea over, she’s not fully onboard.

On the other hand, Hyun-tae looks at Hae-yoon’s jail-time experience with envy — at least he gets to like who he wants, and fight for her. Hae-yoon: “That’s why you should meet a woman you’re free to like, you idiot.” He doesn’t see Hyun-tae’s feelings as love: “You’re fooling yourself. Get back to your senses.”

I’m glad this Bok Man Chicken storyline is going somewhere (it’s cute, but now we get to move onward). The TV ad experiences remarkable popularity, and while that seems a little ridiculous considering it’s a chicken commercial, I’m deciding to not question it too heavily and just roll with it. Having dropped by to offer their congratulations to the Bok Man president, the guys are present to overhear a phone call with another company president, the head of K Oil.

Mind whirring, Hwal offers to deliver the batch of chicken that the Bok Man president is intending to send over. It’s an odd request, but the president understands that Hwal has caught the scent of a possible new connection.

They bring the food to the K Oil meeting — where they find Hwal’s old boss, section director Jung. Hwal ignores the other man’s sneering attitude and introduces himself to the president, offering himself for future deliveries. They also produce several mockup advertisements to throw in the K Oil president’s path, hoping to make a good impression.

Hyun-tae, in the meantime, chooses to strain my patience yet some more by appearing uninvited to Su-in’s mother’s hospital room. I mean, what the hell are you thinking, fool? He finds the room empty and exercises his creative talents, making a cute skating diorama to hang in the room.

Su-in’s mother assumes that she’s the one who had hung it up, but when Su-in peers closer, she sees a note left by Hyun-tae. Her mother likes the mobile and tells her to leave it up.

However, Su-in’s mother is a rational, sensible woman, and Hyun-tae’s cute but his actions are not. When he visits her room again and introduces himself, she shoots down his attempts to win her over. She’s not mean but reproves him firmly for imposing himself upon a stranger’s sickbed, and for following her daughter around. When Hyun-tae tries to charm his way out of her censure, she tells him to take down the skating mobile and not to mess with Su-in.

I appreciate the way the mother addresses her disapproval, because it’s not personal. She finds Hyun-tae appealing as a person, and tells Su-in as much, but she doesn’t find his behavior to be appropriate and puts him in his place. (So does Hae-yoon, but Hyun-tae doesn’t listen to him.)

Therefore, Su-in is conflicted when she finds Hyun-tae sleeping on a bench in the hospital. She doesn’t know whether to scold him for continuing to come by, or thank him for making her mother smile.

As thanks, Hyun-tae jokingly asks for a kiss, then settles for a wish instead.

Poong-ho, understanding better than anyone Haru’s urge to get back on the ice, supervises an easy skate, reminding her to go lightly. He knows how frustrating it is to want to skate and be forced to stay away when the body feels healthy, so this is his way of scratching that itch while keeping her safe. The skating sequence is adorable, and their vibe is almost date-like — they laugh and skate in a carefree way.

One of the reasons I like Poong-ho so much isn’t just because he’s cute, but because he is (1) concerned for Haru’s welfare, and (2) approaches the situation from her perspective, not his own. You might say that Hyun-tae The Irritating uses a similar approach with Su-in, but there is a key difference: Hyun-tae wants to make Su-in happy, but he stubbornly does everything on HIS terms. He doesn’t stop to think how his actions frustrate her and make her uncomfortable. Su-in’s protests against Hyun-tae are exasperated and recurring, while Haru has ceased protesting Poong-ho’s attentions altogether.

Hwal, who has arrived during their skating session, smiles to see their infectious cheer but chooses to wait outside. When Haru emerges, he asks why she’s been skipping her therapy sessions at the hospital.

The conversation doesn’t go well, as Hwal once again tries to order Haru to obey and get in the car. She ignores that and heads home on her bike. Unable to follow when she takes a pedestrian route home, Hwal confronts her the minute she steps inside the house gate. Unable to contain her emotions, she bursts out, “I hate you!” in the way a child lashes out at an overbearing parent.

But Hwal just hugs Haru, who bursts into tears. He asks, “What do I do? I can’t do anything for you.”

Hae-yoon witnesses the hug and, like with Hyun-tae, disapproves of Hwal’s actions. He thinks Hwal is provoking Haru, and that his relationship limbo with Su-in isn’t only aggravating things. If Hwal decided to either reunite with Su-in for good or to divorce her, at least the others wouldn’t be left in doubt.

Hyun-tae’s wish turns out to be a late-night snack, which he claims in the form of ramen cooked in Su-in’s yard. He shares about his life and what it was like growing up with older brothers and a father who expected more of him. Su-in reminisces about her mother, her tone friendly for once, perhaps because she intends tonight to be their last encounter of this kind. She asks him to stop coming by because his constant presence is giving her a hard time.

Hyun-tae sighs that he must have fooled himself into thinking she might like him back — and the way she averts her gaze uncomfortably hints that he’s not so wrong about that.

Sang-hee is touched over Hae-yoon’s proposal and thinks it over with Jae-wook, saying, “If I did get married, it would have to be with him, right?” After all, he’s the best man she knows. Jae-wook chides her logic and urges her to make a pro and con list.

After thinking on it, Sang-hee makes up her mind and tells Hae-yoon, “I’ll take care of you like a wife, so let’s not get married.” He laughs, thinking she’s joking, but she adds, “Can I take this ring off?” Sang-hee doesn’t want to reject their relationship entirely, and explains, “I like you. Can’t we just continue like this?”

Hae-yoon answers that he can’t, his expression clouding. Then, without a word, he suddenly rises and walks out.

I love Hwal’s reaction when he jogs up to Haru in the morning. He teases Haru about her fall, which he’s seen on video replay, trying to get a rise out of her. She ignores him and jogs on, but her expression brightens as he hands her an mp3 player containing music he’s made for her. Touched and excited, Haru thanks him profusely. Hwal downplays the gesture, but his face shows how pleased he is that she’s happy.

Now that the air has been cleared between them, Hwal and Haru wait in pleasant company, lying on side-by-side-cots while she receives treatment at the hospital.

Haru breaks the companionable silence to wonder, “Why did you hug me that night?” He doesn’t have a ready answer, so she adds that she really loves the music he gave her: “If I hear this, it feels like I’m with you.” Her tone is playful as she prods, “I really like you. What about you, you like me too, right? I can feel it. You like me too, not as a sister. Right?”

Avoiding the question, Hwal sighs that she’s going to drive herself crazy asking questions like that, which she takes for the evasion it is. In a good mood, she hops over to him, and moves in for a kiss.


COMMENTS

I thought Hwal was hilarious this episode as he tried to engage Haru in different ways, because he’s forced to adjust his equilibrium to deal with her. He’s always been gruff and curt, and with any reasonable adult, he’d be able to continue being that way, forcing the other person to adjust to his mood. Haru doesn’t take his hints or react according to his wishes, though, so he finds himself in new waters, and it’s cute to see him fumbling for the right way to act.

