I was torn about which picture I wanted to feature on this episode but ended up with Luckanai lifting his face to the rain, because much of this episode is about learning to embrace the pain, understanding our flaws and accepting our issues. But the person who crushed me today is Meunchanok. Even though she’s pretending to be fake, ends up being the most honest of them all. Let’s all hope that the honesty gets soaked up before the other shoe drops. Every mother, father, daughter, and sons for themselves.

EPISODE 5 RECAP

Pimunkae rejects Dad’s proposal at the last second, as her eyes dart back and forth between her lover and her ex-boyfriend, Luckanai. Once she makes the decision, she tells Dad that she can’t marry him anymore. Poor dad, who remains frozen on one bended knee. Pimunkae steps away from the paparazzi to stand before Luckanai and says that she has honored their deal. Meunchanok peers at them, wondering what in hell is going on, when she hears Pimunkae realizing that Luckanai has made the deal for Meunchanok. Though Luckanai doesn’t confirm or deny, his silence says it all. He tells Meunchanok to retrieve her father while he does damage control.

Mom isn’t surprised about Dad’s corny proposal but she is surprised that Pimunkae rejected his hand when she was so desperate to marry him. Luckanai notes that Dad’s corniness had worked twenty years ago (lol) and Mom deflects that she only said yes to dad to stop her mother from nagging. Meunchanok settles her dad and instructs her mom to tend to him since everyone else in the household has things to do, so mom has no choice but to concede.

Pimunkae’s mom chastises her daughter for rejecting Dad’s offer when he had been responsible for their upkeep, she suggests Pimunkae get admitted to a hospital to check her head since she must have amnesia. Ouch. Pimunkae could only cry as she thinks back to Luckanai asking her to reject Dad’s offer for Meunchanok.

Meanwhile Meunchanok addresses the elephant in the room since Luckanai won’t bring it up. She asks why he would ask Pimunkae to reject her dad’s proposal for her. Luckanai shrugs, like it’s no big deal, and says simply that the meaning is in the word: because of her. Always for her. I think Luckanai is getting into the habit of making us swoon before breakfast. Luckanai says that he had asked Nok not to be aggressive and he didn’t like that Dad took the offensive by forcing her to accept his marriage. Meunchanok realizes that he would rather hurt Dad over her and thanks him. But she’s curious about why Pimunkae would heed his request since she’s the type of person who wouldn’t do anything without benefitting from it. Luckanai replies that he managed to stall time so that she could come to terms with Dad, so she should stop asking questions.

Jomyut presents to Luckanai this year’s campaign plan. He tells Meunchanok that for the last five years, Luckanai has been successful in putting their company on the map, their company partnered with the government to donate several products that are made from recycled materials to the public, it is to encourage the public that they should take recycling seriously. They even have famous presenters, which makes Meunchanok wonder why anyone would want to associate themselves with trash – but Jomyut relents that they have plenty of interested candidates because helping the planet helps their image. Meunchanok questions Jomyut privately whether Pimunkae is among one of the candidates on the list.

Dad sulks in bed over his recent heartbreak, which make it’s even more awkward when his ex-wife brings a meal up for him. But Mom uses the opportunity to point out to dad that there is things in life where you cannot get it back and must live with your regret. She points out dad’s failures and seemingly things he has no idea that he’s doing. She tells him that the failed situation has everything to do with his inconsistency and his own greed to have his cake and eat it too. She points out that on the one hand he wants to start a new life and marry Pimunkae, but on the other hand he doesn’t want anything to change with his daughter. He even promises to be considerate of his daughter and won’t break her heart, but he goes and breaks his promises over and over again. Mom is sure he would do the same to Pimunkae, which is why she rejected his proposal. She adds finally that the two girls are like oil and water and they can never live peacefully together, therefore he had to choose. But since he screwed up, he can no longer choose. Oof mom, she knows to hit it where it hurts.

Luckanai instructs the employees to obtain background intel on the three potential companies that they would partner with on this campaign, and Meunchanok questions why they don’t choose all three since they’re doing a good deed and will only benefit the environment. Luckanai offers that they must choose a company that truly has good intentions to the environment, not merely a company that wants to improve their image. Meunchanok brings up the presenter issue, and inquiries who they would choose that is also a good person and not just someone who needs to improve their image. Lol. Always giving it as good as she gets. Luckanai relents that they will make that determination another time, he says that he will personally handle the deaf/blind children’s cause, to which Meunchanok volunteers to help him. The employees note that Meunchanok is sticking to Luckanai like glue and if that means they are trying to reveal themselves to Meunchanok’s parents soon (they think that Nok and Nai are hiding their relationship because her parents won’t approve).

