Episode 8 Recap
Bai Shu Lei can’t forget the past and rejects Ai Li Si’s request to continue to be friends and forget the past. She moves on to remind Ai Li Si the incident that has been forgotten by her despite He Hao Yi’s remark about Bai Shu Lei being unfair to impose her own point of view when Ai Li Di has no memory of it. The recounting of how Ai Li Si failed to tell Bai Shu Lei she knew Peter’s identity because she liked him has Ai Li Si believe even more that she’s not a good person. She betrayed Bai Shu Lei. That is why they are no longer friends.
For the rest of the night, Ai Li Si sits alone in the living area. According to He Hao Yi, Ai Li Si’s been crying the whole night. He shows up to check up on her, just after she stops, asking her whether she was alright. Despite having just finished crying, Ai Li Si answers him with a question asking whether she looked like she wasn’t. In other words, she’s claiming she’s fine. She doesn’t doesn’t come off fine. She’s trying to internalise everything like her nickname, ‘garbage truck girl’, suggests.
He Hao Yi stares at her as she moves over from the living area to the kitchen beach to our herself some water. She asks him what he was staring at, which has him answer how he feels like he’s gotten old because he can’t begin to understand what a high school like her is now thinking.
She tells him she doesn’t expect him to understand. Almost as if seeing the silver lining, she tells him that she’s actually quite happy because now she knows what Bai Shu Lei is thinking. The meeting earlier allowed them to express all the frustrations they had with her. It’s okay too, because she’s the garbage truck girl. People can throw their trash at her, she’ll shallow it up and be all fine. She then invites He Hao Yi to express his dissatisfaction, because surely he has some, too, since they too probably stopped being friends a long time ago.
He Hao Yi does have things he’s dissatisfied with (as revealed later in the episode), but he doesn’t express them. This has Ai Li Si tell herself off for being an idiot to have asked him to help her with Bai Shu Lei— why does he even care about an idiot like her?
Worried about the way she was and how she was putting herself down, He Hao Yi moves to hug her from behind and tells her to stop saying the things she was saying. He tells her that she shouldn’t treat anything she hears as truth if it’s not something she personally recalls.
Ai Li Si unwraps He Hao Yi’s arms from around her and tells him that things that happened already happened and picks herself up. She tells him that she may not have been a good person back then, but she’s still here. She can start afresh to become a better person.
With that, Ai Li Si works towards becoming a better person. She makes the decision to regain her memory and find the research logs so that she won’t have to trouble He Hao Yi or Liu Xiao Fen. To begin, she sees He Hao Yi about visiting the place they buried the time capsules. After a short moment which has Ai Li Si gaze into He Hao Yi’s eye at close range (she had accidentally startled him when she went to his room, causing hi to flick a pen into his eye), Ai Li Si requests He Hao Yi take her to that place one night. If he remembers where the place is, she wants to see exactly what items are buried in the time capsule as it might help with her memory.
He Hao Yi tells Ai Li Si he does remember and agrees to take her there. In fact, not only does he remember, but he went there three years ago, exactly 10 years after they buried the time capsule. This was the promise he, Ai Li Si, Bai Shu Lei and Liu Xiao Fen had made. At the time, only he seemed to remember to keep the promise: Bai Shu Lei didn’t go nor did Liu Xiao Fen. The 27-year-old Ai Li Si is suspected to have gone.
Arriving at the place they buried the time capsule, Ai Li Si and He Hao Yi go to dig up the time capsule. They are met with an empty time capsule. Just like Ai Li Si’s mind, the time capsule was empty, totally cleared of all items that were in there. The photos of Liu Ciao Fen’s favourite idols and Bai Shu Lei’s 17-year-old photos are gone. Ai Li Si’s journal is gone and so is the letter He Hao Yi wrote to ‘someone’ (that ‘someone’ is finally revealed as Ai Li Si).
