Like Flowers in Sand 2023 K Drama Episode 8

Episode 8 of Like Flowers in Sand starts with Du-shik and her friends playing hopscotch but this time, the spotlight is on a little quiet kid who’s on the sidelines. She comes back home and is introduced as the young Mi-ran. As she draws a picture, she tells her father that since she’s a weak link in all the games that the neighbourhood kids play, she will become a business owner and have her coffee shop. 

In the present, Mi-ran tells Yu-gyeong that she doesn’t like anybody not remembering her. Yu-gyeong seems uncomfortable in her presence. Parallely, Baek-du is competing in one of the matches and loses the first round after much struggle. He’s quite distracted with Yu-gyeong’s absence in the arena. Yu-gyeong reveals that she knows that Choi came back to Geosan to meet Mi-ran because she was her father’s daughter, and Choi and her father had a connection.

As Yu-gyeong leaves, Mi-ran seems quite concerned. Meanwhile, Baek-du loses the second round as well. Yu-gyeong’s presence was a motivational factor for his performance in the championship, clearly. 

At the arena, looking at the picture of the previous wrestlers including Mi-ran’s father, Yu-gyeong remembers the scene in the city at the time of her father’s arrest and how deeply it affected her. At Mrs. Lim’s restaurant, the team is having dinner together and while Jin-su notices Baek-du being disturbed. Although Baek-du is grumbling over Yu-gyeong ignoring his messages, Jin-su approaches him and says that he did well. Jin-su is finally warming up to Baek-du and it’s beautiful. 

Meanwhile, our thick in the head Baek-du is screaming “Du-shik” at the top of his voice until Yu-gyeong drags him away near the docks. As, our light as a feather, Baek-du grumbles under the influence of his one glass of beer, he tells Yu-gyeong that he won fourth place and asks her to compliment him more. She says that she’s happy he’s enjoying ssireum for the sake of the sport and not focusing too much on the title and the goal. As she’s speaking, Baek-du leans in and kisses her and gets a smack on his head in return from a flustered Du-shik.

The next day, he wakes with a red forehead, completely oblivious to the events of the previous day. Meanwhile, Yu-gyeong can’t sleep and “looks like a mess” and Hyeon-wook is at the receiving end of her wrath. Elsewhere, Baek-du cheerfully and proudly treats his brothers to popsicles from his prize money. They confront Baek-du about his girlfriend but he denies all their accusations. 

Baek-du looks for Yu-gyeong and finds her at the office of the sports complex, looking for records about Mi-ran’s father. He’s completely forgotten about kissing her the day before and is cheerfully telling her about bagging fourth place at the championship yet again. Yu-gyeong maintains her cool and asks him about Mi-ran from their childhood but Baek-du doesn’t remember her.

While they are walking past the docks, Baek-du asks her questions about similar events happening but since he doesn’t remember exactly what happened, Yu-gyeong says, ” So, is your memory like a broken TV? When it’s hit, it works sometimes?.” Yu-gyeong says that if Baek-du can remember the day he met Choi drunk, then she’d grant him a wish. If he remembers something else on a different day, “I’ll kill you.”. 

Alas, Baek-du spends the rest of the day trying to remember his encounter with Choi. He tries to hypnosis but sleeps instead and drinks red ginseng to make him “smarter”. While he’s practising his moves with a fellow teammate, the events from the previous night start coming back to him. She confronts Yu-gyeong about the kiss saying that he was dreaming but realises that it actually happened.

Embarrassed and flustered, he… runs off, screaming. Coming near the docks, still screaming, he wonders why Yu-gyeong hadn’t killed him already. Poor guy. Meanwhile, Hyeon-wook spots Mi-ran going somewhere and starts following her but loses her at some distance. 

While Baek-du is talking to himself, Seok-hui in the police vehicle, spots him and calls out to him. Baek-du starts remembering the events from the fateful night, recreating the events from the day. Realising that he remembered something significant, he runs to Yu-gyeong. He finds her in the office of the sports complex. He says, “That night in the car, by the coastal road, someone was in the passenger seat.” Right then, Mi-ran enters the office saying, “I guess I don’t need to hide anything now, shall we talk?”  

The Episode Review

Jang Dong-yoon is just a great actor. He has portrayed Baek-du as a kind and adorable person, but an equally passionate ssireum wrestler extremely well. Baek-du’s innocence and naivety are so aptly portrayed that it’s a treat to watch him act, especially in this episode. 

The show is getting better and better after every episode! The pace has slowed down from the frantic murder case chase. The random crime arcs in heartwarming shows are too cliche and overused, don’t you think? Beautiful friendships are developing again (cue: Jin-su and Baek-du), Yu-gyeong and Baek-du are being adorable with their awkwardness, and the ghost of the past is about to reveal itself!