Despite how many years might pass by, one simply just does not forget. This rings far too true for both Yeol-chan and Man-sik who have no choice but to come to terms with their new reality and working situation. They can either work together and help the other out or they can make each other’s lives as miserable as possible. Which option will they choose? Which decision will sound more appealing, adventurous, and fun?
Kkondae Intern: Episode 2 Recap
Our executives and Manager Yeol-chan interview potential interns one by one. Among those interviewed are more qualified individuals who Yeol-chan approves of and then the more questionable ones like Tae-ri and Yoon-soo who Joon-soo approves of to upset Yeol-chan. During the interviews, Executive Ahn and Joon-soo secretly work together to give higher points to the interviewees who Yeol-chan aren’t so impressed by. With their teamwork in hand, this was how Tae-ri and Yoon-soo was able to get on board and join the team. So what about Man-sik? Executive Ahn met up with the former Ongol employee himself over some drinks. Man-sik has a difficult time accepting the possibility of working for Ongol’s biggest competition, but Executive Ahn defends Joonsoo Foods. Other than the fact that Man-sik needs a job, he claims that Joonsoo Foods never stole any of Ongol’s ideas. The two bicker with each other during their meet-up.
Man-sik questions his job as a security guard after speaking with a man who’s been a security guard for three years. However, he decides that it’s time for a new start and he accepts his internship at Joonsoo Foods. He first greets Joon-soo and Executive Ahn who were anxiously awaiting his arrival and then heads to the Sales and Marketing Office afterwards to meet the rest of the team. There, he introduces himself to everyone, including a shocked and flustered Yeol-chan. Yeol-chan has a meeting with Joon-soo afterwards and is informed that there will be no termination of the senior internship program that Joon-soo came up with. Yeol-chan will have no choice but to work with Man-sik. Speaking of Man-sik, he wishes to quit after he discovers that he’ll have to work under Yeol-chan. There’s no way he’s going to do so. However, a brief conversation and planning strategy with Executive Ahn causes him to change his mind. Executive Ahn too wants Yeol-chan ousted so they both can work together to make that happen. With Yeol-chan gone, they can climb up the ladder together. Man-sik is tempted by the sweet words and gives in.
Man-sik spends some time with Tae-ri and Yoon-soo as well as everyone else on the team. They’re unsure as to how to address Man-sik since well, he is a bit older than the rest of them. Plus, they’re also curious as to how he’s affiliated with Yeol-chan. Man-sik plays it off and claims Yeol-chan mistakened him for someone else and is eventually called up onto the rooftop to have a private conversation with the manager himself. When asked why he left Ongol, Man-sik lies that he retired to allow for those below him to be promoted. If this is the case, why did Man-sik treat Yeol-chan horribly back then? Yeol-chan eventually sets boundaries with Man-sik and makes it to clear to the senior intern that: 1) they should pretend like they don’t know each other and that 2) Man-sik shouldn’t expect to get a free ride just because he’s older. The two catch their breaths after concluding the intense confrontation. It’s obvious their past still affects them in the present.
With three new interns on the team, Yeol-chan decides it’s best to hold a group meeting. They all meet in the conference room where Yeol-chan formally welcomes the new team members and introduces a mentor-mentee program to make the most out of the internship program. Yoon-soo will be paired up with Assistant Manager Oh Dong-geun (Go Gun-han), Tae-ri will be with Tak Jung-eun (Park Ah-in), and Man-sik will be under Yeol-chan. Everyone’s confused at the pairing, but it’s obvious internally what Yeol-chan’s reasoning for this is. While running some errands together, employee Kim Seung-jin (Hong Seung-bum) shares with Yoon-soo his tips and tricks on what kind of person Assistant Manager Oh is and how he does things. He also shares insider tips with Tae-ri about her mentor, Jung-eun, who’s a contract worker at the company. Lastly, he meets with Man-sik to share his information on Yeol-chan, but there’s not much he can say about their boss other than good things.
Yoon-soo and Tae-ri become more involved at work and are assigned responsibilities and tasks to do by their mentors. However, Man-sik isn’t given much to do and he questions Yeol-chan on how he can help out around the office. Similar to what Man-sik told Yeol-chan five years ago, Yeol-chan advises Man-sik to not do anything. He can just rest up and watch everyone else on the team get some work done. While cleaning around the office, Man-sik comes across a binder on Yeol-chan’s desk that inspires him to start on a project. He types up the report on his computer and presents it to Yeol-chan at the end of the day. Unlike what he expected, Yeol-chan gives the report a short look and throws it away.
The company dinner with the interns that they were supposed to have that night is cancelled with Yeol-chan’s last-minute “meeting” so the team heads home after work that day. Assistant Manager Oh finds it strange how Yeol-chan didn’t really interact with Man-sik despite being his mentor, but Seung-jin and Jung-eun claim they saw Yeol-chan interact with Man-sik at the end of the day. Interns Tae-ri and Yoon-soo celebrate their day of work by going out for some drinks amongst themselves. While Yoon-soo wants to invite Man-sik, Tae-ri feels more comfortable with it being just the two of them. They share their thoughts on how their internship experience is going so far. Tae-ri is a bit disappointed that their company didn’t throw them a welcoming party; she feels as if she’s a bit neglected even if she’s just an intern. However, she’s thankful to be working for such a big company and she feels as if she has this special connection to Yeol-chan. Yoon-soo feels similarly as well and recalls a moment back during his interview in which Yeol-chan asked him a question. Although Yoon-soo thinks Yeol-chan appreciated his honest answer, Yeol-chan actually felt the opposite. Lol. I love how their interpretations are completely different than how Yeol-chan really felt.
