ROOMMATE Episode 14

Episode Title: Will there be reward after toil?

It is nightfall at the share house when they suddenly get an announcement from the PD. Everyone is ordered to gather in the upstairs living room. After assembling, the PD announces that they have been living together for 100 days. The roommates applaud and start bowing to Mama Shin. For this celebration, the roommates are gifted a 3 days/2 nights overseas trip to Taiwan and Japan. Chanyeol reads aloud the travel rules for the trip. The roommates have to stay at a local share house. The trips are divided by gender with the option to switch out one member of the group if necessary. They can only use the money that is provided by the production team. Meals are the responsibility of the group. They may also eat with the locals if offered. The last rule is taking 10 unique group pictures. The money envelopes are handed out and each team is given 1 million won.



Se Ho asks if anyone has a schedule during the weekend of the trip. Turns out Chanyeol has a concert in Taiwan that weekend. Se Ho asks him who he wants to see that weekend. Chanyeol laughs as he says EXO wants to see the ladies.

The roommates discuss a member swap. Se Ho starts talking about how he doesn't remember his trip to Taiwan from when he was younger. Soo Hyun interrupts, saying that he just wants to go with Nana. Se Ho jokingly asks if Nana is on the ladies' team. Nana fires back, asking if he considers her a guy. Sung Woo stops the bickering by telling Se Ho to just go. Se Ho goes to shake Sung Woo's hand. Min Woo tries to allude to the idea of swapping for Ga Yeon, saying she hangs around a lot of guys. Ga Yeon pipes in that Japan has a lot of gyms. Min Woo asks if she planning to train while there. Ga Yeon quietly says there isn't much time until her competition. Sung Woo establishes that shes is going with the guys.

The next discussion is about where they will stay. Se Ho makes a call to his friend who just returned from Taiwan. He asks his friend if he knows anyone that they could stay with. His friend says he'll introduce him to an old classmate of his that resides in Taiwan. After the call, the roommates are impressed. Se Ho makes another call to a friend in Japan to see if he can get the other team a place to stay. This friend agrees to have the roommates sleepover. Sora asks Sung Woo if he knows anyone in Japan. He tries to get a hold of one of his long time fans. Once she picks up, he introduces himself. The fan is all laughs. When asked for a place to stay for a night, the fan offered a room above her family's restaurant. Se Ho hears back from his friend. The person he was going to stay with is a newlywed. This friend called another friend, who is willing to let them stay over. The roommates try calling this friend of a friend named Ruby. The phone is passed over to Soo Hyun since she can speak English. Soo Hyun nervously asks to stay over to which Ruby willingly allows.

It is departure day. Team Taiwan sets out first. At the airport, Se Ho asks Nana to show off her Chinese. In Chinese, Nana says "I like Se Ho." Se Ho is all smiles after hearing this. While waiting, they notice they have matching passport holders. Soo Hyun jokingly asks how long they have been dating. Their luggage is made by the same company also. Playing along, Sora tells them they are a match made in heaven. Before boarding the plane, Se Ho takes a picture to post on his social media account, announcing they are going to Taiwan. He wants to see if any fans would come to the airport to greet them.

After landing in Taipei, Se Ho checks his social media account. He has 20,000 likes and 1,000 comments, most of which were welcoming them to Taiwan. At baggage claim, they try getting a hold of Ruby. The roommates are surprised when they hear "the other line is busy" is the same as in Korean. After getting through, Se Ho informs Ruby that they have arrived and tries to ask her where she is. He passes the phone to Soo Hyun, who asks for her address. The phone some how was passed to Sora, who asks Ruby to pick her up. Se Ho gets the phone back to Soo Hyun. Soo Hyun asks her how to get to her house. Ruby says she'll text her address in Chinese for her to show the taxi driver.

After picking up their luggage, the roommates are anticipating whether anyone will show up. Se Ho tells everyone to put their sunglasses on before facing the crowd. As they make their way out, Se Ho falls over from surprise after seeing that some fans came after all. The roommates happily go greet the crowd. Before parting from the fans, Soo Hyun asks them which bus line to take. She goes ahead of the group to figure out which bus they need to take. Se Ho is calculating their expenses as they wait for the bus to arrive.

On the bus, Se Ho has come up with a game plan for when they arrive. They'll greet Ruby and give her the gifts they prepared. The ladies start asking about Ruby, but Se Ho doesn't really know anything about her. Soo Hyun asks Se Ho if he would be happy if Ruby is beautiful. Se Ho brushes it off, saying he doesn't care. Soo Hyun playfully asks if it is because he has Nana. Se Ho answers of course.

