What if you could read reviews about your partner from their exes? How do they react when life gets difficult? Are they people pleasers or someone with strong boundaries? Are they ‘red flag’ or ‘green forest’? Well, Giju Gong is the lucky one! After a few failed and abusive relationships, she gains what she calls a “gift from heaven” — Ex-Love Review. (Something similar to Operation-True Love!) In Pyeonggang and La Hee’s Ex-Love Review Chapter 1-9, we will learn about Giju’s past relationships, her newfound gift, AND her the one?
Ex-Love Review Chapter 1: Meet Giju Gong
Ex-Love Review Chapter 1 begins with Giju Gong’s classmates discussing how she won a contest YET AGAIN! Although it seems like a contest, she would not participate in. One of them says Giju does it to pay her boyfriend’s bills, and this has been the case with all her previous relationships. Giju plays the role of pushover, validator, and people pleaser in her relationships. All this while, Giju is outside the room listening to their conversation and decides to go home. At that moment, Sangsun arrives and insists that she talk to the other two girls inside the room about her contests. However, the thing goes personal from professional straightaway as the arrogant girl asks her what she is going to do with her reward. To cover up her bluntness, she refers to Giju as a “passionate lover.”
The focus shifts towards the couple’s ring Giju is wearing. It turns out it’s just a toy ring, and everyone starts talking about how her boyfriend, Jimin, doesn’t really deserve her. To defend her boyfriend, she starts blabbering about how he reads a lot, which means he has high emotional intelligence. (REALLY?) The girl insinuates that her partners take advantage of her, and she loses her cool. However, the conversation ends abruptly as Haeil Yeon decides to treat everyone to lunch. (Who is Haile?) Sangsun tells her about all the good manners and reputation Haeil has in school, he is everyone’s favorite seonbae. Giju interrupts, saying Jimin has all these qualities, and he treats her well. Sangsun says with that toy ring in her hand, it’s hard to believe.
Who is Jimin?Â
Giju bumps into a red-haired man outside school – Jimin, Giju’s boyfriend. She asks what he is doing here, and very politely, he says he wants to give back the money she sent her in person. Making a fist, she says, “When I was going through a hard time after breaking up with Beom seonbae, you were there for me. I’m just paying you back for that. You’re going through a rough time, so I’ve got your back.” This displays the principle Giju has been following since childhood – give and take! If she receives something from someone, she tends to give it back tenfold. Jimin reassures her, saying he didn’t do anything, expecting something in return. In order to shift the conversation, he shows her the kimchi he brought from her mother’s restaurant. He went to help her parents since Fridays are super busy.
Giju says Jimin should have focused more on his audition. He reveals he didn’t get a callback and asks if she is disappointed in him. She squishes his cheeks and motivates him, saying it’s their loss. We learn that Jimin’s parents are not in favor of him being an actor, which is why Giju participates in every contest she can find to fund his dream. As they reach home, he asks her to stay inside as he quickly brings some steamed pork feet (Giju’s favorite). This gesture makes her think Jimin is not like the other guys he has dated before, so she must show him all her sides, insinuating her sexual desires. Giju orders a very sexy outfit for her first time with Jimin on their 100th-day anniversary trip.
Giju’s BreakupÂ
Giju hears a vibrating sound coming from Jimin’s phone. As she picks up his phone, she reads, “Jimin’s got himself a real-life sugar mama.”  She opens the chat group and sees how Jimin’s been bragging about having a girlfriend who pays his expenses. At that moment, Jimin enters, drops the food from his hand, and asks why she has his phone. Giju drops his phone without saying a word. As she tries to leave, Jimin grabs her hand, trying to convince her of the same old it-is-just-a-misunderstanding story. He tells her she is the only thing in his life “worth showing off!” Giju mocks, saying he should have focused more on his auditions. And if he doesn’t have the talent, then she should have a backup plan. JIMIN SLAPS GIJU!
Giju runs out of his house, and as he tries to stop her, he ends up falling down the stairs. As she is falling, she wonders why she is such a bad judge of character. She wakes up in a hospital, while Jimin is on his knees apologizing to her for his behavior, but something has changed – SHE CAN READ REVIEWS OF JIMIN’S EXES!? She wonders if this gift is sent from heaven, which will turn her love life upside down, concluding Ex-Love Review Chapter 1.
