The Dreaded Time Jump
We begin episode 14 of True Beauty with Soo-Ho kissing Ju-Kyung’s forehead and hugging her warmly. As shocked screams from the other girls ring out, they can only watch as the pair walk off hand in hand. Ju-Kyung remains determined to be true to herself now and that includes walking into class holding hands with Soo-Ho. Soo-Jin is obviously not happy. Meanwhile, Joon-Woo continues to be swayed by Hee-Kyung, seeing her car parked up at school and throwing leaves at it. When Jae-Pil and Hyun-Sook step out though, he’s immediately flustered and heads back to class. Only, when he sees Ju-Kyung there he starts crying. When Ju-Kyung and Soo-Jin both happen to be using the bathroom at the same time, Soo-A shows up and reveals that she heard everything the previous day. She knows Soo-Jin was the one who spread the videos and confronts her over it. It turns out Soo-A’s unhappiness simply stems from Ju-Kyung not telling her the truth about her face and dating Soo-Ho. As they both start crying and hugging each other, they finally patch up their differences. Meanwhile, Seo-Joon continues to feel torn over what to do. He has clear feelings for Ju-Kyung but knows that she’s with Soo-Ho. Well, Ju-Kyung and Seo-Joon wind up talking in the study hall as he accidentally wakes her up. She thanks him for taking down the video. That evening, Ju-Kyung plucks up the courage to go after Sae-Mi and the other girls while they’re bullying Hye-Min. She shows up without any make-up on and confronts her past. She throws her food directly at Sae-Mi’s face as Soo-A, Hye-Min and Ju-Kyung all team up together to beat down the bullies. Eventually it ends with Cho-Rong arriving and telling the others he’ll handle this from now on. After a busy day, Ju-Kyung heads home but she’s too exhausted to message Soo-Ho back. As we soon see, Soo-Ho is desperate to speak to Ju-Kyung but his friends from school tell him he needs to play it cool and refrain from messaging her. Well, he does just this and winds up having a bad dream about Ju-Kyung ditching her and dating Seo-Joon. Ju-Kyung is busy with her cosmetology class as Hee-Kyung shows up to see Joon-Woo, who’s blind drunk at the food tent. After putting him in her car, Hyun-Sook spies the infamous Columbus Park in the shop and chases him down the street. Hee-Kyung spins round and takes him out with a swift forearm to the chin, just as Joon-Woo staggers out the car and begins retching. Elsewhere, Seo-Joon arrives before Soo-Ho and after a day together, admitting that he wants his permission to tell Ju-Kyung exactly how he feels about her. Well, this is made harder by Soo-Ho eventually professing his love. Ju-Kyung smiles warmly as it seems these two are going to stay together. Back home, the family gather round the table to eat breakfast. Only, Joon-Woo happens to be asleep on the sofa. Hee-Kyung wakes up her grapefruit and he tentatively sits and eats with them. At school the next day, the tables have turned as details about Soo-Jin spread online, calling her a psychopath and likening her to a villain. She’s obviously not happy and believes Seo-Joon is the one to spread it. Out of all the people to go after her, it’s Ju-Kyung who does. Even after everything that’s happened, she tries to win her over and go back to how they were. Instead, Soo-Jin walks away. She makes it round the corner and starts crying. We then cut forward in time as Ju-Kyung passes her cosmetology exam. Seo-Joon decides to finally tell Ju-Kyung the truth and rings her, asking to meet one on one to talk. Soo-Ho allows her to meet (as if she needed permission!) and races up to see him. Things are awkward so Seo-Joon disguises his conundrum by asking her for relationship advice about the girl he likes. Ju0-Kyung believes his woes are over Soo-A and he eventually changes his mind, deciding to keep her in the dark after all. Meanwhile, Soo-Ho’s Father takes a nasty turn while in his office and eventually collapses, right on the back of messaging Soo-Ho. At the same time, Hee-Kyung approaches Seo-Joon after his stunt singing outside and lets him know that he’s trending online and a big star now. With the management of her company changed, she asks whether he’s ready to start singing again. Before he can given an answer however, he receives a desperate call asking if he’s with Soo-Ho. Only, Soo-Ho is busy out with Ju-Kyung at the beach and doesn’t see his phone go off. Seo-Joon is desperate to try and track them down though and eventually learns they’re by the sea. Rushing up to see him, Soo-Ho is given the bad news as it turns out his Father has had a brain haemorrhage. Soo-Ho is called away to see his Father and eventually gets on a plane across to the States, leaving Seo-Joon to comfort a crying Ju-Kyung, just like he did in the past. We then jump forward 2 years later as Ju-Kyung takes after her sister and winds up blind drunk. She passes out on the table as Seo-Joon arrives and puts his arm around her. Are the two dating now?
The Episode Review
True Beauty has been a really enjoyable drama and while I appreciate this one may not be following its source material completely, this actually felt like a conclusive episode… until the situation with Soo-Ho’s Father and time skip. In fact, this almost felt like a completely different episode. I’m not quite sure why the writers have decided to sway and go for the Seo-Joon/ Ju-Kyung perceived ending but I actually think this drama, without that end bit, would have done quite well to just finish this week. Still, we march on. Will this final week undo a lot of the good work done early on? Cue flashbacks to Start-Up! Meanwhile, Park Yoo-Na has done a wonderful job bringing Soo-Jin to life and with her plagued by a terrible upbringing, it’s obvious she’s conflicted over what to do. However, her sudden change to this evil character has felt a bit abrupt and I do wish Soo-Jin had given up this week and decided to be friends with Ju-Kyung after all. It would have been a nice sense of irony if Ju-Kyung got the messages about her taken down online, which subsequently resulted in Soo-Jin seeing the value of her friendship after all. Instead, it looks like we’re gearing up for a Seo-Joon/Ju-Kyung episode with sprinklings of Soo-Jin anger thrown in before tying things back to the male lead again. While there’s nothing wrong with that, this show will undoubtedly draw comparisons to Start-Up for the way this ending is going. Unlike Start-Up though, these characters actually have chemistry so we’ll have to wait and see what happens next. Until next week guys!
