Part 1 is here: When the Phone Rings: Ep 4 My Commentary, Part 1
Part 2 is here: When the Phone Rings: Ep 4, part 2

6. The rooftop surprise

The evening of the newspaper anniversary gala starts off dreadful for HeeJoo (HJ). The first person to greet her as she exits the elevator alone is her mother. Her mother drags her off to the powder room and questions her about her father’s move to a new facility yesterday. She blows her top when she learns that SaEon (SE) discovered their family secret, but she’s relieved that she no longer has to pay medical fees.

Before walking away, she rips off HJ’s bolero so HJ will look more “fetching.” She’s running true to form, of course. In an earlier episode she also brought HJ some sexy lingerie. She’s pimping her daughter out because based on her personal experience, she was able to marry a chaebol due to her appearance.

Next, HJ overhears two ladies in the powder room gossiping about her. They call her an “attention-seeker” and a “bit off.” They remember her creepily tagging behind her unnie InA around like a shadow.

To make matters worse, when she enters the ballroom, she spots these two catty ladies chatting up SE. Her confidence has taken a beating, so she grabs a glass of champagne and goes to the rooftop (to sulk?).

That’s when her phone buzzes. I think it’s her reminder to call up SE. For a moment, she hesitates but after sipping champagne for courage, she calls him. He doesn’t pick up right away.

As she waits, she steps on the bench and looks down at the pavement. I guess she doesn’t have acrophobia.

HJ: (musing aloud) 406. Hong HeeJoo. He must not care about either.

What she means is that she’s unwanted in that glamorous event. Her mother doesn’t care for her. The women aren’t her friends, but InA’s; they consider a nuisance. Her husband sees her as a stand-in for InA, too. And now, he appears to be ignoring her alter-ego aka 406.

Then SE picks up the phone. He must have been looking for a quiet spot to take the call in private.

SE: Hello?
HJ: (not saying a word)
SE: Speak.
HJ: Your fiancée disappeared the day before the wedding and Hong HeeJoo stepped in instead. How did you feel? Well, I get it. I’m sure it wasn’t great.
SE: It was similar.
HJ: (exhaling) Right. What use is she? Who else would take her? She’s gloomy. She has no social skills. She’s just…the supplementary pages that came with Hong InA. Yeah. That’s what she is. (scoffing) Do you know what’s funnier. She always knew that too. But she hesitated each time even though she wanted to break free. She didn’t have the courage. She hated rich families but was comforted by luxury. She cowardly succumbed to money. (pause) Hello?
SE: HeeJoo…isn’t gloomy. She’s observing her surroundings. She doesn’t lack social skills. In general, people are rude to her first. Also, she didn’t succumb to money. (staring at HJ’s mother) She just loved her mother. There was a time when I hated to eat or speak with my mouth. I was surrounded by greedy, noisy, and bothersome people. And she was the most quiet. When I stared at her, strangely I could breathe easily.

He walks out, presumably to look for HJ and ascertain that she’s safe from 409.

HJ: What did you say? Supplementary pages? If you don’t know, listen carefully, 409. HeeJoo isn’t supplementary pages. She’s a brand-new language. She’s repeated the same hand movements thousands of times to become who she is. People don’t know that. So don’t talk about my wife like that.

He’s clearly still impressed by the way she handled herself during the job interview.
HJ: Then why did you treat her like she was invisible? You say you know her so well, then why did you do that? Why did you tell her not to think you were a couple?

Behind her, the elevator opens, and SE comes out. He’s holding SE’s wrap – which tells me three things:

a. he likely drove to the hotel with HJ because he knows what she’s wearing for the gala.
b. he noticed that she wasn’t in the ballroom so went in search of her.
c. he’s concerned about her welfare. This is like when he came to her when she was crying by the side of the road in Episode 3.

He immediately sees her. I don’t know what registered in his mind first.

a. That she’s standing dangerously close to the edge of the wall.
b. That she’s holding a phone to her ear and the phone doesn’t look like hers. (409’s phone is a black flip-phone, but since SE has never seen 409’s phone before, he won’t connect the two.)
c. That she looks like she’s talking on the phone.
d. That she appears to be crying.

He frowns then made a chuffing sound.

Now, there are plenty of ways to interpret this cliffhanger, but I’ll give three possible ones.

One, SE realizes that she’s 409. Most viewers interpreted this way. However, given how he just defended HJ, it’s unlikely that he will suspect her as his blackmailer/assassin. He seems sincere when he speaks highly of HJ. He won’t be able to connect the dots…just yet.

Two, SE assumes that she’s on the phone with her lover. He’ll take it for granted that she’s lying about an affair in the same way that she lies about her selective mutism. HJ does look guilty standing there.

Three, SE thinks that he finally found the reason HJ has found her voice: she wants out of their marriage.

Remember: I theorized that he had just viewed the video of HJ’s panic attack in the police car that morning. He heard her begging to be let out. “Let me out! Let me out!” And when the police tried to tell her that they couldn’t because they were on the road, she pounded on the window even harder and gasped like she couldn’t breathe, “It’ll be okay, so let me out! Please, let me out!”

Hearing her cries drove him (literally) bat-shit crazy. And while he drove off, the thought replaying in his head was HJ pleading, “I can’t do this. Just let me out. Just let me out. Please, let me out!”

To me, then, what enraged him was not so much the discovery of her big lie, but the realization that he – like her mother — had been instrumental in dragging and trapping her to live a life of lies. Remember? In Episode 1, he called her “hostage.” He told her on their wedding day, “Forget the image that we’re married. You were sent to be a hostage to me.”

So, he’s now seeing the effects their forced marriage on her mental and emotional health. It must plague him to know that, in her despair to be let out – to be freed from her “captivity” – she finally found her voice to speak.

Okay. Will end here.