"Age of Youth" drama season one: Episode four recap

 Air Dates: July 22nd to August 27, 2016 on JTBC, Friday and Saturday nights at 10:30 pm

Rating- 0.807%, ratings are low due to JTBC being a cable network
Video at the top is a scene from this episode involving Ye-Eun and her perhaps ex-boyfriend, will have a new one for every post

Also goes by the title of 'Hello My Twenties'

Main Cast:

This first episode we only met the five major female characters along with a few others briefly so will be adding on to this once new people enter the scene.

 The five roommates

Park Hye-Su as Yoo Eun-Jae.... twenty year old freshman at college majoring in psychology, a rather timid gal who was picked on by her new roommates in the beginning

Han Seung-Yeon as Jung Ye-Eun.... the 'starlet' of the apartment house who always has to have her way, she's a 22 year old junior majoring in nutrition and constantly lies to make herself more impressive to others

Park Eun-Bin as Song Ji-Won.... also 22 years old and is a dance major, we didn't meet her until the final eight minutes so will hold off a bit on her bio

Ryu Hwa-Young as Kang Yi-Na.... the third roommate who is 22 years old, her major is art and is known as the apartment's 'exhibitionist' and may be considered a 'hooker'

Han Ye-Ri as Yoon Jin-Myung.... at 28 the oldest of the rooommates, she's that old because she's been working part time to help support her family and pay her tuition.

 The rest of the cast, we did see a bit of these three so once someone gets introduced will be adding to the list as mentioned

Shin Hyun-Soo as Yoon Jong-Yeol.... college student and Eun-Jae's soon to be boyfriend?

Ji Ii-Joo as Go Do-Young.... Ye-Eun's boyfriend

Moon Sok as the owner of Belle Epoque apartment building
Yoon Park as Park Jae-Wan.... works at Yoon's restaurant and may have a crush on her
Choi Duk-Moon as Oh.... mysterious man Yi-Na met who may be her stalker

 Through four episodes one character has been the main feature of the show, this time around it's
Jin-Myung's turn. As you've noticed the format to date has been to devote a segment to one of the five characters and have the top section discussing what the gals did as a group. But even though they're housemates they seldom hang out together save for 2-3 at a time, they've still never gone out once as a group to a club or restaurant.

 Few occasions 3-4 of them got together and those times were to interview a prospective new housemate. You may recall in the above recap that Yi-Na had decided to move out before the girls had a vote to evict her as they were fed up with her lifestyle. Then again Yi-Na wasn't too bad of a person to have around as she helped out with cleaning and such with the other gals. Being a 'call girl' to a certain extent though was just too much for three of her housemates, seemed the eldest gal
Jin-Myung didn't mind if she stayed.
 The girls are realizing it may not have been that bad having her as a housemate as their search is going horribly. One potential newbie was such a clean freak while another was so introverted, the girls began considering if the decision to eject Yi-Na from the Belle Epoque apartment was correct. Springing to the end Yi-Na did make an appearance at the apartment and asked about returning, the girls were cool on that idea but didn't flat out say NO though either.

 As expected Jin-Myung was the main character focused on in this show. She has been kind of a dour and depressing person up until this point but it's really not all her fault and we did see her smile a few times in this episode. Who wouldn't be a bit down leading the kind of life Jin-Myujng does as she works three jobs and attends school, not full time which is why she's still there at the age of 28. Her housemates tried to estimate how much Jin-Myung made a month at her jobs of being a waitress, cashier and a tutor. The girls came up with a figure of 1.4 million Won which is just $1,150, seems as though she should make more than that.
 There's been one bright spot lately in Jin-Myung's life, that's the man you can see above. His name is Park who works as a chef at the French restaurant where she's waitress. Park never went to college but is doing well for himself and just won an award for his cooking, he was quite brokenhearted that his potential girlfriend couldn't attend because naturally she was working. Park has seen something in Jin-Myung that no other man has and he truly cares for her. He's often escorted her home and has even visited her a few times at the convenience store she works overnight at.
 Park seems like he'd be a good catch for Jin-Myung but she does have a wall built up around her. She confessed to Park that right now she can't commit to any man as it may may her too weak to continue her hectic schedule, of course Park was disappointed but he's not the type of man who will quit easily. Her job at the restaurant hasn't been going so well for Jin-Myung as she's been late a few times plus had also worked with a cut on her finger which is a no-no around food. She was chewed put by the manager who seemed like such a jerk, after the berating he brought her out for a few drinks.

 That's the manager in the top screenshot and he's really not a bad man. He knew what Jin-Myung was going through as he also faced the same situation when attending college. The following day
Jin-Myung had been promoted for a few days to a cashier until her finger heals, same pay but an easier job. Most of the staff felt that Jin-Myung may have slept with the manager to get such a perk, she wouldn't say yes or no to anyone including Park but she the answer was NO as you can see her saying to herself above. Almost forgot, though Jin-Myung couldn't attend the occasion for Park getting an award she did get him a present which was a very nice chef's knife. That kind of cemented the intense feelings he has for Jin-Myung and I'd like to see them end up together.
 One other major, major detail we learned was about Jin-Myung's family life. Above she was talking to Park about her brother who has been on the verge of death for a few years. He's in a coma and we have no idea how that happened, many times including this episode he's come close to dying but it didn't happen. We also met Jin-Myung's mother who spends much of her time at the hospital with her son, Jin-Myung has been working so hard to pay her tuition but also to give her mother money for living and hospital expenses. Don't have a clue yet but I wonder if somehow Jin-Myung wasn't a reason for her brother being in a coma and she's constantly blaming herself for it? Was wondering that because Jin-Myung's mother is so cold towards her daughter even though she works so hard to support the family.

