[Sportschosun Jiyoung Cho] The connection between Park Eun-bin and Yang Se-jong is almost unbelievably perfect.
In episode 2 of tvN's Saturday-Sunday drama 'Chilling Romance,' which aired on the 19th, Cheon Yeo-ri (Park Eun-bin) and Ma Kang-uk (Yang Se-jong) began to enter each other's lives through chance encounters, cooperation, and a series of mishaps.
After the earlier incidents made Ma Kang-uk curious about Cheon Yeo-ri's identity, he visited the Reina Hotel and asked her why she kept appearing at every crime scene. Cheon Yeo-ri honestly replied, "A ghost told me," but Ma Kang-uk was stunned and did not believe her at all.
Cheon Yeo-ri later ran into Park Seung-jae, the boyfriend of her cousin, who had been released after being charged with murdering a woman named Jang Eun-ju. Park Seung-jae vented his anger at Cheon Yeo-ri after hearing that she had called him a "parasite who jumps from woman to woman depending on the conditions." But Cheon Yeo-ri, who had heard about Park Seung-jae's crimes from Jang Eun-ju's spirit, did not back down. Instead, she deliberately brought up Jang Eun-ju to provoke him. Taking the bait, Park Seung-jae casually referred to Jang Eun-ju as "the dead girl," which suggested that his claim that "Jang Eun-ju went missing" was false.
Ma Kang-uk, the prosecutor in charge of Jang Eun-ju's disappearance case, was also desperately searching for her body, which appeared to have been murdered. After carefully reviewing the evidence, he went up to the rooftop water tank, where he believed Park Seung-jae had secretly dumped the body to avoid being seen.
As Ma Kang-uk hurried up the ladder to look inside the tank, the thing he grabbed by accident was none other than Cheon Yeo-ri's ankle. Startled by the unexpected encounter, the two soon realized they had come to the rooftop for the same reason. Working together, they found Jang Eun-ju's body and succeeded in proving Park Seung-jae's guilt.
Meanwhile, Cheon Yeo-ri visited a hotel in Jeju Island for business discussions and ran into an old friend, Kang Min-hwan (Ong Seong-wu). Kang Min-hwan suggested that she stay overnight, and Cheon Yeo-ri casually accepted since it was a favor from a close friend. By coincidence, Ma Kang-uk was also staying at the same hotel to attend a friend's wedding.
Because they had come to the hotel for different reasons but ended up using the same room, the two even found themselves sharing a bed in an unexpected mishap. Cheon Yeo-ri and Ma Kang-uk both sensed someone else's presence but brushed it off and ignored it the whole time. Only in the morning did they finally see each other's faces and scream, drawing laughter from viewers.
Cheon Yeo-ri worried that, because of what happened the night before, her hand may have touched Ma Kang-uk's and caused him to see ghosts as well. She eventually asked him about physical contact in a roundabout way. Unaware of her concern, Ma Kang-uk snapped back, saying, "You're not my type," leaving Cheon Yeo-ri speechless. Even so, he added warmth to the scene by throwing himself in front of danger to save her when she was in trouble.
Then, as Cheon Yeo-ri received a request from a new ghost, another case began. At the same time, Ma Kang-uk was investigating a separate matter after being asked by a close haenyeo diver to find her granddaughter. While each was looking into the case on their own, they unexpectedly ran into each other on the same cliff. Ma Kang-uk was baffled and said, "Why are you here again?"
In particular, when Cheon Yeo-ri lost her footing and avoided Ma Kang-uk's hand as he tried to catch her, he also lost his balance. The two fell into the water side by side. As they struggled to get back to the surface, they shocked viewers by discovering a body lying beneath the water. Viewers are now wondering whose body Cheon Yeo-ri and Ma Kang-uk found, and what hidden story lies behind it. Attention is also focused on the fate of the inseparable bond between the two, who have once again become entangled in the same case.
Episode 2 of 'Chilling Romance,' which aired that day, recorded an average nationwide household rating of 5.3% and a peak of 6.2%. In the Seoul metropolitan area, it posted an average of 5.4% and a peak of 6.3%, marking a sharp rise after just two episodes. It also ranked No. 1 in its time slot for two consecutive episodes on cable and general programming channels in both nationwide and metropolitan households, showing strong word of mouth. (Based on paid platforms combining cable, IPTV, and satellite / provided by Nielsen Korea)
Jiyoung Cho, soulhn1220@sportschosun.com
This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.