They've made it to their stop. Soo Hyun goes right away to one of the taxi drivers to ask if he knows the address. The others are getting their luggage from the bus.

Once inside the taxi, the driver hands them a pen and paper. Soo Hyun assumes he wants the address. Nana asks Soo Hyun if the driver wanted an autograph instead, saying he seemed shy when he handed her the pen and paper. After writing down the address, Soo Hyun hands the driver the piece of paper. He takes one look at it and starts laughing. He actually wanted her autograph. After giving him their autographs, the driver's phone goes off. His ringtone is a song by Son Dam Bi (Nana's labelmate). Nana is impressed and asks if he like Son Dam Bi. He answers yes, saying she is the queen. Se Ho starts singing one of her songs and driver dances to it. Next, Se Ho starts playing "Catellena" by Orange Caramel, while pointing towards Nana. The driver seems to enjoy it and starts dancing to the song. The editors even made a mini music video of the driver dancing to "Catellena."

Sora has Se Ho ask the driver if he knows the Korean drama "My Love from Another Star." They look up the title in Chinese and ask the driver. He knows and even recognizes that Se Ho was in the drama. The driver makes a phone call and the roommates assume he must be bragging to a friend about it. After a long conversation, the driver hands the phone to Se Ho for him to speak. On the other line is his daughter, who is fan of Korean dramas.

They arrive at Ruby's apartment and reluctantly ring the door bell before being warmly welcomed by Ruby. They gather in the living room to chat. Ruby compliments Nana's Chinese and asks if she can speak Japanese as well. Se Ho, Nana, and Ruby start conversing in Japanese while Sora and Soo Hyun look on. They are impressed that she can speak 4 languages. Everyone starts introducing themselves. As they go down the line, Nana introduces herself in Chinese, which impresses Ruby. We find out Ruby moved from New Zealand to Taiwan and was a beauty editor before quitting to start her own business. She goes on to introduce her dog, Lucky.

The roommates get a tour of the house and the rooms they will be staying in. There isn't enough rooms so Se Ho suggests that he'll stay in the living room, but since the family's Buddhist shrine is there, he can't. The roommates ask if Ruby has a partition, which there is one in the room Nana and Soo Hyun are staying in. After getting the room situation cleared, Ruby asks if they are hungry. She goes to reheat and cook while the roommates go settle.

The guys and Ga Yeon are arriving to the airport. As they are checking in, we get a look at their passport pictures. Sung Woo looks really young while Kang Joon looks just like the trot singer, Park Hyun Bin. Sung Woo is speechless about Min Woo's picture so he just says he looks nice. Ga Yeon doesn't want to show her picture. She only shows Sung Woo first and he starts laughing. The others want to look as well. Sung Woo shows her picture. She looks like a high school student and not like a fighter. On the plane, Kang Joon writes a bunch of Japanese phrases on his hand. He wants to be able to guide the roommates once they arrive.

At the airport, they are greeted by Sung Woo's fans. He takes some group pictures with them. Ga Yeon calls a boxer by the name of Hong Chang Soo. Her boss arranged a meeting between the two. On the phone, Ga Yeon tries to tell him in Japanese that they have arrived. After failing, she starts speaking in Korean and they continue the conversation. They have to get on a bus. Before boarding, Sung Woo does some fan service for his fans. Even as they are pulling away, he is still waving at them.

They get off the bus a little while later. They take a group picture and eat some takoyaki before boarding the subway. After getting off, they call Mr. Hong to find out where he is. Mr. Hong spots the roommates and they come over. One by one, they introduce themselves. They settle themselves in Mr. Hong's restaurant to talk. Sung Woo starts reciting what he has researched on Mr. Hong. Ga Yeon compliments Mr. Hong's Korean. He shares that he studied in Korea for 6 months. Ga Yeon gifts him raspberry wine. He isn't familiar with it and the guys explain it is good for stamina. He gets it and says he will be working on getting a third son with this.