 At the beginning of this episode Yi-Na moved out of the Belle Epoque house before the girls could evict her. That was no problem for Yi-Na has she had a nice apartment to move into which was paid for by her dentist 'boyfriend', as mentioned in the previous recap she has three men who she calls 'Sugar Daddies' who pay all of her expenses. But the life Yi-Na is leading is also getting a bit depressing for her and she truly missed her housemates when she moved out. Said in the last recap that Yi-Na really isn't that nice of a person and has been using men to support her for many years.
 But it's coming out in drips and drabs that Yi-Na deep down isn't too bad of a person, it took her a while to realize it but the best thing to happen to her was living with the four girls. One night Yi-Na got a bit tipsy at a bar and went home, to the wrong home though as she returned to her old apartment! Of course the girls were shocked to see her but didn't say a word as Yi-Na spent the night in her old room. The other girls did still care about Yi-Na as two of them brought in blankets for while she was passed out in bed.
 As you can see above the following morning Yi-Na asked the girls if she couldn't possibly return, they wanted her to but when the show ended there was no decision either way. We didn't see much of him in  this show but have watched the first twenty minutes of the next show and something severe could be happening to Yi-Na. The potential danger could come from the man Oh who Yi-Na has met in her favorite bar. He's not a man she wanted to date but they ended up becoming somewhat close as Yi-Na would reveal many of her secrets to him. However as we learned Oh may be her stalker and has a map in his apartment showing where she goes every day and other details. Their meeting was no accident and this stalker storyline is going to become a major focus of this show.

 Now on to the other trio of housemates, not too many happenings for them though some were quite key. Especially for the freshman Eun-Jae who we've learned as never had a boyfriend and we kind of suspected that. There has been a senior named Yoon who is also a psychology major and seems to have the hots for Eun-Jae, she's totally missed out on his vibes for she is quite naive around men. Then again she doesn't really care for Yoon at all as Eun-Jae feels he constantly picks on her, that's not the case as he too is a bit inept with relationships.
 Took another break and finished the fifth episode, there will be a lot more about the pair's slow budding romance in the next recap. But Eun-Jae's eyes are set on one man who is also a senior and is in the middle screenshot. His name is Shin Yool-Bin and while we didn't meet him this show we slightly do in the next episode. Every time Eun-Jae sees Shin she's in seventh heaven and has lost herself in daydreams about pairing up with him. Guess you could call him an okay looking guy but not overly so, for all Eun-Jae knows he could be a worse man than her potential flame Yoon.
 In the bottom screenshot is Ji-Won and kind of disappointed we didn't see more of her. Thought she would be the main character in the next episode but that's not the case. She's been leading the interviews to find a new housemate with no success, finding the perfect person to share quarters with is definitely though. Though Ji-Won is the most daffy of the five and of course drinks alcohol way too much she's also the 'rock' of the apartment as she seems to have her head on straight with life matters.... that's if they don't have to deal with men!

 Another person we didn't see enough of was Ye-Eun, with five main characters it's understandable why some get a lot of screen time in some episodes and others don't. But in the second half of the show a major development occurred in Ye-Eun's love life or should I say ex-love life. She had been out on a date with her boyfriend Go, the two were just wandering around wondering what do to. They stopped at a booth to fill out a petition, seemed an activity such as that wouldn't cause any problems but it certainly did.
 After signing it Go drove Ye-Eun straight home where he parked his car and said to get out, he was so furious at his girlfriend. Ye-Eun was naturally confused and what made Go so irate was how she signed the petition. Ye-Eun added the name of her college after her name, Go thought that was a needless thing to do. He goes to a different school and it appears the university the girls attend is quite a known one. Go thought by adding the name of her school Ye-Eun was trying to shame him, don't think that was her intention but it didn't matter to Go who grabbed Ye-Eun when she wouldn't leave his car and threw her to the ground.
 And who happened to be walking by at the time but Yi-Na who had been returning to the apartment to pick up the rest of her belongings. Of course she was mad at Go for his actions but more so at
Ye-Eun for allowing him to do that. The pair did have a spat about men, if there's one thing Yi-Na knows about is relationships. But Ye-Eun wouldn't listen to any advice, if her boyfriend has left then her life is in ruins! To Ye-Eun her image is everything and having a handsome, rich boyfriend is at the top of her image list. That incident took place near the end of the show, a little bit more on the situation takes place in the next episode but the pair still remain apart.

 Feels like I left a few things out but that probably wasn't the case as this post was just as long as the first three. Did take a pair of breaks which made me lose my train of thought which is why I felt some details were left out and don't think that happened. Did say in the intro post that these recaps would be spaced out, say a pair every five days. That hasn't happened as it's just been two days since the first pair of posts but things are so slow these days said why not post these now even though Korean dramas are not popular here. Thinking that the next pair of posts will be on Thursday, that'll even out the pace but have already viewed episode five so perhaps I'll be a bit early again.