Spring Fever: Episodes 1-2 (First Impressions)
by Unit
Spring Fever welcomes us to dramaland’s latest small town featuring yet another heroine living in hiding. Sorta. But her gloomily peaceful existence is about to be upended when she crosses paths with the tornado that is the town’s most feared “gangster.”
Editor’s note: This is a first impressions post only. To chat about the entire drama, visit the “>Drama Hangout post.
EPISODES 1-2
The show opens with an introduction to our heroine, YOON BOM (Lee Joo-bin). Bom is a high school ethics teacher in the small town of Shinsu, and she came here after cutting off her parents and friends in Seoul. Flashbacks reveal she used to be very extroverted and popular, but her present self paints the picture of gloom: she’s withdrawn, wears a dreary expression, and has an affinity for dark colored outfits. Bom means spring, but ain’t nothing spring-y about our leading lady. Her current mantra is to not be happy, and it feels like she’s punishing herself for something that happened in the past. Naturally, her colleagues are curious about her story, but Bom would rather they don’t know. But I’m also curious, so what are we going to do about that, Ms. Bom?
We meet our male lead, SEON JAE-GYU (Ahn Bo-hyun), when he visits Shinsu High School, and wow! What an entrance! The show really plays up the dramatics with a snowstorm and an earthquake heralding his appearance, and the staffroom spirals in panic because the teachers are terrified of Jae-gyu. Jae-gyu totally gives off gangster vibes, and the giant dragon tattoo covering his arm doesn’t do anything to dispel this notion. Heh. Jae-gyu is here to rip into the teachers for cancelling his nephew’s filial piety award (because his nephew is an orphan), and the nephew in question is SEON HAN-GYUL (Jo Joon-young) — the school’s most popular student, who’s also in Bom’s homeroom. Bom’s curiosity about her student’s uncle briefly brings her out of her introverted shell, and her colleagues waste no time regaling her with Jae-gyu’s gangster lore — which is as hilarious as it is ridiculous. It’s mostly overly exaggerated stuff, but the teachers genuinely believe it to be true.
Bom gets a first-hand Jae-gyu experience later that night. She’s stuck outside of her house because the lock on her gate is jammed, and a black-clothed Jae-gyu approaches from the opposite direction with a weapon in his hand. Bom takes to her heels, and he runs after her. She begs him not to kill her, and he reveals the “weapon” in his hand is actually a chicken skewer. Pfft. Bom is all, hey, you can’t blame a girl for running away from the gangster-tattooed man. But Jae-gyu rips off the dragon armsleeve to reveal a clean arm. What?! Jae-gyu is a little concerned about Bom being out at night, and she tells him about her lock problem. But just when she thinks he’s going to kick the gate in, he high-jumps over the fence to open the gate from inside. LMAO! Jae-gyu is the real definition of “never let them know your next move,” and I kinda love it.
We meet Bom’s other students when she announces the upcoming parent-teacher conference in class. One of the students, CHOI SE-JIN (Lee Jae-in), doesn’t want her parents to attend the conference. Her parents are too busy with her dad’s reelection campaign, anyway. Se-jin insinuates that Bom knows what it’s like to live under a famous parent, and Bom is taken aback as she wonders how much Se-jin knows about her. Hmmm. As for Han-gyul, well, Bom is not looking forward to meeting his uncle at the conference. But it’s not like she can avoid Jae-gyu, so she gives herself a pep talk and puts on some colorful clothes to disarm him with brightness and sweetness. But she’s the one disarmed when he shows up with a giant potted plant as a gift. Loool.
As it turns out, Jae-gyu and Bom have met before. (But it’s not a childhood connection, thank God!) But while he clearly remembers her, she doesn’t remember him. Anyway, the potted plant is too distracting to keep in the class, but a gift that has been given cannot be un-given. So Jae-gyu transports Bom and the plant back to her house. From all indications, he wants to be friends with her. But at the moment, the only thing she wants to be friends with is his ripped body. Wipe that drool, Ms. Bom… I say, as my own drool puddles around my feet. Lol. Bom gets emotional after accidentally answering her father’s call, and Jae-gyu thoughtfully gives her sweets because “sweets are the best cure when you feel down.” These words spark up a distant memory in Bom’s head, but she doesn’t recall it fully.
