Hometown Cha Cha Cha(Ep 3&4) Kdrama Review| The Road Trip

Episode 3 of Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha begins back in Gongjin with a lovely little montage of all characters. Hye-Jin is distracted by Du-Sik though, who shows up with a package just for her.

After their incident down on the beach, she intentionally badmouths the guy but it’s clear there are some hidden feelings there. In fact, when they both put on their best gear, they marvel at how much the other has changed.

However, their trip is not going to be one taken alone. In fact, the trio of old ladies in town also needs a lift too. Only, on the way, it turns out Gam-Ri has really sensitive teeth. Hye-Jin suggests she show up for a check-up but as they talk, a mad driver suddenly overtakes and speeds up, forcing Hye-Jin to brake.

Only, our hotheaded protagonist races to catch the driver. Believe it or not, it’s Lee Mat-Yi who’s the real surprise here, constantly cursing at the driver after badmouthing women drivers. This scene in the drama can be counted as one of the funniest scenes out of all.

When they finally get back on the road again, following a short detour, the old ladies each need to stop constantly at the restrooms, setting up a rather amusing montage of rest stops. Although Hye-Jin isn’t happy about this, Du-Sik convinces her that she’s done a good deed after dropping the trio off.

Still, Du-Sik heads off on his own, while Hye-Jin appears at the health clinic in Seoul. At the table, things are certainly frosty but she overplays her hand, claiming the clinic is brimming with customers.

After, she heads outside and looks longingly at a couple getting married. This, coupled with the invitation inside the car, sees  Du-Sik suddenly show up and question what she’s doing. Unbeknownst to them, inside the building, Seo-Young snaps pictures of them together.

These pictures show up in the Classmate Chatroom, with Hye-Jin eventually spinning the story to claim Du-Sik is actually chasing her. Zooming into his picture, Hye-Jin wonders just how anyone can find him cute.

Back in town, trouble brews when 24 different cases of littering. It’s completely unacceptable and Du-Sik immediately takes control of the situation upon his return, demanding action be taken. While this occurs, Hye-Jin prepares for a full schedule of clients at the dentist.

Among those is Choi Eun-Cheol, the shy police officer whom Mi-Seon has taken a fancy to. Hye-Jin notices too and flashes a warm, cheeky smile at her colleague. One person who’s not scheduled in though is Gam-Ri who’s being stubborn about her teeth. Well, stubborn until Du-Sik gives her a piggyback all the way to the dental clinic for emergency care.

After some X-rays, Hye-Jin believes that she could benefit from dentures but the price puts Gam-Ri off completely. Hye-Jin continues to press though, questioning her financial situation – much to Du-Sik’s annoyance. In fact, her brash attitude rubs Du-Sik up the wrong way, querying why she couldn’t have said things in a nicer way.

Du-Sik even offers to pay for Gam-Ri’s treatment, but she simply throws water in his face. I think that’s a subtle way of saying no! Now, Hye-Jin’s stake in all this stems from her Mum.

Despite telling Du-Sik she was too young to remember her passing away, the truth is she was there and saw her Mum’s health deteriorate. Seeing Gam-Ri stubbornly refuse treatment seems to bring back memories of this, remaining determined to try and help her.

In fact, Hye-Jin actually thinks differently about the food she’s eating, including the squid which she realizes is probably tough for Gam-Ri to eat.

Hye-Jin decides to give her a discount – partly thanks to Du-Sik’s encouragement – and Gam-Ri is certainly grateful for it. And just like that, our Gam-Ri shows up at the clinic bright and early ready for her implants. She even pays it in one hit.

Meanwhile, the neighbourhood is made a little safer thanks to Hwa-Jung’s insistence, getting the cameras installed to try and catch the litterer.

During all these heartwarming moments, Du-Sik is called over to Hye-Jin’s place as a blackout plunges the entire place into darkness. The pair eat ice cream together, as Du-Sik thanks her for helping out Gam-Ri. Just before Du-Sik leaves, he drops off the other shoe that Hye-Jin has been missing. The power goes back on just at the right time.

