Our characters are forced to confront both their realities and the past in the most unexpected and frightening ways. However, it’s only by confronting these situations that one can move forward in life and make wise decisions for the future.
Matrimonial Chaos: Episode 14 Recap
Hwi-roo move back into Soo-kyung and Ma-roo’s rooftop house since the two have moved in with Seok-young and Sung-bin. When she arrives, she cleans the apartment and is reminded of Seok-moo in the smallest ways. Whether it’s the window that enabled Seok-moo and Hwi-roo to share their first meal together or the broken cupboard that Seok-moo fixed for Hwi-roo back when she used to live in the small apartment, Hwi-roo is reminded of him upon returning to the apartment. Seok-moo himself is occupied with thoughts of Hwi-roo. He takes some time to read her children’s book, realizing that the book is also based on his life as well.
Seok-moo returns to the guesthouse after stepping out for a walk. As he arrives at his house, he imagines Hwi-roo running back into the guesthouse like how she usually did. He also imagines her doing other simple things in the house like brushing her teeth or sleeping next to him. It’s clear Seok-moo misses Hwi-roo. He finishes up a song he’s been writing the next morning.
Grandma visits Hwi-roo and volunteers to help her clean the kitchen at the rooftop house. However, she stumbles upon standing up from her seat and almost falls down. Oh no. While out and about, Hwi-roo encounters Yoo-young so the two head to Grandma’s cafe to hang out. They express envy in Soo-kyung and Ma-roo after learning that the two roommates are making travel plans together. Whether traveling or simply living at home, being alone can be both fun and boring.
Jang-hyun attends a reunion with some of high school friends. There, he reunites with his high school crush, Se-jin. He’s taken aback and surprised at the sight of her. Back at home, Yoo-young recalls Seok-moo’s words about Jang-hyun. Jang-hyun is afraid of losing or letting Yoo-young go because he’s afraid he won’t be able to make her happy. Back at the reunion, Jang-hyun can’t seem to stop staring at Se-jin. The two catch up with each other over some drinks afterwards with just the two of them. Se-jin is now divorced because she was a bit careless about who she was marrying.
Jang-hyun returns to Seok-moo’s house that night. He prepares to leave once Seok-moo also returns home, but Seok-moo pleads for him not to leave. Back at the rooftop house, Hwi-roo and Ma-roo have some sister time with each other. Ma-roo never thought Hwi-roo would be able to go through with the divorce, but she was eventually able to. She also feels good about her living situation with Soo-kyung, Sung-bin, and Seok-young; she feels like things are getting better there everyday. Hwi-roo adds that that’s what she wanted in a guy: someone who will always try to improve and be better.
Jang-hyun thanks Seok-moo for letting him stay at the house. Seok-moo was worried that Jang-hyun would go somewhere strange, but Jang-hyun assumes Seok-moo let him stay because he’s lonely. Regardless, Seok-moo believes that Jang-hyun and Yoo-young will eventually get back together eventually. At Seok-young’s house, Ma-roo, Soo-kyung, and Seok-young all have some breakfast with each other. Seok-young grows worried for Seok-moo since he wasn’t able to tell their parents about his divorce.
Jang-hyun is contacted by Se-jin to meet again that morning. Seok-moo assumes Jang-hyun is seeing his first love so he panics. However, Jang-hyun’s meeting with Se-jin isn’t like what Seok-moo assumes. Though Se-jin invites Jang-hyun to move with her to Spain, he ultimately rejects her request. He suffered from her rejection many years back when they ran away in high school by train; he’s no longer the same person he was back then.
Jang-hyun ultimately finds the couple ring he originally bought for him and Yoo-young and visits her at the apartment to plead for another chance. He finally understands now what it was he was lacking that made Se-jin reject him many years ago: the ability to choose. However, he’s different now. He’s certain he wants to be with Yoo-young; he wants to live happily with her and the baby. Jang-hyun presents to Yoo-young the ring and proposes to her.
Grandma is admitted to the hospital after fainting in her apartment. Seok-moo and Hwi-roo meet at the hospital and wait for results. However, they’re not the only ones there. Seok-moo’s parents are also there. After checking in with Grandma who’s fortunately safe and alive, the four grab some food together at the hospital cafeteria. There, Dad attempts to convince Seok-moo to talk Seok-young out of her divorce. Seok-moo grows confused at the wait time; why does Seok-young have to wait 3 months to finalize the divorce when his and Hwi-roo’s only took 1 month?
Hwi-roo and Seok-moo assume it must be because they didn’t have any children so the process was much faster. Of course, Seok-moo and Hwi-roo realize that they basically exposed their divorce in front of Mom and Dad. Seok-moo is chased down by his dad, but it’s ultimately Mom who smacks Seok-moo in the head. Lol.
