More Than Friends is a perfect example of a Korean drama that can shine with stellar portrayals based on a remarkably penned narrative.
This year, Ong Seong Wu, Shin Ye Eun and Kim Dong Jun are so far giving me that K-Drama fangirl life-affirming moment with More Than Friends. The stunningly written script is in reality wordy, but the lead characters’ delivery of the screenplay just makes any viewer want to see how the pain and the bliss would soon layer the story.
In the last three episodes, we were introduced to calligrapher Woo-yeon, who has been shackled by a decade-long one-sided love, with his friend Lee Soo. Determined to emancipate herself, she meets a publication company CEO who is willing to make a shot in breaking her love fixation.
abbyinhallyuland watched More Than Friends on iQIYI
Recaps: 01&02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | Finale + Review |
More Than Friends Episode 4 Recap
“Young-hee is an assistant manager while Jin-joo is a prosecutor. Only my daughter is just a daughter.”
At the night of her father’s retirement day, Woo-yeon shared a sumptuous dinner with her parents. Her mom carelessly mumbled how she thought before her dad retires, she would have gotten a regular job.
In her monologue, she poured how she realized she would never achieved what her father accomplished when she entered the corporate world. Rubbing salt to Woo-yeon’s wound, her mom blamed her creative writing course for her current fate. She even compared her with her successful friends.
Defending herself, she explained how hard the competition is for young people. Her dad stepped in to stop the uncomfortable moment. Later, she went out to meet her friends. Seeing her two best friends from afar, she surmised on how the tough times can never be blamed for her situation. At the end of the day, she’s the one looking pathetic.
“Open up your cochlea that you claim to be pretty and listen carefully. I’m not interested in a jerk like you anymore. And I will never like you again. Never.”
Back to the present time, Woo-yeon is pumped up to not keep her pathetic career situation on an impasse. She stares back at the taunting beautiful eyes of Lee Soo and declares she is not running away. Dragging him back inside, she stops midway and lashes a brave litany of not going to pursue him anymore nor like him again – ever. She responds yes, when Lee Soo asks if she’s confident with what she just said.
The two signed their contracts and Woo-yeon pitches some ideas. Likewise, Lee Soo also makes a suggestion for them to work together in visiting the Seoul places simultaneously. Wanting least interaction to the man she wants to forget, she counters his proposal that she will also visit the places. But Lee Soo, remarks that doing the project together will have a calibrated feel of the emotions for the photobook.
“This job is more important to me than you can imagine.”
After the meeting, Woo-yeon stares at the pouring rain, with Lee Soo emerging from the door as well. He quips how Woo-yeon is easily provoked and tells him how the project is very important to her.
Thus, there’s no reason for her to give it up because of “a nothing” like him. He contradicts her remark that he is nothing to her. Woo-yeon responds that he is nothing compared to the project which is her lifetime opportunity.
Lecturing him of not knowing anything about her, he retorts that they have been long-time friends earning a bitter smile from Woo-yeon. She pronounces getting back to being friends and offers a handshake, but Lee Soo refuses citing every time she does that, she will push him away next.
Clarifying that she means a partnership for the work they will do, she asserts that they need to draw a line because she does not want to misunderstand or get her hopes high. She adds how being “real friends” would avoid it from happening, Lee Soo declines being friends with conditions.
Lee Soo walks away sulking at how Woo-yeon called him “nothing” earlier. But knowing he doesn’t carry an umbrella, he motions to go back, but sees her beaming inside Joon-soo’s car.
“It’s not because I’m busy. A dinner seems more like a date.”
While driving Woo-yeon home, Joon-soo demands compensation to the broken button of his suit. He suggests she can make it up with a meal and checks if she is good with Saturday. Woo-yeon recommends lunch, but he chooses dinner.
Thinking she might be busy because of work, he corrects her thought and explains that dinner sounds more of a date making Woo-yeon process what she just heard.
Just as she attempts to confirm what she just heard, Joon-soo affirms her understanding that he is making a move on her because he’s interested on her.
“To me, this job is something I eagerly want. I need to gain recognition. That way, I can proudly do what I want to do without feeling ashamed.”
Instead of her heart fluttering though, Woo-yeon demands him to quickly pull over and asks if she got the job because he likes her. Mentioning that she doesn’t have nothing and that she’s a nobody, she can’t trust that he gave her the project without his feeling as one of the reasons.
Encouraging her to dismiss those self-pity thoughts, he used the people who would love to hear her story as a leverage. He assures that her words speak to him encouragingly and asks if she needs more reasons to clear everything.
Back at the hospital where Lee Soo’s mom is confined, Lee Soo’s father arrived and sees his ex-wife all set to go home with Dr. Lee. They head out leaving Lee Soo’s father who even made an effort to leave his work just so he can assist his ex-lover.
Arriving at Woo-yeon’s neighborhood, she thanks Joon-soo for the ride. He hands her an umbrella, but she refuses to accept. Telling that the umbrella will be another excuse for him to see her, Woo-yeon promises that she will do a great job to what he entrusted her.
“What’s your relationship with CEO Joon-soo? Answer me, that’s the most important thing to me right now?”
