(The picture was my naughty click-bait. Please keep you eyes on the “focal point.” And I mean that SCAR on his shoulder, not the 6000000-pack abs. lol)

As you know, I don’t do recaps. This is a “madcap” because I’m a loony bitch. I read that this drama isn’t readily available on Youtube in the Philippines and since I’ve a lot of lurkers from the Philippines (and I’ve a special affinity for that plagiarist, lol), I’ll do this one for you.

Comment: the editing of this episode needs work. I get it that the director opted to create “mystery” in the first episode, but he sacrificed coherence. A viewer has to rewatch it for the story to make sense. Therefore, when I do madcaps, I’ll “edit” the story myself, and put in “my” explanation.

Since it takes me forever to do a madcap, I’ll post in segments. I’ll publish whatever content I have, then keep updating this madcap.

@Agdr03, comment away. 🙂

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Introduction.

Lu Xingcheng = Jerry Yan = shall be forever called Jerry. Kinda like Jesus will forever be Jesus.
Tong Xioayou = Shen Yue = shall be designated as XY.

Scene: rooftop at night.

Shot of two liquor bottles. My take here is that Jerry Yan and his leading lady were drinking and having a heart-to-heart before the incident.

Shen Yue: (shouting) Lu Xingcheng!!!!

She charges at Jerry Yan who turns around as he is pushed. He falls off a building. What the heck?!

Jerry: Tong Xiaoyou!!!!!

Next scene. Close up shot of Jerry in a neck brace.

Jerry: I remembered. You wanted to kill me that night.
XY: That’s an accident!
Jerry: You mean you wanted to kill me by accident.
XY: Haish! I mean that’s an accident.
Jerry: What’s your point?

She has a flashback. As she pushed Jerry, their lips accidentally “high-fived” each other.

Jerry: You’ve been here for the whole afternoon, just to tell me this?
XY: Did we really kiss?
Jerry: No way!

This tells me that their lips had other close encounters. Their lips are special guests on this show and as such, should receive separate-but-equal top billing.

XY: Believe me Mr. Lu. Haven’t you found that, since that day, you started to have bad luck? It’s because you lost your luck to me. Because of that kiss, everything becomes different.

That’s the premise of the show. She tries to convince him that luck is transferred from one to another.

XY: Believe me. My friend told me about it. Think about how glamorous you were, and look at you now.

lol. You mean, I’m not looking at a “glamorous” Jerry, right now? He looks fine, though? He shoos her out of his hospital room, calling her “OIympic” as he slams the door on her. I don’t know what Olympic means, but I take it here as an insult. Like an Olympic loser?

She faces the camera and begins to talk. BTW: I’m using the subs from Youtube.

XY: Actually if I was told that luck changes, I wouldn’t have believed it. But now, I’m not Olympic. I’m Tong Xiaoyou. It all started that day…

“That day” sounds ominous.

XY’s voiceover: Every one of us has luck by our side. Some say luck is part of the mood. Some say that it’s part of the power. But no one has ever said how it looks, what color it is. This is how I picture it.

Picture of a letter “U” where luck slides down from one end to goes up on the other end.

In her mind, a person’s INCREASING “good luck” means another person’s DECREASING “bad luck.” There’s always going to be a winner and a loser in luck. This is an odd way of looking at life but the remedy is quite simple: sharing, cooperating, loving.

XY: Someone has good luck. And this is my boss, Lu Xingcheng (aka Jerry). He has lots of luck. He was the Fashion Icon for six years. He’s always the center of attention, and in our company, he can get whatever he wants. And I have really bad luck.

Immediately, she sets themselves as opposites on a scale of the luck.

But when we cut out all this mumbo-jumbo about luck, their relationship is simple: this is an office romance. It irritates me that this director gives us all the necessary details, piecemeal. He drags out the fact that Jerry’s her editor-in-chief.

She gripes that she’s been working for the magazine CLIC for two years and yet the  the editor-in-chief still doesn’t know her. I think she’s mistaken here. Jerry already knows her. I think they’ve met when she was a child.

And today of all days, she decides to show him her design. She wants to beard the lion in his den and ask his recommendation to switch over to the Design Department. She wants out of the Administration Department because she really really really wants to be a designer. Makes me wonder why that day of all days.

