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Kyung-seok and Mi-rae explore their newly established friendship in ways they’ve never done before. Are they truly just friends or is there more to their friendship than they’re expressing? As our two leads explore and navigate the situations they’re thrown into with each other, they also learn to balance everything else in their lives at the same time.

My ID is Gangnam Beauty Episode 8: Basic Instinct

Episode eight begins by showing us how Kyung-seok was able to gift Woo-young a recently bought TV for his housewarming party. Kyung-seok was able to bargain with Woo-jin who eventually let him have the TV. Hyun-jung, Woo-young, and Mi-rae all stare at Kyung-seok in shock as they observe his arrival.

The four move on to having a BBQ party on the rooftop of the building. Kyung-seok easily gets jealous when he witnesses Mi-rae and Woo-young getting along and sharing similar shopping habits. The jealousy intensifies when Woo-young plays the guitar for the three of them. While Mi-rae watches Woo-young serenade them with his impressive guitar skills, Kyung-seok steals loving glances at Mi-rae. Ahhh, my heart!

The quartet helps clean up after the housewarming party. Kyung-seok volunteers to wash the dishes for Mi-rae, but struggles to complete the job as he’s never had to wash dishes before. Woo-young suggests that they can all hang out more often now that they live near one another. They can even go watch movies together! Watching movies reminds Kyung-seok of the class assignment they have to do so he invites Mi-rae to go watch a movie with him. Though she’s uncertain at first, she eventually accepts. The two finalize their movie date plans: they’ll meet at the movie theater at 6pm the next day.

Kyung-seok returns to Woo-jin’s bar restaurant. Woo-jin is concerned he’s going bankrupt, but he still lends Kyung-seok some money for his movie date plans.

It’s the day of the movie date (okay, I’m just gonna call it a date because that’s what it essentially is!). Mi-rae grows nervous and tries on different outfits. She even visits a cosmetics shop to buy some lipstick. Her inexperience with make-up reminds her of the times when she would put on make-up in middle school, but eventually erase it off in fear that she would be made fun of. She buys the lipstick, but is uncertain if all of this will be worth it.

Tae-hee and Ye-na spend some time together on campus. Tae-hee reveals to Ye-na that she’s dating Tae-young. They had confessed to each other the night before at the festival afterparty. Soo-Ah watches as the two talk and recalls the flirty interactions between Tae-hee and Tae-young the night at the afterparty.

Soo-Ah then makes her move on Tae-young. While in the club room together, she offers him her help and support if he needs any as student president. Soo-Ah even suggests they can grab drinks together one day if he wants.

Mi-rae and Yoo-eun check in on a hungover Jung-boon at school. She had some drinks with her guy friends the night before who was in town to visit her. Jung-boon notices Mi-rae’s fancy outfit, but Mi-rae doesn’t say much.

Living with Woo-jin while unemployed, Kyung-seok studies books on how to make money at the library. However, he hides the book upon being approached by Soo-Ah. She invites him to watch a movie with her for their class assignment, but he denies the offer. He’s already planning on watching a movie with Mi-rae. OOOOOH. That must have hurt again for Soo-Ah.

It’s movie time! Yaaaaay! When Mi-rae arrives at the movie theater, she finds Kyung-seok on his cell phone waiting for her. She’s entranced by his beautiful appearance, but stops the staring once he calls out her name. Haha, me too Mi-rae me too! Kyung-seok buys both the movie tickets and the popcorn, but Mi-rae pays him back. Friends pay each other back (but are y’all really friends? *wink wink*). As the two wait for the movie to begin in the room, she pulls out a notebook and encourages the both of them to earn a good grade on the assignment.

Yoo-eun’s encounters with Soo-Ah in the neighborhood continue. As she exits a neighborhood building, she watches Soo-Ah avoid and ignore her grandma out of embarrassment. Grandma struggles to catch up with Soo-Ah while Yoo-eun follows the two to Soo-Ah’s house. Maybe Soo-Ah doesn’t live in the luxurious apartments she claimed she lived in after all.

