Despite a certain husband’s plan to confess and run, his wife isn’t going to let him take the coward’s way out. Neither is her sister, whose methods put the two women at odds yet again. And we get even more revelations from a seemingly never-ending cache of secrets as our characters continue to reevaluate what they thought they knew.
EPISODE 6
Eun-hee can’t shake the feeling that something is off about Hyo-seok. Elsewhere, Eun-joo meets with her mother-in-law while Eun-hee finally answers Chan-hyuk’s call. She asks him to take the next day off and help her.
Eun-joo’s mother-in-law is definitely hiding something as she says Tae-hyung used to take off like this sometimes in the past. She attributes it to him being “sensitive” and prone to depression. She cuts Eun-joo off when she starts to ask if they’re aware of Tae-hyung’s identity, saying he’s always refused to take antidepressants.
Eun-joo glares at her mother-in-law who would rather simply medicate her son than admit he’s gay. “There’s no reason for him to take medication,” Eun-joo asserts. “He isn’t suffering from a disease.”
Meanwhile, Jin-sook is skeptical of Sang-shik’s claim he got his memory back. Sang-shik remembers what Man-ho told him about his personality before the accident and tries to act tough which only half works. It doesn’t help that he’s still calling her “Miss Sook.”
Eun-joo stops by the café and texts Hyo-seok to ask where he is. He tells her he’s on Sorok Island… where Tae-hyung is too, we see. Hyo-seok accuses him of being cowardly and only knowing how to gossip in the chatroom.
Tae-hyung tells him to leave, but Hyo-seok isn’t finished. He tosses the envelope of money at Tae-hyung. Why is Tae-hyung paying him back when he isn’t the one who stole the money? Tae-hyung accuses him of hanging around him because of money, but Hyo-seok argues he wanted to see what kind of person he was.
Now, he’s hanging around because he feels bad for Eun-joo. If Tae-hyung is going to spend his life hiding, don’t use an innocent person as a shield. Tae-hyung calls him sentimental and says it’s why “low-lives” like him get taken advantage of. What the hell?
Eun-hee meets with Geon-joo to ask for a favor. She needs another day off, but she’s used up her leave. Geon-joo agrees to help her out… if she tells him why she needs it. He accepts her vague answer that she needs to find someone.
Geon-joo hasn’t given up on them and says he’ll wait for her for one season. Eun-hee quips he must not be that serious about her if he’ll only wait that long.
At home, Jin-sook goes to talk to Ji-woo in his room. He heads her off by saying he’s not ready to move out yet. His sisters got to live at home until into their 30s, so why not him? Jin-sook doesn’t press and tells him Sang-shik says his memory is back. Ji-woo is sad to lose the “romantic” version of his dad.
Eun-hee pesters Chan-hyuk into going to Sorok Island with her. He’s uninterested until she mentions it’s for Eun-joo, “the person you like.” Meanwhile, Jin-sook finds Sang-shik rifling through drawers and closets. She thinks he’s looking for his hiking gear, but he insists he’s not.
Sang-shik eventually admits he’s looking for “her letters,” upset he can’t find them. Jin-sook again questions if he’s really gotten his memory back. Ji-woo buys it, though, when Sang-shik scolds him.
In the car, Chan-hyuk worries about how Eun-joo is handling this. He asks if they’re really going all the way to Sorok Island based on Eun-hee’s hunch. She hopes she’s wrong, but if not, she wants to make sure Hyo-seok and Tae-hyung sort things out without involving Eun-joo.
At the clinic, Tae-hyung’s mom (a doctor) steps in to take care of things. She’s much colder now as she tells Eun-joo to act naturally around the nurses and shares that she heard Tae-hyung left the seminar a day early.
Eun-joo is surprised when she says he’s probably at Sorok Island, recalling that’s where Hyo-seok is. Tae-hyung’s mom continues that he’s always there alone. “He’s never made a mistake.” Wow.
Eun-hee hesitates once they’re in viewing range of the island. Chan-hyuk speculates that, if Tae-hyung is there, he must be ready to stop lying to himself and give up his current life. Eun-hee wonders if he’d be making the same decision if people were kinder and less discriminating.
Jin-sook calls Eun-hee, asking her to call Eun-joo and tell her to stop by with Tae-hyung. Eun-hee wonders who relayed her messages when her and Eun-joo weren’t talking. Ha. But then she realizes it’ll be worse if her mom calls and quickly changes her tune. Chan-hyuk commiserates with her suffering as the go-between.
Chan-hyuk’s employees try to figure out why he suddenly made a long trip, assuming it must be for work. Ji-woo takes a call from Eun-hee and informs her their dad got his memories back. She tells him she can’t make it over there that night since she’s out of town.
