The Interest of Love: Episodes 3-4

by Dramaddictally

With three alliances, two confessions, and a whole lot of tension, this week starts to give us reasons for and against each pairing in our love square. Our leads may know their feelings, but it’s not enough. In order to get closer, they’ve got to do a better job of knowing who they are and what they’re really worth.

 
EPISODES 3-4 WEECAP

This week is all about establishing relationships. The drama is setting up the commonalities between Sang-soo and Mi-kyung, as well as those between Soo-young and Jong-hyun — both as counterpoints to the possible future relationship between our two leads. We also get a blossoming friendship between Soo-young and Mi-kyung, but the show is already giving them reasons to splinter.

To pick up where we left off, Sang-soo sees Jong-hyun hugging Soo-young outside her house. It turns out she tripped and he caught her. But everything isn’t all innocent because Jong-hyun was there to confess his feelings to Soo-young. It seems that while the show was playing all those tricks on us last week, it made us think that it was Sang-soo who had texted Soo-young to say he was outside her house with something to tell her — but it was really Jong-hyun.

This doesn’t change the fact that Sang-soo was also waiting around outside her house trying to call her. And I don’t know how I feel about two possible love interests with no boundaries.

Soo-young doesn’t seem to reciprocate Jong-hyun’s feelings, but the two start spending time together. Jong-hyun makes breakfast and brings it to work to share with Soo-young. He calls her to come hang out when he’s nearby. And they even run into each other at the grocery store and do their shopping together. In each of their meetings, little bits of information are divulged about both of their pasts.

They realize that they’re both from outside Seoul and come from poor families. Both worked hard to get to the city and obtain the jobs they have — and both want to keep working to move up further. One thing that distinguishes them is that Jong-hyun takes care of his parents, sending them his paycheck every month, while Soo-young is not on speaking terms with her parents.

In fact, when Soo-young learns that her parents have opened a restaurant in Seoul (right next to the bank), she storms in and has it out with them. She blames her father for her brother’s death, and asks her mother how she could take him back. Her mother begins to protest, but her father stops whatever she is about to say (and I get the impression that Soo-young might be mistaken in whatever she thinks her father did).

Soo-young was extremely close to her younger brother and his death still governs her life. She feels a responsibility to be happy because that was her brother’s wish for her. But we see her look around her apartment with all the things her brother wished for her to have one day (an herb garden on a balcony, a piano) and she is anything but happy. Whenever we see her in quiet moments alone, she looks as if she’s in mourning.

The second confession this week comes from Mi-kyung when she takes Sang-soo out to dinner. The two have been working closely on a presentation for work, staying all night at the office to finish, and she is never shy about how she feels. When their presentation wins the competition, Mi-kyung grabs Sang-soo in a hug (as Soo-young looks on) and even holds his hand when they’re alone in the elevator. But Sang-soo looks uncomfortable in both cases, and doesn’t seem to return her feelings. (Although he does “teach” her how to ice skate in a scene that’s a very obvious flirtation between the two.)

The conundrum for Sang-soo is that he can see how dating (and eventually marrying) Mi-kyung would better his life. She is from an extremely wealthy family (and her dad is friends with their bank branch manager). Even though everyone at work sees Sang-soo as a guy who went to an elite school (many assuming he’s from a wealthy family himself), he still identifies as “the poor kid” from his Gangnam high school.

Internally, Sang-soo is struggling to understand his place in the class hierarchy. He and Mi-kyung went to the same university and know the same people — and they’re also at the same level at work. Dating Mi-kyung could mean that he finally fits in with the upper class — which is his dream. He just wants “to be normal” and not stand out from the crowd. His whole life he was the ugly duckling (surrounded by wealth but not wealthy himself).

Interestingly, Soo-young has the exact same wish as Sang-soo. She just wants “to be average” — which to her means that you never want for anything. (I find it fascinating that both leads mistake normalcy for having money. So far, the social commentary in the subtext is excellent in this show.) Soo-young is also struggling internally when it comes to Jong-hyun. She can see what they have in common, but I get the feeling it makes her a little uncomfortable because people look down on Jong-hyun at work.

The leads spend most of these episodes angry at each other, buried under all their emotions. They finally have a confrontation where Soo-young tells Sang-soo (and us) what she saw that night while she was waiting for him in the restaurant. He was in the street, running to get to their date, when he stopped to wait for the light, and then didn’t cross when the light changed. He hesitated, seemingly reconsidering.