Ga Yeon asks for advice, seeing as her debut is coming up soon. He tells her she needs to win the fight against herself. If you lose against yourself, you won't be able to beat anyone and it will stop you from growing. After the pep talk, Mr. Hong offers them a meal on the house. Everyone is excited to eat meat, but Mr. Hong remembers that Ga Yeon still has weight to lose before making her weight class. Sung Woo pulls up a video of one of Mr. Hong's old matches. As they watch, Ga Yeon asks for his advice on punching. Mid-conversation, the meat is brought out. As they start grilling, Ga Yeon gets up to get her meal that she packed. She observes everyone enjoying the meat while she is eating her healthy meal. Mr. Hong comments that he feels bad for her and asks if she brought her training gear. Ga Yeon didn't, explaining her shoulder injury. Both regret not being able to train together.

After the meal, Sung Woo asks Mr. Hong how he felt when he won his first championship. He explains that his life goal was to become a world champion and that as long as he attains that then he would have no regrets. Sung Woo asks why he had "One Korea" written on his trunks. He shares that his father taught him to never forget his roots. Next, Mr. Hong shows the roommates his championship belts. Min Woo compliments him, saying he is a handsome guy. Mr. Hong answers in a playful tone"nonsense." Sung Woo suggests Ga Yeon try on one of the belts to get some of the champion energy. He tells her she needs to start getting used to it seeing as she will win a lot in the future. Ga Yeon humbly tells him she won't be winning championships anytime soon. She puts the belt on and feels the energy. In  her interview, she explains that she didn't want to put it on at first because it was so precious, but she felt honored to put it on.

Back in Taiwan, everyone is gathered to eat some homemade soup. As they are tasting it, Se Ho looks like he isn't enjoying it. In his interview, he compares it to not having bean paste in bean paste soup. He assumes that Taiwanese people must not like salty foods. Noticing that Se Ho doesn't like it as much, Ruby shows them another dish, bean curd. Se Ho tries a piece and likes it. Everyone else gives it a try.

After the meal, Nana asks Ruby what her favorite Korean food is. She answers kimchi stew, pork belly, kimbap, and army stew. Se Ho offers to cook for her if she comes to Korea. He starts to tell her about Sung Woo. She knows and refers to him as Mama Shin. Ruby asks what they plan to do in Taiwan. The roommates ask her if she know the singer, Kong Ling Qi. Earlier, Nana called her management company to see if they can introduce her to some people. Kong Ling Qi is one of the people they got her in contact with. The roommates ask Ruby to translate as Nana gives him a call. Nana's call goes through and she introduces herself before handing the phone to Ruby. Ruby asks if he is free to meet. He is and suggests meeting for coffee. Se Ho jokingly tells her to tell him Nana is only available for 10 minutes. He also tells her to tell him that he was going to come along to their meeting. Acting as a bodyguard, the two head off to the coffee shop.

They make it to the location, which is ironically called Roommate. They go inside and spot the singer. They introduce themselves. Kong Ling Qi brought along a friend who'll translate. Se Ho explains that Nana was suppose to come alone, but he tagged along. The singer assures him it is okay and compliments Nana, saying she is very beautiful. He even asks his friend how to say pretty in Korean before saying it to her. Nana tells him he is very handsome. The editors added in flames to make it appear as though Se Ho is jealous of their interaction. Ling Qi tells Nana she has a lot of fans. She answers back in Chinese. He asks if she is learning Chinese. Nana answers that she just started learning. After hearing this, he offers to tutor her. Se Ho interrupts, telling him she already has a teacher in Korea. Nana offers to teach him Korean if he'll teach her Chinese. Se Ho interrupts again, saying he needs to learn Korean from a guy instead of a girl or else he'll start talking like a girl (meaning he'll start picking up girls' mannerisms of talking). Nana fires back that she wouldn't let that happen.

Ling Qi shares that he is a fan of After School and has been following news about them. Nana asks if she is his favorite member of the group and he tells her of course. He says he has always been a fan of hers. Se Ho asks for how long he has been a fan. He brings up her song "Catellena" and tells her he saw the music video. He tells her he is a music producer and that he would like to give her one of his songs in the future. They high five to that. Se Ho tells not to do it again, which Nana disobeys on purpose. Se Ho redirects his attention elsewhere until he hears about Ling Qi's real estate in Shanghai and Beijing. He asks about the homes. Not to be outdone, Se Ho invites him to stay at his homes in Seoul, Incheon, Busan, and Daejun. But then he completely backtracks, saying only in Seoul.

