San-hae has been fighting his feelings for Seung-ah for a while now, but how much longer can he take it before he gives in and reveals the truth to Seung-ah? San-hae is tested and pushed to the limit when he finally faces what it’s like to lose Seung-ah.
Also, I apologize for the long gaps and breaks in the recaps for this drama (this is the longest amount of time it’s taken me to recap a drama ever LOL). Life has been wild the last few months and I’ve been busy with work, but I hope to be able to finish recapping this drama very soon! Thanks for being patient with me folks. And remember, with the current COVID-19 situation, please make sure to stay safe and healthy, practice social distancing, and wash your hands with water and soap for at least 20 seconds!
Dae Jang-geum is Watching Episode 14: Have You Ever Seen a Love Triangle Like This One?
Seung-ah reunites with her mother in a private room at a big prestigious hospital. Mom hints to Seung-ah about the person who helped her get to the hospital safely in time for her surgery the next day. Seung-ah is unaware of who the person is, but very quickly discovers who Mom’s guardian angel was: it’s none other than Jung-sik. He enters the white pale door to the hospital room where Seung-ah and Mom is located in and greets the both of them. He even jokes around and asks for Mom’s permission to date Seung-ah, but is quickly dragged out of the room by Seung-ah to talk to Seung-ah afterwards. Thanks to Jung-sik’s network and connections, he was able to get Mom a room in the hospital and transport her from the airport to the hospital. Seung-ah is grateful for Jung-sik’s support and assistance with her mom’s urgent situation and even begins to ponder if Jung-sik is really the one for her. Along with helping her mom, he even feeds her some sweets that he baked for her. Aww.
Manager Lee, Won Bin, and San-hae make a pit stop at a bakery store. Though Manager Lee and Won Bin aren’t too content with the current situation, San-hae is occupied with other thoughts instead. He can’t seem to stop thinking about Seung-ah and reminisces the moment when he visited her in the hospital (so he did actually go to the hospital to visit her! It wasn’t a dream after all!). Seung-ah clinging to San-hae, Seung-ah crying in front of San-hae, and the two locking lips all occurred in real life. San-hae replays the moment over in his head; Won Bin and Manager Lee can’t help but notice just how distracted San-hae is from reality.
Back at the hospital, Seung-ah has a heart-warming conversation with her mother about ideal types and relationships. Although Mom voices her interest in Jung-sik and how he seems like a good choice for Seung-ah, Seung-ah’s mind roams right back to San-hae. She appreciates Jung-sik and all that he does for her, but her heart is reserved for San-hae.
San-hae, Jin-mi, and Jung-sik all gather together for their long-time tradition of eating dinner together every night.. or at least try to. Although the siblings are joined via video call, Jung-sik and Jin-mi can’t stop arguing and fighting with each other over Jin-mi’s boyfriend Min-hyuk and San-hae can’t stop thinking about Seung-ah. Their online video call ends and San-hae notices that his tongue isn’t numb like how it usually would be. Even after kissing Seung-ah, his tongue is alright. He can talk just fine, he can eat just fine, his tongue isn’t burning, he can even recite a few raps. Just like how Jung-sik mentioned, since San-hae’s powers didn’t work on Seung-ah, then maybe she is destined for him. If she also wasn’t affected by Jung-sik’s powers, is she destined for the both of them?
Later on that night, Seung-ah returns home to find a bag of bread hanging from her apartment door. She assumes Jung-sik must have gotten her the bag (but really it was San-hae).
The next day at work, San-hae attempts to chat and converse with Seung-ah. However, she acts coldly towards him and it’s obvious that she has no intentions of speaking to him. To revive her energy and her feelings for him, San-hae offers to treat everyone in the office out for some lunch. This is definitely something to remember for San-hae never volunteers to eat with anyone. He takes the entire team to a freshwater eel restaurant and though it is quite expensive, he also feels like it might be worth it.
Except.. maybe it’s not. The prices for the freshwater eel is a bit too high, but it’s too late since the entire team is already at the restaurant. San-hae adapts to the situation and he does eventually go through with his words by feeding the team some fresh grilled eel. Though the food is delicious and great, San-hae doesn’t forget the primary reason why he brought them there in the first place: to revive Seung-ah’s feelings for him. He attempts to get Seung-ah to notice him by shouting out loud and directly asking her questions, but the only people to actually listen to San-hae is Manager Lee who’s seated right next to him, Won Bin, and pretty much everyone else other than Seung-ah. LOL. Of course, as with all the other meals, San-hae and Seung-ah describes the food in their own ways. Seung-ah describes the feeling of eating the eel as if she was at a Queen’s concert singing along in the audience. The energy of the eel is equivalent to the energy from the audience: overwhelming and electric. San-hae imagines the team reenacting the Queen concert with San-hae himself as Freddie Mercury. LOL. This drama is too hilarious.
Back at home, Jung-sik gushes over how Seung-ah referred to him by his name and not ‘Master Cook’ during a text exchange over lunch earlier. He decides to cook some abalone soup for his cooking show to also give to both Seung-ah and her mom to eat. After Jung-sik finishes cooking and eating his food, he worries about his siblings. Since they ate dinner over video call the other night and not physically in person, has anything bad or strange happened to them since? But San-hae and Jin-mi are well and fine and Jung-sik is just overthinking things.