There’s slight disappointment on Ai Li Si face, but she assures He Hao Yi it’s of little significance when he goes to note that disappointment. She tells him that she’s lost her memories, she’s had her brain operated on and her friends no longer care about her, something like the empty capsule couldn’t possibly get her down. She turns to look at He Hao Yi whose gaze remain in the empty time capsule and notes that he looks more disappointed than she does. “It can’t be that you can’t take the disappointment?” She asks. The question shakes him out of his thoughts.
Ai Li Si smiles and moves to ask him about what it could possibly be that he put in there to have him looking that way. When He Hao Yi doesn’t answer, Ai Li Si continues, using a suggestive tone to try get him to reveal whether it’s something he should be embarrassed about revealing. He avoids the question yet again and starts moving the soil back into place before telling her that he didn’t put anything in there. (Literally, he says, “whatever it is, there’s none of that” but we think he’s saying “whatever was there is all gone”, which hints at his disappointment in the fact that the letter he wrote to Ai Li Si 13 years ago has gone.)
Not knowing why He Hao Yi is acting the way he is, she continues to tease him, pointing out how weird he’s acting. Having come at night, He Hao Yi avoids her comment and notes how late it’s getting. He then uses the darkness to scare her into ending the questioning and follow him home. Knowing how afraid she is of the dark, he shines the light from his phone under his chin to scare her, telling her that it’s getting dark. Without him and the light from his phone it’ll get darker. He then gets up to leave, making Ai Li Si get up quickly and follow him.
They both return home with Ai Li Si gaining no headway with regaining her memories and He Hao Yi thinking about how the time capsule could be empty through the night. Liu Xiao Fen confirms she definitely didn’t go and assumes Bai Shu Lei didn’t either: if she didn’t go, it’s more unlikely that Bai Shu Lei went Liu Xiao Fen deduces. This leaves only one person who could have gone and unearthed the time capsule—Ai Li Si. It could possibly be that the 27-year-old had turned up as they four former friends had arranged.
With Liu Xiao Fen not happy about letting Ai Li Si stay at their place, the next morning He Hao Yi continues trying to convince Liu Xiao Fen to let Ai Li Si stay. His method is to take her passport hostage and not release it to Liu Xiao Fen agreed.
As a blogger who needs to be in Japan next week, Liu Xiao Fen don’t have time to play games with her brother, especially when she owes her company so many posts as well. He Hao Yi, not one bit sympathetic to her situation, tells her that they are both very busy people. They needn’t be though, he implies. She can be a just that little but less busy by giving in and agreeing to let Ai Li Si stay at their place. Liu Xiao Fen takes the hint and gives in. Pleased with his victory, He Hao Yi announces that he’ll be off to buy both her and Ai Li Si breakfast, which has Liu Xiao Fen tell him that Ai Li Si already left the house for work.
He Hao Yi turns up at the R&D office to see Ai Li by her desk packing things up appearing as if she’s resigning from her position. Ai Li Si is not resigning. She’s being transferred. Ai Li Si’s agreed to transfer to the Business Department that was organised by Song Han Ming. It’s a part of her plan to be less of a bother to He Hao Yi and start to rely on herself. He Hao Yi is not supportive of the transfer, stating that Ai Li Si needs to stay in familiar environment for important memories to return.
Song Han Ming argues that ever since Ai Li Si’s returned to work, she’s been sitting at her desk, bored. With the kind of energy she has, he believes that Ai Li Si is more suited for the Business Department where she can spend that energy in Sales. What’s more, not everyone wants to remember.
Song Han Ming’s comment has He Hao Yi up in Song Han Ming’s face, asking what he meant by that.
Based on a meeting, two months after he transferred to working in the same company as Ai Li Si, Song Han Ming was told she didn’t want to remember anything of her past. When he mentioned how she had gotten colder and how he missed the past Ai Li Si, she begged him to stop bringing the past up. Remembering these words, he vows to help her forget her past as she wants and protect her.
Afraid of another fight brewing between the two, Ai Li Si quickly steps in between the two. She backs Song Han Ming’s decision and tells He Hao Yi that she’s also no use in R&D. She sees herself as fortunate for even being allowed to stay with the company as it is.