As she gathers all her illustrations into a folder, her roommate offers to read her daily horoscope. XY declines saying that her roommate has read horoscopes for decades, but nothing has changed.

Important to note her previous attitude on luck. She didn’t believe that luck was changeable.

She hurries off because her editor-in-chief leaves his house at 9 am sharp.

This threw me off at first. How did she know where her editor lived and what time he left his house for the office, when her editor doesn’t even know her? Was she some sort of stalker? And we weren’t immediately told who her editor was. That to me was frustrating. I thought she was talking about a random person, not Jerry.

Her friend calls out, “It’s still early for payday. Don’t call the taxi. Be careful not to stumble.” But she doesn’t take the horoscope reading, and takes the cab. Sure enough, the cab breaks down. As soon as she gets out of the cab, it starts running again.

Meanwhile in his high-rise condo, Jerry prepares for his day. It’s 8:37 am. He turns on the tv to hear a TV commentator say, “I just don’t like him. He makes criticisms about fashion and models. If he has the nerve…”

A disembodied voice, presumably it’s his driver/assistant, informs him that he’ll be picked up in half an hour to attend the Fashion People Awards.

The camera switches over to XY again.

With 10 minutes to spare, she arrives at her Editor’s condo. She takes the elevator, but the elevator ride takes forever because of the multiple stops. She gets off the elevator at the 21st floor and takes the stairs to get to his condo on the 29th floor.

Back to Jerry again. He’s now dressed in all black. The TV commentator is still speaking. “Lu Xingcheng. If you have the nerve, then come to the “Next on the Runway,” and give us some instructions here.” Something tells me that Jerry’s obsessing about this TV commentator/host of the “Next on the Runway.” Why doesn’t he switch channels? It’s 8:55 am.

8:56 am. XY is running up the stairs. She nearly drops her cap down the stairwell (Is this the horoscope about stumbling?)
8:57 am. She’s on the 28th floor.
8:58 am. He’s leaving his house. (Wait a second! Isn’t he supposed to leave at 9 am? Why is he 2 minutes early?) He walks to the elevator.
8:59 am. She arrives at his door just as the elevator door opens. She sees his reflection and calls out to wait for a second. He gets on.
9:00. The door reopens and she gets on with him.

Okay, what’s the point of all that, Director?

To me, since I’m a firm believer that people make their own luck so, the whole point of this minute-by-minute exercise, is to show that this encounter had nothing to do with luck but choices (she chose to get off the elevator and run), preparedness (she did her research and knew his address and the time he left the house), and effort (hey! she ran up 8 flights of stairs).

She gives her folder to him and asks him to sign. At this point, the viewers are given THE IMPRESSION that he mistakes her for a fan because he autographs it without looking.

He tells her, “You’re good. You even figured out my floor. Here (returning the folder).” As he hands it back to her, the elevator starts shaking. Like a ditz, she screams and tumbles against him.

Jerry: Shut up. I’m afraid of heights.

My comment: Dude! Acrophobia has nothing to do with this. If the elevator is crashing, you should be afraid of DEATH, not heights.

But okay, Jerry’s a hottie so I’ll forgive his braincells for now.

Besides, if he’s afraid of heights, then why is his condo on the 29th floor with this view?? Is he trying to desensitize himself? Work out his issues?

Then, the shaking stops and the lights turn back on again. He wonders what’s going on, and pushes her off him. He tells her, “You’re a jinx,” as he steps off the elevator.

Ha! This is clue #1 that he recognizes her, and knows of her history of bad luck. Why else would he blame her for the elevator shake-up?

She trails behind him, explaining that she isn’t a fan. She’s there because she wants him to… And before she can finish, he walks away, ignoring her.

His ride is waiting for him. A girl is already inside. We’ll find out later that this is the top model of his CHIC magazine, Wen Xi. She’s the stereotypical 2nd lead female, pretty but dumb. She’s not particularly shy in telling him that she wants them to be a “contract couple” or a fake couple so she can further career and become an actress.

But he doesn’t want to do anything with her that can be misconstrued by the media. He outright insults her, but she doesn’t seem to mind. He says, “It’s been two months since you started rehearsing for ‘The Merchant of Venice.’ Don’t you want to change it to another one? How about Doraemon?”

Who’s Doraemon again? Where have I heard of this?

