This hour is even better than the first! Yes, a show that continues to build on what they have instead of screeching on the breaks. What a concept! Of course I kid, I am just so happy that this episode was wonderful and funny and bright and happy and I loved it so much.
Give me more, show, give me more!
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 3 & 4 – PART 1
——-dramamilk.com——-
/1/
We open with Hae-kyung knocking on the passenger side window of Do-hee’s rental car. She got out thinking it was the man who was selling the orange chocolate. So she asked how much they were.
But then she is startled to see Hae-kyung standing there. He asked, what are you asking? So she had to back track and ask what he was doing there. (cute music plays in the background).
He thinks for a moment and asks if she would like to eat dinner together. He smiles.
Then we cut to them driving away. He searches on his phone where they could eat. He needs to find a place that opens late. all the places he knows of are closed already.
She says that a lot of small places can stay open late for them. But he explains that they need to go somewhere with scheduled late opening hours because the taste is dependent on the people who work there. She is impressed and says he looks like Baek Jon-won (the most popular chef in Korea).
She parks in a spot on a large parking lot where there is a food truck that is still open. He does not want to go there but seh says that she has a good feeling about it. So she stats to yell to them to stay open a bit later!!!! Please!!!!!
The men see her and look super stunned but then they run their chairs out happily. Hae-kyung asks if she really wants to eat here? It doesn’t seem so sanitary?
One of the men says they will not sell to them! And stats to close the food truck, but then the other one says we can serve them! And then turns and smiles again.
She asks how long they have been open? They tell her 5 days! They look very proud about that as well, lol. Hae-kyung looks more and more uncomfortable as the men keep talking about how great their Jeju pork is. It is meat over rice.
Hae-kyung says something else sarcastic so the chubby one says, I’m not selling! Again and starts to close the food truck. But the other one stops him again.
Cut to the two of them eating the food. She is eating sea urchin and he is eating samgyupsal. She mentions how her food is just like the smell of sea, it is so good. She gives the men a thumbs up.
He is a lot more skeptical and says that rice in a cup is just rice in a cup. He takes a bite and suddenly music starts to play and he looks at her. Then he takes another bite. It looks like it is really good. She asks, how is it? Can I have some?
He lets her have some so she says, yes, this is so good too. He keeps quietly eating and wonders in his head, why doesn’t she ask me why I came back? that is a normal thing to ask.
DH – You look like, why doesn’t she ask me why I came back?
HK – *coughs* Not at all.
DH – I thought it was obvious so I didn’t ask. It’s because I looked so pitiful.
HK – No, not that.
DH – you look educated with manners and money. If you have room mentally and economically then you can have a little sympathy for others. But based on how you behave and talk, it seems like you don’t look at me as a woman so it seems like there is a low possibility of doing something to me so actually I am less awkward with you because I don’t think of you as a man.
All while she was talking he crossed his arm and tried to hold back a smile and leaned back in his seat, looking at her, amused.
HK – You sound like a psychiatrist.
DH – Oh, I hate shrinks. When I see them talking, they are all conmen.
He leans in.
HK – What? Well, did a psychiatrist take your money or something?
DH – Not that….
HK – Talking bad about specific occupations is not a good thing.
DH – *lightly* Did you have a psychiatrist co-sign on something for collateral?
HK – its not that….ah, just eat. Eat, eat.
DH – Anyway, today is a very special day for me. It should be a super miserable day. But because of you it ended as a kind of weird day.
He thinks for a second.
HK – By the way, let’s make sure of this one thing. I did not do it because you look pitiful. I came back to eat dinner together.
She kind of smiles.
They finish eating and she sighs and says that she has to find a place to stay now. if you don’t have a place to stay then come with me.
He is about to say something, like how he always has a place to stay when he comes to Jeju, but then the two men burst onto their table and tell them that there is a pension not to far from here!!!!! If you see it, it will look like a palace! They keep on talking so well about that pension.
Do-hee says, let’s try it. Hae-kyung tries to say not but he doesn’t say anything. The cooks start to walk away and mutter, ah, they said they just wanted dinner but now they want a place to stay.
/2/
PENSION
The camera scrolls up and then comes back down on the pension which actually looks really amazing and like a small palace. the two of them go inside and are greeted by the two older owners who immediately comment on Hae-kyung’s fashion choices. they are wearing almost the exact same thing, (lol for days).
But then they get right to business and the male owner asks if he wants a ongdol (heated floor) or no heated floor. He speaks in a thick Jeju accent. hae-kyung doesn’t actually understand what he said due to the accent.
