YJ’s mother died 23 years ago.

YJ was 8 at that time. She’s 31 years old now.

We all assume that WH was at that same fire or is connected to that fire that killed YJ’s mom. He was 10 at that time. He’s 33 years old now.

His mother was 21 when she had him. She’s 54 years old now.

Their ages matter because we expect people to act their age.

I originally tried to ignore the mom’s antics. I considered her a background noise, a necessary but tiresome character to move the plot along.

But in Episode 6, it’s become apparent to me that she looms large in WH’s life, and to understand him is to understand his relationship with his mother.

First, he mothers his own mother. He’s the one indulging her whims, similar to a parent giving in to a spoiled child. We’ve known all along that he’s the grown-up in their relationship but it was still saddening to see in this episode that

a) he discharged himself from the hospital because beds were needed for more serious patients when his mother was enjoying a free stay on a trumped-up disease.

b) he’s never experienced his mother (or anyone else) cooking a meal for him before. His handy excuse was his mom became a mom too early.

c) he naively believes that his mother wouldn’t wish him to be married to a woman he had feelings for and live unhappily.

That’s not the case at all. She wanted to meet alone with YJ in order to tell her to leave him alone and dump him. Despite knowing that her son loves YJ, she wanted them to break up so he could marry the Wannabe Wife.

It’s very interesting that despite knowing his mother’s flaws and getting angry that she couldn’t straighten out her love life, he continues to be a filial son.

Second, I’m holding off judgment on his father. WH assumed that his father started the fire to hide the fact that he had an illegitimate son. But I’m not quite convinced.

The father looked disturbed with his accusation that he started the fire.

This could be the first time that he was hearing that WH held him responsible for the fire (or that there was even a fire), in the same way, that he didn’t know until he read in the newspaper that WH was injured by a knife attack. The father went ballistic but, of course, we dismissed it as self-serving because he needed WH as a successor.

To me the fire could have been intentional or accidental. It could also have been started by a number of people like the stepmother, his stepbrother or even his own mother. I wouldn’t be surprised if SHE did something that deranged.

The father had one reason to kill him. But his mother had plenty of motives. For example: to strike back at his father for abandoning them, to save him from a miserable life, to start a new life with a new husband without him, or to attract sympathy.

Given that she could stoop to this level of despicable as to fake her own death scenario to emotionally blackmail WH, it’s not that far-fetched that she could plan and botch a fire accident during one of her mentally unstable phases. lol.

As far as I could tell his father didn’t want his stepbrother assuming the leadership because of his immoral/unethical activities. It would be hypocritical of him to demand his son to uphold a righteous code of conduct when he himself would plot to kill his own son. His character wouldn’t make sense. That’s why I’m giving the father a pass for now.

Third, to me, WH’s motto “don’t worry, I’m okay” is significant. As YJ jokingly teased him, it’s a disease. Her dad also lectured him not to downplay his injuries.

His attitude is a defensive mechanism that he acquired from childhood. He didn’t want to create a fuss because he didn’t want to bother his mother. He learned to manage on his own and to rely on his resources because his mother was an absentee parent.

I thought it was odd that he needed to ask her if she ever regretted having him. It should go without saying that he was precious to her, her only son, especially when she met him at the airport.

But now, her response seemed ODDER.

She had an ulterior motive for meeting at the airport: to prep him for the meeting with the Wannabe Wife. More importantly, if he truly had been the best thing that happened to her in her 50+ years of living, then why didn’t she take care of him better?

She was a disinterested mother. That was why he pointedly asked her, “Was there ever a time when you weren’t able to do something because you were worried about me? I lived the life you wanted.”

She didn’t have to worry about him because he made sure that he wasn’t a burden her. He had lived his young life adjusting and conforming to her whims because she was a “young mom.” He couldn’t stop her from doing whatever she wanted…including getting married and divorced four times.

That’s why the joke about the fifth husband’s age mattered. While WH was complaining about the husband being only 9 years older than him, she only thought of the husband as 12 years younger than HER. It was quite telling. She didn’t spare her son a single thought when she was chasing after her elusive happily-ever-after romance. She never grew up while her son did.

To me, then, WH suffered parental abandonment twice over.

There was his father who abandoned them from the start. But his mother was missing, too. She might have been there physically but when she shirked her basic duties to “parent” him (i.e., provide food, be a role model), she abandoned him emotionally and psychologically.

Lol. I get it too now. She was the reason he set up the table for two.

(will post my heart-fluttering moments tonight. Watching a game with my sons and cheering for the team till I’m hoarse. lol.)