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Serendipity’s Embrace: Episodes 3-4 » Dramabeans

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Serendipity’s Embrace: Episodes 3-4

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“Success or love? That boring dilemma is back again,” one of our characters says this week, and truer words have never been said. Our male lead struggles with this dilemma and by mid-week, he seems to have made his choice. On the other hand, his first love’s first love struggles to come to terms with the choice he previously made, but there’s nothing much you can do to bring back a ship that has already sailed.

 
EPISODES 3-4
Serendipity's Embrace: Episodes 3-4

We learn an important fact about Hoo-young this week: when it comes to Hong-joo, he’s an “act first, ask questions later” person. Last week ended when he stepped in to help Hong-joo get rid of her ex-boyfriend, and only after the encounter does he think to ask who exactly the ex is. Hoo-young is shocked to hear that Mr. Ex is Bang Joon-ho a.k.a the author whose novel he helped Hong-joo to write a book recommendation for back in high school, and the soldier Hong-joo sneaked out of school to confess to. I mean, golden boy Hoo-young was supposed to go to Seoul National University for an interview for the International Math Olympiad, but this dude followed Hong-joo all the way to a military base outside of Seoul. She legit asked him why he was following her, and my boy replied, “I don’t know either.” Pfft. Such a loser in love behavior.

Uncle Wook freaks out when he realizes that Hoo-young’s first love is Hong-joo — and not Hye-ji — and that she’s the reason his nephew postponed going back to the U.S. by a week. “What if you end up liking her more?” Wook asks. Uncle doubts that Hoo-young can win Hong-joo’s heart, and it doesn’t help that he has been promoted at work and his mom — and the boss/founder of their company — wants him back at the head office immediately.

While Hoo-young stews in his dilemma of returning to the U.S. or staying in Korea and pursuing love, our clueless heroine and her equally clueless bestie carry on with their mis-matchmaking business. On one hand we have Hong-joo sailing the Hye-ji × Hoo-young ship paper boat, and on the other, we have Hye-ji trying to set Hong-joo up with her colleague, SOHN KYUNG-TAE (Hwang Sung-bin) — who likes Hye-ji. Sigh. “How come you haven’t changed in ten years?” Hoo-young asks Hong-joo during another of her matchmaking schemes, and she gets upset when he adds that she’s still clueless and stupid. That last part wasn’t necessary, though.

“Something” comes up at work, and Hong-joo leaves the scene for Hoo-young and Hye-ji to carry on with their date. But Hye-ji has finally picked up on the undercurrents between our leads, and she asks if Hoo-young likes Hong-joo. His expression tells her everything she needs to know, and she confirms that he has liked Hong-joo since high school. Hye-ji is not impressed when she learns that Hoo-young has no plans to stay in Korea. And as Hong-joo’s guardian, she doesn’t want doesn’t want her friend to get hurt again.

Serendipity's Embrace: Episodes 3-4

It’s finally time for Hoo-young to return to the U.S., and he just ups and jumps into the cab without saying goodbye to Hong-joo or his other friends. On his way to the airport, we get a flashback to their military base excursion, and it turns out that Hong-joo was not able to confess because Joon-ho had been transferred to a remote location and he was going to be unavailable for the next six months. Welp! Hong-joo was disappointed to the point of tears, and Hoo-young was not impressed because Hong-joo’s soldier crush should have sent her a letter if he was going to a place where visitation was not allowed. “What is with this punk?” he asked. But look in the mirror, Hoo-young, a similar punk is staring back at you.

In the present, Hye-ji calls Hoo-young to inform him that Hong-joo got into a car accident. Mr. Act First, Question Later turns his cab around, and it’s straight to the hospital. Hoo-young steps into the role of Hong-joo’s guardian, and he’s by her side when she wakes up. She assures him that it wasn’t a serious accident and that she’s fine, so he can leave. “Stop telling me to go. I’m not going anywhere,” Hoo-young retorts. Hong-joo is taken aback by the passionate outburst, and she tells him she doesn’t want to bother him over nothing. But Hoo-young takes her hand and puts it over his beating chest. “Do you still think it’s nothing?” He asks, and I part swooned, part guffawed at this.

Hoo-young’s concern — wrapped in a bouquet of charm and swoon — penetrates Hong-joo’s armor, and she suddenly finds herself in a state of hyper-awareness around him. “This is crazy,” she whispers to herself before telling him not to flirt with her. She reminds herself that her best friend likes Hoo-young, but it’s too late. Hye-ji has already disembarked from the delulu ship, and is now resolved to push Hong-joo onboard the true ship. Best friends over first loves!

To convince Hong-joo that she’s over Hoo-young, Hye-ji says that she’s dating Kyung-tae — and the man malfunctions for a second before seconding the motion like his life depends on it. His love life actually depends on it, but that’s a story for another day. That settled, Hye-ji leaves the nursing of the recently-discharged Hong-joo to Hoo-young, and the man smiles — like he has resolved to do every five minutes in this show — when he realizes the set-up going on.

As Hoo-young drives Hong-joo back home, we get another flashback to the military base excursion. They missed the last bus because she tripped and he paused to check on her instead of flagging the bus. Hoo-young ended up falling into a construction pit and swore never to get into anything with Hong-joo again. But guess who ensured that her photograph — that he stole from the picture board at school — did not get wet in the pit? Hong-joo jumped into the pit because she thought he was going to drown, and dumb and dumber spent the whole night down there until some soldiers found them the next morning.