(HIS SIDE PROFILE THOOOO OMGGGG *drools*)

Kyung-seok and Mi-rae watch the new rom-com movie ‘On Your Wedding Day’ starring Park Bo-young and Kim Young-kwang (AHHHHHH PARK BO-YOUNG MY LOVE. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. But also, look at JTBC giving Park Bo-young some screen time after her immense success with JTBC in last year’s ‘Strong Girl Do Bong-soon.’ Woot woot! Hehe). Mi-rae has trouble focusing on the movie as she keeps wanting to stare at Kyung-seok. Even the girl sitting on the other side of Kyung-seok keeps stealing glances at him too. LOL. During the movie, Kyung-seok asks Mi-rae if she wants any popcorn. Mi-rae imagines this as the moment where their fingers touch as they both reach for some popcorn at the same time or when Kyung-seok feeds Mi-rae some popcorn. However, Mi-rae wakes up to reality and finds Kyung-seok feeding himself. To avoid any awkward incidents, Mi-rae takes out a pair of straws in her bag and uses them to eat the popcorn. LOLOL.

After the movie, they both agree to grab some dinner at a fancy restaurant. While Kyung-seok pretends to be calm and relaxed, he’s careful and calculative of the prices for dinner. He doesn’t want to spend too much money or worse yet, run out of money. After ordering some pasta, he asks to see Mi-rae’s notes on the movie. He’s curious as to how her handwriting looks. Mi-rae excuses herself to the restroom and returns to find Kyung-seok frozen in his seat. He waits patiently for her to return before digging into the food. When Kyung-seok doesn’t receive an answer as to when Mi-rae’s birthday is, he gets jealous and adds that Woo-young shouldn’t know either if he doesn’t get to know. Ooh, someone’s jealousss. Kyung-seok pays for both of their dinners.

Meanwhile, Woo-young is busy publicizing an announcement on his search for a roommate. He’s seeking someone to live with him.

When Kyung-seok and Mi-rae exit from the restaurant,  it starts to rain. The convenience store only has one umbrella left for the both of them to use. Though a little shy at first, the two eventually share the same umbrella and walk together. Kyung-seok shares with Mi-rae about his visit to the hospital and how he did end up visiting his mom the night of the festival afterparty. Mi-rae is relieved upon hearing the news; she now knows that Kyung-seok doesn’t actually resent his mom any longer.

Kyung-seok’s dad is updated on Kyung-seok’s whereabouts thanks to his assistant. Meanwhile, Kyung-seok drops Mi-rae off near her apartment. Before bidding farewell, she hands him the umbrella just in case it starts to rain again. The two steal glances at each other before returning to their respective housing locations. Mi-rae finally comes to terms with the one thing she had been denying this entire time: she definitely does not see Kyung-seok as just a guy friend. EEEEEEK. It’s cus you like him girl!

Kyung-seok’s dad visits Kyung-seok’s mom in search for Kyung-seok. He wants him back home. However, Mom is clueless about Kyung-seok’s departure from home. She wasn’t aware that he had run away from home. It shouldn’t matter anyways as it’s up to Kyung-seok as to where he wants to go and stay. Kyung-seok’s dad leaves without any answers.

Woo-jin plans on moving back in with his parents soon. He once again encourages Kyung-seok to also return home, but the young man refuses. He’ll get a part-time job and pay for a place somewhere. Kyung-seok isn’t too lucky with finding a job though; after consulting with the Job Placement Office on campus, he’s left to search for part-time jobs himself.

Jung-ho witnesses Kyung-seok leaving the office and informs Ye-na about what he saw. Chan-woo (omg it’s been so long since we’ve seen him in the drama lol) overhears their conversation not too far away.

