COFFEE PRINCE, UDHAYA NANDHINI [best english novels to read .txt] 📗

intro

Choi Han-gyul (Gong Yoo) is a third generation scion of a food chaebol. He has never had a job and does not care for responsibility. Han-gyul is hung up on his first love, Han Yoo-joo (Chae Jung-an), and certainly doesn't want to get married despite his family's requests. On the other hand, Go Eun-chan (Yoon Eun-hye) is a 24-year-old tomboy who is often mistaken for a guy. She takes up every job possible: Taekwondo teacher, waitress, food delivery, and has the responsibility of taking care of her childish, spendthrift mother and trouble-making younger sister. When Han-gyul and Eun-chan meet, he, not knowing that she is a girl, decides to hire her to pretend to be his gay lover so that he can escape the blind dates arranged by his grandmother.

Meanwhile, Han-gyul's cousin, Choi Han-seong (Lee Sun-kyun), is an established music producer and his ex-girlfriend, Han Yoo-joo, is a famous artist who studied in New York. The two were lovers for about 8 years, but their relationship ended when Yoo-joo left Han-seong for another man. Two years after they separate, their paths cross again when she returns to Seoul. Han-seong is initially angry at her, but he succumbs to his lingering feelings and they start to date again.

After getting an ultimatum from his grandmother, Han-gyul takes over a rundown old coffee shop, later renamed "Coffee Prince," to prove that he's capable, both to his grandmother and to Yoo-joo. In order to attract female customers, he only hires good-looking male employees. Eun-chan, desperate for money, continues to hide her gender to get a job at Coffee Prince.

Eun-chan also become friends with Han-seong, and she is initially attracted to him because of his kindness. Han-seong also enjoys spending time with her, and an impulsive kiss that he gives her causes him and Yoo-joo to break up for a short time.

Soon, feelings start to develop between Eun-chan and Han-gyul. Because he's unaware that she is a woman, he starts to question his sexuality and is thrown into turmoil. When he discovers her secret, he feels hurt and betrayed. However, he eventually forgives her and they begin to date. They face strong opposition from his family due to her family’s lower status, but when Han-gyul's grandmother meets Eun-chan, she is impressed by her independence and ambition. She helps pay for Eun-chan to study in Italy to become a barista. After two years of a long-distance relationship, a more stylish Eun-chan returns to Korea and Han-gyul.

Cast

Yoon Eun-hye as Go Eun-chan[3][4] Gong Yoo as Choi Han-gyul Lee Sun-kyun as Chi Han-seong Chae Jung-an as Han Yoo-joo Lee Eon as Hwang Min-yeop (waiter at Coffee Prince) Kim Dong-wook as Jin Ha-rim (waiter at Coffee Prince) Kim Jae-wook as Noh Sun-ki (waffle chef at Coffee Prince) Kim Chang-wan as Hong Gae-shik Kim Young-ok as Han-gyul and Han-seong's grandmother Kim Ja-ok as Han-gyul's mother Choi Il-hwa as Han-gyul's father Park Wonan's mother Han Yeh-in as Go Eun-sae (Eun-chan's younger sister) Yoon Seung-ah as girl playing cards with Han-gyul on the plane.

episode 1:

The story’s pretty simple: EUN CHAN is a hard-working young woman who looks (and acts) like a boy — so much so that people even question her when she insists she’s female. She works multiple jobs, delivering jjajangmyun (Chinese-style noodles) and milk, and teaching Taekwondo. She’s used to being mistaken for a boy, but doesn’t really seem to care. She’s also got a huge appetite.

HAN GYUL is a rich, conceited ladies’ man who’s got women throwing themselves at him left and right. His mother and grandmother are after him to marry and stop playing around with his life, although they too aren’t immune to his charm when he deflects with sweet words. His grandmother is the head of a large (food?) company and he’s been living off her money, and agrees to go on a matchmaking date to appease her. (Han Gyul’s a playboy, but has a soft spot for YU JU, who used to date his older cousin, HAN SUNG (Lee Sun Kyun of the swoony velvety voice.) That rounds out our main love rectangle.)

