I Need Romance 3: Ep 15

(This Episode Recap Contains Spoilers in the Form of Fangirl Squees)

Episode 15

After Joo Yeon has broken up with Tae Yoon I expected her to make the same forceful sort of move and head right over to Wan.  Breaking up with someone would be harder than throwing yourself at someone, at least I would think so.  Especially since Wan is waiting and ready with open arms, it shouldn’t take too much effort to show up at his door.  But I’m dead wrong it seems.  Instead Joo Yeon finds the most passive aggressive way of asking Wan to come back, she leaves text messages as an anonymous user on his radio website.  At least she told Wan that she broke up with Tae Yoon, even if it was through a text, it is something.

The flashback to the breakup happened exactly as I thought it would.  Tae Yoon quietly agreed.  No tears on either part, just a simple discussion and agreement.  He politely asks if she will go to Wan and she tells him yes.  Out of that cold and distant conversation I did enjoy one small tidbit.  Joo Yeon finally comes to the understanding that to love with a limited heart isn’t really love.  And that is how Tae Yoon wants to love, in a way he can control and command.  Joo Yeon has discovered that she isn’t that robotic and truly wants to know what love is.  The rest of their quiet and reserved breakup talk was too unemotional for me.

I do like this concept that all relationships are interconnected.  Past relationships leave a mark, they change you and thus are part of the new relationship and connected the old and new together to build something different.

So far this episode is not very emotionally charged.  Being the second to last episode I had expected that it would hit the ground running.  Instead we are given a bunch of snippets of dialogue, both Joo Yeon’s inner dialogue and her conversations with Mr. Robot, as well as, her conversation with her co-workers.  We are getting a bunch of little realizations about self, love, relationships… it doesn’t feel like the end of the series.  For me it feels like they are cramming in all these character evolutionary steps into the first ten minutes of the show where they should have been occurring all season.

The dongsaengs!  I adore them so much!  In the midst of this heavy conversation Hee Jae admits that she isn’t sure the current guy and her are actually dating.  Who is of course Woo Young who is sitting right next to her.  And in a flurry to prove that he loves her Woo Young ousts their relationship to Joo Yeon and Min Jung!  Too cute!

Omo!!!  Mr. Firday Night with the fake baby!  How freaking adorable is that!  He’s at home with the simulation baby doll thing and is treating it like a real baby.  Even kissing it’s forehead and calling it cute!  I might just die from the adorkableness.  All the while Min Jung and Joo Yeon watch on the CCTV that he had installed.  Too freaking cute!

For the first time Joo Yeon talks seriously about the age difference.  And what her mom will think or what Wan’s mom will think.  Which really should have come up for her before this.  Everything seems rushed now, all these little nuanced character growth points should have come about gradually and not been thrust in our faces right here at the end.

She’s showed up at Wan’s but he is not going easy on her.  She’s begging him to come back to the house so that she can think through it slowly.  I’m proud of Wan for sticking to his guns and remaining at the hotel until she can properly say that she loves him.  After telling him all her fears and Wan pointing out that if she took more time she’d come up with a hundred other excuses not to date him he makes her choose to come in and accept her feelings or leave to think more.  She leaves… big surprise there.

I am loving watching Mr. Friday Night and Min Jung figure themselves out.  The fake baby doll is silly, but they are adorable with it.  Poor man might have a heart attack now that he knows they are having twins.

Joo Yeon’s heater goes out and she texts Wan to find the coals to light the furnace which has him in a tizzy especially since she just hangs up on him.  So he rushes over only to find that she’s gone to the sauna.  They talk while camping out on the floor and Wan gives Joo Yeon one last chance before curling around her and snuggling.  Joo Yeon admits in her internal dialogue that he makes her heart flutter and she can’t help but like that a lot.  But I’m going to guess she won’t actually say she loves him until the very last moment of the last episode.

I’m terribly confused.  I thought that Joo Yeon and Se Ryung had managed to find friendship again.  However, Se Ryung is going to end their contract and take the idea that Joo Yeon’s team created and move to a different network so that she can make more money?  Without a care that the idea wasn’t hers to begin with?  Was Se Ryung faking the friendship again?  This just seems like it has come out of left field.  Ok, I’m better now.  Se Ryung went on the defensive because the team believed the rumor and treated Se Ryung as if it were true.  Instead of asking her about it they just ganged up on her so she treated them in kind.  I am very-very glad that Joo Yeon pulled Se Ryung aside for a drink to talk about it.  Se Ryung pointed out their rude behavior and they made up.  Yay!  They are still friends and the crisis is averted.

I want a show just about Woo Young and Hee Jae!  The fact that he hid his phone in the passenger side door and had Hee Jae call it so that she could see he put her in his contacts as his girlfriend is the most adorkable thing ever!  I’m glad they’re able to go on their trip!  I just want to squish them!!

Ok, consider me shocked!  Joo Yeon shows up at the hotel room and tells Wan that she loves him and means it.  Wow… I really thought that the show would drag it out until the very last moment.  Whew and we get one heck of a kiss too!

The dongsaeng’s love confession is just about the most cute thing ever.  I am so happy they’re together.

I’ve only watched the original I Need Romance.  However, there was a lot more skinship and intimacy in that.  We’re brought back to Wan and Joo Yeon in bed and with the scattered clothing, it’s obvious they’ve made love.  However, it is left up to our imagination.  I would have liked a bit more bang after waiting fourteen episodes for this.  To see them in love and together would have been nice.