Asian Addicts Anonymous

Hye Ri drags Seo out of the office, much to the shock and horror of everyone around. Yoon goes after them. Hye Ri tells him to go back, that she is fine and will take care of this and Yoon asks what she’s doing with his guest. Hye Ri replies he isn’t that kind of guest and Yoon asks Attorney Seo if he knows Prosecutor Ma. Hye Ri is shocked to learn that Seo is a lawyer. It turns out that he is the lawyer representing the thief that Hye Ri had no compassion for.

Hye Ri waits for Seo outside and he sneaks up behind her. He tells her it’s been hard since she didn’t return the money like she promised. Hye Ri tries to explain, but Seo won’t let her. She finally gets angry and demands that he set up a time and place for her to give him what she owes him. He does and they agree to meet the next day for lunch to finish the transaction.

Hye Ri goes back to the office and works until six and then leaves promptly. Yoon asks her if she finished the work he had assigned her and she said no, she’ll finish tomorrow. He then tells her to at least look over all the cases to see if they can afford to be put off. She says she is a civil servant and shouldn’t be expected to work overtime. She has a life and if the cases need to be done then the country should just hire more prosecutors (omo, what reasoning is that? You are expected to put in long hours for little pay and little gratitude being a civil servant, doesn’t she know this?). Yoon doesn’t argue with her as he gets nowhere and he can’t necessarily fault her reasoning even if it goes against what they do as civil servants. Hye Ri goes shopping, partying, drinking, to spas, eats good dinners with her friends every evening while her fellow coworkers are up to their eyeballs in cases and all working the overtime she hates so much.

The next day Hye Ri quickly finishes up work, makes lunch reservations, and leaves to meet Seo. She goes to the restaurant carting a huge box of money. Seo seems unconcerned by her display. Hye Ri says she always keeps her word and didn’t want to be sued over this issue. Seo says he never had any intention of suing Hye Ri. She then takes the box and plops it on the table telling him to count it and give her the receipt of payment. Seo asks if she really wants him to count it and she replies in the affirmative. He then takes out a money counter and puts the bills in, shocking Hye Ri. He said that he had a hunch she would do something like this. He also tells her that she isn’t ruthless enough as she brought the money in 1000 won bills. He said the best revenge would be to bring it all in as coins – the most inconvenient way to get back at him. Hye Ri makes Seo promise he will not reveal the ski resort incident as she can get into big trouble at work because of it.

After lunch, Seo tells Hye Ri to call him. Hye Ri says their business is over and she has no need to call him anymore. Still Seo says if she needs a drink or anything, just to call. He also offers his legal services if she should ever get in trouble (major foreshadowing there). Hye Ri says again there is no need for that. Seo then leans into her car and tells her that he likes her and will be seeing more of her. She then speeds off to go back to work.

Yoon is gone and left a message for Hye Ri to prepare for the assault case coming in. Hye Ri doesn’t prepare and actually takes a case file of Yoon’s concerning three major stars caught in a domestic violence scandal. When her clients come, Hye Ri listens to their stories and promptly sends one woman out while blatantly ignoring what the other woman is telling her. Hye Ri also says some very insulting things to the woman, like her husband cheated on her because she fat and didn’t take care of herself (how much crueler can she get?).

Hye Ri then goes to the bathroom in the middle of the discussion taking Yoon’s file with her. As she is devouring its contents, women of the office come in and start talking bad about how she looks. Hye Ri puts the file down and storms out of the bathroom accusing them of all the things they said about her. She then leaves the bathroom, forgetting the file. Yoon comes back and notices the file is gone. Hye Ri rushes back to the bathroom, but can’t find it. Then they whole office starts looking around like crazy to find it. Prosecutor Lee notices a woman (the same one Hye Ri let off in the assault case) with a file. Lee gets it back and brings it back to Yoon and calls Hye Ri out for her recklessness.

Yoon waits outside for Hye Ri and tells her that while he cannot fault her logic about the other things she has done, he cannot let this stand. He is her senior and needs to teach her right from wrong. Cases are confidential and must be looked after with the utmost caution and discretion. He also tells Hye Ri that she may need to rethink what she is doing if she can’t abide by those standards. Yoon then goes on to say that Hye Ri is doing a bad job of investigating her cases. She only looks at the police reports and surface of everything, never going beyond that. Hye Ri says she is working to the best of her ability and has done nothing wrong. Yoon leaves and Hye Ri angrily asks what his problem is (to herself, not to him). She honestly does not understand that her whole attitude and outlook is wrong and is an injustice to those whose cases she works on and to the people that she works with.