And because I’m sure the last scene is going to be the big point of concern for many/most viewers (alas, it was spoiled for me and therefore robbed of its dramatic punch, booooo!), here’s what Lee Jung-jae had to say about Hwal’s relationship to Haru:

“Hasn’t everyone experienced that kind of emotion at some point? Perhaps you have feelings for a close oppa in the family, or dealt with pain over a friend’s girlfriend. Actually, this type of story has been used in many dramas before. This is only different in the way that the director and writer make the story unfold. When I was first cast, PD Lee Yoon-jung explained that she hoped to show Hwal and Haru’s relationship in a bright, lovely way similar to Daddy Long Legs. I saw the director’s previous work and happily agreed, having faith in PD Lee Yoon-jung.”

EPISODE 10: “Ina Bauer”

Haru’s voiceovers are getting a little looser in relevance, and this episode’s title — “Ina Bauer” — is invoked as Haru explains that Bauer was a beautiful skater who never quite attracted the judges’ attentions. Like a 18-year-old girl unable to register with the one she wants most to notice her.

After Haru kisses Hwal, he pushes her away, disturbed (and perhaps only partly for the appropriate reasons?). Spooked, he walks out of the room, and the drive home is tense.

Haru knows she’s made a mistake and regrets causing yet another rift just when they’d made up over the last one. She tries to talk to him, but Hwal is so angry that he pulls over suddenly, opens her door, and pushes her into the backseat.

Credit goes to Min Hyo-rin for showing just how miserable Haru feels as Hwal drives on, seething in silence. When he pulls up to the house, he orders her out and drives off immediately.

Sang-hee deliberates over Hae-yoon’s proposal, and finally takes off her ring. Hae-yoon wonders, “Can’t you just trust me and follow?” Sang-hee answers, “You know me, that marriage doesn’t suit me.”

One thing I appreciate about Triple is the way Lee Seon-kyun portrays Hae-yoon’s conflicting emotions — on the surface, he smiles and jokes, his light tone belying the seriousness of his words. You can see him trying to hold back his temper, trying not to cling or wheedle for attention (Hyun-tae could take note from him). So he smiles and keeps an upbeat tone as he tells Sang-hee, “If we don’t marry, then we’re breaking up. I can’t see you as a friend.” Even as he tells her, “Don’t laugh, I’m serious,” he sounds like he’s joking, though we know he’s not. He asks her to think it over.

Su-in walks in the hospital room as Hwal is taking in Hyun-tae’s drawing of her mother. Hwal asks, “Do you like Hyun-tae?”

Rather than answering directly, she lowers her gaze and says that he can be ridiculous, but he can also do thoughtful things. She’d been meaning to take down all his gifts, but couldn’t bring herself to because her mother looked happy. She tells Hwal, “Do I like him? No. I want to be even happier with you.”

I think Hwal believes Su-in is being genuine, so his irritation is purely with Hyun-tae, whom he runs into on his way outside. Tired of this muddled situation, Hwal asks, “What is it you want?”

Hyun-tae answers simply, “Choi Su-in” and heads inside with an armful of new gifts.

Su-in doesn’t welcome Hyun-tae and tells him firmly to leave. It looks like Hyun-tae feels the seriousness of her words, but as usual, he brushes them aside, saying he only wanted to make her and her mother laugh. He hands over his offerings, but Su-in loses her patience; she drops them on the ground and walks out.

(Are we supposed to be impressed by Hyun-tae’s boldness and honesty? Because I think I hate him. The pathetic sight of him clearing up the discarded gifts doesn’t stir sympathy; rather, it feels deserved.)

Haru slides a note under Hwal’s door, asking, “Can we talk?” She enters tentatively, and Hwal asks incredulously, “Are you crazy? How could you do that to your oppa?” She apologizes; she hadn’t intended to kiss him and doesn’t know why she did it. Hwal’s bad mood is worse than usual, as he is reacting to both Haru’s kiss and his encounter with Hyun-tae, and he’s tired of her adolescent drama.

Haru: “Then is it a joke that I’m hurting? I hurt like this because I like you — is this a joke too?”
Hwal: “How can you guys only care about your own feelings? Do you have absolutely no interest in how the other person feels?”
Haru: “Then tell me what you think of me. Was my feeling wrong? Don’t you like me back just a little?”

Hwal orders her out, and when she doesn’t move fast enough, he pushes her out.

The next day, Hwal is in a much better mood. Su-in is still in apology mode, feeling sorry for upsetting him, but Hwal isn’t concerned with that now. He suggests, “Should we live together? If you say yes, I’d like to.”

Her surprise and the significance of Hwal’s gesture bring her to tears, and Su-in agrees happily.

Of course, this is bad news to both Haru and Hyun-tae, who take Hwal’s announcement with dismay. When he tells of his plans to get back together with Su-in and move into her house, Hyun-tae blurts, “Don’t go.” Hwal reasons with him: “Jang Hyun-tae, we’re married. We fought for a moment, made up and decided to get back together.”

Poong-ho catches up to Haru later that morning, having planned a cute little gesture to get her attention. He’s tied milk and a loaf of bread to a tree branch, and plucks both out as though they’d been growing there, presenting it to Haru as breakfast.

In his usual happy way, he says, “I know you’ve got lots of oppas at home, but I’m your favorite, right?” This morning, though, his words bring her to tears. She says, “Don’t use the word oppa.”

Seeing her reaction, Poong-ho curbs his enthusiasm and comforts her, telling her to let all her emotions out. After handing her the food, he moves aside to give her room to cry alone.

Su-in’s mother is relieved to hear that the marriage is back on track, so when Hyun-tae calls, she advises her daughter to cut him off cleanly and send him away. She also reminds Su-in to register their marriage legally, since she and Hwal were married in Canada (they’d intended to register in Korea as soon as they came back, but their rift prevented that).

Hyun-tae meets Su-in in the parking lot, his face miserable. Worse yet, he can see that Su-in is happy; he admits that if she’d looked the least bit sad, he wanted to kidnap her. However, “Since you look happy, I don’t have anything to say.”

Su-in thanks Hyun-tae for treating her mother kindly and looking after them, which Hyun-tae recognizes as a farewell speech. He tries one last time to ask her not to get back together with Hwal, but she tells him gently, “Later, a day will come when we’ll see each other comfortably. Please take care in getting over your feelings.”

To help deal with the heartbreak, Hyun-tae leaves for a solo trip that evening. Hwal calls him out for being immature, while Hyun-tae asks, “Are you confident you can live with her happily?” That is really not Hyun-tae’s place to ask, and even Hae-yoon is disgusted with it. Hwal asks, annoyed, “Is that a question you can ask me?”

Hyun-tae agrees: “You’re right.” He heads off on his bike.

The Bond Factory guys are having no luck wooing the K Oil president, and now the guys are almost ready to give up. Hwal decides he’ll give it one last try and asks the Bok Man president for advice. What does the oil man like? What are his habits? The Bok Man president recalls that the oil president is a morning person, being a firm believer in the adage “The early bird gets the worm.”

Working off that tip, Hwal prepares one last mock ad, which he presents early in the morning, and this time the president is amused and a little impressed. He seeks out the Bok Man president at lunchtime to ask, “So are those guys decent?” Mr. Bok Man leans in conspiratorially: “Hey, do you think it’s easy making a commercial on that scale with a model like me? I’m telling you, those guys have something.”

At the skating rink, Poong-ho greets Haru with more gifts of bread and milk. He fidgets a little as he tells her, “Actually, these are bribes… wanna go out with me on the weekend? I mean, all my friends were going to go out, but suddenly they’re all bringing girlfriends.” (Haru turns him down, so he pleads. Cute.)

