Yes I’m excited for the good stuff that is about to come!

Our smart Mi So decides to test out her theory and calls out, “Lee Sung Hyun.” Young Joon responds naturally but wakes up and realises what happened. He rejects Mi So’s theory that he’s actually Sung Hyun and claims that he simply responded to her voice in his sleep. After driving her home, Young Joon recalls the kidnapping incident and how young Mi So was so distraught.

He murmurs, “I don’t want to see you cry ever again.”

Mi So is determined to find out the truth and visits Young Joon’s mother, asking about the truth behind Young Joon’s name. Mum is flustered but keeps up a front and lies that Mi So must have misheard the other time, “The person whom you were with when you were little was Sung Yeon.”

Mi So runs into Sung Yeon as she is leaving and heatedly asks him if he remembers more details after reading her diary – like how the kidnapper looked like and how they escaped from the house. Sung Yeon can’t remember and is taken aback at Mi So’s demeanour. While he retrieves her diary to return to her, Mi So sees photos of the two boys when they were young and recognises definitively one of them.

She cleverly asks Sung Yeon to point out which of the two boys he is and Sung Yeon points to the other photo, causing Mi So to be even surer of her theory.

Mi So briefs Young Joon on his schedule for the day (actually I’m quite confused, I thought Ji Ah was to take over Mi So’s role? But it somehow looks like the work load doubled rather than halved with 2 secretaries). Young Joon realises his schedule meant that he wouldn’t see Mi So until night time and asks her to come over to his house at night. She blushes and he teases her for imagining too much. Her response is hilarious, “I’m not sure, I didn’t attend a creative school when I was young like you did so my imagination is quite underdeveloped.”

She finishes her sentence with an “Oppa” and Young Joon’s elbow falls off the table. He stays calm and permits her to continue calling him that way but she declines. She leaves and Young Joon lightly hammers his table at the missed opportunity to record. Cute. I also wonder if Mi So calls him Oppa as kind of a get-back for his teasing hahaha.

Mi So goes to Young Joon’s house at night later on to tidy his library and accidentally sees the scars on his ankle again. Whilst preparing tea, she starts crying at the pain he must have gone through. Her sister calls and chides her for being at Young Joon’s house so late. Young Joon overhears and misunderstands that she’s crying because of sister’s dislike for him. He talks to his reflection and says that he really dislikes himself…because he’s too perfect LOL.

He later assures Mi So that he will convince her sisters because he has such a charming aura.

After driving her home, they exchange the CHEESIEST goodbye – Mi So takes out a heart from her purse and he plucks the moon for her, but she runs away before seeing his response HAHA. It’s so cheesy it’s hilarious.

Yoo Shik is upset about seeing his ex-wife and wants to ramble to Young Joon but somehow ends up giving Young Joon advice instead on how to please the family. I LOVE  Yoo Shik HAHA, especially when he likens a boyfriend meeting the family as a subcontractor wanting to earn the favour of the contractor (because Young Joon’s brain cannot process the rationale behind pleasing a family unless it’s in commercial terms).

The co-workers at work had shamelessly invited themselves to Ji Ah’s house for a housewarming party. I thought Ji Ah’s fluster was to do with the fact that Mr Ko lives right upstairs, but that clearly isn’t the case because she is now TRULY flustered when the party wants to have a drink at the rooftop. She rushes ahead to warn him but it is too late and he dodges under the table instead. The unknowing party then proceeds to drink on the table LOL.

Inspired by the conversation, Young Joon tracks down Mi So and crashes her family outing with the sisters.

He honestly tells them that they are going out, “Much more than you think, we like each other.” Mi So smiles happily but he continues, “I mean, she likes me.”

HAHA. I love it how even though he’s in this relationship, he’s still super consistent with his narcissistic character.

Young Joon insists on following the trio to their lunch appointment, which is an all-you-can-eat buffet of cheap marinated crabs. He doesn’t quite get the concept of stuffing yourself full to make the price worth it (because you have already paid a fixed price for the buffet), which irks Pil Nam. She also doesn’t like how they address each other as “Sir” and “Secretary Kim”.

In order to win her favour, Young Joon stuffs himself full of crabs and even gets ticked off by the restaurant owner.

Later on, the sisters change into loose attire to catch clams and Pil Nam once again picks on Young Joon for not understanding the commoners’ urge to catch fresh clams for soup. In a bid to impress them, he promises to come along too.

At the house warming party, the team moves the table when Ji Ah is not around so Mr Ko had no choice but to pretend that he meant to lie on the floor as a surprise all along. The team hilariously buys his excuse. Se Ra runs out to buy extra food and inhales three pieces of sausage at one go because it is too good. Supermarket lady is upset because, “How can you eat three when you are not going to buy any?”

Driver Yang descends and saves the day by grabbing three bags of sausage, “We will buy three. Don’t embarrass the lady anymore.” I love the dramatic music that plays whenever Yang saves Se Ra.

Whilst waiting for Young Joon to change, Pil Nam nags again and Mi So flares at her. Young Joon is always so considerate of her and takes care of her, “You don’t know anything about him.” Young Joon hilariously appears in a dramatic get-up to dig for clams. Pil Nam mutters that being fully equipped doesn’t mean you know how to pick clams.

This triggers Mi So again so she challenges her sisters to a competition. Whoever loses needs to grant a wish. Hearing that Mi So’s wish is for her sisters not to hate Young Joon anymore, Young Joon is fuelled by fresh motivation to do well – but alas, every single clam in the bucket was caught by Mi So.

HAHA. I love it that she’s so capable in her way.

