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Hae-joon and Yoon-young continue their investigation on the culprit behind the serial murder case and learn quite a few more lessons along the way. Everything is not always as it seems. Just when you think you know everything, you come to realize and learn that you really don’t.

My Perfect Stranger Episode 6: Lie After Lie After Lie

When Hae-joon returns home, Yoon-young immediately greets him outside in the front entrance and she scolds him for arriving home so late. Thankfully, Hae-joon wasn’t hurt but he seemed to have lost track of time and was gone for three hours. Yoon-young was worried about him the entire time and she’s also dying to know about the person in the blue cap who showed up to Bong Bong Teahouse where Hae-joon was waiting. So Hae-joon reflects on how it was her father, Hee-seob, who appeared at the teahouse in a blue cap. Does that mean that Joo-young, the first victim who died on May 14, 1987, met with Hee-seob on the day that she died? Does that mean that Hee-seob even killed his wife 34 years later in 2021? When Yoon-young and Hae-joon talked with Joo-young, she shared that she originally hadn’t planned on meeting with anyone at Bong Bong Teahouse so her interaction with Hee-seob at the location was unexpected. And why did the two argue when they did interact? The only person who could have also witnessed their argument was the owner of the teahouse, Chung-Ah.

So Hae-joon has all these thoughts running in his head as he watches Hee-seob sitting in the teahouse. But there’s someone else who joins Hee-seob at the teahouse. It’s none other than Beom-ryong. The two friends sit down and converse about Joo-young as well as the secrets that Beom-ryong’s been hiding. Hee-seob expresses his disappointment in Beom-ryong. He’s aware that Beom-ryong has been stealing and hiding things in the wall in the boy’s restroom at school. He even shows Hee-seob the ring from Joo-young that he found hidden in the restroom stall that Beom-ryong likes to frequent. Hee-seob adds that Beom-ryong shouldn’t do anything that will embarrass or disappoint Soon-ae (AKA Beom-ryong’s girlfriend).

Beom-ryong chases Hee-seob out of the teahouse and vows to apologize to Joo-young. He’ll give her back the ring and apologize to her. So Hee-seob gives his friend another chance to make up for his actions and hands Joo-young’s ring back to Beom-ryong. The two friends are then interrupted by Hee-seob’s brother, Yoo-seob, and the two brothers go back home together. Hae-joon exits the teahouse and recollects his thoughts. Hee-seob left the teahouse with someone else but he was sporting the blue cap that Hae-joon saw on the night that they were with Joo-young at the river. Meanwhile, Beom-ryong left in the same direction as the victim and took the same path that Joo-young did. So Hae-joon follows Beom-ryong and finds him entering the same inn that Joo-young stayed at.

But Hae-joon is the one who gets interrupted this time and he overhears Min-soo’s voice not too far away. What is he doing there? Hae-joon’s reminded of the conversation he had with Min-soo in 2021 about how he had left to attend a boarding school far away. But sure enough, Min-soo is in town verbally and physically abusing Mi-sook in a secluded alleyway. Hae-joon comes to the rescue to stop Min-soo and he suggests that Mi-sook call the police but Mi-sook refuses. She’s afraid that she might get in trouble with her mom if Min-soo was to get into trouble again. So with that, Hae-joon heads back to the inn but this time, he encounters both Beom-ryong and Hee-seob there. Who exactly was it that killed Joo-young? Hae-joon encountered all three suspects – Hee-seob, Beom-ryong, and Min-soo – that night and they also lied about their commitments. Hee-seob would end up sharing about Beom-ryong’s stealing, Beom-ryong would eventually end up stealing more of Joo-young’s belongings, and Min-soo eventually returned to town. It’s just lie after lie after lie.

