You’re Beautiful, episode 10
Hold on, let me get it out of my system:
DAEBAK. JEEJHUS. HOLY MOLY.
This episode all of a sudden got crazy. There are a ton of issues that are really interesting to me, issues that go way beyond being mere obstacles in the plot — such as the problems of bullying and male territoriality. The sudden seriousness of the episode also made alarm bells go off in my head because the Hong Sisters did that in their last drama Hong Gil Dong as well, but I think the overarching theme in this drama is a lot less prone to the sudden severity that maybe a more history-based HGD is.
With that said, bring it on!
Summary of episode 10
After Heyi corners Minam into telling her who she really likes, the three boys show up. Not wanting to reveal everything now, Minam begs Heyi not to proceed with her actions. Heyi doesn’t, but also doesn’t let the matter go so simply. When Minam falls, Heyi uses the opportunity to fake her niceties and play the game by her rules. She calls Taekyung over because “Minam is very sick!” Minam is indeed sick, so she leaves the shoot early.
The three finish up their shoot and are all glad they don’t have to suck on limes, gorge down bananas, or stroke dogs anymore. When the staff packs up to go, Taekyung grabs some limes from an ahjusshi. Ahjusshi makes fun of Taekyung asking why he would want to eat more, but um, they’re not for him, doy. Mr. Lime Ahjusshi continues on his way before Shinwoo stops him, and asks him for limes as well. They’re good for a cold, apparently. Well okay. Not to miss out on all the hot, orgasmic lime action, Jeremy grabs some limes as well. Limes are full of vitamins and a friend of his is sick, so he needs the vitamins.
But much to nobody’s surprise, Minam gets worse as the night wears on. She bumps into Taekyung in the kitchen on her way to get some water before falling over. Her fever is way too high and Taekyung brings her to the hospital. Once Minam realizes that she’s at the hospital, she refuses to go in, fearing that she’ll be found out. Taekyung insists that it’s not a problem, because he’s the one that agreed to do this and he will be the one to bear all responsibility if she does get discovered. Persistent even with a 40 degree fever, Minam states firmly that she doesn’t want him to get hurt just because of her. Taekyung can do nothing but take her back home, but reassures her on the car (his car) that if she needs to cry, she should cry, if she needs to throw up, she should throw up.
Once they get home, Taekyung gets started on tending to Minam right away. Shinwoo sees him in the kitchen and steps in to help when Taekyung lightly but firmly tells him that it’s okay, he’ll do it.
Taekyung actually turns out to be a pretty good nurseman, as he keeps constant watch over Minam’s temperature as well as making various observations about the room, ie: it being too hot, taking out the humidifier. When Minam wakes up in the early morning, Taekyung makes a man-to-fake-man speech and indirectly tells Minam that he appreciates Minam’s honor and perseverance and for all she’s done, despite being in the condition she’s in. Now he will fully accept her and take care of her as his responsibility.
Heyi pays the AN Jell household a visit under the guise of checking up on Minam. At first she pushes Minam to reveal to everybody that she’s a girl, and guilt trips her by saying that she shouldn’t hurt Taekyung by keeping it a secret. But when she realizes that Shinwoo and Jeremy both seem to like Minam too much to actually care if Minam does confess, she back tracks. No, Minam must do the confessing all by herself, in front of a bunch of strangers. So when Minam is about to confess to Lime, Yellow and Black, Heyi intervenes.
During the night time when both Minam and Taekyung couldn’t sleep, they share a talk outside on their balcony. Because there are so many lights on, Minam can’t see the stars. Taekyung suggests she turn them off. Once they’re off, he can’t see anything, but Minam says meaningfully that she still can. In the dark, Taekyung can’t make out her features very well so he tells her that she must never be somewhere where he can’t see her.
Minam then makes him promise that when in the future she reverts back to being a girl, Taekyung must not acknowledge her. Taekyung is a little taken aback but being the person that he is, he agrees maybe a little too firmly and a little too swiftly that fine, he won’t acknowledge her.
Minam decides, maybe with a little help from Heyi, that she must reveal herself at a press conference in front of all the people present. She takes Heyi’s words to heart, about having to reveal herself while the rest of AN Jell were away, and while she had the attention of a good number of people. She disappears from her manager’s sight when they’re at the salon, sending everyone into a tizzy. The conference is about to start, and nobody can find her and her phone is turned off. When the boys get news of this, Taekyung decides that they need to at least show up, just in case Minam doesn’t.
