She Was Pretty Ep 16 Finale Recap (and weddings, smooches and truckloads of cuteness!)

SO MUCH CUTE! My cheeks ached from grinning from all the cutesieness, and I nearly got cavity from all the syrupy lines, but I’m overall satisfied with the end of She Was Pretty. Further thoughts below, but first, the recap!
[Warning: this recap will be screencap-heavy, and I’ll be updating it a bit at a time, as adding screencaps takes foreverrrrrr 😛]

We flashback to little Hyejin professing her dream of becoming a writer. We then see Hyejin resigning from working and preparing for her year long sojourn as a member of the writer’s group. In voice-over, she says this:
Hyejin: When you’re young, many people ask ‘What is your dream?’ However, as I mature, the number of people asking what my dream is gradually disappearing. Holding onto my dream until I become an adult isn’t easy in this world. When faced with reality, somewhere along the line, the fact that the dream seems way out of reach, and seems to have disappeared, causes me not to even remember what my dream was to begin with at any given moment. However, before completely forgetting my dream, thankfully, someone asked the adult version of me again.

She enters the writer’s retreat and is overjoyed to be there.

Months pass and Hyejin’s now a full-fledged member of the group.

She meets up with a hard-at-study Hari, who’s being chased by college students as per usual.

They have lunch together (and holy crap does Hyejin look gorgeous) where they discuss her untransformation, but Hyejin doesn’t need to straight her hair anymore. The sight of a radish pickle makes her pause and we finally discover that Shinhyuk said that night.


SHINHYUK, WHY MUST YOU DO THIS TO MEEEE???? WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY?? Okay, I’m calm now (lies)
Hyejin continues to talk to Sungjoon at least once a day, be it through Skype where they eat food (and Sungjoon moans over her food and how long it is until he can see her)

or through bluetooth where the time difference interferes when a tired Hyejin falls asleep, and Sungjoon’s just getting ready for work

So when Sungjoon sounds horribly sick when she calls, she gets militant over his well-being.Naturally, when he doesn’t answer her call later, she gets worried.

She tries Skype (I love how his profile picture is a selfie Park Seojoon posted on Instagram) and gets even more worried when his phone’s turned off (he never turns it off usually).

And gets even more worried when he hasn’t replied to her texts the next day, to the point where she can barely focus at work

And never more worried when he’s still not picking up, and starts imagining worst case scenarios.

And is ready to break out the Hallelujah chorus when the call finally goes through.

And you’ve all probably guessed why his phone was turned off

Because he’s HERE

They have lunch and Sungjoon is at his most sappy today.

And then he springs this bombshell.


HAHAHAHAHA. Sungjoon reassures her that he does have a job and a place to stay, and guess where he’s working?

He’s taking over Rara’s position, who is…going to get married! To a Most-like Italian man 15 years her junior no less.

Joonwoo and Seul plan their (very economical) wedding as well, while Hari continues to get stalked by the college student who called her. (Seriously dude, she’s wonderful, but stop)

Hyejin goes to her parents’ home with a wide smile telling one of the writer’s that she’s going to fulfill a promise she made to herself. Her mom and sister (whose cheeks Hyejin promptly squeeze) are home, and she’s told that dad’s at the bath-house and should be home soon. He arrives at that instant and…

Her mother says they they told him not to tell her. She asks why to which Hyerin yells that she keeps nagging ‘her brother-in-law’ Hyejin recalls every moment that she commented on Sungjoon during his past visits and scowls. She’s miffed for a second but smiles instantly when Sungjoon shoots her a grin. She presents her pay to her father asking him to get a new print machine. Her parents get teary-eyed saying that she should keep it for her wedding as they never did much for her. Sungjoon is perfect and vehemently disagrees.

Aww!!! Okay the cute surges to new levels when Sungjoon comes to help Hyejin with the dishes.

She nudges him with her elbow, and the force of which sends him flying across the room.

That night, she makes sure Hyejin is asleep before edging over to open the door where Sungjoon lies. They smile and giggle and are far too damn cute. The scene is reminiscent of Cha Dohyun’s sleepover at Rijin’s place and only makes me miss Yona more than ever (*sobs* that girl understood me)

The next day, Sungjoon’s dropping Hyejin at work when she notices a chequebook left in her bag. On top is a post-it from her parents who tell her that they’d been saving up for her since she was a kid and to use the money well now that she’s getting married. Hyejin tears up realizing that they could have gotten a new print machine anytime they wanted but wanted to save something for her.

