Ron Does Stuff

I said I would catch up on this show yesterday and you know what, I did not catch up. So all of you all are getting what you’re getting today.

(CW: cancer)

At the end of the previous episode, the dad-and-sons guests hit a rock as they were driving back to the B&B after a night of bug-watching, leading the show staff to accommodate them in the crews’ lodging instead.

Jin is the first to wake up the next day and we soon find out that everyone else at the B&B were notified about what happened last night. Kian, Jin, and Ye-Eun are obviously concerned and Jin is off to pick them up at their lodging. I hope he doesn’t get offended by this — because Jin reads my blog, don’t you guys know? — but he was definitely being the uncle when he checked on the kids and fondly patted their heads. He even tries to make them laugh by talking about how he used to catch frogs and eat them ~back in the day~ and maybe I should take uncle lessons from Jin.

While the kids are back at the B&B, the taut, muscular bodies of the climbing team are off to try and climb again now that the weather’s cleared. Ah-Jin stays at the B&B to build benches for them and Jin and the KAIST team help out. They also keep the kids entertained and everything seems fine so I’m waiting for whatever wrench in the works is going to happen. There aren’t even any new guests expected to arrive and Kian is asking the current guests if they can extend their stay. Unfortunately, Ah-Jin and one of the KAIST guys have to go.

As they’re sending them off, Kian, Jin and Ye-Eun plan their agenda for the day as well as welcome gifts for future guests, with Jin thinking of giving them rice balls instead of welcome drinks because something unconventional is what’s expected of Kian, after all.

After their lunch, like the old person that he is, Kian decides to take a nap and since they’re not at the B&B he finds a hidden place where he and Jin take a nap. I’ve seen this on social media and I’m most surprised about that turning into a cow after eating Korean belief because it’s the most normal thing here to sleep after lunch. Maybe it’s because I’m in the tropics!

Most of the time after lunch is spent “housekeeping”. Jin and the rest of the KAIST guys return the electric motorbikes they rented, while Kian and Ye-Eun bring back the supplies for tonight’s dinner — and the welcome kimchi rice balls — to the B&B. And…well, the nicest way to say it I guess is I would pass on Kian’s cooking.

Meanwhile, the father-and-sons group is on a Dokdo observatory tour and one thing I know about Dokdo is it’s a point of contention between South Korea and Japan. But let’s quickly move past that! Let’s go instead to the taut, muscular bodies of the climbing team, who are bouldering on the shore? Anyways, 안녕하세요 Min-Seob, who immediately takes his shirt off before he starts the climb. In fact, the rest of the climbing team take off their shirts and show off their taut, muscular bodies. Thank you for being fishy to the fish.

Jin and the KAIST team arrive and are the first to taste the kimchi rice balls and the scrambled eggs and to be fair, while I did not like how it looked like when Kian was cooking it, Jin, Ye-Eun, and the guests ate it well enough to make me reconsider.

After dinner, Kian and the KAIST guys have a talk while drinking beer and I think I can see why Kian is popular with Koreans. More than just the webtoons, maybe it’s because he reminds them that in their hyper-achievement society, it’s fine to slow down and just enjoy what you have around you. But of course I am dissecting this from an entirely different country.

They also talk about the Pleiades and guess who used the Pleiades as a motif for an awards show performance? BTS.

The climbing team starts to eat dinner and even try out the kongguksu that Ye-Eun makes and of course they eat it with their hands and have a debate about whether it’s best to season it with sugar or salt. And then they start feeding each other noodles by hand? I was screaming.

As the night goes on, the adults at the B&B get to bond even more while the dad-and-sons team sleep in the dining room. Jin talks about the post-concert depression from the artists’ side of the equation, which I think BTS has talked about before or I may have read a study about it before. To have all of that cheering — especially in the huge venues that BTS plays in — suddenly disappear has got to be a mindfuck. Min-Seob talks about how he doesn’t want to leave just yet because it’s going to feel exactly like the post-concert depression Jin talked about and the rest of the guests agree.

The guests get to talk more about their lives and I feel an ache in my heart because apparently, the dad guest had been diagnosed with rectal cancer three years ago, prompting him to stop drinking. And then he also got lung cancer. My god. And he could possibly die, depending on the prognosis he’s given? My only complaint about how this scene was handled is why wasn’t this discussion had with the rest of the group? But I guess because Kian has a history with cancer it makes sense that he has this moment with the dad alone.