@Anna_Tan wrote this:

Will you be analyzing the conversations Hye Joo had with HJM and WH in episode 14?
HJM said there is a line which bad people do not cross. What is that line, is it Hitting people below the belt, keep threatening the other party or don’t know when to stop?

I found the conversation really interesting. HJM is actually helping HY understand that one needs to know when to retreat and it is probably now. I like how he is using his experience to warn HJ… He was like her in the beginning, he trampled on the sincerity of YJ and because of greed lost everything… He turned around because he was surprised by how benevolent YJ is…he could not imagine himself saying nice things about YJ after the breakup but there is this lady who could say nice things about him though he was a jerk… He was touched by her sincerity which he probably thought happened only in dramas…
HJ and WH.. It is interesting how he is actually threatening HJ now and he is justifying it as a way to stop her or save her…. I guess because he is a “good person” we can overlook his threat because he is doing something good…. But a threat is still a threat… The difference is HJ is doing it for her benefit, WH is doing it to save her… Guess the intentions are important.

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I agree, @Anna_tan. The Ex is warning Wannabe Wife, from one bad person to one bad person, that she’s about to overstep her boundaries.  Here are my additional thoughts on it.

WW: What on earth are you doing? Didn’t I warn you that if you didn’t do certain things, I would make it so that it would be impossible for you to recover or make a comeback.

She threatens to harm his reputation and his career if he doesn’t reveal YJ’s fake relationship with WH to the public.

Ex: Though it may not be as much as you, I’ve also done many things to get what I want. If you do whatever it takes, it’ll come into your hands briefly. But it all falls out of your hands, and disappears shortly after.
WW: What are you trying to say?

He tells her they’re similar: he’s also unscrupulous like her when he pursues his interests and ambitions, and has often acted without concern for others. However, he and Wannabe Wife differ in degree and scope of their misconduct. She’ll do everything and anything to get what she wants. She refuses to recognize limits of acceptable behavior as well as the futility of forcing WooHyun to be with her.

Ex: I didn’t understand why he was like that, but I found out today.

At first, he didn’t understand why WH shunned her. But after his latest encounter with YJ, he realizes the night-and-day difference between the two ladies. He now understands WH’s objection to her company.

Wannabe Wife’s single-mindedness or her “whatever it takes” philosophy is repellent to WooHyun. To get what she wants, she justifies collateral damage, like distressing WooHyun and harassing YooJung, as necessary. She doesn’t fully realize that she has reached her limits with WooHyun with her continual interference in YJ’s business contracts.

Ex: (continuing) You need sincere feelings, not greed.

YJ has sincerity. She had been very honest with him when she told him that she hated him as a person, but respected him as an artist. She didn’t manipulate their break-up to gain sympathy with the public and bury him further in shame and ignominy. Instead, she magnanimously and secretly tried to help him get back on his footing. The genuine kindness she showed to him when he least expected it, really touched him.

Furthermore, he wasn’t expecting Wannabe Wife’s offer him help with his career. She had called him out of the blue and offered him her support and backing if he helped her out. But while Wannabe Wife’s offer of assistance was due to her desire to possess or own WooHyun, YooJung’s offer to help her Ex came with no strings attached. YJ wanted to help him out of the goodness of her heart. That’s the meaning of sincerity.

WW: So what are you saying you’re going to do?
Ex: I’m going to act like I didn’t hear anything you said.
WW: Did YYJ and CHW offer you more than I gave you? If you’re trying to screw me over by making a deal with them, then you never know what will happen to you.
Ex: I recorded what you just said. Would it be okay if I take this and turn it in at the police station or to the media? There should be a line that even bad people don’t cross. Let’s not cross the line, Ahjumma. (one final word from him) If you keep going until the end like this, then you’ll be the one to go to ruin. And you’ll lose everything.

To me, he was referring to “Honor among thieves” or the unspoken creed among bad people not to betray each other.

He’s telling her that, true, she may have something to EXTORT him with, (i.e., he didn’t do as they’ve agreed upon and he screwed her by siding with WH and YJ) but he also has something to BLACKMAIL her with (i.e., the recording of her threatening to destroy his career if he didn’t do what she asked and/or screwed her with double-dealing).

Since they both have something that they can use to harm or incriminate each other, they shouldn’t overstep their clear boundaries. Even bad people have an honor code that they adhere to, but if Wannabe Wife were to dare screw his career, then he wouldn’t hesitate to screw her career as well.

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I’ll edit this to add my thoughts on WooHyun’s “threat.” I’m so sleepy that I’m nodding off as I’m typing. 🙂

Let’s try this again:

WW: Have you changed your mind?
WH: I don’t know what you think my mind was, but I have changed my mind.

lol. This is a good opener. He’s telling her that he doubts that SHE knows him well enough to guess what’s on his mind but he is changing his mind.

WH: (continuing) From now on, what you’ve dealt out to others, I’m going to give the same back to you.

This one is tricky to interpret because we don’t know how he’s going to implement this and follow through with his words.

He’s clearly advocating “an eye for an eye” kind of justice. However, I don’t think he intends to sound vindictive and retaliatory as much as he means to DETER her from continuing to hurt HIS people. To me, he’s actually showing great restraint in his response to her never-ending attack. He didn’t tell her that he’s going to PAY her BACK —  with interest, mind you — for all her past attacks. He’s being very lenient when he only vows to give back to her the SAME actions she dealt out to other moving forward. Nothing more, nothing less.

WW: What?
WH: I’m saying that since you cannot stop yourself, I’ll have to make you stop.

Again, this is tricky. Did he mean that he was going to administer some sort of vigilante justice here and force her to stop treating YJ badly? Ala Clint Eastwood when he dared a punk to “make his day”?

lol.

Anyway, guns aside, I think his remark here underscores that Wannabe Wife’s decision to stop or not stop lies squarely in her lap. WooHyun isn’t coercing her. He’s merely saying that the time is long overdue for her to stop her schemes and dirty deeds. But since she cannot control herself, he’ll step in to stop her himself. Woohyun tells her upfront that there are consequences to her cruelty, and one of them is confronting HIM personally.

Okay, come at me, HyeJoo.  (lol. Just imagine baby-face CJM doing this….)

WW: What do you mean?
WH: If you make YooJung suffer from now on, I’m going to personally fight against you. I’m warning you.

Notice that he said, “I’m warning you” and not “I’m threatening you”. A threat is a statement that intends to cause fear of pain, injury, damage or death to the listener. Wannabe Wife threatened the Ex. But WooHyun didn’t.

Wannabe’s threats coerced the Ex to perform a service lest his reputation be injured. In contrast, WooHyun’s warning forces Wannabe to focus on modifying or re-training her behavior.

Moreover, Wannabe’s threats were spoken in a disrespectful and menacing manner; Ex knew that he could have been in danger should Wannabe follow through with her threat. In contrast, WooHyun’s warnings are said calmly and Wannabe knows that the choice of whether to change for the better or not is entirely up to her.

Lastly, Wannabe issued her threat because she felt under siege, like she had run out of alternatives. For WooHyun however he’s issuing the warning because he’s rising to the occasion and protecting someone he loves. He’s got the upper hand here so he doesn’t need to resort to threats, extortion or blackmail to defend YooJung.

“If you make YooJung suffer from now on, I’m going to personally fight against you. I’m warning you.”