With Ai Li Si agreeing, He Hao Yi has no choice but let the transfer stick. She heads off over to the Business Department with Song Han Ming. She is introduced to his department as well as Bai Shu Lei’s Marketing Department during a joint meeting to discuss an anniversary celebration promotion. In this meeting, Bai Shu Lei announces the collaboration they have with cartoon series Gudedama which she believes will be a hot topic before announcing a couple promotions she hopes to run for their brand’s anniversary celebrations. The first one is a ‘buy one get one free’ promotion and the second is a ‘for every NT$1000 spent, NT$100 will be rebated’.
The suggestion doesn’t go down well with Song Han Ming at first as he talks about prices being set according to the proportional cost model. They’re not the kind of company that inflates prices in order to be able to provide big discounts. He goes on to suggest that the Finance Department wouldn’t agree to it when he asks her whether she had approval from them—which Bai Shu Lei affirms that she knows they would which is why she came to the Sales Department. She is hoping that Song Han Ming could help with convincing distributors to absorb the price difference after the discount. Bai Shu Lei believes that this strategy can draw crowds leading to increase in sales.
Song Han Ming doesn’t see that happening as distributors wouldn’t agree doing business that involves them making losses. As soon as Ai Li Si backs the idea, though, he suddenly agrees to cooperate. A comment from one of his subordinates about whether he was joking about taking up the proposal gives Bai Shu Lei the chance to make a comment about Ai Li Si and giving favour to her: “For the sake of Ai Li Si, you’re willing to drag the team down.” This has Song Han Ming immediately call Bai Shu Lei out on her motives and stop any negativity from brewing and hurting Ai Li Si. He tells her that he can accept her difficult and unreasonable business proposal, but he will not accept her deliberately creating division amongst his team. He warns her not to overdo things.
The meeting ends. At the steps in the company’s foyer, Ai Li Si calls after Song Han Ming looking to pick up some tasks so she can stay busy as much as possible. (She starts off referring to him as Peter until he requests her call him the way he is used to her calling him—Han Ming or Song Han Ming. She chooses the latter.) Not wanting to overdo things with Ai Li Si, Song Han Ming suggests picking up light tasks to start off with, things like picking up the phone and making photocopies. Ai Li Si isn’t happy with just these tasks, though. She tells him that all of these after work. She wants to get right into Sales and visiting clients.
Coming down the stairs, He Hao Yi hears her request and tries to stop her using the fact that she doesn’t know enough about Sales, the products or their clients. Song Han Ming, not one to refuse Ai Li Si anything (or stand on any side He Hao Yi on), warns Ai Li Si the demanding task of visiting clients, but if she’s up to it, she can try the task of convincing the store manager Bai Shu Lei was trying to convince into getting a better shelf positioning from. Against He Hao Yi’s wishes, Ai Li Si immediately accepts. She takes the piece of paper containing the store information and gets on her way.
He Hao Yi grips onto Ai Li Si’s wrist to stop her, but he is forced to drop it when Song Han Ming takes hold of the wrist and pulls it away like the first time Song Han Ming and He Hao Yi encountered each other and He Hao Yi was trying to stop Ai Li Si from leaving. Ai Li Si explains to He Hao Yi that she’ll be fine. She just wants to do something different. If she doesn’t succeed, she’d make her way back. She then takes her leave, leaving He Hao Yi and Song Han Ming to have another verbal go at each other.
In front of each other He Hao Yi and Song Han Ming are strong and confident about their relationship to Ai Li Si. Song Han Ming asks He Hao Yi how he feels about being kept at a distance, which has He Hao Yi retort that Song Han Ming probably should understand very well since currently, in Ai Li Si’s mind, Song Han Ming is just an ordinary classmate. This has Song Han Ming come back with how challenging situations is what he is naturally equipped to handle. Facing a great variety of changing situations, persisting and getting right back up when the tough gets going is the very essence of what he does in business and sales. He tells him if he can take him as the past Song Han Ming, he needs to be very careful because he will lose to him badly.
