Thank goodness manditory overtime has ended. Now I can go back to watching entirely too much television.
Lee Dong Hae plays Go Seung Ji. (No, I'm not going to squeal "Dong Hae!!!<3" because I have no idea who he is. This is the first time I've ever seen him.) Anyway, Seung Ji is running down the sidewalk, chasing after a guy who owes him money, when our hero is distracted by a young woman hauling an enormous panda costume on her back. He only has time for one "Aish!" before he receives a phone call from the bakery. The building has collapsed!
Seung Ji hurries back. Ah, turns out the collapsed building is a cake shaped like a building, and yes, it has totally collapsed. The confection is due to the customer at 3 o'clock this afternoon. Only Seung Ji can save the day. This gives the show the opportunity to get Dong Hae to take off his shirt as he changes into his baker's outfit, and the fangirls go wild. You would think they had never seen a half naked Korean man before.
We get an odd interlude of an older woman stepping out of a building. She buttons her coat. Cherry blossoms fall like rain. There's a shot of an older man. Someone is sitting on a park bench.
What the heck has this got to do with anything?
Back to the bakery and a montage of Seung Ji cooking up a storm. Instead of recreating a house, he makes a stack of edible gold bars. The people throwing a ceremony of some kind don't seem to notice the difference in what they ordered and what they got. Outside, Seung Ji and his co-worker are watching the proceedings. Seung Ji puts up a sticker announcing low interest loans. Ah, here comes that older man we just saw. Oh, he's Seung Ji's grandfather (played by Park Geun Hyung. He's the guy who plays Godfather Seo on The Chaser. That reminds me, I need to see if there are any more episodes that have been subbed.) Grandpa is not pleased to hear his grandson is an amateur loan shark. Just then a group of professional loan sharks spot the boy and Seung Ji must make tracks. (And when I say "make tracks" I mean he rather leisurely jogs down the street. He doesn't appear to be running for his life like he should.)
He runs/jogs/walks really fast past the Panda Cafe, not noticing the woman from earlier as she dons her gigantic panda head and passes out flyers. This is Pan Da Yang, played by Yoon Seung Ah. Business isn't doing so well and chef Kil Dong Gu suggests she move the business to Gangnam. (By God, show, if you start playing that damned Psy song I'm ending this right now.)
A customer comes charging in and demanding a refund. Finally after ten years the woman had met a man. She had bought a cake from the Panda Cafe which caused her man to get violently ill and break up with her. Pan Da turns to her aunt for help. The cafe is doing horrible but Pan Da doesn't want to sell it because it once belonged to her deceased mother and father. Auntie doesn't give Pan Da any money but she at least does pray over the girl.
We now go to Saint Honore, the high class bakery. Damn, I want cake now! If you're on a diet you may not want to watch this show. A young girl struggles with two black garbage bags (until she gets out the door and suddenly one bag is white). She's greeted in the alleyway by her friend Pan Da. If garbage girl has a name I didn't catch it. Furthermore, Pan Da goes upstairs to Saint Honore's office where she has a talk with another woman whose name I didn't catch. This woman tells how the son of the owners is coming in from America (Naturally. Do no Koreans travel to Uganda or Costa Rica? They're always going to America.) Anyway, the son is Choi Won Il, played by Choi Jin Hyuk, and he appears to have purple hair. Office girl is worried he'll be doing a lot of firings and hirings. Pan Da gets excited thinking perhaps she'll be able to get a job here at Saint Honore. I still could go for some cake.
As Grandpa goes over his bankbooks (which are pretty empty) he flashes back to meeting the coat woman from earlier. He gifts her with a cell phone, one he assures her is pretty simple to use. Later we see her staring wistfully at a picture of a young boy. Who is this woman? Is she Seung Ji's mother?
Won Il's mom drags him to Saint Honore's kitchen so he can greet his dad, Choi Jae Kyum. Dad looks happy to see his son and goes to hug him, yet Won Il hangs back. There's also something about a scar on Dad's wrist. Later, at a formal presentation to the workers of the bakery, Won Il mentions how his mother has made him manager of the bakery. Dad looks surprised at this announcement. Hmm, is Dad really Step Dad?
As Mom shows Won Il around, Office Girl watches from afar. She calls Pan Da and gushes about ... wait, did she just call him Go Seung Ji? Does she think Won Il is Seung Ji? I'm so confused right now. Some cake would help make sense of this.
Seung Ji is once again running after the same guy from the beginning of the show. He still hasn't gotten his money. Once again he is distracted by Pan Da as she's carting her panda costume along, allowing the guy to get away. Seung Ji figures she and the guy who owes him money must be in cahoots. He learns she has something to do with a Panda Cafe but he doesn't know where the place is. (So there's no Yellow Pages in Korea? 4-1-1? The internet?)
As Seung Ji is out trying to find Panda Cafe he spots his grandfather and decides to follow the old man. Grandpa, like me, is technology challenged. He just learned the cell phone he gave his daughter/maybe Seung Ji's mother can be tracked through GPS. He's out to try and find out her location. He ends up going to a very, very small coffee shop and calling Mystery Woman to meet him there. Seung Ji spies through the store window. He thinks Grandpa is meeting a secret love. Mystery Woman walks right past him as she goes into the shop, but Seung Ji doesn't do any "Mom!" reaction. All he does is have a flashback to cherry blossoms falling and his grandfather, smiling this time, greeting him. I don't understand, Show. What is all this supposed to mean?
