Nighttime at the DMZ.

At the military headquarters control center, a meeting of army brass is held to deal with a volatile developing situation: Three North Korean soldiers have crossed the border and taken a couple of South Korean soldiers hostage. No gunfire has been exchanged, but tensions are high; they interpret this as a bold ploy to provoke the South into making the first act of aggression.

The South can't have that, and their best option to avoid a political firestorm is to let the North Koreans go quietly. To that end, they've sent in a team of special forces agents to defuse the situation.

The special forces team arrive at the front line of the standoff, outside a small bunker taken over by the North Koreans. Their leader identifies himself as Alpha Team's Captain YOO SHI-JIN (Song Joong-ki) and declares that they'll be taking over the situation from the unit currently in charge.

Shi-jin and his second-in-command, SEO DAE-YOUNG (Jin Gu), approach the bunker with hands raised in the open. They're allowed inside at gunpoint, the air thick with tension, while the troops stationed outside prepare explosives to use as a last resort.

The North Korean leader gives up his gun, but pulls out a dagger, saying that he can't just leave without giving the Southerners a fight. Shi-jin pulls out his own knife and agrees to one.

After a tension-filled stare-down, the soldiers launch into a fierce knife fight, with Shi-jin battling the North Korean leader and his comrade Dae-young juggling the other two enemy soldiers. They're in tight quarters and the action is fast and powerful, with both sides seemingly matched.

The fight swings back and forth as both sides gain the advantage and lose it; everybody attacks amidst an air of supreme calm and concentration, no fear in sight. Everybody gets in some good blows, but the main fight between Shi-jin and his quarry remains tight.

At one point the alarm button gets hit and sirens start to blare, but nobody breaks focus. The intensity of the action mounts, and Shi-jin and the Northern leader end up outside, still locked in close combat.

That's when Shi-jin gets slashed in the abdomen, though he barely betrays feeling it. He's got his own knife at the North Korean's neck, but the man rightly notes that Shi-jin can't shoot first; his hands are tied politically. But, he says, soldiers from the North are different—and a gun cocks and points at Shi-jin's head.

Shi-jin doesn't flinch. He corrects the North Korean leader, saying that the South canshoot, if it's to keep the peace. In the distance a South Korean sniper aims his rifle, and a red dot shows up on the North Korean gunman's face. Everyone stills. Holds their breaths. Waits.

Then the North Korean leader calls off his man, easing the tension and saying it was nice to meet Shi-jin. Shi-jin replies that he'd prefer not to meet again, and both men drop their knives. The North Koreans walk away, and crisis is averted.

Some time later, Shi-jin and Dae-young are on leave from duty, shooting toy guns (badly) and wondering at their faulty aim. The arcade manager (Lee Kwang-soo in a cameo) tsk-tsks like the "ajusshis" don't know what they're doing, chiding that they'll break the guns.

Outside, a disturbance breaks out when a young thief steals someone's motorcycle and zooms off. Shi-jin and Dae-young borrow the toy guns and station themselves in the street, positioning themselves in the thief's path. He barrels recklessly toward them, at which point the soldiers let loose a barrage of toy pellets, striking him in the face, distracting him into crashing off the bike.

A grumpy (and ungrateful) ajusshi retrieves his motorcycle from the scene, and Shi-jin turns his attention to splinting the thief's injured leg.

After sending him off in an ambulance, the soldiers chat in a cafe, and Dae-young expresses sympathy for the young delinquent-in-the-making. It strikes a chord with his own youth, when he'd engaged in gangster activity before turning things around, and he sighs that while there's not a lot of difference between them, this guy is set to become a criminal.

Shi-jin gets a call from someone in the army who's not from their unit, and the name on his phone reads YOON MYUNG-JOO. Dae-young leaps to prevent him from taking the call, throwing out a whole string of bribes, like dinner and expensive liquor and a date with his cousin.

But when Dae-young reaches for his phone to show pictures, he realizes that the thief pocketed his phone while he was being treated. All of a sudden he's full of swears, which Shi-jin notes is ironic given his earlier sympathy.

Young Thief is brought to the hospital, and a nurse picks up Dae-young's stolen phone when it falls to the ground. A call comes in from the same person who'd called Shi-jin, Yoon Myung-joo, and the nurse answers and tells Myung-joo that the phone's owner is at the hospital following an accident.

Inside, we meet Dr. KANG MO-YEON (Song Hye-gyo), who assesses Young Thief's injuries, aided by the diagnostic notes Shi-jin had written on his arm. Among them: "THIEF: Administer treatment as painfully as possible." The thief protests loudly to be let go, and the second he's left alone, he strips off the splint and hobbles away.

Mo-yeon speaks with a senior doctor about a position she's up for, but gets distracted to see the thief off in the distance making his getaway. She excuses herself and goes after him, and wheels him back inside against his protests.

He wants to be let go, arguing that his hyungnims will be sending him to the morgue next. But Mo-yeon and the nurses are a tough bunch and refuse to budge until he grudgingly agrees to stay. He leaves a phone with Mo-yeon to prove he won't run away...

And then runs away again, of course, talking on his other phone. Dae-young and Shi-jin pull up at the hospital right as a crowd of gangsters strolls by, and head inside a second too soon to see the thief slipping out.

Shi-jin continues calling Dae-young's phone without getting an answer, until finally Dr. Mo-yeon picks up. She's sitting just feet away from him, and scoffs to see the name: "Big Boss."

Given the circumstances, she interprets this to mean gangster boss, so when Shi-jin motions to her, she regards him coldly and tells him to wait outside. He tries to explain that she's got the wrong idea, but she's firm, and the two soldiers are pushed aside while she finishes treating a patient.

