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With Kyung-seok’s mom back in the picture, everything escalates for all of our characters. Kyung-seok and Mi-rae finds themselves torn and lost in their respective relationships with their parents and are uncertain as to how to repair them. Maybe they’ll need the help and support of the other to successfully bridge the generational gaps.

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After almost getting injured in lab class, Woo-young instructs Mi-rae to not touch the broken pieces of glass on the floor (this brings back war flashbacks of when I was in college asdkfjd). He instructs Soo-Ah to treat her injuries while warning Mi-rae to be more careful. The rest of the class watches this all unfold in front of their eyes, including Kyung-seok who stands behind a worried Mi-rae and alert Woo-young.

Along with a friend, Soo-Ah heads to the girl’s restroom. Mi-rae quickly drops by to check up on Soo-Ah and so does Won-ho. Soo-Ah isn’t as heavily injured as she had made it seem. After washing up in the restroom, she apologizes to Kyung-seok for making him clean up the broken pieces of glass she had dropped in class. However, he remains cold to her and reveals that he didn’t do it for her. While he walks away, many other guys who had heard about the lab incident run up to Soo-Ah in concern.

While on her way to eat lunch with her friends, Mi-rae is stopped by a curious Kyung-seok who asks her about the lab incident. Was it really Mi-rae who had dropped the flask? Mi-rae’s certain that she had dropped it, but it isn’t until she begins to eat lunch that she gives her answer a second thought. Maybe she wasn’t the one who dropped it.

While Mi-rae is occupied with thoughts about the lab incident, Mi-rae’s friends gush over Woo-jin as well as discuss about Chan-woo. Woo-young had known about the bathroom incident with Chan-woo which is why he’s been extremely helpful and kind towards the first year’s lately.

Kyung-seok’s Mom has a meeting with her staff on-campus regarding her perfume company. After the meeting finishes, she walks around campus and also meets with her colleague who’s now a professor at the school. They encounter Woo-young along the way and Mom exchanges greetings with him. Meanwhile, Mi-rae has a talk on the phone with her mom. Mom reassures Mi-rae that Dad will eventually come around soon and speak to Mi-rae again. At that moment, Hyun-jung joins Mi-rae so Mi-rae has her best friend take some pictures of her.

Dad is busy driving around in his taxi when he receives a voice mail from Mom. Just like all her other voice mails, she pleads for him to return home and to start talking to Mi-rae again. Mi-rae’s even willing to pay the hospital fee from the plastic surgery operation. Dad isn’t so ready to return back to his family, but pictures sent to Dad of a faceless Mi-rae showing affectionate gestures gets dad thinking again.

Kyung-seok returns home and has a talk with his younger sister Kyung-hee. Their dad plans on sending her to the U.S. soon since she probably won’t get into a good university like him. He also reads an article announcing his mom’s position as the CEO for her perfume company.

Hyun-jung and Mi-rae head home together that night. Mi-rae becomes paranoid and scared when she hears noise coming from behind them. Although there’s no one there, they quickly hurry back to Hyun-jung’s house.

Kyung-seok’s dad gets to work on voter recruitment. Whether it’s at a Christian church or at the temple with a monk, Congressman Do does his best to win as many people’s hearts as possible. Aksdjfd.

It’s the day of the perfume sampling event that Mi-rae had won tickets to! As planned, Hyun-jung and Mi-rae attend the event together and are amazed at how pretty and beautiful everything is. They soon encounter Woo-young who had also been invited to the event. A few seconds later and Kyung-seok’s Mom joins the trio. Upon glancing at Kyung-seok’s Mom, Mi-rae freezes and stares at her in astonishment. She recalls who Kyung-seok’s Mom is, but Mom doesn’t remember much about Mi-rae.

As Congressman Do talks on the phone with the man he’s hired to tailgate Kyung-seok’s mom at the event, Kyung-hee uses Kyung-seok’s phone to check something. However, upon being handed the phone, she lands on the news article about their mom who’s now the CEO of her perfume company. Kyung-seok quickly retrieves his phone to hide the news article but it’s already too late. Kyung-hee has already seen the article.

Junoflo’s special performance at the event quickly draws a huge audience. However, Mi-rae is too occupied observing Kyung-seok’s mom to watch him perform. After the performance, Hyun-jung receives an autograph from the rapper himself and expresses plans of sending him her mixtape. Hyun-jung be living that fangirl life!

Mi-rae finally receives the opportunity to talk to Kyung-seok’s Mom herself. Mi-rae reveals that she’s majoring in chemistry because she wants to work in the perfume industry. Kyung-seok’s Mom is thrilled at the reveal for she too majored in chemistry to pursue the same career. When Kyung-seok’s mom says her speech later on in the event, Mi-rae is reminded of a magazine she read in middle school that influenced her to want to work in the perfume industry. Kyung-seok’s mom played a big role in that decision.

