The Midnight Romance in Hagwon: Episodes 13-14

by Dramaddictally

The key workplace romance is revealed in our penultimate week, leaving our leads with nobody to depend on however themselves. Because the partitions come crashing down round them, they discover energy in one another and start to develop — realizing that even academics generally have to be taught a number of classes.

 
EPISODES 13-14

We slide again into our story with Hye-jin, the Grey Witch, and Seung-hee making energy performs round a desk. Final time, it appeared like Hye-jin had the higher hand when she forked over all her educating supplies and stated she didn’t want them anymore. However issues flip round quick when the Grey Witch reveals that she is aware of Hye-jin’s secret: a Mr. Lee Jun-ho.

On the reveal, Hye-jin seems to be knocked off stability and it’s not lengthy earlier than she will get up and leaves the restaurant whereas the 2 older girls proceed to debate their subsequent steps. Seung-hee had no thought in regards to the relationship however now that she does, it’s fodder for her plan to crush Daechi Chase. First, they’ll spin a narrative about how Hye-jin seduced her pupil (including that he was nonetheless underage). Then, they’ll get somebody to unfold the gossip across the neighborhood. And lastly, they’ll flip the opposite academics towards Hye-jin and Jun-ho and persuade them to depart the hagwon with Seung-hee. After which poof! No extra Daechi Chase.

And that well-laid plan just about involves fruition all through these episodes. It’s a course of that’s each drawn-out and fast-happening, and Hye-jin, Jun-ho, and Director Kim discover themselves on the other aspect of a fence from everybody they’ve labored with for thus lengthy.

However with all these occasions twirling within the foreground, our leads discover themselves pressured to depend on one another like by no means earlier than. When Hye-jin tells Jun-ho “we received caught,” he asks how she needs to deal with it. She says she needs his permission to only inform everybody the reality. He responds that it wasn’t his thought to maintain it a secret within the first place, and so, in fact it’s okay.

However Hye-jin feels responsible about what’s going to occur to him when the reality comes out. He’ll be gossiped about and face harsh criticism. Earlier than she will go on, Jun-ho stops her, seemingly feeling patronized, and says, “Simply say that you simply love me.” And this line sticks in Hye-jin’s head, guiding her actions when the world she’s constructed begins to crumble round her.

In one of many solely uplifting scenes this week, Hye-jin and Jun-ho sit down Director Kim to inform him the information, however earlier than they are saying a phrase, he’s already offended that they received caught. They’re shocked. He knew?! How? He says he might see the scorching stress between them from the start, “Like a cauldron of want.” Haha. It was apparent they had been going to get collectively.

Director Kim needs them to disclaim the rumors and for Jun-ho to maneuver to a different hagwon. However Hye-jin — moved by Jun-ho’s easy request to say she loves him — refuses that plan. She’ll take the warmth. She’s not going to maintain him a secret anymore.

These episodes are primarily stuffed with conversations. The hagwon staff speak about which aspect they’ll align with (Seung-hee or Daechi Chase). The scholars’ mother and father focus on pulling their children from the hagwon and requesting refunds. And Hye-jin and Jun-ho are confronted by colleagues left and proper.

In the very best and most tense of those dialog scenes, Hye-jin tries to cause with a long-time co-worker, YOON JI-SUK (Jang In-sub) — whom we’ve seen take Hye-jin’s aspect on all issues because the begin of the present. He’s simply discovered about her relationship with Jun-ho and needs to confirm it’s true earlier than deciding whether or not or to not ally with Seung-hee.

Hye-jin begins by making an attempt to quell the mistaken concept that Jun-ho received preferential therapy at work due to her. However Ji-suk doesn’t care about that half. Truly, he’s jealous. He’s at all times had a crush on her and now he feels silly for pursuing her when she had her thoughts on another person. All the great and pleasant habits we’ve seen was actually a low-key come on. And so, he’s going to aspect towards her — as a result of his ego is simply too bruised.

It’s these slight however lifelike moments that pull the drama alongside this week, exhibiting how little it takes to show individuals towards one another, particularly on this cut-throat ambiance. However the one outlier is Chung-mi, who stays a strong good friend, after significantly contemplating her choices.

In one other nice dialog scene, Chung-mi asks Seung-kyu for his recommendation: what ought to she select? Ambition or loyalty? He tells her to realize her objectives — she will’t save her associates or herself by selecting loyalty. And but, when she asks what he’ll consider her if she chooses ambition, he’s unsure he needs to be taken out to eat with cash she earned in a shady method. And he or she’s not so positive both. So, when push involves shove, Chung-mi chooses loyalty — however principally to herself. She’s not one to surrender her values simply to earn more cash.

Whereas we noticed our leads at odds with one another final week, this week they’re pulling nearer than they’ve ever been. On a snowing night time, simply earlier than all hell breaks free on the workplace the following day, Hye-jin lastly tells Jun-ho that she loves him. She simply wants him to like her, and she or he’ll love him again, with the intention to survive this mess.

Hye-jin takes the brunt of the storm at work, and when mothers begin arriving to the hagwon in cliques, attacking her character and demanding refunds, she breaks down in tears afterward. Chung-mi comes into the convention room to consolation her and I actually really feel for Hye-jin on this second. We all know how impartial she’s at all times been and the way a lot she fought off this relationship from ever taking place. And the second she lets down her guard for love, she loses all the pieces else she cares about.

As an act of protest on the workplace, Jun-ho leaves a love observe on Hye-jin’s desk in order that anybody passing by will see it. When Hye-jin returns and finds it, it touches her and appears to offer her energy. She retains re-reading it and smiling. And when Chung-mi sees Hye-jin behaving on this method, it makes her rethink her priorities. She’s at all times thought relationship and love had been ineffective in life (identical to Hye-jin used to), however now she’s seeing you’ll be able to’t put all of your eggs in a single basket. As such, she calls up Seung-kyu, invitations him to a noraebang, and tells him she’s prepared to offer relationship a good shake. (Cue lovely handholding.)

We finish with our hero in tears. He and Director Kim are on the native pub, and the director is asking him to depart the hagwon with the intention to pacify the employees and fogeys. Jun-ho refuses and begins to cry. For the primary time in his life, he’s scared. Barely in a position to get his phrases out, he says that all the pieces Hye-jin has executed in her life is breaking down abruptly. He can’t consider a approach to repair it. What ought to he have executed in another way? “I’m a idiot who solely considered fulfilling my very own curiosity.” And simply then, Hye-jin walks in to witness him in a puddle of tears earlier than the credit roll.

Nicely, this child simply grew up. Jun-ho is lastly understanding what Hye-jin tried to inform him on the very starting. The jokester we met in Episode 1 who took all the pieces calmly and needed to leap proper into this relationship is disappearing and now he’s seeing the results that she tried to warn him about.

On the identical time, Hye-jin is lastly taking Jun-ho significantly — and she or he does it earlier than he has this breaking-point second. She says she loves him, strikes nearer to him, and trusts him sufficient to inform the reality and never maintain him a secret. Now that she’s turning towards love — and he’s discovered the final lesson that his trainer tried to aside on him — I ponder what the finale has in retailer for this all-grown-up couple.

 
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