Endings and Beginnings
Episode 15 of Now, We Are Breaking Up starts with Taek-soo having no idea how to move on from his marriage, especially since he doesn’t want Jung-ja to only remember the bad things between them. Chi-sook confronts CEO Hwang about buttering Do-hoon up for her. Frustrated, CEO Hwang denies that he would ever waste company resources on undeserving individuals when he has employees to look after. CEO Hwang will keep working with Do-hoon – whose talent he appreciates – even if Chi-sook breaks up with him. Even after that revelation, Chi-sook is still mad that Do-hoon agreed to break up so easily. Young-eun finds Do-hoon helping Jae-guk to pack up his studio. While Chi-sook has been a wreck, Do-hoon is confident that this is just a small misunderstanding that their relationship can bounce back from. After Do-hoon leaves, Jae-guk gives Young-eun the prints from Mi-sook’s session. His studio equipment will be removed the following day and then he’ll be all set for Paris. Mi-sook has been getting Soo-ho and Ji-min ready to live without her. She starts coughing up blood and worries over all the things she has left to arrange for them. Soo-ho tries to stay strong for her, assuring her that he can step into her shoes. Young-eun has yet to give CEO Hwang an answer regarding Sono. She barters for time, gaining until after the coming weekend. As the weekend arrives, Young-eun helps Jae-guk pack up his room, noticing the photos he took of her during their first shoot. The moment is soured by Hye-ok’s arrival, though she doesn’t try to antagonize Young-eun now that she’s satisfied with their looming breakup. Later, Jung-ja drops by Young-eun’s apartment with food for Taek-soo. Jung-ja confesses to being as bothered by his absence as she is by the sight of him, though she’s still set on a divorce. Taek-soo has their house inspected in preparation for renovations. Jung-ja loses her temper, not wanting him to throw money into the house when she has put it up for sale. Refusing to sell the very house Young-eun paid off, Taek-soo resolves to fix it up and move out. Hye-ok stops by Jae-guk’s studio the next day to take a family portrait with him. As they sit in front of the canvas, she tells him that mothers must sometimes be cold-hearted, but she will always be his mother and wait for his return. Young-eun and Chi-sook are called to the hospital by Soo-ho. The doctor informs the three of them that Mi-sook should start saying her goodbyes. Mi-sook herself still refuses to be admitted, wanting to spend what little time she has left being Ji-min’s mother. Grieving, Chi-sook ends up outside Do-hoon’s apartment building. She’s crying behind the wheel of her parked car when Do-hoon peers through the window. They patch up their relationship, with Do-hoon saying that he hopes to never break up with her. Elsewhere, Jae-guk walks Young-eun home. He’s due to leave the next day and he proclaims that his love for her will still burn long after they’ve parted. On the day of his departure, Young-eun starts packing up her desk in Sono’s office, deciding to resign instead of accepting CEO Hwang’s offer. She tells him that she will regret it later if she doesn’t branch out on her own now. Meanwhile, at her apartment, Mi-sook welcomes Ji-min home from kindergarten. Mi-sook imparts a lesson on her young daughter, explaining that one day Ji-min will come home, and Mi-sook won’t be waiting for her. Euphemizing her own death, Mi-sook tells Ji-min to live healthily for a long time. On his flight to Paris, alone, Jae-guk has a flashback to Young-eun seeing him off at the airport. In it, she thanks him for loving her and for allowing her to love him in return. With the courage she learned through their love, she plans to face the future. That night, Mi-sook expresses to Soo-ho that her life has been happy because of their love. He apologises for having to let her leave alone and she apologises for having to leave him behind to raise Ji-min solo. Even so, she also tells him to only be sad for three days after she’s gone. We fade from the image of them lying in each other’s arms to Mi-sook’s funeral. Ji-min clutches her mother’s portrait while Young-eun looks at the light filtering through the trees above them and says her final farewell. We cut to Young-eun taking Ji-min to kindergarten while Soo-ho goes to an early morning meeting. By now, Ji-min can tie her own hair and recite her allergy needs by heart. Afterwards, Young-eun goes to The One and says her goodbyes to the Sono team, giving each of them some last advice. In a flashback, she tells CEO Hwang that she will be an independent designer, trying styles that she was too scared to pursue before. She attributes her long-term complacency at The One to her own fear of failing, but that no longer holds her back.
The Episode Review
And so, we arrive at the lesson to be learned from all this breaking up (told to us multiple times in overly didactic voice overs): distance does not lessen love. Instead, you may feel someone’s love in all the ways they have impacted your own life. Soo-ho and Ji-min manage each day with the knowledge Mi-sook gave them and Young-eun has learned to break free of her self-doubt. It’s a pretty lesson indeed. Of course, we can pretend that it was not shoehorned into the latter half of the drama in a last-ditch effort to create depth. Will the finale stand steadfast to this message and keep the leads apart? More likely is that we get a cheesy reunion in the not-so-distant future.
