See You at Work Tomorrow: Episodes 5-6

by Unit

We’re halfway through our workplace show, and feelings have officially joined the office group chat! Whatever shall our leading lady and her team leader do? Ignore the chat? Delete it? Or perhaps, take a step of faith and give into their feelings.

EPISODES 5-6

We resume with Ji-yoon questioning her emotional state after seeing Shi-woo and Soo-jin’s cordial interaction. Soo-jin happens to be a good work sunbae to Ji-yoon, and she just wants to make sure Shi-woo knows about the rumor linking him and Ji-yoon due to last week’s kiss cam footage. Shi-woo apologizes to Ji-yoon for putting her in a tough spot. But rumors are not Ji-yoon’s problem at the moment because she’s trying to figure out why she’s feeling what she’s feeling around him. And that makes two of them because Shi-woo is also feeling things.

The TF team’s next project is the development of a Home-AI, and Shi-woo’s house is the lab to play out scenarios for the development of a smart home. Thanks to Shi-woo’s Smart Roomba, Ji-yoon learns that one of Shi-woo’s reasons for hiring her is that she makes him laugh. But he makes it seem like it’s no big deal, so she doesn’t push further. Ji-yoon attends a group blind date with No-ah and the newest TF team member, SHIN NA-RI (Lee Jae-yi), and she’s asked what makes her heart flutter the most lately. The more she thinks about it, the more she realizes her heart flutters when she’s with Shi-woo. Meanwhile, Smart Roomba-nim shows Shi-woo a video recorded when Ji-yoon tested its features, and he’s struck by the smile that was captured on his face as he gazed at her. It’s like Past Shi-woo telling Present Shi-woo “we like Ji-yoon,” and I love it! Ji-yoon and Shi-woo are now fully well aware that they have caught feelings. But is it a K-drama if those feelings are confessed without some drama?

Shi-woo is recruiting team members for the Home-AI project, and top on his list is Ki-taek. Shi-woo’s TF teams are notorious for “disappearing” after completion of projects, and Ki-taek is reluctant to join a team headed for disappearance because he’s got a wife and kids to raise. But he readily accepts Shi-woo’s offer after learning that the team members’ disappearance is just them pivoting to higher roles after successful projects with Shi-woo. Aside from Ki-taek’s talent, Shi-woo recruited him because he’s a great colleague to Ji-yoon and Shi-woo wants ~~his girl~~ Ji-yoon to have friendly faces on their team. Must be nice.

Shi-woo learns it was Ji-yoon who contacted the ex-Saeum employee that put an end to last week’s “heartless boss,” rumors, and he’s grateful (and more in love). But Ji-yoon learns that Shi-woo plans to return to the U.S after the successful completion of the Home-AI project, and she decides to leave the TF team because her supposed one-sided feelings for him will only end in tears. And thus begins our leads’ era of angst and miscommunication. Shi-woo assumes Ji-yoon is leaving because she caught on to his “one-sided” feelings for her, and he sister-zones her in a misguided attempt to make her comfortable around him. *facepalm* The word “oppa” has never sounded any more unromantic and sarcastic.

After Shi-woo’s multiple unsuccessful attempts to convince Ji-yoon to stay on the team, he gently wrist-grabs her and tells her not to leave. “You’re the one who’s going to leave,” she replies, and it finally dawns on him that his U.S-bound plan is the problem. “Then tell me not to go,” Shi-woo says. “You can just ask me to stay.” But Ji-yoon doesn’t think she has the right to hold him back, and the angst deepens. Sigh. Ji-yoon is caught between a rock and a hard place because the success of the Home-AI project means her career will take a step forward…and Shi-woo will leave. But failure means Shi-woo will stay…and her career will take a step back. *double sigh* Would You Rather is more fun when you don’t have to choose between your career and love.

Ji-yoon eventually comes to a decision after hearing rumors that Shi-woo is in line for an executive-level promotion based on the performance of the Home-AI project. She decides to stay on the TF team and work hard to make the project a success because she wouldn’t like to “be a stain” on Shi-woo’s career. She tells him this when he comes to find her after she accidentally gets locked in the archives room, and he replies that he was worried about her. “Like a sister?” She asks. Pfft. “You could never be like a sister to me,” he replies. *swoon* Shi-woo tells Ji-yoon that he’s older and divorced, and he didn’t think it was right to pull her into his life just because he likes her. I’m not sure if the drama mentioned it, but based on the webtoon, Shi-woo is 38 while Ji-yoon is 30. For two people in their thirties, I’m thinking…what’s the big deal? But I suppose Shi-woo is being careful due to the prejudice about age gaps and divorce in their society.

Shi-woo insists that every kindness he showed Ji-yoon was because he’s genuinely drawn to her, and this indirect confession places the ball in her court. After Ga-eul, Ji-yoon swore off engaging in a romance with low odds of success. But she just had to fall for a guy who’s not only older and previously married, he’s also her boss and the ex-husband of her mentor. Ji-yoon and Shi-woo run into each other after work at her dad’s repair shop, and they marvel about having never crossed paths in the shop all these years. Ji-yoon tells Shi-woo she doesn’t care about all the things he’s worried about, and she tells him not to go to the U.S. That’s not a problem since he already informed Saeum’s president that he will be staying in Korea. “Then can I please kiss you?” Ji-yoon asks. “I’ve been waiting for that,” Shi-woo replies. *inserts a kiss* Our OTP confesses their feelings for each other, and they kiss again. Awww. (I totally loved her slow transfer from her stool to his lap!)

I so can’t wait for our OTP’s dating era! But I can do without horrid Young-sam plotting against the TF team on behalf of that director that’s opposing the president. I hate Young-sam’s attempt to pressure Ki-taek into being a spy, and I hate, hate how much crap he puts No-ah through. No-ah needs to grow a spine and stand up to her two-timing mommy’s boy of an ex, and Young-scum. She also needs to figure out what she really wants to do in her professional life as advised by Shi-woo, and how to enjoy her private life with or without a romantic relationship. I sense a growth arc coming for her, and I can’t wait to see her come into her own.