It turns out Du-Sik actually fished the shoe out earlier in the day and worked as best he could to dry it for her.

Episode 4 of Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha begins with Hye-Jin shocked over Mi-Seon managing to get herself ready in 3 minutes. The transformation is pretty impressive, and the conversation soon turns to work.

In fact, the pair have a patient who wears designer gear but seems to have a pretty awkward and shady manner about him. Hold that thought, we’ll be back to discuss what’s really going on in a bit.

For now, Jo Nam-Sook invites the pair out that afternoon for a town meeting. The pair initially decline until Hye-Jin learns that Du-Sik will be there. She soon perks up and decides to go after all.

Once there, Hye-Jin decides it would be a good idea to be a member directory. However, Du-Sik already has this, and he shows up fashionably late. In doing so, Hye-Jin learns that Du-Sik is actually the chief treasurer of the group too.

Hye-Jin starts to regret showing up though, deciding to pretend to be drunk…until Du-Sik steps up and fills in for Dr Yoon on singing duties, who claims to have laryngitis.

Hye-Jin’s idea backfires as all the residents completely ignore her at the end of the meeting – apart from Du-Sik. In fact, he decides to give her a piggyback on the way home. Halfway up the road, Du-Sik realizes she’s faking it and calls her out for her charade.

Speaking of bickering married couples, Yeo Hwa-Jung and her ex-husband end up walking the same way home, where the latter tentatively hands over an old kimchi container for Hwa-Jung, which is pretty cute.

In the morning, Hye-Jin heads back to see Ju-Ri, the kid calling her out for lying about treating a celeb. Later on in the day Hye-Jin wins the girl over, showing off the picture and causing them both to gush over his good looks.

Back at the dental clinic, that shady guy shows up again to get treatment. Gam-Ri recognizes him from somewhere, while Mi-Seon is left alone for a while with the man.

Hye-Jin eventually catches him leaning over and immediately calls him out for it. Given how powerful his parents are, Mi-Seon decides to drop the accusation completely. However, his berating riles Hye-Jin and a returning Du-Sik up, who both assault the man and knock him out cold.

Meanwhile, Yeong-Guk ends up seeing Yu Cho-Hui out in the street and immediately tense up. It’s been 15 years since they both saw each other, and she’s going to be staying in Gongjin for the time being.

It turns out this was Yeong-Guk’s first love back in the day. As we soon find out, she’s not actually married either, and with Yeong-Guk now divorced, it certainly doesn’t look “very, very good” (an inside joke there for fans of Homemade Love Story!) when his ex-wife Hwa-Jung shows up and sees them together.

At the police station, Gam-Ri shows up to drop off the predator’s phone. Only, Du-Sik takes hold of it and shows up to see the patient. He antagonizes the man, calling him out for being a peeping tom and saving the dental clinic in the process.

Later that day, Hye-Jin joins Du-Sik over at his place where she notices the photo album. It turns out Du-Sik’s parents died when he was younger. It’s a sombre moment but one that passes quickly, as the pair sit together and drink wine and eat together. Despite Hye-Jin’s best efforts, she ends up sputtering and coughing while drinking.

After polishing off the whole bottle, we learn more about Du-Sik’s past. Honestly, is there anything this guy can’t do? Superman has had an award for bravery awarded twice, saving a guy from being hit by a train and chasing after a robber. This explains why he’s looked on so favorably at the police station.

As the wine goes straight to Hye-Jin’s head, the girl admits that the day she came to Gongjin was actually her Mum’s birthday. She's been feeling like her Mum has been slowly slipping away from her, but before she died they went on a family trip to Gongjin.

This explains just why she was there, although she’s quick to put her defenses back up again. Just as she does, Du-Sik holds her face with both hands and looks deep into her eyes “It’s so hot”, He comments, as the temperature goes up for Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha!

Thanks for reading!!