Soo-young wonders if it was because she asked him to define their relationship. And all her insecurities come out: “You knew I didn’t go to college, that I’m just a bank teller, that I’m from a poor family — is that why you hesitated?” Sang-soo says it’s the opposite. He wanted to take her seriously and not date on a whim — he’d even thought of marrying her. But he can’t explain why he hesitated. All he knows is that it was only for a second, and then he went inside.

Both of them get very defensive. “I didn’t mean that much to you,” Soo-young says. He counters that she should have asked him about it instead of ignoring him. She says she doesn’t owe him anything. (Oof. Both are right.) Soo-young remembers the conversation they once had about both of them wanting to be average, and asks, “Did you hesitate because dating me would make it harder for you to fit in?” He responds, “Did you ever have feelings for me?” (My god. Everything going on under the surface here is painful and brilliant. I don’t think he’s evading her question here; he’s hurt that she thinks he would think that way.)

This interaction gets “resolved” when Soo-young says that she just thought they were similar. That’s what she liked about him. (And then they go on to ignore each other at work.) But in a later interaction, Sang-soo is with a friend who asks why he likes Soo-young, and he says something to the same effect. She’s a hard worker and she makes it seem more effortless the harder the task becomes — she reminds him of himself. So, we see our leads are looking for inward commonalities with each other. But, they don’t trust their feelings because everything around them says they should be looking for outward commonalities (and those would make them better suited for the second leads). They’re in quite an emotional pickle.

The third alliance we have this week is between Mi-kyung and Soo-young. Mi-kyung works hard to befriend Soo-young, sticking up for her at work (when the horrible boss holds her hand inappropriately) and taking her out to lunches, dinners, and spas. Soo-young is skittish at first, not wanting to open up, but the two seem to enjoy each other’s company.

Soo-young is aware that Mi-kyung likes Sang-soo, and asks her about it directly. Mi-kyung happily admits it and tells Soo-young she likes him because he’s thoughtful and kind-hearted — he will take dating very seriously when he finally decides to date (which makes Soo-young think back to his hesitation over his date with her).

Unfortunately, the friendship between the women may not last long, independent of Sang-soo. Soo-young was given a project to work on (outside her regular duties) and understood it to mean she was getting a chance to show her talents and expand her role. Once she gets the project off the ground, the branch manager takes it away from her and gives it to Mi-kyung. He tells Soo-young that Mi-kyung will be better at it and she can go back to her old job now. Soo-young is overwhelmed with hopelessness, and seems to put up a wall between herself and Mi-kyung.

To end our episode, Soo-young and Sang-soo go on a business trip to a conference, where they mostly ignore each other, but end up in a second confrontation. These two are so hurt and angry. Both want the other person to say the right thing or make the first move, but they’re both too stubborn, so they keep arguing. She wants to know if he still likes her. He asks why she’s still so mad — he thought she didn’t like him. It’s tense and neither will break, until finally, Soo-young starts to walk away to take a call, and Sang-soo grabs her wrist and pulls her around for a hug.

I’m not totally sure about this show. I am loving all the subtext — and when it does tension it does it well. But there are a lot of dull moments to wade through. Not to mention how dated it feels. It’s not just the wrist grab and the showing up at the door of both male leads, there’s something in the tone that feels like it was written ten years ago and just made it to the screen now. Also, the fake outs and perspective shifts seem to have been limited to the first week. But, it could be a good thing because we get to see inside the head of the female lead a little more.

On the upside, there’s some great dialogue that uses all its in-between spaces to say what’s not being said. And those moments shine so brightly that I’m still invested in the drama. I can’t say that I “like” any of the characters but what is happening in the interactions between all of them is very likable. These are complicated characters, with realistic hurts and insecurities, who are able to both harm and be harmed. No one is coming out of this one unscathed. And the painful part is that most of the damage will be caused by their own inner demons.

 
RELATED POSTS

• Premiere Watch: Big Bet, The Interest of Love, The Fabulous
• Yoo Yeon-seok falls for Moon Ga-young in The Interest of Love
• News bites: December 17, 2022
• News bites: December 10, 2022
• Banking on love alone in JTBC’s Understanding of Love
• Yoo Yeon-seok and Moon Ga-young are Understanding of Love
• Script reading stills from JTBC’s Understanding of Love