Recap Korean Drama "Crash Course in Romance 2023" Episode 9

Episode 9 of Crash Course in Romance starts with Chi-yeol and Haeng-seon caught outside the house by Su-hui and the other mums. Chi-yeol owns up to tutoring Hae-e and decides they should talk about it at his office.

Whilst there, Chi0yeol continues on, admitting the truth about Hae-e being kicked out unfairly and deciding to do his part for the community. He has a whole speech worked out… but then Haeng-seon bursts in and claims that she’s the one who asked Chi0yeol to do all this and tries to sacrifice herself for him.

Chi-yeol berates her for trying to fix everything and admits that he’s in bigger trouble now, taking her aside from the other mums. As a result, the pair decide to skip out and try to come up with another plan to combat this big scandal. Chi-yeol believes Jin I-sang is the culprit who leaked the news.

Back home, Sun-jae’s mum confronts Hui-jae hen he heads home and tries to get answers from him. However, he heads back into his room and hugs his knees, sitting in the corner of the room. Something has cleared rattled him but what could it be?

In the morning, Chi-yeol shows up at work but the director is already there wanting to talk. He demands Chi-yeol stop tutoring Hae-e as he’s under pressure by the other parents, who are threatening to drop out and boycott the entire program. Chi-yeol decides to play them at their own game and even offers to drop out himself. Chi-yeol is not happy with the system, and specifically the morality of the mums who are trying to take the moral high ground here but simply don’t like that other kids get the same opportunities as the elite.

The mums rally together and decide to dig deeper into Chi-yeol’s personal life. Remember that moment from the parking lot? Well, Su-hui believes that Haeng-seon and Chi-yeol are having an affair and this is why the tutoring is going ahead. Su-hui decides to use this to exploit them, writing up a post on Skymom about Haeng-seon exchanging sexual favours for Chi-yeol to privately tutor Hae-e.

Of course, word spreads and people immediately jump to conclusions. As a result, loads of people decide to boycott Haeng-seon’s shop. When Haeng-seon and Chi-yeol find out, they’re both absolutely livid. Chi-yeol wants to explore legal routes but given Su-hui is an “influential figure”, the lawyers are loathe to do much. As for Haeng-seon, she’s much more direct and heads over to see Su-hui at her house.

Haeng-seon confronts Su-hui and points out exactly what she’s doing, including the lunch boxes and the food exchanges. It doesn’t work, of course, while news blows up online and Hae-e ends up reading all the comments across the forums. She’s not happy, while Chi-yeol urges Haeng-seon not to do anything rash and to leave this for now.

A big live streamer called Mr Popular ends up heading to Haeng-seon’s store and immediately bombards her with questions about Chi-yeol. Some of the kids at school end up seeing this and tease Hae-e about it, calling her “sexy mum” and getting Sun-jae and Geon-hu involved too. Although the kids are disciplined, Sun-jae and Geon-hu actually end up bonding during detention as Sun-jae offers to write his letter of apology for him. It’s a really nice moment and one of the highlights here.

When Chi-yeol finds out about Mr Popular’s stream, he’s angry and heads straight to Haeng-seon’s shop after being heckled in class. She’s not there though, as she’s actually at the hospital with Jae-woo, who’s in overnight after all the stress that’s taken place.

Hae-e tries to work out what to do, thinking twice about writing a post online while taking the bus home. After all, the last time she confided in someone about Haeng-seon, Se-na (the girl she though was her friend) spread it across school. Hae-e feels useless and she heads back home, despairing and feeling useless.

Chi-yeol catches up with Haeng-seon at the hospital and decides they should go out for a bite to eat together. Haeng-seon ends up falling asleep in the car though after the stress of everything, which is the polar opposite to Chi-yeol of course. Instead of driving to a restaurant, Chi-yeol decides to drive by the Han River and helps make her comfortable, wrapping his coat around her.

When Haeng-seon gets up and looks over the river, marvelling at the skyline, Chi-yeol realizes that he really does have feelings for her. However, he’s also going to stop tutoring Hae-e and find another shop to get his lunches from. It’s clear that he’s trying to protect Haeng-seon but it’s still a tough blow for them all. In the hopes of doing this, it means the post is taken down and the scandal blows over.

When the other mums find out, they sickeningly cheer and applaud their “victory”, although Sun-jae’s mum isn’t exactly celebrating with them.

Time passes and Haeng-seon contemplates whether to move Hae-e into another Academy or not. While browsing online, Haeng-seon notices an admission talk show, which is hosted by none other than Chi-yeol. Haeng-seon decides to show up and she arrives just in time for Chi-yeol to make an appearance. Only… Haeng-seon wasn’t aware that he was actually going to be there and she attempts to keep a low profile.

When the mums start belittling Haeng-seon without knowing her and talking about the scandal, she tries to walk away but Chi-yeol takes the mic and openly admits that he has feelings for Haeng-seon. Because of his crush on her, he’s the reason why the tutoring went ahead.

Chi-yeol is looking at Haeng-seon the entire time he says this and as she looks at him, dumbfounded, the episode comes to a close.

The Episode Review

Go on Chi-yeol! That ending was super satisfying and seeing how much our star math tutor actually cares about Haeng-seon, is evident of how much he’s grown and changed over the course of 9 episodes.

What’s particularly interesting about this scene though is how Haeng-seon sticks out like a sore thumb in that crowd. She’s the only one wearing red in a sea of black and white. Now, red usually signifies anger but it can also mean love and passion, and in a way this is almost like a visual metaphor for the way Chi-yeol sees his love interest.

The mix between slice of life drama and the romance between Chi-yeol and Haeng-seon is ultimately what makes this such an enjoyable watch but likewise, the way this series adds in darker elements, especially the mystery with the ball bearings, gives this another edge and one that works surprisingly well.

However, we don’t see anything about that this situation save for Sun-jae’s brother cowering in the corner of his room, which only reinforces the feeling that he’s not the one behind this and responsible.

Crash Course in Romance is easily shaping up to be one of the best K-drama this year so far and it has been consistently great across its entire run. Let’s hope that continues for the rest of the season!