Asian Addicts Anonymous

Hye Ri clings to Yoon who is worried that she is hurt. She says that she is fine and as they are about to leave, one of the men gets back up with a knife. Seo sees this and lights a bottle of soju on fire and throws it at a group of barrels nearby causing a slight explosion. Yoon manages to dodge a major blow, but his arm does get cut. He fights off the bad guys again and Hye Ri actually helps and manages to save Yoon from getting his brains bashed in by a rock. Hye Ri even sacrifices her precious Grace shoe to save Yoon.

After the men are dispatched, Yoon grabs Hye Ri to run, but she doesn’t want to leave her shoe behind. How funny, since just a moment ago she was using the shoe as a weapon.. Yoon then picks her up and begins running (quite effortlessly it appears). Meanwhile a large group of men start attacking Seo for interfering. You wouldn’t know by just looking at him, but Attorney Seo can fight! He takes on over five guys and manages to beat everyone (though he is beat rather badly in the process as well).

Yoon gets Hye Ri to safety as the police show up. After assuring himself that she is relatively okay he begins yelling at her for being stupid enough to do an investigation on her own without any backup or help. Hye Ri told him that she really needed a case as her life depended on it. Hye Ri then asks Yoon to help her get the recording out of her clothes. This shocked Yoon who didn’t know what to do so Hye Ri squirms around until she gets the recorder off her back finally. She gives it to Yoon saying it has all the evidence they need to take down the operation. Yoon gives it a look and tells Hye Ri it’s broken.

The police then scold Hye Ri for calling them in and exaggerating the situation as they only managed to catch two underlings. Poor Hye Ri, nothing has gone right that night. She says she knows all their faces and names, but when she begins giving the names, the police say they are obviously aliases. Hye Ri asks Yoon if there isn’t anyway to make the tape work and he replies no. Hye Ri is upset as she put so much effort into this investigation only to have it fall completely apart at the last minute.

Seo is watching from a distance and knows the operation has failed. Jenny Ahn berates him later as she helps him put ointment on his bruises (he has some pretty serious ones on his shoulder and back. Seo says that what happened that night shouldn’t have. He had miscalculated the number of henchman and was not fully prepared. Jenny tells him that he should give up on Hye Ri, that it didn’t look like she had what it takes to help them. Seo says he doesn’t think that he is wrong about Hye Ri. Argh! This is killing me. I really want to know what the heck is going on already.

Yoon takes Hye Ri home in spite of her protests to have him go to the hospital to take care of his arm first. Yoon asks if Hye Ri doesn’t want to get cleaned up first so that her parents wouldn’t be so worried about her appearance. Hye Ri states that she needs to look this battered because of her parents. Yoon looks a little shocked at this, but doesn’t say anything more and leaves Hye Ri safely at her house. She goes in where her mother is shocked at her daughter’s appearance while her father just asks how the case went. When Hye Ri replied that it had ultimately ended in failure her father gets upset. Hye Ri said she could have died but her father states she didn’t and she was furthermore fine. Poor Hye Ri. Looks like she is forever destined to disappoint her dad.

Hye Ri wakes up hurting and sore only to find her closet locked. All her bags, shoes, and expensive clothes were in there. She screams and her mom tells her that her father won’t budge, saying Hye Ri has plenty of clothes and doesn’t need the ones in the closet. Meanwhile, at work Yoon is trying his best to make sure Hye Ri doesn’t get fired. I think he feels bad for her after last night and what had been going on between her and the rest of the prosecutors and decides to help her get one last chance. News had spread and people can’t believe what Hye Ri did. Prosecutor Kim says that Hye Ri is starting to grow on him because she is extraordinary and really shakes up the office which is usually boring and staid. The other prosecutors think he is crazy for saying that.

Hye Ri hobbles into work finally wearing some very unfashionable, ahjumma-like clothes. At first no one recognizes her. She turns around and takes off her glasses and bows to them. Her bruised face and unfashionable clothes shock the office. They can’t believe the alteration in Hye Ri. She goes to apologize and is told that Yoon gave her a second chance so she better not waste it or else she will be fired and Yoon will be demoted to some remote island that is opening a prosecutor’s office (or so the deputy director says). Hye Ri goes to thank Yoon who gives her a case to work on since she said her life depended on having a case and prosecuting it correctly. He then passes her off to Prosecutor Jin for any help, deciding he wants as little interaction with Hye Ri as possible.

Seo arrives after Hye Ri gets her first case. He had just heard from Jenny that both he and Hye Ri lucked out as she was not fired from the prosecutors’ office and was even given a real case. So he had to go and congratulate her and give back all of the stuff he was supposed to take care of. These two are a sight to behold. Both look like they got in a brawl (which they did). Hye Ri is shocked at Seo’s battered appearance and he said that he had followed her, but Yoon was there to help already. Hye Ri asked him why he didn’t let her know and he said his involvement couldn’t be made known or things would get even more complicated. Makes sense, but then why did he complicate things, right?

