The Midnight Romance in Hagwon – K-drama Episode 3 Recap & Review

Episode 3

Episode 3 of The Midnight Romance in Hagwon starts where we left off with Jun-ho telling Hyun-tak that he wanted to participate in the advertisement campaign for Daechi Chase along with Hye-jin. Hyun-tak thinks about Jun-ho’s idea as he claims that this student-teacher duo could bring more students to Daechi Chase. With the final exams coming up, Hyun-tak considers the idea and asks Jun-ho for some time to think it over.

Meanwhile, Jun-ho goes to the staff room and calls Hye-jin out for a chat. Chung-mi finds it odd that Jun-ho is so busy with everything else but work. Meanwhile, Jun-ho tells Hye-jin about his idea but Hye-jin refuses to take part it in. He tries to convince Hye-jin to play along but she outright refuses and leaves. Jun-ho grabs her by the hand and pulls her into the resource room. He asks her to take the night and consider the idea.

At the same time, Chung-mi talks to Hyo-im and tells her she is worried about not being able to fit in the neighbourhood as Jun-ho is familiar to everyone at Daechi Chase. Hyo-im advises Chung-mi to bring favourable results with her teaching to make a place for herself at the teaching academy. That night, Jun-ho looks at the “Hall of Fame” wall at Daechi Chase and goes through the records of the past students.

On the other hand, Hye-jin is working at her desk when she thinks about Professor Pyo’s threat to her. Ji-suk offers Hye-jin a ride back home but she states that she had work. Jun-ho asks Hye-jin to meet her and she tells him how he was bothering her by keeping her from working. Jun-ho tells her all about the plan he’s devised.

He claims that the two could share a joint curriculum and have combined classes so that they could get better grades for the students from Heewon All Boys Private High School. Since Hye-jin had already conquered Chanyoung High School by tutoring the most number of students from the school, procuring new students from the autonomous Heewon High School was her next challenge.

Jun-ho suggests he would help her defeat Choiseon Academy’s Choi Hyung-sun who had a large number of students from the Heewon High School. Jun-ho and Hye-jin discuss how Hyung-sun was a former teacher at Heewon High School who had started her teaching academy. They call her a “witch” with immense self-discipline as we see Hyung-sun.

Jun-ho tells Hye-jin that a friend of his told him all about the Teaching Assistants (TAs) who worked with Hyung-sun and how she did not have a loyal team except for Park Ki-sung who had stuck with her for the past 8 years. He suggests they work together to bring Hyung-sun down and Hye-jin finally agrees.

She wonders what Jun-ho has to gain from this partnership. Jun-ho states that helping Hye-jin would promise his glorious debut in the teaching industry. On the other hand, Hyung-sun is upset with Ki-sung for not being able to recruit a new TA who could bring in more students from Chanyoung High School. Ki-sung brings up Hye-jin and Hyung-sun declares that she will be starting her classes on the same day as Hye-jin.

At Daechi Chase, Hye-jin and Jun-ho discuss their plan of action to bag the students from Heewon High School. Hye-jin claims that advertising alone will not help them and adds that they need something more impactful. That night, Hye-jin drives Jun-ho home and asks him to plan their upcoming joint lectures.

Before leaving, Hye-jin hands Jun-ho some notes, asking him to study them. Jun-ho tells her that he is going to move out of his parent’s home and move into the locality that Hye-jin lives in and she is surprised to hear this. Hye-jin tries to compose herself and drives home. Jun-ho and Hye-jin are texting back and forth, giggling at their phones as they talk to each other through the night.

The next morning, Hyun-tak meets Hyung-sun for a meal with four other teaching academy directors in the same vicinity as Daechi Chase. During the meeting, Hyung-sun presents the idea that she is going to enrol students from Chanyoung High School which leaves Hyun-tak shocked but wishes her well.

Back at her office, Ki-sung tells Hyung-sun that he is worried about her health with the onset of so many classes she has scheduled for the upcoming month. Meanwhile, after the meeting, Hyun-tak calls Hye-jin and Jun-ho to his office to see him. He tells the two about Hyung-sun’s plan to poach Chanyoung High School students which causes Hye-jin to worry.

Jun-ho tells Hyun-tak about his “joint lecture” plan but Hyun-tak finds it hard to see this as a successful move. Despite his hesitation, he calls Hyung-sun to tell her that Daechi Chase is okay with her trying to poach their students. Hye-jin tells Hyun-tak that despite only having 250 students, Daechi Chase was far superior to Hyung-sun’s classes which had 400 students in total.

