Slow paced with a dose of realism, tvN’s latest romance is setting us up for complicated emotions as a star teacher at a hagwon collides with her former student. He’s all grown up and looking to follow in her inspirational footsteps — and from the looks of it, also to put the moves on her.
EPISODES 1-2
The Midnight Romance in Hagwon is finally here and the first two episodes are a lot of setup. Along with being introduced to our leads, we’re also taken into the world of high school education, where there’s rivalry between the teachers at the public high schools and those at the private after-school institutes (the hagwon of our drama’s title) that help students prepare for exams. This battle will be the backdrop to our romance story, where tension is rising as teachers compete for the students’ attention (and money).
The main action takes place at Daechi Chase, a hagwon in the affluent Daechi-dong area of Seoul. Even though they have legendary teacher SEO HYE-JIN (Jung Ryeo-won) working for them, they still need to fight to stay relevant as new hagwon pop up on every corner. It’s a high pressure job given that all the instructors are in competition with each other, but more so for Hye-jin because she’s so sought after. With students and parents trusting her so much, she winds up getting involved personally in the students’ lives.
And we see this might be a perpetual thing for her when she runs into her former student, LEE JUN-HO (Wie Ha-joon). He was the first student at the hagwon to win a scholarship (accounted for on the scholarship wall of fame) and Hye-jin’s career was also boosted for being his teacher at the time.
When Jun-ho stops by Daechi Chase after hours and runs into Hye-jin tipping back a few beers, she’s excited to see him and says that when he got into college, it was the best moment of her life. He’s even saved in her phone as “My Pride.” Already, I’m thinking she has a problem with boundaries.
It’s been ten years since they were teacher and student and Jun-ho is now thirty, still living at home, and working at an office job that offers prestige. But, he’s not making the kind of money he wants. So, when Hye-jin — whose face is on the ads for Daechi Chase — starts bragging about how much she earns, Jun-ho takes it to heart. When the hagwon gives a test to recruit new teachers, Jun-ho is there, ready to change career paths and make more money, even if society (and his parents) don’t see it as high status as the job he has.
Hye-jin responds by taking Jun-ho to dinner to discuss why he’s pursuing teaching — especially at her school of all places — and inform him that she thinks he’s nut for quitting his company. He’s cheeky the whole time, pressing forward with his decision as she tries to talk him out of it. No matter how serious she seems, he smiles and treats it all as a joke.
There is something about their rapport that isn’t sitting right with me just yet. We know that Jun-ho comes around once a year on Teachers’ Day to say hi, so it’s not like they haven’t seen each other at all in the past ten years. But, at the same time, they seem too close already for people who were just teacher and student. There’s a definite “old friends” vibe about them that doesn’t initially smack of tension, but isn’t really comfortable either.
Jun-ho is clearly teasing her in a way that says he likes her — but it’s also little kiddish and seems more like an innocent crush. The way she responds, trying to ensure that he doesn’t get a job at her hagwon, says to me that she might have deeper feelings than he does, or that she’s willing to admit (even to herself). Whatever is happening, it’s making me very uneasy — and I think that’s entirely the point.
When Jun-ho makes it to the next round and has to give a lecture as part of the hiring process, Hye-jin goes to her higher ups and asks that Jun-ho be rejected. The problem is that Jun-ho does really well during his lecture, even reprimanding Hye-jin like a student for not paying attention to him (she won’t even look up from her desk at him, she’s avoiding him so much).
Still, it’s clear how much he admires her, talking about his own trajectory, and how one teacher inspired him and changed his life. Hye-jin was still a college student herself when she was his instructor, but she taught him how to think, not just what to study. He became curious and wanted to study on his own — and that’s the mark of a great teacher that he wants to emulate.
With his application moving forward, and Hye-jin having no success in arguing against it, she asks Jun-ho to meet her at the library they used to go to every weekend when he was her student. She tells him he can’t work at Daechi Chase and that she lied about his college acceptance being the happiest moment of her life. Really, she was happy she got a bonus for it, so she could pay her own tuition. Also, her job isn’t that great, even if she was bragging about the money.
Jun-ho gets annoyed at what she’s saying and adds that it’s odd she’s taking it so personally that he wants to work as a hagwon teacher. Then he calls her out on the behavior that’s bothering me so much: “Will it matter to you if the institute finds out what you’re doing right now? You’re meeting an applicant in private and pressuring him to drop out.” At that, Hye-jin storms off. And when Jun-ho follows her to her car and says he’ll drive, she tells him to take the bus before pulling away.
Finally, after a conversation with her boss where he pushes her to reconsider, Hye-jin accepts that Jun-ho can work at Daechi Chase. And she’s the one to give him the news — by meeting him at a café at night. She apologizes for crossing the line and for hurting him. Then she starts detailing how hard the job is going to be — which is when he realizes he’s hired. He smiles and begins to joke around again, and she tells him he won’t have time to tease her anymore because the job is going to take too much energy. Then she dismisses him from the conversation.
Hye-jin never drops her attitude while she’s telling him all this. So, on one hand, it seems she’s setting a boundary that he keeps trying to cross. But on the other, continually meeting him outside is betraying any boundary she’s trying to set. Her feelings are definitely complicated, even if I’m not totally sure of her motives.
When Jun-ho begins work, the head of the academy asks if he’d be interested in being the new face of Daechi Chase. Even though he has no prior teaching experience, his own story is enough of a qualification. This implies that he’d be ousting Hye-jin from the spot. Jun-ho replies that a story about a teacher and student going forward together could be an even more touching approach. This is where we leave off for the week, giving us a hint that Jun-ho isn’t going to compete with his former teacher, but try to ensure they’re walking side by side.
With a lot of breathing room for things to unfold, I hope the drama will go deep into the complications that could arise here. We have a lot of different dynamics to cover from workplace entanglements to noona romance to teacher/student dilemmas. So far, it seems clear cut: he’s laying his cards on the table and she’s trying to cover over her feelings. But I don’t believe it will be so simple.
As we dig into their history together, I’d wager we’re in for secrets that will make sense of Hye-jin’s strong response. The two have a kind of intimacy that manifests as him being relaxed and her being terse, but never is there any real tension. Whether it will be ramped up gradually, or we’ll ease into another kind of comfort, I’ll definitely be sticking around to see how it plays out.