Shin-young is at work with her team, discussing possible directions to take with their new show, like adding student VJ correspondents. In walks Min-jae, full head of gray hair, which is presumably his way of saying, “Sorry I ruined my own million-candle grand gesture by making jokes about your gray hair.” But all I can do is go, “Bwuh?”All the women stand agape, as Min-jae tells them he’s here to apply for the VJ position. Her co-workers are all aflutter, but Shin-young shuts him down cold. She’s in no mood to play games with a kid.
Min-jae keeps pushing it, and Shin-young demands to know why he wants to work for them. He’s completely serious today, as he stares intensely at her and says, “You know why…” At some point, despite herself, Shin-young stops listening to him and we just hear her heart start to race, as they stare into each other’s eyes. Shin-young, unable to tamp down her feelings, leaves the room with an excuse.
Min-jae follows her into an empty hallway and demands to know what she’s so afraid of. She tells him not to speak so informally to her. Min-jae says that she’s so brave in all other things, but so scared when it comes to love. Being forty when I’m thirty, fifty when I’m forty, is it something that scary? Why? It’s not like you die in the same order that you’re born. Getting wrinkles sooner than me, gray hairs first, so what?” Min-jae: “I’m confessing these things for the first time in my life, and you’re going to shut me down like this?”
Shin-young: “Setbacks make you grow up.”
Min-jae: “The world has changed, and so have people’s thoughts. Follow your heart and be brave.”
Shin-young: “This has nothing to do with bravery.”
Min-jae: “Do you not like me?”
Shin-young (barely holding back her tears): “No.”
Min-jae: “Do you not see me as a man?”
Shin-young (clearly lying): “No. I don’t see you as a man.”
Min-jae: “I can tell you’re lying.”
Shin-young: “It doesn’t matter if it’s a lie.”
Min-jae (accepting defeat): “I understand. Thank you for stirring my heart, for being the person I wanted to see every day. You made me feel things for the first time in my life. I’m grateful for that. While my hair color returns, I will forget you. Take care.”
Min-jae knows when he’s outmatched, and with that, he turns and walks away, heartbroken. Shin-young watches him go, and she flashes back to all his cute grand gestures and their adorable chemistry. Shin-young proposes that they date for ten days. Ten days? Min-jae asks if she’s toying with him. Shin-young says that being with him for real would be wasting her time, but she thinks she could spare ten days. Min-jae, having put his heart on the line more than once, asks what on earth he’s supposed to do on Day 11, then. Shin-young says fine, three days. Whaa? Okay, ten days it is!
Min-jae insists that they start the counting tomorrow, as it is already late and he doesn’t want to waste half a day. Cute! As he walks away with this small victory, his face breaks into a mischievous smile. Yeah, we’re thinking the same thing you are. Ten days is plenty of time for you to win her over for good!At home, Da-jung is listless from her future father-in-law woes. Ban-seok calls, but she can’t bring herself to answer. But Da-jung, ever the seeker, goes to a life couch guru instead, asking for advice on the matter. Should she marry this man, while his family denounces her poor upbringing and everything she’s worked so hard for, or should she move on? But before she can get an answer, the guru turns out to be a quack, of course, leaving Da-jung to realize that the answer must be within herself. Is she…learning?
She decides to go to the hospital and talk things over with Ban-seok, only his father is there at the same time, to introduce him to a friend’s daughter.Shin-young tells her friends about the Ten Day relationship with Min-jae, and asks them not to try and talk sense into her, please. Bu-ki asks what happens after the ten days are up, and Shin-young says that they’ll go back to their original places. Bu-ki: “To Sang-woo?” Shin-young supposes that will be the case.Da-jung announces for the billionth time that she’s not going to get married. She finally tells the girls about Ban-seok’s disapproving father, and the hurtful things he said to her. They are, appropriately, shocked and appalled.Bu-ki spits out that Da-jung should have started eating with her hands, showing Ban-seok’s father just how uncouth she could be. Shin-young, practically shouting, asks why Da-jung’s been keeping this to herself, and if she’s been thinking about holding on to this guy, after all that.Da-jung rants, “Is being over thirty a sin? Are single women over thirty just supposed to die?!” Shin-young grabs her throat, gagging, “Die!”Da-jung: “I work hard. I try my best. I’m acknowledged. In my own way, I’m successful. What have I done to be treated that way? Marriage? Who needs it? I just won’t get married. I’m going to dump him cold. Even if his father comes begging on his knees, I won’t take him back!”
