Brotherly Love
We begin episode 14 of Record Of Youth with Hye-Jun and Jeong-Ha talking about their relationship and where they stand together. While they do, Ji-A goes over the implications of what Gyeong-Jun wrote online. To summarize his comments, Min-Jae tells him to write his letter of apology but Gyeong-Jun is stubborn and refuses to do so. Back home, Hae-Hyo continues to give his Mother the cold shoulder. He wants to shake off the anger he’s feeling but he’s finding it more difficult to do so. This unfortunately affects his performances on-screen too, with him fluffing his lines with Hye-Jun despite his best efforts to help him. During a short recess, Hye-Jun confronts his friend and tells him he wants to help. Hae-Hyo is apparently embarrassed, unable to stand next to Hye-Jun given how high he’s ascended. A brief flashback to the past only exemplifies these problems, as Hae-Hyo and Hye-Jun fall out at school. Back home, Hae-Na comes under fire from I-Young who berates her for an issue involving Jin-U, believing he’s not a good guy. Meanwhile, Ae-Suk and Yeong0-Nam head out clothes shopping but Yeong-Nam believes a married man is trying to hit on her. He isn’t of course, but it’s chivalrous enough for Ae-Suk to feel loved. Their smiles are short-lived though when they notice a billboard featuring the latest Hye-Jun scandal. This catches us up to last week’s ending as Min-Jae is swamped with calls. She picks up the call to Hye-Jun and tries to explain the situation. He mentions the text he received and how he kept it secret. At the same time, Jeong-Ha’s client at the salon brings up the Charlie Jung story. She’s convinced that Hye-Jun wouldn’t keep that from her and continues working. She’s so convinced in fact, that she heads over to Min-Jae’s to talk about it. There, she also runs into Ji-A who’s obviously a lawyer looking into the Hye-Jun case. Min-Jae doesn’t have a plan but does tell Jeong-Ha that Hye-Jun does everything he can for her, visiting every chance he gets. After Jeong-Ha mentions how she likes being the one to give love rather than receive it, she finds Hae-Hyo waiting outside her salon. There, they head in together to eat noodles. After an awkward incident involving a stain on Jeong-ha’s face, Hae-Hyo mentions the issues facing his family right now and how he doesn’t have time to care for anyone else. While Gyeong-Jun’s case goes all the way to the station (with both men refusing to back down), Hye-Jun heads back to the office. When he arrives, Min-Jae mentions the trouble Hye-Jun’s brother is in. Even worse, Min-Jae warns him about the reporter and how they’re threatening to spill the details of Jeong-Ha and Hye-Jun’s relationship. Mulling it over, he heads up to see Jeong-Ha regardless of risk. He holds her hand and decides to be bold, flaunting their relationship without being worried. As they mention the strength of their relationship, they briefly touch on the issues facing Hae-Hyo. Hye-Jun tells her he doesn’t know but that evening, he heads to a high vantage point overlooking the city. There, Hae-Hyo shows and the pair discuss their changing fortunes over the years. Hae-Hypo wanted to beat Hye-Jun on his own and after the social media issues, bemoans his Mother for what she’s done. To try and make him feel better, Hye-Jun mentions similar problems connecting with Yeong-Nam. Hye-Jun heads back home, alone in his new room and admits to himself he’s happy. Happy that he can now cry alone without being interrupted. As he cries himself to sleep, a new day dawns. Hye-Jun heads in to see Jeong-Ha at her studio. She helps patch him up for his big day before he heads to the movie set. There, Hye-Jun texts her and reveals he’s got a day off coming up. He encourages her to book the same day off so they can spend time together. Later that day, Hye-Jun visits Jin-U who happens to be at the top of the rooftop. He mentions falling in love but also how his love is different to that of Jeong-Ha’s. They discuss dinner plans and Jin-U lets slip about what’s happening with Yeong-Nam. Back home, Hye-Jun finds Gyeong-Jun on the computer. He’s looking at the online comments again but stutters when Hye-Jun shows up. Speaking privately, Hye-Jun asks his brother to just be good to him on a day to day basis rather than posting comments online. As they finally open up, Gyeong-Jun mentions how frustrated he was about being poor in the past and he took that out on Hye-Jun. He asks his brother to swallow his pride and write the letter for him, which Gyeong-Jun eventually agrees to do. Meanwhile, an investigator calls the reporter writing the comments about Charlie Jung telling her to come in. Her boss leaves her high and dry, causing Reporter Kim to become desperate and posting the pictures of Jeong-Ha and Hye-Jun online. I-Young does her best to try and repair the damage done to her family. She invites Tae-Kyeong along for dinner but it only makes things worse. He berates Hae-Hy0 for not being popular and how youngsters don’t ever mention him. After dinner, I-Young throws her jacket at her estranged husband as he asks to go to a shrink. “I will if you agree to,” She bites back. While this cold, dysfunctional family struggle to cooperate, Hye-Jun’s by comparison is far more lively and warm. Hye-Jun thanks his Mother for the meal and they all sit down to eat. With yet another scandal to deal with, Hye-Jun heads out for his day with Jeong-Ha. She notices the news online though (hey I thought she didn’t look at the news because it’s bad for her mental health?) and tells Hye0-Jun not to bother coming. He refuses to listen though but the reporter shows up at Jeong-Ha’s salon asking for a drink. When Hye-Jun finally arrives, he finds the door shut and Jeong-Ha refusing to answer her phone. She messages and tells him she’s unable to meet him today. As we cut forward in time, Jeong-Ha and Hye-Jun both arrive at Jjamppong Entertainment separately. Hye-Jun has breached his contract and has to pay hundreds of millions of won to contractors for whatever he’s done. As Hye-Jun heads inside, she apologises for making him wait that day and Hye-Jun admits he’s been working non-stop since then. As they sit opposite one another, she tells him she loves him… and then breaks up.
The Episode Review
This episode exemplifies just how spoilt Hae-Hyo really is. He was fine with being a big shot around Hye-Jun when his career was taking off and Hye-Jun remained a loyal friend. Now that the spotlight has fallen to Hye-Jun, Hae-Hyo can’t deal with it and is blinded by jealousy. The celebrity spotlight is fickle and it could so easily fall back to Hae-Hyo again. If he worked harder on his lines and acting, he could easily overshadow his friend again but right now he’s got a bad reputation and keeps messing up. Gyeong-Jun is the real MVP here and seeing his character transformation across the season, from the most unlikable to (for me anyway) the most likable is the biggest highlight of this drama. Understanding that he does care about Hye-Jun and how strong their brotherly bond is (despite not really showing it) just reinforces that age old adage that blood is thicker than water. The rest of the characters are all compelling too though and inevitably Hye-Jun and Jeong-Ha break up at the end of this episode, which many people predicted anyway. Having said that, it’ll be interesting to see if she gets in a relationship with Hae-Hyo on the back of this and how Hye-Jun takes this. For now though the preview for next week seems to hint that Hye-Jun will be hitting rock bottom and potentially indulging in destructive behaviors. Record Of Youth has been a turbulent ride and one that leaves the door wide open for the remaining couple of episodes.
