Ahh, relationships. Relationships and friendships. They’re hard to create and once created, they’re hard to maintain. If there’s anything this episode taught us, it’s the lesson that it’s important to always communicate in your relationships. Communication is key to any relationship and without communication your relationships are bound to fail.
Note: It’s been a busy day and week for me in general as I’m in the midst of moving out of my current apartment and into another one. I’ve been busy all day cleaning and will spend all day tomorrow cleaning as well. I apologize for the late recap post, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless!
School 2017 episode 14: How to Face a Misunderstanding
Episode 14 starts off with Tae-woon almost getting caught by the principal as X. However, Eunho arrives just in time to save him as she distracts the principal and the guards by making some noise which causes them to divert their attention to her. Tae-woon then shoves and pushes the guards holding him down away and together they make their escape out of the building and around campus.
Tae-woon parts ways with Eunho and causes the rest of the guys to run after him. He manages to hide and take off his black sweater to trick the principal and guards. He lies that he’s out catching X as well and leads the group around campus only to tire them out. By the end of the night, Tae-woon grabs his black sweater that he “coincidentally” finds on the ground and heads back home. The group is exhausted from running everywhere but getting no where.
The couple meet with each other back at the warehouse after fooling the principal, vice principal, and security guards. Eunho worries for Tae-woon who claims to have sprained his ankle (but actually didn’t). She walks him home that night since spraining his ankle means he can’t ride his motorcycle home. Tae-woon enjoys the time spent with Eunho even though he lied about his ankle; he doesn’t feel guilty one bit. Hahaha. Too cute.
The principal is fully aware that X is a pair and isn’t just one person anymore. He narrows down the list of possible individuals who could be X and eliminates Dae-hwi from this list. He’s confident that Eunho is an accomplice. So who’s X then?
Tae-woon and his crew have a meeting to update one another about the X investigation case. They mention about the principal’s awareness of X being a duo and the risks that Eunho can get caught in if she’s discovered to be X’s accomplice. Tae-woon decides that they should all just wait it out and see what the principal’s next move is.
Principal and VP move according to their plan. They’re going to return to giving the students low-quality lunches since they don’t have the budget to keep providing high-quality lunches. Seems like Tae-woon’s prediction about the duo was right.
Tae-woon and Eunho walk around on campus. Eunho flinches when Tae-woon grabs her hand which she automatically lets go of. She doesn’t want others to know about them, but Tae-woon is all for it. He even in fact starts spreading “rumors” of Eunho having a boyfriend to get people to start noticing, but stops when Eunho interrupts him. She chases after him into their classroom and notices that his ankle that was supposedly sprained actually isn’t sprained at all. Haha. Dae-hwi witnesses the two lovebirds joking around with each other and is suddenly reminded of Nam-joo who’s not in class that day.
Nam-joo stops to visit a music store with instruments. However, she doesn’t go inside the store and only looks at it from afar. She heads home that night and returns to a frightened and worried father, but she doesn’t say much to her dad and ignores his words and apologies. :(( Why are you treating your father like this Nam-joo?
Tae-woon, Eunho, and their squad are having lunch. Byung-goo addresses with Eunho the rumor that she has a boyfriend, but no one has a clue that it’s Tae-woon. Eunho remains cautious about eating the school lunch since she got food poisoning from it last time, but she clears herself of any doubts in her mind. She’ll be okay.
Except Eunho isn’t okay and she ends up fainting after lunch. She’s taken to the hospital and is accompanied by Tae-woon and Teacher Shim. Teacher Shim leaves Tae-woon to watch after Eunho to run some errands.
Eunho is discharged from the hospital on the same day and heads home with Tae-woon. On the way they pass by a flower shop which causes Eunho to want some. But Tae-woon refuses to buy her some and instead would rather gift Eunho with some meat than flowers. LOL. Tae-woon you can buy me meat anytime you want.
After a good night call with Eunho, Tae-woon reflects on the school lunch that’s been causing Eunho to become sick. He knows that it’s all the principal’s doing and is set to get revenge on him.
The next morning, principal gets a lunch set supposedly delivered and gifted by Tae-woon’s father aka the Director of the school. The principal happily accepts the lunch set and gobbles most it down – that is until he finds a note placed inside the box. It’s written by Tae-woon and reads that everything that he had just eaten was expired. The principal panics and frantically heads outside in demand for an ambulance. Of course, the food actually isn’t expired and was actually freshly made. Tae-woon just wanted to pull a prank on the principal and get him a taste of his own medicine.
Principal is transported to a hospital, but leaves after he finds out he’s perfectly fine and there was nothing wrong with him. He returns to the school campus only to come across Sarang’s mother. He’s still upset with her after the whole school lunch issue that she brought to his attention and starts throwing a fit around her, but stops once Eunho and Sarang joins him. He notices how the two girls are always together and grows suspicious of them.
Sarang meets with the principal to have a talk about her mother. Even if her mother were to be fired, there will still be plenty of other people they can contact to fill her mother’s position. He threatens to fire her mother if she doesn’t confess to him who X is (urgh what a jerk).
