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Love Is In The App When it comes to romantic dramas, love triangles are a staple of this genre and have been for as long as I can remember. Capitalizing on this age-old tradition, new Korean drama Love Alarm mixes romance with the arrival of a phone app called Love Alarm, changing the way high school students’ attitude toward romance.

We begin the first episode 1530 days since Love Alarm was launched. As a large heart fills the cloudless sky, Kim Jojo receives a notification on her phone that someone within 10 meters loves her. Across the street is Sun-Oh, and as Christmas cheer grips the streets, we cut back in time 4 years, a week before Love Alarm is launched.

After saying goodbye to her friends, high school student Kim heads home while Hwang Sun-Oh returns from abroad, intent on spending time with his friend Lee Hye-Yeong but finds himself disappointed when he avoids his calls, instead pursuing his love interest on the way home from work. Sun-Oh follows from afar, eventually confronting his friend over his actions before they head inside together.

With the Love Alarm app in full swing, Sun-Oh arrives at school and finds his phone going crazy, as plenty of girls take a fancy to him. However, he ignores most of the notifications and instead locks eyes with Kim Jojo on the stairs. As time appears to stop, the two stare each other down but as Kim doesn’t have the app, Sun-Oh becomes more interested in her, given he doesn’t receive an alarm on his phone.

As K-Pop oozes into the speakers, a large heart appears in the clouds, sending the school into rapturous chaos as phones blink with notifications and the Love Alarm app officially launches. It’s a pretty impressive promotional tactic and one that appears to work well here on everyone. Except Kim Jojo, who reacts indifferently to the entire concept, especially given she already has a boyfriend in Il-Sik.

Nervous, Sun-Oh convinces Hye-Yeong to follow Kim due to his obvious affection for her, where he learns more about the reserved girl and sees she has a boyfriend, immediately ending his pursuit of her. Bogged down with work, Kim blows off her boyfriend, Jang Il-Sik’s, invitation to go and grab something to eat until she’s spotted hiding out in the bushes, leading to an awkward fight to ensue between them.

Ever the romantic, Sun-Oh stalks Kim Jojo for the rest of the day, watching from afar as he finds her at the makeup counter at the cosmetic store and the bus-stop. He tells her he doesn’t want to go home and asks her about Love Alarm, telling her she’s being ridiculous as his app isn’t receiving any notifications. She tells him not to follow her unless he’s interested so he continues to walk toward her, eventually leading her into a quiet alleyway where he tells her he has something to say.

Alone, they talk about Jojo’s strained upbringing and they both open up to one another. She tells him she doesn’t have parents and he attempts to kiss her instead, which she initially rejects, asking if he even listened to anything she said. He replies he wasn’t and eventually the two do eventually kiss.

As an opening episode, Love Alarm does well to check all the boxes in the romance genre but does little to really differentiate itself from other titles out there. The Love Alarm app is a timely and interesting concept, bringing up questions around love and whether digital apps influences our choices, offering some promising ideas to (hopefully) be explored in the future. Right now though, Love Alarm gets off to an okay start, setting the foundation for the series to come, without ever deviating from the tried and tested script of other romantic dramas.

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Spilled Secrets Episode 2 of Love Alarm begins in the aftermath of Kim Jojo’s kiss, with Sun-Oh telling her he used to be a model before they hurry off together, attempting to escape from the pouring rain. Taking refuge under a bus shelter, Jojo makes it back to work when the rain subsides, confronted by her boss who berates her for her lateness. It’s here we learn that she’s been in debt for 11 years and only paid off half of what she owes.

We then cut back to Hye-Yeong who can’t quite pluck up the courage to tell Jojo how he feels and loses his opportunity, instead reduced to drinking a coke outside. As Sun-Oh heads home, he talks to his friend about their meeting and reveals to him that he kissed Jojo. Hye-Yeong says nothing, visibly heartbroken, before eventually choking out a request for his friend to get changed out of his wet clothes.

Still thinking over the kiss and consumed by guilt, Jojo struggles to fall asleep, instead re-reading messages from Il-Sik as he tries to win back her affection. The next day at school, Il-Sik’s phone goes off, prompting him to thank Jojo for her notification, despite it not being her that set this off in the first place.

Meanwhile, Jojo’s cousin Gul-Mi spies Sun-Oh and immediately believes he’s the one who rang her alarm at school, disgusted when she learns it’s actually Duk-Gu, the boy who everyone dislikes. Despite visibly seeing she doesn’t like him, Duk-Go is persistent, sending her a message and telling her he’ll wait at a park nearby to express how he feels.

Ironically, it’s the same park where Jojo asks Il-Sik to meet him. With Duk-Gu and Jojo sat on adjacent benches, he admits to Jojo how he feels about her cousin and eventually breaks down crying. After comforting him, we cut back to the school where Il-Sik confronts Sun-Oh over pictures of him kissing Jojo. As a fight break out, Hye-Yeong hurries upstairs and breaks it up. Unfortunately, our karate fighter is too strong and as the two nurse their wounds in the aftermath of the fight, they discuss their feelings for Jojo.

As the screen splits in half, both Kim Jojo and Hye-Yeong download Love Alarm and have their hearts synced up to the app. After watching a video of the classroom fight, she heads back to Il-Sik who asks her to ring his love alarm again, a sign to show she still loves him. She shakes her head, admitting it wasn’t her who rung the alarm earlier and is unable to carry out that request.

Angry at her son’s classroom brawl, Sun-Oh’s Mum tells him to clean himself up before an upcoming photo shoot, while Hye-Yeong covers for Gul-Mi at the restaurant, subsequently causing her love alarm to ring. Back home, Gul-Mi finds the phone Duk-Gu gave her and immediately comments on Jojo’s audacity of bringing something from him in the house. It’s a brutal assessment of her character and one that truly shows Gul-Mi’s colours while Jojo contemplates her feelings for Sun-Oh.

Back at school, Gul-Mi snaps after finding out about Jojo’s kiss, lamenting her cousin for taking everything from her, before telling Jojo to admit to everyone what happened at Jeju Island. She tells her cousin she’s a monster if she brings it up, before they grab one another and fight in the hallway. In the aftermath of their brawl, Sun-Oh appears and offers his hand to her. Silently, they walk off together down the hallway with multiple relationships left hanging in the balance.