Mom and Dad talk to Seok-moo and Hwi-roo separately about the divorce. While Dad encourages Seok-moo to just simply apologize to Hwi-roo if he messed up in their marriage, Mom empathizes with Hwi-roo. She herself has divorce papers on hand just in case she wants to file for divorce with Seok-moo’s Dad. However, she has no plans of turning those papers in. More so than anything, Mom is afraid of losing a daughter-in-law like Hwi-roo in her life. She doesn’t want to let Hwi-roo go. On their way back home, Mom and Dad stress out over the news. Both of their kids are divorced. Dad blames himself for both divorces, but Mom encourages him to just stay patient and to wait. Maybe things will be fixed in time.
Hwi-roo and Seok-moo bid farewell with each other. Before leaving, Seok-moo expresses his honest thoughts about Hwi-roo. Though he was worried when he first heard news about Grandma’s stop at the hospital, he automatically thought of Hwi-roo first. It’s always been like that. He’s not so sure if he can go through with their separation, but Hwi-roo encourages Seok-moo to pull through. She likes the way things are currently between the two of them. Hwi-roo doesn’t want things to change.
Seok-moo learns from Jang-hyun that he and Yoo-young will be getting married to each other. That night, they decide to celebrate the good news at Grandma’s cafe. While Seok-moo and Yoo-young wait for Jang-hyun (and Hwi-roo who’s also invited to the dinner party) to arrive, they talk first about the marriage. Yoo-young isn’t marrying Jang-hyun because she still loves him; she’s doing it rather for the baby and because she’s confident they will both get along with each other. Yoo-young will be able to handle the marriage just fine.
Jang-hyun eventually joins the two at the table. While Yoo-young and Jang-hyun speak comfortably with each other again like old times, Seok-moo is lonely without Hwi-roo there next to him. She’s back at home instead putting on some make-up and deciding on outfits. That night, Seok-moo tucks Grandma in to bed after she returns from the hospital. Before he is about to leave, Grandma warns him to prepare himself for anything that might happen in the future; he shouldn’t assume that Grandma will be alive with him forever 😦
Seok-moo attempts to sleep later on that night, but he can’t stop thinking about Hwi-roo. He manages to successfully contact Hwi-roo on the phone at first, but she ends the phone call upon arriving at her destination. She’s made plans to watch a movie at the theater by herself. Since Hwi-roo is occupied with the movies, Seok-moo leaves her a voice message. He mentions about things like the drama they used to watch on TV together or about the different items Hwi-roo wanted to buy for the house. It’s clear he misses her. However, he can’t bring himself to say those words and instead ends the voice message by claiming that he’ll throw away the plant on the balcony at the house.
The next morning, Seok-moo follows his gut instincts and quits his job. He wishes to pursue music instead and is reunited with his guitar thanks to Grandma who kept it all along. She encourages him to finish making music now that he’s no longer working at the company. Yoo-young heads to sleep after going through some baby clothes and contacting Jang-hyun. Jang-hyun is busy making a gift for the new baby so he’s unable to answer the phone call. However, he returns home later that night after he finishes.
Hwi-roo panics when she watches the news report of a burglary that resulted in one of the security workers getting injured. Since the description of the injured employee matches Seok-moo, she hurries over to Seok-moo’s house to check up on him. Fortunately, Seok-moo is safe and alive. She quietly enters the apartment to see what he’s up to. While Hwi-roo watches from the entrance of the house, Seok-moo is in his room playing the guitar and singing the song that he wrote for Hwi-roo. Hwi-roo tears up at the sound of the song and the honesty of the lyrics.
My Thoughts:
Aww, that ending to this episode was nice and heart-warming. I’ll talk about it later on in the recap, but I essentially love that it’s Hwi-roo and Seok-moo’s respective dreams that are bringing our divorced couple back to each other. It’s not so much the jealousy they witness and feel or the yearning to be independent that make them want each other again. Hwi-roo and Seok-moo are simply finding their ways back to each other because of each other.
Seok-moo and Hwi-roo learn about each other in the smallest and most unexpected ways. Seok-moo never expected Hwi-roo to become an author and to write her first book about their lives. However, disguised in that book were many hidden details about him that he wasn’t aware of until he read the book (the stories in Hwi-roo’s books were essentially the epilogue’s we saw in the beginning of the drama). Similarly, Hwi-roo is slowly learning more about Seok-moo in his songs and the lyrics he writes for these songs. Now she realizes that they’re finally about her and how Seok-moo feels towards her. I love it that they’re essentially returning to each other thanks to their life-long dreams that they weren’t able to pursue when they were with each other. Hwi-roo had to work part-time jobs to support the house while Seok-moo had to work his dreadful job as the security company just to keep the marriage afloat. Now that the two have separated, they’re both able to chase their respective dreams that will eventually lead them back to each other.