We return to the beginning of the scene where Yoon-young asks about the identity of the person in the blue cap who showed up at the teahouse. To protect Yoon-young, Hae-joon lies that he didn’t catch the face of the person and so he doesn’t know who it was. They also chat about Joo-young for a bit who seems to be doing okay. She’s still a bit anxious and nervous but the two are confident that nothing bad will happen. Just then, they receive a surprise visit from Soon-ae who pounds the front entrance door for Yoon-young’s attention. Soon-ae’s worried about Yoon-young after having heard from her father about what happened earlier that day at the store. Soon-ae offers to have a sleepover together which Yoon-young declines at first. But Hae-joon suggests that she spend some time with her mother and so Yoon-young does. Aww, Hae-joon – always the thoughtful and kind one!

When Yoon-young visits her mother’s bedroom, she takes a good look around the room and the posters set up on the wall. It’s another opportunity for her to learn more about her mother. Back at Hae-joon’s house, he gives Principal Yoon a call and requests that he keep all the police detectives busy for the entire night. They’re out drinking together and Joo-young’s afraid that she’ll get caught by the police so Principal Yoon abides by Hae-joon’s special request. At one point, Detective Baek comes close to leaving to pick up his two kids at a neighbor’s house but Principal Yoon persuades him to stay.

Soon-ae has a hard time sleeping so Yoon-young checks in with her mother. What’s keeping her up? Soon-ae reluctantly admits that she can’t stop thinking about Hee-seob (haha). There was just something about their meeting at Bong Bong Teahouse that stuck with her and she can’t stop thinking about it. Maybe it was the way that Hee-seob described his first positive impression of her; maybe it was the endless compliments that he gave her. It was also the way he looked and sounded that captivated Soon-ae. While listening to her mother, Yoon-young reaches another realization. The love interest in Mi-sook’s first novel (that was based off of Soon-ae’s diary) was about Hee-seob. Yoon-young lays back down, dejected and sad.

Hae-joon too is thinking about Hee-seob while waiting for Joo-young to grab her belongings from her room at the inn. So far, Hee-seob seems to be the primary suspect but if that’s the case, then why did he kill her after telling Beom-ryong to return her ring back to her? Something doesn’t seem to be adding up. The next morning, Joo-young and Hae-joon prepare to bid farewell with the assistance of Soon-ae’s father who goes to grab the bus. So while they wait for Soon-ae’s dad, Joo-young thanks Hae-joon for saving her life. It’s as if he purposely came to help her someway somehow and she’s grateful for him. Hae-joon returns Joo-young’s black ring back to her and wishes that she live a very long life. So with that, the two bid farewell and Joo-young heads onto the bus and back to Seoul. Detective Baek comes across the bus after a whole night of drinking and he spots Joo-young sitting inside. He panics upon seeing her and runs across the bridge only to find Hae-joon nearby. Detective Baek accuses Hae-joon of helping Joo-young escape (since she’s allegedly a “commie” who’s a protestor) but Hae-joon brushes it off as Detective Baek just rambling while intoxicated.

But the rambling doesn’t go on for long as there’s an emergency situation that pops up. Detective Baek learns from a neighbor that the house where his kids were dropped off and staying at is on fire. So Hae-joon and Detective Baek rush to the site and find firefighters working to put out the fire. Thankfully, Detective Baek’s daughter is fine but his son is still trapped inside the house. So Hae-joon and Detective Baek run inside the house to search for him. Hae-joon learns for himself the consequences to his actions: because he had requested for Principal Yoon to keep all the police detectives together for the night, Detective Baek was unable to pick up his kids at the house. Detective Baek was close to losing his two kids but thankfully he rescues his son as well and the family exits the damaged house alive. While leaving, Hae-joon comes across Hee-seob who’s once again sporting the same blue cap. Though Hae-joon is hurt, he’s not in a good mood and he walks away without saying a word to anyone. On the walk back home, Hae-joon processes the consequences of his actions. He managed to save the life of the person who was supposed to die (AKA Joo-young), but in the process caused another situation where someone who was supposed to live almost died (Detective Baek’s son). Hae-joon doesn’t feel too good about it.

