The truth about our reclusive composer’s past is starting to come to light, but that doesn’t mean there’s no time for a little romance! Our leads are closer and more adorably in love than ever, and they spend some quality togetherness time this week — but our hero’s secret is also getting closer to catching up with him.
EPISODES 9-10
Sol-hee and Do-ha retreat into his apartment, where Do-ha tells Sol-hee the whole story. His ex, EOM-JI (Song Ji-hyun), started out sweet and shy, but gradually turned controlling to the point of threatening to harm herself so he’d cave to her demands.
When Do-ha finally lost his cool, their public argument made him look like the unreasonable one. That was the night he broke up with her on the beach. He regrets it now, but in the moment he lied that he was cheating so she’d agree to break up. Instead, she hurt herself to show she’d follow through on her threats. In the end, he left her there, afraid that if he didn’t, the whole cycle would repeat endlessly.
Do-ha learned about Eom-ji’s (presumed) death from the cops who arrested him. In his shock — and believing himself responsible — he confessed, but his mother pulled some strings and got him acquitted based on blurry footage provided by Deuk-chan that appears to show him and Do-ha watching a soccer match together the night of Eom-ji’s disappearance. When Do-ha finished telling the story, Sol-hee pulls him close and tells him what he most needs to hear: he didn’t kill Eom-ji.
Fearing that Eom-ho may still be lurking about, Do-ha asks her to stay the night. He lends her a spare jersey for pajamas (she playfully vows revenge for being forced to show support for her team’s rival), and they cook late-night ramyun and watch soccer in his media room until they fall asleep.
The next morning, Sol-hee trips over the episode’s next plot point — that is, she slips on the remote, which turns on a camping show. Since she thinks it looks fun, Do-ha rents a camping set, and they spend the whole day pitching the tent and laughing at each other’s antics. By the fire that night, Do-ha asks about her powers — what do promises sound like? For example: “I’ll love you forever”? Sol-hee says promises register as truth if they’re sincere, but she recommends clients request specific assurances like, “You’re the one I like the most right now.”
Do-ha doesn’t miss a beat. “You’re the one I like the most right now,” he says, and swoops in for a kiss. Sol-hee wasn’t quite ready for it before, but she sure is now. By the time they return home the next morning, she’s the one initiating a final peck on the lips.
Meanwhile, Eom-ho intimidates a reporter into giving him clues about Do-ha’s whereabouts. Namely: follow Sha-on. Which Eom-ho interprets as kidnap Sha-on and call Do-ha to come rescue her. It works like a charm. Do-ha delivers himself to Eom-ho, who grabs him by the collar and demands answers about Eom-ji’s final moments.
Drawing on Sol-hee’s assurance that it wasn’t his fault, Do-ha stands up for himself. He didn’t kill her — she lost hope because he was her one and only dream and she couldn’t handle losing him. What’s more, Do-ha wasn’t the only person who could have saved her — Eom-ho failed her, too.
Do-ha’s words hit home. Eom-ji had once tried to pursue her own dreams, but when her father stole her college fund, Eom-ho had calmed her down by telling her she didn’t need a dream — having Do-ha was enough. Stricken, Eom-ho releases Do-ha, but then, just like before, lunges at him with a knife.
That’s when Kang-min jumps out of hiding and kicks Eom-ho to the ground. He’s finally pieced together Do-ha’s true identity, and he’s heard the entire exchange. He’s still on the fence about Do-ha’s innocence (even less so as he starts investigating the video that was used as Do-ha’s alibi), but for now he’s willing to take them both in and hear them out. Do-ha, however, holds Kang-min back so Eom-ho can escape. Kang-min isn’t happy to hear that Sol-hee knows everything and still trusts Do-ha, warning that if anything happens to her, he’ll be the one hunting Do-ha down.
Sha-on is shaken by her ordeal, but physically unharmed. She’s also gained some perspective: there are worse things than unrequited love. (“I’d rather you be with someone else than dead” isn’t exactly growth, but I suppose it’s a start.) Predictably, Deuk-chan panics when he hears what happened, but Do-ha isn’t interested in moving again. He wants to stay near Sol-hee, both for her sake and for his own. He does, however, suggest he and Deuk-chan stop working together, for Deuk-chan’s safety.
Sol-hee and Deuk-chan meet outside Do-ha’s door. Deuk-chan is still worried, but he admits he trusts Do-ha (this registers as true) and congratulates her on beginning a relationship with Do-ha (false/insincere). Since Sol-hee and Do-ha have yet to verbally confirm said relationship, Sol-hee teases it out of him, and then it’s time for their next bonding activity: the annual neighborhood festival.
Do-ha only needs a little wheedling to agree to help Sol-hee at the festival. They have a grand old time — she picks out clothes for him to wear, and he buys her a signed soccer ball (she doesn’t tell him it’s fake) and draws crowds to the Tarot Café booth by looking pretty while drinking sikhye (lol, it’s like the show is saying, “See? PPL works!).
When convenience store part-timer LEE YOUNG-JAE (Seo Jae-woo) loses his keyboardist right before the talent contest, Do-ha volunteers to accompany him. Which is sweet and indicative of Do-ha’s budding confidence, but when you’re in hiding because of a murder case, getting your picture taken at a public event might not be the best idea. Just saying. Even worse, while Do-ha and Sol-hee kiss under the fireworks, a corpse is unearthed in a forest. Unless it’s a red herring, we’ve found our missing girl — and she may well have been murdered after all.
It’s a good thing our lovebirds are so ridiculously cute together, because — let’s be real — there wasn’t much substance to these episodes aside from getting Do-ha’s side of the story out into the open. But I didn’t really mind, because, again, they’re so ridiculously cute together. I’m glad Kang-min finally gets to do plot-relevant things, though, if only because Seo Ji-hoon deserves roles that don’t somehow make me forget his character exists when he’s not on screen. (That shouldn’t even be possible! It’s Seo Ji-hoon! But I digress.)
Deuk-chan, of course, remains a giant question mark. I really want him to be a good guy — and since he seems to have an actual alibi, I’m hopeful he might not be the killer, at least — but he has some very ominous moments that are hard to ignore. Somehow, the way his concern for Do-ha has been repeatedly stressed as true makes him both more and less suspicious. Is he a well-meaning pushover who’s gotten himself in way over his head, or has Sol-hee simply not asked the right questions to detect manipulative hidden intentions?