by: Raine

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This episode lowered in ratings to 9.2%.

We finally get some plot movement and finally the foreplay for some OTP action. How long will that last?

“???” – It’ll be here when more of the OST comes out! (from the Fashion King OST)

episode 15 recap

We begin with Young-gul brooding by the river of tears ready to cry a river of tears. He remembers handing Ga-young over to Jae-hyuk with a few conditions:

1. If she wants to go back to school, let her.
2. Make her participate in the four fashion weeks of the world: London, New York, Paris and Milan.
3. Don’t let her become like Choi An-na.

He returns to the factory and fingers the ring. He remembers first time he met Ga-young.

Yay! We get to see Kim Sae-ron again!

Ga-young was begging Madam Dragon to return her mother’s ring, but the Dragon cruelly leaves her kneeling in the streets. Young-gul does a magic trick for her and shows her the ring, then a lollipop.

Is that why he has the ring? ‘Cause he stole it from the Dragon and didn’t properly return it to Ga-young? Or was there a reason he didn’t ultimately return it to Ga-young?

So we have a reminder of the childhood connection. They’re going to beat us over the head with a lot of these connections from now on right? We’ve had all the crazy double-crossing misunderstanding BS for 15 episodes, so I suppose we deserve some actual plot development.

While Young-gul broods over Ga-young,  Ga-young broods over him. She’s looking at the polaroids from their time in New  York.

Young-gul finds out the ring is just cubic zirconia and gets it encrusted with diamonds instead.

Please tell me that’s going to actually be given to her and not be used as his personal worry stone…

The bankers who rejected Young-gul are sucking up big time. He regards them with mild amusement and sends them on their way. Then An-na comes in with news that many small pop fashion companies are interested in working with them. He checks out the paper work and she pretends to brush something from his hair. But he’s “oblivious” to her flirting while Bong Sook takes careful note of it.

Remember I said all of those connections are going to be shoved down our throats? Well, Young-gul’s aunt calls him up for some MAJOR ass-kissing and pretends she didn’t treat him like crap while he lived with her.

I asked about her episodes ago. Why are you only bringing her in now?

Anyway, she has news that his father called from a countryside homeless shelter. She thinks they should go visit him, but Young-gul tells her to visit herself. He hands her an envelope of cash and leaves. She calls after him, but then gets to counting her cash.

I feel the love, auntie…

He stands outside, hurt and a overwhelmed by the news.

(Do you see the mini Fashion King Bear? This screencap makes me hungry…)

At Bong Sook’s, the ahjummas are eating wings, pizza, beer AND apples. The apples just really tickle my pickle. If you’re going to have wings and beer, do it right. COME ON! (I’m channeling Gob Bluth right there.)

Ga-young is designing and pretending not to listen to their gossip. When Young-gul has a split second appearance on t.v., the ahjummas flip and Ga-young almost turns around, but plays it cool. The ahjummas comment on how he’s nationally and internationally known. Bong Sook remembers the time he showered at her place and explains that he has a rockin’ bod.

Now there’s an ahjumma with her head on straight! What happened to all the necked Yoo Ah-in shots of yesteryear?

So Bong Sook wonders if that rocking’ bod is the reason An-na the fox is sticking to him. The others speculate it’s because of An-na’s skill and connections, but Bong Sook says Young-gul has all that already.

An aside: I really enjoy the scenes with the ahjummas and Bong Sook, not because  they’re funny, but because seasoned actors have this amazing flow that you don’t often find with younger actors. In this cast, I think only Yoo Ah-in has it as a younger actor.

Anywho, one ahjumma has heard some interesting tidbits from Mr. Kim next door.

This Mr. Kim knows everything. He’s like the one stop gossip shop.

So the ahjummas heard that Young-gul was deserted by his mother who left to be with another man and then his dongsaeng died from illness. What does this mean? Young-gul has abandonment issues.

My question is: wouldn’t Mr. Kim have gotten this information a LOT earlier? Why is this coming out now? We figured that he had these issues, but it’s rather ridiculous that gossipers held back for this long. What horrid timing. This could’ve been spilled way earlier and avoided a LOT of the hot mess. I’m not saying this because of my desire for tension relief, but because of the ridiculous amount of back and forth between everyone. It was useless plot padding.

Alright, so, Ga-young pays close attention to the gossip and, of course, feels terrible.

