Destined With You: Episodes 11-12 » Dramabeans MGG

Destined With You: Episodes 11-12

by Unit

Our OTP is finally in their dating era, and I’m here for it. Lordy, those two are about to smother me with their sweetness! But the sweetness also comes with side dishes of an emboldened stalker, an office scandal, a near-death experience, and the return of forgotten memories.

 
EPISODES 11-12

We pick up from where we left off last week, with Red Hand’s return. Shin-yu is quite startled, but he plays off the moment to a worried Hong-jo. On a more exciting note, it’s our OTP’s official first day as a couple, and it’s new year’s eve to boot!

Step 1 of the new couple activity manual: Get a makeover (bear hoodie for the win!). Step 2: Spend the night together — just holding hands. (Get a grip, @Unit! What did you think was going to happen?) Step 3: See the sunrise together (her new year’s day tradition with her dad. May his soul rest in peace). Step 4: Run into Jae-kyung. Oops! Step 5: Invite him over for breakfast and make him cook. He did say that he’s good at cooking and cleaning. Step 6: Act cute around each other and make Jae-kyung lose his appetite. Loool. They’re adorable!

But the more adorable our OTP is, the more betrayed Jae-kyung feels. “How could you [be all lovey dovey] in front of the house? It hasn’t been 100 days since you said you liked me,” a drunk Jae-kyung says to Hong-jo. And she corrects him — having a crush on him is not the same as liking him. Ouch! “You guys don’t look good together. Your height difference is too much.” He continues, and lol! I like drunk Jae-kyung, he’s cute. Unfortunately, when Jae-kyung and Hong-jo leave for work the next morning, Garden Man in all his stalkery glory gets a shot of them, and sends the picture as a present to Na-yeon.

Speaking of sending presents, a potted plant is sent to Shin-yu courtesy of Na-yeon (and Garden Man — who buried the black magic spell items in the pot). Sigh. Shin-yu, weren’t you taught to never accept gifts from strangers? Fine, Na-yeon isn’t exactly a stranger, but the point still stands. Anyway, Shin-yu scolds Na-yeon for playing the daddy card in trying to transfer Hong-jo out of City Hall. “I chased her around first. I liked her first. So take your anger out on me.” In other words, Na-yeon, pick on someone your own size.

Shin-yu informs his doctor that his tactile hallucinations (a.k.a. Red Hand) are back — not that there’s any medical explanation that can account for his curse. As Shin-yu reflects on the curse, Shaman Eun-wol’s words about him killing the owner of the bloody hand floats across his mind.

Shin-yu also recollects a memory of his past life where he wrote a letter to his descendants: “A terrible curse has been cast upon me which will be passed down for generations. I feel sorry. But I have a favor to ask. Leave the shrine on Mount Onju as is. From one generation to the next, take good care of it.” But last I checked, the shrine has been demolished. So where do we go from here?

While being haunted by these memories, Shin-yu asks Hong-jo what she’d do if he was her mortal enemy in the past. Without skipping a beat, Hong-jo replies that she’d break up with him right away, but she’s just kidding. “What matters is the present,” she says, but Shin-yu can’t be too sure. He makes her promise him that she won’t change her mind, and seals their deal with matching bangles. You didn’t need to cuff her, but okay, detective Shin-yu, you do you.

The picture of Hong-jo and Jae-kyung outside their house, as well as one with her and Shin-yu, is posted on City Hall’s online bulletin board, and Hong-jo is tagged a promiscuous woman for fooling around with two men. Tsk. Seriously, these guys at City Hall don’t have better things to do with their time. Hong-jo confronts Na-yeon, but the latter denies posting the picture. “Why would I do that? I still don’t think Shin-yu and I broke up,” Na-yeon insists. And the gold medal for freestyle swimming in the Nile goes to Yoon Na-yeon! Congratulations on maxing out your delulu points, sis.

As it turns out, Na-yeon’s fellow delulu, Garden Man, has been fleecing City Hall with overinflated budgets. Why is he the Park Maintenance Team’s go-to gardener in the first place? Apparently, his wife went missing five years ago, and he was investigated as a suspect. He was acquitted of the charges, but he became a drunken mess due to the rumors that he murdered his wife. The manager of the team back then felt bad for him, so they decided to help him by giving him landscaping contracts. In the present, after learning about Garden Man’s underhand dealings, the team decides to work with another contractor going forward.

Unfortunately, switching contractors starts off a series of strange events. First, a tree in the park suddenly dies. Next, they find human bones while digging up and relocating the tree. Unsurprisingly, we learn that Garden Man was one of the contractors who took part in creating the park five years ago — around the time his wife went missing. The alarm bells go off in Shin-yu’s head that Hong-jo is in danger. And truly, my good sis received a complaint about a pit that was dug up at Mount Onju, and went to check it out alone. *Facepalm*

Hong-jo is just about to pick up Shin-yu’s phone call when Garden Man appears from behind and pushes her into the pit. Well, well, well, not everyone has the luxury of knowing where they’ll be buried. Welp! “I didn’t want to go this far. Why did you have to date another guy?” Garden Man muses, as he starts shovelling sand back into the pit. Thankfully, he doesn’t get to finish up the job, as he gets a call from Shin-yu informing him that bones were found in the park.