Sarang can’t stop worrying about her mother and grows angry at Tae-woon and Eunho. In her conversation with Eunho, she admits that she feels like Tae-woon’s behavior as X is just a childish cosplay and that even if he were to be discovered he wouldn’t be punished for it because of his position as the Director’s son. She then lashes out at Eunho. Because she’s been spending all her time with Tae-woon, she can do all that she wants and can say all that’s on her mind. How nice and convenient that must be. Sarang leaves the warehouse and walks away.
While walking, Sarang is joined by Kyung-woo. Just like all the times before, he gives her some words of encouragement and wishes for her well-being.
Eunho talks with Tae-woon her concerns about Sarang and the conversation they had earlier that day. She’s stressed out because she’s not sure what Sarang is mad about. Tae-woon tries to cheer Eunho up and reassures her that everything will be fine. Sarang is a thoughtful person.
Things aren’t going well for Sarang and her mother. She witnesses her mother getting fired as a custodian from the school and pleading her boss to take her back. Her mother only has one more month to work and then she’ll have to leave. Sarang barges into the principal’s office, angry at what he did to her mother. But the principal is careless and reiterates that if Sarang wants to save her mother she should confess to him who X is.
Eunho heads outside for some fresh air. She’s joined by Officer Soo-ji who sits next to her on the bench. Together they have a conversation about relationships. Eunho refers to her relationship with Sarang and admits that she actually doesn’t know Sarang all that well unlike what she had originally thought. Officer Soo-ji gives Eunho some uplifting words and encourages her to pour all her effort into her relationships. Relationships are hard to maintain which is why one needs to pour in effort to keep them alive.
Officer Soo-ji gets scolded by her boss for failing her assignment of catching X at Eunho’s high school. She’s to end her assignment there and do something else. Officer Soo-ji used to be someone who would put her mind to things and get things done accordingly, but she’s failed to do that with the X investigation case. What happened?
The relationship between Sarang and Eunho only worsens. Sarang grows angry at Tae-woon who she thinks is being X just for jokes and fun, but Eunho defends him by saying that he’s doing it because he cares for all the students at school. Sarang doesn’t say much more and walks out of the study room.
Sarang watches her mother getting scolded for not doing her job of cleaning properly. Meanwhile, Eunho is still stressed out over Sarang’s behavior recently. She doesn’t know what’s wrong with Sarang because Sarang isn’t communicating with her on what’s bothering her.
While walking on campus, Eunho encounters Principal. He warns her to just come forward and confess to him whatever details and information she has about X. He knows that she could be a possible accomplice and spy with X so she should just tell him all that she knows.
Teacher Shim finds out through Teacher Jung that Officer Soo-ji is no longer working at their high school and has officially left. He rushes over to the police station where she works to talk to her about it. Officer Soo-ji confirms it with Teacher Shim that yes, she’s no longer working at his high school. What can she do when the man she likes wants to protect the students, but it’s her responsibility to punish them and to find X? Teacher Shim is taken aback and apologizes. He’ll find a way for her to return to the school. He plants a kiss on her cheeks and lips before walking away (AWWWWW).
Sarang heads home that night and joins her mother who is also returning home from work. They link arms and return home together.
The next morning, Sarang gathers a box of X’s belongings and walks over to the principal’s office ready to turn it into him. However, she’s stopped right before entering by Eunho and together the two have a talk. It’s during this time where the two (ex) best friends hash out at each other over what’s bothering them. Sarang’s hurt that Eunho’s chosen Tae-woon over her and in the process neglected her. Eunho’s hurt that Sarang is going to resort to being a spy and tell on Tae-woon as being X to the principal. Sarang doesn’t care what Eunho thinks or feels though and walks away with the box.
Sarang visits the principal’s office with the box of X’s belongings that he used for his previous stunts/pranks. Later on that day the principal heads to the location on campus that Sarang claimed would be the place where he would get to meet X. However, it’s not X the principal meets but Eunho who tries to stall some time by distracting him with the school lunch issue. He finally gets her to leave after a few attempts.
After some more waiting, Principal thinks he’s finally going to get to meet X. However, once again it’s not X he meets but Sarang’s mother. She shows him bags of the expired food that he had used to feed students at the school, but he doesn’t grow concerned at first. Sarang’s mother doesn’t have any proof that his school used these expired food products. However, it’s not until she sends him a video of a recording of X opening the expired food products from the school refrigerator that he panics. Turns out that Tae-woon and his X crew had shown Sarang’s mother the video they recorded the night they invaded the school refrigerators which was part of the plan all along. Principal attempts to stop Sarang’s mother from leaving, but is unsuccessful when Director interrupts the both of them.
We backtrack to how this plan came about. Earlier that day when Sarang and Eunho had their brutal and honest talk with each other, we had left off with Sarang walking away with the box of X’s belongings. However, Eunho stopped her from talking to the principal and they have a heart-to-heart conversation with each other. Sarang opens up to Eunho about her difficult situation with the principal and how he threatened to fire her mother if Sarang didn’t confess to him who X was. Enraged, Eunho vows to get revenge on Principal which leads us to the present with how Principal was caught by Sarang’s mother about his evil wrongdoings.
