Crash Course in Romance episode 7 begins with our star instructor getting taken aback by how much his attraction to our leading lady keeps growing by the day. Denial doesn’t work, though, since it takes only a glimpse of our heroine to melt his heart. All we need now is a fake divorce to a fake marriage so we can move on to the sweet dating phase.
Picking up where we left off, Chi-yeol is spotted by Su-ah and her mother on the way to Haeng-soon’s house, but fortunately, Haeng-soon notices their car on her way back from buying groceries. Acting quickly, she calls Chi-yeol and warns him about Su-ah’s mother tailing him.
He should pretend he dropped by for some dishes, but without overdoing it, which Chi-yeol “certainly” follows through. “Oh, the store is closed. I came for some side dishes but can’t get any.”
Crash Course in Romance episode 7: Harvesting the fruits of private tutoring
Hae-Yi’s hard work, together with the private tutoring, pays off. Not only does she get on top of her class in the mock exam, but also she is the only one getting a perfect score in math.
Hearing that, Haeng-soon is on cloud nine, calling Chi-yeol to share the good news. Although he acts indifferently on the phone, Chi-yeol is thrilled to bits for Hae-Yi’s success.
However, not everyone is happy for Hae-Yi since a jealous Su-ah gets an upset stomach and is rushed to the emergency room. Hence, Su-ah’s mother gets mad and plans to get revenge by telling Seon-jae’s mother about her son lending tutoring materials to Hae-Yi.
You know, the timeworn boring story of a boy and a girl seeing each other where the boy’s grades take a nosedive. At the same time, the girl comes to the top of the class after taking advantage of the boy’s feelings. At least be creative, Su-ah’s mother.
On the heels of that, Seon-Jae’s mother scolds him for sharing the tutoring materials with Hae-Yi, threatening to drop by the side dishes store and call Haeng-soon out for making her daughter “leech off” others.
However, Seon-Jae stands up to her. If she goes to see Hae-yi’s mother, he won’t see her again. Luckily, Seon-jae’s mother doesn’t cause more trouble, at least this time, though I doubt she will stay put for a long time.
Crash Course in Romance episode 7: Our hero getting flustered by his growing emotions:
A superb achievement also calls for a glorious celebration, and a party is only complete with the attendance of the star instructor who helped Hae-Yi reach the top place. Just like that, Chi-yeol gets willingly dragged to the party.
Instead of a drinking competition, what about a sports one? A minor problem, though. There are five of them. How can they split an odd number of people into two teams?
Shall we make Chi-yeol sit it out? Of course not. Let’s invite a shocked Dong-hee to join the game. Our women’s team is on a winning streak, and despite losing in every game, Chi-yeol is having the time of his life.
Instead of focusing on the game, he can’t take his eyes off Haeng-soon and injures his wrist without realizing it.
Chi-yeol spends the night in denial. How can he grow feelings for a student’s mother, who is a married woman? Of course, it isn’t love. It is just that he hasn’t moved in a while, so he got, you know, an adrenaline rush.
A good night’s sleep is what it takes to get rid of these strange feelings and get his emotions back in control. But instead of sorting out his emotions, Chi-yeol’s condition worsens, and he dreams about Haeng-soon all night.
Crash Course in Romance episode 7: A bound-to-failure attempt to sort out our hero’s feelings:
In the morning, Haeng-soon drops off some medicine for Chi-yeol’s wrist along the brunch. Cue: a flustered Chi-yeol sneaks a peak of her and hides away hurriedly when she spots him.
To convince himself it is only a fleeting feeling, Chi-yeol tries to meet more women. But things get hilarious when Chi-yeol tries to strike up a conversation with other female instructors at the academy.
Desperate to get back to “normal,” Chi-yeol even agrees to go on a blind date with his employee’s pianist friend. Chi-yeol may fool himself into thinking all is good.
He is getting attracted to other women. But it takes only a glimpse of Haeng-soon with no makeup and in casual clothes to shatter his entire world upside down and get him smitten.
Our heroine is also slowly showing signs of attraction to our star instructor. 1# The coffee machine she buys, under the pretext that it is all the rage now and customers will find it convenient when it is to make Chi-yeol some coffee 2# Just like Young-Joo describes it, a mention syndrome, where she keeps talking about Chi-yeol all the time 3# Offering to accompany him to the doctor who used to treat her injuries by acupuncture when she was on the national team.
Crash Course in Romance episode 7: Going on the not-at-all date
Although he doesn’t believe in alternative medicine, Chi-yeol agrees to go. It isn’t like it is a date. He is just taking care of his health. No ulterior motives. Shaving more neatly than usual, spending more time choosing what to wear, and putting on jeans for a change doesn’t mean anything.
Wearing jeans makes Chi-yeol feel out of character, which earns him some sarcasm from the students, so he drops by his house to change into a suit and shower himself with cologne before picking Haeng-soon up for the not-at-all date.
Hae-Yi is picking up on the whole thing, and yeah, girl, she is all in for their relationship, telling Haeng-soon to dress up and put on makeup. After all, Haeng-soon hasn’t met the doctor in a while, so she should look nice. No need to rush. Haeng-soon can take her time visiting the doctor.
The doctor nags Chi-yeol about ignoring his health and suggests he get acupuncture, which gets Chi-yeol freaking out since he is afraid of needles stuck in his body. No need to worry, though. Chi-yeol has Haeng-soon to hold his hand and calm him down.
Instead of packing dinner like every day, Haeng-soon suggests they eat at her favorite restaurant, which turns out to be her late mother’s former restaurant, which her mother’s friend currently runs. We end the episode with Chi-yeol realizing their past connection.
Can I send writer-nim a thankful letter for this great episode? The drama is at its best when it is focused on the blossoming relationship between our leads and their interactions with people around them. That said, Can I request we set the tiger mothers and the murder subplot aside?