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Soo-Ah’s true colors are finally coming to light and Mi-rae is starting to slowly notice Soo-Ah’s real intentions. There are people in Mi-rae’s life who genuinely cares for her and loves her such as her parents, friends, and Kyung-seok. However, there are also toxic people like Soo-Ah whose plans are to drag her down. For how much longer will Mi-rae put up with this and how will she advocate for herself this time?

My ID is Gangnam Beauty Episode 6: The Handsome Guy’s Counterattack Pt. 2

It’s the day of the festival and Soo-Ah, Mi-rae, and Ji-hyo change into the skirts that the planning committee had bought for them. Although Mi-rae isn’t comfortable in the outfit, the three girls are forced to wear the skirts during their jobs as servers.

As Mi-rae continues to take orders and serves snacks and drinks for their customers, she encounters Park Yong-chul and his two friends at their food booth. She’s suddenly reminded of how he would tease her and make fun of her face back when they were in middle school together. Years later and here they are again, reunited at the college festival. It turns out Yong-chul and his friends have dropped by the food booth to meet Soo-Ah once again after visiting her at her part-time job not too long ago.

Kyung-seok encourages Woo-jin to apologize to Jung-boon at the festival. Woo-jin feels regretful and apologetic for not listening to her when she tried to notify him about his female employee stealing money from the bar. Since Jung-boon’s currently at the Chemistry department’s food booth, he can apologize to her there.

Hyun-jung visits rapper Junoflo at his entertainment agency’s building and even meets legendary rapper Tiger JK as well (YAAAAAS! Also, the two rappers are in the same label by the way: Feel GHood Music). Hyun-jung receives the opportunity to visit their recording studio and showcases her rapping skills to the rappers. She struggles at first due to the anxiety and nervousness, but she persists.

Mi-rae takes a break from serving tables. She’s a bit exhausted and Yong-chul’s presence at the festival doesn’t help either. Kyung-seok volunteers to take her spot for her while she rests. His appearance at the festival grabs everyone’s attention, including Yong-chul’s who not only recognizes Kyung-seok but Mi-rae as well. He finally recalls who she is and is in disbelief upon recognizing Mi-rae’s new face.

Woo-jin apologizes to Jung-boon for ignoring her and not listening to her warnings about the employee when he should have. She’s such a nice girl while the employee was evil and he shouldn’t have dismissed Jung-boon the way he did. Jung-boon finally forgives Woo-jin after he gently holds her hands. Maybe her crush on him won’t go away after all.

Mi-rae sits at the same table with Yong-chul along with his friends, Soo-Ah, and Ji-hyo. They ravel over how Mi-rae and Yong-chul were middle school classmates to which Yong-chul reveals that she had a crush on him back then. The man clearly hasn’t changed years later for he still calls Mi-rae the cruel nickname he did back then: Kang Orc. This angers Mi-rae and she attacks him for his brutal and hurtful comment. Just like she did then back, Mi-rae still perceives Yong-chul as a piece of trash. He clearly hasn’t changed at all. She storms away and walks past an irritated Kyung-seok who witnessed the entire scene. Soo-Ah is also disappointed in Yong-chul as well.

Mi-rae updates Hyun-jung on her encounter with Yong-chul. Meanwhile, talks of Mi-rae’s plastic surgery circulates around the Chemistry department’s food booth. Soo-Ah apologizes to Mi-rae for inviting Yong-chul to the festival. She didn’t know about their history together and how evil of a person he was. She also now better understands why some people undergo plastic surgery. Some people get plastic surgery because they’re desperate to overcome their struggles.

Hyun-jung encounters Yong-chul on campus and confronts him. How could he attend the festival and say the harsh words he did to Mi-rae? Yong-chul explains that he wasn’t aware that Mi-rae would be there and only went to visit Soo-Ah who invited him to the festival. He shows Hyun-jung the comments and likes that Soo-Ah made on his Instagram account which arouses Hyun-jung’s suspicions.

Mi-rae leaves the festival after her talk with Soo-Ah. Ji-hyo and Soo-Ah too won’t be able to table anymore. To promote the food booth one last time before leaving, Soo-Ah walks with Kyung-seok while carrying some promotional posters around. They discuss about Yong-chul and Mi-rae’s encounter. Kyung-seok notes that Soo-Ah was the one who brought Yong-chul to the festival. Plus, unlike what Yong-chul or anyone thinks, Kyung-seok found Mi-rae cute back in middle school (OMG I’M CRYINGGG).

Mi-rae receives a phone call from Kyung-seok’s mom after leaving the festival. They make plans to meet.

