Recap Korean Drama "Crash Course in Romance 2023" Episode 15

Episode 15 of Crash Course in Romance starts at the University Hospital, as Haeng-seon learns about the big scandal regarding the exam papers. It’s definitely confirmed to be Sun-jae, as the reporters mention his “lawyer mum” being involved.

Seo-Jin faces the crowd of reporters outside her office but stays quiet, while our meddling mums all start stirring again, wanting Sun-jae to be expelled from school. Su-a’s mum though has bigger problems but as she’s so mixed up in Su-a’s schooling, she doesn’t realize that her husband is actually having an affair with another woman.

Chi-yeol rings Haeng-seon and tells her that he’s pretty sure that Dong-hui is our ball bearing killer. The other faculty members obviously have no idea about this, as they welcome him back into the office with open arms. Chi-yeol tries to remain impartial, allowing Dong-hui to attend a meeting for him. Unfortunately, Dong-hui overhears Dan-ji excitedly chirping on the phone about Hae-e moving her fingers and has other ideas.

The detectives also start to close in on Dong-hui, and realize that he’s Seong-hyeon. However, when they ring Chi-yeol, he doesn’t get the message given he’s actually over at Dong-hui’s place. Using his math intel, he manages to crack the door code and heads in to take a look around.

There, Chi-yeol sees for himself all the flyers up over the wall, a fountain pen on the floor and Su-hyeon’s diary on the table. It’s here he realizes the connection all of this has and he’s shocked to realize he’s been played all this time. In fact, back in the car he learns that Dong-hui never showed up at the meeting.

In reality, Dong-hui shows up at the hospital and looks set to choke out Hae-e. Haeng-seon is there though and she defends the comatose girl as best she can. Chi-yeol shows up and kicks Dong-hui, eventually leading to a big chase through the corridors up onto the rooftop. Alone, Chi-yeol calls his assistant Seong-hyeon and asks him why.

Seong-hyeon (Dong-hui) points out that he was just trying to remove every obstacle in his path. Chi-yeol sighs, telling him he’s not justified in his actions. He can’t just cover up all the issues and obstacles in Chi-yeol’s life by killing them. Of course, Seong-hyeon has been warped by his ideals in the past, given his own mum and what happened to his sister.

Chi-yeol tells him to turn himself in for Su-hyeon’s sake. Dong-hui refuses and instead, stands on the edge of the rooftop and stands right on the edge. Chi-yeol pleads with him to stop, promising to bring him back and help him in this world. Dong-hui lets himself fall backwards, claiming that he’s tired now. As he falls, Chi-yeol is left in a state of shock and he leans on Haeng-seon for comfort.

Time passes and Hae-e awakens from her coma. The first face she sees is that of her birth mum, Haeng-ja, given Haeng-seon is actually over at Chi-yeol’s place, trying to help him and offering food. He blames himself for what happened, having not been able to suss out Dong-hui’s true intentions. However, they all race to the hospital when hae-e awakens. She completely ignores her birth mum though, given she abandoned her, and addresses Haeng-seon as mum instead.

In the wake of all this, Su-hui (can we just call her Karen from now on?) launches a “big” (about 20 people) protest outside the school grounds, attempting to get Sun-jae expelled. Haeng-seon shows up though and tells them they should be commending Sun-jae’s courage for speaking up and ousting his mum.

Haeng-seon goes on to question Su-hui’s motivations, given she claims that she’s doing this for the public. She’s not, of course, as she’s actually just trying to eliminate another competitor.

Speaking of elimination, Haeng-ja (Hae-e’s birth mother) continues to act rudely and materialistically, only caring about finances and kicking Haeng-seon and Chi-yeol out the room when Hae-e’s wounds are being dressed. Just then though, Sun-jae shows up and it’s enough for him to head in and be alone with her. Sun-jae admits that he’s dropped out of school as it’s the right thing to do. He’ll take his GED later but they agree to talk every day.

Su-hui gets her comeuppance soon after though. In the middle of celebrating Sun-jae dropping out of of school, Su-hui shows up at a restaurant where she notices her husband with his mistress having fun and laughing together. A big catfight breaks out between them all as all the mums watch in horror at what’s unfolding. Su-hui hurts her hand in the process and ends up at the hospital. Haeng-seon is there and she ends up killing her with kindness, deciding not to stoop to her level and helping her out at the machines.

Back at the hospital, a different sort of fight breaks out. Sun-jae confesses his feelings to Hae-e and admits he’s had a crush on her for ages, not t mention he’s bought her a hairband. She agrees to “think about it” (uh oh, never a good sign) and will give him an answer after the CSAT results. Geon-hui sees all of this and can’t stop giggling outside, deciding they should go to the karaoke together and sing break-up songs.

Yeong-joo has a big blind date planned but Jae-woo gets involved and decides he doesn’t want her to go. He admits he hates the idea of her going on a blind date. He remembered what she said before about eating and looks set to take a bite until she stops him. Yeong-joo kisses him on the cheek and eventually hugs him.

Back home, Hae-e tries to confront Haeng-ja about her brazen attitude but outside, we finally get the truth around what’s happening here. It turns out she wants to try and get hold of a load of money and use Chi-yeol to do so. Hae-e overhears her and is not happy.

Hae-e leans on Sun-jae for comfort, before they all celebrate her coming home party. Hae-e makes a wish and blows out her candles for the cake. She’s decided to make a big decision about her life… and she’s going to go and stay with Haeng-ja in Japan for a bit.

The Episode Review

Why would Hae-e make such a big decision about her life? The motivations seem a little odd to me but maybe we’ll get more understanding around this in the finale. The entire plotline involving Hae-e’s mum will hopefully have a good outcome, resulting in Hae-e realizing who her true family are.

The ball bearing killer subplot is finally resolved and while one could feel sorry for Dong-hui, his ending is perhaps the most tragic (and a slightly unsatisfying) way of showing the extreme lengths that parents go with their children, ultimately causing Seong-hyeon to snap from the stress.

The one part of this that’s perhaps a bit rushed and underdeveloped is this Yeong-joo and Jae-woo romance. There’s just not really been much build-up to this and in fact, if it wasn’t for Yeong-joo pressuring the situation, I doubt Jae-woo would even have considered her romantically.