Oh! It’s this character from “Put Your Head on My Shoulder.” Why is this character popular in Cdramas? What am I missing here? Is it like Mickey Mouse?

The driver tactfully turns on the radio to end conversation between Wen Xi and Jerry. Over the radio, the announcer talks about the Fashion People Award. Jerry’s the favorite to win the Fashion Icon again because he’s won it for the past six years. Apparently, he predicted the fashion trend this season, and people loved it. I guess he’s like the Warren Buffet of the fashion industry.

The interviewer continues on the radio. The ‘Next on the Runway’ is a recent hit, and they’ve been challenging Jerry. But it’s no secret that there’s bad blood between the show host and Jerry. They quarreled because Jerry criticized the show for focusing on the competition and neglecting the design aspect itself. People speculate that there may be other issues between them. At this point, Jerry asks the driver to turn off the radio. He doesn’t want to hear the gossip.

As Jerry’s van brings them to their morning appointment, XY arrives at her workplace. Her deparment looks like a cheerful place. But yes, I can see why she wants to ask for a transfer. She’s doing a job that an intern would do. Her talent is under-utilized and she’s under-employed.

When she asks for a transfer, her manager warns her that the Design department isn’t as relaxed as theirs. XY answers that she wants to follow her dream and design. The manager sweet-talks her, saying that she’s the “backbone” of the department (lol. She’s actually a go-for. She’s asked to go for this-and-that in the office.)

The manager then admits that she’s already written a good performance report for XY. It only requires a signature and her transfer will be a done deed.

That’s when XY comes up with a plan. A dubious one…

On the other side of town, Jerry and Wen Xi arrive at the Fashion meet. The media waits for them. Wen Xi goes to pose for photographers; Jerry refuses interviews. The host of the event tells him that he didn’t win the award. The winner this year is Mrs. Cheng Peiyu, creator of a brand-new company “Yange.” (I don’t know if she’ll become important later on, but let me jot down that name).

His driver-cum-manager protests the win. (Hmm…that’s kind of poor sportsmanship but oh well.) Jerry walks out, saying nothing. Wen Xi runs up to him and accompanies him out. This girl is loyal, at least.

So this is how his bad luck starts! This is the day that XY mentions in the introduction. After the meeting in the elevator, and the elevator shook (the metaphorical “ground-shaking” when two lovers find each other), everything changes for him.  First, he gets trapped in a van with Wen Xi. Then, he loses a guaranteed win to some upstart.

XY, on the other hand, has her transfer to the Design Dept approved.

But I’m sure her transfer has nothing to do with luck. Cunning, determination – and forgery – figure in her change of luck. She cons her way to the Design Dept by  photocopying Jerry’s signature (he signed on a piece of paper in the elevator, right) on to her performance report. The HR department questions its authenticity and she lies.

Warning from me: I don’t like unethical main leads.

XY: Real. Of course, it’s real. (She’s splitting hair. True, it’s his signature, but he didn’t sign the report.) I got it this morning. (correcting herself) Mr. Lu got it done this morning.
HR lady: It doesn’t matter if it’s real. You won’t make it to three months anyway.

Sigh. And this is why recommendations like this shouldn’t be hand-carried. It’s preferable that they come directly from Jerry’s office, and stamped and sealed. Reminds me of  #electionfraud2020

Anyway, back to Jerry.

He’s now in the van, and Wen Xi and his manager are discussing his loss. Wen Xi informs them that the winner Cheng Peiyu’s husband is Lu Ren. (hey!! They both have the same last names. Are they related? Or is this like the “Kim” in Korean where every other person is named Kim?)

Xi: Do you know who her husband is? It’s Lu Ren. He’s the professor. He has power over everything. Half of those who work in the fashion world. His words can decide the future of the designer.
Jerry: (addressing his manager) Daly. Remember from now on, I won’t be anywhere with them around. Got it?

Daly updates him on the award. Nobody was around to accept it, and the representative for Yange is their new artistic director named Lu Yanzhi. Jerry quickly includes Lu Yanzhi among the people he refuses to hang out with. He thinks there must be a reason for Yange to win the award, but it appears as if he’s left in the dark.

This tells me that he hasn’t been following the fashion industry rumor mills. He’s caught off guard. He didn’t foresee people trying to cut the ground from under his feet until it was too late. What has he been up to?

