She laments her agreement to attend yet another birthday party for Chairwoman Kim, her former mother-in-law, which was apparently part of the divorce agreement. She arrives, and Chairwoman Kim compliments her suit (which she’d picked out for Soo Hyun), but criticizes her choice of purse.
On the ride home, Driver Nam tells Soo Hyun that when he and her father were in school, they once decided to play hooky and went to Namsan Tower. He wants to take Soo Hyun there now, but she sighs at the news article that’s already been posted online about her appearance at the party, and she says that she’s had enough of reporters taking her picture for one day.
Soo Hyun and Secretary Jang are in Cuba on business concerning the new hotel. Secretary Jang is annoyed when their Cuban driver texts and talks on his phone while driving, and sure enough, he nearly hits a pedestrian and swerves the car. It slams into the cafe table where Jin Hyuk happens to be sitting, missing him by mere inches.
The following day, Soo Hyun gives a speech to the press about the new Donghwa Hotel. Afterward, she’s distracted by a commercial on television showing the famous El Malecon Beach sunset.
Secretary Jang wants to try out a local restaurant for dinner, but Soo Hyun says that she’s going to take a sleeping pill and go to bed, to help adapt to the time difference. She tells Secretary Jang that she’ll skip dinner and eat a “high-quality breakfast,” and Secretary Jang backs down with an amused grin, appearing to know what that means.
The hotel concierge hails Soo Hyun a taxi to El Malecon Beach, telling her that it’s the perfect place to fall in love. The taxi is about a zillion years old and breaks down on the way to the beach, so the driver points her to the ferry instead.
Nearby, Jin Hyuk is testing out his broken camera when he accidentally captures Soo Hyun in the background of a shot. He seems a little mesmerized as he watches her walking along the ocean. She takes the ferry, then has a long walk to the beach, and along the way she stops to rest. Her purse is stolen by a pair of young men, and she’s so tired that all she can do is gape in disbelief.
With no other option, Soo Hyun continues on to the beach, and when she comes upon some street musicians with an audience sitting along a wall overlooking the water, she decides to stop. She fights to stay awake as the sleeping pill begins to catch up with her, but she loses the battle and tips forward, in danger of falling.
Back at the hotel, Secretary Jang decides to check on Soo Hyun when she stops answering her phone. Worried, she checks with the concierge, who tells her that Soo Hyun took a taxi to see the sunset at El Malecon Beach.
They forget all about the wayward shoe as Soo Hyun gazes at the sunset, and Jin Hyuk gazes at her. He pulls out his phone and some earbuds, telling her that the view is twice as lovely with music. Soo Hyun listens as she watches the ocean, and the people gathering to enjoy the beautiful evening.
She thinks about her hectic, politics-heavy life back home. Jin Hyuk realizes that she’s having an emotional moment, so he quietly slips away to get her shoe, thinking that she seems familiar.
She’s got a blister from her heels, so Jin Hyuk suggests she just go barefoot, insisting that the people in his neighborhood do it all the time. Soo Hyun can’t bring herself to do it, so Jin Hyuk offers her his battered old sneakers. But Soo Hyun asks if it’s true that he knows lots of people who go barefoot, and, enchanted by the evening, she joins him in kicking off her shoes.
As they walk, Jin Hyuk tells Soo Hyun that he sells fruit, and though he seems surprised when she calls him a fruit vendor, he agrees that that’s what he is. She’s surprised that his camera still works since it’s twenty-eight years old, and he says that it’s always taken great pictures… until today.
He tells Soo Hyun that his father’s friend had a photography studio, and that he gave his father this camera to take photos of newborn Jin Hyuk. His father was too busy providing for his family to take many pictures, but he always treasured the camera, so when Jin Hyuk was in school, he used the camera to take pictures of his parents.
He stops when they get to the main road and offers to buy Soo Hyun some sandals from a street vendor, since the road here isn’t clean. In his enthusiasm, he grabs Soo Hyun’s wrist, but she’s startled so he drops it and apologizes for being rude. Soo Hyun says it’s okay and looks at the sandals, promising to pay Jin Hyuk back for everything later.
