At a coffee shop, Kim Dong Sung / King (Youn Jung-Hoon) is waiting for someone. He is about to leave when Linda (Linda Chung) arrives saying she’s only late for 45 minutes. She wants to learn basic Korean conversation in three weeks. Since he lived in Hong Kong before and understands Cantonese, she wants him to be her teacher. He hesitates but she gives him a week’s pay in advance and he reluctantly accepts.
They go shopping together while he teaches her things like “How much?”, “I want to buy everything!”… and also has to carry all her shopping bags.
In the middle of the road (out of all places!) she tells him lessons can finish for the day so he just leaves all her shopping bags there. He leaves her on the road, and tells her the direction of the hotel. She tries to call a taxi but can’t get one. So she tries to ask for directions but also doesn’t get anywhere.
Poor men everywhere are untrustworthy! I need to dock his pay!
Back at the hotel, she’s so tired and jumps straight on the bed. But she realises it’s 6pm and she had to get herself ready to go out.
Her phone rings and she answers in a sickly sweet tone – “You’re not here. How am I supposed to have mood for shopping? Yes honey, I’ve been waiting for you for a very long time.”
She asks him what time he’s coming together, but he tells her he’s busy. She looks a little upset, but when she starts opening all her shopping bags, she exclaims – it’s so good to be rich!
In a very colourful home, King is alone eating noodles. He receives a message from his magazine editor hurrying him since he hasn’t submitted his illustrations yet. He receives another message from a co-worker (?) reminding him of the same thing. The next message comes from his landlord, again saying the same thing since without the illustration, he can’t pay rent to him and without the rent, his landlord won’t be able to chase girls. King’s reply to all the messages is that he will submit it tomorrow.
Someone knocks on his door and it’s his neighbour – a young girl. She hangs onto his arm and calls him ‘oppa’. But he tactfully brushes her arm off and asks her why she doesn’t need to look after her mom’s street stall. She asks whether she can cook for him. He doesn’t reply and just uses his chopsticks to indicate he already has instant noodles. She suggests to wash his clothes instead but he declines. As they’re fighting about his laundry, Linda suddenly appears.
He asks her why she’s here and she comments on how messy his house is, but it’s quite unique. Since she has some free time she thought she’d drop by for another lesson. He refuses because he’s busy. He says he’s painting, but she wants him to help her. She says she will shout him a big meal if he teachers her, so he doesn’t have to eat instant noodles anymore. But he defends it and says many people in Korea eat this and they’re fine.
This is nothing in comparison to Hong Kong! We invented luncheon meat and egg instant noodles and luncheon meat dry noodles!
She thinks his way of cooking noodles is too simple. To show him, she decides to cook it. (But she just stands there and gives him instructions on how to do it?)
Her phone rings and it’s Ivan BB. (LOL. Linda is nicknamed ‘Linda BB’ by her fans and the media.) He says they can have dinner tonight and she’s very happy. In a flash, she decides not to take her lessons and rushes off.
The next day, they’re at the shops again. While Linda is browsing through an illustration book, she realises it is one of King’s works. She asks him to hold the book and they take a selca together.
She takes him to a florist. A shop she paid the deposit for yesterday.
King (in Korean so Linda wouldn’t understand lol): That crazy woman! Buying a shop is like buying some clothes.
She asks him to draw something on her walls, but he tells her she’s crazy.
They go drinking together. He asks wouldn’t it be hard for her to live in Korea? She says it’s only hard if she’s poor. She has to stay in Korea because her rich boyfriend is supporting her family. Her younger siblings are now studying in the US, her parents living in a mansion… everything is worth it, she tells herself. She tells him he wouldn’t understand how difficult it is for a HK girl with only a high school education since he’s so talented. If she’s as talented as him, she can earn lots of money. But he tells her he doesn’t earn much at all.
Ivan calls her and he’s coming over right now. Since he hates her drinking, she begins to panic. She tries to drink some water and spray some perfume while blaming King for making her drink.
Before she leaves, she remembers she bought a tie pin for Ivan. It’s in King bag so she frantically searches through it and even empties out its contents just to find it. She then rushes into Ivan’s car. As he drives by, Linda sees King on the road picking up the things in his bag. Maybe she starts to feel bad she just ditched him there…
Back at King’s place, there’s someone knocking on the door but he struggles to get out of bed since he’s sick. He opens the door and it’s Linda. She thought he’s mad at her because they haven’t seen each other for two days.
