A Troubled Past
Episode 4 of Love Alarm sees Sun-Oh arrive at the nurse’s office, just as Hye-Yeong hides Jojo behind the screen. He casts one last knowing glance her way before leaving with Sun-Oh. After some time together, Sun-Oh catches up with Jojo, asking her about visiting Jeju Island which throws up some flashbacks to the past. Sun-Oh tells her she doesn’t need to go to work and instead takes her out skating on a date while Hye-Yeong heads home and reminisces over old times. With Jojo seemingly happy with Sun-Oh and his secret out about his crush on her, Hye-Yeong heads to the tranquil twilight of a Korean bridge and deletes the app. At school the next day, Sun-Oh causes a scene at the cafeteria as everyone watches him and Jojo share their food together. As he gets closer to her, he begins to obsess over her eating schedule; their toxic relationship continuing as Jojo tells him to sit away from her but he refuses. Realizing this leads into his controlling Mother and home life, Duk-Go takes an interest in Jojo’s reading, before telling her that she and Sun-Oh make a good couple together. As rumours continue to circulate around school, Sun-Oh confronts Gul-Mi, given she happens to be the instigator for these fake slices of drama. She tells him to ditch Jojo and instead go out with her but Sun-Oh bites back, telling her she’s only interested because he’s famous and has contacts. He then offers her an ultimatum, in exchange for leaving him and Jojo alone, but she storms off without giving an answer as she notices Jojo staring from afar. Back at school, Il-Sik finds out that it’s Jang-Go who rung his love alarm, sending him into an angry spiral as his oldest friend looks at him romantically. As tears run down her face, we cut to Sun-Oh who holds his tears back as he’s forced to keep up a facade infront of his Mother. In a flashback, we see some of the questionable abuse he was confronted with, courtesy of his Mother. As he rushes over to Jojo’s for comfort, she and Gul-Mi have a fight over the past, where her Aunt rushes in and calls Jojo two-faced, lamenting the debts left to her. Desperate for familial love, her Aunt tells Jojo to get out of her house. As she walks, teary-eyed, down the twilight-lit bridge and into the streets. It’s here we see her flashbacks before Sun-Oh fades into view. Perhaps they’re both destined for each other after all? As we officially reach the halfway point of this Korean romance, more light is shed on Jojo and Sun-Oh’s past, both of which full of pain and suffering. Perhaps this is why the two of them have been drawn together in such a way and certainly throws some interesting questions into the fold. While the episode doesn’t advance the plot a whole lot, there’s enough here to make for an enjoyable watch nonetheless, one that offers some much-needed perspective on the tumultuous drama surrounding these two lovers.
