Previously on A Pink News Showtime, Japan bore the full brunt of the A Pink Onslaught; Bomi blew out some candles and the ladies ate their way through the streets of Hongdae. This week, the ladies will face their greatest challenge as they make sure their distinguished guest for the evening gets all the creature comforts he needs while also ensuring that they don’t do anything to annoy him lest they face the full wrath of Eunji. This is Minki’s Big Day Out.

Dull And Important Disclaimer Stuff: Lordbordem is the official penguin of the Soompi team, and as such Lordbordem talks of himself in 3rd person. As a penguin, Lordbordem does not see the world in the same way that those dastardly human editors do. Lordbordem’s opinion definitely does NOT reflect the opinions of the rest of the human Soompi Team or Soompi itself. Seriously, don’t trust a penguin.

Chapter 1 – Eunji, the sister obsessed with her little brother

We begin the day with most of the ladies lounging around the living room. I say most because Bomi is once again being the odd one out, lying underneath the coffee table while having her socks tied together by Chorong (Yeah, don’t try to make too much sense of that).

The Question Camera pings and Bomi bounces over to heed their call. This week’s question is about Eunji, who is well known for being obsessed over her little brother. The Q Camera wants to know what they are like with each other. Eunji initially denies being obsessed about her little brother. Bomi, however, backs up the Q Camera, saying that Eunji would always call and be a mother-like figure to him. In this case, that involves lots and lots of scolding according to Bomi, which rather flusters the listening Eunji.

The members mention that Minki should be on school break at the moment. Eunji tells them her brother is already quite disappointed in her for not inviting him over during the holidays. They decide on the spot to invite him over then and there, making use of the fact that Eunji has some spare time now since her drama has ended. Eunji gives her brother a call to see if he is busy. During all of this, Bomi is in the background constantly teasing Eunji about being obsessed over her little brother (Why do I get the sense that Bomi is going to regret this soon?).

Minki picks up the phone and tells them he is free to come over in a few days time. Eunji asks him what he would like to do once he’s here. His first response is that he wants to go to the lovely Cheonggyecheon stream with his sister. The other members are quick to label him a romanticist for picking the stream over more common locales like theme parks. With all that decided, Eunji asks Minki if he has anything to say to his big sister. Minki tells her he loves her and that should be the end of the call….except Hayoung suddenly chimes in and says she will tell him a three-word poem using the word cider (At this point, you shouldn’t be surprised by these random outbursts).

So what is this great poem? It must be pretty good for Hayoung to suddenly chime in about it. The great poet Hayoung says, “I love you Minki, this much, it’s all a lie” (How does this relate to cider? It does if you say it in Korean since the first syllable in each line is each of the characters of the word cider.) Great poem over, Minki made speechless, Eunji ends the call by telling her brother that she also loves him. Meanwhile, the rest of the members, fueled by jealousy, tell their non-present siblings that they love them.

Now that master Minki is coming over, they need to decide what to do. Bomi says that they should go visit the circus while on their visit to Cheonggyecheon, which is swiftly ignored by everyone else. Bomi also suggests they should cook Minki some of his favorite dishes (Which is quite scary coming from the person that made the great Kimbab leftover tower of Apink News Season 1). Eunji reveals that he is a bit of a carnivore but even among the numerous types of lovely meat available, he especially a big fan of duck meat. Meal decided, what next? The circus! Bomi once again suggests the circus and once again the members aren’t particular enthused by it. Instead Hayoung suggests that Bomi can perform a bunch of circus acts herself. (Which means we will most likely see a bunch of zoo animals by the end of this episode)

Next – Minki arrives in Seoul while A Pink channels the spirit of Daejanggeum

Chapter 2 – A Pink’s Shopping Time

It’s a bright new day and Eunji is up early to pick up her brother from the station. Eunji already looks quite upbeat and has a new name for this episode, Minki and Eunji’s Showtime. In the car, Eunji proceeds to bring up pictures of her brother and boast proudly about her brother’s handsome good looks. She even claims to have boasted about him at school, which is not something that happens all too often (Well at least I didn’t show off my little sister at school).

While Eunji is fixated on pictures of her brother, the rest of the members have arrived at the supermarket. Their mission is to buy all the ingredients necessary to appease Master Minki. Bomi takes responsibility of the duck dish while Chorong will be taking her usual spicy rice cakes in a new direction by mixing it with black bean sauce (Or Jjajang sauce if you prefer the Korean word). Why the sudden twist? Because in their eyes, Minki is still a little baby. Cooking rookies Hayoung and Naeun will be responsible for the egg roll with Namjoo volunteering to cook up some pork necks.

