Will it Snow on Christmas?, episodes 5 and 6
It’s only ever when I recap that I realize I always have SO MUCH TO SAY about everything. Grrrr.
Cha Kang Jin, you’re so cool, I lub you. 
Recap of episodes 5 and 6
We pan back to an earlier scene, only this time told from the perspective of Kang Jin. He goes to his apartment, only to realize that Ji Wan is standing outside. He pulls back for a moment to calm himself down before going over to greet Ji Wan.
Ji Wan is surprised and fumbles with her words about why she’s there, what she’s doing, but Kang Jin tells her that he didn’t ask. Ji Wan is caught off-guard again and turns to go, but not before we get our quintessential grab-arm-pull-back moment. Kang Jin asks Ji Wan, “You don’t know who I am? Han Ji Wan, you really don’t know who I am?”
The two lock eyes for a bit longer before Ji Wan lowers her arm. Kang Jin lets go and turns back to his apartment, but pauses to ask Ji Wan why she left so suddenly back then. Kang Jin accuses her of being selfish, for thinking only of herself and not others, but Ji Wan interrupts him and tells him that it’s none of his business why she left or what she thinks. There’s no need for him to be angry about it, and she plays it cool, saying that he couldn’t have possibly been thinking about it all this time right? Why, she’s SO far forgotten about this that she didn’t even remember if he was Kim Kang Jin … or Cha Kang Jin … or, you know, whatever.
At this, Kang Jin catches her eye and gives her a hard stare before going over to her. He pulls her hood over her head and ties the drawstring around her neck. He wraps her up tightly in her coat, and tells her that it’s cold outside, the winds are strong.
It’s nice to meet you again, Han Ji Wan.
With that, Kang Jin goes back into his apartment. Once inside, he grips onto his newspaper and milk before letting out a deep breath, showing just how hard it was to maintain a semblance of non-chalance in front of Ji Wan. But after a few more breaths, he drops everything and runs back out to chase after her. Once outside his building, Ji Wan looks back at Kang Jin’s unit before continuing on her way.
Kang Jin keeps running, and once he gets out the door, he spots Ji Wan but doesn’t chase after her. He just looks on as she walks away.
Back at his apartment, Tae Joon wakes up and finds the breakfast that Ji Wan left behind. He remembers her words from the other night when she told Kang Jin that she’ll continue to grab onto him (Tae Joon) no matter what it takes.
At her tea shop, Madam Cha acts expressionless towards her customers, which confuses them because they’re used to a flirty, smiling Chunhee. Then, Busan comes to the shop and all of a sudden, Chunhee says that she feels ill and needs to be taken to the hospital right away. Busan freaks out and carries her out and heads towards the hospital until Chunhee tells him through gritted teeth that the hospital’s the other way. There’s only one hospital that can save her.
So Busan brings her to Han Junsu’s oriental medicine clinic. Junsu can semi-sense that Chunhee’s not really sick, so he tells her that he’s going to insert various kinds of needles into various points on her body to help her. Oh, but, just one warning: people who were faking illness in the past have experienced paralysis upon the insertion of the needles. Chunhee freaks out at the last moment and admits that she’s feeling fine now. She apologizes for her wrongdoing, which she eventually says is the promise that she broke: smiling at other men when he previously requested her not to do so.
Ji Wan sits at a bus stop, thinking about the other night when Kang Jin rushed out to the middle of the block to block her from the oncoming traffic. She takes off the pendant that she’s been wearing all along — Kang Jin’s pendant — and stares wistfully at it.
Kang Jin pulls up into his work building’s parking lot, only to come across a very drunk Woo Jung lying on the ground. She has problems picking herself up and before long, it’s let known to us that she has to tend to a meeting right now with various clients as she instructs her assistant to try and stall for time. Kang Jin suggests that he call her other assistant, but she stops him, saying that if he found out, her father will be alerted and she’ll be on a one-way exile trip to Paris.
So Kang Jin drives her, since she’s in no state to drive by herself. When they arrive at their office building, Kang Jin tells her various things about the client that she’s about to go in to a meeting for — things about what he likes/dislikes, his personal background, etc.
At her meeting, Woo Jung hits on all those points exactly, earning the good favor of the client and bagging the project.
