Episode five was all about the different gifts our characters gave each other- the ones you buy and give out on purpose, as well as the less obvious kind.
5. The gift of a challenge
Chilbongie (Yoo Yun Suk) is one of those guys who always has someone telling him how great he is at what he does- deservedly so, since he's supposed to really be great at baseball. Rather than let him get complacent with all that praise, Mr. Sung (Sung Dong Il) gives Chilbongie a kick in the pants and tells him to practice harder. Of course, this kick in the pants serves the dual purpose of getting Chilbongie motivated and protecting Mr. Sung's pride from having to admit that Chilbongie's pitch just about broke his hand.
4. The gift of patience
Trash (Jung Woo) was right when he compared menopause with puberty- it's not easy to live with. Like many men, Mr. Sung is not very aware of what menopause entails, and has no idea how to help his wife when the big change starts kicking in. However, these two haven't survived over twenty years of marriage together for nothing. In his own clumsy way, Mr. Sung (with Na Jung and Trash's help) does his best to give Mrs. Sung (Lee Il Hwa) her space and cater to whatever she needs.
Of course, by the end of the episode we find out that it's not menopause that's got Mrs. Sung's moods swinging- she's pregnant! How adorable is it when everyone at the house starts taking care of their pregnant Seoul mom?
3. The gift of comfort
Being in pain sucks. Back problems like Na Jung (Go Ara)'s are absolutely miserable to live with- every nerve in your body is connected to your spine, so when your spine is messed up, everything's a mess. Chilbongie is kind enough to offer to not only lend Na Jung his super nice back brace while hers has gone missing, but he even uses the massage and physical therapy skills he learned in baseball to help her out. Ever the gentleman, he even manages to take it in stride when she accidentally farts on him- twice!
While Chilbongie was nice enough to help out when asked, Trash doesn't even have to ask- he just knows. He walks right up behind Na Jung and starts rubbing her sore shoulders and upper back. I'm sure she'd rather just not be in pain, but if Na Jung's got to have a bad back, at least she's lucky enough to have these two around.
2. The gift of advice
Oh, our poor, clueless boys. Haitai (Son Ho Joon)'s a wreck because his girlfriend of three years is being impossible- she wants him to come see her for her birthday, but he can't because of finals. He offers to come see her the day after, but she says it's not necessary. Lost and not sure how to speak girl, Haitai whines to Yoon Jin (Tiny-G's Dohee) and Na Jung about his dilemma- should he go see her Friday? Or Saturday?
In their first show of friendship, the girls team up and try to explain that Haitai's missing the point by asking a question. It's cold outside and your girlfriend buys a new house that still smells like paint fumes. When she shuts the door, the fumes give her a terrible headache; when she opens it, she gets sick from the draft. She asks you what she should do about it, what should you say?
Haitai, Samcheonpo (Kim Sung Kyun), Bingeure (B1A4's Baro), and Trash all say either leave the door open or closed- Yoon Jin and Na Jung scoff and say they missed the point. When they tell the same story to Chilbongie, but framing it as a real situation where they've painted Na Jung's room instead of a hypothetical situation about a hypothetical girlfriend, he also gets it wrong at first- but then he turns to Na Jung to ask if she's okay. Way to go, Chilbongie! That, according to the girls, is the right answer- the girl in the story doesn't want to be told what to do, she wants to talk about how she feels. She wants to know that he cares. C'mon guys, these ladies are giving you some important information here! Unfortunately, the advice comes too late for Haitai, whose girlfriend decides she's had enough and sends all the momentos of their relationship to him in a box.
This has nothing to do with the gift aspect of the list, but I wish we'd gotten to see the kids ask Trash the question, because I think Chilbongie may have gotten a slightly unfair advantage here. It seems like Trash got the hypothetical situation, and in that context, his answer made sense. If they'd asked about Na Jung specifically, however, he probably would have teased her about it and then offered to let her use his room, just like how he always teases her and then does what she wants.
1. The gifts of time and attention
When it comes down to it, this episode isn't about the physical gifts that people give, but about the time and attention that brought those gifts about. Na Jung talks about this in the end of the episode when she talks about the double meaning of the English word "present". Mr. Sung is able to take care of Mrs. Sung, not because he can afford the best care or because he has any great knowledge, but because he's paid so much attention to her over the years that he knows what she needs. Same with Na Jung and Trash making all the kids behave- they're paying attention to what mom's going through and they adjust accordingly. When Haitai, Samcheonpo, and Yoon Jin all pitch in to buy mom a birthday present, it's not the ring that matters- it's the fact that they remembered her birthday and the kind note that came with the ring that makes mom smile.
On the flip side, Haitai bought all kinds of gifts for his girlfriend, but his lack of attention to what she really wanted brought about the relationship's end. Poor guy- hopefully he finally got the hint and he'll do better next time.
It's funny how this all plays out in the end with Chilbongie, Trash, and Na Jung. Both boys come back from their trips with gifts. Trash bought exactly what Na Jung asked for- the expensive cosmetics- and she looks at him like he's crazy. Chilbongie, on the other hand, buys the fancy perfume he saw some women buying. Na Jung takes all of this at face value and thinks that Chilbongie is more thoughtful than Trash- at least, until she finds Trash's second gift- the manhwa she wanted and a giant bag of marshmallows to replace the ones that he ate. Chilbongie may be better with women in general, but Trash definitely has an advantage when it comes to understanding the Sung women.
Whew, what an episode! We had all our kids playing a doomed game of matchmaker with Samcheonpo and Yoon Jin (I'm so glad she's finally decided to talk!), and we're finally starting to see our love triangle turn into a real triangle. Trash has been completely silent so far on whether or not he understands how Na Jung feels about him, but these jealous glances at Chilbongie are giving him away. Then there's that small matter of Chilbongie going in for the kiss during the chopstick game- he's lucky he didn't get bitten!
And you didn't think I'd end this without talking about Bingeure and Trash, did you? It seems you guys are fans! It's obvious that this is yet another case of a very sweet guy with a very big crush on his (probably) very straight friend- this time, instead of sharing a hotel bed for the night, Trash kisses Bingeure as part of a game, and once Bingeure has a second to process what happened, he looks like he'll die of happiness right then and there. It'll be interesting to see how he deals with this crush as time passes- unlike Joon Hee (INFINITE's Hoya) in '1997', who told Shi Won (A Pink's Eunji) about his crush really early in the show, Bingeure doesn't seem to have told anyone about Trash. Joon Hee pretty much knew from day one that there would never be anything romantic between himself and Yoon Jae (Seo In Guk), but it's not clear yet whether Bingeure thinks there's hope for him and Trash or not (though I highly doubt he sees that as a possibility).
In other interesting news, we got a bit of an introduction to Bingeure's home life. We already knew Chilbongie isn't super close to his parents, but in this episode we find out that Bingeure and his dad have a strained relationship- it's bad enough that when he finds out Mrs. Sung talked to his dad on the phone, he actually snaps at her not to do it again. It's got to be pretty bad for our resident smiley face to lose the grin.
Next week is mid-season, which is when things tend to get /really/ interesting- are you guys ready? What are you looking forward to in the second half of the season?
SHARE
Log in to comment