How to give Lee Soo’s character in More Than Friends a pep talk is my short-term goal these days.
At this point of the series, much as I want to understand how Lee Soo has such a distinctively peculiar approach in confronting his emotions, it is not really helping his character in More Than Friends.
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 5 Recap
“It’s a bribe to make you like me.”
Perplex on Lee Soo’s action of asking her not to go, Woo-yeon asks what he’s pulling off. He explains feeling responsible for her not having a normal relationship because of him.
Lecturing her of not dating someone she does not like, Woo-yeon interrupts clarifying his point. She taunts by declaring who knows she might like Joon-soo, and for him not to feel responsible for her feelings anymore.
Coldly, she returns his favorite phrase of how “they are just friends”.
At the dinner, Joon-soo notices Woo-yeon’s disinterest in the food. Their conversation leads to Woo-yeon’s apprehension to open her heart again to Joon-soo’s dating proposition.
Resolved that she is not cut for a relationship, he even offers a dry-run since she already rejected him. Keen to try his best to make her believe she can still have a good relationship, se settle to relent.
Not wasting his time, Joon-soo moves right away and surprised Woo-yeon with a flower gift citing it to be a bribe for her to like him.
“Did you cry because of me?”
Sang-hyuk (P.O) is left with no choice but to call Woo-yeon to take drunk Jin-ju (Baek Soo Min) back home. Lee Soo, who was there for a drink, became the target of Jin-ju’s finding-love frustration. When she sobered up a bit and spotted Lee Soo, she threatens to kill him if he ever made Woo-yeon cry again.
Lee Soo joins Woo-yeon in driving Jin-ju home. Noticing Woo-yeon’s flowers he asked if her date went well, and gets a response that it was good.
Bringing out Jin-ju’s words, Lee Soo asked if Woo-yeon really cried because of him, and she responds nonchalantly not to mind a drunk person’s words. Arguing people are honest when they are drunk, Woo-yeon counters it with how the words drunk people spurs usually do not make sense.
After helping Jin-ju’s mom settle her friend on her bed, Woo-yeon leaves their house, but finds Lee Soo still waiting for her. Inside the taxi, Jin-ju’s words keep ringing in Lee Soo’s thoughts; and noticing the flowers beside Woo-yeon is definitely not helping his conflicted thinking.
“What are you two doing here?”
The next day, Woo-yeon caught a bad flu and just stayed home alone sleeping, trying to recuperate. Both Joon-soo and Lee Soo become aware of her situation. They eventually meet in front of her house when Joon-soo insists that she should be taken to the hospital.
With the two men contending to bring her to the hospital, a ray of light shines for Woo-yeon when Jin-ju arrived to take her away from them.
Trying to mark his territory, Lee Soo asked Joon-soo why he is doing an extra mile when they are not yet dating. Joon-soo responds to not worry about them since they have a mutual understanding of what they are to each other. He adds how it seems Lee Soo is the one overacting as Woo-yeon’s friend.
When Joon-soo asked if he likes her, Lee Soo responds no and only treats her as a friend. Satisfied with the answer, Joon-soo remarks how he hopes his words won’t change.
After receiving treatment, Jin-ju helps Woo-yeon back home and they find food left especially meant for her. Thanking Joon-soo for the porridge and tangerines, she learned eventually that her favorite tangerines were given by Lee Soo.
“Why do you have so may misunderstandings about me?”
Continuing with their photobook project, Lee Soo and Woo-yeon go out with Lee Soo’s new car. Discovering the alleys and corners of the Seoul neighborhood they visit, the two gets busy with their project.
When Lee Soo attempts to clear something on her hair, Woo-yeon mistook it as him ruining her face. The same way he did 10 years ago. Reckoning that memory, he clarified that it was an act of kindness and questions why she always misunderstood his actions.
“Just as emotions you didn’t realize appear out of nowhere, if you keep roaming in silence you’ll find it eventually.”
Going in circles while looking for an old printing press office which has been transformed to a bar, Woo-yeon pointed it out to the annoyed Lee Soo. Seeing her writing something, he takes it like a child and reads the words:
“Just as emotions you didn’t realize appear out of nowhere, if you keep roaming in silence you’ll find it eventually.”
