Starring/Cast:
Joanne Zeng, Aaron Yan, Calvin Chen, Zhou Cai Shi, Lin Xiao Rong, He Wei Jian
Details
* Title: 愛似百匯 / Ai Si Bai Hui
* English title: Love Buffet
* Genre: Romance
* Broadcast network: GTV
* Broadcast period: 2010
Synopsis
Based off the manga Parfait Tic, Xiao Feng (Fuuko) is a lively girl starting her first year of highschool. Her life is turned upside down by the arrival of her new neighbors: Yi Cheng and Da Ye.(Ichi and Daiya)
Cast
* Yu Hong Yuan as Hu Xiao Feng 胡小風
* Aaron Yan as Xing Yi Cheng 邢一誠
* Calvin Chen as Xing Da Ye 邢大業
* He Wei Jian (何维健) as A Ji 阿基
* Zhou Cai Shi as Teng Qiu Ying 藤秋櫻
* Lin Xiao Rong (黎兒/粼筱蓉) as Xiao Sen 小森
SYNOPSIS
Fuuko (or Fuu-chan for friends) is a lively girl starting her first year of highschool. Her life is turned upside down by the arrival of her new neighbors: the bishōnen Shinpo cousins, Daiya and Ichi.
Fuuko initially falls for the playboy Daiya. Unfortunately, her first love is an unrequited love. Daiya claims he does not know what 'being in love' feels like. Suffering from her first heartbreak, she receives unexpected support from Ichi. Although he seems cold, Ichi actually is in love with Fuuko. The two spend more and more time together, and Fuuko discovers she has feelings for Ichi too. Only 'official' confessions away from being a couple, a woman from Ichi's past shows up. Iori-san used to work for the Shinpo family company. Back then, Ichi had fallen in love with her (even though she had a boyfriend, and was some years older than him). His infatuation was big enough to worry his parents, who had her fired. Now that she's back in his life, Ichi's feelings turn to her again. Not even his budding relationship with Fuuko can lessen his need to be with Iori. Fuuko can't deal with this and they part ways. Fuuko is heartbroken again, but this time the pain runs much deeper. Her love for Ichi was more serious than her former crush on Daiya. Ironically, it's Daiya who supports her through these hard times. Ichi spends his free time with Iori, and Daiya tries his hardest to distract Fuuko. Slowly, Daiya is beginning to understand 'what it is to be in love', as he is falling in love with Fuuko. But she can't return his feelings, she is not over Ichi yet. At New Year, Daiya asks Fuuko if she wants to go out with him. Taking a fresh start, Fuuko accepts. Meanwhile, Ichi says goodbye to Iori, as he finally understands she only sees him as a little brother, while the one she really loves is her boyfriend. Fuuko and Daiya are getting along fairly well as a couple although sometimes Fuuko thinks of Ichi, remembering her lost love for him.
Then at the end of Volume 14, Fuuko is speaking with Ichi in the classroom when she falls and they accidentally kiss. Although the only person who saw was Fuuko's friend, Fuuko is extremely worried about Daiya finding out as she can't work up the courage to tell him honestly. She goes to see Ichi and begs him not to tell Daiya that it happened. Ichi agrees, but the cousins have a misunderstanding which leads Daiya to realize that something happened between Ichi and Fuuko. He finally confronts Fuuko about it and asks her why she didn't tell him from the beginning. Afterwards, they have a fight and don't talk to each other. The next night Fuuko comes out of her window and sees Ichi. They start a conversation, but as they were talking, Daiya sees the two of them. He hides behind a car and thinks that Fuuko still has feelings for Ichi. Daiya, the next day, asks Ichi about any romantic feelings between Ichi and Fuuko, which causes a fight between the two cousins. Later, while Daiya is at work he is hit by a truck and is rushed to the hospital. Meanwhile Fuuko is making a knitted cap for Daiya.
Although at the point Fuuko doesn't find out about the accident, she soon does and makes her way to the hospital with the knitted cap. Daiya is confirmed to be fine, but gets angry at Fuuko accusing her that she still has feelings for Ichi. Fuuko throws the knitted cap at him and claims that she doesn't know what her feelings are at this point but when she was knitting that cap all she thought about was Daiya.
The manga continues with the three friends continuing to be friends and getting along once again. At this point of the manga it leaves of with the secretary of student council seen to be copying Fuuko previous day's hairstyle. Guessed to be because of jealousy of Fuuko's friendliness of the two boys. The manga has recently begun to continue the plot from this point onwards.