Dae-young figures the thief skipped out and suggests going to look for him, though Shi-jin isn't in any hurry to leave the pretty doctor he's clearly smitten with. When Dae-young shoots him a look, Shi-jin suddenly fakes appendix pain (poorly, on the wrong side) before agreeing to head out.

On Dae-young's hunch, they look for the gangsters they'd encountered earlier and find them brutally beating up the wayward thief. Shi-jin is reluctant to get involved, but his buddy is stern and determined to step in.

So the two soldiers call out to the gangsters, who laugh at them for butting in. The badly beaten thief—Ki-bum—begs Dae-young to save him, and his friend explains that Ki-bum wants out of the gang, but has to come up with an exorbitant "exit fee" (5 million won, just over 4,000 USD), which is why he's been stealing.

The gangsters jeer, asking sarcastically if Dae-young will take on the burden—but Dae-young readily replies that he will, and that he's Ki-bum's hyung. Aww.

Dae-young holds out his wallet, saying that he's got plenty of cash. Offering it to anybody who can snatch it from him, he invites the gangsters to go for it.

A couple of guys launch themselves at him with fists and switchblades, though they're more nuisance than threat. We've already seen Dae-young fighting at his best, so no surprise that he hardly breaks a sweat knocking around the first two who come at him.

Shi-jin sees they're using switchblades and goads everyone to pull out their weapons now and go for it... though he's a little taken aback when no less than ten knives come out. He takes a teeny step behind Dae-young and says that at least there are no guns.

Thief Ki-bum's supposed guardian arrives thinking Dae-young is the patient, and Yoon Myung-joo turns out to be a woman in army uniform (Kim Ji-won). Moreover, she and Mo-yeon know each other, although there's no love lost between them. Mo-yeon even jokes that there's always a man involved when they meet, which, groan. Can we not go thirty minutes without failing the Bechdel test?

Myung-joo's also a doctor and she demands to see the chart, calling the patient "important to me." Mo-yeon simply tells Myung-joo to pay the patient's bill, which he skipped out on, and says that the hospital has done its duty in trying to treat him twice.

Mo-yeon informs a mutual colleague of Myung-joo's arrival—that rude but pretty army doctor they interned with who stole away Mo-yeon's crush. Mo-yeon huffs jealously that Myung-joo's not even that pretty, and she didn't actually date that sunbae. She also calls Myung-joo crazy for dating someone now who's maybe twenty at most.

But her colleague corrects her, since it's well-known that Myung-joo, the daughter of a three-star general and an officer in her own right, is dating an army officer. That's news to Mo-yeon, who wonders what the deal is with Ki-bum, who left his phone with her.

Shi-jin and Dae-young return to the hospital with Ki-bum, who's now in much worse shape. While nurses rush to take care of him, Dae-young stands stock-still upon seeing Myung-joo, who looks at him with accusing eyes and orders him to follow her. Huh, no jondae speech even.

Mo-yeon tends to Ki-bum's wounds and asks if it was Shi-jin who did this to him. The kid insists that Shi-jin was his rescuer, but she doesn't believe him, thinking he's saying it out of fear. All the while, Shi-jin just sort of smiles down at her flirtatiously, though she either doesn't notice or ignores it.

He chases Mo-yeon out to set her straight about his character, explaining the whole story about getting the cell phone stolen, coming to retrieve it, and saving Ki-bum from his gangster hyungs. She expresses exactly zero interest in his explanation and starts to call the police to report the patient's assault.

Shi-jin leans in and, with a flick of his finger, knocks the phone out of her hand. Saying that involving the police would be a problem for him only supports the misunderstanding that he's a gangster, even though he tells her that he's a soldier on leave, and that getting into a tangle with the law would be a headache. He supposes that showing her his dog tags or army ID won't convince her when she's determined to believe he's lying.

But then he asks if she went to a certain medical school and knows Myung-joo. That makes her connect some dots, asking if he's "that" officer. Shi-jin must know she means Dae-young and says no, but assures her that Myung-joo can confirm his identity.

Myung-joo confronts a stoic Dae-young with frustration and hurt, asking how long he means to keep avoiding her. She demands that he tell her why, saying that it's not that she doesn't know the reason, but that she wants to hear him.

"It's not the reason you think," he says stiffly. He asks her not to jump to conclusions about leaving for her sake, and says that his feelings have changed, that's all. Ah, she must think he's being pressured to leave her, and tearfully says she doesn't believe him.

Dae-young walks away, ignoring her pleas to stop until she pulls rank—ever the soldier, he has to stop then to give a formal salute. She orders him to stand there like that all night, until he dies.

That's when Shi-jin joins them to request that Myung-joo identify them to the skeptical Mo-yeon. Coldly, Myung-joo tells her, "Report them to the police. They're AWOL soldiers." A woman scorned, I guess.

Still, Mo-yeon's seen enough to accept their identity, though she's not ready to absolve them of the assault and insists on checking the security footage.

While they wait outside security, Shi-jin stands next to her against the wall, and when his fingers brush hers, she visibly jumps. She asks how he knows Myung-joo, and replies that they're sunbae-hoobae from military academy. He asks if it's really necessary to see the footage, assuring her that he looks like someone who can't lie. She replies that killers are often likable.

He tells her not to worry, since it's his rule to protect children, the elderly, and the beautiful. She quips that it's good to be one of the three, he banters that she's not, and she retorts that she means the elderly.

