[recap] Wild Romance – Episode 1

Well..here I am, again attempting at recapping a series. The chosen one is Wild Romance, starring Lee Dong-Wook and Lee Si-Young, or as I called them: the Lees. It faced a rough start with single digit rating, having premiered on the same day as The Moon that Embraces the Sun and Take Care of Us, Captain. However, there’s probably a solid reason why the Lees chose to star in this drama, and I think I know why.

It starts off at a place like a warehouse, with our hero and heroine facing each other in a rink. The man is clearly happier than the woman, smirking while she gives him a cold glare. She strikes and in one solid movement, the heroine tosses the hero on the ground.

Episode 1: The ‘playball’ that no one wanted.

*[Playball – An umpire’s call (or scream) at the start of a baseball game. To put it in a normal sentence: a start of something new.]

 

A video of a man being thrown to the ground by a woman is shown on a tablet, but the place is brighter than the scene earlier. Kim Tae-Han (Kang Dong-Ho), Red Dreamer’s PR Manager shows the video to the man in the video who is still in his bed: Park Mu-Yeol (Lee Dong-Wook). Mu-Yeol takes the tablet to have a look at the video and he throws it onto his bed, full of embarrassment. Manager Kim asks him the event that led to the video being posted all over the internet.

 

In another place that looks like an office (it’s actually a bodyguard company), a man shows the same video to the woman: Yoo Eun-Jae (Lee Si-Young). She hides her face after realizing it’s her in that video while her boss (Lee Han-Wi) demands to know what happened. He keeps bombarding her with accusations: why she did that, was she holding grudges on him, etc. The same goes for Mu-Yeol, who’s being reminded about his bad reputation in the press. Manager Kim wants to know who the girl is, but Mu-Yeol doesn’t know her since it was his first time meeting her at a noraebang (karaoke place).

 

Unlike Mu-Yeol who doesn’t have any clue about her, Eun-Jae clearly recognized him: Park Mu-Yeol, a baseball player by nature, a thug on the field. Her boss makes her spill everything that made her did as what shown in the video, at the same time Mu-Yeol is being interrogated by Manager Kim. Mu-Yeol went there for a reason he hides from him, and Eun-Jae was celebrating her father’s birthday and did that after a couple glasses (one or two..and then four) of beer..mixed with soju.

 

Back to the fateful night at the noraebang, where Eun-Jae with her father, Yoo Young-Gil (Lee Won-Jong) and her brother, Yoo Chang-Ho (Jang Tae-Hoon) were going to cut their own throats singing their hearts out and jumping all around the little room. The wild Eun-Jae sat like a real lady when the waiter came in to serve the beer, but she got completely ignored by the boy. Once he went out, she put the hidden soju she got onto the table and started to mix them with the beer.

Mu-Yeol arrived at the noraebang at 9 p.m. and met someone: a woman (Hwang Sun-Hee). He didn’t want her to be involved, so he didn’t tell her identity to Manager Kim, though they might need her help to face the press. He didn’t want her to be his sacrificial lamb, and Manager Kim agrees.

Back to the noraebang, Eun-Jae’s father went to the toilet and being tipsy he was, he accidentally entered Mu-Yeol’s room. he apologized to the startled Mu-Yeol and went back to his room. He suddenly recognized him and screamedat the top of his lungs: “Fark Mu-Yeol!!!!”

Fark?

Boss: Fark Mu-Yeol?

Eun-Jae: Urgh…F*ck Mu-Yeol! (While trying to hold herself from showing her middle finger) His name really describes his character well.

 

Since they figured out who he was, Eun-Jae’s father and brother spied on Mu-Yeol, but they’re found by him. He went out to ask the reason why they’re hanging around his room, but they accused him of being a thief. It turns out that they are Blue Seagulls’ die-hard fan and Mu-Yeol was the one who ‘stole’ the title that should be given to their team. They cried in agony, but Mu-Yeol started to poke on their sore spot, talking bad about their Seagulls.

