The rivalry for Ae-jung’s love and trust grows bigger and pettier and the competition becomes increasingly intense. While Ae-jung remains focused on work and family, she also can’t seem to ignore all that’s happening around her currently or her past that still haunts her in the present.
Note: My apologies on this late late recap. I got caught up with some family stuff (and then as a result, I was super exhausted so I had to catch up on some sleep and take care of myself first.. and as usual, burn-out is reeeeeal). I will work on the recap to episode 8 as soon as possible! Thank you for your patience and support!
Was It Love?: Episode 7 Recap
After dragging Ae-jung out with her back inside the building, Dae-oh confesses that he still likes Ae-jung. He still has feelings for her. Ae-jung is taken aback by the sudden confession, but she lets out a big laugh a few seconds afterwards. Dae-oh? Liking her? After how he’s treated her? There’s no way. Ae-jung disregards Dae-oh’s feelings towards her and she walks away alone. Dae-oh returns to the party and reunites with a concerned Ah-rin. However, the two are soon accompanied by Mama Yeon-woo, the CEO of Ah-rin’s entertainment company Cheonmyeong Entertainment, as well as Yeon-woo himself. He’s also at his mom’s party and she introduces him to both Ah-rin and Dae-oh. Upon discovering Yeon-woo’s connection to Mama Yeon-woo, Dae-oh’s interest in Yeon-woo peaks. He even dares to mention Ae-jung as the film producer and questions if Mama Yeon-woo has met her yet.
Uncomfortable, Yeon-woo excuses himself and he catches up to Ae-jung who’s exiting the building. Mama Yeon-woo trails after her son only to find him skipping out of the building with Ae-jung. However, since Ae-jung’s back is turned towards her, she doesn’t catch a glimpse of Ae-jung’s face. The two housemates end up stopping by a small shop where Yeon-woo purchases a set of new shoes and clothing for Ae-jung. CEO Song, once again, isn’t content or happy with Manager Myung. She discovers a group photo of Jin with Ae-jung and all the students at Ha-nee’s middle school after his guest lecture. CEO Song assumes this must be the reason as to why he turned down Hollywood for Ae-jung’s movie as well as why he’s willing to work with Ah-rin despite their bad relationship with each other.
At the party, Jin rehearses in the bathroom how he plans on greeting Ah-rin if he was to run into her. However, he is distracted by a confused and hurt Dae-oh who stands outside of the women’s restroom in assumption that Ae-jung is inside. Dae-oh is clearly hurt by the rejection and he has a talk about it with the popular actor over some drinks later on after the party. Dae-oh shares that Ae-jung’s reaction to his confession wasn’t the greatest. She laughed it off and left him by himself. She didn’t take him seriously. However, his feelings for her are serious and genuine and he doesn’t plan on giving up anytime soon. He can’t now especially when his feelings for her have started again. Jin reminds Dae-oh that Ae-jung has a daughter, but Dae-oh reiterates that his feelings are Ae-jung are sincere. With that, Jin leaves Dae-oh behind and he leaves the restaurant.
Pa-do stops by Thumb Films to hand over a packet to Hye-jin in hopes of recruiting Ah-rin to star in the movie. Hye-jin then updates him on how they’ve already managed to persuade the popular actress to participate in the movie so his packet isn’t needed. Afterwards, Pa-do decides on attending the PTA meetings that Ae-jung had suggested to him a while back. That shall be his next step. Hurt and drunk, Dae-oh waits outside of Ae-jung’s house while spamming her with phone calls. However, she ignores him so Dae-oh is distracted by Yeon-woo instead who steps outside to play some basketball. The writer follows the P.E. teacher to the basketball court nearby and they have a debate about Ae-jung. Why is Yeon-woo pretending to be a commoner when in reality he’s the son of a rich CEO? Why does Dae-oh keep maintaining contact with Ae-jung? To both guys, it’s obvious that they both have feelings for Ae-jung and are trying their own ways to win her over. The two get into a physical fight with each other which is eventually broken up when Dae-oh’s hair gets pulled. Lol. The next morning, he finds himself sore and wounded while Yeon-woo moves about just fine with a few scratches on his face.
