Cinderella at 2AM: Episodes 5-6
by DaebakGrits
One other challenger — and trope — has entered the ring, and our poor main girl finds herself not solely struggling together with her post-breakup feelings however caught in the midst of a really heated love triangle. At this level, our Cinderella in all probability needs she had two evil step-sisters as a substitute.
EPISODES 5-6
In a basic you’re-probably-wondering-how-I-ended-up-in-this-situation scenario, our drama rewinds to the moments main as much as the comedy of errors that was final week’s cliffhanger. All of it started when Yoon-seo’s coworkers discovered her youthful brother was finding out for his school entrance exams, and regardless of Ji-seok’s enthusiasm, his clearly low aptitude for math was going to carry him again. After work, on the evening of The Incident, Jang-hee — a supposed math genius — and Ye-young — wanting meals and socialization — invited themselves over to Yoon-seo’s condominium so they might assist tutor Ji-seok and have dinner collectively. And, nicely, y’all know what occurred after that, however the craziness doesn’t finish there.
You see, after Yoon-seo and Joo-won excuse themselves to have a non-public dialog, Jang-hee, Ye-young, and Ji-seok have a pleasant little gossip session, speculating on all of the juicy, unknown particulars of Yoon-seo and Joo-won’s relationship. Like, how precisely did they turn out to be a pair? Was Joo-won drawn to Yoon-seo as a result of he has a factor for dominating ladies, or did he like that she launched him to the straightforward methods of commoner life? Every situation performs out on display like one of many satirical episodes of Be Robust, Geum-hee — my favourite, after all, being the farcical reenactment of Chairwoman Kim shoving her sassy stilettos in Yoon-seo’s face whereas demanding that Yoon-seo break up together with her son. (Sidenote: if these sneakers had been product placement, it will have labored on me if I had chaebol cash.)
Whereas everybody again in Yoon-seo’s condominium is letting their imaginations run wild over her relationship and breakup, she and Joo-won have a non-public dialog outdoors. She’s shocked by his declaration that he’s left his household so as to spare her from quitting her job, however she doesn’t waver in her conviction. They’re nonetheless damaged up, and she is going to hand in her resignation as deliberate after wrapping up their final challenge and tying up all of the free ends.
Yoon-seo optimistically tells Ji-seok that her work life could be unaffected although her coworkers are conscious of her breakup, however she is unsuitable — woefully so. Each Jang-hee and Ye-young unnecessarily run interference between the previous couple and turn out to be masters at misinterpreting the only issues as indicators that Yoon-seo is struggling together with her feelings and — due to a serendipitous encounter with a balance-impaired cleansing lady who left a nasty crimson handprint on Yoon-seo’s cheek — Chairwoman Kim’s wrath.
Paradoxically, Chairwoman Kim is slightly subdued the day after Joo-won got here to her and begged her to be his mom slightly than the chairwoman. She realizes she underestimated the extent of Joo-won’s emotions for Yoon-seo, and he or she’s a bit shaken by Joo-won’s choice to maneuver out. Shi-won, nevertheless, is amused by his brother’s insurrection, and his giddiness will increase when he checks Jo-won’s schedule and realizes his youthful brother snubbed their mom’s invitation for tea. Chairwoman Kim serves up some nasty side-eye to indicate she’s not amused by her eldest’s gleefulness.
Nonetheless, Shi-won does his brotherly responsibility and checks in on Joo-won. He even tries to persuade Joo-won to maneuver out of the flowery resort suite he ran away to and transfer in with him and Mi-jin — as a result of what higher solution to break up the awkwardness between Shi-won and his contractual spouse than by having his youthful brother come be their third-wheel-in-residence? Yeah, it’s a tough cross for Joo-won, who’s shocked that Shi-won didn’t get a heads up that Mi-jin was returning. Shi-won explains the unannounced return of his spouse on the truth that Mi-jin could be very work targeted — to some extent it’s nearly like he married their mom!
When Joo-won returns to his workplace, he interrupts Yoon-seo begging Jang-hee and Ye-young to cease being so annoying. Joo-won, hoping to spare her from the office awkwardness, takes Yoon-seo apart and affords to maneuver places of work, since he merely picked the one which was closest to her in proximity as a part of his plan to woo her again. Yoon-seo, nevertheless, is irritated by his supply, having grown exasperated by his gallantry. A person giving up an adoring household and wealth so as to be with the girl he loves? That’s not romantic; it’s a burden, and he or she’s pissed that he doesn’t see how egocentric he’s being.
As her phrases rip into Joo-won, he counters by asking if she ever cherished him. He knew that their romance wouldn’t be simple, however as a substitute of holding his hand and navigating their obstacles collectively, she let go and saved herself — you recognize, comparable however much less lethal vibe as Rose, who might have completely scooched over and let Jack lay on that door subsequent to her on the finish of Titanic. He explains to her that he’d lived his complete life figuring out that what was “his” had by no means really been earned — aside from her. He’d received over on his personal, which is why he was capable of simply sacrifice all his privileges to be together with her.
