Gwan-Sik loses his job since Ae-Sun had a fight with Sang-Gil. Sang-Gil’s brother is the president of fisheries association. The boats are managed by them. Gwan-Sik goes to look for job in When Life Gives You Tangerines Episode 5. But he’s frustrated to return home each time.
Episodes 5-6
Gwan-Sik has helped his family sell fish since he was nine years old. He has a family of four members now. He doesn’t want to take a break. He thinks his family can hang in there for one day as long as he works hard for one day.
The rice jar is going to be empty. Ae-Sun goes to ask the landlord’s wife. But the old lady is heartless to Ae-Sun. The landlord complains it to Ae-Sun that there’re many people who have a harder life than she is. Ae-Sun has to ask her grandma Chun-Ok to help her. She tears up but she cannot say anything.
Her uncle Han-Moo claims that he’s in trouble as well. He’s in a lot of debt. He asks Ae-Sun if she wishes to get her grandma’s only gold ring. Ae-Sun wonders why the life is so hard and why the torment breaks her heart each time.
Ae-Sun and Gwan-Sik think they’re going to have no hope. But her grandma visits her. She gives her all her money. It’s the money her grandma has saved since she was young. Her mother visited Chun-Ok before she passed away. Chun-Ok accompanied Gwang-Rye to the photo studio to take the last photo. Gwang-Rye was going to die. But she wanted to get perfect care for Ae-Sun. She begged Chun-Ok to help her daughter one time. She dried her tears and she got the promise from Chun-Ok. She did all she could do.
Ae-Sun and Gwan-Sik buy a boat with the money Chun-Ok gave them in summer. They don’t have to care for others’ eyes. Han-Moo isn’t happy. He thinks his mother should give the money to him. Chun-Ok yells at Han-Moo that Ae-Sun is the daughter of her eldest son.
Ae-Sun is proud to claim that Gwan-Sik’s good life was given by her. The villagers praise Ae-Sun. They think she’s a good daughter-in-law. Gwan-Sik smiles. He looks at his wife who dances and jumps. Love is so. Ae-Sun is excited. It causes the due date in advance.
Gwan-Sik prepares a trolley. He takes his wife to the hospital. Ae-Sun is pregnant soon after she gave birth to her son. Mak-Cheon and Gye-Ok come to see Ae-Sun because of the grandson. But Gwan-Sik isn’t happy after he saw them. He plans to move out with his family. He says goodbye to the landlord who always takes care of them. The landlord is still fierce. But he asks his wife to prepare the tasted pork for celebrating it.
Gwan-Sik and Ae-Sun stand in front of the old house again. She looks at her mother’s photo and she holds his hand. She cries. She She walked a long way up the mountain for seeing her mother when she was a child. She felt happy when she saw her mother’s smiling.
Ae-Sun loves her mother and she likes the place. But she thinks she’s too poor. Because the conch and the crab have houses. But she has lived at other people’s house or rented a house. It’s not her home no matter where she goes. So Gwan-Sik bought the old house. Ae-Sun has a home from now on.
Gwang-Rye gets into Ae-Sun’s dream in the evening. She’s busy like before. She’s panting when she talks with Ae-Sun. She keeps asking her when she will buy a car. She mentions the neighbor has a truck. Ae-Sun wakes up. She understands the hint in the dream suddenly.
She asks the neighbor to send her to the hospital. The little son is born. One daughter and two sons. They’re Geum-Myeong, Eun-Myeong and Dong-Myeong. Mak-Cheon didn’t like Ae-Sun before. She changes her attitude. Sang-Gil plans to elect the next chairman of the Fishermen Association. He buys the villagers a meal.
There should be a vice-chairman since there’s a chairman. The villagers vote for Ae-Sun. Sang-Gil isn’t happy. But Ae-Sun won the villagers’ heart. The villagers threaten to reelect the chairman if Ae-Sun isn’t the vice-chairman. So there’s a female vice-chairman in the village.
The village is arresting the women who dance in the ballroom. Ae-Sun accepts the task to look into the women’s restroom. She finds Sang-Gil’s wife and his daughter in the room. The life is hard and Sang-Gil is cruel. Young-Ran cannot live if she doesn’t have a hobby. Ae-Sun understands Young-Ran. She helps her flee from the window. But Young-Ran loses a shoe when she runs away. Ae-Sun buys a pair of similar shoes for not letting Sang-Gil find it out.