Eun-hee is upset her dad didn’t tell her about his memory, since he promised she’d be the first to know. She wishes her dad could’ve stayed in his twenties a while longer. When she comments that their twenties weren’t so hot, Chan-hyuk insists he has always been awesome.
If he was so awesome, why is Yoon-ji marrying someone else? She can’t believe Yoon-ji had the audacity to send Chan-hyuk an invitation after dumping him like that. Eun-hee goes into best friend mode and rants while Chan-hyuk grins.
At P&F, Kyung-ok privately tells Geon-joo that she grew up in the same neighborhood as Ha-ra. She was surprised when Ha-ra recently got back in touch. Geon-joo butters her up by commenting that, since she knows about his and Ha-ra’s relationship, Kyung-ok must be great at keeping secrets.
Over lunch, Eun-hee gasps upon hearing Yoon-ji included a letter with the invitation. Never one to pass up gossip, Eun-hee begs to know what she said. Chan-hyuk relents and says that she told him he doesn’t have to come to the wedding and wished him well.
What she actually said was that there were a lot of rumors about him at Jong-min’s wedding, and she’s glad they broke up. She added that she’ll decline any wedding invitation with his and Eun-hee’s name on it.
Eun-hee checks Hyo-seok’s social media and finds his location. Chan-hyuk thinks she’s working too hard on her family’s issues, but Eun-hee feels bad. Maybe if she’d stuck around the past few years instead of living however she pleased, things would be different.
Chan-hyuk comments she’s not important enough to change the course of her family. Also, she didn’t really live however she pleased. He gets awkward when she asks how he would know. Ah, someone kept tabs on her.
Out of nowhere, he asks if it’s so weird that he didn’t go to Jong-min’s wedding. Chan-hyuk didn’t get an invitation, so he assumed he wasn’t invited. Eun-hee divulges that the wedding was livestreamed, and the chatroom was buzzing about Chan-hyuk’s absence.
A rumor started that she and Chan-hyuk were together even before Jong-min’s affair, painting Jong-min as the victim. Eun-hee apologizes for fanning the flames. She was so mad she intentionally went on about how great he was and how she knew him first. Pfft. Chan-hyuk gets awkward again and remarks that she did well. They’ll never get together anyway, so… Eun-hee agrees.
They arrive at the church were Hyo-seok is and come face to face with him and Tae-hyung. Chan-hyuk pulls Eun-hee back to remind her not to overstep. Eun-hee takes a deep breath before heading over.
Tae-hyung wonders how she found him, and she looks at Hyo-seok. When Hyo-seok goes to leave, Eun-hee accuses him of being an irresponsible coward like Tae-hyung. He realizes her misunderstanding and assures her he doesn’t like Tae-hyung either before leaving them to talk.
Tae-hyung is surprised Eun-joo told Eun-hee, so she clarifies that she saw his laptop first. Why did he have to say those horrible things in the chat? Eun-hee screams, “Why, of all people, did it have to be my unni?!”
He shares that they both were tired of their families and wanted to distance themselves. Eun-hee recalls the times Eun-joo disdained them and said she was sick of them. Those words hurt whatever her intentions were.
Elsewhere, Man-ho encourages the anxious Sang-shik not to worry – Young-shik is probably fine. Man-ho can’t get used to this softer, more romantic Sang-shik. Sang-shik denies being the heartbreaker type, but Man-ho asserts he unintentionally made some women in their hiking group cry.
Man-ho muses Jin-sook probably never cried, though. She likely wanted to kill him. He reveals Sang-shik only gave a fraction of his paycheck to his family and set the rest aside. That’s probably why she hid the expensive fruit from him.
In a memory snapshot, Sang-shik sees himself enraged as he punches through glass and tosses a bag of fruit to the ground. Man-ho obliviously harps on about Sang-shik’s inconsiderate behavior toward Jin-sook until Sang-shik screams at him to stop.
Visiting with her mom, Jin-sook sighs she’s done her best as a wife. What should she do now that he’s making them both relive the past? She was so excited to be free.
An employee comes in asking when Jin-sook is going to start working there. Jin-sook plans to start soon. The woman tells her to stop calling the patients “mom,” since their family get touchy about it. Oh, so she’s volunteering there.
Sang-shik can’t shake that memory and is ashamed Jin-sook had to meet a man like him. He gets a reminder text from a neuropsychiatric clinic for an upcoming appointment. A memory of writing “I want to die” in a notebook sends him running to his truck, but the notebook isn’t there.
While they wait, Hyo-seok suggests he and Chan-hyuk go to a nearby coffee farm, but Chan-hyuk reveals he can’t drive. People usually just assume he can and don’t ask directly about it. Hyo-seok remarks nobody directly asks him if he’s gay either. They’re interrupted when Eun-joo drives up looking for Tae-hyung.
