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Who knew the fight for justice would be so challenging and overwhelming? Ji-hyun and Soo-ho continue to execute their plans of discovering the truth through different ways. However, they continue to face many challenges along the way and are threatened by the most powerful enemies. What lengths will they have to go to just to be able to seek justice for their loved ones?

Feel free to listen to the OST tracks for the drama while reading the recap 🙂

Time (시간): Episode 7 Recap

Episode seven begins with Ji-hyun being interviewed by the same reporter working with her on Mom and Ji-eun’s case. Ji-hyun recounts the details of the meet-up that she witnessed between Chae-Ah and Kang In-bum (Ji-eun’s supervisor). Soo-ho too does his part by participating in the interview and expresses to hopefully live like a human being from doing this interview.

Min-seok and Chae-Ah meet with each other to discuss the tie. How did she have access to it? Who gave it to her? Min-seok assumes that Chae-Ah must have met with Kang In-bum which is how she was able to access the tie from the hit-and-run incident. Sure enough, Chae-Ah did meet with Kang In-bum prior to meeting with Min-seok. He not only gave her the tie from the incident, but also showed her pictures of Min-seok and Ji-hyun when they were a couple. Kang In-bum warns for Chae-Ah to stay away from Min-seok; he’s not the type of person that he seems.

Ji-hyun is encouraged by the reporter to not tell anyone about the encounter she witnessed between Chae-Ah and Kang In-bum. Not even Soo-ho. They’ll gather concrete evidence of Chae-Ah’s participation in all of this first and then expose her through the report.

Soo-ho panics and ponders over his interview. Maybe he shouldn’t have done it. How will he tell Ji-hyun? He eventually decides to confess to Ji-hyun about the interview, but is interrupted by Ji-hyun herself. She has plans of her own. She expresses interest in working at his restaurant as an assistant chef. She needs to make a living in the meantime and plus, there’s no saying when Kang In-bum will get arrested in the investigation. She can’t just sit around and wait. Though conflicted, Soo-ho eventually agrees and introduces her to the rest of the restaurant staff. Chae-Ah isn’t too happy with the new addition and voices her concerns to Soo-ho regarding Ji-hyun, but she reluctantly agrees to allowing Ji-hyun to work at the restaurant.

Ji-hyun begins her first day of work by washing and peeling some potatoes. Soo-ho accompanies her for a bit to make a comment. He has something he plans on revealing to her that night so she must make sure she picks up her phone when he calls her. At that moment, the two are interrupted with a visit by both Min-seok and Chae-Ah. They all reconvene in the lobby room of the restaurant.

Chae-Ah purposely reunited Min-seok with Ji-hyun while using her employee contract as an excuse. Since Ji-hyun is a new employee at the restaurant, she needs to sign the contract and can consult with Min-seok if she has any questions about anything. Chae-Ah also uses this time to ask the two about their personal love lives and relationships. The two answer that they no longer are in a relationship. Although Ji-hyun is uncertain as to why they parted ways, Min-seok claims he did it out of love. Soo-ho watches the scene unfold in front of his eyes and attempts to stop Chae-Ah from digging in further, but she doesn’t stop. Ji-hyun puts an end to everything by signing the contract like Chae-Ah had asked and walking away. Soo-ho follows Min-seok out of the room to have a private discussion.

Soo-ho brings up the phone call that Min-seok had with Kang In-bum prior to the hit-and-run incident. However, Min-seok claims the phone call was from Ji-eun’s investigation since Kang In-bum was Ji-eun’s supervisor who had sent her to Soo-ho’s hotel room the night she died. How about Soo-ho? Why was he talking to Tae-sung the day of the hit-and-run incident? What’s his involvement in all of this? Soo-ho becomes alert and cautious of Min-seok. However, he remains grounded. Sooner or later, the truth behind everything will be exposed.

