The episode 1 of Hello, I Am a Witch and My Crush Wants Me to Make a Love Potion starts with Rose, a young witch living alone in a secluded hermitage on an island near the royal capital. After losing her mother and grandmother, Rose survives by brewing remedies for clients and selling them through her merchant friend Tien Công. Her quiet life changes when Harij Azm, an elite knight from the royal palace, visits her and asks for a love potion. Rose immediately recognizes him as the man she has secretly loved for four years, making his request painfully ironic because he wants the potion for someone else.
Rose initially claims that the love potion is unavailable, but Harij realizes she can make it and agrees to wait for however long it takes. He also promises to obtain whatever ingredients she needs. Rose takes advantage of this determination by repeatedly requesting rare and difficult-to-find materials, including the liver of a fire rat, pollen from a flower growing on a cliff, the first drop of rain from the heavens, a screaming medicinal root, and the antennae of a rainbow-colored grasshopper that must be collected under a full moon. Instead of giving up, Harij patiently fulfills each request, showing Rose just how seriously he wants the potion.
That only makes Rose's feelings harder to control. She is drawn to Harij's handsome appearance and gentle voice despite his intimidating personality. At the same time, she knows he has no idea who she really is beyond being the Witch of the Lake. Rose understands that he is visiting because he needs a witch's remedy, not because he has any personal interest in her.
The episode also shows Harij's life away from the hermitage. After spending a night searching for the required grasshopper ingredient, he appears exhausted. Another knight jokes that he should be chasing happiness rather than insects or criminals and asks whether there is anyone special in his life. Harij has no clear answer, highlighting how little the episode reveals about his own romantic feelings.
Meanwhile, Tien Công visits Rose to collect the everyday remedies she has prepared. He has known Rose since her grandmother was alive and understands how difficult it is for her to make a living. Rose's specialized witch remedies are effective and valuable, but their high prices limit their sales. Tien therefore encourages her to produce more ordinary remedies and suggests changing the packaging of a popular spray used by young women before dates. Rose shows little interest in branding or marketing, preferring to focus on her work.
After Tien leaves, Rose's cheerful facade disappears. She admits how painful it is that the person she has quietly loved for four years has finally come to her, only to ask her for a potion that will help him win someone else's affection. The situation forces her to revisit the memory of how she first met Harij. Four years earlier, shortly after her grandmother's death, Rose traveled to the royal capital alone to find ingredients for her remedies. Her grandmother had always guided her through the city, so Rose struggled to find the shops on her own. The lively streets only made her loneliness worse, especially when she overheard people discussing the death of the Witch of the Lake.
Instead of mourning Rose's grandmother, the townspeople celebrated her death. They believed witches were dangerous and even blamed Rose's grandmother for unexplained disappearances. Rose was shocked by the hatred directed toward witches and realized that her grandmother may have spent years silently enduring that hostility. The experience left Rose with a painful understanding of how the world viewed her kind.
During that same visit to the capital, Rose noticed Harij Azm in the indigo cloak of the Order of Knights. She learned that he was connected to the powerful Haizuran family, and that encounter became the moment she fell in love with him. Rose already knew that someone like Harij was beyond her reach, but the feeling remained with her for years.
Now, Harij's repeated visits have disturbed the quiet routine Rose built after her grandmother's death. The magical bell that warns her whenever someone approaches the pier causes her heart to race because every sound raises the possibility that Harij has returned. Rose tries to convince herself that it means nothing, reminding herself that he comes to see the witch rather than Rose herself.
For years, Rose had treated her feelings for Harij as a private memory. She could occasionally think about the moment they met, enjoy the memory, and then return to her isolated life. His arrival has changed that balance. Every visit makes her feelings more immediate, while the love potion request reminds her that Harij's heart is apparently focused on someone else.
Rose reaches the painful realization that she cannot simply pretend her feelings do not matter. As a witch, she cannot tell lies, but the final moments reveal that the rule applies to something even more difficult: she cannot lie to herself. Although she tells herself that she would be satisfied if Harij simply remembered her, her racing heart suggests that she wants far more.
Hello, I Am a Witch and My Crush Wants Me to Make a Love Potion Episode 1 delivers a charming but surprisingly bittersweet introduction to Rose's story. The strongest part of the episode is its central romantic irony: Rose finally gets the attention of the man she has loved for years, only to discover that he needs her help pursuing another woman. Her isolated life, the prejudice surrounding witches, and the memories of her grandmother give the romance an emotional foundation beyond a simple crush. Harij's patient determination also creates an intriguing question about what he truly feels, while Rose's inability to lie makes her internal conflict especially compelling. The episode balances light comedy, fantasy world-building, and genuine loneliness effectively, ending with Rose confronting the one truth she cannot escape—her feelings for Harij have become impossible to dismiss.
0 Comments