They meet with the deaf/blind children squad and you can tell that Luckanai takes a personal interest in these children because they know exactly who they are meeting without even hearing or seeing him. They recognize his cologne and the rustle noise that are the bags of goodies. The teacher put their knowledge to test as they all gather round Luckanai to touch his face – ooh can I volunteer?! – and they giggle over their correct assumption. Meunchanok watches on with a smile. Next, Luckanai offers to read them “Little Red Riding Hood” but gets all hot and bothered because Meunchanok is getting too close to him. She laments that she will “help” him read the book to the kids, and you know, you gotta get up in someone’s space to do that. They are so cute as they read the fairytale together.

Later Luckanai tells Meunchanok that he’s happy when he’s with the kids and giving them a good time. She agrees that it does make her happy but it’s also unfortunate because they are not able to see so many beautiful things in the world. Luckanai thinks that they might be able to see things even more beautiful than they can, because the kids see images from their imagination, whereas they see the reality which isn’t always as pretty as we hope it would be. If that’s not life’s greatest disappointment, then I don’t know what is. Nok doesn’t understand so Nai blindfolds her and sets her free to touch and feel like the kids – which includes touching him in order to remove her bias and understand his feelings. Gulps.

She starts by caressing his chest and noting that his heart is beating really fast. Her hand makes its way to his face and she touches his lips – OMG, I think this exercise is meant to kill Khun Nai, breathe Nai, BREATHE! – but Nok removes her hands quickly (more shocked by her own quickening heart) as she takes off her blindfold. He asks whether she can feel what’s in his heart now, but they get interrupted with a phone call.

We soon see that Nok is getting more affected by Nai – she runs into a woman whom she thinks is blind, but turns out to be another woman who is attracted to Nai. They are so chummy and flirtatious that Nok practically rolls her eyes and says she’s heading back to the office. Nai wonders what could cause his assistant to want to head back to the office so soon when she has always asked to go home. The woman named “Nat” who volunteers at the deaf/blind establishment says she’s not going to divulge a woman after her own heart, leaving Nai hanging.

Mom tries to usher Dad and Nah Phai out of the house before the storm, that is her mother, hits, but too late, grandma barrels in saying she’s going to punish the housekeeper and daughter for being ungrateful. Dad says that the issue has already been resolved but grandma doesn’t believe dad anymore since his words cannot be trusted. Nok wants to rush in and deal with the situation but Nai advises to calm down first, the cutest part is that Nok keeps stumbling and Nai catching her around the waist (hahaha). Nok knows exactly how to deflect, she tells grandma that Luckanai already handled this and that she shouldn’t worry about things that will raise her blood pressure. She also adds that grandma should head out now because traffic is going to be insane – and grandma relents that she’s only dropping this because her granddaughter is asking.

Once alone, grandma gives Meunchanok the side eye for coming to Luckanai’s defense, she warns her not to weaken her resolve. Nok assured the older woman that she’s got this. Mm hm.

Mom and Nok have a cute face mask moment, but as they settle down, Nok regurgitates why a woman like Pimunkae would decline a marriage proposal, though what she really wants to ask is why Pimunkae listened to Nai. Mom wonders this also but she has the missing piece that Nok doesn’t have: the knowledge of Nai and Kae’s previous relationship. Mom approaches Nai that night as he’s reviewing the presenter candidates for the campaign, she questions what he’s planning on doing for Nok again. As they sit down to chat, Mom says that Pimunkae must have misunderstood and thinks that he wants to get back with her, even though Nai never said such thing. She warns him that this could come back to bite him, and Nai says he’ll talk to Kae as soon as possible. When mom is worried, you should be worried too!

Pimunkae wonders if Nai is the one that got away, she still regrets leaving him and hopes she won’t lose him for good. Yeah, that ship is long gone.

Oh fun, and some new villains in the picture, this one is from SJ Polymers. Another mom tells her son that she is prepared to give all of his inheritance to charity if he doesn’t improve their company in a year’s time. She shows him a picture of Green Dream and that they must be a partner in the next compaign or else! The son sees Meunchanok and says he’ll make it happen for sure. He also sees Luckanai (though he doesn’t say how he knows him, there’s just a sneer beneath all of that) and mom tells him that Luckanai is Thawat’s right hand man, and he needs to nab that position.

