Doom is now on board with our heroine’s plan, but she’s having second thoughts. As she looks for alternatives, he does his best to convince her to stay the course. Meanwhile, the goddess takes notice of the deepening connection between our leads and contemplates how to ensure they don’t upset the balance.
EPISODE 6
Dong-kyung questions what he means by asking her to love him. Myeol-mang calls it a thank you for trying to protect him, but Dong-kyung argues he just wants to die. She doesn’t buy it when he says he wants to save her.
Myeol-mang doesn’t see the downside, but Dong-kyung doesn’t feel good about it. After seeing the pain his work causes him, she believes he’s a good guy, even if he can’t see it. Dong-kyung has come to realize she wants to live happily, not just survive at all costs. If she kills Myeol-mang, she won’t be able to live happily.
Now their roles have flipped, and Dong-kyung is the one trying to detach while Myeol-mang works to keep her closer. That night, she wants to go back to sleeping in her room, but she stays on the couch after Myeol-mang threatens to mess with her house.
As they lay on their respective couches, Dong-kyung accuses Myeol-mang of asking for her love when he doesn’t even know what love is. He doesn’t disagree and tries out phrases on her like “I love you,” “I’ll die in your place,” and “sleep well.”
Myeol-mang vents to the goddess the next day about how weird Dong-kyung is for doing things like naming him, but the goddess thinks they suit each other. A name is only necessary when you have someone to address you, and now he does. Myeol-mang denies wanting that, but the goddess argues he’s been whining like a child for someone to call out to him.
The goddess casually asks if he’s sticking with his plan to let Dong-kyung love and then kill him. She warns that humans can do anything for love, so he may not get the outcome he expects.
Meanwhile, Dong-kyung asks Ye-ji to set her up with someone who deserves to die. Ye-ji is naturally concerned and distracts her by taking her to the café to check out the handsome new part-timer. Dong-kyung and Sun-kyung look at each other in surprise.
Sun-kyung urges Dong-kyung to quit working – he’ll be the breadwinner now. She’s appreciative but tells him that she wants to work. It was a burden before, but now that her time is limited, it feels different. Sun-kyung apologizes for his past behavior and “stealing her time.” He encourages her not to give up.
The second Dong-kyung is back in the office, she takes back her desire to keep working. Not only is the kid writer refusing to write, he’s missing. Joo-ik orders Dong-kyung to retrieve him somehow before their upcoming event.
Dong-kyung works out her anger at the batting range with Ji-na who listens to her friend rant. Dong-kyung then asks Ji-na if she knows any douchey guys who deserve to die and offers to kill Hyun-kyu for her.
Ji-na had planned to get revenge on Hyun-kyu herself but is reconsidering thanks to Joo-ik’s remark that her behavior is more about regret than revenge. Dong-kyung shares that Joo-ik told her he kissed Ji-na out of pity, which makes Ji-na leap up in outrage.
Joo-ik, meanwhile, has dinner with his father who spends the time criticizing LifeStory. He complains that Joo-ik should be working overtime like his brother rather than spending time eating with him. But the way they poke fun at each other suggests the father and son aren’t on bad terms, even if they don’t see eye-to-eye.
Ji-na calls Joo-ik, demanding to know if he pities her. They meet up and Joo-ik explains he pitied her at the time, but he doesn’t now. When she asks if the contract was out of pity too, he takes her question as a lack of confidence in her own abilities.
Hyun-kyu calls Joo-ik to whine about when he’ll be home to make dinner, but Joo-ik says he’s working and hangs up. Ji-na hands over the signed contract, although she worries that she’ll regret it.
As Dong-kyung walks home, Myeol-mang appears and asks how her search for a new love interest is going. He says he’s worried because she’s special to him. Dong-kyung yanks her hand out of his and marvels at his game, not buying Myeol-mang’s claim that he’s being sincere.
Sun-kyung finds them bickering outside and comes up with fish bread for Dong-kyung. He shares with Myeol-mang that Dong-kyung loves anything with red bean paste. Dong-kyung asks Sun-kyung to go somewhere with her.
The next day, she takes Sun-kyung to get an MRI in case her condition is genetic. Doctor Jung is happy to see the sibling bond since it means Dong-kyung has a reason to live. He says that Sun-kyung begged him to save her life, sobbing that he couldn’t live without his sister. Doctor Jung gives her pain meds and tells her to get treated.
Outside the hospital, Dong-kyung runs into the goddess again. Neither of them is eager to talk about their illnesses, so they talk instead about the goddess’s gardening. She’s waiting for her plant to sprout, but she isn’t sure what it’ll be when it does. Dong-kyung is surprised when the goddess says she’ll have to pull it out if it’s “something strange.”
Since it’s hers, she can pull it out and just plant something again. With all the care she’s put into her first plant, she hopes it’ll turn out well. Before she leaves, the goddess gives Dong-kyung a marble she got out of a toy machine as a present.
Inside the hospital, a group of women – include the patient Myeol-mang told had cancer – discuss the rumors of a “ghost doctor.” The woman shares her experience of crying for no reason in front of a doctor she later found didn’t work at the hospital. The problem is that everyone remembers him differently, some even insisting the doctor was a woman.
While Dong-kyung chats with Doctor Jung, Myeol-mang comes bearing flowers. Dong-kyung is puzzled when Doctor Jung assumes he’s her youngest brother. Clearing seeing him as barely more than a kid, Doctor Jung tries to cover his shock when Sun-kyung walks up and calls Myeol-mang “hyung-nim.”
Sun-kyung compliments Myeol-mang’s new hair color which is news to Dong-kyung who sees no change. He insists the three of them take a photo together, and Dong-kyung is shocked to see a young blond man where Myeol-mang should be.