He hesitates, then checks his bag, and Soo Hyun laughs when she sees that he’s down to just a few dollars. Jin Hyuk puts the money away, pouting that it’s not funny, but she protests that she only laughed because he’s adorable, like he did to her earlier. He grins and jokes that it’s a young boy’s money, and when Soo Hyun grumbles at his implication that she’s old, he charms her out of it by reminding her of the salsa show.
Afterward, Soo Hyun asks for Jin Hyuk’s phone number so she can contact him and pay him back for tonight. He tells her to think of his help as simply a kind gesture, and when she insists, Jin Hyuk jokes that he’ll look like he had an ulterior motive of getting a beautiful lady’s number if he lets her pay him back.
They grow a little awkward as they locate a taxi, both seeming hesitant to say goodbye. Finally Jin Hyuk asks if Soo Hyun is free to buy him breakfast in the morning. He says that he’d consider her debt paid, and that he has something to ask her, but he wants time to refine the question.
Soo Hyun says she doesn’t know her schedule for tomorrow yet, so Jin Hyuk says that he’ll wait for half an hour, then leave if she doesn’t show. He puts her in the taxi and waves her off, and they both take one last look as she rides away. Jin Hyuk only now realizes that he still has Soo Hyun’s heels, but he figures he’ll return them when he sees her in the morning.
In the morning, Soo Hyun learns that the owner of the building they’re converting into the new hotel wants a written clause added to the contract saying that the garden won’t be altered — ah, she must be buying the building that Jin Hyuk visited. Someone is on the way to sign the new contract, but Soo Hyun grows nervous as it gets closer to the time she’s supposed to meet Jin Hyuk.
Jin Hyuk shows up early to the cafe, and he waits over an hour past the time they agreed on. After an hour and a half, he has to leave to catch his plane, but he leaves a note behind on the cafe’s bulletin board.
Looking uncomfortable, Jin Hyuk explains that he worked a part-time job for a year to save up for this trip, and that he wanted to see how far he could travel on what he’d earned. He says that even though the long flight is uncomfortable, it’s also part of the experience.
He asks Soo Hyun to understand why he wants to end his trip as planned, so she says that she’ll consider her debt paid. She walks away, and Jin Hyuk watches her go, looking deeply disappointed.
During his job interview at Donghwa Hotel, Jin Hyuk had said that he likes the steep path that leads to the Namsan Library and how it changes each season. He also stated that he prefers books to gaming, because they allow you to go at your own pace.
He discussed his previous jobs, most of which were part-time labor, and how his father taught him that hard work stays with you longer. But he also graduated college with a major in hotel management, even though his primary interest is in humanities, because he feels like the hotel industry could prosper if based more on humanities.
That evening Jin Hyuk hangs out with his friends Lee Dae Chan and Jo Hye In, and he sheepishly admits that he spent the money for their souvenirs on something else. Dae Chan correctly guesses that it was a woman, making Jin Hyuk choke on his drink and change the subject.
Soo Hyun is back at work at her Seoul hotel, and it’s easy to see how she brought it back from the brink of bankruptcy as she inspects even the smallest amenities. She proves that she cares about her employees by remembering personal details about them, and even insists on personally writing the welcome letter for the new recruits.
When Jin Hyuk shows up for his first day at work (with a sharp new haircut), the first thing he sees is Soo Hyun arriving at the hotel. He panics and turns away, then wonders why he’s avoiding her when he was her savior in Cuba.
Still, he’s hesitant to look directly at Soo Hyun during her introductory speech. As she’s talking, she spots him sitting at one of the tables, and she falters long enough for everyone to notice the awkward silence.
Jin Hyuk does get assigned to Human Resources with Hye In, who looks happy to see him. His good looks catch the eye of Gu Eun Jin (played by Park Jin Joo), who makes a point to introduce herself flirtatiously. The assistant manager, Kim Han Gil, snaps that she wasn’t formally introduced to Jin Hyuk on purpose.
