Recap Korean Drama "Crash Course in Romance 2023" Episode 12

Episode 12 of Crash Course in Romance starts with Hui-jae being arrested. He’s been caught and Sun-jae is completely beside himself with shock. But who should be here to hear everything? Yep, it’s Su-hui. She immediately realizes the family link and tells the other mums about this, with absolutely no shame or learning anything from the past 11 episodes.

Seo-jin isn’t there to gossip though and at the courthouse, she receives the dreaded call about Hui-jae. Hui-jae is questioned at the station by the detectives, who begin asking him about the murders. Seo-jin shows up though and declares that she’s going to defend her son, who hasn’t said anything just yet. To begin with, she points out the illegality of his arrest but he’s facing murder charges. Seo-jin looks at her son in shock, with a stern look on her face.

Haeng-seon heads home but after Chi-yeol declares he doesn’t want to talk anymore, things are awkward between them. As a result, the pair struggle to message one another and can’t figure out how best to approach this. However, Ji Dong-hui rings and has big news about Chi-yeol’s photoshoot the following day.

As a result of him busy working, he has no time to message Haeng-seon, who continues to check her phone anxiously. Chi-yeol though, isn’t sure how to reply to Haeng-seon but Dong-hui continues to act strangely. This is only compounded further when a strange guy appears, calling Dong-hui by the name of Seong-hyeon and pointing out he’s lost a lot of weight. Dong-hui shrugs it off, claiming he has the wrong guy, but there’s definitely something to this.

Back at the police station, Seo-jin won’t even let Hui-jae talk and instead tells her son that they’re going to try and plead insanity. That also means that he needs to stay quiet and not utter a single word until she gets this straightened out. Back home Sun-jae is all questions but his mum shrugs it off, telling him he should be working on his exams as he’s just going to “ruin” his chances if he focuses too much on Hui-jae. “Stay focused. The exams start in less than 24 hours.” And despite her son’s pleading, Seo-jin pushes him into his room.

In the wake of all this, Geon-hu sees this as a good opportunity to head out and go on an impromptu date with Hae-e. Her heart isn’t really in it though but she does manage to skate quite well on the ice. Afterwards, while they remove their boots, Hae-e looks worried and looks set to check her phone before the scene cuts.

Sun-jae is reserved and very distracted, understandably, and eventually asks to meet at the playground after dark as she’s worried. Sun-jae receives the message and shows up. Without even saying anything, he hugs her and starts crying.

The situation between Haeng-seon and Chi-yeol continues, with Dong-hui getting involved. In fact, he deletes a message from Haeng-seon while Chi-yeol is distracted, telling him she misses his voice. Naturally, Chi-yeol doesn’t see the message and is none the wiser, while Haeng-seon is annoyed and goes to sleep in a mood.

Haeng-seon gets up early to go and grab groceries but Chi-yeol shows and wordlessly joins her for the trip down to the market. After, Haeng-seon shows off her message and Chi-yeol is dumbfounded, blaming it on the machine and technology as to why he didn’t get it. To try and mend their ties, the pair travel down to Incheon the next day to spend some time together. This also means Haeng-seon is there to overhear Chi-yeol’s talks and to go for a ride on a yacht as well.

While Chi-yeol heads off to get a blanket for her, Dong-hui suddenly swing the yacht and knock her down, hurting Haeng-seon’s palm. Of course, this was a deliberate move and further solidifies that this man is not as sweet as he seems.

The exams go ahead and everyone is there to do their best. Su-a ends up spinning out again, with the words bouncing off the page, and struggling to finish. It’s not helped by her overhearing Hae-e talking to her friend, pointing out she’s confident that she’s done well in the exam. As for Sun-jae, he shows up at the police station and hands over some medicine for Hui-jae after the day’s events.

Seo-jin’s decision to keep her son quiet backfires, as the detectives realize she seems to be covering for him as if he’s already guilty. She hasn’t even checked to see if it’s true and even worse, she’s more interested in Sun-jae completing and passing his exams. And of course, passing them without showing anyone else (ie. Hae-e) the answers.

Well, Sun-jae decides to completely ignore her mum and hands over the papers for Hae-e that night. He thinks about also handing over the gift he bought for her but decides not to. Now, the trouble is these test papers aren’t practice sheets and are actually the proper test, something that Seo-jin conducted in a shady manner to get hold of earlier in the episode. When Hae-e and Sun-jae both start answering the questions, they exchange a glance and both look shocked.

Meanwhile, Yeong-ju starts to look at Jae-woo in a romantic light and decides they should go for a drink together. However, when she suggests they go out with one another and be in a relationship. Jae-woo calls her gross and that he looks at her as family.

When Haeng-seon gets her hand patched up and heads home, Chi-yeol decides she should come and stay with him instead. Inside the house, she leans over and begins kissing him and the pair eventually end up in bed together.

In court the next day, Hui-jae ends up in court at the crucial Witness hearing, as the officers try to decide whether to get an arrest warrant and keep Hui-jae behind bars. He suddenly speaks up to the court and undermines his mother, telling everyone there that he didn’t kill I-sang but he saw exactly what happened and who did it. “I’m a witness.” He says.

And as those words resonate throughout the story, we cut to the killer, dressed in all black, and delivered a parcel full of metal balls. He heads out in his car, parks up next to Haeng-seon’s shop and prepares to shoot her in the back of the head.

The Episode Review

What an odd episode. I said before several episodes back that the tone has been pitch perfect through this show as it swings between darker drama and more lighthearted romance and comedy. Here though, it’s strangely uneven and off-kilter. The moments with Dong-hui invade the cutesy romance vibes between our two leads, with the deleted text moment feeling absolutely redundant except for giving another clue that he’s not so lovable after all.

I’m guessing that he used to be this Seong-hyeon guy and was bullied at school, badly. He found solace in Chi-yeol and ended up worshipping him, losing a ton of weight to try and be like the Trillion Won Man and formed an unhealthy obsession in the process. He may still have had underlying depression and anger, which has manifested itself into hurting animals (hence the stray cat) and now he’s turned his attention to anyone who does harm to Chi-yeol. There could be an element of love involved too but I don’t think the writers will go that far.

You then get the weird moments with Jae-woo and Yeong-ju, whose romantic implications honestly come completely out of left-field. I get that she’s lonely but the fact Yeong-ju just randomly has feelings for Jae-woo, who then expresses (quite rightly too) how weird this is and how they’re like family, is met with incredulous laughter just makes her seem a bit immature.

The ball bearing case continues to intrigue and it’s obvious that this is the clear focus of this chapter. However, we already know that Hui-jae is not the one responsible and that ending pretty much confirms it, with him speaking out against his mum, simultaneously working well to round out his arc.

Despite those gripes though, Crash Course in Romance is still very watchable and next week’s double bill looks like it’s going to be quite the intriguing watch.