Summary
When My Love Blooms episode 1 is an okay opening chapter with strong performances — it’s very clear that more of the story needs fleshing out.
This recap of K-drama series When My Love Blooms episode 1 contains significant spoilers.
Access the archive all episode recaps.
How does When My Love Blooms episode 1 begin?
It starts off with Yoon Ji Soo playing the piano is some vast wasteland with fires lit around her. Han Jae Hyun approaches her and they look at each other intensely. Yoon Ji Soo asks, “Do you know when that was?” — Han Jae Hyun states he knows how long it lasted.
A fairly vague start.
And then it flits to the present-day; Han Jae Hyun is released from prison after 4 years.
What happened in Yun Ji Su in April 1993?
When My Love Blooms episode 1 reveals how Yoon Ji Soo and Han Jae Hyun met each other. A younger Yoon Ji Soo was watching a student protest, which gets violent. There’s a lot of smoke from Molotov Cocktails and she falls over from the smoke. Han Ha Hyun helps her up — the smoke has not impacted him as his mouth is covered. She’s blown away by how attracted she is to him. He helps her wounds.
In the next few scenes, Yoon Ji Soo desperately tries to find Hae Jae Hyun at University. He’s a law student so she uses that information to find him doing a keynote speech. Later, she finds him in a study room sleeping; a friend wakes him up and they are both introduced again — Han Hae Hyun closes the door on her.
Episode 1 clearly shows a stubborn young man.
Why was Han Jae Hyun in prison?
It’s not clear but when we are back in the present day, Han Jae Hyun is been chauffered around. He asks his driver to take him to the chairman of the company. The chairman tells him that Seo Kyung is now the CEO but he will give him the vice-chairman position with the task of cleaning up.
Meanwhile, Yoon Ji Soo gets a call from Young Min and then helps out a homeless man. She heads home, enjoys alcohol and a meal with candles, and watches TV.
Episode 1 demonstrates that both characters are from polar opposite classes in terms of money.
What happened in May 1993?
When My Love Blooms episode 1 reveals how Yoon Ji Soo finally got Han Jae Hyun’s attention — she was trying to rent a film called Love Letter at a store to find he had already reserved it. She persists and asks him to hang out so they can both watch it, constantly bugging him. Eventually, the pair watch the film together and she cries when the credits roll. Afterward, Yoon Ji Soo asks Han Jae Hyun if they can meet again but he keeps saying he is busy. She tells him she wants to be a protestor. He pushes her on to a bus and she shouts out the window how she will not give up.
Later on, Han Jae Hyun watched Yoon Ji Soo play the piano intently. In the present day, he is watching Love Letter. His partner tells him to pay more attention to his son Jun Seo as she’s off to Hawaii which is apparently “not a vacation”.
Is it a vacation?
Quite clearly; Han Jae Hyun’s colleague shows photos of his partner heading to Hawaii with another man but then he’s distracted in the hotel lobby he is in — he hears a piano and listens intently. He wells up, remembering Yoon Ji Soo. He goes to meet the pianist but she’s already left.
Yoon Ji Soo gets a text saying Sunbae Hwa Jin is dead. Han Jae Hyun goes to the funeral and one of the people there accuses him of causing Hwa Jin’s death. In a flashback, she asked Jae Hyun for money but he gets bitter, stating her organization reported his money. She storms off saying she doesn’t want his dirty money.
What happened to Han Hae’s son?
Han Jae Hyun listens to the pianist again at the hotel but then gets a phone call. It’s his partner Jang Seo Kyung having a go at him because his son got hurt because he wasn’t paying attention. Meanwhile, Yoon Ji Soo gets a phone call as well, stating that her son Yong Min threw a chair at another kid in class and they are not sure why.
You can tell where this is heading.
Han Jae Hyun heads to the school and asks his son why a kid threw a chair at him — his son talks about how the kid is poor and went insane; his father clearly doesn’t believe him.
We are then treated to a flashback of Yoon Ji Soo’s custody battle for her son Young Min; she wanted no compensation, just custody, and her ex-husband tells her if anything happens to their son, he will sue her.
Yoon Ji Soo heads to the school and enters the meeting with the headmaster and Han Jae Hyun places his eyes on Yoon Ji Soo, realizing it is his childhood sweetheart. She apologizes to the headmaster for what Young Min did and Han Jae Hyun leaves before she looks at him. He tells the headmaster to not punish her son.
How does When My Love Blooms episode 1 end?
It’s snowing heavily outside and Han Jae Hyun approaches Yoon Ji Soo and she is shocked. He tells her not to worry about the school incident and her eyes well up. He says “I found you” leaving both characters in floods of tears.
When My Love Blooms episode 1 is an okay opening chapter with strong performances — it’s very clear that more of the story needs fleshing out.
Other points
- Yoon Ji Soo has a son who is at school called Young Min.
- Han Jae Hyun heads to the library and looks at an old book that has a note inside from Yoon Ji Soo from 1994.
- Yoon Ji Soo meets a friend and they talk about Sunbae Hwa Jin — she died of cancer. Yoon Ji Soo says she must have been in a lot of pain and if she didn’t turn her back on everyone she’d have been able to spend more time with her. Her friend tells her to stop blaming herself and that she’s in a better place.
- Yoon Ji Soo is asked how long is she going to protest for. She says she can’t for much longer because her father’s nurse is asking for a raise.