She declines when Driver Nam offers to take her there, but before long she’s sitting on the swings, taking in the atmosphere. Jin Hyuk shows up, surprised to see her there, and she cringes at having been caught.
But Soo Hyun tells him not to worry, because she knows he’s not that kind of person. Jin Hyuk says that she’s in some of the pictures he took in Cuba, and he assures her that it was unintentional. He has the negatives and asks if she’d like to see them, growing excited as he says there’s a “light box” of sorts down the street.
He grabs her wrist again, then lets go and says, embarrassed, that he just got overwhelmed by memories of Cuba. He looks like he’s preparing to receive a tongue-lashing, but Soo Hyun just tells him to lead the way.
Suddenly, Soo Hyun asks if Jin Hyuk has any money, and he giggles a little at the reminder of their night in Cuba. She wants to try to win a toy from the claw machine, and he brags that he’s a pro at it, only to lose the toy. He tries again and again, eager to impress her, and eventually she asks to give it a try. Naturally, she gets the little stuffed owl on her first try.
Jin Hyuk pouts that he lost because she makes him nervous, and she asks if he means because she’s his boss. He says it’s because she’s a beautiful woman, then realizes that he is talking to his boss and cringes, but Soo Hyun just smiles at his embarrassment.
She gives him the stuffed owl she won, then notices Driver Nam waiting nearby (and looking tickled pink to see her with a friend). She can’t help herself, and she asks Jin Hyuk who he was talking to on the phone this afternoon at 12:42 p.m. He thinks, then says with a giant grin that he was talking to the woman he likes. Soo Hyun hides her disappointment and says she was just curious because he looked so happy, then leaves.
After taking Soo Hyun home, Driver Nam meets with Jin Hyuk’s new department director, Director Kim (Kim Hye Eun). She’s happy that this current crop of new recruits is uncommonly attractive, particularly the one in her department (Jin Hyuk). Driver Nam snaps that he was a looker in his day, but Director Kim tells him that she was there and he’s lying through his teeth.
At work the next day, an already infatuated Eun Jin asks Hye In about Jin Hyuk. Hye In says that he’s nice, though he has a tendency to get hooked on something and focus on it until he gets it. Eun Jin just decides that she’ll be the bait, and Hye In looks unsettled by Eun Jin’s predatory manner.
Soo Hyun gets a summons from her mother, so she goes to her parents’ house. Her father seems nice, if detached (he didn’t even know she went to Cuba), but her mother makes a nasty comment about Soo Hyun getting nothing but the hotel in the divorce.
Meanwhile, Chairwoman Kim tells her son Woo Seok that he needs to get remarried soon — but not to the woman he’s dating. She wants him to get back together with Soo Hyun, whose father is running for president, and she doesn’t even give him a chance to say how he feels about it.
She tells Soo Hyun’s mother of her plan, and Mom simpers and says she’s already spoken to Soo Hyun as if they had a nice little mother-daughter chat. By the look on Chairwoman Kim’s face, she dislikes Soo Hyun’s mother, but considers her a necessary evil.
Jin Hyuk tries to make his way home, but he ends up leaning on a sign struggling to stay on his feet. Soo Hyun, who worked late, sees him valiantly attempting to stay vertical.
She says that since he’s drunk, and she’s still upset he refused her offer of a first-class plane ticket, he should let her drive him home. He jumps in, cheerfully telling her that he doesn’t have the alcohol tolerance of his new team as he unzips his tie. Yes, I said unzips.
He waves Soo Hyun on home, and she drives off a little stunned with the squid still hanging out of her mouth. She finally takes it out, and laughs.
In the morning, Jin Hyuk rides to work wondering if he’s going to get fired today. He’s distracted all morning, and he looks downright ill when reminded of his interview with the CEO, which is apparently something Soo Hyun does with all new employees.
