Our Romance
Episode 12 of Romance in the House starts this finale with Moo-jin bundling Mi-rae inside and the pair regrouping in her apartment. It’s probably just as well to be honest to avoid everything properly kicking off.
The next morning, Ae-yeon is happy to know that Moo-jin is being stern with their son. She hopes that he will see reason and understand why.
Speaking of stern, Mi-rae overhears a coupe of her colleagues badmouthing her at work and she immediately lets rip when she catches them. She berates their low sales within their department and reinforces how well her team are doing by comparison. They are absolutely destroyed and in the end, are left flustered.
Does Mi-rae learn to let go?
Mi-rae continues her crusade, sending Ae-yeon along to the beauty technicians to get herself patched up for the big shoot. After, Ae-yeon and Mi-rae sit and have coffee together. She’s taken aback by her daughter’s newfound enthusiasm to actually wanting to do things for herself, rather than just helping out the family the whole time. She also points out that she’s okay with Moo-jin moving in and has made peace it. Mi-rae just wants her mum to make a decision that’s right for her.
Meanwhile, Moo-jin shows up at the Taekwondo studio. Tae-pyeong apologizes but the latter shrugs it off. He knows that this is just how dads get sometimes and understands why Chi-yeol reacted that way. Tae-pyeong points out that his dad just wants him to settle down, , and Moo-jin is quick to retort that he must have been very patient with him for all those years.
In fact, Chi-yeol is surprised when Tae-pyeong decides they should just head out and have a few drinks together. While talking, Tae-pyeong admits that it felt weird to hear Chi-yeol bragging about his son’s achievements. He’s decided that when he finishes the internship, he’s going to go back to his old job. Chi-yeol agrees, given it was a promise they made to each other. They also have a drink and a laugh together, in a touching moment.
Does Hyeon-jae get his moment to shine?
Back home, Moo-jin speaks to his son but Hyeon-Jae is not receptive. Moo-jin is pretty brutal, telling his son he doesn’t understand that he’s being hard like this for his own good. Hyeon-jae leaves the apartment, and when he does, Moo-jin is forced to try and reconcile with his son.
Hyeon-jae finally speaks up to the whole family that night, pointing out that he’s serious about this business proposal. He knows none of them have ever believed in him and he’s always been the odd one out here. He was bullied all the way through elementary school and nobody ever thought to ask if he was ok. And everybody is making life decisions without him around, which hasn’t settled well with him at all.
Alone, Ae-yeon and Hyeon-jae talk plainly. We’ve known for a while that Hyeon-jae has been the odd one out in this series, used as comedy relief, so it’s a nice moment in truth. Ae-yeon apologizes for having no idea about any of this and promises to be more receptive this time.
Having ironed out the worst of it, the whole family talk about the situation and agree to hear Hyeon-jae out now. In order to communicate better, they’ll have dinner and meet once a month for a family gathering.
What about Jeong-hyeok’s story?
Speaking of trips, the next day Ae-yeon invites Moo-jin out for a trip with her. It’s just time on her own without the kids. Ae-yeon opens up over a glass of wine, pointing out how the house is big without the kids around. They discuss their living arrangements and are finally on the same page.
Meanwhile, Mi-rae organizes a big holiday with Tae-pyeong. Given her organizing brain, she ends up writing down a ton of things to do non-stop. Tae-pyeong is concerned that she’ll get a nosebleed and that they need to slow down. He intends to be with her for a long time so they can just take their time with everything and not rush it.
Elsewhere, Jeong-hyeok gets his story published but he deflects the attention by announcing that Se-ri is pregnant. The villa residents are delighted. The couple joke about how the baby is going to have the nickname “Geek” (there’s a joke here somewhere given our website…) and Jeong-hyeok is going to be the geek dad.
How does Romance in the House end?
As for Moo-jin, he decides to embrace Tae-pyeong’s enthusiasm for teaching and jump into this field too. While out and about, he runs into Mi-rae, and the pair finally have a big chat about the past. Moo-jin regrets spending so long looking for the swindler and the way he came into money. He just wanted to do right by them.
However, Mi-rae calls him dad and points out that when she was young she liked him a lot and she knows that she won’t struggle as much now to embrace him as her father. They both decide to play baseball a bit, just ike old times.
With life continuing on, Ae-yeon applies for her driver’s licence. Hyeon-jae tries to make it as an entrepreneur, while Mi-rae works as hard as usual, trying to make every ordinary day a special one. Of course, the gang make sure they meet up once a month to share news and they’re getting along like a house on fire. In fact, they decide to go on a trip the next month.
The Episode Review
So Romance in the House comes to an altogether obvious ending, with all the plot points wrapped up and no stone left unturned. The best part of this episode is Hyeon-jae, and understanding his plight is a nice way to top everything off. Personally, I wish we’d seen more of him across the season because it feels like this was changed based on fan feedback. Either way, it’s a welcome inclusion.
Similarly, seeing everything wrapped up the way it was, with the family dinner being a regular mainstay and better communication between the quartet is a reminder of how important communication is in a relationship.
There’s a nice ebb and flow to this episode, as we systematically wrap everything up, all building toward that moment between Mi-rae and Moo-jin. It has been teased since episode 1 and its good we finally got it here.
However, the drama has been far from perfect. The middle set of episodes have really dragged out the main conflict and the mystery involving Moo-jin was actually quite underwhelming, given the amount of build-up we had for it. This should have been maybe 8 or 10 episodes tops, as the bloated run-time has done this one no favours.
Either way, Romance in the House wraps up with a decent ending, which at least counts for something!
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