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It’s Hae-joon’s turn to learn a bit more about his family and relationships with his parents. While he processes the conflicting emotions and feelings that come with the history, Yoon-young finds herself righting the wrongs that had occurred three decades later.

My Perfect Stranger Episode 11: Women who read are dangerous

Hae-joon grows confused upon seeing both Mi-sook and Chung-Ah at the movie theater. He’s in search of his mother but it doesn’t help that both ladies are there. While they all stare at each other, a random couple suddenly bumps into Hae-joon and causes a scene. Chung-Ah stands up for Hae-joon and Hae-joon’s dad, Yeon-woo, joins a few seconds later. He introduces Chung-Ah as his girlfriend and since his friend was the one who bumped into Hae-joon, he gets his friend to apologize. So Chung-Ah is Hae-joon’s mom after all. Chung-Ah and Yeon-woo head out for some late-night snacks after their movie date and they chat about Hae-joon. They get this odd sense and feeling about him. They’re reminded of how they wanted to name their children the name Hae-joon if they were to have a kid and Chung-Ah also felt something strange when she saw Hae-joon earlier at the movie theater.

Hae-joon returns home and reflects on his relationship with Chung-Ah. Even from their very first meeting at Bong Bong Teahouse, Hae-joon didn’t seem to get along too well with his mom. He reminds himself that his mother abandoned him when he was barely born and that she means nothing to him.

Time passes by and the police still have not captured the culprit behind Joo-young and Kyung-ae’s deaths. Meanwhile, Yoon-young wakes up from a nap and she glances over at the calendar. It’s June 1st. Hae-joon returns home shortly afterwards and she learns that he went to visit Yoo-seob who had been discharged from the hospital. They met to talk about Yoo-seob’s relationship with both Joo-young and Kyung-ae. It turns out that Yoo-seob and Joo-young knew each other from university and she wanted him to leave with her to Seoul. But since the anniversary of Yoo-seob’s parents’ death was only a few days later, he wanted to stay behind a little bit longer so he and Joo-young hid inside of the abandoned house that Kyung-ae was murdered in. Before Kyung-ae was murdered, she discovered about the relationship between Joo-young and Yoo-seob after she had followed him to the abandoned house and there, she befriended both Yoo-seob and Kyung-ae. On the night that she was killed, she visited the abandoned house to deliver a book that Yoo-seob and Joo-young had asked for. But it was too late as Yoo-seob had already left for Seoul. Joo-young also carried a book with her on the night that she died, hence, the small box of matches with the note inside that said “women who read are dangerous.” Hae-joon and Yoon-young assume that the culprit must have taken Kyung-ae’s book and that books must have played a role in the case.

Just then, the two are interrupted by an unexpected visit from none other than Yeon-woo. He asks for permission to use the restroom inside the house so Yoon-young and Hae-joon clean up their belongings and files before letting Yeon-woo inside. Once he leaves, Yoon-young and Hae-joon proceed to talk about the note inside of the match box and Yoon-young grows a bit paranoid. She’s an editor who reads and publishes novels, Mi-sook’s an author, and her mom wanted to be a writer. Is this really all just a coincidence?

Back at her house, Soon-ae is reminded of a conversation she had with Kyung-ae regarding the envelope of Dad’s money that Kyung-ae found. Since Kyung-ae discovered the money and gave it to Soon-ae to fund her tuition fee, she teases that she wants something back for her deed. She requests that Soon-ae include her name in one of her upcoming novels. People come and go but books live forever and Kyung-ae wants to be remembered forever. Soon-ae tears up upon thinking of this sweet memory with her sister and she’s determined to make her sister’s wish come true. But there’s only one problem: she’s unable to find her journal containing her draft to her novel Small Door. It’s nowhere to be found in her bedroom. Uh-oh.

And that’s because Mi-sook stole Soon-ae’s novel and claimed it as her own. Everyone celebrates Mi-sook’s newly released novel titled Small Door and the word quickly spreads throughout school. It doesn’t take long for Soon-ae and Yoon-young to find out either and Soon-ae has a talk with Mi-sook about the novel. Soon-ae’s disappointed in Mi-sook for stealing her notebook and claiming it as hers but Mi-sook feigns ignorance. She pretends as if she doesn’t know what Soon-ae is referring to. But the faking and the lying doesn’t last for long and Mi-sook threatens Soon-ae. It’s not like Soon-ae has evidence that she wrote the original content and plus, she shouldn’t do anything or else she might just end up like her sister. While walking out of the room, Mi-sook comes across Yoon-young and admits that she now understands why girls who like to read act like they’re the main characters. Now that Mi-sook’s experienced it for herself, she can relate.

