Kang Sun Woo is a star chef, and Bong Sun's boss, who she has a secret crush on. He's handsome and confident as a chef, but is also curt and an strict perfectionist. Even though he's popular with women, he has yet to completely forget his ex-girlfriend or his difficult childhood. He begins to notice Na Bong Sun when she begins, while being possessed by Shin Soon Ae, to flirt with him and act vivacious and outgoing.
Not to be confused with Ah! My Goddess.
Tropes:
- A-Cup Angst: Soon Ae, in Bong Sun's body, is upset when she fails to seduce one of her fellow chefs. She looks down at her host body and says, "But I'm flat as a board!"
- Angry Chef: Sun Woo is very harsh to almost everyone but his sister. He snaps at customers if they try to blame his chefs for things that are out of their control and will take an employee to the back porch to finish yelling at them if he notices he's gaining an audience.
- Answer Cut: In Episode 5 Soon Ae, ejected from Bong Sun's body, needs to find another vessel, and someone who can have sex with Sun Woo to boot. She contemplates, "But who is the best chance?" Cut to So-hyung, whom Sun Woo has a crush on, in her office. (Unfortunately for Soon Ae she can't get entrance into So-hyung's body.)
- As You Know: Sun Woo makes sure to point out to his mom that "You had me when you were 19." (This still doesn't help the fact that the actors who play Sun Woo and his mom look to be nearly the same age.)
- Call-Back: One subplot has Sun Woo inviting for dinner the schoolmates who bullied him mercilessly when he was a teenager. He's startled to find out that the head bully, then the most popular kid in school, is basically a failure, an unsuccessful vacuum cleaner salesman. The ex-bully shamefacedly asks Sun Woo to help him drum up business. Several episodes later, in the finale, Sun Woo is recommending the ex-bully's brand of vacuum to a friend.
- Career-Ending Injury: Eunhee was a ballerina before the hit and run by the possessed Sungjae.
- Cooking Duel: Chef goes on an Iron Chef type cooking show, against a rival restaurateur.
- Cute Ghost Girl: Soon Ae is dead and adorable.
- Dark and Troubled Past
- Sun Woo was bullied in school as a kid, and his mom was almost never home, leaving him and his sister to fend for themselves.
- Soon Ae was a bright young girl who worked at her father's successful restaurant until she was murdered by drowning and then thrown off a bridge by the demon inside Sungjae for witnessing Eunhee's accident.
- Poor Sungjae. His parents began neglecting him after his younger brother was born. After trying to smother the baby, his father beat him and sent him to an orphanage, where he was ostracized and mistreated by the other children. One night, while sobbing on the ground, an evil spirit that feeds off of pain possessed him.
- Dead Person Conversation: Soon Ae eventually starts to periodically leave Bong Sun's body so they can talk to each other.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Sun Woo cheers up as the story progresses as his heart opens up to love.
- Demonic Possession: Sung Jae and his happy black cloud of Psychotic Spirit.
- Distant Finale: The finale skips forward two years to find that Sun Woo has opened a second restaurant, So-hyung has a new boyfriend, Stalker the dog has a mate who bore him puppies, and Bong Sun has returned from extended study in the United States.
- Does Not Like Spam: Sun Woo hates rice, which for a Korean, is pretty eccentric. It makes sense when it's revealed that, since his mother always left him home alone, that was all he could cook for himself for a long time, so he doesn't exactly have good memories of it.
- Driven to Suicide: Once the psychotic spirit leaves Sungjae, he remembers everything he's done while under its power, including: hitting his (future) wife with a car, which crippled her, and doing nothing to help, murdering Soon Ae because she was a witness, and killing two cops to cover it up. He proceeds to give an apologetic look at Soon Ae before throwing himself off the roof of the building they're on. He survives but loses all his memories of his life while possessed, including meeting and marrying Eunhee. She still loves him and visits him in the hospital, and he seems to be captivated by her too.
- Extreme Doormat: The real Bong Sun in the beginning, before she's possessed by Soon Ae. There's a montage in Episode 4 where Sun Woo remembers her saying "I'm sorry" all the time.
