A Thousand Kisses Episode 9 Recap and Link

Episode 9: http://joonmedia.tv/videos/play/40977/11

Recap of Episode 9: (It's been a while since I've done a recap, so the summary is a bit choppy...oh well, hope you enjoy!)

Woo Bin returns to his office to find his ex-girlfriend (Yoo Kyung) waiting for him. He asks why she’s here, and she lightly scolds him for his coldness and says that she wanted to see where he works. He takes her outside to discuss things in private. She apologizes for what happened four years ago, explaining that she had already resolved matters but the man hadn’t and what Woo Bin walked into was a misunderstanding. Then as she continues to try to find out what’s new with him, Woo Bin basically tells her he’s not interested and that they have nothing to do with each other. However, Yoo Kyung gives him a look that indicates she’s not going to accept his rejection so easily and instead keep pursing him.

At Joo Young’s house, Joo Young looks over the Shoes Holic contest flyer. As she and her grandmother share a snack, Joo Young tells the grandmother that she’s planning on reentering the shoe fashion industry. The grandmother expresses her concerns and tells her that Joo-Young doesn’t have to work since grandmother won’t let her starve. However, Joo-Young cheerfully tells her that she wants to work, to which the grandmother gives Joo Young her blessings to try hard then.

At Woo Bin’s house, his sister (Hye Bin) and mother talk about how the mother is overdressed for a simple family dinner at Woo Jin’s house simply for the purpose of intimidating Woo Jin’s stepmother. During their conversation, though, Hye Bin gets a call from Yoo Kyung asking her to drink with her. However, Hye Bin declines, telling her that the whole family has a dinner to attend.

At Woo Jin’s house, Woo Bin and Woo Jin’s dad talk briefly about Woo Bin’s business when Woo Bin arrives a bit early for dinner.

Back at Joo Young’s house, the girls and the grandmother talk about their trip to the resort and how the grandmother-aunt wants to go to the resort again to see the autumn foliage.

Finally seated for dinner at Woo Jin’s house, the two Jang families catch up with each other. One of the cute things they talk about is how Woo Bin and his sister don’t have significant others yet, and when talk naturally moves to Woo Jin’s girlfriend, Soo Ah chimes in that her brother’s girlfriend is adorable/pretty.

The next day, Woo Jin leaves for his new post at the resort and comes across Joo Mi working/goofing off on the golf lawns with her colleague photographer. He discovers that they’re there to interview him for an article on his resort. He invites them to his office, and as he answers her questions and continues to be his unknowingly arrogant self, he steals quick glances at the photographer. (Yup, he’s definitely demonstrating the beginnings of jealousy. LOL)

Meanwhile, Joo Young takes a walk at her grandmother’s suggestion to cool her head and gain a new perspective on her drawings. After such a long time away from designing, she confesses to her grandmother that her hands don’t feel like her own and that the drawings aren’t going as well as she’d hoped. As she slowly strolls through a local park, Woo Bin calls and asks what he can do to help her. Without any thought, she jokes that he can give her ideas. As soon as they hang up, Woo Bin leaves his office, pushing some important work on his associates, to take pictures of shoes for her. He snaps pictures of shoes on store displays, women passing in the streets, etc.

When Joo Young returns home to continue with her work, Woo Bin calls her to come outside. She meets him and teases him, saying that she needed ideas, not Popeye man himself. He quickly silences her when he shows her his camera with all these various shots of shoes. At her exclamation of surprise and pleasure, he hands her a CD copy of the photos and then lightly demands that she buy him dinner for his help.

At the resort, Woo Jin starts to leave the hotel in his company-chauffeured car but quickly asks his driver to stop the car when he sees Joo Mi joking around with her photographer colleague again, this time on her way to the parking lot. Stepping out of his car, he calls out to her and asks if she’s done for the day because if so, she can ride up to Seoul with him. She politely declines since she drove down with her photographer. Unfazed, Woo Jin insists. When she turns to her photographer (her sunbae, aka senior associate) for permission, Woo Jin looks particularly irked that she’s asking another man for permission (LOL). As they drive toward Seoul, Woo Jin asks her what her relationship is with the photographer. She replies that they’re business colleagues (interviewer and photographer). At this simply answer, he pointedly asks if business colleagues go around giving head locks to each other. “Are you a wrestler?” he chides. He tells her that he was embarrassed by their behavior. Not realizing that he says this out of jealousy, Joo Mi falls silent. In the ensuing awkward silence, she remembers her gift to his father and asks him if he was able to give the chairman her gift yet. He answers that he’ll be giving it to him tonight.