Chapter 2: Haeil Saves Giju
Ex-Love Review Chapter 2 begins with Giju realizing, it’s not just reviews about humans; she can see reviews of food and movies as well. (What a gift!) She realizes that if the reviews are true, it means Jimin didn’t slap her out of anger, but out of habit. As she steps down from the hospital bed, Sangsun arrives screaming if Giju is okay or not. Seeing that she can witness Sangsun’s reviews, she decides to confirm if the reviews are correct. Upon asking about the reason behind Sangsun’s breakups, she gets the confirmation that the reviews are telling the truth.
Sangsun suspects Giju was hit on her face. At the moment, Jimin enters, and realizing things will turn towards him, he decides to escape, saying he has an audition. Later, Giju opens up to her friend about the details of last night. She asks Giju if she is done with him, then why is the ring still on her finger? Interestingly, Giju learns she can only read the reviews when the ring is on her finger.
In the morning, Giju decides to visit the store to get information about the ring. Out of nowhere, Jimin arrives and begins to apologize. She decides to be firm and tells him that if she pays his next month’s rent, he will leave him for good. He raises his hand to hit her, but Haeil bumps into him with his box of toys. Ex-Love Review Chapter 2 ends with Haeil asking if Giju is hurt somewhere, but wait, what’s his rating!?
Ex-Love Review Chapter 3: Haeil’s 0.5 Rating!
Ex-Love Review Chapter 3 begins with Giju wondering why Haeil has a 0.5 rating, Jimin has 2 stars, and Sangsun has 3.5 stars. But, Haeil Yeon is the definition of perfect, or is he not? Haeil says he knows Giju, he sees her name all over town. (Likely because of the contests!) He asks her if that not-so-friendly guy is her boyfriend. She confirms that they broke up. Interrupting their brief conversation, Haeil’s friends summon him for the class.
Giju interrogates the shopkeeper about the ring, but the man denies saying he has ever seen or sold this ring to anyone. Thinking about what’s going on and if she is the only one who can see the reviews, she enters her parents’ restaurant. However, she quickly runs out to avoid seeing her parents’ reviews.
Back in the classroom, as Giju is wondering if she should take the ring off, Haeil enters, and all the light is on him. Giju learns his father is a writer and his mother is the owner of Shinyang Publications, but he never brags about it. Making her awkward in front of the class, he waves at her and hands her a bottle of water. Giju is still suspicious about Haeil considering his 0.5 rating.
Jimin And His Endless Lies
While in class, Giju receives a text from Jimin saying he is blocking her. However, Giju decides to track him down, not letting him escape the easy way. While passing by the corridor, she hears Jimin and his friends chatting. He is narrating his side of the story, ALL LIES. He is playing the victim card in front of his friends, saying she lost it and hit her as he tried to break up with her. His friends comfort him, saying it’s not his fault for breaking up with her. The conversation shifts to Jimin’s call back for an audition in a theatre troupe. Overconfident, Jimin thinks that although there’s an audition, he is certain he is in the troupe.
Jimin’s friends start talking about Giju being the hottest girl in their school. He shamelessly says that’s the only thing he will miss about her. He continues, there are several things he hasn’t tried with her yet, but if she begs, he will likely give her another chance. “Should I make her beg for me to come back?” Jimin says, ending Ex-Love Review Chapter 3.
Chapter 4: Haeil’s Deal
Ex-Love Review Chapter 4 begins with Giju snatching Jimin’s phone from his hand and deleting the folder of her pictures. She slams the phone on the desk and pours water on it. She asks his friends if they really think she has hurt him, “Who do you think is responsible for the scar on my face?” Jimin grabs her hand and takes her outside. Showing his classic manipulation skills, he lies AGAIN, saying he has been giving the misinformation to everyone. However, his intention was to make it seem like she was wearing the pants in their relationship. Before she could say something, he left, saying he had an audition soon.
Giju bangs her hands on the wall and sees Haeil standing around the corner this whole time. She panics, thinking he heard everything. She requests him to keep his mouth shut, but Haeil asks, “What’s in it for me?”Â
In the next scene, Haeil and Giju are having dinner at a restaurant. While she is shocked about this sudden dinner plan, he confesses he wanted to chat with her for a while. He points out that she is avoiding eye contact at all costs. The moment she looks at him, she notices Haeil has reviews from Jimin’s ex, too. She also realizes that she can actually touch the reviews. One thing led to another, and Giju’s hands ended up on Haeil’s chest. She apologized the moment she realized the closeness. Ex-Love Review Chapter 4 ends with Giju asking Haeil for the girls’ numbers, and he replies, “Will you do something for me in return?”