It's only now that she thinks to ask his name, and gives him hers.

Dae-young has guessed that Ki-bum was once an athlete, and it's another commonality between them. Dae-young practiced judo in high school, presumably before he went astray; he recognizes that Ki-bum learned to be hit like an athlete, where taking a blow is part of the training.

Asked why he just took it, Ki-bum replies that it would be over faster that way. He admits to practicing taekwondo, even winning gold medals.

When the nurse asks for his guardian, Ki-bum insists he doesn't have one. Dae-young contradicts him, which, aww.

Watching the CCTV footage, Mo-yeon gives good reaction to seeing Shi-jin and Dae-young kicking some serious butt. She gets adorably caught up in the proceedings like she's watching them live, calling out instructions: "Do that! Good job!"

Misunderstanding cleared, Mo-yeon apologizes for misjudging Shi-jin. He replies that she can repay him by treating his pain, which sounds like a glib pick-up line. So she doesn't believe him when he points to his side, or when he doubles over in pain when she pokes it. But when he lifts his shirt, she gasps to see the blood-soaked bandage.

The fight tore his stitches, and as she redoes them, she recognizes his other scar as a gunshot wound. He's surprised since she isn't likely to run into gunshot wounds in Korea, but she explains seeing them in her volunteer work in Africa.

Shi-jin adopts a cheeky air and says he got the wound in Normandy while rescuing a comrade amidst a hail of gunfire. She asks wryly if the friend's name was Private Ryan, and he smiles at her. The obtrusive pop soundtrack informs us this is A Moment.

Mo-yeon instructs Shi-jin to disinfect his wound through the week, after which he can have the stitches removed. He asks if he can come back here every day to do it, and whether she can be his assigned doctor. She banters along when he says a doctor's looks are an important factor, and agrees to see him during the week.

Then he leans waaay in and says, "As a doctor, you probably don't have a boyfriend, since you're so busy." She replies in kind, saying he probably doesn't have a girlfriend as a soldier, and he just asks, "Who knows what the answer will be?"

Back at barracks, Shi-jin enlists his unit's opinions in deciding which of two identical uniforms looks better for his trip to the hospital. The others wonder why he'd travel so far just to disinfect an injury, until Dae-young informs them that the doc is pretty. Ahhh.

Shi-jin points out that none of the army docs is pretty, and Dae-young argues. A clueless soldier pipes up that Myung-joo is hot, but that she supposedly just got dumped really badly, and it takes the rest of the unit to shut him up.

Dae-young goes to the hospital too, to pay Ki-bum's bill for him. Guh, I just love his stoic care for the wayward soul, and it makes Ki-bum feel both grateful and awkward.

Ki-bum says he can't pay him back and says a bit defensively that he doesn't want a lecture about his life, but Dae-young doesn't expect payment and just tells him to take care of himself. Then Ki-bum asks how Dae-young got out of his gangster past, since being beaten and paying up haven't worked.

"I ran away to a place they could never follow me," Dae-young replies.

In the lobby, Shi-jin spots Mo-yeon caught up in an emergency situation, kneeling on a gurney to stanch a patient's bloody wound. He joins the entourage of medics and helps push the gurney faster, his eyes fixed on her the whole time, though he goes wholly unnoticed by her.

He waits outside the operating room for hours, but when she finally emerges, he's gone.

He's working out that night (obligatory army abs scene!) when she calls, which makes him smile. He notes that she's scored his number, and she tells him to save hers. Like you have to tell him twice.

"I'd really like to see you tomorrow," he says, which makes her laugh at his boldness. He says in a deadpan voice that he meant for treatment, and her face falls and she quickly says that's what she meant too.

She asks what time he'd like to come in tomorrow, and he asks if she'd like to meet now instead. She doesn't reply right away, and he asks, for the first time a little hesitantly, "You don't want to?"

She replies, "No, I don't dislike it. Come."

So he heads over to the hospital again, decked out in civilian clothing while she primps with her PPL makeup. He waits for her in the lobby... and then his eyes land on the breaking news report showing on TV about the kidnapping of two UN staffers.

Immediately his mood grows serious and he takes a call from a colleague, stepping into the elevator just as Mo-yeon steps out. Arg! Curses, ye olde K-drama Elevator Miss!

Shi-jin calls to tell Mo-yeon he's here, but has to leave. He mentions he's on the roof, so she heads up to see him there, and he apologizes for having to stand her up.

A helicopter hovers overhead, which he identifies as his ride. He promises to fill her in later, and asks to meet next weekend. Not for treatment this time, but for a movie date.

The helicopter lands, and he leans in to ask for an answer. Note that what he says could mean "Do you like [the idea] or not?" it could also mean "Do like me or not?"

She answers, "I like [it]." He breaks into a smile and calls it a promise, then jogs over to board the copter, pausing for one look back at Mo-yeon. Then he's off.

A short time later, Shi-jin's unit is deployed on their covert mission, which requires them to remove their identifying dog tags in case of capture. "Where are we?" his teammate asks.

"Afghanistan," Shi-jin replies grimly.

The hatch of their aircraft opens to reveal the landscape below them as they fly toward the fiery warzone.

With a promise to see her soon and one wistful look back, Shi-jin leaves Mo-yeon on the roof to join his team for a top-secret mission. Mo-yeon watches his helicopter take off, and she's joined by her colleague SONG SANG-HYUN (Lee Seung-joon), who asks what she's staring at.

She asks him almost distractedly if people in the Special Forces get helicopter escorts and sometimes get shot, and he says that really never happens. Mo-yeon wonders who exactly Shi-jin is, then.

