The Singing Contest
Episode 40 of Homemade Love Story starts where we left off with Chae-Woon fainting. Pil-Hong happens to be there too and quickly rushes her over to the ER. The doctors think that she may have overworked herself but she will be fine. Pil-Hong tries ringing Jung-Wong but she doesn’t answer. He then calls Jae-Hee to let him know. Jung-Won receives a text from Pil-Hong about Chae-Woon but he reassures her that she is fine. She still goes to her meeting though while Soon-Jung also learns about her daughter. Soon-Jung rushes over to the hospital and speaks to Pil-Hong about what happened. She berates her for causing all this stress and offers to give him money she saved in exchange for him leaving. Pil-Hong doesn’t say much and promises to come back later to have a serious talk. Chae-Woon finally wakes up and asks her mum where Pil-Hong is. Soon-Jung replies that he has left which causes her to become agitated. Suddenly, Jae-Hee arrives too, which surprises her. He asks why she has been so hard on herself and working so much. She replies that it looks like he did the same to himself. Hae-Deun calls her Mum to ask if Jun-A could come live in the basement room. She accepts then tells her about Chae-Woon. After hanging up. Jun-A mentions the word boyfriend but Hae-Deun plays hard to get and tells him that she will decide when they are dating. Jun-A admits that he thought they were after the kiss, but tells him that doesn’t mean they are together. Pil-Hong decides to strike at Na-Ro and calls professor Kim while the chairwoman wants Seo-A to reject the project her mother is working on. She explains that Jung-Won asked her to step down and that she suspects them. The chairwoman thinks that they should shift the blame to Na-Ro but Seo-A doesn’t agree as she admits they are dating. On her way home, Min-Jae helps Ba-Wi get rid of bullies and invites him home while Jun-A and Hae-Deun carry boxes to the villa. Jun-A is desperate to tell Hae-Deun the truth about his mother but he keeps getting interrupted by different people. As he arrives near the villa, he sees his mum so he quickly backtracks and leaves Hae-Deun. Jae-Hee and Soon-Jung take Chae-Woon home. Hae-Deun arrives at the same time just as Jae-Hee bids them farewell. They all join Ms Kim, Na-Ro and Ba-Reun inside. Ms Kim wants to make sure Chae-Woon is okay. Soon-Jung reassures her and tells her that she always had anemia but she is fine now. Ms Kim is surprised as she didn’t know. Chae-Woon then goes to her room to rest. Jung-Hoo remembers that Hwak-Se’s contest is coming up on the radio and texts all the residents to remind them. Man-Jung also receives a job offer in a different hospital and considers taking it. All the residents then tune in together to listen to Hwak-Se on the radio. He dedicates his song to Man-Jung and gives a great performance. Everyone votes for him and as he scored 92 points, he is through to the finals. Everyone celebrate and cheer from their different locations. Jun-A decides to come back to the villa and calls Ms Kim ‘mum.’ This surprises everyone of course so Jun-A takes Ms Kim to his room. The latter is having trouble understanding why he has decided to live there. Jun-A explains that it is temporary and is trying his best but he needs more time. After his mother leaves the villa, Jun-A heads over to Hae-Deun’s room to speak to her. She is upset he never told her but he defends himself as he knew how much he disliked his mother and sister. Hae-Deun is having none of it though and asks him to move out. She still wants to work with him though but when he asks her about the kiss, she tells him to forget all about it. Soon-Jung tells Jun-A to make sure he goes to see his mother soon as she was a bit upset. She officially welcomes him to the villa, which makes him very happy. In the evening, Man-Jung goes to see Hwak-Se in the bar he works at. She angrily tells him that since he is not answering her calls and not planning to come back until he’s won the contest, she is planning to move to a different town and hospital. That way, when he comes back, she wont be there. Hwak-Se asks her if she is actually breaking up with him and if she came all the way here to do that. Man-Jung admits that she misses him a lot. Hwak-Se starts raising his voice too and tells her he wants to try his best to achieve something so he can tell her confidently that he loves her. Both admit that they don’t want to break up and finally reconcile, hugging each other. Meanwhile, Seo-A suggest to Na-Ro that they should get engaged. Na-Ro is not sure as Ms Kim doesn’t trust him yet so he doesn’t want to rush into things. Na-Ro then reads a text from Professor Kim, blackmailing him. This makes him change his mind and tells Seo-A he wants to get married soon. Min-Jae is still looking after Ba-Wi and remembers the past with Jae-Hee and Jung-Hoo. The latter calls her and Min-Jae asks him why he didn’t turn up at her doctor’s appointment. He lies that he is busy just as professor Son arrives to pick his son up. This upsets Jung-Hoo a little as he is still jealous of the man. Jun-A shares a meal with Jung-Hoo and fills him in on what happened during the day. Jung-Hoo then follows Jun-A to the villa and brings tangerine and a rose to Chae-Woon. The two sit together and talk about Jae-Hee and how difficult it has been. Jung-Hoo tells her life is too short and she should go and be with him. We then see that Jun-A mentioned Beom-Jin to Jung-Hoo and how Jae-Hee’s panic attacks have started again. Jung-Hoo then asks Jun-A to get in touch with their old friend for him. The episode ends with Jung-Hoo dressed in his James clothes and arriving at Jae-Hee’s work. He calls him Mr Yoo and asks Jae-Hee to follow him home. Jae-Hee is shocked as he thinks he has amnesia again but Jung-Hoo takes his hand and insists.
The Episode Review
Homemade Love Story delivers another fun and emotional episode. I absolutely loved Hwak-Se’s performance. The song really represented him; fun, a little crazy and very sweet. It was so touching to see everyone tuning in wherever they were, to support him. I am really glad to see that the show is giving the secondary characters like him more screen time. The scene between him and Man-Jung was very emotional and really well acted too. Hopefully, things will get easier for them from now on. The last few minutes of the episode were also quite surprising as Jung-Hoo turned back into “James” to convince his son to come back. I am really looking forward to see what happened next for the two and I hope they will finally put the past behind them. I can’t help but feel sorry for Pil-Hong a little as we can see he really wants to do well for his daughter. Of course, the chairwoman is a bad influence on him and looking at the preview for next week, it looks like she is planning something else. I am very intrigued to see what will happen next for all our residents and their friends. With only a few weeks left, I am sure we will have more drama to come and some happy moments too. After all these enjoyable episodes, I can’t help but feel like I would also love to be a resident of the Samgwang villa!
