The Kiss
Du-Sik and Hye-Jin return to their home after a day of excitement. However, an intruder has broken into the house and is holding the girl hostage with a knife. Luckily, Du-Sik shows up and manages to knock him out, deflecting most of his knife blows. This allows Hye-Jin to escape with her life.
Hye-Jin and Seong-Hyeon are in the hospital, and the stress of all this is getting to them. Du-Sik comes by to check on them, and he thanks Seong-Hyeon for saving her. He leaves, though, with a feeling of relief.
Du-Sik encourages Hye-Jin to stay with him at his place on the anniversary of his grandfather’s death. There are several candles lit on the table, a reminder of how close Du-Sik and his grandfather were. The old man had a heart attack but didn’t have time to save himself, partly because Du-Sik was watching football on TV when it happened. ..
Du-Sik blames himself for this, but Hye-Jin is quick to reassure him that it’s not his fault.
Mi-Seon checks in with Hye-Jin, letting her know that her Mother is about to go into surgery and she wants to be there for when she wakes up. Hye-Jin is absolutely fine with this, while Eun-Cheol sits with Mi-Seon and supports her through this as well. He encourages her to get some sleep while he stays up, eventually leading to the two at a stalemate and deciding to have a drink together instead. ..
Du-Sik sleeps on the floor at Hye-Jin’s place after she tells him she’s not feeling well. ..
Gongjin residents are discussing the break-in that occurred in their town. They are all worried about Hye-Jin, who shows up in town after the event. ..
Mi-Seon is one of the many people heading back to their homes after their mothers’ successful surgeries. She gives her friend a big hug and promises to be there for her. This “friend” deal is something she projects across to Eun-Cheol too, pointing out that she’s falling for her and has decided to put a lid on her feelings. Eun-Cheol is stunned and can only sit and watch her walk away. ..
Yeong-Guk is struggling with the stress of the divorce and Hwa-Jeong’s words about it. He finds himself puzzling over Hwa-Jeong’s words and wondering if he should be worried.
Seong-Hyeon continues to go through the motions too. He’s clearly longing for Hye-Jin, reflecting back on memories of their past, but struggling to continue working, skipping out on Wang and the gang in the editing studio.
That evening, Du-Sik’s memorial goes ahead but Hye-Jin joins him for the dinner. Sitting together, they eat snow crab but cracking the shells ends up being a pretty messy affair. After dinner, Du-Sik suggests walking Hye-Jin home but she decides to be brave and head alone. As she does, she walks into Seong-Hyeon, who happens to be waiting for her.
As they head out for dinner to talk, Seong-Hyeon really struggles to get his words out. Eventually he does though and admits that he really likes her. This only further complicates matters for Hye-Jin, who remains conflicted over what to do given the current Du-Sik situation.
With Mi-Seon feeling equally conflicted, the girls decide to take a trip to Seoul to unwind. With them due back the following day, Mi-Seon convinces Du-Suk to head over and unplug her curling iron. Only… it’s already unplugged. The place is a complete mess though but Du-Sik ignores all this and makes sure everything is locked up.
After Gam-Ri calls out Du-Sik, understanding that he definitely has feelings for Hye-Jin, she encourages him to be honest with himself and stop fighting it. It’s something that Hye-Jin does too, as she heads out into the rain without an umbrella and embraces her feelings.
This singular act of skipping out on her big day out with Mi-Seon and heading back to Gongjin leaves Mi-Seon stranded. And, hang on a second, the next shot shows Hye-Jin with her hair absolutely dry and perfect again. There must be some pretty amazing heating in her car!
Du-Sik and Hye-Jin kiss for real this time. They’re both happy and excited!
As they kiss under the moonlight, let the waves lazily lap against the dock, we cut back in time to learn that Du-Sik realized Hye-Jin was the girl from the beach all those years ago, courtesy of a photo in her room.
Du-Sik’s birthday is coming up and he has a wish to make. His grandfather tells him that the universe will send someone to make him happy, and it seems like it will be Hye-Jin. Du-Sik is excited for this and decides to make his wish come true.
The Episode Review
The Cha Cha Cha episode was strong in terms of its romance between Du-Sik and Hye-Jin. The chemistry between these two – and the characters around Gongjin in particular – is mostly the reason this show works as well as it does.
The main plot of this show is that our couple, Seong-Hyeon and Park Joon-Sung, are in a love triangle. There is really not much else going on in the show. The whole Seong-Hyeon affair is just window dressing at this point and doesn’t add very much to the plot at all. As far as love triangles go, if this show was trying to build something it’s tepid, to say the least.
The preview for next week seems to hint that we’ll be diving deeper into Hye-Jin’s ties with him so we’ll have to wait and see on this front.
Gongjin is a small, rural village in South Korea that has been the focus of the show for the past two seasons. The characters are likable and the setting is beautiful. The soundtrack is also great, adding to the feel-good factor.
This week’s double bill ends on a high note, leaving lots of intriguing possibilities for where this one may go next. Can Saturday hurry up please? ..