Ling Qi informs Se Ho that "My Love from Another Star" is a bit hit in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Beijing. Se Ho brags that he worked with Kim Soo Hyun. Ling Qi asks if they are friends. Se Ho is taken a back and thinks whether he should say the truth. So he tells Ling Qi that they are friends and that Jun Ji Hyun is like an older sister to him. Se Ho asks who he thinks is prettier - Jun Ji Hyun or Nana. Ling Qi points to Nana. Nana goes to shake his hand and he plants a kiss on her hand. Ling Qi asks about the other roommates.

Sora and Soo Hyun went to the famous Longshan Temple with Ruby. They light some incense before going to get their fortune read. It is explained that as you are holding the rock, you can ask Buddha any question. After you release the rock, if it splits, then Buddha will answer your question. From there, one goes to grab a stick, which is numbered. After selecting the number, you have to go get the fortune from that numbered drawer. Soo Hyun asks if there will be no troubles on their trip. She releases the rock and it splits. She grabs the number 82 and goes to the respective drawer. The fortune reads "there will be reward after toil," "seize the day," and "be nice to each other when together."

Back at the cafe, Ling Qi asks what they want to do in Taiwan. Nana explains that Se Ho wants to do a fan meeting to see how popular he is. Ling Qi believes that due to the popularity of the drama, his fans will come. He proceeds to ask if Se Ho has ever had a fan meeting and how many people came. Se Ho lies that there were 40,000 people when in actuality he never had one. Se Ho whispers to Nana to tell them it was a lie while he goes to the bathroom. Nana indirectly tells them by saying not to trust what he says. Ling Qi says he is sure that more than 40,000 people will come. When he comes back, Se Ho asks Ling Qi for his help. Ling Qi has to check schedule before he agrees. They try to come up with a time for the next day. Ling Qi asks his manager who signals 6 PM. Se Ho pretends to check his schedule and jokingly ask if they can do it at 7 PM instead. Ling Qi laughs as he tells him he has to record at that time. Se Ho asks about 6:30 PM and pretends to get on the phone with someone. He speaks in English so Ling Qi can understand. He pretends to reschedule an appointment to an earlier time to accommodate the fan meeting. They agree on 6:30 PM and start discussing a location. Ling Qi suggests Ximending since Se Ho wants to have it in crowded area. Next, Ling Qi asks if he is going to perform something special. Nana interjects that he has to. The reason Ling Qi was asking is because he wants to know if he needs to inform the press. Se Ho immediately refuses and tries to leave. Ling Qi offers to do a dance with him. Se Ho declines, saying he isn't a good dancer. He starts to have second thoughts about the event, but then Ling Qi offers to MC the event. Ling Qi comes up with the idea of posting about it on his Facebook. They take a picture together and Ling Qi makes a post.

Back in Osaka, the group is heading to the gym. Sung Woo tells Ga Yeon not to over do things. Kang Joon uses an app to ask Mr. Hong in Japanese how long it will take to get there. Mr. Hong understands and answers him. Kang Joon praises himself afterwards. At the gym, Ga Yeon starts wondering off as she inspects the gym. She is called over to meet the owner, who compliments her on her looks. Sung Woo explains that she may seem cute now, but that won't be the case when she starts fighting. Sung Woo asks the owner what he thinks of Mr. Hong. The owner believes Mr. Hong knows everything when it comes to boxing. Ga Yeon asks to see Mr. Hong fight in the ring. After some persuasion, he agrees.

Mr. Hong, Kang Joon, and Min Woo change into training attire to begin there workout. Kang Joon takes one kick on the punching bag before giving up from the pain. He watches intently as Mr. Hong kicks the punching bag as a warm up. Min Woo asks if there is special way of warming up. Mr. Hong tells them to do whatever they want. Mr. Hong gives them a quick tutorial on punching before telling them they are perfect. Mr. Hong gets the mitts out so they can practice. Min Woo is up first and does so well that Mr. Hong says he can go professional tomorrow. While Mr. Hong's attention is on Kang Joon, Min Woo collapses and rolls out of the ring. Kang Joon's turn turns into a comedy. When he has to guard, he shoots up his hand. While punching, his leg tends to kick back. Not even through with the exercise, Kang Joon becomes very tired. He tries to take a break, but Mr. Hong goes to nudge him. After awhile, Kang Joon forgets everything and just starts apologizing. After the exercise, Sung Woo comments that he was sweating just by laughing at Kang Joon. Mr. Hong tells Kang Joon that it will take more than a year for him to go pro.