Oof! It’s one helluva argument, however what I like about this scene is that Joo-won has been given a bit extra depth. Up till this level, I sympathized extra with Yoon-seo as a result of I understood the psychology behind her causes for breaking apart with Joo-won when confronted by the double-roadblock of his wealth and his disapproving mom. Nonetheless, her choice to finish the connection was based mostly on the idea that these obstacles had been insurmountable — a perception that was maybe fueled by the very Okay-drama tropes that this story is subverting. She gave up earlier than even making an attempt to climb over the hurdles blocking her path to happiness. Joo-won might have been a bit too persistent in his post-breakup pursuit of Yoon-seo, however he has a really legitimate motive for being harm that she ended their relationship with out trusting him to assist her navigate his chaebol world.
After Yoon-seo’s argument with Joo-won, she wonders if she will survive her work atmosphere for an additional two months. Jang-hee, who seemingly reads her thoughts, affords to introduce her to a headhunter (cameo by Kwon Yul), and Yoon-seo accepts, not realizing Jang-hee was truly setting her on a blind date. (As a result of, you recognize, the easiest way to recover from some is to get below…*cough*).
Anywho, whereas on the unintended blind date, Yoon-seo can’t assist however to match Mr. Headhunter to Joo-won. Earlier than courting Joo-won, Yoon-seo would have thought-about Mr. Headhunter a superb match as a result of they’ve comparable philosophies for navigating unaligned preferences and pursuits whereas in a relationship, however Yoon-seoo realizes that Joo-won modified her perspective on what a harmonious relationship would appear like. She’s not the realist she thought she was, and as a substitute her pragmatism was a protection mechanism.
When Yoon-seo returns from her lunch date, she’s reached her breaking level together with her co-workers’ meddling — and pained by the look of hatred Joo-won gave her after listening to about her blind date. She decides to go away work early and go off-grid. After all, it’s the absolute worst time for her to energy off her telephone as a result of the dung hits the fan.
The artist collaborating together with her group on their hanok challenge is concerned in a scandal, and whereas Yoon-seo is off cursing shitty drivers and fielding telephone calls from her undesirable nameless dialer, her group scrambles to discover a substitute in her absence. Joo-won steps up and proves he’s deserving of his new director standing. However when Yoon-seo reads the backlog of textual content messages and joins them, Joo-won is chilly and unnecessarily stern — that’s, till he meets their substitution artist LEE SEONG-MIN, who’s — holy Okay-drama coincidence, Batman! — the thriller painter who has been texting and calling Yoon-seo.
That is one loopy coincidence, even for dramaland, however a minimum of Seong-min shares everybody’s shock when he explains that his preliminary textual content to Yoon-seo actually was a mistake. It wasn’t till Joo-won reached out to Seong-min and requested him to be their substitute artist that Seong-min took one other take a look at their enterprise proposal and acknowledged the random quantity he’d been texting on Yoon-seo’s enterprise card. Effectively, after all, given the serendipitous nature of the entire thing, Seong-min accepted the proposal so he might meet his thriller lady, and from this level on, our story takes a slightly predictable flip. Cue: love triangle trope.
Seong-min is excited by Yoon-seo, and although he rapidly picks up on the truth that Joo-won is her ex-boyfriend, it doesn’t change his want to know her higher. The truth is, he’s annoyingly assertive, inserting himself into conditions the place he has no enterprise being and creating new alternatives to hang around with Yoon-seo — like an impromptu group dinner that Joo-won can’t attend as a result of he has to accompany Shi-won on a enterprise journey to Jeju.
Joo-won’s coronary heart sinks additional when he sees a gaggle photograph from the dinner posted to social media. Seong-min is, after all, seated subsequent to Yoon-seo. Shi-won sees how a lot Joo-won is hurting and decides to go all in and assist his youthful brother, even when which means they’re teaming up in opposition to Chairwoman Kim. Shi-won requires a helicopter to take them again to Seoul, and Joo-won arrives simply in time to hitch his group for spherical two at a high-end bar, the place our characters order bottle service and get completely shit-faced on costly whiskey.
The following morning, Yoon-seo and Joo-won get up in Seong-min’s studio. Equally embarrassed about their habits the evening earlier than, they rapidly go their separate methods, however Yoon-seo accidently left her pockets at Seong-min’s place. He catches up together with her at a close-by comfort retailer and returns her pockets, however Yoon-seo makes use of one-on-one time to scold him. She’s having a tough sufficient time getting over her breakup with Yoon-seo, and the very last thing she wants is to be caught in the midst of their pissing contest. Gotta hand it to Yoon-seo for being a uncommon feminine lead who takes the initiative to take away an angle from her undesirable love triangle.