Kyung-seok searches for possible rooming situations and places he could live. He’s interrupted by Soo-Ah, but quickly leaves afterwards. He runs to meet with Woo-young whose post he was interested in. Meanwhile, Woo-young meets with Chan-woo to scold him for skipping class and failing as a result. Chan-woo is still clearly embarrassed from the incident with Kyung-seok which is why he hasn’t been around lately. As Kyung-seok arrives at Woo-young’s office, Chan-woo exits from the same room. He’s stunned upon seeing Kyung-seok and requests to have a talk, but Kyung-seok is busy.

Kyung-seok reveals the reason as to why he’s meeting with Woo-young: he wants to move in to his apartment and live with him. Woo-young assumes that Kyung-seok must have run away from home, but Kyung-seok denies the accusations. They then reach a consensus on the living situation: Kyung-seok can live with Woo-young for $70 a month ($30 less than what Woo-young originally asked for) but must do the chores in exchange. Kyung-seok agrees with the offer.

Mom and Dad drop by Mi-rae’s apartment to give her some side dishes and snacks. On the way there, they encounter Woo-young and happily greet him. Mi-rae joins them not too long after and heads to her place with her parents. There, Mom asks Mi-rae a few questions about Woo-young, but is interrupted with an impatient Dad waiting outside in his car. Lol.

In a phone call with Kyung-seok’s mom, Mi-rae sends her Kyung-seok’s phone number so that they can maintain contact. Afterwards, she heads to Woo-young’s place to drop off some side dishes that Mom had wanted Mi-rae to give to him.

Upon arriving at Woo-young’s place, he invites her into the apartment. Everything seems fine until she notices another figure in the room. It’s none other than Kyung-seok who had just finished taking a shower. When asked what he’s doing at Woo-young’s place, Kyung-seok nonchalantly informs her that he’s now Woo-young’s roommate.

My Thoughts:

Ahhh, this episode was too cute and too sweet. Too sweet it could give you the diabetes! Lol, just kidding. But really, this episode was mostly dedicated to Mi-rae and Kyung-seok which was such a nice break and contrast from the last episode which was mostly serious and dark. In this episode, the drama pulled a drastic turnaround and the drama returned to being the light, fluffy, and silly (and beautiful! this drama is so so beautiful with all the cinematic shots!) drama that it’s always been. Along with liking the return of the soft and adorable tone that this drama’s always carried, I also liked the content that we were given in this episode.

This episode is probably the cutest so far. We start to see hints of Kyung-seok’s jealous side and his attempts to impress Mi-rae although he’s broke and currently without a stable home. The timing just has to be the worst of it all as Kyung-seok starts to act upon his feelings the moment everything else in his life is falling apart. However, I think this experience will be a good and humbling learning lesson for Kyung-seok and hopefully he’ll come out of it stronger and better. He’s been sheltered pretty much his entire life by his strict but wealthy and powerful dad and therefore never really was able to make decisions for himself. Kyung-seok was always given anything he wanted and never had to do anything like chores or washing the dishes. Now that he’s out of his father’s sight and control, he has to learn how to fend for himself and to adult. What better way to do this than with his friends Mi-rae and Woo-young.

It’s so interesting comparing Woo-jin’s (who’s also known as Yoo-jin in the drama but I just call him Woo-jin because that’s his name on the Asianwiki page) situation to Kyung-seok’s. In a way, Woo-jin’s financial situation could be foreshadowing and predicting what kind of environment Kyung-seok could possibly face if he chooses to be away from home. Woo-jin too was like Kyung-seok and thought he could live on his own and handle his own bar business. Now that he’s struggling financially and isn’t doing as well as he thought he would, he has no other option but to return home to live with his parents. This could be a realistic and possible situation that Kyung-seok might face in the future, but with Woo-young’s help and a part-time job, it seems like there are other options for Kyung-seok than to go back home. I just found it interesting how Woo-jin’s situation kind of mirrors Kyung-seok’s living situation and how they’re both struggling financially. It’s even more ironic that as worried and nervous as Woo-jin is about money and finance, he still gives Kyung-seok money to spend on food and movie dates. Who’s the broke one here?