Not wanting to miss this opportunity, Ga Yeon steps in the ring with Mr. Hong. Ga Yeon starts throwing some punches. Mr. Hong stops, turns to the guys, and tells them this is how you throw a punch. After the jokes, the training continues. Afterwards, Mr. Hong praises her and teaches her some techniques. He teaches her how to fake out - make one big swing like you are going to hit your opponent before striking them with your other hand. The next is to look at your opponents torso before hitting them somewhere else. This would make your opponent think you're going to strike in the torso region. The next tip is to distract your opponent by spinning one hand and striking with the other. After the lessons, they spar. Things start off light before it becomes more intense. The guys are watching worriedly. The PD interrupts, asking if they should stop. Ga Yeon tells them she wants to continue. They spar for a bit more before the PD tells them to stop. Afterwards, Mr. Hong praises Ga Yeon for using all of the techniques he taught her. He advises her to practice them more to make them her own.

In Taiwan, the group is having an outing to Raohe Night Market to eat delicious foods. They make it to the market and have a look around. While waiting in line, Se Ho notices his phone is gone. He shuffles around his bag to see if it there, but to no avail. The ladies suggest they find a place so that they can thoroughly check through his bag. Se Ho asks the producers for the number of the taxi company to ask if his phone is in the cab. They find a spot and start emptying his bag completely. Again it is not there. They've also been trying to call his phone, but Se Ho informs them he has it on silent. Soo Hyun notices that the phone is turned off now (which it wasn't before). Se Ho tries calling and starts looking at each taxi to find their previous driver.  The producers inform them they didn't call for a taxi, but hailed one instead. Se Ho retells the story about how the driver was having a fit about being paid because Se Ho wanted to pay him from outside the car. One of the staff suggests they look through the footage for the license number. As they are looking through, they find the taxi number. They don't know what to do. A staff member suggests contacting the Korean consulate. Se Ho thinks they'll won't be of any help. Se Ho feels very sorry towards his roommates. The ladies try to assure him  it is alright. Se Ho goes off to the street to look at the taxis coming by. Seeing how sorry and worried he is, Soo Hyun calls the consulate. The consulate recommends them to go to the police. Now the issue is finding the police station. A local approaches them and asks if they need help. Turns out she is a fan of the show. She takes them to the police station.

At the station, Se Ho goes in alone to report his missing phone. The ladies wait patiently outside. After a long wait, Se Ho updates them on the situation. The police are investigating right now. Se Ho apologizes once again. He says he usually never loses his things. He goes back in to see how it is going and the ladies continue to wait. They feel bad for Se Ho. Nana says the phone itself isn't important, but what is inside (he has a lot of pictures of the roommates on his phone). Se Ho comes back and breaks the news- he doesn't think they'll find his phone. He tells them they should just leave, but none of the ladies get up to leave. Just then, one of the producers calls out to him. It seems like the police are talking to someone. Se Ho goes back in to check on it. The police are talking to the driver and are asking for the model of Se Ho's phone. Se Ho reemerges outside and happily announces that they found it. Everyone is happy and Sora shouts out "a reward after toil." Soo Hyun joins in, telling Se Ho to be nice to them while they're still here. Now relieved, they do a cheer for the Taiwanese police, who helped them out greatly. 5 minutes later, the taxi driver arrives with Se Ho's phone. They take a picture with the driver in front of the police station as one of their required group shots. Although it is breaking the rules, Se Ho treats the entire staff to a meal. He thanks everyone for their efforts as they cheers. After the meal, Sora offers to pay for half of the bill.

Thoughts:
It was nice of the producers to send the roommates on trips for their 100 days together. Although it would have been nice if they all went on one trip, I understand why they decided to split the group (security issues).

I like the idea of having the roommates stay at local share houses. Se Ho's array of contacts is impressive. It is cute to know Sung Woo keeps in contact with some of his long time fans. Seeing him interact with his fans at the airport was also cute.

Ga Yeon has a lot of will power. She followed her diet even while on vacation. Her determination to train with Mr. Hong was impressive. She would have have definitely continued to train if the PD didn't tell them to stop.

The phone incident was a doozy. Although Se Ho was set on not making a big deal of it, everyone else was determined to help after seeing how affected he was from losing it. It was so nice to see the locals aid them in getting the phone back. I feel like in some places around the world, trying to find a missing phone would have been a lost cause. It was surprising to see the fortune from earlier come true. Let's hope the rest of their trip continues without a hitch.