This game isn’t merely a war game that Meunchanok has wreaked on Luckanai, but she’s starting a war with everyone. But when you start so many games, can you really keep tabs on what you’re playing, much less the score? But nothing is going to stop Meunchanok from trying. Thank goodness there’s Luckanai to keep her in check. Game on.

On a random note, PSA: who here wants to do a better job recycling after this episode?

EPISODE 2 RECAP

Pimunkae is still reeling over Khun Nai’s encounter and tears up over the new and improved man.

Meunchanok does a little dance over how happy her family life is but her mood dampers when she sees Khun Nai and his grin. She announces that she will kick him out of the house soon enough, and erase his smugness. Khun Nai merely says okay and Meunchanok wonders if he’s sorry that he can’t derail her family’s happiness. Khun Nai replies that he’s sorry he missed her whole song and dance earlier, since he was only able to see the last bit. HAHAHA. That little dance number he did though, I need to see it again. Khun Nai grasps her wrist to stop her from hitting him, and says he was only joking and that he thought she was really cute. Swoon. Meunchanok just stares at him blankly, speechless with the compliment.

Pimunkae calls Khun Nai to meet with her the next day. In a flashback we see that he declined to meet her, but she had requested the ring that he had given to her – although he says he already threw it away. She even reminds him that he used to say that she made him happy and that he had given her a token of his love for all of the things she had done for him. Why is she rehashing old times? Khun Nai asks her exactly this, and she says she just wants to hold onto the last thing that came from him. She gives him the location that she’ll be waiting at.

Khun Nai sends the ring via a deliveryman (hahaha) but Pimunkae blocks his car as he tries to leave. She asks him why he never told her about his uncle, but Khun Nai relents that it wouldn’t make a difference. She admits that she chose her mother’s path for her over him, but now she realizes that money doesn’t make her happy, and that only love does. Khun Nai removes his hand and encourages her to treasure his uncle’s love; he’s the man who was willing to hurt his daughter for her. Pimunkae asks what if she wants him back, but Khun Nai says they are over a long time ago. And we get a glimpse of Khun Nai’s utter finality: he only held onto the ring to remind himself not to let anyone treat him that way again. Ouch, but good on him.

Meunchanok sleeps in so that she won’t see Khun Nai the next morning. Mom shares a little game with her daughter, that if Khun Nai lives in the house with them, they can gather all sorts of intel from their Dad’s relationship with the beauty queen. Mom adds that there’s no say on when the beauty queen would make Dad send mom packing, but if they have Khun Nai on their side, they can be prepared. Meunchanok doesn’t think Khun Nai is trustworthy, but Mom is absolutely certain Khun Nai can help Meunchanok too because she raised the man and he would never betray her.

Khun Nai has a big presentation that day but Meunchanok orders him to come home and do something for her, or else she’ll throw a big fit. Khun Nai alerts his employees that he’ll be late due to his Karmic Debt Collector – omg this is so much better than Miss Snottyface Nok- but Meunchanok says he’s a lowly employee who’s just collecting paycheck. Khun Nai excuses himself because it seems she’s only summoning him to scold him, but Karmic Debt Collector Nok calls him her errand boy and he has no right to deny her summons. Oh no she didn’t. Khun Nai gets in her face and enunciates that he’s not HER errand boy. KDC Nok says that no matter how much you try to clean garbage, it’s still garbage. Dude your family owns a recycling firm! Khun Nai says that since she likes to make analogies, he offers one: Some garbage is useful and valuable than some item in a store that only looks fancy. BURN.

Karmic Debt Collector Nok orders him not to backtalk and to take her to a spa just so he knows his place. Khun Nai doesn’t have any more time to waste so he drives her to work. HAHAHA. But this is where she learns that Khun Nai is the VP of her dad’s company. She has a bone to pick with Dad but he’s too busy charming his girlfriend at lunch. Dad presents a big shiny rock to Pimunkae but it reminds her of Khun Nai’s rejection. She tells Dad that she had no idea that he cares about her this much.