Chae-Ah questions Soo-ho’s relationship with Ji-hyun. Why did he hire her? What is it about her that he keeps protecting her and saving her? Soo-ho doesn’t answer any of her questions and refuses to disclose anything.

Min-seok has a meeting with the reporter to warn her to stop with the investigation. The higher-ups have discussed about her report and they won’t air it regardless. She also won’t be protected by her company if she goes through with airing the report. Meanwhile, Ji-hyun grabs her recorder pens that were sitting on the restaurant lobby room table and listens to the recordings on the device. She listens to the conversation between Chae-Ah and Soo-ho earlier that day about her and her relationship with Soo-ho. Aware that Chae-Ah had brought Min-seok to the restaurant that day on purpose to upset both Ji-hyun and Min-seok, Ji-hyun is in disbelief upon listening to the conversation. Before she can listen any further, she meets with Soo-ho as planned.

Soo-ho brainstorms ways he can confess to Ji-hyun about the night of Ji-eun’s death. He so desperately wants to admit that he was with her sister the night she died. However, he can’t bring himself to admit it and instead suggests that Ji-hyun quit working at the restaurant. He uses various excuses to justify why, but Ji-hyun is persistent in working at the restaurant. She too has her own reasons why she wants to work there, but she can’t quite reveal them yet to Soo-ho. When the time comes, she’ll tell him. Soo-ho too has his own reasons for hiring her and when he does tell her, she’ll have no other option but to quit.

While eating dinner that night, Young-hee warns Ji-hyun to be wary of Soo-ho. It’s suspicious how he allowed her to work at his restaurant and also moved in next door to them. He’s probably just playing around with Ji-hyun and doesn’t actually have any plans of getting with her. Plus, he’s going to marry Chae-Ah in the end anyways. Ji-hyun is indifferent towards the assumptions; she can care less.

However, the thought of Soo-ho getting married to Chae-Ah starts to bother Ji-hyun and she has a talk about it with Soo-ho through their bedroom walls. She questions how he can get married to someone he doesn’t even really know. It’s more of like an arranged marriage. She expresses her concerns regarding Soo-ho’s relationship with Chae-Ah, but he grows enraged. He doesn’t want her to worry about him.

Ji-hyun and Min-seok meet to clarify some misunderstandings. She questions his relationship with Chae-Ah, but Min-seok describes their relationship as merely professional and work-related. So how about Ji-eun and Mom’s death? Was he involved in their deaths somehow? Min-seok lies to Ji-hyun and claims that he had nothing to do with their deaths or the investigations behind them. They were together for six years, doesn’t Ji-hyun trust him? However, Ji-hyun can’t and she remains doubtful of his words. Min-seok leaves the cafe they’re meeting in and is almost struck by a pot of flowers on his way out. He and Ji-hyun rush to the rooftop of the building and witness Kang In-bum making his escape on the way out. Ooh.

Soo-ho’s dad holds an urgent meeting with the board of W Group. He announces Soo-ho’s promotion as Managing Director of W Foods. Soo-ho himself is shocked by the announcement and is uncertain about the decision. Dad hopes Soo-ho will inherit the throne once he passes away and is confident Soo-ho will do a great job. Soo-ho just needs to accept the position first or else he’ll lose it all to his brother. Soo-ho eventually agrees to his dad’s plans, but is reminded of his uncle who faced the same exact situation years ago (maybe Soo-ho’s biological dad also faced a similar situation? Because Soo-ho is technically adopted into the family…).

Ji-hyun and Min-seok watch video camera recordings to discover what happened earlier at the cafe. Sure enough, Kang In-bum is seen walking up the stairs to the rooftop of the building. Ji-hyun’s doubts and suspicions of Min-seok increases and she warns him that she’ll never forgive him if he is somehow involved in Mom and Ji-eun’s deaths (aka, she’s never going to forgive him because he was involved in their deaths). She makes a phone call to the police and plans on reporting Kang In-bum as a suspect to the hit-and-run incident.

