Review: Romantic and the Idol Season 2 Episode 3

It's necklace shuffle time! The male idols have made necklaces each with a special meaning behind them that the girls would choose. The necklace that each girl chooses will correspond to the male idol they get to spend time with that day.

Necklace #1: Wings Necklace
Creator: Min Hyuk
Meaning: It's similar to the BtoB logo, the group that Min Hyuk belongs to

Necklace #2: Cork Necklace
Creator: Jong Hun
Meaning: He deliberately made a necklace out of cork to signal to Yewon, whom had seen him drinking the night before, that this is his necklace. In hopes she would pick him.

Necklace #3: Star Necklace
Creator: N
Meaning: He wanted a pretty necklace. (Simply put.)

Necklace #4: Cat Necklace
Creator: Kevin
Meaning: Wanted something unique. (Couldn't be any more unique than Jong Hun's!)

The girls are so excited to see who they paired up with. While the guys wait outside in the little yard, nervously.

First to come out....Jiwon!

She smiles brightly and shows her necklace. Jong Hun comes down a step, as if it were his necklace, and then steps back up. Nope, not him! It's N's!

He put the necklace around her neck. The two link hands and go off happily.

Second to come out....Yewon!

Min Hyuk and Jong Hun are very nervous when they see her. But they are both happy to see her. Jong Hun even comments that she came out "very prettily". Can't he just say she's cute??

Yewon fusses around. Confesses that she had picked the same necklace as another and she actually had to rock-paper-scissor to get a necklace. But, she didn't get the one she wanted.

She opens the box toward her first..Hana, dul....set! It's..Min Hyuk's! He can't believe it, she can't believe it either! They are both so amazed that they're on a second date together, and all the while Jong Hun is on the side looking on in jealous bitterness. He's smiling though, so that's good. But he's still terrible at hiding his disappointment. He tells them to hurry up and go already.

Min Hyuk clasps the necklace around Yewon's neck and they go off. When they are gone, Jong Hun slaps his hand against the wall in despair saying that he was too obvious. Poor thing...he tried too hard,

The last two girls, G.Na and Eunyoung, both come out at the same time.

It seems like the spirit had gone out of Jong Hun. He's clearly disappointed. But, it looked like he was still curious as to which girl got his necklace.

G.Na and Eunyoung both open their necklaces at the same time.

G.Na picks Jong Hun and Eunyoung picks Kevin! G.Na is in shock. Jong Hun can't believe it. He smiles charmingly and both guys put their necklaces around the girls and head off. On the way however, Jong Hun asks G.Na how she came about choosing his necklace. And she replies that she can't wear short necklaces, so she chose the longer one. Aww, Jong Hun, just his luck.

Min Hyuk and Yewon
They head off to a cafe, only to find it closed. However, there is a cute little puppy waiting outside. They decide to play a little game with it, see who it goes to when called. Both set off a little way down the road and call the puppy who goes to...Min Hyuk! Yewon huffs and says that it must be a girl. Implying that if it were a guy, he would have gone to her.

Jong Hun and G.Na
They arrive at a restaurant, to I guess eat breakfast?? It's a meal consisting of whole mackeral, rice and several sides (ban chan).

G.Na prods him about if he has an ideal type. To which Jong Hun simply replies that he doesn't. Oh really?? He then tried to evade any questions about his ideal type by putting the focus on G.Na, saying that she doesn't look like she eats well and begins to cutely feed her. She responds that she does indeed eat well. It seems they have an amicable conversation enough. Jong Hun even asks if he should match her style of eating. (G.Na saves the rice for last.) But G.Na doesn't mind having different eating styles. Cute of Jong Hun for asking though.

N and Ji Won
As their first stop they are drinking shakes at a cafe. Not quite sure what they're having, but they both exchange drinks and taste the others. Neither one seems to mind. For me, I would surreptitiously wipe the straw before sipping. No offense. But that's gross to me.

Min Hyuk and Yewon
We catch them being blown around a meadow overlooking the ocean. Yewon stumbles and Min Hyuk catches her in time, and holds her hand tightly. He tells the camera that it feels as if they are flying. I don't think Yewon shared the same sentiment as her hair is blown all over her face.

Jong Hun and G.Na
These two were next seen sitting at cafe taking a breather. G.Na starts the conversation about Min Hyuk and Yewon and how good they look together. As the camera catches a close up of Jong Hun, he is totally silent as he drinks a fruit smoothy/slushy of some sort.

N and Ji Won
They are getting ready to leave the cafe and they are giving their autographs. As Jiwon signs her paper, N exclaims that he recognizes the signature. It turns out that they ride the same taxi and are living in neighboring suburbs! "Daebak!" Jiwon keeps exclaiming. I've never heard it said so many times before in one conversation.

Then, just when you think it's going to be an ordinary day....the mission comes.

Cut to a scene from a drama where a man is picking up a woman (I guess his love interest) off the ground and he holds her close in a back hug. Ah, the popular back hug.

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All the idols seem to take the news fairly well, except for Yewon who squeals and runs away from Min Hyuk in mock horror, laughing.
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Min Hyuk and Yewon
They decide to re-enact the scene they had just seen literally, with Yewon falling and Min Hyuk picking her up and trying to back hug her. Umm...doesn't go quite as planned. They get drenched in the rain and have to stop for awhile before going back out, braving the gusts and finally accomplish the back hug as Yewon clings to Min Hyuk to keep from being blown away.

Jong Hun and G.Na
PD Jong Hun had taken control, planning, plotting, and reviewing the way they should do their back hug. From finding the perfect location, setting up the camera, to staging the perfect shot, all G.Na had to do was sit and wait.