The next day Seung Ji is talking with Friend Whose Name I Didn't Catch and discussing if Grandpa's daughter comes back, then Seung Ji will have to move out of their tiny home to make room for her. So he knows he has an aunt somewhere yet he didn't recognize her. Or was the woman at the coffee shop not his aunt? I don't understand what the heck is going on!
To further confuse me (which isn't all that hard), Seung Ji goes to a butcher shop and gets into an argument with the butcher over meat his grandfather bought. Butcher tells Seung Ji how Grandpa thinks more of him (SJ) than his real grandson. So Seung Ji isn't Grandpa's grandson? That would explain why he didn't recognize the Mystery Woman, but why does Seung Ji live with Grandpa and call him Grandpa?
Seung Ji goes home to yell at Grandpa's picture.
Dressed in a business suit (with purple hair), Won Il shows up for his first day of work. It's a good thing he's the boss as he's parking illegally. He goes through the books and finds something fishy, which has no place in a bakery.
Seung Ji is polishing up his resume. He feels he is too much of a burden on Grandpa/not Grandpa. As he reads through his previous job experiences, we see that some of his training came from prison. Hmmm.
Mom makes Won Il go through a photo shoot for the papers. He doesn't look thrilled and cuts it short. Office Girl (what is her name?) hands Won Il some resumes to look through, including her friend Pan Da's. Once he sees Pan Da's picture and name, Won Il remembers her. They went to the same school together before he left for the U.S. She's his first love and he's been looking for her.
Seung Ji goes around applying for work at other bakeries. His criminal record doesn't help. When he returns to his bakery, his friends show him the flyers Pan Da has been putting up around town. Not only does it give directions to the Panda Cafe, it also gives notice they're wanting to hire a patissier, room and board included. Just what Seung Ji is looking for.
Pan Da is standing on a rickety stool when she receives a call from Office Girl (Her name might be Eun Bi.) It sounds like Pan Da's resume was accepted. So excited, Pan Da starts bouncing around on the stool. You know what happens next. Just as she falls to the hard pavement, she's caught at the last second by Seung Ji. As they stare into each others eyes, Won Il (his hair not as purple in this light) drives up and sees his first love in the arms of another man.
This is the most confusing show I've ever seen.
As Seung Ji is out trying to find Panda Cafe he spots his grandfather and decides to follow the old man. Grandpa, like me, is technology challenged. He just learned the cell phone he gave his daughter/maybe Seung Ji's mother can be tracked through GPS. He's out to try and find out her location. He ends up going to a very, very small coffee shop and calling Mystery Woman to meet him there. Seung Ji spies through the store window. He thinks Grandpa is meeting a secret love. Mystery Woman walks right past him as she goes into the shop, but Seung Ji doesn't do any "Mom!" reaction. All he does is have a flashback to cherry blossoms falling and his grandfather, smiling this time, greeting him. I don't understand, Show. What is all this supposed to mean?
The next day Seung Ji is talking with Friend Whose Name I Didn't Catch and discussing if Grandpa's daughter comes back, then Seung Ji will have to move out of their tiny home to make room for her. So he knows he has an aunt somewhere yet he didn't recognize her. Or was the woman at the coffee shop not his aunt? I don't understand what the heck is going on!
To further confuse me (which isn't all that hard), Seung Ji goes to a butcher shop and gets into an argument with the butcher over meat his grandfather bought. Butcher tells Seung Ji how Grandpa thinks more of him (SJ) than his real grandson. So Seung Ji isn't Grandpa's grandson? That would explain why he didn't recognize the Mystery Woman, but why does Seung Ji live with Grandpa and call him Grandpa?
Seung Ji goes home to yell at Grandpa's picture.
Dressed in a business suit (with purple hair), Won Il shows up for his first day of work. It's a good thing he's the boss as he's parking illegally. He goes through the books and finds something fishy, which has no place in a bakery.
Seung Ji is polishing up his resume. He feels he is too much of a burden on Grandpa/not Grandpa. As he reads through his previous job experiences, we see that some of his training came from prison. Hmmm.
Mom makes Won Il go through a photo shoot for the papers. He doesn't look thrilled and cuts it short. Office Girl (what is her name?) hands Won Il some resumes to look through, including her friend Pan Da's. Once he sees Pan Da's picture and name, Won Il remembers her. They went to the same school together before he left for the U.S. She's his first love and he's been looking for her.
Seung Ji goes around applying for work at other bakeries. His criminal record doesn't help. When he returns to his bakery, his friends show him the flyers Pan Da has been putting up around town. Not only does it give directions to the Panda Cafe, it also gives notice they're wanting to hire a patissier, room and board included. Just what Seung Ji is looking for.
Pan Da is standing on a rickety stool when she receives a call from Office Girl (Her name might be Eun Bi.) It sounds like Pan Da's resume was accepted. So excited, Pan Da starts bouncing around on the stool. You know what happens next. Just as she falls to the hard pavement, she's caught at the last second by Seung Ji. As they stare into each others eyes, Won Il (his hair not as purple in this light) drives up and sees his first love in the arms of another man.
This is the most confusing show I've ever seen.
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