Day 2.

XY’s roomie wants to read her horoscope again. She answers, “As long as I keep one step ahead of bad luck every day, I will succeed sooner or later.” Her friend is impressed with her. “I don’t know if her luck is good, or her attitude is.”

She enters the Design Dept to find her new coworkers being berated by Daly. Jerry has rejected all their design submissions. Sarcastically, Daly calls each one “genius.” Her coworkers all look like raccoons. Uh oh. Not a good sign. They have dark shadows under their eyes because of sleepless nights.

As she settles in her new workplace, Jerry is seen rejecting drawings from the Design Dept.

XY narrates again: So, I got into design department. But my career of being a costume designer* hasn’t taken off. I naively thought that the editor-in-chief would recognize her talent.

*I don’t know if this is a subbing error. A costume designer creates the wardrobe for film, television and theater. Seems to me that XY wants to be a haute couture fashion designer. There’s also a prêt-a-porter fashion designer for ready-to-wear outfits, but the haute couture fashion designer is more glamorous.

Note: I think she has ridiculous expectation of her self-worth. She just started working in the dept. Did she actually think that Jerry would come out and bow before her?

At the end of the day, Jerry walks out of his office. Seems like the rest of designers have gone home. Then, he does something WEIRD. He checks around him to see if everybody’s gone, then he goes to XY’s workstation.

Note the time: midnight.

He picks up one of her designs, then looks around him again. I swear he’ll make a lousy spy. He’s acting suspiciously…or should I say campily? 

Seeing that he’s all alone, he goes through her drawings.

One design shocks him. He covers his mouth, and becomes teary-eyed. Nice facial expression, Jerry Yan!

He has a flashback of a woman wearing exactly the same dress that XY drew.

Then she appears him. He tries to compose himself. Because of course, it’s creepy to have the boss crying over an employee’s work. Like what’s this?

The Pieta??

Jerry: You drew this?
XY: Yes.
Jerry: (quietly) Wasting time on childish drawings. What a waste of the salary from CHIC. (he turns to leave)
XY: (blocking him) Mr. Lu. If you say it’s childish, then I’ll take your word for it. But I want to know why it’s childish. Childish, how?
Jerry: Move. (he sidesteps her)
XY: (blocking him again) Mr. Lu. I want to improve it. So I wish you can give me some advice.
Jerry: (pauses, then steps closer to her. Still, he says nothing and walks away)

That night at home, she grumbles again as she works on her design.

XY: Rubbish. Why is it so different from what I imagined?

I think she’s grumbling about her “first” encounter with Jerry, not her illustration. She had fantasies of their first meeting?? But yeahhh, I feel for her. He’s such a dreamboat, so their first conversation would have been a disaster.

While XY is hard at work at her desk, Jerry is hard at work…no, just hard in the bathtub.

Here’s the pic without the amusing “scroll for details” banner.

You really should watch this for the millisecond when he twitches his chest. I’m sitting here trying to mimic him and I feel like I’m having an epileptic attack.

And for comparison, here’s Song SeungHoon’s shower pin-up, circa 2011.

After the fanservice, he goes to attic (?), and recalls a time when he was young and  asked for his mom for help to modify a drawing. He wanted to improve it. His mom did as he asked, and helped him.

That’s the reason he was in the bathtub earlier, thinking of XY’s demand to help her improve her work. His trigger was “Please advise me on how to make this better.” But he really didn’t need to sit in the tub for this. He could have done all his reflection in the attic. Sheesh. Fan service!

Anyway, I shouldn’t look at the gift horse in the mouth…or should I say the gift body in the abs.

source: pinterest

Day 3.

He hands two books to his assistant Daly to give to XY. He wants her to read them. He orders Daly to monitor her and make sure she finishes the book. XY starts studying them but not without first grumbling what’s the point since he dissed her work as childish. She feels strongly that she’s been wronged because he didn’t explain why he considered her work childish.

Ugh. This heroine is getting on my nerves. I say he doesn’t own her any explanation. She should have done her due diligence and studied his previous works (i.e., peruse back issues of the magazine) to understand his taste. What a self-entitled twit!