Dad is in an upbeat mood this morning as he tells the kids that they are getting a new customer: SJ Polymers. From the sound of the name, Luckanai has reservations because they are known to want only grade A material, not recyclable plastic. Dad, as the ever glass half full kind of guy, says they might be turning over a new leaf since the matriarch of the firm is preparing to hand over the company to her son. Dad’s mood dampens when he’s alone and doesn’t have to fake a smile. Like a sad puppy he watches Pimunkae twirl in a live video, but then she collapses. Dad’s supposed to meet with SJ Polymers but tables it for another day as he hightails out of there to see Kae. Meanwhile Luckanai researches SJ Polymers which makes Meunchanok even more eager to attend the sales meeting because of Luckanai’s reservations, but she learns that Dad is MIA to see Kae.

Pimunkae says that Thawat is so good to her, which of course frustrates Thawat (dad) because she should at least know that he cares about her. He asks her straight up why she rejected his proposal since this is what she wanted. Meunchanok opens the hospital door in time to hear her dad asking this question, but she doesn’t wait around to hear the answer. She made sure to enunciate that she’s just visiting dad’s ex-girlfriend and that Pimunkae should also get her head checked in the event that she has amnesia and forgot what she said yesterday. Lol, everyone is telling Pimunkae to get her head checked. Furthermore, Meunchanok says people’s quality is determined by their actions, and Pimunkae should know what type of actions equates to lowly behavior.

Pimunkae turns it back on Meunchanok that she wouldn’t agree to the marriage because of Meunchanok, not because her feelings have changed. Dad believes it and tells Meunchanok that she needs to stop. But Meunchanok can see right through Pimunkae’s acting and doesn’t quit.. which doesn’t end well for her as she’s losing her cool. She rails that their relationship was not fraught on love, in fact it’s all about money and how much dad could support Pimunkae. But dad has had enough of Meunchanok’s disrespect and tells her to get out. Ugh the look on Nok’s face. She’s crushed. Nai looks like he would fight dad too for breaking her heart.

Heartbroken, she rushes to her car but Nai takes her car keys away, relenting that he won’t allow her to drive off in this condition. Nok says she just can’t BE here right now and Nai looks at her in his understanding way and says that he gets it, and that he’ll be with her wherever she goes. Aw, so sweet.

As they drive, Nai tells Nok to let the tears fall if she wants, but Nok refuses to shed more tears (because she’s fighting hard to keep them at bay) for Pimunkae and her wiles. But turns out, the sky decides to cry for her as they’re ensconced in torrential downpour. He pulls over and recounts that when he was a child, when he was sad, it would always rain and he would find comfort in that, because he could cry and no one would hear him – and people wouldn’t know if there were tears on his face or if it were the rainfall. Nai gets out in the pouring rain so that she may have her privacy, Nok watches him through the window, at the gorgeous way that he lifts his face to the rain and extends his arms out. And she starts to cry. Nai looks at her and touches her face through the window. What a beautiful and heart-breaking scene, these two.

Pimunkae’s mom tells Thawat that Pimunkae must have intentionally hurt herself over him and that it’s just a childish thing to get his attention. Pimunkae’s mom is glad that Thawat can overlook that because she’s adamant that Pimunkae would never leave him. Dad you’re better than this!

The rain settles down and Nai gets back into the car. Nok offers her handkerchief to dry his face but Nai doesn’t want to dirty it, until she reaches over and wipes his face. Aw. He takes her hand and thanks her kindly. It’s the raw look she’s giving him that’s killing me.

At the hospital, Wongwait invites his mom to dinner with Penny, whom she hasn’t warmed up to yet, but mom inclines that she has charity things to sell before they could go. Penny uses her fame and asks fans to help support a good cause, which gets her a thumb up from Wongwait. But things don’t go as swelling as Penny had hoped during dinner. Wongwait’s mom tells her in private that it’s only a matter of time before Wongwait sees her true colors and mom won’t have to wait long. She will never accept a daughter in law who is dirty – she points out that Penny is beyond redemption since she grew in a nice household, but still chooses to lie – so it’s not so much that she grew up poor (which is another sticking point) but that she went about it the dishonest way. Penny clenches her hands as she has to sit and listen to the older woman chastise her.

