"Kwang Soo and Ji Hyo" called the PD.  "Yeah Noona!" Kwang Soo ran over, hands held out for a congratulatory high five.  But instead of being happy, Ji Hyo pouted. "Go away" she said, pushing him back.  Playing up the cute maknae scenario, Kwang Soo rushed back over and stood next to her, arm draped over her shoulder, pulling her in close. "Yah" she said, slapping his arm off and distancing herself.  "Noona don't worry" Kwang Soo said, trying to make her understand.  "I'm going to win today."

Ji Hyo literally snorted.  The thought of Kwang Soo winning was laughable.  The Commander was a formidable obstacle.  But even if he got past the Tiger, he still had to deal with the Grasshopper, Penguin, Impala and whatever Gary was.  "Don't say things you can't do" she said, resigned to defeat.  But Kwang Soo had other ideas.  He was rarely teamed up with Ji Hyo.  He had to make the most of his opportunity to show what he could do.  "Noona, remember we won last time" he said, trying to cheer her up and her face lit up at that memory.

"This game is 'Two Hearts Beat as 1'' explained the PD.  He pointed towards the array of sensors hooked up to computers.  "All the couples will dance to the music.  When the music stops, you have 1 minute to race over to the heartbeat monitors and get your heartbeats to match" he explained.  "The winning couples will get a special hint for the final race." 

This game looked really hard.  It wasn't like any of them could control their heartbeats with any real precision.  Kwang Soo was quick to voice his complaints.  "This game is impossible" he said.  Haha and Suk Jin quickly backed him up.  "Is this even doable?" "Do you have insurance in case my heart stops beating?"

As the set up the equipment, Kwang Soo pulled Ji Hyo aside for a quick strategy meeting.  "We should dance a lot" he started.  "If we both get our heartbeats really high, it'll be easier to match."  Ji Hyo agreed but added a caveat, "Don't do that robot dance with me" she said. "I'm not doing it."

True to her word, when Kwang Soo broke out his creaky robot dance, Ji Hyo refused to follow along.  Instead, she broke out her age old "Hot Issue" dance that she had used way back on Family Outing. "Noona haven't you learned any other dances?" teased Kwang Soo.  "What about you?" she fired back.  "That dance is like 5 years old!"

Then the music cut out and the race was on.  Some ran over to hook up their sensors immediately.  Other couples focused on calming down and slowly wandered over to measure their heartbeats.  Kwang Soo grabbed Ji Hyo and and dragged her over.  He jogged in place as he attached his sensor to the computer to keep his heart rate up.  The machine was blank for a second or two before registering a heartbeat of 138.  He quickly glanced over at Ji Hyo's number.  143.  They were so close.  He increased his pace and upped his heart rate to 144.  Then 149.  But before he could slow down to correct his overshot, he heard a loud, victorious cry from Big Nose Hyung of all people.  Suk Jin and his partner, Kan Mi Youn had somehow succeeded.  And on the first try too.  That left just two more hints available. 

"Noona, lets go really hard" he said, Ji Hyo wiped her face with a towel and frowned at the slight makeup smear that stained the white cotton.  "Wait" she said and walked over to the restroom.  A few minutes later, she returned, face freshly scrubbed, makeup completely removed.  She walked back to Kwang Soo and let him reset her sensors.  "Noona, you look pretty without makeup" Kwang Soo said, sincerely smitten.  But Ji Hyo just tossed his remark aside.  "Let's win this" she said, shooting death glares past him towards the Jong Kook and Son Ye Jin couple behind him.  

The next round did not go as planned.  Jong Kook and Ye Jin won by matching heartbeats at 107 beats per minute.  Being so fit, the Commander's heart rate was usually low and Ye Jin didn't really dance in order to keep her heart rate low.  That left just one spot left.  Kwang Soo was determined to get it.  

Unfortunately for him, the final round went to Gary and Lee Soo Kyung.  This was not the way to impress Ji Hyo.  Somewhat disappointed, he toweled off the sweat alone in the corner while they filmed the winning couples receiving the hint.  He was surprised when Ji Hyo walked up to him with a cup of water.  "Drink" she said simply, offering him a cup.  They stood their, watching the winning couples whisper guesses and strategies to each other. "We still have the best teamwork of all of them" Ji Hyo said, trying to cheer Kwang Soo up.  "We'll win the next game."

For the 2nd round of the couple race, the game was telepathy lunch.  Dropped off at opposite ends of the market, they had to buy matching items in categories suggested by the PDs, communicating only through telepathy.  As an example, at the coffee shop, they would have the choice between ice coffee and regular hot coffee.  Whatever they matched, the couples could eat.  The couple with the most matches would win with the fastest couple winning the tiebreaker.  

The categories were rice cakes, dumplings and Chinese food.  At the rice cake shop, they had to chose between sweet red bean or the classic spicy rice cakes. The dumpling restaurant had either fried dumplings or steamed.  At the Chinese restaurant, they had to chose between black bean sauce noodles or seafood noodle soup.  