The Chemistry food booth struggles to attract customers now that their female servers are gone. None of the guys are willing to table since they believe that only girls should be the ones serving. Tae-hee, Ye-na, and Sophomore representative Yoon-byul finally confront the guys on their misogynistic and frustrating remarks. They can no longer tolerate all the comments about their looks and weight neither do they care about what the guys think. They storm out of the food booth and quit.

To cheer Tae-hee up, Sunbae Tae-young approaches her and reminds her not to mind all the harsh comments made about her. Some guys can be cruel and brutal like that, but she shouldn’t listen to them. Plus, not all guys like thin and skinny girls. Take for example Tae-young himself. He likes girls like Tae-hee and personally finds her adorable. This makes Tae-hee feel better.

Mi-rae meets with Kyung-seok’s mom at an ice cream shop. Although Mi-rae receives a text from Kyung-seok on her whereabouts, she doesn’t respond. The two ladies first talk about Kyung-seok and his middle school years. They then proceed to discussing how they met each other. Mi-rae reminds Kyung-seok’s mom that she had saved her from committing suicide back in middle school. On that fateful day when Mi-rae was close to jumping over the bridge, Kyung-seok’s mom rescued her in time and prevented her from making that leap.

Upon remembering, Kyung-seok’s Mom is relieved to reunite with Mi-rae again and hopes things have gotten better for her. However, it hasn’t for Mi-rae and undergoing plastic surgery has only made things harder. Kyung-seok’s mom presents her thoughts on beauty and shares her story of how being perceived as beautiful can also be just as overwhelming and stressful. All throughout her life, she’s received endless praise on her looks and physical appearance. This lead to damaging thoughts and expectations about herself and caused her to fall into a relationship with a man she didn’t like. She advises Mi-rae to be careful with relationships and guys and to always choose wisely (wise words indeed).

The guys from the chemistry department are left to take care of the food booth by themselves. Soo-Ah and Ji-hyo aren’t available to return the next day to serve tables either. Along with Tae-hee, Yoon-byul, and Yoo-eun, all five girls brainstorm ways to get their revenge on the guys. Puahaha.

When Mi-rae returns home, Hyun-jung shows her the evidence she’s gathered on Soo-Ah and Yong-chul. She contacted him first by commenting on his Instagram account and liking his pictures. He then responded afterwards by doing the same on her account. Since Yong-chul listed the middle school he attended on his bio, it seems like Soo-Ah purposely contacted him first well aware that he must have been classmates with Mi-rae. Mi-rae denies the accusations, but it does get her thinking.

Mom and Dad stop by Mi-rae’s place to bring her some food and dessert. On the way there, they encounter Woo-young who helps them carry some of the items to Mi-rae’s apartment complex. How sweet.

Mom, Dad, Hyun-jung, and Mi-rae all gather at the table to eat some food and cake. Hyun-jung suggests that they first take some family pictures together since they didn’t take any on the day of Mi-rae’s college orientation. So with that, the family moves to the couch and take a few adorable and loving pictures. They’re a happy happy family.

Kyung-seok’s dad is busy taking pictures of his own. He visits some elders at a senior center and captures the happy moment on camera. After a short visit, he’s informed by his assistant on the activities of his ex-wife. His assistant’s hired someone to keep tabs on her to see what she’s been up to. However, Kyung-seok’s dad isn’t so interested in knowing what his ex-wife has been up to; he orders his assistant to stay updated on Kyung-seok and Kyung-hee to see if they’ve been in contact with their mom or not.

Woo-young takes a short break from unpacking at his new place. He receives a notification of a new post made by the university so he clicks on it. Sure enough, the post includes pictures of Mi-rae, Soo-Ah, and Ji-hyo in their short white skirts that they wore at the festival.

He confronts the planning committee who are busy taking pictures of their own. The girls managed to get their revenge on the guys by making them wear shirts with decorations of nicely defined and outlined six-pack abs. Since the guys clearly aren’t good-looking enough, these shirts should help.

Woo-young isn’t too happy with the committee and their ways of making the girls wear short skirts to attract customers. He confronts them on this issue and is presented with the truth by the girls. Woo-young is disappointed in them and warns that they should just close their booth if they’re going to keep acting foolishly.

Hyun-jung bids farewell with Mi-rae on the second day of the festival and encourages her to let all her concerns go and just have some fun. While Mi-rae waits for Yoo-eun and Jung-boon, Soo-Ah approaches Mi-rae and has a talk with her. Mi-rae questions Soo-Ah if she was aware that Yong-chul went to the same middle school as Mi-rae, but Soo-Ah feigns ignorance. If she had known, she would have notified Mi-rae.