Ae-jung discovers Yeon-woo searching for some ointment the next day in the house so she places some on the small scratch on Yeon-woo’s lips. Yeon-woo is excited at the thought of being assisted by Ae-jung and he feels as if he’s “won.” Lol. Shortly afterwards, Ae-jung is approached by Grandma who questions if she ever threw away the notebook from the parenting class that she and Yeon-woo took back in college. It turns out, Ha-nee has the notebook and she hides it in her puppy’s cage at Sook-hee’s bar. Watching Ha-nee take care of the puppy reminds Sook-hee of Ae-jung and how Ha-nee seems like both the puppy’s father and mother. Ae-jung’s had to give up many things in order to be both a mother and father figure to Ha-nee and Sook-hee makes sure to point that out to Ha-nee. Similarly, just like she does with Ae-jung, Sook-hee has no trouble presenting a receipt of all the expenses she’s charging Ha-nee in helping out with taking care of the little puppy. At just age 14, Ha-nee is already in debt. Lol.
Back at Thumb Films, Dae-oh’s presence makes Ae-jung feel uncomfortable. He notes that the injuries on his face was due to a fight he had over a woman and well, he’s also curious as to why the heroine in his novel broke up with the male protagonist. The confession scene in the novel also reminds him of a real-life experience he had himself when he confessed to the woman he loved (aka Ae-jung). Dae-oh proposes that they pull an all-nighter to go over the couple’s breakup to ensure plot consistency. Although denied at first, Ae-jung eventually agrees into it and she exits the office shortly afterwards to avoid Dae-oh. However, the writer follows her out the door and he can sense that something is up. He hopes that with the revised script he edited, it’ll help remind Ae-jung of their good memories and just how much they were in love with each other.
But Ae-jung begs to differ. She doesn’t recall or remember anything good from their relationship and she’s erased all those memories in her head. However, if she really didn’t remember anything, she wouldn’t hate Dae-oh so much. Dae-oh argues that Ae-jung’s resentment towards him only proves just how much she still likes him. Ae-jung reasons that she’s already occupied with work and being a single mom so she doesn’t have time for such things, but Dae-oh is okay with that. He’s okay with her focusing on herself; he’s just not going to give up on liking her. To Dae-oh, he still vividly recalls memories from back then, like the night when he confessed to Ae-jung.
It’s a night from back in college that Ae-jung hasn’t forgotten about either. After multiple attempts to get Ae-jung to grab dinner with her, she finally gives in and accepts Dae-oh’s request. However, things don’t quite turn out like how Dae-oh had expected when they do finally grab dinner together. All she does is literally eat and stuff clams into her mouth. With that being said, Dae-oh risks his life and also swallows a clam in order to get Ae-jung to notice him. Sure enough, Dae-oh ends up in the hospital, but he dangerously succeeds in getting his message across to Ae-jung: he likes her.
Ae-jung takes a break from work to attend the next PTA meeting. However, she’s not the only one there as Pa-do is also new to the meeting and he joins her in the classroom along with the rest of the parents. It’s time to select a PTA representative for the semester and the name to the most popular parent pops up. However, the other mothers in the room nominate Pa-do while Pa-do himself volunteers Ae-jung. Eventually, Pa-do is elected as the representative and he suggests Ae-jung as his vice-representative. Dong-chan and Ha-nee’s parents FTW! And so Ae-jung shares the exciting news with Dong-chan and Ha-nee after the meeting. She’s basically like the Vice President of the class and Dong-chan’s Dad is President. However, Dong-chan isn’t so thrilled at the news and he rides in the same car as his dad upon being picked up at school. On the ride home, Director Kim relays the news to Dong-chan, but all Dong-chan is worried about is whether or not he will run into his dad at school. As long as they don’t run into each other, he’ll be fine.
Dae-oh still has trouble understanding why Ae-jung doesn’t have any good memories of their relationship. From his eyes, they were happily in love with each other at one point. So Dae-oh throws the question at Hye-jin and he ponders what the reasoning or psychology behind this mystery is. Hye-jin grows nervous and assumes Dae-oh must be testing her so she searches through the list of documents that she gave Dae-oh in search for her answer. Lol. Ae-jung heads to a hotel restaurant for a meeting. On the way inside, she encounters Mama Yeon-woo whose dress is slightly ripped on the back. Thankfully, Ae-jung comes to the rescue and she sews up the back of Mama Yeon-woo’s dress with a small knitting kit that she carries with her. Shortly after the encounter, Mama Yeon-woo and Ae-jung reunite and properly greet each other once again. It turns out they were meeting with each other as well as Ah-rin to discuss about the upcoming film adaptation.
