Needless to say, everyone gets in. Tae Hee celebrates by telling her grandfather and other villagers; Doo Ri’s mother finds out over the phone while Doo Ri plays some first-person shooter game on the computer; Do Sung calls his mother and she in turn says she has no time to speak with him. A little boy in the background calling for his mother clues us in to her other family.
As for Jae Hun, he goes to help his mother wallpaper an apartment He’s no longer going to be able to help her…because he got into the college!
So now we are at the first day of school! The students all move into the dorms. Do Sung’s uncle is reluctant to let him go because he doesn’t want others to find out he’s Hades. But Do Sung is stubborn. He ends up being Jae Hun’s roommate too! As soon as they enter their room, they spot a bed on the far side with a huge stain on the mattress.
Jae Hun wins. Boy is he happy – and he settles in for a nice long nap.
Meanwhile a new girl spazzes over the fact that she’s Chae Young’s new roommate. Tae Hee settles into her new room and has a one-on-one talk with her father’s spirit. Byeong Gun meets LEE SOO BIN (Lee Soo Hyuk - the assassin with the face of plastic in Tree With Deep Roots), a second-year who’s a quiet violinist. Soo Bin warns Byeong Gun that the room is quite messy. Byeong Gun is speechless at the state of his “new” room and the fact that his roommate is so messy… until he finds out that quiet Soo Bin is his roommate,and the reason for all the messiness. Doo Ri enters her room to find Lee Da Jung, a second-year who acts like a drill sergeant despite her small stature. She gives doo Ri some papers and informs her of the orientation at 5pm. Doo Ri has one favor: does she have a pair of scissors?
*Snip* And Doo Ri’s long hair transforms into a shaggy bob. Doo Ri is now living her own life, and rebelling against all things cute, pink, and sweet.
Napping, Jae Hun falls into a nightmare, dreaming of the night when his friends were driving and got stuck in traffic. He was (and still is) haunted by the memories of the accident that he ended up blowing up on his friends for no reason and running out of the car. Jae Hun wakes up in a cold sweat to an empty room and realizes he’s late for orientation.
Every group has a different sort of gathering, but for Jae Hun and the musical group, they end up in a large gym. As soon as Jae Hun enters – late – the doors all close shut and the curtains are drawn across the windows. The lights turn off, and a spotlight shines to a door above them – where the senior students come in.
“Orientation” becomes something like a hazing session as the senior students order the first years around, making them do push-ups while chanting and other strenuous physical activities. Only Jae Hun won’t take that kind of crap. The leader singles him out, but Jae Hun won’t take part in all this ridiculousness. He even starts flipping over plastic chairs and throwing all the basketball racks down.
Stirrings of a bromance between Soo Bin and Byeong Gun are making me super excited. Soo Bin smacks Byeong Gun until the latter wakes up to shut off his alarm. Then when Byeong Gun mutters grumpily, Soo Bin throws a pillow to shut him up again.
Everyone scrambles to the gym, which doubles as an auditorium, for morning hazing. I mean, morning training. Do Sung tries to wake up Jae Hun, but Jae Hun won’t budge. The leader tells everyone what their schedules will consist of, which includes a lot of training, forming a buddy system where they greet all their sunbaes with a proper bow and greeting, and cleaning the studios. Of course, the one still missing is Jae Hun.
They undergo such strenuous exercises that Doo Ri recognizes it as torture. She glares at the leader at one moment during practice, and then pretends to throw up, thus running out of the room and out of the training session. Taking a cue, Chae Young pretends she hurt her ankle and that she’ll need to rest for the rest of the day. Since she’s famous and flirtatious, the leader lets her go. HEHE.
Class time with Professor Yang. Their first lesson is on acting convincingly. It can’t sound like a lie. She then has them all start running in place. Of course the person who’s late is Jae Hun (and the security guard isn’t all that approving of it. I feel like he’s going to be the Daddy to all these kids, keeping them in line with his no-nonsense attitude). Professor Yang asks who his roommate is – and Jae Hun points out Do Sung. She kicks out the both of them – Jae Hun for being late, and Do Sung for not having dragged Jae Hun to class.
An even later student arrives – and it’s Tae Hee! Once again she goes into her long spiel about how she got lost and explaining why she’s late while being half in tears. Um – how do you respond to that? The professor doesn’t – she just orders everyone else to start jumping in place, and still kicks out Jae Hun and Do Sung.
