Uncontrollably Fond - Episode 3 Summary

Episode 3 starts with a mellow song in which Eul faints and JY runs to her, calling for her name and hugs her warmly. With his worried face, he seems not being able to bear with the pain of losing her again. I dunno why but isn't it too fast now? Or is it a remind or what? But whatever, I now see how much she actually means for the current JY yeay ^.^

Now it's more like it. I did enjoy the first week of Uncontrollably Fond but with these 2 episodes, it is more likely that I will root all my time for this! Today reveals more story of the complicated past between Joon Young and Noh Eul. It's not a whole picture of what happens till JY is so obsessed to meet Noh Eul in the current time, but at least we can get a glimpse of what's actually has happened between both of our main leads. 

When Eul wakes up some time later, she’s in a hospital bed with an IV in her arm, and standing by her bedside is JY’s manager hyung Gook Young (GY). Eul wonders why she’s here, but GY is equally clueless, saying merely that JY called him and ordered him to run over or be fired. She asks where JY is...but he issomewhere in the club, attending a birthday party which he will never attend and sang a birthday song for his colleague (named Yuna) who takes him as someone's special. As JY recalls the encounter with Eul many years ago, his thought fixated on Noh Eul being fainted on the road, which makes him suddenly slams his hand down the piano and without even a word, he walks out the club. Yuna follows him out and he apologizes for the sudden departure, but when she says she’ll go with him, he shakes off her arm and asks pointedly if he’s ever given her cause to misunderstand. He reminds her that they’re merely agency colleagues: “Not more, not less.” Yuna asks why he came to her party, then. JY replies, “Because of some girl. I thought if I came here, I wouldn’t think of her. But I thought wrong.”

GY gives Eul an envelope with money in it, to ensure that this girl won't sue JY for making her fainted. Eul then insists on a ride from GY to home. As soon as they pull into Eul’s neighborhood, she spots a van parked in front, and the two loan sharks loading her belongings into it. She jumps in and hands them the envelope of cash GY gave her, claiming the computer for her little brother Jik. But the loan sharks inform her that they’ve claimed her apartment deposit, too—which means now she and Jik are homeless. Not that they care about that, saying coldly that she shouldn’t borrow money she can’t afford.

From a distance, Gook-young watches with concern, but when the loan sharks ask aggressively if he knows Eul, he says he just met her today and quickly excuses himself. (Now then I get why Eul is obsessed with money over anything and being called shameless, because life indeed is hard for her that moment and she needs money to get over with the loan shark. Seeing how pitiful she is, I couldn't bear myself not being in her side for a moment.)

After leaving the club, JY comes to his Mom's house and his Mom kicks him out, asking GY to pick him up. GY picks him and asks why JY goes there even knowing that he will be kick out. JY says because he needs to occupies himself with something important and his mom is the one he concerns with. 

Meanwhile on the road, GY keeps telling how pitiful Eul's life is and how mean for JY to decline the documentary. GY asks JY to accept the offer and saves Eul's life at least, or else she might want to die by jumping from the Han Gang Bridge. But JY is so annoyed by GY's nagging and asks him to leave the car. JY takes the ride but he keeps thinking about what if Noh Eul really gonna die and finally he searches around the bridge to find whether there is woman there. At first he finds someone and comes out from his car, calling for Noh Eul who turns out to be one of his fans. That itself makes JY runs for his life (LMAO). Finally, after admitting how crazy he might be for believing GY's word, he meets with Eul who is staring widely near the bridge. His face hardens as he drives past her.

Eul takes out her phone to call “My Number 1 Treasure,” who turns out to be her little brother Jik. She clears the tears from her voice and checks that he’s eaten, nagging at him for ignoring her instructions to eat properly. She switches to video for confirmation that he’s really eating meat—and the face of her (previously disapproving) ajusshi-friend, Ji Tae, pops up to assure her that he is.