When the scene was all set, Jong Hun and G.Na came walking down a little garden walkway hand in hand, swinging playfully. Then, somehow, they looked each other in the eye, and Jong Hun spun her around (gently) and pulled her into a rather playful back hug, much to G.Na's delight and embarassment.

N and Jiwon
This was probably the most awkward moments. They ended up at a gazebo with Jiwon looking over the ocean waiting for N to back hug her. It took N three, or maybe four tries, to overcome his embarrassment and get it right. Yeah, it was like NG after NG. Jiwon was clearly frustrated, smiling through it, but frustrated. Lol.

Kevin and Eunyoung
Kevin, the guy who has never dated anyone before, made a valiant effort in pulling off a back hug. He and Eunyoung chose to walk along the beach as they did their back hug. But poor Kevin, not knowing how to do it himself, ends up wrapping Eunyoung in almost a strangling back packing back hug. They awkwardly and stiffly walked robot style down the shoreline. It was painful, yet funny to watch. Haha. At one point, I think Eunyoung was carrying him. She said later that it felt like she was being kidnapped. But there was no gun. Looks like Kevin needs to work on his skills a little bit more!

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After their back hug scenes, the couples head back to the house. All except Min Hyuk and Yewon, who had gotten sidetracked and also caught in the rain.

They return an hour later, only to be greeted by Jong Hun who chastises them for being so late. You just know he was jealous as heck!

Cut to the next scene with Min Hyuk and N playing around in the house. Both are around the same age, so I guess it was natural that they liked to goof off together. N had even commented that he really liked Min Hyuk, which translated weirdly into the type of like when you like a person of the opposite sex. Hehe.

And finally, it is the scene that has been on the previews for the past couple of weeks. The bus scene!

Each guy picks a seat on the bus. The girls are then led on to the bus and they have to choose which of the four seats they would like to sit next to. Wherever they end up is who they would sit next to the whole ride to their next stop, the aquarium. There is where they will make the mid-selections.

The girls are all seated first, then one by one the guys come aboard. How did they couple up?

Jong Hun and Eunyoung
Min Hyuk and Jiwon (Yay, they both got a chance to be together! They both wanted to.)
N and Yewon
Kevin and G.Na

A true first time pairing for everyone!

Nothing is really said about the conversations on the bus, which I thought was strange. They cut away pretty quickly to the aquarium.

And here is where more drama begins! It's a free day for the idols and they can basically go wherever they want with whomever they want to. And Jong Hun immediately starts to gravitate towards Yewon and begins to film her playfully on his camcorder.

So does Min Hyuk. Who forgets that he came in with Jiwon and is now holding her bag, drifts to Yewon. Jong Hun quickly shoos him away by reminding him that he came in with Jiwon. And he snaps out of it and moves away.

While they are at the aquarium, Jong Hun sticks with Yewon and they look at the displays together. Eunyoung and G.Na seemed to have separated from their bus partners and are on their own. While Min Hyuk and Jiwon are no where to be seen.

G.Na tried to strike up conversation with Jong Hun again at one of the exhibits. He politely replies to her, but turns his attention again to Yewon. She is a little miffed and moves away, and mopes on her own.

When they return to the house they gather together and find out that they will be watching the mid-selections together! Oo, the torture! The embarrassment!

All wait in anticipation to see who goes first and the PD announces that its the girls. The fellas hoot and holler in excitement.

First up is Jiwon. And as she hides her face in embarrassment, her interview is shown along with a clip of her mid-selection which is....

None other than Min Hyuk! Finally, he knows that one of the girls he wanted to get to know feels the same in return. So sweet!

Next is Yewon, who murmurs that she felt like throwing up from all the nervousness and embarrassment at having her selection seen by others.

But who she selected we won't know until Sunday! Cause that's where the episode ends. Argh!

Thoughts:
Things are getting more interesting. Both Kevin and Min Hyuk confessed to hoping they could spend more time with Jiwon. And Jiwon obviously wanted to spend time with Min Hyuk.

Jong Hun is frustrated that he hasn't been able to spend time with Yewon. I know people are hating on him right now, but he's just being honest. We all know that when we have our eye on someone, it's hard to look at anyone else. It's just the way emotions work. I think he's just trying too hard. He needs to just go with the flow. Get to know the other girls. I'm not saying he ends up with G.Na, but I would hope he would give the other girls a chance. I believe that was the goal on this show, wasn't it? Get to know different people and see if there's a connection, right?

Jong Hun thinks that Yewon doesn't get that he likes her, but lo and behold, we find out she knows. Huh, a pretty smart cookie there. She's got a good poker face too. Cause the way she treated Jong Hun at the aquarium seemed more like brother and sister.

Min Hyuk and Jiwon or Min Hyuk and Yewon. Whomever he chooses, he looks good with either one. It'll be interesting to see who he chooses in the end. I'm just happy that Min Hyuk finally got some time with Jiwon.

And speaking of Jiwon, how many times can one say "daebak" in a conversation? Geez. She and G.Na were going with that word like crazy.

And G.Na... Sigh... I feel kinda bad for her. But like I said about giving other people a chance, I hope she does too. She's only been on dates with Jong Hun, so she obviously felt uncomfortable around another guy. I hope she bounces back. She's a lot funnier when she's not moping.

Kevin is adorable. He hasn't had the chance to date, so this whole experience is really the first time for everything with him. I can't wait to see who he picked.

N and Eunyoung... Man, these two really don't have a lot going on so far. Hopefully they get their moment in the spotlight on the show soon.

Can't wait for Sunday!