Life has been really busy for me, so apologies for a mini recap – instead of the more detailed one – and I’m anticipating that it will get even busier what with the million and one things that I take on in both my personal, professional and blog life. I will endeavor to recap as much as possible before each new episodes air, so I appreciate your patience and understanding. I know that this show is being fan subbed, and that some of you like to stop by to read my thoughts and share your thoughts with me (thank you!) so it takes the pressure off of recapping every little thing. – Fia

Someone once said that if you wish to change the world, you should start with yourself first. And I think that the idea came to a head in this last couple of episodes, especially today, where Meunchanok comes up with a recycle campaign slogan: Change World, where her company would partner with a plastics manufacturer to create beautiful furniture made out of recycled plastics and donate to charity, not only for a good cause, but to teach the world that if they recycle properly, trash too can be transformed into a thing of use and beauty. But this perspective must start from her: Meunchanok must truly believe the value of “trash” and we see that her thinking begins to change along with the campaign.

The force that is propelling her to change her way of thinking is none other than Luckanai, a man who seems to know her better than herself. But that’s the problem with that type of confidence, Luckanai leaves little room for error. He takes the opportunity of Meunchanok pretending to like him, to get in her good graces. He is determined to show her who he is, how he feels about her, and hope that being genuine would help her see the real him and not the truth that he withheld. Meanwhile he keeps the truth at bay, negotiating with players, trying to control them from leaking the fact that he and Pimunkae was a former couple. But what did mom say? You can’t control people.

It starts with Wuttha, his college nemesis, who must charm Meunchanok at all costs because he needs Green Dream’s partnership, as well as Meunchanok’s flawless pedigree. Luckanai challenges Wuttha to play by the rules and nobody will know each others secrets, but Luckanai wants to ensure no cheating by assigning Meunchanok to lead the campaign plan and to get an approval from the board of directors, while someone else manages the relationship with Wuttha’s company. He uses this as a means to give Meunchanok the opportunity to prove to the board, as well as preventing Wuttha from revealing the truth.

But it also gives Luckanai the opportunity to help her when she needs him the most. That entails accompanying her to find inspiration at the bookstore, where they browse the fancy shelves and flirt. He would always catch her around the middle and then they would steal glances at each other. The proximity and chemistry flows through the air. That evening she also practices her presentation in front of him and is open to constructive criticisms, while Luckanai makes her blush even more by saying that he cannot look at her face without smiling. Meunchanok wonders why he’s so calm about everything and Luckanai relents that she would be calm too if she had been waiting for someone for ten years. Well that’s not overwhelming, lol.

Though in the case of Wuttha, there are things Luckanai can’t control. For instance he didn’t imagine Grandma would determine that Wuttha would make the perfect future grandson, so she sets out to match make Wuttha with Meunchanok, and gives him the green light to date her granddaughter. But Wuttha knows the difference between pursuing a gem versus being available for side action. He meets Penny who tries to use him like her other men, but he knows her game and doesn’t play along the way that she wants him to – he merely sleeps with her and tells her that if she wants to stay in his life, she needs to understand the essence of their relationship.

Penny walks this fine line of playing her men and gets frustrated when their moms don’t accept her. What’s funny is that she’s exactly what they say she is, like if she’s actually genuine and notice that Wongwait isn’t like other guys and loves her for who she is, then she should reciprocate and not go after other men who is exactly like her. I don’t particular care about her outcome, I feel bad for Wongwait because he’s a nice guy and they’re cute together.

Wuttha doesn’t back down easily from Luckanai’s threat as he learns through Penny that Meunchanok used to hate him, but more importantly, she is possessive of her dad and hates Pimunkae. He stores this useful intel for another day.

Luckanai has been ignoring Pimunkae’s call after the day he made it really clear that he’s never going back to her, but Pimunkae is persistent, it seems like she’s more pissed that he’s admittedly in love with Meunchanok, who is the bane of her existence. So Pimunkae threatens to tell Thawat the truth if Luckanai doesn’t answer her calls – and that works, but Luckanai merely tells her that he can’t erase the past, but he’s going to make the best of the present and show Meunchanok his real self. He’s convinced that she will see past the history.

