In the middle of the lockdown, somewhere, K-dramas had lost their way a little bit. A lot of old fans thought things were changing too much and too fast, so they lost interest. But at the same time, many new fans came on board thanks to the OTT Hallyu wave and superhits like Squid Game. Call it gatekeeping or call it bias, OG fans have a special place for dramas that came out between 2013 and 2016, and recently, that spark has returned. King The Land is a classic example, and now it seems Destined With You is joining the ranks. Fantastical like Goblin and ridiculous like My Girlfriend Is A Gumiho. Right now, all the ingredients seem just right to make us fall in love with this show, like the love spell that Hong-Jo has cast in this episode.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In The Episode?
Shin-Yu decides to give Hong-Jo the wooden box, as advised by Eun-Wol. He offers to take her home, but she refuses the offer and takes a cab back. Shin-Yu requests that she call him when she opens the box. In a flashback, Hong-Jo’s conversation with Eun-Wol flashes by. Eun-Wol reassures Hong-Jo that her father is in a better place and that she’s surrounded by stupid people who can’t see her sweetness. Hong-Jo accepts Shin-Yu’s present because Eun-Wol said it belonged to her. Hong-Jo tries everything in her power to open the box, but it doesn’t open. There isn’t even a visible keyhole in the lock, so Hong-Jo has no way to open the door. Shin-Yu, who has no patience, calls Hong-Jo to check on the box. He’s really curious to know what’s in it. The next day, Shin-Yu gets offered a job as a legal advisor at City Hall. Hong-Jo follows the same pattern of working separately from her team and eating alone in public places.
At work, a client of Shin-Yu’s company apologizes for misconduct, but Shin-Yu doesn’t bow to him. The man gets angry, but Shin-Yu responds with his resignation from the firm, meaning he has no obligation to bow down to a stranger. The same night, Hong-Jo tries to fix the light in her house and has a hard fall. Her forehead gets bruised, and she wishes for someone to come help her. That’s when the box opens on its own. Inside is a spell book that looks like it was written during the Joseon dynasty. Hong-Jo thinks the spell book even sounds like a comic book name, so there is no way that what’s inside will work. She has a little laugh and puts it back inside. The book has spells to make one pregnant, make them beautiful, and even a special love spell. On the other hand, at Shin-Yu’s home, he argues with his father about continuing work. His father tells him to stop stressing about that and get married instead. The genetic disease that Shin-Yu has is incurable, but somehow, his dad is sitting in front of him in good health. Shin-Yu’s mother argues that she will not let her son get married early, but his father says she has no idea what she’s talking about (we wonder if this has anything to do with the creepy hands).
At work, Hong-Jo comes to realize that Shin-Yu is going to work in the same building as her from now on. Shin-Yu asks if she’s opened the box, and she says no; it opened on its own, which is why she didn’t call him about it. He makes fun of her while her face goes red in front of Mr. Kwon, the person she has a crush on at work (these two making these juvenile jokes definitely make it seem like they are destined for each other). Interestingly, Kwon has written a complimentary post about Hong-Jo in the online community of the city hall. Everyone is jealous, and it’s not taking away from her team’s ostracizing her more. After work, Shin-Yu offers to drive Hong-Jo home because he wants to see the spell book. She begrudgingly accepts, pretending it’s a cab ride. Shin-Yu ends up saving Hong-Jo from a drunk on the street, and she invites him in. It’s a ploy to get him to fix her light, but he’s so rich that he has never done that before and fails. She shows him the book, and he asks for a favor. Shin-Yu tells her that she can have all the spells, but she just needs to grant him one. There’s a spell that cures diseases, so Shin-Yu wants to use that on himself.
The mayor’s daughter happens to be Shin-Yu’s girlfriend and an ex-friend of Hong-Jo. She tries to apologize to Hong-Jo for treating her badly in the past, but Hong-Jo doesn’t want to hear it. Shin-Yu overhears the conversation and stops his girlfriend from apologizing a dozen times. Instead, he tells Hong-Jo that it makes sense she eats alone because she’s probably the problem, not her colleagues or friends. Later, Shin-Yu’s girlfriend tells him that Hong-Jo is an orphan, and no one treated her nicely back then, so she tried to be friends with her. Unfortunately, Hong-Jo ended up with the guy she liked, so she cut ties with her in the worst way possible. After work, Hong-Jo forces her way into the team dinner, apologizes to her boss, and tells him the circumstances of her mistake. Before he can reply, the counselors arrive for Shin-Yu’s welcome dinner, and they all end up eating together. The team decides to go for round 2, but they tell Hong-Jo to leave. Kwon shows up then and gives Hong-Jo a shirt because she had saved him from a mess, and it had ruined her clothes back then. Hong-Jo accidentally ends up confessing to him, and he rejects her plainly. Somehow, Shin-Yu is there again and overhears the whole conversation. He tells Hong-Jo that it seems she ends up liking anyone who is kind to her, and she replies that it’s true because people are rarely kind to her.
Does Hong-Jo try The Love Spell For Real?
The next day, everyone at work knew that Hong-Jo confessed and was rejected. There’s a picture of the scene in the online community, and even her boss consoles her. She quickly goes to Shin-Yu because there’s no other person who could’ve spread the news. He proves to her that it wasn’t him because the angle of the picture is not from where he was standing. At night, Hong-Jo ends up drinking alone and calling Kwon. He doesn’t respond, and she heads home, where a gift awaits her. It’s probably from someone she helped because she’s so diligent in her work. Included in the box is a bottle of goat’s milk, which suddenly gets her hopes up.
The love spell needs goat’s milk, and Hong-Jo decides to try it out. She follows the process exactly, and while the moon sits high in the sky, she does exactly what the instructions say. While she’s doing that, Shin-Yu, who is driving his car, starts to feel really sick. He can’t see the road in front of him but sees only traditional Korean fireworks. The creepy hands show up, and he drives off into the rail that was just redone by the people Hong-Jo had contacted. She had even helped them fix it herself. During Destined With You Episode 2’s ending, Shin-Yu lies still in his car after destroying all the beautiful flowers and trying to get rid of those creepy hands.
It’s not quite clear what these hands are or if they are the reason Shin-Yu and the men in his family are sick. On the other hand, it looks like Hong-Jo’s spell worked based on the preview, but did Shin-Yu see fireworks because of that, or was it just a side effect of the curse? We’ll find out in the next episode of Destined With You.
