Crushology 101: Episodes 3-4

13 April 20, 2025April 20, 2025

Crushology 101: Episodes 3-4

by Unit

The love square of our heroine continues, as her suitors move up and down the rankings. Two rival love interests temporarily call truce in order to expose their other rival with an ulterior motive, and our heroine is forced to reconsider her interest in matters of the heart.

EPISODES 3-4

The week resumes with Jae-yeol declaring his intention to keep seeing Hee-jin. When she asks why, he stutters and says she hasn’t returned a shirt he gave her a few days ago. Smh. Hee-jin promptly returns the shirt and reiterates that they should never see each other again. But guess which duo is stuck together in a student council meeting for all department reps? Hehe. Hee-jin is tasked with casting Ah-rang for an alumni interview, but the famous sculptor is also famous for turning down interview requests.

Ah-rang drops by the campus to see Hee-jin, and he immediately agrees when she brings up the interview. He’s his usual flirty self with her, and of course, Jae-yeol witnesses this interaction. It’s a small world, but it did not have to be this small! Now Jae-yeol feels more insecure than ever. Ah-rang is famous. Ji-won is a chaebol heir. And then there’s him, an ordinary college student with no extra qualifications — except for his sad backstory that comes with the K-drama male lead territory. Jae-yeol’s mom has a history of putting her boyfriends ahead of him, and she lacks the self-awareness to see that her actions are hurting her son.

The student council visits Ah-rang’s studio for the alumni interview, and he uses the opportunity to drop hints that he’s interested in Hee-jin. He also invites her to visit him again separately. Hee-jin and Jae-yeol get locked inside the storage room when they stay behind to clean up, and their phones have no signal to call for help. To make matters worse, Hee-jin’s stomach starts acting up, and Jae-yeol is forced to break the lock with a hammer. Phew! Hee-jin is grateful for his help, and they become somewhat friendly again.

Ji-won asks to hang out with Hee-jin and she invites him for a pajama party with her friends. This is the second time he’s hanging out with the girls, and I believe he has been put in the sister-zone. Over the expensive chaebol-provided dinner, Hee-jin and her friends speculate on the nature of her relationship with Ah-rang, in the light of her invitation to his studio. They ask for Ji-won unnie — sorry — Ji-won oppa’s opinion, and he replies that Hee-jin will find out Ah-rang’s intentions when she gets to the studio. At this point, I don’t think Ji-won knows that he likes Hee-jin because he’s being way too cool about her upcoming date with another man. The second male lead energy is very strong with him. He’s very respectful, very reasonable, very refuses-to-make-the-female-lead-uncomfortable-with-his-feelings, and very will-definitely-lose-her-if-he-doesn’t-act-fast.

Meanwhile, Jae-yeol is on pins and needles the whole time Hee-jin is in Ah-rang’s studio. Jealousy aside, when he went to un-mic Ah-rang after the alumni interview, he saw him in a compromising position with Hee-jin’s colleague. Jae-yeol plays the audio while editing the interview clip, and whatever it is that he hears makes him crash Hee-jin and Ah-rang’s date. He drags Hee-jin away, but rather than tell her what he heard, he scolds her for not learning anything from her last relationship with a jerk. Hee-jin is hurt and she tells him to mind his own business. She’s sensible enough to pose the “what are we?” question to Ah-rang. But Ah-rang is skilled enough to sidestep the question and make her feel special without a formal commitment.

Jae-yeol figures Hee-jin will at least listen to Ji-won, so he puts his one-sided beef with his rival aside to give him the update on their joint rival, Ah-rang. Apparently, Ah-rang manipulated Hee-jin’s colleague into thinking they’re in a relationship, meanwhile he’s only in it for the sex. Ji-won puts his chaebol resources to good use and hires a private investigator to dig into Ah-rang. It turns out that Ah-rang’s fav pastime is preying on college girls, and he has over 10 of them on his roster. Whoa! He’s worse than I thought. Now that they’ve got solid proof, the guys decide to warn Hee-jin. But in the time they spent bromancing to Ah-rang’s exhibition on a scooter, Hee-jin already caught Ah-rang kissing her colleague. Yikes!

