The Interest of Love (Season 1) Episodes 9 & 10: With a series of cutesy conversations and romantic messes, ‘The Interest of Love’ does not seem to compromise its romantic quotient. While love is always in the air, how these lovers see their relationships and how money dictates their choices makes it engaging. With a cliffhanger ending of Sang-su and Su-yeong possibly meeting each other alone, the previous episode set up high expectations about the next one.
The Interest of Love (Season 1) Episodes 9 & 10 Recap:
The new episode does not delve right into that abrupt ending. Instead, it shows another bonding incident between Sang-su (Yoo Yeon-seok) & Su-yeong (Mun Ka-young) during their coworker’s wedding. This colleague, who is Sang-su’s friend, goes through pre-wedding jitters and disappears from the ceremony. Su-yeong realizes this and then asks Sang-su for help. While they start looking for him, Sang-su finds him sitting outside the building, on the ground, crying.
The colleague, who is notorious for his unreliability in relationships, receives a call from his ex-girlfriend, which makes him have second thoughts about his wedding. Sang-su helps with his childish sobbing and persuades him not to pull off getting married. Before getting asked by Su-yeong for help, Sang-su daydreams about his future relationship with Mi-kyung (Keum Sae-rok) after seeing the about-to-be-married couple’s photos. In that vision, he sees himself as a wealthy person and finds a disconnect with this image of himself.
The further episode deals with the same confusion besides the feeling of guilt that he and Su-yeong deal with, with their respective partners. Mi-kyung’s mother reveals that her daughter is dating a guy named Ha Sang-su, not knowing that she is speaking with his mother. That’s how she (Sang-su’s mother) learns about the relationship. Meanwhile, at their place, Su-yeong starts making small sacrifices with time and space (from her apartment) to make Jong-hyeon (Jung Ga-ram) feel at home.
However, it works on the contrary since it makes him feel guilty that she has to change her life to comfort him. He finds it difficult to digest that she sold her dear piano & house plants for him. It puts pressure on him to be worthy of her efforts. On the other hand, Mi-kyung sees a note that makes her suspicious of Sang-su and Su-yeong’s mutual interest in each other. Even the time he agreed to be Mi-kyung’s boyfriend, he mentioned that he was not 100% confident about it. She also recounts other past events from the bank that affirm this possibility. Shrouded with these thoughts, she cancels a plan with Sang-su and stays home by herself.
The next day, she observes the reactions between those two and keeps trying to see how he reacts to her interactions. As always, she stays slightly disappointed by his general lack of interest. Soon after, Sang-su runs into an old college friend who visits their bank. He shares something that Sang-su was not aware of – Mi-kyung, who dated Gyeong-pil (Moon Tae-yoo) during their college years, got devastated after knowing his frequent affairs with other girls. As a result, even though he was contemplating leaving her, he felt even more guilty.
He then accompany her to meet and mingle with her friends but keeps finding traces of disconnect. While it was extremely easy for her to buy him expensive gifts, he had to pay the restaurant bill in three installments. This financial disparity troubles him, and he opens up to her about it. She gets emotionally hurt but does not let him feel bad about it. They part ways for a moment which is when he bumps into Su-yeong. They get surprised by finding each other at such an expensive place.
It turns out, Su-yeong tried to find a night for herself away from Jong-hyeon. At the end of the previous episode, where we see her opening the door to her room for Sang-su, that was just a suggestion for their future romantic involvement in each other. However, they meet only much later and then go their separate ways. The next day, she returns from her work and does not find Jong-hyeon. He had his repeat exam that day and should have returned by then.
Sometime later, he returns with a bruised face and, after her constant efforts, tells her that he failed the exam again and spent his time with an old friend. He was hurt when his friend mentioned his financial reliance on Su-yeong while speaking with him. Though she is doing it out of pure heart, she has to deal with his insecurities since he starts feeling like he is a burden on her. He comes to the bank the next day for some personal work and sits with the employees for a cup of coffee. They are chatting about the recent announcement of HQ promotions.
Despite his value addition, Sang-su was left out of the list, which leaves all of them surprised. They unanimously feel that it is because he helped Su-yeong against Mr. Yuk, who is taking revenge in this way. Jong-hyeon and Mi-kyung both hear this and get awkward about the topic between their partners. Mi-kyung later confronts Gyeong-pil that he should not be casual about his past mistakes. Meanwhile, Sang-su and Su-yeong are told to attend a funeral of a VIP client together. Afterward, they have a meal together where he gets vulnerable about his father’s untimely death, and she opens up about her brother’s early demise.