Shi-jin is now in Afghanistan, on a mission to rescue two UN representatives who have been kidnapped by the Taliban. During a practice run, the Korean team's rookie sets off a booby trap, causing both Shi-jin and Dae-young to holler at him.

An American(?) soldier throws his dagger into a box next to Shi-jin's head and yells at them to go back home, and of course Shi-jin can't let that go. He hurls the dagger right back, where it sticks into a box right between the other soldier's legs.

Now it's on, and Shi-jin and the other soldier fight viciously, seeming evenly matched. Dae-young holds the rookie back from getting involved, telling him that when Special Forces from different countries get together, something like this always happens. It's a test to see if the other side is strong and trustworthy.

The fight is pretty awesome actually, between the American's strength and Shi-jin's quickness and agility (at one point he literally climbs the other guy). You get the sense that they could do this all day, but the captain finally breaks up the fight and orders them back to work.

Mo-yeon complains to her colleague DR. PYO about the position she's applying for, apparently for the third time, and her friend is certain that she'll be accepted this time. Another doctor comes in to make snarky comments to Mo-yeon, seeing as how she's up for the same job and certain she'll get it.

The two seem pretty antagonistic, and they end up in the same surgery room, where the snarky woman, Dr. Kim, happily chirps that there's been a change in plans — she's in charge, and Mo-yeon will be assisting her. They continue to trade barbs while operating, until something goes wrong and the patient starts to bleed out.

Some pretty slick editing switches us between Mo-yeon's operation and Afghanistan, where the Special Forces are beginning the real mission. Shi-jin's team infiltrates the building where the UN workers are being held, while Mo-yeon works fast to save the patient.

Things get ugly during the mission — a booby trap is set off and shots are fired, but Shi-jin and Dae-young manage to keep themselves and their team alive, for the moment. Shi-jin gets creative as he works his way to the heart of the building, and shoots the Taliban kidnappers just as they're about to kill the hostages. The hostages are saved — mission complete.

At the same time, Mo-yeon stabilizes her patient and orders Dr. Kim to finish the surgery. Dr. Kim complies, but she's not at all happy about Mo-yeon having to step in to save her surgery.

Mo-yeon could chew nails as she leaves the operating room, ranting about how that doctor nearly killed their patient, but a third doctor, DR. JANG, follows to tell her she did a good job, which calms her down. She pats Dr. Jang's belly and tells her unborn baby that her mother did a good job too, and Dr. Jang is happy to announce that the father finally proposed.

The father just happens to be another doctor at the hospital, LEE CHI-HOON (SHINee'sOnew). He sidles up to Mo-yeon and makes faces until she catches on that he wants to talk to her privately, smiling way too brightly until Dr. Jang walks away. He admits to Mo-yeon that he lost his couple ring during surgery, and finally finds it in the scrub hamper next to them. He's pretty adorable, but also seems like a giant doofus.

Mo-yeon wonders out loud to Dr. Pyo how Dr. Jang managed to get pregnant in the first place when they're always working, and Dr. Pyo just says that it's a big hospital, ha. She asks if Mo-yeon has heard from Shi-jin again, but she hasn't, and Dr. Pyo wonders if he's a spy. She catches Mo-yeon mooning at his X-ray; Mo-yeon says it's the only picture she has of him, and it makes her grin widely.

Mo-yeon steps outside after an overnight shift for some fresh air, dressed in her sweats with her hair a mess. When she sees Shi-jin beaming at her from across the street she tries to hide her face, complaining that he's two hours early for their date. Shi-jin just says that it felt good to have someone to wait for, which is so adorable but also a little sad.

He asks why she's covering her face, and she says that she's not wearing any makeup. Seeming completely honest, he tells her, "You're pretty enough now." Mo-yeon asks if she doesn't need to take a shower then, and Shi-jin quickly offers to drive her home. HAHA.

She invites him in to wait while she gets ready, and asks if he minds ordering some food because she's starving. Shi-jin pouts that he was going to take her out for a nice meal, but he's mollified when Mo-yeon says that it's the company that matters.

Mo-yeon's water is cut off for non-payment right as she lathers her hair, but she pretends that everything is fine and goes back out to Shi-jin with her hair in a towel. It doesn't fool him for a second and he holds up the shutoff notice, and Mo-yeon just quickly grabs some bottled water and runs back to the bathroom. Cute.

As they eat, Shi-jin asks if Mo-yeon thought of him while he was gone. She easily admits it and asks the same of him, and he says that he thought about her a lot. Then when she suggests they get coffee at the movie, he can't resist teasing, "I should get a bottle of water..."

At the movies, Mo-yeon says that the most exciting part is right before they turn the lights off. Shi-jin leans over to whisper that this is the most exciting moment of his life, being with a beautiful woman right before they turn the lights off. He's going to have me swooning a lot, isn't he?

He brings up the fact that she spoke banmal just now, figuring that she saw his age on his chart, and asks how old she is. She skirts the question but says definitely his noona, and he jokes that he'll need to see some ID to prove it.

Shi-jin gets another call from his commanding officer, and disappointment is written all over his face when he says he has to go. Mo-yeon is obviously upset as well, and she tells him she'll stay and see the movie alone. He's not happy about it but he has to leave, and says he'll call her.

As soon as he's gone Mo-yeon gets her own emergency call from Chi-hoon, and she runs back to the hospital to find out that she didn't get the job, again. The snooty Dr. Kim was offered the position because of her family connections, even though the senior doctor had all but promised the job to Mo-yeon.

