I know who ordered Kim Gab Yong “not to have loose ends.”

This will be controversial so I need you to buckle up and keep an open mind before proceeding.

I’ve been thinking this over since Episode 6 when Lee Ahn read the body in the suitcase because I didn’t expect this writer to go down this route. But after Episode 12, and the preview to Episode 13, I can’t ignore the corpse elephant in the room anymore.

Before anyone of you start freaking out because of my theories, remember that we’re just discussing kdrama, and this is the Bitchesoverdramas’ blog? There are plenty of nice, fangirling recapping sites elsewhere if you’re the hyperventilating kind.

And here’s Lee Ahn’s bag just in case. Jaein won’t mind if you borrow it.

Okay, let’s get down to business.

In Episode 12, Lee Ahn had a nightmare which felt like one of his psychometric episode. In his dream, his mom was horrified to see her Sungmo stab his father. The dad only says, “if you want to kill someone with that short height, you shouldn’t stab here. But here. You should’ve stabbed me here.”  He then saw young Sungmo transformed into an adult Sungmo.

Like the tweeting bird (Ha! I told you to watch for the sounds!), this dream is supposed to be a foreshadowing but I’ll discuss this in another post.

In the following scene, we see Ahn driving Jaein home.

Ahn: The homeless murder case?
Jaein: Yes. The case that bothers me the most. The day Kang Geun Taek abducted me, he said his ID card was fake. I still haven’t found the real owner of the ID card.
Ahn: So he killed homeless people to get his hands on others ID cards.
Jaein: There are a few more murder cases like that. I’ll have to look into them first.
Ahn: There’s something I’ve been unable to understand.
Jaein: What?
Ahn: Who’s the person Kim Gab Yong mentioned?

Then, there’s a flashback of the scene in Episode 6. Lee Ahn remembered the final moments of the REAL Kang Hee Sook by doing psychometry on the body found in the suitcase. Ahn saw her killer Kim Gab Yong (KGY) say, “Hold on. Kang Hee Sook, I see you’re not dead yet. I’m sorry but my client wants no loose ends.”

After the flashback, Jaein said that she too didn’t know.

Jaein: In the worst case scenario —
Lee Ahn: Hyung…omoni?

lol. Hyung…(pause)…omoni. The director’s trolling us here. 

But nope, trust me. Hyung’s mother ain’t the worst scenario.

In the next scene, we see Hyung’s mother walking past the Hardware store at night. She stopped in front of the window sign that reads “Knife.”

In a voiceover, Jaein said, “Kang Eun Joo attempted suicide the day she found out the deaths of Kang Hee Sook and Park Soo Young. It keeps bothering me.”

In my flash review of Episode 11, I explained that the mom attempted suicide because she couldn’t bear the guilt.

She realized that she acquired somebody else’s identity but in the process, two innocent people diedfor it (three, if you include Kim Gap Yong). In her mind, she has caused to many deaths in her attempt to escape her stalker/killer. She felt trapped and she wanted to die to avoid hurting more people. Hence, her suicide attempt.

Well…

THAT was an incomplete theory because I had been in denial.

But let me tell you now. Her guilt wouldn’t be sufficient to explain why she left the ring behind.

That’s THE significant clue there: the ring. Why did she leave it behind?

To me, it’s simple. It was break-up.

She attempted suicide because she discovered that HER SON had been complicit in other people’s death. She left the ring because she didn’t want this heartbreak to continue.

Sungmo was Kim Gab Yong’s client.

Remember what they discussed about pain?

young Sunmo: Then what about killing? When you die, pain and all emotions disappear.
Mother: You absolutely can’t. Never. Ever. That will make you the same person as that person. Then, I’ll be very hurt.
young Sungmo: Even if you don’t bleed?
Mother: When it comes to pain, rather than wounds of the flesh, it is one in the heart, that hurts more.

Note the Little Prince connection: What’s essential is invisible to the eye. The pain that one doesn’t see, like heartaches and childhood trauma, hurt more than the flesh wounds. When seen from this perspective,  young Sungmo can be compared to the Little Prince, being instructed by the fox, his mother. To his mother, Sungmo was everything precious and she didn’t want him to turn out like his dad.

The ring was her “link” to Sungmo.

It definitely wasn’t a ring from Sungmo’s father. Why would she wear his ring after being held in captivity? To me, the ring was probably worn to signify a new life. The mom was going to begin a new life, a new identity as a respectable widow. Sungmo found a way to get her a new identity through hiring Kim Gab Yong’s service. And five years ago, Kim Gab Yong gave her this new identity as Kang Hee Soo, a nursing home attendant.

Leaving the ring behind was the mom’s way of disconnecting from all that evil. She didn’t want to face the world where her most precious son had become the mirror image of the man she detested. She tried to commit suicide but she was stopped so giving back the ring was the alternative way.