Jin-mi finishes practice with her team mates back at her entertainment company’s practice room, but her embarrassment keeps hanging over her head. She’s confronted by Min-hyuk who she had been ignoring and avoiding this entire time because she believes that he was the one who got her into the agency using his connections. Although Min-hyuk claims that there’s more to the story, Jin-mi doesn’t accept any of his answers and she pleads for them to end everything. To express her sorrow and frustration with everything, she heads out to drink and karaoke by herself. While walking back home, Jin-mi finds herself in some trouble as she confronts a bunch of boys about smoking in a non-smoking area. The boys threaten her, but thankfully Min-hyuk arrives in time to defend her after he had been secretly following her to watch over her. He gets into a fight with the boys, but the group eventually runs off after passerby’s arrive at the scene. Jin-mi cries upon seeing an exhausted and injured Min-hyuk, but he’s just glad and relieved that she’s finally paying some attention to him. Aww.
San-hae and Jung-sik head to the hospital together. Jung-sik plans on visiting Seung-ah and her mother while San-hae is visiting a VIP customer. Along the way, Jung-sik requests for San-hae to stop by a floral shop so he can purchase Seung-ah and her mom some flowers, but San-hae heads directly to the hospital instead to put a stop to Jung-sik’s plans (because ya know, he’s also fighting for Seung-ah at this point). Upon arriving at the hospital, the guilt eats at Jung-sik and he quickly steps out to grab some flowers. Meanwhile, San-hae encounters Seung-ah at the hospital and he attempts to persuade her to return to like how things used to be. He doesn’t like this uncomfortable feeling that’s going on between them. However, Seung-ah is firm in her decision to keep things the way they are; after San-hae’s rejection, she’s had enough. She no longer feels the same way about him as she once used to and has no plans of doing so.
Seung-ah turns her back on San-hae and walks away, but stops upon hearing San-hae’s confession. He can’t help himself; he likes her too much. Hidden in the corner not too far away is Jung-sik who overheard San-hae confess to Seung-ah. He drops the bouquet of flowers he had purchased for Seung-ah on the floor in shock and surprise that his brother too has feelings for the same woman as him.
The ending poem to the episode recites,
What’s the big deal if it’s your older brother / What’s the big deal if it’s your younger brother / What’s the big deal if it’s an entangled love / Your feelings are getting deep and thick like abalone soup / You won’t be able to turn back but head straight now
My Thoughts:
AHHHH, finally! I knew we were going to get to this stage sooner or later and though I would have definitely appreciated that this love triangle was never a thing in the first place, I’m relieved that we are finally at this stage in the love triangle. Now both brothers are aware of their fight for Seung-ah and it’s up to Seung-ah as to who she chooses to be with.
San-hae can no longer fight his feelings for Seung-ah and regrets rejecting her at first. Of course, he only did so to protect his brother although he actually did have feelings for Seung-ah all along. I hope she’ll put down her walls and give him an opportunity to explain himself. Please listen to him Seung-ah (literally so he doesn’t have to shout out loud at restaurants and work but also because San-hae has a lot of things to say). San-hae has always been a man of few words (except when he’s eating of course) so it was great and interesting to see him be so straightforward and honest with Seung-ah in his confession scene. I mean, he has to be when he’s fighting for Seung-ah and when he’s hanging on the line for her love. He’s not even asking for Seung-ah to revive those feelings she once had for him; he’s simply just asking for her to notice him and to give him some type of attention for now. He’s willing to take baby steps; he doesn’t need a lot from Seung-ah right now. The San-hae who acted cooly and quietly and coldly in front of Seung-ah is now the outspoken, honest, and desperate one in what could be his last chance to win Seung-ah’s mind and heart. It’ll be interesting to see how Seung-ah reacts to his confession; is it still what she had wanted to hear after all this time?
Of course, I still enjoyed watching San-hae somewhat stay true to his colors and remain cool-headed and calm even as he was trying to impress Seung-ah. It was funny watching him argue internally with himself and strategize on how he could communicate with Seung-ah properly again. A few shoulder shrugs here and there, but he smoothly adds in some questions about her mother or how Seung-ah is feeling. It must be challenging for San-hae to go from being pursued and appreciated by Seung-ah to being ignored by her. It must not be a pleasant feeling, but I completely understand why Seung-ah chose to move on and reconsider things with Jung-sik in the process of doing so. Maybe he is the one for her this entire time. Jung-sik has done many great things for her and doesn’t make her cry or feel bad about herself. I can see why Seung-ah would rethink her love life and is treating San-hae the way she is. She’s finally had enough and realizes that she deserves someone thoughtful, supportive, and kind. Jung-sik embodies all of those traits and more, but will Seung-ah react differently now that she’s received a confession by San-hae?
This drama has always been very cliche and reached a territory that we never want to dive into: a love triangle involving family/brothers. While that has to be my least favorite aspect about this drama by far, I have to reiterate that I do enjoy watching all the little other quirky things that this drama does. I could not stop laughing upon watching Shin Dong-wook dressed up as Freddie Mercury of Queen and imitating him as if he was hosting a concert at the restaurant. The drama does such silly things like this, but it’s also what I absolutely love and enjoy about it! It doesn’t ever take itself too seriously and instead reminds viewers of the fun, ridiculous, and silly show that it is. There might be times where I’m pulling my hair out because of the messy love triangle, but there are also times where I’m laughing my head off. My reactions to each episode is as complicated and entangled as the love triangle, but laughter and amusement shall prevail in the end.
Extra screenshots from the episode~
MaryMeKpop 