Bu-ki and Shin-young cheer, actually applauding her. They go in for the celebratory high-five……but Da-jung leaves them hanging. Limply, she says, “If only I could be like that.” Aw, man. We were all fired up! Da-jung confesses that she doesn’t want to lose Ban-seok, and begs the girls to help her.
Shin-young says that she should forget Ban-seok and find someone new. Da-jung can’t wait for yet another man, and even with someone new, he’s bound to come with some other explosive baggage. Bu-ki agrees with this. She tells them that life rarely deals a perfect hand; if the next guy has perfect parents, he’ll have gambling debts.In the middle of the discussion, Da-jung gets a call from Ban-seok, putting her in a tizzy because she pretended she was sick to avoid his calls. It turns out that Ban-seok is downstairs to see Da-jung and will wait all night if he has to. Da-jung is impressed, but Shin-young tells her not to be so easy; that she should make him wait a while and play a little hard to get.
But in the same breath, Shin-young’s phone rings with a call from Min-jae, and we see the change in her reaction:Min-jae wants to meet her at midnight, the official start of Day 1, but Shin-young ups it to nine o’clock, as she is granting him three free hours as an opening bonus. The hypocrisy is not lost on Da-jung.Bu-ki takes Da-jung to her apartment, where they stage a sickbed for Ban-seok’s benefit. Shin-young gets ready for her date, singing and dancing in the shower, and my word, is she adorable. Ban-seok arrives at Bu-ki’s apartment and Da-jung does this hilarious rendition of all weepy kdramas where the woman asks to break up with her boyfriend, because she’s really such a good person and martyr. Gag. I love that they’re making fun of this convention. Da-jung plays it to the hilt, with Bu-ki’s help, and the aid of some eye drops.The plan works, as Ban-seok is now on Da-jung’s side, (Did we ever doubt him?) and says he will take care of his father. Well, you don’t exactly have my vote of confidence on the daddy issue seeing as how you’re kind of a blubbering idiot around him, but you get an A for good intentions. He blurts out that he loves her, and once he’s gone the girls rejoice at their success.
Meanwhile, Shin-young goes downstairs to meet Min-jae, who has arrived on his white steed, I mean car. They cute-banter and Min-jae tells Shin-young to get in the car before he kisses her. During their date, Shin-young gets a call from Sang-woo, who is in Paris. She LIES to Min-jae about who called, then LIES to Sang-woo on the phone, telling him that she’ll be busy for the next ten days because of work. They go for a walk, and Min-jae holds her hand and puts it in his pocket, the same way Sang-woo did a few episodes back. Only this time Shin-young doesn’t pull away. So big, the clues. Why doesn’t she see them? Min-jae notes that her hands are soft, and Shin-young says that she’s been told that a lot. This makes Min-jae stop in his tracks. With a sly smile, he says, “I have a jealous streak. Don’t say things like that anymore.” I’m not squeeing. The next day Sang-mi picks out wallpaper for Sang-woo’s apartment, and she gets two texts: one from Min-jae saying that he loves her (aw), and one from Sang-woo saying that she can take her time with the wallpaper and he’ll contact her when he’s back in town. She dismisses the first one (apparently Min-jae’s charm doesn’t work on his mom), but lights up at the second one. She puts up the new wallpaper and sends Sang-woo a picture of it, and he gets so excited, it’s actually making me like him a little, for the first time. Sang-woo returns from Paris and he meets Sang-mi for coffee, both of them eager but still tentative towards each other. Sang-woo gives her a scarf and they make with the twinkly eyes. I surprisingly like this pairing, because it softens both characters. Sang-woo is far more likable when he isn’t with Shin-young, and Sang-mi looks about ten years younger in this episode, just from the smiling alone.In a different relationship across town, Da-jung and Ban-seok engage in some on-the-job kissing at the hospital, where Da-jung has come to get “treated” for her “illness.”Things are going swimmingly, that is, until they run into Mack truck Daddy (not to be confused with mack-daddy), who has returned with his friend’s daughter. As expected, Ban-seok totally folds like the doormat that he is, and can’t come to Da-jung’s defense when his father treats her like a third-class citizen. Da-jung doesn’t do anything but apologize (!) and run away.