With Hyun-tae gone and Hwal now living with Su-in, Haru and Hae-yoon feel a bit down; the house suddenly feels a lot emptier than usual.

Hae-yoon confides that he was rejected by Sang-hee, so Haru makes him consolation pancakes. He asks how she’s holding up, and she admits, “Actually, I feel like I’d die.” She’s bummed that Hwal moved out so coldly and decisively and asks, “Are all men like that?”

Hae-yoon replies, “Women are worse. Look at Kang Sang-hee.”

Despite his hurry to move in with Su-in, Hwal’s first night is lonely. He lies in bed alone, restless and bored, imagining Haru bursting in energetically to give him something to eat.

So when Haru calls to check in, he’s secretly glad despite his usual gruff way of speaking: “It’s nice here without anyone to annoy me.” She confesses, “It feels weird without you in the room next to mine. Like my room isn’t mine.” Their conversation takes on a teasing note as Hwal says it’s nice to be away from her snoring. Haru retorts that his snores are worse, plus he grinds his teeth. Hwal wonders, “Why do you say, “Fighting!’ in your sleep?”

Without much more to say, they hang up, both feeling a little dissatisfied. So after a moment, Hwal calls back — but without a good excuse, all he says is that she’d better not mess with his room. They hang up again, but this time Haru is happy, because at least he called back.

The next morning, he’s glad to see her as he arrives for work. Yet the prospect of having dinner as a family with both Haru and Su-in makes him uncomfortable, so when Su-in mentions it to Hwal, he hedges, making up the excuse that he’s got to work late.

That evening, Haru and Su-in have dinner together sans Hwal. Su-in offers to drive Haru home just as he arrives, and at that convenient timing, she asks Hwal to drop Haru off.

Hwal had been stalling to avoid Haru, so he’s dismayed but complies. On the drive home, he cautions, “We’re like newlyweds now, so don’t interfere too much.”

That upsets her, and she insists that he pull over, then gets out and starts walking away. Hwal catches up to her, grasping her arm to bring her back to the car. She whirls to face him and says, “Do you know why I’m an interference to you? It’s because you’re married to her, but you like me more!”

Hwal answers that she’s severely mistaken (although I think he’s unnerved that she’s on to something), and Haru asks herself, “Am I really just mistaken? I wish it were true.”

Haru falls to the ground and cries. Hwal pulls her up, then takes her for an ice cream break outside a convenience store. Calm now, Haru admits that she’s immature for being so demanding: “I know that, but my heart forgets my thoughts.”

After the interlude, both are feeling much better as they resume the drive home. When they arrive at the house, Haru doesn’t want to get out of the car and asks him to stay for a while. She wants to hold his hand, and even when he says no, she puts her hand on top of his anyway.

After a prolonged moment, he snatches it back. Again, Haru’s desire for closeness has pushed things too far, and their tentative truce is broken. Again Haru looks miserable for acting on her feelings impulsively.

The next time Hae-yoon sees Sang-hee, it’s to hear her final decision. Sang-hee asks, “If I don’t marry you, will we not be friends anymore? And you won’t come by here either?”

Hae-yoon says yes. Sang-hee tells him, “I feel strange. Should we not have started dating, and just stayed friends?”

Hae-yoon takes a moment to absorb her words and their implied meaning. Understanding that she’s going to reject his proposal, he says, “Hey Kang Sang-hee, my friend of seventeen years.” A long pause as he searches for words, and then gets up: “Have a nice life.”

Su-in shows Hwal their marriage registration form, which only needs Hwal’s signature and seal. He agrees to take care of it, but Su-in sees the form later, still unsigned, and brings up the topic at breakfast. She doesn’t pressure him, but obviously is disappointed at his hesitation.

Hwal asks, “Am I giving you a hard time?” Su-in tries to look at things positively, but wonders, “We’re together, but why does it feel like you’re far away?”

Poong-ho had told Haru to set aside time on the weekend for him, which she had assumed would mean he would be dragging her on a group date with his friends. Therefore, she’s a little surprised when he accompanies her to her hospital therapy session (and I’m sure the parallel to Hwal’s visit in the previous episode is intentional).

Still, Poong-ho always has something up his sleeve, and today he’s enlisted his friends to surprise Haru with a rehearsed presentation. For instance, one presents her with a lollipop, and another a bottle of vitamins bearing Haru’s picture as he announces, “You’re like vitamin’s to Poong-ho’s life.” It’s cheesy but cute.

Last but not least, Poong-ho fastens a bracelet around her wrist. Haru starts to speak up, but he tells her, “I know. Today I’m just telling you how I feel, and I’ll be satisfied with that. So all you have to do is not say anything and accept.”

She’s quiet all throughout their walk home. When he comments on it, Haru tells him, “I have no right to accept this. Give it to someone you really like.”

She starts to take off the bracelet, so he stops her: “That’s why you can keep it. Haru, this is just a substitute for me, a protection bracelet to guard you. Later if you come to like me, then it’ll be the bracelet that says you’re mine, but for now it’s just a bracelet to keep watch over you.”

He gives her a hug and tells her good night, and kisses her on the forehead.

Hwal sees this from inside the house, and his reaction is….?

Well, on the inside he’s not exactly thrilled. On the outside, however, he teases her a little harshly, as though overcompensating by trying to make a joke of it.

Hwal: “You said you were only going to train, but you’re keeping busy dating around. You said you weren’t joking about liking me, but I guess you’re busy liking this guy, that guy. Starting tomorrow, you’ll probably cry and kick up a fuss about liking him.”

I’m pretty sure that by now, Hwal recognizes the source of his frustrations (whereas before he was stuck in denial). On his drive home, he asks himself, “What am I doing?” And when he does arrive at the house (Su-in’s, that is), he pauses at the threshold.

Haru’s voiceover: “They say that 18 years old is young for love. What does that mean? Does it mean we don’t know which person to love, how to express it, or how deeply to fall? If that’s the case, at what age can we start loving?”

Instead of heading inside his new home, Hwal comes back to the old one. He pauses at Haru’s door, looking down as she sleeps, tamping down frustration.

Haru’s voiceover: “Eighteen and thirty-four. What goes on between these two numbers?”

Hwal pats Haru on the forehead, waking her up. While she looks up at him in surprise, he asks her, almost angrily, “What are you?” Then, he rises and leaves.


COMMENTS

Once again, I find myself hating Hyun-tae’s behavior toward Su-in, even as instances of similar behavior in other characters don’t make me want to stab anyone in aggravation. For instance, take Poong-ho’s interactions with Haru, and even Hwal (and the Bond Factory) as they pursue the K Oil president with similar zeal. I’m sorry, Yoon Kye-sang, I still love you but if your Hyun-tae character walked offscreen and never returned, I would not complain. Compare how Hyun-tae pushes himself on Su-in to how Poong-ho backs off when he sees Haru crying; he doesn’t know why she’s crying, but he also doesn’t force himself to “fix” everything for her. But Hyun-tae’s need to control his courtship of Su-in is vastly inconsiderate, as Hwal points out.

