EXO Next Door (우리 옆집에 EXO가 산다) Episode 10 Recap

Previously: The rest of EXO meets Yeonhee. Kai flirts with her to make Chanyeol jelly. Grandpa gives Chanyeol some not-so-helpful advice on where to find the necklace. Kai gives Yeonhee some hand cream.

It's night. We open with Chanyeol furiously digging. In, uh, the front yard of House EXO. Not anywhere else. Like, not in any bodily orifices. *AHEM* He tells no one in particular that he's digging under Gramps's favorite tree. He's grunting angrily and jerkily moving the shovel, so you know he's Upset. He throws the shovel and yells "Why the heck can't I find it?" You mean Grandpa's trophies from his kills? His hoard of Hello Kitty stickers? (Yeah, yeah, I know, it's the necklace.) 

Having thrown the shovel, Chanyeol starts furiously pawing in the dirt like a rabid badger. Flashback to Grandpa explaining that he had two necklaces (just in case the idiot audience forgot) and that the second one is "close by". Ooookay...why not turn the house upside down first? Maybe his parents did something to it. Maybe he should dig ALL AROUND THE TREE instead of one small hole. Defeated, Chanyeol falls back on the lawn. Sweaty-haired and looking despondently just past the camera, he mutters "where did he hide it?" 

On a side note, on the street just in front of Chanyeol, there is an HOV lane symbol. I see those quite a bit in K-dramas on Seoul streets, but never one on a quiet residental street. In real life, I've only ever seen them on highways.



Daytime. Chanyeol is lying in bed coughing. Yeah, a night of furious digging will do that to you. What with all the, uh, dirt and stuff. And cold air. Hoooly crap, Koreans are susceptible to colds. I used to think colds were caused by viruses and not cold air.

In the kitchen, Kai, Sehun, Baekhyun, and D.O. are all at the table. Kai's shirt is funny. 



Yeonhee enters, and Kai calls her "Noona." Wait, what??

Okay, Kai was probably 22 (Korean age) when they made this, and Yeonhee is supposed to
be 23 (Korean age), so I guess she IS his noona. That really threw me, though; I thought Kai was a lot older--maybe 25 (for...some...reason...). Kai tells her to take a seat. D.O. is quietly upset, and thinks to himself, "Noona?" [lol, sorry bby] Sorry, D.O., you're the same age (Korean age) as Yeonhee--she's just your 친구 (friend). 

Baekhyun reports to the group that Chanyeol has a cold (dayum, K-drama Koreans are weak), while Sehun smirks (I'm not sure if that was in the script or Real Sehun just decided to smirk at that moment). Yeonhee expresses concern for Chanyeol's health, and D.O. worriedly downs a cup of some unidentified liquid (tea?), realizing he's losing Yeonhee to both Chanyeol and Kai. 
Kai: (too Yeonhee) Can I ask you something? (u just did, buddy)
D.O.: (turning away from his cup) u better not try anything bitch
Kai: I hear you like me most.
D.O.: *screams inwardly*
Sehun: *acts like his favorite soccer, sorry, 축구 team just scored a goal*
Baekhyun: *facepalms*

The one time where Baekhyun is more mature than Sehun...

Yeonhee: Uh, not really.
Sehun: C'mon, you can tell us. It's OK.
Kai: *whispers in Yeonhee's ear* (GAAH SHE GOT SO CLOSE TO KAI AND CHANYEOL) Is the weather nice [?]
D.O.: i keel u kai
Yeonhee: It's lovely.
Baekhyun: *whispers* Yo, dude, I didn't tell you so you could tease her.
Kai: *tries to stab some food with his fork*
D.O. *flips Kai's fork out of the way and gives him bitch eyes* Rest up for your flight.

Kai: Eh, OK. My work here is done anyway.
D.O.: ????
Kai: (to D.O.) Fighting!
D.O. *surprised*
Bakehyun: I'm surrounded by idiots...

