by: Raine

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So we have established our love quadrangle. There are bits of interest and loads of hatred all in the mix with mystery, murder and nosy ahjummas galore.

“Sunshiny Day” – Ha Rim & The Strings (from the How to Be a Perfect Neighbor OST)

episode 4 recap

After Jung Yoon-hee passes out, Baek Soo-chan carries her to a hotel with a triumphant grin. In the morning, she wakes up feeling nauseas. When she sees Soo-chan on the sofa, she immediately jumps to the obvious conclusion. He assures her that he wouldn’t do that to a drunk woman, attempting to show her how chivalrous he is. She, however, is more interested in getting to the toilet…stat.

He then takes her to eat and she says she unusually doesn’t throw up after expensive liquor because it’s a waste. When he puts food on her spoon, she gets bashful and awkward. “Don’t use your jebi moves. Even if your heart is empty.” He replies that he should stop being a player because he met her and wipes her cheek. Cue tango music. Soo-chan thinks he’s got her in the bag.

When she gets home, Yoon-hee leans against the front door, completely overwhelmed by Soo-chan’s actions. Her mom meanders in and wonders where her errant daughter has been. “You don’t think I could’ve been with a man?” Her mother laughs her off. What a supportive mommy.

In bed, Yoon-hee giggles while thinking of how romantic Soo-chan was.

The next morning, she had her unni, Jung Mi-hee, are walking to work when they see Soo-chan. Yoon-hee is shy while Mi-hee is flirty. When Yoon-hee apologizes to her sister, Mi-hee immediately thinks that Yoon-hee has used her credit card.

Yoo Joon-suk passes a pensive Yoon-hee without pause and holes himself up in his office. The other secretary, Mi-na, muses that she must’ve earned some points for translating. Uh…

Yoon-hee goes in to apologize but he tells her not to enter without permission. Instead of leaving, she marches up to his desk and offers him an energy drink because she has stressed him out. Although he doesn’t drink them, she leaves it with him anyway. “She gives me the disease and then the cure.”

Soo-chan calls. He got her number while she was sleeping and called to see how she was doing. Then he tangles with two of the women he’s juggling: 1) The female professor who will give him a promotion for a trip to Bali. 2) The student who wants to bring him home to dad.

Detectives Kang and Kim are still investigating the murder. Kang thinks Dan Myung-hee, the pregnant ahjumma, has a role in it and Kim thinks Kang is nuts. But maybe he’s not ’cause Preggers is at a pay phone, hallucinating visions of the dead chick, Yeon Soo-yeon and asking the other party why she had to die on “that day”. Which day would you have chosen for someone to die? Enlighten me.

Stuttering Manager Byun Hee-sup gives a report that is absolutely decimated by Joon-suk’s nasty tongue. Joon-suk declares the report a waste of time, slams his hands down on the table and leaves. Yoon-hee follows him out and tells him that acting like that in front of the others is hard on Manager Byun and on Joon-suk’s reputation. Talking in private would be better. It’s none of her business, he says and stalks away.

Soo-chan is waiting to give Yoon-hee a ride home – he’s been waiting for two hours. He makes a show of helping her with her seatbelt and playing basketball with his students. She is duly impressed. Mr. Player is looking mighty pleased with himself.

Go Hye-mi (known as “Evil” in my notes) is eating dinner and trying to converse with Joon-suk who is completely immersed in his own thoughts. A waiter spills some water on her, but Joon-suk doesn’t even notice. She goes to the bathroom for a pout. (I cannot empathize with her. Every time I see her, I think, “Murderer”.)

Then, Evil arrives home early from her dinner with Joon-suk, worrying her dad, Go Chang-shik. When they go inside, they overhear Evil’s mother, Song Young-ja, on the phone with someone. Young-ja has saved the person on the phone from another dilemma, which greatly angers Chang-shik. If she is still helping “that person”, she will be kicked out of the house. Ouch.

Hee-sup and his wife, Bo-kyung, are fighting over money and we see that she wears the pants in the relationship.

Duk-gil is helping Sun Woo, Yoon-hee’s mother, make kimchi. Sun Woo thinks Duk-gil has all the makings of a good husband while Mi-hee is less than pleased that he has become a regular in their household. She holds a suspicion that Sun Woo has a crush on Duk-gil.

After Soo-chan drives Yoon-hee home and pulls a few moves and fast lines on her, he returns home triumphantly. He finds a sobbing Duk-gil folding laundry and watching dramas. (YES!) Duk-gil orders Soo-chan to check on Go-ni, which prompts him to ask after the boy’s mother. Duk-gil clams up.