After reading the books, she gets “Enlightenment!” She returns the books to Daly. She admits that her design has been childish, and tells Daly to relay her gratitude to him.

pic

Daly returns to Jerry’s office in time to sort out another crisis. The media is reporting on a possible love affair between Jerry and his top model Wen Xi. The tabloids have gotten hold of his phone number and contacting him for comment. He lies on the phone that they’ve gotten the wrong number. He’s infuriated and banished Daly to clean a storage area. Thankfully, Daly has the two books to return to Jerry.

Jerry’s mood suddenly changes. He calms down.

Jerry: Did she finish?
Daly: Yes, she did. She said that those two books helped her a lot. She thinks her designs of the last 20 years are indeed really childish. She told me to tell you that she’s very much grateful to you.

He looks solemn.

Before he can say anything, Wen Xi sashays into the room. She tries to cajole him to talk to her, but he ignores her. He says he knows that it was her who spread the gossip. She doesn’t deny it.

Jerry: Wen Xi. You’re the chief model of the magazine. Could you please pay more attention to the work?
Xi: Alright you don’t like gossip. It doesn’t matter. I still got a way out.

She replays the challenge of the TV host of “Next on the Runway” to appear on the show. Jerry asks if the show is really that popular. Xi says many newbies have their first big break in the show. She wants to join the show as a model. Surprisingly, Jerry approves the plan. He orders Daly to tell XY that she’s going to be the magazine’s representative in the program.

And since this is a romcom, I’m sure he only agreed to it because he deemed the program a good platform for XY to start out with.

XY is excited and honored. She feels very lucky. She’s also excited that she has Wen Xi to model her design. Uh oh. She fangirls Wen Xi. She praises the other girl for her modeling, and — get this — “her understanding of life.”

I wonder if there’s a mis-translation here or something.

Anyway, she begins to recount her childhood dream. Her friends indulge her because they’ve heard this a thousand times already. She started to dream of becoming a designer since she was 14 years old.

That was the first time she fell in love with a dress. It’s the dress that she drew, and that made Jerry cry. She wasn’t plagiarizing the work. She was drawing it from memory.

Flashback to when she was 14 years old. She’d been admiring the dress when the designer began a conversation with her. The face is unseen but I’m sure it’s Jerry.

Jerry: You also like this dress?
Young XY: I’ve never liked a dress so much.
Jerry: I like it too. I’m sure my mother likes it as well.
Young XY: You made this?
Jerry: Yes. This is my work for the Fashion Cup.
Young XY: I also want to make this kind of dress that would move people to tears when they see it. Can I?
Jerry: As long as you try, you surely can.
Young XY: I’m Tong Xiaoyou. What’s your name?

When she turned around, the designer was gone.

And there you have it folks: the whole connection. She doesn’t know (and it’s supposed to be a mystery to us viewers) that Jerry was her source of inspiration. But Jerry knows who she is. That’s why he was willing to mentor her.

Anyway to wrap up this drama:

1. She goes on tv competition with her designer dress, and loses.

Her explanation of her dress. “Ever since I was 14 years old, I’ve always dreamed of being a designer. And now, I’m 24. I’ve been holding on to this dream for 10 years. And this dress represents my love for design. Many of you may think that love is a complicated thing. (Jerry increases the volume so he can hear it clearly) But I want to say, love is easy. It was love that kept me going for so long. It’s love that has brought me to this stage. (Jerry pauses)”

2. Jerry knows it’s a set-up up my Mu Yang (the TV host) to humiliate him because she receives a score of 0.
3. Jerry has high praises for the dress, saying “The work she designed was exquisitely tailored, and very versatile. Also the shades are just right.”
4. The other challenger (and current champion) is Lu Yangzhi, the new artistic director of Yange, and son of the illustrious Professor Lu Ren.
5. He plagiarizes Jerry’s work, but nobody calls him out on it, and everybody allows him to win over XY.

6. The TV hosts knows that he plagiarized it. Hence, he coins the word “Copinism.” It’s a wordplay on “copy.”

7. XY believes the champion to be the mystery guy from her past because she recognizes the dress as the one she fell in love with. Stupid girl! How can somebody his age win an award 10 years ago? Like what is he? The Mozart of the fashion industry? Ugh.
8. Jerry sees his work copied and goes to the studio to punch out the champion.
9. XY tries to stop the fight and lands on Jerry.
10. Cliffhanger: a kiss?

There you have it, the first (and last??) episode madcap. Count your lucky stars!