The Midnight Romance in Hagwon: Episodes 5-6

by Dramaddictally

The strategizing never stops in the dog-eat-dog world of the hagwon. But this time it’s in our heroine’s favor when she receives an offer that’s tough to turn down. And just as her work life takes a topsy-turvy turn, her love life follows suit — with a second irresistible offer.

 
EPISODES 5-6

This drama is building in an incremental way that’s simple but so effective. Rather than throwing curveballs, it just climbs and unfolds. It’s got moments that feel almost stagnant, followed by tense scenes that hit hard precisely because of the dragging moments that got us there. I’m more and more invested with each episode.

This week, after the “failure” of their free lecture, Hye-jin and Jun-ho are called into the director’s office where they think they’ll be reprimanded. Instead, the director gives them a nonsensical spiel about how he wants to start a new branch of Daechi Chase in another district — and Hye-jin should spearhead the venture.

That might sound fine and dandy to the uninitiated, but Hye-jin is as savvy as they come. She understands immediately that they’re trying to sack her. Basically, she’s become too popular and poses a threat to Daechi Chase if she ever decides to move to another academy or break out on her own. In the background, the directors divide up her Chanyeong students and give them to Jun-ho and Chung-mi so that if Hye-jin leaves, the students aren’t likely to follow her.

Meanwhile, the lone student who attended the class last week, LEE SHI-WOO (rookie Cha Kang-yoon), is being interrogated by the Gray Witch. She’s gotten ahold of his notes and seems very unnerved by his response to the class. She’s unrelenting in her questions, but Shi-woo remains polite and reserved as he walks her through what he liked about Hye-jin’s class — namely that she made him curious about a subject that he normally doesn’t like or understand (and we see callbacks to how Jun-ho felt when Hye-jin taught him all those years ago).

When Shi-woo is done talking, the Gray Witch insults him by reminding him he’s a scholarship student (even though we’ve just seen how articulate and intelligent he is), and Shi-woo tells her flat out that he’s going to switch academies — not as a rebuttal, but just because he’s honest. Then he leaves with his head down because even though he’s brave, she’s totally scary. (Cha Kang-yoon really caught my attention here. Yes, it’s nicely written dialogue, but something about his humility makes this scene so affecting.)

Once it’s clear she’s losing students, the Gray Witch calls Hye-jin over to her office for a chat. Like a villain in an action movie, she paces in front of our heroine while detailing her own backstory and quest for power. Finally, she gets to the point: she’s offering Hye-jin the role of Vice Director at her hagwon. She’s willing to let Hye-jin fill in the numbers on the contract, and there’s some pretty tempting benefits to boot.

But again, Hye-jin has been playing this game a long time. As soon as she hears the offer, she understands that Shi-woo must be switching academies and bringing his classmates with him. Hye-jin begins to decline, but then says she needs to think it over. I mean, it couldn’t have come at a better time, since her own academy is demoting her.

She tells Jun-ho about the offer and starts doing some real soul searching. The deal sounds great, but still, she’s reluctant to leave Daechi Chase. At first, Jun-ho actively tries to convince her to stay. He wants to work with her, at least for a year. However, he changes his mind after Shi-woo signs up to be his first student (in another scene where Shi-woo captivated my attention. The rapport between him and Jun-ho is amazing and had me smiling from ear to ear).

Now that Jun-ho feels what it’s like to want to go all in for a student, he tells Hye-jin she should do whatever she wants. She shouldn’t make any decisions for him or his benefit just because he was her prize student. Suddenly, he’s as serious as she usually is — and Hye-jin notices the change. She says that he’s being thoughtful now that he has his first student — she has nothing left to teach him.

Jun-ho snaps back, telling her not to act like the only adult. Hye-jin says, “that hurts” — and Jun-ho looks genuinely surprised. She explains that she liked that he needed her, but telling her to go feels like he doesn’t need her anymore. (Wow, the honesty in this scene. They both seem to be talking through a lump in the throat.)

Back at the office, Director Kim is eating his words now that Shi-woo switched to their hagwon and they have enough students to fill a new class. He takes Hye-jin to lunch and breezes over an apology while offering to give her back her Chanyeong students. But the more he brushes it off, the more Hye-jin is irked.