Hold on, you want me to pity him now after he betrayed him 50,000 times. Yes, they do. And sad thing is, I do. Guh. It’s understandable he’s a commiment-o-phob, but it doesn’t excuse him. Whatever, it’s hard to keep track of who hurt who when and who deserves what?

(Yoo Ah-in is so hot when he broods…)

Young-gul calls to say “goodbye” because he’s leaving, on a jet plane…with An-na! She is speaking horrible, horrible French. Maybe the ugly dress she’s wearing made her unable to speak French properly. It looks like it was made out of a t-shirt.

An-na tries to talk business with Young-gul who shuts her up because he’s trying to think (about Ga-young). She has the audacity to look hurt. I say “audacity” because she KNEW he was not interested in her at all and decided to leech onto him because she’s a needy beggar.

Assistant Kim, in his usual excited manner, reports that Young-gul’s GG brand is doing ridiculously well. In fact, it’s growing way faster than YGM. Perhaps they shouldn’t have let An-na go because Ga-young only knows how to design. People are starting to talk.

Kim finally notices that Jae-hyuk is ready to hurl something at his face (again) and quickly leaves. Poor guy is just in awe of real skillz.

Like I said ages ago. Young-gul + Ga-young equals business talent plus design talent. Anna has connections, but who needs her. Young-gul did most of this himself.

In the workroom, Ga-young hears the other designers gossiping about her. Apparently Fashion King is fixed and Ga-young is talented at wooing men, not in design.. She even lived with Kang Young-gul. Of course, Ga-young is horrified.

(Director Kim wins for funniest face!)

Now onto the lamest contest ever, the Fashion King contest. It’s a bunch of designers standing around with their mannequins. No runway, no complete line. Just one measly garment. For all those prizes, you’d think the requirements would be a LITTLE stiffer.

Jae-hyuk fawns, Madam Dragon glares and Director Kim oohs and aahs over Ga-young’s design. The Dragon gives Ga-young a terrible score and Jung-ah a great score even though Jung-ah’s garment is crap.

The judges debate and Kim calls Madam Dragon on giving Ga-young a low score. He loved the garment. The Dragon thinks it’s low fashion, which Kim takes to mean that HE is low fashion.

Prince Jae-hyuk breaks up the quarrel and decides to discard the highest and lowest scores.

Some heavy product placement later, he has them send HIM the scores for calculation. Like that isn’t biased…

(Yu-ri’s hugging the blond chick…looks dirty right? I just had to post it…)

The blond chick who is the white chick in every show greets An-na and Young-gul in Paris. But then when the Koreans great the “Parisian” in charge, they say “Buongiorno.” If my five years of French education serves me, that should be, “Bonjour.” I’m jus’ sayin’.

Ga-young makes the next round and Madam Dragon and her spawn are fuming in the bathroom. Jung-ah thought her mother would support her, but mom says Ga-young is a better designer. And she’s stuck to the director like glue.

From a bathroom stall, POP goes Ga-yoooouuuuung. She gives them a wicked awesome glare and leaves them to feel as much shame as evil people can feel.

Ga-young has had it with the gossip and texts Jae-hyuk to meet. Some more product placement later, she visits his *titter* “relaxing” room where he is being assaulted by a giant, white football helmet. Wait…he COULD be getting a massage…

Anyway, he poses with a smile for her, which disappears when she says she wants to withdraw from the Fashion King contest. He’s completely incensed, obviously ’cause the whole thing was for her. He tells her not to worry about gossip because it will always be there. She just needs to work hard. When she apologizes he asks her why she’s apologizing. If she’s truly sorry she’d buy him a meal. After all he fixed school problems, her employment problems, her factory problems, nursed her back to health…

Okay, take a pause. Is he seriously fishing for compliments and for HER to ask HIM to dinner? LAME.

So he tells her she has no etiquette because she didn’t even bother to buy him a meal. When she does, he asks why she wants to, why she’s sorry.

OMG! SO NEEDY!

He pretends to be too busy (except to be assaulted by helmets) and then says, “Let’s just go today.”

And off he takes her to the beach. Wait…wasn’t she buying him dinner?

Whatever. The beach is beautiful and they look beautiful walking along the shore with a sunset illuminating the background. And Jae-hyuk is smiling. That’s pretty, too.

Ga-young wants to know why he likes her. She wouldn’t like her: she shamelessly asks for money, doesn’t treat higher-ups well. At least you know it, he says, and they giggle.

So. Cute. But I’m not convinced. I’m still on the Young/Young ship.

