Misaeng Ep 2 Recap

Misaeng (Incomplete Life) continues to manage to make the viewers cry and laugh right after or at the same time with very daily and common situations.

Geu Rae's day 3 accomplishment

• Got Young Yi to tie his tie for him (but not on him, unlike he shyly expected). Sadly he had to wear the old suit and carry the new suit with squid juice in a bag as he didn't go home last night.
• Stayed up all night at the office to re-organize the files Manager Oh gave him and slept at the sauna.
• Assistant Manager Dongshik couldn't stop wowing at how he organized all the files and folders. Still, when Geu Rae came he told him he was not the only person working here and that he should read the company's manual and understand the standard for organizing and formatting files.
• Manager Oh acted unimpressed and told him "At least your quantity is proven."
• It turned out that Geu Rae was also good with Excel, which got some work done.

The final interview

• Everyone kept hint dropping Geu Rae that "you can't work alone" meanwhile he felt lost and left out. Turned out interns needed to form a team of 2 to give presentations for the final interview. 
• No one wanted to partner with Young Yi because she was the ace and would overshadow them.
• (Un)surprisingly, suddenly intern after intern started to approach Geu Rae to give him lots of teas and snacks and ask him nicely to be their partner.
• Baek Gi stopped by, commented on Geu Rae's pile of gifts and gave him a thumb up.
• Meanwhile, Young Yi looked at the hair tie Geu Rae gave back to her and thought to ask him to be her partner.
• A.M. Dongshik finally pulled Geu Rae aside and told him why he was so sought after: because he lacked confidence and competence, which would make his partner look good.
• Geu Rae sat quietly and thought about the time when he finished part-time work at dawn and walked alone home in the opposite direction to the crowd of people who went to school and work in the morning. He never felt like he belonged.
• Dejectedly, he walked out of the meeting room to a group of interns who walked past him with phony smiles and hopeful eyes that he'd be their partner.

Characters

• Manager Oh of Sales Team 3 seemed to have his own problems as he seemed to refuse playing office politics. When the Head of the Department suggested he could get the Executive Director to have dinner and hike together with them, Oh found an excuse to not join. Department Chief asked, "Even when I try to help, why do you refuse?" Later it was discovered that it was the Executive Director who placed Geu Rae, someone without qualifications, in Oh's team.
• Manager of Sales Team 2, a close friend with Manager Oh, wondered why the Executive Director placed Geu Rae into Oh's team, commenting that even if the E.D. hated Oh he wouldn't be as immature as wanting to sabotage him.
• Sales Team 2 intern, a married guy with a child so he had to stay up late, constantly making mistakes and getting scolded as a result. The intern who was actually nice to Geu Rae by telling him there was space in the elevator in ep 1. In this ep he unintentionally caused problem to Geu Rae simply by the act of borrowing a glue stick. 
• Seok Yool, slimy intern of textile department 2, with 50/50 parted hair and overfriendly laugh, presented himself to Geu Rae and asked to be his partner for the presentation. Jaded, Geu Rae asked him the explain his reasons, but walked away in the middle of it, leaving Seok Yool stunned then comically bursted out laughing to himself due to the disappointment.

Misunderstanding and Resolve

• Heartbroken after knowing the other interns only wanted to use him, possibly including Young Yi, Geu Rae was leaving for the elevator when Manager Oh followed in and asked where he was going during working hours. Geu Rae then directly asked Manager Oh to mentor him, because he had always been alone and being alone he would not accomplish anything.
• Manager told Geu Rae how lucky he was that he could even get an internship without any qualification and that he disliked a world where connections settled everything.
• Sales Team 2 intern caused a big misunderstanding leading to Geu Rae being yelled at and punished. After asking to borrow a glue stick, he stood at Geu Rae's desk which was full of old confidential documents which needed to be shredded, and inadvertently attached one of them to his own papers, then dropped the confidential paper in the lobby. The Executive Director picked up this paper with Sales Team 3 name on it, and brought to Manager Oh. Manager Oh yelled at Geu Rae to "Get out" and asked if Geu Rae now understood why he was called unqualified and why he wouldn't help him.
• Sales Team 2 won a big contract and celebrated. The intern was praised. Meanwhile Manager Oh looked at the paper picked up in the lobby again, and saw the Sales Team 2 intern's name accidentally imprinted on it when he glued his paper on top earlier. Manager Oh took a smoke with Sales Team 2 Manager on the rooftop, attempting to confront him, but upon learning that Team 2's intern was a newlywed and had to marry young because he was the oldest son in the family, Manager Oh decided not to pursue the matter. He put the evidence in the shredder.
• Feeling guilty for wrongly blaming Geu Rae, Manager Oh took him and A.M. Dongshik to an afterwork dinner and drank himself silly. During the drunken ranting, Manager Oh praised Geu Rae's organizing skill, saying it was even better than the method in the company's manual. Then he said the document problem earlier wasn't Geu Rae's fault, but when asked who else could have done it, he answered in a high pitched voice, "that a seeecreeet" before falling down his seat. Then he proceeded to have a drunken argument with Sales Team 2 Manager about the goddamn glue stick.
• Geu Rae went home and silently cried when remembering how Manager Oh called him "our kid". Now he felt like he belonged.
• The next day, intentionally or not, Geu Rae didn't hear Young Yi's call when he confidently walked into the elevator. He met up with Seok Yook the half parted hair textile intern and agreed to be his partner.

Thoughts

The moment Geu Rae sat alone musing about how he never belonged reminds me of the time when I made mistakes at work then sat down thinking I'd never make it because of my chronic pain. I had such thoughts like I was always alone, nobody gave a damn, everyone moved on with their life while I was the only person to think about it over and over, nobody would say sorry to me, and I would never get my compensation. In fact right now I have this on my phone and desktop:

It might seem like I'm angsting, but at this moment I'm not.