Song Han Ming walks off. He Hao Yi is left to question why Ai Li Si must be so stubborn, causing He Hao Yi to wonder it was that she just doesn’t think he’s worthy of her trust. Song Han Ming, on the other hand is left to reflect on Ai Li Si’s use of Peter after work, troubled by the way she regards him now, but more so by how much she has forgotten. After recalling a moment back in high school where she save him from being bullied by Chen Qi Tai and his lackeys, Song Han Ming is heard directing his thoughts to He Hao Yi and Bai Shu Lei: “He Hao Yi, Bai Shu Lei, if you knew what happened, you’d definitely regret the way you treated her.” Was he being petty for remembering when she somehow managed to forget it all?
At the store, Ai Li Si sets about requesting a better shelf position for her company’s products. It’s not going well. The store manager is not interested discussing the matter with Ai Li Si. She explains that another company is willing to spend more on advertising, implying that sales are better and therefore cannot improve Jsut International’s shelf position. When Ai Li Si suggests the solution to increasing sales is to give themselves a better placement, the store manager moves to send her away. The store manager is not interested in dealing with ignorant salespeople the company sends down. Ai Li Si corrects the store manager about being sent down by the company, which doesn’t help either. She just as uninterested in dealing with people who act on their own accord. The store manager accuses Ai Li Si of blaming the store for their low sales and not knowing how to sell products.
Ai Li Si is forced to leave. Just as she does, she watches a customer knock over a tower of piled goods. The customer returns to start picking the fallen goods up, but Ai Li Si stops her. She checks that the customer is alright before offering to pile them all back up.
Impressed by Ai Li Si’s actions, the gesture lands Ai Li Si an opportunity to obtain a better shelf position. The store manager hands her a bunch of flyers which have the wrong dates printed on them. She tells Ai Li Si that if she goes and corrects them and then help hand them out, she can look at helping her out with her request. Ai Li Si not only gladly accepts the task, but she offers to help do whatever else that will help increase sales in the store.
She takes the two boxes of flyers the store manager hands her and plans to stay at the store for as long as it takes to correct the dates. Working through the night and staying busy is exactly what she’s hoping to do. Her thoughts is that if she can remain busy at work, the less she’ll be at He Hao Yi and Liu Xiao Fen’s place to bother them. She wants to move away from relying on He Hao Yi and more towards relying on herself.
Worried about Ai Li Si, He Hao Yi calls her to tell her he’s waiting for her at the company so that they can go home together. She lies to He Hao Yi and tells him that she’s got a dinner gathering with the Sales team. Her lie is later exposed by Liu Xiao Fen when she informs him that the whole evening Song Han Ming was at the gym selling his body to a group of distributors’ wives as part of the strategy to get them on board with Bai Shu Lei’s proposal. When He Hao Yi finds her trapped in a storeroom back at Jsut International, it has him question why she did call him and told him a lie. She tells him that she didn’t want to trouble other anymore, whether they be him, Bai Shu Lei or Liu Xiao Fen. She’s hurt them enough already. She tells him that she will regain her memory, find the experimental logs then disappear from their lives.
Not knowing these words from her are ones he hates to hear the most, it has He Hao Yi finally express the frustrations he has about her packing up and leaving without a word the moment she faces a setback. She did it when she was 17 and she was doing it now. He asks Ai Li Si to stop calling him them good friends because if they were, she wouldn’t abandon them so easily. He finishes off with telling her that she can do whatever she likes since she sees him as just ‘people’. He won’t care anymore.
He Hao Yi leaves Ai Li Si, but not for long. As Ai Li Si walks down the street sad and sorry towards He Hao Yi, he can’t help but trail behind her the whole time. He has vendors at food stands bring her snacks and pass on words to encourage her to go home to him. Down below the subway, after hearing Ai Li Si cry and talk about wanting to return, but was afraid of him not forgiving her for her words, He Hao Yi has a street dweller speak to her. He tells her by no means be like him. If she has the opportunity to return then she should by all means seize it and return.
