Recap Korean Drama "Crash Course in Romance 2023" Episode 2

Episode 2 of Crash Course in Romance starts with Chi-yeol eating the delicious side dishes from Haeng-seon’s shop. He checks out the bag and sees where it originated from.

Speaking of which, flashbacks reveal more of the past as we see Hae-e dropped off and Haeng-Seon and her mother forced to take her in. As a car crashes outside (signifying Hae-e’s mother presumably passing away) the pair have no choice but to look after her from here on out.

It’s tough going and Haeng-seon does her best, juggling responsibilities of looking after Hae-e and picking her up from nursery while also competing at a national level playing handball. Hae-e decides very early on to call Haeng-Seon her mum rather than aunt, as the pair form a beautiful bond.

This continues through the years, and as we jump back to the present, we see Haeng-Seon still hasn’t lost her athletic edge. In fact, she’s outside skipping ropes and trying to decide what to do with Hae-e. Given she wants the academy lessons with Chi-yeol, she’s torn over what to do. Her friend, Kim Young-joo, is quick to point out that Hae-e is the reason why she quit being an athlete. For now though, Haeng-Seon decides to go all in with this academy deal.

Chi-yeol heads back to work with renewed energy, ready to put this nasty student situation behind him and feeling energized from the food he’s eaten the night before. The first port of call comes from the admission talk show which begins at 6pm. He also casually drops an idea to Dong-hee for picking up more side-dishes.

Dong-hee and Chi-yeol show up at the side-dish store but there’s a problem. Chi0yeol notices Haeng-seon and immediately scrambles back in the car. Despite intially saying he’s never heading back again, other take-out food just doesn’t have the same allure.

Meanwhile, Haeng-seon ends up with an early start, determined to get Hae-e enlisted at The Pride Academy for th star classes with Chi-yeol.

Now, part of this includes getting up super early and waiting in line to get a coveted ticket for that class. Naturally, before she gets there, all the mums stampede up the road to try and get in line first. The thing is, there are dozens of people in front of Haeng-seon so despite her early start, she’s still got a long time to wait.

As slips of paper are handed out, the last one is given to Haeng-seon who just about makes it in time. It’s massively lucky and a lot of that comes from Haeng-seon’s praying to the Gods.

When Haeng-seon returns, she badmouths the phone thief and goes on to mention how lucky she was to enroll Hae-e. However, she’s unaware of Chi-yeol in the shop, in disguise and picking out side dishes trying to act casually. He signs it under the name of Dong-hee and eats in the car, marveling at the fresh flavours.

Anyway, he also overhears about the phone and decides to drop off a brand new smartphone for her too. Haengseon is shocked, unaware that it’s the phone thief that’s actually here. Haeng-seon is convinced that there are romantic implications involved in this and contemplates whether she should date after all.

As for Chi-yeol, he’s approached in a bookstore regarding the incident in the past. Specifically that involving the student we’ve seen in his haunting flashes. A student died as a result of this incident, with her entire family torn apart.

Chi-yeol is generally regarded as a bad guy as a result and it could well be to do with her asking for his number. Now, it’s quite cagey and very mysterious about what actually occurred, but I’m sure we’ll find out more over the course of the season.

Meanwhile, Jae-woo notices Chi-yeol on a bus shelter poster but is flustered, unsure exactly where he’s recognized the guy from. Haeng-seon shrugs it off when she hears from her brother but it’s surely only a matter of time before she finds out.

Hae-e’s birthday rolls round as she begins at Pride Academy. Hae-e gets settled in but finds herself given the cold shoulder by Su-a. She feels like Hae-e is pretentious ever since she agreed to switch places with her for an exam earlier in time.

When Chi-yeol heads back to the shop, Jae-woo immediately recognizes him as the phone thief right in front of Haeng-seon. When she removes his glasses, she recognizes exactly who he is.

As they all begin fighting, someone fires a BB gun into the shop window, shattering it. Everyone scrambles down and cowers in fear. Now, earlier in the episode this culprit did the same thing and hit Chi-yeol’s stalker. Who could it be?

The Episode Review

This follow-up episode to Crash Course in Romance sees several intriguing revelations come to light. Not only does Haeng-seon now know who Chi-yeol is, but the latter is also aware of what ties she has to the side-dishes he’s loved so much.

Now, it’s clear that there’s someone out there that’s after Chi-yeol, or at least those against him, so it’ll be interesting to see exactly what materializes with that in the future.

We don’t get much romance but we do see a little more comedy and plenty of slice of life drama. The latter is partly what makes this series tick so well and there’s lots to like about this.

Next week’s double-bill should offer a very interesting turn of events and it’s anyone’s guess what will happen next.