Soo Hyun compliments him on his gray suit, and she asks if today’s tie also has a zipper. Poor Jin Hyuk looks like he wants to crawl under the couch, and Soo Hyun struggles not to laugh at his obvious dismay. She says that if he feels uncomfortable, then he can do her a favor — eat ramyun with her at a rest stop.
Woo Seok has dinner with his girlfriend, the one he left Soo Hyun for. She mentions that it’s been four years and asks how long things will be like this, obviously angling for a proposal, but Woo Seok has nothing to say.
Jin Hyuk wonders if he should wear a work suit to have ramyun with Soo Hyun, but he settles on something more casual. He still looks nervous and uncomfortable as Soo Hyun drives to the rest stop, so she asks him if he has any squid in his pockets to snack on.
At the risk of getting fired, Jin Hyuk snaps that she sure knows how to hold a grudge, ha. Soo Hyun surprises him by busting out laughing, which makes Jin Hyuk laugh and lightens the mood. She puts on a hat to hide her face when they get to their destination, and they go inside for their ramyun.
She wonders if he feels strange having her for a boss, and he fires back that she must feel awkward having him as an employee, but they both agree that they’re fine with it. Jin Hyuk writes his phone number on his hand, then uses Soo Hyun’s phone to take a picture of it, offering it to her with no strings attached.
At her flustered reaction, Jin Hyuk calls her cute, then stops for fear he’s being disrespectful. But she says it’s better than hearing she looks old, and on that note, she leaves.
One word: gorgeous. tvN’s new romance about a pair of lonely souls who find each other in an unlikely place is absolutely breathtaking, whether you’re talking about the cinematography or the wistful, dreamy feel of its story. These two already have a lot to overcome if they’re going to be together, and I predict that it will be equally lovely and painful to watch.
What a lovely drama this is looking to be. I particularly enjoy the slow burn of the story — this first episode felt unrushed and languid, as if there’s a tale to tell but no hurry to tell it. The cinematography was absolutely breathtaking, with saturated colors and soft edges combining to create a dreamlike feel, so dreamlike in fact that I nodded off once or twice while watching. I mean that in the best possible way! There’s nothing boring about Soo Hyun and Jin Hyuk’s romance, it’s just that the show has this relaxing quality to it that made me feel pleasantly comfortable. I know it’s too much to hope that things will feel the same after leaving Cuba, but I really hope the show finds a way to continue the magical aura now that our hero and heroine are back in Korea.
I really have high hopes that the director will continue to tell a lovely visual story as well as a lovely romantic one, because the way that colors and camera angles were used to create certain moods was just masterful. The scenes in Cuba were rich with warm colors and soft lighting, while the scenes of Soo Hyun’s unhappy home life were washed out and sharp. This was used to particularly dramatic effect when Soo Hyun was watching the sunset and remembered her life back home, and suddenly everything went from comfortable and cozy to stark and cold. It’s rare that a drama moves me as much from the visual artistry as the acting and story, but I think this will be one of those dramas.
That’s not to say that the story and acting aren’t great, and goodness knows that our leads make a strong contribution the visual impact of Boyfriend. Both Song Hye Kyo and Park Bo Gum are ridiculously beautiful, but more importantly, they’re experienced, nuanced actors who know how to build a scene around a feeling or a significant moment even when there’s no dialogue. In fact, Soo Hyun and Jin Hyuk seem to be the sort of people who don’t use many words unless absolutely necessary. And that gets me as excited about this show as anything else, because nothing is more lovely than watching two people who don’t need to talk to fall in love.
