Love Next Door – K-drama Episode 11 Recap & Review

Belated

Episode 11 of Love Next Door begins with a flashback scene where Seok-ryu and Mo-eun’s class makes cakes. When they decide to give their cakes to Seung-hyo, they’re surprised to find a group of high school girls wanting to do the same. Mo-eun comments on Seung-hyo’s popularity, while Seok-ryu is bitter about it.

Later, while learning English, Seung-hyo asks if there’s any leftover cake since he’d seen her walking away with it. But Seok-ryu refuses, and we find that Seung-hyo quickly climbed the academic ladder with Seok-ryu’s help after quitting swimming.

In the present, it’s the day after Seok-ryu had cried her eyes out. Later, Seung-hyo joins Seok-ryu’s family for breakfast and feels lonely, thinking about how they all eat together. After breakfast, Seok-ryu asks for Seung-hyo’s help in translating a French cookbook.

While recording him, she falls asleep. She wakes up to find Seung-hyo sleeping beside her and reaches out to touch his face. When he wakes up, he awkwardly runs away. On his way out, he bumps his head on the door while Mo-eun is pushing it open to come inside. She buys him an ice pack at a pharmacy but rushes off when she sees Dan-ho coming towards them.

Later, we learn that it’s the day the milk bottle expires. Both Seung-hyo and Seok-ryu are aware, but since Seung-hyo had seen Seok-ryu cry after Hyeon-jun left, he hadn’t mentioned the milk.

The next day, at the company, Seung-hyo and his team work on an interesting bookstore architecture for a musician. Seok-ryu’s parents extend their support for her cooking. Meanwhile, Dan-ho has been taking time off work to pick up Yeon-du, as their babysitter hurt her back. Mo-eun’s mother offers to keep Yeon-du company. While in her office, Mo-eun suddenly enters. Her mother takes Yeon-du for ice cream, leaving Mo-eun and Dan-ho in an awkward atmosphere. They apologize to each other for the kiss – Mo-eun for initiating it, and Dan-ho for not stopping it!

Hye-suk asks Seung-hyo for a family dinner. Seung-hyo is excited and makes a reservation, only to find out that his mother is leaving the country again and his parents are getting a divorce. In a flashback scene, we see an argument between Seung-hyo’s parents about Hye-suk moving to Africa.

In her anger, Hye-suk says she should never have had Seung-hyo. The 7-year-old Seung-hyo overhears this, and it stays with him, even after Hye-suk apologizes, claiming she didn’t mean it. In the present, Seung-hyo leaves the dinner midway and drinks at a tent restaurant until Seok-ryu is called to pick him up by the owner.

While drunk, Seung-hyo shares how he had always wanted a family like Seok-ryu’s and tells her about his parents’ divorce. Seok-ryu manages to get him back to his office, where she notices the milk carton still in the refrigerator.

The next day, Seung-hyo’s parents visit family court, but they must wait a month for the divorce to be finalized. Later, Hye-suk breaks the news to Mi-suk, and as she’s leaving, Seok-ryu tells her about Seung-hyo’s pain, even though he doesn’t express it openly.

On the other hand, Mo-eun dreams about Dan-ho being a superhero called Mudflat Man who helps her save patients. She wakes up with a start just as they are about to share a kiss. That day, they spend time with Yeon-du at the sauna. Yeon-du feels sad about not having a mother, but Mo-eun comforts her.

The next day, we find that Seung-hyo has been living in his office since he found out about his parents’ divorce. He feels sad about not having even one family photo, so Seok-ryu gives him one from when they were 7 years old. She also reminds him that Hye-suk is leaving that day. Seung-hyo calls his father to check the flight timings but is shocked to learn that he’s at the police station.

Seung-hyo and Seok-ryu discover that Hye-suk went missing from the airport, leaving her mobile inside her suitcase. They ask everyone about her whereabouts. Seung-hyo’s father calls her colleague, rumored to be having an affair with her, and learns about her illness. She’s been forgetting things lately.

With Mi-suk’s help, they search for Hye-suk around the Buddhist temple she used to visit for hiking. After searching for a while, they finally find her injured. Hye-suk and her husband finally become truthful with each other and share their feelings. Seung-hyo expresses his frustration at his parents for making decisions without consulting him. They all hug and reconcile. On the way back, Seung-hyo’s parents flirt as if nothing happened. Back at home, they decide to go to the hospital together for her check-up.

Elsewhere, Seok-ryu discovers that Seung-hyo is going on a business trip for two weeks. Despite claiming she won’t miss him, she starts feeling bored. While listening to Seung-hyo’s French translation of the cookbook she had bought, she finds him confessing to her in French, which she deciphers using a translation app.

This was when she had fallen asleep. Seung-hyo had said that he would continue to like her even after the milk carton expired. Seok-ryu then decides to find Seung-hyo, takes Mo-eun’s car, and meets him in a flower field, where she finally asks him out on a date, sharing banana milk. Seung-hyo takes the hint, and the couple finally shares a kiss as the episode ends.

The Episode Review

Love Next Door is giving viewers exactly what they want – angst and heart-fluttering romcom moments. The performances were top-notch. We finally discover Hye-suk’s illness, and the Choi family resolve their issues, which, frankly speaking, were of their own making.

Despite the show being a light watch, several subtexts in this episode are unsettling, especially regarding Hye-suk’s character. The show portrays her as a villain for being a career woman and suggests she is a bad mother, even though Seung-hyo’s father has been practically non-existent in his life. Yet, the show never criticizes him for being an absent parent while Hye-suk served abroad.

Seung-hyo even states that he feels more comfortable around Mi-suk. The entire discussion revolves around Hye-suk’s shortcomings, while Gyeong-jong’s failures as a parent are never addressed, even though he arguably bears more responsibility for being absent despite living with his son.

Moreover, Gyeong-jong assumes that Hye-suk is cheating on him, making her appear as the villainous, cheating wife. This characterization feels problematic, especially for a healing K-drama like Love Next Door.

On a different note, while we enjoyed Seok-ryu and Seung-hyo beginning their journey as a couple, the entire sequence felt rushed – wrapping up in about 10 minutes at the end of the episode.