Episode 6 Recap
Ai Li Si has gone and drawn up a To-Do list to complete before she heads in to have her surgery to remove the tumour in her brain. She doesn’t want to leave regretting anything so she’s written down in her notebook all that she wants to do before that time comes. The first on her list is to buy Song Han Ming breakfast. The second on her list is to have afternoon tea with her colleagues. This second item on her leads Ai Li Si to return to her 17-year-old self. This happens after she sets about carrying out her third item on her To-do List, meet He Hao Yi and Bai Shu Lei to provide them an explanation about presumably the past.
After Ai Li Si checks off buying breakfast for Song Han Ming, she sets about joining Manager Zhao, her colleagues Jun Mao and Sha Sha, and He Hao Yi for afternoon tea. She offers them fruit and a sachet of powder drink each, which has Jun Mao and Sha Sha a bit stressed sitting at the same table as their team leader. He Hao Yi is pleased to see Ai Li Si making an effort and suggests that she join them in the office from now on. Ai Li Si’s response of a 50% chance of that happening—that she may not be able to because of her surgery—is not picked up by him. Manager Zhao is more than happy she joins them: being all together will mean their experiment, Lazarus, will surely succeed.
Lazarus is the name R&D has given to the stem cell heart regeneration project they have with Capital. They have arranged to use the stem cells from Ai Li Si’s research to help repair damaged hearts.
Manager Zhao goes on to acknowledge her leadership and hard work in this experiment which everyone is rooting for its success. As a manager who doesn’t know anything about experiments, he’s not able to contribute; and with Jun Mao and Sha Sha being still inexperienced, Ai Li Si is often having to work over time. There are many people who are hoping the experiment will succeed. It’s not just Manager Zhao, Jun Mao, Sha Sha and Capital. A mother who has a son with heart congenital disease also have been hoping for success. Mrs. Yang has been bringing fruit to the company after she found out AI was involved in such research. Although her son has been fortunate to receive a heart transplant, not everyone will have that opportunity, and so she wishes that the stem cell heart regeneration project will turn out to be a success so that others it can help others with the disease.
Hearing this from Manager Zhao, Ai Li Si has a change of heart about the agreement she made with the CEO. Realising that she wasn’t on this project alone as she had thought, she goes about sending a text to the CEO to reject his proposal to take her research with her to another company and betraying Capital.
Ai Li Si had originally agreed to the CEO for fear he’d take away funding and terminate her research. Seemingly, Capital had changed their minds about including the CEO (or perhaps it was the company) in the credits, crediting only Ai Li Si, which led him to making such threat.
This action of hers lands her in trouble as the CEO sends his assistant after her experiment logs. As she comes home from a run, preparing to carry out the third item on her list of meeting He Hao Yi, Bai Shu Lei and Liu Xiao Fen, her apartment is broken into and ransacked. When she enters her living room, the CEO’s assistant (who’s face is hidden under a mask) approaches her from behind and has her in a headlock. She manages to escape by biting the hand covering her mouth. As the assistant experiences pain from her bite, she is flung across the room, resulting in Ai Li Si passing out on her sofa.
As Ai Li Si lay unconscious in her apartment, He Hao Yi, Bai Shu Lei and Liu Xiao Fen are at the place they buried their time capsules 13 years ago. After Ai Li Si texted He Hao Yi and Bai Shu Lei requesting to meet Saturday morning, Bai Shu Lei never thought to answer the request, but He Hao Yi tracked her down at a coffee shop and made both her and Liu Xiao Fen go.
Thirty minutes has passed since they arrived. Not knowing that something’s happened to Ai Li Si, Bai Shu Lei is thinking Ai Li Si is taking revenge on them by not showing up like how they didn’t 13 years ago. He Hao Yi lectures Bai Shu Lei for thinking such a thing about Ai Li Si: she and Liu Xiao Fen were so close in high school, did they not build any trust from their friendship? Ai Li Si not having arrived must mean something’s happened to have caused her the delay, He Hao Yi expresses.