 

That resulted in a collar-grabbing incident, and the woman with him left to avoid further problem. Unlucky enough, she ran into Eun-Jae,but the latter was so drunk she couldn’t care less. With one push, Eun-Jae’s father and brother stumbled onto the floor, and the counter boy started to record everything (he’s the culprit who spread the video). Eun-Jae quickly recognized their ultimate enemy and the one one who made her father fell onto the floor was the same man.

     

Throwing him onto the floor and then celebrated it with her family,Eun-Jae admits that it’s her fault trying to seek justice for her old father. Her boss wants to know why she calls Mu-Yeol so many bad names, and she begins to tell another story: the final match between Blue Seagulls and Red Dreamers.

 

Mu-Yeol was the batter for Dreamers while Seo Dong-Yol was the ‘sniper’ pitcher for Seagulls. Problem arose when the pitcher threw the ball close to Mu-Yeol’s face, calling out the rage in the hot-tempered batter. They almost engaged in a fight after Mu-Yeol threw his bat at the pitcher, but he’s declared out of the game. Eun-Jae and family, who were watching from their home, shouted in happiness because their team’s rival was kicked out, but it didn’t last long. The Seagulls’  pitcher was also declared out.

Their hopes tainted, their plasma TV met its end (from her father’s furious kick), and there goes all their cheers, which turned into cries of woe. Eun-Jae is still furious over the sudden lost of their team and she almost screams at her boss. Mu-Yeol also defends himself, saying that it’s not his fault as the anti-fans who hit him and showed the proof.

Director Kim decides it’s better not to say anything for the mean time as he was involved in a fight with a girl and if the fact is known by the public, his career life will be over. Same for Eun-Jae, who’s having a ‘lecture’ session from her boss about abusing her judo skills to hurt people, although he’s an athlete. Manager Kim decides they have to find the girl at any cost, while Eun-Jae’s boss wants her not to be found out by the other side. Both Mu-Yeol and Eun-Jae nod fervently, agreeing to comply with them. Both of them take the precaution measures: Mu-Yeol leaving to his friend’s house while Eun-Jae tells her family not to mention anything about them knowing her.

 

Mu-Yeol arrives at his friend, Jin Dong-Soo (Oh Man-Seok)’s house. Dong-Soo keeps teasing him about what Internet said about his incident, but Mu-Yeol ignores him and starts raiding his kitchen,searching for food. Suddenly, Dong-Soo receives a call. Reporter Go (Lee Hee-Joon) wants to know about Mu-Yeol, and Dong-Soo plays along, saying he doesn’t know anything. While Mu-Yeol is busy stuffing his mouth with the food, the reporters are already swarming in front of his house. Mu-Yeol brushes  off all his friend’s worry on him as Manager Kim will take care of the matter.

 

Speaking of him, Manager Kim arrives at the noraebang and picks up the mails in front of the doorstep to search for the owner’s contact number. Eun-Jae sees him and thinks he’s the owner of the noraebang. She tries to bribe him about the incident last night, but her hope is crushed right away when Manager Kim gives her his business card. Looks like she’s going straight to the tiger’s mouth as Manager Kim wants to have a word with her.

 

Off they go to her office, where Manager Kim starts reading the brochure about her bodyguard company: Kevin’s Cabin. pffft. Kevin Jang (the boss’ name) is nervous when Manager Kim starts digging out their bad history about one of the bodyguard’s mistakes. With that, he starts to discuss about the real reason he’s coming to his office.

 

Finally finished with his meal, Mu-Yeol begins to check the comments on the Internet and people are talking bad about him. He brushes off the comments off his head (literally and technically) nd denies the fact of him being a masochist, although Dong-Soo says so. A call comes in, and it’s Manager Kim calling Dong-Soo to speak with Mu-Yeol. Reporter Go and the other reporters also gets a call on their own phones and off they rush to another place.

