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There’s still so much more work that Hae-joon and Yoon-young need to get done. Along with finding out the truth about the serial murder case, they also learn the truth about details in their personal lives. As they will come to experience and witness, the truth will eventually arrive – one way or another.

My Perfect Stranger Episode 10: Far or Close

After spending some time with her father, Yoon-young suggests that they go to the hospital to get Hee-seob’s leg treated. Though Hee-seob initially accepts the help, he changes his mind and refuses to leave without seeing his brother again. Right at that moment, Yoon-young spots Hae-joon’s colleagues show up to the inn to get in a report so the Seoul police detectives quickly exit the inn and escape. Yoo-seob is stunned at Hae-joon’s accurate and careful planning and how what he said did eventually become true: he was rescued and saved in 15 minutes. So Yoo-seob survives and together he and Hee-seob are admitted into the hospital. Yoon-young and Hae-joon chat a bit about Hae-joon’s colleagues before turning their attention to the two brothers. Yoon-young’s curious as to what kind of future the two will have; given all that they went through, she hopes they can live the kind of life that they want. Hae-joon reassures her that Yoo-seob and Hee-seob will recover just fine. When they return back to the present time, she will see what kind of family awaits her at home.

While Hae-joon and Yoon-young step out of the hospital room for a bit, Principal Yoon visits the two brothers in their room and grows concerned at the sight of them laying on their hospital beds. He eventually confronts Detective Baek and the rest of the police detectives at the police station to reprimand them. There’s already enough going on with Joo-young and Kyung-ae’s deaths and yet the police detectives are fighting amongst one another. He expresses his disappointment in the police team for failing to do their jobs correctly and he also warns them to not treat Hee-seob the same way they did ever again.

Soon-ae’s mom receives a bag of breadsticks outside of her house from a stranger. Though she doesn’t know who it was from, she remembers how the bread was one of Kyung-ae’s favorite snacks. Aww. Back at Yoon-young and Hae-joon’s house, they receive a special visit from their hero: Yeon-woo (AKA Hae-joon’s dad). Just like Dad Yeon-woo promised, he’ll fix the red time-traveling car if Hae-joon manages to solve the rubik’s cube within 5 seconds. And sure enough, Hae-joon has no issue solving the rubik’s cube so Dad Yeon-woo gets to work. The father and son pair agree on specific conditions with each other before Hae-joon leaves. It seems like Hae-joon had a good relationship with his dad.

While the red vehicle is being fixed, Yoon-young and Hae-joon reconvene to discuss their next steps in the investigation. Joo-young and Kyung-ae were the first two murder victims in the case. So who exactly was the third victim? Well, it was none other than Hae-kyung who originally went missing. Turns out Hae-kyung actually had a crush on Mi-sook which Mi-sook was aware about. Hae-kyung apparently knew Mi-sook’s secret as the culprit and threatened to reveal it to everyone if Mi-sook didn’t go to Seoul with her. During a hang-out at Bong Bong Teahouse, Eun-ha, Yu-ri, Hae-kyung, and Mi-sook all chat about the pink bow headband that Yu-ri’s mom made for her business. Mi-sook grabs one and proudly wears it. Bong Bong Teahouse owner, Chung-Ah, stops by their table and also takes one for herself since they have an extra one. Mi-sook and Hae-kyung chat afterwards about Hee-seob. His involvement with the murder investigation threw things off a little bit but Mi-sook still plans on framing her brother, Min-soo, for the murders. Maybe it’s a good thing Hee-seob was falsely accused as it bought them some extra time.

So Hae-kyung went missing after she ran away from home. What exactly happened and why did she run away? Well, it turns out it was because of her homeroom teacher, Mr. Park. Her mom and Mr. Park had feelings for each other and she felt as if her mom neglected her to pay more attention to Mr. Park. She noticed how her mom would always make kimchi soup for him to eat since it was his favorite even though the soup wasn’t a part of the menu. So Hae-kyung tested her mom’s love by requesting that her mom make her seaweed soup to eat the next day. Her mom agreed but when Hae-kyung returned home the next day, she saw that her mom had made kimchi soup again which then prompted her to run away. But as Hae-joon explains, there was a misunderstanding. Hae-kyung’s mom made the kimchi soup as a final farewell to Mr. Park which Hae-kyung never knew about. So with this in mind, Hae-joon and Yoon-young strategize that they will save Hae-kyung’s life and make sure she doesn’t run away from home.

Hae-joon and Yoon-young embark on their plan to save Hae-kyung. During school, Hae-joon notices a bouquet of flowers hidden under Mr. Park’s desk. Mr. Park plans on giving it to Hae-kyung’s mom who he’s in love with. Rumors about Hae-kyung’s mom spread throughout the school and Hae-kyung confronts one of her classmates who gossips about her mom. Mr. Park intervenes to stop the fighting but it quickly gets out of hand. Hae-kyung ends up yelling at Mr. Park for dating her mom who’s a mere bar owner and he slaps her out of anger. Hae-kyung runs out of the classroom and back to her mom’s small restaurant. Yoon-young and Hae-joon split for the time being. While Yoon-young stays behind at school, Hae-joon follows Hae-kyung to her mom’s restaurant and has her retrieve the hand-written letter that she wrote for her mom. The teacher and student go on a one-day trip together and Hae-joon reads Hae-kyung’s letter out loud several times. It’s obvious that Hae-kyung resents her mom so they’ll take a break for a day and go on a trip instead. Hae-joon and Hae-kyung end up sitting in front of a huge 300-year old tree and Hae-joon shares a story about someone who he knew lived similarly to the tree.

