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When Hae-joon and Yoon-young find that there isn’t enough being done to protect more lives from a serial killer on the loose, they take matters into their own hands. The proactivity pays off though they’re in for a much bigger surprise than they initially thought.

My Perfect Stranger Episode 14: Meeting You Will Bring Me Joy

Soon-ae is sent home with her parents after a note from the culprit is delivered to her hospital room. Yoon-young also joins them and goes home with them. Hae-joon stays back at the hospital with Detective Baek. Hae-joon perceives the note as a fear from the culprit; he’s scared that Soon-ae is still alive and he’s afraid of getting caught. He’s also curious as to why there aren’t additional police detectives working on the case but that’s something that’s out of Detective Baek’s control. The police chief doesn’t buy into the note and he’s quick to dismiss any concerns. The police want to get the case over with even if it means blaming Min-soo for the deaths.

When Yoon-young and Soon-ae and her family arrive home, they also question the police detective on the lack of effort being put forth on the case. They don’t feel protected and they feel as if the police aren’t doing enough but the police detective has nothing to say. The next morning, Hae-joon joins Soon-ae’s parents and Yoon-young at their house to discuss their next steps. Hae-joon proposes the idea of sharing the story on the news; that’s the only way to spread the news and help their story gain some traction. Since the police obviously aren’t doing anything about the case, Hae-joon, Yoon-young, and Soon-ae’s family will just have to do the work themselves. Even though Grandpa is hesitant at first out of concern for Soon-ae’s safety, Grandma agrees with Hae-joon. After cooking him a meal, she admits that staying quiet and trusting the police won’t help them at all. They’ll have to take things into their own hands. Soon-ae herself also agrees to do the news interview.

And so the broadcasting company from Seoul comes out to interview Soon-ae about the serial murder case. For safety and security purposes, her face will be blurred and her voice altered. Hae-joon also meets up with Detective Baek to receive a crucial piece of evidence that he could share with the news reporters: the small box of matches from Bong Bong Teahouse with the note inside. Detective Baek does what he can to help out. Since the original note from the matchbox found in Soon-ae’s pocket disappeared, this will have to do.

News about the presence of the Seoul broadcasting company spreads throughout the village and the reporters cover the story about the serial murder case. The police chief panics and even he is interviewed by the reporters. He claims that he and the police are working on the investigation but it’s just a lie. Since Min-soo is still stuck in jail and Mi-sook isn’t willing to reveal or share anything about the culprit, Hae-joon proposes that he meet with Min-soo. And so the two meet and Hae-joon interrogates Min-soo about the night that he fell over the bridge and injured his arm. Where did he and Mi-sook go after she picked him up? But the memory isn’t too clear for Min-soo and he can’t remember all that much. He knows that they took a taxi though so Detective Baek meets with the taxi driver from that night to ask him about driving Min-soo and Mi-sook. And sure enough, they receive confirmation and proof that Min-soo was not the killer. He was transported to the hospital on May 16-18th so he couldn’t have killed anyone. Hae-joon presents the news to the news reporters during dinner that night and requests that they do a special 20-minute report on the update. At first, it seems impossible but Hae-joon is from the future and he knows that one of the news reporters eventually made the 20-minute segment a thing many years later. So the news reporters continue to provide coverage based on the update on Min-soo and Min-soo is released from the police station.

Min-soo is picked up by Mi-sook and the siblings head home together. Mi-sook is nervous as evident by her playing around with her necklace as she follows her brother home. Yoon-young spots Min-soo and Mi-sook walking home together and she follows after them to save Mi-sook from her brother. She pretends that they made plans to hang out together and the two ladies leave. Once they arrive at the village river, Yoon-young checks in with Mi-sook. Her brother’s released from jail and three people are dead. How does she feel? All Mi-sook can do is break down into tears and cry. She has nothing to say.

While walking to Principal Yoon’s house, Hae-joon spots Chung-Ah moving things out of Bong Bong Teahouse. She requests that the mover throw everything away except for a box full of baby clothes which she wants to take with her. When Hae-joon arrives at Principal Yoon’s house with Detective Baek, they chat about the situation with the news broadcasting company. Sure, there’s been a bit of noise going around but thanks to Hae-joon, Soon-ae is now being protected by the police and an innocent person is no longer being framed for something he didn’t do. Hae-joon is still distracted by what he saw from his mom moments before so he doesn’t have much to say. Instead, he asks that Soon-ae be admitted into a hospital in Seoul for further care and to borrow Principal Yoon’s car.