Nearby, Eun-hee confronts Tae-hyung about using her sister’s genuine feelings, and he admits his indebtedness to Eun-joo made him hate her. Is that why he let her read the awful comments in the chatroom? Tae-hyung wanted her to see how bad he was and not try to understand him.
Eun-hee sees Eun-joo and runs over to her. Eun-joo can’t believe she came here without telling her and even brought Chan-hyuk. Does she need someone to cling to when she’s upset? Is this a fun trip for her?
Eun-hee doesn’t understand why she struggles alone instead of saying she’s hurting, but Eun-joo doesn’t trust the “unreliable” Eun-hee enough to share her feelings. She orders Eun-hee to go. Eun-hee doesn’t say anything, although she recognizes that Eun-joo is taking out her anger on her just like she did to Eun-joo back then.
Tae-hyung comes over and tells Eun-hee she should go, so she heads back to Chan-hyuk and Hyo-seok. Eun-hee suggests Hyo-seok ride back with them so they can talk. But before they leave, Chan-hyuk asks why she brought him here.
Eun-hee thought it’d be nice to have someone share the burden with her and stay with Eun-joo when she can’t. And she couldn’t tell Ji-woo. Chan-hyuk tells her to go back with Hyo-seok – he’ll stay with Eun-joo.
At the house, Tae-hyung tells Eun-joo he’s closing the clinic. She scathingly replies he’ll probably leave that to his mother. When he says he’s trying to change his life, Eun-joo scoffs he only knows how to throw money at his problems. Did he think he could pay Hyo-seok off for stealing his lover? Oooh. Tae-hyung insists he never got between them.
In the car, Hyo-seok tells Eun-hee the story. He was dating someone who met Tae-hyung in the chatroom. After declaring Tae-hyung was his soulmate, he stole Hyo-seok’s money and fled to New Zealand. Originally, Hyo-seok had hoped to scare Tae-hyung, but becoming friends with Eun-joo changed things.
At the house, Eun-joo notes that chatting must not count as “getting between them.” His mother told her he doesn’t make mistakes, so it must’ve been intentional. Tae-hyung tells her to stop being sarcastic and gets so angry he grabs her and holds her down on the couch by the shoulders.
She screams and hits him, but he won’t let go. He yells at her for coming here rather than just ending things. The fight goes out of her, and Eun-joo begins to cry. What was he thinking when she went through the painful process of trying to get pregnant?
He lets go and says, “It was despicable.” She hated her family so much but wanted to create another one? Eun-joo quietly sobs. She pulls herself together and states she has no feelings toward him and is just getting started. After she leaves, Tae-hyung allows himself to cry.
Chan-hyuk waits for Eun-joo while she strolls down the beach, lost in thought. Meanwhile, Eun-hee and Hyo-seok make a pit stop. He directly asks if Chan-hyuk likes Eun-joo, and Eun-hee’s expression is a dead giveaway. She remarks that it’s normal for guys to like their friend’s older sister at some point.
He points out that he’s a guy who never did that and laughs when she cutely asks if he liked his friend’s older brother then. Hyo-seok finds her good mood odd. Eun-hee feels bad for her sister, but she never liked the cold and selfish Tae-hyung. Now she can understand where he was coming from and is relieved not to hate him anymore.
Eun-joo and Chan-hyuk sit outside. She’s surprised Eun-hee found this place. Chan-hyuk notes that, even though she isn’t perceptive when it comes to herself, Eun-hee’s gut feelings are usually right. Eun-joo comments that must be why Eun-hee brought Chan-hyuk along.
Eun-joo thinks it’ll be weird if they go back together. Chan-hyuk says Eun-hee has a talent for creating weird situations. Does she know who Eun-hee hitched a ride with? The barista. The absurdity makes Eun-joo chuckle. She’s surprised she can still laugh and remarks people sometimes can provide comfort.
That night, Geon-joo texts Eun-hee that he has something to give her and wants to meet. At a truck stop, Sang-shik cries at his own brutish ways in his memory. Eun-hee calls to lightly reprimand him for not telling her about his memory returning. Noticing his voice sounds off, she asks if he has a cold.
At home, Jin-sook cries as she thinks about how loving Sang-shik has been toward her, wondering why he’s holding onto her now. Eun-hee calls to tell her that Tae-hyung is exhausted from the trip and to wait for Eun-joo to call. She asks why her mom sounds like she caught a cold too.
Eun-hee steels herself and goes to meet Geon-joo. He gives her a report on a new project as cover for her trip. They grab a beer and she sighs about her tiring, long trip. She goes quiet when he assumes she went alone.
Geon-joo asks if she went with “that friend.” He promises he won’t misunderstand; he just wants to comfort her. “Because you’re the person I love.” Uh, you’ve known her for like five seconds, dude.
