Netflix’s Korean drama, Lovestuck in the City, has managed to create a third episode better than the first two.
I am well aware it’s a continuation of the storyline but I found myself smiling the entire time. The feelings in this epsiode were a little different which means the drama is progressing nicely.
I defintely felt the secondhand embarrassment of Jae-won.
Recap
This episode starts where episode two stopped. Basically, Jae-won was still upset about Eun-o (Seon-a) not being beside him when he awakened; instead he finds her on the beach with the dog and chatting it up with Gyeong-gu.
Jae-won is jealous but tries to play it cool when Seon-a sees him. He runs back to his trailer and Seon-a follows and asks to get breakfast. He smiles and agrees.
Seon-a and Jaw-won walk on the beach and talk; all while Jae-won is contemplating holding Seon-a’s hand. Of course, Seon-a places the dog leash in the hand Jae-won is trying to grab; thus killing his hopes of hand holding on the beach.
Seon-a mentions that she and Gyeong-gu are going to watch a movie later. Jae-won gets upset again but hides it from Seon-a.
The scene flashes forward to the present.
Now, if you were at all confused on the formatting of the first two episodes, I feel like this episode makes it a little more clear. The characters are interacting with each other as Jae-won frets over why Seon-a treated him like he was non-existent after the night they shared.
The consensus from the others is that Jae-won wasn’t as great as he thinks and Seon-a didn’t want to spend time with him. Jae-won doesn’t like the commentary he’s getting, especially from Kang Gun (the voluntary singleton).
Kang Gun suggests Jae-won treats his encounter with Seon-a as a one night stand, but Jae-won is unable to do it. After the hilarious back and forth between Jae-won and Kang Gun, we get to watch Jae-won hilariously spiral out of control with attempting to capture Seon-a’s attention.
Let me mention that we get a brief scene with Kyeong-jun and Suh Rin-i as she mentions that if Seon-a treats it like a one night stand, so should Jae-won. Kyeong-jun is curious if she’s ever done that with someone else and she answers, “No”.
In the present, jae-won is clearly wearing what looks like a couple ring but no mention of a girlfriend has happened yet.
Back in the past, Jae-won is sulking because Seon-a won’t pay him any attention. It’s as if he’s invisible -- which he is not. He sees Seon-a playing an ukulele, so he starts playing the guitar. She still ignores him.
The next day Seon-a is playing volleyball on the beach and accidentally hits Jae-won on the head with the ball. She’s laughing and enjoying her time, and he’s once again sulking because she’s not paying him any attention.
Same day, Jae-won is eating lunch and he overhears Seon-a talking to a few customers about roller skating with Gyeong-gu the previous day. She’s also limping because she fell down a lot while roller skating.
Jae-won races back to his trailer to get some first aid items but then he thinks better of embarrassing himself even further.
In the present, Jae-won explains that he’s no longer attracted to strange women. He likes plain janes who are reliable. With some quick commentary from serial dater, Seong-yeong, she wishes that men quit trying to put women into the “normal” box. All women are different and normal.
Next, we get a little more backstory on Kang Gun and Seong-yeong’s past together. I can already tell these two are going to be fun on-screen.
Jae-won overhears from locals that Seon-a has learned a complicated surfing technique. He’s upset because he wanted to teach her. Jae-won sees Seon-a on the beach and they have small talk. Seon-a asks to visit Jae-won’s trailer later that evening and Jae-won is a whole bundle of confusion.
Seon-a appears aloof and Jae-won questions her on whether she’s toying with him. She doesn’t answer his question but instead says she won’t come to his trailer. Jae-won gets upset and storms off back to his trailer, leaving his hat behind.
At his trailer, Jae-won sees Gyeong-gu and makes a comment about how much Gyeon-gu must like movies. Jae-won further explains that he knows Seon-a and he went to watch a movie the previous night.
However, Gyeong-gu informs Jae-won that he didn’t go because Seon-a said she’d watch the movie with Jae-won instead. Jae-won being the romantic he is went to see Seon-a at work. Outside of her window, Jae-won held up a series of notes written on a yellow notepad; basically asking Seon-a to come to him later that evening.
At 6pm to be exact. Unfortunately, Seon-a doesn’t get off from work until 10pm.
Jae-won’s stipulation was if she didn’t show up at 6pm that meant she didn’t like him.
Seon-a, in a voice-over through previous clips, tells us how she knew what Jae-won was trying to do the entire time. She simply chose to ignore him because she knew she’d hurt him.
Seon-a makes the decision to lean into her feelings and not hold back. She asks to leave work and tells her boss that she’s going to Jae-won.
Seon-a takes off running to find Jae-won.
It’s 6:48pm and Jae-won is still waiting for seon-a to show up. However, feeling embarrassed, he refuses to wait a whole hour.
Seon-a arrives to find Hae-won gone but she finds a shortcut and runs to Jae-won and meets his vehicle in the middle of the road. Jae-won gets out of his truck and Seon-a runs to him.
In another voiceover, Seon-a is resigned to spend whatever time she has with Jae-won being happy.
Seon-a and Jae-won share some sweet words and they hug some more.
In the present, Jae-won is staring at the mini-camper on his desk and drinking from a flask. Eun-o is standing in front of a storefront staring at cameras; reminiscing I assume.
Thoughts
I keep going back and forth whether present Jae-won has a girlfriend. He seems like he’s still in love with Eun-o. Hopefully, it isn’t his couple ring from his relationship with Eun-o cause that would be sad; but it would fit with Jae-won’s hopeless romantic character.
This episode was really good. I found myself laughing and feeling so much embarrassment for Jaewon. The realism of this episode was enjoyable.
With the main couple, their storyline so far could happen to anyone. Eun-o being afraid to show her feelings and possibly letting a good person slip away is something that happens often in real life. Jae-won falling head over heels in love with Eun-o happens as well.
This episode perfectly showed how falling for someone can make you lose your mind. Jae-won became clingy the moment he told Seon-a he loved her. His actions would probably scare some women away and rightfully so.
Usually things said in the heat of the moment aren’t sincere, but Jae-won was sincere. He is lost in his love for Eun-o and he doesn’t even know her real name.
I’m excited to see the full stories of Kang Gun, Seong-yeong, Rin-i and Kyeong-jun in the following episodes.
With the direction this k-drama is going, thirty minutes each episode seems so short, but that’s a good thing I believe.
The storyline probably won’t get bogged down with a lot of filler material and we can see carefully flushed out characters in these next episodes.
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