I don’t watch this show for the romance. Though Yoo YeonSeok is delivering the requisite intensity, Chae SooBin’s performance reminds me of an overripe tomato: watery and mushy. Their dialogue is not only mawkish but also unoriginal.

SaEon: Thank you for all your hard work, 406.
HeeJoo: You… you knew everything? … Since when? No… If you knew, why didn’t you…
SaEon: Why didn’t I what?
HeeJoo: Why didn’t you hate me?
SaEon: Tell me, Hong HeeJoo. Tell me how to hate you. Tell me how to not love you.

Ugh. Didn’t Barbara Cartland write books like this in the 1950s?

https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/9957811-L.jpg

My interest in this show is primarily on whodunit. And I’m pleased that with four more episodes to go, I’m still excited to know who the master is.

Note: If you’ve already read the webtoon, please don’t spoil it for me. For one, I hope that the screenwriter had some leeway (and creativity) to reimagine the story, provided that she retains the skeletal framework. For another, I consider this show as my mental exercise in observation and conclusion.

1. The news report

In Episode 7, SaEon (SE) had just released a news report about the threats to his life and the physical description of the suspect. (FYI: the news was announced on June 14, 2024 at 5:55am. This is 6 days after the newspaper gala.)

The news had the effect of a bomb detonating in SE’s world. The different characters had different reactions to the news.

a. Ji SangWoo (SW) read about it online and he seemed intrigued by the description of the suspect as having mismatched eye color. The camera then focused on SangWoo’s eyes as if to spotlight that he didn’t have heterochromia, so he isn’t the killer.

b. An unidentified burly man watched the news, and his hand began to tremble in fear. He would later call up SE’s office with the cryptic message, “He’s alive.”

The unusual feature of the suspect’s eyes gave the two men pause. The old fisherman for sure recognized the feature because he’d seen the child with such eyes before. As for SW, he either withheld this information intentionally from his tv colleagues or he didn’t observe this distinctive eye feature on his childhood playmate (perhaps because the kid was wearing a tiger mask?)

c. His parents were upset that this news would disrupt the presidential campaign. They were in damage control mode. They knew the killer was aware of the fake marriage between SE and HJ, but the mother wondered aloud what other secrets the suspect could possibly know about their family. She could be alluding to:

i. the switching of sons,
ii. her son’s psycho tendencies,
iii. her father-in-law’s psycho tendencies,
iv. the disappearance of kids in the orphanage

d. Psycho 406 was upset because he believed he was going to be the fall guy. He texted his master.

Psycho 406: You’re the one who pushed her, but my face is exposed. Why did you try to kill Hong HeeJoo? Huh? Isn’t our goal Paik SaEon?
Master: Hong HeeJoo doesn’t seem to want to get divorced.
Psycho 406: So?
Master: I wanted Paik SaEon to feel what’s it’s like to lose something precious, too.
Psycho 406: But Hong HeeJoo didn’t die. What now? We’re about to get screwed! (shouting) No, I mean just me!
Master: First, get the phone back.

My two comments:

First, it’s noteworthy that the Master observed that HJ didn’t want to get divorced. He must be somewhere near the couple to be able to observe the change in HJ’s disposition and behavior towards SE.

Thus, I don’t think the Master is SangWoo because he seemed clueless about the relationship between HJ and SW. However, the photographs of the department field trip visually could substantiate HJ’s and SE’s warm interaction. The security guy, DoJae, must have witnessed the undeniable attraction between them all day long and he realized then that HJ didn’t want the divorce.

Between SangWoo and DoJae, my money’s on DoJae as the evil Master. (Sigh. I wanted him to be a good guy, though.)

Second, there was an important clue about the mastermind’s motivation. He said he wanted SE to feel the loss, too. This implied that he had once lost something precious in his life. So far, we know a few other characters who are missing people in their lives.

i. SE’s mother, in Episode 6, she was drunk on a day that she described as “a day that no one can remember. A day that shouldn’t be remembered. That’s what your father decided.” But according to her husband, on that day, twenty years ago, they had felt a “sense of freedom” on that day. Meaning a feeling of release from being parents of a son with criminal tendencies.
ii. Mr. Hong, the media mogul. His son died.
iii. SangWoo, he remembered the missing orphans because they were his close playmates. He didn’t know about the fourth missing child, though, until the nun reminded him. That missing child had a twin.

e. Mr. Hong, the media mogul, summoned SE to his residence to ask him why he didn’t consult with him first prior to the news release. SE bluntly answered that he suspected him, too, of being behind it in order to control him.

Hong: If you know so much, why did you act like an amateur today? Why would someone as skilled at media play as you step into the spotlight? The issue concerns both of our families anyway so you had either me or your father to hide behind.
SE: You should rest. I’ll get going.
Hong: No. You wouldn’t have acted like an amateur overnight. The most common yet the most reliable method: cover an issue with another issue. You’ve got the world’s attention focused on you. What are you hiding behind you?

