Sang-Eun’s Choice
Episode 11 of Love in Contract starts with news of Sang-Eun being Hae-Jin’s bride spreading across the internet. At the same time, Jung arrives at the courthouse to say hey to a less-than-impressed Ji-Ho, do some pro-bono work and go out for dinner with one of Ji-Ho’s colleagues. This is something that brings back flashbacks to the past, including how Jung never cared about Ji-Ho, belittling him, spending long nights at the courthouse and generally being an awful partner. Of course, this isn’t helped by the reveal of Sang-Eun’s face online, as Ji-Ho worries that Jung’s flaws and his toxic relationship prior is going to be repeated here. Still, he rings Sang-Eun and tells her he trusts her and will wait for her. As for Ji-Ho though, he speaks to his boss who decides to move him into a different department as a promotion. The other workers congratulate him but soon realize that Hae-Jin’s new girlfriend is very familiar. Jung has been playing damage control and has blurred as many images of Sang-Eun online as possible, working fast to protect the celebrity’s image. Meanwhile, Hae-Jin is worried when he learns his mum is drinking again. She was an alcoholic and quit drinking 10 years back. But now, it seems like she’s back on it again, much to the dismay of her son. Unfortunately, he runs into Madam Yoo, who immediately starts meddling and trying to set him and Sang-Eun up. She claims how they’re perfect together and that it’s Sang-Eun’s loss as she “doesn’t know what happiness is.” Despite playing match-maker, Hae-Jin is having none of it and tells her to stop playing games. Well, she does no such thing and tells Gwang-Nam to break up with Sang-Eun. Sang-Eun decides to do one last thing for Hae-Jin, heading over to see his father and telling him precisely what she thinks of the marriage proposal. Unfortunately, Jung gets the upper-hand first and prefaces what’s about to happen with Hae-Jin’s meeting. Its awkward and Sang-Eun takes charge, claiming they won’t be getting married given it’s hurting Hae-Jin’s health and he’s having panic attacks. Hae-Jin is completely silent through all of this, I may add. After this final meeting, Sang-Eun leaves and heads over to Ji-Ho’s, where he has a whole notebook drawn up with questions about her. Ji-Ho asks about whether they can be officially together… but it’s already been 13 days. It’s a hilarious segment and eventually, despite being past their bedtime, decide to crack on with the 496 questions Ji-Ho has for her. Meanwhile Hae-Jin shows up that night outside, but he ends up tackling the mysterious motorcycle-helmet wearing photographer. It turns out he’s apparently related to Sang-Eun and her husband. That’s bound to throw a spanner in the works, especially when Sang-Eun receives a call and is taken down to the station to explain this. It’s Lee Sun-Ho, one of Sang-Eun’s old clients whom she divorced 8 years back. Sun-Ho is on course for being charged with stalking, but Sang-Eun meets with his sister, who asks for leniency and apologizes for his actions. She even gets down on her knees and begs. It turns out she actually walked in on Sun-Ho’s room being turned into a shrine for Sang-Eun. However, she still blames Sang-Eun despite this and decides to drop some articles online. Unfortunately, the damage control done with Hae-Jin amounts to nothing as the comment section blows up with people who recognize Sang-Eun. Unfortunately it comes about right on the eve of her date with Ji-Ho.
The Episode Review
So we’re basically right back where we started from with Sang-Eun’s online woes, although there are a few nice moments dotted in this episode along the way. The question notebook scene with Ji-Ho is one such example, which has some great humour throughout and really stands out. The show has been a decent romantic drama but as I’ve said in previous recaps, Hae-Jin’s inclusion here doesn’t really add much to the storyline. In fact, he’s actively undermining her job and pushes her into the limelight. He’s the reason her identity has been leaked and seeing him silent at the family dinner, leaving Sang-Eun to do all the talking, isn’t great. Of course, Ji-Ho isn’t perfect either and judging by the ending, it would appear that things are about to get a whole lot more dramatic with him too.