He wants to know what she thinks of him. She probably thinks he’s a mama’s boy and a playboy. She only says, “Perhaps.”

They sit on the sand, she with his jacket around her shoulders and he staring at her. She takes a polaroid of the sunset and closes her eyes, thinking of Young-gul.

Jae-hyuk hopes not that she’ll like him in return, but that she won’t hate him.

Okay, that’s cute. now be that sincere all the time. Cut the anger issues and the false bravado. Not cute.

Young-gul and An-na return to Seoul and although An-na wants to hang more, he leaves her by the side of the road like a lost puppy. She broods in the bathroom, recalling his apathy towards her.

Again, I don’t pity you at all.

It’s time for another meeting at the Han River, this time between Young-gul and Il-gook. Il-gook has done some digging and found twenty-year-old records about Ga-young’s past. He notes that she’d be furious if she found out what they were doing. When Il-gook and Young-gul were kids, they sold cassette tapes in front of a stylish store in Myung Dong. Turns out it belonged to Ga-young’s mother, the top designer in Korea at that time.

At the time, the boys were homeless and Ga-young was living the live. Her mother wanted to move the store but died, along with her husband, in a sudden car accident. Because Madam Dragon was the manager at the time and Ga-young had no other relatives, the Dragon signed the whole company to her own name.

O.M.G. Did they seriously pull a Cinderella story? I mean, we knew it was something like that, but this is ridiculous. No butchering my favorite fairy tale! No, no, no, no, no!

Anyway, Il-gook hands Young-gul a record and says the car accident sounds awfully suspicious.

So the Dragon isn’t just evil, but an evil murderer? Okay, I’ll go with it.

Young-gul heads back to the factory and drinks, remembering the times he drank with Ga-young. He pulls out her bed and ruminates on words of the past. Ga-young had told him that she lived as a victim for ten years under the Dragon and Young-gul replied that everyone has a sob story.

Angry at himself, Young-gul bangs his head against the wall, finally understanding why she left. I wonder if his brain is going to pop out…

Madam Dragon returns to her shop, followed by reporters. She clears them away and relaxes on the sofa, but not for long. Young-gul has come for a chat about Ga-young’s parents. The Dragon says she has no reason to speak to him, so he calls his lawyer instead. Then he leaves her with the lawyer.

ASA! The look on her face is so epic!

In the factory office, An-na is looking for something and stumbles across the ring. She smiles, thinking it’s for her.

Nosy wench.

Ga-young wins the Fashion King contest. Yay. Surprise. Surprise. Jae-hyuk is ecstatic; the Dragon is livid; Jung-ah has to go poop (she’s making a poo-poo face).

President Daddy Jae-hyuk takes Director Kim, Jae-hyuk and Ga-young for lunch and acknowledges Ga-young’s talent. Jae-hyuk is pleased that his dad is acknowledging his “woman”. Kim sings Ga-young’s praises and they decide to help her make it big.

In the office, everyone congratulates her with saccharine smiles save for Jung-ah, who demands to know about her prizes. Then she delivers a message: my mom wants to see you.

Uh-oh. Not good.

It’s about that guy Ga-young used to live with. Jung-ah turns to leave and finds herself face to face with an angry Jae-hyuk. He offers to buy Ga-young a congratulatory dinner, but Ga-young is off to talk to the Dragon.

I really hope that she’s going only because of Young-gul and that if his name hadn’t been mentioned, she would’ve ignored that dragon.

Ga-young is greeted with a tissue box to the head, but she plays it cool. The Dragon is incensed when Ga-young indicates she has no clue why the Dragon is pissed. Tissue Box hurler says Ga-young is ungrateful and disrespectful. Tissue Box Dragon is also untouchable. She’s not a worker at Ga-young’s mother’s store anymore, but a hotshot designer. She hasn’t done anything illegal so Ga-young needs to talk to Ga-young.

First of all, we all know the Dragon had something to do with Ga-young’s parents’ death. Second of all, throwing tissue boxes really isn’t very nice.

Ga-young, bless her heart, serves up some attitude right back. She has no idea what’s going on, but she has nothing to do with it. The Dragon can talk to him herself. The Dragon can also stop telling people to come and go as she pleases. The Dragon is then deserted by Ga-young.

Outside, Ga-young remembers Young-gul talking to her about signing with the Dragon. He’d mentioned that it may allow them to regain her mother’s factory.

