As I said, I’m going over dialogues that I found interesting in this episode because there weren’t many heart-fluttering moments.

The discussion between WooHyun and his father is another encounter that forces me to reevaluate their relationship. For one, I find his father’s insistence that WooHyun run the medical foundation very puzzling. For another, WooHyun’s hostility to his father is also odd given that, in his flashback, his father wasn’t accountable for the fire that almost killed him. The fire was started accidentally by his older stepbrother and his Stepmother was the one who left him in the blaze. His dad wasn’t in the picture — unless the kdrama writer is hatching a plot twist here.

Here’s the father-and-son conversation.

WH: Can you stop now? I clearly told you that I would fight against you if you did something that I haven’t agreed to.
Dad: (sighing) For all that time, I wasn’t able to say this even once. As a parent and as a person, there were too many things that I feel sorry toward you and your mother for. Please accept my apology.
WH: (stares at him then sighs) There’s an appropriate time for apologies. It’s too late. I can’t accept it.

According to WH, he almost wavered here but he saw quickly through the old man’s ruse. He presumed that his dad was lying to get him to do what he wanted. But what if his dad was being sincere but he was letting his anger cloud his perception of his dad and his objectivity?

Dad: I knew that it wouldn’t be easy to forgive me because you’ve had this deep scar for a long time. But you can’t change the fact that you’re my son. If a father and son fought dirty and ripped each other to shreds, what would change?

Here, he means that their enmity doesn’t change their family relationship. This is interesting.

From Episode 1, he’s always insisted that WH is HIS own flesh-and-blood. He was the one who visited WH at his hospital to tell him of the arranged marriage. But upon seeing him, WH pounced saying, “I believe I told you we would never have to see each other again. You should have kept living like I didn’t exist like you’ve done until now. Why all of a sudden?” To which the dad simply replied, “Is that possible between a parent and a child?”

WH shot back, “You lived like that so well until now. It makes me speechless to hear you say that.” Again, the father calmly accepted WH’s rudeness and explained, “I feel bad about ignoring you for so long. However, you’ll understand someday my position where I was forced to hide the truth.”

When WH asked him rhetorically what right he had to interfere in his own life, he said, “You’re my son who’s inherited my blood and my DNA.”

Of course, we took this as a display of his arrogance which was reinforced when he rested his hand on WH’s shoulder (like a dad would) and said, “WooHyun, I can’t give you up now. You change your mind. You can never beat me.”

The general impression we took away from this encounter in Episode 1 is that his father only wanted him now for a merger to increase their family influence and wealth. He even said so himself, “For us, marriage is a form of strategy and management.” It’s inconceivable to us that his father would have gone through such lengths (i.e., arranged a marriage that he admitted “lowering his head for”) because he wanted to recognize WooHyun as his son after being FORCED to hide him to keep him safe. Like WooHyun, we readily assumed that his overtures were self-serving. He must have a selfish motive to get WH installed as the medical foundation head.

But what if we got him wrong?

WH: If you promise that you’ll cut off all connections with me and leave me to live the way I please, then I’ll stop fighting against you.

To me, WH is being willfully obtuse. His father wants to repair the bonds between them but he’s outright rejecting his proverbial olive branch.

Dad: The world won’t leave you alone since it’s been revealed that you’re my son. (relenting) All right, then. Shall we negotiate? If you come into my arms and say that you will live as my son, then I’ll solve your problem with Hye Joo and acknowledge Yoon YooJung. And I’ll let you run the medical foundation business the way that you want.
WH: (grimacing) I don’t make deals like this. I was wrong again to have come here. (stands up and leaves)

Note 1: this is also not the first time that WH’s dad is cognizant of the media’s interest in him. In Episode 9, he wasn’t happy at the idea that Wannabe Wife had WooHyun followed. Wannabe had to lie and say she wasn’t. He was pleased with her lie that she blocked all gossips about WH. He told Wannabe, “There’s nothing good that would come from bringing up his name too often.”

Note 2: HyeJoo is only a means to his end. She and her father’s bio-engineering business aren’t as important as getting WooHyun back “into the fold.”

Note 3: To WH, this seems like his dad is offering a cold-blooded deal, but to me, his dad is offering him a TRUCE, a ceasefire in their fight. His dad wants to acknowledge him as his son. That means he wants WH to live unencumbered by the stigma and opprobrium of being an illegitimate son he was forced to deny. The dad is giving him carte blanche to run the foundation. Why would the dad do that if he wants to control WH?

Furthermore, his dad regards WH as his successor because WooHyun is the best man for the job. I don’t think the father insist on WH simply to spite his wife. He told his wife that “he’s someone who’ll do better than me if he’s given the position.”

