The Nice Guy: Episodes 9-10

by starrygazer

As our hero begins to break away from his crime family, his relationship with our heroine comes under attack. When that relationship begins to splinter, will he be able to repair the relationship and find his happily ever after?

EPISODES 9-10

The prodigal daughter Seok-kyung has finally returned home. The entire family, minus Dad, go out to greet her and tell her to take whatever punishment Dad might give her.

When they go inside, Dad is fuming in silence, refusing to even look at her. After a little kick of encouragement from Mum, Seok-kyung gets on her knees to beg for forgiveness. When she begins to speak, he jumps up in a fury and lunges to strike her. Seok-hee and Mum try to hold him back but nothing can break through to him – except Hyung-geun’s teary, scrunched-up little face.

His grandson’s tears finally bring him to his senses. Instead of hitting Seok-kyung or yelling at her, he gruffly asks if she’s eaten and when she says no, he tells her to eat before she goes to bed. It’s not a thaw, more a cold war, as Dad just gives Seok-kyung the silent treatment whenever they’re in the same room.

As soon as Seok-chul gets back home from his trip with Mi-young, he runs into Seok-kyung getting ready for a visit to Hyung-geun’s school. She’s fully in mum mode, and before she heads off to school, she asks Seok-chul to have coffee with her.

Being back in the family home has Seok-kyung feeling nostalgic for when they were kids. As they reminisce, Seok-chul admits that he thought Seok-kyung would stop him from joining the gang. Back then, he had been waiting for her to hold him back, but she never did. Seok-kyung apologises, saying she thought it would be a temporary stint; if she’d known he’d be a gangster for so long, she would have done everything to stop him.

Tired of talking about the past, Seok-chul tells her about a job he’s found for her. The neighborhood beauty salon is hiring, and getting out of the house would be good for her. (Looking out for his noona till the very end.)

Seok-kyung starts work at the salon right away, and while she’s there Byung-soo stops by. Everything he’s done since the siblings pulled her out of the gambling den shows us that he’s both smitten and serious about dating Seok-kyung. But Seok-kyung is wary, and she tells him to stop giving her false hope that they could be an item. After all, she’s a divorced single mother and saddled with debt.

But Byung-soo reassures her that he’s serious about his intentions and that to him, she’s still the pretty noona he knew all those years ago. When neighbourhood bullies would beat him up in school, she showed up every time to save him. Now it’s his turn to save her.

As Seok-kyung steadily rebuilds her life piece by piece, Seok-hee finds herself at a crossroads. Since she’s been feeling stuck, she starts to look into fulfilling her dream of going abroad to get a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. It would involve emigrating, but it’s something she and Ki-hong have discussed for ages. But Ki-hong is all aflutter about his own potential promotion to associate professor at the hospital. If it happens, he’ll be the youngest ever to hold the position. Seok-hee’s dreams don’t seem to factor into Ki-hong’s career ambitions, and Seok-hee seems to feel stuck between choosing their relationship, or her career.

Seok-hee sits down with Mum and Seok-kyung to tell them about her plans to go abroad. Mum doesn’t seem happy and Seok-hee assures her that once she’s working she’ll be able to give her way more financial support than she is now. But Mum doesn’t care about the money, she’s upset at the thought of her baby daughter being so far away. Seeing how badly Seok-hee wants to go, Mum says she won’t stop her but asks that she wait until the house issue is resolved.

At that, Seok-hee wants to know: What house issue? Mum leaves Seok-kyung to explain, and when she explains that she caused a giant debt and that their home is about to be seized, Seok-hee is seriously angry.

She goes outside to calm down, but the sight of Dad coming home with fried chicken for the family makes her tear up. Dad asks what’s wrong but she pretends she’s fine. When she gives him a big back hug and says, “You must be going through a lot,” he tears up too.

Later on, Seok-hee asks Dad what he thinks about her going abroad. He tells her to go, and to do what she wants in life so she doesn’t have any regrets. She jokes that she’s upset he’s giving his approval, but they both know she wouldn’t do as he tells her because they’re both stubborn as mules.

