The Affair Was Just the Beginning Episode 1-2 Review
Director: Lee Chang-hee
Date Created: 2026-08-01 19:09
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The Affair Was Just the Beginning Episode 1-2 Review: Directed by Lee Chang-hee, the Coupang Play kdrama 지금 불륜이 문제가 아닙니다 stars Kim Hye-soo as Kyeong-hee, Cho Yeo-jeong as Su-jeong, Kim Ji-hoon as Jae-hong, and Kim Jae-chul as Bo-seong, alongside others.
The Affair Was Just the Beginning Episode 1 Recap
The Affair Was Just the Beginning Episode 1 starts with an image of an injured man who is lying on the empty road. It seems that his condition is pretty bad, and it instantly sets up the mystery about his accident. The plot then switches to the early life of Kyeong-hee, where her family used to face some financial problems. They lived in a shabby house; rainwater used to get in from the roof, and Se-ji, their child, had to go to the hospital because of the fever he had. In order to provide her family with better conditions, Kyeong-hee starts being an influencer and gradually makes her way to success.
She then founds her own interior design company and becomes a CEO. A few years down the line, Kyeong-hee and Jae-hong have a seemingly perfect life. They relocate to an upscale area and become neighbours to Su-jeong, who is a dermatologist and comes from a wealthy background. While Su-jeong is doing fine in terms of her career, everything else in her personal life is going wrong. Her husband has deserted her, and her daughter, Min-seo, is becoming hard to cope with. Su-jeong becomes uncomfortable with the seemingly happy life of her new neighbours and immediately starts to hate them.
At first, Kyeong-hee and Jae-hong keep away from her, but the situation changes when Kyeong-hee finds out that Su-jeong could help her connect with an influential investor called Michelle. Since Jae-hong wants to make a name for himself in the entertainment industry, Kyeong-hee tells him to bring some celebrities to Su-jeong’s clinic to help the business. Jae-hong plays a role in increasing the number of people visiting the clinic, and as a sign of gratitude, Su-jeong invites Kyeong-hee’s family to dinner. While Kyeong-hee tries hard to find a chance to talk about Michelle, Su-jeong makes remarks regarding the connection that Jae-hong shares with Ji-su, which creates an awkward situation for everyone around.
In the end, Jae-hong breaks the wine glass, leaving Kyeong-hee dirty, but he stays with Su-jeong, who heals his wound. These two families get closer after this dinner, and Su-jeong ultimately brings Kyeong-hee and Jae-hong together with Michelle. However, Kyeong-hee gets more and more obsessed with the idea of keeping up appearances in relation to her success and wealth. She buys a house in the countryside since she does not want to look worse than Su-jeong. Yet this house has some secret storage that the real estate agent did not tell her about. At the same time, rumours emerge about Ji-su’s relationship with another actor. Jae-hong’s name appears among those people associated with the scandal.
Even though Jae-hong claims that his and Ji-su’s relationship is strictly professional, Kyeong-hee becomes even more doubtful upon seeing texts between them and finding out that Jae-hong invited Ji-su to have dinner together. Kyeong-hee puts a tracking device into Jae-hong’s wallet and soon discovers a condom, which makes her even more sure that there may be some truth in the rumours. On the day when Jae-hong is supposed to be finishing his first commercial, Kyeong-hee asks him to go back home earlier, but Jae-hong refuses, saying that his schedule does not allow it.
Later on that night, the tracking device takes Kyeong-hee to a desolate place. Thinking that she is finally going to see her husband with another woman, Kyeong-hee actually witnesses Jae-hong next to what seems to be the dead body. Horrified, Kyeong-hee runs away, but Jae-hong notices her and follows her. The episode 1 of The Affair Was Just the Beginning ends with an unexpected twist – Ji-su’s alleged affair was just a stunt for the drama.
The Affair Was Just the Beginning Episode 2 Recap
Episode 2 of The Affair Was Just the Beginning turns attention to Su-jeong and gives an insight into the events that were taking place backstage at the time many of these events occurred. Prior to meeting with the family of Kyeong-hee, Su-jeong’s marriage of Su-jeong had already been ruined due to Bo-seong’s affair of Bo-seong. Although she made attempts to save their marriage, Bo-seong insisted on a divorce because he believed himself to be imprisoned in the marriage. He ran away from home, even taking the family cat.
Su-jeong assumes full authority over the dermatology clinic after her divorce. But the problems begin with her daughter Min-seo since she wants to become an artist instead of pursuing a career in medicine. In addition to that, Bo-seong encourages Min-seo’s ambition, which makes things even worse for Su-jeong. As the families of Kyeong-hee move in next door, Su-jeong is emotionally exhausted due to yet another fight with her daughter. Kyeong-hee, from Su-jeong’s point of view, has everything Su-jeong has lost, including a good husband, a successful family, and a happy house.