When Hae-joon returns home, he’s greeted by Yoon-young and she shares with him some details that she found in Mi-sook’s manuscript. There was something written about a blue-headed man which got Yoon-young thinking. But Hae-joon still isn’t in a good mood and he takes his anger out on Yoon-young. Does he have to tell her every single little detail or update that he finds? Do they have to keep talking about everything they come across? The real reason as to why he wants to catch the culprit is so that he can save his own life. Hae-joon learned the hard way that one variable can change everything he’s worked so hard for and he’s afraid that that one variable will eventually be Yoon-young. So he refuses to share the identity of the person in the blue cap to Yoon-young since it could prompt her to do something unexpected that could change everything. If Hae-joon doesn’t want to work together, that’s fine. Yoon-young isn’t going to just stay still though and she plans to investigate on her own.

While sitting next to Soon-ae in the classroom, Yoon-young rewrites down an excerpt from Mi-sook’s manuscript detailing the whereabouts of the three suspects to Joo-young’s murder case. The “blue-headed man” (AKA the man in the blue cap) “stood between the sun and the moon” while the man in the glasses stayed in his restroom stall. And then the man who forgot his memory laid under a bridge. Soon-ae peeks at the writing and she too is unsure as to where the space between “the sun and the moon” is. But there is one thing she’s certain about which is that she doesn’t want Yoon-young to hang out with the person who wrote this specific excerpt. Yoon-young couldn’t have written it herself because all authors should have an understanding of their writing.

Hae-joon suffers a nightmare where he’s being killed by either Hee-seob, Beom-ryong, or Min-soo on a frozen lake (the site of his murder scene) and he lays on his own pool of blood while Principal Yoon runs to his side. Hae-joon eventually wakes up from the nightmare and he stares at the calendar in the room. The day of the first murder has changed from May 14 to May 16 and sure enough, when Hae-joon opens his file on Joo-young’s murder case, he discovers that all the photos and notes have disappeared. Back at school, Yoon-young and Mi-sook have a talk in the girl’s restroom and Yoon-young receives an answer from Mi-sook regarding the exact location between “the sun and the moon.” She guesses that it must mean the record shop whose name is called “Sun and Moon Record Shop.”

So Yoon-young runs over to the shop and she spots the back of the head of a person with a blue cap. She steps inside the shop and focuses on the man the entire time. That night, Hae-joon waits outside in the neighborhood for Yoon-young and they finally reunite. Now it’s Hae-joon’s turn to do the waiting and he knows how Yoon-young must have felt when she waited for him all night. He also apologizes to her for not telling her about her father. But Yoon-young is clueless as to what Hae-joon is referring to. Unlike Hae-joon, the person Yoon-young spotted in the music shop with a blue cap on wasn’t her father. It was her uncle, Yoo-seob (AHHHHH!!). Hae-joon’s confused at first but then it clicks for him: Yoo-seob did show up the night before to pick up Hee-seob at Bong Bong Teahouse and the two brothers left together that night. Now there’s one more person to worry about.

Epilogue

Yoo-seob peeks inside Bong Bong Teahouse while wearing a blue cap. Hee-seob spots his brother right at the entrance and he greets him excitedly. Just like Yoo-seob, Hee-seob too is there to meet with someone (AKA Beom-ryong). Yoo-seob lies that the person he was supposed to meet with didn’t show up so he volunteers to wait for Hee-seob outside once Hee-seob is finished. Before the two bid farewell, Hee-seob compliments Yoo-seob’s blue cap so Yoo-seob gives it to Hee-seob to wear. We then return to the scene where Hee-seob entered the teahouse and pulled Joo-young’s black ring out from his pocket.

My Thoughts:

Oh ho ho! The investigation just keeps upgrading and gets more and more complicated every time! Things were already as confusing as it was with the three usual suspects and the drama had done a good job in setting everything up to make it seem like it was any of them three at any given point. But then it decided to spice things up by inserting Yoo-seob into the picture to confuse everyone even more! Gah, a part of me hates it because of all the plot twists and mind tricks (and how it feels like the drama’s purposely dragging things out) but at the same time, there’s also a part to it that is a bit thrilling.