Meanwhile, Chanyeol lies in bed, feverish. He hallucinates being Little Chanyeol again with Grandpa feeling his forehead. He reports that Chanyeol is "burning up" and he "did too much digging". [snerk] (I'm sorry; I'm used to hearing the word "digging" used in a much different context.) Chanyeol begs Grandpa to tell him where the pendant is, and Grandpa says he'll give Chanyeol a "big hint." Apparently, the phrase "Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer" is the hint. Chanyeol's like "WTH, Grandpa, that's not a hint. Maybe I'm too sick and I'm hallucinating this. BTW, your face looks really red..." Grandpa's face dissolves into Yeonhee's. She leans over him, gently pressing a wet cloth on his face. Hey Yeonhee, maybe you could give him some medicine, too. Just saying...Sweet music plays, and the camera slowly backs away from them.

Baekhyun sees Kai off. They stop in front of House EXO to chat.
Bakehyun: You're just gonna leave? You don't want to see Chanyeol?
Kai: Nah, he's too sick. 
Kai: Keep me updated on the love triangle. "I'll die of curiosity."  (daaang, these guys are like middle school girls)
Baekhyun: OK.
Kai: Go inside; you'll catch a cold too. Bye. See you. Say hi to Suho for me. 
([??] Isn't Suho somewhere else?? And where is Kai going?? Where were Lay, Xiumin, Chen, and Tao?? (during Baekhyun and Xiumin's call, one of them said it was an international call. Maybe they were in China?) Ugh, whatever.)
Kai: *smirks and looks up at the sky dramatically*

Cue flashback of him sneaking up on Yeonhee as she clears the table. Frickin' flashbacks, man, time in this show really is a wibbly wobbly timey wimey ball of stuff.

Kai: *pokes her* Hi.
Yeonhee: *turning around* Hi.
Kai: "You're dense, right?" [?!] (Well, that's certainly an interesting conversation opener!)
Yeonhee: No, not usually.  (O RLY)
Kai: Then why haven't you ever had a boyfriend? Are you stupid when it comes to guys?
Kai: Can't you sense what's going on in this house? 
Uh...Chanyeol's grandpa is haunting it? (oooh, this would be AWESOME for a horror movie)
Yeonhee: It's usually pretty busy...   
Yeah, the groupies are going in and out at all hours, the fans are breaking down the door, 
you know, the usual.

Kai: Can I tell you a secret?
Yeonhee: What?
Kai: NVM. "It's more fun if you don't know."

Back in the present, Baekhyun and Kai agree to meet in ten days, and Kai leaves. The next morning, Yeonhee is feeling up Chanyeol's forehead when D.O. comes in, framed by the morning sunlight, and oh my gosh he's so cute and little! I want to squeeze him, because cuteness inspires feelings of aggression or something. Yeonhee says that Chanyeol still has a high fever, but he "should sleep it off." She leaves to get another towel, and D.O. turns to watch her go.Now, if this was a horror movie or something darker, he'd totally slit Chanyeol's throat right now. No, smothering him with a pillow would be a lot less messy. 

*Satansoo appears*

Look at those murderous eyes. On a side note, he does REALLY good crazy eyes in Lotto.
He mournfully thinks to himself, "I'm the only one who's not close to her." Oooh, I can feel
the angst dripping off the screen. I really want to mock this, but it's D.O., and he looks 
so cute and little and pitiful...

Meanwhile, Sehun is walking down the street, wearing a different, slightly less puffy 
leather jacket and a very ugly hat. He sees Gwangsu standing at the other end of the 
street, holding one of those ubiquitous Korean black grocery bags. Sehun yells "Hey, brother!" in English, and hurries to hug Gwangsu and say that he (Sehun) missed him (Gwangsu). Aww, skinship! Sehun asks what's in the bag, and Gwangsu responds that it's apples. What, is he gonna make Yeonhee slip on an apple peel now?

Just then, the three schoolgirls from before appear. One of them stops her friends
and says, "Hey, aren't those guys over there EXO members?" Uh, this girl seriously
needs her eyes checked. IF they are big enough fans of EXO to stalk them and find their
house, then they should sure as heck know all the members, and should definitely know how they look from a distance. I can do this with VIXX, EXO, and BTS. Heck, I can do this with Infinite and Beast, and I barely even know their names.

Fortunately, one of her friends has better eyes, and responds that one of them "definitely isn't"; he's "ugly-ass." One of them recognizes Sehun (the Korean pronunciation of Sehun always throws me; I prounounce it out loud and mentally as "See-hun", but it's actually pronounced "Say-hoon") and they start screaming and jumping up and down.

