The Parisian Pop-up Store
Episode 8 of Now, We Are Breaking Up sees a new development in Jae-guk’s career. Parisian conglomerate, DPHP, wants him to shoot for their various luxury brands. At Hills Department Store where Yoo-jung is a director, she decides to cut all domestic storefronts and replace them with international brands. CEO Hwang gives Young-eun until the end of the month to reverse the decision or he’ll dissolve Sono. Young-eun asks Chi-sook if she did anything to cause trouble. Chi-sook has a flashback to when she got drunk and told her dad that Jae-guk likes Young-eun. While tending to Soo-wan’s grave, Hye-ok has a flashback to Jae-guk declaring that he plans to continue dating Young-eun. Back at Vision PR, Cedric Roux, the Director of Marketing for DPHP, arrives to meet with Jae-guk. He also happens to be the vendor that sold Young-eun Jae-guk’s photo ten years ago. Jae-guk lays down some conditions, including shortening DPHP’s proposed ten-day timeline to one week. Young-eun goes to Hills to try and convince Yoo-jung not to cut Sono. Yoo-jung won’t change her decision, reasoning that Sono has no competitive edge over international brands. A later flashback also shows Yoo-jung saying that she’s cutting Sono because of Young-eun’s relationship with Jae-guk. Chi-sook dangles a promotion before Gwang-soo to spur him into using his Hills contacts to save Sono. He sets up a golf game with Vice President Choi from Hills and instructs Young-eun to tag along. Soo-ho begins to notice that something is wrong with Mi-sook. He assumes she’s lost all her money by investing in stocks and she lets him believe it instead of telling him the truth. Days later, it’s time for the golf game. Vice President Choi avoids giving Young-eun a window to discuss Sono. After the game, they sit down for dinner and Vice President Choi stalls business again, finding a sleezy way to grope Young-eun’s hand instead. After dinner, Vice President Choi wants Young-eun to ride in his car back to Seoul to grab another round of drinks. She misses an incoming call from Mi-sook as he insists that she won’t have another chance to talk. Young-eun, having had enough, tells Vice President Choi that she’s suffered through his unprofessional behaviour all day. She tells him that she won’t let him use her desperation to coerce her into performing sexual favours. On her way back to her own car, Young-eun calls Mi-sook. Mi-sook says she’s in pain before a crashing sound can be heard and she stops responding. Young-eun tries to contact Soo-ho but he doesn’t answer, too busy romancing Min-kyung. When Young-eun and the paramedics reach Mi-sook’s apartment they find her collapsed on the bathroom floor. Mi-sook’s is taken to hospital and her condition stabilizes. Soo-ho arrives and the couple cries together. Young-eun goes to her car to give them some privacy and pretends to call Jae-guk. She talks about how angry she is that she spent the day entertaining Vice President Choi while Mi-sook was in pain. Later, when Young-eun gets to the street outside her building, Jae-guk is there waiting for her. He tells her he finished a week’s worth of work in three days so he could come back early. At the hospital, Soo-ho cries at Mi-sook’s bedside, disappointed in himself for not realizing she was sick. We flash back to Young-eun at her bedside urging her to start chemotherapy instead of fearing the side effects. Mi-sook tells Young-eun to stop giving her hope after the doctors told her it’s too late for a full recovery. Young-eun asks Jae-guk for a one-time favour. We cut to her in a meeting room with Cedric where she shows him Sono’s recent collaboration broadcast. When it ends, he tells her the story of how Jae-guk wrote the note in her portfolio ten years ago. He also gives Sono the go-ahead to open a pop-up store in the La Fayere Department Store in Paris for two months. If Sono performs well, they’ll get a permanent storefront. Our four leads discuss their upcoming trip to Paris for the pop-up store over celebratory drinks. Young-eun also drops the news that her father now knows about Jae-guk and Young-eun, telling them he’s likely to fire Young-eun if their Paris venture fails. Do-hoon walks Chi-sook home and she gets an idea for how to take the heat off Young-eun before they go to Paris. She tells Do-hoon that what she’s about to do is purely business and pulls him in for a kiss after ringing the doorbell. Her stunned father watches through the monitor. Once inside, Chi-sook acts like she’s passionately in love with Do-hoon and tells her father that he’s treating Young-eun unfairly. She says she doesn’t want to lose her friend because of him. The news about Sono’s Parisian pop-up store is released with much fanfare and Korean department stores want to extend their contracts with Sono while reducing fees. It’s enough to give Young-eun the power to meet with Yoo-jung and pull Sono from Hills herself. The next day, Hye-ok calls Young-eun and introduces herself as Soo-wan’s mother, asking to meet. Young-eun says that she sees no reason to meet Soo-wan’s mother, but she will meet with Jae-guk’s mother.
The Episode Review
A few recurring patterns have persisted throughout the first half of this drama. You can always be sure you’ll get Sono in a new crisis, Jae-guk stepping in to help save the day, Chi-sook getting drunk with Do-hoon, Yoo-jung being a general nuisance, and an obligatory flashback to Young-eun buying Jae-guk’s photo so that you remember they’re enjoying a fated romance. Mi-sook’s character does sort of break from this repetitive loop; however, this is because her only purpose seems to be helping Young-eun achieve emotional growth through her own suffering. Otherwise, her storyline is strangely disjointed from the main narrative. At least Chi-sook has become more likeable recently, showing that she cares for Young-eun beyond piggybacking off her achievements. Of course, this switch came abruptly and without explanation, but we’ll take what we can get.