Yoon goes to his boss and says that Ma Hye Ri has to go as he cannot teach her. This disappoints the boss who wonders if Hye Ri is really a lost cause. He calls a meeting and not one of the prosecutors or staff has anything good to say about Hye Ri and her work. Ouch. He then makes the decision to move Hye Ri out of the office. The other prosecutors have a hard time finding helpers to work on Hye Ri’s team (her reputation has spread that badly). It also doesn’t help that Yoon’s colleague finally remembers where he has seen Hye Ri before. He finally recalls that Hye Ri was the one at the ski resort who stopped Yoon from catching the person he spent three years chasing. The deputy chief tells Hye Ri that due to an increase in case loads, Yoon will no longer mentor her and she will be independent from now on. This excites Hye Ri.

Hye Ri goes and tells her family and they all celebrate. While celebrating, Ma Sang Tae tells his daughter that a certain prominent family’s son will be back in Korea soon and that they should take this opportunity to marry into the family and further cement their new social standing. Hye Ri agrees. Later, her mother asks her if she really wants to go through with the marriage meeting. Hye Ri says yes. The man is of the same wealth and background so she likes the idea. Her mother says that Hye Ri should experience a passionate love first. Hye Ri says she’s dated before but doesn’t believe in real love (wow is this girl shallow and jaded, is there a specific reason for this?).

The next day an excited Hye Ri decorates her office and meets her new team for the first time. Both team members state that they all have worked within the office. This surprises Hye Ri as she never remembers meeting them before. Of course she has always tried to get out of anything work related that involved hanging out with other members before, so no surprise if she hasn’t met them yet.

Hye Ri gets excited when her first batch of cases comes in, followed by Attorney Seo (who was shocked that Hye Ri was given independence so early, but who decided to move and congratulate her). Hye Ri is less than thrilled to see Seo, but is truly excited about being the be-all, end-all in all of her cases (which are all easy and require little work as the deputy chief has no illusions as to Hye Ri’s capabilities now).

When Hye Ri continually gets small, easy cases, she gets upset and asks her team members what’s going on. Both say they don’t know, and even if they did know, they still wouldn’t know. Hye Ri stakes out the women’s restroom to gain information and finds out that her independence was a joke as they would never give her serious cases because of all the stunts she’s pulled (like the ski resort incident). Hye Ri goes to the deputy chief and demands a proper case load while apologizing (not the best of apologies) for her one little mistake (only one?).

The deputy chief finally explodes. He has had enough of Hye Ri’s shenanigans, especially since she doesn’t seem to realize that she is the one who is wrong. He lists all of her sins. From her blatant disregard of others, proper procedure, not to mention skipping out on important training. He also tells her that no one wants to work with her or have anything to do with her. She couldn’t handle the cases she had before well, so he won’t give her anything more like he would the others. Hye Ri tears up, but again thinks the deputy chief is crazy and that things are not her fault. Really this girl never learns.

Hye Ri storms over to Seo’s office where she blames him for everything. This shocks Seo (and also puts a wrench in his plans – which we still don’t really know about). Seo chases after Hye Ri saying her hastiness will get her into trouble and to reiterate that he kept her ski resort secret. She doesn’t believe him and says she plans on suing him for slander (is it still considered slander if it’s the truth?). Hye Ri then meets Yoo Na at a club for drinking and dancing where she complains about the injustice of it all. Two young men approach the women and Hye Ri and Yoo Na buy them drinks and hang out with them. Cops then approach and ask for ID. The two kids say that the women offered them money to play with them and bought them alcohol (so not true). This leads to Yoo Na’s and Hye Ri’s arrest. And this is where the episode ends.

My thoughts: I am waiting for Hye Ri to turn into a likable character. She is vain, shallow, and completely unwilling to look at the basic facts. Her belief that everyone around her is being unfair is ridiculous. She never reflects on her actions and how they affect other people. She needs a wake-up call and maybe getting arrested will help. I sincerely hope her character gets better and matures soon as I can’t stand her right now. This is actually one of the first times where I have had no sympathy towards the main protagonist. She really has no redeeming qualities at this point.

And I am dying to know what Seo and Jenny Ahn have in store for Ma Hye Ri. They are targeting her for some plan, but we don’t know what that plan is. Oi. I previewed some of the later episodes and the plot doesn’t look any less confusing. Oh, well.