Eun-joo drops Chan-hyuk home, but he worries about her being alone. When he suggests she stay with Eun-hee, she realizes she doesn’t know where Eun-hee lives. Even after she says she’s fine, he’s reluctant to get out of the car.
Eun-hee admits she didn’t want to think too deeply about Geon-joo’s feelings toward her. They had a one-night stand, and he doesn’t know her well. Geon-joo shocks Eun-hee as he begins to list little things about her, like how she doesn’t like to argue in groups and her email ID is Liz after the heroine of “Pride and Prejudice.”
He reveals that he’s “thistle” (his email), the one she exchanged emails with for a year. Eun-hee argues that she was emailing a young Korean American girl, but he says that girl left. He ended up continuing to use that address.
Geon-joo became curious about her and came to meet her. And now, he loves her. Eun-hee is embarrassed by the girl talk in the emails and chides him for not revealing his identity. He was afraid the emails would stop if she knew. (Ya think?)
Eun-hee wishes he’d never said anything since now she’s embarrassed. Her little smile indicates she’s not too bothered, though. As they say goodnight, he kisses her. They’re interrupted by Eun-joo pulling up.
Eun-hee narrates that just when she thought she was in love, another sound “knocked on her heart.” The desperate sound of “earnestly wishing it wasn’t you.” She watches Chan-hyuk exit the car and walk toward her.
COMMENTS
It’s official – I really don’t like Geon-joo. Pursuing a romantic relationship with his employee is bad enough, but his duplicitous actions just make everything worse. He pretended to be someone else for over a year and then pretended not to know her when they met in person. What the heck? I was surprised Eun-hee wasn’t more upset over being deceived. If it were me, I’d be pissed. But it does provide an interesting contrast with Tae-hyung’s deception. While the level of deceit is obviously not comparable – one was between relative strangers and the other between married partners – it’s interesting how similar actions can be interpreted so differently. Both put on a fake identity to get something from another person, but Geon-joo’s deceit is read as romantic, so Eun-hee accepts it. One revelation ended a relationship while the other started one.
I was honestly hoping we weren’t going the love triangle route, but it looks like Eun-hee has feelings for Chan-hyuk. I’m loving the explorations of complex topics related to family and relationships in general, so I’ll be quite upset if a love triangle takes center stage instead. Since straight men and women aren’t allowed to be strictly friends in dramaland, I did figure at least one or both of them would have feelings for the other. Plus, there have been too many comments about how they’ll neeever get together for me not to think they’ll probably get together. But I thought it’d be a while before we got there.
I hope it doesn’t come between the sisters, though. They have enough issues as it is, and I’d hate to go the stereotypical route of fighting over a man. As it stands, it’s one step forward, two steps back with Eun-hee and Eun-joo. Right when they started to make progress, Eun-hee went behind Eun-joo’s back to investigate her hunch. I don’t blame Eun-hee for not telling her yet since she wasn’t even sure she was right, but I can see how Eun-joo would feel betrayed or disrespected. Eun-hee and Eun-joo have such different communication styles and approaches to handling conflict, they’re bound to butt heads. I’m not expecting these two to ever become besties or anything, but I do hope they learn to communicate better and accept each other for who they are.
Tae-hyung’s whole handling of the situation was terrible. There was no reason to exacerbate things by trying to make Eun-joo hate him. It felt like self-pity since he was more concerned with making sure Eun-joo knew the extent of his betrayal than helping her cope. Whether or not she’s understanding toward him is her choice, not his. Who knows? Maybe that understanding could help her heal. Instead of letting her dictate what she needs from him, he disrespectfully decided what’s in her best interest for her. Add to that he got physical, and I have to say I’m not liking what we’ve seen of him so far. He seems selfish and controlling, and Eun-joo will be better off out of that toxic relationship.
And then we have the whole mess with Tae-hyung stealing Hyo-seok’s partner which could explain why he chose now to come out to Eun-joo. Recent episodes made me wonder if Hyo-seok is gay, and now we have confirmation. The first couple episodes seemed to promote the deliberate misconception that he’s into Eun-joo, probably just for the drama of it all. Given that Hyo-seok hasn’t made any attempt to hide his sexuality that we know of, that seems like a cheap move. If he’s openly gay, I’d rather have known that from the beginning because treating it like something that needs a reveal feels disrespectful.
I loved that Eun-joo called her mother-in-law out for treating Tae-hyung’s being gay as an illness, although it is clear that he suffers from depression that should be treated. Mental health is often glossed over, but I’m hoping the multiple mentions of depression and Sang-shik’s suicidal tendencies means it’s being taken seriously. The portrayals of mental health issues in dramaland usually leave much to be desired, so I’d love to see them treated more realistically here.