She's tired of his excuses for not promoting her, wondering what the reason will be next time. Dr. Kim arrives and starts ordering Mo-yeon around immediately, and taking a lot of pleasure in it to boot. She tells Mo-yeon to cover for her on a television show the following day, because she's got some schmoozing to do, and will be too hung over.

But Mo-yeon is a thousand percent done putting up with her crap, calls her a bitch, and says she's sorry for the patients who get stuck with Dr. Kim. The other woman grabs Mo-yeon's hair, Mo-yeon grabs back, and the others have to physically break up the fight.

Mo-yeon takes herself to a quiet hallway to cry it out, attempting to memorize the information for the TV show despite being unable to speak for sobbing, finally giving up and wailing.

Shi-jin and Dae-young return from their surprise mission, and thankfully nobody was hurt or killed. Their commanding officer rewards them for all their recent hard work with an eight-month break, which isn't the vacation it sounds like. They're being deployed, with only two weeks to visit with family before they leave.

Their team looks happy, since this means they will just be regular soldiers for eight months — no special missions, which for them is considered a break. But both Dae-young and Shi-jin take the news hard.

The next morning Shi-jin goes looking for Mo-yeon, and finds her just as she's doing her live broadcast. He watches her on television, smiling with his heart in his eyes. He's such a smitten kitten.

He waits at her house for her to come home, and the mood is tense as they go for coffee. Shi-jin apologizes for leaving Mo-yeon that way, but she says that what she really wants is an explanation. He says that he didn't go far, but that's all he's allowed to say.

He can't even confirm whether or not he's a spy, and Mo-yeon admits that she thought of him a lot today. She wondered where he disappears to, and what he does, but then she can't even get answers when she sees him. She tries to put the clues together on her own, and Shi-jin can only give her this sad look, as if he'd love nothing more than to tell her everything.

She asks if he kills people, and if they're at least bad people, but meets with silence again. She says that her job is to fight for people's life, and deduces that his job is to protect others by using death. Shi-jin gives the tiniest nod at that, and his only defense is that he's a soldier, and soldiers follow orders. He doesn't have the luxury of deciding what's right or wrong.

He tells Mo-yeon that he's lost three friends in combat, and that he believes that what he's fighting for, at least, is peace and freedom. Mo-yeon counters that as a doctor, she believes that nothing is more important than life, and Shi-jin can't argue with that. She tells him that this wasn't quite the meeting she was hoping it would turn out to be, effectively ending their brief relationship. Shi-jin says he understands and lets her go, adding that it was nice meeting her.

Shi-jin broods in the shower, but not for long, as Dae-young joins him and they discuss their upcoming deployment. They each avoid talking about their respective love interests, preferring not to go into detail about why they're not spending time with them before they leave.

Eight months later.

Still on deployment (in a fictional country named Urk), Shi-jin takes a break while his men sweep a hillside for explosives, and everyone goes on alert when a live one is located. One of the bomb experts asks what they should do — if they report it they'll be told to leave it alone until the U.S. troops arrive.

Noting the small crowd of children that are gathering, Shi-jin has the man repeat his personal motto: "Go easy and all will be well. Avoid hard work." Hard work is defined as sending memos, which, ha. Basically, he's prepared to handle this situation right now, on their own.

Cut to: Shi-jin and Dae-young pulled up in front of their commander, in big trouble for not reporting a live bomb. I just love Shi-jin's dry sense of humor, as he says, "My second in command didn't stop me." And then he whines at Dae-young for not stopping him... doesn't he know how much he loves sending memos? I feel bad for Dae-young, having to put up with Shi-jin all the time.

Shi-jin and Dae-young are punished to run in full gear, and aww, their entire platoon joins them in solidarity... for about three seconds, and then they run back to their barracks, giggling like fools. Boys.

As it turns out, Mo-yeon made such a good impression on her first live broadcast that she's now a regular on the show, where she gives medical advice to viewers. It's made her a bit of a celebrity, and she's now in charge of some pretty high-profile VIP patients. Their complaints seem trivial to Mo-yeon — stress, DNA testing to determine paternity on illegitimate children, and even one businessman who can't keep up sexually with his young girlfriend.

Her friend Sang-hyun teases her for being too important to mingle with the lowly surgeon peons lately, though Mo-yeon is aware that things could change on a dime again. It doesn't stop her from clocking Dr. Kim's snort of jealousy, though.

Dr. Kim snarks that if she's not careful, people will start to think Mo-yeon is an actual doctor, and Mo-yeon shoots back that she's hardly a doctor either — she's just her father's daughter. Oh burn. It's obvious that Dr. Kim is jealous of Mo-yeon's celebrity, and Mo-yeon isn't above reminding her that she only got on the show because Dr. Kim thought she was too important to do it herself.

Mo-yeon goes to the roof that night, remembering how Shi-jin had asked her out here, then flown off in a helicopter. We see that when they'd eaten at her place that one time, she'd lit a candle and insisted he not move it, because she'd carefully calculated the best place for it to light her face perfectly. How much do I love that she just admits it?

He'd asked about her work, and she'd told him that she looks pretty sexy when suited up for surgery. She held her hands up to show how her mask accentuates her eyes, and Shi-jin joked that he wants to date that girl.

Still on deployment, Shi-jin finds a soldier digging a hole and awww, it's Ki-bum, the thief that Dae-young took special interest in. Shi-jin starts to show him how to dig more efficiently when the shovel handle breaks, and Ki-bum laughs that that's why he was digging carefully.

