Girls’ Generation’s Yoon-A and 2 PM’s Jun-Ho are reason enough to watch King The Land for most fans, but the two are so perfect for the roles, it’s as if the show was written with them in mind. The chemistry is there, and so is the comic timing, making for a fun weekend watch. The episodes are a little bit on the longer side, with the second episode being almost 70 minutes long, but they’ll definitely not leave you bored. Yoon-A’s smile can light up our hearts, and Jun-Ho is fantastic as a brooding “Chaebol” with a dark past. Let’s get straight into episode 2 of King The Land.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In Episode 2?
The episode begins where we left off, with Sa-Rang playing with the remote on the toilet screen like a videogame. When Gu-Won shows up, she drops the remote, and he turns away to give her some privacy. Sa-Rang refuses to come out after her big mistake and suggests she’ll bring Gu-Won’s phone herself. He doesn’t agree and takes the phone from her directly. He asks for an apology for two incidents when he sees her face clearly. One is now, and the other is when she called him a pervert all those years ago. Sa-Rang can’t believe it’s the same man troubling her again and walks away from him after apologizing for the present day’s events, refusing to say anything about all those years ago. He “requests” her not to meet him again, and she is happy to oblige, not knowing what’s coming up for her next. Gu-Won’s sister is unimpressed by his attention to detail and reminds him that she expects him to leave soon enough. But Gu-Won tells her he has no plans of leaving or stealing her spotlight. He just wants to work at the hotel. During his inauguration ceremony, Gu-Won falters in front of his staff because it looks like he has a fear of smiling people. A kind of trauma from childhood, so he can’t stand people smiling.
Sa-Rang is then introduced to him as the best employee of the hotel, making it hard for them to avoid each other, considering he’s the head manager from now on. She finally hears him out for once, and he tells her that he was not a pervert back in the day. She apologizes for real this time after he tells her to stop smiling, making their interaction more natural and sincere. In the meantime, Sang-Sik and one of the managers of the hotel get close, but it turns out she thinks he is Gu-Won, so she sucks up to him. So, Sang-Sik assigns Sa-Rang to be the staff representative for Gu-Won’s special dinner. This dinner is at the VIP lounge of the hotel known as King: The Land, where no ordinary staff can go, and this is a huge honor for Sa-Rang. During Gu-Won’s father’s toast, she ends up making a fool of herself, but Hwa-Ran is quick to save her by telling him she’s the best employee they have. Gu-Won’s father asks her to say some words, which she does in a very “fake” manner, according to Gu-Won himself. But when it comes to his turn to talk, he ends up saying he’ll make sure the hotel runs in such a way that there are no fake smiles. After dinner, Gu-Won’s father invites him home for another drink, but his sister implies that that would be a waste of time. In the final moment, he does decide to stay back and not do as his father wishes.
On the other side of things, Sa-Rang’s relationship isn’t doing very well. On her happy day, when she receives a piece of expensive tuna from her hotel, she wants to celebrate with him, but he’s forgotten to inform her that he’s all the way in Busan to see a game. We see that he’s a very neglectful boyfriend and doesn’t even remember that they have their own plans for the next day. At home, we see a glimpse of Sa-Rang’s past and can assume her mother has passed away. She had a close relationship with her mother, and as a kid, she told her she would become a hotelier; maybe that’s why she’s so sincere about doing the job.
At the hotel, Sa-Rang gets mistreated by an “influencer” customer who wants a room upgrade in exchange for posting some messages about the hotel. Sa-Rang tells her that that is against the rules, but she keeps a smiling face on. Gu-Won walks by at the same time, telling Sa-Rang that she should just get rid of such rude customers rather than explain things properly to her. Her manager, who is just around the corner, hadn’t even batted an eye when the customer started asking for her, but when Gu-Won calls her out, she rushes there. Gu-Won makes sure she knows that she needs to take care of her staff and call security in the case of such customers.
The circumstances keep putting Sa-Rang and Gu-Won in the same room, no matter how much they don’t want it. Sa-Rang finds out very late that she will be interviewing Gu-Won in a live broadcast on a reputable international channel to promote the hotel. She’s completely unprepared for such a task.
What Is Gu-Won Looking For?
Sa-Rang and her boyfriend end up going on their Namsan Tower date after a long day at work. The man doesn’t even care that she stands all day and suggests that because she works at a hotel, walking all the way up would be the best way to get some exercise done. Sa-Rang holds in her anger because when they reach the top, the beautiful view makes her feel better. But that’s cut short because he needs to go to a reunion, which he had forgotten about. Sa-Rang tells him to go himself, but he doesn’t listen and tells her they’ll leave just after saying hi. Before leaving, they try to put their lock on the famous Namsan Tower Love Lock Bridge, but instead of throwing away the key, he throws away the lock. This is a clear sign that they’re not going to last much longer. At the reunion, Sa-Rang is shocked that there are mostly just women around. She even wonders out loud if he went to an all-girls school. After he plays some drinking games with his friends, leaving her to fend for herself, she finally decides to leave. He follows her out, but after saying he’ll be a minute, he ends up drinking more. Sa-Rang leaves without saying anything and goes to a quiet place to calm down.
In the meantime, Gu-Won tries to find out more about the director, Han Mi-Soo, and the reason he returned to Korea, but he can’t find any information in the hotel logs about her. This is strange because she’s a director, so it can’t just disappear. He also finds himself in the same place as Sa-Rang, and we see them both have an emotional moment by themselves but somehow together. The next day they head to Jeju Island, and Gu-Won finally notices Sa-Rang’s beauty when she arrives in a simple white dress at the airport. Gu-Won’s father calls him just to put some pressure on him because this live broadcast is a way to tell the world that Gu-Won is now part of the King Hotel for real. At the end of the episode, a new questionnaire is handed over to an oblivious Sa-Rang, who has no idea that this new questionnaire was sent by Gu-Won’s sister, Hwa-Ran. There’s probably something difficult for Gu-Won to answer in there, and she’s sent it so he can mess up in front of everybody and embarrass his father. Gu-Won finally arrives looking stunning, and Sa-Rang is impressed, too, meaning sparks are flying already!
Final Thoughts
We see a lot about Pyeong-Hwa and Da-Eul in this episode. It’s nice to see the side characters get so much attention too. Pyeong-Hwa’s budding love story looks adorable, and we can’t wait to see it blossom into something special. This episode was a little bit too long, and some scenes were a little unnecessarily long. We have to mention the three-piece suits and how perfectly they fit Jun-Ho, making him shine in every scene. We’re excited to see what’s next in King The Land!
