I’ve been watching this drama ever since it started, but I wasn’t feeling the first few episodes. Recently, however, with the ‘decline’ of Sensory Couple, and the improvement in the past few episodes, I thought I shall finally give recapping this drama a go!

After the previous episode’s heartbreaking ending (I really loved it??), Kang Min Ho has sunk into this crazed, dazed self – he cannot fall asleep, he randomly opens the doors to see if Soon Jung has returned, and then he accidentally rams his head into the door when he turns around in disappointment.

 

Although Min Ho’s heartbreak is pitiful, it is also terribly funny as well. While waiting for Ok Hyun (also known as Wendy) to return with Woo Shik, he terrorises couples by shouting at them, “Do you think you will stay together forever???”

 

He gets jealous when he sees a couple skating and shouts happily when the girl falls over, “Don’t help her! See she cannot get up! You cannot get up right! This is exactly what love is like!!”

 

Oh dear his immaturity hits a new high (low?) but I’m so loving this scene for some reason. Wendy thinks that Min Ho is behaving too immaturely, but Woo Shik tells her that this could very well be his first love, even at his age. Hahaha.

He returns to his seat, while playing the strings game that Soon Jung had taught him previously, and Woo Shik is so embarrassed. Hahahaha. Wendy laments that Soon Jung has really ruined a man’s life and Woo Shik reveals Min Ho’s new nickname in the company – President Crazy. Why?

Because he will randomly recite poems and start crying (said poem is about parallel lines). He will be fine for a while then starts crying after reading a notice (which has the words Soon Jung inside). AHAHA.

Wendy reminds Min Ho that he’s of no help to her and pushes him to dream a new dream with more clues, but he cries, “I can’t sleep!! I can’t!”

Awww. Looking at him, even Ok Hyun’s heart softens. They realise that Joon Hee must have gotten rid of his old car which had the bloodstains, and replaced it with an exact model. Wendy suggests that Min Ho pull some strings to arraign No Young Bae, so that they can get a search warranty for his car.

While all that funny stuff is going on, Lee Joon Hee is coming up with a new plan. He semi-threatens Ji Hyun into becoming his partner and informs her of his plans to make use of his legal connections.

Soon Jung returns to take more employment certificates and has a quick catchup with the other two secretaries. They sigh over the fact that President is in his own world right now and refuses to appoint the next Chief Secretary. Min Ho leaves the lift and runs into Soon Jung, but smiles sadly, “I can even see her apparition now…”

He pokes her in jest as he walks by her and realises that she’s real solid, “WOAH OH OH OH…Kim Soon Jung…” 

HAHAHA.

They finally get some face-to-face time, and Min Ho notices that she hasn’t gotten hired yet. She informs him of her plans to move to HwaSeong where she can start her life anew. She’s telling him this because she wants him to accept the fact that she has left, and adapt to the new life.

“Please get over your feelings for me, and put forth your strength. You have 4500 employers on your shoulders.”

Before she turns to leave, Min Ho finally tells her, “No matter what others say, my conclusion is this – I like you not because of my heart, but because you are Kim Soon Jung.”

He smiles and thanks her, “Even if you hate me, to me, you are someone I am grateful to. So I have to express my thanks from now on.” He walks backwards and tells her, “Let’s cheer up!” but he has tears in his eyes.

Soon Jung returns home and a mysterious man pops up to help carry her luggage up the flight of stairs. I almost thought that she was going to get robbed haha.

 

She sees a staggering number of post-its outside her door, and realises they are all messages from Min Ho, who leaves a post-it every morning and evening with messages like “Soon-morning”.

Min Ho gathers his documents and encourages himself, “I made a promise with Kim Soon Jung. Let’s do this. Ajaaa -” His vision suddenly blurs over and he wonders what is happening.

Let me guess – your heart is going to die on you a few episodes later, and you will get a new heart, so that removes Dong Wook out of the equation?

