The History of Losers: Episode 1 (First Impressions)
by starrygazer
Our hero and his friends are introduced in The History of Losers, and the entirety of the first episode is a flashback to when they were freshman studying Korean literature. A quandary is set up for our hero, who’s struggling with his confidence in the wake of his first love. But more than the problematic “romance,” I have to admit the friendship between the four boys is the best thing about this drama so far for me.
EPISODE 1
Our hero is SEO MIN-KI (Jo Byung-kyu) — he appears quiet and naive, and through him we’re introduced to his friendship group. First we meet KWON KI-HYUK (Jung Jae-kwang). Min-ki explains via voiceover that Ki-hyuk came from a family with money but when his father passed away he left the family with a lot of debt, so Ki-hyuk is hard working as he works two jobs and very frugal – even reusing his teabags to the others’ disgust.
Next Min-ki introduces LEE GWANG-JAE (Jung Yong-joo) who is bright and cheerful with a love for hip-hop and women. Our last friend in this circle is NOH JUN-SEOK (Ryeoun), the “good looking” friend who is extremely loyal to the friend group. Even girls encourage him to ditch his friends because they’re “weird,” but he ditches the girls instead. (Everyone should have a friend like Jun-seok!)
One day while alone on campus, Min-ki is being gross and spitting on an ant on the ground when KWON SEOL-HA (Minah) catches him in the act. Seol-ha asks Min-ki for his schedule to copy, since she has to enroll in classes because she’s late starting the school year — and can she just copy his schedule and enroll in all of his courses? Min-ki is too shell-shocked to respond to her properly because a girl is actually talking to him. (Rabbit in the headlights comes to mind.)
After telling his friends about his encounter, they all gather to see if the girl that befriended Min-ki is pretty and they push him into the classroom. An embarrassed Min-ki sits at an empty seat and Seol-ha moves to sit next to him. Cue a lot of gazing from Min-ki like a lovesick puppy — he’s already got a crush on her, he just doesn’t want to admit it.
As Seol-ha decides she’s bored and leaves the class, Min-ki finds a pink pouch on the ground, and he assumes it’s hers. He follows her out to return it, and as he hands Seol-ha the pouch, he puts his finger to his mouth and makes a shh sound like it’s a secret. Imagine his embarrassment when Min-ki goes back to class and hears the girl behind him saying she lost her pouch (oh no) with her sanitary products inside. (I almost wanted the ground to open up and swallow me whole on his behalf.)
While updating his friends on his most recent embarrassment, Min-ki asks them if he should transfer schools haha and Jun-seok suggests moving faculties – very pragmatic of him, but it won’t really solve the embarrassment. Just as Min-ki is contemplating his life choices, Seol-ha comes over and invites him to eat with her. On the way to the cafeteria Seol-ha tells Min-ki she had to go and see the professor to get into the modern poetry class. It’s a hard class to get into, and she told the professor that her brother died in the U.S. and that’s why she was late enrolling.
Sweet, innocent Min-ki offers his apologies while Seol-ha tells him it was a lie to get in the class. (That’s a red flag if I ever did see one.) At the cafeteria, Seol-ha insists on smothering Min-ki’s food in sauce and making him eat it while she bats her eyelashes at him. Then she makes him try black coffee because that’s how she drinks it. Seol-ha compliments Min-ki for being artistic because he raises his pinky finger when he drinks, and after examining his hands she explains that he is a sensitive soul because his ring finger is longer than his index finger. (Is she a narcissist? This kind of made me think of love bombing. Another red flag.)
After this little adventure, Min-ki is looking after his appearance, smothering his own food in sauce, drinking black coffee, and keeping an eye on his pinky when he drinks. Poor Min-ki is so naive, and I get the impression he will be loyal and follow Seol-ha regardless of what she does to him in the future. Eek. Min-ki’s friends encourage him to make the first move at the upcoming student night.
At the event, they’re still trying to get Min-ki to go over and talk to Seol-ha, who’s drinking with a group of boys. They advise Min-ko to use Gwang-jae’s cousin’s method of giving a girl a hangover drink and oozing cool by telling her to look after herself even if she’s drinking. Min-ki is definitely not confident enough for the “oozing cool” portion of this scenario, but his chance is stolen anyway by a sunbae who has been sniffing around Seol-ha. And when I say stolen, I mean literally: the sunbae steals the hangover drink off Min-ki, humiliates him a bit, and then goes over to sit with Seol-ha and tries to ooze the cool himself. Poor Min-ki just walks away crestfallen.
But fear not, Min-ki’s friends remind him he has a secret weapon: singing! And the funny thing is when the sunbae with the bad manners gets up, he cannot sing in tune to save his life. *Trying to hold in laughter* Min-ki keeps missing his chance to get up and wow everyone with his voice, though, and when the rock singer from a campus band comes in, it’s nearly all over for Min-ki. When the singer starts a duet with Seol-ha, Min-ki decides to rig the remote control to turn the song off and make it look like the sunbae’s fault. (So petty but I’m here for it.)
This bit of mischief causes an argument between the singer and the sunbae, and everyone winds up leaving the noraebang except for Min-ki and Seol-ha. (I loved that Min-ki’s friends made themselves scarce for him.) Seol-ha encourages Min-ki to sing acappella and he does — and of course he’s brilliant. Min-ki walks home with a grin on his face after this and then gets a call to join Seol-ha… for a bit of vandalism. (Third red flag.)
Seol-ha is spray painting a wall by an underpass and encourages Min-ki to do the same. Even though he hesitates, he still does it, and afterwards, they discuss their artwork like it’s a Jackson Pollock – because he is Seol-ha’s inspiration. We learn two things from this: the first thing is that Seol-ha may be a little crazy, and the second thing is that she drinks makgeolli in her water bottle at all times.
Later, Min-ki is breaking down what happened with Seol-ha to his friends, and Ki-hyuk and Gwang-jae agree that she definitely likes him. It’s between two options, they say — you either like or dislike someone, and Seol-ha definitely likes Min-ki. Jun-seok however, is more reserved when he agrees that Seol-ha likes Min-ki. But I’m assuming the power imbalance between Seol-ha and Min-ki is making Jun-seok as uncomfortable as it’s making me.
The first episode ends with Min-ki being called out for a meal with the rude sunbae. Awkward. The sunbae asks Min-ki outright if he likes Seol-ha, but Min-ki denies it. The sunbae doesn’t view Min-ki as a romantic rival in any way, so he asks Min-ki a favor as he’s always with her: can Min-ki alert him if the rock singer shows up around her? Because the sunbae likes her.
Poor Min-ki looks shocked, and I have a feeling he’s in for a world of hurt when it comes to Seol-ha. I just hope he can maintain his friendships if his pals are honest with him about what he views as his first real romance. I mean, we can all see it may not be the best thing for him in the long run. How will the history of this loser affect who he has become in the present?
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