The mother was heartbroken that her son was involved in the deaths. Although Sungmo didn’t physically kill those women, he employed Kim Gab Yong (KGY) in order to get his mother a new identity.

Certainly, Sungmo might or might NOT have directed KGY’s method of getting the new ID. Sungmo might or might not have ordered KGY to find homeless women who look like Kang EunJoo, kill the women, stuff their bodies in suitcases, dump the body in the river, etc. The suitcases appeared to be a copycat of his father’s suitcase but that could just be incidental.

I don’t know exactly what Sungmo ordered KGY to do, but I’m sure Sungmo knew that kind of business that KGY was involved in, and he employed KGY’s skill and expertise to give his mother a new life.

I assume that he ordered “no loose ends” because this was necessary to prevent his stalker/dad from ever finding his mother and abducting her. To KGY, “no loose ends” entailed any and all actions, including murder. KGY was expecting a carte blanche but he was unaware of the mom’s prime directive to Sungmo to “Do No Harm.” 

That’s how I view her attempted suicide.

The mom was fine with a fake identity as long as no crime was involved. When discovered exactly how she got the fake papers through the press conference of Jisoo, she fell into despair. Sungmo grew up to be to be like her jailer/his dad after all.

The word “knife” cut her up. We were shown both sides of the letterings on the glass window.  To me, that was to signify that father and son had become identical, or a mirror-image of each other.

That’s also my interpretation of Lee Ahn’s dream. He saw young Sungmo stabbing the father and being taught how to stab correctly. Ahn also feared that young Sungmo would grow up to be an adult Sungmo that killed like his father. Of course, we know this was an omen.

But why do I say that Sungmo hired KGY?

For one, Sungmo knew Kim Gab Yong.

Of all the lead characters, he was the only who had contact with KGY. We’re already on Episode 12 and I don’t expect new characters.

In Episode 7, his secretary came with a hefty file on KGY and was surprised that he didn’t remember KGY.

His secretary: But this man, his previous records are impressive. Fraud, assault and blackmail. Most of them ended up on probation but—
Sungmo: Thank you.
His secretary: Don’t you remember? When you were just starting out. You met him once as a suspect.
Sungmo: Is that so?
His secretary: You’ll remember when you see it.

His expressionless face does not necessarily mean he ignored his assistant’s comment.

Then, in the same episode, he briefed the Special Investigation Team on Kim Gab Yong. He reported that:

“The employment center, where Kim Gap Yong was the leader of the action team, was a human trafficking organization active in Seoul, Gyeonggi-do. Most of the victims, were feeble-minded people, older people, homeless, tramps, and credit delinquents. Men were sent to islands or offshore fishing boats, and women were turned over for prostitution. They stole their ID cards to make fake conditions and open cloned phones to derive the benefits.”

After his briefing, he mentioned in passing that he once experienced catching the tip of the tail when he was a new prosecutor. Note: he didn’t disclose that the person he met had been KGY himself.

It’s downright suspicious when he hid his connection with KGY. He pretended not to know KGY three times: one, when he examined him as a witness for the fire; two when his secretary reminded him of their previous encounter; and three when he briefed the Special Investigation Team.

Although it’s possible that he genuinely didn’t remember KGY when he showed up as a witness to the fire AND that he had a senior moment of forgetfulness and forgot about encountering him as a junior prosecutor, what bugged me was that Sungmo avoided disclosure to Jisoo.

He lied by omission, and THAT was plenty suspicious in my books.

Aside from his acquaintance with KGY, Sungmo alone had motive to hire KGY.

He wanted his mother safe and he hired Kim Gab Yong (KGY) to protect her. KGY was his mother’s “handler.”

But it seemed like after three years of anonymity working as a nursing home attendant, Sungmo’s mom’s identity and location were finally discovered by the dad/stalker.

If I were to connect-the-dots here, the discovery forced KGY to take Sungmo’s mom from the clinic and hide her before the dad/stalker could kidnap her. KGY moved her to a safe place.

But in retaliation, the dad/stalker stabbed those poor women in Room 701 whom the Sungmo’s mom was caring for, and he burned the place down…just like he did in the Yungsung Apartment when he had discovered that she and Sungmo had left the place.

As I wrote elsewhere, he was enraged to find Sungmo and his mother gone. He only intended to kill Sungmo and leave the unknown female body in the suitcase with Sungmo’s body so it would appear as if the mother and son died in the fire. 

The difference with the nursing home fire is that KGY showed up as a wintess. He had no choice. In order to cover up the fact that the fire was started by a deranged man hunting down his client’s mom, KGY had to come out as a witness and cast suspicion on somebody else. See that?

Let’s look at the timeline:

2 years ago: HanMin Nursing Home fire

5 years ago: Two women were killed.

Jisoo suspected that they were killed because of identity theft. When she compared the sketch of the nursing aide to the pictures of the deceased women to Sungmo’s mother’s picture, she spotted the uncanny resemblance of Sungmo’s mother to them all.