I can cut Hyun-tae a little slack for feeling bummed that the girl he liked turned out to be unavailable, but now his actions are just nonsensical. How dare he challenge Hwal for Su-in, and ask whether Hwal can make her happy, as though he had a claim on her? I think the reason he is so problematic is because I feel a disconnect between what his character is supposed to be and how his character actually IS. I wonder if Yoon Kye-sang is even on the same wavelength with his character, and found myself thinking (sorry to say) that he might be phoning in this drama performance, because it just makes no sense.

In contrast, Hwal is not a very verbal character (and his actions aren’t necessarily expressive), but we completely get a sense for his character’s feelings (or at least I do). I can tell that Lee Jung-jae understands Hwal, that he’s connecting with his portrayal. Hyun-tae seems… oddly blank. What a disappointment.

After Haru holds Hwal’s hand, both characters react to the touch, which shows us that Hwal is definitely not as impervious to Haru’s feelings as he pretends, or wishes he was. But I also liked that Haru touches her forehead after Poong-ho kisses her, perhaps demonstrating the beginning of some conflict with her feelings.

I don’t think it’s a neat case of symbolism, saying that her affections are going to cleanly shift direction from Hwal to Poong-ho, but rather just another way of demonstrating the jumbled-up emotions inside her inexperienced, 18-year-old heart. Haru really does seem confused and filled with adolescent turmoil, which is a nice touch because I find it much more interesting when emotions are mixed and in conflict, rather than decided entirely from the get-go (e.g., Hyun-tae).

EPISODE 11: “Skating”

After Hwal bursts in on a sleeping Haru, he leaves, driving home in confusion over his own behavior. He ignores Haru’s call, leaving her to wonder what he meant when he asked, “What are you?”

Hwal remains distracted at home, only half-listening as Su-in presents him with a new shirt and tie. She has decided to make more of an effort being wifely, and this is one of those wifely gestures. He thanks her, but it’s clear his attention is diverted elsewhere.

Sang-hee looks at Hae-yoon’s toothbrush, missing him now that they’ve broken up. When she calls, he answers only after a moment of hesitation. Sang-hee tries to engage him in light conversation, asking if he’s going to come by to brush his teeth, but he’s not having it: “Just use that to clean the toilet.” When Sang-hee calls back, he turns off his phone.

But, of course, it’s not as easy blocking out his feelings as it is blocking her calls. Hae-yoon gets drunk outside Sang-hee’s store and noisily calls her outside. His feelings are all a-jumble with hurt at her rejection, irritation at her call, anger with himself for giving in.

He demands, “Are you playing with me?” and takes her to task for calling about a toothbrush after they’ve gone days without talking — does she really expect him to answer happily? Isn’t she tired of going from friend to lover and back again? He’s sick of it.

Hae-yoon: “How am I different from Jae-wook to you? Because we slept together? That’s easy for you. Don’t you sleep with a person and act like it didn’t happen? That’s what you do.”
Sang-hee: “Do you think I slept with you so easily? Do you think I didn’t think hard about it?”
Hae-yoon: “So why don’t you tell me that?!”
Sang-hee: “Because I dislike doing that. I hate being serious, it’s pathetic!”
Hae-yoon: “What we’re doing now is even more pathetic. That’s why we’ve come to this. If we don’t become more serious, we can’t grow any closer.”

This is a nicely played scene — I’ve liked the light, joking way they’ve carried out their relationship, but Hae-yoon’s right in that they can’t only be light and joking all the time.

In an effort to get over Su-in, Hyun-tae has gone on a solo camping trip, and even goes so far as to delete her messages from his phone.

He has continued to send cheerful notes to Su-in’s mother (unbeknownst to Su-in), which bring a smile to Mom’s face. Mom admits to Su-in that even though she often disliked Hyun-tae’s behavior, she does feel grateful to him for making her feel less lonely.

On his way back, he drops by Su-in’s house, surprising her. As Hyun-tae has backed off, the resulting dynamic has changed between them, softened. Now Su-in isn’t upset to see him, but strikes me as almost wistful. (It’s probably significant to note that this conversation is the first time Hyun-tae drops the formal joendaemal way of speaking and talks to her in the familiar banmal.)

Hyun-tae says that she must have thought he was crazy before, “But it was easier for me to be seen as a crazy person.” She replies, “To be honest, I was afraid that I might get swayed over to you. But I don’t want to make the same mistake twice.”

Hyun-tae says he’s going to put his feelings behind him, and leaves her with a last gift (flowers and a jar of berries from his trip). Su-in is touched at the gesture and watches him go a little… sadly?

Poong-ho comes upon Haru and Hye-jin as they’re running the stairs and tags along like an eager puppy. Hye-jin snarks at Poong-ho and puts down his athletic prowess (saying the only reason he has a gold medal is because he was part of a team), and even though we know she is half-joking, Poong-ho’s face falls. But Haru defends him, and I LOVE how Poong-ho immediately perks up, happiness restored.

Haru continues training, keeping an anxious eye on her watch. Finally, she can’t take it and rushes out early, wanting to get home before Hwal leaves so she can ask what he meant the night before.

She’s in time to find him working in his room, although he ignores her (or tries to). Haru assures him, “I’m not hoping for anything big. I’m happy just having a fun time with you. … What you said yesterday, what does it mean? You touched my head as you said it. Doesn’t that mean you like me?”

Hwal doesn’t want to admit it but says grudgingly, “For a moment, I thought you were pretty and cute.” However, that’s as far as he’s willing to go: “I don’t like you, so don’t mistake things.” Despite that last part, Haru is uplifted by his choice of words, cheered to know he found her pretty.

Hwal apologizes to Su-in for dragging his feet on the marriage registration, acknowledging that he should have taken care of it right away. But Su-in has a different view now — they don’t have to register right away. She feels they got back together because they wanted to return to their happier past. If they both try really hard, they can return to that state, so they can register once they’ve achieved that.

It’s a nice compromise to them both, relieving some of the pressure while keeping both of them happy. Unfortunately, their mood is interrupted by a phone call bearing bad news.

Su-in’s mother has died, and everyone arrives at the funeral to pay their respects, including Hyun-tae, Haru, and Hae-yoon. (Sang-hee has been informed, but she tells Hyun-tae she can’t make it, since she’s come down with an illness. She doesn’t tell him that it’s a late case of the measles, and that she’s shut down her store and sent Jae-wook away until she recovers.)

It’s a little startling to see how hard Hyun-tae takes the news, even though it’s understandable since he spent a lot of time cheering Mom up. I don’t mean he’s NOT entitled to grief, but it’s just jarring given that his reaction is even stronger than the woman’s daughter, or son-in-law.

Upon returning home, Haru confesses to Hae-yoon that it was strange to see Hwal at the funeral with Su-in — she felt left out of the loop while Hwal and Su-in seemed to understand each other silently. Hae-yoon reminds her, “That’s why they’re married.”

Haru asks, “Why didn’t I know that till now? I was a fool.” Hae-yoon says consolingly, “This is how we mature.” But he concedes, “It can be nice being a fool.”

Hae-yoon finds Sang-hee at the bar, where she’s shut herself for the duration of her bout with measles. She asks if he finds her gross with the blotches on her face, recalling all the times Hae-yoon has seen her looking less than her best. She wonders how he could have accepted all that from her.

Dryly, Hae-yoon says, “That stuff isn’t the least bit difficult. What’s difficult is you not accepting me.” He apologizes for speaking harshly to her before, “But I don’t want to be that guy anymore. I can’t hang around waiting for you anymore.”