During the meeting, Ae-jung provides the two with updates regarding the movie. Mama Yeon-woo also learns that Ae-jung was at Cheonmyeong’s night and that she had originally attended the event with Dae-oh, but had to leave because of an emergency. Mama Yeon-woo slowly puts the pieces together and assumes that it was Ae-jung who she saw Yeon-woo leaving the event with. They also learn from Ae-jung that she’s a mother of a 14-year old daughter so Ah-rin lightens up and celebrates internally with the news. She assumes she still has a fair shot at getting with Dae-oh now that she’s aware that Ae-jung is a mother. She assumes that Ae-jung is married.
Dae-oh stops by Sook-hee’s bar in hopes of finding Ae-jung there. However, the bar is closed and Dae-oh is left with little to no hope. However, it doesn’t take too long for his hopes to rise again after he witnesses Ha-nee taping up flyers for a restaurant around the neighborhood. The author follows the middle school student around and assumes she must be working a part-time job to make some money. Dae-oh pulls out some cash and hands it over to Ha-nee, but Ha-nee isn’t feeling Dae-oh nor his money. She’s not a beggar and he should be nagging at his own daughter, not her. LOL (BAM, you are his daughter Ha-nee!). In order to escape from Dae-oh, Ha-nee picks up her pace and she crosses the street right as the green light is about to turn red. Unaware that a motorcycle is speeding right at her, Ha-nee stops to pick up the pieces of flyers she’s dropped and scattered on the crosswalk. Yeon-woo – who had witnessed Dae-oh running after Ha-nee – exits the bus and the horror that unfolds in front of his eyes. Dae-oh attempts to get to Ha-nee as fast as he can in order to save her.
In an interview, Jin confirms that indeed, the first love who he mentioned before as the one who introduced him to acting was CEO Song. Internally, Jin is aware that he should do what CEO Song wants so that he can best protect his staff from her and her evil antics. In a private dinner afterwards, CEO Song pitches her idea of relocating the entertainment company over to the United States to jump start Jin’s career in Hollywood. She also reminds him of her unconditional loyalty and support — something that no one else will be able to provide him. Upon stepping out of the room, Jin is compelled to call Ae-jung, but he pauses upon grabbing his cell phone.
Jin ends up appearing at Thumb Films and just like the old times, he fixes the jammed printer for Ae-jung at the office. It reminds them of the times when he would fix the jammed printer for Ae-jung back when they were still in college. After reminiscing the good old memories, Jin questions how Ae-jung feels on working with Dae-oh. There are rumors going around that he still likes her. However, before Ae-jung can give Jin an answer to his question, she’s interrupted by a sudden phone call and the two rush to the hospital. Ae-jung panics that something bad’s happened to Ha-nee, but our middle school student is healthy and safe. It’s Dae-oh who suffered as he took the hit for Ha-nee from the motorcycle. With his arm injured, Ha-nee feeds Dae-oh some coffee milk and the two bicker with each other like any father and daughter would. However, the two are interrupted when Jin discovers them sitting together and Ha-nee storms out of the hospital upon seeing the actor.
Jin attempts to explain himself and the harsh words that Manager Myung said to her on the phone the other day, but Ha-nee doesn’t want to hear any of it. If Jin isn’t her dad, then what does it matter to him how she feels or if she’s injured or not? Seconds later, Ae-jung rushes to Ha-nee upon seeing her and gives her a big hug. Ha-nee points out to her mother that it was Dae-oh who took the fall for her so she’s alright. Although Ae-jung notices Dae-oh with the bandage wrapped around his head and right hand, she doesn’t say anything. Instead, she heads home with Ha-nee and Yeon-woo accompanies the mother and daughter pair home. Poor Dae-oh 😦
Upon resting at home, Dae-oh recalls the moment when he checked on Ha-nee to make sure she was okay after the incident. Thankfully, he was the injured one instead. However, he’s still hurt by Ae-jung’s reaction to seeing him hurt. Instead of saying something, she ignored him and walked past him. He reflects on how different Ae-jung has transformed; Ae-jung would panic in the past whenever Dae-oh got a slight scratch. Ae-jung herself struggles to express gratitude to Dae-oh and ends up not sending him a text that night. Yeon-woo and Jin themselves are conflicted with the different sights they witnessed earlier that evening. Yeon-woo can’t forget the image of Dae-oh rescuing Ha-nee while Jin vividly remembers the scene he saw of Ha-nee feeding Dae-oh some coffee milk at the hospital.