It does nothing to change their attitude. Bai Shu Lei suggests disappearing the way she did after being stood up. The mention of her disappearance has He Hao Yi recall Ai Li Si’s words on the hill after they did the bungy jump, telling him that were she to really disappear, grabbing her hand wouldn’t stop her. Seemingly fearful that that might be what Ai Li Si is thinking of doing, He Hao Yi suggests going straight to her house to make sure he holds tightly and not let her.
With Bai Shu Lei and Liu Xiao Fen not willing join him, he heads to Ai Li Si’s place without them. Arriving there, he finds her where she passed out—on the sofa. He calls for her, which has her wake up wondering what she was doing on the sofa before asking about whether Bai Shu Lei and Liu Xiao Fen turned up seeming as He Hao Yi showed up. She answers her own question as she doubts such a thing happening.
Worried for her wellbeing, He Hao Yi suggests forgetting that matter for the time being and going to the hospital first to get her checked out, but Ai Li Si turns the suggestion down, saying that there was no time. She asks for his cellphone, wanting to call them. He Hao Yi goes and hugs her tightly once again, trying to get through to her how worried he is about her and how he wants her to stop worrying about others for once and worry about herself.
It surprises Ai Li Si and has her confess she’s not a good person and that she had once wanted to conspire with someone to betray her company and take her research elsewhere to publish. However, she rejected the offer. Because of this, her time for retribution has come. He Hao Yi figures that everything that’s happened at her apartment is in retaliation to her turning back on her word. This has Ai Li Si express how He Hao Yi’s the only person she trusts with her experiment logs, which is why she is going to tell him it’s exact location. Ai Li Si pleads him to protect the logs as this is her and R&D’s painstaking efforts.
He Hao Yi again misses the meaning behind her Ai Li Si’s words and the desperation in the tone. He is about to find out, though, as Ai Li Si experiences yet another headache right in front of him.
He Hao Yi immediately picks her up to take her to the hospital. He has her seated on a bench outside whilst he calls for a taxi. In this brief moment, Ai Li Si learns of He Hao Yi’s mission to get close to her and use any means to get her/AI to come over to Capital through a text from his people. She takes off, misunderstanding He Hao Yi’s actions and concern for her as an act to complete his mission. When He Hao Yi catches up to her, he doesn’t deny that he was under Capital’s instructions to get her on their side, but everything he’s done was genuinely out of care for her. No matter what he says, Ai Li Si won’t believe him.
She tells her that if nothing happens and she is fine, she will hand over the research logs, but she won’t hand them over to He Hao Yi—no matter how nice his words sound. She then takes off yet again and come face to face with an oncoming car. It’s a close call, but He Hao Yi manages to drag her out of harms way. Lying on their sides with He Hao Yi wrapped around Ai Li Si on the asphalt, he finds her unconscious. He calls for her a couple of times before he carries her off the road to head towards the hospital.
There, he finally realises the meaning behind her recent behavior and confusing words. He is is told by doctor at the hospital about the tumour that’s reached her nerves. She must have surgery immediately. As Ai Li Si is taken into the operating room, He Hao Yi is full of regret for not picking up on the cues of the past day or two. He is heard begging in his thoughts for her to not disappear from his life. He can take being forever misunderstood by her, forever not be trusted by her and forever unable to catch up to her as long as she wakes up again.
Meanwhile, inside the operating room, Ai Li Si is heard making a wish of her own just as she is put under general anaesthesia. She wishes to be returned to the time of her happiest memories if her life is to end. This way, she would leave with a smile.
Both Ai Li Si and He Hao Yi’s wishes come true. Not only is the surgery a success, but Ai Li Si beats the 50% probability of waking from surgery, too. After days on her hospital bed, He Hao Yi seemingly always by her side taking care of her, talking to her, checking on her, Ai Li Si wakes. He Hao Yi, who lay asleep by at her bedside, feels her hand reaching to touch him. Immediately, he clasps her hand in his, apologising for not realising her situation.