Sang-hee tries to explain, “I don’t dislike you. I just dislike marriage. You want a Kang Sang-hee to make a family with. All I want is you.” That’s true, but Hae-yoon points out that the reverse is also true: “You’re the same. Don’t you want a Jo Hae-yoon who doesn’t want marriage?”

At an impasse, they sit in frustrated silence.

Hyun-tae finally removes the basketball hoop from Su-in’s yard as a goodbye gesture, then tells Hwal that he’s taken care of his feelings for Su-in. (He doesn’t mean he’s over her yet, but that he’s decided to get over her, if that distinction makes sense.)

Hyun-tae: “I should apologize to you, shouldn’t I? If I were you, what would have happened? If you liked my wife and followed her around, what would I have done? I would have hated you a lot too. But if I were you, I would have asked at least once how you felt, and how much you were agonizing over your thoughts. But you just saw me as a crazy, immature guy.”

Just when Hyun-tae is coming around, I HATE HIM EVEN MORE. Way to make this all about YOU! You’re the freaky stalker, and yet you point the finger at the person hurt by your pushiness?

But Hwal is more mature than I am, because he says, “If I didn’t see you as a crazy, immature guy, wouldn’t it have been difficult for me too?” I take this as a generous response, because it suggests that Hwal made Hyun-tae into the bad guy so he could cope with the situation better.

Hwal asks, “It’s over, right?” Hyun-tae nods.

After being without Hae-yoon’s company for a while, Sang-hee wonders to Jae-wook, “Can I live without seeing Jo-kun?” Jae-wook says wisely, “With you worrying like this, I bet you won’t be able to break up with him.”

To her credit, she tries to work out a compromise. She admits that she’s afraid of marriage, because it brings added responsibility and greater pain if they break up.

Sang-hee: “That’s what I’m afraid of. But I must love you a lot. I hate to lose you.”
Hae-yoon: “What do I have to do?”
Sang-hee: “You want to marry, and I don’t. But we like each other.”
Hae-yoon: “What is it you want to say?”
Sang-hee: “Let’s live together. While we live together, you can try to convince me, and I’ll try to persuade you. What do you think?”

Haru comes home with ice cream, which she tentatively gives to Hwal. (Attached to the packaging is a post-it note with a drawing of a heart.) Again, their conversation ends with frustration and uncomfortable feelings on both sides, so she comes back a bit later to try again.

Hwal: “What is it you want? Are you hoping I’ll get a divorce?”
Haru: “No. I just want to talk to you, laugh, and spend time together. That’s all.”
Hwal: “That’s all? So you want to hurt Su-in and break up our marriage?”

She shakes her head no, and Hwal says, “I’m seriously sick of this. Stop harassing me. If you’re going to be like this, it’s better that we live separately.”

But later, when Su-in goes through the laundry, she finds the post-it note with Haru’s heart on it. Su-in thinks the note is cute, but is startled at his response — he takes it and crumples it.

Haru confides in Poong-ho, wondering why she’s feeling the way she is:

Haru: “I can’t do this. Poong-ho, do you know this saying? They say that even if two people like each other, when things get hard, they might still break up. I think he’s having a really difficult time because of me. I should make things easier for him, shouldn’t it?”

Poong-ho guesses that the person in question is one of her oppas, and she says that it’s Hwal — but “I want to stop now.” Poong-ho sympathises, “It’ll be hard for you. Haru, lean on me,” and lends her his shoulder.

Given the tone of their last conversation, Hwal is surprised when Haru approaches him again to ask a favor: She has decided to stop liking him, and requests one last day to spend together.

So Hwal agrees to go along with Haru’s wishes for the day, and they share a comfortable, relaxed vibe even as the activities are all vaguely date-like things, like eating at a restaurant, street browsing, wearing matching T-shirts, and walking through the park together.

They end the day on a rooftop overlooking a scenic view of the city. Haru thanks Hwal for agreeing to the day together, because she wanted to say goodbye to her feelings for him. She says, “It might not happen right away, but I’ll try really hard to be like a real oppa-dongsaeng relationship.”

Hwal’s mood has been easier today than in all their recent encounters, and he admits, “Being with you, I had fun and laughed a lot. I’ll try to be nicer, too.”

Haru’s cheer lasts until they arrive home and she gets out of the car. She says she had a fun time today and adds, “Let’s have fun next time too.” It’s likely those are empty words to keep the tone light as she heads inside the house, because when Hwal calls to her, she keeps her face turned away because she’s already crying.

Hwal gets out of the car and sees her face, wanting to comfort her somehow but unsure what to do. Haru tells him, “Goodbye, oppa” and rushes away, fighting tears.


COMMENTS

To be honest, everything about the Su-in and Hyun-tae relationship feels wrong, wrong, wrong — but for the sake of fairness, I’m going to try to be objective for a moment. It’s just that I don’t understand any of the motivations there, particularly with Hyun-tae. The thing is, if Hyun-tae were a selfish bastard, I don’t think I’d have such a hard time understanding him — it would be easy to hate and dismiss him. But he’s being presented as someone we’re supposed to feel sorry for, and that rankles, because what we’re seeing doesn’t support that. I’m not buying it.

I see that Su-in is slowly warming up to Hyun-tae, but she’s determined not to act on it, as she explains when she tells him that she doesn’t want to make the same mistake twice. That strikes me as very telling, because one shouldn’t want to cheat on one’s husband regardless of past mistakes, right? I get the sense that Su-in’s determination to make her marriage work is more about her need to absolve her own guilt — she has been given a second chance and she’s going to make sure she can do everything to make it right, so as to mitigate the pain caused by her initial infidelity. Her refusal of Hyun-tae almost doesn’t even have anything to do with Hyun-tae himself; it’s about never repeating her mistake.

But Hwal isn’t making things easy for her, is he? I’m sure he wants his marriage to work, but he made his decision to get back together based on external factors (Hyun-tae’s hovering, Haru’s declarations), which means they reunited for the wrong reasons. As a result, he’s rushed into the situation and now he feels uncomfortable with the actual marriage part of his marriage. This we see in his reluctance to sign the registration form, as well as when he chooses not to wear the clothing Su-in buys him. (On the other hand, he dons the matching T-shirts with Haru on their day out.)

It’s becoming apparent that Hwal and Su-in have been fooling themselves about their true feelings. I’ve said all along that I don’t see Hwal and Haru working out in the long run, and I still stand by that, but that doesn’t mean he can’t feel conflicted about his feelings for her. He and Su-in have stuck to their guns despite persistent people trying to change their minds, which is why they both find themselves a little sad when that attention gets taken away. Both Haru and Hyun-tae make the decision to back off, and I think now that Hwal and Su-in don’t have anyone to fight, they’re left facing their real feelings.

I liked this scene between Poong-ho and Haru, because it shows how far these two have come. I really like how, despite Poong-ho’s romantic feelings for Haru, he doesn’t push her. It’s a lesson that Haru herself has not learned (well), nor has Hyun-tae, because Poong-ho has let Haru have her space and not pressured her. As a result, they’ve arrived at this comfortable friendship, able to be together easily, both of them knowing where they stand with each other. This platonic dynamic is probably not what Poong-ho ultimately wants, but at least he’s able to comfort Haru when she needs it instead of being the cause for her troubles.

