Da Capo, From The Beginning
Episode 12 of Do You Like Brahms begins with Song-A and Joon-Young deciding to walk together after arriving home from their trip to Daejeon. After handing over a gift (an umbrella), she heads inside with her Mother. In the morning, Joon-Young admits to Song-A that he’s going to enter the Tchaikovsky competition. Knowing how much he hated playing in the past, she can’t help thinking this is a bad thing for him. However, she doesn’t say anything and heads back to see Soo-Kyung. Only, she’s forced to phone Cecila and apologize as the woman is refusing to play with her. Knowing this will cause problems for her entrance exam, Song-A is forced to look afar for an alternative when Cecila refuses. Without an accompanist, Joon-Young instead offers himself up as a viable alternative. Song-A isn’t comfortable with it and as the topic of Jung-Kyung is brought up, she eventually takes her leave when Joon-Young snaps. As she heads outside, Joon-Young shows up with his umbrella – the same one Song-A got him. It turns out he’s been carrying it around everywhere with him since she bought it. Holding her hand, the two stay under the umbrella as she finally agrees to let him help. Kyung-Jung continues to teach Ji-Won in private but tells her she needs to speak up to her Mother soon. Only, when Ji-Won’s Mother suddenly shows up, things are admittedly awkward. Thankfully, Hyun-Ho happens to be there and saves his ex from her predicament. With things calmed down for now, Hyun-Ho speaks to Jung-Kyung and learns she’s tutoring Ji-Won privately. Back home, Jung-Kyung eventually confronts Director Na and her Father. She tells them both they’re not doing this for her Mother and they’re only looking for a way to hide their own guilt. She still wants to be a violinist and refuses to listen to their plans for her taking over the foundation. Meanwhile, Joon-Young’s Mother runs into money problems. She could potentially lose the diner thanks to her husband recklessly putting it up as collateral. When Joon-Young receives the dreaded call, it’s 30,000 dollars that’s needed to keep things afloat. Young-In overhears and the two sit together and talk. He regrets going on a sabbatical and blames himself for what happened. Young-In meanwhile suggests he should go to Director Na for the money – which he flat out refuses to do. Needing money though, Joon-Young is given another offer from Seong-Jae – this time for a reality TV program. Given he needs the money, this may be the opportunity he needs. Only, it’s obviously not what he wants to do so he’s again stuck doing what he can to help his parents. As fate would have it, Joon-Young’s “brand image” takes a hit when news of him playing with Song-A leaks out. Because of this, the reality show don’t want to take him on. It turns out this was completely off the books and not an official deal anyway. Ji-Won plays at her competition (coming first place) while Song-A is advised not to join the group chat at university. She does though, and immediately notices people talking about her and Joon-Young’s gulf in playing talent. Her woes are made worse when she overhears Joon-Young talking to the teacher at university. The piano is broken but he still wants to play for her. On the back of what she heard online, Song-A decides against playing with Joon-Young after all. This is only made worse by Seong-Jae arriving and advising that she should quit playing with him because of Joon-Young’s “image.” That evening, Joon-Young heads over and starts playing with Jung-Kyung. While she does, Song-A is confronted by Professor Lee who tells her not to get involved with the orchestra. She flat out admits that Song-A is not talented and instead calls her an assistant in front of everyone. After the dinner, she receives a message from Joon-Young admitting that she can’t meet her as she has to meet her Mum. Only, a taxi drives past that happens to hold Joon-Young and Jung-Kyung together in the back.
The Episode Review
Poor Song-A, everything is going wrong for her – and this Korean drama too. If there was ever a case that 16 episodes is too much for some stories then it’s this one. No0thing really happens in this episode and we retread ground we’ve covered so many times in previous episodes. The constant misunderstandings because of Joon-Young refusing to open up are really starting to become cliched now. Min-Sung is all but forgotten about while Hyun-Ho and Dong-Yoon are relegated to background players as well. Hopefully this orchestra can build up a triumphant crescendo but right now this song is playing off-key and fizzling out into mediocrity.