Synopsis source: http://www.soompi.com/
Episode 2 synopsis/recap/summary:
So we go back a little bit and hear Xiao Feng’s confession to her two friends about liking Da Ye. Her friends are happy for her and Xiao Feng is happy to get her real feelings off of her chest, but warns her friends that as of now, it is only a one-sided love. Her friends don’t help her spirits by saying that Da Ye is good to all girls, so it is hard to tell if he really likes Xiao Feng or not. Despite this, Xiao Feng still feels happy and light that she has finally (eyeroll since it is only after one episode) faced her true feelings for Da Ye. She happily plays with the children who comment on the change of Xiao Feng’s playing skills. Xiao Feng says she received a special boost from the power of love (omo, how corny). Yi Cheng comes at this moment and tells Xiao Feng not to teach the kids any weird things like that. Xiao Feng defends herself, her love, and the children. She tells Yi Cheng that she will not give up on Da Ye and will keep pursuing him. She also tells him that she isn’t afraid because why bother to date at all if you’re afraid. These words really strike a cord with Yi Cheng who watches as Xiao Feng walks away with the children to play elsewhere. He watches her with a smile, as if her words truly impressed him. Xiao Feng happens to glance back and catches the briefest glimpse of his smile. Ah, Aaron’s smile makes up for his always in place poker expression.
Back at his apartment, Yi Cheng flashes back to his girlfriend (again it isn’t a clear memory), but then he remembers Xiao Fengs happy and brave declarations about love, not giving up, and not being afraid. Yi Cheng smiles at this memory, but then calls Xiao Feng an idiot. Why? He has just a little bit more experience about the painfulness of love and how hard it can be to hold on and be brave. Not that we necessarily know that yet. It probably doesn’t help that I basically know what’s coming as I have read most of the scanlated manga series.
The next day Xiao Feng sets about trying to prettify herself, which is hardly successful. I mean, yes she does where makeup, but her clothes are pretty much the same as she always wears and her hair clips are kind of ugly and really childish. This is more expected on a high school level first love, but whatever. Xiao Feng hears the upstairs door slam and she hurries and rushes out of the house so that she can appear to run into Da Ye by accident. Da Ye says he has noticed something different, but can’t quite put his finger on it. Xiao Feng is all excited thinking he noticed her extra effort and makeup and waits expectantly, but up walks Yi Cheng who then says that somehow Xiao Feng has gotten fatter. This cuts through Xiao Feng’s daydreaming and she actually leaves Da Ye to chase after Yi Cheng to demand to know how she is heavier.
The three walk to school together which seems surprising even though Xiao Feng had it all planned so she could walk to school with her beloved Da Ye. Da Ye asks about joining a club and Xiao Feng states that she never though about it before, but a club would mean she wouldn’t get to play with the neighborhood children like she loves to do. Da Ye is then distracted by girls in tennis uniforms and says it wouldn’t be bad to join the tennis club. Xiao Feng is annoyed to think he would only join because of the short skirts. Da Ye then mentions that the swim club wouldn’t be bad either. A girl then comes up to the trio and asks to talk to Da Ye. Yi Cheng excuses himself as yet another girl is calling Da Ye out. He goes to leave and tells Xiao Feng to follow. Xiao Feng reluctantly goes to follow, but Da Ye grabs and hugs her and tells the other girl that the mood is just right, so can she leave them alone. This shocks Xiao Feng and she can’t believe he could be so cold to a girl. The girl goes away brokenhearted and Xiao Feng finally comes to her senses when she realizes how fast her heart is pounding and she pushes Da Ye away and scolds him for treating a girl like that before walking off.
Later in computer class, her two friends call her over, disrupting her musings on Da Ye’s strange behavior. The two have found a picture that has Da Ye and Xiao Feng together in the background. This excites Xiao Feng who really wants to have a picture and the trio conspire to save and print it later. Meanwhile, Da Ye runs into upperclassman Teng Qiu Ying (played by Cynthia Wang – not to be confused with actress/singer Cyndi Wang) who embarrassed him in the first episode when he accidentally showed up in the wrong class. Qiu Ying calls out to Da Ye who is surprised that she knows his name. He is embarrassed when Qiu Ying says it is because he told the entire class. Da Ye then thanks her for her help and she invites him to join the tennis club as she knows he used to be in one at his old school. Da Ye doesn’t even think twice about it and decides to sign up for the club. Having a pretty girl in a tennis uniform ask him probably helped.