Shi-jin smiles just a bit when he sees that he's cut his hand — it reminds him how Mo-yeon never believed him that he was injured "doing labor," and now he actually has been. He realizes that Ki-bum is writing on his arm the same way he did to the kid ("injured shoveling," heh), and orders him to attention.

When Dae-young finds them, Shi-jin asks why he brought this kid anyway, and Dae-young simply says, "I like him." As it turns out, Ki-bum is a great cook, and he's in charge of making dinner for their sergeant's birthday today. With his trademark mischievous grin, Shi-jin offers to be in charge of procuring the wine.

They head to a bar, where they argue over who the pretty waitress was aiming her come-hither eyes at. A girl comes in to buy a gun from that same waitress, and for some reason she levels it at the guys. Shi-jin quickly takes it and points it back at her, then disassembles it, asking why she's buying a gun if she doesn't even know how to use it.

She retorts that she's buying it not to kill, but for protection, taking her gun and leaving. Shi-jin asks the waitress who the girl was, but she lets him know firmly that she doesn't sell information.

Coincidentally, Mo-yeon's hospital has interests in Urk as well, and is planning on building an eco-friendly power plant there. They've put a call out for volunteers, and Chi-hoon is the first to sign up. The hospital's director asks Mo-yeon to have dinner with him that night, and with no other information, the doctors all assume it's a date.

But Mo-yeon is taken aback when Director Han makes it clear that they're spending the evening at his place, and not just for dinner. He even offers to let her shower first, the slimeball. That handbag to the face was well-deserved.

Mo-yeon wails to Dr. Pyo — what will she do now that she's assaulted the hospital director? She has to sit through a meeting he's running about the power plant, and finds herself voluntold for duty in retaliation. At least he made her team leader?

Shi-jin's team is notified of which doctors will be coming over, so he knows that she's arriving soon. Dae-young wonders if it's fate, but Shi-jin just says that it's a passing coincidence.

Slimeball Director Han calls Mo-yeon one last time as the team is waiting on the tarmac in Urk for their UN escort, and offers her one last chance to come back — on his terms, of course. She basically calls him a lowlife right in front of everyone, reminding him that she has connections and has even been on television, so she'll be tendering her resignation the moment she arrives back in Korea. Okay, I officially love her.

The team is relieved to see their escort arrive by helicopter, and who else could it be but Shi-jin and his platoon. Mo-yeon recognizes Shi-jin immediately and freezes, memories of their short time together rushing through her mind...

... and Shi-jin walks right past her.

Intro time is over now that everyone's gathered abroad, and with our medic team now set up in Urk, everyone will be forced to make some adjustments to their comfort zones. Mo-yeon, for one, is going to have to let go of some of that rigid self-reliance and let Shi-jin help her out a little, and they'll both have to realize that neither can afford to stand alone, as they will need each other to survive this literal war zone.

A wreath of flowers Ha, Mo-yeon's friend Sang-hyun looks so disappointed not to get flowers, and he and babydaddy doctor Chi-hoon break into a random booty-shaking dance.

Former thief Ki-bum takes a minute to say hello to Mo-yeon, who totally doesn't recognize him in uniform. She's thrilled to see him here doing so well, as is nurse Min-ji who helped treat him that day.

Mo-yeon is snubbed by Shi-jin again when she accidentally runs into him, but once Shi-jin is out of sight, he stops to peek at her unseen through a window. Awww, he's definitely not as unaffected as he'd like her to think.

He brings a package to Dae-young and tells him to open it now, you know, in case it's cookies. Dae-young deadpans that it might be a bomb, but Shi-jin insists he open it now anyway, "Like a man." While backing away, hee.

It's a care package for the officers from Myung-joo, though it's noticeably missing anything for Dae-young and Shi-jin. There's a note, and Dae-young's face goes carefully neutral as he says that his package is coming later — Myung-joo herself is on her way.

We see her back in Korea saying goodbye to her father, Lieutenant General Yoon, and he asks if she really insists on going. She betrays a small smile and she says that yes, she can't wait to go. He makes it clear that it's Shi-jin he wants as his son-in-law because he's general material, not Dae-young, and oooooh, so that's why they broke up.

But Myung-joo is a tough cookie, and she informs her father that treating Dae-young badly because of his personal feelings is wrong. He chose to stay and serve underneath him, despite their personal issues, and Myung-joo says that he's a real soldier, which is why she loves him. She tells her father in no uncertain terms that if he stops her pursuit of him again, he will lose her as both a loyal soldier and a daughter.

Mo-yeon calls her friend Dr. Pyo Ji-soo to tell her that both the guy she briefly dated last year and Myung-joo's ex are here, though she denies being happy to see them. Their call gets dropped and Mo-yeon looks up to see that she's wandered near some children in a field.

She jumps the fence to trade one girl a tool she's found (and is licking, ick) for a candy bar, and finds herself swarmed by begging kids. From behind her, Shi-jin chastises that she shouldn't do that unless she's got enough for all of them. In their native language, he sends the hungry kids to find one of the officers to ask for food.

When Mo-yeon asks what he said, he tells her dryly, "I said I'd shoot if they didn't leave." Ha. She calls him out for lying, and he just calmly says that he calls it a joke. Frustrated, Mo-yeon starts to stalk off, but she stops short when she hears a sharp click under her feet.

Shi-jin tells her carefully not to move — she's just stepped on a land mine. He's totally pulling her leg, but she falls for it and starts to freak out, especially when he says that he's never seen anyone step on a land mine and live to tell the tale. Mo-yeon shrieks at him to disarm it with a Swiss army knife like men with his training are supposed to be able to do, and he says he's only seen one guy do that: "The guy in the movie you saw." LOL.