Tae Joon is in his colleague’s car, looking through the project presentation he and his team have been preparing for and expresses dissatisfaction with what he sees. He looks out the window and coincidentally spots Ji Wan before telling his colleague to pull over.
Back at the bus stop, Ji Wan gets a call from her professor, who asks her what she’s doing. She’s confused as to why her professor is personally calling her to ask her that, before she remembers she has class. Shibal!
So she rushes to catch the bus that’s just pulled up, and in the mean time, dropping the pendant necklace onto the ground.
Just missing her by a few seconds is Tae Joon. He arrives at the bus stop and doesn’t spot her, but does see the pendant necklace that’s lying on the ground.
When Ji Wan arrives at the classroom, there’s nobody there except that kid who erases the blackboard. “GOOD JOB, Han Ji Wan!”, she tells herself in disgust. She does the characteristic Han Ji Wan head-desk-table-smack a few times before realizing that something is amiss. She feels around her neck for her pendant but she can’t find it anywhere. She panics and looks through her bag, looks through her sweater, but it’s not there.
Ji Wan grabs a cab back to the bus stop to look some more, but it’s nowhere in sight.
Meanwhile, Tae Joon takes the pendant to a jeweler’s and tells the service girl to this, this and this in order to make the pendant look new and presentable. But just as he’s about to leave the store, he changes his mind and tells her to just leave the pendant as is and to wrap it up nicely.
Kang Jin goes to ZOOMIN to grab some food for the team, but the restaurant owner tells him that it’ll be a while to prepare the food since Miss Han isn’t around today. When she goes to grab some packages, Kang Jin offers to help her, and the packages end up being blankets for Ji Wan since the heater is broken.
Kang Jin brings the blankets to Ji Wan’s room and once he’s in there, he observes the rather decrepit state that it’s in. The walls are filthy and the room barely has light.
Once he’s back in his office, Kang Jin starts to work. He sketches a blue print of what he envisions are the changes he’ll make to Ji Wan’s room.
Ji Wan continues to look for the necklace, but to no avail. She looks on the bus, she goes back to the bus stop. Her last resort is to pen a “missing” notice and to post it by the bus stop, telling anyone who finds it to call her.
At night when she goes back to the cafe, Ji Wan is completely surprised to find out that there’s a certain Cha Kang Jin in her room, right now, working on fixing it. She is aghast that the dude is in her room and storms in to ask him to leave. But much to her displeasure, her boss tells her that it ain’t her room, she’s only renting it. So Kang Jin gets the last laugh and gets to hammer away some more.
Kang Jin spends the night working on her room, running on no food, and he’s in for an extra treat: he screws up his finger. Yay sacrificial love! Ji Wan is told by her manager to make the dude some food at least, and she does, but when she brings it to his room, he’s already asleep. She notices his bleeding finger before going to drape a blanket over him.
Next up on Woo Jung’s plate is Kang Jin. She tells her assistant Jae Hyun that she’s interested in Kang Jin, but Jae Hyun rebuffs immediately, saying that she’s not his style. Kang Jin doesn’t like people of power anyway.
The next day, Tae Joon calls Ji Wan repeatedly but gets no answer since her phone is turned off. He goes to ZOOMIN hoping to find her there, but the shop’s still closed. He pounds on the door several times before he awakens the sleeping Ji Wan inside, who goes to let him in. She still treats him coldly, telling him that she needs a little time to get the shop ready, but food is not the thing he came for. Tae Joon thanks her for the meal she left at his place, and as an expression of thanks, he gives her a necklace. Ji Wan doesn’t know it’s the pendant necklace, so she’s almost affronted at the gesture. She tells him to take it back, and just as Tae Joon turns to go, he tells her sadly that he doesn’t have anywhere else to go, so he wishes she would stop telling him to leave.
After Tae Joon leaves, Ji Wan all of a sudden remembers … her room! She runs to check out what’s going on, only to find one of the most gorgeously renovated spaces ever. And all done in one night! WHAT ARE THE CHANCES.
Young Sook (Ji Wan’s mother) is at a flower shop when Busan comes across her. He tries to make nice with her, thanking her for Junsu’s help on his “sick” mother, entirely oblivious to the three’s history together. Young Sook has obvious disdain for him, as she barely says anything in response to what Busan says to her. Junsu sees this from afar.
