A Hundred Memories: Episodes 3-4

by Dramaddictally

A Hundred Memories warms up in its second week with lots of possible love lines. But with the hearts shooting in every direction, it’s too bad our heroines find themselves set on the same guy. How their friendship will fare in the face of it is the question we’re out to answer as the drama continues.

 
EPISODES 3-4

I said I needed another week to make a decision about this show, and luckily these episodes turned me into a fan. With the setup out of the way, and the story in full gear, our male lead has come to life and the conflicts are feeling more real.

We left off last week with our leading ladies about to enter a group blind date that included Jae-pil — the person that Young-rye already had a crush on. At the meeting, the two get paired up, but end up at a roller rink, skating beside Jong-hee and her date, MA SANG-CHUL (Lee Won-jung), who’s a close friend of Jae-pil.

Young-rye can’t skate and sticks by the rail, while Jong-hee skates circles around everyone. This leads to a group of guys antagonizing Jong-hee (I guess as a flirtation), and she starts running off at the mouth until they get hostile and tear her jacket. At this, Young-rye removes her skates to get a better stance and hilariously launches an extinguisher toward the boys. It hits one in the head, creating a mob of mad men, that our foursome then has to run away from.

The thing that makes this scene laugh-out-loud funny is that Kim Da-mi is playing a pretty dorky character, but when she gets angry, you can’t hold her back. Still, the minute the extinguisher lands, she turns back into her anxious self, and the girls look at each other in surprise before running. These switches in personality come off quite cute and make Young-rye really endearing.

The aftermath of this encounter is that Sang-chul ends up with a crush on Young-rye. He finds her quirky and cute (she is), and he wants to switch dates. But in the moment, the girls have to run off and get back to the bus attendant dorm, so the boys have no way to reach them.

With no other means to get in contact, Sang-chul and Jae-pil go to the high school where Jong-hee and Young-rye attend night classes. The girls hide, since they’re keeping up the ruse that they’re regular students there, but they receive the message to attend a boxing match where the boys will fight. This gives the misimpression that Jae-pil likes Young-rye, and she lets her friends get her all dolled up for the event in excitement.

When they attend the match, the fighters have to switch opponents at the last minute due to an absent boxer. This leads to both Sang-chul and Jae-pil getting beat badly. On the sidelines, Jong-hee and Young-rye can hardly watch, until suddenly we see flashbacks to Jong-hee getting beaten up herself at home.

At some point, Jong-hee enters the ring while Jae-pil is taking a series of hits and screams, “enough!” This stops the fight, but it starts Jae-pil’s curiosity about Jong-hee. Later, he asks her why she did it and if she’s okay. She says she’s fine, but that she was scared he might die.

The thing we know about Jae-pil from last week is that he had his own flashbacks of watching his mother get beaten by his father. His mother is no longer alive, and his father has a new wife who he also seems violent towards. I get the impression in this scene that Jae-pil is reading past what Jong-hee is saying to suspect she has some abuse in her own past. And it’s definitely making him feel for her.

In a predictable turn of events, Young-rye’s mom collapses from overwork. As Young-rye carries her mom on her back in the rain looking for a taxi, Jae-pil happens to be going by. He has his driver stop and pick up Young-rye and her mom to take them to the hospital. Inside the car, it’s obvious what different worlds they come from, with Jae-pil from an uber-wealthy family and Young-rye’s family barely sustaining.

Mom needs surgery and Jae-pil waits with Young-rye outside. Everything turns out fine, and Young-rye breaks down crying in relief. She wants to hide her tears and Jae-pil puts his cap on her head and pulls down the brim to give her some privacy. Young-rye can’t help but take this as a signal, and she wants to believe their accidental meetings are fated. But when things calm down and she gains the courage to let on about her feelings, Jae-pil hands her his number — to give it to Jong-hee. Oof.

Now Young-rye is conflicted. She feels rejected and not good enough, but she’s also reluctant to hand over the number to Jong-hee. At the same time, with Young-rye’s mom in the hospital, Jong-hee is covering shifts so that Young-rye can help out at home. The bond between the women gets tighter and tighter, showing us how tough it is for Young-rye to choose between her hurt feelings and her best friend.

Finally, she gives the number to Jong-hee and acts like she doesn’t really care. But Jong-hee throws the number away, saying she’s not interested in dating anyone right now. This means that Jae-pil feels rejected when he hears the news — and all the while Sang-chul is slowly trying to do nice things for Young-rye to get closer to her, but she’s totally not into him. Both of the boys start stuttering when they’re around the lady they like, and I’m finding each of them pretty adorable,

And to add to all this mess of feelings, Jong-hee is spending time at Young-rye’s house to help out with the younger siblings while Mom is hospitalized. This puts her in contact with Young-rye’s oppa, GO YOUNG-SHIK (Jeon Sung-woo). There’s nothing much happening between them, but there’s just a vibe when the two are together, and I can’t help but think there’s some kind of interest developing one way or the other.

Sang-chul convinces Jae-pil not to give up on Jong-hee just yet. And so, Jae-pil waits around a café that she frequents, hoping to run into her. He does. And then he lies and says it’s his birthday in order to get her to go out to dinner with him at a nicer place. She agrees — leading to an LOL moment where Jong-hee doesn’t know how to use a fork and knife, so she jabs an entire cutlet and picks it up on the fork to start biting at it. Adorably, Jae-pil does the same so she doesn’t feel uncomfortable.

After their meal, Jong-hee takes Jae-pil to a department store to pick out a birthday gift. But, they have to kneel down and hide when Jae-pil’s dad shows up — since he’s the owner of the department store. Jong-hee learns two things after this: 1) that it’s not really Jae-pil’s birthday and 2) that even though he’s rich, he doesn’t have it made. In fact, it comes out that Jae-pil’s dad beats him up as well.

Jong-hee can empathize and she tells him not to act tough about it or he’ll fall apart all at once. That’s what happened to her, she says. As the two are bonding over their abuse, Jae-pil gives Jong-hee his number for a second time. This time, she takes it and seriously considers giving him a call.

Before she does, she talks to Young-rye, who’s visibly heartbroken by the whole situation, but Jong-hee seems not to notice. When Young-rye tells her to go for it, she does. We see the conflicted Young-rye saying to herself that she doesn’t want to stand in the way of her friends happiness, and so, she’s going to contain her feelings in order to wish her friend well.

We end when Jong-hee calls Jae-pil to ask him to meet on the weekend. She wants to fess up about the fact that she’s not really in high school, and then she’ll see where it goes from there. However, before they get a chance to meet, Jae-pil is waiting for a bus, when Jong-hee steps off in her bus attendant uniform. It’s awkward all around as Jong-hee backs up looking ashamed, and we wait until next week to see how this plays out.

Yep, I’m on board with these bus attendants this week. I like how there are so many balls in the air and we have no idea as of yet how they’ll fall. Also, it’s ramped up the cute and funny moments through encounters with the potential suitors and all the characters are getting fuller personalities.

Now that Jae-pil has been rejected, he’s starting to become real, and I like the Jae-pil and Jong-hee pairing. Also, I find Sang-chul very cute. Even if Young-rye doesn’t like him like that, I’m sort of rooting for him. So, I’ll be back next week to see which way these wheels will spin.

 
RELATED POSTS