Gigi partly opens her eyes only to regret that big time. She shuts them tight again wishing for a quick escape.
The naked Mino starts approaching her, in his head the entire ordeal being a hella sexy moment. Just as he reaches Gigi, the doorbell rings. Did anyone order fried chicken?
An annoyed Mino puts on some clothes and heads to the delivery man to make his case clear. The man needs to leave so he and Gigi can continue where they left off.
Interestingly, the delivery man is persistent, refusing to leave until he ensures this address is wrong. Stepping out the door to intimidate the man, Mino quickly finds himself pushed further down the hallway by Gigi who bolts the door effectively locking him out.
Behind the closed door, she texts Mino that she’s flustered by what he’s doing. What does he think of their relationship?
She needs some time; if it’s hard for him, she’ll accept whatever he says.
As he makes to leave, Gigi throws out his shoes (since he stepped out barefoot), a rather small courtesy before slamming the door once more.
Mino approaches the door calling out “Gigi, you can hear me right? I don’t think you’re easy. I love your soul more. Honestly, you’re all skin and bones, there’s nothing to see”. His agitation comes through the last part but he reels himself in and departs.
“I was going to go back up if he didn’t come out,” the delivery man says to Jay, both men hiding behind a building watching Mino leave.
Should he go now? The poor delivery man has no idea what’s going on, he felt like a spy for a hot second but Jay isn’t providing much context.
That morning, Jay had suddenly reached out and asked him to find someone. He had a look on his face that didn’t welcome any questions. It was all a mystery.
She can’t run away if she wants to be free of regrets
Sunday’s reunion comes around. Sue, pretty as ever, is welcomed by classmates who sigh in disbelief when they hear she’s still hanging around with that Gigi.
Does she spoon off poor little kind-hearted Sue?
Sue informs them that Gigi’s also coming (apparently she wasn’t invited) and that they should be kind to her because she’s going through a hard time.
Do they remember how she got Gigi the contract job at U&K? (The job that Gigi actually got for Sue).
Well, now she has a crush on Mino, the guy Sue is apparently into. Upon hearing this bit of news, the people at the table become infuriated on Sue’s behalf.
Having caused the misunderstanding she wanted, Sue plays the magnanimous friend card when the phone rings, it’s Gigi, she’s arrived.
Gigi…A sophisticated and classy woman walks into the restaurant, Sue stares at her speechless.
She can’t make herself pretty overnight but she’d met up with Helen the day before for a meal.
In fact, Gigi had come across a pair of earrings similar to the ones Sue gifted her on display at a jewelry store. Pulling them out to compare, she realizes they’re very different from the real deal. No wonder the General Manager told her not to wear them.
She can’t believe she was such a fool before!
Helen shows up, accidentally knocking the fake earrings from Gigi’s hands. Seeing them, the young woman is quick to inform Gigi they’re a bad dupe. No fake niceties here.
Bubbly and joyous, Helen was great company for good food and conversation. She recalls Gigi having a reunion the next day, should they drink in moderation?
“To be honest, I wasn’t just an unpopular girl—I was bullied,” Gigi confesses. She doesn’t know why everyone suddenly hated her back then.
“So that made me feel small and prone to more mistakes. Then everyone hated me even more for that”.
She should’ve asked them why, how else is she to know the reason?
“Honestly, I’m the type to run away when things get hard, but you should try all you can before that. I need to know if these people are simply crazy or if they have good reasons so I won’t have regrets later,” Helen shares.
To not have regrets? It makes so much sense, why didn’t it ever occur to Gigi?
Helen is right, Gigi needs to go if she doesn’t want to linger in regret. Only how to do so?
Grabbing two dumplings that she stuffs in her bag to eat later at home (because this girl loves good dumplings), Helen gets up and offers her hand to Gigi with a smile. Oh, she has a plan!
Shopping. A full makeover. She wants to be a different person.
Looking at the results after hours spent doing just that, Gigi can’t help tearing up for the last version of herself she remembers was the frail lonely soul in the treatment facility.