I guess this is the perfect way to wrap everything up and to bring Seok-moo and Hwi-roo back into each other’s lives again. Hwi-roo kissing Jang-hyun or almost being with Ki-wan triggered Seok-moo’s jealousy, but it’s ultimately his dream of being a musician that prompted Hwi-roo to learn more about his thoughts that are difficult for him to express. The same can be applied to Hwi-roo who grew hurt and jealous about Seok-moo’s short rekindled love with Yoo-young. However, it was Hwi-roo’s dream of becoming an author and writing a children’s book that allowed her to write all her feelings down on paper for Seok-moo to read and digest. The two divorced each other, but they will also be the two who play the biggest factors in bringing them together again. Not Grandma, not their parents, not Ma-roo or Sung-bin, but Hwi-roo and Seok-moo themselves.
I’m glad that Seok-moo’s parents found out about the divorce in this episode, and I also enjoyed their reactions to the divorce. Of course, they were angry and shocked at first, but they eventually settled down and talked about the divorce with Seok-moo and Hwi-roo. I actually had forgotten this entire time that Seok-moo’s parents didn’t know about the divorce until this episode; I’m amazed and fascinated at how long the two were able to keep it a secret from Mom and Dad. LOL. It was also a sub-plot that the drama focused on less towards the latter half of the drama so I’m just relieved that now Mom and Dad are also aware about it. Mom can empathize with Hwi-roo and she is well aware of what Hwi-roo is going through. I love it even more that Mom wasn’t persuading Hwi-roo to stay with Seok-moo just for the sake of it or that she should just simply endure all the issues in their marriage. No, Mom would never say anything like that because she has also considered divorce with Dad at several points. I loved it that Mom essentially wanted Hwi-roo to stay with Seok-moo because she was afraid of losing Hwi-roo herself. That was touching and heart-warming to hear. Hwi-roo has essentially grounded herself as family, it’ll feel odd and strange to not have her around.
This episode also did a really good job in slowly wrapping up Yoo-young and Jang-hyun’s story. I loved that it was a random and unexpected encounter with his first love, Se-jin, that prompted him to confront his past and to make a wise choice for his future. If Jang-hyun was still the same person he was before Yoo-young rejected him multiple times, I think he would have definitely chosen to leave with Se-jin to Spain. However, he makes it clear to Yoo-young that he wants to be with her; she is his choice. In the past, he’s never made wise choices and never really had the ability to do so. But now, he’s confident that he wants to be with Yoo-young and the baby. It’s ironic that Se-jin was the one rejected by Jang-hyun this time when she was the one who rejected him many years ago back in high school. What goes around comes around. I also was a bit iffy on Yoo-young taking back Jang-hyun and agreeing to marry him, especially if she doesn’t love him. How will their marriage work if there’s no love involved? However, hearing her explanation for the marriage made me think things twice and understand where she was coming from. More than anything, she’s doing this for the baby who she wants to be raised in a household with both parents around. It’ll be healthy for the baby and Yoo-young and Jang-hyun will both get along well enough to the point where raising the baby will do more good than harm. Things might not be the same anymore for them two and it’s going to take a very long while for Jang-hyun to earn Yoo-young’s trust again, but they’ll eventually get there soon. Jang-hyun staying out late because he was building a gift for the kid and not because he was out with other women is already a good first step.
With only two more episodes to go, I’m not so sure how the drama is going to end for Hwi-roo and Seok-moo. I would like for the two to get back together; no relationship is ever easy and simple to manage and go through. Maybe the last few months since their divorce was a simply a test of their feelings for each other and a challenge they had to learn to overcome. They’ll eventually find their ways back to each other. But maybe the drama won’t pair Hwi-roo and Seok-moo back with each other again which isn’t the happy ending I would personally want, but the kind of ending that would be best fitting for Hwi-roo and Seok-moo respectively. That’s not to say that there won’t ever be any chances for the two to eventually get back together or to start over again, but it’s clear they need a break from each other. This break has taught them many things and they’ve both grown tremendously from it so maybe they’ll need more time to be away from each other. Watching Hwi-roo spend time by herself at the movie theater was an example of that. Seok-moo and Hwi-roo will need to learn to be alone first before they can go back to each other again.
Bonus: Extra screenshots~
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