There’s a tale that the dragon king will be furious to flip the boat if there’s a woman getting on the boat. So Ae-Sun hesitates when Gwan-Sik reaches out his hand to her. Geum-Myeong gets on the boat. Ae-Sun doesn’t wish Geum-Myeong to live in the world in bondage.
Ae-Sun takes care of the three kids at home. Dong-Myeong tries to reach the candy can on the cabinet. He spills it all over the place. Ae-Sun is anxious to put the candies back to the can. She ignores Dong-Myeong’s voice that he wishes her to hug him.
The little girl informs Ae-Sun that something bad happened to Geum-Myeong. She runs when she tells the sea woman to help her take care of the children. But the sea woman is dozing off. She doesn’t hear what Ae-Sun said. Ae-Sun takes Geum-Myeong who almost had an accident home. The two children disappear.
The two aunts take back Eun-Myeong who ran around. But where is Dong-Myeong? Ae-Sun just went to look for Geum-Myeong. She didn’t note that Eun-Myeong left home. Dong-Myeong is still young. He left home as well. It seems that the heaven tries to tell Ae-Sun about the accident. It’s pouring.
The villagers search the whole village. The landlord and his wife help look for the child in the rain. But Ae-Sun receives the desperate message. Dong-Myeong leaves. Ae-Sun and Gwan-Sik’s hard hearts crash for the first time. Ae-Sun doesn’t expect that she will wear mourning garment so fast. Everything is so untrue.
Ae-Sun remembers her mother told her to think about the looks of her when she dives. The people who live on the land yell to end their lives when they meet with setback. Sea women never say such words no matter how hard their lives are. Gwang-Rye fought the Grim Reaper many times in the sea. She made many excuses to live. So Ae-Sun shouldn’t lie in the bed if she cannot hang in there. She needs to fight the life till the end. So she can get rid of the undercurrent and see the light.
Eun-Myeong gets angry and he refuses to talk with Ae-Sun. Geum-Myeong gets full mark but she doesn’t tell it to Gwan-Sik. Geum-Myeong blames herself for bringing trouble that day. Eun-Myeong blames himself for not taking care of his brother at home. Ae-Sun and Gwan-Sik realize it. They hug the kids and they feel guilty.
Three days later, Gwan-Sik continues to go fishing after he had breakfast. Ae-Sun begins to take care of the family. The period of mourning is very short. They only allow themselves to be sad for three days. The sea is heartless. It takes away Ae-Sun’s three family.
She turns her back to the sea even if she’s selling seafood. She hates the sea but she needs to rely on it. Nobody knows how did she hold up her broken heart. She hates herself except the sea. Gwan-Sik never blamed Ae-Sun. He feels more guilty than she does. He only hates himself if you ask him why he hates most.
Nothing would happen if he stayed at home. How did they get through the hard times. The landlord wants to give the eggs to Ae-Sun. His wife thinks Ae-Sun will get strength after she eats the eggs. The two old people are good even if they pretend to be heartless.
Ae-Sun asked the landlord’s wife for rice. The landlord’s wife added the rice into the rice jar. She only added the portion of three for making Ae-Sun not get a burden. The landlord asked his wife to give the fresh octopus to Ae-Sun when he complained. The sea woman Gyeong-Ja gave the largest abalone to Ae-Sun. Min-Ok paid three months’ rent for Ae-Sun before she moved out. She asked the landlord to keep the secret. She regretted that she didn’t let Byeong-Cheol help Ae-Sun continue to go to college.
SEE ALSO: When Life Gives You Tangerines Episodes 3-4 Recap
The people on the island are good. Everyone gathered together. They became Ae-Sun’s river snail girl. Geum-Myeong is good at studying. She gets the admission notice. Ae-Sun and Gwan-Sik sell the boat for supporting Geum-Myeong. Geum-Myeong goes to the college and she knows a boy Yeong-Beom. His eyes are fixed when he looks at her.
SEE ALSO: When Life Gives You Tangerines Episodes 7-8 Recap
He claims that he’s going to take group photos. But he only takes photos of her. Gwan-Sik doesn’t like his future son-in-law. He gets angry after he realized that the cabbage he planted is going to be eaten by a pig.