Recap Korean Drama "Cheer Up" Episode 5-6

We sprint back into the action with Jung-woo reaching the control room behind the stage and finding no one there. Without evidence that someone dropped the light over Hae-yi’s head, everyone keeps telling him it was just an accident. But it sets him off worrying about Hae-yi and feeling responsible for her as team captain (at least, that’s his official excuse).

When Hae-yi gets totally trashed at a team drinks night, both Sun-ho and Jung-woo want to help her get home. This leads to all three in the backseat of a cab with Hae-yi lolling from one man’s shoulder to the other, until she perks up enough to start enacting cheer routines and smacks them both in the face. Sun-ho finds it funny, but Jung-woo looks irritated — making me wonder (and it’s not the first time) how she doesn’t like Sun-ho even a little.

The drama is still toying with the love triangle, even as Hae-yi has made it obvious where her crush lies. When she and Jung-woo get partnered in class and have to talk about their ideal marriage partners, Hae-yi says money is the most important thing in a marriage while Jung-woo says it’s love. We later see, though, that she’s written her ideal mate is exactly Jung-woo: a leader who’s warm-hearted once you get to know him. Jung-woo writes his ideal mate is someone that makes him smile, thinking of Hae-yi (but I can count on one hand the number of times he’s smiled in this drama). Meanwhile, Sun-ho smiles at everything she does.

Jung-woo does start opening up a little when Theia goes on a team field trip. He and Hae-yi are late to join and she sleepily snuggles up to him on the bus ride there. His heart skips a beat and he worries about an arrhythmia, haha. It’s night when they get off the bus and Jung-woo is pointing out constellations, causing them to hold hands briefly when he guides her hand in the direction of a specific star. In these scenes, I get a sense that Jung-woo likes Hae-yi, but as the squad captain he feels it would be inappropriate to show it.

Just as Jung-woo is bandaging up a scrape Hae-yi gets while running for the field trip food, Sun-ho stumbles on them sitting close. Sun-ho’s holding an umbrella for the downpour that suddenly starts — hoping for Hae-yi to join him underneath — and we wind up with the trio cramming in to share it instead. It’s a funny image, probably my favorite this week, but I’m put off by the constant bickering between Jung-woo and Hae-yi, which the drama is using to show their feelings for each other. Sun-ho can’t take it either and leaves them to argue alone under the umbrella.

During the field trip, pieces of the mystery puzzle start to come together. When Sun-ho and Hae-yi are walking after dark near some train tracks, Sun-ho spots someone taking pictures from under a train. He chases the guy and it’s someone from the broadcasting club, who is also on a group project with Hae-yi in one of her classes. Hae-yi says not to worry about it because she has the guy’s phone number, and Sun-ho lets him go. (I’m getting a little tired of Hae-yi shrugging off everything that happens. Rather than seeming happy-go-lucky she’s starting to strike me as an idiot.)

The broadcasting club photographer posts his pics on a website, asking if one of the Theia members will die this year. The site contains some backstory for the missing member of the team, LEE YOO-MIN (Park Bo-yeon) — who we’ve also come to know was Jung-woo’s first crush (who, according to Ha-jin, he’s never gotten over). Yoo-min disappeared two years ago after a light fell on her during a rehearsal, and it’s rumored she died. Now, the website points out, there are parallels between that time and this time. They’re so similar, in fact, it seems someone is trying to execute the prophecy.

Most of the team quits after seeing the info on the website. Sun-ho also decides to quit and move on to a new girlfriend since he has no chance with Hae-yi. Then, Yoo-min appears, totally out of thin air, and won’t say anything about where she’s been the last two years. Jung-woo is so happy to have her back, Hae-yi feels ignored and jealous. It seems she does have a reason to be wary of Yoo-min, though, because somehow everything she says sounds like an underhanded threat (not that Hae-yi would pick up on that).

When Jung-woo and Cho-hee find out (via the website) that Hae-yi has been receiving threatening texts, they are upset and Jung-woo is much more worried than before. The rest of the story about Yoo-min is that, like Hae-yi, she was also locked in the storage room. At the time, she was being bullied for dating a freshman on the squad (and giving him “preferential treatment”). So, all the occurrences were chalked up to bullying. The falling light was assumed to be an accident from a wornout cable. But later, we learn that Yoo-min was also receiving texts, saying “break up with him.”

This parallels the texts that Jung-woo is receiving now, telling him to kick Hae-yi off the team. In this case, it seems they are coming from one of the current Theia freshman — who knows about Hae-yi’s one-month contract to get paid for being on the squad. He tells her she has to either quit or not take the money. Otherwise, he will go public about the contract. After a lot of back and forth with herself about what she truly values, Hae-yi decides to tear up the contract and stay on the team. (Good. Maybe we can have less arm waving and more backflipping in future routines.)

At another Theia pub night, Hae-yi goes missing from the bathroom and Jung-woo runs all over the neighborhood to find her. When he does, she says she lost her phone (no idea why she’s outside) and Jung-woo is so worried and relieved that he hugs her. Hae-yi takes this as a very romantic moment, eyes wide, wondering whether or not to hug him back. The epilogue shows us that Yoo-min is the one with Hae-yi’s phone, creepily reading her messages in the dark.

So, I know that Jung-woo is the lead here but I just don’t feel the chemistry. With the hug at the end, I feel like since Yoo-min just came back into his life he’s terrified of something similar happening again and that Hae-yi will disappear too. Plus, he’s responsible for the team now. If Hae-yi goes missing on his watch, he’ll feel even worse. The hug seems like it happened in that context. On the other hand, after Sun-ho quits, he rejoins the team, and breaks up with his new girlfriend, because it will be more fun to be there with Hae-yi, even if he knows he doesn’t have a shot with her. How is he not the obvious choice here?

While I’m not super stoked on the OTP, these episodes give us a few new possible pairings that might be more exciting. My favorite among them is IM YONG-IL (Kim Shin-bi) with his adorable crush on Cho-hee. Until now, Yong-il has mostly followed around Sun-ho and I didn’t think much about him. During the field trip, he gets on stage with Hae-yi and Sun-ja, and the three dance to Twice’s Cheer Up. The song may be on the nose but man is their dance cover smile-inducing.

Later, Yong-il sticks up for Cho-hee when someone is saying awful things behind her back. He also supports her when her rugby captain ex-boyfriend is threatening her — and films it when she beats the crap out of the ex after he slaps her. Cho-hee tells Yong-il not to like her but he’s already head over heels. And, truthfully, so am I. I’ve liked Cho-hee since the beginning and Yong-il is just too cute crushing on her (gotta love that accent). He’s now at the top of my list of all the men in this show.

One thing I’m really loving about this drama is the way it handles interactions between female characters. With Hae-yi, Cho-hee, Ha-jin, and Sun-ja we’ve got a bunch of strong personalities. And yet they’ve all gotten along with each other right from the get-go. There’s no in-fighting or competitiveness and, even better, they all support each other in whatever comes up. The easy friendships and small acts of kindness are just so lovely to watch. If I have one major complaint with these episodes it’s that there’s not enough Ha-jin — she’s such a rockstar.

And speaking of getting along, we got a scene this week of camaraderie between Hae-yi’s mom and Sun-ho’s mom — where the two polish off three quarters of a bottle of whisky outside a convenience store and reminisce about old times. While I’m still not sure where the show is taking us with this, I did like watching the two laughing together instead of the same old fighting and one-upmanship.