A rather serious looking Bomi then heads for the meat corner to get her duck. In a very serious tone, she then asks if she should get some kind ducks or evil ducks. Yeah, that being a serious thing didn’t last all that long. Meanwhile Naeun and Hayoung are searching for the ingredients they need for the egg roll. A confident sounding Hayoung is certain that they don’t need any extra eggs while Naeun insists on getting extra since she is certain she is going to make a hash of it. To make their lives easier, they pick out already cleaned carrots and onions. Strangely though, Hayoung also insists on some paprika, saying that they need to have more color to their dish.

Hayoung and Naeun then bump into Bomi, who is seriously preparing a skit at the vegetable corner. Bomi tells them they need to be extra careful to pick out the right fresh ingredients. To demonstrate, she picks out some lettuce and tests it for freshness. With one ear on the lettuce, Bomi gives the lettuce some rather serious looking knocks to confirm its freshness. (Warning – Attempting to replicate this yourself will likely result in some very worried stares from the supermarket employees and fellow customers).

Having learned from the master itself, Naeun proceeds to check the freshness of their onions with some well placed knocks. Unfortunately it doesn’t have the same effect, leaving Bomi frustrated by Naeun’s inability to learn the ways of variety shows from her.

Chorong then calls for Bomi’s attention from afar. To further torment their leader, Bomi initially pretends to not hear her calls for attention. Eventually she heeds her call and Bomi starts to head over.

However, nothing ever goes normally when Bomi is involved. As Bomi makes her way to Chorong, she smacks her shin hard against some baskets on the floor to the amusement of everyone around.

After all that pain and commotion, we can assume that Chorong had something important to talk to Bomi about? Nup~ Chorong had just picked out some wraps and wanted to be praised for it. What? You thought there would be more to this? You clearly haven’t watched enough A Pink if that is the case.

You would think Bomi would have learned her lesson after giving her shins a nice hard knock. However this is Bomi we are talking about here. If you draw a Bomi brain chart, it would be 1/3 food and 2/3 acting silly. After giving Chorong a little praise, Bomi seems to have found a new plaything. She shows off her new trendy handbag, which strangely enough happens to look like the supermarket basket. Must just be coincidence.

Did I say handbag? I meant backpack, as Bomi proceeds to wear the bag(?) across her back, struggling to stick her hands through the rather hard and narrow plastic straps.

Naeun has split with Hayoung and is now following Namjoo around. They head to the fruit corner, where Naeun proceeds to swoon over some cherries. She also picks out some blueberries, insisting that it is good for growing eyes. Namjoo also picks out some really big grapes, so that Minki grows up to be big as well. (There is some logic in there somewhere).

Fruits picked, all the members gather around the pumpkin corner. Bomi (with trendy bag still on her back) then immediately announces that the pumpkins are Naeun’s face, which seems to greatly please Hayoung. Naeun can’t even be bothered to retaliate, instead singing an old children’s song about the pretty apple like face. (“My pumpkin-like face~ It’s quite pretty~” replace Pumpkin with Apple if you want the original lyrics.) Chorong goes over the shopping list and wonders if they bought everything. Namjoo suggests they should buy some ice cream and pots as well. Hayoung thankfully stops their shopping trip by jokingly saying that they are going to buy a whole house at this rate.

We now head back to Eunji, who is still on her way to the station. She gives a quick call to her brother to check where he is. Minki says he is going to arrive soon. Eunji then gets the urge to be a bit cheeky and tells him that he’ll need to make his own way home. Minki however isn’t quickly fooled, telling her that the show’s writers has already told him that Eunji was going to the station. Eunji is quick to explain that the plans have changed and that he will need to catch a taxi. Minki starts to believe the lie and asks her again if she isn’t coming. Eunji then confesses and tells him she is coming to the station, which rather annoys her little brother. Eunji then asks for one last comment. Minki tells her….”I’ll see you later.” This clearly wasn’t the right answer as Eunji warns his brother to say the “right” thing. Minki says I love you.

The cooking team have arrived back home and are busily preparing a feast worthy of a king. Chorong is cooking up the Jjajang Rice cakes, Naeun and Hayoung are responsible for the egg rolls, and Bomi will be cooking up a duck and chives stir fry, while Namjoo will lay out the snacks and fruit desserts. Chorong claims this is the first time she has seen all the members cooking together. Naeun then says they should start cooking and eating dinner at home. Chorong asks her if she is willing to follow up on that while Hayoung notes that she has never seen Naeun in the kitchen.

