Sotto Voce , In A Whisper
Episode 10 of Do You Like Brahms begins with Joon-Young and Min-Sung driving up to the restaurant. Min-Sung admits that she knows everything about Song-A. She asks him to keep an eye on her and sees Song-A sitting at the table. Creeping inside, she overhears Song-A’s confession and hurries away as Song-A races after her friend. Min-Sung tells her she didn’t know she used to like Dong-Yun and walks away, calling herself a fool. The next day, Song-A speaks to Soo-Kyung about the chamber music. In particular, she brings up the subject of tickets and how they need to leave several rows for the public open. This causes some issues with Song-A as she’s forced into a situation of ripping off students to appease the professor. To make matters worse, Min-Sung is still not happy that she hid the fact she liked Dong-Yun. Min-Sung believes she should have told her the truth and she feels betrayed, eventually telling her friend to leave. Song-A heads to the University dinner feeling uncomfortable about the whole seat situation. This is only made worse when she’s forced to find her own way home. Unfortunately this leaves her alone with Jung-Kyung outside. Things are awkward, to say the least, but she lets Jung-Kyung drive her home. When Joon-Young messages, she tells Song-A that she’ll always be waiting in the wings for her lover. After dropping her off, Song-A and Joon-Young get talking and she asks to come back to his. He’s nervous, to say the least, and hurries around making sure everything is neat and tidy. He has quite the view as well, which Song-A admires when she’s finally invited inside. Joon-Young smashes a plate on the floor, prompting Song-A to go rooting around for wet wipes. Only, in the drawer she also finds the familiar black piano cloth. When Joon-Young opens the drawer later on, he realizes just why Song-A was acting a little off with him for the remainder of the evening. The next day, Hyun-Ho plays at the orchestra as Soo-Kyung boasts about his talent and how he’s in the chamber with her. Inside the room, Joon-Young arrives and confronts his friend, telling him he did a good job. He apologises for what happened, admitting that he used to like her but doesn’t anymore. Unfortunately it’s too late, as Hyun-Ho tells him that he’s already lost his friend. In the wake of what’s happened, Song-A meets Dong-Yun and tells him that they should have just stayed friends. When she heads home, Song-A looks over a picture of her with Min-Sung and despairs over her fractured friendship. Joon-Young meanwhile heads back and starts practicing the piano for his teacher. Only, Tae-Jin is too caught up over the reviews he’s received online. Instead of teaching Joon-Young more, he tells him to call it a day. Heading out alone, Professor Yoo drowns his sorrows in alcohol. Only, Joon-Young shows up and asks him for help in joining another competition. Elsewhere, Song-A finds herself in more awkward situations as Sung-Kyung tells the poor girl to ring Hyun-Ho and cancel all future correspondence with him. Given he’s already been invited to dinner, this means she needs to phone back and break the bad news to him. In the middle of this, Song-A looks inside one of the rehearsal rooms and finds Jung-Kyung and Joon-Young playing beautifully together. Wondering if there’s any space for her, the episode comes to a close.
The Episode Review
While there isn’t much in the way of plot progression, the drama all comes spilling out now. Min-Sung’s reasoning for her and Song-A not talking anymore is pretty weak to be honest and it’s made worse by her refusing to engage with Song-A at all. The situation with Jung-Kyung continues to loom over everything, with Song-A starting to doubt her relationship with Joon-Young. This feels a bit ill placed though, especially given he’s already shown how much he likes her. That’s to say nothing of the current music problems, with Song-A forced into a difficult position with Sung-Kyung that’s sure to bubble over next week. For now though this episode continues to deepen the character ties but also slips a little too far into melodramatic reflection rather than progressing the narrative forward.