EPISODE 12: “Spin”

The metaphor of this episode is “spinning,” as Haru explains in voiceover. Often people ask how she feels when she stops spinning, and her reply is, “I’m okay.” Still, she thinks, “Sometimes I want to answer, ‘Actually, I’m feeling completely dizzy.’”

Following Haru’s farewell date with Hwal, she wonders how to act around him now. She rehearses casual greetings in the mirror, only to be overheard by Hyun-tae, who has slept in the bathtub.

Haru admits that she’s practicing how to act normal around Hwal, which is a feeling Hyun-tae can commiserate with, since he’s going through similar withdrawal pangs. They’ve both decided to give up on their feelings for Hwal and Su-in, but are not finding it terribly easy. As expected, when Haru does see Hwal, it’s awkward.

Things are likewise strained between Hyun-tae and Su-in. Haru gets a ride from Hyun-tae that morning, and he sticks to his resolve to not approach Su-in. In fact, it’s Su-in who seems to want to talk, and she makes a move as though to say hello. Hyun-tae drives by without acknowledging her, which isn’t the reception she was expecting.

Poong-ho greets Haru with more food, knowing that she’s been feeling down. This is his way of cheering her up, and he’s happily surprised when Haru shares the sandwich with him. (Breakthrough! Of course, he has to push his luck by asking her to feed him.)

Haru thanks Poong-ho for comforting her before, but has to honestly admit that she doesn’t see him as more than a friend. His attention to her is making her feel sorry for not feeling the same way. Although Poong-ho is disappointed to hear this, he doesn’t let it get him too down, replying that this is enough for now.

Haru’s injury is healed now, but for some reason she’s having trouble with her jumps — her body isn’t responding the way it used to. Su-in checks Haru’s weight and notes that she’s gaining weight, which explains why she’s having difficulty.

Haru broaches the subject of training in Canada, wondering what it’s like. Su-in asks if Haru want to train abroad, but Haru answers that it’s just something she’s thinking about.

With their relationship still undefined, Hae-yoon comes to see Sang-hee and asks, “If I don’t want to live together, what’ll you do?” Why does she have the sudden desire to live together? Sang-hee thinks for a moment, then responds:

Sang-hee: “Do you remember when my mother died? School was over and I was walking home in a daze, and you came running up and took my hand. Do you remember what you said? ‘Let’s run.’ As I held your hand and ran home, I was trembling. I fet sorry to my mother, but for a moment I forgot that she had died. I even remember the blue shirt you were wearing then. Why did I tremble back then? Take my hand now and let’s run. Let’s try living together. I’ve lived alone for so long that it’s awkward for me. Help me practice, okay?”

When Su-in drops Haru off after practice, she hesitates to come in. Haru figures it’s because she doesn’t want to see Hyun-tae, and offers to bring Hwal out to see her — but as Haru heads inside the house, Su-in approaches Hyun-tae at his basketball hoop.

Far from being reluctant to see him, once again Su-in is the one who wants to engage in conversation. She asks, “Are we not supposed to talk now?” Hyun-tae replies curtly, “Let’s act as though we didn’t see each other.”

But though he is cool toward Su-in, Hyun-tae admits later to Hae-yoon that he was happy to see her. Despite his determination to get over her, “When she talked to me, I was afraid she would stop talking.” He knows this is not a good way to get over her, and jokingly tells Hae-yoon, “Just kill me.”

Hwal comes home that night after having drinks with his former boss, and he and Su-in rest comfortably together for a while. There’s a nice romantic vibe between them, but Hwal breaks the moment first and heads off. Later, when they go to bed, he turns away from her.

Su-in brings up Haru’s mention of training in Canada, thinking it’s a decent idea, and tells Hwal to think it over. He takes it in, but isn’t exactly thrilled.

The next morning, Hwal drops Su-in off at the rink, and she tells him to clear tomorrow for her — she has a really nice surprise planned. As he drives away, he sees Haru and Poong-ho arriving together, and stops to talk to them.

Poong-ho senses the weird tension in the air and asks straight-out, “You’re the guy Haru likes, right?” Mortified, Haru tries to stop Poong-ho, but he grabs hold of her hand tightly and says — with a hint of false concern, it seems — “It must have been difficult for you. But you know, that happens when you’re her age. She’s over it now, so please don’t worry too much. I’ll look after her, so leave it to me.”

I’m pretty sure that Poong-ho senses that there’s more to Haru and Hwal’s relationship than a one-sided crush on Haru’s part, but Hwal isn’t ready to admit that to himself, much less to Poong-ho. Therefore, he has to contain his reaction, and forces a smile to wish Poong-ho well with Haru.

Su-in’s surprise for Hwal turns out to be their one-year anniversary. She goes shopping to prepare for dinner that night — but once again, she thinks of Hyun-tae, remembering the last gift he’d given her.

When she sees him at the grocery store, he helps her picked up dropped groceries but doesn’t linger to chat. Again, she finds herself feeling disappointed at his quick exit, as though wishing he would speak to her.

When Haru hears from Su-in that it’s her anniversary today, her mood deflates — even though she decided to get over Hwal, she can’t help feeling a letdown at the reminder of his marriage. Poong-ho can tell something’s up and pesters Haru to confide in him, not accepting her brush-off that she’s busy trying to lose the weight she recently gained.

She eventually admits that she felt strange hearing about Hwal’s anniversary, which spurs an idea with Poong-ho. He instructs Haru to expect him later; he’ll be by to pick her up.

When he arrives at the house, Hwal watches from his office; it doesn’t sit well with him, but he can’t really react. Poong-ho promises to bring Haru back safely, and the two head off.

His planned activity takes them back to the ice rink. Not exactly a grand gesture, but there’s a purpose behind it. Haru dons a pair of speed skates provided by Poong-ho, commenting that it feels odd because of the longer blades, and Poong-ho (so wise, for one so young) gives her some advice: she may be worried about her recent weight gain, but instead of only fixating on losing the weight, she should try to adjust, the way she adjusts to skating on longer blades.

Then he teaches her the basics of short-track skating. After a while, Haru’s mood has lightened, and she admits that she feels better, thanking Poong-ho for cheering her up. He tells her, “It’s because the rink doesn’t betray us. It’s always waiting for me whenever I come.”

Poong-ho has one last surprise, which he shows Haru on their way out. He’s formed the number “189″ on the ice using pink glowsticks, and tells her that today is their 189-day anniversary.

As with the other Poong-ho-isms, this sweet gesture contains another gem of wisdom — it’s his way of commemorating their first meeting, but also his way of downplaying Hwal’s anniversary. He says that a one-year anniversary is no big deal — and hey, they’ll have theirs in no time.

Poong-ho: “One year, two years, three years — is that so important? What’s important is just being together, like we are now.”
Haru: “When I first saw you, I thought, ‘Can you believe that guy?’ But now, I feel comfortable with you. You’re a really good person. You like it when I call you oppa, right? Should I call you oppa?”
Poong-ho: “No. I don’t want to be called the same oppa as your other oppas. Just call me Poong-ho.”

All the while, Hwal works late — or rather, he stays at the house using work as an excuse to wait up for Haru. Su-in, expecting Hwal home for dinner, waits up for him with her cake and special preparations, growing more dispirited the later it gets.

