Recap Korean Drama "Crash Course in Romance 2023" Episode 8

Episode 8 of Crash Course in Romance starts with Haeng-seon and Chi-Yeol heading out for food. Chi-yeol is surprised to find the place is completely unchanged from how it was as a child.

This was the place Chi-yeol frequented and in fact, Haeng-seon’s mum used to give him meal vouchers to help him out. As fate would have it, Haeng-seon and Chi-yeol even crossed paths too, given she saw him crying over a bowl of rice, contextualizing those earlier flashbacks.

Haeng-seon’s mum formed a bond with Chi-yeol, encouraging him to come in regularly and eat. This bond with food explains why he’s been so nonchalant with every dish other than Haeng-seon’s, given it runs in the family. Chi-yeol realizes that this is why he’s been drawn to her and her family – it’s all connected. As a result, he decides the time is right to repay her tenfold for everything her mum did for him.

Chi-yeol buys out the entire building and serves as the landlord, reducing down the rent that Haeng-seon needs to pay in the process. Oh, and there’s also air-conditioning units in every room.

Meanwhile, Yi-sang finds out that Hae-e is the kid being tutored by Chi-yeol and decides to make it a big scandal. And while this is going on, Sun-jae’s mum steals Hui-jae’s phone in the middle of the night, looking for answers around this ball bearing situation. On his phone, she notices a ping for Imperial Apartments. But what of Hui-ju himself? Well, he’s actually researching the force of ball bearings on his computer. But why would he be doing that unless he’s innocent and simply investigating the same case? Alas, the plot thickens!

At the academy, Yi-sang confronts Chi-yeol in the elevator and makes a sly dig about female students. He makes a loud call in the stairway after, intending to turn this tutoring scandal into a full blown riot and make it public that Chi-yeol is having an illicit relationship with Hae-e.

Chi-yeol overhears and confronts Jin Yi-sang in the hallway, now finally knowing that he’s the face behind Chiyeolsuck. After smacking him in the mouth, Chi-yeol promises to sue the guy for defamation if he releases anything, and make it so he’ll never be able to teach again too. Eventually he walks away, leaving Yi-sang with a bloodied lip.  Yi-sang is more determined than ever to get his revenge but with his career on the line, he decides to keep his mouth shut for the time being.

That might, Chi-yeol heads over to tutor Hae-e but instead, he decides to treat them all to a party. Part of that comes from an expensive meal at a top-line restaurant. The family are super grateful and Chi-yeol even makes a good impression with Jae-woo too.

In the morning, Haeng-seon figures out that Chi-yeol is her new landlord and she debates with Yeong-joo over exactly what this means and why he would do this. They’re both confused, with Haeng-seon flirting with the idea of him taking pity of them. But for Yeong-joo? She thinks he’s in love with her. When a group order comes in, Yeong-joo is more convinced than ever that this is what’s happening.

At school, everything takes an awkward turn when Chi-yeol’s big order for the faculty is disrupted by his date showing up with extra food. Haeng-seon is there and overhears everyone talking about her, and how she’s Chi-yeol’s blind date. Unfortunately, the food she brings in happens to be much more upper-class than Haeng-seon’s and she watches as the staff put hers aside.

As for Chi-yeol, he’s given an invite to go to his date’s ballet, who points out she liked him from the get go and will cry if he doesn’t turn up. Haeng-seon takes her leave but in doing so, she’s very obviously jealous. And that much is especially true after Hae-e’s study session that night, where she’s super bossy and orders him out the door.

Jealousy leads us nicely along to Su-a, who feeds back to her mum that Sun-jae was not the one who gave the test materials over to Hae-e. She recognizes the handwriting as Chi-yeol’s and believes that he’s tutoring her in secret. This gives Su-hui extra material to work with of course. Naturally, Su-hui heads home and speaks to her husband, deciding she should personally get one of his private detective contacts involved.

That night, Chi-yeol shows up for the recital with flowers as suggested by Dong-hui. He watches her play but after taking a call from Hae-e, decides to leave after the intermission and make sure she’s okay. He races up to her place believing it’s something serious but when he learns it’s just a minor burn, he’s relieved and decides to hang with her. In fact, he heads over to watch Jae-woo’s favourite documentary.

After, Haeng-seon speaks to Chi-yeol and tries to work out if he actually cares about her. Unfortunately, just before finding out the answer, Su-hui switches on her headlights and reveals herself, as she happens to be watching from outside the Side Dish restaurant in her car.

Meanwhile, Yi-sang is followed up at the Apartments by whoever our hooded assailant is. The man follows Yi-sang to the roof and smacks him in the head with a ball bearing slingshot, watching as he collapses to the floor.

The Episode Review

Crash Course in Romance delivers another great episode, this time with the plot just starting to tighten up and deliver a lot more high-stakes drama. Su-hui and Su-a have been meddling for a while and now it seems the whole ordeal with the tutoring, not to mention Haeng-seon and Chi-yeol’s close ties, is about to be made public.

If that wasn’t enough, we also get a bit more of this ball bearing culprit and the more we see of this, the more it seems likely that it’s Chi-yeol’s assistant, Dong-hui, as the one responsible. He’s been right in the thick of everything and the lack of romance between him and Yeong-joo (as hinted earlier in the season) seems to be leaning toward him being the crook in all of this.

The romance between Haeng-seon and Chi-yeol is just starting to heat up and I think the latter knows he has real feelings for her now, especially if that recital situation is anything to go by. I mean, they only really had one date and she’s a bit over-keen!