Aside from the beautiful look and feel of the show, I found myself drawn to the characters relatively quickly. Part of that is my admiration of Song Hye Kyo and Park Bo Gum as actors, but the characters themselves are just incredibly interesting people. Jin Hyuk is not wild and irresponsible like I was anticipating after hearing the character descriptions, but instead seems to be very wise and insightful, but a little insecure and with different priorities in life than the mainstream. Soo Hyun is quiet and reserved, always doing what’s expected of her and never rocking the boat… but that seems to be more a product of self-preservation after living her life in the spotlight (including her disastrous marriage) than her true personality. There were moments when she showed great insight, like how she knew that Jin Hyuk wouldn’t take money from her, or her mostly-hidden wicked sense of humor, such as when she threatened to fire Secretary Jang for not hanging out with her. I’m very much looking forward to seeing Soo Hyun’s true personality blossom as Jin Hyuk’s carefree and open nature begins to influence her
I can already tell that these two are going to break my heart in all the most painful and wonderful ways. They liked each other so much on the night they spent together, but they each also showed a lot of insecurity and uncertainty, too. That first scene at the airport was awful, the way it was so obvious that they were happy to see each other but too nervous or scared to admit it. Thank goodness Jin Hyuk figured out who Soo Hyun is, and he may even be her employee soon, but I’m afraid of what the future holds once they realize what a huge social and financial chasm stretches between them. Their love story will be epic and painful, but I’m totally ready to dive right in and see where this takes them.
Everything changes when fantasy ends and real life resumes, and problems that seemed not to matter in the magical glow of a sunset suddenly seem to loom over you in the brightness of day. Returning to day-to-day reality brings a lot of surprises for two people who never expected to see each other again, some good and some not-so-good, but it’s how they will face those surprises that will determine what happens to them next.
I was worried that leaving the magic and romance of Cuba behind would undercut the chemistry between our leads, but I just love Jin Hyuk and Soo Hyun even more after this episode. Seeing them in their natural habitats explains a lot about them as people, and made me understand more about their behavior in Cuba. In particular, Jin Hyuk’s warm, loving family explains a lot about his carefree attitude, as he’s clearly been encouraged to be himself, Conversely, watching Soo Hyun with her family shows why she feels the need to be so protective of her emotions and true feelings.
But I love how Soo Hyun lets herself just go around Jin Hyuk — I imagine his emotional openness makes her feel safe to relax her iron control on that part of herself. He’s safe to show her feelings to because he’s just a big ball of feelings himself. It’s cute to watch him try to rein in his impulsive tendencies around Soo Hyun while at the same time, she’s struggling to give herself permission to open up and relax. So I liked that Jin Hyuk got drunk and lost control (and by the way, Drunk Jin Hyuk is officially my new favorite thing), which flipped things on them the next day, putting him in the position of being nervous so that Soo Hyun could be friendlier with him. I notice that every time Soo Hyun laughs at Jin Hyuk’s antics, she seems more relaxed and unleashes that wicked sense of humor even more, and it makes me look forward eagerly to the time when they truly see themselves as equals.
I knew that the social and financial gap between them would be a problem, but at least until the article was published, it seemed to be much less a problem for Soo Hyun than it is for Jin Hyuk. And so far, it doesn’t feel like a typical case of the more privileged being fundamentally too good for the humble commoner just because she was lucky to be born into a higher class — it’s more that Soo Hyun is Jin Hyuk’s boss, and it puts her in a position of authority so that he doesn’t know how to act towards her. Soo Hyun doesn’t seem to care at all, so the only issue between the two of them, at the moment, is how to balance their work dynamic with their growing friendship-or-maybe-more.
I wasn’t expecting Soo Hyun and Jin Hyuk’s relationship to be outed so soon, and even if he’s a relative nobody, at least one person, Hye In, recognized him from the news article. I don’t think that Soo Hyun or Jin Hyuk feel that there’s anything to hide about their budding relationship (and although they haven’t explicitly discussed it, I think they both acknowledge that this is romantic in nature), but society is going to see a lot to object to about them. Pick your offense — they’re from two very different social strata, they’re boss and employee, and Soo Hyun is significantly older than Jin Hyuk. Add to that a pair of mothers with a political agenda, and I think Soo Hyun and Jin Hyuk are in for quite a storm. I just hope that their feelings are strong enough already to give them the strength to weather it and come out the other side together.
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