Flower Boy Next Door ep 2: Dramatic Friday Review

Let's take a quick detour back to last Friday.  I was sitting here like a good little blogger getting my reviews done.  No sooner had I hit "publish" though on the first one, I got a phone call from The Husband wanting to meet up for lunch.  A little earlier than normal, but all fine and good, right?  Except that then, as I'm driving to lunch, I get a call from my sister and dad saying that they're in town and want to swing by sometime.  Okay.  No problem.  Cool.  I can roll with that as well.  At lunch The Husband announces that he will be getting off work early and we will be going out on a hot date (we went to the Verizon store to sign another 2 years of our life away...oooh.  Exciting.).  Date night?  Okay.  Can't say no to one of those I suppose.  Though it was about this time that I started to do the math in my head and it was slowly dawning on me that my blogging plans for the rest of the day were slowly but surely getting squashed.  So that's why this one is a little late.  There were other extenuating circumstances of course because that only explains one day out of the 4, but do you really want a lengthy excuse or do you want me to just get to the review?  That's what I thought.  I do apologize for the tardiness, but sometimes life just happens and we have to roll with the punches.  Right?  Right!  Now on to FBND ep 2 review!

In this episode we get to begin exploring our characters a little more.  We find out a little bit more about each one and introduce another...

Methinks this one is our story's antagonist, yes?  *nods knowingly*

But I'm getting ahead of myself a bit.  Let's back up to the beginning.  If you'll remember, when we last left off, our lovely Enrique was rushing over wearing naught but shorts, a trench coat and panda hat to catch his "peeping Tom".  This was the scene that won my heart over to this show by the way - the sight of him in his ridiculous outfit in the dead of winter just cracked me up and convinced me that this one is right up my juvenile, irreverent alley.

He reaches Apt 402 and starts banging on the door, ringing the bell and even kicking the door in a very comical way.  Meanwhile, Dok Mi is inside freaking out.  We get a flashback to her under hypnosis in therapy talking about how the things that trigger her fear more than anything are things like the phone ringing, a knock at the door, the intercom buzzing, etc.  Basically just about everything that Enrique is doing.  She has a little meltdown on her side of the door while, oblivious to the inner torment he is causing this poor young lady, Enrique continues to ramp up his efforts to get the assumed perv inside to open the door.  The ruckus attracts the attention of the guys in 401, who have Watanabe over paying them a visit, and they open the door.  They try to be sneaky about it, but end up spilling out onto the floor.

Enrique is informed by the 401 boys that he is banging on the door of a very shy woman, not a man who would peep.  Things continue and escalate.  The security guard shows up and apprehends Enrique.  Dok Mi is on the other side of the door listening to all of this.  She feels guilty that Enrique is being blamed and arrested for being the real perv and finally gets the gumption up to open the door and defend Enrique as the innocent one and her as the guilty party.  Only, she says it so timidly that no one can understand her.  Up steps Jin Rok to save the day.  He diffuses the situation, promises to take over her demonstration leader duties that day and they eventually all leave.  Oh yeah, he has a thing for her all right.  His roomie gives him a hard time over it, as every good roomie should do.

I should throw in here something I neglected to mention in the last review.  When his original idea for a webtoon was shot down for being a copy of Enrique's game, Jin Rok presents the concept for another webtoon - this one called Flower Boy Next Door and stars a heroine, a modern-day Rapunzel of sorts locked in her "tower".  Sound familiar?  Well it should.  It's supposed to.  The picture he shows also looks very familiar.  It's so cute!  Look, I know how these things work.  I know that Enrique will end up being the love interest and that Jin Rok will be the sad 2nd male lead who doesn't get the girl, but c'mon.  He's just too sweet and adorable.  I can tell I'm going to have another hard time with his poor unfortunate character getting his sweet heart broken.  

Jumping forward a bit.  I won't go through every bit of this episode minute by minute otherwise we'd be here a long time.  So I'm just going to highlight some of the important or favorite parts.

Parts like this.  Dok Mi is out of food so makes herself venture out for some supplies.  And yes, Enrique is also there shopping.  But that's not the point here.  I wanted to see if anyone else spotted the Hello Kitty paper towels or toilet paper in the background.  Uhm, that's just awesome right there.  I want some Hello Kitty paper goods for my house too.  Korea, you're just too cool for school, aren't ya?

As Dok Mi is returning from her shopping trip, she sees the neighbors gathered for their meeting.  She tries to enter the tent quietly, but trips and falls in front of everyone.  Let's hear it - the collective "Ooohh!  Poor girl."

After the meeting, she bumps into Enrique.  He has recognized her as the girl outside his brother's door checking on the dog.  He figures that that is why she was "peeping" - checking up on Hippo.  Yes, Hippo.  It's the dog's name.  For reals.  He plays for her the 119 call she made.  Through the whole exchange, Dok Mi says not a word.  We hear her thoughts though.  And, in the funniest scene from the entire show, Enrique starts responding to her thoughts as if he can hear them.

This really freaks her out.

They have an entire one-sided conversation. It's hilarious.

It ends in a tummy-flipping adorable "moment" between them.  She is nodding incessantly and he stops her with a finger to the forehead.  Fireworks spark.  At least for us, the viewers.  And maybe a little for Dok Mi.  It most certainly gets her attention, this odd man touching her forehead.  Only in a drama would something like this elicit such a sparky tummy-butterfly reaction.

Now comes our new character, my assumed antagonist of the drama.

It happens at the demonstration.  Jin Rok is adorable as he leads the demonstration with noticeably more flair than the day before.  He's trying to impress the girl, isn't that cute?!  My heart melts for this boy already, I'm telling ya.

A car pulls up and this fluffy, hot pink-coated creature emerges.  She is there to see somebody.  A male who has lived there for 3 years.  My first thought goes to Jin Rok, but that theory is dashed when we see her react to the sight of him as if she's never before seen him but likes what she sees.  Hmmm.  The roommate?  I dunno.  Guess we'll find out.  After making goo-goo eyes at hottie Jin Rok for a moment, she spies a familiar person - Dok Mi.

Is it just me or does Dok Mi look less-than-thrilled to spy this person?

Ah, thank you flashback. Now we know why.  They went to school together and this girl bullied Dok Mi.

Apparently this was a traumatizing experience for poor Dok Mi.  Enrique walks up as the two women are talking, and Dok Mi grabs his arm for support/out of desperation.

She begins to ask for help...

And then proceeds to faint in his arms.

 When she wakes up, she finds herself in a familiar place.  Only, it's a place she's only seen through her window and binoculars.  Oh yeah.  She's on her crush's couch.  She gets up and looks at her own apartment across the way.

She tries to leave in a panic before Crush shows up, but Enrique stops her.

Just then, the door opens...

 Uh oh.  Poor Dok Mi.

Great episode.  Great characters.  Interesting story development.  A wonderful fluffy piece of drama dessert.  Eye candy galore and already some tummy-flipping moments.  Ohhh yeah.  A welcome addition to anyone's drama lineup.  I hope you are enjoying it as well.  I am very excited for episode 3 to show up hopefully sometime today.  I want so badly to watch it.

And there, we're done for now.  I'm going to go get warm now.  The desk dungeon is a cold place, right here by a very drafty window.  Brr.  My hands are so cold I can barely type.  Must seek comfort in the warm embrace of my electric blanket for a bit.  Have a wonderful remainder of the week.  Enjoy some dramas and we hope to see you back here on Friday for the next installment of reviews. :)