
This is part 2 of our recap for Dinner Mate!
Caution: Be wary of typos
Shorthand Character Chart: Dinner Mates Character Chart
How we do this: This live recap will be in two parts and we segment each post around every 10 minutes. Sometimes sooner, sometimes later depending on the scene. There will be typos which we have fantasies of fixing once the episode finishes airing. Also, if there is a preview then we will try and translate it. Look for that at the bottom or on a separate post!
KOREAN DRAMA DINNER MATES RECAP EPISODE 13 & 14 – PART 2
——-dramamilk.com——-
/4/
Gun-woo gives Do-hee her purse and she gives Gun-woo the cardboard cutout. He asks what is going on? You want me to return this?
DH – Yes, how can I go inside? Kim Hae-kyung is there.
GW – Why don’t you just come in and say hi?
DH – No! Never! Never!
GW – Why are you super no about it?
But then Hae-kyung comes walking up so she hides behind the cardboard cutout again.
HK – What is this? Is this Woo Do-hee PD?
He starts to move the cardboard. Gun-woo stops him.
GW – Of course not! That is the singer [says his name].
HK – Hey, are you joking?
GW – It is just the singer, let’s go, let’s go.
He motions Hae-kyung in the other direction and they walk off.
Then we cut to Do-hee walking up the street. She walks in a daze and just stops. People wonder what is up with her.
GUN WOO’S STUDIO
Hae-kyung and Gun-woo hang out at his studio. Hae-kyung asks him what really happened?
GW – Because of Noeul’s scandal, everyone apposed the program, but Woo Do-hee PD wants it. She said this issue has nothing is wrong with Noeul. Even though her program is closed because she could not recruit Dr. Kim Hae-kyung, she still does what she believes and does not follow what the company tells her. In this case, she is stupidly brave and cool.
Hae-kyung drinks his beer.
GW – I hope you work with her and Noeul. You know what kind of person you are to Noeul.
Hae-kyung keeps drinking then finally says, if Noeul does this to me, it is a temporary thing. She thinks she will go back to where she shined the most if she sees me. Being obsessed with the past is not good for Noeul also. Also, it is important for her to overcome it on her own.
GW – Hey, you are diagnosing your own love life.
HK – Hey, do not have a headache between us. Just be a nice friend to Noeul.
GW – is this about your job?
They keep drinking.
Meanwhile, Do-hee goes home and has a meditation session. She mutters to herself as she does it.
DH – So, Kim Hae-kyung and Noeul are old boyfriend and girlfriend. But Jin No-eul still has feelings to Kim Hae-kyung. Kim Hae-kyung does not have any. (She sounds like she has a North Korean accent).
She extends her hands to her side and raises them but then falls and speaks in her normal voice, why is this so complicated! i should just work. Work, work, work.
She sits at her coffee table with her computer and pops her knuckles to get to typing. Her big stuffed penguin looks at her from the side. She turns the penguin around and tells him not to look at her. Then she goes back to get to work.
But then she sees the book that she got from Hae-kyung’s mother. She puts it away and goes back to get to work. She tells herself that this is great, I won’t even think about him! But of course he is all that she thinks about. She thinks about falling on him and eating with him and him pulling her away from JH and checking her wrist and putting the cold drink on it and seeing him in Noeul’s cell phone.
her face falls pitifully, she pouts.
/5/
MORNING
Do-hee works with her team and with a person who is making kimbap rolls. But she is not focusing.
Later on, Ah-yong walks up looking care-free and fabulous. She gievs them all a digestiv drink but Jin-kyu burps which makes them all scatter. Ah-young scatters to Do-hee and tells her to come talk to her.
They go to a sitting area to drink and talk. maybe it is a coffee shop. Ah-yong asks why she looks to tired and aout of it. Do-hee says she worked all night, give me a break.
Ah-yong asks Do-he if she saw….
Do-hee asks, who? Everyone on my team is at work.
Ah-young says, no, thats not it….you convenience store person.
DH – Why are you so interested in him? I actually did not see him for a few days. Did you come to my neighborhood secretly?
AY – Well, I went there, the convenience store….to buy something, you have so many by your place….so many franchises, HEY, just work!
DH – Okay, okay, I am an employee that will just go to work. But if I see him, I will tell him.
AY – *unconcerned* whatever.
Do-hee smiles and walks out.
HAE KYUNG
Meanwhile, Hae-kyung is at home reading. He checks his Dinner Mate thread and sees that they have not talked for 3 days. He wonders if she has been busy? The last conversation was about camping.
