Romance in the House – K-drama Episode 4 Recap & Review

War of the Byeons

Episode 4 of Romance in the House begins with a young Mi-rae out playing ball with her father. This is a very different side of these two than we’ve seen before. However, she still has the same inquisitive, analytical mind as a kid. She questions why her father has more breaks than her, but he dispels that by buying her a new bike. His “love language” has always been through buying things for her it seems, which could explain why there’s so much tension in the present as she rejects his attempts to win her back.

In the present, Ae-yeon finds herself blindsided by the residents who try to sweettalk their way back into her good books again after talking trash about her. Ae-yeon backhands an acceptance, telling them that they’ve always been nosy the whole time they’ve been living there so this is hardly a new occurrence.

At the villa, she bumps into Moo-jin, who’s rattled when he finds out that she’s phoned his sister. Now, she doesn’t actually know about his wealth or buying the villa, which throws his whole story into question. She was under the impression that he was staying there for the last year, but clearly that’s not actually the case.

Meanwhile, Tae-pyeong hosts his father, who heads over to check out where he’s staying. He wants his son to quit the security job but Tae-pyeong refuses. However, these two clearly have a bit of a bond but aren’t quite on the same wavelength.

After a stressful day of hearing the residents constantly mention her father, Mi-rae decides to let out some anger at the tae-kwon-do dojo. She’s definitely got a talent for breaking boards, and she actually feels better after blowing off some steam this way. Tae-pyeong comments as much, before picking a bit of wood out of Mi-rae’s hair.

Meanwhile, Moo-jin catches up with Jae-geol. After the drinks, all the residents are actually treating him friendlier and even offering little gifts. Not everyone believes he’s forthright though, with both Ae-yeon and Lee Jeong-hyeok keeping their suspicions high.

After Moo-jin gets blind drunk that night, she bumps into Mi-rae and Tae-pyeong on their stroll home. He’s a complete mess and is helped into the taxi home. Mi-rae is angry, and lets out her frustrations on the punching machine nearby.

Mi-rae keeps her tight bond with Ae-yeon, going out of her way to essentially “cockblock” her father, making sure that he can’t even try to win over Ae-yeon. All of this crescendos into the pair racing home with bouquets of flowers. When Moo-jin hands his over, he asks Ae-yeon whether they can just go out for dinner together.

Through all of this, we have a little subplot involving Hyeon-jae, who heads off to meet with his friend, Ju-yong. He’s on the verge of opening his own department store and although he’s not quite ready yet, he has been getting some offers. We know that he’s driven by money and this explains what’s going on here.

As for Ae-yeon, she finds out that Jae-geol is apparently a tax accountant. He helps Moo-jin with taxes and they’ve been friends since high school. Only, that appears to be a lie given Ae-yeon knows all of his friends and Jae-geol is forced to backtrack.

She also overhears him saying that “easy money is money easily lost,” and decides to ask Moo-jin himself. However, he’s off paying his respects to the landlord.

At work, the CEO goes out of his way to praise Mi-rae after their sales skyrocket. It doesn’t seem out of character for the others, given Mi-rae is really good at her job, but part of this is clearly to keep her mouth shut about his ties with Tae-pyeong. She’s a woman of principles though and doesn’t tell anyone, despite office workers pestering her.

That night, someone grabs Ae-yeon in the alleyway. Now, it turns out Ae-yeon was in the process of ringing Moo-jin so is all of this connected to the landlord’s death? For now, Moo-jin checks his phone and tries to ring Ae-yeon back. However, fellow villa resident Chun-sik picks up the phone. He claims he’s just found a phone on the ground and it appears someone chased her away.

With Ae-yeon missing, Moo-jin races off to the alleyway. Mi-rae follows too, and they both go out of their way to try and find Ae-yeon. Eventually all of this convenes to the police station, where they find her about to give a statement. She’s being interviewed as part of an assault case. And it turns out the culprit is that creep from episode 3. Ae-yeon screamed, alerting several of the residents, who jumped in to join as they beat the crap out the creep.

After all of this, Mi-rae decides to take off on her own outside. She walks while thinking about everything that’s transpired, harking back to the past where she witnessed this creep abusing her mum. In fact, she almost smashed his head in with a brick before changing her mind.

While walking, Moo-jin decides to tail his daughter, keeping an eye on her. When she spots him, he tells her she’s doing really well for herself and that it must have been hard as the head of the household. He apologizes for adding weight to her shoulders and owns up to his mistakes, apologizing to her. He urges her to give herself a break.

Mi-rae is angry though and points out that she never wanted to be like her father. Before walking away, Moo-jin agrees with her, telling his daughter that she’s nothing like him. Ae-yeon tries to ring her daughter but struggles to get through, eventually realizing that they really can’t go on like this anymore.

As for Mi-rae, she ends up breaking down crying, but Tae-pyeong shows up and see her upset. As the rain pours down and Mi-rae lets her sadness come out, he shields her with an umbrella.

During the epilogue, we cut across to Ahn Jeong-in who looks over a photo of her and Moo-jin together. A brief flashback shows him call her crazy, and she retorts that’s what he gets for getting involved with a “crazy guy”.

The Episode Review

Every episode we’re inching closer to the truth and it does seem like Moo-jin has been involved with gangsters and loan-sharks. This would explain what he’s been doing for the last year, hiding out from his family and doing less savoury endeavours.

However, it’s fair to say the show has been a medley of influences and tones with some working and others less so. The villa residents are less prominent this time around, with the humour instead revolving around Moo-jin and Mi-rae vying for Ae-yeon’s affection. The more effective moments though actually include the pair reminiscing on the past and discussing their issues. Its clear they’re going to patch things up but not quite yet it seems.

For now though, everything is left on a n intriguing note, leaving plenty of food for thought.