Recap Korean Drama "Crash Course in Romance 2023" Episode 3

Episode 3 of Crash Course in Romance starts with our characters down the police station, reporting the BB gun incident. However, this soon turns into another argument, this time between Chi-yeol and Haeng-seon. The phone incident is inevitably brought up, before Chi-yeol takes the officer aside and reveals his face, running his hand through his hair. “I’m the target here. They could be after me.” A long pause. “And who are you?” It’s a great bit of comedy and something this show does incredibly well.

When Chi-yeol’s assistant, Mr Ji Dong-hui arrives, it breaks everything up and they head home. Chi-yeol certainly has reasons for people wanting to do him harm… but is he really the target here? Either way, he does the math and realizes the shooter must have been from a level ground and at least 10m away.

In the morning, Haeng-seon gets her window fixed but the price is an eye-watering sum of over 1 million won. As it turns out Chi-yeol is actually there too, trying to find the CCTV cameras but he fails to find anything significant.

When Haeng-seon rushes to the academy, she gets there just as Chi-yeol does. This little charade continues, as an amusing montage sees our protagonist make it to the queue every day, oblivious that Chi-yeol is the one who’s teaching Hae-e.

At the academy, Hae-e slowly works her way through the class, from the back to eventually sitting at the front, right alongside Su-a. Now, Su-a is not happy that Hae-e is there with her and doubly so when Hae-e is the sole person who manages to answer a difficult math equation, bagging herself a cheeky high five and a fist pump. Naturally, this ends up trending online but it’s all part of Chi-yeol’s cunning plan. After all, this promotes class participation.

Eventually Hae-e heads home and realizes exactly who Chi-yeol is – the star math teacher from their academy. All this time she’s been unaware but now it hits home and she’s stunned into silence. In fact she even watches his little video ad online too. Haeng-seon is surprised she didn’t notice this sooner and wonders how she could have missed all the signs.

Chi-yeol heads back home and is worried that Haeng-seon is going to spread detals on the Skymom website. She doesn’t, but instead is more concerned over whether Hae-e is going to be treated differently now.

Haeng-seon encourages Chi-yeol to head over to the Side-Dish store in the morning and he psyches himself up beforehand. He needn’t have done that though, Haeng-seon and the others are super-duper cheerful and even sort him out with an array of side dishes. The pair eventually have an amusing bowing contest to see who can bow the lowest.

On their way to the academy, Chi-yeol decies to spread the joy with his side-dishes to the other teachers at the academy. However, he’s called to a big dinner that evening with the Director and the other teachers. He doesn’t eat anything though, sitting with his hands folded and listening. He haggles with the Director, who wants to mess up the curriculum and move up the Level Test. In exchange for this hassle (and subsequent all-nighters to prepare) Chi-yeol wants brand new blackboards – something he actually eventually agrees to!

When Chi-yeol leaves though, we get a glimpse of just how alone he really is. Despite being a big-shot math teacher, the other teachers can’t be themselves around him while those guys from Chi-yeol’s high-school we briefly saw last episode, badmouth Chi-yeol behind his back, pointing out that he’s full of himself now.

This Med School All-Care Program shows up on the Skymom website, and Haeng-seon encourages Hae-e to take the test. Haeng-seon offers to take up another job if need be to make sure Hae-e gets everything she needs if she passes.

Back home, Hae-e receives a message from Sun-jae with previous test results but when Sun-jae’s mum finds out, she’s not happy. She points out that Hae-e is a “competitor” and not his friend. She tells Sun-jae to focus on his studies but he’s rattled, eventually calling her terrifying.

In the morning, Sun-jae finds his mother passed out with a pill bottle in her hand. The doctor confirms she’s mixed alcohol with pills and after a stomach pump, should be okay to go home, which is a relief.

Haeng-seon learns that Chi-yeol is pulling an all-nighter and decides to show up with some food for them all. Chi-yeol is not happy, believing she could have compromised the whole test and eventually forcing her to leave.

Haeng-seon is taken aback and ends up stress eating, but is back to her usual optimistic self in the morning. In fact, she gets on a bike and heads for the academy. On the way, she runs into Chi-yeol who ditches his car during a big traffic jam and decides to get a lift from Chi-yeol.

Sun-jae ends up late to his exam but Hae-e stalls for time, agreeing to try and hold off the test starting until he arrives. Eventually he makes it, just as the teacher is taking the phone from Hae-e. Haeng-seon also shows up and takes her place and listens as Chi-yeol is giving his big speech to the parents about his credentials.

After, Chi-yeol is impressed by some of the problem solving skills on display. Namely, that of Hae-e who manages to score a 92. When Haeng-seon sees this, she’s shocked and realizes little Hae-e has made it into the program. Su-A also gets in, as does Sun-jae.

Young-min’s mum is chummy with the director and phones to ask a favour regarding her son, whom we see wandering around outside littering and smoking. He passes Haeng-seon, who’s out with Yeong-ju (her friend at the Side Dish restaurant) for a celebratory meal and drinks. Lots and lots of drinks.

Haeng-seon ends up drunk on her way home and eventually runs into Choi Cho-yeol, whom she picks up and spins around…before falling on the ground.

The Episode Review

Crash Course in Romance is back with another solid episode, one that expertly balances the slice of life drama with a more subdued romance between our two leads. The tone throughout this chapter is great, swinging back and forth between romance and drama effortlessly while allowing us to see a bit more of our main characters and what drives them.

The reveal that Haeng-seon is getting the same buzz as a makeshift mum for Hae-e as she did competing at a National level is a nice way of tying in her competitiveness with steely determination.

Despite his cool demeanour and charisma, it’s clear that Chi-yeol is deeply alone and hearing everyone badmouthing him behind his back is heartbreaking. It’s especially bad for Chi-yeol, whom we see believing Haeng-seon has an ulterior motive against him to begin with until later in the episode.

The situation regarding Haeng-seon’s finances are almost certainly going to come into play, given the emphasis this show has made on money and class status, but we’ll have to wait and see on that account.

For now though, Crash Course continues to deliver the goods, with a really enjoyable episode setting everything up nicely for the rest of the show.