Tae-hee accompanies a stressed and concerned Tae-young in their clubroom. She cheers him up by handing him some candy and together the two exit the room to attend the festival. However, the doorknob from the inside won’t work and they’re only able to leave the room thanks to a student who opens the door from the outside.

Soo-Ah, Ji-hyo, and Mi-rae attend the festival together. As they make their way through the festival, they’re approached by a random student who recruits them to play a speed dating game. The student manages to recruit Kyung-seok to also join the game and assumes that they all must be strangers. However, Kyung-seok has no patience for such a game and immediately points out that he wants to be paired up with Mi-rae. Uncertain as to how to respond, the drink in front of Mi-rae spills onto her and she panics. She eventually chooses Kyung-seok to accompany her over to their clubroom to grab her an extra shirt. While on the way there, Kyung-seok suggests they can run to the room if she wants to arrive there faster. She agrees and the two run to the room.

Hyun-jung continues her fortune-reading booth at the festival. Her next visitor is none other than Woo-young who gets his fortune read by her. After asking him a series of questions, she reveals her observations about his luck with relationships and love. Woo-young prefers simple uncomplicated relationships compared to passionate-driven ones and is also able to keep his emotions in check. However, he can also be seen as hypocritical as well for he is sometimes not honest with his feelings. Woo-young relates to the observations and notes that he has been careful with his feelings for his crush lately. The most he reveals to Hyun-jung is that his crush is from the Chemistry department.

Mi-rae and Kyung-seok arrive at their department club room. After finding an extra t-shirt for Mi-rae to change into, Kyung-seok attempts to leave the room. However, similar to Tae-hee and Tae-young, the door is locked from the inside and they can’t leave. No one is answering Mi-rae’s phone calls and Kyung-seok left his phone behind at the speed dating game table. Soo-Ah and Ji-hyo fortunately grab his phone before leaving. Mi-rae ponders whether to call them or not, but Kyung-seok suggests she doesn’t.

Ji-hyo teases Soo-Ah and wonders if Kyung-seok is purposely choosing Mi-rae over her to make her jealous. Soo-Ah is irritated and makes it clear to Ji-hyo that she doesn’t have a crush on him.

Since Kyung-seok and Mi-rae are stuck in the room together, Kyung-seok moves to the other side of the room so Mi-rae can change into the new t-shirt. While he waits patiently for her to change, Mi-rae can’t help but grow nervous being in the same room with Kyung-seok.

My Thoughts:

YAAAS, we all knew this would happen sooner or later the moment when Tae-hee and Tae-young were stuck in the room together a few hours earlier in the night. Although it’s unfortunate and Mi-rae isn’t so comfortable being in the room with Kyung-seok, another part of me feels happy that they are stuck in the room together (and say, not Mi-rae with Soo-Ah). This will obviously lead to more interactions with the just two of them in a closed and intimate space and I’m curious to see what else goes on in the room before they are finally rescued. Although I’m not expecting anything huge and surprising to happen, a few intimate conversations – possibly about college or Kyung-seok’s mom – that will allow us to learn more about the two would be nice. They’re stuck in a room with each other! Something good should come out of this, no?

It seems like Mi-rae is finally starting to recognize, realize, and understand Soo-Ah and see her true colors come to light. I was afraid that this would drag on a little longer and that Mi-rae would continue to endlessly defend Soo-Ah every single time. Now that she’s received some proof on Soo-Ah’s evil antics, Mi-rae is slowly becoming aware of how evil Soo-Ah might just be and all the things she’s capable of doing in the future. It was so rewarding watching Mi-rae choose Kyung-seok over Soo-Ah as to who would accompany her to the department room. If the same question had been asked to Mi-rae prior to this episode, the obvious answer would have been Soo-Ah. However, Mi-rae’s preference of Kyung-seok over Soo-Ah signifies two things: 1) she’s becoming cautious and wary of Soo-Ah which is always a good thing and 2) she trusts Kyung-seok enough to accompany her and still views him as the positive, kind man he is.