- Fast-Forward to Reunion: Takes place in the final episode. Bong Sun travels abroad to study cooking, but in the final scenes, returns to Seoul and to Sun Woo.
- Feet-First Introduction: During a scene where Min Soo is yelling at Bong Sun, some feet are shown ominously entering the kitchen. They belong to Sun Woo, who is the real boss and yells at Min Soo, the sous chef, for usurping his right to yell.
- Foreshadowing:
- Seo Bing Go says to Soon Ae that if she were to hop into the body of a living person with the "exact same frequency," she might get stuck there. Sure enough, this happens soon after when she hops into the body of Bong Sun.
- In Episode 4 Eun Hee goes to the shaman to ask about her husband and her chances of having a baby. The shaman replies that Officer Choi, Eunhee's husband, will never have any children and is doomed to live alone. Officer Choi has until this point come off as handsome and affable and friendly, but in future episodes his depiction changes quite a bit after his dark past and current spirit possession are revealed.
- Genki Girl: Soon Ae.
- Ghost Amnesia: Soon Ae can remember her life, but not her death, besides vague recollections of being submerged in water.
- Ghostly Chill: When Soon Ae is saying goodbye to Sun Woo before she departs for the afterlife, he holds Bong Sun's hand and asks why she's so cold...before realizing who he's actually talking to.
- Go into the Light: Soon Ae manages to travel into the path a soul takes to enter their afterlife so she can grab her dead father and convince him to go back to his body and come back to life. When she finally manages to pass on, a bright light appears behind her in the restaurant after saying goodbye to Sun Woo and she peacefully walks into it.
- Ghostly Goals: Soon Ae and all the other ghosts she hangs out with all have a "grudge" or unfulfilled goal that's preventing them from accepting their death and moving on into the afterlife.
- When Soon Ae's father dies in the hospital bed, his ghost starts shuffling off down the corridor into a bright light. Soon Ae, who can talk to him because he's a ghost too, encourages him to return to his body, and the doctors revive him.
- When Soon Ae leaves for good, having finally resolved her grudge, which she used to think was dying a virgin, but was actually finding out how she died and who killed her, she walks off into a bright light as well.
- Grand Theft Me:
- Soon Ae has been hopping around into the bodies of various Korean women in order to get laid, because she thinks the reason she can't pass on was that she died a virgin. She's shocked when she hops into the body of Bong Sun and gets stuck there.
- A far darker example in the form of Sung-jae, who has been possessed by an evil spirit for a long time.
- Gratuitous English: Soon Ae loves doing this.
- Gray Rain of Depression: Soon Ae (inside Bong Sun) walking through the rain all bummed out after seeing that her crush in life, Officer Choi of the police department, got married.
- Haunted Heroine: Bong Sun has a powerful spiritual connection to ghosts and has been plagued by seeing them all her life, alienating her from living people and causing her to be very shy.
- I Have This Friend: Soon Ae very lamely tells Jun that she has this friend who wants to get physical with her boyfriend, but the boyfriend is reluctant. Jun, who isn't fooled, tells her that she's pretty and it must mean her boyfriend really cares about her.
- Invisible to Adults: Babies can see the ghost of Soon Ae but older people can't. Ditto older children; in Episode 8 a pre-teen girl sees Bong Sun, currently being possessed by Soon Ae, and asks "Why is there another woman inside that woman?"
- I See Dead People: Bong Sun can see ghosts because of the spiritual power passed down through her grandmother.
- Magnetic Medium: Bong Sun is a perfect match for Soon Ae, which causes them to become joined at the hip. Ghosts in general have flocked to Bong Sun since she was a kid.
- Malicious Misnaming: Sun Woo's mom, who is against the whole relationship with Bong Sun, insists on calling her "Bong Sook" despite being corrected several times.
- Match Cut: From Soon Ae jiggling the door to the roof, trying to get to Sun Woo, to an agitated So-hyung angrily poking at an elevator button, in episode 8.