Yoon-hee, Mi-hee and Sun Woo are spending time together and Yoon-hee is still acting strangely. She even offers to get more dried squid for her mother, which is something she usually never does.

On her way back from the store, she sees Soo-chan pumping iron in front of his house. HAHAHA! Omigosh dude, you are trying WAY too hard. Anywho, Yoon-hee feels bad for her sister and Soo-chan gloats over his impending victor over Yoon-hee’s heart.

Chairman Go urges Joon-suk and Yoon-hee to join the staff for dinner. Yoon-hee and the others try to include Joon-suk in their activities as much as possible during lunch and at the norebang but he remains quiet, withdrawn, and completely uncomfortable. Finally, he takes his leave, shocking everyone at his rudeness.

Yoon-hee has had enough of his behavior and, fueled up with liquid courage, follows him to give him a piece of her mind.
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‬Yoon-hee: “Don’t you know you’re being rude? This is not how to do it.”

He actually looks a bit chastised until she mentions that the old president was always emotionally available to his employees. He has no intention of being like his father.
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‬Yoon-hee: “Do you know that you really have an attitude?”

Joon-suk: “Do you know that you’re really outrageous?”

He drives off in a huff.

Nah, nah ni boo boo! Little kid fight! LURV IT!

At the J Resort opening ceremony, Yoo Joon-suk looks like he’d rather be anywhere but there. Because Yoon-hee got left in the office, Mi-na snarks that Joon-suk must have something against her. She is so hot and cold. Me no likey.

At the elementary school, Yoon-hee has used Mi-hee’s credit card to provide the kids with a nice lunch. Then Go-ni gets sent home early for looking up a girl’s skirt – his excuse is that he used to do it in his old town. Both Duk-gil and Soo-chan lecture Go-ni.

Soo-chan says the kid needs an achievable dream. His is to become the man that the woman in front of him desires. Duk-gil is unhappy that Soo-chan is trying to make the kid into a jebi but Soo-chan thinks a parent should nurture a kid’s natural talents.

He also thinks Duk-gil is crazy for reading into Yoon-hee’s comment that she is preparing for motherhood. Duk-gil hopes she was referring to Go-ni.

The next day, Go-ni pulls some moves and slick phrases on Ye-seul, winning her away from Little Byun.

Preggers picks up a key to a locker from the post office and finds a sack full of money. Hrm, that isn’t suspicious.

After Soo-chan helps Sun Woo with her garden, Sun Woo wishes he was her son-in-law and doesn’t even consider Yoon-hee a prospect. In fact, when Yoon-hee is nice to them out of guilt, they think she’s being scary. They never even considered she could be feeling guilty over stealing her sister’s crush and sucking up to make it up to her.

Mi-hee pulls the cheesiest line of the episode as she hands Soo-chan a birthday lighter – “I want to be like the flame of your life.” Soo-chan thinks it’s a terrible gift for a non-smoker.

Again, we get a Go-ni and Duk-gil arguing over women. Soo-chan gets them and Duk-gil doesn’t. Soo-chan says it’s good he’s not like his dad. Is anyone else noticing all these “daddy” references? Is there something you’re not telling us Duk-gil?

Yoon-hee calls Soo-chan to meet at the pond because she feels bad for her sister. She wants to come clean but Soo-chan wants to take her somewhere first. Oh la la.

Then we get the nosy ahjumma act as Sun Woo spies Preggers getting out of a taxi, which she never does. Then, in the middle of the night, Preggers goes into the laundry room to eat some melon, cry and hallucinate a meeting with the dead girl.

Yoon-hee continues her “scary” behavior and then giggles over Soo-chan’s desire to take her somewhere. Her thoughts about him and the hot weather keep her awake so she heads outside. Duk-gil is miserable in the heat, but quickly forgets it when he sees her. At first he thinks her dreamy behavior is because she likes him, but he quickly discovers that she’s into Soo-chan. Cue an unhappy Duk-gil.

The next day, Soo-chan is preparing to work Yoon-hee up and then crush her heart. They head to the grave of his “first love”. He says some sweet words and then gets decked twice by Yoon-hee. It turns out that Duk-gil had spilled the beans. No one had died in their home town for twenty years. Heh. She finds out he wanted revenge on her for calling him a jebi and did it for his own amusement.

Of course she stalks away and he offers her a ride. We think she’ll say no, but she accepts. He needs gas but lost his wallet. She pays with a glare. He wants food. She pays and eats most of it. I love how she can’t say no, so she’s petulant instead.

Soo-chan drives her home and they come across Evil. Yoon-hee is in a pissy mood and asks again about Cambodia, declaring that she hates people who lie – while staring at Soo-chan.