These words seem to hit her. She hands the snacks to the street dweller and runs straight home to He Hao Yi and Liu Xiao Fen. When Ai Li Si arrives home, Liu Xiao Fen is on the sofa acting like she’s annoyed when in fact she was actually a bit worried about why both Ai Li Si and He Hao Yi weren’t home. Seeing Ai Li Si come home, she lectures her about needing to not cause others trouble when she is staying at other people’s places. Had she been asleep, she’d have been woken.
Liu Xiao Fen’s care disguised as a telling-off has Ai Li Si pick up on her use of the word ‘others’. Ai Li Si finally understands the words He Hao Yi has been expressing. Referring to people you are meant to be close to as ‘others’/’people’ does make people feel a distance exists between them. She looks around the place in search of He Hao Yi. As she does so, he comes through the door seconds later.
Liu Xiao Fen makes a move to head off to sleep now that her brother is home as well.
Ai Li Si who’s looking to say a few words to them, stops Liu Xiao Fen. After He Hao Yi’s words earlier in the storeroom, she’s realised that she shouldn’t give up and run away the moment things get difficult. With that realisation, she bows her head to Liu Xiao Fen first then to He Hao Yi. She tells He Hao Yi how sorry she is for avoiding him after she found out about what happened 13 years ago. The reason for that was because she felt embarrassed about it. Because she was so embarrassed, she even forgot the things he did for her during this time. She then admits to being not only a coward but also a loathsome person. He Hao Yi immediately accepts the apology, telling her that as long as she makes up for it slowly later, that’s enough.
Ai Li Si moves on to make her apology to Liu Xiao Fen (who exclaims upon hearing He Hao Yi accept Ai Li Si’s apology and continue wanting to knowing her). Ai Li Si expresses that she knows that she shouldn’t continue living with her and make her and Bai Shu Lei angry, but the way she is now, she is able to do otherwise. She tells her that although she doesn’t know whether she regretted happened 13 years ago, she greatly regrets it now. She then makes yet another apology for continuing to stay because she doesn’t want to give up. She wants to reconcile with them.
Hearing Ai Li Si no longer talking about disappearing puts a smile on He Hao Yi’s face. This was his plan the whole time and it turned out exactly how he had hoped. Liu Xiao Fen, however, feels dread and defeat wash over upon realising that what she just witnessed is the work of a person whose job is strategy. Because of her brother, she just betrayed Bai Shu Lei for doing nothing to stop his plans from being realised.
Later in the night, He Hao Yi gets a confession of sorts from Ai Li Si that she doesn’t see him as just anyone. The night being a stormy one, Ai Li Si thinks the power is cut again. Afraid of the dark and the lightning, she runs to He Hao Yi, pleading him to open his bedroom door with frantic slapping. The moment he answers her frantic slaps she wraps her jumps to hug her arms around his neck, seeking comfort. He goes to ask her what the matter was, which has Ai Li Si refer to the power cut and how lightning could possibly happen when it’s not raining. He Hao Yi moves to give a brief explanation of how lightning occurs before moving to turn the lights on.
Thinking that he was leaving her at the door, Ai Li Si grabs hold of his hand, wanting him to stay with her. After explaining that he was just going to turn on the light, she hurries him to turn it on. With the light on, Ai Li Si calms down and suddenly becomes aware that she is holding He Hao Yi’s hand. She removes her grip and attempts to explain why she was holding his hand, but she doesn’t manage to get much out. He Hao Yi moves to help her. “It’s because you thought of me first, right?” Her gaze meeting He Hao Yi, Ai Li Si nods. “So, to you, I’m very important,” he states. She nods yet again before voicing her answer: “Very important. Extremely important.”
With Ai Li Si expressing her thoughts on what she thinks of He Hao Yi, he moves to show (or begin to show) Ai Li Si just what she means to him. It comes after realising that sometimes he just can’t beat around the bushes and wait around stupidly for things to happen like in the past. Right now, to Ai Li Si knows He Hao Yi is is a very important person to him. She also considers him a very good friend—not just good friends, but her best friend.