This episode was finally the real first taste of Soo-Ah’s evil antics that we got to see. Before, we were all suspicious of Soo-Ah and knew that she wasn’t the great, innocent, and kind person that she was pretending to be, but she didn’t really do anything that made that super obvious. However, the whole situation with Yong-chul finally shed some light on her true intentions and gave us insight on the type of things she’ll do just to bring Mi-rae down. She’s jealous of Mi-rae and wants to put her down while also continue to be the popular girl she’s always been. Soo-Ah also wants to win Kyung-seok’s heart which Mi-rae was able to do unconsciously and without much effort. He found her adorable back in middle school and had a small crush on her since back then. There’s no way Soo-Ah will be able to catch up with Mi-rae and impress Kyung-seok, especially with the methods and ways that she’s using. He sees right through her and is well aware of the type of person she is and what she’s doing. It’s a relief that Mi-rae is finally starting to catch up and see that too. There’s simply no competition between the two girls as Mi-rae is clearly winning in all aspects.

It was a good thing that the girls confronted the guys on their misogynistic and patriarchal remarks. They advocated for themselves despite being younger and expressed what was truly on their minds. Thank goodness for guys like Tae-young who carry a different mindset from the other guys. I have a feeling he and Tae-hee will eventually become an item.

Speaking of Tae-hee and Tae-young, if I had to choose one thing that currently irks me about this drama, it’d have to be the amount of characters that this drama has. This drama has a lot of minor characters and I’m a little surprised that there’s new characters being introduced six episodes into this drama. I wouldn’t have such an issue with this if all the characters were useful or helpful in one way or another. However, I don’t really understand how these minor characters are necessary which makes me question why they’re in the drama in the first place. They’re not really doing anything major that affects our main characters so I’m a little confused and irritated. Other than not really doing much in this drama but make a few appearances, it’s also difficult for me as a recapper who has trouble introducing and recognizing these new faces. I assume that they’re only going to be in the drama for an episode or two so I don’t introduce them, but the drama continues to utilize these new characters in small ways which then becomes frustrating.

Asdkjfd. I don’t know. I don’t think there’s this need to have these many minor characters and if there is, the drama should utilize them in bigger and better ways. I guess you can make the argument that these characters are being used to bring awareness about different societal topics such as physical appearances, body sizes and shapes, the objectification of women, and much more, but I’m still iffy on their appearances. For now, they’re just kind of there without contributing much to our main characters or the storyline.

We learn a little bit more about Kyung-seok’s mom and possible reasons as to why she abandoned her family. Though we clearly don’t have the full story yet, I think it was so interesting that she talked about the down sides of being too pretty. Do I appreciate the fact that she was speaking out about the issues of being too beautiful in contrast to comments about being labeled ugly? Sure. Do I think it was a good idea to share that with someone like Mi-rae who’s always been unconfident about her face and feels inferior to others? No. It was actually the least smartest way to go about cheering Mi-rae up and getting her to feel better about herself. She has such low self-esteem and feels the heat of undergoing plastic surgery. The last thing she needs to hear is someone who she idolizes telling her the negative aspects of being too pretty. These feelings of “feeling too pretty” are things Mi-rae herself will probably never experience in her life and even if people do tell her she’s beautiful, Mi-rae has never believed it because she doesn’t trust people. Through Kyung-seok’s mom, we have a better understanding of how being perceived as beautiful can be just as harmful, hurtful, and overwhelming as being labeled ugly. It was also what contributed to her toxic relationship with her ex-husband so we’ll have to wait and see what exactly happened that lead her to leave her family.

I’m assuming that it’s Woo-young who has a crush on Mi-rae which is why he’s been careful around her. He’s also been using Hyun-jung to get closer to Mi-rae which is depressing for Hyun-jung who might be developing a crush on Woo-young. I’m not too sure at this point because the drama hasn’t made it clear yet who has feelings for who, but I’ll be sad for Hyun-jung if she does indeed have a crush on Woo-young. If all of this is true, we already know the end results as Mi-rae and Kyung-seok will end up together. Maybe then, Hyun-jung will have her chance with Woo-young. If not, there’s always Junoflo? Asdjkd.

The thing that I look forward to the most in this drama (other than Kyung-seok and Mi-rae of course) are the interactions between Mi-rae and her parents. I’m happy that they’re now finally reunited and are on good terms with one another again. Granted, Dad wasn’t going to be able to run away from his family forever and he still loved his daughter. It was just a matter of when he was going to finally let his pride go and accept his daughter’s new wishes. Their family interactions really breathe so much life into this drama and is often the one bright, positive, and heart-warming light in this drama that can often be frustrating and irritating. The three continue to be so adorable together and I’m really loving their family dynamic. Things have returned to the way that they used to be for the family and not much has changed. Even with Mi-rae’s new face, her parents still love her for who she is and not what she looks like. Hopefully everyone else who knows Mi-rae will also come to doing the same.