At a local restaurant, Woo Bin and Joo Young get ready to eat some potato beef stew. Woo Bin asks her how much the prize to the contest is. He’s surprised at her answer: a trophy and 3,000,000 won (roughly $3,000). He had thought it would be worth more for her to work so hard. She, however, tells him that she’s not really interested in the prize but rather the opportunity to work at the company. When he asks if she really has to work, she brightly answers “of course.” She wants to work. He then wishes her luck and tells her that she’ll be quite surprised when she sees the CD.

Meanwhile at her ex-husband’s house, Tae Kyung (the pathetic ex-husband) crawls back into the apartment and begs his mother to take him back. He whines that even if the entire world throws rocks at him, she should support him. As they squabble, Yang Joon Hee unexpectedly comes and tells them that she’s pregnant. He denies any possibility of that and tells her to go to the hospital for confirmation. Joon Hee answers that she suspected he would react this way and already prepared a photo of her ultrasound to confirm her pregnancy. When they coldly accuse her of lying, she falls to her knees and says that her only sin was for falling in love with a married man. (O-M-G) When the mother continues to treat her with coldness, Joon Hee tells her that she understands and will have the baby aborted. Giving Tae Kyung one last disappointed look, she stalks out of the apartment and climbs into her car with a vengeful resolution to win him over no matter what. However, when she spots him coming after her, she quickly slumps over the steering wheel and pretends to cry. He gently escorts her out of her car and takes her for private conversation by the Han River, claiming that she’s in no condition to drive right now. Once at the river bank, he confesses that he has a difficult time believing her but that there’s nothing he can do regardless of whether she’s telling the truth or not. After all, although he’s divorced, he’s still living--albeit barely--with the hope that his ex-wife will forgive him and return. Joon Hee retaliates by saying that a person like her doesn’t deserve to live then and walks into the river. At first, he doesn’t believe her but quickly drags her out of the river when he realizes she’s “serious.” Both of them burst into tears by the river bank.

Tae Kyung returns home in drenched clothes and tells his mother that Joon Hee tried to kill herself. Both of them cry as they realize the import of this new development.

Meanwhile, Woo Bin and Joo Young spend a fun evening shooting hoops at a local arcade after dinner. Woo Bin drives her home, and she thanks him for his hard work in making her the CD. She had only mentioned in passing that he could help her by giving her ideas, but she never expected such a wonderful gift. He replies that he’s Popeye. Telling her to definitely win the contest, he drives back home.

Once inside the house, Joo Young wishes her grandmothers a good night and then takes a look at the CD, excited by the variety of shoes he's captured on film. Joo Mi comes in with a late night drink for her sister and is equally amazed by the effort evident on the CD. She wonders if Woo Bin likes Joo Young. Joo Young scoffs at the idea and reminds Joo Mi that her older sister is a recently divorced mother with a son. No single man in his right mind would be interested in her; he’s only helping out an unfortunate neighbor. Despite Joo Young's denial, Joo Mi remains skeptical.

As Woo Bin settles in for the night, his sister comes into his bedroom to tell him that Yoo Kyung called the other night asking her to be a drinking partner/friend. He gets frustrated and tells her that he’s not interested in hearing anything about Yoo Kyung; he can’t do anything about who his sister wants to befriend, but he doesn’t have to hear anything about his ex-girlfriend from her.

The next morning, as Woo Jin leaves for work, he hands his stepmother Joo Mi’s gift and asks her to relay the gift to his father for him since he has to leave early. He refuses the health drink she made him, much to her dismay, and gets into the car. (He has his own driver! Nice perk~talk about moving up the corporate ladder!)

As her brother leaves for work, Soo Ah wheels her father to the breakfast table and brightly keeps up the lively chat. She offers to open the gift for her father, and the whole family comments on how the workout gloves are an appropriate and thoughtful gift. After reading Joo Mi’s thank-you card, the father wonders why she didn’t mention anything about her parents.

Later that day, as Joo Young leaves her cooking class, she is flagged down by Woo Bin who insists that he’ll give her a ride since her house is on his way. In the process, Yoo Kyung sees Woo Bin ushering Joo Young into his car. (Talk about a stalker! She shows up again at his building after he has asked her to stop visiting him.)