In the pit, Hong-jo has flashbacks to her past life. Apparently, she used to be nameless until Joseon Shin-yu (who went by JANG MU-JIN back then) gave her the name, AENG-CHO (a confirmation that she’s indeed the author of the spell book). It’s late at night when Shin-yu finally finds Hong-jo. As he reaches to pull her out of the pit, she has flashes of a similar scene in their past life, and she wonders if it’s all a dream. No, sis, these are your memories!

The excavation of human bones hits the news, and Mr. Gong informs the rest of the team that Garden Man is Shin-yu’s primary suspect. Our fearless OTP run into each other at Garden Man’s place, and Shin-yu scolds Hong-jo for coming there on her own. Like he’s any better! Seriously, are you two acting out an episode of Destined (to Get Into Trouble) With You? Sigh. I don’t know what they were expecting to find there, but the place is locked and Garden Man is nowhere in sight. But out of sight isn’t out of mind for Garden Man, as he watches them through his security camera from the comfort of his lair.

Shin-yu eventually gets into trouble when Ms. Red visits him in the elevator at work, and Hong-jo finds him collapsed on the elevator floor. She rushes him to the hospital, and he tells her to go home because he doesn’t want her to see him in his weak and sickly state. Hong-jo is reluctant to leave, but she does. And when she goes through the spell book to see if there’s anything she can do about Shin-yu’s condition, she has flashes of her past self writing the book. Still, it doesn’t click that these are her memories.

Mr. Mayor and Shin-yu’s dad stubbornly forge ahead with their children’s marriage plans, and it’s time for Shin-yu to play his final card. He calls Na-yeon out for dinner — and no, they’re not getting back together as she hopes. They’re getting a guest, instead. Oh look who it is. It’s Hyun-seo! It’s hilarious how Hyun-seo and Na-yeon act brand new around each other, but they’re not fooling anyone. Shin-yu already knows they were having an affair. How? He saw Hyun-seo’s reflection in one of Na-yeon’s selfies while she was on a date with Hyun-seo. Oops!

By the way, detective Shin-yu brought them to the same restaurant and sat them down on the same table they dined at. He even remembers the exact date and time Na-yeon took the selfie. Lol. He did say that he has a photographic memory. “You look great together,” Shin-yu compliments the cheating duo, and I love his wicked sense of humor. Na-yeon, in turn, tells her dad that it’s really over between her and Shin-yu, but she says she wants to give him a parting gift. How very ominously generous of her.

Speaking of dads, we finally meet Jae-kyung’s dad, and he demands 30 million won to disappear from Jae-kyung’s life. Who wants to bet that it’s not his first time pulling this type of stunt? Coincidentally, Mr. Mayor instructs a reluctant Jae-kyung to give a development project at Mount Onju to Haum Construction (Hyun-seo’s company) in exchange for 30 billion won — and of course, Jae-kyung will get a cut from the money. So, did the drama hype up Jae-kyung’s daddy issues for this kickback plot? That’s kinda disappointing.

The bones are identified as Garden Man’s missing wife’s, and he is arrested. But somehow, I’m still not relieved. After a team dinner, Hong-jo hurls her drunken ass to Shin-yu’s house and ends up clinging onto his waist and legs like a lizard to a pole. Lol. They end up in bed (doing nothing, of course), and when Hong-jo wakes, she reaches out for Shin-yu’s face… and it’s memory flash time. Aeng-cho and Mu-jin are in a snowy field. From the look of things, she’s hurt, and her blood-stained hand reaches out to him.

Shin-yu wakes up to find himself alone in bed, but before he loses his mind over Hong-jo’s disappearance, she calls him to pick her up at shaman Eun-wol’s place. “Do you want to see the snow with me?” she asks, and you can tell that something has changed in her demeanor. “I’ll be honest,” she says, “I saw something I didn’t want to see.” Grasping at straws, Shin-yu reminds Hong-jo about her promise to keep the past in the past. But he’s the one who flinches when she reaches out for his face. “The blood hand. Did you know that it was me?” Hong-jo asks, and we return to the past.

Mu-jin and Aeng-cho are on their knees in the snow, and he grips a knife in her guts. “Whoever kills me will be cursed,” Aeng-cho sputters at a tearful Mu-jin, and that’s where we wrap up for the week.

The plot thickens, guys. Now we see for sure that Shin-yu killed Hong-jo in the past. But why? It seemed like he didn’t want to do it. Aigoo. My poor OTP just can’t catch a break. They’re finally official and their past life has come in like a wrecking ball. In the present, Garden Man gets released and for sure, he’s coming to add his own havoc to the mix.

As for our side couple, we get an interesting tidbit that Eun-young is Mr. Gong’s first love. However, Eun-young doesn’t want to date him and she doesn’t want him to date someone else either. Sure, she’s got relationship PTSD from her ex-husband, but is that a good reason to hold Mr. Gong hostage in an undefined relationship? The push and pull game is getting stale, so make up your mind, ma’am.

 
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