When Seo gives her back her stuff, he makes a call and a phone starts ringing in the bags he was giving back. Hye Ri picks it up and sees the caller ID flashing “kind hearted Seo.” She looks at him and he says that she can change the numbers and addresses later, but he figured she needed a phone right away. Hye Ri then tells Seo to stop liking her because she has found someone she likes now and when she sets her sights on someone, she won’t see another man. Seo guesses that it is Yoon and asks if she had confessed and if they were dating. She replies to both questions negatively. Seo then tells her he won’t give up and leaves. As he is walking away, he says to himself that Yoon is the better man.

Hye Ri tackles the case wholeheartedly, shocking all those around her. She goes to Yoon for questions, but he immediately sends her off to Jin (who does have more experience in child abuse cases). Jin happily gives Hye Ri the advice she needs, willing to give her another shot at being a prosecutor. Hye Ri meets with and listens to the mother’s story and then to the accused’s story. Both seem plausible and she is torn. The music teacher doesn’t seem like a bad person, but she doesn’t necessarily believe a child could lie. She goes to Yoon for guidance and he tells her the child could be lying, but the music teacher could be as well. This confuses Hye Ri even more. Yoon tells her that it is her job to get to the truth.

Hye Ri goes to see the little girl with a child expert. However, no matter how hard Hye Ri tries, she just manages to upset the little girl and her mother. Instead of getting the girl’s testimony, all Hye Ri accomplishes is making the little girl cry. Later, the child expert tells Hye Ri that children are very perceptive and know when adults are being fake and not believing in the child. This puts Hye Ri in a difficult spot as she knows nothing about children. She asks inspector Cha if he knows any children and they say that Yoon has a child who is the same age as the client. This shocks Hye Ri. She decides to give up on Yoon after hearing about his deceased wife and the fact he has a daughter.

When she goes to Seo to get his advice, he tells her that Yoon’s situation shouldn’t matter. Hye Ri then iterates that she can’t be in love with Yoon. Seo says that love doesn’t know such things, but that there are many people who shouldn’t fall in love with those they do (poor Seo is talking about his love for Hye Ri, I believe, I have a feeling that he will not win against Yoon in the competition for Hye Ri’s heart despite Yoon’s cold attitude). I have to say…why couldn’t Hye Ri ask his advice more so on her case than on Yoon being a widower and a father.

Hye Ri makes the decision to pursue Yoon and bakes a batch of cookies and other goodies. She then goes to Yoon’s house. Yoon is at the park playing with Jin and his daughter when Hye Ri calls and says she’s in front of his house. He runs home and immediately tells her to leave. She says that she is there to figure out children by trying to interact with his daughter. This surprises him and then she tells him that even though it’s true she needs help, she just really wanted to see him and see where he lived. She then states she likes him. Yoon tells her that she can’t and that he in fact can’t stand her. He hates people who get other people hurt. Hye Ri leaves and starts crying. Jin and Yoon’s daughter come back. Bo-In notices the basket of goodies and asks if they are for her. Yoon says no, but Bo-In looks at them and says they have her name on them. This makes Yoon feel bad for how coldy and cruelly he treated Hye Ri.

After trying to garner the little girl’s favor again, the mom comes to dislike Hye Ri. Especially when Hye Ri asked about the financial situation of the store and the supposed discount given for the lessons. The next day the deputy director tells Hye Ri that the mother has requested a new prosecutor because she isn’t happy with Hye Ri’s clothing, manners, nor does she think Hye Ri believes her daughter.

She calls Seo who tells her to hang on and he’ll help her. As she is going on to meet him, the cosmetic lady from a previous case tells her that Yoon has proved her innocence and she then berates Hye Ri for not listening to her and calls her a horrible person and prosecutor before dumping tomatoes on her. Yoon and the others see this. Yoon goes to rescue Hye Ri, but Seo gets to her first and takes her away.

Hye Ri gets cleaned up and starts crying and complaining that it’s unfair that everyone is against her (she was starting to grow on me until she reverts back to her unfair persecution line, blaming everyone but herself). Poor Seo looks like he doesn’t know what to do to help Hye Ri. He takes her back home where she packs up and leaves a note saying she can’t be a prosecutor and is going somewhere to hide out for a few months. At the airport just as she is about to board the plane, Seo grabs her and hugs her and then tells her that she can’t go any where. Thus ends episode four.

My thoughts: Just when it looks like Hye Ri is finally maturing and that things will go well, everything has to go down the toilet again. This is getting ridiculous. I understand the drama convention of throwing every monkey wrench you can into a plot to make things go less smooth, but there comes a time when it is too much and I am getting ready to scream in frustration.

Yoon annoyed me this episode. Though I understand that Hye Ri resembles his deceased wife, that doesn’t give him the right to treat her like he has been. Talk about hot and cold. Nice one moment, a horrible guy in the next. Oi. Complicated. I think he is starting to like Hye Ri, but whether that is because of her resemblance or for who Hye Ri is remains to be seen.

Seo, ever mysterious. He is connected to Hye Ri, it looks like he genuinely cares for her, but what is the plot he needs to use her for? He thinks that Yoon is a better person and encourages Hye Ri to pursue the relationship and then proceeds to get in the way. What is going on here? Will this storyline finally slow down? Will Hye Ri mature and learn to stand up for herself. She talks big but has yet to prove her true worth and when things get tough she wants to run away. Seriously, my little sympathy I had for her is wearing off already. I hope the storyline and Hye Ri improves soon.