The next day, Ae-jung finally acknowledges Dae-oh for his heroism by thanking him for saving Ha-nee the night before. She walks out of the meeting room shortly after expressing her gratitude, but it’s enough to make Dae-oh smile. Grandma stops by Sook-hee’s bar to deliver some side dishes. There, she learns about her great-grandchild that she now has (aka Ha-nee’s baby puppy!) and she also discovers the parenting notebook that once was in the trash. Turns out Ha-nee had dropped it off at Sook-hee’s bar earlier that morning.
Ae-jung, Dae-oh, and Hye-jin’s meeting about the plot for the film adaptation runs late into the night and Hye-jin wishes to end the meeting. Why did the heroine in the novel break up with the male protagonist? To get into the details of things, Ae-jung answers that their love simply could have just ended. There’s no special reason for the separation. Dae-oh reasons that there must be a reason for a break-up so Ae-jung suggests that it might have been because the male protagonist in the novel, Cheon-su, had a change of his heart. His love for the heroine, Hae-ok, was fleeting which caused Hae-ok to be enraged, angry, and hurt. She loved him so much she hated him by the time of the break-up. I mean, that was what Dae-oh wrote in the prologue to his novel, right?
With that, Dae-oh gives the prologue another read and recites,
Everyone has a first love, but yours is different from mine. Maybe to you, she was someone who you wanted to protect by being next to her. Maybe you felt sorry that you couldn’t protect her to the end. But to me, she was someone who I loved so much to the point of hating her. And she was someone I was afraid that I’d lose again.
Scenes of Yeon-woo reading the parenting notebook that he and Ae-jung participated in back in college as well as Pa-do re-watching the clips of Ae-jung at a Chinese restaurant flashes on screen. Dae-oh catches Ae-jung napping at her desk at Thumb Films so he extends his arm out to her to pat her head. However, his arm is pulled back by Jin who’s also in the office with him. The two friends stare at each other in silence.
My Thoughts:
I’m not afraid in voicing my disappointment with the odd-numbered episodes in this drama for they often feel like filler episodes with really nothing to offer or no concrete evidence in proving anything. However, watching this episode really just confirmed to me what my biggest fear with this drama was which is that ‘Was It Love?’ is not the type of drama that I really wanted it to be. I had been holding onto some hopes in that it would get better or that at least it wouldn’t get worse, but episode seven fell flat to me for many different reasons. It was through this episode that I realized the drama lost the potential that it had to be bigger and better.
The drama went in a direction and route that I was dreading and really hoping it wouldn’t venture into. Unfortunately, all the show has done now is place its focus on Dae-oh, Yeon-woo, and Jin chasing and pining after Ae-jung which I am not a big fan of. I feel like the drama makes it out to seem as if Ae-jung desperately needs a man in her life when in reality, she had been doing just fine for 14 years without a husband or man to assist her in raising Ha-nee. She definitely does not need a man now in this time of her life and like she mentioned in this episode, she’s too busy focusing on work as well as her family to even think about such circumstances. Just because she still hates Dae-oh or because Yeon-woo’s confessed to her does not mean that she has to accept their feelings or that she needs to be opened to being in a relationship. Ae-jung is confused at this point as to how to respond to both guys’ actions and feelings towards her and who she wants to let into her life and who she doesn’t and I can see why. Although we see that she’s kind and friendly with Yeon-woo, her complicated history with Dae-oh doesn’t necessarily eliminate him from the pool either. Add this to the fact that she’s been raising Ha-nee for 14 years without a man in her life and I can see why she’s confused. She went from only focusing on being the best single mother she can be to now suddenly being involved with a group of guys all at the same time so I don’t blame her for her lack of responses to either guys. I actually like that Ae-jung’s still quite the independent and confident lady she’s always been. Sure, she’s shaken up a little bit, but it’s going to take more effort and time and energy in order to earn Ae-jung’s trust.