She claims that they had better tutoring and high-quality notes that would attract students. Hye-jin’s plan works and Hyung-sun changes the slot of her Chanyoung High School classes to Wednesday and Sunday evenings. Hye-jin tells Hyun-tak that they would continue their classes with Chanyoung High School students on Tuesday and Saturday nights as scheduled and would take on new classes with Heewon High School students on Wednesday and Sunday evenings, the same time as Hyung-sun’s original schedule.

Hye-jin further tells Hyun-tak that they could use Jun-ho to their advantage and give out free “demo” lectures as he was a new teacher. Hyun-tak asks Jun-ho to excuse them as he chats with Hye-jin. Meanwhile, the other teachers at Daechi Chase are planning a welcome get-together for the new teachers. Jun-ho tells the group that he is busy that evening and adds that he will not be joining them.

On the other hand, Hyun-tak and Hye-jin discuss how adding Jun-ho to their lineup of teachers was proving to be a good decision. He thanks Hye-jin for recommending Jun-ho to be Daechi Chase’s brand ambassador. Later that night, Professor Pyo is having drinks with his colleague when he is advised to start helping his students score better grades.

The Daechi Chase teachers are also having a meal at the same restaurant and they discuss Hye-jin’s argument with Professor Pyo. Chung-mi gets a call from an old friend and she gets an update about Professor Pyo. She excuses herself from the team dinner and goes to Daechi Chase. At the same time, Hye-jin and Jun-ho are working late, prepping for their combined classes.

Hye-jin tells Jun-ho that they need to be careful about being seen together as the joint lectures were a secret from most of the teachers at Daechi Chase. Jun-ho and Hye-jin overhear Chung-mi entering the classes and they start hiding away. Chung-mi hears a sound and tries to inspect it but the two continue to hide in the dark lecture room.

Chung-mi gets another call and sits down in the resource room to make her notes. Hye-jin and Jun-ho decide to sneak out from the back door as Chung-mi is taking far too long. Jun-ho notices that Hye-jin is panicking and asks to drive her car instead. Later that night, Chung-mi meets Hyo-im and asks if she could teach the Chanyoung High School students.

Hyo-im tells her that since Hye-jin was already tutoring the students from that school, it would be considered a conflict of interest for her to do so. Chung-mi is disappointed but makes it to work the following day and notices a huge billboard with Hye-jin and Jun-ho’s photos on it. The advertisement about the joint lectures offends other teachers from Daechi Chase and Seung-hee shows up at Hyun-tak’s cabin asking for an explanation about the decision.

Seung-hee tells Hyun-tak that she was hurt by the decision and the other teachers also tell Hye-jin how they felt blindsided by the advertisement. In private, Ji-suk tells Hye-jin that she has a lot of prying eyes on her and asks her to be wary of everyone around. At the same time, Hyung-sun catches wind of the new joint free classes and catches on to Hye-jin’s trap.

She points out that with her being busy on Wednesdays and Sundays, Hye-jin was planning to poach the Heewon High School kids. Hyung-sun calls Hye-jin and practically challenges Hye-jin about delivering a group lecture to Heewon High School students. Hye-jin claps back at Hyung-sun, wishing her well on trying to poach Chanyoung High School students as the episode comes to an end.

The Episode Review

It’s very normal for the other teachers at Daechi Chase to be upset over the joint lectures. It would have been wiser for Hyun-tak to consult Seung-hee if not all other teachers about the new joint lectures with Hye-jin and Jun-ho. It is clear that by using Jun-ho’s free demo lectures, Daechi Chase will be able to bring in a lot of students from Heewon High School.

This can also mean that Hye-jin will have a hard time managing the Chanyoung High School students all on her own. I wish for Hye-jin to take Chung-mi’s help in teaching those students as it looks like she has some intel on Professor Pyo. On the other hand, this could also really help Hye-jin prevent the students from being poached by Hyung-sun.

As chaotic as the business end of the show is, the romance between Jun-ho and Hye-jin has me giggling and kicking my feet in the air. With this being only the third episode in the show, I am hoping for the business angle to take the side-lines with more focus on Jun-ho and Hye-jin’s romantic relationship in the episodes to come.