Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha season 1, episode 7 recap – Who makes Doo-sik cry?

This recap of the Netflix K-Drama series Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha season 1, episode 7 contains spoilers.

Read the recap of the previous episode.

There’s something I genuinely love about Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha. It’s not the typical “in-your-face” kind of story but it knows how to keeps you coming back for more. It is the kind of series that grows within you and makes you wonder. In the last episode, Hye-jin finally encountered her college’s crush, Sung-hyun, in the most dramatic situation where Doo-sik is one step closer to meeting the angel of death on his face. In my prediction post, I’ve made some predictions about how the women that spend two days together strolling down Gongjin will have some connection about Doo-sik’s past. Well, it turns out I’m clowning myself. She happens to be Sung-hyun’s writer for the show. Let’s recap Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha season 1, episode 7.

Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha season 1, episode 7 recap

The four of them head to the town hall where Mr. Chang invites everyone to hold a welcome dinner for Sung-hyun and his production team. Doo-sik is bewildered since he has previously mistaken him as a mukbangers. Well, reality check. The guy is actually a PD for a famous program on national TV. While enjoying the dinner, Ms. Joo decides to ruin Hye-jin’s mood by sticking her nose into their personal spaces. Hye-jin excuses herself first where Sung-hyun offers to walk her home. Of course, our Doo-sik follows them and the trio end up drinking together at his house. Hye-jin warns Doo-sik to keep his mouth shut about whatever happens between them.

As the night gets deeper, the trio is having the time of their life. Loving the atmosphere. Sung-hyun and Hye-jin are like a mirror reflecting each other. Both of them have the same preferences and enjoy the same thing… While there’s Doo-sik–the third wheel–who happens to be the exact opposite. Doo-sik secretly notices how the two of them seem to know each other very well. It’s the night where the bromance and friendship begins. Sung-hyun is asking Doo-sik to become his team’s guide in town, he is even willing to bet it on games to decide everything. It is interesting how the series uses 2 Days and 1 Night, a show where Kim Seon-ho is in the regular cast, for the game references. The scene and the chemistry between the trio are effortlessly entertaining to watch. Well, after all the chaos, the three end up falling asleep after a long night. 

The bromance of Gongjin

The next day, Doo-sik is guiding Sung-hyun’s production team for sightseeing Gongjin and their next stop is Gam-ri’s house. Sung-hyun intends on making the house the main shooting location so he brings all the team to her house in order to ask for Gam-ri’s permission on borrowing her house for 7 days. He falls for the authenticity and the warmth of the house. But sadly, Gam-ri firmly rejects his request out of trust… And that’s when we can see how persistent Sung-hyun is on chasing what he wants, but before that, there’s a rule to be done: Fill in the empty tummy.

Doo-sik brings the sulky and hungry Sung-hyun and his team to Ms. Yeo’s restaurant. Sung-hyun nags that it’s been the third time he brings him here. But Gongjin is full of surprises, so Sung-hyun gets a surprise menu cooked by the owner herself. A wild fish-fresh from the sea that cost 100,000 won in Seoul. These two brothers bicker over cooked ramyeon but after taking a bite, Sung-hyun and Doo-sik suddenly turn into dramatic mukbangers who seems to eat fish for the first time in their life. The scene cracks me up. 

After the delicious meal, Hye-jin stops by the restaurant. Doo-sik notices she sounds different while talking with Sung-hyun and later mimicking her way of speaking. After his tummy is happily fed, Sung-hyun suggests the whole team go shopping to the market where Doo-sik struggles to keep up with Sung-hyun’s energy and childlike behavior when it comes to shopping. He buys all the things that excite him. From the hat, food, candy, and flowery pants. But it turns out, he goes all the way back to Gam-ri’s house and brings all the presents for her to win her heart and show his good intentions. He keeps coming back to gives her a present and helps to fix her dead lamp. Until he goes absent for a couple of days which makes Gam-ri wonder. 

