Call It Love (2023) Recap Episode 6

Min-young is stunned watching Dong-jin and Woo-ju leave as episode 6 of Call It Love begins. Outside the lift, Dong-jin lets go of Woo-ju’s hand. He tells her they’ll have dinner some other time, and she asks why. He insists that they aren’t friends and tells her not to do anything like that again, he doesn’t want to misunderstand her. She still says they should go have dinner.

Min-young beats herself up at a bar, next to Sun-woo. He tells her that Dong-jin must have pretended to have a girlfriend to push Min-young away. She thinks about his face and says she recognises that look.

Woo-ju advises Dong-jin to sue Min-young. Then she tells him to go on internet forums where much worse stories await. She said when things went wrong in her life she read such stories online. She asks him why he’s staying at a motel but he doesn’t respond. He thanks her for eating with him as he didn’t want to be alone that night. Later, Woo-ju and Dong-jin are walking when she sees Ji-gu working at a café. She catches him while he’s on the phone with Jun and the phone call stays on. Ji-gu tries hiding behind Dong-jin but she tells him to step aside. While still hiding behind Dong-jin, he confesses he quit studying and wants to pursue music. He pushes Dong-jin onto Woo-ju and runs away. They awkwardly split apart and she leaves.

The next morning, Woo-ju asks Jun if he knew everything about Ji-gu. But Jun seems upset with her and accuses her of not sharing everything with him either. Outside, Ji-gu tries to catch Jun’s attention. Jun’s packed a bag of clothes for him. He claims he was acting earlier with Woo-ju. He tells Ji-gu to come back home in a few days but Ji-gu wants to live on his own now.

Hae-sung tries to talk to officer Su-ho (who is also Ji-gu’s friend) again. He tells her that the day she got in a fight was his first day on the job. She says she isn’t embarrassed about what happened, it wasn’t her fault. He offers her a coffee.

CEO Shin makes a visit to Best Fairs’ office. He sees Woo-ju’s nameplate as he walks by. He asks Ms Baek whether she followed Sun-woo or Dong-jin out from his company. She says she ran away from someone. Dong-jin arrives and CEO Shin begins to taunt him.

A flashback shows Shin asking Dong-jin to stay with his company. Dong-jin decides to leave with Sun-woo anyway. An angry Shin promises to ruin him.

At present, Shin shows Dong-jin the brochure to his exhibition. Dong-jin isn’t surprised. Dong-jin says that he knows the real reason behind Shin’s revenge.

Another flashback shows two of Dong-jin’s employees go to a bar and see Shin drinking. They let Dong-jin know and he comes to sit with Shin and offers to take him home. Shin tells Dong-jin to stop pretending to be the nice guy. Then he gets down on his knees and begs him to come back, even though he knows he treated them badly. On the table Shin’s phone keeps ringing, it’s his wife.

That night, Dong-jin heard that Shin’s wife collapsed. That’s why he let Shin take out his frustration on him a few times, out of pity. But what happened to his wife was not Dong-jin’s fault. Shin still blames him for not being able to be with his wife and help her. At that moment, Sun-woo comes in and berates Shin as well. In anger, Shin calls Young-min and tells him to go ahead with the camping fair. The employees watch the whole thing. Afterwards, Sun-woo tries to buy the employees a drink to appease them but they insist they want to drink by themselves. He gives them his card.

Woo-ju searches for Ji-gu, who has quit his part time job. Woo-ju asks Hae-sung how she is so calm while looking for him. Hae-sung says if he wants to sing then Woo-ju forcing him down at a desk won’t help. She tells her to stop controlling him just because she supported him. Woo-ju says she packed his lunch a thousand times. They argue and Woo-ju walks away.

Sun-woo tells Dong-jin the employees might be planning on leaving. Later, Dong-jin eats alone at a restaurant. Woo-ju sees him there and joins him. Dong-jin talks about how he was good at running as a kid and his gym teacher told him to participate in a provincial competition. He didn’t because he was the slowest and didn’t want to be alone on the track even for three seconds. Woo-ju says that despite that she knows he’s the kind of person who won’t be beat down, no matter what.

Drinking beer on her own, Woo-ju thinks about all her moments with Dong-jin and tells herself to snap out of it.

Groups of employees begin to leave Best Fairs, until there’s almost nobody left.

Woo-ju is hanging out with Jun, who asks her when she’s going to quit her job and return to the pharmacy. She evades the question and answers vaguely.

An employee brings lunch delivery to Sun-woo and Ms Baek. Dong-jin washes his face in the washroom and then comes across Woo-ju in the passage. She notices one of his buttons has come off.

The core group at Best Fair make plans for their future. Sun-woo commends Dong-jin’s plan to offer a hands-on camping experience at a festival. Sun-woo then tells Dong-jin that Min-young called and asked if they need an investment. Sun-woo said no but wants Dong-jin to consider it since these are desperate times.

Dong-jin considers calling Uncle Dae-hong. A flashback shows Dae-hong showing Dong-jin an apartment and offering it to Dong-jin. He wants Dong-jin to live there and take care of the place. Dong-jin calls Kang Jun, who immediately offers to send him some money. He tells Dong-jin to meet him more often. Woo-ju’s words about him not being beaten down ring in his ear.

Woo-ju’s aunt calls Hee-ja but she’s busy. Hee-ja returns to a table, sitting across from Min-young. They ran into each other at a department store. Min-young apologises for not reaching out but Hee-ja asks for money instead, ten million won. Min-young asks if she has to keep this a secret.

Min-young comes to the office and sees Woo-ju and stops her to talk about something. Woo-ju says she isn’t going to answer any of Min-young’s questions about her relationship with Dong-jin. Min-young says that she’s living across from Dong-jin and wanted to let her know. Outside, Min-young tells herself that she’s pathetic.

At a cybercafé, Ji-gu hangs out with Su-ho. He talks about how living on his own is not all he thought it would be and now his sisters aren’t looking for him either.

Hae-sung meets with Su-ho and lies about all the things they have in common. Jun comes upon the scene and meets them but Hae-sung pretends they haven’t seen each other in a long time. Jun wishes Su-ho luck and leaves.

Meanwhile, Ji-gu comes across Dong-jin outside and smiles.

Woo-ju’s aunt goes to a real estate agency, seemingly to find out more about Hee-ja. She calls Woo-ju later and tells her that Hee-ja never sold Woo-ju’s house, she moved in instead. Dong-jin sees her stand in shock outside the office and then turn and walk away. Hours later, she still hasn’t come in to work.

The real estate woman Woo-ju’s aunt met calls Dong-jin and tells him to come to the office. She says that the daughter he was looking for is arriving soon.

Woo-ju goes to the house and sees Hee-ja’s boyfriend leave from there. She rings the bell and Hee-ja picks up the intercom. Woo-ju yells at her to open the door as Dong-jin leaves the office.

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The Episode Review

Maybe once Dong-jin knows the truth about Woo-ju’s identity, I can stop harping on about the revenge part of this story. Because so far, it seems to be an element that comes and goes as it pleases. Popping up once every episode or so. Once I’ve fully settled into the office drama genre, the show might feel a bit more coherent.

Despite the slightly faster pace as compared to the previous episode, this one doesn’t add any enticing factors to the story. Flashbacks are still used unnecessarily. Knowing Lee Sung-kyung’s range of talent, it’s clear that the writing of this series isn’t giving her any room to show it. There are some things about the overall visuals that I like, certain symmetrical shots and elements of cinematography (not the colour palette!). But overall this show isn’t doing much to keep viewers hooked. It almost dawdles and indulges in itself right until the last scene where a piece of information acts like a cliff-hanger.