Ai Li Si stares at He Hao Yi as if she didn’t recognise him, but then she recalls a couple very brief flashes of He Hao Yi dressed in his sweatshirt and grey cap. She’s recalling the very first moment she met him. She recognises him. She doesn’t know where she is though and asks him for the answer.
Seemingly preoccupied with his own chain of thoughts, he misses Ai Li Si’s question. Instead, he repeats his promise to hold tightly into her hand, to always be by her side. When she doesn’t answer and pulls her hand away from his, he wonders whether she was still angry at him. When Ai Li Si tries to get up, only to be stopped by the pain shooting through her head, He Hao Yi cautions her to not make such big movements as she was still in the recovery stage.
As he reassures her that as long as she takes her medication and rest, she will get better, Ai Li Si recalls more memories of him. She recalls him emptying leaves she just collected in a bag over the area she finished sweeping. She recalls him surfacing from her high school swimming pool and pulling her in. Anger washes over her face. “He Hao Yi,” she calls. It has He Hao Yi give her his full attention, curiosity and confusion visible as he stares at an unhappy Ai Li Si. “You bastard who framed me for smoking!”
Ai Li Si has lost her memory. A meeting with the doctor where Ai Li Si, He Hao Yi and Ai Li Si’s mother are present, has the doctor inform that it could be the tumour that have caused her current symptoms, but no further information about when or if she would gain her memory back is given.
Ai Li Si is taken around the hospital corridors by He Hao Yi. As he does so, she questions He Hao Yi about whether he was really Liu Xiao Fen’s younger brother—a question which he is happy to provide, telling her a simple, “yes”. When she wonders Bai Shu Lei and Liu Xiao Fen haven’t come and visited her—a question which she’s been wondering about since she woke up, a question which He Hao Yi avoids answering. He just tells her that he believes her memory loss is temporary and that during this time he will face it together with her because 13 years ago, he and Ai Li Si were the best of friends. Not able to get any answers to clear her confusion, Ai Li Si requests He Hao Yi to return her to her room.
Back in her room, Ai Li Si struggles to get used to her being suddenly 30 and her 30-year-old appearance. She is shocked to find that her backside isn’t hanging as high; and neither was she prepared to be addressed as an “Auntie” by a young boy who she helped stop a ball when He Hao Yi took her out for some fresh air.
Ai Li Si is soon well enough to get discharged from the hospital. Instead of going back to her apartment or going to live with her mother, she is taken to He Hao Yi’s place. With the CEO still after Ai Li Si for the research logs and Ai Li Si’s mother believing it’s more convenient check-ups, He Hao Yi’s gone and discussed with her mother to let him take care of her and have her move into his place.
Ai Li Si’s mother had initially told He Hao Yi that she would take care of her daughter and that there was no need for He Hao Yi to visit everyday. But when He Hao Yi mentioned that things weren’t over (presumably, he’s referring to the matter of someone being after Ai Li Si for her experiment logs), that she was still in danger, Ai Li Si’s mother changes her decision to leave He Hao Yi in his care.
So, with Ai Li Si’s mother returning to her place, Ai Li Si is left to stay at a guy’s house who, in her view, is someone she barely knows. He invites her to eat with him. Not used to He Hao Yi, she tells him she didn’t feel hungry and will eat it later. This has He Hao Yi get up from his seated position to feel her temperature, placing a hand in her forehead before cupping her face in both his hands.
Ai Li Si steps back from his touch. Seeing He Hao Yi’s surprised expression, Ai Li Si explains that she wasn’t used to being so close to strangers. Hearing Ai Li Si refer to him as a stranger, his surprise changes to disappointment. Ai Li Si tries to explain herself, saying she knows he’s Liu Xiao Fen’s brother and is about to go on further, but she is quickly interrupted by him, mostly likely to save her from saying something he knows and doesn’t need to hear her say. She’s lost her memory. It’s right she would see him way about him.
