Hometown Cha Cha Cha Episode 1 begins with our Female Lead, Yoon Hye Jin, she is a dentist by profession working in Seoul. She lives a comfortable life until she leaves her job after an altercation with her boss regarding work ethics.
To cheer herself, Hye Jin buys expensive shoes that she has wanted to buy for a long time. Days pass and Hye Jin is in trouble because apparently, no dental clinic is willing to hire her because she bad-mouthed her ex-boss on social media and no one likes a whistleblower as an employee.
Dejected by all the misfortunes of her life, Hye Jin decides to go on a small trip to Gongjin, a small town that she visited with her parents when she was little.
While walking on a beach in Gongjin barefoot with her shoes in her hand, she sits by the sea and recalls her memories and the sad passing of her mother. After some time she gets up and walks away forgetting her shoes on the beach. When she goes back to get them, the shoes are not there.
Hye Jin looks everywhere and then a handsome dude in a scuba suit appears before her and hands her one shoe that he found in the sea. This is the first meeting of our Female Lead with the Main Lead.
Hong Doo Shik is a hardworking guy who is kind, cheerful, and a multi-tasker. He goes by the name Chief Hong in Gongjin and every single person in Gongjin knows and respects him. When he sees Hye Jin barefoot, he gives her his slippers and goes away.
Saddened by the loss of her missing shoe, Hye Jin reaches a restaurant and meets, Hwa Jeong who is the owner of the restaurant. They talk for a while and Hwa Jeong after knowing that Hye Jin is a dentist asks her to open her clinic in Gongjin since the closest dental clinic is too far from their small town.
Hye Jin ignores this idea and decides to head back to Seoul but her car doesn’t start due to some battery issues and as she tries to call customer services, Hye Jin finds out her phone doesn’t have a network.
She decides to head to a cafe to make a call and order a coffee. But the cafe owner’s phone doesn’t work either. On top of that, all online banking services are also down and Hye Jin couldn’t pay for the coffee because she has got no cash. She requests the cafe owner that she’ll pay later but he doesn’t budge.
At the same time, Chief Hong arrives at the cafe and he tells everyone that the telecom company caught fire and there’ll be no network till tomorrow. Hye Jin, ask him to help her pay the coffee bill, to which Chief Hong replies that he’ll not pay for her coffee but will help her earn some quick cash.
Chief Hong takes Hye Jin to a couple of old ladies who are cleaning out the innards of squids. Hye Jin hesitantly works for few hours and earns a little cash to pay for the coffee and to stay the night at the sauna since her car broke down.
Later that night Hye Jin finds Chief Hong working at the sauna and gets confused about his real profession. After that, we get a wholesome scene of Chief Hong with the old Granny. She is the one who supported him when he was young after the passing of his grandpa who was his only family member.
The next day, issue with the network is resolved and Hye Jin calls for the car service. And finally heads back to Seoul. But on her way, Hye Jin gets a call from her ex-boss, who asks her to beg for forgiveness if she wants to get her job back.
Hye Jin gets angry and says that she’ll open her clinic and takes a u-turn to Gongjin. She goes to the restaurant lady, Hwa Jeong who advised Hye Jin to open a clinic in Gongjin. Hwa Jeong happily sends her to meet the real estate agent.
But to Hye Jin’s surprise, the real estate agent is none other than our Chief Hong. And the first episode ends with Hye Jin looking at Chief Hong amusingly.
Author’s Take:
I thoroughly enjoyed Hometown Cha Cha Cha Episode 1 from start to finish. I was smiling the entire time and got instant invested in the lives of our main leads as well as the supporting cast. I may be biased on this one because I prefer to watch lighthearted dramas and Hometown Cha Cha Cha is right up my alley. Also, I am a huge fan of both the main leads. My hopes are very high for this K-drama and hopefully, it will not disappoint.