Soo-Ah’s busy at work taking orders from many interested male customers. After work, she and her friend explore a yearbook of the middle school where Kyung-seok and Mi-rae were classmates. They can’t seem to find any pictures of Mi-rae which they find suspicious.

After the event, Mi-rae bids farewell with Woo-young and Hyun-jung. She’s then approached by Kyung-seok’s mom who thanks her for helping her write her speech and then invites Mi-rae to have dinner with her. Mi-rae happily accepts and the two heads off to Woo-jin’s bar. The only thing is Kyung-seok is also heading there to help Woo-jin work. Ahhh.

Mi-rae and Kyung-seok’s mom quickly bond. Mi-rae expresses her envy in seeing Kyung-seok’s mom be able to live her dreams. But Mom comments that being envious of something ordinary isn’t always so great.. it’s a sad feeling. Mi-rae then recalls her middle school memories and how cruel and harsh everyone was towards her. She also remembers the moment when she was about to commit suicide by jumping over a bridge, but stopped when Kyung-seok’s mom held her back from jumping. Mi-rae tears up in front of Kyung-seok’s mom just thinking about these memories.

Kyung-seok arrives at Woo-jin’s bar and prepares to help work (while Bangtan’s ‘The Truth Untold‘ is playing in the background I might add. Askdjfkd). He and Mi-rae notice each other which surprises them both. But what surprises and shocks Kyung-seok even more is when he sees his mom sitting across from Mi-rae and sharing drinks with her. AHHHHH. Kyung-seok questions what she’s doing at the bar, but Mom only pays attention to how much her son has grown. Kyung-seok leaves the bar while Mom reveals the bombshell to Mi-rae: she’s his mom.

Woo-jin chases after Kyung-seok and tries to stop him from leaving but he fails. As Kyung-seok walks home, he’s reminded of the hurtful and bad childhood memories related to his parents. He recalls the horror from watching his dad try to stop his mom from hurting herself when he was younger. Meanwhile, Mom’s memories with Kyung-seok are much brighter and happier. She cries upon thinking about Kyung-seok after bidding farewell with Mi-rae.

Mi-rae has a short but sweet phone call with her mom while walking back to Hyun-jung’s house. After the phone call, Mom receives a notification that Dad’s deposited some money into their bank account which raises her suspicions. Meanwhile, Mi-rae becomes paranoid once again that someone’s stalking her and she becomes alert of her surroundings. Mi-rae makes it home safely though and updates Hyun-jung on her dinner with Kyung-seok’s mom. Mi-rae still can’t seem to shake off the feeling that she was being stalked and checks out the window for any signs.

Soo-Ah returns home to do some research on the middle school that Kyung-seok and Mi-rae attended together. The next morning on the way to school, Mi-rae checks for any news on Kyung-seok’s mom and stumbles upon the same article announcing her position as CEO of the perfume company.

Kyung-seok has a talk with Mi-rae to dig more information behind how she knows his mom. She explains that she met his mom at the perfume sampling event and they just went to grab some drinks afterwards. There’s nothing more than that. Kyung-seok asks for Mi-rae to not tell anyone about what happened which she promises she won’t. He remains a bit wary aware of how Mi-rae had already spilled to others how the two went to middle school together. He dislikes people who can’t keep their promises, but Mi-rae dislikes people who vent their anger out on others. OOOOOH. Their conversation ends.

Kyung-seok’s mom scrolls through Kyung-hee’s instagram account and glances at all her posts. It’s been so long since she’s seen them.

Mi-rae visits a floral shop with Hyun-jung to prepare for her part-time job. Upon pulling up at the cash register, their total amount comes up to more than they can afford. With some aegyo, Mi-rae manages to get the employee to give them a discount. Lolol. Mi-rae receives a phone call from Kyung-seok’s mom who asks Mi-rae for a favor. Mi-rae’s unsure if she should take the request or not, but she eventually decides to go through with it.

Mi-rae’s friends have some drinks at Woo-jin’s bar. Kyung-seok arrives at the bar not too long afterwards and has drinks with Woo-jin himself. It’s obvious that he doesn’t want to talk about his mom to anyone, but a text from Mi-rae asking for them to meet the next day might change all of that.

The campus festival at Kyung-seok and Mi-rae’s university is happening soon. Soo-Ah is encouraged to work as a server at the bar along with Kyung-seok since they’re one of the more popular students at the school. After receiving the news, Soo-Ah looks out the window only to find Mi-rae and Kyung-seok standing across from each other. Mi-rae nervously invites him to have a drink with her which throws him off but he accepts.