A look of pure terror comes over Sehun's face and he and Gwangsu flee for their lives. The girls chase them, and the shooting style during this scene is very reminiscent of a zombie chase. Poor celebrities--especially EXO. I think I read somewhere that crazy fans stalked them and tried to get their hair or bodily fluids. I guess that's like being chased by zombies. Now VIXX fans--at least the fans that they meet with--are nearly always calm, quiet, and respectful. Korean k-pop fans--especially VIXX fans--are SO LUCKY, oh my word. They don't have to twist their tongues around a whole new language before they can even TALK to them (Yes, I know some k-pop stars speak English very well, like Key from SHINee--daaang boy), they can go to fanmeets/fansigns, they can easily join fancafes, they can read social media posts by their favorite stars, they don't have to travel hundreds of miles to go to fanmeets or concerts, they don't have to depend on the graciousness of other fans to sub videos, and I could go on.

Anyway, Sehun and Gwangsu take refuge between a car and a hedge. The girls run past, screaming. Apparently, Sehun is winded after the short run and says he "might die." Uh, sorry, isn't he supposed to be able to dance and sing for hours? Isn't he required to have massive amounts of stamina? (Not THAT kind of stamina) 

Sehun says they might have to move, because no one can know where EXO's house is. Ooh, intrigue-y-ness and spy stuff. And...I kind of thought that the dorm locations of some K-pop stars were fairly common knowledge...whatever. Gwangsu takes Sehun's hat and runs off, pretending to be Sehun. The girls take chase, Gwangsu runs away in slo-mo, and Sehun dramatically reaches out after Sehun and yells "My friend!" in slo-mo.

His face kinda looks like one of those Greek tragedy masks...

Meanwhile, Yeonhee is arranging crap in the kitchen. Behind her there is a fricken giant poster of EXO. If I had to live in a house with giant posters of me and my friends everywhere, I'd deface them no matter how good I looked just for laughs. Because, really, who wants to see their face everywhere, all the time, unless they're some kind of narcissist?

YOU CANNOT ESCAPE.

D.O. comes in and scares her, making her drop a plate. They're about the same height, and oh my gosh he is so cute and squeezable. They both say that they'll clean it up and make a dive for the floor at the same time. I was actually expecting them to bang heads. HEADS, not anything else. ;) Yeonhee cuts herself, because K-drama girls are made of stupidity and tissue paper. D.O. is like "I told you I'd do it." (And then he rises up and screams "WHY DO YOU NEVER LISTEN TO ME!?!" and stabs her with one of the plate pieces.)

Nah, he takes her to the living room and puts a bandage on her. In the background, there is ANOTHER giant picture of EXO. Chen is staring off to the left judgingly.



After D.O. bandages her finger, he tells her to raise her arms. Yeonhee thinks he's punishing her (Koreans sometimes punish someone by making them face a corner and put their arms up), but D.O. says that'll make the bleeding stop faster and smiles and laughs adorably.

D.O. says that he feels like he's not very close to her, but Yeonhee disagrees, stating that she's the most comfortable around him. Yeah, I get that. I mean, it's like he's a teddy bear come to life. If it weren't for all the Satansoo stuff circling around, I'd see him as the least threatening k-pop star ever. I could probably take D.O. At least I could sit on him and squash him to death if need be. Ah, crap...I've gone from thinking he's the cutest thing ever to thinking about crushing him to death in 10 seconds...I'm so sorry bby.

Other k-pop stars I see as extremely non-threatening to my health and wellbeing (from the limited stuff I've seen of them and my own personal perceptions) are N and Ken from VIXX,

(so cute and fluffy and sweet, tho N could/would probably slap me to death)

Woozi from Seventeen (seriously, that dude is so tiny),

Ryeowook from Super Junior/Super Junior M,

 Xiao from Up10tion,

and Sangmin from Cross Gene (he looks scary, but he seems super sweet and maybe a little ditzy).

Anyway, D.O. asks if he can be the guy that she likes the most, and the episode ends. 

Note: Part of the quotes and all the gifs for this post are from another site since KissAsian is down.