We start off with the aftermath of Yeonjoo calling Daehyun, and Daehyun not noticing Saetbyul and shoving her to the ground. Upon realizing it’s her, he does the worst thing imaginable by accusing her of attacking Yeonjoo. Saetbyul asks Yeonjoo to correct his misunderstanding but Yeonjoo pretends to be suuuppper hurt (oh boy, now that’s unnecessarily vindictive)
Daehyun tells her to stop threatening Yeonjoo. Saetbyul’s like ‘I DIDN’T THOUGH?’ but he;s incredulous that she took the day off for a family emergency only to get drunk at a bar? He literally asks if this is all she amounts to (YIKES!) and leaves with Yeonjoo. Eonjo and Geumbi see the couple and wonder if Saetbyul did as well. Saetbyul runs up pretending to be cheerful but saying the bar sure is terrible and they should go to a better place. Her friends know what’s up and don’t say anything. Poor Saetbyul.
While walking home, Yeonjoo tears into Daehyun saying she doesn’t like the way Saetbyul looks at him and to deal with her this instant. Daehyun’s confused, saying Saetbyul was only surprised to see him and that he promised to let her work at the store full-time after his misunderstanding of her. Yeonjoo reveals her true colours in 3 seconds.
She pretends she would have died if Daehyun hadn’t come and yells asks him how he could bring her to such a lowly (there’s that word again) place. Daehyun apologizes saying he just wanted to reminisce there. Yeonjoo threatens him that he better not let this go and stalks into her rich-ass place. Meanwhile, Saetbyul tells her friends the truth, while getting super drunk at a different convenience store (hey, she’s learniing!). At the same time, a cute customer KANG JIWOOK (cameo by an actor whose name I keep forgetting but he’s cute) shows up and recognizes Saetbyul immediately. Turns out he’s a celebrity whom Saetbyul’s dad used to train. A suuuper drunk Saetbyul pinches his cheeks calling him by his old nickname ‘puppy’.
After that Eunjo and Geumbi take Saetbyul home where she passes out super duper drunk.
On the other hand, Dalshik gets fleeced by the rival gang Saetbyul beat up. They show and drink everything and leave. The gang leader says she’ll be beating up someone real soon and instructs her gang to be ready when that time comes. Only, Eunbyul is a part of that gang, and happily agrees.
Daehyun’s already suspicious of Saetbyul and this only makes it worse. As he walks back to the store, he thinks to his first meeting with Saetbyul and how she was clearly an iljin. He wonders if people don’t change. This only gets worse when he reaches the store and Dalshik shows him the video of Saetbyul beating up the students but neglects (or just doesn’t know?) the most crucial bit of information: why she beat them up. Daehyun leaves looking more upset than ever. He makes up his mind that Saetbyul is trash and he’s going to do something about her.
He’s distant when his parents inquire about her and cold and rude when he talks about her.
Meanwhile, a distracted Yeonjoo heads to work, when Daehyun calls telling her that he’s going to fire Saetbyul so to stop being mad at him. Yeonjoo immediately perks up (because she’s clearly so insecure about herself that making other people lose their jobs is the only thing that makes her feel better)
Saetbyul wakes up feeling worse than ever. She’s disappointed in Daehyun’s judgement.
She doesn’t remember meeting Kang Jiwook and squeezing his cheeks and calling him puppy until her friends send her text after text, reminding her. She freaks out remembering how much she touched him. Right then, Jiwook texts her telling he had a great time yesterday and that he hopes to see her more often. Saetbyul wonders what she should do. Meanwhile, Jiwook heads into an ad shooting, which is, of course, with Yeonjoo and Seungjoon’s company.
Right then, Saetbyul gets a call from her former promotion manager saying he’ll double her pay if she comes to an event. She shows up, only Yeonjoo runs the event, and it’s a presentation on how to get sales quickly. Yeonjoo gets pissed upon seeing her but has to play along because it’s a public presentation and everyone’s watching.
Yeonjoo laughs that says Saetbyul will tell them ‘all about good promotional strategies’ and then leaves Saetbyul stranded on the pulpit while Saetbyul tries to put the very humanistic things she does for customers (like hearing them out, and drinking on their behalf) into sales terms for these corporate money-hungry buttwipes (I’m a lawyer but I genuinely HATE corporate culture lol) Saetbyul stares directly at Yeonjoo and says she also has an important rule of her own. She’s honest.
Yeonjoo refuses to think she’s done anything wrong. People seem to respond positively to Saetbyul’s points, but after the presentation Yeonjoo refuses to go the team gathering as Saetbyul will be there. Saetbyul fires back that it sure is rude to ditch the team gathering after everyone put in so much work. People stare as the two of them argue, but right then Saetbyul gets a call from Daehyun. She answers it sweetly and says she sees Daehyun everyday. Yeonjoo remembers Daehyun saying he’s going to fire her and laughs saying she’ll come to the team gathering after all. At the dinner, it’s just barb after barb between the two. Yeonjoo mocks Saetbyul saying she could make more money doing sales promotions for products than working at the store. Saetbyul laughs that Yeonjoo must only work for money.
