Flower Boy Ramyun Shop Episode 7

So Chi-soo offers to work the ramyun shop after all, goaded by the knowledge that Eun-bi will be there. Eun-bi chases him out to ask incredulously why he’s taking on the job. He tells her he’s considering it a lesson in work experience and flashes his crayon contract at her to tell her that she has no say in this. He drives off leaving Eun-bi confused and frustrated, howling at the moon (which bears Chi-soo’s winking face), “Why are you doing this to me? WHYYYY?!”

The newly assembled team gets to work renovating the shop with some hired help, but it turns out that the hired ajusshis are annoyed because all of the shop’s helpers are useless. For instance, Ba-wool and his friends hammer the wrong things, Hyun-woo is so nervous he’ll paint the wall badly that he wields the brush like an artist making a very slow masterpiece, and Kang-hyuk — what else? — sleeps.Then there’s Chi-soo, who strolls in late, wearing his idea of work gear — which might work in a Vogue spread interpretation of hard labor, perhaps. He looks about as realistic a construction worker as a stripper. He’s dressed in a black trench coat (see? totally stripper), wearing a hard hat set at a jaunty angle, and brings in his own folding chair so he can sit in the middle of the shop like a director managing his crew.When they’re done, the battered old sign reading “Eun-bi’s Snack Shop” is taken down, and replaced by a shiny new one. The team looks up at their new sign with satisfaction — minus Eun-bi, who mutters, “Flower boys, my ass.” The new sign reads: Flower Boy Ramyun Shop.

As they shop for groceries, Eun-bi pesters Kang-hyuk to un-hire Chi-soo, insisting that he’s totally unsuited for the job. She’s outlined the reason a dozen times, but Kang-hyuk asks what her real reason is for not wanting to work with Chi-soo. Startled at the point-blank question, she gapes a moment, then declares, “I just dislike him!” Ba-wool storms up, complaining about having to share a room with Hyun-woo, that weirdo, and insists on having his own. Kang-hyuk smiles at Eun-bi: “Then I’ll have to move into Wifey’s room.” Quick as a flash, she turns on Ba-wool: “Just share!” Haha.

Ba-wool can’t stand the awkwardness of sharing with Hyun-woo, so he starts to whine and pout, tugging on Kang-hyuk’s arm pleadingly. Eun-bi won’t be outdone and joins the whining, until they’re both like little kids clinging to Dad’s arm. Chi-soo tells Dad about his new job, describing it as work experience needed to take over the company. “I can’t do stuff like MBAs.” (Or, you know, real work.)

Dad supposes this has something to do with that intern teacher, and asks why he’s still fixated when his suffocated chest problem has been resolved. Chi-soo declares that he’s got a new problem now with his eyes (hence the Eun-bi hallucinations), but doesn’t want to answer why: “Stop asking! You know how I hate questions!” Dad wonders if Chi-soo’s eye problems result from him losing face (or more literally, “selling” his face). Secretary Man reports one more curious fact: The store Chi-soo will be working at happens to be the very same ramyun shop that Cha Sung had attempted to buy out (since it’s located right in front of the corporation’s building). Dad declares that they’ll buy out that shop, and also buy back Chi-soo’s lost face. Chi-soo plays a baseball game on his tablet, but up pops Eun-bi’s face, superimposed over the pitcher’s. Not even surprised, he muses, “You again?” He tosses the tablet away and shoves his rolling chair away from his desk…and then scoots himself back awkwardly to pick the computer back up. With a rueful smile, he figures, “Fine, let’s take this as far as it goes.” The next day he shows up to the shop, acting like the owner again rather than mere employee, and cuts the “ribbon” to mark their opening. The next morning, Eun-bi comes face to face with Chi-soo in the store, who blocks her path and smiles down at her. Suspicious, she asks what he’s up to and he replies pleasantly, “I’m just taking a look, to see what you really look like.”

She accuses him of having evil intent on his mind, as though he’s just working up new insults. For a brief second he looks surprised and asks, “Is that really what you think?” Her lack of faith in him gets him pissy — not that we can blame her for doubting him — and he says if he was going to torment her, he’d do more than that. Like making her call him oppa again.

Business is hopping today, too, and Eun-bi grimaces at the clamor, stuffing some dough into her ears as earplugs. Ew. I’m not saying that’s how certain infections are caused, but I’d be wary of sticking anything yeasty into a bodily orifice, is all I’m sayin’.

Chi-soo’s at his radish station, already less charming than he was yesterday, sick of this work. He takes a break, affecting the pose of a tragic and long-suffering poetic hero. He sighs dramatically, “From a far-away place, somebody calls for me.” Just as a whiny girl yells, “Oppa, gimme more radish!”Hyun-woo catches sight of something and hurriedly excuses himself. Chi-soo sees a trio of rough-looking ajusshis — loan sharks, perhaps — and recalls Hyun-woo telling him about his father’s financial problems.

Chi-soo arrives at the store and calls out his bodyguards, who have been sent to monitor him. He adds another order to their list of duties, saying that they’re to also monitor the store, and that if any black-suited gangster-like guys come by to harass people, they’re to “beat ‘em half to death.”Next thing we know, a quartet of boys — Ba-wool’s buddies — arrive in the neighborhood, dressed up in suits and bearing housewarming gifts.

