Recap Korean Drama "Love Is for Suckers (2022)" Episode 3-4

To pick up where we left off, the kiss does not happen (except in Jae-hoon’s head, but we’ll get to that later). However, the absent kiss gives us a lot of information about how our leads truly feel about each other. Yeo-reum puckers right up, ready to go for it, while Jae-hoon gets himself out of there immediately (he’s too tempted). Both are kicking themselves in the morning at how awkward they’ve made everything, as they try to act normal.

No matter how awkward things may seem, Jae-hoon is still the first person Yeo-reum calls when her father is rushed to the hospital. But Jae-hoon is with a patient and can’t pick up, so Yeo-reum starts to leave on her own. As luck (or total creepiness) would have it, In-woo is outside her house and offers to drive the few hours to Chuncheon so she can be with her parents. When Jae-hoon sees his missed calls, he has no hesitation in calling back, but Yeo-reum is too tied up by then to answer.

When her dad is in stable condition, Yeo-reum and In-woo drive back to Seoul and get a few things off their chests. In-woo apologizes for the way he left three years ago and Yeo-reum says it’s no one’s fault, and that they were both very emotional. He says he’s regretted it ever since, and Yeo-reum surely seems more relaxed with him than she did before.

When they arrive to her house, Jae-hoon watches from upstairs as In-woo comes in at 1AM for ramen (but, like, real ramen). Clearly jealous, Jae-hoon starts making as much noise as possible, dropping dumbbells, vacuuming, dancing to hip-hop — and succeeds in disturbing a kiss before it occurs. Prior to all the racket, In-woo had just been telling Yeo-reum that he’s watched all her shows, and he hasn’t gotten over her.

When In-woo finally leaves, Yeo-reum marches upstairs to ask Jae-hoon what the hell he’s doing and also gets a chance to tell him about her father being in the hospital. Jae-hoon turns serious fast and apologizes for not being able to take her call earlier. The next day, he calls her parents, sends them lunchboxes, and speaks to her dad’s doctor to make sure all is okay. He also wants to contribute toward the hospital bill. Jae-hoon tells Yeo-reum all this when he’s called her over to put potato slices on his sunburned back and their awkwardness dissolves into aegyo. It seems for a moment that things are back to normal between them.

After the night she almost kissed In-woo, Yeo-reum gets excited about the prospect of seeing him again — squeeing with her friend about it at a jjimjilbang — and not even mentioning the almost-kiss with Jae-hoon. She says she likes the familiarity with In-woo and feels like it’s been forever since anyone looked at her like that. Her friend encourages her to get back with In-woo, while secretly plotting to get her and Jae-hoon together by pressing Jae-hoon to confess. Jae-hoon admits he has feelings for Yeo-reum sometimes but it’s not enough to act on.

Meanwhile, In-woo is all about acting on his feelings. He invites Yeo-reum to dinner, where she solemnly asks why he hasn’t moved on. On the walk home, he pulls out a ring and asks her to marry him again, saying “I’ve always been in love with you.” She’s shocked and isn’t ready to answer. She takes the ring (but doesn’t wear it), needing time to decide. When she tells Jae-hoon, he’s angry, asking where In-woo has been for the last three years. But Yeo-reum is more practical: she’s 37 and he’s 40; if they’re going to date they should do it with marriage in mind. Yeo-reum wants to get married — and she knows Jae-hoon does not.

In-woo begins to try to woo Yeo-reum by sending gifts to her office in the form of giant balloons that say “Marry Me” and expensive shoes “for her to wear when she comes to him” (I mean, the guy’s got game). Yeo-reum goes out of her way to get the balloons home through elevators and buses (and I can’t help but think of how she refused the giant bouquet that Jae-hoon bought her, claiming it was too big for the office). When her balloons get stuck in a tree, Jae-hoon helps her grab them and walks them home, even though he’s mad about them being from In-woo.

In a very odd exchange, In-woo goes to see Jae-hoon and says not to get in the way of him and Yeo-reum. He thinks Jae-hoon is living upstairs because he likes her — he should get lost or come at the situation like a man. Along with the friend who told Jae-hoon to confess, this interaction pushes him further toward his feelings for Yeo-reum. In a final act, he tells Ji-yeon — who really, truly likes him—that he is not interested in her, ending any ambiguity and freeing him up to pursue Yeo-reum.

Finally feeling ready, he goes to meet Yeo-reum after work on a rainy day, catching her under an umbrella. And, oh, the look! (What are you doing to me, Siwon?). But In-woo shows up at the same time with an umbrella and a giant teddy bear (why is everything oversized?). Yeo-reum goes with In-woo and says she’ll get ahold of Jae-hoon later. In the car, she learns that In-woo doesn’t believe in friendship between men and women, so if she chooses to marry him, she’ll be giving up Jae-hoon too.

She says yes. They start to plan their wedding and Yeo-reum looks so happy that I can’t help but smile too, even if I’m rooting for Jae-hoon. And Jae-hoon has the same problem. He wants to tell her how he feels, but how can he? She’s radiant with In-woo. One night, he runs to her, thinking of all the things he should have said and done to tell her how he feels (and we get to see what that kiss would have looked like), but when he arrives, she and In-woo are happy and laughing and he can’t.

On the wedding day, when the ceremony is about to begin, Yeo-reum tearfully stands in front of all the guests in her bridal gear and calls the whole thing off. We don’t know why, but there are only two real options. Either she’s had a change of heart about Jae-hoon, or the random New York lady that showed up to see In-woo has caused a major complication. I will go with the latter given that we had a lesson on the love life of Klimt in the middle of these episodes. Ji-yeon’s professorial question to her art students was, “Why did he love her and yet hurt her?”

If it’s possible, I think I liked these episodes even more than last week. They feel very self-contained and could even stand alone as a movie. Between Episodes 3 and 4, we get all the beats of a standard romantic comedy, from the forever friends disrupting their relationship with an almost-kiss, to the male lead literally running to tell the female lead how he feels. Even that look at the end between Jae-hoon and Yeo-reum was enough to be the start of something between them. Although, don’t get me wrong, I’m still on the edge of my seat for more episodes!

I love that this drama is really hitting the right notes for late-30s dilemmas, and I was moved by nearly everything that happened. When Jae-hoon told Ji-yeon he’s not interested, after she was pursuing him so hard (and so sweetly), I felt for both of them. And when In-woo proposed to Yeo-reum, it made total sense to me why she would want that. The love of her life reappears and still loves her. Now she gets her career and the man she wanted to marry without choosing between them. I understand why she says yes.

At the same time, the drama is also playing on other aspects of getting older. Yeo-reum’s dad gets sick, she goes through a traumatic event by rushing to the hospital to be with him, and her parents start worrying about her being alone when they’re gone. She’s worrying about it too. Even though she admits she’s thought about Jae-hoon in the past romantically, she’s thinking practically. And, I have to say, my favorite line is when Yeo-reum is trying to win a stuffed animal from a claw machine and says, “I’m trying to adopt a pet bear because my life is so lonely.” It might have been a throwaway line — or really sad sounding — but I laughed uncontrollably, because it just rang true.