My Dearest Nemesis: Episodes 3-4 » Dramabeans
My Dearest Nemesis: Episodes 3-4
by Unit
The adventures of our director and team leader continue this week. They discover more about themselves, become more accepting of each other’s quirks, and develop a comfortable vibe between themselves — all against the backdrop of their lack of knowledge that they’re each other’s online nemesis.
EPISODES 3-4
We resume with Joo-yeon’s swoony wrist-grab and “Baby, let’s go,” moment. But awkward common sense takes over just as quickly, and he clarifies that Soo-jung is a crucial employee in the company — not his girlfriend or crush or anything like that. Heh. Moving on, Mr. Employer and his employee go on an official store visit and they meet a fussy customer — who happens to be Joo-yeon’s fav rock artist. It takes a while for Joo-yeon to recognize his idol without the signature sunshades and stage makeup, and when he does, the fanboy in him almost jumps out of his chaebol suit. Such an adorable puppy! Soo-jung helps Joo-yeon get his idol’s autograph and a picture since he can’t risk fanboying in public, and later on, she encourages him to enjoy the things he is passionate about without caring what people think.
Via a flashback to Joo-yeon’s childhood days, we learn that a Truck of Doom intercepted his trip to an animation event with his parents. Joo-yeon’s grandmother blamed him for his parents’ — or more accurately, her precious son’s — death, and you’d think the boy put a gun to his parents’ head to take him on the trip. Tsk. Like it wasn’t traumatizing enough to watch his parents die, Grandma also torched all of Joo-yeon’s collection: video games, animations — and the stuffed toy his mom gave him before the accident! Joo-yeon offered to fill in for his dad’s absence, but nothing he did could soothe Grandma’s resentment for him. Till date, Grandma is quick to remind Joo-yeon that he killed his parents, and he constantly needs to prove himself to her.
The need for an utopia away from the burden of Grandma’s expectations is the origin of the secret dragon lair in Joo-yeon’s apartment. Yunno, the room filled with his comic books, rockstar getup, video games, action figure collections — and a whole fridge full of chocolate milk! After the dragon lair suffers from a faulty power plug, Joo-yeon searches for a discrete hardware store to fix the problem — and ends up contacting Soo-jung’s dad’s store. Pfft. Dad has another appointment, but when Soo-jung hears that the anonymously desperate client is offering five times their usual charges, she shows up at his address with her toolbox. Yep, Soo-jung has learned a few things from her dad. In another life, their family would own a hardware repair conglomerate and she would be a chaebol heiress. But I digress.
Since Joo-yeon’s identity as the owner of the dragon lair is supposed to be state secret even from his repairman, he vacates his apartment and moves to the parking lot to monitor the repairs via CCTV. To his greatest shock, Soo-jung shows up on the feed as the repair woman. But rather than allow her to do her thing and depart none the wiser, Joo-yeon panics and reveals himself — or rather, his imaginary nephew — as the owner of the room. Loool. Joo-yeon gets all defensive when Soo-jung doesn’t buy the nephew story, but his defenses fall after Soo-jung’s “You like many more things than I thought. My perception has changed. I got to know a lot more about you” remark. Moments later, Soo-jung trips on a cord, and Joo-yeon wastes no time flinging away his precious comic books in order to catch her before she falls. Awwww.
Now that everyone in this story has been possessed by a falling ghost, Soo-jung’s dad suffers a fall while working, and he ends up with a fractured ankle. As part of an employee benefit — that he made up on the spot — Joo-yeon provides a VIP hospital suite for Dad, and I guess it’s “meet the family” time. Just kidding, we aren’t even halfway through our show. Soo-jung’s younger brother, BAEK SOO-BIN (Sohn Sang-yeon), comes over to relieve her of caretaking duties — and while he’s the typical “why would your younger and richer director like you?” tease of a brother, he’s way more appreciative and supportive of his noona than many of his dramaland counterparts.
For his next employee benefit, Joo-yeon swaps Soo-jung’s relic of a car for a newer model. At the car service shop, Soo-jung talks about how Dad being stuck in the hospital reminds her about her late mom, and the emotionally intelligent dragon that she fell for rears his head in this conversation. Earlier on, the thoughtful dragon showed up when Joo-yeon gifted Soo-jung a stuffed toy she admired in passing, and the dramatic dragon soon emerges when Joo-yeon is in urgent need of a file on his office computer. I was legit in tears watching him have a meltdown in the bathroom while shouting his manga-inspired password over and over to Soo-jung on the phone.