She tells him it’s not a proper apology considering he shattered the trust between them. She was loyal to Daechi Chase, with no thought of leaving (even though she gets multiple offers per year to go elsewhere), but they didn’t trust her back. She’s offended and upset, but he keeps trying to tone down everything she says. By the end, she’s yelling, “Can’t you just be honest!” And he yells back, “It’s not a lie! I was scared!” Finally, she says she’s always hoped they’d part ways on good terms, but… she picks up her coat and bag and heads for the door.

Afterward, she goes back to work. And it’s a good thing because the convo she has with Jun-ho is one I wouldn’t want to miss. After admitting that Jun-ho was always her favorite student, Hye-jin says she’ll help him in any way she can. To which our hero responds, “You have no idea how much I’m holding back. I’m worried you’ll get sick of me if I show how greedy I am. So, leave me when you can.” She looks shocked, gets up, and tries to exit the classroom, but he stops her at the door. “I take it you can read between the lines,” he says, before she goes past him anyway. Oof. That was a confession and a half.

Later that night, Director Kim is beyond drunk after worrying himself into a frenzy that Hye-jin is leaving the hagwon. He calls her to come meet him (at a waterfront, for some reason), where he kneels, begs her not to abandon him or the academy, and says he’s sincerely apologizing.

Jun-ho has tagged along (because it’s inappropriate in his book for a male boss to call a female employee out at night alone), and so he’s there to help her try to get the director off the ground and onto his feet. But as he does, both men tumble into the water, leaving them soaked and freezing. The two employees dump their boss into the back of a taxi and then head to the office, so Jun-ho can try to dry off.

When they arrive, Hye-jin keeps trying to cover him with her coat, a blanket, towels — whatever she can find — and he keeps rejecting them, worried they’ll get ruined if they get wet. He’s sitting at a desk in the darkened office, and she’s scrambling around to find more things to warm him. As she does, he tugs her arm, trying to stop her, and there’s this push/pull dynamic that’s like, “just let me do this for you” and “I don’t want to inconvenience you.” But, the scene isn’t structured as typical politeness. Instead, it captures their closeness in an impressive way.

When she finally sits down beside him, she takes both his hands in hers to warm them up as they chat — and neither of them seems uncomfortable with this. She starts talking about how things have been so unpredictable since Jun-ho came to work there. She doesn’t like unpredictability — not in exams, or life, or relationships (and it sounds to me like she’s replying to that earlier confession).

But Jun-ho puts on a brave face and tells her that when he saw the director go so far as to kneel in front of her, he realized that you need to do whatever it takes to get what you want. He asks, “Do you want to go back to how it was before? When everything was predictable?” She says that’s her plan, but he’s not asking about her plans, he wants to know about her feelings. And then, in response to her earlier comment, he says that he needs her — and he’s not talking about the job. But if she wants things to go back to how they were before he arrived, then he’ll try to hold himself back.

Hye-jin starts, “If you’re not asking about my plan…” but she can hardly finish her sentence, the moment is so filled with feelings. “I don’t want to go back” she concludes. Jun-ho relaxes and says, “You knew, didn’t you? How you really feel. And how I felt.” He admits that she was his first love, and adds, “I’m struggling to control my feelings for you as they get bigger.” He leans forward and kisses her. But she’s super hesitant in her response. She’s not pulling away, but she’s not totally reciprocating either. As he takes hold of her to pull her in, she’s starts to do the same, and then leaves her hands in her lap. And we have to wait until next week to see how that plays out.

Holy moly this thing just took a turn. The pace of that conversation was excellent. The scene stretched out in a way that made me feel like I was about to snap from the tension. It wasn’t constructed for heart flutters so much as release. All the pent up emotions and energy in this show are just an undercurrent throughout these really intense scenes. And then they dip below the surface again so they’re almost imperceptible. But here, they’re finally bleeding through. And yet, it’s not a total release either because they’re both so nervous. The whole thing seems so authentic.

Beyond that, I like how we’re seeing each of them move toward the other in little ways. Hye-jin is joking around more and Jun-ho is taking things more seriously. And he’s fighting hard to prove he’s an equal, which — typical of noona romance — he’ll likely need to convince Hye-jin of before he can fully win her over. But whatever happens next, I’m all in on this one to the end.

 
RELATED POSTS