Our cast is looking spiffy this morning as they’re asked to share their most memorable moments of 2014. Jong-kook says he and Haha just returned from their U.S. Tour (they stopped by New York City and Dallas, TX), and when the question turns to Ji-hyo, Gary answers for her: "Me?"
Ji-hyo says Gary had suggested that they try dating for a month (for the show, of course!), and then there’s an intro reel for their guest:Ryu Hyun-jin, joining them for the Foreigner Club Race today. In the spirit of nine innings, our cast has just nine hours to complete their missions. Although of course, they take this to mean that filming will end in nine hours’ time, and joke that they should go out to eat afterwards. In truth, there is a final mission, which means our cast members must complete their tasks in order to look forward to a present later on.
Their first mission is to get Hyun-jin to say an assigned phrase (written below delicious steamed buns) within fifteen minutes, word-for-word. Some statements are harder than others, like Gary’s “I’m really, really cute,” or Jae-suk’s relatively simple “hyung, don’t touch me.” But Suk-jin has the hardest one of them all: “Ryu Hyun-jin is a pitching monster.” How is one to get a guy talking about himself in the third-person. There’s a punishment for the one who comes in last—stuck without a jacket in these below-freezing temperatures. So they’re off to find Hyun-jin, and thankfully they only have to head into a nearby building. After learning where Hyun-jin is, Kwang-soo tries passing off generalized directions to Jong-kook two seconds after he announces what floor their guest is on. So they all travel up as a group together—apart from Jae-suk, who’s already climbing up the stairs.
They all rush in to greet Hyun-jin in his office, bombarding him with compliments and food. Needless to say he’s pretty confused and draws away from Jae-suk who picks his nose and tries to touch him with that finger. And then Haha puts that finger back into Jae-suk’s own mouth. Even in the frenzy, Hyun-jin is pretty quick on the uptake to realize that there’ssomething going on, if only the cast members would let him think for a moment. But what our cast doesn’t have is time because they’re already drawing near the ten-minute mark. Kwang-soo tries telling Hyun-jin how upset he is (in order to get him to say, “Are you mad at me?”), though Hyun-jin replies that he did try calling—it’s just that Kwang-soo didn’t pick up. Haha (to Kwang-soo): “Are you nuts?!”
Ji-hyo takes a stab at her own mission, though the others are no help since they’re busy trying to fish for their own statements. Haha drops a huge hint by ending his sentence with “–rong,” to which Hyun-jin replies something-but-not necessarily in kind. Jae-suk’s efforts pay off when Hyun-jin guesses his phrase first, and Hyun-jin teases Haha some more before correctly guessing his next. There’s less than four minutes left on the clock now, and the others line up for their turn.
Hyun-jin guesses Kwang-soo’s adorable peeved act by the two-minute mark, leaving theMonday Couple to try and drop more hints. Unfortunately, they run out of time, which means they go jacket-less—something Gary sees as an opportunity to get close to Ji-hyo. Another guest will be joining the line-up today: Kang Jung-ho who currently is the shortstop for the Nexen Heroes, but heading to the MLB soon. Aw, that’s nice of Hyun-jin to give a fellow player a chance to appear on this show like he once did. Our resident strongman Jong-kook does look pint-size standing next to these two pro baseball players, as Jae-suk is quick to point out. Today’s filming is the day Jung-ho will find out which team will win the bidding process, though I’m sure it’s safe to say now that the Pittsburgh Pirates are looking to negotiate a contract with him.
Our group must choose between two locations for their training, but beware—choosing the wrong destination means doubling back and wasting valuable time. It’s either Korea University or Dongduk Women’s University, and the obvious choice is the latter for the guys. That is for everyone, except Jung-ho, who thinks they should be going to Korea University instead. In the car, he admits to being an avid Running Man viewer himself, adding that he wanted to be part of the Superpower Baseball Match, but he wasn’t quite as up-and-coming as Hyun-jin was then. Hyun-jin shares a little bit of Suzy’s visit to LA to throw the first pitch at an LA Dodgers game back in May. Evidently his teammate Yasiel Puig was super friendly from the start, which Hyun-jin says may have left Suzy pretty flustered.