Back home, Yoon-hee steals Mi-hee’s tea and everyone is relieved that she’s back to normal.

Detectives Kang and Kim discover that Preggers worked at the factory with Yeon Soo-yeon but Preggers says she doesn’t remember her. Inside her house, she has a freak out.

Of course, Duk-gil, as nosy as a neighborhood ahjumma, spots Kang and offers him tea and organic beans from the country as a thank you. He doesn’t realize he’s offering a bribe until Kang points it out. Poor, adorable fool.

On a walk, Soo-chan gives Evil this advice: “If you have anything you need to erase, it’s better to do it quickly.” He heard she was marrying. There are no secrets in the neighborhood.

Evil joins a stony-faced Joon-suk at Park Suk-ryon’s biography publication celebration. The author sends his best wishes and the woman beside him congratulates Joon-suk on his marriage to the beautiful woman beside him. His face gets even harder. But when we seem him again, he’s glancing at the girl, Lee Mi-ran, and his face is pained. Ah! I sense a broken heart. Evil passes on Soo-chan’s advice, then takes Soo-chan to dinner. She says it’s to thank him for his advice…and his silence. You briber, you.

Now we see our love quadrangle finally filling out.

Evil and Soo-chan go to see a film. Soo-chan says that he got his job because he had a fling with a smart girl who did most of the work for him. Then they get some snacks at a street vendor.

Meanwhile, Yoon-hee is visiting Joon-suk’s father in the hospital, cleaning his hands, talking with him and reading him his favorite book. Joon-suk comes for a visit and overhears Yoon-hee reading aloud and the nurses saying that she is always there. When she leaves, she notes a bruise on the president’s back, which makes Joon-suk look thoughtful. You have no luck with your wife or son, but with your secretary? He half-smiles.

Is she finally getting to him? Wee!

On his way home he sees Yoon-hee sitting at a bus stop and shocks her by offering her a ride. Commence three hours of getting lost because she has absolutely no sense of direction. She takes it all in stride, telling an anecdote about losing her way home from school. Although slightly amused, he wouldn’t be Joon-suk without being annoyed by her antics.

Two hours into their adventure, they stop and she buys him a frozen yogurt. She offers to take a taxi, but he won’t let his three hours go to waste. I suppose it is a waste, she replies. The elders said you are very persistent. He is impressed by her inability to get home after three hours. She, of course, thinks he’s cracking a joke and laughs, exasperating him further.

When they finally get to Yoon-hee’s neighborhood, Joon-suk says that next time he’ll give her cab fare. She thinks he’s joking again and climbs out of the car…only to see Evil and Soo-chan. Dun dun dun!

 Comments:

I was worried I wouldn’t enjoy this drama because of the negative reviews. But so far, I really am having a good viewing experience! That, and I have tons of Park Shi-hoo screencaps. I’m sure you noticed the prevalence of them. Tee-hee.

Murder investigation: This is going to get everyone in the neighborhood involved. I can feel it. What is Preggers hiding? Did she bribe Yeon Soo-yeon bribe? Or was she being paid to keep silent? Or to keep tabs on someone…like Soo-chan? Everyone’s obsessed with him. Why not one more?

Soo-chan, Duk-gil and Go-ni: There have been some huge hints that Go-ni isn’t Duk-gil’s biological kid and may even be Soo-chan’s. Duk-gil clams up every time the kid looks up to Soo-chan, or the mother is mentioned, or how the child doesn’t resemble him. I kinda wish they’d lay off on the obvious hints. But they seem to really be developing a lot of things very quickly. It makes me wonder where they are going with this.

Yoon-hee, Mi-hee, Sun Woo and Ye-seul: Yoon-hee’s family really seem to regard her quite lowly. They never consider that she could have romantic aspirations and think she’s just a woman who drinks. I hope one of the issues they cover is Yoon-hee’s family learning to support her. As of now, if she’s nice they think she’s used her sister’s credit card again.

Joon-suk: Joon-suk gets annoyed because he’s uncomfortable and doesn’t seem to know how to socialize and let down his guard. He’s hard as a rock on the outside but honestly, I think he’s just uncomfortable in his own skin. Stuff has happened to him and now he just doesn’t know how to deal. Yoon-hee is so comfortable that she’s absolutely absurd and I think that’s what gets to him. She doesn’t care that he’s a douche, even those she chastises him. She’s not afraid of him or judgmental. That’s why Duk-gil likes her as well.

Yoon-hee: I really hope she’s not a complete airhead the whole time. She’s adorable. But the kind of social acuity she has belies a greater intelligence, don’t you think?

For the recaps of episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 check out my recaps.

Character introductions.

How to Be a Perfect Neighbor Episode 4 Screencaps.