Call It Love (2023) Recap Episode 11

Episode 11 of Call It Love opens with Woo-ju and Hyun-ju cooking in the house. She asks Woo-ju about her forehead and Woo-ju replies that she fell but it will be fine. Ji-gu tells Jun that he told his mother about his change in career but she didn’t say anything, just looked at him with tears in her eyes. Jun tells him to stay in the room and says that he’ll call him

Once the table is set, Hyun-ju tells them to eat. She tells Jun she’s indebted to him but he brushes it off. Hyun-ju leaves. When Ji-gu sees that she’s cooked seaweed soup, Jun reminds him that it’s Woo-ju’s birthday. That’s probably why she had come to the city in the first place. Hae-sung suggests they all leave quickly so their mother can be at peace for a little while. Inside, Hyun-ju looks at an old photograph of the family.

Later, the three siblings and Jun discuss coming home early after dinner. Jun says he’ll get a cake but the others dismiss it. Woo-ju says she’s annoyed at Hae-sung for not telling their mother everything when she had said she’d do so. They argue and Woo-ju storms off. Ji-gu leaves soon after, followed by Jun.

At home, Hyun-ju sobs while doing the dishes. Woo-ju comes back and says she forgot to do the dishes. Hyun-ju lets her take over and asks about her work.

Woo-ju texts Dong-jin to let him know why she’s taking a day off. Sun-woo arrives and asks him how the camping trip was, Kang told him about it. When he tells Dong-jin about spotting Woo-ju’s birthday in the files, Dong-jin reveals he already knows as he remembers it from her resume. Sun-woo teases him about dating. He then asks him to ask Woo-ju for some of her time so he and Kang can thank her for making a lonely guy like Dong-jin less lonely.

Hyun-ju realises that Woo-ju has been holding something back and asks her to let it out. Woo-ju tells her about Hee-ja and the funeral. She admits something has been weighing on her since the funeral and she shouldn’t have done that.

Jun buys a drink from a store and then sits outside his pharmacy. He thinks about the previous night when he and Hae-sung were sitting there. He had told her about seeing the medicine in her purse for the first time and how he wouldn’t have mentioned it if she hadn’t talked about it first. He sees her put a hand to her chest and so feels her pulse, her heart is beating fast. She says it’s because of him. When she was upset, she only thought about him. She realised she likes him. Jun drops her hand and walks away.

At present, Jun tries calling someone. Hae-sung gets a message from him, asking her to drop by the pharmacy before going home. Su-ho comes up to her and tells her she should at least talk to him about it if she’s ending things. She agrees to do so.

Young-min sends a job application from a cybercafe. At Best Fairs, Yuri sees that the application for the job advert they put up is from Young-min. Sun-woo tells her to reply saying that he will never be considered.

Dong-jin heads out of work before Sun-woo, making everybody surprised. Sun-woo tells him to go ahead and celebrate Woo-ju’s birthday. He buys a cake from a bakery and then gives Ji-gu a call.

Hae-sung and Su-ho sit across each other at a café. She tells him she came because she thought he’d apologise. He asks why he should say sorry if they’ve already broken up.

Jun eats cup noodles outside his pharmacy and waits for Hae-sung. Texts show that she told him about meeting Su-ho and he’s waiting for her anyway.

Su-ho, now a little drunk, rants about Hae-sung just letting relationships fizzle out and never pursuing the relationships by arguing. He tells her to argue with him. She apologises for hurting him and wishes him well.

Woo-ju and her mother watch TV at home. She asks Woo-ju about Hae-sung’s boyfriend and Ji-gu’s part-time work. Hyun-ju talks about the kids’ names and their meanings. Hae-sung (meaning comet) and Ji-gu (meaning Earth) end up being looked after by Woo-ju (meaning the universe).

The two of them go to meet Ji-gu at the karaoke room. Ji-gu takes Woo-ju aside and tells her to make their mother leave. Because Dong-jin is waiting for her with a cake in another room. Ji-gu reveals he recognised the woman in Dong-jin’s photograph as their mother’s friend but he assumes they only fought about money. Outside, Dong-jin meets Hyun-ju anyway. They are chatting when the two siblings come by.

