'Run On' Episode 7: Mi-joo helps Seon-gyeom stand up to his father after asking him to like her back
'Run On' Episode 7 started with Mi-joo (Shin Se-kyung) asking Seon-gyeom (Im Si-wan) to like her just the way she likes him while she is drunk. He tells her that he does like her but somehow, the morning after, that is exactly the part that Mi-joo doesn't seem to recall. Neither Mi-joo's confession nor that of Seon-gyeom is romantic, but it is reassuring. It is as if Mi-joo and Seon-gyeom will end up becoming each other's support system or at least we hope they do because until this moment, the show has centered mainly on Seon-gyeom. His family that pressures him to pursue ambitions that he is not comfortable with, his shortcomings that are a result of his upbringing, and his strange way of bonding with people that is charming, all of it has been explored under a microscopic view.
In that vein, we also see how this episode further stresses on how protective Mi-joo is about Seon-gyeom. He gets upset after hearing about Mi-joo and her friend's trip the coming week and not wanting to live alone, he goes out for a walk to think about where he would go now. Mi-joo doesn't realize what really upset him and coincidentally, he ends up meeting Yeong-hwa, the art student that he is friends with in the neighborhood. He goes out for a drink and as we know by now; Seon-gyeom is lightweight when it comes to alcohol. So he passes out at Yeong-hwa's place without informing Mi-joo or her friend where he was at.
This frustrates her to no extent and it also worries her, but Seon-gyeom, who is not used to living with someone else or being answerable to someone else about where he is at any given moment, finds all of this very strange. He does try to explain it to Mi-joo but she seems unable to understand how alienated he is from all of these expectations that come with a relationship. At this point, it is Mi-joo's friend who helps him and gives him a ticket to a premiere of a movie that she was supposed to go to along with Mi-joo. However, what no one realizes is that Seon-gyeom's mother also happens to be invited to the same premiere and his father has set up a meeting with none other than Dan-ah. Turns out, he wants Seon-gyeom and Dan-ah to get married and is attempting to use his son to further his political ambitions.
Of course, Seon-gyeom was smart enough to pass off the tickets to Yeong-hwa for inviting him over for a drink and instead, he accompanies Mi-joo solely to reconcile with her. When his father tries to force him and stay behind to sit next to Dan-ah, and tries to manipulate the situation to make it seem as if Mi-joo is going to be put in place, the tables turn pretty quickly. Seon-gyeom's father learns the hard way that it is not easy to intimidate Mi-joo as she tells him that she is aware of where her place is and and that she does plan on taking the seat that belongs to her. However, what he doesn't expect is to watch her ask Seon-gyeom to accompany her to 'their' seat. When Seon-gyeom seems lost and is frozen to his spot, she leads him away from his father and his toxic bag of bullsh** and that makes us extremely happy. Now, we hope that Seon-gyeom also serves as her support system instead of her just being used as a plot device to further Seon-gyeom's narrative.
'Run On' episodes air on Wednesdays and Thursdays on JTBC in Seoul, South Korea and can be streamed on Netflix in the US.