Episode 13 Recap
After disappearing on He Hao Yi, Song Han Ming is the one to find her. She almost walks into oncoming traffic, but luckily Song Han Ming turns up and stops her. Her return to her 30-year-old self has her angry at Song Han Ming for not telling her about her past.
His decision—which he tells her was one he thought to be in her best interest—made her an idiot who became contradiction and hatable. She tells him to leave her, but being worried for her, Song Han Ming request that she at least tell him she was okay.
Ai Li Si tells him honestly. She wasn’t. First, there was He Hao Yi’s suspected motive of wanting to get close to her was for the experiment logs Capital wants. Because of the logs, he made her face Chen Qi Tai. Clearly, Chen Qi Tai and her past are not things she wish to face. She tells Song Han Ming that it wasn’t easy for her to build up the protective layers of her shell she spent 13 years building. In there, she didn’t have to face anything nor think about anything, but He Hao Yi had to go and pull her out of that protective shell. She’s confused and has no clue how she was to face He Hao Yi and the situation now.
The 30-year old Ai Li Si is back with all her memories, but there’s an obvious change in her. She isn’t as sure of herself, as detached from her emotions, and her words aren’t as cutting.
Ai Li Si turns her attention to Song Han Ming, asking him how he was feelings after carrying out his plans to make things difficult for Bai Shu Lei. Being concern for others definitely was something she held back from doing in the past, but now she does it without hesitation. Song Han Ming credits He Hao Yi for her change. Probably as much as he doesn’t want to admit it, he tells her He Hao Yi has always had the power to make an influence on her—whether she was 17 or 30.
In not so many words, Song Han Ming is admitting defeat. He seems to realise he just doesn’t have the same kind of effect on her as He Hao Yi seems to have. After He Hao Yi turns up—having finally found Ai Li Si—and hugs her tightly, Song Han Ming leaves them. Following, he is seen in the shower reflecting on this fact. Song Han Ming’s been by her side and still couldn’t make any progress with her Ai Li Si. His request to allow him to be his friend just before he left Ai Li Si with He Hao Yi was not given answer. Before that, she asked Song Han Ming to not look for her in the future, telling him that she will do fine without needing him to come find her when he’s worried about her. He Hao Yi, on the other hand, has only just returned after a 13-year separation from her, but already he’s gotten farther than Song Han Ming has in the years he’s been by her side.
Back at He Hao Yi’s place, it is how it was. Ai Li Si is cold and distant towards He Hao Yi, but this is how he expected it and wanted it to be. Having Ai Li Si remember everything and face it was the only way he could ever have the real Ai Li Si eventually appear before him and say goodbye to the cold, distant Ai Li Si he believes is not the real her.
The eventful day ends with Ai Li Si and He Hao Yi going their rooms. Ai Li Si let’s all her emotions flow as she cries in the darkness of her room, while He Hao Yi is in his retelling a short story of Alice from the Alice in Wonderland book he holds in his hand: “Lonely Alice had no friends. Alice saw a bottle on the table. It wrote “drink me”. After drinking it, she slowly shrunk. She fell and entered a room made of ice. It was all ice. The table was ice, the sofa was ice, too. She wanted to leave, so she reached out for the door knob, but the door knob was ice, too. How could she possibly get out?”
The next day, Ai Li Si leaves for work early in the morning without waiting for him. She is reminded of what she believes is He Hao Yi’s motives for getting close to her again after taking a break and seeing him with CEO Wang talking about the experiment logs during work. During this exchange, He Hao Yi doesn’t admit to CEO Wang that was his motive. He is also seen calling his assistant to ask Capital to give him more time regarding the matter. Although it seems Ai Li Si’s time with He Hao Yi has stopped Ai Li Si from stomping in on them and calling He Hao Yi out on his motive, it’s not enough to have her believe that He Hao Yi’s reason for being near her is not for the experiment logs and that it’s because he truly cares about Ai Li Si.
At the end of work, Ai Li Si lets him know she is moving out of He Hao Yi’s place to go back to her own apartment. She doesn’t want to face him so she rejects He Hao Yi’s suggestion to walk home together and lets him know that even if he were to treat her well, she would still suspect him. She tells him that if he understood that he’d stay far away from her.