It’s time to reveal some truths among all the lies
“I’m here behind you,” Gigi’s confident voice is heard loud and clear. Sue glances up, the smile on her face wiped away. Is that Gigi?
“What’s going on? It wasn’t just us for dinner?” Gigi asks with a confident smile.
Woah, how did the loser Gigi get so pretty? Though surprised, her classmates are still rude and their comments derisive.
One of the women who thinks highly of Sue’s “kindness” towards the devious Gigi (she was part of the group bullying Gigi back when they were in school) makes a snide remark about her copying Sue’s earrings.
Earrings? Everyone looks but the rude man sitting next to Gigi notices that her earrings aren’t quite like Sue’s—they’re nicer. Sue’s look a little cheap, are they knockoffs?
Oh! Did Sue copy Gigi’s earrings? She should have bought authentic ones. Though the knockoffs are pretty great, Sue must be broke to resort to them.
Gigi finally shows a real satisfied smile.
Five hours ago, as she’d gotten ready with Helen’s help, the young woman (who owned a pair of the authentic earrings) disclosed to her new friend the copies she received as a gift were actually rather terrible.
“There’s only one reason for a gift like this—humiliation,” Helen divulged. Sue’s intent was clear.
Gigi was sure Sue had one more pair of knockoffs of the same earrings. Only hers was a better-grade copy whereas Gigi’s were the cheapest, most shabby work.
Sue couldn’t afford the real ones. That said, she could buy the better-grade copies for herself and purchase the worse quality for Gigi.
To show that Gigi copied her, Sue’s had to look real compared to Gigi’s. But too bad for Helen had given her the real earrings for the night, Gigi must’ve found a real friend.
Knowing what comes next, Gigi excuses herself for the restroom and enters one of the stalls waiting. Sure enough, the same group of women as in her past life comes inside commenting on her appearance at the reunion.
They go on about Sue being a softie who lets the good-for-nothing Gigi take advantage of her and just as before, they realize Gigi must be in the restroom so they start banging the stall doors open.
“Were you here all along?” the leader of the pack asks (let’s call her Lead Bully).
Considering she came to the restroom first, does she have to come out and greet them? Unlike before, Gigi isn’t timid and easily intimidated. No, this is the new Gigi who’s on a mission to figure out what’s going on.
“Don’t mind me, keep talking,” she instructs the bullies while washing her hands, “I’m curious too. What did I do to Sue in high school?”
She doesn’t know? She copied and coveted everything of hers. Didn’t she copy Sue with those earrings?
Ah, the earrings. Gigi pulls out an envelope and hands it to the Lead Bully. Sue gave those to her as a gift but they were obviously fake so she bought the authentic ones. They’re still matching earrings, right?
But she’s still curious, what else did she covet?
“A guy! What’s his name, Mino? I heard you’re interested in her guy,” the woman says accusingly. Another adds that things don’t change, Gigi had also made Sue and Earnie break off in high school.
Sue had recommended her to a prestigious company like U&K yet Gigi has the audacity to steal her man! That’s crossing the line.
Gigi is astounded, “I can’t even deal with this”. How crazy must Sue be to twist everything in such a way?
“If you’re going to be mean after hearing one side of the story, at least try to fact-check first. Listen up,” Gigi pulls out her business card, “I’m an assistant manager at U&K. I joined the company seven years ago, when did Sue join? I remember recommending her in my second year as assistant manager, about last year?”
The women, reluctant to accept what Gigi disclosed so far, can’t but acknowledge Sue’s hire. One of them saw her cover letter before, and what Gigi said about her hiring aligns.
“The strangest thing is about Mino. He’s my boyfriend,” Gigi continues. She gives Mino a call on speaker. He should greet her friends.
Good enough? Gigi heads out and grabs her things ready to go when Lead Bully heads toward her confrontationally in front of the restaurant filled with their classmates.
“Yeah, fine, but back in high school why did you tell her to dump her boyfriend?”
Ah, Gigi almost forgot. “That’s so strange. I did have feelings for Ernie but Sue never dated him. Did you date Ernie?” she asks of Sue.