In another conversation with Ki-hong, Seok-hee reaffirms her desire to achieve her dream – whether he is willing to go abroad with her or not. Ki-hong argues that dreams and reality are very different things and asks where this would leave their relationship. They end the conversation without a resolution.

Though Ki-hong is set on staying at the hospital, his relationship with Seok-hee starts to look even more precarious following a meeting with the hospital director where Ki-hong gets the advice to break up with Seok-hee if he wants to go far in life. The director says family is important, and if Seok-hee’s family doesn’t have enough standing or money to help Ki-hong advance his career, he should end “the fling.” He’s clearly still aiming to get Ki-hong together with his daughter, because he also says he’ll support Ki-hong getting promoted to full professor.

Seok-hee seems to have a bit of a wobble of her own. The deadline to join the study abroad program is imminent, but the family’s debt is weighing on her. She has enough saved up to go abroad – or pay down the first debt installment and save the home. We see her withdraw all the funds in the account but we don’t see where the money goes.

Seok-chul on the other hand, is fully committed to both Mi-young and his decision to leave the gang for good. The first stop when he’s back at work is Sang-yeol’s office, where he hands in his resignation letter and tells Sang-yeol that he’ll give the news to the chairman directly.

Sang-yeol orders him to take the resignation letter back, as if that will make Seok-chul do it. Sang-yeol warns that there’s no such thing as a peaceful gangland exit. Seok-chul is unbowed and has a warning of his own: He won’t let Sang-yeol beat him up as the price for exiting.

Tae-hoon is the second person Seok-chul meets up with after his resignation. Seok-chul’s not in the mood for a friendly meal, so he uses the time to tell Tae-hoon he’s left the game. He suggests that Tae-hoon quit too. But Tae-hoon has been in the game so long that he doesn’t see any other way to earn a living. Seok-chul tells him that being a gangster isn’t a job or a calling, it’s just a dead end. Tae-hoon turns that back on Seok-chul and asks if his life is going anywhere now. Seok-chul says no – but at least people won’t call him a thug.

Seok-chul is attempting to close the book on this chapter of his life, but Chairman Kim is desperate to keep him in the gang. We find out that Chairman Kim is sick – he has a brain tumour. It’s operable, but not even surgery can get rid of the tumour entirely so he’ll need chemotherapy too.

When the chairman and Seok-chul meet in person for a goodbye meal, Sang-yeol loiters outside the room to eavesdrop. Chairman Kim lays everything out for Seok-chul. Seok-chul is the only man he trusts and he’s always seen Seok-chul as his heir apparent. When Seok-chul says that Sang-yeol will manage just fine, Chairman Kim insists Sang-yeol isn’t capable. Sang-yeol lacks the brains and skills to be a leader and he can’t get anything right (and of course Sang-yeol hears all of this).

The chairman admits that he’s planning to retire soon and he wants Seok-chul to take over the gang. Chairman Kim says he’s dedicated everything to the gang and he has zero intention of handing over his life’s work to Sang-yeol. Seok-chul refuses and apologizes, so Chairman Kim accepts defeat.

Seok-chul’s decision to leave also involves cutting ties with the other men in the gang. So when he gets texts and phone calls on the day of Young-gi’s birthday party, he assumes the guys just want him to come celebrate. Unfortunately, that means he’s oblivious to the fact that Tae-hoon ordered Bok-chun to strike Chairman Kim’s gang. As a huge battle is underway, Seok-chul is driving when he sees Cheon-ho and his boys pull up next to him. His spidey senses start tingling, and he finally answers a call from SOHN HEUNG-MAN (Park Doo-shik). Heung-man just barely gets out an SOS before he gets taken down. Seok-chul starts to tail Cheon-ho but a Truck of Doom intervenes, crashing into him.