She walks out on him and sometime after work, she returns to her own place. Sitting alone in her apartment, she is very aware of this loneliness. It’s a state she clearly is only forcing herself to remain and not a state she truly likes. After sitting down in her almost empty apartment, she is heard noting how she was by herself again and convincing herself that there was nothing wrong with it because at least being by herself doesn’t hurt.
He Hao Yi shows up at her apartment not long after. Staying far away isn’t what he had in mind when he had her meet Chen Qi Tai and recall her memories. Having opened up Ai Li Si wounds, as he had promised himself, he will stay by her side no matter and bring back her smiles. He tells her this standing at the door with takeout and after dinner. He tells her that he understands the thoughts she has towards him and assures her he won’t take advantage of her. This has Ai Li Si retort how he probably doesn’t need to take advantage of her, since she probably isn’t important to him. He Hao Yi stares right into her eyes and tells her that she’s extremely important to her. Ai Li Si ends up let him in after initially trying to close the door on him following those words.
Dinner finished and amidst washing the dishes up, Ai Li Si requests He Hao Yi take his leave. He Hao Yi doesn’t. He tells her he won’t let her be alone and won’t leave her place until he sees CEO Wang make his next move. He Hao Yi then fences her in from behind with his arms. He tells her he wants to show her a trick and asks her to guess which hand the item is in. Ai Li Si is not interested in playing. He Hao Yi gives in and reveals the item. It’s Ai Li Si’s four leaf clover bracelet, her lucky bracelet.
Ai Li Si reaches out for the bracelet, wanting it back. He Hao Yi pulls it away from her and reminds her of how they used to think lucky clovers would make their dreams come true, so they all went and looked for them. The memory has Ai Li Si smile, which distracts her a little., allowing He Hao Yi to take hold of her hands and wrap the bracelet around her wrist. He tells her about the act he knows she’s putting on and how she’s not forgotten the past. He tells her that he wasn’t able to make it up to her in the past, but he will do whatever he can to bring back the smiles which she had when she was 17.
Ai Li Si seems to respond quite well for a moment as she smiles at the bracelet he just wrapped around her wrist, but then moments later, her face straightens. As if rejecting the hope and desires she seems to want but fear to entertaining for fear of being hurt again, she unwraps the bracelet from her wrist and puts it back in He Hao Yi’s hands before leaving him.
Ai Li Si doesn’t let herself part from it long, as just before the night ends for them, Ai Li Si eventually takes back the bracelet from her bedroom door handle which He Hao Yi left for her to retrieve. With He Hao Yi right against the door frame, pretending to sleep (he’s making sure Ai Li Si doesn’t disappear on him), she gets up from reaches for it to put it back around her wrist.
It seems Ai Li Si still holds onto the memories the bracelet reminds her of and the belief four leaf clovers have. There’s still hope for Ai Li Si.
The night ends with Ai Li Si experiencing yet another headache. It might not be a bad memory, though, as Ai Li Si seems to come around the next day. He Hao Yi continues to persist with Ai Li Si throughout the day. It starts off with him accompanying her on her usual morning run. He shows her what a normal couple’s life is like, starting off with buying her flowers. She accepts them after He Hao Yi manages to guilt-trips Ai Li Si for rejecting an old lady’s hard work in selling these to him before pushing the flowers off on a passerby.
Next, He Hao Yi buys her lunch. He selects five varieties of bentos and lays them all out on the top some steps of the rooftop for her to choose from. It’s a lot of bento boxes. Ai Li Si finds it wasteful to have bought so many just so she has a selection to choose from. He Hao Yi tells her it’s not wasteful because he will eat the remaining ones.
So, Ai Li Si picks hers and eats through her one bento, while He Hao Yi goes through his second before picking up the third. He’s trying to muster up courage to face this challenge known as bringing back the real Ai Li Si. As he stuffs his mouth full, he chokes a little on the food. This has Ai Li Si leave him without saying a word.
