The Interest of Love Episode 12 Recap and Review: Hyptonising and Utter Chaos

The Interest of Love (사랑의 이해) is a Korean romantic-drama series directed by Jo Yeong-min and stars Yoo Yeon-seok, Mun Ka-young, Keum Sae-rok and Jung Ga-ram in lead roles. The series is based on the novel by Sarangui Ihae by Lee Hyuk-jin. The series takes over JTBC’s Wednesday-Thursday 10.30 PM KST timeslot previously occupied by Insider starring Kang Ha-neul.

The Interest of Love episode 12 has a runtime of 75 minutes.

Netflix’s description reads:

FOUR MEN AND WOMEN WORKING AT THE SAME BANK GET ENTANGLED IN A COMPLICATED ROMANCE AS THEY DISCOVER HOW FAR THEY’RE WILLING TO GO FOR LOVE.

– The Interest of Love Episode 12 Recap Contains Spoilers –

The Interest of Love episode 12 starts with Dice Game playing in the background as Su-yeong follows Sang-su into a hotel room. What follows is a night of heavy intimacy, but unfortunately for fans of the couple, it’s all in Mi-gyeong’s head. She’s having dinner with Gyeong-pil and is almost sure that they are dating.

Mi-gyeong rants about giving her entire heart to Sang-su and tells Gyeong-pil that she overlooked everything in hopes that he would give up Su-yeong in the process.

After a brief rundown of the last episode’s shitstorm, we see Sang-su breaking up with Mi-gyeong. She tries to convince him to stay, even telling him that Jong-hyeon and Su-yeong are living together, but Sang-su has made up his mind – he is breaking up with Mi-gyeong.

Meanwhile, Jong-hyeon also asks Su-yeong whether she likes him. Su-yeong flips the question on him as well and asks him whether love is the only emotion he feels for her. At home, with broken hearts everywhere, Su-yeong calls Sang-su to enquire whether he’s ok or not. She eventually finds him standing outside her house, and as they meet each other, Jong-hyeon sees them from their home.

As they walk, Sang-su and Su-yeong discuss their feelings to come to terms with whatever is happening around them.

The next day at work, Mi-gyeong comes across Su-yeong making coffee in the break room and acts as if nothing has happened. Interestingly, she casually lies to her, telling her that she and Sang-su left the other night to celebrate her birthday together and eventually stayed up pretty late just talking together. Su-yeong looks absolutely bewildered and confused but doesn’t say anything further.

Seok-hyeon’s scandal lands him in trouble, and he gets suspended for two months. With his private matter becoming the talk of the town, Mi-gyeong uses this opportunity to warn Su-yeong casually that this is the result of causing a scandal while working at a bank. The threat isn’t lost on Su-yeong.

However, when Seok-hyeon tells everyone that he did this horrible mistake because he didn’t want to regret it, it probably rings a bit too true for Sang-su. He later asks Mi-gyeong whether she thought about what he said last night, and she starts to beg again and reminds him what happened to Seok-hyeon and his ex and how everyone badmouthed them both.

Mi-gyeong’s words bring pause to Sang-su. However, he asks her whether she is truly ok with dating him now that she knows too well where his feelings lie. Mi-gyeong tells him that anything is better than breaking up with him, leaving Sang-su looking absolutely gobsmacked.

Later that night, Su-yeong goes out to a bar with Jong-hyeon and his study partners, and Seon-jae gets all aggressive and dismissive with Su-yeong, going as far as to say that Jong-hyeon mentioned previously how he has the most fun with her. Anyway, after the weird aggression and on their way back home, Jong-hyeon asks Su-yeong out on a date the next day.

Su-yeong agrees, and after he holds her hand, she uncomfortably asks him to let go since his palms are sweaty. As they go inside together, Sang-su watches them from afar, realising that Mi-gyeong’s claim that she is living with Jong-hyeon is true.

Also Read: The Interest of Love Episode 11 Recap and Review: Heated Exchanges

He takes his gifts for her to his mother, and she asks him to sit down and tell her what is happening. Sang-su opens up about his feelings and his mother, unfortunately, is out of words.

The next morning, Su-yeong and Jong-hyeon go on their date, and throughout their time together, they seem extremely distant; Su-yeong looks almost uncomfortable being in this situation. While taking a walk, however, he gives her a couple ring and as he is about to put it on her finger, the ring doesn’t fit.

Meanwhile, Sang-su gets called out to hang out with Mi-seon, who excitedly tries to buy suits for him. Feeling awkward, he decides to tell her the truth but not before calling Mi-gyeong over as well. It’s hella awkward as Mi-seon talks about supporting their marriage, fully sure that that’s the news that Sang-su wanted to give her.

Unfortunately, Sang-su breaks both of their hearts when he tells them the truth – that they have decided to break up. Mi-seon is obviously furious, and Mi-gyeong isn’t pleased either. She talks to Sang-su and asks him why he can’t just love her back when she still loves him so much. She asks him whether Su-yeong will also break up with Jong-hyeon, and Sang-su doesn’t have an answer to that.

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Meanwhile, Jong-hyeon tells Su-yeong that he will be moving out as soon as he can and will pay her back all the money as well. Su-yeong accepts it and later, on her own, thinks back to everything that happened between her and Jong-hyeon, thinking about where her feelings truly lie in all this. Sang-su’s goodnight text is obviously no help.