They spot So-yi also on her way to the shop and greet her enthusiastically as “hyungsoo-nim” (wife of my hyung, in this case Ba-wool) — which is why it’s all the more maddening when she chirps that she’s here to see Chi-soo. At the shop, Kang-hyuk whips up some ramyun for Ba-wool, but Chi-soo declines the offer. He’s infatuated with his radish pile and says that this is all he craves — and then pictures Eun-bi’s face in a slice. Ha! He muses, “It’s time to take my medicine.” Riiight. Since love is a disease you catch and cure.

In the kitchen, Eun-bi works on kneading ramyun dough, and her hair slips loose of its tie and gets in her face. Two hands reach over and pull her hair back for her, and when she turns, it’s Kang-hyuk with a hair ribbon at the ready, smiling, “My wife is sexiest when she’s showing off her strength.”She lets him tie her hair, then asks, “Did you come here for something?” Kang-hyuk: “Yes, you.” Eeee! I love it. He lets that hang in the air for a moment, then holds out the bowl he brought, asking her to taste his soup. You cheeky hot bastard. And then he wipes the flour mark from her cheek, leaving her to smile in giddiness over his praise.

Her hair comes loose again, though, and this time it’s a different set of hands that reaches over to tie it back. Chi-soo takes her face in his hands and smiles, “Your face is so childish and obvious. So, why does it…keep…shining?” The charged air is broken when Ba-wool barrels in and pushes Chi-soo aside, assuming that he’s grabbed her hair meaning to threaten her. Is this part of his revenge plot?

Kang-hyuk breaks up the boys, but he levels a serious look at Chi-soo and asks if that’s true, if revenge was the real reason he joined them. Chi-soo looks exasperated at the misconception and also a little hurt, which is sad for him but also not entirely undeserved.

Hyun-woo feels bad for his friend and starts to speak up, but Chi-soo hushes him, then turns to Eun-bi: “What do you think?”

She doesn’t know how to reply, but before she can, cries come from outside, shouting for Ba-wool. It’s his black-suited friends, being aggressively held by the bodyguards. Ba-wool angrily demands to know who the bodyguards are working for, and when Chi-soo steps to the front, they bow in deference to him. He sends them off with a chagrined look, knowing how this will be interpreted.

Chi-soo faces the others and says, “It seems there’s been a misunderstanding.” But Ba-wool is furious and assumes that this is Chi-soo being dirty and underhanded in his attempt to steal So-yi, even after he’d put on such a cool facade about making it a fair competition.

Explaining the reason for the bodyguards would be a convoluted process, so Chi-soo takes out his gold card and hands it to Hyun-woo, urging him to repay his father’s debt. It’s not smoothly done and he knows it, but he’s frustrated with being thought the bad guy in all this, even as Hyun-woo gets angry at him and refuses.

Chi-soo bursts out, “Why do you all get angry whenever I try to do anything? What am I supposed to do?!”

Eun-bi steps forward and takes the card, reserved for VVVIPs of Cha Sung. She holds it up and says, “The reason we get angry? Do you know what it takes to make one of these cards?” She lists off the minimum salary and employment qualifications required to get one of them:

Eun-bi: “This card isn’t relevant to anybody here. We’ve got a runaway, a guy chased by debt collectors, a fired twentysomething intern without a job. To us, this is our only workplace. The only place we can receive some acknowledgement and make some money. If you wanna throw this around, go to your playground. Children who hang around places where adults work are a public nuisance.” Taking the card back, he says, “I see. Now I know what I have to do. I’ll leave.” But! Just as he heads to the door, a man steps inside: Jae-ho, the cheating ex. The two men stare each other down, recognizing each other from the water-balloon-throwing incident in Episode 1, and Jae-ho asks if Boyfriend Chi-soo is working here with Eun-bi.

Chi-soo tells him flatly that it’s over — both his job and his relationship. He starts to clarify the scene with the water balloons, but before he can out the lie, Eun-bi swoops in with a fake smile and hurriedly coos, “Jagiiiiii! Yes, you’re right, I work here with my honey,” all sweetness and light. Ba-wool gapes, Hyun-woo checks his hearing, and Kang-hyun looks confused.

Eun-bi shoots Chi-soo a pleading look, but he shakes her off and brushes himself off, like he’s about to toss her to the curb… and then sweeps her to his chest and declares through clenched teeth, “Of course! If I don’t see her every day, my eyes hurt. My eebbeunie [pretty].” Eun-bi smiles with relief, until he adds, “In fact…we live together.” Ha, now this IS revenge, and he shoots her a challenging look. Like she’d risk correcting him now.

Later, Ba-wool demands to know how the hell Chi-soo came to be calling himself boyfriend. Chi-soo starts to explain, and the others — Kang-hyuk, Ba-wool, Hyun-woo — perk up, curious at his answer. Only to deflate when Eun-bi walks in and Chi-soo says pointedly, “You’ll have to ask Yang Eebbeunie to explain.”

Eun-bi has called him here for a request, and he acts bored while she struggles to muster the nerve. He turns to go, and she blurts, “I need you!” Eun-bi asks Chi-soo to keep acting as her boyfriend (specifically, as her jagi), just when Jae-ho’s around. Chi-soo wipes the satisfaction from his face and faces her with feigned ignorance, asking, “And what will you be acting as?” She says, uncomfortably, “Eebbeunie!”

To her relief, Chi-soo agrees to act in the Jagi and Eebbeunie show. But it won’t come free: “Whenever I want to see you, I’ll get to.”