Part 2! Time to get to the second half of the episode, and no, this half of the episode doesn’t get any better from the first half as far as liking Jan Di goes. To quote the great Antoine Dodson, “You are so dumb, you are really dumb.”

“For real.”

It’s post-vacation, and Ji Hoo and Jan Di meet at their usual spot – an outside stairwell. Here’e where something good actually happens: they both apologize to each other! THANK YOU! This is when you realize that character development is real in this series! Jan Di apologizes for going to look for Ji Hoo on the beach that night. YAY! She’s admitted her error! Ji Hoo turns around and says that he is the one who should be apologizing because he was the one who kissed her, which you know is true if you’ve seen that part of the episode, since she just kind of stands there while he goes for the kiss.

Then she turns around and says “But I’m the one who hurt Jun Pyo.” They both did, honestly, but I’m so glad that they’re both admitting that they’ve done something wrong. Sometimes in a series like this you’ll get the excuse of “We just couldn’t help ourselves, we didn’t do anything wrong, why are you making such a big deal out of this?” which always leaves me with a sour disposition towards those kind of characters (and those kind of people)!

But what I’m really, really excited about in this episode is how much responsibility Ji Hoo takes for his actions and the extent to which he engages with the world around him to fix the problem! Ji Hoo “has autistic tendencies,” which they only said once a few episodes back, and they explain where he got them from in future episodes. Right now, all you need to know is that Ji Hoo usually prefers to stay out of things and let life pass by him while he sleeps and looks pretty in white. But this incident, he’s stepping up and taking control of the situation that he admits he caused. And so I start to like and respect him, which is a HUGE improvement on my half, since I’m usually an All-Jun-Pyo-All-The-Time kind of girl.

Also, we see more evidence that Jan Di actually, you know, cares for Jun Pyo, since she and Ji Hoo draw a caricature of Jun Pyo in chalk in the stairwell, and while it’s funny at first, she has to fight back tears because she’s more upset than she’s letting on. Oh, don’t worry, this sympathy I have going for Jan Di doesn’t last long. Just wait.

Meanwhile, Jun Pyo decides to throw gasoline on the fire and announces to the entire school that Ji Hoo is no longer a part of F4, and that he’ll expel Jan Di and Ji Hoo from Shinhwa High by the end of the week. Woo Bin and Yi Jung are taken aback by the news, since Jun Pyo didn’t bother to consult them, and neither of them are really okay with this form of punishment. At the same time, they admit that Ji Hoo (and Jan Di) did wrong, but Jun Pyo isn’t making anything better.

Now, here’s something that will really surprise you: the plastics say something useful! I know, shocking, right? But seriously, I hate the plastics (the fake-y overly popular and vicious group of 3 high school girls, who’s leader is a girl named Ginger), but they really do say something that everyone is thinking at this point: they marvel (disgustedly) at the fact that Jan Di is so fickle and can’t pick and stay loyal! They’re mad at her for being disloyal to her boyfriend Jun Pyo, and mad that she dragged Ji Hoo into the situation. They look at her like panthers about to jump on their prey and ask who will take responsibility for her actions?

Then Ji Hoo comes up behind them and says “I will.” I’m starting to love him. He goes one step further and says that he’ll figure out a way out of this situation, because “now I have a reason not to sit back and concede quietly.” Okay, now I’m really starting to love him, and hate Jan Di more. Basically, Ji Hoo just told her that she’s his reason for engaging with life more actively. SHE is the one who has pulled him out of his slightly autistic state (which is normally Seo Hyun‘s job), and on top of all that, he’s also trying to tell her that he likes her. But she’s dumb, because she assumes that he’s talking about wanting to stay with the F4.

Get ready for some Yi Jung! Ji Hoo and Yi Jung start talking, and Yi Jung reveals that he’s really angry about the fact that Ji Hoo consciously and willfully kissed Jan Di, knowing that Jun Pyo liked her, and he actually says to Ji Hoo that he “can’t tolerate you messing with a friend’s girl.” YI JUNG!!!!!!! Yi Jung is the group’s playboy, always going out with several girls at the same time (often on the same date), and more of his backstory will be revealed later, but on the whole he tends to be really open about his playboy-ness so the girls he messes with know he’s like that and he’s never seriously attached, unlike this situation. So he’s pissed. Ji Hoo says that he’s trying to think of something to stop getting Jan Di kicked out of school (not mentioning himself, by the way, it’s all about her) and Yi Jung says that no one’s going to help Ji Hoo out this time. 😦 That part makes me kind of sad, but everyone’s mad at everyone, so it makes sense, and Ji Hoo proves his worth and really works to set things right, which I love.

Woo Bin goes to try and talk sense into Jun Pyo, which is a smart move: send the mafia-affiliated kid to handle the tough jobs! I love Woo Bin. You will too, just wait. 🙂 So he goes to Jun Pyo to try and make him stop all this “expelling” nonsense, and Jun Pyo *sigh* my wonderful man, says that he’s doing all this to Ji Hoo because Ji Hoo used Jan Di: “That jerk didn’t do that because he really likes Jan-di. He was just using her because of Seo-hyun. That’s more unforgivable.” DO YOU SEE HOW IT’S ALL ABOUT HER!? Both Ji Hoo and Jun Pyo are going to try and get their way because they both want to ‘avenge’ Jan Di in some way! Woo Bin is forced to back off of Jun Pyo, so the situation is starting to hit its critical point.

Aaaaaaaand scene. Yep! That’s the end of this episode! Which still kind of makes me mad, because there are still a lot more incidents in the next episode that essentially involve Jan Di continuously swaying between Ji Hoo and Jun Pyo. So I’ll give a little preview: Ji Hoo and Jun Pyo do a couple of “face-offs” (I’m not going to tell you how or why) and Ji Hoo wins one of them. Ga Eul is all excited, then looks to Jan Di and see her being…..meh. That’s the best adjective I can think of for it, her reaction is just “meh.” Ga Eul looks confused and asks Jan Di, “Isn’t this what we wanted to happen?”

And Jan Di continues to be “meh” in response. DO NOT LIKE. But I’ll go ahead and relinquish my dictator-like grip on BOF to CeeFu, who will do the next episode more justice than I would. So, look forward to the posts for Episode 7!