Choi Soo-jong on Losing His Mother: 'I Only Think, Why Did I Do That?' (Salimnam, Peak 4.9%)

On 7 November, KBS2’s Salimnam (Men Who Keep House, Season 2) aired episode 481 with Choi Soo-jong and Ha Hee-ra, back on the show for the first time in four years as the November “monthly” couple. The scene in which they eat cold noodles made from her late mother-in-law’s recipe reached a peak of 4.9% of households nationwide, according to Nielsen Korea figures cited by Cheonji Daily and News Culture. None of the reports we checked gives the episode’s average rating, so we state only the peak minute.

The studio cast was hosts Eun Ji-won and Lee Yo-won, Park Seo-jin, and Ji-hoon of the group TWS.

First play together, and a football injury

After 34 years of marriage, the couple will appear together in a play for the first time. Slist reports they arrived first at the rehearsal room, ate together and rehearsed as if on stage. When the crew asked whether they had truly never quarrelled, Choi named one source of conflict: football.

“When I come home hurt after playing, Hee-ra scolds me,” he said. “Then I go straight to my study and sit still.”

Ha said he had been hurt badly enough for several operations, and that “at this age, bones don’t knit quickly.” Eun Ji-won, looking at Lee Yo-won, said that if it is nagging out of worry, “I’d like that. Better than ‘serves you right.’”

Cold noodles from his mother’s recipe

Afterwards Ha made cold noodles for her husband, using the recipe her late mother-in-law had taught her. According to iMBC, she said she had not been able to look after him during the busy rehearsals. Choi’s mother died around this year’s Chuseok holiday.

Tasting the noodles, Choi said cold noodles are the soul food of his North Korea-born father and himself. “We ate them instead of jajangmyeon even on graduation day,” he said. “It was exactly the taste I had as a child.”

Ha, in an interview with the crew, said it hurt her more that he did not show his grief. “I hope the noodles I learned from his mother comfort him,” she said, her eyes reddening.

“I only think, why did I do that?”

Choi recalled his mother’s last trip. “Before she died she went on a trip alone with my older sister and was so happy,” he said. “She asked me to come too, and I am left regretting that I wasn’t there.”

iMBC reports another remark: “However much people call me a good son and say I treated my mother well, since she passed I only think, ‘Why did I do that?’”

Ha said their son Min-seo was a great support during the funeral. “He handled things like an adult,” she said. “Maybe family is one more gift she left us.” Choi said of his wife: “She is the only person who is on my side when I am struggling.”

Park Seo-jin, the spilled water and the cruise

On his first day off in a month, Park Seo-jin’s father arrived unannounced from Samcheonpo. Slist reports that while tidying the room Park uses as a folk-painting studio, the father spilled a water bottle over a painting Park had worked on for a month for a competition. “I painted this for a month to enter in a contest, and look at this mess,” Park said.

Park later went looking for his father and booked tickets for an Incheon cruise, since his father likes the sea. Over the night sea, the father apologised first. “I’ve been too sensitive from lack of sleep,” Park said. “I think I spoke harshly without meaning to. I can just paint it again.” They took a photo together on the boat.

Next episode

Cheonji Daily reports that episode 482 airs Saturday 14 November at 10:40 pm KST on KBS2. iMBC gave 10:35 pm as the start time for episode 481, so check the listing.

Ratings here are Nielsen Korea figures as reported by news outlets. Quotes are as reported by the outlets named above; we did not watch the broadcast ourselves.