And talking of attention-grabbing feminine characters, Mi-jin has lastly gotten sufficient display time for us to get a greater sense of her character. She’s fiercely impartial and pushed in her work, however when it got here to her organized marriage, she selected to be with Shi-won as a result of — out of all of the potential candidates — she was drawn to his caring and mild nature. This, after all, bodes nicely for this secondary romance, which appears to be rushing via all of the basic contract marriage tropes, like unintended full-frontal nudity.
Mi-jin’s greatest flaw appears to be her communication expertise, as she’s susceptible to leaving out vital particulars below the false perception that they’re implied when they’re, in actual fact, not. Working example, when she tells Shi-won that she had the maids put together a household breakfast, she thought it was apparent that “household” included Chairwoman Kim.
As flustered as Shi-won was to have his mom over for breakfast, he was extra baffled by Mi-jin’s emotional IQ. As a result of she’s spent a great deal of time alone, Mi-jin accurately assumed that the nice Chairwoman Kim, who was simply as a lot a mom as she was the figurehead of a serious company, was lonely after Joo-won left house. Mi-jin then advises Shi-won to keep away from teaming up along with his brother in opposition to their mom. (Insert “monkey puppet meme” right here.)
Simply once you thought all was semi all proper for our characters, a brand new scandal rocks Yoon-seo’s hanok challenge. This time, AL Group is accused of nepotism as a result of Seong-min is the son of a high-ranking politician. Clearly, this isn’t the case. Seong-min earned the place along with his expertise as an artist, and Joo-won needed to beg to get Seong-min to offer their proposal a second look. To not point out, Seong-min been estranged from his household ever since he dropped out of legislation faculty to pursue his artwork profession — a indisputable fact that his father’s publicity group later corroborates and, presumably, dispels the false nepotism rumors.
Nonetheless, conveniently redacted from the general public assertion is the truth that Seong-min’s father was bodily abusive, and he as soon as fired his aide who inspired Seong-min to pursue his goals. It was that very aide who as soon as possessed Yoon-seo’s telephone quantity. Come to seek out out, Seong-min has been going via a low level in his profession and has overpassed his self price. He reached out to his fathers’s former aide, however he obtained Yoon-seo as a substitute.
Yoon-seo, nevertheless, appeared in his life at simply the best second. Seong-min was — actually — on a ledge, ready to finish his life when Yoon-seo by chance answered his telephone name throughout her highway rage incident. Her passionate soliloquy impressed him to step down, and when he noticed her telephone quantity hooked up to the challenge proposal, he obtained caught up within the romanticism of the coincidence.
He apologizes for getting swept up within the second, and in return, Yoon-seo admits that she’s been struggling to recover from her breakup and took her feelings out on him. Seong-min means that they interact in a bit artwork remedy to try to clear their minds, and I like how relaxed they’re round one another now that they’ve opened up about their particular person struggles. Nonetheless, as they paint and giggle over Yoon-seo’s nonexistent inventive capability, we pan out and see Joo-won, who wears a tragic, kicked pet expression whereas he watches them.
I nonetheless don’t know what to make of Seong-min’s character. I initially discovered him obnoxious as a result of he was instigating pissing contests with Joo-won and making Yoon-seo uncomfortable, however after he mellowed out a bit, I discovered him to be a pleasant foil for Joo-won. The 2 opponents vying for Yoon-seo’s affection each come from prosperous households, however Seong-min gave up his household connections to observe his goals and escape a violent house — a trauma he has in frequent with Yoon-seo. On paper, it actually makes him a extra viable candidate for Yoon-seo, particularly when considering Yoon-seo’s causes for instigating her breakup with Joo-won.
Nonetheless, after this week’s episodes, I discover myself rooting extra for Joo-won — particularly since I’m rising fatigued by this lengthy, drawn out breakup. Positive, it’s life like that our characters are battling the emotional ups and downs of ending their relationship. In any case, breakups are hardly ever “simple,” however Yoon-seo’s causes for instigating the breakup now not appear as insurmountable as she believed. It’s like she’s pushing ahead, regardless of her regrets and blended feelings, out of sheer stubbornness, and I’m rising impatient that she hasn’t even entertained the considered reconciling — below the stipulation that they’ll solely be a pair if they’ll persuade Chairwoman Kim to approve of their romance, after all.
Sure, Joo-won is immature and foolishly persistent, however I can’t assist however like his character and the fairy story he’s meant to characterize. He is the Prince Charming archetype, and if anybody deserves to be pampered and doted on, it’s the hardworking Yoon-seo. So yeah, I appreciated the preliminary subversion of the envelope full of cash trope, however I’m on the level the place I want this story to be rather less actual and extra befitting of its titular fairy story. In any case, a big a part of why I watch Okay-dramas is so I can dwell vicariously via their Candys and Cinderellas.
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