While on the bus to go back home, Man-sik reflects on how Yeol-chan has treated him so far at the company and notices just how similar Yeol-chan’s antics are compared to when they were at Ongol. When Man-sik gets home, he discovers that his son, Man-se, has placed first at school. Man-sik and his wife celebrate the good news and she remains in disbelief that her husband is a director at Ongol and her son is excelling as a student. Of course, she’s not aware that Man-sik is no longer working at Ongol and that he’s rather now a senior intern at Joonsoo Foods. Later on that night, Man-sik visits his son’s room and has a conversation with his sleeping son. He’ll need to stick things out until Man-se goes to college.
And let the petty war and antics begin! Man-sik sends a prank text to Yeol-chan that night which annoys Yeol-chan. Yeol-chan gets back at Man-sik the next morning when he has the senior intern go on a coffee run for everyone on the team. Of course, the orders aren’t so easy to memorize or understand and Man-sik literally recites the orders out loud once at the cafe. Concerned about the long line forming behind him, the cashier ends up taking the note with the orders on it to speed things up. Lol. With Man-sik busy ordering their drinks, Assistant Manager Oh is concerned about Man-sik and whether it’s okay to have him run errands. However, Yeol-chan reassures him (and everyone else) that Man-sik should be treated the same way as the other interns. He did express that to him the day before (aka, Yeol-chan is an angel and Man-sik is not).
Man-sik eventually returns with their drinks, but he’s sent on another mission this time: he is to purchase sandwiches for the team. Of course, Yeol-chan’s order is just as complicated as his coffee order was, but Man-sik upgrades his strategy this time. He records Yeol-chan’s super long order on his phone and simply plays it once at the sandwich shop. In the recording is also the moment when Assistant Manager Oh ridiculed Man-sik and questioned if he’d be able to get Yeol-chan’s sandwich order correct. Man-sik is well aware of what Yeol-chan is doing with him and his anger and frustration grows.
The team works late into the night so they brainstorm on what they should eat for dinner. Well aware that Man-sik is a broth type of guy, Yeol-chan purposely orders hot and spicy pizza for everyone to eat. Lol. While everyone dishes in on the pizza, Man-sik sneaks off to eat some jjamppong (spicy seafood noodle soup) and tangsuyuk (sweet and sour pork) with Executive Ahn. The senior intern is eventually caught by an upset Yeol-chan who criticizes him for eating noodle soup when his colleagues are stuffing their stomachs with pizza. Man-sik is hauled away before he can even take a bite of his jjamppong.
Yeol-chan meets up with Executive Goo for some drinks later on that night after work. After chatting about the new interns as well as their connection to each other, Executive Goo brings up about the new deal with a Chinese client that they have to secure the next day. Yeol-chan is well aware of how important and crucial this deal is. Man-sik has a meeting with Joon-soo himself after work that day. Joon-soo makes it clear and straight-forward on the reason as to why he wanted to meet privately: he wants Man-sik to help him take down Yeol-chan. The next CEO of Joonsoo Foods will be determined in six months and Joonsoo wants to ensure that he’ll be given the position. Man-sik won’t have to do anything to get rid of Yeol-chan; in fact, he just needs to keep doing what he’s been doing and just lay low. Yeol-chan will eventually continue to struggle and then quit. Joon-soo makes it clear that he can repay Man-sik in any way that he would like, including a full-time position at the company if that’s what he wants. Man-sik reconsiders everything after the dinner. Maybe things aren’t so bad after all.
And so it’s time for Yeol-chan and his team to work their magic. Along with Seung-jin, Assistant Manager Oh, and Man-sik, the four have dinner with their Chinese client, Mr. Binghao, and his team to seal a deal with them. With them primarily speaking and communicating in Mandarin, Man-sik feels excluded and left out since he isn’t familiar with the language. As if that wasn’t humiliating enough, Yeol-chan brought along Man-sik purely just so he can grill some meat for them to eat. And so Man-sik does as he is instructed and he begins to cook the pork belly. However, he takes full advantage of the opportunity and purposely makes mistakes while grilling the meat. Lol. He splats the oil from the meat onto Mr. Binghao’s face on purpose to irritate him. Man-sik is reminded of a conversation he had with Executive Ahn prior to the dinner: he has to do whatever he can to make sure the deal doesn’t happen. That’s his number one goal with this meeting.