My Thoughts:

Oh ho ho, what special mission did Mi-rae receive from Mom that’s got her shaking? Poor Mi-rae has to be the messenger and repairman of their broken relationship that she had no clue about. She herself wasn’t even aware of their mother-son relationship and somehow was thrown into all of this without any context. I feel like Kyung-seok won’t listen to Mi-rae at first since his resentment for his mom is still so strong and intense, but he’ll eventually start to give in with Mi-rae’s involvement. He can’t deny Mi-rae and he has a special spot for her in his heart so he will probably most likely start listening to Mi-rae and give his mom a second chance again. With our without aegyo, he’ll at least hear Mi-rae out and see what his mom asked of her.

I hope Mi-rae is fulfilling Mom’s request not out of obligation and gratitude for being saved by Kyung-seok’s Mom but because she actually wants to? I’m hoping Kyung-seok’s mom doesn’t take advantage of Mi-rae and ask her for many more requests and favors. I don’t want Mi-rae to feel guilty for turning down any requests from Kyung-seok’s mom just because Mom rescued her from the bridge. Yes, it was a good thing Mom arrived in time to save Mi-rae from suicide, but she shouldn’t use that as an excuse to use Mi-rae however she likes and wants. Hopefully this will be the first and last time she asks Mi-rae for a request pertaining to Kyung-seok.

If Mom really wants to find a way to Kyung-seok, she should learn how to do that herself. She needs to be the one to reach out to him and get him to listen to her. I can see why she recruited Mi-rae to help her, but Mi-rae can’t do all the work and shouldn’t do all the work. Kyung-seok has grown up seeing many negative things related to his parents and grew up without a mother figure so he doesn’t know anything. He has this one-sided opinion of his mom and was probably brainwashed by his dad growing up to think of his mom in a certain way. While we don’t know exactly what happened between his parents to trigger him to resent his mom, I’m eager to learn Mom’s side of the story and what caused her to separate from her family. She tried to hurt herself and commit suicide, but why? What prompted her to want to do that?

I understand that Mi-rae’s plastic surgery is the biggest arc in this drama and is primarily what this drama is about, but I’m a bit sad at how they’ve decided to use Soo-Ah to continue this narrative. Now she’s that one girl who’s going to discover more information on Mi-rae’s past and find pictures of her old face and I’m not so sure why I’m a bit disappointed in this route. We saw it coming and we knew Soo-Ah wasn’t the innocent and sweet lady that everyone thinks she is. Maybe I just expected and wanted something different from Soo-Ah’s character. Whether it’s more attempts to win Kyung-seok’s cold and aloof heart or her struggling to be financially stable, I wished we could have gotten something different from her. There was so much potential to do more with her character. Instead, she’s resorted to being the typical second female lead who’s going to destroy Mi-rae’s future by reminding Mi-rae of her horrific and toxic past and I’m not so sure if I want this to happen sooner so we can get it over with now or if I want it to arrive later in the drama so we don’t have to be reminded of it. Ugh. Whatever and whenever it happens, I can already predict how it’s going to go down. I just wished the drama wouldn’t spend too long on it.

Mi-rae is so amused by Kyung-seok’s mom and places her on this pedestal. Maybe it’s because the two are similar to each other in a way from attempts of suicide to being chemistry majors to being affiliated with the perfume industry. I can see why Mi-rae is attracted to Kyung-seok’s mom and sees her in this glorious and positive light. I wonder for how much she’ll continue to perceive Mom that way though once she hears from Kyung-seok how he personally feels about his mom (who he doesn’t even acknowledge as his mom). It’s going to be even harder for Mi-rae then who will have to decide who in particular to believe in and to support.

Other than worrying about Kyung-seok and his mom, Mi-rae is also worried about her safety in the neighborhood which the drama introduced for the first time in this episode. I’m afraid that something bad is really going to happen to our characters and that someone is going to get hurt. It seems like the drama’s setting for something dangerous and risky to happen which scares me because the drama wouldn’t have put that sub-plot in here without a reason. Maybe there’s going to be another situation where Kyung-seok saves Mi-rae again for the 109304th time which I myself am not complaining about. I love me a heroic Kyung-seok.

There’s a lot more going on now that Kyung-seok’s mom has made an appearance on the show. What I’m most looking forward to is seeing Dad make up with Mi-rae and Mom again and return back home. How worrisome and ironic is it that Mi-rae’s having to be the middleman to help repair Kyung-seok’s relationship with his mom when her relationship with her dad needs some fixing. None of this is Mi-rae’s fault though and both her and her dad just needs some time away from each other. However, they will also need some time to listen to each other’s thoughts when they’re ready to do so. We know Dad still loves his daughter and will always love his daughter and it’s heart-warming to see Mi-rae reach out to her dad to show him her love. Dad just needs some time away and that’s perfectly okay.