He Hao Yi sits down, disappointment clearly on his face still. He has a plan to try and change her impression of him though. He tells her that after they eat, he’ll take her to find her memories back. This had Ai Li Si interested, “Can you do that?” she asks him. He Hao Yi tells her he’s not sure if it’ll work, but he’ll give it a try.
Ai Li Si is taken back to her high school, Chong Yan High, to the gate where they first met. He Hao Yi asks whether she remember this meeting. She confirms, recalling the time he called her by the colour of her underwear. He takes her to the place she swept leaves. She remembers this time too: she tells him she remembered him bullying her and pouring leaves over the area for her to sweep. He takes her to the swimming pool where he pulled her down into the water. She remembers the pulling, but not him telling her he was wrong afterwards she tells him she feel unconscious. The next moment after that, she woke up in hospital.
Unhappy that Ai Li Si’s memory has left her to have such bad impression of him, He Hao Yi tries to jog her memory by taking her to a basketball court where he gained the title of the school prince. Ai Li Si seems to find it hard to believe He Hao Yi was the high school’s prince as in her mind, Chen Qi Tai is. To prove how he gained the title, he goes off and joins in on a basketball game where he fends off young students at the school to shoot goal after goal against them. His skills are so great that even at 30 he manages to create frustration in one of his high-school-aged opponents.
History seem to play out the same as the student’s frustration causes Ai Li Si to nearly suffer a hit from a flying ball. Thirteen years ago, Chen Qi Tai lost his temper and threw a basketball with the intention of hitting He Hao Yi, only it passes him as he dodges it and heads towards Ai Li Si. This time round, the student takes his frustration out on the ball by smacking it hard against the ground. The action causes it to bounce towards Ai Li Si. Just like 13 years ago, He Hao Yi rushes to Ai Li Si’s rescue and manages to save her from being hit. They land exactly the same way—He Hao Yi underneath, Ai Li Si on top. The only difference is there is no basketball between them and Ai Li Si doesn’t seem to be affected by the compromising position they are in. Not seeing the ball come at her, she has no clue why he suddenly ran into her in fact. Back then, when Ai Li Si landed on He Hao Yi, she was affected by their positions and how close they were. Now, there’s no reaction at all. He Hao Yi pokes her pinky to recreate the light touch of their pinky fingers when they landed 13 years ago and asks whether it jogs any memory of hers. Again, nothing. He Hao Yi decides that perhaps it’s best not to rush Ai Li Si into remember everything. As he returns to the court, he expresses in his thoughts that it’s enough to see her happy.
After the basketball game, He Hao Yi takes her out to grab a meal. By this time, Ai Li Si admits that having spent the day with him, her view of him being a stranger has improved a little, but only by a little. Ai Li Si is still curious about many things about her past and the state of things now, like why she changed schools, why Bai Shu Lei and Liu Xiao Fen doesn’t visit her and why they’ve not been in contact for so long. What happened to her over the past years?
He Hao Yi struggles to offer her any answers, clearly not wanting to tell her about the negative outcome of their friendship and the way she changed. She lets it go as she thinks it’d be more comfortable for her to wait for Liu Xiao Fen’s return in a few days and ask her about it then.
Ai Li Si moves to eat the fries she ordered. She grabs a bottle of tomato sauce to shake some onto her fries. As she does so, she knocks over her water glass. The clinking sound of the glass hitting ground has her associate it with the sound of the coffee mug falling on the ground of her apartment after she was flung across the room by the attacker who was demanding for her research logs. The memory has her run out of the restaurant in a panic.
He Hao Yi, who had left Ai Li Si momentarily to request help cleaning the spill, rushes after her. He catches up to her a short distance away, screaming at him about not having any logs nor knowing anything about it. She calms down slightly when she realises it’s He Hao Yi who’s wrapped his arms around her, trying to stop her from running off. He assures her that no one will harm her because he will protect her. Wish Ai Li Si continuing to feel very frightened about not knowing or recalling what happened to her, it has He Hao Yi realise that perhaps it isn’t better for her to not recover her memory so quickly as he had thought.
