Love Your Enemy – K-drama Episode 1 Recap & Review

Episode 1

Episode 1 of Love Your Enemy opens with Yoon Ji-won waking from a dream where she’s waiting for someone as a high school student. Later, we learn of the bitter rivalry between her Yoon family and the Seok family. Ji-won’s grandfather, Yoon Jae-ho, who chairs the school she works at, is set to hold a board meeting to decide whether the school’s ownership will transfer to the Seok family’s company. Yoon Jae-ho is firmly against the transfer, as the Seok family patriarch, Seok Gyung-tae, intends to replace the school with a golf course.

Meanwhile, Seok Gyung-tae’s son, Seok Ji-won, returns from Dubai just as the board votes in favour of transferring the school to the Seok family. Despite his father’s insistence, Ji-won opposes the golf course plan and shows no interest in becoming the school’s chairman.

Soon after, Ji-won learns from high school friends that Yoon Ji-won no longer remembers him. Sceptical, he decides to verify this himself. When he visits the school, Yoon Ji-won seemingly ignores him, which fuels his frustration. What Seok Ji-won doesn’t realize, however, is that Yoon Ji-won had a mishap with her contact lenses in the morning and later broke her glasses, leaving her unable to see him at all. Misinterpreting her behaviour as deliberate, Seok Ji-won, feeling slighted, declares to his father that he’ll take over as the chairman.

We are also shown glimpses of the two Ji-wons’ shared history as childhood rivals. While Yoon Ji-won excelled academically, Seok Ji-won achieved his own victories, such as becoming the student council president. Their competitive streak extended into a memorable bet in high school: if Seok Ji-won scored higher than Yoon Ji-won in finals, she would agree to date him. If Yoon Ji-won won, Seok Ji-won would call her “noona” (a term of respect for older women) until they graduated. Yoon Ji-won triumphed, but before Seok Ji-won could honour the bet, he brought her to a nearby park, seemingly with something to confess.

The episode cuts back to the present as Seok Ji-won meets the future school principal and insists on meeting the teachers. The episode concludes with Yoon Ji-won waking from another dream about her high school past, still without her glasses. In a comedic twist, she accidentally pinches the chairman’s cheek in front of everyone!

The Episode Review

Love Your Enemy opens with the quintessential enemies-to-lovers trope, introducing us to the fiery rivalry between Yoon Ji-won and Seok Ji-won. The show has a classic Romeo and Juliet-style setup, with the two families at odds with each other for generations.

While the direction feels average, the show’s strength lies in its talented, veteran cast. The comedic moments, such as Yoon Ji-won unwittingly ignoring Seok Ji-won and driving him to take the chairman position, are some classic K-drama comedy. It’s evident there’s a history between the two Ji-wons, and the episode hints that Seok Ji-won may still harbour feelings for Yoon Ji-won. With its nostalgic, back-to-high school flashbacks and light-hearted tension, the premiere sets the stage for a story that promises drama, romance, and comedy in equal measure.