No Gain No Love – K-drama Episode 4 Recap & Review

Episode 4

Episode 4 of No Gain No Love starts with a flashback to Ja-yeon’s school days. She and Ha-jun are in the same year and find themselves punished together. They then see Hae-yeong enter the school sporting punk clothes and red hair. She’s here as Ja-yeon’s guardian since her mother is sick.

The teacher (who had taught Hae-yeong too) says that Ja-yeon should focus on studying instead of writing stories. While Hae-yeong makes it clear that they aren’t real siblings, she also says that Ja-yeon could become a bestseller in the future.

At present, Ha-jun and Ja-yeon catch up at a restaurant. He asks to read her writings but Ja-yeon is reluctant to share them, for obvious reasons. Before she can explain, Ha-jun gets a text from Gyu-hyun and has to go. Although, he leaves his card with her.

Meanwhile, Hae-yeong and Ji-uk have accepted they have to stay the night at the hotel. When she realises Ji-uk hasn’t been to a hotel before, she presumptively asks if he wants tips for when he spends a real night in a hotel with someone. Ji-uk asks whether the kiss wasn’t enough.

A flashback to the wedding shows that the bride and groom are asked to kiss despite Hae-yeong asking for it to be left out. Just as they are about to kiss, Hae-yeong’s mother’s dementia acts up and she says she has to go home and meet her son. Hae-yeong uses the distraction to wrap things up.

At present, Ji-uk pushes her down on the bed and says he has plenty of experience. Hae-yeong doesn’t bat an eyelid and pulls him closer before pushing him away and telling him to go shower. Once he’s gone, we see how flustered she is actually feeling.

Elsewhere, Gyu-hyun is still reeling from Ja-yeon’s novel, which she writes under the pen name Yeon Bo-ra. So much so that he’s in the hospital with an IV drip. He shows Ha-jun the novel as well, revealing that his mother was the one reading the book.

Back at the hotel room, Hae-yeong and Ji-uk are counting the cash. When Hae-yeong says she doesn’t trust him to count the cash alone, he seems offended. She says she doesn’t know anything about his personal life. He opens up a bit and says his mother is the one in Canada. But she has her own family there and his grandmother’s last wish was for him to not go there because it could cause trouble for his mother.

At home, Ja-yeon learns that a user named LuckYou is posting negative comments on her novel. While going through them, she suddenly gets scared and anxious and shuts the machine down.

The next morning, Hae-yeong is at the airport. Ji-uk came alone because Yi-lin watched them get on the airport bus together. He asks why she isn’t going on this vacation with her mother. She says she loves her mother but doesn’t like her. She then gives Ji-uk some money and suggests he go to Canada, advising that he live the life he wants rather than what his grandmother wanted.

When Hae-yeong gets on the flight, she finds an envelope in her purse signed by Ji-uk. Inside is some cash and a letter where he wishes her luck and happiness — a wedding gift of sorts. A flashback shows him writing the letter while Hae-yeong fell asleep.

The scene shifts to three months later! Hae-yeong ended up winning first place in the company contest and Woo-jae won the second despite stealing her idea.

Ja-yeon has officially signed a contract for an audio version of Spice Up Our Love, her web novel. Her editor tells her that their lawyer is going to serve papers to the person who left ‘those comments’ on her novel that same day. That person is none other than Gyu-hyun, who receives a very angry visit from his parents as a result. They tell him to settle the issue quietly.

Due to this, Gyu-hyun is unable to attend the awards ceremony of the company contest where a hall full of employees are waiting. After the ceremony, the employees head out for a team dinner. Hae-yeong’s colleague tells her to invite her husband and Hae-yeong makes an excuse saying he’s visiting his parents in Canada.

On her way home, she stops by the store to see Ji-uk but mistakes a new employee for him. Turns out, she’s been mistaking this new employee for Ji-uk for three months. She’s upset that Ji-uk quit without telling her anything. Meanwhile, we see Ji-uk sitting next to Hae-yeong’s mother at the nursing home.

The next morning, Hae-yeong cleans up the mess that Kitty has made in the house. But she hasn’t actually seen the cat for days. Hae-yeong rants to Hui-seong about Ji-uk ghosting her.

At the police station, Gyu-hyun is dressed in worn-out clothing so he comes across as an unemployed bum and nobody recognises him as the CEO. After accepting the defamation charges, he steps outside the police station. Ja-yeon, who was watching all along, runs straight at him but ends up falling. He sees her phone, with her pen name popping up in a text, which alarms Ja-yeon. She runs away.

Hae-yeong gets a frantic call from Ja-yeon and runs to help. She waits by the police station and happens to see and recognise Gyu-hyun. But he takes it in his stride. Hae-yeong then finds Ja-yeon hiding in a phone booth. She also gets her phone back from the police. On the way back, Hae-yeong tells Ja-yeon that she should have told them this was happening. Elsewhere, Ji-uk is walking by the nursing home at night when a mysterious man gets out of a car and asks for him.

At work the next day, Hae-yeong and her team are setting up their new office. Meanwhile, Ha-jun has taken the day off to meet Ja-yeon. Gyu-hyun goes downstairs to see this ‘friend’ and is startled to see Ja-yeon.

Hae-yeong then goes to a cafe to pick up coffee for her team. When she returns, she sees a group of new hires in the office. Among them, is Ji-uk. She freezes in shock. He walks up to her and says that he’s missed her at the end of No Gain No Love Episode 4.

The Episode Review

No Gain No Love Episode 4 definitely feels slightly dragged, particularly the stretch in the middle with no Ji-uk. But on the whole, it’s a lovely episode that has Hae-yeong and Ji-uk get through the night at the hotel, wrap up their marriage contract and go their different ways. Shin Min-a and Kim Young-dae really flaunt their chemistry in this episode with that tantalising scene in the hotel room.

They knock it out of the park and honestly, I can’t wait for more. The rest of the episode underlines how much we don’t know about Ji-uk and his connection to Hae-yeong’s past. While the mystery is intriguing, I hope it doesn’t overshadow the growing connection between our main leads.

The storyline about Ja-yeon and Gyu-hyun is less compelling in comparison but Lee Sang-yi and Han Ji-hyun play their characters with such earnestness that it makes you want to see where this is going. There’s still so much we don’t know. What was the comment that affected Ja-yeon so much? And why? Meanwhile, Hui-seong barely gets any screen time this episode but the mystery about her relationship continues. Plenty to think about while we wait a whole week for the next episode!