That’s high praise indeed.

The dad isn’t foisting some hotel, amusement or entertainment corporation on him. He’s entrusting him with the stewardship of the assets of a health-care system that would impact not only medical research and practice, but also patients and physicians. If the dad was merely after control over the foundation or more profit, his legitimate son, SeHyun would do just as well. But his dad regards SH unqualified to manage the foundation because of SH’s problems with girls, gambling, drunk driving, drug charges, and stock manipulation and fraud.

WH’s dad is confident in WH’s ability to lead the foundation because WooHyun had led a good and ethical life. Remember his mom said, “Shake of your cleanliness. Live your live on the edge, like everyone else.” And he replied, “I’ve lived like this ever since I was born. How could I suddenly change?”

To me, WH’s dad is proud of him but, as he said, the way to protect WooHyun and his mom from the wrath of his wife is to pretend to ignore them. **Just like WH has to distance himself and pretend not to be in love with YooJung in order to protect her.

So I think WooHyun got the wrong end of the stick here.

And it wouldn’t be the first time. In Episode 2, he also accused his dad of removing him from his hospital. He went to his dad’s office to accuse him when in truth it was Wannabe Wife who manipulated his dismissal.

Dad: WooHyun, what’s got you coming to the company and my office? (he looked absolutely pleased). This is a seat that you’ll be sitting in one day anyway.
WH: I asked you to live as though I were dead or didn’t exist, but you trample on me like this.
Dad: (still smiling) Say it so it’s easy to understand. Is SeHyeon’s mother giving you trouble?

Dad meant that he didn’t know what WH was going on about so he should start from the beginning and explain. He immediately thought that his wife was giving WH problems again.

WH: I know it was your doing, Chairman. (the actor squints eyes to suggest that the character doesn’t understand what the heck he was being blamed for. lol) You stripped my medical gown from me, blocked me from treating my patients. That’s an act crueler than snatching Choego Group from you.
Dad: (just smiles) I am well aware too that you find that work very rewarding and satisfying.

Dad meant, in a roundabout way, that he understood how important his being a doctor was for him so he wouldn’t do strip him of his ability to practice. And this is confirmed by Wannabe Wife’s father, himself. He said that the Chairman Cha prioritizes WH being a doctor.

WH: You know that but still did that?

But the dad did NOT do it. Wannabe Wife did.

WH: (continuing) When I was little, I accepted it because I as young. But now, I won’t just sit back and take it any longer.
Dad: I don’t know why you’re so angry.
WH: Even if I lose everything and become useless, I have no interest in becoming an heir or managing the group. I’d rather just give up living.
Dad: (still smiling) You shouldn’t say something like that in front of a parent.

Dad meant that no parent would like to hear of his child dying. A parent would get upset of course if their child just gives up living. I don’t think he was offended by WH’s rejection of being an heir as much as he was offended by WH’s assertion that he’d rather DIE than be his heir. Do you see the difference?

WH: I can say worse things.
Dad: WooHyun-ah! (this is the only time his voice became firm)
WH: This is the last time I’m asking you and it’s a warning. Don’t try to pull one over me. And don’t touch my mom either. (leaving the room)
Dad: Rascal. Without even a greeting first. (shaking his head and smiling as his impudence)

Again, the overall impression from this encounter in Episode 2 is that his dad was riding roughshod over him and being domineering.

However, when you play this scene back, the dad actually sounded indulgent.

WH stormed into his room and he truly didn’t know what WH was sputtering about. But despite WH’s wrong accusations, he just listened to his son and allowed him to vent. He didn’t defend himself and when he parried WH he did it so indulgently. He was smiling when he said, “That rascal! (Coming in here like that) without even a greeting first.”

Listen again to what he said:

WooHyun, what’s got you coming to the company and my office? This is a seat that you’ll be sitting in one day anyway…. Say it so it’s easy for me to understand. Is SeHyeon’s mother giving you trouble?… I am well aware too that you find that work very rewarding and satisfying… I don’t know why you’re so angry… WooHyun-ah!… Rascal. Without even a greeting first.

To me, WooHyun is letting his anger get the best of him. He’s angry at his dad for abandoning him “since birth” but we know that he lived with his family for a short time. He’s angry with his dad for trying to “kill and disguise the murder of a ten-year-old child with a fire” but we know that the fire was accidental and his father couldn’t have saved him as he wasn’t there.

When you look at it, his anger is not any different from YooJung who’s angry at her dad for not saving her and her mom from the fire and killing her mom.

They both blame their dads for something beyond their control.