Namjoo then tells Chorong that she is their only hope. However, Chorong tells them that Bomi is also secretly a very good cook having made some kimchi before as well (Which Naeun is very quick to point out was made with her assistance.) Conversations over, cue the typical cooking montage music! (The Daejanggeum theme for those who don’t know)

Eunji has now arrived at the station and is waiting anxiously for her little brother. The KTX from Pusan pulls into the station. Brother and Sister finally meet at the stairs of the station. Minki has arrived in the big city, both hands heavy with luggage, one of which is a set of assorted side dishes from their mother. Eunji introduces us to her brother, saying that he is a bit shy and won’t say much beyond what she asks of him. First thing Eunji does is hold hands with her brother. The second thing is to berate her brother for gaining weight and having pudgy hands. (Because if siblings aren’t fighting then they’re usually groaning about the other, I would know since that’s all I do with my sister).

Eunji asks Minki what it’s like to see his sister for the first time in ages. He says it feels kind of novel but he is really happy and hopes to have a good time today (in his best impersonation of a typical Seoul accent). Back home, the cooking team is still busy cooking up a feast. Hayoung is worried that Minki would have eaten already, doing her best impersonation of Minki in the process. Namjoo can then be seen sitting at the coffee table setting up the snacks. Part of this setting up process involves sampling a lot of the snacks for herself, because clearly snacks are there to be eaten.

Unfortunately for the cooking crew, Eunji and brother have arrived much earlier than expected. Eunji, however, tells the members that Minki’s train has been delayed and that he isn’t here yet. Clearly Eunji’s cries of wolf are well known at this point because no one believes her. Minki then walks in by himself and greets the other members, who are amazed at how much he’s grown since the last time they saw him. We then have a sudden game of one ups, Eunji starting off by saying she has a younger brother, Bomi one upping her by saying she has both a younger brother and older sister. Namjoo then says she has a younger sister, Hayoung. (Well they didn’t say it had to be blood related). Eunji too says she has younger sisters, Namjoo and Hayoung, which pleases Namjoo greatly. Hayoung, not wanting to be left out, then says she has five older sisters, which is met by a deathly silence. Bomi, out of pity, responds back to her. Jokes over, cue the cooking music once again!

Next – Judge Minki and the nervous cooks.

Chapter 3 – A Pink Masterchef plus bonus Ideal Type World Cup

Food prepared, it’s now time for the all-important taste test. Naeun, however, invokes the wrath of Eunji by having a first taste. The first dish on the list is Chorong’s Jjajang Rice Cake, Chorong insisting that Minki must chew for ages to get the full taste out of it. Eunji then reveals that Minki has mature tastes, which makes Chorong regret her choice of menu. Minki, however, says that it does get better the longer he chews. Judge Minki gives the dish 4.5 spoons out of 5. A respectable score.

Next is Bomi’s Duck Stir Fry. Bomi tries to get extra points by showing him how her clothes have gotten messy. The great judge Minki is not moved by such tactics and begins to sample the dish. The judge asks if five spoons is the maximum score. Bomi tells him that he can go over that. With that clarified, Minki gives his final score. 6 Spoons. An amazing score for Bomi. Hearing this score, Chorong then proceeds to use the Bomi tactic by showing the judge how she got her shirt messy as well. Out of pity, the judge gives her 5 spoons instead.

The final dish is Hayoung and Naeun’s egg roll. Hayoung tries to act cute in front of the judge in an effort to boost their score but is instantly told off by Naeun, saying that such acts will get their points cut. Naeun gets Minki to read the message written on the egg roll, Welcome *heart* MG. Eunji takes this opportunity to once again boast about her brother, saying that is in the top percentile of his grade.

Naeun then personally feeds Minki. Minki then hands down a rather high score of 6.5 spoons. However, the rest of the members find this hard to believe, especially Chorong. So why did the egg roll beat out the duck? According to Minki, the duck meat became tougher and tougher the more he chewed on it.

But those scores don’t ultimately mean much because Minki now has to pick his absolute favorite dish. After some contemplation, Judge Minki comes to a decision. His final decision is Bomi’s duck stir fry. Minki thanks the members for a meal well made.

Bellies full, it was now time for the very very important popularity test (One very-liked guy surrounded by many curious ladies, did you expect anything else?). Eunji asks Minki who he wanted to see the most out of the A Pink members. Just as Minki is about to say his answer, Namjoo arrives with a big plate of grapes. Just coincidence or a a cunning tactic? Only Namjoo knows the answer to that.

Minki then reveals that it was Bomi who he wanted to see most. Chorong asks if Bomi is popular among his school friends but he instead says that A Pink as a whole is really popular. Eunji asks why Minki wanted to see Bomi the most. Chorong, who is already sulky having lost the food challenge, asks if it is because Bomi is like a big brother.