Nonetheless, sweet Young Joon promises that he will keep showing the sisters his sincere feelings towards Mi So. Pil Nam almost slips and Young Joon catches her, which alerts Pil Nam to Young Joon’s cold hands. Mi So realises that Young Joon must have a stomach upset and quickly hauls him away, leaving the sisters to pick up the two buckets of clams. Mal Hee tells Pil Nam that she likes the guy, despite his sexual dysfunction. Haha. GURLS, if you had seen that smoking hot kiss in the closet, you would realise you have no worry.

Mi So distracts Young Joon while Pil Nam pricks Young Joon’s finger. Does this trick really work? I’m so tempted to try it. Anyway, Pil Nam says, “I’ll prick your finger the next time you get stomach upset too.”

Awww, Young Joon smiles and suddenly kneads the dough with MUCH enthusiasm. He isn’t even kneading; he’s pounding, and the three sisters laugh at his adorableness.

It starts raining so the team decides to head to a pub instead. Mr Ko hides his face behind a giant squid so as to prevent the landlady from recognising him. He pretends to be inspired by the Masked Singer and starts a HORRIBLE dance (contortions?) but it’s so horrible and enthusiastic that it’s good hahaha.

Driver Yang then shyly sings for the group – and that’s really because Kang Hong Suk (actor) is a musical actor. Nice.

Later, Se Ra stumbles drunkenly out of the gathering and into the path of Yang. In her drunken state, she reveals her crush on Yang and wonders out loud whether she should ask Yang out.

She trips but Yang catches her dramatically, and the song he just sang plays in the background. I thought I would be really annoyed by Se Ra but she’s freaking funny with Yang.

Young Joon learns that the reason why the three sisters always come to this place on this day every year was because in the past (insert cameo by Jung So Min and Lee Min Ki from Because This is My First Life), they had taken a family trip and stopped halfway at the beach for a break. Mi So was so feisty as a young girl, asking her dad why his singing was so bad HAHA. Anyway, Dad realised that he lost the car key which meant that he couldn’t go for his singing competition and win a trophy for Mum’s birthday, but decided that it didn’t matter because his family was with him and that’s more important.

They had a near kiss but Mi So broke the moment with her awful timing because she wanted to pee. Anyway, since then, the family had a promise to visit this beach on Mum’s birthday, but the year after, she passed away.

This is why Pil Nam is so strict on Young Joon because she wants Mi So to start a new family and be loved. Young Joon feels apologetic for crashing such an important day, but Mi So really appreciates his efforts. Mi So tells him that shortly after they came to the beach, her mother fell sick and was always at the hospital. She would always be alone because her dad would be taking care of her mum.

One day, her mother came to pick her up from the playground and they even had a game of chase. She only knew later that her mother was actually on the way home after the hospital said they couldn’t do anything for her.

I’ve not seen Jung So Min since Playful Kiss days so watching her cameo feels oddly nostalgic on so many levels. Like wow how many years have it been? And she’s looking sooo good here! There’s a nice, elegant aura and she really plays the loving, kind mum well.

Anyway, Mi So is happy that she has that last memory of her mum because she was too young when her mum passed away. She wants Young Joon to remember as well that he can tell her anything from his past. She will wait for the day he’s ready and she will always be there for him.

The couple leaves from the family gathering early because Young Joon has a presentation that day. At the same time, Young Joon’s mum frets over Mi So’s words and finally decides it’s time to tell the truth.

She looks at Sung Yeon in the eye, “Listen to me carefully…24 years ago…”

We then see Sung Yeon walking the streets in a daze as he recalls his mother saying, “The boy who was kidnapped…wasn’t you.” He somehow manages to stumble into the hall where Young Joon’s giving the presentation and falls into a seat next to Mi So.

He asks Mi So if his memories are wrong but Mi So stays silent, unsure of what she should and could say. On the stage, a magician invites his assistant to help with his act and a lady with red lipstick and in high heels descends from the ceiling.

This plunges Mi So into a mix of flashbacks between the helper from the ceiling and the red lady in her dreams -ropes, ladders, lady from the ceiling, Sung Hyun saying it’s just a spider- and she stands up, “I remember.”

She then faints. Young Joon pushes Sung Yeon aside and pulls her into his arms, “Kim Mi So!”

-the end-

Well potential spoiler here, but if you’re really confused about what’s happening, what you’re supposed to get from this episode is that Young Joon is the one who was kidnapped, not Sung Yeon. Young Joon didn’t forget anything; he just pretended he lost his memory. The reason for that was actually revealed a few episodes earlier when the mum said that the family only went back to some semblance of normality after Young Joon did that because Sung Yeon, who only built his memories based on what Young Joon had said, had now believed that he was the one who was kidnapped.

As for Mi So, her trauma didn’t really stem from spiders. If I’m guessing correctly, it’s because the red lady in her dreams probably hung herself from the ceiling, and this was exactly how the helper of the magician appeared when she came down from the ceiling. Sung Hyun, that sweet boy, tried to sooth her by saying that it’s just a spider.

I’m so excited to see how this unfolds. Even though we kinda got all the plot points already, I still want to see the execution of it and the consequences. I really want the full flashback of this incident to be good, impactful and horrific, because it served as such an important premise from which the story is based on. Maybe it’s because I like Lee Tae Hwan, I also kinda don’t want Sung Yeon to die from a car accident (hinted in the preview but likely to be just a red herring).

This was also a really cute episode to recap because I love how Mi So stands up for herself and Young Joon in front of her sisters in her own feisty manner. I also like that Young Joon is really putting in the effort to impress the sisters and he’s not the least bit bitter about it. Can’t deny that the little sound effects and visual edits really amuse me too!

<3thoughtsramble

You can catch What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim on Viki!