They briefly meet when Eun Chan delivers jjajangmyun to Han Gyul, and she’s shocked to see him flashing his family jewels at her from under his loosely draped towel. He doesn’t think much of it, but it flusters her. And just in case you’re wondering how much she actually saw, I think it’s safe to assume she saw plenty. And I’m not talking about the towel.

Eun Chan’s younger sister, EUN SAE, a pretty, feminine girl in her last year of high school, calls Eun Chan “oppa” (meaning brother, rather than “unni” for sister) and seems to regularly call Eun Chan to help when she’s being pestered by annoying guys. This time (meeting at the run-down Coffee Prince cafe) it’s Min Yup bothering her, a somewhat coarse, uncouth guy who insists he loves Eun Sae. He assumes Eun Chan is Eun Sae’s boyfriend, and Eun Chan doesn’t bother correcting his misconception. She easily subdues the hot-tempered Min Yup, but agrees to a challenge — an eating contest. First person to finish five bowls of jjajangmyun wins; loser pays (with money and presumably also his pride).

It is truly one of the more disgusting things I’ve seen in my life.

Eun Sae makes it worse by mixing in fruit yogurt in Min Yup’s dish, and as he watches Eun Chan eat her radishes with yogurt, he can’t take it. He loses.

Their family’s big problem is money, with a mother who’s careless with funds and a general tight economy all around. On top of their house deposit needing to be paid (approximately $10,000 — leases are paid in a lump sum), their mother has thoughtlessly lost someone else’s expensive ring, and the person wants it back. Eun Chan tries to go around asking for employee loans or paycheck advances, but doesn’t get anywhere.

Things get worse when Eun Chan witnesses a purse-snatching and rushes to catch the thief, only to find it’s her sister’s not-boyfriend. Unfortunately, the victim is Yu Ju, who’s there with Han Gyul.

Eun Chan goes easy on Min Yup when he says he was going to help pay for her sister’s school fees; she instructs him under her breath to shove her aside and run away. He does, and she pretends to chase him. Yu Ju is thankful for her purse’s return, but Han Gyul sees everything and assumes it was a con operation planned between Eun Chan and the thief. Still, he says he feels sorry for her and gives Eun Chan his card to contact him for reimbursement for her scooter, which was damaged in the process. As a result, she’s fired from her delivery job.

Eun Chan first encounters Han Sung of the Deep Resonant Voice when she greets his dog while delivering milk. On the other side of the fence, he hears her talk affectionately with the dog (and this is how he knows she’s female, since she refers to herself as a girl). Curious, he goes out to see her as she bicycles away.

He is, meanwhile, nursing a still-wounded heart over Yu Ju, whom we can assume dumped him in some cold and callous way, judging from the way he can barely stand to look at her. I just hope she didn’t leave him to go off and treat her terminal cancer in the States and is now back to win him over again.

Han Sung and Eun Chan officially meet when she takes another part-time job as a server at a wine bar. Han Sung recognizes her as the delivery girl, and in a thematically related conversation, Eun Chan learns his dog isn’t a girl, as she’d presumed, but a boy.

He’s adorable and I love him already. In fact, I like him so much I don’t know how they’re going to flip me over to Team Han Gyul, cuz Gong Yoo’s assy ego ain’t doing it for me.

Eun Chan reaaaally doesn’t want to ask Han Gyul for money (compensation for her bike repairs), but she doesn’t have many options. She agonizes between pride and money, money and pride… and finally decides that pride won’t feed her.

She visits him, and he remarks what a girly face she’s got for a guy. She asks for the money, and he gives her a hard time, insinuating she’s a scammer. When he tries to remove her by force, they end up on a heap on the floor… leading to the misconception that both are gay by the girl who sees them there.Then, he insults her parents (for not raising her properly), which hugely offends her. She demands an apology, and when he doesn’t respond, she follows him all the way to his blind date. Or rather, his string of six blind dates, all with equally crazy or weird women. She pesters him all day for an apology.She follows him into the men’s room, demanding an apology and compensation. She wonders if he’s really gay, which seems to spark an idea in his mind. And he surprises her by looking at her closely and asking: “Want to play my boyfriend?”

episode 2....... coming soon..... Imprint

Publication Date: 12-12-2013

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