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I tried to run away 2

Gook-young wonders if Joon-young is sick, having noticed that he doesn't look well lately, and Eul tells him that's enough: "I'm sitting right here!" She wonders, if Joon-young wasn't joking and really does like her, what she should do about it.

Joon-young has the cab driver take him home by the back door, since his house is swarming with reporters. He checks in with Pororo, then suddenly his head starts to ring and his vision blurs. He makes it inside as the pain intensifies, and he collapses on the floor smacking his head, trying not to pass out.

Ji-tae's mother learns from a hospital contact that Joon-young is very ill, possibly dying — it's a brain stem glioma, a cancer known to be very aggressive and highly deadly. Ji-tae's mother asks if Joon-young's mother knows about it, and she's told that he's keeping it secret for now.

Ji-tae's father is in a meeting, arguing that it's time to let one of their political partners go, since he's been caught for embezzlement and tax evasion, among other things. Assemblyman Yoon, Jung-eun's father, counters that they've all made mistakes and that politics is about helping each other. Ji-tae's father disagrees, but Yoon just laughs in his face.

Haru is upset about the negative articles discussing Joon-young, and she tells her maid again that she plans to marry Joon-young (someone please tell this girl he's her half-brother). The maid just tells her to get out of the bathtub and stop fussing, but Haru can still smell garbage on her skin and refuses to get out.

Jik goes looking for Ji-tae where he claims to have lived for the past two years, but the building owner has no idea who he's talking about. Ji-tae calls and has to think fast when Jik says where he is — he says he moved, and offers to meet Jik at his workplace.

He shows up dressed in his Hyun-woo clothes, and Jik sits down to explain what he wants. He tells Ji-tae that Eul used to have a crush on Joon-young back in school (he knows because he read her diary — bratty little brothers…), but she gave up on him because he was dating her friend. So Jik is worried now that Eul will fall for Joon-young again if he shows interest in her.

Ji-tae is unsettled, but he brightly says that it might be a good thing if a star like Joon-young liked Eul. Jik says that they live in different worlds now, and he wants his sister to meet someone closer to her own level. Specifically, he wants Ji-tae/Hyun-woo to date Eul.

Joon-young wakes from his episode covered in sweat, exhausted and disoriented. He takes some painkillers, and goes to the living room to find Eul in his kitchen cooking dinner. She burns her finger, and without a word he grabs her hand and runs cold water over it, and they both seem unsettled to be so close.

Eul tells Joon-young that Gook-young let her into the house, and he thinks to himself, "Nine and a half and a quarter and an eighth and a sixteenth." Heh. He drops Eul's hand and walks out, leaving her grumbling that she'll just eat all the food herself. She wonders why Joon-young is so determined to avoid her, and he comes back into the room and shuts all the blinds and turns off the lights.

His agent tells his reporter contact that Joon-young isn't home, and that the lights turning off and on are just an assistant there to feed Pororo. He says that Joon-young is with his manager, reflecting on how he did wrong by confessing to a girl in front of his fans, and definitely

not with Eul.

He even lies that Joon-young already has a girlfriend, his recent drama costar Yuna (the actress whose party he sang at a little while back). He claims — while throwing things at the objecting Gook-young — that this whole thing with Eul is really just a ploy to draw attention from Joon-young's real relationship.

Jung-eun primps for a date with Ji-tae, and tears up the photo she has of him with Eul at Joon-young's concert. She accepts roses from him and asks for a kiss, uncaring that they're in a public place. Ji-tae doesn't object, but when Jung-eun leans close, he says that he knows she saw the picture of him.

He rattles off everything he knows about Eul in this emotionless voice, saying that now Jung-eun doesn't need to do a background check. Jung-eun angrily asks what his relationship is with Eul, but that's the one question he won't answer. "If I answer that question, I won't be able to keep my promise to you."

Jung-eun asks if he likes Eul, raising her voice, and he confirms that he does. Jung-eun throws her glass of wine in his face, and spits that the meaning of the Christmas roses he gave her is that he has nothing to give her. Ji-tae agrees, and Jung-eun warns that she'll make him regret this moment.

After she leaves, Ji-tae sits with wine still all over his face, and finishes off the glass. He pours himself another glass, filling the goblet to overflowing.

In his dark house, Joon-young tells Eul that the reporters are still outside. If the lights are on, they'll think he's home. He figures they'll be gone in a couple of hours, and Eul can leave then. She tells him a spooky story, trying to scare him, but Joon-young just calmly says there's a ghost right behind her.

Eul looks and screams — it's just his manikin, but she hides her face in the couch cushions. "Nine and a half and a quarter and an eighth and a sixteenth and a thirty-second." Joon-young smiles a little, and sits next to Eul after turning the lights back on now that the curtains are down.

He says in this deadpan voice that he did that because he wanted to make fun of her, and Eul pushes him over and straddles him to shake him. But Joon-young's mood changes… "Ten." He says that he tried to run away, counting to ten to help steady himself, and he suddenly sits up, making Eul rear back.

He says again that he tried his best to run away, but "You're the one who decided to stay." He reaches up to tenderly brush the flour off Eul's nose, and there's a long charged moment (in which I notice Eul doesn't even try to get off his lap), but then he brightens. "I'm hungry. Let's eat."

Dinner is pretty fancy, with wine and candles, and Eul asks why Joon-young's attitude changed so quickly. He pretends he has no idea what she means, and eats her food with relish even though Eul knows it's too salty. He checks her burned finger and hops up to get some medicine for her blister. While he's gone, she tastes the food, and it's so salty she has to spit it out.

Awww, Joon-young is really rushing to the bathroom to throw up (I guess those acting skills just came in pretty handy), but he manages to keep the food down. He laughs to himself over how terrible it tastes, and heads back to the table to choke down even more. That's so sweet.

It's interesting how Joon-young is back to his old charming self, but he seems to have lost the sharp edge that his expressions and tone of voice used to have. Now his teasing just seems playful instead of slightly malicious, and Eul is understandably suspicious of his sudden change in attitude.

She says that someone who changes so quickly is usually about to die soon — she means it as a joke, but it hits close to home. Joon-young only falters for a second, then he shakes it off.

Ji-tae meets with Eul's roommate Na-ri, and it's cute how she's gotten all gussied up in case there were reporters waiting for Eul outside their place. She tells Ji-tae that Eul isn't home, and her phone battery is dead as well.

He makes an educated guess and goes to Joon-young's home, and sees the reporters packing it up for the night. His father calls to invite him out for a drink, promising he won't get drunk this time. For once Ji-tae declines, and he tells his father to go home and spend time with Mom. But Dad takes out the card from Madam Song, and goes to see her instead.

Apparently this is a regular thing — he goes to see her, and just looks at her while she sits quietly. He doesn't talk to her or even touch her, but just drinks. Madam Song knows that he's here because she looks like an old love of his, and asks about her.

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