During the school break, Eunho walks over to her locker and opens it only to find a bouquet of flowers in there (OMG I’M SQUEALING. THE FLOWERS ARE SO PRETTY). Tae-woon accompanies her a few seconds later and does what he had always wanted to do with her: listen to music with her while sharing the same earphones. Eunho holds the flowers in her arms while listening to music with Tae-woon.
We can’t always have good things in life can we? Later on that night, Tae-woon returns home to find all the belongings of X laid out on the coffee table in the living room. His dad confronts him about his identity as X, but there’s something else he’s even more furious about: Eunho.
He updates Tae-woon on Eunho’s status at school: she’s expelled.
My Thoughts:
This episode was another really clever one and it was probably the most well thought-out and clever one yet. Tae-woon was discovered to be X not by getting caught by the principal or vice principal which I admit I thought the drama was going to do, but rather by his dad. How exactly his dad figured this out is still a mystery, but I’m glad that Tae-woon’s discovery as X wasn’t so anticlimactic like I was afraid it would be. I didn’t expect Tae-woon’s dad to be the first to find out and so quickly either so I’m definitely anticipating how he found out and who exactly told him about Tae-woon’s identity as X.
I’m even more compelled that Tae-woon’s father is more concerned about Eunho than Tae-woon being X. Of course, he can just save his son like he always does and excuse Tae-woon for being X, but he disapproves of his son’s relationship with Eunho which I think is so interesting. The drama has dropped a few hints here and there as to why he’s dissatisfied with her but never really went all the way through so you’re not really certain why he doesn’t like her. Regardless, I think this dislike will make an interesting story and really be the test that will test how strong Tae-woon and Eunho’s love is for each other. They’ve already hit a few bumps as a couple, but this one seems to be the toughest one yet. I’m hoping they’ll survive this one like how they did with the other obstacles they face and come out stronger and better than before.
I say this episode was really clever because the drama was going to reveal Tae-woon’s identity as X in the least anticipated way ever. Who would have ever thought that Sarang – one of the squad members – would be the one to possibly expose Tae-woon and get him in trouble? It’s the most unexpected idea ever and this episode was really going to take us there and for the entire duration of this episode I had no doubt that Sarang was really going to report him even though I didn’t want her to. I think her reason for doing so was legitimate and valid and I don’t blame her for being mad at Tae-woon and Eunho when her and her mother’s life is reliant on her mother’s job. Although Tae-woon has done plenty of good things as X, he’s also hurt a few people along the way and every single person he’s hurt along the way (Eunho, Dae-hwi, and now Sarang) has questioned his actions and behaviors as X before finally learning why he’s X and accepting his reasons for being so. The principal was such a jerk to threaten Sarang with her mother’s job and his behavior towards Sarang’s mother is something that I despise him for so it feels great to see him lose every single time. He deserves it and he should just not return to the school. He actually doesn’t get anything done and is not as bright and successful as he thinks he is. I’m glad that Sarang didn’t go through with her plan though and that she and Eunho were able to talk things out. Communication is key to every relationship and while I started the beginning of this episode pulling my hair out, I finished the rest of the episode breathing sighs of relief.
As we near our finale, I’m a little sad that the drama didn’t make more use of our other characters like Kyung-woo. I think the drama had initially meant to have him as a mysterious character with background information and knowledge on our main characters Tae-woon and Dae-hwi, but then realized that they wanted to go another route so they utilized his character less and less. It’s unfortunate because the drama made him out to be such an interesting and compelling character in the beginning of the drama so to see him now as nothing else but Sarang’s support network and friend is a little bit disappointing. Not that I have a problem with this though because I’m loving all the scenes that we get between the two of them. I love how reliable and supportive Kyung-woo always is of Sarang and how he manages to cheer her up every single time without forcing his way into her life. He just naturally knows how to get her to feel better about herself or about the issues that are going on in her life in such an effortless and realistic way. It’s refreshing and cute which is why I like their relationship with each other. However, I do wish that the drama had spent more time on him. If we had replaced some scenes of Hee-chan with Kyung-woo instead, the drama could have been a lot more enjoyable and less annoying (oh and also, the drama became 100x better without any scenes of Hee-chan or Bit-na I gotta admit.
Tae-woon’s father is going to be the biggest obstacle and challenge that Tae-woon and Eunho will face as a couple yet which I’m assuming will be especially difficult considering that Tae-woon doesn’t have the best relationship with his dad. Maybe this is why the drama decided to save his character last. Tae-woon’s father is really going to be the test that Tae-woon and Eunho will be challenged with and a testament to how strong their relationship is. Tae-woon and Eunho have gone through many challenges and obstacles in the past and while Tae-woon’s father is no easy feat, I know they can overcome this challenge as well. They have to.
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