Later, Gam-ri calls his granddaughter who resides in America for her studies. She happily talks to her and asks her to come to Gongjin for a visit where she will cook all the dishes she likes. But sadly, her beloved granddaughter won’t be coming home this holiday since she will be spending the holiday in California with her friends. Gam-ri’s sudden loneliness breaks my heart. 

The third mystery of Gongjin

So in a previous episode, Mi-seon is talking about the three mysteries of Gongjin but she has not yet revealed the third one since Hye-jin loses her interest in remembering her past love. It turns out, the third mystery happens to be associated with a mysterious villager that wins the huge amount lottery. Yoo-kyeong spilling the tea saying that there once a villager who won the 1.4 billion lottery but up until now, nobody knows who the lucky villager is. Almost everyone in the village buys the lottery ticket so it’s hard to identify the person. The strange thing is, with that big amount of money, all the villagers seem to lead an ordinary life. None of them is showing symptoms of being rich overnight. Especially since a typhoon struck Gongjin during the day of the lottery draw so it’s impossible for outsiders to come nor the villager to go out from Gongjin. Who could it be?

But while we’re talking about Gongjin mysteries, the first mystery also makes me curious. We have not yet known the reason behind Ms. Yeo and Mr. Chang’s divorcement. What exactly happened between Mr. Chang, Ms. Yeo, and Yoon Cho-hui? Well, Ms. Jo is here to spill us the tea, a little at a time. She’s better than any other gossip platform. It turns out, the three of them were once besties who bonded perfectly together. Ms. Jo describes Ms. Yeo as a chic, tomboy woman, and on the contrary, Cho-hui is like a spring flower, feminine and delightful. It’s natural how Mr. Chang is drawn to her charms. She is also technically his first love. But everything changes after Cho-hui’s parents unwell situation and leaves her with no choice but to move out to another city… And the tea stops there because Cho-hui suddenly comes in with a bright smile and stops all the chatter.

The next day, Mr. Chang supposes to meet the two woman at Mozart restaurant, yet he is unable to come due to his falling himself during shower session. Ms. Yeo and Cho-hui decide to pay him a visit and surprise him by seeing him laying down helplessly on the bed. The two women help him anyway. After the shocking view, Cho-hui and Ms. Yeo walk home together. Cho-hui asking to be friends again with both of them. She wants to go back to the times where they spent everything together because it’s the happiest moment of her life. Ms. Yeo does not give any clear answers to it, but she does not refuse it either. Hmm, I’m sensing something fishy about their relationship but I’ll refrain from clowning myself for now.

The house is less lonely. 

Is it weird that watching Doo-sik and Hye-jin happily washing the blanket together boosts my serotonin level? I don’t think I’m the only one though because Gam-ri also smiles watching them from afar. She represents all of us. After the playful washing the blanket challenge, both of them enjoy corn together. Sung-hyun suddenly appears at the gate of her house bringing a delicious cake for Gam-ri. It’s been five days since his last visit which makes Gam-ri sulk. She offers him to stay and have dinner but Sung-hyun says that he plans on having dinner with his friend, which happens to be D.O.S’s JUNE, who successfully bonds Hye-jin and Joo-ri together. Hye-jin’s fangirl mode is automatically on and she immediately informs her Hacker’s bestie, Joo-ri, to come over.

Gam-ri offers to cook them a delicious dinner in return for the cakes. The four of them enjoy dinner together. It makes me really happy watching JUNE eats so deliciously Gam-ri’s homemade meal. He even states how it’s been so long since he eat homemade meals. Sung-hyun adds how JUNE never stops working though he’s still so young. Gam-ri shows her warmth by giving a piece of meat to his rice–a small gesture of affection. It’s a simple scene that gives many meanings, especially JUNE is projecting us a glimpse of life being a K-Pop idol where they have crazy schedules, tight diet routines, and most of them live apart from their family since young ages. Not to mention our adorable Joo-ri who is the luckiest fangirl ever to have her bias remember her and having a meal together. 

