The Stalker
Episode 3 of Love in Contract begins with Sang-Eun, a lawyer, overseeing all of Sang-Eun’s divorces through the years. Ji-Ho, a criminal profiler, becomes curious about her and it signifies the start of their bond. ..
Ji-Ho tells Sang-Eun that he’s a family court judge and that he wanted to take a closer look at the murder he was investigating. This explains his behaviour as it’s clear he’s not a murderer after all. Sang-Eun asks him if he knows who killed her husband, and Ji-Ho says no, but he can’t rule out that it might be someone from her family.
Ji-Ho takes Sang-Eun by the hand and leads her inside, pointing out that their private life is none of Hae-Jin’s concern. ..
Ji-Ho and Seo-Yeon have a last dinner together that is very different from their usual dinners. Ji-Ho opens up to Seo-Yeon about his past and his own insecurities. He also tells her that he likes having someone in front of him who smiles often. ..
Ji-Ho and Sang-Eun say their goodbyes as they prepare to leave for their separate lives. Ji-Ho has been aware of Sang-Eun’s plans to go abroad for some time, and made the first move to make that a reality.
Ji-Ho is feeling bad after leaving his apartment. He tries to make friends at work, but it all goes wrong. He gets tickets to go see his colleagues, but they are all hilarious.
Someone has been following Hae-Jin around, and they are not happy with what they see. They are worried for her safety and want to know who this person is. They follow her to her apartment, where they see a strange woman breaking into it. This woman is wearing yellow and she seems to be looking for something. It’s clear from this that Hae-Jin has had a troubled childhood.
Hae-Jin wakes up and realizes that this woman is actually his mother, checking up on him. She notices him taking pills and worries about what this could mean.
Sang-Eun begins to clear out her things, including all the old wedding and relationship rings. The final one left is Ji-Ho, of course. They haven’t actually got divorced yet.
Sang-Eun leaves the courthouse and sees her old client Choi Sang-Hyuk. She is unnerved by the encounter but it ends without incident. ..
The night’s events unfold with a twist. Sang-Eun, a recent immigrant, is cornered by a motorcycle-helmet wearing crook. It seems like it could be a previous client holding a grudge, but it’s unclear right now. Anyway, just before he looks set to hurt her, Hae-Jin shows up and saves the day. ..
Sang-Eun heads back to his place, where he borrows one of his shirts and gets patched up. He’s still suspicious over her connection with Ji-Ho. She eventually tells him that she’s actually working as a “traveling housekeeper”.
Jamie the cat sneezes, breaking the ice between Hae-Jin and Ji-Ho. They both remember when Hae-Jin used to be known as Jamie and they used to be friends. Unfortunately, Hae-Jin has an allergic reaction to Jamie and her sneezing causes her to bump about upstairs. Ji-Ho hears this and becomes jealous when he learns that Sang-Eun is upstairs with Hae-Jin, believing they are in a relationship. Awkwardness ensues when they both bump into each other in the hallway. ..
Sang-Eun and Ji-Ho decide to head out for something to eat, where Sang-Eun reveals that someone attacked her. Ji-Ho deduces that it’s someone attacking her regarding work. He points out that a lot of her clients probably have strong feelings toward her. For now, it’s kept a mystery so we’ll have to wait and see what the future episodes have in store for us.
Sang-Eun wakes up the next morning to find that she has been selected to go to a classical music concert with her friend Ji-Ho. She is confused as to why this is and whether or not she has any tickets. She calls her friend and learns that they will be going together and that she will have to buy the tickets herself. Sang-Eun is disappointed but decides to go along with the plan.
Ji-Ho shrugs off the incident though as he has more important matters to attend to. He works with the police to try and find the traffic camera footage of the motorcycle helmet guy. And he finds it, too. ..
It’s been a little over a week since the man snapping pictures and checking out Sang-Eun started working for her. He’s been hired by someone to spy on her and find out about her history, and he’s already showing all sorts of red flags. For one, he’s not paying attention to the fact that he’s making Sang-Eun feel uncomfortable. Additionally, he seems to be unaware of how his actions are causing her pain.
Ji-Ho appears at the door, informing the reader that he knows who tried to assault Sang-Eun and they are connected to Hae-Jin.
The Episode Review
The decision by Hae-Jin to stalk and have someone snap pictures of Sang-Eun in secret is questionable. I’m not sure if the intention here is to make him unlikable, but damn, that’s a really sleazy move. Given he’s an actor and should be used to this sort of stuff himself, it’s odd to have him project this sort of behaviour onto Sang-Eun.
Ji-Ho and Sang-Eun are growing on me. Ji-Ho is the conventional “cold” male lead but he has some layers to him and learning to be more social at work helps to grow his persona over time. It’s clear that Sang-Eun is going to be the one to help him out through this and their connection is slowly starting to warm.
This is a love/hate drama with some contrivances, but there is enough here to keep viewers interested. The next episode should be very interesting to watch! ..