He Hao Yi’s expression drops. Ai Li Si’s departure comes off as her having tired of him, but that wasn’t the case. Ai Li Si returns shortly with a bottle of water. Ai Li Si was concerned about him.
Returning back to Ai Li Si’s apartment, Ai Li Si once again tries to get him to go back to his own place. Standing outside her door, He Hao Yi reminds her of the promise he made about not leaving her on her own in the apartment. He tells her he will be heading back to his place to pack his suitcase before returning to her apartment.
He Hao Yi’s decision to return and stay at Ai Li Si’s apartment isn’t challenged. It turns out had He Hao Yi not stopped briefly to mention about her recalling the location of the experiment logs, Ai Li Si was prepared to lie to herself about He Hao Yi’s intentions, because Ai Li Si really wants to trust him.
Back at home, He Hao Yi returns to find Liu Xiao Fen back home. She had been away on a business trip being very busy. That’s what she says. He Hao Yi suspects she’s taken a business trip because she wants to avoid the situation with Ai Li Si. Now back, Liu Xiao Fen scolds He Hao Yi for dropping the past and his problems onto her. It had her troubled for the last few days. She moves on to suggest letting things stay as they are, saying that since Ai Li Si’s forgotten then let it stay forgotten. Everything will be fine as long as no one brings it up.
He Hao Yi fills her in, telling her that Ai Li Si’s remembered everything. This has Liu Xiao Fen worry over the reason Ai Li Si moved back: was it because she didn’t want to see them? He Hao Yi tells her it’s mostly just him she doesn’t want to see.
Liu Xiao Fen receives a text from Bai Shu Lei next. After having broke off their friendship, Liu Xiao Fen has been ignoring Bai Shu Lei’s calls and texts. It hasn’t been easy for her to ignore them as she is often seen wanting to answer them but always deciding to hold back on answering them.
Song Han Ming’s goal of having everyone leave Bai Shu Lei and showing her the feeling of being abandoned really was quite a success. She’s been miserable without Liu Xiao Fen.
After the events which had Ai Li Si remember everything, Bai Shu Lei was made to see how much she misunderstood Ai Li Si. She realised her mistake was not hearing her out. She also acknowledges that the way she makes friends is through shouting them. (This acknowledgement appears to be saying something about the differences between her, Ai Li Si and Liu Xiao Fen. Money is how she shows others an existence of a friendship.) What she can’t understand is why everyone was blaming her for what happened. It was Song Han Ming who used an alias and hid himself from her. At Song Han Ming’s apartment (after being brought back from a night at the bar where Bai Shu was showing him how many friends she had), after venting all the above at Song Han Ming, she tells him in her drunken state that she never looked down on him.
Bai Shu Lei’s last words seem to suggest that the present situation was every part caused by Song Han Ming as it was caused by her. He looked down on himself and was afraid to appear before her. Maybe had he been brave and faced her directly instead of through letters and gifts, causing Ai Li Si to need to keep a secret from her, the situation wouldn’t have become this way. (This is how we interpret Bai Shu Lei’s words anyway.)
With Liu Xiao Fen ignoring Bai Shu Lei the last few days, Liu Xiao Fen’s not heard about the state of things for Bai Shu Lei. A call from Bai Shu Lei which Liu Xiao Fen ignores again has He Hao Yi tell Liu Xiao Fen that causing a rift between her and Bai Shu Lei appears to have been Song Han Ming’s plan. This has Liu Xiao Fen feel for Bai Shu Lei, noting how she must be having a hard time after learning Song Han Ming’s done this to her. This has He Hao Yi use Liu Xiao Fen and Bai Shu Lei’s experience with Ai Li Si as reason for needing to go over to Bai Shu Lei during this time. He tells her that she should know that friendships are easily broken. Their friendship with Ai Li Si is evidence of that. Once they fall out of touch, it could last forever.
Liu Xiao Fen sees his point, but doesn’t acknowledge it aloud as she chooses to focus on He Hao Yi’s tendency to act Iike a big brother to her. She reminds him of his birth order before leaving his room.