Khun Nai gives a successful presentation but Karmic Debt Collector Nok wants to know how he has brainwashed her parents to give him the VP role. Khun Nai says he’s not good at brainwashing people and that she might be more talented in that area. Lol. She vows to take back the position, which makes Khun Nai curious to see how she would do that since Dad is his boss and he uses his brains to make decisions, not his temper. And he gives her another name! Miss Temperamental Nok. So many great names!

Penny’s condo isn’t finished in time but she knows exactly where she’ll be staying, she smiles with the anticipation of wreaking some havoc with Miss Temperamental Nok.

The aforementioned lady whines to grandma that her parents gave Luckanai a top dog position, which doesn’t surprise grandma because he’s a schemer and a brownnoser, just as bad as his mother. Meunchanok asks about Luckanai’s parents since she never got the truth out of Mom, but grandma merely tells her what she needs to know: that he’s not related to them by blood. Well, that’s a relief.

A big boss gives Penny a ride to the mansion and she pretends to be the rich girl again, she even makes her mom (the housekeeper) pretend not to be her mom. When the big boss leaves, Penny questions mom why she has an issue with her self-made daughter. Mom says it’s because Penny can’t be honest with who she is, instead she’s living a lie. Mom’s got a point and that’s the difference between Khun Nai and Penny. The way Khun Nai looks at Meunchanok isn’t lost on Penny though, who notes that he’s really no different than her, in that he is like a dog that gazes at an airplane.

Meunchanok had seen Penny trying to flirt with Khun Nai and tells them to do inappropriate things in the servant wing. This comment upsets Khun Nai who now paces the pool area and as he glances up, he sees Meunchanok through her bedroom window. And there’s that dog and a plane analogy again.

The next morning Meunchanok sets out for round 2 of Get-Luckanai-Out-Of-My-Life Game.

Meunchanok hijacks her dad’s meeting and introduces herself as the real and only daughter, and then she says she’ll be taking on all of Luckanai’s responsibilities since he’s just an orphan her family took under their wing. She tells him to get out of her chair. The committee is shocked, to say the least, especially that they haven’t been given a forewarning about this. They said that Meunchanok just graduated with zero work experience and she has a design degree, which leaves the committee with a lack of confidence in her ability. Like she thinks she could just waltz in here and get some training then be the VP? Khun Nai tries to lessen the embarrassment by supporting her cause: that it’s good Meunchanok takes an interest in the business, and that she might offer new insights for the project. But she puts her foot in her mouth and says that an insider is better than an outsider’s insight.

Their next big project is proper recycling education. Meunchanok will have to teach others how to properly dispose of garbage. HAHAHA. I think Karmic Debt Collector just got her game handed to her.

Mom questions Luckanai on whether Meunchanok had any boyfriends while in London (for 3 years) since he had paid her a visit secretly. Well now, tell me more about this secret visit. Khun Nai replies that from what he knows, she didn’t have any boyfriends. With a conspiratorial smile, Mom says she’s gonna get Meunchanok busy with a boyfriend since Meunchanok has too much time on her hand. Khun Nai doesn’t look too pleased with Mom’s new mission.

Khun Nai gets awarded Best Society’s Businessman and the media dubbed him Recycle Prince (the names in this show!), much to Meunchanok’s distaste. Everyone in the company except for her is swooning over their VP. Khun Nai makes a point in the interview/presentation that there is no such thing as garbage, because it can be recycled and transformed into something else useful. As we hear Khun Nai in the interview, we see Meunchanok getting a tour of the recycling facility and getting educated on the different methods of recycling her company offers. Dude, and you’re just learning this now?

Based on the interview, their company got additional clients and their revenue soared. Everyone cheered for the capable VP while Meunchanok looks on with surprise.

Mom’s mission to find her future son in law is well underway as she fangirls over her friend’s son.

Dad tells Khun Nai that deep down he’s happy that Meunchanok is learning the ropes from Khun Nai, but it doesn’t mean that he wants her to replace Khun Nai. He wants both of them to work together and continue to build the company. Khun Nai says he knows his place well but Dad argues that there is nothing low about him, he’s well aware that if Khun Nai leaves the company, he would be welcomed in other companies in a heartbeat. In fact, he knows that Khun Nai could open his own business and compete with him and he would be a fearless competitor – however Dad knows that Khun Nai wouldn’t do that. Dad thinks that Meunchanok misunderstands Khun Nai and wants to defeat him, but he hopes that Khun Nai can change her mind so that she can trust him again. Tell me about the falling out!

