Sang-Eun’s Dilemma
Episode 12 of Love in Contract starts with Hae-Jin heading on-air and playing damage control. After beating down that biker, the questions turn to ask him about the stalker and his ties with Sang-Eun. Of course, this has now gone viral, and as a result everyone is in a precarious position. Sang-Eun is well aware of this and points out what a tricky situation it is. She’s intent on trying to fix everything and resolve what damage this has done, with Ji-Ho trusting her to do as much and leaving her to her own devices. When Sang-Eun actually reads through the posts properly, realizing they were written by Sun-ho’s sister, she struggles to hold back tears. At work, Ji-Ho is congratulated over his promotion by the department. Now, it seems like the Chief has no idea what’s happening as he’s only subscribed to a physical newspaper so doesn’t know about the scandals. Ji-Ho though rejects his promotion and decides he only wants to do the job he’s currently doing. Meanwhile, Jung comes up with a cunning plan to make Sang-Eun the bad guy in all this and frame it so Hae-Jin is the victim. While Hae-Jin is against it, Sang-Eun decides to weather the storm and face the music herself. Although it would mean she’s going to be vilified across the nation, it’ll protect Hae-Jin’s image. Hae-Jin though, steps up and tries to talk her out of this. Meanwhile, Gwang-Nam speaks to Ji-Ho and points out how much Sang-Eun likes him. The thing is, Madam Yoo is a constant thorn in her side and whilst she meddles in Sang-Eun’s life, she feels like she can never truly be happy. After hearing this, Ji-Ho immediately starts to research Eena Group in a bid to understand Yoo’s role there. Part of this comes from seeing Jung and working with her to help Sang-Eun. However, Jung refuses to play ball, pointing out that she’d rather he hate her than working to strengthen his relationship. When he rings Sang-Eun, she decides they should keep a distance from one another for the time being. Ji-Ho refuses, and shows up to see her at the coffee shop, where she’s crying. Ji-ho comforts her. Meanwhile, Hae-Jin decides to call a press conference to right the wrongs but Jung gets involved, promising to do what she can to salvage their relationship. Hae-Jin trusts her but of course Jung immediately outs Sang-Eun’s 12 prior divorces and tells the public that Sang-Eun and Hae-Jin are more in love than anyone else. After hearing this on the news, Sang-Eun realizes that she needs to see Hae-Jin to clear everything up properly. Together, they discuss a better course of action. Hae-Jin thinks they should get married but Sang-Eun drops an absolutely clanger. She points out that she’s not actually the daughter of Eena Group. She grew up abroad to hide that fact, as she was seen as Eena Group’s “project”. She goes on to explain that they’re fundamentally different and as such, marriage is completely off the table. Sang-Eun and Ji-Ho continue their ties together at night, and in fact she shows up at Miss Kim’s birthday party later that night. It’s a bit awkward, until Sang-Eun opens up and explains what’s happened and how she genuinely likes Ji-Ho. When Miss Kim learns that Sang-Eun and Hae-Jin are not actually married, she perks up and this group seem like a genuinely nice bunch and don’t judge her either, which is heartwarming. Well, Madame Yoo continues to scheme, as per usual, and learns from Gwang-Nam that Sang-Eun is with Ji-Ho. When Sang-Eun learns about this, she immediately confronts Yoo and demands to know what she’s planning. She doesn’t reveal anything, unfortunately, but Ji-Ho has done his research and finds Yoo’s number. He rings her and decides they should talk about the past, especially her ties with Sang-Eun and what happened 13 years back. Whole they’re about to meet, a car charges toward Yoo on the road, prompting Ji-Ho to rush forward and try to save her.
The Episode Review
So this week’s episode comes to a close, with plenty more scheming and drama between the central trio of characters. It would seem that Sang-Eun has made her choice now and that pretty much ends this tepid love triangle. The series hasn’t really ignited the charts and judging by the nationwide ratings, which have been on a slight downward trend for a while, it’s perhaps hardly surprising. It’s definitely a shame though because there’s some good stuff here and the drama involving Sang-Eun and Ji-Ho actually works reasonably well. They have pretty good chemistry and Park Min-Young is such a great actress, she brings the role to life really well. We’ve got 4 more episodes to go though and it seems like we’re getting some late bursts of drama to try and keep things interesting. Quite how this will translate into storytelling terms though, remains to be seen.