In the car, Dong-kyung is amazed to learn that Myeol-mang looks different to everyone. He reveals she’s the only one who can somehow see his real face. She now understands why he wants her to love him, likening it to that trope of “you’re the first woman to treat me like this.” Myeol-mang takes her off-guard by sincerely admitting that she’s right – it’s all a first for him.
Amidst the awkward silence, Dong-kyung sees something outside and tells Myeol-mang to stop the car. The kid writer, whose name is Park Young, is currently greeting a bunch of fans with several other boys. They’re part of a reality program competition for aspiring actors.
Dong-kyung fights her way through the throng of screaming girls and tries to get his attention. Their eyes meet, but he ignores her. He later sends her a text telling her not to look for him since he’ll be living in a dorm without outside access.
She tries cajoling Myeol-mang into helping her out by making Young get booted out of the competition, but he’s only willing to interfere if it’s her official wish. Unfortunately for LifeStory, Young is doing well so far and isn’t likely to get voted off.
After Dong-kyung’s talk of wanting to date someone terrible, Ye-ji set her up on a blind date. When Ye-ji says he’s a good guy who’s a friend of her boyfriend’s, Dong-kyung reminds her the guy is supposed to be someone she wants to kill. “If it goes well, you will want to kill him one day.” Pfft.
Dong-kyung isn’t even surprised to see Myeol-mang walk up to their table at this point. He’s playing the role of Ye-ji’s doting boyfriend, turning this into an awkward double date. Myeol-mang continually cuts in whenever Dong-kyung’s date tries to make conversation and scoffs at his advances.
Myeol-mang puts an end to the date by making both Ye-ji and Dong-kyung’s date fall asleep at the table. As they walk home, Myeol-mang again plugs himself as the best option as someone to die in Dong-kyung’s place. He suggests she make loving him her wish.
To demonstrate that it can work, he looks into her eyes, entrancing her. She puts her arms around his neck and right when she’s about to kiss him, he snaps her out of it. Dong-kyung angrily pushes him away and stalks off.
Joo-ik and Ji-na begin working together and start by brainstorming how to make her male lead stand out. After a few pointers, Ji-na starts writing. Joo-ik watches her and decides boundaries don’t need to exist as he wipes an eyelash off her cheek. When he goes to leave, he sees the umbrella they kissed under and, to her embarrassment, says he’ll be taking his umbrella back.
Ji-na heads to the reunion where her and Hyun-kyu awkwardly try to ignore each other, although they sneak glances occasionally. Their obnoxiously clueless classmates make everything worse by actively bringing up the past and even asking Ji-na if she still likes Hyun-kyu.
Hyun-kyu approaches Ji-na as they’re leaving, asking if she’s okay after how much she drank. He doesn’t respond when she asks why he came back to Korea and attended this reunion. She turns down his offer of driving her home, so he hails a taxi for her instead. Hyun-kyu turns back to give her a small smile before walking away.
He downs a beer the second he gets home and tells Joo-ik vaguely that meeting his first love went okay. Alone, Hyun-kyu thinks of Ji-na and looks anything but okay.
At work the next day, Dong-kyung considers Myeol-mang’s suggestion that she make her wish to love him. Joo-ik happens upon her grumbling to herself, and when she asks him what he’d wish for if he had 100 days to live, he assumes she’s talking about a new novel.
If it’s a romance novel, Joo-ik says the best wish would be to fall in love with the handsome wish-granter. Dong-kyung despairs that this is the only option, but Joo-ik has another idea. Wish for the opposite: make him love her.
Dong-kyung finds Myeol-mang waiting at the bus stop. Neither of them has an umbrella, so they take shelter from the pouring rain under the awning. Myeol-mang takes her hand and suggests they make a run for it. She’d rather he just stop the rain, but he thinks this is more fun.
Myeol-mang says, so what if you’re the only one without an umbrella and get soaked? If you run, you’ll be home soon. Dong-kyung stares at him for a long moment and then announces she has a wish. “I want you to love me.” Can that be her wish?
“No,” Myeol-mang replies before leaning down to kiss her. As they make out in the rain, the goddess sadly notes that, “If you mess with the system, it means you were programmed incorrectly. Anything incorrect should be deleted.”
After their kiss, Myeol-mang takes a step back. In voiceover, the goddess continues, “Or it should be reset.” Before Dong-kyung can ask what’s wrong, Myeol-mang is gone.
A good example from this episode is Dong-kyung’s sudden desire to have Myeol-mang love her. I’m not sure what her goal is here since the outcome would be the same as her loving him. He’d still want to die in her place, although it’d be out of love rather than a suicidal urge. She’s already decided he’s not a bad enough person for her to kill, unless she’s changed her mind about using him again. I can understand how making a “good” person die in her stead would weigh on her conscience, but I’m confused as to how she expects to “live happily” after killing the person she loves most. If her plan works, no matter how awful the guy is, she’ll love him and be responsible for his death. Living happily seems like a stretch. And now she’s decided Myeol-mang should love her instead. Maybe she wants to experience some great love before she dies, but if so, when did that become a priority? A little more insight into her motivations here would be nice.
Despite the spotty writing, I am still enjoying this drama. Just because something is flawed doesn’t mean it can’t be fun. Thankfully, both main leads are great actors, so they’re able to cover some of the flaws and keep me engaged. And there are things being done well. I’ve already talked a lot about the interesting tone, and I still find Dong-kyung to be a well-written heroine overall. Apart from the inconsistencies with Myeol-mang, the character writing in general is fine. I feel like the weakness in the writing is predominately in the details rather than the big picture. The outline is solid, but it’s filled in sloppily. As the drama settles in further, I hope some of these problems will work themselves out. I’m rooting for Doom to reach its full potential.