At a point where Jae-hong introduces Ji-su to the clinic, he heads to the roof to receive a call from Kyeong-hee. Also on the roof is Su-jeong, who comes there after finding out that Bo-seong intends to ruin the reputation of the clinic and even establish another competing clinic. In the midst of their discussion via the phone, Bo-seong tells her that he will be fighting for the custody of Min-seo. Jae-hong overhears the argument by accident and gets caught before he can leave. Contrary to condemning Su-jeong, he sides with her and encourages her to put up a fight. However, the conversation is cut short by a fire breaking out in a rubbish bin.
In an attempt by Jae-hong to put out the fire, Su-jeong uses the fire extinguisher and splashes Jae-hong in the process. The closer Jae-hong gets to promoting Su-jeong’s clinic using his connections, the more he begins to develop a deeper affection for her. At the family dinner party, the jealousy Su-jeong feels towards Kyeong-hee is apparent. As Kyeong-hee is busy thinking about Michelle, Su-jeong secretly has her eyes on Jae-hong. While sitting under the dining table, she takes a daring step towards Jae-hong, making him accidentally drop his wine glass. Later, when Kyeong-hee departs to wash her clothes, Su-jeong takes Jae-hong to another room where she cures his injured finger.
Their physical intimacy becomes evident when Jae-hong kisses Su-jeong. From that point onwards, she begins helping Kyeong-hee meet Michelle. However, in becoming obsessed with the thought of her husband, Jae-hong, being unfaithful to her with Ji-su, she is unaware of the fact that he is actually having an affair with Su-jeong. In turn, the affair also brings about changes in the attitude of Su-jeong. She starts to behave in a happier manner and becomes more relaxed with the extent of control that she exerts. In fact, she allows Min-seo to pursue her passion for art. Nevertheless, the custody dispute between her and Bo-seong gradually turns into a very serious one.
He uses old tapes of Min-seo’s bad remarks about her mother to charge Su-jeong with ill treatment towards her daughter. In accordance with Jae-hong’s advice, Su-jeong engages a private investigator for the purpose of finding some damaging information about Bo-seong’s lawyer. In fact, the detective finds something compromising about the lawyer on his phone; however, an incident takes place because the lawyer starts fighting and escaping. The man gets chased by the detective, who hits him with a car that came out of nowhere.
Simultaneously, Su-jeong receives a message that the investigation is doing quite well. After finishing his first commercial shooting, Jae-hong comes to Su-jeong’s clinic and the two celebrate. However, the night ends unexpectedly because of Ye-ji’s confession to her stepmom at Kyeong-hee’s house – Ye-ji admits that she has been driving Jae-hong’s car and has hit somebody. At the end of The Affair Was Just the Beginning Episode 2, Min-seo also confesses the same thing to her family.
The Affair Was Just the Beginning Episode 1-2 Review
Kdrama The Affair Was Just the Beginning first two episodes begin with a mystery, but soon enough, the drama becomes quite a chaotic tale of infidelity, problems within the family, and people who are desperately trying to keep their flawless facade intact. While Kyeong-hee is preoccupied with suspecting Jae-hong and Ji-su, the truth lies right next door. In episode 2, the reenactment of the events from Su-jeong’s point of view adds some interest to everything, since what seemed innocent in episode 1 gains another interpretation entirely.
While Su-jeong and Jae-hong’s affair progresses rather rapidly, the rooftop encounter as well as the uncomfortable dinner encounter make their increasing intimacy rather enjoyable to see. The increased suspicion of Kyeong-hee following the discovery of the location of the tracker and the condom is rather interesting given that she is on the wrong track. On the other hand, Su-jeong is going through a divorce and custody battle, which makes her character more complex than the mistress.
One of the most compelling elements of The Affair Was Just the Beginning Korean drama till now is the humour. The fire extinguisher, Jae-hong’s dropping of the wine glass, and the uncomfortable situations involving both families are all quite humorous without undermining the mystery element. Everyone is keeping secrets, and no one appears to be wholly innocent. Kim Hye-soo does an excellent job portraying Kyeong-hee’s increasing sense of suspicion.
On the other hand, Cho Yeo-jeong strikes a nice balance between her jealousy, loneliness, and brashness in the portrayal of Su-jeong. Kim Ji-hoon also makes for a convincing Jae-hong whose charisma just adds to the annoyance of his decisions. This ending places both families in the same accident and finally gives significance to the opening scene. The confession by Ye-ji and Min-seo that they were responsible for the accident brings up a question about the incident.
The Affair Was Just the Beginning Review: Summing Up
With everything getting complicated, Kyeong-hee seeking some answers, and the accident tying everyone together, this Korean drama The Affair Was Just the Beginning, is definitely entertaining and suspenseful. I am now eager to know which of the stories of the truth is the right one and how long the affair will remain concealed.
