More Betrayal
Episode 36 of Homemade Love Story starts in the aftermath of Min-Jae choking. She is now fine but both Professor Son and Jung-Hoo want to make sure she is okay. While Son calls his doctor friend, Jung-Hoo calls Man-Jung for some advice. He treats this like some sort of competition, still jealous of the younger man. Ba-Wi arrives in the flat and is surprised to see a younger looking Jung-Hoo because of his new hair cut. After father and son leave, Min-Jae and Jung-Hoo sit down to talk. The latter thinks her reasons for objecting to their son’s marriage are nonsense. Min-Jae insists that she wants Chae-Woon to be recognized as Jung-Won’s daughter but also wants to think about his future. She believes that Soon-Jung was his first love and she doesn’t want to be alone. Jung-Hoo then mentions how she feels bad that she is the only one moving on and this makes him angry. The conversation has led nowhere again and the two leave each other with tensions still very much in the air. Meanwhile, Chae-Woon helps Jae-Hee at work as she knows the new contract could help him repay all his debt. They then talk about Pil-Hong. Chae-Woon is upset that he lied and she is not trusting him. However, Jae-Hee thinks she should wait and give him some time as he wants to be a good father. Seo-A and Na-Ro have drinks in a bar and discuss Chae-Woon’s failed promotion. Na-Ro tells her that she still doesn’t seem happy and he thinks that hating people is not her thing. He then takes her hand and promises to love her once she becomes a warmer person. In the villa, Soon-Jung wonders how she can convince Min-Jae that Jung-Hoo still has feelings for her. She finds her diary and starts reading it. Chae-Woon comes home and the two discuss Min-Jae not agreeing to their marriage because of the past and Jung-Hoo. Soon-Jung denies it again and tells her that she is going to meet with Ms Kim to start planning the wedding. Chae-Woon goes to see her siblings next and learns that Ra-Hoon is considering buying a used food truck. Chae-Woon promises to go with him the next day to discuss the deal, while Seo-A returns home drunk. Jung-Won confronts her daughter as she is not happy she is drinking and thinking to date Na-Ro. Seo-A defies her mother as she believes she never approves of anything she does. She feels she treats Chae-Woon better and tells her to go live with her. In the morning during breakfast, the residents are full of energy and discuss the day ahead. Ra-Hoon announces to everyone that he and Ba-Reun are thinking to buy a food truck and everyone wishes them and Jae-Hee good luck. They then come up with a new good luck tradition to replace the petals; they all join hands and shout “Samgwang, Samgwang, let’s go!” In LX fashion, Ms Kim has a change of heart and meets with Chae-Woon to tell her she is giving her the promotion as she is the most competent. She apologizes for the way she treated her. Chae-Woon thanks her but tells the girl she will have to face the rumours if she gives her the job. Chae-Woon insists that Dae-Won should get the promotion and that she will decline it if she gives it to her. Jung-Won asks if she will quit but Chae-Woon tells her she will start from the bottom again as she wants to get married and not go abroad. Hae-Deun calls Jun-A when he doesn’t show up for work and finds out that he is very ill. She heads over to his office to see him and when she sees he has a high fever, calls her auntie for some help. Ra-Hoon and Ba-Reun head to their meeting for the food truck where the representative turns out to be Pil-Hong. When the latter realizes who Ra-Hoon is, he urges him not to take the deal as it is a scam. He quickly leaves just as Chae-Woon arrives and recognizes him. She runs after him but he tries running from her. She falls and eventually catches up. She confronts him for the scam he was about to use on her brother and how much he has saved for it. Pil-Hong defends himself as he told Ra-Hoon to walk away from it. Chae-Woon then berates him as he would have then scammed another person. Pil-Hong tells her that he has been hired by someone else and is just doing what he has been told. Chae-Woon is having none of it though as he hasn’t changed and has been dishonest all his life. Pil-Hong wants to be a good father and repent, but she tells him she doesn’t need a dad and tells him to get out of her life. Upset by his daughter’s words, he agrees and leaves her be. Min-Jae heads over to her psychiatrist and is surprised when Jung-Hoo also turns up. The doctor talks to them separately and Jung-Hoo goes first. Unbeknownst to Jung-Hoo, Min-Jae can hear him in the next room as he tells the doctor that his happiest memories was when his wife gave birth to his son and his biggest regret is not to have been nice to his wife and son. He had to provide for his parents and siblings. He was stressed because of the pressure so he took it all out on Min-Jae and thought it was ok. After the appointment, Min-Jae meets with Soon-Jung who wants to talk to her about Jung-Hoo. She gives her her diary from the past and asks her to read an entry. As Min-Jae reads, we see a flashback of a young Jung-Hoo telling Soon-Jung that he actually likes Min-Jae. Soon-Jung was quite sad back then as she did have a crush on him. Back in the present, Min-Jae is quite surprised and wonders why Jung-Hoo treated her that way. Soon-Jung tells her friend she believes they both still have feelings but Min-Jae denies it. Man-Jung, Hwak-Se and Hae-Deun decide to bring Jun-A home and put him in Na-Ro’s old room. Jun-A seems quite happy to see that Hae-Deun is worried about him, while Man-Jung tells Hwak-Se she wants to tell everyone they are dating. Hwak-Se is not sure and wants to wait till he gets the singing job but Man-Jung finds Soon-Jung and tells her. As expected, Jae-Hee finds out he didn’t get his contract. We then see that the job is given to Pil-Hong who also just finds out that this contract was meant to be for Jae-Hee and realizes that the chairwoman and Seo-A are behind it. Jae-Hee returns to work to tell Do Hyun the bad news. He starts panicking as they bought all the materials and hired all the workers already. News travels fast as the workers all storm in the office demanding to know what will happen to their pay. More come in and start ransacking the place and beat Jae-Hee up while Na-Ro is watching. Na-Ro reports what happened to the chairwoman and tells her that everything was managed with Pil-Hong as the frontman. Seo-A wants to know if Jae-Hee will be able to cope with the aftermath. Na-Ro then reveals that his business partner took out a loan with a loan shark. Later on, Chae-Woon becomes worried when Jae-Hee doesn’t reply to her text. She heads to his office and finds it ransacked and his phone on the floor. Na-Ro calls her and she immediately confronts him and asks if he was responsible. He lies, denying everything and telling her that the deal fell through because of Pil-Hong and his scheming. After hanging up the phone, she sees Jae-Hee on the floor, badly beaten. She rushes to him, asking him what happened and if he is okay. He assures her that he is and the two hug.
The Episode Review
What a dramatic ending! Seo-A got what she wanted and has now ruined Jae-Hee’s important contract. This will have some serious consequences for him and many people around him. It just proves once again how selfish and immature Seo-A is and how this is the only way she can cope with not getting what she wants. I really hope Jung-Won will soon realize what she has done and that she will finally get a back-bone and sort the situation out. Things won’t be easy for Jae-Hee and Chae-Woon from now on though as the latter also feel responsible for what has happened to her fiancé. Pil-Hong has been made to take the blame, which is a shame as we were starting to see that he wanted to be a better person for his daughter. I still hope Na-Ro will also do something drastic and change sides eventually. There was also an important revelation in Min-Jae and Jung-Hoo’s story when we learnt that Soon-Jung was not his first love. Jung-Hoo did like Min-Jae better all along but it is just a shame he treated her that bad for all those years. I get he had a lot of pressure and stress to deal with but she had even more by the sounds of things. While some stories are predictable, we are still left wondering how the series will end everyone’s arcs. Will they all get their happy ending? We don’t have too long to find out but for now, Homemade Love Story remains enjoyable and of course quite dramatic.