Ex-Love Review Chapter 5: Beginning of Revenge
Ex-Love Review Chapter 5 begins with Giju agreeing to Haeil’s deal. After one week, it’s the day of Jimin’s audition in front of director Mun. He gets on stage all ready to audition for the Wolha Theatre troupe with a monologue from William Shakespeare’s King Lear. He sees Giju and smirks, thinking she is there to witness the greatness of her ex.
Suddenly, two girls interrupt his act, one is muscular and the other is too timid. They are Jimin’s ex, Gayeong Seong, and Jihye Kim. The commotion increases, and the students are confused about how they got in when the door was locked. (Haeil Yeon has the keys!) Without wasting much time, Jihye Kim, a taekwondo athlete, punches Jimin. Gayeong, a nail artist and metal craft major, scratches his face. (Note: She filed her nails for five hours.) Both of them mention how he abused them.
Giju directly asks director Mun, “Are you really willing to risk things by casting such a problematic actor?” Ex-Love Review Chapter 5 ends with Jimin playing the victim card, saying his ex-girlfriends are putting fake allegations out of spite. And he believes director Mun will understand him and take the right call.
Chapter 6: Truth on Tape
Ex-Love Review Chapter 6 begins with director Mun warning Giju that putting allegations without any evidence could become a serious issue. Just when Jimin thinks he won, Giju raises her phone, showing director Mun the “evidence.” (It’s the conversation from Chapter 4, where Jimin confesses his deeds but tries to manipulate Giju, saying he was doing it for her reputation.) Angry and frustrated, Jimin jumps off the stage, asking when she filmed this. It turns out, Haeil not only overheard their conversation he also recorded it. With this evidence in hand, she met Jimin’s exes and convinced them that if they don’t stand up, he will continue to abuse other girls.
Not being able to control his rage, Jimin raises his hand to slap Giju, but before he could do that, director Mun calls out his name. He says, “I never want to see you in our troupe, not even as a mistake.” Jimin picks up Giju by her collar out of rage. Before he could touch her again, Haeil cracked his fist. However, Giju stops Haeil and says to Jimin how she really lived the overused ‘what-goes-around-comes-around’ phrase.
Ex-Love Review Chapter 6 ends with the whole school talking about Jimin being the red flag and Giju being the collector of shady guys. Contemplating the power of the ring, Giju is certain to only date the guys with a recent rating from now on. But why does she keep crossing paths with the 0.5 rating Haeil Yeon!?
Ex-Love Review Chapter 7: Wrong Address!
Ex-Love Review Chapter 7 begins with Giju’s classmate asking about the dinner treat for winning the grand prize. Before she could talk more about it, the sexy underwear set (the one she ordered for her and Jimin’s 100th day anniversary) got delivered. Speechless, she tightly grabs her phone and rushes back home. The classmate declares that the dinner treat is tonight. Reaching her doorstep, she doesn’t see anything and panics even more. She realizes that she wrote the wrong address. (Oh, bravo! Cherry on the cake!)
Having no other option, Giju gathers the courage to ring the neighbor’s doorbell in search of her package. And, guess who opens the door? Correct, it’s Haeil Yeon AGAIN. Making it all the more shocking and awkward for her, he is shirtless. She informs him about how she wrote the wrong address, but he wasn’t going to let it slide so easily. He starts playing with her, taking advantage of his height. At the end, he decides they should open the package so he can confirm it belongs to Giju. Trying to save the embarrassment, Giju throws it away from his hand, landing on top of him and revealing the sexy lingerie.
Apologizing, Giju gathers her items as quickly as possible and runs towards the door. Before she leaves, Haeil notifies her about the group text regarding her dinner treat and says they will meet soon. Ex-Love Review Chapter 7 ends with Haeil being excited about the dinner party, while Giju’s social media handle is open on his laptop, and her pictures are circled out in the school book. (Haeil is giving creepy stalker energy!)
Chapter 8: Haeil Saves Giju’s Name
Ex-Love Review Chapter 8 begins with Giju’s classmate telling her not to be stingy despite the crowd. On the other hand, Giju is not worried about the money but the person sitting in front of her, Haeil Yeon. He insists on paying tonight since he believes he has something to do with all this. (It turns out there are more people than expected solely because Haeil is attending this dinner treat.) One of their schoolmates overhears them talking about the pay and asks Giju how many times she is going to turn him down. Haeil simply smiles and requests not to put Giju on the spot. She rushes towards the bathroom and starts wondering how Haeil has 0.5 stars. She decides to maintain a healthy distance because perhaps he is also rotten on the inside like her other exes. Giju decides to pay and casually leave the dinner.