Ban-seok tries to reason with his father, to no avail. So in the end he ekes out a threat that he’ll just have to make a baby first then!Da-jung ends up at Bu-ki’s restaurant, announcing again that she will not be getting married. Bu-ki can’t even pretend to take her seriously, and reminds her of all the reasons they had come up with for sticking this relationship out. Da-jung leaves in a huff, insisting that she isn’t going to put up with it anymore.
And then in a nice moment of reflection, Da-jung waits at the bus stop and looks up at the sign that announces the arrival of the next bus. She muses how nice it would be if life would announce who was coming next, and when. She imagines the sign telling her of the next man in her life, and when he will come to her. makes her decide to give him another chance, and she calls him to work it out.
Shin-young and her team work hard on their new show. It’s going well, so of course Shin-young’s evil sunbae pulls a classic two-faced move. In front of Shin-young he belittles their ratings success and chalks it up to the timeslot, but behind her back he sweet-talks their boss into letting him oversee the show because Shin-young needs the help. The boss takes it under advisement.We then get glimpses of Shin-young and Min-jae’s Ten Days, as he teaches her how to play guitar, they listen to music together, and play an endless game of rock paper scissors because they don’t want to part at the end of the night. Back at the boys’ apartment, Ban-seok tells Min-jae to stay out tomorrow night. Min-jae gets the hint and notes that Ban-seok is moving pretty fast with Da-jung. You clearly have never seen him kiss a woman. If this goes smoothly, I will give you a million dollars. And a pony.
Min-jae also admits to Ban-seok that he is in love for the first time in his life. Hm, adorable, but doesn’t bode well for the long-term. At home, Shin-young looks at her calendar and realizes that she only has three days left with Min-jae. She prays that they go by slowly.
Sang-woo searches his apartment for some excuse to call Sang-mi, with nary a broken light fixture to lean on. Finally he finds that he needs a parking pass, and meets her at the market for the hand-off. She helps him shop for his new place, and they go to a café.
Sang-woo is more forward on their second “date” and calls her by her name. He remembers how many sugars she takes in her coffee, and isn’t really hiding how smitten he is. Sang-mi doesn’t even know how to react to such attention; it’s clear that it’s been decades since anyone has noticed her in this way.
But when Sang-woo asks why she rented out the apartment, Sang-mi answers truthfully. She tells him she has a college-age son and…a husband. Sang-woo is floored and can’t hide his disappointment as he watches her walk away.Sang-woo is down about Sang-mi, so he calls…Shin-young?He asks to see her, but Shin-young gives excuses about being slammed at work. Sang-woo insists he has to see her tonight, and says he’ll wait for her call.
Shin-young, meanwhile, has heard about her evil sunbae’s plot to take over her news program, and Min-jae talks her through it, encouraging her and being supportive. Wow, seriously, this impressed me way more than all those damn tea lights and the hair change combined. This is the first time he seems like actual serious boyfriend material for Shin-young, in my book.
After cheering her up, Min-jae tells her not to go home tonight. Shin-young: “Why?” Min-jae: “Because you’re going to stay up all night worrying. Let’s sleep together.”HA…the two of them, hanging out at a jjimjilbang (a public 24-hour sauna). Shin-young asks Min-jae what he thinks he’ll be doing when he’s 34. He replies, “I think I’d like to write music for movies…and I want to be with a 44-year-old You.”
Shin-young: “I’ve never once had this thought, until now: if I were 24 right now, how nice would that be? I thought about that…for the first time ever.”
And then they fall asleep, all snuggly in each other’s arms.
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