Episode 6
Episode 6 of Motel California begins with the emotional confrontation between Kang-hee and Yeon-soo. She asks him if he likes her and why he keeps helping her. He replies that this is all he can allow himself to do, implying he would like to do more. But he then tells her to give him time to get over her.
Kang-hee goes back to the motel in a huff and throws the ice cream in the bin. She then gets a call from Seok-kyung who says Soon-ja’s husband is threatening to sue her father. She cuts the call on him.
Ah-reum drags Kang-hee to dinner with their school group. Turns out, Seok-kyung gave them his credit card for dinner. When Heon-yeol makes insulting remarks about Ah-reum, Seung-eon gets angry and stands up for her. All three of them leave the dinner.
Kang-hee goes back to the motel and sees a large group of people including Chun-pil, Soon-ja, Yeon-soo, Nan-woo, and more. They are discussing how Chun-pil helped Soon-ja get a divorce for the fourth time now. When they start gushing about how good Yeon-soo and Nan-woo look together, Kang-hee gets annoyed.
Later, Yeon-soo is escorting a drunk Nan-woo outside the motel and they see Kang-hee sitting on the steps and drinking. She brushes past them and goes inside. Yeon-soo and Nan-woo then discuss stopping their façade because rumours of their marriage have gotten too big. Nan-woo knows the person Yeon-soo was waiting for is Kang-hee.
Meanwhile, Kang-hee angrily cleans her bathroom and rants about how Yeon-soo couldn’t wait just a few more months for her. Now, that she has a job and an apartment in Seoul, she wouldn’t mind him coming to Seoul. Yeon-soo comes by her room but assumes she’s on the phone with someone.
He goes to his own room and imagines Kang-hee introducing Seok-kyung as her husband. He and Seok-kyung get in a fight but it’s just a dream that causes Yeon-soo to fall out of his bed.
In the morning, Kang-hee asks Seung-eon if he likes Ah-reum. He says he can’t, considering he is an orphan with just a middle school education. She then meets Seok-kyung in the lobby area and the latter describes how he showed off the night before, trying to make Kang-hee look good in front of her school bullies.
He also reminds her of their previous conversation as well. Since Kang-hee had asked Seok-kyung to let her use him, his condition was that he should be her official boyfriend till the construction of the motel ends.
Later, Kang-hee goes through encouraging notes she received from Yeon-soo’s grandfather over the years. She then goes to the vet clinic and asks Yeon-soo if both of Nan-woo’s parents are alive and he says they are. She assumes Nan-woo grew up with a lot of love.
She then asks Yeon-soo to come with her to visit his grandfather. They go to his grave where Kang-hee tells Yeon-soo’s grandfather that she is fulfilling her promise. She hands Yeon-soo a box with his grandparents’ rings in it. A flashback shows Kang-hee complaining about Yeon-soo to his grandfather, saying he has decided not to come to Seoul with her.
The old man explains that he’s unwell, which is why Yeon-soo changed his mind. He then gives Kang-hee the rings, telling her to give them to Yeon-soo when he meets the “right one”. He says he wants Yeon-soo to be with someone who was raised by loving parents and is kind and cheerful.
At present, Kang-hee says the real reason she came to Seoul was because she heard he was getting married and wanted to check. She wishes him well, not letting him get a word in edgewise, and leaves. Yeon-soo is heartbroken at this but a few moments later, he runs after her and gives her a hug. He apologises for not realising how things were a lot harder for her.
They end up sitting by the riverside and talking. Kang-hee admits that conversation with his grandfather was part of the reason she pushed him away. He then takes the ring box out and throws it into the shallow river. Kang-hee searches for it and that’s when Yeon-soo admits he’s not getting married to Nan-woo. In the chaos, they both fall into the water.
Nan-woo then explains the rumours about him and Nan-woo. Yeon-soo then asks about Seok-kyung, She describes him but doesn’t clarify their relationship. When Yeon-soo says he’s going to stop pretending to date Nan-woo, Kang-hee pretends to be indifferent. But back at the motel, she can’t stop smiling.
The next morning, Kang-hee gets a shock in the form of Jung-gee in the motel lobby. Jung-gee reveals that she’s not come here for the project but to meet Chun-pil. She says Chun-pil is an old friend and her near-death experience inspired her to take a chance with him. In fact, she’s the one that sent him that giant teddy bear! Kang-hee doesn’t look happy about this and Seok-kyung explains the situation to Jung-goo later.
Kang-hee finds Yeon-soo’s cat wandering around and takes it back to the motel. In Yeon-soo’s room, she takes the teddy bear in order to throw it but Yeon-soo catches her. When he questions her, she rants about the woman who brought the teddy bear. She also complains about her father’s womanising tendencies and reveals that he was with Soon-ja, Yeon-soo’s mother when Kang-hee needed him most.
A flashback shows Chun-pil reaching the hospital too late. Little Kang-hee yells at him for not being there when her little brother died and her mother almost died. That’s when she starts calling him Chun-pil and not “dad”.
At present, she tells Yeon-soo that her father was helping Soon-ja out of a situation with a conman in Seoul when the incident happened. She can never forgive them for it. When Yeon-soo asks about him, Kang-hee asks him if he can abandon his mother.
Kang-hee then insists on driving Jung-goo home, saying she wants to go back to Seoul for a while as well. Yeon-soo hears this from his room and Kang-hee says goodbye through the door. When they reach Seoul, Jung-goo tells Kang-hee that her father said he’s sorry, for a lot of things. Kang-hee goes home but finds herself constantly thinking of Yeon-soo.
Back at the motel, Seok-kyung gets a call from Kang-hee and makes a loud show of it in front of Yeon-soo. He continues to pretend even when she cuts the call. It bothers Yeon-soo enough for him to have his own pretend phone call.
In Seoul, Esther notices that Kang-hee looks down and takes her out. She describes how she and Seok-kyung have been friends since they were kids and how friendship can be more persistent than love. This strikes a chord with Kang-hee who then impulsively drives back to Hana-eup.
She storms into the motel and goes up to Yeon-soo, telling him they should stay just friends. She even invites him to her room to share ice cream with her. Yeon-soo goes and uses her spoon to eat. As she argues about it, he leans in and kisses her and asks if she can really be just friends with him. Finally, Kang-hee gives in and kisses him back at the end of Motel California Episode 6.
The Episode Review
Kang-hee continues to make some baffling and frustrating decisions in Motel California Episode 6. She gets ready to let go of Yeon-soo but when she learns he’s not getting married, she pushes him away again. After running to him in the previous episode, she now continues to bring up reasons they can’t be together such as her resentment towards Soon-ja. Well, with just the final scene of this episode, Yeon-soo balances out a lot of this.
It is refreshing to see him stand his ground for once and not just follow her lead. Finally, their relationship has moved from the mutual miscommunication phase to…well, we’ll find out. Either way, this is a welcome change and should set the ball rolling with a faster momentum.
On the other hand, we finally get a glimpse of Yeon-soo’s grandfather and his relationship with Kang-hee. We see that they are close but not close enough for him to get a read on the feelings between Kang-hee and Yeon-soo. It definitely adds a new dimension to both leading characters as well, to an extent. Overall, this is a solid halfway point for the series.
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