Hee-jin confronts Ah-rang and he replies that his private life is none of her business. After all, it’s not like they are dating. Ouch! But if the conclusion of Hee-jin’s relationship with her ex taught us anything, it’s that she can handle guys who toy with her heart. Hee-jin publicly dumps a bucket of ice on Ah-rang’s head, and tells him to become a decent human being before becoming an artist. So satisfying! Afterwards, she feels a little pathetic for being a pushover in relationships. But Jae-yeol assures her that she’s not pathetic and Ah-rang is the bad one. Thanks to Ji-won’s connections, Ah-rang gets media exposure as a predator, his studio kicks him out, and he is dropped by the chaebol foundation — Ji-won’s family — sponsoring him. The end.

Hee-jin is now down to two potential boyfriends. But after two back to back heartbreaks, she decides to put relationships on hold. Plus her romance radar is dead, anyway, and she hasn’t picked up on Jae-yeol and Ji-won’s interest in her. Speaking of the guys, now that their anti-Ah-rang collaboration is over, they try to gauge each other’s interest in Hee-jin. While Ji-won notes that Hee-jin has started seeing Jae-yeol in a new light, Jae-yeol assumes Hee-jin and Ji-won have something going on. Smh.

Jae-yeol’s jealous ass gets drunk and he runs into Hee-jin on his way home. We get a few flashbacks showing that he noticed Hee-jin long before she even knew of his existence, and it is a case of “he fell first — and obviously harder.” In the present, Jae-yeol tells Hee-jin to stop occupying his head space. She thinks he’s up to his usual BS, but he clarifies by telling her that he likes her. Ouuu. A confession in the second week? I like it! In the meantime, Ji-won has realized he might like Hee-jin more than just as a friend, and he had better step up his game otherwise…

Delulu 101 continues to be a relaxing nothing burger, although there was some meat with Ah-rang’s arc. Stories of powerful/famous people using their influence to lure unsuspecting common folks into inappropriate relationships is not uncommon, and I appreciate the show for highlighting this. Now that we’ve moved on from the character, I’m going to miss the actor a little because he’s one of the three reasons I tuned into this show. But in the meantime, I’m loving the presence of sunlight and cherry blossoms as paid actors, and I’m still waiting for Hong Min-ki’s appearance.

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1 Jezz

April 20, 2025 at 5:14 PM

I knew and I still reminded that Hong Min-ki was Handsome Guy #4. It was rare Kdrama that worth waiting the fourth male lead so I'm excited to see the complete fab(?) four boys in action.

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2 hacja

April 20, 2025 at 9:40 PM

I mentioned last week how Bunny is a bit of an issue in this show for me, in that besides her considerable beauty, she is very uninteresting. However, I give her credit, she has no trouble responding with appropriately dramatic measures to jerky males.

But these episodes, the far more serious issue is Jae-yeol. Totally immature, a complete idiot with the FL--what, he can't say some nice things to her?--confessing by saying "he's broken" because he likes her? He is exactly the type of kdrama ML that I hate--unable to admit he likes a woman--why? Because supposedly as a 25 year old military veteran he is so stupid around women he has a crush on that he can't even say decent things to her, and has to act perpetually irritated around her unless he's dead drunk. And then his trauma--his Mom wants to be younger than she is? Look, that's one thing that it something pretty easy to sympathize with, especially if its your Mom, and especially by the time you are in your mid-twenties.

But, regardless, unless the show is willing to move beyond the utterly typical rom-com ML dichotomy--the overly nice, overly respectful second ML who will never get the girl, and the self-centered, somewhat jerky ML who is totally afraid of women, because he is so sexually naive, but who will get a kiss in the end, even though its unclear how he even learned to do it, I'm going to dismiss Crushology 101 as a totally inconsequential show. That's how serious I am about bad kdrama writing in this one, and I'm sure the writer is shaking in her boots at the possibility.

Maybe Hong Min-ki will come and completely upend the drama and my opinion of it, making the first 4 episodes seem preliminary to one of the great kdrama rom-com masterpieces of recent times! That would be something!

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TwoCentsWorth

April 21, 2025 at 5:41 AM

I expected to be watching this. But I'm glad it's you reporting! Phew. If HMK completely upends this, sounds like it'll be the upset of the year. Tho lucky me, I'm not a betting man.

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3 Kurama

April 20, 2025 at 11:25 PM

The episode 3 was really bad...there was nothing except fake moments to get the lead together. The plot is so thin...

The episode 4 was a little better. But again, making a drama about beautiful people and their issues is kinda shallow.

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kdramakat

April 21, 2025 at 3:53 AM

I've been live watching too many shows recently, and told myself to drop a few to have more time to live my real life. After watching episode 3 I realized dropping this one was a no brainer for me. I'll periodically check back with the recaps to see whether it seems worth revisiting at a later point.

