Call It Love: Episodes 13-14

by Dramaddictally

It all comes crashing down this week, landing right on top of our leads. We’ve watched them progress from loneliness, to longing, to love — but now the fates are forcing them back to phase one again.

EPISODES 13-14

I’m wrecked. Is everyone ready to rehash what we’ve just been through? I hope you’re close to a big box of tissues, and maybe a hand to hold.

We start with a fast fall from approval when Woo-joo’s family finds out Dong-jin is Hee-ja’s son. The downward spiral begins as soon as they leave last week’s happy meeting at the noraebang. Dong-jin departs, but later Woo-joo goes to meet him, and Joon shoots a disapproving look. Hye-sung — perceptive as always — wants to know what’s wrong.

Joon admits there’s a problem but doesn’t say what it is. He calls Woo-joo to come sort things out, as Hye-sung dreams up reasons that Dong-jin is off limits. She settles on the idea that he’s married, and before Woo-joo says a word, Hye-sung belts her across the face and goes on a diatribe about how awful it is to have an affair. We were primed to know Hye-sung has a lot of shame around this issue, but I was not expecting this from her.

Woo-joo apologizes, without setting the record straight, but Joon steps in (after far too long) and tells Hye-sung the truth: Dong-jin is the son of “that woman.” Woo-joo got a job at the company to take revenge, but things turned out differently. Personally, I was moved by his parsimony, but Hye-sung is appalled. Woo-joo looks at the ground and cries, apologizing over and over, and Hye-sung leaves looking disgusted.

The camera stays on Woo-joo sobbing for an uncomfortably long time and I just want Joon to hug her. But instead, he follows Hye-sung and tries to explain his part in the whole mess. He’s always felt bad for the stoic life that Woo-joo has led, and liking Dong-jin was tougher on her than anyone. He trusted that she’d end it. What could he do? (I knew Joon was tough on Woo-joo out of love and real concern, but I felt relieved to hear all of this said out loud.) Hye-sung is not trying to hear any of it, though, and we later learn that the root of her issue is jealousy. She’s hurt that Joon kept a secret from her that he shared with Woo-joo.

After Hye-sung knows the truth, she gathers her mother and brother to let them in on the secret too. Ji-gu flips out but Mom is harder to read. She thinks about Woo-joo saying that Dong-jin had suffered as much as they had, and she seems to understand Woo-joo’s feelings — but that doesn’t stop her from disapproving. One thing that eased my mind during the conversation is that they all understand that Dong-jin did not know their connection to his mother either.

Before Dong-jin finds out that connection, Sun-woo briefs him on the other secret: Woo-joo played a role in trying to ruin their company. Right away, it’s clear that Dong-jin understands there must be a good reason and he sets out to look for Woo-joo. As he does, Woo-joo learns that all her secrets are out of the bag and she shuts off her phone and hides out for a little while.

Dong-jin doesn’t find Woo-joo at any of their usual hangouts, so when she finally calls, he’s worried about her and gently asks where she is. Woo-joo thinks it’s the wrong question and says he should be asking about how she lied and manipulated him. He cuts her off and responds in the only way I could imagine from Dong-jin: he knows she’s not that kind of person — and it happened before they were seeing each other. “It wasn’t something major that you lied about. And I’m okay with it. It’s all good. Nothing changes.”

(Everyone still breathing and ready to go on?) Woo-joo meets Dong-jin in front of her old house and lays the rest of the truth on him: this was her home for twenty years and then someone took it away. She wanted to get revenge, but realized too late it was a mistake. She apologizes, visibly pained with guilt, and Dong-jin asks why she didn’t tell him sooner. “It must have been hard by yourself.” He’s nothing but supportive and understanding and starts to say that he’ll try to get the house back for her, but Woo-joo is on a mission to end things and can’t back down.

