Crazy Love: Episodes 11-12

by mistyisles

One of my favorite things about Crazy Love is its penchant for trapping its characters in their own webs of trickery to humorous – and occasionally heartfelt – effect. Despite willful deception, misunderstandings, and their own denseness, all those tangled threads somehow serve to pull our couple closer together instead of forcing them apart.

EPISODES 11-12 WEECAP

Upon reading Shin-ah’s diary, Go-jin races to find her. He does indeed believe she’s dying, but he also sees himself through her eyes, from being a horrible trial she had to endure while trying to reach her dream to being the supposed source of her illness, and then finally how she came to forgive him. It completely breaks his heart, and overcome with guilt and a painful awareness of the time slipping away, he asks to date her.

Shin-ah, having no idea about any of this, turns him down, and also refuses to return to work. Go-jin is undeterred; throughout the course of an entire episode, he keeps asking every chance he gets, almost like a little kid asking, “Are we there yet?”

Meanwhile, there’s an interesting dynamic going on between Go-jin and Se-gi, where Se-gi is working behind the scenes to create animosity against Go-jin, but it keeps helping Go-jin in little unexpected ways instead.

For example, he brings in an audit team to “investigate” the study guide leak in Go-jin’s name. Eun-jung, terrified that her involvement will be found out, leads the workers in a strike to demand an apology… which Go-jin gives, on the condition they convince Shin-ah to come back to work. If we’re keeping score, that’s two points for Go-jin – Shin-ah coming back and satisfied workers – and not quite the result Se-gi was hoping for.

But that’s not all Se-gi’s up to. His ultimate goal seems to be to force Go-jin out of the company, and to do this, he starts racking up favors by “helping” people around Go-jin. Then he drops little hints about the amnesia to a few choice shareholders and schedules an official meeting to discuss having Go-jin step down (for his own good and the good of the company, of course).

I’m not totally sure why Se-gi wants Go-jin out, but it seems to have something to do with his elderly father who no longer recognizes him, instead asking for Se-gi’s sister. And judging from the way Se-gi has to gather his composure in the staircase after, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that said sister isn’t alive anymore.

One of Se-gi’s alliances is with Soo-young, carefully but purposely leading her to the conclusion that Shin-ah has been manipulating Go-jin all along and is only pretending to be his fiancée. Which technically isn’t all that untrue. But it also gives Soo-young license to manipulate Shin-ah in return, acting like a friend to her face and offering her a coveted instructor position if she’ll leave GoTop, while sneering at Shin-ah behind her back and scheming ways to keep her away from Go-jin.

Speaking of Soo-young, I really wanted to like her, but I just can’t. Yes, she believes Go-jin has amnesia, is being taken advantage of, and might love her again once he regains his memories. But she also acts like she’s entitled to his affections just because it’s what she wants – like he’s the one at fault for not somehow knowing she was forced into giving him up.

But Soo-young finally guesses the truth about his “amnesia” near the end of this week’s episodes, so I suppose the real test of her character will be what she does with that realization. Will she accept that Go-jin has moved on, or will she double down on her efforts to win him back?

Now that that’s out of the way, the real focus of this week is about Go-jin’s efforts to win Shin-ah’s affections. There are a few missteps – such as when he bars her from the upcoming instructor audition and flat-out tells her she’s not talented enough – but ultimately, he gets through to her with sincerity.

After admitting that what he’s really worried about is her leaving his side, he openly confesses that he likes her. Then he leans in for a kiss, promising that this one really will be only three seconds. But it lasts quite a bit longer (I counted), because Shin-ah’s the one who goes right back in for more.

Now that they’re officially dating for real, they’re adorably happy and playful together, and able to turn on a dime from sweet and heartfelt to hilarious and right back again. Like when Go-jin tries to deter Shin-ah from pursuing the instructor position by telling her honestly that he’s afraid she’ll be hurt because students want a technician not a teacher… and then launches into a speech about not caring himself because he just wants to help kids any way he can, inspiring her more than ever.

Or when dishwashing shenanigans turn into an impromptu game of tag and then cuddling on the couch, where Go-jin vows softly never to let her go. He means the cancer, of course, and though Shin-ah doesn’t know it, he spends every spare second researching for any hope of a cure and looking after her health as best as he can.

That translates to serving her healthy meals in the cafeteria, carrying things for her, disinfecting her house, and generally ordering everyone to take as much work off her shoulders as possible. To her mortification, this only serves to make the other instructors think she’s pregnant.

Eventually, enough is enough, and Shin-ah asks outright what’s going on. Hesitantly, Go-jin confesses that he read her diary. Shin-ah tries to explain, but he just thinks she’s trying to be strong on her own, so in the end, she has to drag him to the doctor to hear for himself that it was a misdiagnosis.

Predictably, Go-jin angrily storms out of the room. But just when Shin-ah starts to think he never loved her, only pitied her, he comes rushing back in to grab her in a desperate hug. Tearfully, he explains how terrified he was of losing her, and how he was prepared to drop everything and do whatever it took to find her a cure. Touched and relieved, Shin-ah comforts him with a soft kiss. And then, finally, they’re both able to enjoy the relationship without fear.

It’s a good thing these two are finally on the same page, because – much as it seems Go-jin has the upper hand with Se-gi still convinced he has amnesia – I have a feeling they’re in for a fight, and will need each other’s support more than ever before.

But I’m also feeling pretty confident, because even when they hated each other’s guts, it was obvious that as long as they’re working as a team, they’re pretty much unstoppable.

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Crazy Love: Episodes 11-12