Tepid Love Vibes
Episode 5 of Now, We Are Breaking Up begins with Jae-guk asking Young-eun if she missed him. We then transition into a montage of all Jae-guk’s pivotal interactions with Young-eun. When it ends, he tells Young-eun he missed her. Some time later, Sono’s design team hits a roadblock when Young-eun learns that all the supplies ordered for Sono are being redistributed to Claire Marie. Chi-sook, now on the Claire Marie team and still not over being jilted, backs the redistribution. Chi-sook also informs Young-eun that the factory Sono usually works with will be used for Claire Marie. The two are interrupted when Jae-guk, who is now taking up work indiscriminately to earn enough to settle in Korea, arrives to partner with the Claire Marie team. At a hospital, Mi-sook attends an appointment alone. The doctor tells her that she has late-stage pancreatic cancer, which has spread to multiple organs. While she receives the bad news, Soo-ho is shown to be having an affair with his junior colleague, Seo Min-kyung, who he gifts a bracelet to. Meanwhile, CEO Hwang pulls Jae-guk, Chi-sook, and Young-eun into his office. He repeatedly mistakes old stories of Soo-wan for Jae-guk until Jae-guk discloses that he spent most of his youth in Paris. Young-eun has a flashback to Soo-wan avoiding her question about having siblings. Afterwards, Young-eun is alone in a storeroom when Jae-guk comes in and tells her that he and Soo-wan had different mothers. When Young-eun is surprised at the sudden information, Jae-guk explains that she looked curious in CEO Hwang’s office. She doesn’t deny it, making him glad that she cared. The pair are interrupted by Chi-hyung. He has procured a list of possible factories to work with from Go Gwang-soo on the production team, who hates Young-eun’s guts. Young-eun and Chi-hyung go from factory to factory, and Young-eun finds flaws in each one. One looks promising until Young-eun spots Ms Choi, the subcontractor who leaked their design, working there. At the same time, Chi-sook invites Jae-guk for coffee. She suggests beginning a relationship, but he completely rejects her. On her way back to the office, Young-eun detours to find Mi-sook buying a heap of clothes for her daughter. Mi-sook has ditched her frugal ways after the doctor told her to quit her job and get hospitalised – though she doesn’t say as much to Young-eun. She also advises Young-eun to live freely and date Jae-guk. Yoo-jung bumps into Hye-ok, who mentions that she is keen to support Jae-guk’s mystery romance, not wanting to make the same mistake that she did with Soo-wan. We flash back to Yoo-jung growing tense as she watches a video of Soo-wan and Young-eun. In the office storeroom, So-yong meets with Oh In-a, a rival team leader. In-a tells her to steal Young-eun’s designs in exchange for a promotion. Neither of them notices Chi-hyung listening in from behind a shelf. Elsewhere, Young-eun’s father, Ha Taek-soo, is in a heated argument with a man in front of two police officers. The man accuses Taek-soo of beating him while Taek-soo claims that the man fell while running away after scamming him. Jae-guk, who was out taking street style pictures, filmed the whole incident and proves Taek-soo’s story. Chi-hyung updates Young-eun with his discovery and she calls a design team meeting. Young-eun gives So-yong a book of sketches she drew at So-yong’s age, telling her that opportunities will come if she continues to focus on improving her designs. She also tells So-yong that a good superior would only nurture her talent, not ask her to compromise her morals. After the meeting, Young-eun gets a call from her distressed mother and heads to the police station to find her father and Jae-guk there. After the police wrap up their questions, Taek-soo wants to treat Jae-guk to a meal. Young-eun sends him home with the promise that she’ll treat Jae-guk instead. Do-hoon discards his busy schedule to accompany Chi-sook to an art exhibition and a dinner reservation she had planned for herself and Jae-guk. At dinner, while Chi-sook gets drunk, Do-hoon clears up her misunderstanding about his supposed crush on Young-eun. Mi-sook arrives home to find that Soo-ho has been slacking off. They argue until he answers a call from Min-kyung under the guise of speaking with a client. He presents an idealised version of his life to Min-kyung while taking out the rubbish and doesn’t notice when Mi-sook’s hospital bill lands in the paper bin. Over dinner, Young-eun tells Jae-guk that she wants to work with Ms Choi even though it would cause an uproar. Jae-guk convinces her to follow her heart rather than hesitate because of her fear. We cut to Yoo-jung as she looks over an old wedding invitation that lists her as the bride and Soo-wan as the groom. After the rest of the design team has called it a day, So-yong stays behind. Chi-hyung goes to the CCTV monitoring room and catches So-yong taking something from Young-eun’s desk. Chi-sook wakes up in Do-hoon’s apartment after blacking out at dinner. She comments on the fact that he didn’t take advantage of her, observes his dainty behaviour, and spots framed posters of Elton John before concluding that he’s gay. As Young-eun and Jae-guk walk home, Young-eun contemplates how she’s been letting her hold on her emotions slip around Jae-guk. She monologues about how passionate feelings don’t last long before relationships fizzle into regret to keep him at a distance. As Young-eun walks away from Jae-guk, he calls her phone and tells her that he took the photo she bought in Paris. Jae-guk proposes that they break up the connection they began with that photo and that, while they do, they should embrace their love.
The Episode Review
We finally got to see Jae-guk and Young-eun connecting on a level that wasn’t just sexual or angst-ridden. Their mutual smiles in the alleyway after Young-eun met Ms Choi were even endearing. This only brought a rather huge plot hole in their romance to the fore. That is, these two people have only spent a handful of moments together, most of which consisted of staring blankly at each other. Ridiculous, cosmically-ordained past linkage aside, we haven’t been given a single reason as to why they even like – let alone love – each other. Jae-guk’s inconsistent behaviour where Soo-wan is concerned continued this episode in his changing relationship with his mother. While he’s previously been callous towards her for her condemnation of Soo-wan’s love, he’s now warming up without seeking any closure at all. This random attitude change, while in line with the rest of the messy writing used to ignore the Soo-wan issue, eliminates the chance for meaningful progression in their mother–son relationship.
