The Interest of Love – K-Drama Episode 10 Recap & Review

Going In Circles

Episode 10 of The Interest Of Love begins at the train station as Su-yeong finds a piano. Sang-su wants to watch her play and given there’s no one around, she feels comfortable enough to do just that. As Su-yeong plays, Sang-su takes in the music and decides to share this moment just among them, like strangers without prying upon the other’s personal affairs. The piece she plays is Chopin’s Farewell Waltz, which is pretty telling unto itself, given the emotion wrapped up in this.

Eventually Su-yeong heads back home but Sang-su deliberates over what she means regarding breaking up with Jong-hyeon. She throws it back though and asks him if he’s happy. She can tell that he’s not, but as she walks back to her house, coming face to face with Jong-hyeon, their issues come to the foreground.

Jong-hyeon apologizes for what he did and is sorry for her seeing the hard part of him. Asa r esult, he’s goibng to move out. He’s saved up enough money to do so and thanks her for understanding. He also wants to start over too.

Mi-gyeong learns that her boyfriend is aware of her ties with Gyeong-pil. She’s shocked and eventually hurries back home again. Whilst there, (playing Chopin) Mi-gyeong sits down. She questions the classical music before bringing up the situation involving Gyeong-pil. Sang-su tells her it’s okay, before she broaches the subject of secrets and asking if he’s keeping anything from her. He’s silent, which speaks volumes unto itself.

At work, KCU Bank decide to relax the dress code and they no longer have uniforms anymore. In the hallway, Gyeong-pil is there and he brings up the situation in the past, asking just why Sang-su didn’t say anything before. However, they’re interrupted by Su-yeong returning her uniform. Sang-su is unaware of the relaxed dress code and realizes the error of his ways at the last second, continuing that misunderstanding trope as he tries to stop Su-yeong from quitting.

Jogn-hyeon heads out for a date with Su-yeong, but his phone buzzes that night with a message from Cha Seon-jae. Apparently she’s his friend he’s been hanging with lately but she’s immature. He flips his phone over and leaves it. Meanwhile, Mi-gyeong is brought in to meet Sang-su’s mother. There’s a big misunderstanding in the hallway until Sang-su eventually points out that his mother owns the shop. Mi-gyeong’s mum is not happy and decides it’s more than she can handle. In fact, she doesn’t want them to date anymore.

Sang-su’s mum questions her son about his reaction toward Mi-gyeong, believing there’s nothing particularly romantic in his compliments toward Mi-gyeong, given it all feels very much like friendship. That’s made all the worse at work when President Park (Mi-gyeong’s father) heads over to check out Sang-su. When he learns his daughter is chasing him, he’s not happy and tells her “You need to learn how to get what I can’t buy for you.” Cor, emotional damage!

That afternoon, Su-yeong’s mother passes with a tray full of food outside the shop. She looks close to getting hit by a car, until Sang-su honks the horn and stops her. Su-yeong rushes over to her mum, Sang-su charges out of his car and both Su-yeong and Sang-su end up in hospital together. Sang-su is more than happy to wait around and although Su-yeong is grateful, she tells him to leave.

Su-yeong confronts her father outside, wanting to know exactly what he’s been hiding aside from his affair and Su-hyeok’s death. “You ruined everything for us.” She says, leaving him to stew. That night though, Sang-su takes Su-yeong out to his old college campus and decides to take her mind off things. Unfortunately, the pork place is completely shut down and as a result, dinner is a bust.

Sang-su drops off Su-yeong and suggests they go for a meal some other time. Su-yeong eventually agrees and suggests they go the following day. When Sang-su drops her off, he finds missed calls and messages from Mi-gyeong. She’s actually outside Su-yeong’s place and wants to come in to give her something. She hands over a whole stack of clothes for her to wear given they no longer have a uniform. Mi-gyeong then goes on to ask if she’s come from the hospital. While she says yes, it’s an awkward encounter, and one that eventually paves way for Jong-hyeon to return home. He’s drunk and throws his arms around her.

However, Su-yeong is not particularly happy about it. As for Mi-gyeong, she next heads off to see Sang-su. She doesn’t understand the idea of striving and working hard to achieve your dreams, as evidenced by the Hill of Oblivion that he and Su-yeong climbed.