But look at Sungmo. He took his sweet time delivering the sketch of the nursing aide to Jisoo. I said he was suspicious in Episode 6.

He knew that the sketch was that of his mom. As soon as the witness described “softer” eyes, he knew that his mom’s identity would be found out. But he had to be cautious because he was still searching for his mom.

5 years ago: Sungmo’s mother assumed fake Kang Hee Soon’s identity

This scene when they were searching for the nursing aide at the apartment would take on a different meaning. According to Jisoo’s investigation, the mother had been a recluse until five years ago. She had a poor credit rating then signed up for a credit repair services. She acquired a caregiver’s license and got a job at the nursing home.

Moreover, according to Jisoo, when people at the nursing home were given a photo of the REAL Kang Hee Soo, none of them remembered seeing her at the nursing home. However, when a nurse at the nursing home was given a photo of the Sungmo’s mother, she recognized the mother as a colleague.

Look at Sungmo here as Jisoo was telling that Kang Hee Soo was an invisible woman. He kept silent to protect his mother.

He asked what they were going to do next. She answered that she was dropping the case because she couldn’t do anything anyway. “We should report her missing and wrap things up. They’d think I’m crazy if I suggest looking at the arson case because I found a person suspicious.” At this point, he thought his mom was safely guarded by KGY.

He panicked when KGY was killed because he lost contact of his mother but believed her to have escaped the dad/stalker.

Also, earlier in Episode 2, Sungmo mentioned to Jaein that he was living in the house right in front of her rooftop because he “wasn’t doing so great financially.” In my opinion, he was paying for three households, his, Jaein’s and his mom’s, PLUS KGY’s services. That’s he wasn’t doing well financially.

Without Jaein and his mother to support, and without KGY’s service to pay, he had money to purchase a home. But I’m sure he didn’t buy living in that rooftop home as long as his mom and Jaein were safe.

For me, what made me suspect Kang Sungmo was his constant lying.  

For instance, what did he mean that Kim Gap Yong was LIKELY lying?

KGY was DEFINITELY lying but Prosecutor Kang couldn’t admit it.

Besides, why did nobody bother do a background check on KGY?

It boggled my mind that Sungmo did NOT recognize his father’s modus operandi in the nursing home care fire the minute he walked in this room.

Jisoo spotted the similarities right away. She insisted that the case was a perfect copycat of the Yungsung apartment case.

But it was Sungmo who resisted and dismissed the idea. “Stop telling me speculative stories, like a copy cat, ‘real culpit’ and coincidence. Show me something real.” In other words, he didn’t want to entertain suggestions of a connection between two fires because those wouldn’t constitute as real.

lol. And notice his body language, he knew Jisoo had a crush on him and he was charming his way out of this. (Snake charm, if you ask me.)

Aside from Jisoo, Jaein also quickly saw the common elements.

Just by studying all three files overnight, she concluded that the killer “shut down the security cameras beforehand and planned his murder thoroughly….The murdering method is very simple. The Yungsung Apartment case, the Hanmin Care Home case and the Kim Gap Yong case were all stabbings in the abdomen. There’s something unusual though.  The knife that was discovered at the site was not an established product. (meaning it was like self-made.)” 

The two women spotted the connection between the two fires right away yet Sungmo didn’t.

Take the knife, for instance. Jaein said it had been custom-made. In Episode 1, Sungmo surveyed the crime scene and saw the knife on the floor.

But even if he didn’t recognize the knife, when he saw the victims, the stab wounds, the  the room number #701 (like his former apartment number), he should have suspected that his father was behind it. The fire wasn’t meant to cover up the truth. It was meant to send a message to Sungmo that his dad knew that he hid his mother from him again.

Considering that he knew that an innocent person was languishing in jail and the real murderer/arsonist was still at large, he should have followed any leads. Normally, I think he would done so. But in this particular instance, protecting his mother was more imperative than getting Jisoo’s dad out of jail. He prioritized his mother.

I guess, this all fits in nicely with his rubik’s cube mindset. lol. We said the rubik’s cube was an important prop.

The challenge of the rubik’s cube is finishing all the sides. You can’t just complete one side of the six-sided object.  And here in the preview of Episode 13, he wanted Lee Ahn to complete the task. He instructed him, “Not this side, not that side. Without a hitch, I want it to be complete until the end.”

He meant that Ahn shouldn’t fixate on solving just one side. He should see the big picture, and to anticipate how the other pieces will react, and adjust according, whenever he makes his own move.

I think Sungmo was doing that here. He’s moving all his pieces and to help him create a white side.

He was going to set things right by moving the pieces himself. And although I hate this arrogance that he could manipulate people to do his will as if he were god, I don’t expect anything less from his character. We were already told from the beginning that Sungmo was a master puppeteer, right? Soooo, right now, he’s doing his best to pull all the strings.

I’m waiting for his next move to unfold. I hope that he makes good with his promise to Jaein to get her dad out of jail.