The Interest of Love – K-Drama Episode 15 Recap & Review

Variables

Episode 15 of The Interest of Love begins with Sang-su despairing after losing Su-yeong. Sang-su takes her ID card and decides to try and buy Su-yeong some time, telling everyone she’s on annual leave.

In the meantime, Mi-gyeong organizes to be transferred to their Washington Branch, which is just the break she needs to get a fresh start away from everything. During dinner, Mi-gyeong uses that as a front to explain how she and Sang-su have broken up, shrugging that a long-distance relationship wouldn’t work. It’s much less messy than the alternate! Gyeong-pil happens to overhear and stays quiet, at least until later on when they talk outside.

Gyeong-pil struggles to hold back tears, claiming that what happened between him and Su-yeong is not her business. He also flinches when she asks about their past, but as she presses, Gyeong-pil admits the truth about what happened. He liked her and has done for a while but he wasn’t brave enough to weather the storm and stay with her when her father and the others forced him to cave and break up.

Mi-gyeong reveals to her father in the morning she’s leaving for the US and that she’s broken up with Sang-su. Her father admits that he’s sorted her out a place to stay and even allowed her to rent a car. Mi-gyeong thanks her father and admits that for all this time, she’s struggled to understand him and how he’s used gifts as a way of showing his affection. She knows this because Mi-gyeong herself has done the exact same thing. After, Sang-su drives her to the airport as the pair get some much-needed closure.

That night, during karaoke, Lee Ku-il finally plucks up the courage to kiss fellow colleague Min-hee. These two have been keeping their relationship a secret for a while but now that they’re at different branches, Ku-il plucks up the courage to take the next step. Sang-su notices this and walks outside, the raw emotion of romance too much to cope with.

Gyeong-pil and Sang-su head out for the dinner the following day. Gyeong-pil does his best to try and repair their relationship, but he does it indirectly by asking the new owner at the oyster shop (which is now a different restaurant) where the previous owners are. As we know, they’ve gone home. Su-yeong has joined them, deciding to assess her life and figure out what she really wants.

Gyeong-pil listens back to the recordings he took with Su-yeong, and eventually decides to send it on to Sang-su. Frustratingly, he can’t pluck up the courage to listen and see the truth, so he just outright deletes the video.

Jong-hyeon is still kicking about too, having struggled to move on as well. He heads to her apartment after failing to ring through and learns that she’s moved out. He deliberates over deleting her number and isn’t sure what the best course of action is.

Su-yeong heads off to pay her respects to her brother at the Memorial Center, where his friend happens to be there. He admits that in the past he saw Su-yeong’s mother with another man. It was her all along, it wasn’t her dad as she initially thought!

Her father was actually at the house that night because his wife was about to be sued for adultery, so he showed up to settle things with the family, begging on her behalf and taking responsibility for her cheating. He did this to protect the kids, and what she saw was him invited inside to sign the settlement agreement.

All these years, Su-yeong has lashed out and blamed her father when really, it was her mother. As a result of this, Su-yeong heads off to see her dad and admits she knows the truth. She doesn’t confront her mother about this though, sidestepping around the truth under the guise of telling her to get her legs fixed up.

When she ends up down by the beach, who should be there but Sang-su! He makes her a sandcastle and confronts her, asking just why she ran away and struggles to hold back tears.

Eventually the pair sit together, where Sang-su hands over her ID card with the blue lanyard, signifying her changed position. Her resignation letter is still pending and she’s currently down as on annual leave. “There’s still time,” Sang-su urges. Instead, she throws the ID card in the water.

Sang-su though heads in to retrieve it for her, getting himself soaked in the process. He’s still drunk, of course, so afterwards the pair head out for a bite to eat. They also go for coffee too, reminiscing over school days. Su-yeong admits she was the best hider in hide and seek, managing to outsmart all the other kids. As for Sang-su, he was the best at seeking, persevering and never giving up until he found everyone.

It’s a nice bit of thematic dialogue to explain their mindset, before they pair spend the rest of the day together. Sang-su thanks her for spending tim with him, doing all those things tourists do and acting like a normal couple.

After, the pair decide to drink together into the early morning. While together, they decide to play the Truth Game. Su-yeong admits she ran away because she was afraid and scared. She kept pushing him away but Sang-su continued to find her, believing that things could work out between them as a result.

Dealing with things when they’re tough and staying together through that is not something she had the confidence to do, unsure whether to commit fully.

Sang-su admits he’s always thought fully ahead, prepared for any eventualities along the way. He tells Su-yeong that she’s not a misfortune but rather a variable. After drinking some soju, Su-yeong leans over and kisses him, quipping that this is a proper variable.

In the morning, Sang-su heads back home again but Su-yeong drops off some bread for him to take. She thanks him for coming to see her and agrees to give the bank another thought. She also promises to call him when she’s back in Seoul. As the pair look at one another, Sang-su smiles as narration chimes in “That was the last time I saw Su-yeong.”

The Episode Review

Well that was perhaps expected wasn’t it? Su-yeong needs time to herself and she needs to try and work out what she wants in life. The way she’s gone about this has been about as successful as brewing tea in a chocolate teapot and right now we’ve hit boiling point, with hot chocolate all over the counter.

The “perfect day” with Sang-su did feel like a final farewell, a way for Su-yeong to reward Sang-su for persevering with her while she flip-flops through her emotions. Given she’s scared to commit, it reinforces what others have said about her being a free spirit and needing to find herself before she does anything else.

The revel with her mum and dad is another big sticking point here and it contextualizes that entire relationship in a completely different light, especially as it shows the lengths that these two would go just to protect their kids.

The misunderstandings continue to pile up in this drama though and my god is it frustrating. Between Sang-su deleting Gyeong-pil’s voice message, to Su-yeong and Sang-su’s constant back and forth, this drama has been littered with these little clichés.

It’s still unclear what’s going to happen in the finale, given we have no preview. In an ideal world, Su-yeong will stay by the sea and mend her ties with her family and come to terms with her brother’s death. As for Sang-su, he should stop pegging for Su-yeong and waiting for her to return, finding true happiness in a likeminded soul instead.

Regardless of what happens though, tomorrow’s extended episode is scheduled to run for around 90 minutes (if rumours are to be believed!), so you’ll need to buckle up for this one as it’s going to get messy.