Come and Hug Me drama: Episode's one and two recap

 Air Dates: May 16th to July 19, 2018 on MBC, Wednesday and Thursdays at 10:00 pm
Ratings from AGB Nielsen countrywide: Episode one 3.1%, episode two 3.9%

Main Cast: The character's status as of 2011-15

Jin Ki-Joo as Han Jae-Yi..... Struggling actress whose family was murdered five years ago

Chang Ki-Yong as Chae Do-Jin.... Trainee at police academy as of 2011, his father murdered Jae-Yi's parents

Heo Jun-Ho as Yoon Hui-Jae.... Do-Jin's father who is on death row

Song Young-Kyu as the Professor

Lee Da-In as Lee Yeon-Ji.... Female friend of Do-Jin's at the police academy

Jung Da-Hye as Cheon Se-Kyung.... popular actress who hates Jae-Yi

Yoon Ji-Hye as Han Ji-Ho.... reporter for Lady Focus

 Will be adding and editing to the above but after watching six shows they've been the only characters seen when the drama shifts to present day, this is the cast for the period of 2004-06

Ryoo Han-Bi as Gil Nak-Won.... Jae-Yi's previous name

Nam DaReum as Yoon Na-Moo.... Do-Jin's real name

Seo Jung-Yeon as Chae Ok-Hee.... Na-Moo's stepmother, real mother of So-Jin

Kim Sang-Woo as Yoon Hyun-Moo.... Na-Moo's brother who in 2006 was sent to prison

Lee Ye-Won as Yoon So-Jin.... Na-Moo's adopted nine year old sister

Park Joo-Mi as Jee Hye-Won.... Nak-Won's actress mother who was murdered

Park Kyung-Choo as Gil Sung-Sik.... Nak-Won's lawyer father who was murdered

Yoon Jong-Hoon as Gil Moo-Won.... Nak-Won's older brother who is in college for now

 So much for taking a long break from drama viewing as I watched these first four shows the day after finishing the "Koe Girl" series. Recapping this series could be my biggest challenge to date as it's going to be a difficult one to describe. Most of the action will be taking place in present day which is 2018 but in the first four shows the setting was back in 2006 when our two main leads were aged 14 and we only saw the two main leads for about fifteen minutes. Starting with the fifth show much of the action took place in 2011 and it has gotten a bit confusing.
 So will start off doing these recaps differently than you're used to which is a pair of them. Will have four in a row to make things easier to understand, not just for you but for me too! We've seen so much of the younger characters wonder if it was a mistake devoting so much time to them but it appears it was needed to set the stage for present day. But you do get used to seeing a certain cast and perhaps become a bit attached to them and the young actors have really done a solid performance. Not sure what format I'll be doing yet but think will start off giving a brief look at the present day characters.

 Seems as though Do-Jin will be the main character in this drama and we briefly met him in the opening minutes of the first episode. Then we didn't see the present day Do-Jin until there were a few minutes left in the fourth episode but not sure if it was present day or a year or so prior. Just so I don't end up being confused will watch up until the eighth episode before I write up the next recap.
 Do-Jin was at an interview to enroll at the Seoul police academy. Since an incident twelve years ago he's made a vow to himself to protect as many people as possible from crime. That vow was also a way of atoning for his father Yoon Hee-Jae who was a serial killer from 2004-06 and ended up killing at least twelve people. But by the end of the fourth show the total is only half that and kind of wish they started right from the beginning instead of going back and forth.
 Do-Jin did well at the interview but had been recognized by one of the interviewers, for now he's unnamed but is a professor at the police academy. He had been one of the detectives on Do-Jin's father's case and may have been the one to arrest him. Do-Jin knew he had been recognized so admitted to the other interviewers the sordid details of his father and why he wanted to become an officer which seemed to impress them as he was eventually accepted.
 Few of the other candidates heard of Do-Jin's past and the rumors about him too being a psychopath too began to circulate quickly after the interview. Do-Jin does have a calm personality and was able to embarrass those students badly in front of others. But though we didn't see much of the present day Do-Jin except for that scene think he was an outcast from the other trainees at the academy. It's not a complicated show but there are so many loose ends because of the two time frames.

 The second main character in the show is Han Jae-Yi who is played by Ki-Joo which is why I decided to take this big undertaking, didn't realize how big it was at first. The ages of the two leads hasn't been revealed but am going to peg them at 26 years old as they hadn't met each other in twelve years or since 2006. In present day time we didn't know that Do-Jin had known Jae-Yi before until he noticed the above TV commercial that she was on, so much more on the pair coming up.
 Yes, Jae-Yi is an actress but a struggling one. In her lone major scene she was auditioning for a role in a film that was a horror movie titled "House on a Hill". Jae-Yi couldn't make it through the audition as the script was too much more for her. A you'll learn in the next few recaps the plot for the film was so similar to Jae-Yi's prior life but for now none of the details have been explained.
 Naturally Jae-Yi didn't get the role but a helpful producer set her up for another audition as he once knew her mother. Her name was Jee Hye-Won and had been a very popular actress until she was murdered. That was the last we saw of Jae-Yi in these first four shows which is such a shame as my main reason for watching this show was to see more of Ki-Joo! One final yet major detail about her, Jae-Yi isn't her real name as it's Gil Nak-Won as you'll soon see. After her family were all killed she changed her name and obviously so no one would know who she was.