Jik reminds his noona that hyung hardly has money to be buying him meat, and Ji Tae insists he can afford it. (I think, he’s hiding his wealthy family background, considering his father is the famous prosecutor-turned-assemblyman). But Jik seems to feel the shame that his sister has long forsaken in the name of scraping together a living, not liking it when she presses Ji Tae to buy him lots of food. Jik protests that he isn’t a beggar, and that they ought to preserve a minimum amount of pride and shame. “Aren’t you even embarrassed?” Jik asks her, and hangs up.

With a sigh, Eul returns to the bridge railing, climbing up on the foothold, peering way over the side. A hand jerks her back, and suddenly we flash back to years before, in a similar moment, when Younger Eul had been whirled around by Younger JY. It’s 2011, and Eul flinches guiltily. A look at the nearby poster explains why, as JY reads the graffiti she’d scrawled on then-Prosecutor Choi’s face, calling him a hypocrite and a despicable devil, vowing to reveal his true face beneath the dirty mask. While he’s busy looking at the poster, Eul quietly sneaks away, only to trip and fall. JY offers a hand that goes ignored, then asks if she’s eaten yet. Over noodles at a pojangmacha, JY muses that it’s been four years since they’ve last seen each other, and explains how he went to law school and just recently passed the exam. That comes as a surprise for Eul, and he contributes his success at his studies to her not seducing him when he’d challenged her to, leaving him with nothing to do other than study.

Eul lets JY speaks as she feels so awkward and uncomfortable, she sneaks out from the tend saying to JY that she is going to toilet as an excuse. But JY realizes that the way she goes is not to the toilet. JY claims Eul as a criminal for ruining the posters of another party and claims for her ID card. Eul calls the police, saying that someone takes her ID without any reasons but then JY points out that the way Eul has done is a criminal thing which can make her go to jail. Then Eul says, "Then what do you want me to do?" JY replies to her, "I'll forget all your crime, so let's date." And minutes later she’s walking to the police station anyway, ha. But she’s reluctant to actually give herself up, and reconfirms that Joon-young only meant for her to act like his girlfriend for a week to get rid of the girls chasing him around.

JY helps Na Ri (Eul's best friend) by pretending to be Na Ri's ex to get the guy who dumps her to realize the fact. But actually, JY is there to pump Na Ri for information about Eul, and hears that she didn’t go to university, that she takes any job that’ll make money, and that she’s got her hands full raising her brother and making a living. Nari asks if he means to pester Eul and make trouble like he did in high school, and urges him to leave her alone—Eul has a hard enough life as it is.

Sometime later, JY comes by a campaign rally being held for Prosecutor Choi. There is Ji Tae also and Ha Ru who is actually Prosecutor Choi's son and daughter. There is a flashback that Ji Tae and Ha Ru had met with JY a long time ago without them realizing that JY is their father's son too. Ji Tae and Ha Ru then joined by Yoon Jung Eun (played by Lim Ju Eun) who is the girl who is involved in Eul's father hit-and-run accident. There is also a flashback in which they go back to the day of hit-and-run. When Jung Eun's father, Assembly Yoon calls Prosecutor Choi over to get her out of mess. Prosecutor Choi argues that the victim’s daughter recalls the car clearly and that there were three witnesses, but Assemblyman Yoon makes a veiled threat, reminding the prosecutor that he wouldn’t be where he is without him. He’s calling in the favor now.

Ji-tae overhears the entire thing from outside the door, his hands shaking in shock. It prompts him to drop by the courthouse later to watch Eul carrying out a one-woman protest, insisting that Prosecutor Choi reinvestigate the case properly. He watches his father walk by without giving her a second glance, and Eul deflates, but only momentarily; she’s not about to quit. This is why in 2011, Eul is now an active volunteers outside a subway entrance.

JY then calls Eul to the cafetaria to help him to get rid of the girl who keeps chasing him. Eul pretends to be his girlfriend by acting so cute and finally be able to get rid of the girl. She stares at her bravely, "Hey you, don't try to flirt with my boyfriend anymore, or you will get this!" while throwing a punch. JY comes to her at the rooftop and smiles to her, saying she has done a good job. Eul is regretting her behavior earlier but then JY just puts his head on her lap, offering to shave two fake-girlfriend appearances off her remaining balances. Then Eul lets him sleep for 10 minutes. When he doesn’t stir, she gets a gleam in her eye and reaches for a pen, drawing whiskers and a cat nose on his face.