Chae-Ah herself receives news about Kang In-bum from Min-seok. She panics knowing that he’s out executing plans of his own and grows wary of Ji-hyun. Chae-Ah watches Ji-hyun’s every move in the restaurant to ensure she isn’t doing anything suspicious. Once Chae-Ah leaves and Ji-hyun is out of Chae-Ah’s sight, she resumes to setting her traps. She places her recorder pen on Soo-ho’s desk and hides while listening to his conversation with Soo-chul.

Soo-chul wants Soo-ho to give up his position as Managing Director/President of W Foods. Soo-ho doesn’t have any interest in being President nor will he last anyways. Once everything is exposed about Ji-eun’s death, he’ll have to resign. Soo-ho will just end up like his mother and possibly contemplate suicide again. Soo-ho grows furious at Soo-chul and yells for him to leave. Once Soo-ho is left alone, he walks to his desk and finds Ji-hyun hiding in the corner. Instead of raving at her, he remains calm and patient. He won’t ask her any questions or say anything unless she brings it up.

Min-seok digs into the basement of his work building to search for a notebook. Once he finds the notebook, he makes his way to Kang In-bum’s hideout and is attacked by the man himself. Although Kang In-bum is so angry at Min-seok he could kill him at that moment, he stops once he glances at the notebook that Min-seok has in his hand.

Afterwards, Min-seok meets with Soo-chul to discuss about their plans of taking Soo-ho down. He’s discovered a list of people who attended the party that Soo-ho held on the night of Ji-eun’s death. Since Kang In-bum distributed the drugs to those at the party that night, everyone who attended will be investigated and punished by the police. However, there’s only one problem. Soo-chul himself was there at the party and there’s evidence of him buying the drugs. Soo-chul panics upon the realization and pleads for Min-seok to save him. Min-seok is willing to save Soo-chul in exchange for a request: save Kang In-bum and pronounce him innocent.

Min-seok makes his moves and meets with a group of ladies who were at Soo-ho’s party the night of Ji-eun’s death. He asks for their cooperation before getting down to business.

That night, Ji-hyun and Soo-ho both reminisce and remember their loved ones. While Ji-hyun sits in her room and listens to her mom’s favorite song, Soo-ho sits in his room and cries while staring at a picture of him with his mom at his birthday party. Ji-hyun plays her mom’s favorite song a little louder for the both of them to listen to as they sit and wallow in their pain and misery of losing loved ones.

Ji-hyun meets with the reporter the next day to discuss updates on the report. The police is unable to conclude that it was Kang In-bum who threw the flowerpot down onto Min-seok since the video camera footage wasn’t clear enough. However, the reporter does ensure Ji-hyun that the report will broadcast despite these bumps on the road. After the episode airs, things will finally get rolling as they should.

The reporter herself is threatened when a man riding a motorcycle attacks her and her group of friends on an outing. Meanwhile, Soo-ho is encouraged to stop with the investigation. There’s further evidence that Kang In-bum is the suspect of the hit-and-run incident and if convicted, Soo-ho himself could get in trouble for having drugs distributed by Kang In-bum at his party the night of Ji-eun’s death.

Soo-ho and Chae-Ah meet at the restaurant to have a talk. He’s distracted by Ji-hyun’s presence which reminds Chae-Ah that she herself needs to talk to Ji-hyun. She enters the restaurant kitchen where Ji-hyun is and warns her to stop any investigations she’s doing on her own. No matter what Ji-hyun attempts, she won’t find anything or succeed at all. Soo-ho witnesses Chae-Ah and Ji-hyun’s encounter and has a talk with Ji-hyun himself.

In the restaurant, Soo-ho first brings up the music that Ji-hyun had played the night before and how much he enjoyed it. As they talk, a dove suddenly lands on their table which prompts Ji-hyun to ask herself questions regarding happiness and life. She stayed alive so that she could be happy and live a happy life. However, things aren’t going that well for her currently. Soo-ho reassures her that she will find that happiness if she searches for it further away. There are many issues they’re dealing with that are nearby; if she wants happiness, she should move away to find it.