It’s really sweet how Soo-jung is the only person Joo-yeon can trust with his password and other secrets, and it’s sweeter that she thinks it’s cute and accepts his quirky side without judgement — but of course, with a little teasing. The sweetest part of all of this is how Soo-jung goes out of her way to cater to Joo-yeon’s secret tastes. First, his idol’s autograph, and now sneaking him his fav chocolate milk while at work. When Joo-yeon is done filming a choco milk commercial with his drink, he admits he was initially annoyed that Soo-jung kept finding out his secrets, but now “having one person who knows isn’t bad.” Awww. Coincidentally, Soo-jung can relate to the sentiments of having someone to share secrets with thanks to her texting days with Black Dragon. Heh.
Soo-jung and Joo-yeon’s growing camaraderie is put to the test when he recommends some brands for the store that she doesn’t agree with. Business-wise, those brands are a terrible decision, but none of the other team leaders dare to question the chairwoman’s grandson. Joo-yeon maintains his stance on those brands, and a disappointed Soo-jung challenges him during a meeting. “Are you the only one who’s curious about my decision?” Joo-yeon asks, before revealing that his decision was part of an internal assessment to check what matters more to the team leads: the company’s gain or sucking up to company executives despite their problematic decisions. Whoa! Not Soo-jung passing a test she didn’t realize she was taking.
Moving on to our secondary — and very unconventional — couple-to-be, Shin-won visited Ha-jin’s restaurant last week after seeing it on Instagram, and the falling ghost pushed him into her arms to prevent him from getting run over by a bicycle. When we pick up with them this week, they’re discussing how to take better food pictures for Instagram, and sparks fly. Ha-jin straight up asks if Shin-won wants to have sex, and he’s all for it. She’s pretty chill about it the morning after, but now he can’t stop thinking about her and cheesing real hard at her IG posts. Shin-won falls in love with Ha-jin all over again when he drops by the restaurant to see her dancing to INFINITE’s Be Mine (I love this song!), and he asks her out. He has never been turned down in his life, so he’s surprised when Ha-jin says no. She’s recently divorced and she’s not interested in dating for a while. Good! Let Shin-won work for a relationship for once in his life.
Unknown to Shin-won and Ha-jin, they have Joo-yeon in common. Joo-yeon and Shin-won are family friends, and Black Dragon is Ha-jin’s video game buddy — which annoys Soo-jung because why is Ha-jin still in touch with the kid who lied to them?! Lol. It turns out that Ha-jin and Joo-yeon met a few years after the disastrous offline meeting, and he apologized for hurting their game team. At the time, Joo-yeon was preparing to step into his chaebol heir role, and in return for teaming up with Ha-jin during group battles in the game, he made her promise not to acknowledge him if she ever sees him again. But he’s the one who sends her “congratulations on your new restaurant” gifts, so she can’t ignore him when she runs into him. But Joo-yeon’s double life is so hilariously exhausting that he has to speak with Ha-jin while backing her — like they’re the main characters in a spy movie.
Back to Soo-jung and Joo-yeon’s internal assessment, she’s offended by the test even though she knows the intention behind it. “How can I make you feel better?” Joo-yeon asks. Soo-jung replies that she can take care of herself, but Joo-yeon insists on personally lifting the mood of “the only one who’d give him chocolate milk.” Awww. Soo-jung once mentioned that she used to like online games until she got catfished (heh), so Joo-yeon brings her to an arcade because there’s no risk of getting scammed when playing games in person. When Soo-jung brings up the risk of Joo-yeon getting caught playing games in public, he replies that he’ll just say he’s researching the entertainment market since he’s here with a team leader from work. Lol. He’s so quick at coming up with excuses.
The week ends with Soo-jung bringing Joo-yeon to Ha-jin’s restaurant for dinner after their exciting arcade date cheer up session, but Ha-jin sees them from afar and calls Soo-jung not to come because Black Dragon is here. Oh well, I guess nixing dinner is better than the risk of slipping up and exposing Joo-yeon as Soo-jung’s video game nemesis.
We’re beginning to settle into the show proper, and it’s still loads of fun. The more I learn about our Black Dragon and his Strawberry (Soo-jung’s game ID), the more I love them. I enjoy all of their interactions together, and I like how they are each other’s comfortable space. With Soo-jung, Joo-yeon is free to indulge in his hobbies, and with him, she doesn’t have to pretend to be so strong all the time. They’re good for each other, good together, and good for me as a viewer.
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