Mystic Pop Up Bar Ep 8 Recap (and Kangbaeo and Weoljuliet)

We start off with a dramatized retelling of Romeo and Juliet featuring Manager Gui, Weolju, Kangbae and Grim Reaper Yeom lol. Kangbae’s Romeo and Weolju’s Juliet. Manager Gui plays Romeo’s father, and Grim Reaper Yeom is Juliet’s. It doesn’t take long for them to veer off-script with Manager Gui yelling that dating younger men may be the norm but they’re a decade apart. The scene ends with Kangbae declaring that he’s a fool taunted by love, and Weolju sighing that she’s a fool who gave everything to love. And thus begins episode 8!

Turns out it because Manager Gui’s reading an X-Rated manhwa called ‘Juliet’s Temptations’ LOL. Weolju snatches his phone from him and tsks and his terrible reading material. Manager Gui vigorously defends the X-rating arguing that you need to be an adult to get the deep themes in this work but Weolju doesn’t buy it for one second.

Grim Reaper Yeom brings in Kangbae wondering what on earth Weolju’s done to him. He keeps smiling from ear to ear, looking spaced out. Manager Gui notes that that’s the same reaction Kangbae had when he was dream-kissing a girl in ep 3. Weolju agrees. They make fun of him using words with ‘bbo‘ in them (‘bbobbo’ meaning kiss). Kangbae finally slips up and drops things everywhere and Grim Reaper Yeom, Manager Gui and Weolju cheer celebrating his first kiss. Manager Gui sighs that he’s jealous. Weolju mutters that they probably don’t kissed for 0.3seconds. Manager Gui’s certain there must have been more than that but Kangbae agrees that it was just 0.3seconds. Grim Reaper Yeom’s horrified at the minimal contact, asking if nothing else touched. LOL. Weolju snaps that at least Kangbae can make more progress while Manager Gui and Grim Reaper Yeom aren’t getting kissed anytime soon. She sweetly tells Kangbae to take his time.

At work, the next day, Yeorin keeps reflecting on the kiss and declines Kangbae’s offer of going to lunch together. Kangbae’s disappointed but agrees. At dinner with her friend, Yeorin wonders why Kangbae isn’t running from her. Her logic is that: all the men she’s liked have run from here. So if Kangbae doesn’t run from her, it must mean she doesn’t like him. What logic is this lol. She thinks she just relieved all her pent-up frustration at once on poor Kangbae. Ouch, I hope he doesn’t hear this. 

We cut to a young woman looking for a room to live in. She declines one possible room, telling the landlord it gives her the creeps. The landlord tries to push it on her nevertheless, but the girl refuses say it gives her a bad feeling. Turns out the room is located in a building close to where Kangbae lives and the landlord knows him. She offers him the room and a 50% discount (getting a bad feeling about this). The room is pretty spacious and Kangbae’s immediately impressed. But a voice yells at him saying ‘Get out, this is my house. Get out or I’ll kill you‘. The landlady convinces him that nothing’s wrong, and Kangbae mistakes the voice for people in the next apartment arguing and says he can’t take the apartment due to thin walls. On his way out, Kangbae finds a lot of mail stuffed in the mailbox slot for the room he just viewed. They’re addressed to Ice Witch, which gives him the creeps. He races out of there.

Manager Gui appears to be reading his X-rated manhwa again because Kangbae and Weolju are in their Romeo and Juliet costumes again.  Romeo excitedly tells Juliet he’s gotten a job as a deliveryman. Juliet’s horrified that he’s not taking over his father’s company and that he’s no longer rich. She sighs that she must have bewitched him too much, and this is why she shouldn’t date young men. In the next scene, Manager Gui/Mr. Montague slides Juliet an envelope of money in a classic Kdrama mother in-law move, and tells her to stay away from Romeo know that her father’s business has been ruined. Juliet shoves it back at him and cries that he doesn’t understand her sincerity. She’s been blind, she says, but no more. It’s not Romeo she loves.

Weolju and Manager Gui are both reading the manhwa and make googly eyes at this turn of events. Manager Gui’s a fan of Romeo while Weolju loves Juliet (in this manhwa). She sighs that this Juliet’s levelheaded and reasonable, understanding that love doesn’t solve everything (so true). Grim Reaper Yeom drops by and the trio wonder why he’s around so often. He says he’s watching out for them because of the evil spirit that’s escaped. Weolju and Manager Gui don’t seem convinced.

