Crash Course in Romance

January 14, 2023

Chi-yeol (Jung Kyung-ho) is the most sought-after math instructor in Daechi-dong — handsome, cold, surrounded by screaming fans. Haeng-seon (Jeon Do-yeon) runs a side dish store that happens to supply his academy. Their first meeting is a disaster.

January 14, 2023

The hagwon district of Daechi-dong in Gangnam is established in full — its obsessive pressure, its exhausted children, its enormous money. Haeng-seon operates at its margins; Chi-yeol is its king.

January 21, 2023

Haeng-seon's niece, whom she raises as a daughter, is one of Chi-yeol's students. Their worlds collide through the child.

January 21, 2023

A chance meeting at Yeouido Hangang Park — the river at dusk, both characters briefly outside their defining roles.

January 28, 2023

Chi-yeol's fanbase — predominantly adult women — treats him like a pop star. The comedy of this world and its absurdity is the drama's great pleasure.

February 4, 2023

A disturbing subplot about a person targeting Chi-yeol's students surfaces. The drama balances comedy and genuine menace.

February 4, 2023

Chi-yeol begins to notice Haeng-seon in ways he does not know how to process. She notices him noticing.

February 11, 2023

A second Han River scene — this time intentional. Both characters have stopped pretending the meetings are accidental.

February 11, 2023

The human cost of Daechi-dong's education culture — on the children most of all — is examined without preaching.

February 18, 2023

The relationship becomes real. The Daechi-dong streets — the drama's central location — look different now.

March 4, 2023

The finale. Named one of TIME's best K-dramas of 2023. A love story between two forty-somethings that treated its characters as fully formed adults rather than rom-com archetypes.