Asian Addicts Anonymous

**post by nichan**

When last we left them, Jung Eun and Kyung Min had woken up next to each other in bed, somewhat appalled that they’d given in to their liquor-fueled passions.

Well, Jung Eun is mortified, but also rather pleased: Kyung Min, the rich, attractive, adorable catch had slept with her! And Kyung Min? Well… He was maybe a little less thrilled: as soon as Jung Eun’s out of the house, he grabs all of his stuff and runs. …And me, as the viewer? What did I think? Well… Every episode makes me loathe the very existence of Kyung Min. He’s self-centered, and immature, and annoying, and lazy, and sloppy, and just a total, thoughtless jerk. What Jung Eun sees in him is beyond me. …But I know what Kyung Min sees in her: a place to live, somebody to feed him and do his laundry, and the bill-payer of the house he keeps staying at. He’s why reasonable women hate men, but he’d be very popular in the city I live in: girls love idiot, lowlife jerks around here. He’d probably have five baby mommas by now.

So while Jung Eun’s out of the house, Kyung Min takes off on the run to get away from her with every intention of never looking back. He gets as far as the campus of his college (he spends the night in a super raggedy dorm room decorated in anime posters), but then the thugs he owes money to spot him and go running after him. Jung Eun spies them on the way by (she’s come looking for him) and (inexplicably) defends Kyung Min and takes him back home. (Thankfully, Jung Eun starts to stand up for herself a bit, and every time he whines about food, she tells him to eat his shoes since he’d spent all of her money on them.)

One day, Jung Eun gets a call from Dong Joon’s company that she’s been hired. In an excited flurry, she celebrates by telling everyone she knows, and she gets totally hyped: she’s finally got a proper job! …Kyung Min decides they ought to go to the mall and buy her a new wardrobe, and yet again proves he’s a total prat. He makes her try on dress after dress, and finally gets her settled on an asymmetrical heather purple number. Problem is, it costs a boatload of cash. This isn’t an issue for Kyung Min, who has no concept of money, but it’s a huge issue for Jung Eun who’s been trying to feed two people (and one particularly greedy) on the small pittance of her random side jobs. After she drags him out of the store, he sits her down on a bench and tells her he’ll be right back. After awhile, he returns with the dress. In his obscure sort of logic that makes you think about how so many Americans are straddled with huge amounts of credit card debt, he announces he’s traded in his prized designer watch for the dress. Instead of pawning it in for money to help pay his debt, or buy food, or anything else, he’s blown it on a single dress. Jung Eun promptly takes the thing back and returns his watch. (And I, as the viewer, wanted her to throw him out on the street… But, alas, I’m not the one calling the shots, so he gets to stay.)

The next morning, Jung Eun goes to work and tries to make friends with the other snobby new employees. Alas, she’s only been hired as a contractor of sorts to do small jobs to help with projects. It’s terribly unglamorous, and she can barely keep herself from crying in her abject disappointment. Also, the snobs laugh at her. The whole theme of this episode is that Jung Eun is from a different class than everyone else in this entire show, and how no one’s really invested in helping her – she’s got to do it all herself with no real support of any sort. She goes home in a slump, only to get a “pep talk” from Kyung Min that she probably should have known better, because who’s gonna hire somebody so low as her? …But seeing how this makes her feel, and probably calculating that if he keeps angering her, she might actually grow a backbone and chuck his sorry butt back out on the street, he starts to “compliment” her: she’s good at laundry and stuff. Then he shoves some liquor in her and, um… Guess what? Kyung Min’s a total lightweight: after two shots, he tries to kiss Jung Eun. Thank the television gods she actually has her head on straight and clobbers him in the face with a book!

After thinking it through, Jung Eun makes Kyung Min a deal: if he focuses on school, she’ll pay his debt. (He’s lied to her that his debt is totally of well-meaning reasons and not because he’s a gambling addict with bad luck.) He eventually agrees, and they head back to his college campus to find the thugs.

Then comes the end of the episode: Kyung Min goes to class, and afterwards, Hye Ryun starts to talk to him. Jung Eun is impatient, though, and tries to rush things along. Hye Ryun pushes Jung Eun into the camera.

Roll credits!