Brewing Love – K-drama Episode 7 Recap & Review

Episode 7

Episode 7 of Brewing Love begins with Min-ju being ecstatic to find that Yong-ju is the one who saved his life six years ago. However, he realises that she isn’t quite happy about it. He also comments that she’s nothing like the person she was when she saved him — a flashback shows the scene where Yong-ju tells Min-ju, who’s in a hospital bed, to be kind to himself by protecting himself.

They go back in to have dinner with Min-ju’s family and make small talk. Min-ju wants to ask her why she looks downcast but she leaves before he can.

Back home, Yong-ju’s grandmother feels pain and falls down. But she gets back up and pretends everything is fine by the time Yong-ju arrives. Another flashback shows Yong-ju arriving home after saving Min-ju to find her grandmother collapsed on the floor.

Elsewhere, Ah-reum calls her parents to a restaurant for her birthday. During the conversation, she confronts them for showering her with money but not with love or attention. Coincidentally, Chan-hwi and his siblings enter the restaurant. They are celebrating Chan-hwi’s younger brother’s birthday. Ah-reum’s parents leave for work and she’s left alone. She even imagines Chan-hwi bringing her a cake and singing for her.

However, while leaving the restaurant, Chan-hwi does notice her and even introduces her to his siblings. She then goes to a nearby convenience store and eats when Chan-hwi returns. He’s holding a bunch of cookies in the shape of a small cake. This time it’s not a dream!

A few days later, Min-ju continues to wonder about what Yong-ju could be hiding. The Jisang team heads over to the brewery. On the way, Yong-ju meets the villagers and they all complain about her. Apparently, Min-ju can’t stop talking about how Yong-ju saved him and they are tired of it.

But Yong-ju is uneasy as she recalls how she had missed her grandmother’s call while saving Min-ju. Yong-ju then comes face to face with Min-ju and pretends to be okay once again. The team then works on the concept for their new beer.

As they wait for the beer to brew, Yong-ju and Chan-hwi describe how they became friends while competing with each other at the gym. Ah-reum and Chan-hwi then head out to get coffee on a bike. She surprises him by putting her arms around him. Meanwhile, Min-ju asks Yong-ju what’s wrong. She promises to open up to him later.

In a turn of events, Ra-oh gets a call that his father has collapsed. They rush him to the hospital where he has to sign a surgery consent form. Yong-ju recalls having to do the same for her grandmother and counsels the youngster on how to take charge and be a good caregiver. When Min-ju pays for Ra-oh’s father’s hospital bills, Ra-oh feels uncomfortable.  But Min-ju tells him to accept the help others offer him.

Min-ju and Yong-ju leave the hospital and he drops her home. Her grandmother ends up inviting Min-ju for dinner and he’s more than happy to accept. Her grandmother is delighted to see them together and when Yong-ju falls asleep, Min-ju confesses that he likes her.

After he tucks her in bed, Yong-ju’s mother reveals what happened in the past. Yong-ju came across Min-ju inside a car filled with fumes (possibly a suicide attempt but the show doesn’t confirm this) and saved him.

In doing so, she ignored her grandmother’s call and the latter collapsed. They had a lot of financial difficulties after that. While Yong-ju left the military and kept her hobbies aside in order to make money, Min-ju took her words to heart and built a life that protected himself.

At present, Min-ju realises he is the reason Yong-ju had to stop living her life. In the morning, Yong-ju wakes up with a jolt and sees a note of apology from Min-ju. She goes to her grandmother and says she has decided not to regret her actions in the past. Her grandmother wholeheartedly agrees.

Yong-ju then goes to the brewery to find an emergency situation. Someone went up to the mountain and gave the fire department a call before getting cut off. Yong-ju quickly realises Min-ju is missing. She goes up the mountain but finds him perfectly fine, sitting by the run-down hut they had previously found.

She yells at him for disappearing but he says he wanted time to think. To find a way to be with her despite everything. Since he keeps asking her if she’s okay, she finally relents and admits that she’s hurting. He promises to never leave her and then kisses her. After a moment she kisses him back at the end of Brewing Love Episode 7.

The Episode Review

Brewing Love Episode 7 is almost entirely focused on Yong-ju and Min-ju and the connection between them. It’s a refreshing change for sure and their relationship is definitely more compelling than the beer plotline. Min-ju is incredibly endearing in this episode, particularly with his emotions swinging from joy to sadness about Yong-ju hiding something from him. Jong-won does a wonderful job of portraying Min-ju’s feelings and shows so much range in the way he goes from heart-eye and pouting to being serious and earnest.

Se-jeong does a great job of depicting Yong-ju’s hesitancy as well. She is, morally, in a tight spot. For someone who steadfastly moves towards the right thing to do, it is nice to see Yong-ju struggle with the dilemma. If there’s one pet peeve I have it’s that we have seen enough of Min-ju’s growing feelings but not much of Yong-ju’s.

The final scene proves that she likes him back but we haven’t really seen her fall for him the way he did for her. Let’s hope we see more of her point of view in the following episodes!