Suddenly, a friend rushes in and wants to borrow money. He takes $3 million Won and leaves. Just as one friend leaves, another person walks in demanding an illustration. He looks through his stuff and finds five illustrations. He just takes them and leaves.
Seeing him so sick, Linda decides to cook something for him. When he wakes up, she already left. The noodles had gone soggy and are really spicy, but of course he eats them with a smile on his face. (eventually!)
The young girl (his neighbour) comes back and says she’s picking up some clothes. There’s no answer so she just went in. (Everyone knows the code to his house? He needs a key!) She screams because he fainted.
A couple of days later, King meets Linda. He asks whether they’re going shopping / lessons again, but she’s taking him to somewhere good. Since he only has three cups and three plates at home and he also puts paint inside, she wants to buy him new ones. As they are debating whether she should buy him an expensive cup, they almost dropped it.
The lady boss of the shop gets angry because they chipped the cup. Linda performs some stupid magic as a distraction and they run out of the shop…
As they keep running, they suddenly bump into Ivan. Ivan is angry because he previously told her not to come to this neighbourhood. That’s because his pregnant wife lives there. She slaps Linda and tells her to stay away from her husband. When Linda wants to fight back, Ivan gets very angry and nearly hits Linda. King steps in to protect her.
As Linda cries, King says he wants to take her somewhere. It’s an ice skating ring. When he’s unhappy, he comes here because it’s ‘a place to forget’. They skate together and she’s smiling again.
After Linda says goodbye to King, she takes a stroll to various places. She then calls her mum. Her mum says if she’s not used to living in Korea, she should come back. But if she comes back, that means her siblings can’t study in the US, and her parents can’t live in the big house anymore. Her mum tells her none of this matters, as long as the whole family is together and she’s happy, then it’s ok.
At the florist, Linda wants to cancel the rental contract. However, the shop keeper / owner (?) tells her she already signed a five year contract. If she breaks it, she’ll have to pay three years rent as penalty. She pleads with the owner, asking whether she can repay it over ten years. The owner says she will only agree if someone is willing to be the guarantor. Without hesitation King volunteered, but Linda doesn’t know because she didn’t understand what they said.
King asks her why she’s not renting the shop anymore and it’s because she’s going back to Hong Kong tomorrow. She gives him two limited edition handbags as tuition fees since she doesn’t have any cash. But he doesn’t take them, saying he’ll give them to her as a gift. She mentions her flight is at 4pm tomorrow. But he won’t be able to send her off as he has deadlines. They shake hands and say goodbye.
As she is on the taxi going to the airport, she looks at the selca they took together and smiles. King on the other hand is at the coffee shop looking at the drawings in his book. He finds the note Linda left for him earlier, and looks at his watch.
King is running on the streets, looking at his watch. Linda is about to board the plane. Turns out King was rushing back home and not to the airport! He sends her a picture of instant noodles with the message:
Can you stay for the noodles?
Those noodles must be good since Linda smiles (and I assume that means she’s staying!)
*THE END*
Part 3 – Korea’s theme song is Linda Chung’s Piano Cry.
For a comedy themed episode, this song is really sad? It seems like they did attempt some funny moments at the start (with Linda’s big shopping trips) but it’s very quickly revealed Linda is actually unhappy inside and she’s only using shopping to hide her loneliness. I liked her interactions with Yeon Jung Hoon though, their mix of Cantonese / Korean / English is refreshing. Surprisingly I don’t find it too weird they’re speaking to each other in two very different languages, but sometimes I would miss the subs because I forget someone would speak in Korean LOL.
The story itself, is a bit weak. It is the sort of outcome you would expect but for Linda to stay in Korea just because of those few moments she spent with King seems a little far fetched. I liked all the scenery though, a lot of this part was filmed outside so you really get the sense of being ‘in Korea’. (Maybe it’s more interesting for me because I’ve never been to Korea before.) Because of the weather though, when I look back through the screencaps the colours seem really washed out?
Overall, this is probably my second favourite ep so far and I guess I’m getting used to this short story format. I don’t have a lot of expectations so it’s pretty enjoyable. It would be great if TVB can produce more of this type of collaborations, but I guess it’s too expensive for them to make these into full length dramas.
Final part will be in Japan with Aaron Yan, Naomi Watanabe, Wong Cho Lam and Ben Wong!
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