They finally arrive at Dongguk University, only to learn that no one on campus heard news about filming on campus. Also, the students are on break. So they pile back into the car, and after initially blaming Kwang-soo, Hyun-jin admits that he just wanted to stop by a women’s university for once. A fan recognizes Jung-ho, who whips his head around to wave hello, which makes for great fodder to tease the pro major-leaguer-to-be. They arrive at Korea University about a half hour later with seven hours left on the clock. A talking baseball informs them of the first step in their training that tests their teamwork. Here they must each find someone of the opposite sex with a surname of one of the characters that make up our guests’ names. The problem is finding the super rare last name “Ho.”
I love how they all cheer for Jong-kook to be stuck with the dreaded “Ho” character, though he ends up with Jin. Hyun-jin draws his own surname “Ryu” and tries to argue that the similar “Yoo” works, too. The others are quick to shut that down, especially Jae-suk… who also draws a “Ryu.” With that, everyone disperses and although Haha has trouble finding someone with his uncommon last name, even Jung-ho has trouble finding anyone with the more common “Jung.” It looks like the Monday Couple has hit jackpot in a roomful of students, only to hear that they’re high-schoolers, not university students. Jae-suk tries pleading with the staff after finding someone with the surname Yoo, though he’s reminded that he was the one who wanted to stick to the rules.
Hyun-jin almost seems to be in luck when one of the student’s classmates happen to be a Ryu. But that friend turns out to be a guy, which is no good. So close, and yet so far. Hyun-jin busts a gut when he overhears a student blurting out that there’s a Ryu in Sweden. Kwang-soo momentarily interrupts a lecture to find a female student with the surname Hyun, and Gary luckily finds a female student by the name of Kang. Slowly but surely, our cast members find the students they need one by one, and Jung-ho’s student mistakes him for a movie star. Soon enough, both Jae-suk and Hyun-jin find their students too, and then it’s time to introduce the students. Suk-jin takes keen interest in how the female Kang is involved in the stocks clubs (“Let’s meet up later”), and then speaks in Spanish to the one studying Western Language & Culture.
The male Kang is a self-professed bookworm who enjoys spending time in the library, though Ji-hyo caught him playing games on his phone. Seeing how pretty Hyun-jin’s partner is, Jae-suk sends both silent and verbal hints that they look good together: “How do you like LA?” (The student, however, is taken.) Here, our nine couples must jump together and rack up at least 150 jumps. Completing the task in fewer attempts will result in a better hint, and Gary adds six jumps before slipping up. Unfortunately Kwang-soo’s attempt to be considerate but slow doesn’t add any jumps to the board. Jung-ho seems pretty confident about putting up some numbers, only to whip the rope against his partner. LOL. You and your bravado are most welcome here.
Haha seems to have found a good partner, jumping in sync even though his mic falls to add 27 jumps. Then Jae-suk and his partner surpass that record by adding another 49 jumps. When Suk-jin’s partner keeps her eyes on the rope, Suk-jin says that she won’t look at him. Her recent break-up mentioned during the intros, Jae-suk asks, “Does he resemble your ex-boyfriend?” They get caught up on the first skip, and Ji-hyo gets two skips in before accidentally wrapping her partner with the jump rope. Hyun-jin gets a good start, but then trips up, thus using up their first attempt.
So they decide to be more strategic and push the weaker jumpers to the front. When Kwang-soo and Jung-ho try moving to the end of the line, they get pushed back. Suk-jin and his partner surprisingly pick up 14 jumps, though Ji-hyo’s nervous teammate trips up on his second jump. Kwang-soo’s slow jump gets him and his partner shunted to the front. This time Jung-ho vows to put 50 on the board, which Hyun-min just cackles amusingly at. Jung-ho gets one speedy jump in. After five teams, the total is still at 24. Haha calls Gary’s teammate stubborn for insisting on jumping with heel boots (though he makes sure to relay to her that he was merely joking). But when she trips up right away, Haha explodes, “Take them off!”