At work, Kangbae scrolls through pictures of him and Yeorin at the dance contest. His coworkers tease him for not liking being touched by people but liking being touched by her. They brainstorm on how to give Kangbae and Yeorin an excuse to meet. Manager Ma holds a work dinner with Yeorin invited so Kangbae can treat her like a princess. He does a great job but Yeorin isn’t impressed at all for some reason. In the washroom, she wonders what she should do. She’s trying not to like but it isn’t working. She resolves to end things with him before things get worse. She sets out to make herself look gross af and starts eating raw beef, drinking sloppily. But Kangbae’s only impressed by her culinary taste and her liver. She’s very drunk by the end, but Kangbae insists on taking her home. His coworkers insist as well and the two finally have time together. Yeorin’s tripping all over the place, but she’s not actually drunk. 

She says she wants to be very clear and that she doesn’t like him. She’s sorry about the kiss and says she misinterpreted her feelings for him. Kangbae pleads that she might have been mistaen, but Yeorin says she knows herself best and that it’s not like he knows her well anyway. Kangbae says they could just start to get to know each other, but Yeorin says that’ll only make it harder because she’s the sort of person that he won’t come to like in the long run. Kangbae asks how she’s so sure, but Yeorin tells him this is for the best.

We cut to another Romeo and Juliet scene. Romeo’s just found out that Juliet’s marrying his dad and that Juliet’s about to become his step-mom. This is some Nice Guy level shit. Mr. Montague says he’s in his last level of cancer and has only 3 months left to live so he wants to love passionately. Grim Reaper Yeom/Mr. Capulet appears on the scene, heartily in favour of the marriage. Romeo’s horrified that the Capulets and Montagues are now friends and asks Juliet what happened to their passionate love. Juliet tells him to stop talking to his mother so strangely.

Manager Gui and Weolju are divided on this. Weolju thinks Juliet’s in the right, while Manager Gui says that’s not fair to Romeo. Weolju argues (in a parallel to her own situation) that if Romeo was smart, he would’ve convinced his parents first and gained support within his household before introducing Juliet, instead of springing it on them. Instead he acted reckless and caused the destruction of his relationship. Manager Gui somberly asks if the man Weolju loved was like that so. She says he was similar. 

She says many people died because of him. Manager Gui sighs that she must resent him. Weolju says of course she does. He made it sound like he’d do anything in the world for her and told her to trust him. A customer interrupts the conversation and Weolju turns her focus onto when the last episode will come out. Manager Gui checks and finds that the writer has died. So the series has ended. But the author’s name is Ice Witch. The spirit possessing that empty room Kangbae saw.

Kangbae comes in at that point looking very depressed. After hearing what happened, Weolju and Manager Gui are furious on Kangbae’s behalf. Kangbae sighs that he has nothing going fro him: an orphan, bullied, and a part-time worker. Weolju goes off saying there’s nothing conditional about love and that Yeorin should stop judging Kangbae. Manager Gui sighs that this completely goes against what Weolju was saying earlier. The other customer at the restaurant keeps badmouthing Kangbae to the point where Kangbae snaps at him to shut up and leave. Manager Gui and Weolju look shocked but it isn’t because Kangbae lost his temper, but because the man is a ghost. It means Kangbae’s spiritual vision is widening. He can see spirits now in addition to everything. Oh it’s a bad day to be Kangbae.

Manager Gui sighs that going back and forth from the Dream World to this one must have caused his. Weolju tells Kangbae not to worry, she needs only 4 more people and she’ll fix this. But that also means she’ll be leaving so the trio remain quite sad.

At work the next day, Yeorin lies in wait for Kangbae and is caught by Jindong, who tells her that Kangbae called in sick. Yeorin gets indignant when Jindong doesn’t know the details and worries over him. Kangbae isn’t sick in body but in mind and sits glumly at the bar, worried that he’ll see ghosts at the mart now. To ease his mind, Manager Gui teaches him how to pretend he doesn’t see ghosts. This way they won’t swarm him.

1. Don’t make eye contact (Manager Gui tests this by transforming into a terifying ghost and scaring the shit out of Kangbae, who has no idea how to ignore them when they’re that scary)
2. Use sunglasses if #1 doesn’t work.