I can’t seem to comprehend why the drama would focus on our three guys pining after Ae-jung. I don’t understand why Yeon-woo and Dae-oh literally fought each other over Ae-jung. Even Dae-oh was being really creepy in this episode by showing up at her house, spamming her with calls, visiting Sook-hee’s bar for updates on Ae-jung which are actions and decisions I didn’t really foresee him taking based off what we saw of him in the past. I don’t like the whole “I-like-Ae-jung-she’s-only-meant-for-me’ arc that the drama is now heavily entering because 1) it’s boring and 2) all three guys are selfish. They don’t take into consideration how Ae-jung feels and the fact that she doesn’t necessarily need any of them in her life. She’s been doing just fine for 14 years and she will be fine for another 14 years without them. It’s even more appalling and confusing given that Ae-jung has never really hinted about wanting to be romantically involved again. She’s never really mentioned anything about wanting to restart her love life or wanting to fall in love again so all of Dae-oh and Yeon-woo’s attempts are even more irritating in that aspect. So far, Dae-oh and Yeon-woo especially have been very vocal in expressing their love and loyalty to Ae-jung, but it just rubs me the wrong way. It’s even off-putting considering how inconsiderate they seem of Ae-jung and what her wishes or wants or boundaries are. They clearly are only putting themselves first and what they want out of their relationship with Ae-jung and it’s not attractive or charming at all. This episode revealed so many cracks and weaknesses in our male characters and it’s unfortunate because while they’re not perfect and they have each have their own faults, they don’t need to be creepy, pushy, or annoying.
I’ll admit — Jin was actually the only tolerable one out of the three in this episode (I’m excluding Pa-do because it seems as if his connections with Ae-jung is for other unknown reasons rather than being romantically involved). He stopped by Thumb Films, but he helped Ae-jung with the jammed printer and he didn’t necessarily break any boundaries or go overboard with her. I think it shows just how much Ae-jung actually likes and appreciates Jin as a person and friend because of the way she acts around him or treats him. Her general demeanor around Jin is positive and bright and I think that goes a long way in illustrating how she feels about Jin compared to the awkwardness and uncomfortableness she feels around Yeon-woo or the resentment she has towards Dae-oh. Out of the three guys so far, she’s the most comfortable, positive, and happiest around Jin and that’s why he’s still on my good side. It’s scary because it’s uncertain how long that’s going to last, but so far he’s doing good and I hope things stay this way between him and Ae-jung. Plus, I actually feel as if he and Ae-jung has the most chemistry with each other too so that’s another reason as to why one can root for them.
Poor Dae-oh risked his life for both Ae-jung (in the past) and Ha-nee in the present. It might have just been me, but I was definitely getting father-daughter vibes from both Dae-oh and Ha-nee. From them bickering with each other over Ha-nee having a part-time job to Ha-nee feeding Dae-oh some coffee milk at the hospital, it felt as if the drama was trying to hint that Dae-oh and Ha-nee could be connected. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case (because Dae-oh is the male lead after all) and I definitely wouldn’t be complaining either. I like seeing Dae-oh and Ha-nee spend time together because you’re not completely sure if they’re father and daughter, but they’re also adorable together so that makes you assume that they must be father and daughter just seeing how they bicker and how Dae-oh risked his life to protect her. As icky and iffy as Dae-oh was in this episode, I do have to admit that my heart broke for him when Ae-jung didn’t acknowledge or react upon seeing him hurt as a result of the incident. He saved her daughter’s life and yet she didn’t flick or show any sort of concern at that moment. I get that she has conflicting thoughts and feelings about Dae-oh and she did come around to thanking him eventually, but it was heartbreaking at that time when she didn’t acknowledge him at the hospital.
I love love love the flashback scenes and I wished we would get more of them without them being awkwardly and abruptly interjected throughout the episode. I wish there was a more effective way of weaving them into the drama without making the episode seem choppy. From Dae-oh’s confession (ok, but can we take a second to talk about the way he “confessed” by risking his life?? If a boy did that to me, I would definitely not give him a chance no matter how much interest I had in him before) to Jin fixing the printer for Ae-jung, the college flashbacks are so fun and enjoyable and yet integrated in such an ineffective and disorganized way. I think the flashback scenes would have so much more impact if they were just shown to us in a much better and seamless fashion. Despite my hiccups with the show, the college scenes is part of what is still giving me life with this drama. The other reason primarily being that I really want to watch our team actually work together to create the film adaptation. Now that is why I’m still holding onto some hope.
MaryMeKpop 