Call It Love (2023) Recap Episode 5

Episode 5 of Call It Love starts with Woo-ju coming out from the elevator in the office building and seeing Dong-jin looking at Min-young. Later, Dong-jin sits at a restaurant alone and thinks about his conversation with Min-young. Sun-woo calls but he doesn’t pick up. He messages, offering to explain everything but Dong-jin remembers the time he met Sun-woo by his building’s entrance.

Woo-ju is on her way home, telling Jun on the phone that she doesn’t want to drink. He says he doesn’t want to drink alone because it’s unbearably lonely. She sees Dong-jin drinking alone.

A little later, Dong-jin gets up to leave and drops a glass which shatters on the floor. He cuts his hand on it. He then walks towards his house and we see that Woo-ju waited by the restaurant and then began to follow him. She sees him talk to Sun-woo on the phone and hears about the wedding invitation he received from Min-young. When he steps in front of the car she pulls him back.

He assures her that he isn’t trying to die. She demands to know why he put up with Min-young for a year. She says he should be trying to ruin her instead of ruining himself. He says he’s tired and wants to leave but she points out that he’s bleeding.

Min-young and Sun-woo wait for Dong-jin at the building’s entrance. Sun-woo tells her to go up. She asks him to curse her and call her shameless. He says he had an idea that it was Min-young who had cheated but ignored it for his own comfort.

Woo-ju gets medical supplies for Dong-jin and he wraps up his hand. She tells him he should have gone to the wedding and crashed it. He says it wouldn’t make a difference as the feeling would still remain. She says this is why he’s easy to stab in the back, revealing that Cha Young-min has been taking all the companies behind his back.

Hae-sung tells Jun about how she’s planning on wooing Su-ho, but he changes the topic and says he’s waiting for Woo-ju. She asks who he will eat with him when Woo-ju starts dating and bets that Woo-ju will find someone before he does.

Woo-ju packs up soup for herself and leaves home. Ji-gu tells Jun that Woo-ju is going to clean the pharmacy ten times as an apology and that she made some soup for him. He goes to get the soup and by mistake, sees Hae-sung come out of her shower and drop her towel. She screams and hurriedly gets dressed. She then calls him inside and shows him her underwear to prove that she doesn’t wear tattered inner wear all the time. Jun laughs it off and says that it doesn’t matter to him because she’s like a giraffe to him, people don’t look at a giraffe and wonder if its male or female. Hae-sung is annoyed.

Sun-woo finally meets Dong-jin the next morning, having waited by his building all night. He apologises for everything too. Dong-jin apologises for cussing at him. While driving to work, they discuss how to salvage their fair. Sun-woo warns him not to trust Woo-ju too much.

Sun-woo and Dong-jin meet their clients but don’t get a lot of information on why they’re backing out.

Ms. Baek calls Dong-jin and tells him she can’t find a fair listed under the Shinwoo Fairs company.

CEO Shin calls Min-young but she cuts the call. She then calls back and he asks when he can expect the investment. She says she’ll review it and call him back.

At lunch, Dong-jin struggles to eat because of his hand. Min-young calls Sun-woo and Dong-jin notices it but Sun-woo doesn’t pick up. Min-young goes to their office instead. Outside the building, she tries calling again. Wo-ju watches her from inside.

Dong-jin refuses Sun-woo’s offer to stay at his house. At a grocery store, Ji-gu sees Dong-jin walking away. Dong-jin stops at a motel and goes inside. Ji-gu calls Woo-ju and tells her but she says it’s not her problem. Ji-gu tells his friend about how his sisters would be angry if they found out he quit studying. The friend, Su-ho, talks about how he’s texting an older woman.

Dae-hong sends Dong-jin a video of a cat that makes him smile. Dong-jin lies down on the bed but his shadow on the wall turns into a small boy who climbs up the window sill, races through trees, rows a boat, walk alongside a cat and ultimately settles onto a campsite.

Meanwhile, Woo-ju’s aunt talks to Hee-ja at her parlour and asks her for money. Hee-ja says she’ll think about it.