Joon-soo details the situation he has with Woo-yeon and Lee Soo to his friend Secretary Min. He is totally against revealing his connection between the two. Passionately discussing how bringing out the secret in open will not be good, he urges his friend to slow down instead of charging straight. He adds how he should build a good relationship first so Woo-yeon won’t go away.
Meanwhile, Woo-yeon asks Lee Soo to meet her at the convenience store. He asks right away about her relationship with Joon-soo surprising her.
Mumbling that her answer is the most important thing to him at that moment, she wants him to elaborate. So, Lee Soo explains that he does not want his pictures to be used for someone’s love game.
She replies not to worry because they have nothing going on. Lee Soo smiles faintly and listens to why she wants to see him. Woo-yeon inquires if they really need to be together on the project, Lee Soo expounds how a photographer’s perspective is like a filter.
He adds how his feelings reflect on the photo surface and her feelings reflect on her writing. So, it would be great if their perspectives and emotions match. Agreeing to his words, they set a date for the project.
Lee Soo notices Woo-yeon’s strange obedience and feels weird about it. She remarks how they have a bilateral friendship now unlike before. Feeling she is about to push him away, he nags that she doesn’t need to do it and he will go away in time.
“I thought it would be a way to start over again.”
Perplex on his actions, Woo-yeon later meet the girls who have opposing views on the project. She tells them that she needs the project for her career as a calligrapher. Young-hee reminds her to be careful comparing Lee Soo as a tiger; and she is set to enter a tiger’s den.
Lee Soo finds his father on a somber mood when he went back to their house. Obliging to his father’s quick beer session, he listens to him sulk about how his mom went with another man. That is after being taken care of by him when she was hospitalized.
Lecturing his father on why he did not firmly impose his position, he reasons how his mom’s eyes told him to move away. Unable to understand why his dad keeps the connection with his mom as “friends”; his father replies how he is hoping that it could be a way for them to start over again, but it really became an end.
He further leaves him a lesson that hits his current situation.
“A man can be friends only if he has feelings for a woman. But a woman can only be friends, if she doesn’t have any feelings for him anymore.”
That very same words is what Woo-yeon declares to her friends and confidently claims she can work with him without her lingering feelings.
“So, if I ever take a picture of someone, that means I like that person a lot.”
It’s a work date at the tiger’s den. yay! Woo-yeon and Lee Soo head to Hongdae and right off the bat go for a couple of sweet interludes by sharing some music and bus-break inducing hug.
They walk on the streets of the city capturing the quaint nooks and corners. Curious Woo-yeon learns how Lee Soo does not take pictures of people since he does not have anyone he wants to stare at for a long time. She asks if he has not been in a relationship to which he replied being in a lot previously, but were not serious ones.
Focusing his camera on her face, he mutters that if he ever takes a photo of someone, it means that he likes that person a lot. However, he doubts if it will happen. Prying on what he just said, Lee Soo speaks about how he’s too lazy and fearful to like anyone. He’s also not confident that he won’t change or even stay until the end.
Claiming he is not a fan of happy ending, Woo-yeon blurts that it doesn’t even exist because endings are always sad. Matching the same insight as Woo-yeon, Lee Soo meaningfully tells how not starting a relationship is the solution for his situation.
“Isn’t it amazing? Where do people meet and how do people fall in love? At the same time, too.”
Noticing Woo-yeon is fixated on the sight of a couple happily gazing at each other full of love, Lee Soo breaks her reverie. She beams and her romantic self takes over as she mumbles about the process of building mutual romance.
Lee Soo gazes at her faintly smiling face without her realizing it. Just then, her phone rings and answers a call from Joon-soo. They happily chat and confirm their dinner in the evening.
After the shoot, Woo-yeon tells him to go his way since she has an appointment. Thinking she was lying that there’s something going on with her and Joon-soo, she shuts him up by saying he will be the first one to know if something works out in the future.
Joon-soo arrives and greet Woo-yeon. Feeling ignored, he asks why Joon-soo did not greet him. He replied that his line of vision only points to what he wants to see.
Meanwhile, Young-hee and Hyun-jae engage in an argument after the former worked like a horse to prepare for his father’s birthday dinner.
“How many more excuses will I need if I want to see you without an excuse?”
Woo-yeon brought Joon-soo to a decently charming restaurant to eat. She tells him that everything is paid when he said he will pay for it. Because she knows he will make it as another excuse for them to see if she allows her to pay it.
Beaming because she saw through his intentions, he asks her if she believes in fate. Looking straight to her eyes, he affirms her question of whether he thinks they were fated to meet.
Reading on what he’s trying to express, she responds that they just met. So, he asks her how many more excuses he needs for him to see her without an excuse.
He drops Woo-yeon in front of their house and her parents see them together so she has to send him away quickly. Her parents praise her popularity with boys while worrying about the household of the boy who will date her.
“You don’t know how this feels, do you? You’ve got everything going for you, so you wouldn’t know how it feels to be looked down on, to be nervous and to lag behind.
The next day, Lee Soo visits Woo-yeon at the cafe where she works to give a piece of the earrings she lost in Jeju island. Knowing he is bound to be pushed away, he motions to move, but when he sees the former school bully as the customer Woo-yeon will serve, he halts.