With Principal Yoon’s car, Hae-joon takes Yoon-young out for a date at the beach (EEEEK!). He was so busy traveling in time that he never had the time to relax and think about moments like these and where he wanted to go and who he wanted to be with.. But all of that has changed with Yoon-young now in his life. Hehe. So the two take in the beautiful scenery and grab some tteokbokki afterwards. They chat a bit about work and then get down to the bottom of things. Why exactly are they spending time together at the beautiful beach? Hae-joon responds and asks for Yoon-young to trust him in whatever he does. Nothing will happen to him so she shouldn’t worry and she should wait for him (oh boyyyy, I don’t have a good feeling about this).

Once he’s back in the village, Hae-joon walks past Bong Bong Teahouse and bumps into his mom exiting the building. So she asks him to accompany her to the village bus stop in which he agrees. She still has the box of baby items and clothes with her and the two chat about it while waiting for the bus to arrive. Since Hae-joon never got to meet his mom and only briefly heard about her from his grandpa, he didn’t know much about her and how she felt about him. But it’s at this moment where he learned that his mother adored him. She was excited at the thought of meeting her baby, hence why she carried the box full of baby items and even planned on naming the baby “Hae-joon.” She finally admits that she’s leaving because she’s just not so sure about what she wants to do anymore. Hae-joon’s eyes swell with tears while listening to his mom talk but the conversation is cut short when the bus arrives. Chung-Ah bids farewell to Hae-joon and gets on the bus. Hae-joon watches as his mom leaves on the bus. Wow, this has definitely got to be one of the best scenes in the entire drama yet. Absolutely phenomenal!

Later on that night, everyone in the village watches the news report about the serial murder case. Yoon-young is with Soon-ae and her family while Hee-seob and Yoo-seob watch the news with some villagers outside. Yeon-woo is with his dad watching the news at their house. The first half of the report covers the story about the three victims as well as Soon-ae but the second half includes an interview with Hae-joon who confesses that he actually witnessed the face of the culprit and will recognize him the next time he sees him. Worries and concern for Hae-joon’s safety grows when they realize that his face wasn’t blurred during his interview. Meanwhile, Yoon-young jumps into a taxi after catching Hae-joon’s interview and she asks to be taken back to Hae-joon’s house.

Hae-joon walks back to his house that night and Detective Baek is also there hiding in the dark nearby. They wait for the culprit to show up since they assume that he would have watched Hae-joon’s interview and, therefore, show up to threaten Hae-joon. So Hae-joon also waits for the culprit to make his appearance but he’s surprised when he finds his mother standing by the front entrance. Wait, what is she doing there? Chung-Ah confesses that she knows who the culprit is and that Hae-joon too would recognize the face of the culprit. She takes out a small red beanie that she knitted herself and explains how the red yarn used to make the beanie matches the red yarn that was used to tie up the victims. That could also explain why the boxes of matches were from Bong Bong Teahouse. Chung-Ah dives into why she decided to leave: she couldn’t bear the thought of giving birth to a baby who belonged to a monster. That’s why she wanted to leave. Through Chung-Ah’s words, Hae-joon realized that his dad was the culprit all along.

Hae-joon goes to the car garage to check for the time-traveling car and sure enough, it’s gone (OMG!!). Yeon-woo himself shows up to Hae-joon’s house but he runs away in the time-traveling car once he hears a noise come from Detective Baek’s hiding spot. So Hae-joon runs to the time-traveling tunnel and he almost gets run over by his dad who’s in the car (wow he must have been really fast to have gotten there just in time!). Laying on the ground and slightly injured, Hae-joon looks up at his dad as his dad walks towards him. What his mom had said was true: Hae-joon will definitely recognize who the culprit is once he sees his face.

My Thoughts:

OKAAAAAAY! OKAAAAAAAYYYYY. We’re finally here! We finally made it! We finally got the answer we’ve been waiting for (I think)! I’m not as bummed out as some people might be given that we had to wait 14 whole episodes to finally reach this point. The drama had been giving away subtle hints the last few episodes so it didn’t come as a total surprise to me. Once it was revealed that Yeon-woo and Chung-Ah were dating, it made sense as to how Yeon-woo was able to easily access the boxes of matches from Bong Bong Teahouse. Then as we saw in this episode, he used Chung-Ah’s red yarn to tie up the victims. So it seems like the drama has set up Yeon-woo to be the culprit. If this is true and it is indeed the case, did Chung-Ah know all along? Or did she barely find out when she watched the news coverage like the rest of the villagers did? If she did know all along, she should have said something and been a bit more proactive as well. Instead, she decided to leave the village and abandon Hae-joon when she could and should have reported Yeon-woo to the police (which would have saved lives and a lot of agony and pain). Mi-sook didn’t do her part but I think the same thing could be said about Chung-Ah.