Weolju comes back lugging a gigantic sack of the purest salt in all of history. Turns out she got it for Kangbae.

She tells him to carry some salt around to scary away spirits and sighs at Manager Gui’s sunglass tactic, saying Kangbae’s too kindhearted to ignore a sincere ghost. Manager Gui asks if Kangbae saw/heard anything before seeing his first ghost. Kangbae mentions the apartment  he checked out, the voice he heard and the name Ice Witch. That gets Manager Gui and Weolju super excited at the prospect of learning how the manhwa ends.

The landlord’s bought out a fake shaman to the apartment who’s right about their being a ghost but putting on quite the show pretending to get rid of it. The trio come in, with Manager Gui and Weolju pretending to be Kangbae’s aunt and uncle as usual. They see the ghost immediately, a young woman looking sad. The shaman tells them to get lost and that the ahjusshi who committed suicide in this apartment needs to be comforted. The female ghost mutters that she died of a heart attack. The shaman’s pissed at being contradicted but Manager Gui presents Weolju as a famous shaman and the landlady knew that the tenant was a young woman not an older man so the fake shaman gets kicked out real quick.

Back at the apartment, Weolju and co try to convince the author (real name BORA) to tell them what was in the final chapter pretend it’s out of a duty to ‘see her work published’. The author doesn’t care, but lights up when she hears a knock saying there’s a delivery. But the knock is for other apartment, not hers, and she deflates. Seeing that reaction, Weolju asks the landlord on whether there were any parcels sent to this address. Turns out there were a ton. They go through the parcels and find small everyday items (ex: nail clippers) that would’ve been easier to buy in person that get delivered. Weolju sighs that the shipping on these must have been more than the cost of the item itself. They ask why she ordered so much, and she tells them her story

She didn’t have many friends and wasn’t able to go out often due to a heart condition, but loved writing novels because they would take her everywhere and she could live vicariously through them. All those deliveries lead her to meet a certain deliveryman (DOYOUNG) whom she saw every often due to him being on her delivery route. She’d offer him food, water, bandage him up when he pulled a muscle. Soon they became friends and were going out for dinner. She didn’t know how to tell him that her work was X-rated and instead said it was a literary spin on Romeo and Juliet. Doyoung wanted to read her work and see her more often. Bora was delighted at the latter, but was reluctant to let him read her work.

One day, Doyoung dropped by her apartment with a jewelry box but overheard her mocking delivery guys, saying they have no chance and are being used. He doesn’t know she’s talking to her editor about the aforementioned arc where Juliet ditches Romeo because he’s a delivery guy. He doesn’t hear her spoiling the ending: Romeo wins Juliet over after all. 

She was supposed to see him that day, but he never showed up and she never saw him again. The trio sigh that she should’ve been honest from the start, but Bora says she was ashamed. She might have written about love, but she didn’t know how to get it right. Bora just wants to explain herself to him. Weolju sighs that Juliet may be smart but Bora is a fool for love. Bora says she wrote the last chapter thinking of Doyoung and asks if the trio can get the chapter to him.

The next thing you know, Weolju’s set up the bar in the parking lot of Doyoung’s delivery business lol. It’s even blocking his trucks. Weolju asks him to read Bora’s work and then they’ll move the bar. Kangbae gets him to stay for toast and they spike his milk with the dreal liquer. Doyoung immediately falls asleep and into the dream world we go.

DOYOUNG’S DREAM WORLD.

We’re back to our Romeo and Juliet scenes. Only now Doyoung’s watching in the audience as all the scenes we’ve already seen, replay. Then we see the end. Romeo’s about to drink poison to end his life when Juliet runs up to him in a wedding dress telling him to spit it out. She isn’t going through with the wedding because it’s him she loves.

She says she was using him at first. Her father and her came up with a plan to infiltrate the House of Montague and take it for themselves, but she truly fell in love with him. She was afraid to tell him but she’s going to be honest now. She swears that she loves him. Romeo responds that he loves her for who she is and hugs her. Doyoung wonders if this story was about them. The trio take him to the apartment where Bora’s soul remains and Doyoung tearfully rings the doorbell saying she has a parcel. Bora opens it, saying she’s been waiting. But Doyoung can’t see her, so Weolju communicates.