Soo-ho is scheduled to meet with his father and a group of important board members of W Food. However, instead of heading to the restaurant like he should be, he makes his way to the prosecutor’s office instead. He’s turning himself in in order to catch Kang In-bum once and for all. Everyone watches in shock and disbelief as Soo-ho arrives at the prosecution office. Ji-hyun herself has plans of capturing Kang In-bum. She manages to grab Chae-Ah’s phone and send a text to Kang In-bum to meet at 6PM. He agrees to the meeting. Ji-hyun notifies investigators about the meet-up and is certain Kang In-bum will show up. All they gotta do is also show up and arrest him. The investigators agree and Soo-ho is informed of the plans.

Chae-Ah and Min-seok have a talk. Min-seok reveals to Chae-Ah details about his relationship with Ji-hyun as well as his assumptions on why Ji-hyun is working at the restaurant. Ji-eun is Ji-hyun’s sister and Ji-hyun wants to stick around Chae-Ah to see if she was involved with Ji-eun’s death. Min-seok is curious about Chae-Ah and Kang In-bum and why they met. Chae-Ah then contacts Kang In-bum and resumes with their original plan to meet. Oof, this is gonna be messyyyy.

Ji-hyun leads the group of detectives and investigators to Kang In-bum’s hideout. They wait and hide on the rooftops of nearby buildings for his arrival. When he does arrive, he receives a phone call from Min-seok to run or else he’ll get caught. He’s been set-up. Kang In-bum makes his escape, but he is soon captured by Ji-hyun herself and arrested by the detectives. Soo-ho too is at the scene and had attempted to capture him first, but was pushed down by Kang In-Bum and struggled to get back up. As the detectives take the suspect away, Ji-hyun cries while laying on the floor in pain and anguish.

Soo-ho watches her as he attempts to gain control of his breath and body. He becomes doubtful as to whether this is the end of the investigation or if things has just barely started.

My Thoughts:

Ooooh, things are finally starting to get heated and intense! Granted, it’s so so messy and things are spinning out of control and there’s many plot twists. However, that’s the fun of it all and now that Kang In-bum has been captured, I doubt things will get easier. I assume it’ll be the opposite where things will be even more difficult and challenging because 1) Kang In-bum won’t disclose anything about the hit-and-run incident and 2) will probably be excused and released after the futile interrogation. He’s being used as a scapegoat to cover up the real suspects and individuals behind the case and it’s going to take much longer until Chae-Ah and Min-seok (and even Soo-ho to an extent) are caught and exposed.

Watching that last scene of Soo-ho struggle to get up after being pushed down by Kang In-bum makes me curious about his cancer. I wonder what the symptoms for it are and when they appear. It seems like they appear at the most random but crucial times and you’re not really certain as to when Soo-ho is going to fall in pain the way he did in this episode. It’s kind of scary thinking about it and can also be a bit frustrating for both him and viewers. He wants to protect Ji-hyun and do all that he can to help her, but his cancer is preventing him from doing the most he can. As a viewer, it’s frustrating watching him not be able to do all that he could possibly do given the power and wealth that he has, but also watch him struggle in pain as his cancer is slowly taking over his body. You want him to be desperately rescued and treated so he can live his life and do what it is he wants, but there’s no way out of dying for Soo-ho and he’ll have to live this way for the next few months. It’s so frustrating and heart-breaking.