Meunchanok wants to survey the area on her own but Khun Nai says he would take her. She wonders why he would need to tag along, unless he’s so afraid of losing his position. Khun Nai says he wants to see how scary she is (since she’s threatening to take his position). The secretary is standing in between their bickering and asks if she could breathe now. Haha. She is all of us.

Khun Nai makes it clear to her that he’s not her driver and he has a higher position so she would need to sit in the front passenger seat. She threatens him that his ending would not be pretty and Khun Nai is practically shaking in his boots when he says she ought to finish the job “prettily” if she wants to end him.

They survey a location but Meunchanok wants to do it from the car, pfft, which Khun Nai does reverse psychology to get her to get out of the car: he says this is her project so she should probably learn the ins and outs of the garbage industry. She reluctantly puts on her facemask and steps out of the car. He tells her that the garbage centers are full so the locals would create their own garbage pile, this goes to show how important it is to take care of waste. Meunchanok attempts to take pictures while trying not to barf along the way. Khun Nai takes her to the public waste center but all of the employees are too busy watching muay thai match to humor her with a research endeavor. Khun Nai joins them in on the fun, leaving Meunchanok frustrated.

All of the garbage workers are impressed by Khun Nai’s Porsche, but even moreso because he earned it with his “garbage” money. Khun Nai instructs Meunchanok that by now she should know that she has to work with people, get to know them, instead of trying to will them to do what she wants them to to. Meunchanok tells him not to lecture her but Khun Nai relents that someone has to. Hahaha. He sends her tomorrow’s schedule with the town and says they’ve just starting the project and there’s more work to do. Meunchanok says that he may win this game but she’s going to win the next one (or so help her god?)

Penny’s plan to use the big boss for material things backfired as he wants her to go back to the condo with him. She lies that she’s meeting a friend who hurt herself at the hospital, but he doesn’t buy it. As he tries to hit her, Mom’s future son in law comes to her rescue. She’s attracted to him immediately, but especially after the fact that Mom tells her there are certain stairway steps that she shouldn’t climb. It just so happens that the more prohibited the steps, the more attractive they are to Penny.

Meunchanok gets wind that Dad was planning on taking Pimunkae to the symphony sponsored by their company. She snags the tickets instead and takes Mom, so Dad has no choice but to cancel his plans with his girlfriend.

He asks Khun Nai to inform Pimunkae, who ends up showing up at the symphony anyway against Khun Nai’s advice. Pimunkae asks Khun Nai if he would take responsibility for her if Mom pushes her out of Dad’s life. When he doesn’t answer, she tells him this is why she needs to stand on her own.

But confronting the ex wife isn’t smooth sailing as she gets disrespected by Meunchanok. Dad tells his daughter to apologize – since she empties a champagne glass on the floor to warn Pimunkae to stop destroying families. But Meunchanok declares that she hates the woman and will never apologize. He says that if she continues to talk in disrespect he won’t be talking to her again. So mom empties her champagne glass into Dad’s face and relents that mistresses these days aren’t staying in hiding anymore. Oh this is bad.

Dad pulls Pimunkae aside and says that she shouldn’t have come if she knew his daughter would be here. Pimunkae admits that she was wrong, since not showing up would make everyone else happy, but that would mean betraying herself. Dad relents that it’s all his fault, he shouldn’t let his daughter talk to her that way. He spoiled her so badly that she turned out this way. He says he will be tougher on her, otherwise she would never be able to accept the truth. Aw Dad, I think past 18 years old, the way people turn out is really by their own creation.

So, sad, poor Meunchanok cries by the pool and Khun Nai tries to console her but Meunchanok doesn’t believe a word he says – she’s convinced that he brought Pimunkae to the concert. Khun Nai says this all started because she declared war with Pimunkae first. Meunchanok accuses him of trying to protect the other woman but Khun Nai says that the way she skews things won’t make her happy. She even declared war with her own father who loves her. Meunchanok argues that Dad only cares about his own happiness, to which Khun Nai relents that it’s the same for her: she only cares about her own happiness. She stares daggers at him – misty daggers.