Irked, Yoo Kyung meets up with Woo Bin’s sister, whom she’s apparently called out suddenly on the pretext of wanting to watch a movie together. She then slyly asks if Woo Bin has a girlfriend and that she saw a woman with him in front of his office. The sister gently scolds her for visiting Woo Bin's office when she knows Woo Bin doesn’t like her doing that. Undeterred, Yoo Kyung insists that Woo Bin was warm towards the woman, and he’s not that warm to any woman. Intrigued herself now, Hey Bin immediately calls Woo Bin and asks who the woman seated next to him is. Surprised, he asks if she’s installed CCTV cameras in his car. (LOL love their brother-sister relationship!) At her “ridiculous” question of whether he’s dating Joo-Young, Woo Bin simply states that yes, he’s dating her and hangs up. Meanwhile, having overhead the phone conversation, Joo Young looks suspiciously around his car, and Woo Bin laughingly reassures her that there are no CCTVs and that he was just joking with his sister. Hanging up the phone, Hye Bin reports to Yoo Kyung that Woo Bin says he’s dating her, but because of the way he said it, she knows her brother—he’s not dating her, which gives Yoo Kyung hope. (ugh...I really don’t like that woman...and as a character, she doesn't make much sense. Realistically speaking, how many ex-girlfriends come seeking a man after four years when the breakup was her fault?)

Joon Hee parks her car in front of Tae Kyung’s apartment and barges into the apartment with her suitcases. She states to Tae Kyung’s mother her intention to move in since they won’t let her abort the baby or kill herself. When the mother still refuses to let her settle into the apartment, Joon-Hee pretends to be in pain and collapses. Panicked, the mother asks her where is hurts and asks if they should go to the hospital.

Woo Bin escorts his soccer player’s mother and father for a birthday dinner but completely surprises the couple with the extent of his surprise birthday celebration preparations. He even arranges a webcam so that the parents can communicate with their soccer player son who’s currently away on training. The son promises to work hard and thanks Woo Bin (his sports marketing company president) for his kindness towards him and his parents.

At a hair salon, Soo Ah overhears Joo Mi’s friend talking on the phone with Joo Mi and stalks out of the hair salon in anger and betrayal. She rushes home and tells her parents that Woo Jin lied about his relationship with Joo Mi. As she rants and raves about how they’ve all been hoodwinked, the father calls Woo Jin’s office and leaves a message for Woo Jin to come home immediately after his meeting. He then calls Joo Mi, who thanks him for the resort certificate, and invites her to come to his house. Unwilling to believe this of Joo Mi and Woo Jin, the mother wonders if it’s true, and Soo Ah insists that she heard properly. Meanwhile, Joo Mi tries calling Woo Jin and then leaves a text message for him when he doesn’t answer. She texts a brief summary of her conversation with his father: “Your father called to thank me for the gift and to invite me to your house. Please come quickly and save me.” Woo Jin immediately calls home and speaks with his stepmother who reluctantly tells him that the father’s found out that he lied about Joo Mi and his relationship. As he rushes home, he thinks back upon all their encounters together (blind date help, jogging encounters, his request to help him one more time, visits to his house, his cold comment to his father not to invite her anymore since she’s not someone he plans to marry, and Joo Mi telling him brightly that he should go and apologize to his father.)

Inside Woo Jin’s house, Soo Ah wants to listen in on the conversation, but the father insists that she go upstairs. Joo Mi then arrives and thanks the father for his resort trip gift. Once the brief pleasantries are exchanged, without mincing words, the father calmly but sternly asks her if she’s really dating Woo Jin. In shock and embarrassment, she sincerely apologizes to the parents. (I'm glad that she's the type of person to truthfully answer when asked point blank, even if it's incredibly embarrassing for her.)The father asks her to explain from the beginning how things came about. Outside the house, Woo Jin is seen inside his parked car, reflecting on and trying to sort out his feelings for her. Back inside the house, Joo Mi starts to explain:

“I just thought that he was wonderful from the first moment I met him. But he was cruelly cold towards me, even accusing me of being a stalker. [voice-over as Woo Jin thinks back on some moments with Joo Mi: “Project 1 to make Jang Woo Jin smile. Project 2 to make Jang Woo Jin smile.”] And I never once saw him smile, so I thought it would be nice to make him smile because he looked so sad and alone. As for love, I haven’t thought that far ahead. I’m really sorry. I've behaved badly.”

At that moment, Woo Jin walks in and apologizes as well, saying that he never had intentions to deceive the parents. It’s just that when he was on the blind date, he lied to get out of the meeting and never imagined his father would hear about it. The father then asks if matters would have ended there if the father hadn’t insisted Woo Jin bring Joo Mi home. Hearing confirmation from Woo Jin that he never intended to deceive his father, the chairman tells Joo Mi that she can go home. However, before she even gets up to leave, Woo Jin surprises everyone by declaring that his thoughts have changed. If Joo Mi is willing, he’d like to marry her.