Meanwhile, Sungjoon’s still not used to his new position and enter his old office, much to the exasperation of Deputy Chief Editor Cha (She so deserves that promotion) who literally makes this face when seeing him. Turns out Sungjoon’s got a new nickname.

We finally get to see what Shinhyuk’s been upto, he’s in a hostel of some sort, rooming with another American who maes small talk with him.

Shinhyuk thinks back to when he got Hyejin to buy it for him. My poor baby. He recognizes Shinhyuk as TEN and Shinhyuk surprisingly admits to it before pretending that he was joking. He tosses the same spider he used in ep 7 with Hyejin at the man, and notes with a laugh that it works every time.

How is it that I want to cry when he laughs?
Hari sits for a job interview where one of the hiring managers note that he saw her at Ara hotel before, and asks why she didn’t include that experience in her resume. Her answer is perfect, and a reflection of her new maturity.

Hyejin is awed to finally see her name in print and to be called ‘Writer Kim’ by others. The story is appropriately titled ‘The Story of the Peeping Girl’.

Sungjoon pulls the usual moves and tosses the team’s proposal in the trash before attempting to go the wrong office again. Seul scoffs at his idiocy only to freeze when he runs back and starts handing out wedding invitations, sending everyone into shock.

Seul nearly has a heartattack while Poongho’s reaction brings me perilously close to tears. Deputy Chief Editor Cha, however, is quietly pleased.

I KNOW RIGHT, POONGHO!!!
Hari takes Hyejin out for her last luncheon as a ‘single’ woman where she announces that she got the job as a hotelier, this time through her own merit. They wish each other all the best and take some adorable pictures together. The sisterhood in this drama, honestly ❤

We see a brief snippet of Hyejin and Sungjoon outside a hall, both looking absolutely gorgeous. They enter with light illuminating their figures and we cut to their married life.

Sungjoon, it turns out, is the real kiss-maniac. Hyejin gets to work out of home (which is so wonderful, seriously) and essentially take over Sungjoon’s job as Orion, another life ago. But Sungjoon feels neglected and want his kisses.

Whoa, baby, he’s out for something more than kisses alright. 
Hari’s having a blast at her job, like Hyejin, doing what she loves.

Shinhyuk’s in Korea! He sees himself on a billboard and muses that it looks nothing like how he actually looks.
He thinks back to when Hyejin was drunk and wandering about thinking he was pushing her, and when she realized that his ‘little sister’ was actually a dog, and a small smile appears on his face. He crosses the street looking as though he’s shooting a pictorial. Never before have I been more aware that Choi Siwon is an utterly gorgeous hunk.

Hyejin reads his newest book and pauses at the inscription. She thinks back to when he took back his previous words, that he could never be friends with her, and said that they were very, very good friends, and smiles tearfully.

Sungjoon and Hyejin pack a basket full of dishes and go to a beautiful park to have a picnic. On the wya, Sungjoon appalls her with his terrible singing. She appears to finally have realized that the man is tone-deaf.

In voice-over Hyejin muses: One day, I started thinking that main characters are not only in dramas or movies.  I thought that in reality too, there are people who live as main characters, and some who live as supporting characters. But now, I think differently. Maybe it was me who decided that I was one of the supporting characters.
She thinks back to refusing the writer and Director Cha’s offers from the outset, not believing she had the sort of skill to accept them.
She skips along with Sungjoon (skipping Sungjoon is seriously cute)

Hyejin: Giving up so easily by letting life dictate your path, perhaps it was me who turned off the spotlight that was shining down on me. People often say that life is not a fairy-tale, how about dreaming of a life that’s like a fairy-tale?
Hyejin: If you don’t turn off the spotlight, and if you don’t give up on your dream maybe then, something that’s even more fairy tale-like than a fairy-tale might happen.
Hyejin: The first love that was thought to never come true comes true, or a childhood dream which had been pushed aside into your distant memory comes true. Miracle-like things could really happen.

Epilogue: A man with a familiar red umbrella and a little girl get ready to cross the street. The sign changes and the girl happily says “it’s a go!” Sungjoon holds his daughter’s hand, saying that they should hurry home because Hyejin’s waiting. The end.