Xiao Feng is in the library looking for books to write her report when she runs into Yi Cheng. He asks if she managed to find what she was looking for and she says that she hasn’t. Yi Cheng calls her an idiot yet again, but asks for her list and starts looking for her books. She asks if he likes to read and he says yes. Xiao Feng doesn’t really like to as she finds it boring. Yi Cheng then launches into how reading can transport you to different places and the like. Xiao Feng then compares the learning and adventures in books with that in manga so she can kind of understand what he is getting at. It’s not quite the same thing, but its a start. Xiao Feng then says how she admires the courage it takes for Yi Cheng to go against his family’s wishes and study human services versus business (she heard from Da Ye that Yi Cheng has always been smart and gotten the best grades – his family also hopes he can take over the business). Yi Cheng explains that he must uphold to his own principles despite what his family wants. He also says that in studying human services, he can learn about business management as well, so his options are technically open and he isn’t necessarily going wholeheartedly against the wishes of the family. He then flashes to a scene where he is being bawled out by his grandfather for not choosing the path that he was supposed to. You can tell that Xiao Feng’s praise of his choice despite its hardships in order to be true to himself touches him. While Xiao Feng’s eyes are elsewhere, he smiles at her again. She then turns to him and says that his expression while he was telling her all of that stuff was really quite handsome. Yi Cheng says that is disgusting, but that is to cover for the fact that hearing those words made him happy.
Yi Cheng sits down on a stool and says that Xiao Feng has it to. When she asks what, Yi Cheng explains that she has an affinity with children and has a new hairstyle everyday (those hairstyles do look better in manga than on actual people). Xiao Feng is touched that Yi Cheng has notices so much about her and she teases him for secretly watching. Yi Cheng quickly denies this. He tells her that in spite of himself, she always seems to enter his field of vision even though she is an eyesore that he doesn’t want to see at all. Got to love how he insults her to cover for his growing fondness and attraction. This annoys Xiao Feng. She goes back to looking (rather disinterestedly) for the books she needs when Yi Cheng stands up and flops the books he’s holding on to her head. He tells her they are the ones she needs before leaving. He says one thing and yet is secretly nice.
On the way home, Xiao Feng goes by the tennis courts and a ball comes rolling out. Da Ye runs after it and tells Xiao Feng that he joined the tennis club in the end because of a pretty senior who asked him to. He then runs back while Xiao Feng watches on as he is treated like a king on the court. Then in walks Qui Ying and Xiao Feng is hit by just how lacking she is compared to the older girl. You do have to love in these dramas and mangas how the main character always seems to have an inferiority complex which then makes them even less likely to confess.
That night, Xiao Feng’s sister is in big trouble with work. The deadline for her manhua was moved up and she doesn’t have enough time to finish herself. Xiao Feng agrees to help, but says it is too much work for just the two of them, thus they enlist the help of Da Ye and Yi Cheng. Da Ye is excited to help out while Yi Cheng complains about helping and yet sets out diligently to his task. We have Xiao Feng’s sister in the background acting out the scenes she is drawing which adds a lot of comedic relief. Da Ye almost rips the drawing by erasing the wrong way. Xiao Feng unconsciously goes behind him and takes his hand and shows him how to do it. A jealous Yi Cheng and curious sister watch on until Yi Cheng interrupts the two by asking if they were acting out a scene from girl’s comic. Xiao Feng quickly jumps back. They set to work again in a friendly atmosphere and pull an allnighter to get the job done.
In the morning, they pages are complete and Yi Cheng leaves while Da Ye stays as he is out cold sleeping. Xiao Feng happily covers him with a blanket and goes to touch his face when his eyes pop open and he grabs her hand. Xiao Feng is shocked, but Da Ye says the sailor suit is better and goes back to sleep, amusing Xiao Feng who then has a dream where Da Ye is in a high school uniform and she is in a sailor uniform and the meet and kiss. Her mom interrupts the dream asking about school. Xiao Feng assures her there is no class and when she thinks her mom has left, she takes a pillow and cuddles it laughing and smiling. Her mom looks at this wondering just what on earth is wrong with her daughter. Da Ye is gone by the time Xiao Feng goes downstairs for breakfast. Again her mother watches her in worry as she is smiling and laughing to herself while eating breakfast. Xiao Feng’s sister explains it is springtime. Understanding dawns on Mrs. Hu and she grabs a pillow and hugs it like her daughter earlier. I guess you can tell who Xiao Feng takes after.