I’m not going to play the blame game. Everyone’s to blame.

The ahjummas get rid of An-na and get Young-gul to take them to eat. They grill him about An-na and he says they’re platonic. When Bong Sook brings up Ga-young, he avoids the subject. Then Ga-young shows up. It’s a congratulatory dinner for her winning the Fashion King Contest.

Let’s call this meeting awkward because there is no word for how ridiculously tense this scene is. Ga-young tells Young-gul to mind his own business and then rises to leave, asking the ahjummas to meet her another time, by themselves.

She leaves and Young-gul catches her outside. He tells her to go back and that it was nice seeing her.

Again, I can go blaming all these characters all day and it makes no difference. They’re all idiots.

That night Bong Sook tells Ga-young not to be an idiot because Young-gul was hurt first when Ga-young went to Jae-hyuk. Ga-young seems to just be making excuses. Suddenly, Ga-young bolts upright, scaring Bong Sook, demands why Bong Sook always takes his side, and then hides herself under the covers.

I can tell you why she takes his side: she saw him nekkid. That, or the writer needed another stupid reason to make Ga-young feel guilty.

Young-gul remembers Ga-young telling him to mind his own beeswax, so he calls some person and decides to buy this person’s company.

I’m confused. Theories anyone?

WARNING: BEFORE YOU PROCEED ANY FURTHER, PLEASE DON SUNGLASSES OR A SIMILAR FORM OF EYE PROTECTION. THE SCREENCAPS MAY PERMANENTLY SCAR YOUR RETINAS.

You think I’m joking…

………………………………

You have been warned.

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BRIGHT BLUE PIMP SUIT! And a flower tie. Young-gul…what were you thinking? Did he go color blind?

So Young-gul climbs onto the elevator and postures when he realizes it’s going to stop on Jae-hyuk’s floor. Jae-hyuk comments that Young-gul is traveling all over and Young-gul notes that Jae-hyuk must search his name everyday. Young-gul is busy ’cause he earns his own money, he doesn’t have people do it for him like Jae-hyuk. They throw Ga-young and An-na’s names back and forth. Young-gul mentions that Ga-young won the Fashion King contest out of skill, highlighting again that Jae-hyuk got his position and money through inheritance.

Young-gul climbs into his car with a driver before Jae-hyuk who is uber, uber pissed.

OMG men…seriously? Grow up. By the way, they have the same car. Young-gul making good on his promises?

Assistant Kim gets excited over Young-gul’s business prowess at a meeting and pisses Jae-hyuk off. Young-gul is doing better than them and Jae-hyuk can’t take it, especially not after the “blue suit elevator incident” and “penis size contest car escapade”. Luckily for Kim, the only thing handy to throw is a stack of papers. The whole meeting is stunned by his temper, which is only calmed after he looks at Ga-young’s shocked face.

Jung-ah tries to as Ga-young about what her mother wanted, but Director Kim calls her to his office. I love the bitchy look that Ga-young gives Jung-ah in passing.

So Kim got invited to the New York Korean night but he “can’t make” it. Would Ga-young like to go? He has a plane ticket and a hotel voucher. It will be his contribution to the winner of the Fashion King contest. She accepts with a huge grin.

Young-gul holds a meeting and when they disperse An-na stays behind. She wants to change locations, but he is attached to his little factory. But he’ll get her an office if she wants. She is not pleased by that.

Then he pulls out a gift for her from the drawer where she found the ring.

NO! Don’t do it!

An-na gets excited and quickly opens the box to find a fancy yellow wallet in a fancy yellow hankie. She’s extremely disappointed, but Young-gul barely notices. He’s off to New York.

When he leaves, An-na checks the drawer, but the ring box is no longer there.

Ga-young boards the plane and oohs and ahs over the luxury of first glass. Then a blindingly blue suit sidles up to the seat beside her.

Could it be? Young-gul and Ga-young are sitting next to each other on a flight to New York?!

 Comments:

Kim Sae-ron!

Can I say “Finally!!!!!”? Ga-yong and Young-gul will have time alone together with no interruptions or mechanizations… I hope. I’m sure by the end of next episode there will be more misunderstandings. Honestly, I want them to team up and fight the odds together. Why? Because they obviously won’t all go their separate ways so I’m going to hope for some pairings, some kissing and some baby-making.

Call me “shallow”. I know I am.

Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

Character introductions.

Fashion King Episode 15 Screencaps.