“Well isn’t it true?” He questions. “I used to think that you were lucky because you have people who love you. But right now, I know that all of that love and being spoiled is unlucky. Because when things don’t go your way, you have no perseverance, you act like it is the end of the world.”

Meunchanok tries to slap him but he stops her, “I will only let you slap me if I deserve it. But in this case, I mean well.”

Meunchanok wants to barf because if he means well, he would get the hell out of here, because he’s an unwanted addition and she would be happier without him around. Oof, she’s so cold.

Those last words of hers bring him back to when his own mother said the exact same things to him: that her life would be better off without him. His mom had begged for Lucky to stay with Grandma (she calls her Khun Than which means she is of lower status) and asked for Grandma to send him to school and he could repay with hard work when he grows up.

Then mom just gets up and leaves her son with grandma. Lucky tries to go after her, but mom tells him that she doesn’t love him and wishes he was never born. Ouch. But mom is sobbing as the cab drives away, so it seems like she has forced herself to be mean so that Lucky would stay with rich people. *This pic kills me

Meunchanok shows up prepared for the meeting the next morning, to Khun Nai’s surprise. She presents the situation about the project and doesn’t think that educating the village is enough. In order to teach the value of recycling garbage, she wants to put a competition together: the team that collects the most and cleanest recycling products wins. She says that this will encourage learning and teamwork, as well as donation of the proceeds to those in need. Well of course she comes up with a competition, lol. Khun Nai smiles at her effort.

But Dad cuts her excitement by letting another team implement her plan. They have an upcoming big demand that requires everyone’s efforts, and he makes Khun Nai the executive to lead the project. Khun Nai wonders if it’s a good idea that Dad won’t reconcile with Meunchanok immediately, even though she had been the one to start the war with Pimunkae. Dad says he’ll wait until she cools down to talk and asks Khun Nai to look after Meunchanok. The girl spies her dad and doesn’t like seeing that he’s so close to Khun Nai.

Grandma scolds mom for allowing the girlfriend to embarrass her and her daughter on stage, then mom starts crying, which makes grandma feel bad. But Mom is actually crying over Kluen Cheewit on TV when Mark lost a girlfriend. HAHAHA. She says she’s going to teach her daughter how to act so that she can beat Pimunkae at her own game.

And game on – Meunchanok overhears the secretary confirming a magazine spread for Dad and Pimunkae – so she finds out a big event that their company can be part of, in an effort to get dad out of the city. Her task is to help the town with ocean waste but she finds out that there’s a Full Moon (sp) party that’s taking place as well, which includes participation from large companies. However when she pitches it to dad, she is as calm as ever (the calm before the storm as an employee puts it) and says if she ruins the event, then she would take it as a learning experience. Dad couldn’t allow her to run the show on her own at such a large event so he asks Pimunkae to cancel their magazine interview. Look who won this round. Next week, they are off to the beach!

COMMENTS

It’s getting really hard to watch Meunchanok. The saving grace for me is Khun Nai who can counter her brattyness, and doesn’t seem to be wholly affected by her meanness. She may think this is all a game to her, but Khun Nai is always sincere and genuine, even when she thinks he’s being sarcastic to her. That’s the only thing that cuts through her bullshit. I’m glad that only Meunchanok and grandma are the mean ones to him, the parents, the employees and everyone outside of those two are kind and treat him with the respect that he deserves. Because if EVERYONE is mean to him, I’d throw in the towel with this project. At least everyone is aware that Meunchanok is acting like her shit doesn’t stink. In this world, you would think it’s a crime to want to be rich – that poor people should always aspire to be poor and shouldn’t want to improve themselves, much less be successful in anything that would threaten the rich. It’s this mentality that irks me the most.

I really miss Mae Mangmao, who is smart and kind and real, but this only means that Taew is such a great actress because she’s making it so hard to like Meunchanok. I hope things turn around for her character soon, because when you start so low as a character, there’s only room for growth. But before she loses me and Khun Nai completely, I hope she becomes someone we can root for. No promises for future recaps if I get so annoyed, that I’d want to reach through the screen and throttle the main girl.