During class, Xiao Feng spends her time staring at Da Ye and smiling instead of paying attention. After class, her two friends scold her as midterms are approaching and she is doing nothing. They then give her notes and tell her to copy them while they go to the bookstore. Xiao Feng wants to go with them, but the tell her to stay and copy instead. Xiao Feng diligently starts copying, but then decides to go over to the other side of the building to visit Da Ye’s classroom since most people have already left for the day. She goes to his desk, caresses it and sits in his seat and lays her head on his desk. I admit that even in the manga I found that slightly disturbing. She then heads back to the classroom to finish the notes when she sees Yi Cheng. She asks why he is there and he replies that he forgot something. Yi Cheng then says that her notes have a lot of mistakes. Xiao Feng says that isn’t possible as she was copying them from someone else. Yi Cheng then goes and points out all of her mistakes and she laughs and says that she managed to copy them wrong. He then calls her an idiot again before asking her what she was up to. Xiao Feng says she was going to the bathroom and he asks why on the other side. Xiao Feng says its because those bathrooms are cleaner. Yi Cheng then says he will have to tell Da Ye that she used his desk as a bathroom. This surprises, embarrasses and annoys Xiao Feng, but makes Xi Cheng smile. Xiao Feng then says that he should smile more often as it makes him look friendly and more approachable. She then says he looks like Da Ye when he smiles. Totally untrue. Aaron Yan looks even better than Calvin Chen when he smiles. Then the wind picks up and blows the curtains at them. This startles Xiao Feng who slips and falls and Yi Cheng catches her, bringing their faces pretty close. Just when you think that Yi Cheng just might kiss her, he throws back the curtains and goes to leave. There are three classmates who apologize for interrupting and just leave. They got the wrong idea, but Yi Cheng says nothing and just takes his backpack and goes.
The next day the whole school is abuzz with the news that she and Da Ye were making out in the classroom. Poor Xiao Feng is horrified of the rumor spreading so fast and is even more horrified when Da Ye comes by and says that it is just kissing so what is the big deal. Xiao Feng runs after him and grabs his arm, pulling him after her. She adamantly denies anything actually happening and almost confesses her feelings for Da Ye. Da Ye understands finally that nothing happened, but cannot understand why Xiao Feng is so agitated. Kissing is just kissing. Da Ye explains that it is like fries and ketchup and other such idiotic expressions that Xiao Feng doesn’t really understand. Xiao Feng then says that you shouldn’t kiss unless you were seriously dating. Da Ye asks what that is and Ziao Feng talks about mutual love and respect and interests, etc. Da Ye listens and says that he can never really date anyone. He then said he rejected that girl a while ago because she seriously liked him. Da Ye neither liked nor disliked her and she interpreted that as absolute like, which wasn’t right. Da Ye has never truly liked a girl like that at all. This discourages poor Xiao Feng who hadn’t even worked up the courage to confess yet.
She goes back to the classroom where her two friends demand to know where she went. Xiao Feng says nowhere and goes up to Yi Cheng’s desk and knocks. She then calls for everyone’s attention and announces that it was all a misunderstanding and that she did not make out with Yi Cheng. He says nothing and the rest of the class is disbelieving, but her friends try to back her up to no avail, so they plead with Yi Cheng to say it is true as well. He remains silent, but keeps looking at Xiao Feng. After school, Yi Cheng approaches her and asks if anything is wrong. Xiao Feng doesn’t want to say, but he says he will treat her to food and she can tell him. They get takeout and go to a park where she tells him what happened with Da Ye. Yi Cheng pushes her down the slide, making her yell at him, but he calls down to her and says that she shouldn’t give up and should get Da Ye to change his mind. Xiao Feng is comforted by his support. She doesn’t know if she can change his mind, but she will try. He offers her fries, but she refuses as she says she can’t eat them as Da Ye compared them to kissing. LOL. Walking home, Yi Cheng says that they are actually a lot a like. Xiao Feng asks how and in his head Yi Cheng says its because they have experienced the same emotions, but he doesn’t tell her that. He stops and then says they are not alike. Why? Xiao Feng is braver than he is. So something like that must have happened with the girl who gave him the mug.