Inside the hall where the conference is held, Taekyung, Shinwoo and Jeremy are frantic. Taekyung realizes what Minam is up to, because he knows her girls’ clothing are not in her room, and she took her pin from his room. Once he gets inside the auditorium to look for Minam however, the room is dark and he can’t see. He gets frustrated and realizing he has no time, he enlists Shinwoo and Jeremy’s help. He tells them to look inside the auditorium for Minam, to look for a girl, a girl wearing an ivory coat and pink skirt. Jeremy is astounded and confused, but Shinwoo just looks on. Taekyung reveals to them that Minam is a girl, and that he doesn’t have time to explain, they just must find her.
Taekyung steps outside and runs to look for Minam when he spots her. Minam doesn’t see him and heads right into the auditorium and cautiously walks down the aisle, towards her destination. Once Taekyung gets in, he’s further frustrated and shouts, “I told you not to be somewhere I can’t see!” At this, lights flood the auditorium and right in front of Taekyung stands Minam. The two share a brief moment before screams drown the venue and Shinwoo pulls Minam into his arms.
Shinwoo announces in front of gasping reporters and flashing photographers that this is his woman — the one he hasn’t been able to reveal before — it’s his woman.
Annnnnnnnd scene.
I was really stressed out as I watched this episode. Two really big issues stuck out to me: Heyi’s character and Taekyung and Shinwoo’s male-male competition over the same girl.
I know that this is just a drama but Heyi’s relationship with Minam fascinated and alarmed me at the same time. It’s really interesting to look at it from a psych perspective because um, so much to talk about. Heyi is someone who is extremely aware of her condition and others’ conditions and if we paired this hypersensitivity with someone who was altruistic, it’s not really an issue. But Heyi isn’t altruistic in any sense — she’s self-serving. Her innate sense to destroy her competition is scary. I mean, it’s funny sometimes and keeps the suspense going all the other times, but to me it was mostly alarming. And pair that up with Minam, who is just SO DAMN obedient and you have a ridiculous recipe for disaster. In context of this generally pretty light, trendy idol-esque drama, it might have not a lot of cache, but any time someone really pure-minded and unsuspecting person listens wholeheartedly to a really controlling aggressor, my spidey senses tingle all over.
Now onto the guys. The way I see it:
Taekyung thinks Minam likes Shinwoo based on Manager Ma’s incorrect assumptions of the two, but he isn’t actually aware that Shinwoo knows Minam is a girl, or even has deep feelings for her already. Shinwoo is not aware that Minam feels deeply for Taekyung, but does know that she’s closer to him. He also is aware that Taekyung does care of Minam, although he probably doesn’t know that Taekyung knows Minam is a girl. Thus, neither one knows that the other 1) knows Minam is a girl, 2) cares really deeply for her.
In the last scene, though, I have a feeling Shinwoo did what he did in front of so many people half because he really does want to protect Minam from getting hurt, and half because he wants Taekyung to know that he’s laying claim to Minam before Taekyung can, and what better way to do it than in front of a bajillion reporters. While the vast majority of his intentions prior to this were pure, I think Shinwoo is being juuuust a little bit underhanded. Taekyung’s motives thus far with Minam have been solely because she said she wanted to stay in the group, she said to have faith in her, so he’s going to let her do what she needs to do and he’ll take care of the rest. The romantic stuff came as a side effect, an afterthought. But Shinwoo has known from the very beginning, has held out, and now it just feels like he’s trying to latch her onto him unfairly.
My favorite part of this episode by far is when Taekyung told the guys that Minam is a girl. I didn’t expect him to really explain why exactly they were looking for a girl, but he did and quite swiftly too. Taekyung doesn’t dilly-dally. Compare this with the scene where Minam had to take forever to try to get the words out, and then Heyi interrupts her further more. Taekyung’s revelation came out quick and easy and that fast pacing was a nice contrast to the scene in context, which was really elongated to factor in suspense.
Until next time, Taekyung says annyong~~
dude, i really like your recaps! i guess i will read dramabeans and yours now:]
ahaha!
nice recap! ^_^
hmm i do feel that shinwoo might have guessed that TK knows everything, especially after he said “maybe… he knows everything?” after MN’s crying scene in ep. 4.
and i loved how TK made the decision to tell the guys about MN’s secret hehe.
Goes to show how much he actually wants to protect this secret and keep her close to them ahaha XDDDD