Seok-chul stumbles out of the car and collapses. When he wakes, he’s in the hospital with Ki-hong and Seok-hee hovering over him. Seok-chul’s first thought is to ask them to keep the accident a secret from Mi-young. His injuries are bad enough that he has to stay overnight and a very worried Byung-soo visits him. The “accident” was no accident. The truck was using fake plates and had tailed him before crashing into him. Byung-soo is convinced it was a failed hit, but Seok-chul says that if they wanted him dead, they would have finished the job. He asks Byung-soo to stop investigating and to close the case because he has left the gang life for good. Seok-chul doesn’t need to be told who was behind the incident; he calls Tae-hoon to say, “I won’t ask why. Stop it here.”

Once he’s recovered, Seok-chul visits Jin-ho. Jin-ho is pleased to see that Seok-chul has left the gang once and for all, so when Seok-chul asks for a job, Jin-ho is happy to let him join his farm. So now our aspiring writer also plants and tends to trees – a far cry from the gang life. The work may be physically hard, but his heart is at ease.

Tae-hoon is a busy bee, not only is he planning almost-murders, he’s staying creepy and still pursuing Mi-young. After meddling in her career, he starts to overstep with Mi-young’s mum. Mi-young visits her mum and finds her being moved into a cushy private room – paid for by Tae-hoon. Not only that, he’s also there to visit her mum. Mi-young is outraged, but Tae-hoon tries to pull on her heartstrings, drawing parallels between their families. He tells her about his deceased sister and how she died because they couldn’t afford treatment. He says that if someone had offered to help at the time, he would have taken it. Mi-young listens but still returns her mum to her original room.

After this encounter, Mi-young receives a call that her mum is sick and races over to the care home. Of course, Tae-hoon just happens to be there and he takes charge of the situation when he sees how poorly her mum is. He orders a nurse to call for an ambulance, and at the hospital it becomes clear that her condition is more dire than it appeared to be.

Seok-hee is on call when Mi-young arrives and she recognizes Tae-hoon right away. She picks up on the weird vibes between Mi-young and Tae-hoon, but focuses on comforting Mi-young. However, Seok-hee does let the cat out of the bag that Seok-chul was in an “accident” that was likely an intentional attack.

Mi-young stops Tae-hoon from leaving to confront him about Seok-chul’s accident, asking if he was behind it.

Tae-hoon freely admits that it was him. He does say that the accident wasn’t because of her, it was due to an issue between him and Seok-chul. He doesn’t understand why he’s being like this, but thinks it could be that he has feelings for her. He continues to give her unsolicited advice, saying she needs to let Seok-chul go and that she needs someone who can support her. If she does break up with him, he can promise that Seok-chul won’t get hurt.

Meanwhile, Seok-hee gives Seok-chul a call to let him know about Mi-young’s mother – and that Tae-hoon arrived with Mi-young.

Seok-chul goes to the hospital to check on Mi-young and her mum. She asks if he’s okay, testing to see if he will tell her about the accident. He simply says he’s fine. After seeing him hide his pain again, she ignores his calls and texts while she struggles with what to do about Tae-hoon. Ultimately, she calls Tae-hoon. We only hear his side of the conversation, and he tells her he’ll keep his promise to not hurt Seok-chul.

When Mi-young and Seok-chul meet up in person, he fusses over her and worries she’s not eating enough. He goes to take her hand, and Mi-young pulls back. She takes this moment to break up with Seok-chul.

Sigh. The noble idiocy trope is not one of my favourites, and the romance storyline felt blah this week. It didn’t balance out the gangster storyline as well as it has in previous weeks. What a disappointing turn for Tae-hoon’s character. He started out as someone so interesting, and he could have been a broody presence pining away for Mi-young on his own. Instead, he just keeps bulldozing his way into her life, whether she likes it or not. I understand that Mi-young is afraid of putting Seok-chul in a situation where he would put himself in danger for her again, but it was only a week ago where they were promising to never part. Why couldn’t she just talk to him?

There have been several moments throughout the episodes where we hear Seok-chul’s thoughts in narration. Could that narration be passages from the novel that he manages to write after leaving the gang? If so, maybe it’s a sign that despite all the bad things bearing down on him now, the darkness he is facing is only temporary.

 
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