 

And we get both Mu-Yeol and Eun-Jae, together with their bosses getting ready for something. They are reluctant to do that, but their bosses decide it’s the best solution to their problem right now. The reporters have arrived for a press conference and the main subjects, Mu-Yeol and Eun-Jae, get to meet each other soberly.

 

They walk towards the room where the press conference is going to be held soon and their bickering has already started. The arguments, ranging from Eun-Jae’s unusual bodyguard job, her thug family, the baseball teams, and even Eun-Jae’s ahjumma perm, end on a high note with them refusing to apologize to each other. Their arguments are heard by the reporters when Manager Kim opens the door, and with his poker face, he close the door back. The damage is done: Eun-Jae being dragged away by Kevin and Manager Kim simply just wants Mu-Yeol to think which is more important to him – personal problems or talent. Kevin feels it’s the end of his bodyguard business with their failure to tackle this matter, and Eun-Jae is left to contemplate whether to choose her pride or her company’s fate.

     

After the little argument, the press conference starts with Manager Kim and Mu-Yeol making their grand but late entrance. Manager Kim points to the envelopes which have been placed in front of every reporter that contain some blackmail letters sent by some haters. The reporters quickly take interest in the subject, and begin to ask about the details of the haters. Reporter Go is quite sneaky in trying to get under Mu-Yeol’s skin, but Mu-Yeol is better.A question about the circulated video are raised and Manager Kim introduces the bodyguard agency that has been hired to protect Mu-Yeol.

 

Here comes Kevin and Eun-Jae, walking under the limelight. The reporters quickly recognize Eun-Jae as the judo girl from the video and the story that comes out about the video is just a bodyguard teaching Mu-Yeol self defense. Mu-Yeol answers every single question regarding the reasons he hired the bodyguard, such as why a girl is chosen (he was once labeled gay when he went shopping with a guy, probably thanks to to Reporter Go’s spying and gossiping techniques) and why the bodyguard dressed so casually in the video (she has awful taste in fashion). The next question is for Eun-Jae, about the judo movement might be quite hard for Mu-Yeol, but she coolly replies, “Well, it might be quite hard, but after all he’s an athlete, right?”

 

The matter is resolved with Mu-Yeol’s stalkers and haters conquering the front page of the press. Both Mu-Yeol and Eun-Jae are reluctant to stay beside each other (or even seeing each other’s shadow based on their degree of reluctance). Eun-Jae-s father starts to make a speech on how her heart must stay with The Blues (Blue Seagulls, not Chelsea hihi) and stuffs (it’s like sending her to a war hehe) and starts singing the Blue Seagulls’ song with pride, later joined by his children. Eun-Jae rather die than doing that job, but she has no other choice. Seeing this opportunity, Eun-Jae’s father suggests her to do something to Mu-Yeol’s wrist, like breaking or twisting it until he can’t bat anymore, for the sake of their Seagulls’ glory. Eun-Jae refuses to do so and he stomps his feet to the toilet.

All the things in their house are blue, except for one thing: a red hearthrug in front of the toilet with Mu-Yeol’s face there, smiling proudly while being stomped by Eun-Jae’s father before he goes into the toilet.

 

The first day: they decide to ignore each other’s presence at first but they have to ride Mu-Yeol’s red car together. Eun-Jae tries to ask him about the schedule but Mu-Yeol doesn’t want her to guard him and warns her not to kill him later. She decides to sit comfortably (i.e. lying down on the seat) since she practically doesn’t have to do anything. Well, he’s not going to let her go easily and steps on the brake when they encounter red light, sending Eun-Jae slipping flat onto the seat. She leisurely stomps her feet onto the shiny dashboard to get up, leaving her pretty shoes patterns on it.

