Flames of Desire Episode 12

The whole family is just too  freakin’ rotten. Greed and envy runs in the blood. Seriously, from Grandpa to grandkids?! Good thing we have MINJAE!

Frustrations. Bitterness. Sacrifice.

There’s a notable downgrade of angst in this episode. 😦 And that’s the saddest part. Hope to get more angsty-angst next time. Sorry. It took me like forever to finish this.

Episode 12

It seems YoungMin had no idea who NaYoung was talking to or what she’s doing. And even if he did, I’m sure NaYoung could make up something.

The couple went out for tea. And there, YoungMin informs her that she had a miscarriage. When he first heard of it, he immediately thought she was having an affair. You see, he had vasectomy way back in America. But when the doctor assures there’s a big chance he was the father, he felt ashamed for even doubting her fidelity. NaYoung is enraged. NaYoung: “Do you really hate me that much?  Is this your revenge?”

YoungMin searches round the city for NaYoung. Only to find her bright and breezy at home. Heh?! Now, I’m beginning to think NaYoung is going nuts! What’s with the mood swings lady?

She teasingly accuses YoungMin for playing a joke on her. She wasn’t pregnant. Actually, she already had her physical check-up when they arrived in Seoul and test results turned out negative. She isn’t blaming him or anything. She understands that he’s just worried for MinJae. NaYoung: “Even if I could have a baby or even if you didn’t have vasectomy, I still don’t want to  have a child… for MinJae”. Yeah, everything is MinJae’s fault!

There’s a new rule in town. President Kim’s children and in-laws should have their breakfast together… everyday. No one really knows what the President is up to this time. Maybe he has an ulterior motive or maybe he just wants to bring the family closer together. Who knows?

It’s breakfast time and MinJae’s a no-show. President is appalled  that he’s still sleeping! And so, he goes upstairs and wakes MinJae himself. It sure took President a good ample of minutes to get MinJae up and about.

And when he finally succeeded, our MinJae cutely asks for a few seconds more, saying he stayed late last night bcoz of tweeting. And President goes “tweet…tweet…what?” Haha!

Just to make sure MinJae won’t sneak-in some ‘z’ s, President refused to go down until MinJae finished changing clothes. Haha!

Meanwhile, the other family members are also busy having their own brand of quality “bonding time”. Of course, by “bonding time” I mean bickering and arguing their hearts out. Ae-ri had it and angrily walks off.

President contentedly remarks that eating together promotes harmony and helps build stronger relations amongst the family. For once, I agree with President.  I’ve always considered food a “language” that transcends beyond culture and race. Besides, bonding isn’t bonding without eating.

The President lays down the master plan. Since YoungJun’s in-laws are busy trying to minimize the damage caused by the risky and expensive promissory notes, they have enough time to freely proceed with the shipbuilding project. YoungMin will take charge. YoungDae will oversee the company’s operations. And YoungJun will serve as back-up. Of course, they still need to be very careful. General Nam won’t surrender without a fight.

And the happiest of them all? NaYoung!

President introduces YoungMin as the project head. And the announcement literally creates a buzz among the board.

I guess it’s true. When it rains, it pours… only for NaYoung that is. Not only did President choose YoungMin to facilitate the important project, also, Madam Shim Woo Rok called to personally meet MinJae.

But then, MinJae isn’t home. He’s out to spend some time at the nearby coffee shop, which basically means, he’s with InSook! And since he’s so busy chatting, he didn’t notice NaYoung’s call. And what else would NaYoung do? Of course, she’ll go and get her son ASAP.

And next, we see the most fortunate miss in the history of all fortunate misses. I wonder what could have happened when InSook and NaYoung did meet that day.

Just when NaYoung is about to cross the  street, where the coffee shop is, MinJae sees the miss call prompt and calls mom. And so, she instructs him to go home immediately. After the call,MinJae proudly tells InSook that the lady on the other side of the road is his mom. InSook pretends not to see her.

MinJae and NaYoung meets on the way home. NaYoung excitedly tells him that Madam Shim is waiting for him. This gives MinJae the creeps. His alarm bells ring. Meeting Madam Shim is as good as getting married. He can’t get married… not yet. NaYoung consoles that it doesn’t mean he has to marry her granddaughter right away. Think of this as a favor for his dad. MinJae remains apprehensive. Can’t she just tell Madam that she didn’t find him? NaYoung changes tactics. She pokes on his conscience then, pretending to be hurt at his obvious defiance. And ever the kind and obedient , MinJae submissively concedes.

MinJae is apparently uncomfortable being the center of attraction. He can’t even sit on his knees properly. Despite this, Madam Shim still sees MinJae a prospective grandson-in-law.