Chunhee gets a phone call in the middle of the day, telling her that Busan is at the police station, and when she goes to see what’s going on, she learns that Busan has been accused of a hit-and-run. Chunhee is completely furious at Busan, but Busan maintains that he’s innocent. It must’ve been someone who looked like him, but it was in no way he who committed the crime. He remembers at the last minute that he can provide a witness, Ji Wan’s mother.
Chunhee rushes to find Young Sook to help by providing an alibi, only Young Sook is not so keen to do anything at all. She lies and tells Chunhee that she did not once see Busan, but Chunhee doesn’t believe her. She knows her son and knows that he would never lie, so she drags Young Sook off to the police station. Junsu, who’s been by Yong Sook’s side all along, does nothing until at the last moment when he pulls Young Sook out of Chunhee’s grip, telling her that his wife doesn’t lie, rendering Chunhee helpless.
Kang Jin is walking to work when Woo Jung pulls up in her car and offers him a ride. He declines, before Woo Jung swooooops in for the kill and asks him if he has a girlfriend, ’cause she’s interested. Kang Jin continues on his way, and passes by the bus stop where Ji Wan posted her missing pendant notices. He stops, does a double take, and goes back to read carefully what’s written on them.
He remembers back to the moment when he’s at the police station 8 years ago, telling his mother that he lost his father. He wonders why Ji Wan has the necklace now, when he couldn’t find it back then.
In passing, Tae Joon comes to find out about Kang Jin’s personal Extreme Makeover: Home Edition for Ji Wan and he’s piiiiiiissed. (Tae Joon strikes me as the kind of selfish bastard who doesn’t like a girl enough to make sacrifices for her, but hates the thought of someone else who does like that same girl enough to make those sacrifices.)
When he sees the family picture that’s hanging up in Ji Wan’s room, he thinks back to a drunken conversation Ji Wan had with him, telling him that her brother died because of her. She doesn’t go into explicit detail, but she’s obviously very troubled beneath her cheery exterior. She also relays to him that the pendant she wears belongs to someone else, and that she’ll give it back to the owner, maybe in a hundred year’s time.
Tae Joon’s once again waiting outside of ZOOMIN when Ji Wan comes back from running grocery errands. She continues to treat him coldly, asking him if she’s very laughable in his eyes. But it’s okay, because she thinks the same of herself. Only, she doesn’t have time for his shit today, so if he’ll just excuse her, she’s got stuff to do.
Woo Jung invites both Kang Jin and Tae Joon to her office, asking how the both of them are doing with their presentations, because their performances are not only important for the company, but her father (the president) is also going to be gauging their presentations as well.
Kang Jin is curt with his words, asking if there was anything else Woo Jung needed to say, and if not if he could take his leave. Before he does go, Woo Jung asks him if he has anything to do the next day because she has a wedding to go to and she needs to bring her boyfriend. Kang Jin says that he already has plans, but Woo Jung tells them to cancel them. Meanwhile, Tae Joon is sitting uncomfortably listening to the conversation between the two.
After Kang Jin leaves, Woo Jung praises him to Tae Joon’s face, and Tae Joon gets angrier by the second. He asks her if it’s really that hard for her, and even if it is, there’s no need to resort to the tactics she’s taken. Woo Jung counters, saying that she sincerely does have interest in Kang Jin, and also tells Tae Joon that if he gets to do things his way, she’ll do things her way as well.
When he finishes his conversation with Woo Jung, Tae Joon passes by Kang Jin’s desk and tells him that he saw the little makeover he gave her room. Kang Jin lets him talk and doesn’t respond, but Tae Joon then issues a warning: Don’t show any more interest in Ji Wan in the future. Kang Jin soundly says no, and when Tae Joon is taken aback at his answer, Kang Jin reaffirms it again, “No.”
Seeing just how pathetic Busan has it, Chunhee calls Young Sook out for a talk. She wants to know what it’ll take for her to provide an alibi for Busan, and Young Sook states her demand: Move out of San Cheong. Chunhee balks: Well then, Busan’s just gonna have to go to jail. Justice will prevail to the end for people like him.