When he gets up, she takes one look at him and bursts into laughter, to his confusion. Her peals of laughter go on and on and on… and then suddenly turn watery as they morph into tears. It surprises him, and he voiceovers that it makes him want to call Nari to tell her he can’t keep that promise: “I’m going to keep playing jokes on Eul, and tease her, and torment her. I have to at least do that because I have to keep seeing her. I’m sorry.”

Later Prosecutor Choi comes to JY's Mom Restaurant and it makes JY to help his Mom out of the situation. He then tells him Mom that he is going to be a prosecutor and lets her to boast to Prosecutor Choi that even without Prosecutor's Choi ability, JY can still grow up very well and becomes a prosecutor like him. 

With much determination, Eul calls the number on Prosecutor Choi’s campaign flyer, which he answers himself. Eul introduces herself and reminds him of the hit-and-run from five years ago. He says he doesn’t remember, so she rattles off dates in quick succession—nights he’d visited Madam Song at the room salon. He stiffens, while his wife looks on curiously from the next seat. Eul calls him out on his devoted husband image and demands that he drop out of the race, saying that the country has no hope if evil people like him become assemblymen. She tells him to ask for forgiveness and acknowledge his crime, in which case she’ll stop now. Around the corner, JY listens in shock as Eul continues, telling the prosecutor that she’ll burn her evidence if he reveals the true culprit. Prosecutor Choi tells her to go ahead, saying simply that threats don’t work on him. He shrugs it off with his wife, saying it’s probably a last-ditch effort by his opponent’s camp.

JY sees Eul tuck the flash drive with the video evidence into her backpack, his face stricken when she makes a call to the broadcast station. Eul heads out, breathing deeply for courage. JY notices a deliveryman getting off his scooter nearby… and as Eul holds out an arm to hail a taxi, that scooter comes zooming by, the rider’s arm snatching the backpack as he passes.

Eul sprints madly after the thief, running into the street—right into the path of a car, which slams into her. Her body flies into the air and lands with a thud on the concrete. Eul then is rushed to the hospital where Nari tries to comfort a young Jik, who wails that his sister can’t die. JY sits numbly in the hospital hallway, in utter shock.

He recalls how his mother once took him to church as a child, armed with over a hundred prayers to make to God. She’d told him to pray for his wishes too, but he’d refused, skeptical of God’s existence. Now as he sits outside the operating room, Joon-young picks at his finger until it’s bloody and apologizes for not believing in God before: “I will believe in your existence. So please, save Eul. If only you save Eul, I will give up all the happiness.”

Eul goes into cardiac arrest in the OR, and he continues, “If only you save Eul, I will willingly give up the remainder of my life. Kill me, and save Eul.” In the end, Eul is saved from the critical point and with teary eyes, JY is now left with the choices that God has saved Eul and it's JY's turn to do what he has promised. On the other side, Ji Tae who is in the hospital also see what's been happening and ensure that Eul is saved.

Back in the present time, JY grabs Eul's hand, yells to her, "Is life a joke to you? Is dying so easy? Let's shoot the documentary. We can shoot it, all right, crazy?!"

Personal thoughts:

I really really like this episode, all of my complicated and mixed feeling about this story suddenly disappear with this very well flashback story which reveals so much information about the present day of Joon Young and Eul.

We get to know why JY who is determined to be a prosecutor before is now becomes a famous actor and singer and get to know why Eul is so shameless, asking JY to do the documentary. It's because she needs to work and keep up with he life if she doesn't want to be thrown away by the loan shark. How the history behind them is really wrapped beautifully without me have to complain on which part is not good in the story line. Everything is just very good and I wish we could get what's more than we just see.

Cheers!