Do You Like Brahms? – Episode 8 Recap & Review

Firmly

As we cross the halfway point of this Korean drama, Do You Like Brahms doubles down on the melodrama for episode 8.

Song-A begins her performance in front of Jung-Kyung. She praises Song-A though and tells her she clearly practiced well but it feels like she’s trying too hard.

She gives some constructive criticism but just before Song-A can play again, they’re forced to take a break as Jung-Kyung is called away.

Elsewhere, Sung-Jae hands in his notice to the Cultural Foundation. Before he goes, he blames Young-In for being partially responsible for the downfall of Joon-Young’s career.

Later that evening, she breaks the news to Joon-Young who promises to speak to Chris again to try and persuade him otherwise.

Before that though, he sits with Tae-Jin and they discuss the Chopin Competition and how he and Tae-Jin drifted apart around that time.

With the new competition around Tchaikovsky coming up, Tae-Jin’s guest questions whether he’ll be competing. Joon-Young dodges the question and Tae-Jin picks up on it immediately, questioning his commitment.

After the lecture, Joon-Young declines Song-A’s invitation for lunch and meets Sung-Jae to discuss his future prospects. To begin with, he’s told to stop the piano trio given they’re not on his level. As they continue on, Sung-Jae tells him to manage his career.

Later that day, Hyun-Ho heads in to buy sheet music at the exact same time as Hyun-Ho. She’s awkward and suggests coming back another time. He brushes off her concerns though and tells her to head in as well. Later that evening, it’s obvious the pair are still reeling over the break-up last episode.

This is only made worse later on when he phones through to the Academy and learns about Director Na. Wondering whether to message Jung-Kyung or not, he ultimately decides against it.

Song-A receives a call from Dong-Yoon who invites her out for drinks. When she declines, she meets back up with Min-Sung who discusses how Dong-Yoon blew her off earlier on.

As they continue talking about her piano partner, Min-Sung suggests she ask Joon-Young to join her. Only, he’s berated by Tae-Jin who implores him not to play the piano for anyone. He wants him to focus on the competition at hand.

Later that day, Song-A and Joon-Young get talking, with the latter inviting out Song-A for dinner. She immediately brings the conversation back to the seating arrangement, which he admits he doesn’t want her to be worried about.

Song-A instead brings up how they’re not on the same level which rubs Joon-Young up the wrong way. He tells her they can’t be together if she continues with this line of thinking and walks off.

That evening, Song-A heads out for drinks with Dong-Yoon as discussed earlier from their phone conversation. It’s here he admits that he likes her.

He goes on to admit he thinks about her all the time. With her feelings confused for now, this is only made more complicated by Young-In asking for help at the Foundation while Song-A is studying during the semester.

The next day, Joon-Young rings and asks her to wait. As we soon see from an earlier conversation with I-Young, she mentions how Joon-Young doesn’t always put himself first.

This allows her to wait for him as he enters the rehearsal room. He bursts in and tells her… he needs to play for Jung-Kyung. She’s obviously none too happy with this revelation and her passion opens up Joon-Young to finally tell the truth.

Joon-Young admits that he likes her and leans forward and kisses the girl. Yes! Finally!

The Episode Review

It’s taken us a while but finally we see Joon-Young and Song-A sharing a kiss – and a pretty passionate one at that. The duo really do complement each other nicely and finally it looks like they’re going to start dating.

On top of that, the love triangles continue to complicate and it’ll be interesting to see what happens with Min-Sung when she finds out Dong-Yoon actually likes Song-A.

Jung-Kyung continues to play off the unlikable character here though and it’s difficult to really feel any sympathy for her. After all, it’s her fault that this whole mess has unraveled.

Still, this week’s double bill bows out with lots of promise for the future. Quite what will happen next though remains to be seen.