Previously, we saw Hae-Ra come to despise herself for letting Ji-Won tempt her into becoming a manager again. Hae-Ra’s big task was to make sure that the women who were taking leave for childcare would instead resign or get fired. After a stressful turn of events, Hae-Ra found herself in a soup because Moon-Jung, the pregnant woman, was so stressed out that she almost lost her baby. That is when she decided to quit, and Hae-Ra’s work was complete, but at a cost. Ji-Won, on the other hand, is very pleased with this outcome, even though Hae-Ra is devastated and feels like she almost killed a person. How will she tackle So-Jin next?
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In Episode 3?
Ji-Won tells Hae-Ra excitedly that Moon-Jung will be resigning. Hae-Ra immediately calls Moon-Jung to check on her. Moon-Jung tells her that her decision became easy once she saw her baby. She realized how much the baby would’ve suffered because of her own anxieties and stress. Everything that happened with Moon-Jung makes Hae-Ra reconsider her decision to work again. Back at home, both husband and wife have bad news for each other and decide to say it at the same time. Hae-Ra tells Su-Pyo that she wants to quit work after only 2 days, and Su-Pyo tells her that he quit work. Hae-Ra is furious and worried at the same time, and she tells him to go back to work. He tells her that, in fact, he was fired, and a company that doesn’t want him at all would never take him back. Hae-Ra then thinks back on what Moon-Jung said about making a choice to quit herself and then returns to work the next day.
At work, Ji-Won gives everybody new tasks and distributes Moon-Jung’s workload equally. Everybody is surprised at how smoothly the transition has happened, but they’re shocked to hear that after Moon-Jung’s quitting, there will be no new hire to replace her. Ji-Won tells the manager that he should use Hae-Ra’s skills well because, even though she’s an intern, she’s very experienced. Ji-Won’s boss is pleased by the fact that Moon-Jung has quit, but he questions Ji-Won’s choice of hiring a 40-something-year-old intern. She reassures him that it is for the company’s benefit. So-Jin is Hae-Ra’s next target as the second working mother on the team who wants to take childcare leave. The manager tells So-Jin that Hae-Ra used to be a scary person and she should not give her any tasks, but on the other hand, she asks Ji-Won if Hae-Ra would be taking up her position during her leave period. Ji-Won tells her that she could put Hae-Ra to the test to make sure she can. Hae-Ra struggles to do the computer tasks at first because it’s been too long since she worked, and she gets stuck in a loop of asking for help and forgetting how to do things. At home, Su-Pyo struggles with an unemployed life and tries to find work. He throws away his daughter’s Apple pencil, thinking it’s a pen that doesn’t work anymore.
After a late night at work, Hae-Ra is invited to drink with Ji-Won. Hae-Ra wonders why Ji-Won is going so far to make sure there are no women who put family first at work. Ji-Won tells her it’s to build her ideal team. Hae-Ra is shocked by Ji-Won’s transformation, but it’s rather obvious that if you have to reach such a position, you have to change. Hae-Ra returns home drunk and asks her husband how he dealt with the dirty politics of work life. She tells him she’s not cut out for this work, so he needs to find a job soon.
So-Jin’s home life looks chaotic, as she doesn’t even have time to have breakfast with her young son. He has to take care of himself and lock himself up before going to school on his own.
So-Jin and Seung-Ju have presentations for their new products, and Hae-Ra has prepped everything for So-Jin beforehand. The presentation doesn’t go very well for So-Jin, and she asks for some time to redo the product one last time. Su-Pyo tries to sell some second-hand materials, but they’re not worth enough for him to buy a new iPad pencil. Finally, he decides to sell his precious watch for his daughter. Unfortunately, what he doesn’t know is that his daughter has been using a knockoff $20 pen and not the actual $165 one.
Unlike Moon-Jung, it is very difficult for Hae-Ra to get through to So-Jin, who draws a hard line. The next day, Hae-Ra gives her an idea to target the mothers rather than the kids directly with the phrase, “Mothers will take care of their children, and Market House will take care of them.” It’s a successful idea, and Ji-Won tells So-Jin that it’s her best idea in recent times. This makes it even more difficult for So-Jin to accept Hae-Ra’s help, and instead, she sees her as a competition. At the end of the episode, Hae-Ra realizes that if she makes sure So-Jin doesn’t take the leave at all, both Ji-Won and So-Jin’s problems are resolved.
What Happens In Episode 4?
Unfortunately for Hae-Ra, So-Jin has gone ahead and made a different decision. Instead of taking her leave three months from now, she has decided to take it in one month. The team realizes that Hae-Ra’s internship would’ve been completed just in time for her to replace So-Jin when she left work, but something seems very fishy. On the other hand, Ji-Won asks to meet Hae-Ra in the parking lot to discuss their next steps. Hae-Ra tells Ji-Won that So-Jin is a hard shell to crack. Young-Geun, Ji-Won’s rival at work, finds them talking in the car and immediately tattles to the boss. The boss, on the other hand, doesn’t really seem to be phased by it.
After work, Hae-Ra comes across the mothers of her daughter’s friends. She realizes they’re meeting without her, but they tell her it’s because she’s now a working mom that they didn’t want to trouble her. They convince Hae-Ra that she would be So-Jin’s savior if she convinced her not to take the leave of absence because it would be very difficult to get back to work after that. At work, Hae-Ra notices So-Jin struggling to maintain her rhythm. She tries to give her advice, but fails again. Ji-Won tells So-Jin to work with Hae-Ra, as during their meeting in the car, Hae-Ra had told her that she should make them work together so Hae-Ra can get through to So-Jin.
So-Jin starts to go through a rollercoaster of emotions since it’s her last month at work. She goes from being extremely efficient to depressed to having an “I don’t care” attitude in no time. On the other hand, Ji-Won makes sure Young-Geun knows his place by giving the boss evidence that he’s been taking bribes from clients. He was immediately transferred to the Busan branch. The boss realizes he’s giving Ji-Won too much liberty, and she will come for his neck very soon.
Why Does Yi-Young Want To Become A Tattoo Artist?
While Hae-Ra and So-Jin are driving back from work, Hae-Ra gets a call about her daughter being at a tattoo parlor. Tattoos are still a huge taboo in Korea, and Hae-Ra becomes completely panicked. So-Jin drives her to the area, and Hae-Ra finds the shop. She sees that her daughter is working there, not getting a tattoo. Hae-Ra is upset that Yi-Young would choose such a lifestyle for herself at such a young age. Hae-Ra and her daughter do not have the best relationship, and she’s unwilling to listen to Yi-Young. On the other hand, at home, Yi-Young’s dad understands that she wants to become a tattoo artist, so she can learn to cover up scars. When she was little, Yi-Young had burned herself terribly, but Hae-Ra had not shown up to the hospital because of work. Later, she quit work because her mother had taken a fall, and she ended up having to take care of both her daughter and her mother.
She explains all of this to So-Jin, who then realizes she doesn’t want to quit work and was just trying to run away from her responsibilities out of fear. Back at home, her son too encourages her to continue working because her product is the best, and everyone in school has praised her for it. At the end of the episode, So-Jin thanks Hae-Ra for convincing her to stay. Hae-Ra is overjoyed and goes to meet Ji-Won. She thinks it’s good news that So-Jin didn’t take the leave and quit the job, but Ji-Won tells her that she won’t get the position because it was So-Jin’s job that she had been offered. We see someone walk out of the stairwell during this conversation, meaning someone has overheard their discussion. Will So-Jin find out about Hae-Ra’s task? We’ll know in the next episode of Cold Blooded Intern.