After the warm meal, Sung-hyun offers to wash the dishes. Hye-jin volunteers to help but Sung-hyun refuses since she has a back problem due to her car accident injury back in her high school days. Doo-sik slightly surprises knowing her back problem since they wash the blanket together. While doing the dishes, Gam-ri expresses her genuine happiness since it’s been a long time since she brings all the spoons out. She is happy that the house is more lively than any other day. Sung-hyun shares how he also feels happy after engaging and living in the moment with other people rather than enjoying things alone in life.

The ending: “Is Hye-jin seeing someone?” 

If you have to choose one thing, what will you choose to start your day with? A cup of milk or a coffee? Well, I’ll go for a cup of milk this time since Doo-sik is the one who delivers it at the front of your door. I mean, who wouldn’t love seeing that smile in the morning? But other than milk and coffee, Mi-seon chooses to start her day with chicken. Yup. Other than our dimple couple, I’m enjoying the awkward yet cute relationship between Mi-seon and Eun-cheol. After sharing her lottery ticket, he actually wins the 5,000 prize and decides to spend it on Mi-seon’s favorite snacks which cost 7,000 won. It’s cute how the other night, he refused to eat it when Mi-seon asked him to because he’s on a strict diet as cops.

Meanwhile, our Hye-jin wakes up to a surprise delivery from Sung-hyun. He buys her various meals and her favorite sausages which brings a smile to her face. They later call each other. Sung-hyun shares that for the past ten years, he sometimes wondered what Hye-jin was doing since she is known to be hardworking and always on the go. He shares his admiration for seeing her living a more peaceful and comfortable life. He also promises to have a proper meal with her when he is less busy. Hye-jin happily agrees. Well, Doo-sik better deliver his milk to her next time. 

On the other hand, after Gam-ri receives her free fresh milk from Doo-sik, she asks him to bring Sung-hyun over. She agrees on lending her house for Sung-hyun’s TV show which surprises Doo-sik. Well, Sung-hyun’s good intention pays off. Later, Sung-hyun enthusiastically screens the house while Doo-sik explains all the rules and details. Sung-hyun agrees with everything he says. Doo-sik nags that he should be more meticulous instead of being agreeable. Sung-hyun uses baseball as a metaphor where he does not let himself be concerned about the speed of the ball–which means he does not let himself stress over the little things, but focus more on the bigger pictures and ideas as long as it hits the target even if it takes more time. Under the bright blue sky, Sung-hyun finally brings up the question that bewildered Chief Hong, “Is Hye-jin seeing someone?” 

Doo-sik puzzles for a moment and not knowing how to respond to the mixed feelings that occur to him. Sung-hyun asks the same question, twice. Doo-sik later answers that she does not see anyone and Sung-hyun smiles brightly, “It’s a relief then.” 

Well, another man has entered the game and tries to throw a pitch. What will happen?

The epilogue

Well, it is not Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha if there’s not an epilogue that makes you crave for more and season 1, episode 7 gives us one. I think it’s a great formula that really keeps the audience engaged more in the story. For today’s epilogue, we already know how Hye-jin randomly remembers that Doo-sik puts his head on her shoulder when both of them are drunk. But it turns out there’s more to what happens. After adorably looking for her Chief Hong to say goodbye, she finds him sitting alone outside of his house.

He is dazed and half-asleep. Hye-jin tries to wake him up saying that he will get facial paralysis if he sleeps outside. Doo-sik suddenly opens his eyes. This time, his eyes radiate a sad, longing, and hollow gaze. Hye-jin quickly knows that he’s about to cry… And yup, he’s subconsciously crying. Hye-jin quickly tries to lift him up to move him inside but he is too heavy. Both of them fall back to sit in the same place. His head falls on her shoulder where he helplessly says, “Don’t go… Don’t leave me behind.” While the tear streams down on his face, Hye-jin gently comforts him and assures him that she will not leave anywhere. The way Kim Seon-ho portrays his characters is well-executed, just seeing his gaze makes you empathize with him more. What actually happened to him in the past? Well, we’ll see. 

What did you think of Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha season 1, episode 7? Comment below.