At lunch time, Jae Hun is basically treated like a pariah – everyone looks at him derisively. Even Do Sung doesn’t want to sit with him, but Jae Hun forces his way over. They then spot Tae Hee, and she joins them at the lunch table, also quite bummed out. She even admits she wants to die, which makes everyone awkward. I think Do Sung has a mini crush on her. But something brings Tae Hee out of her funk: it’s the sighting of Chae Young!
All eyes in the room follow as Chae Young makes her way to Byeong Gun, who’s too speechless and gaga over the fact that she spoke to him. She just wants to know if there’s room at his table, to which he shakes his head, and then nods vigorously. But she’s not really going to sit there. Byeong Gun gets pushed out of the table by a bunch of other girls who want to sit at that table now, in the event that Chae Young does end up sitting there, and so he joins his roommate Soo Bin.
He gushes to Soo Bin over how Chae Young just spoke to him, but to Soo Bin, it’s just a mouth moving. His music is blasted so high up in his ears that he doesn’t even notice a fan girl coming over asking for an autograph. That’s when Byeong Gun realizes that his roommate is the Lee Soo Bin. How famous? I have no idea. But Chae Young flirts with Soo Bin a bit too.
Jae Hun, Do Sung, and Tae Hee (our little Trio) start hearing a voice around them, and it turns out to be Doo Ri, lurking beneath their table with her camera. She aims the camera at Do Sung, and he immediately covers his face out of habit. But before Jae Hun can find out who she is, Doo Ri flutters away.
A homeless looking guy with his shopping cart gets dropped off at the school by a truck. He walks right past security, and the guard lets him through without a second glance. He makes his way through campus and enters the Musical department. An assistant rushes into Professor Yang’s room and fearfully informs her that “that guy” is back.
“That guy” is SUNWOO YOUNG (Oh Man Seok).
COMMENTS:
I knew I would like this drama more. Even before The Musical aired, I was looking more forward to this one. It’s definitely darker than any of its musical predecessors this year. When you start off with all your main characters crying or looking somber, you’re just curious at how they got there.
I think episode 1 was more solid than episode 2, but these two episodes were great in building up our characters. What I truly enjoy is that every character has a different background, a different personality, and holds their own dark secrets. It’s not like you have your typical rich brat, your outgoing hero/heroine, your pretty-and-talented wallflower, or your sweet second male lead. You have your quirky fairy (Tae Hee), your shy pop idol (Do Sung), your adorable chaebol son who just might be a black sheep if they knew he was studying musicals (Byeong Gun), your rebel actress (Doo Ri), your haunted but cocky hero (Jae Hun), your music genius slob (Soo Bin), and your famous actress who wants to prove she can act (Chae Young). Admittedly, Chae Young is probably the one character that falls under some K-drama stereotype of pretty girl, lots of talent, and also quite possibly b*tchy. But I think there’s something shady with her, that she’s not exactly who she portrays herself to be. I actually hope there’s a darker side to her, or a more serious side that hasn’t been tapped into yet, because everyone so far seems to be quite a contradiction.
I hate how a lot of dramas have started out quite promising but then flagged as it wore on. I do have high hopes for this one, but it is pre-produced and therefore they can’t change the story anymore. A lot of conflicts have already been introduced in this drama that there is so much fodder for plot, so I hope the writers delivered. For one thing, I’d like to see Byeong Gun’s family find out about what he’s really studying. I’d like to see Tae Hee and Jae Hun face the truth on each other’s involvement with Tae Hee’s father’s death. I’d like to find out more about Do Sung’s mother, and why he was rejected. I’d like to see Doo Ri put Chae Young in her place. I’d like to see Soo Bin and Byeong Gun become the bestest buds, pig pen aside.
One thing important to note is that this drama isn’t really trying to be a musical drama. The first two episodes make that clear. It’s really about the characters, and about how our main seven characters (the students) pursue their dreams and overcome their obstacles in their personal and school life. You’re really only watching for the improvement of the characters’ talents and well-being, to see them grow up and realize fully who they are. It’s a true college drama of finding yourself during the start of your adulthood. And if it’s a character drama, I think I’m going to like this one. The characters singing and performing is just fudge and sprinkles on an already-awesome sundae.
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