Even though Pimunkae wants Luckanai back, she doesn’t want to jeopardize the benefits that she gets from dating dad, so in a way, Meunchanok is correct in believing that Pimunkae is a gold digger. Thawat had pleaded that if only she would come back to him, he’s sure he could make her fall in love with him again. LOL, talk about karma, she said the exact same thing to Luckanai and it doesn’t feel so good to hear it from someone you don’t love nor interested in anymore.

Seeing dad sad and rejected, Meunchanok just wants to fight his battles and confront Pimunkae, but mom – ever the wise lady – tells Meunchanok that dad knows what he’s getting into and should accept the consequences. In terms of how to deal with Pimunkae, mom suggests that she can’t be a bulldozer, in order to win her opponent, she must learn her weaknesses, since Pimunkae knows all of Meunchanok’s weaknesses.

Thus, it was unexpected that Meunchanok takes the lead and tells the board of directors that they have chosen Pimunkae as the presenter for their campaign (she had successfully presented and gotten approval for the plan) much to Luckanai and Thawat’s surprise. Thawat is concerned because he knows Meunchanok doesn’t like his girlfriend and doesn’t want that to affect the business. Meunchanok sets out to show her dad that she can be professional when it counts. So she goes to see Pimunkae to talk her into being the presenter, but it turned out to be more of a challenge that if Pimunkae was grateful to her dad, then she should concede. Meunchanok even invites everyone to lunch. There is a cute scene where Pimunkae accidentally dropped a wine glass and one of the pieces cut Meunchanok’s toes, so Luckanai bends down to tend to her toes, making Pimunkae squirm with jealousy.

Meunchanok questions whether Luckanai had any faith in her ability to be professional around Pimunkae, to which Luckanai says he had total faith because he knows what the real Meunchanok is deep down inside. He says that she’s only mean to Pimunkae because she feels that Pimunkae is a threat to her family, so she’s only being protective of her family, and that she loves her dad very much and would never do anything to jeopardize his business. Meunchanok wonders how Luckanai seem to know her so well and whether he has misconception about her. He takes her hand and teases that that could be it. Lol. They flirt and this is what grandma sees when she came to see Meunchanok at work.

Grandma brings along Wuttha, which makes Luckanai uncomfortable, and Meunchanok is honest with grandma when she says that even if he’s suitable in family and status, she doesn’t like him. Grandma is suspicious (giving her the side eye) of Meunchanok’s “plan” because she’s getting mighty defensive on behalf of Luckanai lately, grandma even takes out a mirror so Meunchanok could see her face. Hahaha. When grandma contrives for an impromptu lunch for Wuttha and Meunchanok, Luckanai jumps in and back talks grandma, that he’s the boss and they have a meeting to attend. He uses the name of the first café that he saw off a pamphlet to rescue Meunchanok. Though later he finds out it’s a cat café. LOL.

It’s a super cute place and seems really relaxing! Meunchanok doesn’t like how the cats are snooty and hard to please (as oppose to dogs), but Luckanai says that is their charm, and mutters under his breath that she doesn’t realize she’s exactly like these cats. LOL. Is that why you find her charming?

Luckanai also learns that Meunchanok is all about tit for tat. After successfully presenting the campaign plan to the board of directors and getting an approval, Meunchanok credits her success to Luckanai’s help. Mom rewards her with a cute purse, and Meunchanok returns a toy airplane back to Luckanai with an “N” monogrammed on its wing. It was a toy she took when they were younger, and it means more to Luckanai then she would ever know. At the fountain, he tells her that the value of the airplane is worth three times now. The initial on the airplane makes him feel like he’s no longer alone and that someone is always flying with him. He asks if she wants to make an airplane for someone else other than him? Oh, that’s a loaded question and Meunchanok steps shyly away to avoid answering it.