That night, Su-yeong notices messages from Jong-hyeon’s mother on her boyfriend’s phone about hospital bills. Now, given Jong-hyeon is struggling, Su-yeong cooks up some food for Jong-hyeon and decides to sell the clothes Mi-gyeong gave her to help him out. Su-yeong lays it all out with her boyfriend and points out she’s frustrated over things that should really be trivial between them. She leaves the money on the table and decides to go for a nap. Jong-hyeon tries to bite back, claiming that he’s just going to fee bad again. Ugh honestly, this guy.

Jong-hyeon eventually does leave with the money, while Sang-su heads off to meet Mi-gyeong and her father for a spot of golf. President Park tells Sang-su that he’ll do anything and everything for his daughter to make sure she’s taken care of. After, the absolute irony of Mi-gyeong comes through. She turns to Sang-su and says “He  [her father] only shows his affection through money,” which is pretty ironic.

Eventually they decide to go for dinner, but this time it’s Su-yeong who deliberates outside and hesitates before heading inside. Time marches on and he spies her turn and walk away. Su-yeong claims she’s with Jong-hyeon and already had plans, but when she turns around after this phone call, she finds Sang-su is right there next to him. Well, this is awkward!

Su-yeong likens life to a circle, claiming that you fool yourself into believing you’re going somewhere before ending up back where you started from. Sang-su smiles, doesn’t say anything about her lying about seeing him, and instead decides to go out to the rink to clean.

It’s a completely different sort of date to the conventional you’d expect. And this time, he’s genuinely with someone who doesn’t know how to skate. Well, kinda. They both flirt a little, before Sang-su decides to just let her win a race to the other side of the rink. However, she skates over the rink back to where he is.

After catching her as she falls, Su-yeong and Sang-su both look at each other. “I don’t think I can do this anymore.” He says, before leaning in and kissing her. She’s shocked but eventually does kiss him back. “Once again, I’m back to Su-yeong.”

The Episode Review

Okay this drama has won me over. Given I came away from the first few episodes ready to absolutely obliterate this every week in my recaps, it’s turned into the one guilty pleasure every week I can’t wait for.

The characters are so god damn flawed and awful but it’s great to watch, in all honesty. This whole Sang-su/Su-yeong situation has been given so much more time to develop rather than whiny Sang-su chasing after Su-yeong we saw during the first few chapter.

I love the circle metaphor of going around and around, but that speaks more about following the crowd and allowing someone else to drive your life rather than taking control of it yourself. And right now, both Sang-su and Su-yeong have been doing what they think they should be doing rather than what they want to do in their romantic endeavours.

The idea of following your heart and being happy, along with Mi-gyeong perfectly personifying the “money can’t buy you happiness” adage, rings so true here. It’s ironic that she calls out her father in episode 10, claiming he “only shows his affection through money” despite doing the exact same thing for Sang-su with that car.

The worst culprit here though is Jong-hyeon. I appreciate he’s had a hard life but my god, those who play the victim card and do absolutely nothing to help their own situation are so frustrating to watch. And I know this may sound heartless but if he’s not prepared to help himself then he’s the worst character of the four.

Jong-hyeon has a guardian angel in Su-yeong but he treats her with absolutely no respect, going AWOL for days on end and racking up big debts with the internet cafe or drinking too much. It’s just exhausting for her to handle and I don’t blame Su-yeong losing patience and time with him. It’s not attractive and I love that they tie this into his police exam.

Jong-hyeon’s reaction to failing the exam (it’s the end of the world, my life’s over etc. etc.) is such a refreshing contrast to Sang-su and Su-yeong who both nonchalantly shrug off their rejections and see it as another set-back on life’s journey. But next time, they’ll do better.

The symbolism surrounding this Hill of Oblivion is absolutely perfect as well. Sure, you could go the easy way and fast track your way to success (another nod back to Mi-gyeong and her family offering him promotions and money) but going the harder way, taking it one step at a time and really feeling the challenge and reveling in the hard work and grind that comes with it, is ultimately what life is all about.

The Interest of Love has captured all of this so well these past few episodes and while all the characters are flawed and have big issues, there’s a lot of thematic weight to what’s happening which is great to see. And can we just talk about the abundance of awkward moments? God, some of these scenes are toe-curlingly awkward. I love it!