Things are happening so quickly between Kyung-seok’s parents in this drama it’s such a shocking but pleasant surprise. I didn’t think the drama was going to have them meet so soon and maybe that’s just because I was expecting the drama to drag out their plot out a little longer. They met for the first time again after a decade in this episode and I think this encounter was just the right amount of details that we needed. It was just enough to give us context on how they feel about each other ten years later and also what their thoughts are regarding their children. We can still clearly see the huge contrast between their parenting styles with Dad wanting to control Kyung-seok and searching for his whereabouts while Mom is more carefree and willing to give Kyung-seok the option to choose wherever he wants to go. Ten years later and nothing between the both of them has really changed. They still resent each other, but care for their children in their own ways. I wonder if the drama will have them make-up or if the two will continue to have this kind of unresolved relationship forever.

With this episode in particular primarily focusing on Mi-rae and Kyung-seok, there were many more comedic highlights which I definitely appreciated. Whether it’s Kyung-seok getting jealous or trying to impress Mi-rae through dishwashing or dinner, it was so funny watching him do these things just for her. He’s worried about how he looks to her because he wants to impress her and it’s the cutest thing in the world. There weren’t just comedic moments in this episode, but also heart-warming and touching scenes that made you understand why Kyung-seok and Mi-rae are right for each other. She motivated him to visit his mom after ten long years of resentment and misunderstandings. Thanks to her, Kyung-seok was finally able to perceive his mom in a new way and start the first steps to repairing his relationship with her. Mi-rae’s presence is a blessing for Kyung-seok and he feels grateful for her. He has trouble expressing those feelings, but they’re definitely there and the next few episodes are definitely going to be fun watching him make his moves towards Mi-rae.

The bigger theme in amidst all of the cute and fluffy moments between our two leads is how different but similar they are from each other. Kyung-seok has always been praised for his looks since he was young while Mi-rae was teased for her looks. However, looks aside, they’re both quiet and they keep to themselves. They also appreciate the small things and find the biggest things to rave about in these small things. Growing up, they never really had any friends or anyone to spend time with which is why going on movie dates and grabbing dinner together and doing all these activities means so much to the both of them. Not only does it acknowledge and indicate the romantic feelings they have for each other, but more so, proves that Kyung-seok and Mi-rae are finally experiencing things that any other normal person would do with their friends or a significant other. They both never had these normal experiences when they were younger, but are now able to do so with the presence of each other.

Mi-rae is just as adorable coming to terms with her feelings for Kyung-seok. Unlike what she’s been trying to tell herself the entire time, she does not simply view Kyung-seok as just a guy friend. He’s more than that and the night of the movie date and dinner was proof of that. She’s so cute when she’s with him and acts nervously around him. Mi-rae is a bit clueless so it’s not like she knows yet, but I also like that she’s not making Kyung-seok jealous on purpose when she interacts with Woo-young. Granted, she doesn’t even think she has a chance with someone as handsome and beautiful as Kyung-seok, but that’s what’s so likable about Mi-rae. She’s not making him jealous on purpose; she’s genuine in all her interactions with whoever it is she’s with.

This largely contrasts with Soo-Ah who continues to be the most frustrating character in this drama. She’s so accustomed to all the praise and popularity that any other girl getting that makes her jealous and angry. That could explain for the moves she made on Tae-young in this episode which was infuriating. Soo-Ah will go to whatever lengths to get what it is she wants and she doesn’t care who it is she’s up against. We also see that she’s quite embarrassed to be living in a neighborhood that contrasts from what everyone else thinks of her. She feels this pressure and passion to maintain this perfect, angelic, and beautiful image that everyone has of her which will only lead to further damage in the future. Seeing Soo-Ah attempt these kind of foxy acts makes me wonder if she can even be redeemed at this point and really doesn’t make me pity her at all.

Kyung-seok and Mi-rae continue to be ever so lovable and adorable now that they explore their feelings for each other and even act upon them. The next few episodes will hopefully be just as cute and entertaining as this one was, with some dashes of endearing interactions and sprinkles of kind and humane encounters mixed in between.