 

Think she’s going on him easily? No, not at all. When Mu-Yeol orders her to wipe it clean, she obeys it willingly and starts wiping the dashboard…with her socks. They both laugh sarcastically, marking the starting point of their efforts to annoy each other to death. Mu-Yeol wants her to open his door for him and check around for any possible threats. She obeys him and he even makes her carry all his bags by her own, since that’s what a bodyguard does. He’s not the winner for a long time as suddenly, Eun-Jae pushes Mu-Yeol onto the car hood since she feels a threat is coming. It turns out to be his teammate and Reporter Go walking around.

 

The downside might be Mu-Yeol having burning heart (not lovey-dovey, more towards grudge) towards Eun-Jae, but on the bright side: he’s on his optimum state on that day, performing well in the batting training. Thanks to Eun-Jae, whom he imagines as the balls that come flying to his face that he need to hit.

 

Another day: both of them are heading to somewhere near East Hongcheon with Mu-Yeol only telling Eun-Jae he needs to meet someone. They arrive at a big summer house in the mountain. He calls someone before letting her go back to her home. He barks when Eun-Jae wants to stay and forces her to go away (while hiding his evil grin and laugh). Girl is going to obey his order, but she kicks the car’s tire to keep her heart at ease before running away. Then we have out poor Eun-Jae, waling down the mountain alone in cold. Luck is on her side when a car passes by. She asks for a ride, but the car’s driver is the woman with Mu-Yeol at the noraebang. Eun-Jae remembers the woman, although she was drunk on that night. She declines and leaves Eun-Jae, again alone on the road. She walks off in the cold while cursing Mu-Yeol endlessly.

The long walk results in her getting a slight flu, and Eun-Jae wastes no time to post bad comments about Dreamers Park Mu-Yeol’s long list of women in his life wtih tissues conquering her table. Her landlady, Kim Dong-Ah (Im Joo-Eun) brings in some medication and Eun-Jae continues to talk bad about Mu-Yeol, wo’s a league above her when it comes to bad attitude.

 

The next day, she’s still sneezing while guarding Mu-Yeol during a fan sign event. Mu-Yeol doesn’t give any sign of sympathy to her, although he’s the one who made her sick. Apart from enduring her personal pain of having to attend her rival team’s event, Eun-Jae keeps hearing the compliments from the fans to Mu-Yeol, which are all total opposite of what she saw. In the middle of her duty, Kevin alerts her about a suspicious man and off she goes to the  front of the table to protect Mu-Yeol, should anything happens.

 

Two high school girls come to the table in front of Mu-Yeol and they keep gushing about him and how great Red Dreamers team is. They even talk bad about Blue Seagulls team and he grabs this chance to make Eun-Jae’s heart burning with anger. She’s trying her best to hold herself from doing anything to the jerk that’s hurting her pride when suddenly,the suspicious man comes forward. Eun-Jae is surprised and she’s torn between protecting her pride or giving Mu-Yeol a chance to pay the price for teasing her favorite team. With the echoing laugh from Mu-Yeol and Eun-Jae’s choice, she finally..

..decides to dodge it and let Mu-Yeol gets the honor of being egged. Ha. The wisest choice ever made by her. Mu-Yeol gets the egg, he’s dragged away, the press is covered with his news, and we get a slight shower scene while he’s screaming angrily.

 

Eun-Jae goes back home, where she’s welcomed home like a hero by her family. They even bought some red snapper (a very expensive fish usually bought during a very important occasion) to celebrate her success of humiliating their rival, F*ck Mu-Yeol. Eun-Jae is reluctant to feel happy, but soon she is the one who’s excitedly demonstrating what happened. It’s like defeating her eternal enemy. Unknown to Mu-Yeol and Eun-Jae, someone is in a dark room, poking his photo with a needle. Seems like the stalker is real…

The next day, Eun-Jae has to face her boss and when Kevin accuses her of deliberately letting Mu-Yeol being egged in public. She breaks into fake tears, but he knows her so well to know that she’s putting on a show in front of him. He decides to let the matter go and makes Eun-Jae keeps the facts to herself.