But he imagines that she got into a car accident while walking.
Or was kidnapped.
Or her apartment caught on fire.
He tries to shake his head to knock those ideas away and thinks about what to type on his phone. But he puts it away without typing anything.
2N BOX
The radio is on at the company. it is pretty late, only a few employees are there. The host says a quote from Lee Moon-jung’s novel “Love has timing, farewells have timing, this is the timing for me to leave him.”
Do-hee looks at the radio
Host – The couple who loves each other but has to separate from each other. The couple who breaks up but still love each other. What about you?
Do-hee thinks about this. She texts Hae-kyung. He picks up his phone right away.
DH: Can I see you tomorrow?
He quickly responds.
HK : For dinner?
Then he waits impatient and taps his finger on the table.
DH: No, to just see me, I need to tell you something.
He wonders, tell me something?
MEETING
Do-hee sits at the meeting location, which is a nice hipster place with an open room and quirky but clean decorations. She is dressed a tiny bit better and is nervous.
He comes strolling in and happily sits at the table to talk to her. He crosses his arm looking a bit jokingly smug and says, I thought we don’t call each other for private things. But then he notices that she is a bit serious.
DH – I wanted to talk on the phone but I thought I should at least tell you in person. Let’s stop Dinner Mates.
KH – *clears throat* Okay, but, um, wait, let’s talk about it first.
He leans in towards the table.
DH – As you know, when I met you in Jeju island, I wasn’t myself.
KH – Well, I was the one with the head injury.
DH – You were always there in all my nonsense situations. I thought you might be something special but it is nothing special, strangers are strangers.
KH – *deep breath* well, so, well, that is not a reason to stop dinner mates.
DH – I don’t know you, we have no future. I don’t want to waste time. As you said, I should live looking at the future. thank you for everything. Goodbye.
She stands up and starts to walk out. A love song starts to play. He stays sitting and turns to watch her leaving. Then he rests his arms on the table, deep in brooding thought.
Do-hee walks home and sees Ah-young waiting at the convenience store in Keanu’s chair. Do-hee asks her why she is here? Do you like that ajusshi? Ah-young asks if she is crazy? Do-hee tells her it is fine, he looks like a good person.
AY – Do you date anyone if they are a good person?
Do-hee starts to sniffle so Ah-young asks her what is wrong and gives her a big hug. she pats her on the back and asks if anything happened? Did someone hit you? Let’s sit and drink.
Four botles of soju later, and they are still drinking. Do-hee drinks a lot, y’all. She takes another shot and sighs.
DH – That man, Kim Hae-kyung. That man, my dinner mate, is Kim Hae-kyung.
AY – Why are you about to cry? Did he say something to you because you are Woo Do-hee?
The boss curses at Kim Hae-kyung
DH – Don’t cures him
AY – What?
DH – He doesn’t know
AY – What doesn’t he know? Tell me!
DH – He is Kim Hae-kyung….
AY – Okay
DH – And I am Woo Do-hee and he does not know that
AY – SO what is the problem? Just don’t tell him. Or I can eat with you, it is nothing.
DH – Yes, we ate only dinner, but i was not just only eating dinner. *tears*
AY – Do you like him?
DH – No, I will not like him. I will not. That man, Kim Hae-kyung, I will stop liking him.
Ah-young gives her a hug and comforts her as her crying baby.
But then when she is walking away, she thinks someone is following her so she throws her shoes at him. It is Keanu. He is back in his homeless style clothing and puts her shoe back on for her. She blushes.
AY – I told you to walk next to me.
So he starts to walk next to her.
AY – Why did you cut your hair? Where did you go?
He laughs and they keep walking.
Meanwhile, Do-hee is still drunk. She is in front of her place now.
/6/
MORNING
Hae-kyung wakes up and checks his phone. But he is disappointed. He swings off his blanket and rolls out of bed.
Do-hee does the same in her home and checks her fridge for something to drink. She sees the strawberry drink and her coffee drink and, with a sigh, decides to drink her coffee one.
She sinks into her bed and checks her phone.
AY: the world is big, there are many men in it.
She sighs and responds.
DH: I don’t need men.
Then she checks her dinner mates thread and scrolls through it. She touches her phone to erase the chatting record. When the message comes up to see if she wants to go through with it, she says yes. Then she drinks her coffee milk.