Just as he was about to step in, Woo-yeon bravely boasts about her upcoming photo book collection to be published by a big publication company. That she will contact the bully to send one once it is published, Extinguishing the bully’s intention to stoop down on her, Lee Soo smiles at how his girl knows now how to defend herself.
On Woo-yeon’s break, she shares why she seems unhappy when she is making a big project. Opening her heart, she discloses her fears and how she felt sorry for her parents because of her unstable career.
Thinking Lee Soo has had everything good going on him, he corrects her preconceived notion and narrates what he has gone through. He revealed how his parent’s constant fight and eventual divorce left an irreversible damage to him.
When the two agree to become friends, he decided to move to an unfamiliar place albeit the racism and language barrier because he can’t stand them. Upon discovering there are other photographers who are better than him, he worked to the bones to better himself because he was scared and does not want to lag behind.
Encouraging her with his words, Woo-yeon thanks him for being a friend right at that moment.
“Were you having fun? Did I seem easy to you because I was sobbing and clinging to a guy?”
Against Secretary Min’s advice, On-joo decides to come clean with Woo-yeon. He visits the cafe where she works and was about to spill the truth about his phone number. But, his car needs to be moved so he steps out quickly. When Woo-yeon spots Lee Soo’s shades that he seemed to have left earlier, she calls him and gets ahead of the revelation Joon-Soo was meaning to do.
Woo-yeon walks away as Joon-soo chases after her. She rants how he might have thought her to be an easy girl out of all those drunk calls she did in the past year. Joon-soo clarified how he just became aware of it as well and has never mocked her situation.
Genuinely telling her that he knows what she felt, he shared how he loved someone very much before and for a long time as well. So, he can empathize with what she feels.
Woo-yeon’s anger dissipates with his words. She apologizes for thinking the worst of him citing she just feels embarrassed because it’s a shameful side of her. Clearing their issues, he drives her to where her friends are waiting. She also learns that the woman he used to love married his brother. But he tells her not to feel sad since if that didn’t, happen they would have not met.
After sharing the peculiar case of how her life intertwined with Joon-soo through her drunk calls, Woo-yeon meets Lee Soo and tells him not to tell about her years on infatuation with him. She even throws in an aegyo request which did not make her “friend” happy.
“Don’t go. Don’t go out with him.”
Forced to help Lee Soo for her secret not to spill, Woo-yeon cleaned and organized his new place. While arranging his book shelf, she sees all the birthday cards she gave to him when they were younger declaring how much she likes him.
Her nostalgic moment was broken by Lee Soo who asked why she is so determined to keep her foolish one-sided love secret to be kept. She replies how it hurts her pride so much. So, she wants to hide it not just with Joon-soo, but with everyone. She also wants to protect her pride.
Offering her to stay for dinner, she declines and tells she has a plan already. Confirming she is going to meet Joon-soo for dinner, he sighs and watches her move to his door.
However, she can’t open the door. Lee Soo goes to where she is and touches her hand that touches the door. Woo-yeon takes her hand back and hears him say not to go, not to meet the guy and how he hates the thought of her meeting Joon-soo.
More Than Friends Episode 4 Musings
Aside from its richly sketched romance story, More Than Friends is presenting various concerns faced especially by people in their late 20’s to early 30’s. The age when society expects someone to have either have a stable career or married life or both.
A peek on Woo-yeon’s career apprehensions was highlighted in this episode. Her backstory of having such an illustrious life when she was a student and how it contradicts her current situation is something familiar that people can relate to.
Likewise, Woo-yeon’s friends show how some women might have a successful career, but is still waiting for true love to bloom. In contrast, Young-hee has a full load of marriage apprehensions because of her financial concerns.
The eventual love triangle
My only complain so far in this drama is how I am already feeling problematic on the looming love triangle. *chuckles I know it’s only episode 4, but the two male leads are both making the colors of their characters so vibrant.
In particular, Joon-so is just making it hard for me not to root for him as well. The good news is that we have six more weeks to weigh who deserves Woo-yeon’s heart more. Although, we know eventually who will get the girl, we at least should hope for a fair justification of the main love pairing.
I usually don’t go over the technical aspect of K-Dramas, but the captured shots and the actors playing the stunning scenes are also reasons why I am raving about this series so much.
While we’re still waiting for Lee Soo’s concrete claim that he has discovered he has the ability to love, and has been doing so and just doesn’t want to admit it, I love how More Than Friends is a treasure trove of meaningful life lessons encompassing love and career.
Lastly, I also noticed how Lee Soo’s parent’s situation appears to be mirroring his future if he won’t brave the odds to believe that he too, can love. I swear I got heart flutters on the “don’t go” scene. I hope his indecisiveness won’t linger as well.
Dear More Than Friends, please stay pretty until the finale. I promise to devote all my hours to recap your story during weekends. *chuckles
Read “More Than Friends” Recap Below
Ong Seong Wu Is Determined To Keep Seeing Shin Ye Eun In “More Than Friends” Episode 3
Photos: jTBC
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