Teasing Woo-yeon of not being able to understand her emotions, she claims her notebook back with a quick kick on his leg. While roaming the store, Lee Soo suddenly asks who would she have chosen that day to bring her to the hospital if Jin-ju did not arrive. Indifferently replying she would pick him, he smiles, but it fades when she explained not wanting to look ugly in front of Joon-soo.
“Why do you always hold onto bad memories? Why must you ruin even the good ones?”
Taking a few shot on a vantage point, Lee Soo notices Woo-yeon staring at something which turned out to be Namsan tower. She quips how she has not been there before because she is saving it for a special day with a special person.
Capping off their work day, the two talked about a quick history of the neighborhood they visited. Learning Woo-yeon threw the compass he gave her, Lee Soo whines about her ruining good memories.
Surprised that he treated the Jeju memory as nice, Woo-yeon bitterly blurts how that memory for her hurts. Because she misunderstood, had her hopes high only to end up getting disappointed. Lee Soo, with impeccable knack on not saying the right thing, asked if he is supposed to feel responsible for her emotions.
Feeling another déjà vu of their previous conversations, Woo-yeon walked away leaving Lee Soo muttering why she had to like a jerk like him.
“What if I say I am being sincere?
Upon knowing Woo-yeon will dine out with Joon-soo, he invited himself to join them. During dinner, Joon-soo asked about their school connection to which Woo-yeon declared as just casual school mates. Contradicting her statement, Lee Soo muttered how the two of them have close relationship.
Woo-yeon counters it by saying he moved to another country and they rarely connected. Not wanting to lose the round, Lee Soo remarked how their reconnections through the years are quite striking. He adds how they are in a very special relationship and genuinely said how he likes her, he likes her as a friend.
Knowing the right thing to say, Joon-soo wishes for their special friendship to stay unchanged for a long time. He left to pick up the tab as Woo-yeon also motions to leave. Before leaving the room, she makes a firm warning to stop messing around with her.
Confronting why she can’t take his words as it is, Woo-yeon responds how she has developed a defensive mechanism towards him after so many rejections. So that, she won’t get confused and get hurt for getting her hopes high, she needs to misunderstand and not take his words literally.
Lee Soo stops Woo-yeon from opening the door and asks her what she’s gonna do if he is being sincere. She looks bravely in his eyes and tells him not to flirt with her, and leaves him behind.
More Than Friends Episode 5 Musings
I live for the moments when Lee Soo and Woo-yeon are shot in close proximity to each other with Ha Sung Woon’s voice crooning in the background. *chuckles The scenes are just beautifully captured in the most pure love defining way. Interestingly, these two’s love story is also my sole problem these days.
At the back of my mind, if I am Woo-yeon, I would naturally react the way she did. Inevitably, there will be future lapses to her firm belief right now to move on. But, I favor giving a hard time to Lee Soo and getting a clear, CAPSLOCK declaration of what Woo-yeon is really to him, before he can be forgiven and accepted.
The problem though is it’s hard to even think of breaking Joon-soo’s heart. This is where the narrative will be tested because the presented male leads have merits that warrant them both to deserve Woo-yeon’s heart.
In the dying seconds of this episode, it showed Lee Soo complaining about Woo-yeon’s inclination to over analyze his words; which makes me and maybe all of us want to ask him: why can’t he say he really likes her. period.
It is apparent that More Than Friends is fixated on its projected love triangle. So focused, that I hope more screen time will be given to its supporting side stories.
Before I can even feel the growing gap involving Young-hee and Hyun-jae’s love story, it pans back to the main love pairing, making me forget about them.
The good news is there are a few chapters to explore it. I also think that it is heading in that direction considering a few scenes have been featured in this episode. If Jin-ju and Sang-hyuk are eventually going to hit it off as well, then it would be amazing.
Will Lee Soo finally give us an unclouded decision of where his heart belongs in the next chapters of More Than Friends?
Catch up on this remarkably penned series on JTBC every Friday and Saturday.
READ EPISODE 6 RECAP BELOW:
Ong Seong Wu Finally Realized What Shin Ye Eun Means To Him In “More Than Friends” Episode 6
Photos/Videos: jTBC
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