Recap Korean Drama "Crash Course in Romance 2023" Episode 10

Episode 10 of Crash Course in Romance starts with Chi-yeol’s big confession. Haeng-seon listens to all of this before leaving. When she does, everyone else happens to be hearing the broadcast on the live-stream, including his confession about liking Haeng-seon.

Hae-e is understandably shocked, while Haeng-seon heads halfway home, only to change her mind and go to see Chi-yeol instead. Chi-yeol finishes up his interview and decides to ignore all the reporters and media outside. He doesn’t ignore Haeng-seon though, who texts him to come and meet her at Room Two at Versailles; a karaoke bar.

Alone, Chi-yeol repeats what he said before, explaining that he tried rationalizing and talking it away but he can’t ignore the truth. He likes her and he’s been feeling like his brain is overworked and frazzled. “I know I shouldn’t have feelings for you. I’ll end it.” Chi-yeol reassures her, and eventually leaves.

Chi-yeol’s outburst has far-reaching ramifications though, including plenty of parents wanting refunds from the Academy for an alleged adulterer teaching their kids. Dong-hui isn’t talking to his boss either, unhappy with the brazen nature of what he’s done. In fact, it’s so bad that kids stand outside the Academy, burning their textbooks like it’s the end of the world.

With Chi-yeol’s reputation going down the pan, Su-hui decides they should skip over to a younger, more stable teacher in Song Jun-ho. She promises that Director Kang will help them out.

Elsewhere, Yeong-joo believes Haeng-seon should help herself and be open about her parentage to Hae-e, that way people will see that it’s not an affair and not that much of a big scandal. However, she refuses to do so.

At the Academy, the Director tells Chi-yeol that he needs to take a two week break to at least show that he’s sorry. However, Kang intends to usurp his position and put this new tutor in place.

Meanwhile, there’s extra drama outside the academy when a body washes up on the shore in Incheon. The detectives from the ball bearing case are given the greenlight to investigate this. It turns out the man in question was a guy from Pride Academy and he appears to have been hit by a ball bearing.

On his leave of absence, Chi-yeol heads out for a drink with Jong-ryeol. Chi-yeol admits he had no idea what actually took place in the past but bemoans his luck in life and calls himself an idiot. He pities himself scoffs at the idea of being a star teacher, drowning his sorrows in alcohol.

As they both drink, with a solid 6+ bottles of soju strong on the table, the pair talk about teaching and their changing circumstances. Chi-yeol ends up passing out so Jong-ryeol takes his phone and rings Jae-woo, asking for his help in taking the guy home. Jae-woo shows up and helps him back, popping him in bed and caring for him. It’s a really sweet moment, and in his drunken state, Chi-yeol dreams of Haeng-seon and kissing her, struggling to work out exactly how he’s going to get over her.

In the morning, Chi-yeol disappears and everyone struggles to get through to him. It turns out he’s actually off fishing at the usual spot. Haeng-seon can’t focus all day but eventually realizes where he is and grabs a cab up there.

Haeng-seon confronts the Trillion Won man but Chi-yeol admits that he’s hungry and they go for a meal together. He brings up how Haeng-seon’s mother used to feed him all the time and that’s why he has such a connection to this restaurant – and to her. Haeng-seon suddenly realizes who he is and recognizes him from the past, shocked.

As for Chi-yeol, this period of reflection has apparently helped him realize his true feelings. He believes he doesn’t really like Haeng-seon and it’s actually just his overwhelming gratitude for her mother that’s confused him.

Outside, the pair head back home again, as Chi-yeol believes he’s seen sense now. “I’m sorry for worrying you,” He says, hoping that she does well with her business from now on. Unfortunately, Haeng-seon is completely heartbroken and realizes that she actually did have feelings for him all this time.

Hae-e watches all of this transpire from the window, seeing her aunt cry on Yeong-joo’s shoulder and realizing she has true feelings.

When Chi-yeol’s two week absence is over, he returns to Pride Academy to find Song Jun-ho teaching math instead. It turns out Chi-yeol has been switched to a completely different classroom, a much smaller one and teaching kids who really don’t care about being there.

This is the last straw for Chi-yeol who decides he’s going to quit outright and leave the Academy. On the way out, a couple of detectives pass, the ones working on the I-sang case. The pair seem to recognize Dong-hui from somewhere, but quite where they know Chi-yeol’s assistant is anyone’s guess.

With Chi-yeol’s name removed from the school website, Hae-e shows back home and sees Chi-yeol watching Haeng-seon from his car. He ends up driving off after, but Hae-e clearly knows what’s up here.

Speaking of knowing what’s up, Sun-jae’s mum is under fire again, this time by her lawyer husband who questions the Academy and how safe it may be after the Young-min death. Given he was at the police station and overheard the officers talking, he’s worried that this may not be the best place for their little Su-a.

When Mr Popular shows up at the school, berating Chi-yeol and calling him out for being an adulterer and falling to rock bottom, Hae-e suddenly shows up. She admits that Haeng-seon is actually her aunt and single, not her mum like everyone else thinks. It’s not a scandal, it’s just romance.

During the epilogue, Haeng-seon shows up at Chi-yeol’s place the night he’s blind drunk, where Jae-woo is on the sofa asleep. She heads in to see Chi-yeol and they hold hands. It turns out the scene with Chi-yeol and his dreams was real and the pair really did kiss.

The Episode Review

What a great episode! Crash Course in Romance delivers another solid chapter, this time with Chi-yeol finding himself on the backfoot and struggling to get the momentum of his career back on track after this scandal.

Hae-e has seen everything that’s taken place with Chi-yeol and Haeng-seon, with the pair very clearly having feelings for one another, and it’s obvious she knows that, between Chi-yeol watching longingly in his car and his aunt crying outside.

This whole scandal with Chi-yeol has become progressively hostile and ugly as the episodes have progressed, and we’ve seen Hae-e wrestle with this for a while now. Her courage to open up (on the biggest platform imaginable no less) is incredibly gutsy and will likely change a lot of opinions going forward.

The way Pride Academy have completely dropped Chi-yeol and done so so quickly shows what kind of character and loyalty they have, and to be honest he’s better off not going there anymore.

We do see a bit more of the ball bearing case here too, which takes on a rather concerning turn now that there’s another death to deal with. It seems unlikely that Hu-jui is the one responsible but we’ll have to wait and see how this unfolds next week.

The kiss between Chi-yeol and Haeng-seon is by far the best part of the whole show thus far and now that we know they actually did kiss and it wasn’t just a dream sequence, I wonder how that will develop in the future. Can next Saturday hurry up please?