She still hasn't caught on, even when he starts to saunter off and leave her there. She yells at him to come back and do something, and his answer is to get all up in her personal space and offer to step on the "land mine" instead. Of course he'll die, he says, but that just makes Mo-yeon even more frantic.

She shoves at Shi-jin hard, and he's so close that it tips them both off their center of balance, and they fall to the ground. Mo-yeon huddles on Shi-jin's chest waiting for the boom, while Shi-jin just lies there enjoying it. When she finally peeks and asks why there was no explosion, Shi-jin just says, "How have you been?" Oh, you cheeky bastard.

Angry-crying and embarrassed, Mo-yeon stomps through camp and declines the food everyone is enjoying, with a sheepish Shi-jin trailing behind her. I love that Dae-young's response to the news that he made Mo-yeon cry is just an unsurprised, "Already?" It's obvious that Shi-jin genuinely feels bad, though.

He catches up to apologize, explaining that he's used to joking with guys, and Mo-yeon reluctantly accepts his apology. He snaps to sudden attention at the sound of the national anthem, then breaks salute to gently turn Mo-yeon around to face the flag. As they both pay their respects, Shi-jin softly says in her ear, "It's good to see you again."

The ladies admire the soldiers on their shirtless morning run the next day, and Mo-yeon quips that if they do this at night too, she's moving here permanently. Ha, she even shamelessly waves Shi-jin out of the way when he stands in her line of sight (deliberately, no doubt). Annoyed, he sends the men away, but the rear view is just as nice and he has to work to keep blocking Mo-yeon's craning neck.

The men have noticed the pretty doctors too, and jostle to be first in line to give their blood samples. Mo-yeon gets a little payback by insisting that Shi-jin go first, being their leader and all, and he's hilariously wimpy and flinchy about it. But then he grabs her hand and confidently shoves the needle in himself when she can't find a vein.

Everyone jumps at a loud boom, which turns out to be a UN truck which has gone off the road and flipped. The driver didn't survive, but there's a passenger who seems suspiciously okay. Shi-jin takes the truck keys so that Dae-young can inspect the cargo, and while they're distracted, the passenger pulls a gun.

But Shi-jin is ready and quickly disarms him, having noticed the men's foreign legion tattoos and badly-fitting UN shirts and realized they're smugglers. Dae-young finds a shipment of guns in the trucks cargo hold, and the surviving smuggler is turned over to authorities.

Back at camp, Dae-young informs Mo-yeon that the wi-fi isn't for civilian use, but there's an internet cafe in town. And hey, the Captain is on his way there now and can give her a lift, how convenient! I just love how he casually throws Shi-jin under the bus with a straight face.

During the drive, Shi-jin overhears Mo-yeon's call with a landlord, and she tells him that she's arranging to open her own clinic when she gets home. He asks if it's because of "that scandal," and she's surprised to hear that he knows of it, but apparently her team are blabbermouths, ha. Shi-jin sighs that he didn't give up so she could date guys like that, and Mo-yeon snaps that it's not like that.

Instead of an internet cafe, he takes her to a little store where he says the internet is faster. But even he's surprised to see the girl who bought the gun in the bar, who claims to be half-owner. She's not any more friendly than before, though she does seem happy to see a doctor here.

Shi-jin introduces her as RI YE-HWA, a nurse with Peacemaker Emergency Aid. Ye-hwa defensively barks that she just runs this store for fun — she doesn't need the money. HA, I love Mo-yeon's Okay sweetie, whatever you say face.

Shi-jin makes his report regarding the black market gun smugglers, and his commanding officer warns him not to take these guys lightly. They're well-connected, and those are no BB guns they're toting around. They go by the name "Merchants of Death," and his advice is to lay low until their service term is over, and get back home alive.

Sure enough, the survivor is taken straight back to his smuggler boss, and the police who took them in warns them that they need to find a new way to move their cargo. The big boss doesn't seem too concerned, and tosses the lead cop a wad of bills, then shoots him. Damn.

Meanwhile Dae-young gets some bad news — he's being transferred. Seems Myung-joo's father is doing an end run around her and trying to get him out of the way before she arrives in Urk.

We see in flashback that back when Dae-young and Myung-joo were dating, Lieutenant General Yoon had joined the enlisted men for lunch and sat right across from Dae-young. Dae-young had refused to eat, and the two men sat there long after the rest of the men were gone. Yoon had finally spoken, and told Dae-young that he was worried about his daughter's future — he says he's not ordering them to break up, but he will if Dae-young doesn't do it himself.

Mo-yeon notices Shi-jin's subdued mood on the ride back to the base, and he tells her about Dae-young's transfer. She asks if he's sad or jealous, and he clarifies — he thinks the transfer is unfair, because it came not from a commander, but from a father. Mo-yeon knows exactly what he's talking about, and asks how Myung-joo and Dae-young met.

Another flashback — Dae-young's unit were on a thousand-mile march, and Myung-joo was the supporting army surgeon. She'd witnessed Dae-young taking on a fellow soldier's pack so that the soldier wouldn't give up, and had ordered him to stop.

She'd made the point that helping his comrades was great, but would ultimately do no good if he were discharged due to injury himself. He'd refused, determined to come in first, because the reward was a day off, and he planned to use it to crash an ex's wedding. That's... delightfully human, for our stoic Dae-young.

Shi-jin makes a stop, and invites Mo-yeon to walk with him to a beach some distance away. When she argues that it's a long way, he flat-out admits that he wants to spend the time with her. He baits her with the information that Dae-young did make it to his ex's wedding, and that Myung-joo went with him — he'll tell her the rest of the story at the beach. And ha, it works.

