Recap "Our Beloved Summer" Ep 9-10

Jan 6, 2022

Much to my chagrin (and also amusement, because the drama loves to not tell us things), we expressly don’t pick up with the beautiful kiss scene where we ended last week. We don’t even check in with our leads in a meaningful way, either. Instead, we head first to our trusty second lead, Ji-woong.

Ji-woong’s story continues to resonate with me, though. We see the wall he put up years ago, to not only hide his feelings for Yeon-su from both her and Woong, but also from himself. The narration is great here — we get insight into his “tactics” like avoiding chance encounters with her, resisting his urge to be in her sphere, and basically renouncing all things Yeon-su. He says that she’s a risk he can’t control. But at the same time, we see how current circumstances are pushing him towards her again, and it feels very much like the energy he’s spent on renunciation is starting to weigh him down. This part of the story is so well told; I’m just loving it.

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Finally, we return to our leads, but we don’t get much — it’s just drama fevers and sleepless nights all around. Our only clue is Yeon-su fleeing the scene, and running into Ji-woong on the hilltop. What happened before? After? In between? Will the drama ever tell us?

Woong has his fever, is comforted by his mother (so touching and lovely!), and in the end, comes to a conclusion as he exits his cave. “I can’t go on without her in my life.” What a gorgeous line. However, he also refuses to date her (to her face!) and has a bit of a wild suggestion: “Should we be friends?”

Actually, the friends zone doesn’t strike me as a terrible idea for these two right now if it means some actual communication, but it comes at a horrid time for Yeon-su. She’s been doing her own navel-gazing and had marched over to Woong’s house to (ostensibly) confess. Or something. At least she knows she has feelings for him, and has admitted it both to herself, and to Sol-yi.

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And with that, my friends, the trolling begins! Rather than balk too much, Yeon-su becomes Woong’s “friend” as if someone flipped a switch. She trolls him to death, calling him “chingu-ya,” inviting herself to sleep over, borrowing his clothes, and basically trying to drive Woong crazy. Her real plan, of course, is to find out what he really feels while being friends. They’re even “caught” by Ji-woong during their weird platonic sleepover, and it’s a little hilarious.

Yeon-su eventually goes home, and she’s replaced by Ji-woong (he’d die if he knew he was taking her place on the couch, and using the same blankets she used the night before). Poor Ji-woong is turned upside down by the arrival of his wayward mother; he also has a work hoobae that adores him, but he can’t seem to notice.

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Yeon-su invents a silly excuse to return to Woong’s house to retrieve her “precious pouch,” cementing the fact for us (and her) that she’s really crushing on him. But it’s Woong that winds up bringing the pouch to her, and after an awkward dinner with granny (omg the zucchini), Yeon-su and Woong actually have what I’m considering their first truly authentic moment together.

They’re outside of her house, and Woong rubs his belly, complaining how much he ate. The two share a giggle and a nice moment, and it’s just lovely. However, Woong’s takeaway is that they can be friends, while Yeon-su’s is how much she truly likes him. As ever, these two are not on the same page.

It wasn’t until that precious moment Yeon-su shares with her granny that the episode’s focus on maternal comfort really hit me. Earlier we saw Woong nursed by his mother and the tender moments they shared; now, we see the same with Yeon-su and her own mother figure, and it’s just as precious.

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Then there’s the contrast, and that’s Ji-woong. He’s the character that’s missing that nurturing and affection, and it’s really starting to show how much it’s affected him. We see the difficult times he had in the past, and how he always relied on crashing with Woong to escape dealing with his mother. I love these two boys as friends and how they support each other as much as they razz each other.

We see Woong offering a lending ear to Ji-woong in the present, but importantly, Ji-woong also confesses a bit of his trials to Yeon-su as the episode closes. It’s his birthday, he’s just had a heartbreaking cry because his mother doesn’t even remember that he’s deathly allergic to peaches, and when he accidentally encounters Yeon-su in the street, he can’t hold back.

It’s a direct contrast to how we opened the earlier episode: how he avoids her, and opening up to her. Now, finally, he does just that. And though we’re not quite sure where it will lead yet, surely it’s a good thing for this boy to start addressing all the stuff that has been weighing down his heart.

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