Ai Li Si and He Hao Yi head home. Ai Li Si is still quite fearful of the fact someone is after her, but she puts on a brave front when He Hao Yi asks whether she wants to call her mother to take care of her. He Hao Yi looks to be heading off to work, meaning she’d be left alone in the house. Sensing Ai Li Si’s unease about that, He Hao Yi asks whether she would like to go to the library and borrow some manga. Ai Li Si smiles, happy to do that.
Come nightfall, Ai Li Si is on her bed enjoying her Naruto mangas, while He Hao Yi sit enjoying a snack on the ground. Finishing a volume, Ai Li Si gushes about how being thirty has its benefits. Back when she was 17, the manga was still incomplete. At 30, it’s all finished and she can read them all at once.
Hearing Ai Li Si pointing out the good sides of being 30, he picks up on Ai Li Si’s less than positive view of being this age: “Is being 30 bad?” The question has Ai Li Si revisit her concerns over whether she is a good person or not. He Hao Yi tells her that she’s a good person. When Ai Li Si questions him why there would be someone who’d want to harm her if that was the case. He Hao Yi tells her the truth: someone is after her experiment logs on stem cell heart regeneration, but she hid it and that’s why she was threatened. He tells her that he doesn’t know who was after her, but he has some lead. To get her to not worry, he tells her that he will stay by her side so that such an incident will never happen again. He tells her he will protect her before encouraging her to read the next volume of Naruto.
Slowly, she listens and takes the manga. She reads right through the night and comes upon a line that seemed to have given her some enlightenment: “Fate is not for someone to decide.” This has Ai Li Si seem to make a decision about her current situation. She can’t have He Hao Yi help her protect her fate. She needs to rely on herself to do it.
The next morning, when He Hao Yi asks where Ai Li Si would like to go, she tells him that she wants to accompany her to the company.
Thoughts
Ai Li Si is tumour-free! The tumour only lasted the span of probably an episode when looking at when Ai Li Si was mentioned as having a tumour and when she had it removed. It seems to be the pattern with this drama. Problems or hurdles like the tumour or He Hao Yi’s problem with his mother and twin sister at the beginning of the drama are introduced. They look like they will feature in the story for the duration of the drama, but then it gets resolved very quickly. We’re not complaining, though. It would have turned this drama into a full on melodrama otherwise!
Love at Seventeen is a little unpredictable. We were so prepared to see AI Li Si suffer from a tumour, have the drama head towards a more serious, less upbeat tone than previous episodes. For the first half of Episode 6, we could see it was trying to head towards He Hao Yi finding about AI Li Si tumour. From there, we expected the direction go towards the others finding out. But then Ai Li Si is made to go into the operating room and she comes out tumour-free and wakes up as her 17-year-old self.
It’s an interesting direction. It makes us really curious where Love at Seventeen will head with this. There seems to be a constant theme surrounding misunderstandings, having the right timing, missed opportunities, regrets and damaged hearts; but, we don’t have any guesses as it could go anywhere. For all we know, Ai Li Si’s memories might return the next episode and where we think it’ll go will once again change.
We can only say that we’ll be looking forward to seeing how Ai Li Si’s relationship with Song Han Ming will be affected. This is what we’re probably the most curious about. With Song Han Ming’s appearance quite different from the way he used to be, we’re wondering if she will recognise him, whether he’ll tell her who he is and what their relationship is and how they became to association with each other 13 years ago.
With Ai Li Si only having memories up to the time where she’s pulled into the swimming pool, she shouldn’t have gotten involved with helping Song Han Ming keep his secret identity yet, so this should be interesting when/if Bai Shu Lei brings it up.
What a turn of events Episode 6 was. We’re glad Ai Li Si’s tumour-free and we get to see the sweet, happy Ai Li Si again, even if it’s just for the time-being. Shall be waiting to see what other turns (if any) it’ll take next.
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