For me, the subject of this episode is friendship or as Dionne Warwick would croon, “That’s what friends are for.”

 

The episode began with a montage of HyeJin and Chief Hong passing each other on their way to work in front of the café of Mr. Singer-wannabe. They obviously became friends after he’d given her back her missing shoe. If you notice, she wore the glittery pair the first few times as if to show her appreciation for his thoughtfulness.

Gifs from comeundone’s tumblr

source: comeundone’s tumblr

Her daily encounters with Chief Hong were the reason she woke up feeling chipper every morning. Meanwhile, her bestie Miseon had to be rushed out of bed and given three minutes to transform herself.

That’s what friends are for. They’ve seen your morning face and stick around for your make-up face.

The friend motif continued with HwaJung, (HJ’s landlord) and Yoonkyung the shopkeeper. HwaJung was buying apples from YK’s store when they witnessed YK’s daughter Bora chased HwaJung’s son Ijun. They were reminded of the day Bora knocked out Ijun’s baby tooth. Guiltily, YK gave HwaJung another apple for free.

That’s what friends are for. They know when saying “sorry” just doesn’t cut it.

As HyeJIn and Miseon headed home, Namsook the village gossip invited them to a shopkeepers’ meeting. Miseon deftly excused both of them, saying that they had somewhere to go to. But when HJ heard that Chief Hong was going to be at the function too, HJ ditched her friend for the meeting.

That’s what friends are for. They know when they’re not needed.

At the shopkeepers’ meeting, the attendees gossiped about HwaJung’s divorce in her absence. NamSook said the divorce really made it awkward for all of them because HwaJung and her ex were both community leaders. NamSook opined that “you need to be really cold-hearted to get divorce.” When HyeJin pointed that there was nothing wrong with divorce since it’s a personal choice like marriage, Chief Hong agreed. NamSook insisted that there didn’t seem to be any cause for their divorce. One of the men suggested that perhaps it was nobody’s fault. NamSook said he couldn’t be sure about that. Then, HwaJung and her ex walked in. Hwajung told NamSook that she could her voice from outside.

That’s what friends are for. They discuss you behind your back and still live to tell the tale another day.

Before the meeting started, they wanted to order more food. They shouted at Mr Singer, the café owner, to bring them the menu. Mr. Singer came out of the kitchen, asking, “Couldn’t you come and fetch it yourself?” He had laryngitis.

That’s what friends are for. They abide by the rule, “Mi casa es su casa.”

The meeting dragged on and on without nothing being accomplished. HyeJin decided to pretend to be drunk so she wouldn’t be bothered by the folks. Chief Hong caught on quickly but went along with her act. When it was time to leave, he gave her a piggyback ride home.

Chief Hong decided to call it quits when she dropped her shoe.

That’s what friends are for. They’re your partner in crime until the jig is up.

Hong: Drop the act and hop off. I know you’re not asleep. (he crouches down to let her off) Unbelievable.
HJ: (puts on her shoe)
Hong: Thanks to your lie, I carried something as heavy as a sack of rice.
HJ: How heavy is a sack of rice?
Hong: Forget if you don’t know. Why did you even pretend to sleep?
HJ: Because I wanted to hurry home.
Hong: We live in a society. You can’t hate being around people. I bet you have no friends.
HJ: You’re wrong. I have tons.
Hong: Name three in five seconds then. Five, four, three, two, one.
HJ: Pyo Miseon, Miseon and Pyo Miseon.
Hong: So one Miseon and two Pyo Miseon. Are they different people?
HJ: What is to you if I have friends or not? What a jerk (and she left him).
Hong: (by himself) She really likes those shoes.

lol. I bet this wasn’t the first time he noticed that she was wearing them.

HJ: (walking by herself and checking the weight of a sack of rice) Eighty kilos?!

That’s what friends are for. They willingly carry you on their backs then insult you by calling you a sack of potatoes…errr…rice and a social misfit.

The following day, HyeJin ordered coffee from Chief Hong the Barista. She couldn’t wait for it so she asked if it could be delivered. He said of course. One Americano and one latte with lots of ice and syrup.

Chief Hong then told her that it’d cost 2,000 won more. She protested.

HJ: Wow. You cheapskate. How can you charge me when you’re right by?
Hong: I get paid whenever I move. Manual labor —
HJ: Whatever. Cancel my order. (stalking out of the café)
Hong: Jeez.

But he dropped the coffee anyway. HJ grumbled why she was being forced to pay for coffee she didn’t order. He told her to pay up. She handed him 10,000 won, he gave her 3500 won back.

HJ: That’s a lot of change. I thought there was a delivery fee.
Hong: It’s fine. I stopped by since no one was at the café. It’ll get going then. (leaving)
HJ: What? This isn’t like him at all.

That’s what friends are for. They don’t charge for extra service.

Later that day, HyeJin dropped by the café again and showed off her picture with an idol to kpop-crazy Juri. Juri and HyeJin suddenly became besties as they fangirled over the boy band member…to Chief Hong’s utter horror.

That’s what friends are for. They speak your language when nobody else does.

Namsook the village gossip and Gumchul the hardware store owner sought out Chief Hong’s services. Namsook needed him to deliver Chinese food for the day, and Gumchul needed him to fix his air conditioning. Though they both cried crocodile tears in front of him, Chief Hong said no because it was his day off. He had a right to have a day off.

That’s what friends are for. They’re dependable and consistent that when they turn down a request from you, you respect it.

HyeJin discovered a male patient sexually harassing Miseon. She hauled him out of the room and threatened to call the police. But the sexual harasser preempted her by calling on the police first. Not wanting to raise a fuss, Miseon said to let him go. HyeJin insisted that she’d have him punished no matter what. A fight ensued and HyeJin ended up in jail.

That’s what friends are for. They stick up for you, no matter what.

Inside the holding cell, Chief Hong asked a police officer if he could change into something else because his wetsuit was tight. The officer opened the jail door for him, and lent him his best clothes. To beat the heat, he fanned Chief Hong, then offered to make him iced Americano.

That’s what friends are for. They believe you can do no wrong and even help you hide the body.

After the pervert was sent to prison, Constable Choi offered Miseon his calling card. He knew calling 112 would surely be faster. But he didn’t want her to endure a sexual harassment on her own again.

That’s what friends are for. They’re there for you in times of trouble.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of actions that friends do for each other, but I’ll stop here because I think you got the point. 🙂 All throughout the episodes we can see very obvious displays of friendship and camaraderie.

Obscured from our view, however, are the hidden gestures which go beyond friendship.

Like HwaJung cooking up a storm for her ex-husband.

She had to stuff the food all back in her fridge. Nobody knew that she could still harbor romantic feelings for her ex.

And like Chief Hong running across town in his wetsuit. He had to rescue HyeJin because he thought she couldn’t handle an assailant.

Nobody knew he could run like that on his day off when his day off is sacrosanct.

To me, these two “outliers” — HwaJung and Chief Hong’s actions — are the main point of this episode.

In a tight-knit community, where everybody is friends with everybody, how can you tell when feelings of estrangement (in HwaJung’s case) and friendship (in Chief Hong’s case) have crossed over to love?

The answer, it seems, is when the feelings become a closely guarded secret.

Both HwaJung and Chief Hong hide their feelings – with her taciturn ways, and with his good cheer – because they know they’re most vulnerable when they’re in love. There’s a lot of benefits of living among friends, but privacy of being in love isn’t one of them.