On the way home, Hyun-ju tells the couple to go have tea while she and Ji-gu head home. She tells Dong-jin to come home another time and then mentions that they look good together.

At the restaurant, Woo-ju and Dong-jin order soju. She asks him what he was talking about with her mother. He says that she only asked him what he liked about her cold-mannered daughter. She also mentioned that Woo-ju pours her heart out to those she does love and that’s why behaves coldly. Dong-jin admits he liked Woo-ju because her straightforwardness didn’t make him afraid the way fake smiles usually would.

While walking down the road, Dong-jin pulls Woo-ju away from an oncoming bicyclist by the arm and then moves to hold her hand.

In the empty office, Sun-woo is about to leave when Young-min comes by. He wanted to meet Dong-jin. He gets down on his knees and says that if they hired Woo-ju again then can’t they hire him? He ends up telling Sun-woo about Woo-ju egging him on to ruin the company. Sun-woo thinks about calling Dong-jin but doesn’t.

Min-young leaves her apartment when she hears Dong-jin’s door open. By the elevator they talk and she mentions she’s going to work and a blind date. She then reveals she’s put the apartment on sale as she’s realised things between them can’t go back to normal. He says he likes Woo-ju and wants to be happy with her. After he leaves, she goes back to her apartment. She then gets a phone call from Dong-jin’s mother, who tells her to go to an address.

Hee-ja argues with the real estate agent about the price of her house because of the redevelopment. The agent reveals the redevelopment has been rumoured for ten years but nothing ever happens.

Outside Jun’s house, Hee-ja’s boyfriend goes up to Hyun-ju and asks to speak with her.

At the bank, Hae-sung learns that Su-ho quits. When she asks a co-worker to go out for lunch with her, the colleague advises her to not date and spend some time by herself.

Jun’s mother calls him and asks him which of the sisters he has feelings for. Jun insists he doesn’t and eventually cuts the call by pretending to have a customer. Later, Hae-sung comes by but finds the pharmacy closed. Jun returns and seems annoyed.

When she asks if he’s sulking, he lashes out at her. She asks him why he’s behaving this way and what’s bothering him. He rants about not wanting to be one of the long list of guys who she dates and breaks up with. He tells her they should pretend it didn’t happen. She insists she just told him how she feels and didn’t ask for him to return those feelings. She tells him what Su-ho said and he exclaims that he doesn’t know anything about her. When she says she doesn’t want to eat alone, he agrees to join her.

Sun-woo thinks about what Young-min tells him and texts Woo-ju to meet him alone. He tells Woo-ju about what Young-min said, expecting her to contradict it. She’s silent for a while and then admits she helped Young-min. He asks her to explain herself so he can decide whether to tell Dong-jin or not. He tells her she should have told Dong-jin once they realised they liked each other and he’ll feel betrayed hearing this now.

While Dong-jin leaves work, Sun-woo tries to get him to come out for a drink but he has plans with Woo-ju. They’re to go to his house and get Ji-gu’s things. Dong-jin cooks them dinner at his house.

Dong-jin tells her that Dae-hong was one of the men his mother married but the only one he called Father. He introduced Dong-jin to camping. Three years later, when Hee-ja married someone else, Dae-hong went camping across the country.

Dong-jin admits that his mother is his weakness, which is why he tried to be a nice person but got taken for granted as a result. He says he’s laying it all out for her because he wants things with Woo-ju to work out. He asks her if she wants to stay the night, as the episode closes out.

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The Episode Review

A much better episode than the ones before, Episode 11 has a fair number of things happening. The inclusion of the sibling’s mother, Hae-sung’s confession to Jun, her ending things with Su-ho and of course the truth about Woo-ju coming nearer and nearer to Dong-jin — all of these things made for a packed, juicy episode, albeit at Call It Love’s slow pace.

It finally feels like things are coming to a head and the events make me eager to play the next episode. I do think Min-young’s storyline works best when relegated to such bite-sized pieces. All in all, a pleasant surprise.