Minki reveals that it was because Bomi is really lively and stands out a lot. Bomi takes a second or two to try figure out what this means exactly but thinks of it in a good way. However Naeun and Hayoung is quick to take this in more evil ways, calling her noisy and distracting. Minki is asked to clarify and he says he meant that in a good way.

The members then ask Minki who he believes has the prettiest face. Eunji initially tells them to exclude her from this ranking, believing that she will easily win thanks to year of careful training. They decide to include her anyway. Minki then looks Chorong in the eye and says “Sister.” Chorong is briefly convinced she has won this competition but Minki immediately corrects himself and says “My sister.”

Second place in Minki’s list is Hayoung (with Chorong looking more and more disappointed with each passing rank). Minki picked Hayoung thanks to her clear and pronounced facial features. Meanwhile Namjoo is putting on her cutest act, trying to tempt Minki into giving her the last of the podium positions. Will Minki be moved by Namjoo’s temptation?

Minki thinks it over briefly and hands third place to Chorong. His reasoning is because of her cuteness. As Chorong celebrates, Bomi and Namjoo quietly try to tempt Minki from the sidelines. However, Minki is troubled by all this extra burden and complains about how Bomi keeps telling him to rank her as zero while Namjoo keeps babbling on about grapes. With that out of the way, fourth place goes to avid campaigner Bomi. When asked about his reason, he says that Bomi looks pretty when she laughs.

Worried about an impeding grape attack, Minki is instead allowed to pick the prettiest out of just Naeun and Namjoo rather than ranking them fifth and sixth. (How this is any different to picking 5th and 6th is a mystery). After some thought Minki eventually picks Naeun as Namjoo hums some sad music to herself. Namjoo, wanting to salvage a result from this, then asks him who is the most popular among his school friends. Minki once again looks Chorong in the eye and says “Sister.” Chorong replies with a brief “me?” before being told it’s Eunji and not her.

Chorong berates Minki and tells him to look in Eunji’s direction when he says that. Minki says that a lot of his friends have pictures of Eunji as their profile pictures. Chorong tells Eunji to treat her brother nicely or else he’s going to badmouth her. The members then reenact this possible situation, with Hayoung and Chorong saying that Eunji’s personality isn’t all that great and what you see on TV is pretty much everything. Namjoo then chimes in and says that Eunji looks prettier on TV than in real life. Eunji responds by threatening an all out grape attack on her.

Next – Minki, a slave to A Pink’s fashion sense

Chapter 4 – A Pink’s Next Top Minki Model.

Bellies filled and votes made, the crew finally heads outside, but rather than head straight to Cheonggyecheon, Minki and company decide to visit a clothing outlet first. They are here to give Minki a complete fashion makeover as a sort of treat. Minki is then surrounded by invisible microphones, asking him what kind of fashion style he likes. He says he likes flat basic colors that do not stand out.

Chorong, however, notes that Minki’s bright red shirt is the complete opposite to what he just described. Eunji then reveals that this is her mother’s fashion sense at work and that Minki has no say in it. The group then decides to each pick out some clothes and get Minki to pick the best one.

Before they scatter off, the ladies give their model a quick scan to get a idea of the sizes they need. This being A Pink, scanning involves nothing normal and ordinary.

Hayoung and Chorong have already picked out some clothes. They essentially just want what the mannequins are wearing. Hayoung and Chorong then proceed to reveal how lonely they are by pretending to have mannequin boyfriends. Bomi, not one to miss a great skit opportunity when she sees one, proceeds to treat Hayoung as one of the mannequins on display.

Meanwhile, Chorong has gotten bored of her make-believe mannequin boyfriend and has picked out a massive handful of clothes for Minki. She eventually settles for a cutesy zebra pattern shirt and pants, which she then proceeds to shove into a bag. She emphasizes the fact that she’s not stealing, so at the least she understands how suspicious this whole thing is.

Bomi wants to pick out some cool clothing befitting of Minki’s tender age of 14. What does this entail? I’m not 14 but I’m pretty sure it’s not found in the ladies corner nor is it a long black skirt. But that’s just what boring old me thinks. Bomi, on the other hand, thinks that is perfectly cool clothing for a 14-year-old male teenager.

While Bomi is contemplating the next revolution in teenage male fashion, Eunji is being a bit more careful about her choices. She is seen picking up numerous styles for consideration. Eventually all the members pick out a set of clothes and Minki is now tasked with the difficult task of picking his favorite.

