Hello, My Soul Mate
In Episode 10 of Our Beloved Summer, NJ discusses her professional life in the limelight, how she’s passionate and bubbly. At least, that’s the persona she puts on for the public anyway. In reality, she has a soft spot for Choi-Ung, seemingly drawn to him by fate thanks to a pop-up ad on a news article bringing his drawings to her attention. ..
NJ shows up at the art gallery, unaware that he’s an artist. He admits to Choi-Ung that he’s an admirer of Go-on’s work, as a cute chat between the two ensues. It doesn’t take long for NJ to realize he’s the one responsible for the drawing.
She realizes that he’s more interesting than she thought, leading to the pair growing closer together. NJ’s feelings growing closer to him!
In the present, Yeon-Su and Choi-Ung are trying to make their way through an awkward encounter. Yeon-Su eventually leads Choi-Ung away, urging the young woman to get a bus home.
Yeon-Su arrives at her grandma’s house to find her and Sol-Yi already there. Together, they discuss Yeon-Su’s recent activities. Sol-Yi soon realizes that her friend has a crush on Choi-Ung, and teases her about it that night in bed. ..
Meanwhile, Ji-Ung and Choi-Ung eat food together but the former clearly can’t stop thinking about Yeon-Su in all this time. In fact, he ends up having an early morning and setting out to work, filming more for the documentary.
Yeon-Su and Choi-Ung both show up at the same time, just as NJ begins talking about Choi-ung. This, of course, catches us up to the epilogue at the end of the previous episode. In Episode 9, NJ begins to talk about Choi-ung and Yeon-su shows up. This causes us to jump ahead to the epilogue in Episode 10. ..
NJ approaches Choi-Ung and Yeon-Su, admitting that she’s going on a date with Choi-ung. This certainly ruffles Yeon-Su’s feathers, awkwardly watching him leave. ..
Ji-ung sees this and immediately suggests they should go out to eat together as well. On the walk back to the Ung household, Yeon-Su can’t stop talking about Choi-Ung. When Ji-Ung’s mum appears right off the back of this, Ji-ung decides to cancel plans for lunch. He walks away from his mum but she follows after him.
Alone, she pleads with Ji-Ung to come home. Instead, he tells her to be herself and ignore Choi-Ung’s family. ..
At lunch, Choi-ung learns that NJ is under a lot of stress from being famous. Choi-ung is seeing this for the first time, typified by a couple of ladies discussing whether NJ has had plastic surgery and how thin she is. ..
Choi-Ung tries to cheer her up though, which does seem to do the trick. What they weren’t banking on though are reporters hanging around outside, hungry to snap a shot of the two together.
After NJ opens up, Yeon-Su and Choi-ugn discuss their past romantic woes. They are trying to be friends again after breaking up.
Both “dates” provide insights into where Yeon-Su and Choi-Ung’s desires lie. For Yeon-Su, she’s still torn over being told to stay friends. For Choi-Ung, he refuses NJ’s offer of heading up to her place, as he clearly still likes Yeon-Su and has trouble warming up to people.
That much is especially true later on when Choi-Ung ends up at Yeon-Su’s place for dinner with Yeon-Su’s grandma. It’s awkward and even more so when the old lady hilariously talks outright about Choi-Ung’s pros and cons.
Choi-ung stays for the whole meal though, but when he leaves Yeon-Su openly admits to her grandmother what’s going on. She still likes Choi-Ung but it’s her fault they’re not together. As Yeon-Su struggles with this newfound friendship, she begins sobbing, allowing her grandma to hug her in a really tender, heartwarming moment between the pair.
Ji-Ung runs into Yeon-Su that night and mentions how it’s his birthday. His mother has got him some peaches and seemingly forgotten (or not wanting to remember) that he’s allergic and almost died in the past when he tried to eat one. ..
This article reinforces how Ji-Ung feels, leaving Yeon-Su at a bit of an awkward crossroads, unsure what to do with this news.
The episode closes out with Choi-Ung watching some of the edited footage Ji-Ung has been working on, which appears to be a lot of compiled clips of Yeon-Su. ..
This epilogue seems to indicate that Choi-ung is finally figuring out that his best friend has a crush on Yeon-Su. This makes the epilogue bittersweet, as Ji-Ung and Choi-ung spend numerous nights together in the past.
Ji-Ung’s mother has a habit of coming and going as she pleases, and this estranged relationship starts to shed crucial light on how alone Ji-Ung has been feeling.
The Episode Review
This chapter provides a detailed look at the strained relationship between Ji-Ung and his Mum. It also underscores how hard life has been for NJ, who has been stuck in the limelight with a bunch of fans who believe she has had everything handed to her on a plate.
The reason why New Jersey loves Choi-Ung so much is because she seems to be the only one who can act like herself around her. Despite calling himself her fan, Choi-Ung seems to be the only one who can really connect with her.
This episode of “Running Man” highlights how compatible Choi-Ung and Yeon-Su actually are as a couple. The “dates” for both Yeon-Su and Choi-ung intentionally don’t have that same spark that these two have together. And I think the writers convey that really well here.
It will be interesting to see if a curveball is thrown our way, with NJ and Ji-ung potentially getting together at the end, but either way there’s a nice consistency with this episode that helps to keep the tone finely balanced between drama and comedy.
Next week’s episodes of “The Walking Dead” look set to be very exciting indeed!