The person Hae-joon is referring to is none other than Hae-kyung’s mom who searched for Hae-kyung for 7 long and grueling years starting from August of 2013. She passed out missing flyers in front of Hae-joon’s workplace everyday and it didn’t take long for Hae-joon to notice her. Finally in 2020, he took the time to sit down with her and chat about Hae-kyung. Hae-kyung’s mom always held onto the hope that Hae-kyung was alive and that she was rather just hiding based on the content in the letter that Hae-kyung wrote her. Unfortunately, Hae-kyung’s mom ended up passing away so she never got the chance to see her daughter one last time. Hae-joon shares the story with Hae-kyung and scolds her for hating her mom. Her mom did nothing wrong and she should instead cherish her.

Yoon-young receives approval from Mr. Park to leave school early and to go back home. She makes her way to Soon-ae’s house and discovers that it’s only Soon-ae who’s at home. Her parents had gone to the police station to retrieve Kyung-ae’s body for funeral preparations. Yoon-young also updates Soon-ae about Hee-seob’s situation so she and her mom stop by the hospital to visit him. Soon-ae is heartbroken and she feels guilty at the unfortunate sight of Hee-seob’s body and injuries. However, Hee-seob reassures her that she did nothing wrong and that none of this was her fault. Soon-ae shouldn’t feel guilty nor should she blame herself. Soon-ae cries upon hearing Hee-seob’s comforting and encouraging words and he embraces her as she cries her heart out. Watching silently from the hallway is Yoon-young who’s surprised at the sight of her parents during such an intimate moment. There’s also a part of her who feels relieved at the heartwarming sight.

Later on that night, Hae-joon drops Hae-kyung off back home. Hae-kyung is greeted by her mom and the mother-daughter pair sit down to have some dinner. And sure enough, Hae-kyung’s mom has prepared some seaweed soup for her daughter. She also clarifies about the kimchi soup and comments that she only made it as a final gift for Mr. Park, who she invited to eat at their restaurant one final time. She was going to end things with him. But he never showed up so that was a sign that things had concluded between them. But Hae-kyung’s mom is fine; as long as she has Hae-kyung, she’s happy. Hae-kyung is reminded of Hae-joon’s advice from earlier in the trip and she shows her mom some love. She encourages her mom to invite Mr. Park back to the restaurant. She’s okay with it. Hae-joon watches Hae-kyung and her mom spend time together and eventually walks away with a warm and full heart. I wanna cry T_T

So Hae-joon and Yoon-young have some dinner together at a street vendor afterwards. Hae-kyung’s story gets them thinking about the concept of truth and how the person who needs to find the truth will eventually reach it. Even if it takes a long time, that truth will eventually reach the person – just like it did for Hae-kyung and just like it did for Yoon-young. After seeing her parents spend time with each other in the hospital today, Yoon-young finally realized why her mom loved her dad so much. He was there for her during the most difficult time in her life. Hae-joon and Yoon-young go on to enjoy some grilled eel and alcohol together. Afterwards, they spend additional time at a stream and Yoon-young enjoys dipping her feet into the water. She’s had just a little too much to drink though and she ends up laying on Hae-joon’s lap while knocked out (EEEEEK!). Hae-joon studies her face and realizes just how troublesome the situation is. Someone’s in loveeee~

After the cute little date adventure, Hae-joon returns to the car garage where his dad is still fixing the car. However, his dad panics when he realizes that he’s late for his movie date and he quickly makes his way out of the garage. Hae-joon’s reminded of the movie tickets that his dad used to save when he went on the movie dates with his mom. But there’s not a whole lot that Hae-joon knows about his mom since she left the village on the day that she gave birth to him. Even Hae-joon’s grandpa, Principal Yoon, refused to share additional details with Hae-joon about his mom. So Hae-joon takes the lead in investigating the identity of his mother on his own. He follows his dad to the movie theater in town and sits a few rows behind where his dad is. He notices a lady with a pink bow headband sitting right next to his dad but he obviously can’t make out the face as only the top of the back of her head is showing.

When the movie ends, Hae-joon goes outside in search of who this person could be. After a few seconds, his eyes land on someone who he’s familiar with: Chung-Ah, the owner of Bong Bong Teahouse (oooooooh!). She also has on a pink bow headband so it’s possible that she was the person sitting next to her father. But there’s someone else who exits the theater right at that moment and it’s Mi-sook who’s also wearing a pink bow headband. Hae-joon grows confused at the sight of Chung-Ah and Mi-sook standing in front of him. Yoon-young had mentioned that the truth will end up reaching their destination and that no matter how long it takes, that truth will eventually reach the one who needs it the most. So in this moment, with both Chung-Ah and Mi-sook present in front of Hae-joon, what is the truth? And who is his mother?

My Thoughts:

NOOOO, not this type of ending again! Not Mi-sook again! Not the drama dragging things on and purposely misleading us again! Not the drama trying to confuse us once again! NO MOREEEE PLEASEEEE. But even with the way that this episode ended (which honestly feels pretty repetitive and redundant and tiring at this point), this episode was another decent one. Though it wasn’t as good and impressive as episode 9 and it primarily focused on the investigation, I liked that this episode also gave us other things and delivered on the emotional side again.