Back over to Ai Li Si, she’s gone to the bookstore and appears to have done a bit of thinking whilst He Hao Yi has been at his place packing. In her hands is a yellow envelope. They look to be the experiment logs. She takes her seat at the same place she and He Hao Yi once sat together eating noodles and reading manga. Recalling this time puts a smile on Ai Li Si.
She moves her gaze to her four-leaf clover bracelet. A frown replaces the smile as she reflects on her decision to give up her friends. Regret seemingly flowing through her as she writes about the loneliness she feels at having given up her friendship and everything else since being abandoned by her friends. At the time, she felt the act of being abandoned was like the greatest betrayal. She then compares this abandonment to her decision to giving up friendships and all relationships. Never did she think, though, that giving it up would result in even more loneliness. Since then—she realises—she’s been trapped in a quick-sand of regrets. With that realisation, Ai Li Si returns to her apartment.
Morning hits. Ai Li Si is a lot different by this time. She is seen sitting in front of the sofa where He Hao Yi lay sleeping, appearing to have woken up long ago and is just quietly waiting for He Hao Yi to wake. It gives He Hao Yi quite a jolt when he wakes and realises Ai Li Si is staring at him whilst he slept. This has Ai Li Si let out a smile in reaction.
“What are you doing? Why didn’t you say something?” He Hao Yi says as he gets up. Ai Li Si complies: “He Hao Yi,” she says in a monotone kind of way that’s very characteristic of the 30-year-old Ai Li Si. “Sure enough, that’s all you say,” he comments. He then gets up to go brush his teeth, expecting her not to say anything more. Ai Li Si calls him again. This time his name is said with a tone that is more characteristic of the 17-year-old: “He Hao Yi.” He Hao Yi stops in his half-awake state. “Go out on a date with me,” Ai Li Si says with a smile.
Thoughts
Did that last scene not make you smile? It’s great to see Ai Li Si having thought it through. He Hao Yi went through three bento trays and was prepared to eat four! When his father died, when he represent his high school in a basketball tournament and when he took on a case for Capital for the first time, he ate two bentos. Facing Ai Li Si, four bentos. Wow, he was under immense pressure and felt he needed that much courage to face the Ai Li Si situation!
But if He Hao Yi knew how Ai Li Si was before she lost her memory like Song Han Ming did, He Hao Yi would see that he was making huge progress with Ai Li Si. As Song Han Ming had said at the beginning of the episode, Ai Li Si would never concern herself with how people were feeling. So, when He Hao Yi tried to guilt-trip Ai Li Si into accepting the flowers he bought for her with saying the lady worked hard to sell it to him, it shouldn’t have worked. A little boy hurt himself in a flashback in a previous episode; she walked right past him. But, it worked with her. She also actually let him stay over and allowed him to bring a suitcase, too. Ai Li Si definitely had changed and the real Ai Li Si was slowly appearing, all because of He Hao Yi’s efforts!
There aren’t a lot of episodes left, so we’re guessing the final episodes will be dealing with nabbing CEO Wang and having Ai Li Si trust He Hao Yi with the experiment logs. Then finally, it’ll go on to bringing Ai Li Si, Bai Shu Lei, Liu Xiao Fen and He Hao Yi back together as friends.
We do wonder whether Bai Shu Lei and Song Han Ming will end up together. Somehow, we wouldn’t mind if they don’t end up together. After how Bai Shu Lei rejected Song Han Ming because he wasn’t attractive in the past and how Song Han Ming played with Bai Shu Lei and made her suffer in the present, they are more suited to be friends we think.
We feel Ai Li Si matches Song Han Ming more. It’s a shame He Hao Yi matches Ai Li Si, too. He Hao Yi deserves Ai Li Si as he was the one who persisted and mustered up the courage to take whatever resulted in order to make Ai Li Si face her past and have her come out of that cold, lonely place she’s been living the past 13 years.
It should be a satisfying remaining episodes. We’re sort of really interested to see what this second date will be like between He Hao Yi and Ai Li Si. Even though we’ve already seen an episode with them going out together, this time, it will be with the real Ai Li Si. Let’s see if any drama will come from it. There shouldn’t be, right?
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