The next morning, Min Ho sees Tae Suk at the revolving doors and motions for him to turn around. They have a chat at his office, and he apologises for causing a ruckus the other day. Tae Suk nods and asks jokingly if Min Ho can hold Dong Suk’s heart in his chest since Dong Suk’s chest was thisss wide. Jokes aside, Tae Suk tells Min Ho that he’s not that surprised. He knew something was inside Min Ho when Min Ho fainted after seeing Tae Suk at the meeting. “The connection between a father and a son is like that. The heart recognises first.”

 

Tae Suk thanks him for living healthily and Min Ho tears but masks it by drinking lots of water.

Tae Suk wants Min Ho to understand why Soon Jung is reacting the way she is right now. Min Ho nods and says that he understands, but she has done so much for him. She even told him that she would protect him, and that is why he will express his thanks diligently.

Soon Jung receives a nagging call from Ok Hyun and leaves the house to find a sunflower.

Min Ho hides behind a wall, and looks like a stalker with his shades. He praises Ok Hyun for a job well done and reminds her to make sure that Soon Jung eats her meals on time.

Ok Hyun replies obediently but agonises after the call ends, “Sunbae also did the same thing…Ahh my life.” Min Ho, in his excitement, accidentally pushes his phone over the ledge, “Shiiitttt.”

I love small little scenes like this. They aren’t important but it really shows us who Min Ho is as a three-dimensional character. Okay, I guess as we progress, this will become more important because we need to  be able to draw a line between Min Ho and Dong Wook. Right now, I already can, and am loving most bits of Min Ho.

Hehe, every morning, Soon Jung will receive a new sunflower and one day she dumps all of them into his garden.

However, Min Ho returns with a vengeance and places a large bouquet of sunflowers in front of the gate, only to turn around and find Soon Jung behind him.

He runs for his life and Soon Jung chases after him. Hahahaha. This is a punishment, I am going to send you flowers until I die! 

Joon Hee gets some confidential information about the new product through his spies and launches his final plan – to sue Hermia with a patent lawsuit so that Hermia will not be able to make any sales.

No Young Bae’s wife is dying and he is even more frustrated now with Joon Hee. Joon Hee answers his call patronisingly, but informs Young Bae that he has acquired a kidney from China.

Business is going well for Hermia. After a smooth meeting with his two directors/new sidekicks, he tells Woo Shik that he’s going out for some business (and accidentally clips the sidekick in the face when he swishes his coat on).

Soon Jung is delighted to receive an offer for an interview at Dae Ji Pharmaceuticals. She smiles at the sunflower outside her gate and as she leaves, a cab drives in and asks her if she called for one.

Even though she didn’t, she asks if the driver can fetch her instead. The interview goes along smoothly and Soon Jung leaves the company to find that it’s pouring outside. She gets ready to walk in the rain when an employee catches up with her and hands her an umbrella from the company.

She’s happy at all the good things that is happening to her, but doesn’t realise that it’s actually all Min Ho’s work.

Ok Hyun finally receives the search warranty and she leaves with her sidekick immediately to find No Young Bae’s car. No Young Bae thinks that he’s meeting Joon Hee, but is actually tricked into an ambush. He gets hit by the thugs, who are unable to locate the memory chip on him. The two detectives arrive in time to save No Young Bae from the thugs, but he escapes in his car.

Joon Hee is furious to find out that the thugs did not manage to get both the memory chip and No Young Bae. He tells them to go into hiding for a while, so that the detectives would not suspect them.

Min Ho wakes up with some discomfort in his heart area, but he gets ready for work and smells the new sunflower that he’s going to leave at Ok Hyun’s house for Soon Jung.

Woo Shik suddenly rushes in to inform him of the bad news – Hermia is faced with a lawsuit.

 

Soon Jung steps out of her house in anticipation but is slightly disappointed to find that there is no sunflower for her today. Eh heh.

Min Ho rushes to the company and clarifies to his confused directors that this must be Joon Hee’s doing – as long as they are faced with a lawsuit by a US company over the patent rights, they cannot sell their products. They run into Joon Hee, who tells Min Ho calmly that working for Hermia like a dog for the past few years is paying off now. All his past connections are sources of gold.