“I’m sorry Gigi, I couldn’t tell you back then, I knew you liked Ernie. How could I tell you we were dating?” Sue tries to dig herself out of the developing hole.
“What are you talking about? You said I told you to dump him. Then shouldn’t I have known?” Gigi points out the narrative flow in Sue’s story. The bitch can’t even keep her own twisted story straight.
Lead Bully, however, is committed to seeing Gigi in a bad light. She really believes Gigi has evil intentions towards poor Sue.
“So you’re saying Sue and Ernie didn’t date, right? The parties involved said they did, who are you to say the opposite?” she demands of Gigi.
“I don’t know about anything else…” comes a man’s voice from the door. “But I can tell you one thing, Sue and I never dated”.
Ernie looks at Gigi and smiles, it’s been a long time since they’ve met.
He confesses there’s a woman he likes and would like to marry
His grandson must be crazy, what is he thinking breaking a promise in this way? He must give a suitable reason!
The old man, head of U&K, looks across the table at his grandson, Jay. But Jay can’t explain why he declined talks of engagement.
“Jay, you’ll inherit U&K Group. As the CEO, is that what you’re going to say to people when you make important decisions? Is that how you’ll run the company?”
Traditionally, a great man must have a great partner. Young people talk nonsense about how it’s better not to get married. Does he feel like that too?
“Marriage…is what I want. There’s someone I like,” Jay confesses to his grandfather. The agitated man listens for this grandson of his isn’t a man of many words. The fact he’s even said this much, confessing to liking someone, it’s more than the old man expected to hear.
Does he know her? Which family is she from, what’s her name?
“It’s one-sided…”
What?
“I studied business as I was told. I went to the US branch as told. I joined the marketing team after you asked me to return. I did everything you asked, Grandfather. This time, just trust me”.
But the old man isn’t a fool, he knows Jay listened to him because he didn’t have his own dreams not out of some high level obedience. It was always like that.
“Then you should know I’ll go my way this time too,” Jay gets up to move closer to his grandfather. He takes the oshibori (a hand-cleaning cloth) from the older man’s hand and starts gently wiping his hands for him.
“I’m letting you know. I like someone, I don’t want any issues with women”.
Later in his car, Grandfather wonders at the identity of this woman Jay has fallen for. He instructs his right-hand man to look into it.
Though Jay’s never made a mistake before, the old man is concerned. Jay isn’t the kind of man to be persistent about women’s issues.
After his mother died, Jay didn’t speak for a long time. He’d been distant and relatively unemotional. Why’s he suddenly like this?
Meanwhile, in his car alone, Jay sighs. This is hard.
He’d met many days before with Ernie, a sought-after chef who’d opened a popular restaurant.
Jay informed the other man there was a high school reunion. Ernie was confused, did he even know Jay?
No, he didn’t. But Jay thought the reunion was something Ernie should know about.
Does he remember Gigi?
“I know there was a misunderstanding back then. If it’s okay with you, it’d be good to clear the air,” Jay told the perplexed Ernie.
He’d pleaded with the other man, clearing the air would benefit Gigi a lot.
In the car, Jay can’t help but wonder how things went.
• ◘ •
In the restaurant, the classmates are surprised at Ernie’s appearance. Did he just say that he and Sue never dated?
But Ernie hasn’t moved his eyes from the surprised Gigi who, much like the others, wasn’t expecting his appearance. Did she really like him?
“Then why did you do that back then?” he looks for Gigi’s reply. Gigi, however, is overwhelmed and leaves the restaurant.
As she walks outside, Jay pulls up a short distance away in his car. He looks at her as she crosses the street, surprised. Did she dress up like that to go to a reunion?
Ernie follows in hot pursuit of Gigi. Jay sees the man rushing in her direction. He follows them, watching from the distance.
Gigi tells Ernie she never liked him, that was just a slip of the tongue. But the man stops her, “I had a crush on you!” He closes his eyes as he makes that declaration.
It’s loud enough that Jay can hear from a distance. He looks on at the couple as Gigi stares at Ernie with wide eyes. Who would have thought?