It develops into a strong moment of connection between them, built with compassion. On their way back by train, he sees her eyeing the beach outside and asks if they should get down. She is pleased by his attention, and they have some fun together. The entire day hinges on them being too late to take action on their feelings for each other. At the end of the day, they contemplate whether they are happy in their present relationships. It ultimately leads her to ask if she should break up with Jong-hyeon.
On their way back, they reflect on their own their idea of happiness and the choices they are willing to make to find it. During a work meeting, the friend from before casually brings up the topic of Gyeong-pil and Mi-kyung working in the same place casually, as if nothing had happened between them in the past. While it makes her feel awkward, it is also where she learns that Sang-su also knows about their messy past. When she spoke with him later, he noted that he did not want her to be pressured to open up about her pain.
The next day in the bank, Gyeong-pil makes Sang-su contemplate why this revelation does not bother him – indicating his lack of interest in Mi-kyung. He decides to take her out to his mother’s spa place, where she learns that the friend of her mother is actually Sang-su’s mother. The financial disparity between them makes Mi-kyung’s mother advise her daughter not to pursue him. Meanwhile, Jong-hyeon decides to move out of Su-yeong’s apartment to a new place with the money he saved.
It seems like financial differences create major concerns between both couples for different reasons. The next day, Mi-kyung’s father comes to the office to meet Sang-su in person to interview him as his son-in-law. There is also an ongoing conversation between Sang-su and Mi-kyung about the expensive things she gives him, which makes him feel burdened and unworthy of her. It highlights him not having that much money, and she does not seem to think it that way. She knows his dreams of social mobility and sees it as just a part that he will eventually get by himself. She interprets this as him adjusting to his newfound prominence. Such conversations allow them to be honest with themselves about their financial differences.
Meanwhile, Su-yeong witnesses her mother collapsing on the road outside their bank while heading with a large pack of food orders. She screams out ‘mother’, which discloses their relationship to her colleagues. After seeing her diagnosis and finding her father on the way out, she confronts him for not being there to support her emotionally and financially. She felt she needed to ignore this physical issue because of his neglect. After dealing with this familial issue, she meets Sang-su at a bus stop, and they strike up a conversation and start walking back.
Earlier in the bank, he was shocked by the news of Su-yeong leaving the office (which Gyeong-pill makes him believe). She learns that her absence would mean so much to him. While walking on this steep road, they hint at their mutual involvement in each other’s well being. They eventually reach a food outlet, which gets closed by the time they reach there. He then drives her back and asks if they could meet again later. Despite her reservations, she agrees to do it the next day. Back at her home, she gets a visit from Mi-kyung who comes to give her old uniforms that the bank is not going to use anymore.
The actual reason is for her to learn about Su-yeong’s interest in Sang-su. She eventually starts talking about the prospect of her marrying Sang-su in the future and her parents looking for a suitable match for her – to see how Su-yeong reacts to this piece of news. On her way home, she stops at Sang-su where he returns the car keys to her. Back at her place, Su-yeong sees a message on Jong-hyeon’s phone from his mother, the money she needs for his father’s medical treatment. She pitches in to finance it, which bothers him. Their emotional distance becomes even more evident through these interactions.
The Interest of Love (Season 1) Episode 10 Ending Explained:
During their later meeting on the golf course, Mi-kyung’s father mentions how unsentimental he is – and also that he does not look at Sang-su as someone who will provide his daughter with all the money she needs. He considers himself enough for that responsibility and wants to see if Sang-su is suitable for her or not. Meanwhile, Jong-hyeon moves out of Sang-su’s place to live by himself.
She walks out of her home, thinking about their distance, which is where she sees from afar that Sang-su is waiting for her at the restaurant. She hesitates to go in, much like how he did, and only texts him about it. However, he sees her walking back from the window and goes to her usual bus stop to meet her. She looks at the bus route map and contemplates how cyclical it is – that all their journeys always come back to square one. He breaks the awkwardness of their interaction by asking her if she would come to help him with something.
He takes her to an ice-skating spot and teaches her how to sweep out the ice. You see a playfully romantic moment unfold between them and sense the connection formed with all the recent developments. He sees her from afar, smiling cheek-to-cheek, and feels lucky to achieve what he has wanted for so long. He eventually ends up kissing her, and she kisses him back. Now that they have decided to act upon their urges, it will be heartbreaking to see the complications it creates in their relationship.
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