Even though Min Ho will ultimately win the lawsuit, they will drag the lawsuit out as long as possible, “Maybe after three years?” By then, Hermia would definitely have gone into bankruptcy since this new product is their only product right now.

What’s worse is that Min Ho is now summoned by the Prosecutor’s office for professional negligence.

Soon Jung is still blissfully unaware of everything and visits a potential house in Hwa Seong. It’s really nice, cheap and she can move in in a few days. On the other hand, Min Ho is interrogated for seven hours. Some shareholders have filed claims against him on the suspicion that he has handed over the confidential information to the foreign company. This prosecutor is friends with Joon Hee, so it’s no surprise who is behind this interrogation.

Woo Shik finds out that Joon Hee has already bribed the district courts. Min Ho repeats, “Even if one of us dies, let’s go till the end.”

Tae Suk meets with Soon Jung and she updates him of her situation. She apologises for causing confusion but Tae Suk replies that there was no confusion on his part.He smiles, “Dong Wook was someone who protected you silently but President Kang is someone whom you would like to protect. What I mean is…ultimately, you love the both of them in different ways.”

Soon Jung returns home with Tae Suk’s words fresh in her mind, but when she sees Min Ho at her steps, she tells him that everything is going well and she can start anew. Min Ho looks down, “After being separated from you, I can only think of the things that I couldn’t do for you. I only think of the futile things that I’ve done and all the times I’ve treated you harshly.”

“When you go somewhere else, I hope that you will only receive love, and that there would only be good things for you.”

 

He thanks her for letting him see her face – it’s his treatment for a bad day. As he walks past Soon Jung, he playfully says, “I’m leaving~” Soon Jung stares pensively at his back.

No Young Bae treats his own injuries and finds Joon Hee at his apartment. He realises that Joon Hee has never bothered to find a kidney for his wife, but Joon Hee thinks that he has the upper hand because No Young Bae is his accomplice.

He will never go to the police, so he might as well give him the memory chip and then he will get money to send his kids to school, “Oh what about your wife’s funeral expenses?”

Back at home, Young Bae faces his dying wife who informs him that even if he finds a kidney now, it will be useless because the doctors can no longer operate on her. She wants him to go to jail, get his due punishment, then come out and take care of the kids. “Don’t commit any crime…please…” She cries and closes her eyes, and Young Bae sobs.

All this time, in my head, I’m just like oh goodness if No Young Bae doesn’t find Min Ho soon, I swear he’s stupid.

Min Ho runs into Joon Hee who taunts him but Min Ho replies that Joon Hee will suffer from the boomerang – whatever he does will come back to him.

Joon Hee distinguishes himself from Min Ho. He isn’t some emotional loser who will betray Gold Partners. Only emotional losers gets the boomerang.

Min Ho nods, “Fine, let’s do it. Between you and me, one of us will get everything and the other will lose everything.”

The sidekick informs Min Ho that the news will be released online and in print in an hour and then stock prices will hit rock bottom. He recalls Soon Jung’s words of encouragement and tries to motivate his sidekicks not to lose heart as well.

At this point in time, he receives a phone call.

Soon Jung finally signs the contract with the lady from the real estate agency but accidentally leaves her phone behind. When she returns to retrieve her phone, she overhears the lady telling some secretary on the phone that the deal went smoothly and she “handled it well without her noticing.”

 

She repeats the fax number that she has to fax a copy of the contract to, and Soon Jung’s face falls as she hears the number.

That mysterious phone call is actually from No Young Bae, who finally decides to deal with Min Ho instead – he will go to jail and serve his sentence after giving Min Ho the memory chip, but in return, Min Ho has to take care of his kids.

Sounds like a good deal to me!

Soon Jung hears the truth from the lady that there was this secretary who contacted her and told her that the president of his company wanted to buy her a house at a cheap price. She finds out from the pharmaceutical company that it is affiliated with Hermia, and it is on President Kang’s orders that he hired her (a little weird that Soon Jung doesn’t know the two companies are affiliated).

