Waiting For A Rainy Day
Episode 3 of Hello, Me begins with Ha-Ni slapping her younger self after those hurtful words on the stairwell. She eventually leaves though, storming off after telling 37 year old Ha-Ni that she should just die. Outside, our Ha-Ni receives a call from her Mother suggesting she come back and stay with her in Daejeon after the trouble caused with Ha-Young. Ha-Ni refuses and even outright rejects the idea of getting married too. When she hangs up, Ha-Ni struggles to find her purpose as both the younger and old Ha-Ni walk down the street on their own, wrestling with this idea. 37 year old Ha-Ni hangs out by the bridge and begins sighing loudly. A car suddenly pulls over as three menacing, suited men approach her. They grab Ha-Ni and take her down to the police station. It turns out they believed she was going to commit suicide! The officer asks about Ha-Ni’s living situation, which adds layers of sadness on top of her current circumstances. When Ha-Ni mentions not wanting to kill herself this time, the officers jump on this and believe her to be depressed. She’s handed a business card for the suicide hotline, and one for debt collection, just in case she needs it. Ha-Ni eventually catches up with her younger self and after stubbornly talking by the side of the road, head out for some food together. Afterwards, they rock up at the apartment and decide on alter-egos. One of them needs to change their name, partly for the sake of myself having to write out different variations of Ha-Ni to prevent confusion, and also for their own benefit. Anyway, they eventually settle on young Ha-Ni being called Scarlett; so we’ll run with that for these recaps too! Meanwhile, Anthony makes a trade in a shady tunnel with a seller, giving him a limited edition watch with engravings on it. After this, they decide to head out and go for Chinese. Only, the ring is stuck on Jeong-Man’s hand, prompting them to head back to the office and grease it up to get it removed. They’re not the only ones running into trouble though, as Yu-Hyeon heads out for food with Do-Yun. He asks him outright for 1.82 billion won and when that fails, asks for a job instead. Yu-Hyeon is definitely getting desperate! Ha-Ni and Scarlett head out in the morning to the internet café and begin rooting through different sites and YouTube videos to find a way to send Scarlett back home. Eventually this brings Ha-Ni to her nephew; the smartest person she knows. He chuckles when she announces that someone has come from the past, as it turns out Ha-Young is close by. In fact, she’s in the same cafe as Scarlett, who tries to hide her face with her hair and stumbles over on the floor. She eventually scarpers without being spotted, catching up with Ha-Ni outside. While they’re talking, the pair are approached by a Shaman called Jobseu Doryeong, who claims to know their fortune. He mentions how they’re both the same person and encourages them to follow if they want help. At his place, Doryeong shows them his super computer called Jobs. He uses a tablet to start deciphering really simple things, eventually moving on to super specific details about Scarlett being from another world. They’re both taken aback as he encourages them to perform a rite. However, they need to wait for heavy rain fall before they even think about doing that. Ha-Ni can only afford to pay 1.4 million won for this though, on the basis that Yu-Hyeon actually pays her back. Ha-Ni is saved as “old lady” in Yu-Hyeon’s phone, while she has his number saved as “Mr Pervert.” Ha-Ni tries to ring him but struggles to get through. Instead, she decides to ring the debt collection group and hires them to get the funds back from Yu-Hyeon. Only…it turns out he actually wired it back a while ago but there’s been a delay in the transfer. Oops! Eventually Ha-Ni drives him back to the hotel as she notices a keychain that looks like one she lost a while back. It originally belonged to her Father as Yu-Hyeon realizes he knows who she is. As we jump back in time, it turns out Yu-Hyeon was bullied by Anthony and the other kids who took his necklace, something which belonged to his Mum. Ha-Ni dropkicked him in the face and handed back his necklace. She never told him her name though, instead calling herself Superman. She dropped her keychain while scrambling away, prompting him to give it back as she realizes quite who she is. Yu-Hyeon immediately lightens up and tells Ha-Ni that it’s her turn to owe him something. For now, he’ll be in touch in the future over exactly what that will be. Ha-Ni returns home to find Scarlett has decorated the place after skipping a meal to celebrate a farewell party. Scarlett asks why she doesn’t feel sorry for herself and encourages Ha-Ni to stand up and start fighting for what’s right. Meanwhile, the Squid-Good incident seems to be behind Joa Confectionery now as they decide to release a humorous advertisement as a way of quelling any doubts from people. The chairman is happy with this and gives them two weeks to get it sorted out. Things start to look up for Ha-Ni’s prospects on the back of this, as news about the Squid-Good incident being fabricated starts spreading online. Unfortunately these good vibes are short-lived when she visits her former boss. He isn’t looking to hire her back, prompting Ha-Ni to stand up for herself and badmouth her former boss. There seems to be a transformation in Ha-Ni now, a weight lifted off her shoulders as she starts smiling again; the first time she’s done so in a long time. Yu-Hyeon begins working at the office cafeteria and immediately calls out Ji-Man after he greedily takes more than one of the items available. Afterwards, he calls Yu-Hyeon into his office and calls his son out for trying to quick fix his issues. However, he tasks Yu-Hyeon with staying in the cafeteria for 100 days. If he can do that then his Father will drop the debt completely. When Yu-Hyeon leaves the room, Ji-Man reveals that he’s actually happy Yu-Hyeon is there, meaning he can see his son more often. That afternoon, Ha-Ni and Scarlett begin dancing in-sync for Joa Confectionary. The Chairman sees them though and eventually sits alongside them. He apologizes for what happened to her and encourages the girl to continue standing up for herself and being patient. Ha-Ni mentions how she used to love eating snacks with her father, as a warm smile crosses Ji-Man’s face. As the episode closes out, Ha-Ni and Scarlett head back home but run straight into Ha-Yeong who seems to realize Ha-Ni and Scarlett are one and the same. Oh no!
The Episode Review
Hello Me bows out with another fun slice of comedy as this Korean drama delivers a dose of warmhearted fun to balance out Sisyphus’ much darker tone. It’s not the best show but there’s certainly enough here to tie all or characters together in a concise and well written manner. Ha-Ni and Scarlett growing closer is a nice touch and as predicted, they’re both starting to learn from one another too. The chairman being a kind and caring Father is a nice way to buck the trend of evil chairmen in k-dramas too and it helps that the show has some genuinely funny jokes throughout. The moments involving the shaman are by far the strongest, although seeing Yu-Hyeon’s debt misunderstanding is another awkward and hilarious segment to add on top of that. The ending seems to hint that we’ll be getting more family shenanigans mixed up in this tomorrow but for now, Hello Me bows out with an energetic romp that continues to deliver the goods.