At the police station, we see Junsu covering Busan with a blanket before he goes. As he steps out of the station, he sees Young Sook turning away from the station and he wonders.
Back at his clinic, Junsu tells Young Sook that he was at the station. When asked why, he replies that he felt sorry. He tells her that he saw her and Busan together at the flower shop, and Young Sook panics, asking him if he told the police everything. Junsu tells her that he didn’t, and that he reassures that he won’t, but something in their relationship has changed.
Ji Wan’s in class when she gets a call from a stranger claiming that he’s found her pendant. She happily offers him any reward he wants, before realizing that he’s a prank caller who is also a pervert, lol. Ji Wan gets a mighty scolding from her professor, who at this point has given her one chance too many for her to redeem herself, but she just finds distraction after distraction from her studies.
After getting off the bus, Ji Wan once again trademarkedly hits her head repeatedly, when she realizes that the missing posters that she posted have been replaced by sleek new ones, complete with fancy graphics and thick paper. She wonders for a moment who could’ve done this and then she has a hunch.
She runs to the building where Kang Jin and Tae Joon work, where she runs into Jae Hyun. Jae Hyun assumes that she’s here to see Tae Joon, and just as Ji Wan is about to rebuff him, Woo Jung appears and calls for him to bring food up to Kang Jin. She expresses interest for Kang Jin in front of Ji Wan, but has no idea about her relationship with Kang Jin. She also tells Jae Hyun to go get Tae Joon, because everyone’s under the assumption that that’s who Ji Wan’s here to see. Tae Joon is told that Ji Wan’s in the lobby waiting for him, but by the time he gets down there, he misses her just by a second.
Ji Wan makes a beeline for the cafe, but once she enters, she sees Kang Jin with a bunch of clients, and makes a beeline out. After the meeting is over, Kang Jin goes to look for her, and spots her sitting by herself with the missing poster clutched close to her. He repeats to her what he said to himself, wondering how it’s possible that she has the necklace that he lost. He very clearly saw it fall into the water, and wonders if he saw wrongly.
Ji Wan can’t bring herself to admit it, and tells Kang Jin that it’s actually a present that a friend gave her. There are so many similar designs in the world, and how does it make sense that she would look for it? She didn’t even know where it is, and how it’s possible to die–
She cuts herself short at the word “die,” but Kang Jin slowly digests her words, maybe catching the word “die” that barely made it out of Ji Wan’s mouth. Ji Wan then tells him that people might get confused as to who to contact about the pendant if they found it, so if it’s quite alright with him, she wants his notices taken off the bus stop.
When she goes back to her room, Ji Wan looks at her family picture and admits to her oppa that maybe Kang Jin knows about it. She must’ve messed this up again. At that, she notices the pendant lying in the jewelry box that was given to her, and at that, she realizes who it was that picked it up.
In the middle of the night, Chunhee packs to leave town. Even though her facade was strong in front of Young Sook, she’s yielding to pressure. While she packs, she gets a phone call, which her friend answers. It turns out that it’s from the police station, saying that Young Sook provided an alibi and that Busan was getting released. Chunhee runs to the station and sees Young Sook, and thanks her for the alibi. She promises that she’s never going to smile in front of Junsu again. She holds up her pinky finger to make a promise to Young Sook, but Young Sook just looks at her sadly and doesn’t return the gesture.
It’s crunch time for the two teams at work. Their presentation is the following day, and for Tae Joon’s team, it’s smooth sailing.
For Kang Jin though, he gets some extremely bad news just before the presentation is due to start. The master files on his computer have been deleted and he has nothing to show for all his work. When it’s Kang Jin’s turn, he goes up to give his speech, but he’s got nothing. So he resorts to the basic tactic of drawing. He completes his speech and he did the best he can, but nobody in the audience is enthused, except for Woo Jung. Kang Jin loses the project.
Kang Jin is frustrated, and goes to buy himself a beer when he sees Ji Wan crossing his path to go catch a bus. He follows her and gets on the same bus and plops himself right next to her. He comments on how her parents must be so proud of her, studying for Oriental medicine and working so hard. There was a presentation he really wanted to win, but he lost it. He’s not used to losing so he doesn’t know how to handle this.