Later on that night, Soon-ae and Yoon-young talk through about the situation involving Mi-sook. The only person who could testify as a witness that she saw Soon-ae writing in her notebook was Kyung-ae but that’s not an option. There’s no other proof that the original content belonged to Soon-ae. Plus, Soon-ae assumes that her parents wouldn’t be too happy if they found out that she wanted to become an author. So she lets go of any dreams and hopes of writing a novel. But Yoon-young won’t give up that easily. There are people who support Soon-ae and want her to succeed. She gives her mom a pep talk and encourages her to keep pushing and trying. She should do what she wants in life and worry less about what others have to say or think.

So the next day, Yoon-young drops Soon-ae off to Hee-seob and the couple chat about Soon-ae’s situation. Hee-seob compares one of his favorite bands to Soon-ae’s situation and advises that she must see things through to the end. He reminds that he’s in support of her and that she should reclaim her novel. It is hers after all and she shouldn’t give up.

Yoon-young shares the news with Soon-ae’s parents and both her mom and dad are supportive of their child. Grandma regrets how discouraging she was of Kyung-ae’s dream to become Miss Korea and she’s learned from her mistake so she voices her support for Soon-ae. Grandpa transports Soon-ae and Yoon-young out of the village and into the town via his bus and they go for a ride. Yoon-young and Soon-ae eventually make it to the building where Mi-sook, her mom, and the director of the publishing company is located. Though there isn’t any proof of the original notebook that Soon-ae wrote in, Yoon-young argues that a novel can’t be completed by writing just one novel. So Soon-ae pulls out the additional notebooks and manuscripts that she wrote for her Small Door novel. Unlike Mi-sook, she knows everything about the novel and encourages the director to read through the documents. Mi-sook and her mom storm out of the room while Yoon-young and her mom stay behind. Soon-ae reclaims the novel rightfully as hers and she makes sure to dedicate the novel to her sister, Kyung-ae. Soon-ae’s book will be republished with the rightful name of the writer with a different cover.

On the walk back home, Soon-ae and Yoon-young celebrate their success and Soon-ae’s new novel (YAY!). They chat a bit about the book and Yoon-young learns that the person referred to as the letter ‘Y’ in the book stands for Yoon-young – the name of a friend who Soon-ae hopes to meet later on in life (aww). The mother-daughter pair are in a good mood and they’re greeted by Hae-joon who waits patiently outside in the neighborhood for their return. It was the happiest day for both Yoon-young and Soon-ae who are grateful for each other. On the other hand, things don’t look too great for Mi-sook. She’s ridiculed and reprimanded by her mom for her actions and posters of her novel that was hung around the neighborhood are taken down.

Yoon-young wakes up from her nap after her Seoul trip so she joins Hae-joon in the car garage. They sit next to each other and chat a bit about their parents. Yoon-young’s repetitive dream includes her parents but she doesn’t dive too deeply into what the dream is about. As for Hae-joon, he shares about how he discovered who his mother was when he visited the movie theater. It’s still a discovery that he feels conflicted about. If he really wanted to, he could have chosen to investigate the identity and whereabouts of his mom but instead, he respected her choice to be absent in his life. He’ll treat his relationship with his mother as if it was just a dream and won’t interfere in her life. Just then, the two housemates are interrupted once again by Yeon-woo who requests to speak with Hae-joon privately.

Mi-sook meets with her brother, Min-soo, and she takes her anger out on her brother. She remembers the times when he would physically abuse her starting from when she was just 13 years old. She also checks his hand that still hasn’t completely healed yet as a result of his bad drinking habits. Mi-sook is reminded of the night when she went to go pick up her brother who was stranded and intoxicated at the rocks by the river. Just like he did back at their house, he beat her up at that moment. All Mi-sook could do was just laugh it off. But now it’s Min-soo’s turn to suffer and he passes out in the alleyway after talking to Mi-sook. Mi-sook walks away.

With Yoon-young gone, Yeon-woo and Hae-joon first talk about the red time-traveling car. Yeon-woo has a strange feeling about the car; he feels as if the car shouldn’t be there. But forget about the car – there’s something more pressing that Yeon-woo wants to address with Hae-joon. He’s heard about the series of murders that took place in the village as well as the boxes of matches from Chung-Ah’s teahouse that were found at the site of the murder scenes. If that’s the case, then why did Yeon-woo find one of the match boxes in Hae-joon’s living room? He accidentally found it when he went to use the bathroom earlier so he’s curious as to why it was in Hae-joon’s living room. It’s obvious Yeon-woo’s trust in Hae-joon has lessened. Meanwhile, Mi-sook stops by the police station to talk with Detective Baek. She shares that she knows who the culprit behind the murders were and reveals that it was her brother who killed both victims. Everyone in the police station is stunned at Mi-sook’s confession.

My Thoughts:

My opinions and commentary for episode 15 will be combined with the commentary section for episode 16 :]