Saetbyul agrees with Yeonjoo that Daehyun’s a poor judge of character. She tells Yeonjoo that she should be her true self in front of Daehyun. She thinks to herself: so he can find out how fake you are. Yeonjoo says that Saetbyul should find out before Daehyun tells her. She thinks to herself: that you’re getting fired. Their coworkers watch the drama warily. Saetbyul notices and lightens the mood by demonstrating her sales pitch.
On the other hand, Daehyun’s bewildered when the iljin boy gang shows up with apology letters.
Daehyun realizes that these are the kids that got beaten up. The boys promise him to be better and beg him to tell Saetbyul to delete their numbers. They’re terrified whenever they get a text that it might be from her (HA!). But they tell Daehyun that for all her violence, Saetbyul is known to be loyal and to beat up iljins rather than be one herself. Daehyun can’t believe that one girl beat up three guys but the guys set him straight.
Daehyun insists that there’s no way Saetbyul could beat him up and that if they were caught by him they wouldn’t be able to work. The kids don’t believe a word. Daehyun’s more torn than ever after this. He goes into the back and finds a notebook with a very strongly worded message for those who dare to read it.
But when he goes through it, it’s full of all the goals Daehyun set for the store and how she’s been consistently meeting them. Saetbyul writes that she hit 200 customers in a night but Daehyun didn’t notice. He looks worried. Even more so when he hears customers come in and it’s Eunjo and Geumbi. He says Saetbyul isn’t in but they’re not here for her. They’re here for HIM. They call him out immediately.
They tells him it was her dad’s death anniversary. She wanted to stay at home afterwards but they convinced her to come outside instead of being depressed at home.
Eunjo yells that instead of thanking her, this precious girlfriend threw the blame on her. And so did Daehyun!
They tell him that Saetbyul doesn’t just beat anyone up. She only beats up the people who deserve it. [Okay, regardless of whether personal flaws these girls have, they understand loyalty, which is so so hard to find in this world. They’re willing to fight on their friend’s behalf and that’s absolutely lovely and heartwarming to see. I LOVE IT]
Oh no, people don’t make me regret saying this. Geumbi and Eunjo come out of the store only to see Dalshik. Eunjo doesn’t care but Geumbi gets ready to fight. Eunjo laughs that the two sure seem to growing on each other. I mean….they end up spitting a ton on each other. Which is super gross. [I give up trying to rationalize this craziness]
Meanwhile, Daehyun looks for a cab to get to Yeonjoo but Saetbyul passes him by on her way to the store. She takes over from Daehyun’s mother who seems to have mad up with his dad. Saetbyul wonders whether Daehyun went, remembering his call and that he wanted to talk to her.
Daehyun finds Yeonjoo and Seungjoon exercising together and says he came to take Yeonjoo home. He’s super polite to Seungjoon despite knowing of his interest in Yeonjoo (see THIS is how you take it when someone’s interested in your partner. You don’t turn into a piece of garbage, you give your partner the benefit of the doubt and keep your morals. You can talk about it rationally with them and say that it makes you feel uncomfortably but you don’t have to take someone’s job just because you’re insecure about yourself)
On the walk back, Daehyun finally brings up the previous night. He says everyone else was on the floor beaten up but she was the only one who was fine. Why was that? She says she doesn’t want to think about it and tells Daehyun to draw his own conclusions (I HATE HER). Daehyun gently points out that this might not be a big deal to her, but Saetbyul’s life depends on this. Yeonjoo laughs that he’s overreacting.
He says no one deserves to lose their job over nothing. Daehyun puts himself down saying he might just be a manager of a small convenience store but she’s the first employee he ever hired and he doesn’t want to fire her like this. He wants to make a decisions after knowing all the facts. Yeonjoo argues that the facts are that she used violence.
She says that doesn’t change the fact that Saetbyul is a violent person. Daehyun gently takes her hand and says that he never did anything behind Yeonjoo’s back just like she didn’t behind his back. Daehyun sweetly tells her not to think that he’s taking anyone’s side. He says he always wants to do what’s right, but he values her above all principles. So he asks her to make the decision and to tell him what decision to make. That’s actually very sweet of him.
Yeonjoo sighs that she can’t hate him and hugs and kisses him, which is right when he mom drives by. Yeonjoo immediately abandons Daehyun and runs off with her mom. Her mom’s surprised to hear that they’ve been dating for 2 years, and asks what job he works. Yeonjoo says that doesn’t matter and she’s finally going to date out in the open.
