The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry Episode 14

Before Sang-mi’s unannounced visit to Shin-young’s apartment, Bu-ki actually had fired off a quick warning text telling her to clean up and act surprised. However, in her furtiveness (to keep Sang-mi from seeing), she hadn’t noticed that the text failed to deliver.

Before Shin-young opens the door, Min-jae suggests facing his mother honestly, but Shin-young feels this is the wrong time for that; it’ll just make things worse. So he hurries to the spare bedroom while Shin-young greets Sang-mi warmly. Bu-ki takes Shin-young aside to warn her that this is a very important step — the fact that Sang-mi is here indicates that she’s starting to open up to her, so they can’t mess this up. in-jae listens at the door and accidentally steps on something in the dark. He tries to contain his pain but bumps into something, so Bu-ki quickly covers, pretending she banged her leg. She then goes to her place to prepare snacks, offering the two women a chance to chat.

Sang-mi’s feelings haven’t changed about not wanting Shin-young and Min-jae to date, but her goal today is merely to talk together. Her attitude is slowly loosening up, and today she treats Shin-young with more civility than she has before — if not quite warm, she’s at least no longer cold.

Wanting to gain more insight about Shin-young’s character, Sang-mi asks her what time was most difficult in her life. Shin-young’s answer is honest if a little awkward — it was when Sang-woo dumped her. But she doesn’t vilify him, explaining that he was young. Now he’s matured, and she sees that he truly loves Sang-mi. She admits her own part in the failure of their relationship, because she was selfish and too focused on her career: “To be accurate, we weren’t close enough to marry.”A cell phone rings under the table, and neither woman immediately reaches for hers. Clearly this must be Min-jae’s, forgotten in his haste to hide himself. Shin-young is cool under pressure and answers it like she’s talking to a co-worker about business. And then, another phone rings — from her own pocket. Shin-young answers this one too, then explains to Sang-mi that she has one phone for work, and another personal one. Thankfully Sang-mi accepts this without suspicion, and the mood remains pleasant overall.

Sang-mi does a crafty mom trick by prefacing a request with a story to make Shin-young sympathize with her position, and confesses that she’s afraid Min-jae will make the mistakes her husband made. He married after a momentary passion, and spent the rest of his life wandering around, making them both unhappy. She doesn’t want that for her son, so while she knows she can’t rip the couple apart, she asks Shin-young to promise that before he graduates, don’t do anything to force him to “take responsibility” for her. This is a euphemism for “Keep it in your pants, kids!” and Shin-young understands. She promises, and Sang-mi answers that she’ll trust in her.

Having satisfied her curiosity, Sang-mi soon leaves, escorted by Sang-woo, who comes by to pick her up.The two lovebirds sigh in relief after the guests leave, feeling pretty good about how things turned out. But they stand around awkwardly, with Sang-mi’s request ringing in both their ears. It’s a different matter for the newlyweds. Although Da-jung is worn out and unhappy about her day being overrun by the kids, Ban-seok asks her to be patient, and then sweeps her off her feet. As Bu-ki and Da-jung shop together later that day, they find themselves being followed by a man in a suit. He’s more sleazy than scary, and introduces himself as an agent who’s looking for a CF model in her late 20s. He noticed them because they’ve got just what he’s looking for!

Anyone with the least bit of sense would be able to sense that he’s working some sort of scam, and these two cotton on right away. However, they’ve also got a friend who’s busting her ass trying to come up with a story to fill in for a last-minute dropped item, so they decide that they’ll go along with this guy’s act to give Shin-young an item.

Thus they act giggly and excited, giving the guy just the naive responses he’s looking for as he says he’s looking to promote a diet drink. The CF does require a few revealing shots, but they’ll be done tastefully, he promises.Bu-ki and Da-jung play the parts of wide-eyed ingenues as they relocate to a shabby studio for a test shoot. The set pretty much looks like a porn set and the costumes are ridiculous, but they go along with it. The guy is more than happy to hear that they’ve called a third friend — an “aspiring actress” — to join them.

Bu-ki dresses up like Sailor Moon, Da-jung like Marilyn Monroe, and Shin-young like… Velma from Scooby Doo?While the director is busy filming them individually, Shin-young sneaks the door open, allowing her own cameraman to silently tape the proceedings.

The result is a story featuring today’s footage as well as film of previous victims who were tricked into fake photo shoots by the shyster. The UBN deputy director is pleased with her work, and the program will air tomorrow.Min-jae is still staying with Shin-young, but Shin-young makes it clear that he can’t stay much longer than a few days. He doesn’t have a problem with being her roommate on a more long-term basis, but she is intent on honoring her promise with his mother.

He promises to cook something special for her that evening, and gets cracking. He doesn’t do this with the most skill, but it’s the thought that counts, right? In fact, it’s refreshing to see that finally there’s something he’s bad at, and he calls Ban-seok for advice. Da-jung is working at home when Ban-seok’s sister comes by again with her son, letting herself in with the door passcode. Once again Da-jung tries to bear this politely, unable to point out how rude her sister-in-law is being by borrowing Da-jung’s clothes and purse freely. When Ban-seok comes home that evening, he finds Da-jung dispirited and at the end of her rope — she can’t do this. She can’t watch the kids every day, tutor them, and manage her own career as well. It’s asking too much.

Filled with remorse, Ban-seok insists on washing her feet for her.Ban-seok brings up the suggestion of taking mini-trips every weekend, either to his parents’ house or on trips with them. They can play games and fish and bond. After all, it would be good to get used to spending all that quality time together now, since they can live with them once they’ve had kids.

Er, what now? Da-jung is taken by surprise to hear that Ban-seok intends to take care of his parents. He’s the second son and normally this task would fall to the first son would (hence Da-jung’s rule against dating first sons), but Ban-seok explains that this brother is probably going to settle down in the States. Not noticing his wife’s faltering mood, he explains excitedly that he has always dreamed of living in a big family with three generations, taking trips every weekend.

She agrees weakly, then slips out later that night to sit by herself in the dark kitchen, telling herself, “It’s still better than when you were alone, right?” Sang-mi seems much happier these days, and more relaxed. Her relationship with Sang-woo is going well — he even wants to introduce Sang-mi to his mother — and her attitude toward Shin-young is warming as well. That evening, she cooks and packs food for Min-jae, who she believes is living at his studio.

She uses this as an opportunity to extend another hand to Shin-young, packing the food with a note asking her to deliver the package to Min-jae and to help herself to the food.This she drops off at the guard booth to Shin-young’s apartment, then turns to leave… But having escaped once this episode, it’s just not dramatically feasible to have Shin-young escape discovery again and Sang-mi spots her walking home with Min-jae. It looks like they’ve gone grocery shopping together, and to make their living situation absolutely clear, Min-jae suggests they stay up all night long talking.

So when the guard knocks on Shin-young’s door to deliver the food, Sang-mi bursts in behind them — wearing a bitchface that, for once, is perfectly warranted — and orders Min-jae to leave. Sang-mi reminds Shin-young of her promise, unappeased by Min-jae’s explanation that nothing happened, and that he was only staying for a few days.

Instead of heeding his mother’s order to leave, Min-jae grabs Shin-young’s hand and leads her outside, simmering with emotion. Shin-young asks in confusion where he’s headed, and he turns to her: “Let’s marry tomorrow.”