In his home, Hae-kyung pours himself a drink of coffee at his table. he eats some bread and then checks his dinner mates chat. But there is nothing. So he checks it and sees that he cannot talk to her anymore. He is surprised and thinks back to her telling him that she does not know him and that they have no future together. We should not waste our time.
He thinks for a moment and then checks his watch and leaves.
WEDDING
Cut to a man singing at a wedding. This is the wedding that Jae-hyuk told Dohee about. Do-hee is there, along with Jae-hyuk. He keeps looking at her.
Later on, the classmates all stand together and chat. One of them say that they still look good together. But Do-hee says she likes being alone. The singer comes up to them to chat as well. They all great him and some say that they are his fan.
They talk about going to a second round with the singer, but Do-he says that she is busy, see you later. She heads out. One of the sunbae’s asks Jae-hyuk if he hasn’t done it yet? Jae-hyuk says he is trying.
The singer actually follows Do-hee for a second and stops Do-hee from walking away and asks her if she would like to have dinner together if she is okay with it?
DH – (Ah, dinner again? This time I know the face, name, and job.) She keeps looking at him.
Then we see her sitting at the bus stop alone. She think about Ah-young telling her there are so many men in the world. It looks like this is about her first break up. Do-hee is crying over him.
VO – (DH) the world is big, there are a lot of men. Ah-young eunnie told me that. Back then it was kind of funny. There aer a lot of men but it does not matter because they are not Jung Jae-hyuk. When I broke up with [the other boyfriend] people said the same thing. I thought, there are a lot of men, but not too many to trust.
Then she thinks about Jae-hyuk saving her from the coast.
VO – But then, Kim Hae-kyung showed up.
She thinks about eating with him on Jeju island when he was wearing the flower clothing.
VO – He doesn’t know anything about me but he rescued me and listened to my stories and ate dinner with me.
She thinks about all those moments, then the moment she realized he was Kim Hae-kyung.
He told her that the end was the same whether you abandon someone or are the one getting abandoned. It is better not to start at all.
VO – But it ended without starting. With the heart, if I try hard, I can end it. I can try to behave like it is nothing and it will become nothing.
She gets on her bus and hen is let off in her neighborhood. She walks up the street and stops while looking in the distance.
Hae-kyung is standing there looking at her by his car. He goes to the cross walk to cross the street and walk to her. He looks around and walks across the street with purpose towards her.
VO – Then I realized, trying to fake it to your heart is so easily defeated by what your heart wants.
He stand right in front of her and takes a deep breath and then pulls out his car. He hands it to her.
She stares at it and then takes it.
HK – I am Kim Hae-kyung. If you want to contact me, you can call me on this phone number.
They both look at each other.
Fade Out
COMMENTS
Okay, I swooned when Hae-kyung was waiting for Do-hee at her place and walked across the street to give her his ID. Where will this show go from here!!!!! Loved this episode because I am just in love with this pair so it will take a lot for me to fall out of love with it. Ah, just give me all the screen time with Hae-kyung and Do-hee!
Alright, it is theory time!
A theory on DC inside is that Jae-hyuk destroyed Keanu’s reputation/practice using his medical journalism stuff. So he went to Hae-kyung to warn him about Jae-hyuk.
Another theory is that Jae-hyuk was Keanu’s patient but Keanu failed to treat him and is warning Hae-kyung that Jae-hyuk is dangerous.
PREVIEW
Keanu – Do-hee, let the hand go first. Who is the one?
AY – if you regret doing it or not doing it, it is better to do it and regret.
DH – I am afraid of getting hurt and I am also afraid of hurting him.
BJ – You came back after many years and says, Be careful of Jung Jae-hyuk? What does that mean?
Keanu – If you want to protect someone, then do whatever it takes to protect them.
JH – I am going to turn everything back.
DH – Eating together makes me uncomfortable.
VO – We will see who smiles in the end and who will have Do-hee
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I’m going with the theory that JH did something bad to Keanu’s family, resulting in him doing some jail time.
That aside, now that Do Hee knows, I really really want Do Hee to finally tell Hae Kyung who she really is! Gosh we’re already at episode 7 for crying out loud. She better fess up in tomorrow’s episode, for the sake of my sanity.
I think he killed (accidentally?) Keanu’s family and had to leave the country quickly. Hence Keanu’s scene at the dumpling place with wife and daughter.
Author
Oh my gosh, that might have happened!
First of all, thanks for a quest’s suggestion here, I have been able to watch this wonder drama (I only only up to ep. 5, debating if I should become a VIP on that site. LOL).