 

The next scene: she’s near the Han River (or known as River of Woe in kdramaland) where she’s waiting for someone. Mu-Yeol arrives, as usual with his red car. He doesn’t say a word about his schedule today, and he starts warming up. Eun-Jae (and so am I) thinks he’s going to start another fight with him, but he isn’t. Instead he makes her jog around behind him with the reason of protecting  him. She follows him, although she’s clearly reluctant to do so. Mu-Yeol makes her blurts out the truth about the egging incident and gets mad at her while Eun-Jae is enjoying the sight of him being pissed.

 

Their jogging session turn into a long track marathon (34 km!) until they don’t even know where they are. Both of them are nearly dying of fatigue (they look like an old couple with their horrible cracking voice) but they refuse to stop. Eun-Jae is the one who vomited first, so Mu-Yeol declares himself as the winner to the sudden competition. Eun-Jaecries in despair, while Mu-Yeol’s happiness disappears into the thin air when he realizes that they are at an unknown place.

 

A car passes by a dark road and suddenly, a grey figure waves at the driver, making the people in the car scared and doesn’t stop. They grey ghost is Eun-Jae, and Mu-Yeol chides him for not being able to make any car stop to give them a ride. He refuses to do anything as he’s the client and decides to walk in the chilling coldness. Another car passes by and Eun-Jae finally succeed in making the car stops but as soon as Mu-Yeol approaches the car, the driver zooms away (because the driver is a man). Eun-Jae blames Mu-Yeol for scaring off the driver and Mu-Yeol thinks it’s her ugly face that scares off him. They continue their endless bickering until they run into darkness.

Thank God, they are back in their respective houses and continue their war..in a public chat room. Eun-Jae plays someone who hates Mu-Yeol while he plays his own fan (he’s a total narcissist!). They continue their argument: Eun-Jae continuously saying bad things about Mu-Yeol and Mu-Yeol keeps defending himself from a fan’s point of view. The best part?

 

Mu-Yeol: Who are you?

Eun-Jae: I am your father. (cue Star Wars background music)

Their argument continues until Eun-Jae accidentally calls him the usual nickname she got for him: jerk. Mu-Yeol is sharp and quick enough to know that the other person is her retard bodyguard, but Eun-Jae is faster. She logs out (her nickname in the chat room: The World Without Him. hehe), leaving Mu-Yeol fuming in front of his laptop.

[END of EPISODE 1]

Crazy. It’s really crazy.

I don’t know how many times I’ve laughed when I am writing this. Eun-Jae and Mu-Yeol are totally crazy, and I think that’s why Lee Si-Young and Lee Dong-Wook are having so much fun filming the series. They must be enjoying the opportunity to act as over-the-top characters and I also have fun seeing them butting heads with each other.

Overall, the first episode sets a certain background to the characters and shapes up how the characters will develop in each other’s presence. It’s still early to judge it, but I thoroughly enjoyed my ride. True, there are things that I feel exaggerated at first, but after some time, I know it’s only the drama’s concept and I quickly adjust myself to make myself enjoy this rom-com.

More characters are going to come into the scene, especially the women that are going to be involved with Mu-Yeol. Hopefully they are not to be too b*tchy, since I’m easily pissed off by a character who irks me. I’m going to brace myself because our Eun-Jae might be hurt, so I really wish for the women to be like Na-Yoon in Protect the Boss, not the standard I’m-kind-to-my-man-but-I’m-a-b*tch-in-front-of-you kind of women. Ah, this drama is teaching me so much new words. hehe

Apart from the four lovely leads (Dong-Soo who cleans his own house! love it!), another character that I adore is unexpectedly Manager Kim. People are saying that he’s vampire/zombie/stoic etc., but I still find him adorable in his own way. His character is supposed to be cold, but he’s still a very patient man to be working with bratty Mu-Yeol and I think he has his own charms. Looking forward to his own story..and maybe there is a love line for him? We’ll see 😉