Number one is Bomi’s “cool” fashion with the fashionable black skirt, which Minki just calls “weird.” Minki is then asked to guess who picked out each of the clothes. He gets all of them wrong except for Eunji. Minki now has to wear every single one, including Bomi’s skirt. As Minki goes into change, the members all remark about how surprised they were that Minki was able to guess Eunji’s clothes correctly. All this shopping has clearly made them tired as they all sit down on the bare shop floor without any fuss.

We then hear a rather hearty laugh from Eunji as Minki tries on Bomi’s cool clothes. Bomi then gets the rest of the members to scream out how her clothes should be. This is mainly so that the victim remains unaware of the culprit. Eunji is left apologizing to her brother instead and decries the member that picked these clothes, saying that these clothes have caused outrage. After much concern, Eunji and Minki finally step out. Rather surprisingly thou, it’s not THAT bad.. well, at least Chorong doesn’t think so. Naeun is going crazy with laughter but still it’s not as bad as we expected.

Next are Naeun’s clothes, a rather clean looking set of shorts and shirt. Minki also admits that this is A LOT better than outfit number one (Bomi’s skirt).

Third on the list is Namjoo’s cute and dandy look. Minki also says that this is his favorite so far.

Fourth is Chorong’s style. Whether he likes the clothes or not is uncertain. What we do know is that he absolutely hates the socks since that is the first thing he asks about. Chorong, however refuses to make any concessions, saying that the socks must stay.

Fifth is Hayoung’s style, which gets extra points for being the simplest so far to wear. However, Hayoung notes a huge problem the moment Minki walks out. He is wearing the cardigan that was supposed to act as a fashionable neck scarf. Despite that slight mishap, Minki still picks Hayoung’s style as his favorite set of clothes, beating out Namjoo’s style.

Last on the list is Eun Ji’s style. We already get the sense that this isn’t going to work out just by the fact that Eunji walks out shaking her head in disappointment. Despite Eunji’s misgivings, the rest of the members seem to quite like it.

Minki is finally asked to pick his absolute favorite style. After some thought, he picks Hayoung’s cardigan look. He is also asked what the absolute worst was. Minki pick’s Bomi’s skirt with absolutely no hesitation. The ladies also reveal who was responsible for the various styles. They also propose that they each go out in the clothes they picked out, except the idea is vetoed by Bomi for reasons that are very obvious.

Next – Minki’s Walking Man

Chapter 5 – They are FINALLY at Cheonggyecheon

To think the last 4000 ish words and 45 mins of Showtime was all a build up to this particular event. Minki and A Pink have finally arrived at Cheonggyecheon, the first thing Minki asked for many many moons ago. Eunji and Minki have bought matching sets of clothes and walk alongside the stream hand in hand.

Seeing Eunji and Minki together hand-in-hand causes the other members to have bouts of extreme jealousy. Eunji allows the other members to borrow Minki for a bit but after a rather awkward few seconds with Bomi, Minki is returned back to his sister.

The siblings then take some photos together (with Bomi acting as background prop) before finishing up with some group photos.

Minki is then asked about his thoughts of Cheonggyecheon. He says that coming here has freshened his mind and that it’s a lot different from what he saw on the internet. He also picks the food made by the members as his favorite part of the day. Bomi and Chorong, in a fit of jealousy, then call out to their own siblings. Minki then hands Eunji a letter. Eunji reveals that Minki writes a lot of letters to her, sending them by photo mail when he can’t post them.

We’ll end this week’s recap by translating Minki’s letter word for word. Next week, A Pink will let their hair down and party.

From Minki

“To my sister, who I love. Hi Sister~ I’m Minki, your one and only brother. Congratulations on your 22nd birthday ‘clap clap clap.’ It seemed like only yesterday when you were in high school studying next to my desk but now I’m a middle school student and you’ve been a girl group member for four years. It didn’t seem all that long ago when you were a rookie and singing ‘I don’t know,’ but I have matured and grew up a lot since that time. I hope you continue to be good at everything like you are now. Think of your family, who are supporting you long distance and though it may be hard, I hope you always keep smiling brightly. Fighting! Always! I love you. Your one and only precious brother, Minki.”

Eunji then replies. “Minki, there are a lot of times where I feel sad thinking about you. I think often about the things I could do for you as a sister if I was by your side more often. Every time I think about that, I’m thankful of the fact that you’ve grown up to be so mature. I hope you keep growing up like you have so far. I also hope you don’t forget about your time with the A Pink members today and cherish it in your memory. I hope you remember it so you can think back and say, I had these sort of memories of my sister. I love you, thank you for the letter.”