Call It Love: Episodes 11-12

Call It Love: Episodes 11-12

by Dramaddictally

Our heroine is in a bind. Caught between duty to her family, a life-changing love, and the guilt of her small acts of revenge, she bides her time through more lies of omission. But now that Mom is in town, the pressure is rising and it won’t be long before the truth comes spewing out. In the interim, our ever-likable leading lady decides to follow her heart — right to the doorstep of our hero.

 
EPISODES 11-12

They did it! Is it too petty to start with that information? The thing is, it’s a big milestone for our leads to feel so close to each other. And when they finally get around to kissing (etc.!), all that emotional closeness gets captured on camera. The eleven episodes of buildup did their job, making for a super hot impactful scene.

Surrounding this lovely moment (which I swear I only watched four or five times), the episodes are chock full of reasons why Dong-jin should be named boyfriend of the year — from showing up with a surprise birthday cake for Woo-joo to not caring if everyone at the office knows they’re a couple. And Miss Woo-joo is the epitome of adorable herself, texting Dong-jin to let him know she won’t be at work… in case he gets worried. These two have entered top-OTP-of-all-time territory.

A lot of events this week revolve around Mom, also known as KIM HYUN-JOO (Kim Hee-jung). When she appeared at the close of last week’s episodes, I got very nervous watching the Shim siblings cower in front of her. Just how scary was she going to be? One thing this drama does well (out of many) is that it knows how to set up expectations and then demolish them.

So far, Hyun-joo hasn’t presented much of an obstacle at all. In fact, I’ve only known her for about two hours but I like her already — a lot, actually. The kids lay one piece of disappointing news in front of her after another, but once she’s had time to be upset and process it, she comes back clear and wise. And she knows her kids, especially Woo-joo, very well.

Hyun-joo is staying at Joon’s house with the rest of the family and Woo-joo opens up to her quite a bit more than I expected. She tells her mom that Hee-ja is living in their old house, and then confides in her about what she did at her father’s funeral. She thought she’d get a funny story out of it, but since that day she’s had a heavy heart and feels sorry. Both women cry — and Lee Sung-kyung gives a knock-out performance, restrainedly breaking down before our eyes.

Woo-joo takes Mom to see Ji-gu at the noraebang where he works. Immediately, Ji-gu hauls Woo-joo to a private room and warns her that Dong-jin is there with the aforementioned birthday cake. He knows that Dong-jin and Hyun-joo shouldn’t meet — because of Dong-jin’s mom.

Woo-joo gets nervous at first, but Ji-gu is not entirely correct in what he knows. He remembers that Dong-jin’s mom was a friend of their mother’s, but he thinks the two moms fought over money a long time ago and that’s why they’re not friends anymore. He doesn’t get that Dong-jin’s mom is the woman their dad left them for.

When they come out of the room, it’s too late. Dong-jin and Hyun-joo are sitting together, happily chatting away. Hyun-joo has already fallen for Dong-jin (because, who wouldn’t?) and sends him and Woo-joo off for birthday celebrations while she and Ji-gu go home. She tells Ji-gu that Dong-jin seems like such a decent guy, which is rare to find.

Woo-joo and Dong-jin go for dinner, where Woo-joo learns that Dong-jin likes Hyun-joo as much as she likes him. He says Hyun-joo was down to earth and didn’t ask the profiling, judgmental questions that most moms would. Instead, she just wanted to know: “What do you like about my cold daughter?” She continued by saying that Woo-joo acts cold out of fear because she’s actually so warm-hearted that when she cares about someone, she pours her whole heart into them. Dong-jin replied that he likes Woo-joo because she’s not so sweet — and says he liked her first. (He wins all the points.)

On the night that Woo-joo goes to Dong-jin’s apartment to “collect Ji-gu’s things” (a.k.a., to sleep over), Dong-jin opens up about his mom. “My mother is my weakness,” he says. “A weakness I want to hide.” Because of that, he tried to be nice to everyone, but he often got used in the process. He’s telling Woo-joo this so he doesn’t make the same mistake he made with Min-young — he wants it to work this time. Woo-joo, for better or worse, does not use this as an opportunity to tell the truth about who she is or how she knows his mother.

Woo-joo “just wants to be with him right now” and calls Hye-sung to cover for the fact that she’s not coming home. (Although, as it turns out, Mom knows exactly where Woo-joo is and she’s cool with it.) Woo-joo tells Dong-jin how much she likes him — so much she wishes everyone else in the world would disappear. That — as you can imagine — leads to the first kiss. And these kisses are not squee material — they’re more like “I can’t even breathe” material.

While all this is happening, Woo-joo is under a lot of pressure to tell Dong-jin the truth. No longer is it a matter of trying to end things with him (we’re way past that) or even just protect her family. The bigger issue is that Sun-woo has learned about Woo-joo’s involvement in trying to ruin Best Fairs. When he confronts Woo-joo, she admits to it and Sun-woo wants her to tell Dong-jin herself. She agrees, but says she’ll wait until her contract is up. So, the poor thing is terrified of what’s going to happen when Dong-jin finds out, and she’s trying to spend as much time with him as possible before that.

On the home front, Hyun-joo doesn’t believe that the kids’ father would leave their house to Hee-ja (and we’ve been getting clues that she’s correct). While she’s seeking information, she hears that Woo-joo already knows Hee-ja’s son — since he left his business card for her. Hyun-joo is angry that Woo-joo didn’t convey this information and asks for the full story.

Woo-joo tells her mom and brother a version of events that seem to be what she would like to have happened. She says that Hee-ja’s son had nothing to do with the house. She met him and he apologized to her sincerely. He looked like he had suffered as much from his mom as they did from their dad, and she forgave him. But, when Hyun-joo asks if there’s anything else she’s hiding, Woo-joo says no. (And I feel like she’s getting Dong-jin in trouble with Mom here as much as herself.)

Jumping tracks for a sec, I can’t leave out Hye-sung’s confession to Joon this week. After she cries in his arms about her (now ex-) boyfriend, Joon tries to console her by telling her to fill her prescriptions with him from now on — he’ll take care of those things for her. Hye-sung’s heart flutters and Joon holds her wrist to check her pulse. But when she says it’s fluttering because of him, he practically flings her arm away and leaves without a word.

Later, they have a confrontation at his pharmacy, where he snaps that it’s not okay for her to like him — he’s not some guy off the street that she can break up with at any time. Much later, Joon ends up apologizing and admits that he was upset because he feels uncomfortable in so many areas of his life — he doesn’t want to feel uncomfortable around her too.

We close this week with a seemingly happy scene at the noraebang, where the family and Joon have gathered to finally hear Ji-gu sing. Dong-jin arrives, looking for Woo-joo, and joins the group as well (which makes Mom happy). Ji-gu sings and the camera pans around the room, all smiles except Woo-joo — who’s worried.

You know, when I look around the room during that last scene, I feel like, why can’t they all just be a happy family? Dong-jin is looking for a reason to cut his mother out of his life. He’d definitely do it for Woo-joo (and now that he’s found out Hee-ja was harassing Min-young for money I feel like it’s coming no matter what).

Is it possible the problem is mostly in Woo-joo’s head? I mean Mom has been so cool about most things up to this point once she has a chance to process and calm down. She already loves Dong-jin. Maybe she’ll find out the truth and just get over it. Who wouldn’t want that pretty face as a son-in-law?

 
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Call It Love: Episodes 11-12
Source: Buzz Pinay Daily