He apologies for taking so long. She apologizes for not telling him. He says he loved her work and wishes he’d said that sooner and given her the jewelry box, containing a pearl hairclip. He asks if she can forgive him for misunderstanding her. She readily agrees and says she only wanted to tell him this so he wouldn’t feel hurt for the rest of his life over a misunderstanding. As Weolju repeats Bora’s farewell, it feels as though she’s saying it to her prince “You were loved, and you were an amazing person who gave me so many happy memories. Please don’t forget that.” Bora wears the pin and thanks Weolju for listening to her, saying she can leave without regrets now. Weolju muses to herself that we all need someone who’d hear us out.

She flashes back to her prince. Specifically, meeting the prince for the first time once he woke up. The prince thanked her for helping him. When Weolju makes to leave, the prince taes her hand asking her to listen to him instead of the spirits this time. Weolju says she isn’t allowed to talk to him, but the prince gently assures her that there’s no one else here and that it’ll stay between the two of them. Before long, they were having secret dates in his room where he’d feed her food and draw portraits of her. They soon ventured on outdoor dates, where the prince compared Weolju to the moon, saying:

Wonhyun appears then, grousing that the moon’s also only seen at night (when the prince sees Weolju) and that he isn’t getting sleep because the prince is so fond of Weolju because the prince uses him as an excuse to leave the palace. The three seem to be good friends, with Wonhyung teasing that he tells Weolju of the prince’s misdeeds when he was younger. Wonhyung also walks Weolju home every night after she sees the prince. We then cut to Weolju getting yelled at the queen who tells her she’ll break her legs if she dares come near the palace again. Weolju mulls over this in bed when the prince knocks on her door. He came all the way to her place. (So the village ladies were right about the prince coming to Weolju’s). Weolju’s worried that he could’ve been seen, but the prince is delighted to see her. In a bit of foreshadowing, Weolju worries about the consequences.

The prince assures her that as someone who’ll have to protect an entire country in the future, he can definitely protect the woman he loves. He tells her to trust him and that he’ll protect her no matter what. Weolju finally hugs him back. We flash forward to the aftermath of Weolju’s mother’s death. A distressed Weolju, turned away from the magistrate, sees Wonhyung and runs to him pleading for justice. Only she sees blood on his hands. Wonhyung lies (it’s pretty obvious he’s lying) that he was in a fight with an assassin coming out of her house and tried to save her mother to no avail. Weolju believes him. Wonhyung tells her to leave his place. Weolju wants to see the prince, but Wonhyung tells her that the prince is going to meet a woman chosen by the queen and will not see her. Weolju faints after hearing that.

Back in the present, Weolju’s gotten another case, meaning she needs only 3 more. But Manager Gui wonders why Weolju’s depressed and drinking by herself. Kangbae asks why she isn’t proud of herself, especially after Bora thanked her. Weolju sighs that she’s not proud. It’s all ridiculous. In 500 years of living, she’s found that people can survive so long as they have one person who listens to them, who’s on their side. But she had no one. No one listened to her. One of the two people she trusted most died (her mother), and the other betrayed her (the prince).

She says it’s ridiculous. Kangbae doesn’t think that way. He’s proud of her. He says his ability was useless. He could hear them out but couldn’t do anything for them. But she has the power to actually help them, so he’s proud of her. He tells her to tell him when she ever needs someone to talk to. He’ll be here for her.

Weolju’s moved but still wants some time for herself so she says she’ll drink on her own. Manager Gui takes Kangbae home to avoid spirits and give Weolju time. While walking bad, Manager Gui wonders what Kangbae’s supposed to do about seeing Yeorin at work tomorrow. They don’t know they’re being watched by Wonhyung, who’s slowly stalking them, menace in his eyes. However, Grim Reaper Yeom comes up behind him and seizes him. Wonhyung stares at him.

OKAY A TWIST. Manager Gui drops Kangbae off at his door and almost tells him something but changes his mind. Weolju, Manager Gui and Kangbae all stare at the moon and make the same gesture the prince did. Weolju says that like the moon waxing and waning, she also changes her mind between hating him and longing for him. She should let go to be free, but that doesn’t come easy. Love, hatred, longing, every relationship she forms eventually hurts her. She starts to cry.

She begs to get out of this misery before she gets attached again and has to leave. Oooofff, what an ending. Next weeks seems like it’s going to bring some angst, so here’s an ending snap of Weolju and Manager Gui looking cute.