The Baseball Game
We begin episode 7 of True Beauty with Han Joon-Woo arriving at work glowing after his kiss with Hee-Kyung. As he enters the teacher’s office, he finds all the karaoke kids being punished for the brawl that happened the previous night. That is, until Seo-Joon and Ju-Kyung arrive and tell him they’re also to blame… along with Soo-Ho and all the other kids. The punishment is cut short though by Hee-Kyung sending flowers for Jun-Woo at school. Given it’s exam season, the rest of the kids begin studying vigorously. In the hallway, Seo-Joon asks Ju-Kyung to do her infamous “Roar!” again. It’s just the ticket needed for both Soo-Ho and Seo-Joon to look longingly at Ju-Kyung from across the classroom. As class is dismissed, Ju-Kyung invites Soo-Ho along to the comic store. Instead, he asks her to study with him the following day. As they sit together and study, that soon turns into a dreamy look from them both… until Soo-A, Tae-Hoon and Soo-Joon show up. Soo-Ho immediately berates Ju-Kyung in front of them before eventually leaving. As he does, Soo-Ho manages to make the karaoke guy apologize to Ju-Kyung. That evening, Ju-Kyung and Soo-Jin head out to eat where the former notices scars across her friend’s hand. It turns out she washes her hands constantly when she’s stressed. It’s an intimate heart to heart and one that sees them grow closer together in time for the next day’s round of exam questions. After their exam, the kids head out to watch a baseball game with Soo-Jin’s celeb crush Hyeong-Jin. Only, after the game he catches up with Ju-Kyung and asks for her number. Soo-Ho obviously gets jealous and walks away in a huff. In fact, he heads straight to the baseball range and starts hitting balls. Tae-Hoon happens to be with him though and clearly realizes that Soo-Ho is jealous and falling for Ju-Kyung. That evening, Hyeong-Jin shows up and decides to walk Ju-Kyung home. At school the next day, the exam results come back and Seo-Joon happens to have a higher score than Ju-Kyung. Given all he did was mark everything with a number 3 (Ju-Kyung’s lucky number) it’s a kick in the teeth for her. Soo-Jin meanwhile, bags 4th place but screws up her results and looks on in frustration. After class, the teacher speaks to Soo-Jin about the results and her unconventional mistakes from question 30 onwards. She doesn’t give too much away though and eventually walks off. As she does, Hyeong-Jin shows up at school to greet Ju-Kyung. He hands over his baseball and invites her along to the final game of the season. That is, until a teacher spots him in the classroom. He quickly bolts for the window and walks out of the school campus. When Ju-Kyung returns home, she learns that her Mother has thrown away all her cosmetics and make-up. The two come to blows, with a teary-eyed Ju-Kyung telling her that this make-up is important. Ju-Kyung begins crying as she heads outside. Soo-Ho shows up but instead of the romantic gesture he concocted with Tae-Hoon, he instead takes Ju-Kyung out to the comic store for noodles. Sitting together, Soo-Ho tells her he’s proud of the girl. He even offers to buy Ju-Kyung new make-up. After walking her home, Soo-Ho gives her a new hair clip and encourages the girl to study hard. At school the next day, Soo-Ho follows Soo-Jin when he sees that she’s upset and asks whether “he’s still hitting her”. She berates him for being at the same school and begins crying. As Soo-Ho embraces the girl, Ju-Kyung happens to see this from afar and rushes away to the bathroom. There, she thinks over what Soo-Ho said before at school, specifically about liking someone, and believes that that person is Soo-Jin. This causes her to go on a jealous rampage at home, beating her teddy relentlessly as she believes Soo-Ho was leading her on. At work, Joon-Woo drops off a gift for Hee-Kyung which immediately sees her hurry over to his place. In fact, her greeting soon turns into so much more as she kisses him all the way up to his apartment. Ju-Kyung heads to the department store and starts shopping for a birthday present. Only, Seo-Joon happens to be there and together they search for make-up for his sister. After buying some lipstick, they get in an elevator heading down but Soo-Ho shows up and holds Ju-Kyung’s hand. Unfortunately both guys are holding on as the elevator breaks down. Only, Ju-Kyung is desperate for the toilet and rushes away as security pry open the doors. As Ju-Kyung eventually heads outside, both Seo-Joon and Soo-Ho intend to greet Ju-Kyung again but instead Hyeong-Jin happens to be there with an umbrella. As we cut forward in time, we see both boys show up at the baseball game. With no Ju-Kyung in sight, they wind up celebrating and hugging together instead. Afterwards, the pair discuss the reasons for being at the game and both admit that they like Ju-Kyung.
The Episode Review
True Beauty continues to deliver the goods this week after an agonizing hiatus over the holidays. This lovable Korean drama continues to deliver the same level of humour and romance that made the opening 6 episodes so appealing. Both Soo-Ho and Seo-Joon are clearly interested in Ju-Kyung and now that this has come out into the open, it really is anyone’s game. It seems likely that Soo-Ho will get the girl but there’s undoubtedly going to be some second-lead syndrome with this one! Both characters have been written well so far and that ending certainly leaves the door open for where this one may go next. So far so good, True Beauty delivers another very enjoyable episode.