Sangsun approaches Giju with a sense of urgency to fill her in regarding what happened in her absence. Her classmates start chatting about ‘Who is the real victim?’ Is it her or Jimin? Was Beom at fault, or did she dump him? Very deftly, Haeil lets them know how Beom is still doomed. His girlfriend left him, and the other day he was all drunk and sloppy, asking Haeil to tell Giju to unblock him. Shocked, everyone realizes Beom spread rumors about Giju being the obsessive one. Dumbfounded, Giju starts wondering why he defended her. Sangsun tells her to thank Haeil seonbae. Meanwhile, the receptionist informs, Haeil has already paid for tonight’s dinner. (Ex-Love Review Chapter 8 just got interesting!)
Giju’s Payback
Seeing a crowd around Haeil’s table, Giju gets curious and learns that drunk Jua Jeaon is going to ask him out. However, Haeil is all quiet about this upcoming drama. At that moment, Giju sees his reviews where her girlfriends mentioned how he can’t reject or chase anyone. She decides to sneak under the table, grab her things, and escape this dinner. While under the table, she sees that Haeil is trembling badly. Jua requests him to drink the beer if he wants to go out with her. Without thinking too much, in order to pay back for his favor, Giju grabs the bottle before he can and gulps down the beer, ending Ex-Love Review Chapter 8.
Ex-Love Review Chapter 9: Date Out of Guilt
Ex-Love Review Chapter 9 begins with a classmate asking why Giju picked the beer. She simply replies because Jua is too drunk right now. Jua tries to protest, saying she isn’t drunk at all and ends up plopping down on Giju. She settles down Jua on her seat and asks everyone to return to their places. While everyone is disappointed that nothing much happened between Jua and Haeil, Sangsun points out that Giju gets to make a wish for drinking on behalf of him. Cleverly, she asks him to treat everyone to ice cream so she can escape in the meantime.
Upon asking why Giju drank the beer on his behalf, she tells him she wanted to repay him. “For helping me with the Jimin incident, clarifying the rumors with Beom…everything.” She asks why he got so flustered, even though he gets asked out a lot. He clarifies because he would have to date her, and if he says no, he would feel bad. He continues saying he is an awful thing to go out with someone like that. Giju quickly interrupts, saying that it’s a bad thing to do to yourself as well. Haeil turns this serious conversation comical by saying that in times like these, she seems really smart. (It was not her first impression!)
Haeil’s First Meeting with Giju
The first time Haeil met Giju was not in school, but in her parents’ restaurant, ‘Giju Soup And Rice’. Ex-Love Review Chapter 9 takes us on a flashback. Haeil is talking to his professor about not participating in any creative writing contests and not hearing about someone named Giju Gong. Since he was an absence leave, he is unfamiliar with the junior students. At that moment, a girl passes by with a bowl of Kimchi. A woman requests, “My goodness, Giju! Please, just go home already.”Â
An old man who was present in the restaurant during that time pulled out his hair and slipped it into the bowl. He starts screaming about how there is hair in the food, and he isn’t going to pay for this food. With a guilty smile on her Giju bows and apologizes for the mishap. She says he doesn’t have to pay, but he must visit again so they can present him with a cleaner and more delicious bowl. Feeling guilty, the old man dashes out of the place. Her mother screams at her for letting homeless people eat for free. This is how Haeil met Giju for the first time.
Haeil Yeon’s Reassurance
Back to the present, Haeil and Giju stepped out of the supermarket with ice-creams in their hand. Giju asks him why he thought she was a fool the first time he saw her. But then she drifted back to her own thoughts, thinking about all those embarrassing times Haeil had met her. (Hinting at Jimin and her ugly moments!) To cover the silence, she also says that after everything, she is wondering if she is the problem. Haeil is quick to stop her thoughts, saying nothing is wrong with her.
Giju gets speechless and immobile for a minute, thinking about how everyone tries to make her look like the bad guy, but Haeil is saying otherwise. She starts weeping, thinking, “Even though he barely knows me, why do his words sound so reassuring?” Haeil grabs her hand, asking if she is crying. Suddenly, the review system changes in front of her eyes, saying, AFFECTION LEVEL HAS INCREASED! Ex-Love Review Chapter 9 ends with the system showing Giju’s picture – “The following person is Haeil Yeon’s person of ___” (Stay tuned with us to know what it says in Ex-Love Review Chapter 10!)
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