So the man mentions that Do-hee doesn’t look local but Hae-kyung looks local. Are you from the other side of the island? Hae-kyung says he is from Seoul, he is on a business trip. he asks for two rooms.
The lady chuckles that people usually do that at first. Do-hee says, no, no, no, really, two rooms. The woman chuckles that if you get two rooms there is no refund. They both chuckles.
Hae-kyung looks off to the right and sees a photo of these two with the food truck guys. It looks like it is their parents. This is so funny.
ROOM
Later on, Hae-kyung sits in his room and thinks about his ex. We are sent into a flashback with him and her. She is wearing his button up shirt and sitting at the table with him.
Ex – What about eating with someone you don’t know?
HK – First of all, I don’t eat with someone I don’t know well. And if I do eat with someone, then maybe I would want to be on their side. it is the best thing I can do for others.
She nods along and thinks. Then she stands and puts her arms around him and slides between his legs.
Ex – Today can you be on your best behavior for the person you love?
He smiles and hugs her. Then we are sent back to the present where he falls bad on the bed looking lonely.
COURTYARD
Meanwhile, Do-hee could not sleep in her bed so she goes to the courtyard with the champagne that she bought and toasts congratulations to Woo Do-hee for knowing what kind of person he is!!! Then she mutters, that is what an unnecessarily positive heroine will say in dramas. Congratulation? F-that. What congratulations? If someone comes and congratulates me, then I will punch that person.
She takes a swig of her champagne straight to the head. Geez, it is a long gulping swig of it. She wipes her mouth and starts to blubber how horrible her ex is and maybe she is super stupid for missing him right now.
Back in Hae-kyung’s room, he is laying in bed and hears Do-hee making all sorts of noises outside. So peeks outside and sees Do-hee in the empty pool pretending to swim but actually walking around with her arms swinging drunkenly in the air.
He sees the empty champagne bottle and sighs, this tiring woman. Then shakes his head and goes back inside. But he goes outside to the edge of the pool and asks what she is doing?
She turns around amazingly happy and asks, do you want to swim? There are two of us so we can synchronize swim. She starts to synchronize swim. He sighs and turns his head away. Then he mentions that she is drunk, she should com out.
But she keeps swimming happily. So he turns to go back to his room. She falls in the pool, which he hears so he goes back and sees her at the bottom of the pool. She is sleeping. He climbs down the stairs and walks right to her side.
He tries to get her to wake up lightly. She rolls over and says, if I am on the bottom like this when the pool is full of water, that means I am dead. But there is no water here so why do I feel like I am suffocating as if I am underwater.
He kneels quietly beside her and then sits cross legged on the ground. He stats to softly talk to her.
HK – Then, why don’t you force yourself to breath? Then your wound will heal faster. It will heal and become gills so you can breath comfortably.
She covers her eyes with her arm, possibly to hide that she is crying. He stays sitting with her quietly.
MORNING
Hae-kyung sits at the table and starts to draw blood from her own finger so she can digest her food (it is a Korean thing). He is in his old clothes that are now dry and sees her doing this. But he walks off.
Later on, she sits outside so he walks up to her and gives her digestion drink. Then he says that he has to go to the airport. She says she can take him, but he tells her that he checked and her plane leaves later, so he got a taxi.
She feels that she owes him a lot so she wants to buy him a meal in Seoul. He says it is okay. But she really wants to repay him and asks him to spare some time. He tells her she does not have to.
She says that she does not have to mistake that she is doing this as a man and woman gesture, you know right? So you don’t have to refuse it. I am not asking you about your name or job or where you live or anything personal. We can just meet and eat and talk, how about it?
Cut to the taxi driver driving in and listening to a radio program. The guest is a Korean folk singer so the host is going to play a song from her new album. As the taxi driver drives up, Hae-kyung hears the music playing and says, okay.
She asks, when and where? He listens to the music again and says, that time. But we do not know what time. She waves goodbye though she looks a tiny bit annoyed.
While he is flying away, he smirks and we are sent to a flashback of him telling her when to meet.
HK – When Tae Jin-ah’s new song becomes #1. Then we can meet at 8pm at the fish market.
Cut to Do-hee sitting in the airport thinking, when Tae Jin-ah becomes #1 on the chart? Why did he say that we should not see each other so creatively? This makes me mad! She curses and starts to roll her luggage away.
/3/
SEOUL
Hae-kyung is being driven away by his nurse, Byung-jin. Byung-jin is recounting this Jeju story and asks if she is really his hidden girlfriend? Hae-kyung tells him no.
Byung-jin tells him it is like the movie Before Sunrise, but the Jeju Island version. The most important part here is – is she pretty?