Nai encourages Nok to eat one bite at a time since they have a long night ahead of them – and I had to giggle because he chooses Burger King. They are so cute.

Nai asks if Nok would just let dad live his life and respect his decisions. Nok says that she knows that dad loves her, but Pimunkae is a gold digger and she’s just not good enough. Nai advises that if she tries to be open minded and talk to dad – instead of lashing out in anger – he might see her perspective. Nok says that Pimunkae is taking her happiness away from her, which prompts Nai to note that what she’s doing right now doesn’t seem to make her happy either. Nok questions if he’s doing all of this for dad but Nai says that everything he’s doing, he’s doing it for her. Awww.

Mom finds out that Dad hurt Nok again but instead of lashing out at him, she encourages him to tell her everything. Dad wonders out loud what he needs to do or needs to say to explain to Nok that their (mom and dad’s) relationship will never be the same again. But Nok walks in on time to answer that she knew they were going to divorce even before she left to study abroad. She peers at Nai before she continues, like she needs to see his face for strength, and says that she’s not a kid anymore and that she should respect their decisions. She starts to tear up and says that she just wants the three of them to be together before all that’s left are memories. Nok walks into her dad’s arms, and dad apologizes. She tells them that no matter how much they change, her love for them will never change. *Tear* you know it’s something parents always say to their kids, but to have that reciprocated is just beyond. Dad admits that he’s a bad dad for hurting her but Nok relents that her name means that she’s like dad and that she loves him. Ugh, who is cutting onions around here?

And that lasted maybe a second before Nok says that if she finds out that Pimunkae is not genuine with dad, Nok won’t stand still. Dad looks nervous.

Pimunkae calls Luckanai out to meet that night and she immediately says that she held her end of the bargain so now they can be back together. Luckanai says he didn’t ask her to reject dad’s offer, he merely wants to give Meunchanok more time to adjust. He apologizes if she misunderstood because he never gave her his word. And Pimunkae knows this, but she’s holding on to the last thread of hope, deluding herself. She questions why he’s so cold when she’s done everything for their love. But Luckanai says he considers her only as a friend the moment she left him. She asks if he’s being vengeful but Luckanai replies that he chooses to understand her and consider that the day she left him is the day that she no longer loves him. And if he were to be with someone, it would be with someone he loves.

Pimunkae questions whether he loves Meunchanok and whether her tears hurt him. Now someone is being vindictive. She warns him that Thawat loves her very much and she has a lot of ways to hurt Meunchanok. Luckanai tells her not to force things on him because even if Meunchanok weren’t around, he could never come back to her. But Kae is certain she could make him love her again, if only he would come back to her.

Luckanai is poolside pacing back and forth as he stares up at Meunchanok’s room, like he always do. He thinks back to Pimunkae’s warning, and also Meunchanok’s tears. Perhaps the combination of standing in the rain and not sleeping enough causes him to catch a cold. Meunchanok hears this and sees to his condition. She determines that he’s too feverish to go to work – despite Luckanai insisting that he can manage – and she tells him to consider people who worry about him if he doesn’t consider himself. She gets close to his face and says a stubborn kid is cute, but not on an adult. Hahaha.

But he’s determined to see through SJ Polymer meeting so Meunchanok plays chauffeur, threatening to tell her maids to carry him to bed and then bolting him to it if he doesn’t listen, now that I’d like to see! She even buckles him in the car and says it’s cute when he listens, and their noses almost touch by accident. She warns herself not to get into this when it’s only a game. Oh, she still remembers this is a game? Even the song sings about how she gets weak when she’s close to him. Hahaha.

Meunchanok notices immediately that during the introduction with SJ Polymers, that Wuttha – the future owner of SJ Polymers – and Luckanai must have had a tense history. Luckanai doesn’t speak of it, indicating only that they went to the same college. Meunchanok drops it since she’s concerned about his complexion. She touches his forehead and neck and notices that he’s still feverish. Luckanai says he’s fine, just that his heart is racing a bit, that’s all. Hehe. He takes her hand and thanks her.

We finally get to the bottom of Luckanai and Wuttha’s history – Pimunkae. Apparently they competed for her affection during college. Luckanai says things are different now, he’s not only a classmate, he’s the VP. Wuttha wonders how Thawat would feel if he finds out that his underling had also dated Pimunkae in the past. Luckanai returns the sentiment and wonders how Wuttha’s mom would feel if she finds out Wuttha is responsible for losing this deal with Green Dream. Damn, I’m not worried about Luckanai anymore, this man can hold his own.

