Jang In-seop Is the Real 'Love Doctor'... From Prickly Adviser to a Rival Who Makes a Bold Move [This Character, These Days]

[Financial News] With only two episodes left before its finale, the ENA Monday-Tuesday drama Between Steps, directed by the late Ahn Pan-seok and written by Hyo-jeong Min, is nearing its end. The series was planned by KT Studio Genie and produced by Studio Goti.
As viewers wonder how the two leads’ love story will end, someone else turns out to be the character who best embodies the title of Between Steps: Lee Ji-hoon (played by Jang In-seop), the genius mathematician known as the “talking-hat professor.” With his prickly manner and blunt delivery of facts, he is a love adviser to graduate student Im Yu-jin (played by Kim So-hyun) and secretly has a crush on her.

Ji-hoon falls for Yu-jin (played by Kim So-hyun) at first sight and is an expert at reading someone’s innermost thoughts from even the smallest things they say and do. He also offers clear answers to the complicated relationship problems between Park Min-jae (played by CHOO YOUNG WOO) and Yu-jin. But being able to read other people’s feelings doesn’t mean he can make his own love life go the way he wants.
Ji-hoon had been a reliable adviser even before Yu-jin started dating Min-jae. When Yu-jin asks for help after entering a poker bet with Se-jin (played by Im Jin Hyo), with her relationship with Min-jae on the line, he gives her a strategy based on card combinations and probability calculations. He shows the analytical skills befitting the youngest professor in the mathematics department, yet playfully bargains over his fee, sharing an easy rapport with Yu-jin.
He offers Yu-jin practical advice as she agonizes over Min-jae’s move to the United States. “Why do you keep trying to make the decision he has to make?” he asks pointedly. He also tells her, “Just look into your own heart, make a decision, take responsibility, and do your own homework,” urging her to examine her own feelings first. He makes clear that Yu-jin should not try to shoulder the other person’s choices for them.

Ji-hoon is quick to realize how deeply Yu-jin feels for him, too. When he tells her he bought her a gift on a business trip, Yu-jin brings out a box, saying she has a gift for him as well. The anticipation on his face gives way to a different expression when he sees the yellow knitted gloves inside. Asked if she hadn’t thought of buying black yarn, Yu-jin replies, “I didn’t have time, and the only yarn I had left at home was yellow.” Ji-hoon seems to read from her answer that her feelings for him aren’t as deep as he had hoped, and curtly gives the gift back. Of course, he takes it back later. Recognizing someone’s feelings and giving up on them are two different things.
Ji-hoon had stayed by Yu-jin’s side as an adviser, but he grows impatient when she is shaken by the return of Min-jae, whom she had broken up with once before. “If I asked you to date me, would you?” he demands. When Min-jae, hoping to get back together with Yu-jin, appears, Ji-hoon snaps, “Get lost,” then makes no effort to hide his rivalry: “You think you can turn things back around, don’t you? But you can’t. I’m here.”
He gives perceptive answers about other people’s relationships, but when it comes to his own love, he grows hopeful, feels hurt, and becomes impatient. For Yu-jin and Min-jae, both inexperienced in love and different in temperament, as well as for romance expert Ji-hoon, love is a problem that doesn’t work out as planned. 
Actor Jang In-seop adds to Lee Ji-hoon’s appeal by revealing his human vulnerabilities amid cool intelligence, sly humor, and seemingly nonchalant yet warm consideration.
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