When he heard the rules, Kwang Soo knew he had the advantage.  He'd known Ji Hyo for years.  They'd built up a relationship through Running Man.  Most of the other couples had either met for the first time today or were just acquaintances.  He knew Ji Hyo was definitely a jampong person and he was as well. Ji Hyo also loved tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes) so that one was another guaranteed win.  The only difficult one was the dumplings.  Fried tasted better, but she was an actress and didn't eat greasy fried foods in order to watch her weight.  In 5 years he'd collected all this knowledge and he knew that she knew his preferences just as well.  Confident, he ran through the mission, ordering spicy rice cakes, steamed dumplings and seafood noodles.  Racing back, he was shocked to see Jae Suk, HaHa, Jong Kook and Gary already there with their partners.  Somehow, he'd only managed to beat Suk Jin.  

Nevertheless, he was confident that he'd matched all three correctly.  And when Jae Suk and his partner failed on dumplings, he knew he had a shot.  But HaHa matched all three correctly and in a surprise twist, so did Jong Kook.  "Did you guys plan this?" asked an incredulous Jae Suk.  "I just picked the healthy options" replied Ye Jin laughing.  It made sense.  Instead of Jong Kook trying to guess her preferences, she matched his.  

It all came down to Gary.  If he matched all three correctly, then he would win third place.  But Gary pulled out sweet red bean rice cakes, black bean sauce noodles and steamed dumplings, matching Soo Kyung's choices exactly.  It was just unfair.  And to add insult to injury, he and Ji Hyo had gotten crossed up on dumplings anyway.  

Heading into the final mission, Kwang Soo knew that he had to step up his game.  But it wouldn't be easy. Nobody would be going easy. Everyone would be going all out to get their partner the win.  

The final mission is: Love is a Battlefield.  Kwang Soo grimaced as he looked over the painful looking set.  Acupuncture mats made the base.  There was a net they had to crawl under.  Hurdles placed strategically to impede them.  And at the very end, a mountain of cushions, above which name tags floated, hanging by a thread. 

For this game, the men had to run a circuit, running on acupuncture mats, hurdling over 3 hurdles, crawling on their backs under the net and then finally climbing the mountain.  They had to find their partners name tag, take it down, and run back down the mountain of cushions and attach it to their partner's back.  First couple to finish would be the final winner.  

For winning the previous games, HaHa and Suk Jin were each awarded 10 meter head starts.  Jong Kook had finished 2nd twice was also awarded 10 meters. Gary, who had placed 3rd twice won a 2 meter head start.  

It looked like game over for Kwang Soo, but he was determined to try anyway.  When the race started, he ran hard, easily outpacing Jae Suk and making up ground on Gary.  By the hurdles, he'd caught up to Suk Jin hyung and had a slight lead on Gary.  With only Jong Kook and HaHa ahead of him, he blazed through the net and started climbing just after HaHa.

Though Jong Kook reached the top first, he missed the nametag on his first attempt. That gave both Kwang Soo and HaHa enough time to reach the top and interfere with his 2nd attempt.  Upset at their borderline dirty play, the Commander retaliated in kind, resulting in all three of them sliding down, taking out a climbing Gary as well.  

The race quickly devolved into a flurry of sabotage and chaos as members climbed, fell, grappled, and threw everything and anything in their path.  Kwang Soo reached the top of the mountain twice only to be pulled down by his ankles by a desperate Suk Jin and a vengeful Jae Suk.  Lying at the bottom, exhausted, he prepared himself for one last attempt.  

Climbing quickly, he threw down HaHa who was about halfway up and grappling with Jae Suk.  Racing to the top with Jae Suk, he reached the top where Jong Kook and Gary were taking orderly turns jumping up trying to snatch the flying nametags.  With his tall height, Kwang Soo jumped up and was able to touch the nametag, although he was unable to grab it cleanly.  The spongy nature of the cushions made it very hard to push off and jump with any power.  

His near success made him a target for the others.  Jong Kook pushed him and if not for Gary, Kwang Soo would have fallen over the edge.  Instead, Gary fell and Kwang Soo was able to stay up as Jong Kook and Jae Suk wrestled for position.  While they struggled, Kwang Soo got up and gave them both a shove.  If they hadn't been tied together, they might have been able to overcome his shove but Jong Kook couldn't extract himself from Jae Suk's grasp.  Once Jae Suk fell over, he dragged the tiger down with him, leaving Kwang Soo alone at the top.  Jumping up, he managed to grab the nametag, securing the win.  

"YEAH" he screamed, while Ji Hyo cheered excitedly.  During the closing, all the other Running Man members complained about how humiliating it was to see Kwang Soo win. But Ji Hyo defended him.  "Today I realized that even though he jokes around a lot, Kwang Soo is a man."  That one line was all he'd wanted to hear.  But there was more.  I don't just want to be the man.  I want to be your man.