The Practical Guide to Love: Episodes 7-8
by Unit
The love triangle deepens as our show enters its second half. While our leading lady works her way through this dilemma, our woodwork CEO realizes he needs to be more vocal about his feelings, and our cafe part-timer deals with family issues — which only strengthen his resolve to be with our leading lady.
EPISODES 7-8
We resume with the impromptu meet-the-parents session when Tae-seop’s mom walks in on his and Eui-young’s home date. Mom is overly excited, and she all but picks out names for her future grandchildren. Lol. Safe to say, Eui-young is mom-approved! Speaking of mothers, we learn Jeong-ah is Ji-soo’s stepmom. Jeong-ah clarifies her familial relationship with Dr. Shin (Ji-soo’s dad) and Ji-soo to quell the entangled-with-multiple-men scandal, and the public story is that she began dating Dr. Shin after Ji-soo’s biological mom died. But it’s implied from Ji-soo’s words that Jeong-ah and Dr. Shin had an affair.
Ji-soo is estranged from the family, and he warns them to keep his name out of their PR article. But Dr. Shin is pretty dismissive of his feelings about the matter. Ji-soo’s identity is inevitably leaked in a tabloid article alongside rumors that he got acting roles due to Jeong-ah’s influence. But this is especially annoying, knowing Ji-soo stayed away from mainstream acting because he didn’t want the nepo baby accusations. To worsen matters, the article comes out on his mother’s death anniversary of all days! Ji-soo goes off-grid, and a worried Eui-young shows up at the cemetery after learning about his mom’s memorial from his colleagues at the theater company. Her presence cheers him up, and she encourages him not to avoid the the gossip/online chatter, and to protect what he loves instead.
Ji-soo decides to officially cast his net into Eui-young’s dating pool, and he asks her out for a do-over of their blind date. While walking her home, he reminds her that she told him to go after what he loves, and this leads up to his “I like you.” Aww. Ji-soo 1:0 Tae-seop. Ji-soo promises to become a better version of himself for Eui-young, and I’m moved by his heartfelt confession. But before she can reply, Tae-seop — who’s dropping by her place after work — strides up to them and he is very displeased. “You’re aware that [Eui-young and I] are involved,” he scolds Ji-soo. But Ji-soo counters that he also has feelings for Eui-young and he will not be stepping aside. Ji-soo 2:0 Tae-seop. All that testosterone in the air subsequently attracts a security guard, and he promptly diffuses the situation and sends both men home. Thank you, ajusshi!
In the days that follow, Misters Song “Let me drive you home” Tae-seop and Shin “I undid [my shirt button] because of you” Ji-soo, do their best to win Eui-young over. But my good sis calmly walks away from the drama (lol!) and heads straight to her bestie to spill the tea on her dilemmic love life. But Seung-joon’s love life isn’t any better at the moment. A gym client mentions meeting Hyun-min on an app, and Seung-joon panics because he assumes Hyun-min casually hooks up with guys from dating apps. He’s relieved when he learns the client was referring to the second-hand market app, but Hyun-min replies that she was also on a dating app. She’s put off by Seung-joon’s assumption that dating apps = hook up apps, and she breaks up with him. Ouch!
Eui-young comes down with a stress-induced stomach ache, and Tae-seop drives to her place with chamomile tea, indigestion medication — and his confession! Fina–freaking–lly! Tae-seop says he won’t burden Eui-young with his feelings, and he’s ready to wait until she has sorted out her own feelings. How considerate. Eui-young proceeds to ask Jeong-ah for relationship advice, because if there’s anyone who can understand — to an even larger extent — being at the center of romantic attention, it’s superstar Jeong-ah. In response to Eui-young’s “how do you know the right person?” question, Jeong-ah replies that it just hits you at a specific moment. All your feelings towards that person keep piling up until it crosses a threshold, and you realize their absence makes your heart ache. By the way, Jeong-ah checks out of the hotel since the scandal has died down.
In other news, Sae-byeok doesn’t get a permanent position on the hotel’s purchasing team after her internship ends (due to the pop-up mistake Na-ri pushed her into making). Thankfully, Tae-seop was impressed with her effort to fix the mess, plus her hard work during the pop-up booth installation and eventual dismantling, and he offers her a job at HOME. Woodworking is a different industry than Sae-byeok is used to, but she’s happy to explore the field. And I’m beyond thrilled for her!
Eun-ho has been itching to see Tae-seop and Eui-young become an official item, so he suggests a joint farewell and welcome party with Sae-byeok’s hotel buddies and HOME employees. Eui-young has plans with Ji-soo that day, but she promises to join the party afterwards. Tae-seop patiently waits for Eui-young to show up — and I’m pretty sure he doubled his daily steps target with the way he runs through her mind for the entirety of her date. Lol. True to his words, he took a step back to give her space to process her feelings and now she misses him. Ji-soo senses Eui-young’s mind is far away, and his unease grows. He tries to divert her attention towards himself, but it’s too late. Eui-young admits that she likes Tae-seop, and she cannot keep him waiting any longer. The party is over by the time Eui-young arrives, but Tae-seop is still waiting. She tells him she likes him, and they hug and kiss. Tae-seop 100:0 Ji-soo.
There’s finally some progress in Eui-young’s love life, and I’m happy for her. I’m a little sad for Ji-soo, but I ship him more with his career than with romance. I’m glad he has decided to take acting seriously — although it does feel like most of his motivation for self-improvement stems from wanting Eui-young to take him seriously as a suitor. Unfortunately for him, our main ship has sailed. And just like that, our side ship has fallen apart. *facepalm* Dear Seung-joon and Hyun-min, my first class ticket on your love cruise cannot go to waste. Get it together ASAP!
RELATED POSTS