Secrets From The Past
Love With Flaws returns this week with a more straightforward slice of drama, one that moves away somewhat from the slapstick humour to much more of a melodramatic tone as Seo-Yeon’s past comes into focus and our characters continue to dance around their true feelings for one another. We begin with a look at Kang’s family life, and in particular his eating habits and the differences between the two cousins. This ultimately brings us back to where we left off last time, with Kang and Min-Hyeok fighting until Seo-Yeon wakes up and walks away from the car, heading home and drunkenly stumbling inside. The next day, Kang spies her at the school and snatches his car keys from her. He silently hands her a bottle and walks away, leaving her to contemplate whether it’s poisoned or not. Eventually after some deliberation, she drinks and finds out it’s not. Deciding to get some answers, Mi-Kyung visits Hyun-Soo who continues to lie, spinning the deceit that Kang-Woo doesn’t like Seo-Yeon. While they talk together, Kang Woo meanwhile saves Seo-Yeon from the dominating presence of the Vice Principal and instead, tells her that she needs to wait for his command. After school, Seo-Yeon and Min-Hyeok go shopping, where the former picks out a gorgeous black dress and the transformation is quite stunning. Min-Hyeok, of course, gawps at her before telling Seo-Yeon he’s terrified by her beauty. They then head to a party where things get pretty awkward, despite Min-Hyeok and Seo-Yeon getting along perfectly. The rest of the table watch in envy before they all donate items of clothing. Following a lovely evening, Min-Hyeok drives Seo-Yeon home and admits his true feelings for her but she brushes it off as a joke. Unfortunately this is far from the truth but Kang-Woo watches from afar, lamenting his own relationship with Seo-Yeon and setting up the foundations for a love triangle to come. The next day, the foursome sit at the table and eat, where Min-Hyeok splashes food over Kang following his outbursts. Given they’re at school, Kang struggles to keep his cool before requesting Seo-Yeon’s presence in his office, potato still splashed over his shirt. After berating her about the track team, the two continue to come to blows until Kang tells her to come to his house. Seo-Yeon and Kang eventually reconvene in his study where she looks at his sketches and drawings, plastered across the wall. Things get awkward between them and as we reach the next day, he sees her at the bus stop. Driving together, they almost crash, prompting Seo-Yeon to grab his chest, leading to him pulling his chair back to avoid her grip. After an incident at the police station, Lee Kang-Hee runs into Kang-Woo and Seo-Yeon outside, who manage to get away after Kang refuses to introduce her to his family. Alone, he confronts her over her actions, stepping infront of her ex’s car earlier in the episode to prevent him from drink driving home. He presses, asking what happened to her parents as she silently walks away and back home. At school, Kang asks Mi-Kyung what happened to Seo-Yeon’s parents and after some deliberation, she spills the truth. It turns out they were killed by a drink driver while Seo-Yeon was little, watching from afar, bringing to light the reason behind her reluctance in showing him her parents and also her insistence on stopping her ex. The next day, Kang and Seo-Yeon both end up running in the street and come face to face. As the episode closes out, he sinks down to her level and apologizes for his actions in the past. As we approach the halfway point of this drama, Love With Flaws injects some surprisingly heavy themes amidst the humour. The show is certainly a far cry from the slapstick toilet-humour comedy we begun with but if I’m honest, I’m not sure this darker tone is the right way to go for this one. Love With Flaws is at its strongest when it doubles down on its humour and although there are the early signs of a love triangle in the works, there just isn’t quite enough originality here to make this a compelling enough drama to stick with for the long run. That’s before even mentioning the spliced in segments involving Jang-Mi’s bizarre investigation into Seo-Yeon. Hopefully this one improves but Love With Flaws is far more flaws than it is love right now.
