Darkness in Life
Episode 9 of Love Next Door begins with a flashback of Seok-ryu and Hyeon-jun’s lovely relationship when Hyeon-jun first proposed to her. Unfortunately, this is when Seok-ryu discovered that she had stomach cancer. Hyeon-jun decided to take a leave from work to care for her and support her throughout the difficult process.
We jump back to the present, where Seok-ryu refuses to leave with Hyeon-jun, and Seung-hyo arrives at the hospital to pick her up. However, she doesn’t tell Seung-hyo the reason behind her stomach ache. In another flashback, she hides her illness from her mother, feeling troubled and alone.
Meanwhile, Seung-hyo is troubled by the fact that Seok-ryu decided to depend on Hyeon-jun in her time of need rather than on him, and he shares this with Mo-eun. Now, Mo-eun is beginning to have feelings for Dan-ho. The next day, Seok-ryu faces tensions in her family due to her decision to pursue cooking as a career.
On the other hand, a curious case of a broken washing machine brings Seung-hyo’s parents together. Later, Seok-ryu meets with Hyeon-jun, who proposes to her a second time, wanting to restart their lives anew. Later that night, she shares this development with Seung-hyo, turning his feelings down, but Seung-hyo decides to wait for her to reconsider.
The next day, Ma-eum is losing her ma-eum (heart) for Dan-ho as she re-reads his remarkable article written on the theme of paramedics. Dan-ho secretly shares these feelings as well.
Since his conversation with Seok-ryu, Seung-hyo hasn’t been sleeping well. The next day, the company also gets entangled in a case where their construction is halted due to a neighbor wanting to create problems in return for a settlement.
The papers of approval to begin construction that the company had the neighbors sign also appear to be missing for this person. This makes Seung-hyo even more troubled. While going back home, Mi-suk invites him in for dinner. He meets Seok-ryu while having dinner, and Seok-ryu turns him down directly.
After going to her room, she recalls how she’d developed depression after her cancer treatment, which greatly affected her relationship with Hyeon-jun. It’s also revealed that Hyeon-jun hadn’t cheated on Seok-ryu, but he had been feeling the pressure of her illness.
In response to Hyeon-jun’s second proposal, Seok-ryu replies, “I don’t need love anymore. The stomach I have left can barely handle digesting my dream,” turning Hyeon-jun down. Looking at her scarred stomach, Seok-ryu decides that it’s best to keep Seung-hyo away from the truth.
The next day, since Dan-ho asks Ma-eun for help in keeping Yeon-du company because her babysitter has had an emergency, Yeon-du stays with Mo-eun’s mother for the day. Meanwhile, Dong-jin, who had been converting to become a fitness influencer and is greedy for promotional income, decides to promote an unauthorized project and is yelled at by his trainer.
At Seung-hyo’s company, things fall into place when the company helps the man repair his broken pipes, but Seung-hyo falls sick due to the pressure of the last couple of days.
In a dream, he remembers how Seok-ryu had always been there whenever he was sick and, quite accurately, he wakes up to find Seok-ryu tending to him. He asks her to leave, deciding he cannot be friends with her anymore, but discovers the truth about her stomach cancer in a hospital report inside her bag.
This leads to an emotional confrontation between him and Seok-ryu, which is heightened when Seok-ryu’s mother and Seung-hyo’s mother find out about Seok-ryu’s illness.
The Episode Review
Love Next Door undoubtedly has as many romcom clichés of this year as we could imagine. But despite this fact, the show feels so well-executed that it’s difficult not to enjoy the turn of events and character stories.
This episode delved deeper into Seok-ryu’s past illness and conveys the idea that perhaps if she’d shared her challenges with those who love her, she might not have struggled as much as she did trying to be tough throughout her recovery.
Perhaps all that the “darkness in life” needs is the “light of life,” the people who love you, to pull you through your darkest times.
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Episode Review
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Hey CH, completely agree with you. I do understand that Seok-ryu has been acting out of love for her family and friends, but her actions are definitely more self-sabotaging than anything. It’s quite clear that this kdrama would have just been mediocre if not for a star cast and perhaps a better execution. The plot is definitely extremely cliched and repetitive and as you mentioned, the characters are lazily written in a very Kdrama-esque style, they do lack maturity to be honest and not just the kids, the parents as well.
once you step into a kdrama like this one there has to be some suspension of disbelief, of course, but this is too much. I want to love this drama but i just cannot belief any of the storylines. A woman, already an adult, has cancer and goes into surgery without telling her family? If they were on bad terms, then maybe… but it was not the case.
Also, what is up with every single character behaving so childisly? And not a single character seems to know how to communicate properly. I just want it to finish already.