Our sharp-witted heroine has begun recruiting useful allies into her circle, capitalizing on her persuasion and people skills to draw them in. Joining hands with others may bring her one step closer to escaping captivity, but there’s still the matter of her missing memories — and one very persistent investor.
EPISODE 7
When Myung-joon flubs a line in his panic, Ro-hee takes over the call with lawyer Taek-kyun. Assertive as always, she isn’t above retaliating with a bit of sass — “I’m doing all right for a dead person,” ha — and she stands firm on her demands. Grand-uncle Choi has to cough up 30 billion won, even if that means liquidating all of Professor Choi’s assets. Oh, and one last thing: Taek-kyun has to say that the kidnapper he spoke to was a woman.
Needless to say, Taek-kyun’s words are met with impotent rage (courtesy of Grand-uncle Choi) and wary suspicion (courtesy of Jaden). They can’t risk having the kidnapper make good on the threat to upload proof that Ro-hee is alive and well, since they — and the project — would be done for once it spreads like wildfire on social media.
Elsewhere, Hye-eun finally shows up at the police station for questioning. Pulling off her scarf to reveal the scar on her neck, Hye-eun confesses the truth to Sang-yoon — she had been infected with AIDS due to Cheol-won’s attack. When all attempts at treatment failed, Chairman Choi eventually dissolved her adoption, replacing her with Professor Choi. Hye-eun is sure she wasn’t the only abandoned child — given Chairman Choi’s obsession with his research, he’d likely made many more under-the-table adoptions.
Decades later, Hye-eun ran into Cheol-won again at Chairman Choi’s funeral, which is how they reconnected. However, Hye-eun claims ignorance regarding Cheol-won’s vengeance, as well as Myung-joon’s kidnapping. Feigning shock, Hye-eun even sheds a few crocodile tears, playing up the distraught victim act.
Upon returning to the villa, Jaden takes his frustration out on Myung-joon, threatening him with a gun to his head. Ho-young finds the landline in the basement room, and the jig is up. Did Myung-joon call Taek-kyun? Or did he contact Hye-eun? Jaden demands answers, and he wants them now.
Myung-joon insists that he acted alone, but that only stokes the flames of Jaden’s fury. Jaden cocks the gun, looking like he’s seconds away from shooting Myung-joon, and Ro-hee can’t help but cut in. Against Myung-joon’s protests, Ro-hee reveals how Hye-eun instigated the kidnapping to pay for Hee-ae’s surgery.
Myung-joon may have gotten a bruised head out of that confrontation, but Ro-hee’s managed to glean some useful information that Jaden let slip. Our duo is now aware of the connection between Hye-eun and Cheol-won, which Ro-hee finds odd.
When the kidnapper makes her next call, Taek-kyun picks up in front of Jaden and Grand-uncle Choi. Ho-young traces the call to a server in Russia, and Jaden’s lackeys corner Hye-eun as she exits a public toilet. The caller goes silent for a few long moments. Then just as Jaden thinks he’s caught the culprit red-handed, the caller continues speaking. It’s not Hye-eun after all. So who is she?
Over in Eun-seon’s office, the camera pans over to her screen — and it’s her on the line, with an IP address-disguising program open. Ro-hee had leveraged on Eun-seon’s personal stakes in the project to recruit her into their plan, knowing that Eun-seon can’t afford to lose her to Jaden’s clutches.
During the call, the kidnapper had demanded that they split the ransom money into twenty bags, to be deposited at trash collection points along a particular street; it turns out to be a clever tactic to divert attention by spreading Jaden’s manpower thin. With only three guards left in the house, Myung-joon makes quick work of them when Ro-hee helpfully shuts the lights off, and then our adorable duo are free. Later, Eun-seon and Taek-kyun drive away from the villa, but they’re soon overtaken by Jaden, who smirks that he’s weeded out the mole.
In the alleyway, the truck driver gets cornered by Jaden’s men after collecting all the ransom bags. They bash his windows in, forcing him to exit the vehicle. Except, it’s a gun that emerges first. The driver steps out, pulling off his mask — it’s Sang-yoon.
Ahhh!! I am so excited for Sang-yoon to finally team up with our delightful duo, with his tenacious spirit and unwavering sense of justice. The ‘R’ in Ro-hee definitely stands for ‘resourceful’ — not only did she devise this plan, but she also managed to sneak Eun-seon’s burner phone and Sang-yoon’s name card to Myung-joon via lunchbox. I love that Myung-joon trusted Sang-yoon enough to pull him into their plan, and that Sang-yoon trusted Myung-joon enough to go along with it.
Sang-yoon has displayed a keen intuition, reading people with astute precision, and I think he’ll complement Ro-hee’s brain and Myung-joon’s brawn perfectly. It didn’t seem like he bought into Hye-eun’s sob story, given that he still has his subordinates on her tail, and I wonder how that will unfold. Does Hye-eun still care enough for her family to team up with Myung-joon, or will her selfish motivations win out?
Slowly but surely, Ro-hee’s ragtag team is expanding, bringing together such diverse and intriguing personalities. Despite his mild demeanor, Taek-kyun isn’t one to be underestimated, if his blink-and-you’ll-miss-it smirks this episode are anything to go by. Taek-kyun does seem to genuinely care for Ro-hee, but it’s hard to ignore the amused — maybe even ambitious? — glint in his eyes when Ro-hee offered to appoint him as the guardian of her estate, in exchange for his part in the scheme.
Meanwhile, Jaden continues to be terrifying in the most captivating way, and I’m absolutely loving it. His short temper will likely prove to be his undoing, given how he’s already unraveling at the slightest provocation, but it’s precisely this explosive reactivity that makes him such an entertaining watch. It’s so fun to watch Jaden and Ro-hee go head-to-head in a battle of wits, and even as I’m rooting for our headstrong heroine to come out on top, I’m also relishing their chess game of outsmarting and outplaying each other.