He also goes on again about how Ji Wan could possibly have his necklace. It’s just not plausible. Then he conks out. Ji Wan watches him fall asleep and just as she reaches to press for her stop, Kang Jin falls asleep on her shoulder and Ji Wan is unable to disturb him. She takes off her necklace.
When Kang Jin wakes up, he’s alone on the bus, and then he takes note of the pendant necklace that’s now hanging around his hand, and stares at it with amazement.
Tae Joon celebrates with his team in victory, but meanwhile, Woo Jung and Jae Hyun take a look at the security cameras that were placed in the office. Woo Jung senses that something’s up, but she also realizes that both team managers knew that the CCTVs were in place. And then she sees it. Someone from Tae Joon’s team suspiciously hovers around Kang Jin’s desk, using his computer.
Kang Jin waits in front of ZOOMIN, gripping the pendant to his hands. When Ji Wan walks listlessly back to the cafe, Kang Jin walks out and calls after her.
Ji Wan ah. Han Ji Wan. What are you? Who are you? What are you doing, you brat? Who are you to come in and mess with my life like that? Making me want to die? What exactly is so great about you?
With that, Kang Jin pulls Ji Wan into a soft embrace, all while Tae Joon is watching.
Annnnnnnd scene.
The last scene in episode 6 is one of the best scenes in the numerous melodramatic K-dramas I’ve watched. Go Soo does a great job, and even though Han Ye Seul’s character wasn’t exactly given a lot to do, she did well enough for the moment to work. I love the contrast between the harshness of his words and the softness of his actions. He tears as he gets angrier, and the moment culminates in a really soft hug, where I was expecting a more fierce grab. But in retrospect, the soft hug does WONDERS to the moment that a fierce, passionate grab would not have fulfilled.
And just a general complaint/observation about Ji Wan’s mother.
I have MASSIVE suspicions about her not being the biological mother of Ji Wan. I’ve had this from the very start, even though 6 episodes later, I can’t really see a reason why the writers would write the story that way. I’m just throwing this out there because what kind of a — excuse my French — fucktard of a mother wishes that one child of hers died in place of the other?
The level of conservative Asian thinking here — much favoring of the male child — is amazing to me, because she seems to be such an anomaly in this story. If Ji Wan’s mother is truly Ji Wan’s biological mother, I think she’s doing a terrible job. I can maybe sort of understand that level of resentment if your step-child caused the death of your beloved son, but to wish it if she were truly your biological daughter is unthinkable to me.
It’s also interesting to me that every other character on the show refers to Young Sook as “Ji Wan’s mother,” and not “Ji Yong’s mother.” Maybe it’s out of respect for the fact that Ji Yong is deceased, but I just think it’s interesting that Ji Wan’s mother is seemingly the only one in the entire town who refuses to be acknowledged by the “Ji Wan” signifier.
Also, Tae Joon.
It’s so rare for a K-drama love rectangle to actually have male/female relationships going so deep. Usually, Male Lead likes Female Lead, and Secondary Male also likes Female Lead. Then maybe for the fun of it, Female Lead and Secondary Female also like Male Lead.
But in this one, Male A likes Female A, Male B likes Female A. But! Male B also likes Female B, and Female B likes Male A, on top of Female A liking both males! Oh the fuckery!
Tae Joon is an asshole. I really like Song Jong Ho’s performance as Tae Joon, but I feel nothing for this guy. I generally like second leads, but I don’t like this dude. He’s not brave enough to be true with his feelings for Woo Jung, and he plays Ji Wan like a toy. But he also feels hurt when Woo Jung shows interest for Kang Jin, and gets angry that Kang Jin shows interest for Ji Wan. I feel that his relationship with Ji Wan was essentially borne out of hurt from losing Woo Jung, so Ji Wan became that rebound girl.
I mean, they had their argument about the engagement ceremony being called off, but at this point, there’s no willingness from either party to set another date, which just shows the lack of true feeling from both. While Ji Wan looks like she’s more assertive about the rediscovery of her feelings for a man not Tae Joon, Tae Joon is still flip-flopping between two women, which annoys me, both as a girl and as a drama viewer.
That emoticon: perfect!