When Su-in calls, Hwal tells her to eat dinner without him, not aware that it’s their anniversary. She urges him to come home soon, and he makes noncommittal excuses for why he’ll be late.

When Haru finally returns home, it’s past 11. Annoyed, Hwal scolds Haru for staying out so long. The air is tense, and after Poong-ho leaves, Haru tells Hwal that the reason she thought of training in Canada is because she can’t just get over him all at once. It occurred to her that it might help to get far away.

That seems to mollify him, and as they cook some late-night ramen together, their friendly mood returns. Hwal asks what Haru’s dream is — how far does she want to take her skating goals? Haru answers that it used to be to skate at an impressive gala show, but now, “My wish is to keep skating for the rest of my life.”

Hwal’s wish would be to watch the sea spanning the horizon, all day long. Thinking of that imagery, Haru amends her wish: “I’d like to skate all day long on that horizon, with the sea frozen over.” It’s a cute way of melding their visions.

But thank goodness for Hae-yoon and Sang-hee, who inject some fun into an otherwise plodding episode.

After thinking things over, Hae-yoon agrees to Sang-hee’s proposal to live together, and to commemorate the occasion, they decide to go on a honeymoon. It’s really more of a staycation, as they close Sang-hee’s bar and dress it up as a vacation getaway.

During a game of “What if” that entails thinking of what they’d do with large sums of money, Sang-hee proposes a scenario as she holds Hae-yoon’s hand and slides a ring on his finger. She asks, “If someone put a ring on your finger and told you, ‘I love you and thank you,’ what would you do?”

Hae-yoon marvels at the ring, speechless, as Sang-hee thanks him for agreeing to compromise by living together. Instead of a wedding ring, this is his we’re-living-together ring. It’s adorable, and although they have agreed (for now) not to marry, you get the sense that they’re taking this seriously as though it were a marriage. It’s just that Sang-hee has a mental block with that terminology, so they’re choosing to call it something else — but the emotions are all there between them.

Hwal finally comes home to see that Su-in has been waiting the whole time. She’s angry and hurt; he was supposed to come by 6pm and now it’s midnight. (Since she had told him to reserve the next day, I think Hwal felt he could skip dinner tonight, not realizing it was a special occasion.) Hwal feels bad but reminds her that he did tell her to eat without him.

But that’s not the point; she asks accusingly why he’s pushing her aside like this: “You sleep with your back turned. You don’t call to say you’ll be late. You don’t keep your promises. And you even forgot our wedding anniversary. And that’s not neglecting me?”

At that, Hwal realizes it’s their anniversary and immediately feels horrible for forgetting. He tries to apologize though he knows it’s not good enough; Su-in says in frustration that she’s always staring at his back.

The next day, Haru overhears a curt phone conversation that Su-in has with Hwal, and asks if Su-in is okay. She feels bad, explaining that it was because she came home late, and Hwal must have been worried about her.

This is news to Su-in, who asks, surprised, whether he always wait up for her. Haru senses that she may have inadvertently stirred up trouble, so she tries to take back her words and waves it off uneasily.

Hwal brings Su-in flowers and sits down to talk, again apologizing for forgetting their anniversary. Su-in asks, “What am I to you? Am I not even as important as Haru? Why didn’t I know that you were late yesterday because of her? Why don’t you tell me things like that honestly? Are they a secret?”

He protests, “Why bring someone into it who has nothing to do with us?” Yet Su-in senses something odd in his reaction and asks, almost afraid to know the answer, “Do you like Haru?” Hwal would like to reject that as ridiculous but he can’t answer, and Su-in notices, “Your expression is really strange.” She asks, “Why are you with me? Are you even happy?”

This frustrates Hwal, because it’s not realistic of her to hope that things will return to the way they used to be. Shooting for happiness is pretty ambitious when he’s just trying to make things work — he promised he would try. Can’t she wait it out and see how things go?

Su-in answers, “If you’re like this even when you’re trying, does that mean this won’t work even if we try?”

Haru’s theme of the day kicks in, picking up the topic of dizziness. She offers a few options in dealing with dizziness, such as spinning in the opposite direction, or sitting down in that spot, or fainting and waking up. As Hyun-tae thinks sadly of Su-in, as Hae-yoon and Sang-hee pack to move in together, and as Hwal sits down a while later to talk with Su-in, Haru’s voiceover notes,

Haru: “And when none of these methods work, there’s one last method. Just staggering along.”

Both calmer now, Hwal agrees with Su-in’s comments: “It’s not that we should try to go back to the past. I think we have to start over from the beginning.”

Su-in asks: “Isn’t our biggest problem that we aren’t close anymore?”

He agrees. With teary eyes, Su-in admits that she’ll miss him. And Hwal moves out.


COMMENTS

I guess this is the transition episode, where Su-in starts to care more about Hyun-tae, and Hwal about Haru, although both people do it on an unconscious level. I think it came about four episodes too late, however, so instead of thinking that it’s nice that Hyun-tae’s feelings finally start getting reciprocated, I was vastly annoyed at Su-in for being so insensitive. After all they’ve gone through, and how strenuously she’s objected to Hyun-tae’s courtship (which I agreed with entirely), can’t she respect that he’s backing off, with great personal difficulty? Now she just looks fickle and uncaring.

I suppose Hwal is in a similar boat, but Lee Jung-jae is doing such a fantastic job showing the complexities of his character that he’s a lot less annoying that Su-in. (Lee Hana has been so much better in other roles, but it’s like she has entirely forgotten how to emote, or show facial expression, all throughout this drama. If you take all of her screencaps and line them up, you’ll see that her range of expression is extremely limited, regardless of what Su-in is supposed to be feeling. This is irritating.) I find Hwal’s behavior a little frustrating, but because I can see his struggle, I’m more willing to cut him some slack.

It’s too bad that it’s probably impossible to gauge a drama’s pacing from the outset, before the producers begin filming, because sometimes the problem with a drama isn’t that a certain aspect sucks, but that the pacing is ill-suited to the story it is telling. We’ve all seen great, exciting dramas peter out toward the end, or take a downturn when extended, or try to cram too much into a final stretch of episodes when writers realized they were running out of time.

I say that because I think Triple would have been so much better as a 12-episode series. Or heck, even 10. The director has a charming touch and a great ear for music (or, perhaps more accurately, great taste in music directors), the actors are pretty good, and the tone is light and refreshing. Unfortunately, there’s just not enough story for 16 episodes, and I think we’ve been suffering from that for a while.


EPISODE 15: “4 Minutes”

Haru’s knee starts to bother her again in practice, which makes her ponder the theme of the day: those key four minutes of a long program, the culmination of all the hard work a skater puts in. Can she handle it when it’s go time?

Su-in takes Haru to the hospital to get her knee checked out, and the answer doesn’t make her happy. Haru insists that she can handle the pain, going against the doctor’s suggestion that she undergo surgery. She asks Su-in not to tell Hwal, because he’ll be sure to push for the surgery.

The “go time” metaphor extends to the Bond Factory guys, who give their ad presentation in a competition against their former supervisor. Hwal leads the presentation, which uses as its theme a child being guided in the way of life by a father. (These ads are so precious that they’re a little embarrassing.) He wraps up, saying that Dad always made the wise, right decision: “So I’ll follow Dad and go with K Energy. Because we never know what happens.”

