Gamjjok

Dare to Love Me Episode 11 brings us to Jun-ho’s apartment where Yoon-bok replaces a card in Jun-ho’s wallet. And finds a bag with information about an antique-looking fan. Jun-ho realizes he’s missing his wallet and quickly returns home to retrieve it. He notices his closet is open a bit and just as he’s about to check it, receives a call, allowing Yoon-bok to escape. Yoon-bok wonders if Jun-ho could be involved in Gamjjok.

At the village, Jun-ho is treated with favor for having caught the criminal at the Camille event. But as he enters to find Leader Shin alone, he revs his engine toward him, earning a scolding. To himself, he threatens Leader Shin. Then visits Se-Ryeong’s father with a gift – a beautiful vase – saying he’ll support the man in becoming the new village leader. But receives another reprimand for being presumptuous and departs, taking the vase with him. Outside, Jun-ho smashes the vase, calling it useless and making the man speechless.

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Franky and Camille talk about the failed pop-up event and consider what to do with Hong-do. They send her home to take care of her health and won’t hear of her staying in the office, but it sounds like they’re giving her detention.

Outside, Yoon-bok catches up to an unwell Hong-do, both of them taking the blame for her injury. Afterwards, he meets Hong-hak to resign as intern, deciding to focus on Gamjjok instead. Thinking it through, he considers that there must be someone at the Village who’s part of Gamjjok.

Dressed in his hanbok, Yoon-bok stops at the village to investigate, making it clear to his grandfather that he’s not returning for anything else. Security notes that Jun-ho was the only other person who entered the village that day. Privately, under interrogation, Yoon-bok confesses to his grandfather that he’s only doing this to protect Hong-do. His grandfather replies that the village is just as precious to him, so Yoon-bok must discover the criminals.

While Jun-ho gazes at a perfectly intact vase on his desk, Yoon-bok and Yoon-ah return from the village, discussing possibilities. They decide to find more evidence before asking Yi-bok to help.

At home, Yoon-bok visits Hong-do during her crisis of confidence, finding her drinking beer from a straw in bed. He takes her out to dine but she’s stuck feeling like a failure until he explains how she’s saved him.

To Leader Shin, Camille shows her abundance of endorsement messages from the villagers and is thrilled to be approved for the event. Chatting casually, Camille notes that Leader Shin has softened since back then. And he shares that he may have thought of her from time to time over the years.

Afterwards, she shows up on Hong-do’s doorstep to invite her back to work for the fashion show. As Hong-do worries, Camille talks of endless setbacks in her career, plying her with encouraging words. She gives Hong-do until tomorrow to return to her desk. Later, Yoon-bok gives her one final heartening push.

From his desk, Jun-ho investigates Leader Shin. As he enters the restaurant, Yoon-bok is there to talk to him about Gamjjok, noting there’s something suspicious at Seongsan Restaurant. He leaves Jun-ho with something to think about so he runs to his secret room and starts gathering documents and materials.

Chil-bok re-watches the Yoon-bok video, noting how pretty his daughter is. Later, at Hong-do’s house, Chil-bok lurks around and overhears Hong-hak shouting to himself but wonders where Hong-do is hiding. He leaves them each a treat that they find later.

Outside the restaurant, Yoon-bok spots a curious Jun-ho sneak away with a bag. He follows him to a trash area coming up behind him as he dumps it. As Yoon-bok checks the bag he finds random stuff and apologizes. Apparently, it was a ruse to get Yoon-bok away from the restaurant so others could remove bags including a pile of money.

On the way home, Yoon-bok realizes he made a mistake and gave himself away too soon. Elsewhere, evidence is found and reported to Yi-bok. The guy who was buying the shoes at the popup is implicated as they await fingerprint confirmation. But Yoon-bok believes Jun-ho is involved. They head to Chinatown to follow up on a lead, checking for witnesses.

Hong-do spends a long day at work, trying and failing to come up with a new design for the show. She’s buoyed to find her plant survived and has started to flourish. So she continues drawing that evening, following Camille’s instruction to tell a story with her design.

The next day, Hong-do is happy to find two assistants to help her with the show thinking how she’ll be so nice to them. But immediately she’s faced with incomprehensible attitudes. When she and Camille talk about catering for the show, they agree to work with Seongsan Restaurant.

She meets Jun-ho at home to discuss details and confirms when he asks if she’s seeing Yoon-bok. And while she waits for him to take a call, looking around finds he has an abundance of Camille and other designers. Gazing at his collection, she stumbles and falls through the closet, discovering a hallway and following it into his secret room.

Epilogue: in Chinatown, Yoon-bok takes a break and finds a similar plant in a similar plant holder, sneakily exchanging it for Hong-do’s limp one. And as Chil-bok sneaks back into the village he sees Leader Shin blocking his path, so he sneaks under the bridge to make it home undiscovered.

The Episode Review

So, if you too were hoping Jun-ho wasn’t part of Gamjjok, our fantasies are slowly crushed as we see he’s got a bit of a mean ‘suppressed anger’ streak to him. It could still be misdirection from the writers. What do you think? He’s certainly got a bag of hate or at least a strong dislike for Leader Shin. Enough to push him to theft? The clues that his secret room really is a secret room plus the fact that he’s loaded with designer gear indicates he’s succeeding financially, while coming from a family of servants. Conversely, he has a sponsor. Ooh – there’s a thought. Could his mysterious sponsor be behind Gamjjok? Today we saw that someone else may be pulling the strings, though it was only a flicker of a scene.

Meanwhile, before Hong-do finds herself in trouble at Jun-ho’s she’s got her own little mess to figure out. After the disaster at the pop-up where she blames herself, she feels punished instead of using the time to feel better after her concussion. In her abandoned state, Hong-do obsesses over a likewise abandoned plant. And is then heartened to find it miraculously recovered. But the magic is bent when we see Yoon-bok replacing it with a similar plant – and blooms over his sweet act. How cute the lengths he goes to cheer her up. And even better that it inspires her to create a design that wins Camille’s approval. Sorted.

Who’s still supporting Jun-ho? Has today’s episode changed your mind? Let us know in the comments below.  

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