My two comments:

First, Mr. Hong is very astute. He sensed that SE has bigger plans. It’s the same plan that in Episode 8, SE was reluctant to tell HeeJoo. She recalled that when they got married, SE told her that she wasn’t part of his plan, so he didn’t want her to interfere or get in his way.

HJ: What was the plan you mentioned back then?
SE: I’ll tell you when the time comes.

It’s not far-fetched to conclude that his plan is to escape his made-up life of being Paik SaEon and live elsewhere as somebody else. Like HeeJoo, he’s been held hostage, too. And he longs to be freed from this life imposed on him.

Figuratively then, he’s hiding HeeJoo behind him because he intends to bring her with him.

Second, I already mentioned this in one of my comments in another thread: Mr. Hong is big on “family.” He believes that family members must have the same goals, that they should stick up for one another, that the apple doesn’t fall from the tree, and so on.

That’s why, in Episode 8, I was surprised to learn that he gave up pursuing justice for his dead son in lieu of a contract with Chairman Paik. Like Hong Ina, I thought nothing would stop Mr. Hong from going after the culprit of the car crash that killed his only son. But as it turned out, Chairman Paik was able to appease his thirst for vengeance and to buy his silence with a promise to grant him whatever request he made in the future.

However, I interpreted Mr. Hong’s decision to mean that he knew that Chairman Paik didn’t cause the accident himself, but that another family member did. To me, the Chairman went on his knees to beg for clemency for his young grandson who committed vehicular homicide. In exchange for media scandal and arrest of the grandson (aka the real Paik SaEon), the Chairman most likely gave his word to Mr. Hong that he’d solve the problem of his psycho grandson in his own way.

Solve the problem = make the psycho grandson “disappear” = honor killing

I’m assuming that it’s “an eye for an eye, a life for a life” sort of resolution. Aside from granting any wish Mr. Hong would make in the future, Chairman Paik would kill his psycho grandson as punishment/atonement for the death of Mr. Hong’s only son.

However, things didn’t happen as planned. Despite his attempt, Chairman Paik failed to kill his psycho grandson, and the parents (especially the mother) appear to know that the real Paik SaEon lives. In Episode 8, the mother made an open-but-tacit appeal to her biological son in the interview.

Mother: To my son, SaEon, who must be suffering more than anyone, as his mother, I want to say something. (The announcer encourages her) SaEon. Do you remember? Remember…what I always said to you? I’m not locking you up. I’m protecting you. I will still protect you. I’ll protect you. SaEon.

To me, she didn’t want her biological son to be put to death, so she went with the lesser evil: she agreed to banish/exile in order to hide him from his grandfather’s sight.

I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s how the case of missing orphan(s) is entwined with the story. To convince Chairman Paik that his grandson was dead, they produced another corpse of an orphan.

Also in Episode 8, Mr. Hong began to suspect that Chairman Paik failed to resolve the problem.

With his usual tunnel vision, SE’s father blamed Mr. Hong for his daughter for their current situation. He believed that if the original arranged marriage had gone through as planned, then there would be no dirt to dig up on him. Of course, he didn’t know that the daughter fled the country with Mr. Hong’s encouragement.

Hong: Let me ask you something. Your family’s Achilles’ heel? Are you sure that it was taken care of by Chairman Paik? No? Is there something left that hasn’t been cleared away?
Father: Of course not.
Hong: If, and I mean if, that thing shows up now and holds you or me back, this time, I’ll chop it into tiny pieces from head to tail myself and neatly scatter them in your yard. So either look forward to it or prepare for it.

Achilles’ heel = the biological Paik SaEon = the psycho kid

2. SangWoo

In Episode 8, he paid SE’s foster father (or caregiver??) a visit before SE arrived at the fishing shack.

It was SangWoo’s pair of white shoes that the fisherman saw entering his house. SangWoo was wearing white shoes that day at the orphanage. However, I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt and will say that somebody else had struck down the fisherman. Most likely psycho 406; he was an arsonist, too. Psycho 406 rigged the house to burst into flames upon SE’s arrival.

He must have found out that the fisherman was Jeong JinSeok. According to the land register, he was the owner of the mansion where the masked kid lived – or the biological Paik SaEon. At the same time, though, he must have been paid to look after the youngster who later became SE. This makes Jeong JinSeok an important person in the mystery because he knew both boys, and the connection between the two.

3. DoJae

Yes, it’s easy to suspect him as the Master.

However, I just want to note that at the cliffside in Episode 6 (timestamp: 54:34), there were three men wearing a dark sleeves: DoJae plus two other hikers wearing floppy fishing/bucket hats.

I just think it’s funny that:

a. he supposedly pushed HJ with his left hand given that his backpack was slung on his left shoulder, and earlier, he was holding his backpack with his left hand. His right hand would have been more convenient for the swift attack. For me, the body positioning is off.

b. HJ didn’t recognize him as her pusher. Even though the incident happened in a blink of an eye, her brain should have registered a familiar/unfamiliar individual in her personal space.

c. he just had to wear something black because in kdramaland, all villains wear black.

Oh well…I have to allow for weird leaps of rationality in kdramas.