I had high hopes that Chae-Ah was going to betray Min-seok or at least threaten him, but I think we’ve kind of returned to where we first started off with the two. Granted, I had forgotten that Chae-Ah bringing Min-seok down means she too will be in danger because he’s essentially protecting her from being exposed. There’s really no way she can take him out without being taken out as well so she’s treading the thin and fine line of maintaining a professional relationship with him and being on his good side while also being careful of him knowing the type of person he is. She did a few despicable things in this episode that really made me tilt my head and question whether it was all that necessary. The scene where she purposely brought Min-seok to the restaurant to reunite with Ji-hyun again made me really dislike her in that moment. She’s testing them individually as well as their relationship and is curious as to why they’re no longer on good terms. It’s really none of her business in the first place, but she’ll do whatever she can to dig dirt on Ji-hyun and learn more about her who she doesn’t really know all that much to begin with. Now that Chae-Ah is aware that Ji-hyun is Ji-eun’s sister, maybe she’ll learn to be alot more careful around Ji-hyun and not threaten her so easily as she did in this episode.

This episode was preparing for the momentum that we received in the last scene so a lot of it was just meticulous build-up. I think this is the reason as to why I appreciated the scenes where it was just Ji-hyun and Soo-ho in their feelings and emotions where they thought about their loved ones. This is what connects them the most to each other and what really makes their bond with each other so strong. The both of them have lost someone (or in Ji-hyun’s case, two people) who they truly loved and cared about. They are still mourning and grieving over their deaths while also fighting for revenge and justice. It’s hard for the both of them who should be able to just sit down and grieve, but not be able to do so because you know that somewhere along the line, something went bad so they have important work to do and solve. Ji-hyun nor Soo-ho barely has any time to just breathe and relax and mourn. They have to stay alert and cautious while fighting for what they believe is the best for them and their loved ones. The scene where Ji-hyun and Soo-ho were in their bedrooms crying while thinking about their family members was so so well done and a nice break from all the intensity related to the investigations. In between all of this chaos and commotion, they remind themselves the reasons as to why they’re doing all of this in the first place: for their loved ones who they lost and so dearly miss.

Min-seok continues to be an evil and hateful character and I’m not sure if there’s really any way he can be redeemed. There’s no going back with how far and how much he is into the investigation and he is certainly never going to be forgiven by Ji-hyun. The scene that made me the most angry was when he straight up lied to Ji-hyun and claimed that he had nothing to do with Mom or Ji-eun’s investigations. He’s the main reason as to why she has to fight and investigate in the first place. He’s the one who hid the truth from her. He’s the reason for all of this and he had the audacity to look Ji-hyun in the eyes and claim that he had nothing to do with their deaths. Ugh. He’s such an irritating character and I know we’re going to have to wait many more episodes until his downfall, but I cannot wait for the moment when that happens. When it happens, it’ll be so good and he’ll deserve every single second of it. I just hope he receives the proper punishment and consequences for his actions and that the drama actually showcases his downfall step by step. It’ll be so rewarding to watch him go down for all that he’s done in bringing others down.

As we saw in this episode, Soo-ho still has to confess to Ji-hyun about his involvement in Ji-eun’s death. We witness him struggle to tell Ji-hyun this essential detail and although he should tell Ji-hyun about this, I can also understand why he’s hesitant and unable to do so at this point. He’s essentially gained her trust and he’s the one person she relies on to help her with the investigations. Relaying to her details about his involvement in Ji-eun’s death will immediately eliminate any trust she had in him, but also cause her to be suspicious of him. Maybe he was the one who killed her sister. Maybe he was the one behind the investigations and hired people like Min-seok to hide the truth. Soo-ho cares for (and maybe even loves) Ji-hyun too much at this point to say anything to her. However, he should also be honest with her. The both of them refrain from sharing with each other their deepest secrets and reasons for their actions and behaviors. I can see why they’re hiding these reasons, but I also think keeping these reasons from each other will only make things so much more painful and hurtful in the end. They want to finish this investigation all the way to the end so they don’t share with each other their reasons behind doing so, but the end results will be so much more painful this way. It’s either they let it all go now or wait until the end and suffer even more.

Things are starting to pick up with the investigations now that Kang In-bum is captured, but I doubt this will be the end of things. As Soo-ho questioned in the final scene of this episode, this will only be the beginning of many tough and challenging days to come.