- Missing Mom: Soon Ae appears to have this, since only her father and brother are mentioned.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After the psychotic spirit that has possessed Sungjae for years leaves his body, he immediately remembers every horrible thing he did while under its power, including: hitting his (future) wife with a car, which crippled her, and doing nothing to help, murdering Soon Ae because she was a witness, and killing two cops to cover it up. He looks at Soon Ae apologetically before throwing himself off the roof of the building they were on. He survives and completely forgets the past few years, including meeting and marrying Eunhee. Eunhee still loves him, and visits him while he recovers in the hospital, and he seems to like her back quite a bit.
- No Guy Wants to Be Chased: Women chasing after Sun Woo don't do very well. Soon Ae, in Bong Sun's body, spends several episodes more or less trying to rip his pants off, which only causes him to flee. So-hyung is more low-key about it, but she sends several mating signals and kisses him square on the lips in episode 7 in a moment of drunken abandon, only to fail.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: The last shot of the last episode is Bong Sun and Sun Woo bicycling away together, as she talks in voiceover about how she loves him.
- One Head Taller: Sun Woo is head, neck, and shoulders taller than petite little Bong Sun, as shown in a sight gag in episode 7 where Sun Woo throws his arm out and rests it comfortably on the top of her head.
- Operation: Jealousy: In episode 7 So-hyung brings a handsome man to the restaurant for a date, in an attempt to make Sun Woo jealous and admit his feelings. The attempt fails, and So-hyung gets her feelings hurt.
- Plot Hole: The rules of possession really aren't all that well established. When Soon Ae possesses Bong Sun it appears to be a straight case of Grand Theft Me, with Bong Sun having no memory of what happened in the meantime. But it's not clear what's going on with Sung-jae. He seems to be possessed sometimes, like when he murders Bong Sun. But at other times he seems to be at least partially in control, like the moment he almost caves his adoptive father's skull in, starts to cry, and turns away. And why, if he was possessed by an evil spirit, did he save Eun Hee from killing herself in the first place?
- Repeat Cut: The moment at the end of episode 11 where Bong Sun dashes across the street and hugs Sun Woo after finally deciding to open herself to his love is repeated four times.
- Reveal Shot: Sung-jae is shown washing up in a cramped apartment (not his home with Eun-hee) in Episode 10. The camera turns to show a woman's legs, motionless, on the floor of the bathroom. Later it's revealed that it's Soon Ae.
- Romantic False Lead: So-hyung is gorgeous, fun, and clearly really into Sun Woo. But it's perfectly obvious from the get-go that he and Bong Sun will get together.
- Sexy Shirt Switch: One episode has Bong Sun get thoroughly soaked in Sun Woo's apartment, so she needs clothes—and of course she just has to wear one of his button-up shirts.
- Shrinking Violet: Bong Sun.
- Spirit Advisor: Soon Ae works together with Bong Sun to win over Sun Woo, giving her pointers on how to dress and wear her hair.
- Spit Take: Sun Woo in episode 4 after Soon Ae confronts him about liking So Hyung, the TV producer.
- Spoiled Brat: Kyung-mo, Soon Ae's brother, who won't lift a finger to help their father with the noodle shop, but is content to laze around and pester him for money. Later revealed to be a Jerkass With A Heart when he develops feelings for Bong Sun (while not knowing that, a lot of the time when he talks to her, it's actually his sister in his crush's body) and stubbornly tries to "protect" her from Sun Woo. Also, we see in a flashback that he was devastated by Soon Ae's death, screaming and crying out for his sister when the cops pulled her body from the river. It's not a stretch to imagine that he puts up a front of apathy to deal with the trauma of his big sister suddenly dying from what looked like a suicide.
- Supreme Chef: Sun Woo is a famous chef.
- Unfinished Business: Soon Ae is still on Earth almost three years after her death, supposedly to resolve her virgin grudge... but is that really why she can't pass on?
- Was Once a Man: Sungjae before his possession.
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: Sun Woo's mother was so distant that she wouldn't even show up for his birthday.
- Willing Channeler: Both Bong Sun and Subhingo at various points of the storyline.