She wants him to be upset with her, to make it easier on herself for what she’s about to do, but he won’t give her a reason to push him away. Instead, he steps in to give her the embrace she’s been severely lacking and, as they hug, she tells him her family found out everything and she doesn’t think they can see each other anymore. They keep holding onto each other, tears pouring on both sides, until she finally starts to loosen her grip. He does the same and walks away.

In the aftermath, Hyun-joo heads back to Tongyeong — after telling Woo-joo that she can’t see Dong-jin no matter what. And Hye-sung decides that they all need to move out of Joon’s house and get their own apartment in a neighborhood far, far away. She says it’s because she wants to finally act like the unnie, but we also know that she’s still upset with Joon (who’s on an apologetic loop) and doesn’t want to be around him.

For Dong-jin, the impact is twofold. He’s dealing with the devastation of losing Woo-joo, but he also has to have a reckoning with his mother. He learns that Hee-ja has sold the Shim family home and changed her phone number, leaving him no way to track her down. The good news is that Dong-jin winds up with his hands on Woo-joo’s father’s will. As everyone suspected, the will expressly states that the house belongs to the children.

After Dong-jin looks for his mother, he arrives home one day and she’s in his apartment with her luggage, acting like nothing is wrong and he should be happy to see her. I can’t even imagine how hard it must be for him to look at her now that he knows her role in tearing away both women he loved. He sits at the table with her and tells it like it is — the way she’s lived her life has hurt him and he’s never been happy.

Hee-ja responds, “Everyone lives like that. I’m not happy either.” (And this moment — when she uses her own unhappiness to justify hurting her kid — is when her character stopped being a fairy tale villain and became real for me.) But Dong-jin continues to show his mother consideration, notifying her that he has the will. He wanted her to know about it before he gives it to the Shim family. And from there, he goes directly to find Woo-joo.

In parallel events, Woo-joo finds out about the existence of a will (but not its whereabouts) and calls her mom to tell her. Woo-joo says that to claim the house, they’ll have to call the police on Hee-ja, but she’s worried about what will happen to Dong-jin if they do that. Dong-jin had told her that his mother was his weakness, and Woo-joo doesn’t want him to suffer anymore. “I want him to be happy, Mom. We can be happy without the house, right?”

We don’t get to hear if Mom responds. We only see Woo-joo apologize, hang up, and then gaze over her shoulder. Dong-jin is there — and we get to end with hope rather than heartache.

Thank you, Show, for choosing to end on this note! My heart couldn’t take it if we had ended at any other point in these episodes. What an emotional ride. I had no idea how stifled I had been feeling until the truth was finally revealed and then I felt a sudden rush of relief. But then, all the pain came flying at me. And I must be a masochist because, as much as it hurt, I didn’t want it to end.

But there was some healing in these episodes too. Aside from Dong-jin’s pitch-perfect response to Woo-joo, the other moment that I really needed was when Dong-jin and Min-young apologize to each other and both take responsibility for their breakup. After we got to know Min-young’s motivations a few weeks ago, I kept thinking about these two as a couple and how interesting their story is. I love how it sets up this pattern in Dong-jin’s life (problems with his mother) but also sets up a contrast — this time, Dong-jin is better able to deal with a separation because he knows Woo-joo loves him (which he wasn’t sure of with Min-young).

The return of the loneliness theme this week got me sad and angry, thinking about how much the families in this show perpetuate loneliness, rather than reduce it. When they’re around each other, they can’t really be themselves, which creates a kind of isolation even when they’re in each other’s company. On top of that, they’re now forcefully cutting off connections. Woo-joo and Dong-jin, obviously, but also Joon — he’s already established that he needs the Shim siblings around because he has no one else, and it’s sad to see them retreat over something like this.

There’s a lot of hardheadedness right now, but we’ve got no unsolvable problems here. And I’m still holding out hope for Mom. She’s a thoughtful lady who cares about her kids and seems like she can be convinced. She loved Dong-jin once, and with the house in hand I think she’ll come around to feeling that way again. As Woo-joo said, I just want ‘em to be happy, Mom!

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Call It Love: Episodes 13-14