[Hey, she’s not so cowardly after all! I swear, I dislike her and then I like her and she’ll probably do something to make me dislike her again. She’s handling her jealously all wrong, but in the end, I have to admit that Yeonjoo’s not a bad person, just a snobby one who’s all wrong for Daehyun. He doesn’t need someone he has to choose his words carefully around. He needs someone around whom he can be himself.]
Daehyun mourns the fact that he couldn’t introduce himself to Yeonjoo’s mother but gets a call right then calling him to the police station. Saetbyul’s being accused of assaulting a man for no reason. The police officer says the man was just ‘encouraging’ Saetbyul and did nothing. Saetbyul retorts that he was massaging her arm so she twisted it behind him asking him to stop. She’s upset to see Daehyun, thinking that he’s going to judge her again, but Daehyun apologizes on Saetbyul’s behalf to the man. The man continues going on and on about how Daehyun can’t do his job right and how dare he hired someone like Saetbyul and that’s when Daehyun loses his temper.
He demands that the man apologize to Saetbyul. The man insists that this is slander and tells the office he’s going to sue Daehyun for slander. Daehyun laughs that whether or not it’s slander will be easy to prove. He pulls up the CCTV footage and gives it to the officer, only he accidentally hands her the promotional videos he filmed for store and quickly has to switch to the right video much to Saetbyul’s amusement. The CCTV video quickly proves that Saetbyul’s right and the man even kneels down once he’s caught. More than anything, Saetbyul’s moved that someone stood up for her.
Daehyun doesn’t even make her have to accept the apology, they just leave immediately after the man humiliates himself. Saetbyul asks why he came, when he believes that she assaulted his girlfriend. Daehyun apologizes for Yeonjoo making excuses for why she behaved the way she did. Saetbyul mutters that Yeonjoo even has someone who apologizes for her. He asks why Saetbyul didn’t explain herself and Saetbyul says it’s not worth the effort. It’s easier to feel wrong than have expectations of people and be disappointed (oooh I love how she threw his words back in his face). Saetbyul says people don’t tend to believe at all. Daehyun says she has him.
Daehyun tells her to be careful in the future and not to bother with beating up that trash. He says he’ll be her guardian when she’s at the store from now on and take care of her. He’s worried that she might take on someone she can’t handle and end up at the police station. Daehyun evens asks her to try beating him up. Saetbyul asks if he’s sure about it and Daehyun insists. Only her kick sends him flying lol. Saetbyul runs away after that looking tearful. She thinks to her dad saying similar things about scolding her because he cares about it. She says to herself that her dad never scolded her after that day because he died. But today, after a very long time, someone finally got worried enough about her to do so. She sighs that she wishes this night would last longer.
She’s on fire at her shift that night and the next thing we know, Daehyun and his family (sister included) celebrate Saetbyul becoming employee of the month and the store’s profits skyrocketing. That night, Daehyun surprises Saetbyul by taking down the ‘part-timers wanted’ sign and ripping it to pieces in front of her. He’s delighted that she’s employee of the month and even dances around her.
She’s DELIGHTED but hides it from him and sighs at they’ll only get more customers and that’s more work for her.
They joke amongst themselves and Saetbyul wonders why he become a convenience store manager when he’s this young. Daehyun opens up to her, saying it’s only because she’s employee of the month and to keep it a secret (AWWW). He said he spent every day working at the main branch like Yeonjoo but one day…he seems like he’s going to tell her the truth…but then jokes that a spirit appeared in his dreams and told him to switch jobs (LOL was it Weolju?). Saetbyul knows he’s lying but Daehyun says it’s a secret so cool that it’s make him seem suuuuper attractive. Saetbyul jokes that he’s not attractive at all and is waaaay too confident. She asks for a piggyback ride to celebrate getting employee of the month. Daehyun refuses. Saetbyul pouts. Daehyun asks what she was expecting, was she expecting that much? Was she expecting something like this?
Saetbyul’s incredibly moved. 
Daehyun says he was going to buy her red roses, but the florist told him that these flowers mean ‘admiration, gratefulness and faithfulness”. He says he chose them because that meaning suits her. Saetbyul thinks to herself that pink roses have another meaning – a declaration of love – but doesn’t tell him. She still insists on her piggyback ride and Daehyun relents saying it’ll be for 3 seconds.
And of course she doesn’t get off. LOL, Daehyun’s face.
And of course Yeonjoo comes in right then
Thoughts:
If I were Yeonjoo, I really wouldn’t blame Saetbyul on this. This looks bad no matter how you try to cut it and it’s 100% Daehyun’s fault. His boundaries are dropping around her and it shows but Yeonjoo shouldn’t take that out on Saetbyul but rather evaluate the state of her relationship with Daehyun instead. It’s hard to like her when she keeps trying to ensure that Saetbyul loses her source of income. It’s very, very dislikable, and even though she’s not a bad person, she’s hard to understand!
What are your thoughts?
The Quill and Screen 