The next day Xiao Feng purposely stays after school and visits Da Ye at the tennis club. He is surprised to see her and she quickly lies about having class. Da Ye points out that Yi Cheng has already left and Xiao Feng says that it is for another class. Da Ye then asks her to go and rent movies with him to watch. Xiao Feng quickly agrees even though it was the Hu “family” night. Later she quickly stuffs her purse full of snacks and then lies about going up to write a report with Da Ye. It would have been more convincing if she had says Yi Cheng. Her family doesn’t question this right away and notice the lip gloss which is really shiny. They all think she had oily fried chicken hidden in her room. She leaves and goes up to the apartment where Da Ye asks her to wipe the oil off of her mouth (LMAO). She does and learns that they are all alone as Yi Cheng has a part time job. This gets her all worked up. She applies a different tube of lip gloss and then her phone rings. Not wanting Da Ye to catch her in the act, she quickly shuts the lights off. Da Ye then turns them on and tells her she has a booger. She goes and washes her face and the two sit down to watch the movie. But, needless to say, Xiao Feng enjoys watching Da Ye more. He then leans around her and she asks what he’s doing. Da Ye replies that he was reaching for a kleenex. He then comments that she has lip gloss on and Xiao Feng asks if he wants to taste it. Da Ye leans in to her and she recalls what Da Ye said about kissing and then she remembers her own adamant beliefs she threw at him earlier. His phone rings and she immediately tells him to answer it. Da Ye laughs at her expression saying he wasn’t really going to kiss her and pulls out his phone. He missed the call and decides that they should go to Yi Cheng’s job to eat some Japanese okonomiyaki.
They head over and Yi Cheng is less than thrilled to see the two together. Da Ye and Xiao Feng scold him for behaving that way to customers. Yi Cheng says they aren’t and in walks his boss. Noticing the expressions on the three, she asks if they are in a love triangle. The trio is shocked and deny this. They are even more surprised when the boss thinks that Xiao Feng is Yi Cheng’s girlfriend and that she was secretly seeing Da Ye, too. Omo. In a way, it will be true later. While they are flipping the okonomiyaki, Xiao Feng accidentally flips hers on the edge of the table and knocks over her glass of water causing a stream of steam to shoot up. Yi Cheng goes to help her, but Da Ye immediately holds her and protects her face with his hand. Yi Cheng then comes over and calls her an idiot, but asks if she is okay. Xiao Feng is, but she is sorry that Da Ye hurt his hand. Da Ye says he is fine and the two finish their meal and leave. Xiao Feng apologizes again and asks after his hand. Da Ye says it is nothing and he is happy to have gotten hurt to protect a girl. He then notices that it looks like their shadows are holding hands. He then does a bunch of different shadow plays while Xiao Feng watches on and decides that she wants to be part of his enjoyable college life.
Meaning? Xiao Feng joins the tennis club hoping to be even closer to Da Ye. Instead of being taught tennis by him, as a newbie, she has to collect all the balls. Meanwhile, Qiu Ying is being praised for her name and Da Ye says it really suits her. He goes to leave and tells Xiao Feng that he has to meet someone so they can’t go home together but they will on other days. This immediately interests the other girls who ask after their relationship. Xiao Feng says that they are just neighbors and the other girls start asking if they can visit Xiao Feng just to get to Da Ye. Qiu Ying decides to play nice to Xiao Feng as she is interested in Da Ye as well and gives her racket to Xiao Feng to use. A little too obvious if you ask me, but Xiao Feng doesn’t necessarily detect the hidden meaning behind Qiu Yun’s actions.
Yi Cheng is walking home alone when Xiao Feng comes happily up and covers his eyes asking him to guess who. Yi Cheng removes her hands and asks if she joined the tennis club. She asks how he knows and he looks at the racket she is carrying. Can we say duh? Xiao Feng says it is harder than she thought so she doesn’t know if she can keep it up. Yi Cheng points out that since she joined for love and not for interest, then she probably won’t last long at all. Xiao Feng then hits him with her new racket and walks off while Yi Cheng again smiles at her back. The two continue walking together when Xiao Feng notices the puppy she saved earlier. She goes up and pets it while Yi Cheng keeps a safe distance. Xiao Feng is delighted when she learns that Yi Cheng is afraid of dogs. She cannot believe he would be afraid of such a cute little puppy. She then says they are a lot alike and begins doing a song saying that to the tune of “London Bridge is Falling Down.” Yi Cheng asks what she is singing and Xiao Feng says she cannot believe that the distance between them really wasn’t all that great after all. Yi Cheng asks if she thought they were really different, but Xiao Feng doesn’t catch this and he won’t repeat the question. She straightens up, but knocks her elbow against the gate and almost falls over. Yi Cheng rushes over to steady her and she says that she is always so clumsy. Yi Cheng then just stares at her and she stares back, getting a little uncomfortable. She says “Ah Yi” breaking him out of his trance and he quickly lets go of her. He then offers her advice: lose weight. (Not that this scrawny girl really needs to lose any.) Xiao Feng says she has already lost weight since meeting them and Yi Cheng asks how much. I think she was going to say 5 kilos, but switched it to 500 (talk about ridiculous).
End episode.