 

She recalls all the incidents of the mysterious luggage helper, the random cab, the sudden umbrella, and realises this is all Min Ho’s doing.

It seems like everything is finally going well, but No Young Bae just has to, he simply has to call Joon Hee and inform him that he’s in front of the station now, ready to turn himself in. The memory chip? It’s with Min Ho, who is going to show it to the press.

Joon Hee is distraught. I used to pity Joon Hee, but he’s doing a fine job of being a detested villain(: I’m so glad that I only have to root for one guy haha #trivialproblems.

I felt like No Young Bae is going to be miraculously murdered before he steps into the station but thank goodness he makes it in safely and confesses everything honestly. Min Ho gets off his car outside Han Jin Newspaper but stops in his tracks when he sees the name of the incoming call.

He gets flustered and tries to act cool when he picks up the phone call, but shows his eagerness to wait for Soon Jung (and put off visiting the newspapers), who is coming to him right now.

I don’t really know how to interpret Soon Jung’s expressions. I felt like she is burdened by his actions and she’s really meeting him to tell him to STOP, while he’s on cloud nine just from the thought that Soon Jung is coming to find him.

Joon Hee calls his thugs and sends them information, “You have to quickly take care of someone and get something from him.” In the meanwhile, Min Ho awaits for Soon Jung’s arrival, and when she finally drops off opposite the road, he motions for them to proceed towards the pedestrian crossing.

      

She’s smiling, she’s smiling! But uh oh, he’s going to get knocked down by a car?

(Forgive me, I really liked Min Ho in this scene, which explains the number of screenshots.)

At the crossing, he mouths to Soon Jung that he will be crossing over to her, and tricks her into thinking that the light is green. When the green man really comes on, he steps forward happily and a motorcycle speeds towards him.

The motorcyclist raises a club and whacks Min Ho once on the head, really hard.

He topples to the floor with blood streaming from his head, and everyone crowds in on him. Soon Jung cries out, “President!”

– the end –

Oh I wish she has called out Kang Min Ho or something!

That aside, I’m liking this drama because there seems to be more at stake now. For the first few episodes, I took issue with the fact that I couldn’t identify with Min Ho or any of the company problems at all. I know they did spend time elaborating, but it still feels that Min Ho’s revenge was very trivial and easy. I couldn’t really feel the 20 odd years of effort which he has invested, in order to get to where he was. I didn’t really feel emotionally either, whenever the company runs into problems. It’s always the same cycle – someone runs in with bad news, cues stricken looks from everyone, and then problem gets solved.

Somehow, this isn’t the problem any more once they get the revenge thing out of the way. The problems which affect the company are more understandable and relatable, and I thought that the patent lawsuit idea was quite ingenious.

Most importantly, I’m really, really liking the way the couple’s relationship has developed over the recent few episodes. Each episode focuses on a different stage, and right now, I think we are in a Soon-Jung’s-semi-healing/accepting stage (until Min Ho gets whacked that is, then it might be a full blown healing stage hehe). Min Ho is doing something which always draws me towards second leads, and that is his determination to do something for Soon Jung without wanting to receive anything in return. What makes it even better is that he’s not afraid to tell her so (the fatal point of second leads is that they are too shy to say anything, and that’s when I get so frustrated with everything in general). But he’s not being pushy or forceful. He’s still gentle, playful and the childish guy he is.

And I think that’s how they continue building Min Ho into a distinct character from Dong Wook. One person’s personal preferences for something tangible is not an indication of the person’s full personality. Min Ho’s liking for lollipops or the song is simply just a hobby or a craving, not an indication that his personality is now Dong Wook’s. His heart may have given him the platform to start feeling again, but I do think that largely it’s because his revenge is over. He has a second chance to live his life without revenge, and that’s why he has space now in his heart to love Soon Jung. Dong Wook and Min Ho are distinct individuals, and I think it’s pretty awesome that what seemed to be quite lame initially turns out rather well.

That being said, I’m genuinely curious to know if the heart can retain memories at all. Isn’t it just muscles pumping blood? It’s the brain retains memories and makes connections, right?

<3thoughtsramble