And then Haha finds it utterly ridiculous when Jong-kook tells his teammate to jump like he isn’t even there. “How can she that? You’re staring right at her face!” Jong-kook doesn’t even get past the first jump which puts him at the front of the line, too. That leaves the remaining two couples to complete at least 60 jumps each. Haha and his teammate rack up 42 jumps, which leaves Jae-suk and his partner with the remaining 84 jumps. Needless to say, they don’t come close. So it’s back to square one for their third attempt. Although Kwang-soo gets teased for his puke-green-colored socks, it looks like the quick practice paid off—this time, he and his partner clock in 39 jumps.
Gary’s partner finally takes off those heel boot which pleases Haha, and later on when Suk-jin only gets two jumps, he blames everyone for not counting out loud. Jae-suk points out that the only thing Jung-ho says is “are you ready?” so he encourages Jung-ho’s shy partner to grab onto the baseball player’s jacket. Surprisingly, it seems to help, as the pair puts in 64 jumps alone. Things are looking good with a present total of 139 jumps, and Haha and his partner cleanly finish out the remaining jumps. Again, they must choose between two locations—a bowling alley or a gymnasium—with less than four hours to go. Since Jung-ho was right the first time, they leave the decision to him in the car, to which the baseball player replies they should head over to the gymnasium.
It seems like Hyun-jin’s a bit jealous by the shower of praise Jung-ho’s getting from the cast, defending the idea that he has to stay fit as a pitcher. Jung-ho labels Hyun-jin as more of a natural talent whereas he’s a product of hard work, and when he admits how that does annoy him sometimes, Hyun-jin tells him to quit the pity act already. Jung-ho says while it might seem like he doesn’t work all that hard to the other teams, the Nexen Heroes acknowledge that he does. Hyun-jin chimes in that they’re in the same boat then, but then Jung-ho replies that he asked Hyun-jin’s former team (the Hanhwa Eagles) already and they didn’t agree. There’s an R flag waiting for them at the gymnasium, and once they’ve changed, our group gathers together again at the pool for a round of Human Bowling.
The rules are simple: our members will become human bowling ball to knock down the giant pins. Seven or more strikes will get them the best hint available. I’m just amused at seeing everyone in their skin-tight outfits—is it the shockingly white color or the neon orange pants? Whatever it is, it’s hilarious. In fact, Jae-suk has trouble climbing back on, so Kwang-soo slides down to help… only to fall into the water with him. Hee. He helps Jae-suk out a second time, but then pushes him back into the water. Jong-kook starts things off with a lucky strike, and then Jae-suk slicks his hair back with an 80:20 part. He slides into the pins head-first at top speed, which oowwwww. Still, I’ll have to say it’s Kwang-soo’s “gutter ball” that has me in giggles as he slides off the lane and into the water. And the slo-mo replay is just fantastic.
Apparently this slicked back hairstyles is going to be a running gag, as Haha’s styling looks just like his brief stint as Gary Oldman in the alien special. He makes sure to twist his body at the right second, but only manages to knock down nine pins. Caption: His body was a bit short… Suk-jin gets a clean strike using both arms, and a little later, Jung-ho follows up with a powerful strike. Then it’s Hyun-jin’s turn, and I’ll laugh if he ends up just falling into the water. He gets a perfect strike, and now our cast must choose between three baseball stadiums. Hyun-jin immediately chooses the one in Mokdong, which is the home of the Nexen Heroes. With less than an hour left on the clock, they grow nervous as they pull up to the stadium. Could they have been wrong?
But the R flag indicates that they’ve got the right place, although the dark baseball field makes them nervous once more. It’s then the lights come up and the cast is greeted by a group of Wondong Junior High School students. It turns out that these 46 students are the entire student body—their school face threats of closing down when the student population dwindled to a mere 20 students. However, the baseball team went on to win the national baseball champions two years in a row, and it was their wish to meet Hyun-jin and Jung-ho in person. Aww.
Both Hyun-jin and Jung-ho offer some warm, encouraging words to the kids, and Jung-ho adds that he hopes the students will become products of hard work. Heh. It’s a meaningful experience for both cast and students alike, and they all huddle in for a group photo. And if that’s how we ring out 2014, it looks like 2015 will start with a bang: Lee Seung-gi and Moon Chae-won will come to play next week.
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