Utterly exposed, the double-crossing deceivers can no longer hide behind their silence. Our heroine’s family may be crumbling around her, but she remains resolute in her resilience and unwavering in her beliefs — and her conviction might just save our anti-hero from his own crusade.
EPISODES 9-10
Decades ago, Soo-hyun had extended a compassionate hand to the battered and starving Yoo-ri, sheltering her from her abusive mother. Showered with Mom’s love under the roof of a warm household, the two girls had grown up like real siblings — which makes Yoo-ri’s betrayal cut twice as deep.
In the present, Mom chases the violent abuser away, protecting Yoo-ri like her own daughter. The nasty woman leaves, stealthily slipping the affair photo into Yoo-ri’s pocket. It sends Yoo-ri into a panic, but before she can salvage the situation, Soo-hyun reveals that she already knows. Instructing Yoo-ri to keep quiet until she clears her head, Soo-hyun bitterly declares that she can’t forgive her.
Once she’s alone in her car, Soo-hyun breaks down into devastated sobs, and at home, she hurls their family photo to the ground. It’s not their infidelity that hurts her, but their deceit that cuts deep. She’d endured the public scorn and picked herself back up for both their sakes, only to find out that they’ve been lying to her face.
All this while, both Soo-ho and Yoo-ri have had multiple opportunities to come clean — from the morning after their drunken tryst, to the days following Soo-hyun’s return. The affair photo hadn’t even included Yoo-ri’s face, as if giving them the chance to do the right thing and own up. Instead, they chose to double down and conceal their entanglement. They’ve been hiding behind the excuse of protecting Soo-hyun from the ugly truth, when they’re really doing it for their own sakes, in a cowardly attempt to detach themselves from their impulsive mistake.
Still, Soo-hyun is far too compassionate to completely turn her back on her loved ones. For Mom’s sake, Soo-hyun tells Yoo-ri that she won’t abandon her. Soo-hyun may be distancing herself from others once again, burned by her broken trust, but that doesn’t mean she’ll hang them out to dry. She won’t give Seon-yul the satisfaction of seeing her crumble.
As a last resort, Seon-yul resolves to target the one remaining person that Soo-hyun cares for. Soo-hyun arrives at Mom’s restaurant to find it in a mess, and when she frantically calls Mom, it’s Seon-yul who answers. By the time Soo-hyun arrives at the hospital, Seon-yul has left, and Mom has a concussion but is otherwise fine.
Rattled by the thought that Mom could be in danger, Soo-hyun heads out in search of Seon-yul. Coincidentally, his door lock has been picked by Soo-ho’s detective friend, so Soo-hyun sneaks in. A bit of snooping leads her to accidentally discover Seon-yul’s secret darkroom, where she finds herself stunned by the extent of his stalking and the countless photos he’s taken of her.
When Seon-yul drives home, he finds Soo-hyun waiting outside, bringing us back to the scene that opened our drama. For a moment, it almost seems like he’s going to run her down, but he stops short in front of her. It’s another tense confrontation, with Soo-hyun revealing that she knows his identity and Seon-yul derisively sneering that it must have hurt to see her mom hospitalized.
Refusing to rise to the bait, Soo-hyun leaves Seon-yul with the revelation that what happened to his mother hadn’t been a mere accident. It renders him stunned, having never considered that possibility, mired as he was in shock and grief.
Armed with the information that his detective friend has uncovered, Soo-ho confronts Seon-yul at the junkyard. Infuriated by what he perceives as unjustified vengeance, Soo-ho staunchly defends Soo-hyun’s actions — if she hadn’t killed their child’s murderer, he would have. Once his anger subsides, he entreats Seon-yul to direct his ire towards him, instead of Soo-hyun.
As it turns out, Soo-ho ought to be more prudent with what he wishes for, because Seon-yul’s vendetta extends to him too. A timely tip-off from Seon-yul allows Joon to blockade Hye-geum’s path and threaten Soo-ho with the affair photo, effectively thwarting their whistleblowing plan. The broadcast proceeds in Joon’s favor, earning him public approval and stoking the flames of Soo-ho’s frustration.
Seon-yul may have hardened his heart in the pursuit of revenge, but he can’t deny his humanity. Soo-hyun eventually learns the truth of Mom’s collapse from a guilt-ridden Yoo-ri; Mom had read her like an open book and realized her part in the affair. In a flashback, we see Seon-yul entering the restaurant with an envelope in hand, only to rush Mom to hospital when she faints. To keep an eye on Mom, Seon-yul had become a frequent regular at her restaurant, and the sincere kindness Mom extended to him every time wound up moving him deeply.
This week, we end off on a pivotal moment — after years of hanging on by a thread, Seon-yul’s mother breathes her last. Shattered by immeasurable grief, Seon-yul can barely look Soo-hyun in the eye when she pays her respects. He may not be able to recognize her kindness yet, but hopefully the information within his mother’s phone will open his eyes to the truth.
Seon-yul has a very strong, albeit warped, sense of justice — he views Soo-hyun’s crime as a deliberate and unrepentant act of malice that deserves to be punished, since he hadn’t been privy to his father’s lack of remorse. To him, his father’s misdeed was an accident that the court pardoned, and his mother’s accident was a cruel twist of misfortune. Now that he may soon discover evidence proving the contrary, perhaps he can finally redirect his arrow of retribution towards the right target.