After the obligatory introductions, MinJae was kindly dismissed. And he’s much happy to leave. NaYoung isn’t a bit pleased that MinJae went out again. She then carefully “inspects” MinJae’s room. I don’t know what she’s looking for but one thing I’m sure, what she did is rude. Talking about privacy issues, duh!

She then sees InKi’s picture set as  a wallpaper background in MinJae’s laptop. And somehow she knows this would happen. She calls Gangster Leader  (refer to Episode 10) and instructs him to proceed as planned. Okay, this got me confused. There seems to be a connection between the two.

MinJae meets with SungJae at YoungJae’s restobar. He says sorry for flirting with InKi the other night and MinJae assures he’s totally okay with it. SungJae tells MinJae to get a life, follow the trend and stop living like a caveman. It never hurts to have flings here and there. That’s how yuppies do things nowadays. But MinJae won’t be deterred. He can never live like a careless, mindless, insensitive dude!

Seeing how SungJae desperately tries to influence MinJae, YoungJae calls his attention and gives him a warning. They know too well that NaYoung won’t be happy with what he’s trying to teach MinJae. SungJae casually answers he just wanted to ruin MinJae. And the more he sees MinJae’s sweet-smiling-backstabbing-mom, the more he wants to ruin him.

Before MinJae left, SungJae gave him InKi’s call card.

SungJae plays full-time devil advocate and convinces InKi to date MinJae. Maybe thing’s will workout for them, just like aunt NaYoung (a blacksmith’s daughter) and uncle YoungMin (a chaebol’s son). No matter how he looks at it, a popular actress like her is still better that a blacksmith’s daughter. But InKi isn’t interested at all. She can never be satisfied living meekly and quietly with MinJae’s family.

InKi: MinJae has a talent of making people nice. I really hate being nice.

Once alone with JinSook, InKi unveils her true feelings. She wants to restart her life. From when? She doesn’t know. JinSook concludes that InKi is in love with MinJae that’s why she’s behaving weird lately. She then advices InKi to put a stop on the silly thought bcoz she’ll be hurt in the end.

After a bottle of soju, InKi gets a little tipsy. She starts to rattle on things. Things and people who make her loose her mind. She had never hated the world as much as she hates it now. She hates what she had become and she hates herself even more. And the real reason why she’s going insane is MinJae and her dreams of living a normal life with him.

JinSook suggests that they go somewhere else, somewhere far. But InKi can’t just leave. The problems lie on how she feels. At first she thought, MinJae’s just like any other man who passes by as quickly as the wind, but she was wrong. She just woke up one day, trapped and filled with unexpected emotions.

Day 2 of get-together breakfast. Ae-ri is absent. And YoungJun grabs the chance to defend his wife. Ae-ri was just helping President in her own way. YoungMin agrees. To ease the tension, Mother-in-law happily informs the President that MinJae earns Madam Shim’s favor the other day. SoonJa is offended that Mother-in-law didn’t fulfill her promise and introduced MinJae instead of his son.

YoungDae gives YounJun a lecture. He must never defend Ae-ri in front of President. That’ll just show he’s being jealous of YoungMin. And in case he doesn’t know, there are already rumors that YoungMin already surpassed him.

President is very upset upon knowing that YoungMin helped Ae-ri in paying off half of the promissory notes.  When will he learn that Ae-ri’s not the problem but the in-laws!?! YoungMin reasons out that he’s just doing this for YoungJun. President won’t listen to any of his excuses. NaYoung, who always know what’s going on, gave him a telling off. In this world, there is no room for sympathy. He must, at all cost, obey the President.

General Nam is very, very angry for losing a great sum of money. But what really pisses him off is the thought that President Kim is laughing at them. Ae-ri is rather calm. She’ll raise the money in one month and confidently tells uncle that she’ll handle the President. General Nam is hesitant. Ae-ri is too young and inexperienced to fight the President. Ae-ri insists. She must make her husband the owner of Atlantic Ocean!

Ae-ri thanks YoungMin for helping her out. She can’t refrain from asking though. Is this his idea? Most probably it’s his wife’s, since she placed her in such money-tight position. Huh?! So NaYoung has that influence?

After the night of emotional outburst, InKi finally realizes she needs to continue what she started. She’ll re-establish her goals. Before love and her painful past, she must first become the number 1 actress. JinSook couldn’t be more relaxed. And once InKi reach the top,  she can retire. She can do whatever she wants. She can even date MinJae when that time comes. But for now, she’ll forget everything…

Now that she’s sure HyeJin is alive, JungSook spends the day in a daze. She doesn’t know what to do. Will she tell NaYoung? Will she keep this a secret?

JungSook: The road ahead is pitch black for me. It seems NaYoung and HyeJin wants to forget the past.