But you know, Luckanai is also a tit for tat person. The next day, he contrives for a quiet household, making Meunchanok wonder what he’s doing and why he’s not at her beck and call. But he calls her to a small house off of the mansion. As she walks inside, she sees her old stomping ground (her castle, if you will) with all of her friends (stuffed animals) in all corners of the room. It’s funny and sad that the only friends she has are stuffed animals.. Luckanai follows her into the room and stands at the door, like he used to as a child, just to look at her. He tells her that he’s returning the castle back to the princess. He remembers moving in that day and Meunchanok was bitter because he had taken her castle. He hands her the last thing that makes her cry, an old fairytale book that her parents used to read to her. She thought that it was thrown out and could never be retrieved, but Luckanai said that he saved it for her, and relents that there’s no such thing as “trash” in this world. And now I’m imagining that Luckanai is hoarding everything that he and Meunchanok own in some storage space somewhere. Haha.

Meunchanok hugs the book to her chest as she recalls a precious moment in time where her family was one unit. She starts to cry because the princess family will never be the same again. Luckanai hugs her close and says that the princess has encountered so much and he would see to it that she gets her happily ever after. He asks another loaded question, “do you want to build a new family together?” OMG.

Penny doesn’t like that her new man is ignoring her sexy texts and that he’s pursuing Meunchanok because she’s better, so Penny crashes the photoshoot party at Green Dream. It’s already a super awkward photoshoot, with everyone and their exes and everyone having that one secret to hide. Penny rails to Luckanai that Meunchanok used to be so mean and insulting towards him, and that she might be pretending to be nice in order to use him. Meunchanok looks away with guilt but Luckanai tells Penny to take it back, that Meunchanok has done no such thing. Penny reminds him that he’s trash in Meunchanok’s eyes.

But Meunchanok is looking at trash in a different way now, thanks to Luckanai. So she takes Luckanai’s arm and retorts that Luckanai is a Grade A recyclable material that will always be useful. Uh, thank you? While Penny is just trash that must be chucked. Before Penny could reveal that Wuttha is playing Meunchanok, she gets derailed by Wuttha’s mom’s secretary who has to look out for Wuttha even though she doesn’t like him. Wuttha threatens to erase Penny from the model industry and this earth if he has to. Well then.

And the foreboding moment of truth that Luckanai has worked quite hard to keep at bay: as Pimunkae pulls him aside to talk, Wuttha tells Thawat and Meunchanok that he and Pimunkae went to school together. Everyone tries to flirt with her to no avail because Luckanai is always by her side.

Pimunkae says that she doesn’t want Luckanai’s future to be destroyed if the truth gets out, she thinks that he will lose everything that he worked so hard for. She goes in and hugs him, which this is what Meunchanok sees as she goes looking for him.

The cat’s out of the bag! Which I’m so glad it is because we cannot sustain a story with one lie. It is almost like Show is making a mountain out of a molehill. It is also hard to believe that Dad doesn’t know of Luckanai’s past relationship with Pimunkae, since Luckanai and dad seem so close, wouldn’t Pimunkae paid a visit to Luckanai’s house during their dating years? If Luckanai thinks his past is no big deal, then he should have been out with the truth to dad (at the very least). I personally don’t think dad will overreact, he’ll probably be disappointed and broken hearted, which is almost worse. As for Meunchanok, this will only backfire in the most glorious way, it may fuel the hatred that he’s not being genuine to her, even though he has tried to show her how honest he is. But you can’t say you’re totally honest when you can’t admit that the girl she hates the most used to be your girlfriend too. What a hot mess.

But I did appreciate the slower paced in this episode where we get to peel different layers of Meunchanok. In a way Luckanai is giving her closure that her family is no longer that one unit, maybe she never grieved for it. And it almost feels like she’s still stuck in her 12 year old self. As much as I feel for her – because everyone’s problems is always magnified when you’re the one experiencing it – but in the grand scheme of things, it’s such a weak conflict. Like sometimes I’m taken out of the story because she’s still crying over the fact that her father wants to start a new family. Maybe I’m just old? Are twenty-five year olds so attached to dad’s scrotum that she doesn’t want to venture out and live her own life?

I like that Luckanai is doing everything in his power to show her how much he cares and how much he wants to start a new family with her. Because at the end of the day, both of them share the same desire: wanting a family unit that they belong to.