Penny and Wongwait’s mom are playing a power play with Wongwait in the middle. Penny wants Wongwait to buy her jewelry for an event while mom pretends to be sick to get her son back, and I guess Penny is exactly what everyone says she is – a gold digger. She gives him an ultimatum though, if he walks out the door, they are over, and he does, lamenting that one day he’ll make mom come to accept them.

Wuttha meets Thawat and tells the older man that they share the same values and are looking forward to doing business with him. He mentions that they are looking to start a new part of their business that focuses on recyclable materials. Meunchanok sees Wuttha back to his car when she couldn’t help but inquire about Wuttha-Luckanai’s past. Wuttha relents that they are more like competitors back in the day. Before he could say more, Luckanai interrupts them in time. Wutta tells Luckanai that there’s no way he could shut him up about Pimunkae but Luckanai warns Wuttha that he has a ton of dirty laundry on him (got a girl preggers etc) and he has to be prepared to see them aired if he shares someone else’s business. Wuttha is all; you dare declare war with me? But Luckanai tells him to relax, this is only a negotiation, if it’s successful, there won’t be any wars.

COMMENTS

I needed this episode. What with everything going on in the world, and me feeling especially emotional these days, this episode was somewhat therapeutic to me. Sometimes I work through my feelings by watching lakorns, this is why Youtube and Netflix is a godsend. These characters are selfish but what this episode serves to show us is the human side of them, their insecurities, their self – non – awareness, if that is even a word, and their perfectly imperfect realities. Sometimes you just don’t know what your problem is until someone points it out.

For example dad can’t seem to figure out what he’s doing wrong with his daughter and his lover until mom tells him: you can’t have your cake and eat it too. The question now remains if dad could do things differently instead of the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. Didn’t Einstein say that’s insane? And he’s a genius. Pimunkae is just angry she left Luckanai because he’s all successful now and she can’t have him back. Bitter and vindictive.

While we follow up with Meunchanok’s tenderness from last episode and learn more about what’s truly bothering her. Even though she claims this is all a game to her – though she forgets sometimes – I feel that the things she does say came from her heart. Like she spends so much time hiding how she really feels – afraid to speak the truth with her parents and with Luckanai – that when she’s “faking” her niceties, she actually gets to say the things she’s so afraid of saying, in the name of pretending. Who’s the joke on now?

Case in point, when she admits that dad has chosen Pimunkae over her and how crushing that was. She says she doesn’t want to waste another drop of tears for Pimunkae, when all she truly needs is a good cry. That moment when she listens to Luckanai’s childhood story of crying and not wanting people to know and then seeing the grown up Luckanai embracing all of the tears and rain outside, that opens the floodgate for her. In a way, I feel like she let some of that animosity go with the tears. Perhaps if we had to pinpoint a moment in time where she falls in love with him – one can argue that she’s always loved him in an innocent, girl next door way – but she came to love the man he became at that moment. That made me cry along with her, and not merely because she’s crying over dad’s rejection.

I also feel like those that we love teach us about love too. Luckanai says that getting angry and vicious won’t make her happy, but being open minded and just talking it through will get her places. So I liked that she pull up her big girl pants and tell her parents how she really felt: like she knew they won’t be the same again, but that she’s afraid their time together will become distant memories. A girl just wants her daddy, you know? And the part that she tells them that her love for them won’t change, ugh, that got me. As parents we feel like we fail so much, but those simple words are music to our ears. We have to remember that a child’s love for their parents is also unconditional.

Which brings me back to the romance of Nok and Nai. I’m starting to see how these two are good for each other. When you remove the bullshit, they have that easygoing, comfortable exchange. Nok is falling even more for him, despite reminding herself this is all a game, and we see now much Nai loves her, or has loved her for so many years. He’s so good at hiding his feelings, that knowing she’s playing a game, and trying to use the game to win her over, Nai can just show her how he truly feels. If anything, this episode feels liberating on both fronts.

But oh, that impending other shoe though, it’s just a matter of time before it drops. A matter of time before Nok finds out Nai and Kae used to be an item. I’ll just smile at this behind the scene pic while I wait for the other shoe to drop.