Man-sik doesn’t stop it at just grilling meat. While opening up bottles of beer, he purposely aims at Mr. Binghao’s face and hits him with the lid. Thankfully, Mr. Binghao doesn’t seem hurt or offended by the small incident, but Yeol-chan is well aware of what Man-sik is trying to do. In fact, Mr. Binghao seems to like Man-sik. While singing to some karaoke, he joins the senior intern and the two have fun singing and dancing together. Yeol-chan can’t help but be embarrassed by Man-sik, but Man-sik won’t stop. He even outdrinks Mr. Binghao, knowing fully well it’s something the client hates the most.
And so the dinner party comes to a close and our Sales and Marketing team seals the deal with Mr. Binghao and his team the next morning. Right as they bid farewell with their client, Mr. Binghao surprises everyone by giving Man-sik a hug and calling him by his name. Man-sik was primarily the one who persuaded Mr. Binghao to sign the contract with Joonsoo Foods. As we would learn and witness, Man-sik saved Mr. Binghao while he was choking the night before so Mr. Binghao went through with signing the contract as a token of his appreciation. When everyone is reunited at the office, they learn that it was Man-sik who managed to get the deal and not Yeol-chan like they had expected. While feasting on some burgers for lunch, Yeol-chan and Man-sik engage in an intense staring contest as if they’re in some sort of eating competition.
Yeol-chan eventually pukes out the food in the restroom. It doesn’t help that he still has a hangover from all the drinking the night before. While in the restroom, Yeol-chan overhears Seung-jin and Assistant Manager Oh gossip about Yeol-chan behind his back. They remain in disbelief that they would eat burgers after suffering from a hangover. On top of that, he made someone as old as Man-sik grill meat for him the night before. Upon hearing the criticism, Yeol-chan reaches a conviction of his own: he feels as if something is seriously wrong. Meanwhile, Man-sik munches on his burger in happiness and content. He’s confident he’s much better than Yeol-chan.
My Thoughts:
This episode was one wild episode! The battle between Yeol-chan and Man-sik has finally begun and it’s time for the two to unleash their petty antics against each other. Watching Man-sik purposely try to ruin the deal with Mr. Binghao was the funniest part in this episode. Who knew there were so many different ways you could try to tick someone off, but make them love you even more the more you try? xD
I mean, I don’t know what was funnier: watching Man-sik try to irritate Mr. Binghao on purpose or watching Man-sik irritate Mr. Binghao on purpose which only made him love Man-sik even more so he signed the contract with Joonsoo Foods. Man-sik’s one goal out of the meeting was to ensure that the deal do not go through so that the failure and blame could be placed on Yeol-chan. However, although Man-sik tried many different things to achieve this goal, he ultimately came out of it with a contract being signed. He sort of did what he was supposed to do which was irritate Mr. Binghao, but he ultimately did what he was not supposed to do which was get the contract signed. It’s a win win for everyone, I guess?
It was interesting to see how Yeol-chan and Man-sik reacted individually after seeing each other again after five years and coming to terms with the fact that they’ll be working together again. One would have thought that five years would be enough time for both men to forget about their past and to not be so affected by such a complicated relationship. However, although both Yeol-chan and Man-sik have moved on from their past to an extent, there’s still some trauma from their history from Ongol Foods that impacts them in the present. The two put on this facade in front of each other and pretended as if nothing was wrong or as if they were strong, but once the confrontation was over, they were weak to their knees and were so nervous upon addressing the elephant in the room. The trauma from their past still hasn’t been completely forgotten and maybe that’s something that the two can learn to heal from moving forward together.
I enjoy our two interns, Tae-ri and Yoon-soo, and find them so refreshing in a working culture and among a team that isn’t so refreshing or kind. They’re obviously not the super qualified, competent, and smart interns that the Sales and Marketing Team was expecting and wanting which is why their addition to the team is so much more refreshing. Through this internship, they’ll grow and learn and eventually prove themselves to be assets to the team. Isn’t that the point of an internship, anyways? It’s a learning experience for everyone involved including the interns themselves and the team they’re working with. I understand Executive Ahn and Joon-soo hired Tae-ri and Yoon-soo to try to ruin Yeol-chan’s life and to make his work as miserable as possible, but something in me tells me that our interns are going to be valuable and extremely helpful to the team in the future. Executive Ahn and Joon-soo’s plan is ultimately going to backfire on them.
It’s also interesting to watch the ways in which the team interacts with Man-sik who’s obviously older than the rest of them. One potential reason could be because of how uncommon it is for older folks to work in a smaller role such as an intern, but the other part is navigating around that and learning how to address someone who’s older in a junior position that’s lower. What does formality look like in this case? What kind of rules and boundaries need to be set in regards to how people address each other? Assistant Manager Oh, Seung-jin, and Jung-eun are not the most welcoming or friendly and their preconceived impression and judgement towards Man-sik is off-putting. Even Tae-ri doesn’t feel as comfortable around Man-sik which is a bit sad and iffy. Yoon-soo seems to be the only one who’s willing to get to know Man-sik better which says a lot about him given just how much we don’t know about him so far. That brings me to my next and last point which is that I hope we’ll get to learn more about the backstory to our characters (or at least Yoon-soo and Tae-ri) just like how we got a glimpse of Yeol-chan and Man-sik’s life.
Extra screenshots from the episode~
MaryMeKpop 