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4 kay4625

April 21, 2025 at 4:31 AM

I really enjoyed the first 2 episodes, but I enjoyed these two a whole lot less. I know this drama is stupid and all, and I like stupid, but Jae-yeol just isn't exactly a very likeable character? He just acts like a d*ck for no reason whatsoever other than that he can't handle his own feelings, but he never even bothers apologizing for it. And every time you think he's gonna have a moment of growth, it goes out the window later anyway, and we're right back at square one.

For example, in the beginning of episode 4, instead of just showing her the recording of Ah-rang, he basically makes her out to be the bad and stupid one. The line that really pissed me off was "why would he even like you?". Do I even need to get into the many ways this just feels incredibly disrespectful? He then later wonders if he was too harsh, but literally nothing comes from that. Him saying "you're not pathetic" is like the bare minimum, especially after what he said earlier.

Also, if your drama is about a love triangle/ square, then don't make it obvious as to who the endgame is? Because this just feels like a classic teen romance that's pretending to be something that it's not. This wouldn't be a big problem, if the endgame ML was likeable, and their dynamic was fun to watch, but that's just not really the case at this point.

Maybe the drama will pull a surprise twist here? Maybe Bunny will even end up single? But I'm hoping for too much, aren't I?

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5 Lostpanda is now Sadpanda. 🪦 fanwall 🪦

April 21, 2025 at 7:35 AM

@unit 🤣😅 is at it again with some absolute gems in their Crushology 101 recap.

“Delulu 101 continues to be a relaxing nothing burger, although there was some meat with Ah-rang’s arc”

“I’m loving the presence of sunlight and cherry blossoms as paid actors”

Thanks for crushing it.

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6 Celebril

April 21, 2025 at 8:10 AM

The teasers for this show were screaming "FLUFF!" and that is exactly what we are getting so for. Thank you!!! This is proving to be the end of week fluffy break I'm needing right now. Hopefully it doesn't turn too melodrama in the final few episodes.

As Unit says, there was a bit of meat with A Rang, fortunately it was more like nice crispy bacon rather than steak. I say "fortunately" because I am looking for fluff in this show, not a bait and switch. There was just enough to make the point that stud or dud on the outside, you can still be a turd on the inside.

I'm a bit more understanding of Jae Yeol at this point. He didn't appear to have a father in his life and his mom was a much a noona player as A Rang. Not a surprise he's totally clueless about girls.

Well... having fun and counting down the days for the next fluffy fix.

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7 Reply1988 - 🍊Mother Bean🍊

April 22, 2025 at 12:34 AM

Thanks for the recap @unit

This looks like another drama where my grudge holding trait is going to leave me on the wrong team. I struggle to forget a male lead’s negative traits when they start out presenting as an idiot. Even when the tragic background is revealed and they learn to be a better person, I still think the consistent decent person would have been the better option. In this case she literally started off recognising how cute the second lead is so it’s a shame she has categorised him as out of her league and settled for friendship. I want to see where it ends with the chaebol grandson as usually the second lead who appeared lovely compared to the male lead is shown to be lacking what it takes to make their move in a timely manner. He does take a measured approach as we saw in these episodes where he looked for long term solutions rather than the male lead who goes in without a plan and doesn’t understand why things back fire. I will be so disappointed if he goes into the usual whining mode and use the ‘Why can’t it be me?’ line.

I would love it if we could see more dramas showing that communication like in King the land can bypass the noble idiocy every single time and still be a fun watch. 90% of No gain, no love was the funniest example of this type of open communication between a couple. I am still not over how they messed that up so close to the end.

Anyway, I hope that the rest of the drama will be light touch on real world issues and looking forward to the role of the fourth contender now we have got rid of the jerk artist.

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kdramakat

April 22, 2025 at 4:23 AM

Yes, I'm still salty about the ending of No Gain, No Love! And yes, one major reason why I decided to drop this show is because it was hard for me to watch a jerk pulling jerky stunts.

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Reply1988 - 🍊Mother Bean🍊

April 22, 2025 at 6:16 AM

Yes I still feel we should have a No gain, No love ‘what was that ending?’ support group🤨

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kdramakat

April 22, 2025 at 6:27 AM

Don't get me started...

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8 MalcolmPDX

April 22, 2025 at 5:31 PM

This show should be called Wrist Grabbing 101. I mean, even for a K Drama, there is a lot! Also, will this entire serries take place in the seven to ten days the cherry blossoms blossom?! Time is ticking!!!