The Boy, or the Girl, We Liked Then
Episode 4 of Our Beloved Summer begins with Yeon-Su and Choi Ung disagreeing over who liked whom first. One thing’s for sure, the final day of the shoot is where everything changed. With the camera out of battery, Ji-Ung heads off to get replacements while Ung and Yeon-Su found themselves alone. With no cameras about, the pair are awkward. It’s also the first time Ung started worrying about Yeon-Su. Realizing she’s cold, he wrapped his t-shirt around her shoulders. Ung makes it out that this is was a really romantic gesture… but Yeon-Su has other thoughts. His gesture is clumsy in her eyes and he makes a big fuss about it, holding his arms as he winds up freezing cold. Before filming begins between the pair, we cut to Choi Ung and Yeon-Su arriving to see Ji-Ung. They both have terms for the documentary, which are handed over for Ji-Ung to read. Now, Ji-Ung intends to set a static camera up for Ung at home while for Yeon-Su, they have the greenlight from Mr Jang to allow them to film at her workplace. The filming begins and the stark differences between the two are plain to see. While Ung naps and then works alone, Yeon-Su collaborates with her team. Still, it doesn’t stop one of her colleagues, Bang Yi-Hoon, walking past with a work plaque. Ji-Ung starts to feel the pressure. These two are almost intentionally sabotaging the project. There’s absolutely no salvageable material and the lack of conflict between the pair is bound to irritate viewers. Ji-Ung knows this and tries to come up with a solution. As Choi Ung heads home and has a nap, he believes he’s dreaming when Yeon-Su shows up. As he reaches out and touches her face tenderly, he realizes that this is real and wakes up with a start. Awkwardness obviously ensues, until Choi Ung invites her down to his basement to see his drawings. One of those happens to be his drawing for the school, a beautiful painting that Yeon-Su accidentally ruined by jogging his pen across the page. Feeling bad, Yeon-Su did her best to save the picture back then, adding tippex to try and erase the damage. The things is, he actually kept the picture all this time. Unfortunately it sparks another fallout between the two, which sees them have second thoughts about continuing on with the documentary. During filming the next day, things take a turn for the worst. Articles spread online regarding plagiarism claims for Ung. When Ji-Ung and Eun-Ho find out, they deliberate over the best way of tackling this. In fact, unbeknownst to our male protagonist, Yeon-Su actually begins to collect evidence to show Ko-o is in the right and the plagiarism is a low-blow from the copycat artist. In the morning, Mr Jang immediately asks about the plagiarism and brings it up. With Yeon-Su there too, he vehemently declines the allegations and stands by that his work is original. With this sorted out, he immediately brings up Soen’s party and confirms Yeon-Su will be there too, which seems to sweeten the deal. This is a big deal too and despite agreeing to it, Ung relies on NJ for help, given she’s always on-point with fashion. Of course, she interprets this as an opportunity for the pair to grow closer together. Choi Ung tries on a number of different outfits while NJ too shares the spotlight with a bunch of lavish outfits. As a thank you, the pair head out for food together. Tteokbokki to be precise. Choi Ung is surprised by her taste in food but she admits that fame comes at a cost. People have clearly misinterpreted her, but we’ve seen NJ has a heart of gold deep down, despite a pretty bad first impression. She believes that Choi Ung is truthful with his art too. Yeon-Su also believes him but struggles to send a text message over to confirm as much. Soen’s party goes ahead and both Yeon-Su and Choi Ung get dressed up for the occasion. When they lock eyes, they’re both awkward and taken aback by how well they’ve sharpened up. Ji-un is there too, making sure everything is filmed. Once there though, Choi Ung stays by the buffet table where he runs into Nu-A. It turns out they’ve both been invited, presumably to cause fireworks between the pair. “You’re always the one who ruins me.” Cho Ung says through gritted teeth when he confronts Yeon-Su about this, believing her to be in on this. He turns and leaves the party. During the epilogue, we see more of the rainy moment from school. The pair smile and get along well, with Choi Ung admitting at that moment that he doesn’t dislike her. In fact, he admits that he likes her! As the pair look at one another, everything slows down as Ji-Ung happens to watch from afar.
The Episode Review
Our Beloved Summer rolls round with another solid episode, one that continues to showcase the great chemistry between these two leads. The story, as mentioned before, is pretty simplistic but the effective back and forth timelines to the present and past help to given this a bit more depth. The inclusion of NJ is also a smart move too, allowing this angle to play into the hands of not judging a book by its cover. It’s also another example of how one can be different Infront of and behind the camera. It’s very deliberately chosen to showcase this, and I’d imagine we’ll see a triangle with Yeon-Su involved in some way in the coming chapters. Then again, that could also be the case with Mr Jang too, whom Yeon-Su’s colleagues are convinced she’s secretly dating. Either way, there’s enough moving parts in this show to keep things interesting. The story may be simple but the execution is ultimately what makes this such an enjoyable watch. There’s some great jokes in here, although the comedy is never overbearing to the main plotline, which nestles itself nicely in that grey area between romance and drama. Our Beloved Summer is certainly one to watch, and it’ll be interesting to see how this one develops over the coming weeks.