They win the K Energy account, and even manage a word of respect from their former boss.

That night, the Bond Factory family celebrates, and afterward, Hyun-tae, who’s in a great mood, calls Su-in to share about his good day.

He tells her, “I’m glad I could call you. I’m glad I could call and talk about my life, that I can hear your voice congratulating me. It’s nice.”

Their relationship has progressed to the point where, while they’re not explicitly dating or doing anything overtly romantic, they’re more comfortable with each other. Su-in’s guard is starting to come down, and that makes Hyun-tae more secure and happy. Now when they talk, often it’s Hyun-tae who keeps a respectful distance and Su-in who prolongs the interaction.

For instance, she’s eager to keep him on the phone, so she blurts out the first thing she can think — a lame joke. She grimaces in embarrassment afterward, but Hyun-tae laughs.

We add to the slices of happy home life with a scene between Hae-yoon and Sang-hee as he pricks her finger (because she has indigestion). The small gesture makes Sang-hee marvel that it’s nice to be part of a pair — there’s always someone to prick your finger when you’re sick and to be by your side.

Hwal and Haru have regained something of their old camaraderie. As often happens when Hwal stops thinking too hard about how he should act, he ends up having fun with Haru as they have a dishwashing fight. She has said a few times that she wishes she were born earlier so she would have known him for more of his life, but on the flipside, it also seems like she brings the kid in Hwal.

The Sang-hee and Hae-yoon relationship hits a bump when she takes a pregnancy test, which comes out positive. Immediately spooked, she brushes Hae-yoon off and heads to work, where she broods with Jae-wook (without disclosing the source of her dilemma). Life is already complicated enough!

Later, she asks Hae-yoon for some space for the night — she wants to spend the night alone and momentarily return to singlehood. This behavior naturally worries him, since he can’t understand why she’s suddenly acting so strangely. Hyun-tae tells him to beg forgiveness, but Hae-yoon can’t even see that he did anything wrong.

Haru had asked Su-in not to tell Hwal about her knee, but she feels it’s too important to keep secret, and calls him. Basically, Haru is facing a decisive moment in her career — if she gets surgery, it would put her out of commission for up to a year, which means her life as a competitive athlete is over.

Hwal tells Haru to get the surgery, and says that if she doesn’t, she won’t be able to go to Canada. Haru pleads with him — she can’t quit now. She’ll endure through the pain, but she has already rested for the past five years.

Unfortunately for adorable Poong-ho, it’s at this point that he arrives at the rink to witness this scene as Hwal comforts a saddened Haru. Just before he’d walks in, there’s a cute moment when he pulls up to the rink on his bicycle. Seeing Haru’s bike propped up on a tree next to Hwal’s car, he takes her bike and moves it next to his instead. But now he leaves silently, and as he heads out, he takes his bicycle and rides away. What remains (as in the image above) is a rather literal representation of the triangle between the three.

After having a night to wrestle with the issue on her own, Sang-hee tells the truth to Hae-yoon, that she’s pregnant. After getting over the initial shock, Hae-yoon is glad over the news, although conflicted over what to do. Sang-hee is afraid of what this means for her life, and theirs — up until now, she’s had the option of choosing to quit, whether it’s work, relationships, or whatnot. But being a parent isn’t something she can quit. Trying to alleviate her anxieties, Hae-yoon assures her not to worry.

Poong-ho finds Haru at the rink later, telling her wistfully that he wishes that she would approach him first just once. The lovely thing about Poong-ho is, even when he’s being honest about his dissatisfactions, he says them without recrimination and still provides Haru with a supportive sounding board as she wonders over her dilemma with her knee. What would she do if she can’t skate? She knows that Hwal isn’t going to let her go to Canada without the surgery.

Poong-ho answers philosophically that this could be the time for her to say bye, to figure she’s had a good run with all the years of enjoyment she’s put into it so far. But seeing that she’s not ready to let go just yet, he says with a sigh that she should take it as far as she is prepared to — she can say goodbye when she’s ready.

In a similar vein, Hwal also (half) concedes, telling Haru that they can reconsider things after her next competition. They’ll check with the doctor again, and she will keep up her physical therapy.

With Sang-hee still uncertain about her pregnancy, Hae-yoon cheers her up with some lighthearted joking. Is she afraid of breastfeeding? (No problem, he’ll beg neighborhood ajummas to nurse the baby.) Of letting her figure go? (She can afford to let herself go a little — having a perfect body is an inconvenience to others.)

His words do help her get over her fears, although she warns him that she’s not going to marry him. They’ll have the kid together, but that’s as far as she’s going to concede right now.

Su-in and Hyun-tae’s relationship takes another step forward when he drops by again, poised to jump the fence as usual, and Su-in opens the gate for him. He’s touched at the gesture, and even more so when she presents him with a gift — he had previously given her some freshly plucked berries when he’d gone on a solo trip to forget her. Instead of throwing out the fruit, as he had expected, she returns it to him in the form of jam. He’s surprised and moved at the meaning behind the gift.

He asks for a wish — which is then to grant her a wish. Su-in asks for him to cook her ramen, as he once did, and he makes good on that promise by taking her for a seaside outing so they can have ramen on the beach.

As they enjoy their day, Su-in wonders if it’s okay for her to be happy now, with him. (She’s still feeling uncertain and guilty since her recent split with Hwal.) Hyun-tae, for once, doesn’t push — instead, he says that he’s happy in the moment, and he’s not hoping for more. They can take their time.

When they arrive home, she again prolongs their goodbye, hugging him good night.

Later, they both settle in to sleep with their phones next to them. They trade short texts: “Good night.” “I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep, what to do?” “You have to sleep so tomorrow will come.” “Go on and sleep.”

As Haru prepares for her competition, she finds the bracelet Poong-ho had given her as a good-luck charm. When she drops by the rink to see him, he’s overjoyed. He tells her with some disappointment that he won’t be able to see her upcoming competition, because he has an event of his own. She knows, which is why she’s here — she wants to wear his bracelet in place of having him there. That’s okay, right?

Poong-ho is touched by her question, and tells her good luck.

And then, competition day.

Haru: “When the music starts, the competition clock races on for four minutes, and you carry on until you’re out of breath. I can tell how those four minutes have passed, whether they’ve been filled with high praise or with disappointed tears. Those four minutes don’t come back. All I can do is race toward another four minutes.”


COMMENTS

As I said, this is an inoffensive show, but it’s got a paradox: I don’t know why I find this drama so boring at times when it’s also so delightful at others. The music is wonderful and refreshing, there are some really cute characters (Poong-ho, Haru), and we have some strong performances (Lee Jung-jae) — so why is the overall drama actually less than the sum of its parts? Individual scenes make me smile, but they leave no impression whatsoever. Like drawing a picture in the sand.

The problem is, then, that it’s pleasant on the surface, but it doesn’t sprout any deep roots. I actually watched this episode recently to write this recap, and it wasn’t until I was done that I realized that I’d already seen the episode. Watching Triple is like watching neighbors live their lives — interesting for the moment, but then you turn away and live your own life and forget all about it for the rest of the day.

That doesn’t have to be a bad thing, but it doesn’t make for an exciting drama, certainly.