In the present, Hong-joo laughs at memory, and mentions that she is only just recollecting it because she forgets bad memories easily. It’s a bad memory for her because the excursion was to see Joon-ho. But “that memory was about us,” Hoo-young counters, and Hong-joo’s hyper-awareness strikes again.

Serendipity's Embrace: Episodes 3-4

To ramp up the romance, Hong-joo begins to have racy dreams about Hoo-young — and almost carries out an exorcism on herself to cast out the lustful spirit. Hehe. But the Nile is her favorite body of water, so she chooses to push him away by downplaying the nature of their relationship. Hong-joo friend-of-a-friend zones Hoo-young, and he wonders how many times she can dump him before he even confesses. Co-ask! But Hoo-young is determined not to let go of her this time.

On the other hand, Joon-ho — the man who let Hong-joo go three years ago — is only beginning to realize the gravity of his actions. It turns out that he had panic attacks leading to writer’s block, and his countless breaches of contracts had left him penniless. Joon-ho broke up with Hong-joo because he didn’t want to drag her down — but ain’t nothing noble about his idiocy. Love is all about sticking with your person even when they hit rock bottom, and Hong-joo would never have abandoned him at his lowest.

Leaving Hong-joo when he was most vulnerable is an indication of just how little Joon-ho thought of her, and Hong-joo deserves better than a man who questions the strength of her character in the face of adversity. It’s audacious how he attempts to sweep himself back into her life and expects her to welcome him and his re-found success with open arms. And it’s even more annoying that he has never thought to at least apologize for leaving the way he did. Tsk.

Serendipity's Embrace: Episodes 3-4

Joon-ho is delighted when he hears that Hong-joo has decided to proceed with the adaptation of his novel, Avant Garde Lover, and he brags that she joined an animation company because she always wanted to make his story into an anime. But it’s obvious that aside from being an idiot, Joon-ho also has an over-bloated sense of self importance. Admittedly, it was Hong-joo’s proposal on the anime adaptation of Joon-ho’s novel that landed her the interview at the company ten years ago. But it was her enthusiasm for, and interest in animation — which she already had before she knew of Joon-ho’s existence — that got her the job. Currently, Hong-joo’s fondness for the source material — not the author — is key to her decision to take on the Avant Garde adaptation, and her goal is to become a main producer through the project.

In yet another flashback to their overnight stay in the construction pit, Hoo-young surprisingly shared that he wanted to be an animation director and Hong-joo was excited to share her love for anime in common with him. But being an animation director was only a wistful dream for Hoo-young because “Dreams don’t always come true,” and Hong-joo immediately decided to take on Hoo-young’s dream job since she hadn’t decided on a career path up until then. Seeing Hong-joo’s business card in the present makes Hoo-young happy that she towed the path — even though she isn’t a director yet, and she doubts she will be one. Still, Hong-joo is joining the Avant Garde project as a main producer for the first time, and Hoo-young cannot be any more wowed and impressed by her.

Hong-joo and Hoo-young are about to watch a movie when Joon-ho shows up. He clearly sees that she’s hurt after her accident — which is why she called in sick — but his jealousy takes over and he accuses her of not being serious about her job. “If you’re not going to give it your all, I’ll have to reconsider working with you,” he says, and she dares him to kick her off the project. Pfft.

Joon-ho mellows and whines about how she promised to always love him. But Hong-joo gives him the “I’m sorry to break it to you, but I’ve changed,” speech. She points him in the direction of the door, but Joon-ho is a persistent idiot and he tries the wrist grab move. Hong-joo assures him of a slap the next time he tries that rubbish, and Joon-ho is so shocked that he has no choice but to leave. Don’t let the door hit you on your way out, dear.

Afterwards, Hong-joo is embarrassed that Hoo-young witnessed her failed romance, but Hoo-young is happy that the romance failed. “Recover quickly with your leg injury and your heartache,” he says, before leaning in for a dead fish kiss. Jeez! Guys, you both are adults and we are in 2024! What is this?

We get our final flashback for the week, where a sleeping Hoo-young rested his head on Hong-joo’s shoulder and her heart skipped a beat. She assumed she was the only one who felt that way, but if only she knew…

For a story about first loves, I guess this show will rely a lot on flashbacks. And while I liked how bits of the excursion were sprinkled throughout these episodes to parallel the happenings of the present, I’m hoping to spend more time in the present than in the past. I mean, we have only two weeks left.

We learnt a bit more about Hong-joo this week, and we see that she grew up with relatives rather than her parents. At some point they considered sending her to an orphanage, and a feverish Hong-joo overheard the conversation but she forced herself to smile and be happy. Since then, Hong-joo has worn a smile and laughed as a defense mechanism to cope even when she’s obviously not okay. For someone who’d rather suffer alone than ask for help, it was nice to see Hoo-young stepping in firmly — but not crossing the line — to take care of Hong-joo after the accident. And most importantly, it’s meaningful that he did all that with the blessings of Hong-joo’s found family: Hye-ji, Sang-pil, and Uncle Wook. Because if you’re gonna swoop back in after ten years, you’re gonna have to pass through her family first.

 
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