EDIT: Didn't want to write everything up again but the above events took place i n 2011 when are main characters were about twenty in age, five years after Nak-Won's parents were murdered.

 When Do-Jin entered the police academy that was the name he used. Up until his father's arrest his true name was Yoon Na-Moo which is the name you'll see below and it's another slightly confusing piece to this show.

 Now the action for at least the next 3 1/2 episodes shifts back to 2006, am presuming it's that year because that's when Na-Moo's father had been arrested as a serial killer. The action takes place in the town of Gowon, there is a location in Korea with that name but it's not an official town. There's a new family of four moving in which is Nak-Won's, remember in present time her name has changed to
Jae-Yi. With her is her brother who is two years older plus her father who is an attorney.
 The fourth person in the car is quite a famous one, it's Nak-Won's mother Hye-Won. She's an extremely popular actress who just finished up a drama and wanted to get away from the rat race for a while, Seoul is where they were coming from. As they were nearing their new residence the car passed a young man carrying his nine year old sister on his back. That boy was Na-Moo and soon he's about to become best friends with Nak-Won. He's a very humble and respectful lad and is nothing like the other two males in his family.
 He has an older brother named Hyun-Moo, he's the kind of person you stay away from as he bullies every person in sight and is such an angry boy who somehow attends a very good high school, perhaps it's the only one in the area? Na-Moo attends middle school but am thinking there may not be a junior high in Korea as his age is about 15. The sister's name is So-Jin who looks so much younger than nine and she treats Na-Moo as if he's really her father. So-Jin isn't his real sister as the father got married a few years earlier but Na-Moo is closer to her than anyone else in his family.

 Keep these Korean drama recaps at four segments which means this is the final section. Quite a bit did happen in this show but will try to squeeze everything in but so much is described in the following shows that if something is omitted now it'll eventually be described. The fifth member in Na-Moo's family is his new mother Chae Ok-Hee who is a very nice woman but has recently moved out of the household as she couldn't take her new husband's evil ways.
 Though no one in the family knows it officially yet they all have their suspicions of the father which are that he may be a killer. They're all correct on that feeling as we did see him commit a murder towards the end of the show. Hui-Jae supports his family by being a general handyman, one day he had a small job near Seoul for an older woman and her husband. The house was hidden away a bit from the street, don't know what ignited Hui-Jae but shortly after he left the house he returned once Hui-Jae knew he wouldn't be seen and proceeded to murder the older couple. We never see him commit the actual murders but we see what happens before and the aftermath.
 That evening there was a newscast describing the two killings, Na-Moo didn't say a word but deep down knew his father may have been the culprit. The following day at school is when he officially met Nak-Won for the first time as she was being harassed by a teacher. It was her first day at school and Nak-Won hadn't purchased the school uniform which sent the teacher into a frenzy. Out of nowhere came Na-Moo to protect her which sent the teacher into even more of a frenzy as he made the pair run ten laps around the school's athletic field.
 Nak-Won is like her mother and is a good actress, she pretended to faint which got the pair out of running the laps. The two are about to get acquainted very well as she was assigned to the seat next to Na-Moo in class. The pair are such opposites, Na-Moo is a very quiet boy who is also very smart while Nak-Won is always so bright and cheerful, obviously their family is why they're like that. That scene took place with just a few minutes to go in the second episode, the two will really get to know each other better as the shows go on.
 In the final scene it was that night and somehow Nak-Won's beloved dog Lucky had disappeared from their very spacious yard, the family lives at the top of a hill. Nak-Won went out to look for her pet when she came across the house of Na-Moo's, during this time it was raining heavily. When no person answered her knocks Nak-Won went into the residence and somehow discovered a trap door in an outer shed. Being such a curious person she went into the door which led to a small downstairs workshop. There she discovered Na-Moo of all people who held a large hammer in his hand and was banging away at a cage. Who should be in that cage but her dog Lucky but before she could say anything to her new friend another person came through the door who was Na-Moo's father.
Nak-Won slowly inched down the stairs in terror as the father is one mean looking person, with that scenario this first recap finally and I mean finally reaches it's conclusion.

 Whew, have done about 800 drama recaps and this one by far was the most difficult one I've ever done, it also took the longest too. But everything is accurate(I hope) as the reason for that is because I watched the next four episodes and was able to fill in some missing blanks. What makes it a bit confusing is the constant shift in time frames, the show started out in 2011, went back to 2004-06 and in the fifth and sixth shows is around the year 2015, it eventually becomes the year 2018. The first five shows were a bit of a struggle but it's settled down a bit, at first didn't think I would finish this series but now think it'll happen. This is the first of four posts as after this are the recaps for the third through the eighth episodes.