This fact is revealed the morning after during breakfast. After He Hao Yi gives Ai Li Si’s advice to not take Liu Xiao Fen’s actions and reactions so seriously when she criticises her for things like the breakfast Ai Li Si cooked, Ai Li Si makes an admission that she really appreciates his presence and that he really is her best friend. It’s a situation similar to the one 13 years ago where she admitted the same thing at the bus stop outside her house. The conversation ends up progressing the same as in the past as well. When He Hao Yi tries to get a bit more from Ai Li Si by asking whether he was “just a best friend” to her, she gives the exact same answer as 13 years ago: “What else?”
History repeated itself at the breakfast table, but He Hao Yi won’t let it end up the same. After having a discussion about what a best friend would be to the other (and reaching loyalty as the ultimate trait of a best friend), He Hao Yi decides to break the stalemate and end the Best Friend Era. He takes Ai Li Si up to the hilltop. There, he has her sit down atop a rock to stare out into Taipei’s nightscape. She loves it. He Hao Yi goes on to ask her whether she knows what it meant for two people to view the nightscape together.
Not seeing the meaning, she answers him with a question: “Is there a special meaning?” He Hao Yi has her try guessing what it could mean. Ai Li Si thinks on it. “It means…” she begins. She’s not so sure what to guess, but then she thinks of something. Her face lights up. “It means we are the best of friends!”
He Hao Yi expresses a laugh to himself. “It’s not exactly wrong,” he tells her. “Just that it needs a bit of more refinement.” He takes hold of her hand and starts leaning in towards her…
Thoughts
And that’s where the episode ends! Oh my gosh! Is He Hao Yi finally making his move and letting Ai Li Si know exactly how he feels about her?! Will he do what we think he will do? If he does, finally! He really was too subtle 13 years ago, always waiting for her to confess first, or if not confess first then notice his feelings so he doesn’t have to tell her. That scene where He Hao Yi tried to get Ai Li Si to say that he was more than just best friends and having Ai Li Si respond exactly the same, funny! Clearly Ai Li Si has no idea. She had no idea back then and no idea now. Haha. It’s good he realises that now. Instead of sulking and doing nothing to make his feelings clear, he decides to take action.
We’re super looking forward to seeing what comes from that last scene. It looks like he’s leaning in to kiss her, but one never knows! Or it could happen, but it causes Ai Li Si to flash on a memory… like the camp incident maybe.
We’re a bit worried for He Hao Yi. This isn’t really the real Ai Li Si he’s confessing to. When she remembers more, she might start to pull away from him. Song Han Ming was saying how once He Hao Yi and Bai Shu Lei found out what happened, they’d regret treating Ai Li Si the way they have been. He says this as he recalls a scene where he was bullied by Chen Qi Tai. Maybe it’s a hint to what happened, which won’t be good if it’s something bad. Ai Li Si might not forgive so easily in that case. Hmm…
The part where Ai Li Si was made to believe that she betrayed Bai Shu Lei, Liu Xiao Fen and He Hao Yi and apologise for it, it makes us wonder if there’s any other purpose to this than simply showing what Ai Li Si did 13 years ago—her running away and disappearing from everyone’s lives—was not the best way to handle things. In our view, Bai Shu Lei also owes Ai Li Si an apology for being so stubborn and not hearing her out when Ai Li Si asked to meet them 13 years ago.
We can’t wait until more of the story is revealed and see how it all affects He Hao Yi’s relationship with Ai Li Si. So far, it’s gotten to the point just before the incident at camp happened which caused the big misunderstanding that led to the break-up of the group. From here, we expect that history will be rewritten. With He Hao Yi taking the initiative to have Ai Li Si know his feelings rather than continue in beating around the bushes, it should be the turning point for Ai Li Si and He Hao Yi as well as Bai Shu Lei, Liu Xiao Fen and Song Han Ming. Possibly? We’ll have to wait to see we suppose.
Let’s see if it’s scene where He Hao Yi moves in for a kiss, too. Is it just one of those scenes that looks like He Hao Yi is going to but he isn’t, or maybe it’s one that gets interrupted or ruined… We worry. It feels like it’s not time, but then it is already quite a number of episodes in. Maybe it’s time? Ahh! Onto Episode 9!
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