HK – Shut up.
BJ – Just tell me, is she pretty?
HK – Well, mmm, to my standard….
BJ – She is pretty.
HK – What?
BJ – Doc, you don’t know/ When you describe a pretty woman you always say mmmm. You see? Mmm. So if you start with that then that means she is pretty. And, you think it will hurt your pride if you say that she is pretty right away, even if she is pretty. So, did you promise to see her again? You should have.
TAXI
Elsewhere, Do-hee rides in her taxi with her drive singing happily to a Korean folk song. He is an old man and says that this is real music. Young peoples music is not good. Do-hee is trying to rest and asks him if he can turn down the song? It looks like this is the song that has to hit #1. So she asks him to turn it down.
Cut to Hae-kyung in his house. His nurse exclaims, Tae Jin-ah has to become #1???? That is impossible!
HK – I know that.
BJ – You know that, but you said it anyway? Why didn’t you just say, I don’t want to see you again!
HK – Hey, I couldn’t just say no, I was being a little witty!
BJ – Witty? Which countries wit is that? That is just no manners, it is super bad.
HK – Hey, I did it for her, she shouldn’t be that angry.
BJ – You are a psychiatrist. Not the singer Kim. It was too much.
HK – You are exaggerating.
BJ – Why not just refuse to eat together?
HK – Ah, this is so tiring Listen to me. Based on what happened yesterday (we go into a flashback of what happened while Hae-kyung narrates) Unconsciously, she relied on me, so if this meeting continues then that unseen reliance will be on the surface, okay?
BJ – You should not have gone back at all.
HK – Hey, it was just to help her!
BJ – Next time, do not help a woman who was dumped on an island.
HK – I will never do it again! It was my fault! Sorry! Okay!
He tries to get under his covers. The nurse tells him he is the worst for playing with her!!! HK throws his pillows at him to make him leave while the nurse keeps telling him he is the worst!
HOMELESS MAN
Cut to a homeless man making himself a fabulous drip coffee and reading a book. He looks high class but he is homeless.
Do-hee leaves the convenience store where he is drinking his coffee and relaxing. She walks right by him so he tells her that she looks new here. Did you just move?
DH – Excuse me?
Man – it looks like you live here since you have the plastic bag. You like drinking?
But then two girls leave behind her so he hops up to grab the kimchi they left. He uses his very nice silverware to get it.
Man – If I bothered you then I am sorry. Goodbye, it is my dinner time.
Then he starts to laughs heartily and eat the kimchi. Do-hee runs off like, um, who is this crazy man???
HOME
While at home, Do-hee looks at her footage from Jeju and mutters that she was so happy to go there. But then she sees the flight attendant and thinks that looking her closely, she looks like a B*. You two have a good life, I will erase everything. But she doesn’t erase it and mutters that erasing it does not matter since it is all in my brain.
However, then she sees Hae-kyung’s video where he told her no to the video recording. She sighs and says, if he finished well then it would have been good.
WORK
The next morning, Do-hee gets to work and sees her coworker watching a person’s pilate videos again. He is actually acting out the pilates moves and looks sort of sweaty. Do-hee asks how he can watch these videos like it is porn. He tells her not to talk to him.
But then Sora grabs her and pulls Do-hee to chat about her ex. She can’t believe that he would do that.
SR – I did not tell you because I did not want to ruin your mood. But when I first say him I thought he looked bad. He had so much butter in his eyes.
DH – Why didn’t you tell me he had so much butter. Now you say it.
SR – Anyway, congratulations for knowing what kind of person he is.
DH – *throws something at her* Do you want to die?
At that moment she gets a text from the boss to come to her office.
PSYCHIATRIST OFFICE
Meanwhile, Hae-kyung is relaxing in his office, reading and drinking a coffee. But he thinks about his nurse telling him that she just wanted to treat him like a person but he is the worst worst worst!
he looks out the window, annoyed, and says, I did nothing wrong morally, why are they all bothering me.
2N BOX
Do-hee quietly says she will be responsible while she sits in her bosses office. But her boss yells, you never take responsibility! From now on, just do what I give you.
Do-hee says that she knows that she was wrong, but you should not limit a PD’s creativity. Her boss tells her to shut up and pay her own rent. I can’t hear you.
Do-hee yells, okay, okay, okay! So the boss tells her that she has to do something right now. She holds out her hand like they are arm wrestling. Then wins. The boss tells her to get a hero and make a high quality video.
Do-hee thinks, hero? Cut to a man in black on the rooftop of a tall building at night, he is chuckling happily.
END PART ONE
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