Moving on, Bom is put in charge of the environmental club at school, and Han-gyul suggests a field trip to a nearby solar power plant. He says his uncle works there, and Bom is SHOCKED to hear that Jae-gyu has a job. LMAO! Not gonna lie, it does feel good to finally know what our male lead actually does for a living — apart from strutting through town with his equally bulky minions. While it’s great that Jae-gyu has a job, Bom cannot be too sure he isn’t a gangster on the side, so she doesn’t agree to the field trip. Bom eventually agrees to a private tour of the plant first, after insisting that Han-gyul comes along. But on their way, Se-jin calls Han-gyul to tell him she’s running away from home. (Her parents gave her grief for coming second place in the midterms.) Han-gyul leaves his uncle and teacher and heads to the bus station to see Se-jin, and thus the field trip to the power plant is put on hold.
Jae-gyu and Bom have lunch while waiting for Han-gyul to return, and their small talk leads to a full blown parallel conversation which makes Bom conclude that Jae-gyu is a dangerous pervert. Pfft. Jae-gyu has an allergic reaction to the food — which he ate just because Bom ordered it — and Bom’s laughter at the hives on his face eases the tension between them. Meanwhile at the bus station, Han-gyul learns that Se-jin plans to sleepover at a guy’s place in Seoul. He gets on the bus and follows her, and calls to give his uncle a heads-up. Bom is concerned about her students’ runaway situation, but she pauses when Jae-gyu says the kids are headed to Seoul. Via a flashback to her Seoul teaching days, we learn that a parent made unwanted advances to her, and his wife publicly embarrassed her for having an affair. Ouch! In the present, Bom shakes off the bad memory and says she’ll accompany Jae-gyu to get the kids from Seoul.
In Seoul, Han-gyul talks about wanting parents, but parents are overrated according to Se-jin. She would rather have Han-gyul’s grades (he’s first place) and no parents. Se-jin leaves to meet up with her guy friend, and Han-gyul loses sight of her in the crowded subway station. He does bump into his uncle — who alerts Bom that Se-jin is with an adult male. Bom spots Se-jin and the guy boarding the train, and she hurries in. The train leaves before Jae-gyu gets in, and he’s worried about leaving Bom and Se-jin alone with Se-jin’s male friend. So he — wait for it — channels his inner Flash and runs all the way to the next station to catch up with the train! What?! He literally has to leap over people in the process, but he makes it in before the doors close. Phew! Jae-gyu sweeps Bom out of the doorway and into his arms as he leaps into the train, and this finally jogs her memory of when she met him in the past. This is where our premiere week wraps.
I might be wrong, but it seems Se-jin’s guy friend is the lawyer guy we were introduced to, CHOI YI-JOON (Cha Seo-won), and the surname means he’s related to Se-jin, right? Yi-joon seems like a sweet person, and though he considers Jae-gyu his archenemy and has been searching for him for years, it doesn’t seem like his grudge was borne out of sinister reasons. But appearances can be deceiving, so… Yi-joon is also the founder and president of an older actress’s fanclub, and it turns out the actress, JUNG NAN-HEE (Na Young-hee) is Bom’s mother. Ah! So this is Bom’s famous parent. Yi-joon and Nan-hee may not know it yet, but it looks like a trip to Shinsu is in their future because the people they’re searching for are holed up in that small town. Heh.
Spring Fever feels like a fever dream inspired by a My Sweet Mobster binge-watch. It’s silly, a little ridiculous and over the top, but it’s still fun. Ahn Bo-hyun is killing it as the overpowered himbo who doesn’t joke about his nephew, and since I find Lee Joo-bin slightly insipid, she fits right at home playing Bom. The supporting characters are mostly likeable, minus Teacher Hong and that rude restaurant ajumma. Her rudeness is played off for laughs, but there’s nothing funny about her cussing out customers. As the show progresses, I look forward to the developing romances, more of the uncle-nephew interactions, and I hope we get to fully explore the ‘famous parent–child living under their shadow’ angle that was set up for Bom and Se-jin.
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