The next morning at work, the atmosphere is tense as Ku-il asks Sang-su not to offend anyone in the Mi-gyeong’s family if he doesn’t want to end up like Seok-hyeon, all while Su-yeong is standing right there. Sang-su immediately changes the topic, but the damage has been done.

At work, a notification comes in for the 4^th quarter position transfer and as Su-yeong mulls over the news, Mi-gyeong comes over to visit and apologises to her for telling Sang-su about her living with Jong-hyeon. She tells her that she wants to despise her, and Su-yeong tells her that that’s ok. However, Mi-gyeong replies that she doesn’t want to give her the satisfaction of her hate and thus, she will not hate her. She wants that to be the reason that she thinks twice about him.

When she leaves, Gyeong-pil tells Su-yeong a story from his college days wherein he dated a girl from a rich family. However, one day her cousin came up to him to ask him to break up with her. He then hatched a plan that ruined their relationship but broke them up in a roundabout way.

Meanwhile, Jong-hyeon and Sang-su have a little tiff of their own, as Sang-su calls Su-yeong immediately after work, and Jong-hyeon catches him in the act, asking him whom he was calling and why he disconnected the call. He then very sneakily shows him the couple ring on his finger, and Sang-su is left to wonder what the hell is going on.

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Sang-su has a lot to think over with the new information that he has been given while at home Jong-hyeon notices that Su-yeong isn’t wearing the ring. She puts it on with some difficulty, but when Sang-su messages her to come out for a minute to talk, she desperately tries to pry the ring off her finger. The act itself probably makes her wonder who she actually likes.

The next day, Sang-su is sent to the subbranch when Su-yeong suddenly takes the day off. At her desk, he finds her iPod while Su-yeong takes a walk at the beach to wonder what to do with her tangled mess of a life. Meanwhile, Sang-su listens to the songs on Su-yeong’s iPod and calls her afterwards.

When he realises where she is, he rushes to her, telling Gyeong-pil that he is done thinking and is going to follow his heart from now on. At the beach, the two of them spend time together talking about their childhoods and hardships, wherein Sang-su assures Su-yeong that her ‘sand castle’ can stay safe and intact for a very long time. Thus, she doesn’t need to destroy it herself.

She later asks for something to drink, and when Sang-su rushes back to her, she is nowhere to be found. He goes to her home as well but with her phone switched off, it becomes impossible to trace her. Su-yeong, meanwhile, has gone to her parents’ shop where her father is working. They sit down to drink, and she asks him why he did what he did and destroyed their family.

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Her father tells her simply that once you start loving someone, it can’t be stopped. He furthermore adds that he came back because of regret, and if people knew the consequences of their choices, they would never make them in the first place. Su-yeong just calls her father useless and leaves!

Afterwards, she gets a text from Sang-su and opens it to find the sandcastle picture. She immediately calls and asks to meet someone.

The Interest of Love Episode 12 Ending

The next day at work, a flustered Sang-su asks around whether Su-yeong has come to work. He goes to see in the locker room while out on the street, Jong-hyeon walks in looking rather angry. In the break room, he asks her why she left him alone last day, but she completely ignores him and goes outside.

In the corridor, she comes across a fuming Jong-hyeon, who asks her whether she really did something so horrible. She defiantly replies that he already knows the answer. With the whole bank watching, Jong-hyeon rushes over towards Sang-su but, at the last moment, punches Gyeong-pil right across the face. When Sang-su tries to stop him, Jong-hyeon asks him whether he, too, has slept with Su-yeong, leaving everyone shocked.

The Interest of Love Episode 12 Review

I think The Interest of Love is making me lose my mind a bit – I feel like I don’t like it, but it is so chaotic and toxic that I must watch it every episode (and obviously for these articles). The series is absolutely crazy; I don’t know in which world it would be ok to do THIS instead of breaking up and simply dating one person afterwards. That would create less stress and drama than doing whatever it is that the leads are doing.

But then again, I, unfortunately, get it. Sang-su is in love, and he thought he could get over it, but here we are. Su-yeong can’t let go of Jong-hyeon because then he’d end up in the streets. She feels obligated to help him, and that man has the nerve to have some sort of a sus relationship with that aggressive little study partner. No matter what anyone says, he’s at least having some sort of an emotional affair.

Lastly, I don’t even know what to say about Mi-gyeong. Homegirl really needs some serious therapy, at the very least, to solve her daddy issues. It’s not even funny anymore – the way she grovels at Sang-su’s feet is pathetic to watch, and unfortunately, my heart pains for her. I don’t know how, but I feel so bad for that girl.

Also, someone from Mi-gyeong’s family threatened Gyeong-pil into leaving Mi-gyeong. I am pretty sure that the sleeping around thing was a rumour they made to make her leave him, and that’s exactly what Su-yeong did in this episode. I need to know why Gyeong-pil is burning himself to keep Sang-su warm. What is happening here?

Regardless of my absolutely love-hate relationship with this drama, I love it. I love the melodrama and the stupidity of it all. Everything could’ve been solved with one conversation and a bigger heart to forgive, but who needs that when you can simply burn everything down to the ground and look at each other painfully?

I think I will spontaneously combust if Su-yeong doesn’t choose Sang-su in the end. After everything that everyone has done to everyone else, I need them to end up together to make this make sense. If Su-yeong ends up with Jong-hyeon, I don’t know, guys; I think I will stop functioning or something.

The Interest of Love is streaming on Netflix.

Also Read: All of Our The Interest of Love Reviews