Second of all, bigger thanks for V posting all the recaps. I have been following the recaps and can’t wait to watch the episodes eventually. Seo Ji-Hye and Song Seung-Heon are wonderful actress and actor. I watched Ji-Hye on “Crash landing” and “Heart Surgeons”. “Dinner Mate” is the best of her performance of the three. Fighting!
Now that DH knows who she has been having dinners with, and HK even gives her his business card to her, what to do? Will she tell him she is the PD or she will let HK find out at the studio? One way or the other, I am sure it will be another sweat and cute moment. 🙂
Are there a statistics to show how many melo dramas are produced in Korea each year? This is definitely my favorite in 2020 so far. (I also love “When my love blooms” as well but that one was a bit too heavy at times).
Thank you soooo much! You are angels!
Author
I am with you @Stephanie! I really want her to confess who she is before he finds out some other way! But this is a Kdrama so you know he is going to find out in the worst way possible and there is going to be some kind of misunderstanding. BUT HOPEFULLY THEY CAN AVOID THAT AT ALL COSTS.
How true this turned out to be after how HK found out about DH
Thank you for your recap, @V!
Gaaah—the pacing of this show is on point! Writer-nim has streeeeetched my credulity just to the point of anxiety when BAM! Do-woo finally discovers Hae-kyung’s identity. She handled it with aplomb and escapes with the comical grace of the greatest of screwball heroines. How is this show so freaking funny and swoony at the same time?
Do-hee is one of my favorite FL this year. She’s a little sloppy but she’s good at her job, kind, and calls bullshit when she sees it. (Her fury at being wrist-grabbed was GOLD!) This “break-up” period was beautifully rendered, as she reflected on her previous loves and how much she actually liked Hae-kyung. And I adore how the we see both of their (cheesy) romantic fantasies. (Show? Thank you for slow-motion Hae-kyung. Just, thank you.)
Wow, those Jae-hyuk’s creepy vibes have just ratcheted up to 11. What initially seemed like a sense of entitlement is now feeling more compulsive and dangerous. I initially guessed JH injured Keanu’s family in some way and maybe served prison—but what if he had been hospitalized instead? Whether it’s prison or a mental hospital—it’s an intolerable stigma for his conservative family. It’s very interesting (and worrisome) that issues of mental health won’t be merely limited to Hae-kyung’s patients. I just hope this writer can handle it with sensitivity.
Author
Let us all pause and have a moment to enjoy slow motion Hae-kyung. 😍 Can he just be slow motion in all of his dramas? 😁
yes, I hope the writer (or maybe writers? There might be two newbies going back and forth) have a sensitive touch with mental illness while also keeping the vibe of the show in tact.
I’ve just picked this drama up – mainly because Oh my Baby is going into murky ‘might drop’ territory. Anyway, I came here for your latest recap and preview and was like ‘Keanu?’ Did I miss something, and even checked out Asianwiki character chart AND THEN the penny dropped. Nicely done!
I really love the breezy ambience the director has created. Yet each episode you can feel things are getting more ‘serious.’ Like you would when you go from dating to relationship. Yet they are going from having this relationship rooted in something they both need to ‘dating?’ Something she wants but I still feel he is hesitant over. More like he wants her in his life but not so much the ‘dating’ part. Plus there are cards yet to be played! I wonder so much about how their dynamic will change now AND that’s actually refreshing for Kdrama. I can’t work out where this is going – much like dating in real life.
Sorry, I didn’t finish the Keanu part… that’s when I went back and realized this is more than just the rom com it had been advertised as. So I went back to the beginning and marathoned this drama. And that’s when i realized this has been promoted wrong. It has so many interesting layers, just like life.
Yet i love that slow burn, breezy ambience juxtaposed against this underlying ‘implosion?’
Whatever just please don’t be another drama I have to ‘pause.’
Thank you so much for the recaps!
I agree. It has happened to me a few times I misjudged a Kdrama based on it’s description (Netflix is the worst).
Author
For real, Netflix descriptions are so super simple. So easy to guess what it is about and it is about something completely different.
Author
Lol, yes, this drama is turning into a “Secretary kim” style vibe where there is a spooky part mid way through.
Author
Oh my gosh, Sebba, right on! Lol, I didn’t want to keep calling Keanu a bum or homeless so I was like, maybe I should just started calling him by his name? Even though I wasn’t sure if they mentioned it yet. 😂