We get to see the rest of the story as well, which is that Myung-joo totally crashed Dae-young's wedding crashing, hee. She'd argued that interrupting the wedding would only make his ex glad she got rid of him, but showing up with another woman would make her regret it. Okay, I like her spunk.

As she changes in the back seat, she explains that the man her father has his eye on for her husband will be his new company commander. She doesn't know Shi-jin well at this point, but Dae-young met him two days prior. She enlists Dae-young's help, asking him to pretend to be her boyfriend to keep Shi-jin away — she finds him entirely too pretty. Is that even possible?

Mo-yeon is surprised to hear that Shi-jin, Dae-young, and Myung-joo are actually in a love triangle, and asks how Shi-jin feels about it. He deadpans that he thought she wasn't interested that way, but when he pulls her onto the boat he's rented and they end up standing close, the chemistry between them fairly crackles.

Mo-yeon insists she's not curious, not even a little, nope not her, but Shi-jin calls her out on that. She sure seemed curious.

They take the boat out to a gorgeous secluded beach, where an ancient ship sits abandoned in the sand. Determined to show how very much she's not interested, Mo-yeon refuses Shi-jin's helping hand off the boat, but she can't hide her enchantment at the location.

Shi-jin tells her the local legend, that you can return to this beach if you take a stone when you leave. He hands her a stone and says they can come back, and Mo-yeon goes to explore the shipwreck. She asks how it came to be here, and Shi-jin says it's bewitched. "It's the end of something, when it's been bewitched by something beautiful."

Mo-yeon asks if Shi-jin has ever been bewitched — he says that he has, and that he thought she'd know. Swoon.

He asks again how she's been, recalling her words and asking if she's still sexiest in the operating room. She makes it clear that she's not here out of the goodness of her heart, but because someone in power is punishing her. She doesn't even do surgery anymore, and when she gets home, she'll have to climb back to where she was.

Sang-hyun makes a giant bowl of bibimbap for the medical team, and Chi-hoon is hilariously prissy about sharing the bowl. He goes outside to call his girl, and gets ten years scared off his life by a tiny local boy. He's upset about the fingerprints on his white shirt, until the little boy begs for food, then throws up — he's obviously sick.

Chi-hoon forgets about his clothes and switches to doctor mode, carrying the boy inside just as Shi-jin and Mo-yeon arrive back at the base. They have trouble determining what's wrong until Shi-jin suggests lead poisoning, and Mo-yeon remembers the child she saw licking the dirty tool.

Shi-hoon confirms that the boy was licking his fingers earlier, and Mo-yeon deduces that his malnutrition would have caused his body to try to absorb anything he put in his mouth quickly, leading to sudden lead poisoning.

Shi-jin offers to come translate when the boy wakes, and when Mo-yeon tries to draw a line between the medical team and the soldiers, he tells her that it's okay to just be grateful. She said once that nothing is more precious than life, but he notes that she seems like a different person now.

Mo-yeon argues that malnutrition and lead poisoning aren't common in Korea, and Shi-jin agrees, frustrated with her — it would have been better for a doctor who was familiar with these things to come here. Mo-yeon says that they can't all be Albert Schweitzer ( a famous Nobel Peace Prize-winning doctor who established a hospital in Africa), and Shi-jin snaps back that yeah, some doctors go on television. Oh snap.

As Shi-jin leaves an alarm sounds, and Dae-young reports that a Force Protection Condition has been issued to all medical areas. The soldiers and medical team all prepare for a VIP patient arriving at their clinic — President Mubarat, the chairman of the Arab League. He's third in line in the Abu Dhabi royal family, and is known for his peaceful works in the surrounding countries. He's a good man — and a terrorist target.

Mubarat's medical records are delivered to Mo-yeon, but the team are dismayed to see much of his information blacked out or changed. Chi-hoon wonders what kind of doctor would lie on a patient chart, and Mo-yeon says pointedly, "Doctors like me. The poor need doctors like Albert Schweitzer, and VIPs need doctors of their own." Well played.

So they're working blind, and when the patient arrives with high blood pressure and pulse, they have to start from scratch. Mubarat's attendant gives them a vial of medicine from his doctor, nitroglycerine, which is used to treat heart conditions.

But the man's heart rate drops too quickly when given the medicine, and an examination of his torso has Mo-yeon startled. There's blood accumulating in his abdomen, and Mo-yeon orders immediate surgery.

But the attendant stops her, saying that Mubarat's personal doctor will be here in an hour. Mo-yeon argues that he won't last twenty minutes without surgery, and her insistence has the man pulling a gun on her. The entire room of soldiers goes on alert, and even Shi-jin has his hand on his own gun, but Mo-yeon tells them all to put the weapons down.

She stays calm, telling the attendant that she's only trying to save this man's life. Shi-jin (who's been in constant contact with his superior officer) gets a message that the important thing isn't to save the President's life, but to determine who is at fault when he does die. He's ordered to let the men have their way, and they can place the blame on the doctor who didn't operate. He's given a clear order not to interfere.

Shi-jin sends a small nod to Dae-young (who also heard the order), then asks Mo-yeon in Korean if she can save the President. As his commander demands an answer, he waits for Mo-yeon's response, and she says confidently that she can save him.

At that, Shi-jin removes his communication equipment, quickly barks, "Save him," and pulls his gun. Everyone in the room raises their weapons at the same time, and Shi-jin carefully stands right in front of Mo-yeon, protecting her.