The workers at the office talk about how weird it is that the CEOs aren’t coming to work and how the contracts are getting cancelled.

An employee from one of the client companies shows Dong-jin and Sun-woo the brochure for CEO Shin’s fair, which is with the same companies just a week before theirs. He confirms that it was Cha Young-min who came to meet him, saying that he offered a big discount and participation in the next fair for free.

Cha Young-min takes all the employees including Woo-ju out to lunch and announces that he’s switching companies. He entices the other employees into following him to Shinwoo Fairs. Woo-ju suddenly gets up and leaves.

She remembers Dong-jin talk about how he was taking his revenge by making money and having a good lifestyle. Proving that he’s doing well is also a kind of revenge.

She calls Dong-jin and says she’s giving him a chance to get his revenge. As she talks, they meet each other on a bridge.

Later, Sun-woo and Ms. Baek look into Young-min’s laptop and Woo-ju packs his belongings into a box. They look for evidence that he went to the vendors on his own and Woo-ju helps them find it.

Young-min is walking with his son when he sees Dong-jin waiting for him. He tells Young-min that he’s fired and turns to leave. Young-min tells him that being a pushover is why CEO Shin keeps winning. Dong-jin retorts that he’s been using Young-min to make sure no other employees fall into Shin’s trap. On the bus, he sees a text from Woo-ju asking where he is. He replies that he’s headed to the office.

Woo-ju denies Ms. Baek and Sun-woo’s offer to go get a beer and says she is meeting somebody. She tells them to go ahead since she left her wallet. Sun-woo realises she’s lying but Ms Baek tells him to let it go.

Woo-ju replies to Dong-jin saying that she’s at the office too and if he wants they can get dinner together. Dong-jin rushes towards the office. Woo-ju hears footsteps and sees Min-young instead. Woo-ju tells her that Dong-jin left but he comes in a minute later. He seems happy to see Woo-ju but his expression turns when he notices Min-young. Min-young wants to tell him something in private but he tells her to leave. She says she met CEO Shin under guise of an investor to see what he was up to and to help Dong-jin. It was an excuse to approach him.

He asks why everything is so easy for her but she says it isn’t. Though she didn’t come here to say this, she tells him she didn’t get married and was alone in the US. She wants to apologize to him. Dong-jin says that someone once told him his back looks so bored and lonely. He tells Min-young to think about the reason why she shouldn’t come up to him anymore and think about it a thousand times over. He turns and tells Woo-ju they should leave. Woo-ju looks at Min-young, puts her hands in Dong-jin’s and they leave.

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The Episode Review

Until the last scene of this episode, a lot of my excitement and eagerness to stay with the story had ebbed. This episode felt longer than usual despite having the same run time. Certain scenes simply dragged on, transitions were stretched out and flashbacks appeared where they weren’t needed. The show needs to trust its viewers’ memory a little more.

Story wise, I’m not so impressed. Dong-jin starting out on a journey of revenge and payback, aided by Woo-ju, is great. Kim Young-kwang continues to do a lovely job of portraying his feelings. The problem is that Woo-ju seems an accessory to his story now instead of the leading woman of her own. What happened to the revenge plan? Even if she’s decided against it, why can’t we see that thought process? I understand the pity and empathy driving her but where is the conflict between her purpose and her action? Why does she even care about this company at all? It’s not what they’re doing as much as how they’re doing it. Woo-ju deserves more depth and thought-provoking scenes.

The music of the show also continues to be really good in a very soft and soothing manner. It fits the show’s entire mood although I have to say the colour palette is trying too hard in that sense. The scene with the shadow was an interesting one as well, visually very beautiful but somehow random and disconnected from the rest of the show.

The last scene was, overall, handled really well. Seeing Woo-ju wait while Dong-jin rushes to the office sparked that excitement of a melodrama. Dong-jin giving it back to Min-young was satisfying and walking away holding hands with Woo-ju was even more so. Fingers crossed things go uphill from here.