Trolley (2022) Kdrama Summary

Trolley summary & spoiler: A sudden tragedy brings the wife of assemblyman out of her private life and forces to confront her own troubling past.

Ep.1 The Prelude

At the police station, around midnight on a heavy rainstorm night… Hye-joo (Kim Hyun-joo) came to report that her 14 year old daughter has gone missing. Her phone is turned off and the female officer tells her not to worry, as statistics show that most girls this age run away from home rather than being kidnapped. The officer then asks for the reason that Hye-joo thinks caused her daughter to run away. Hye-joo reflects back to the event earlier in the day when she had a disagreement with her daughter.

13 hours ago

Hye-joo opened the book repair shop when a customer started chatting with her about her children. She told the customer that her son was 22 years old and her daughter was 14 years old. And Hye-joo smiled dryly, cutting the conversation short without revealing the truth that her son was adopted.

Hye-joo is not a social person, but due to her close friend, she agreed to have lunch with the mothers’ group at her daughter’s school. However, as usual, when asked what her husband does for a living, she evasively replied that he has a regular job. In reality, her husband is a two-time member of the House of Representatives in South Korea.

Hye-joo’s daughter, who is in junior high school, is an excellent student. The mothers invited her daughter to join the university’s research paper competition with her friends. However, Hye-joo refused.

Throughout the day until evening, Hye-joo lived a low profile life. She dressed in a simple and ordinary way, chose to eat at small home-style restaurants, and shopped at small stores.

Hy-joo’s husband has been classified as a good politician. Today, Rep. Nam Joong-do (Park Hee-soon) held a press conference announcing his plans to eliminate illegal land profiteering by politicians and high-ranking government officials. He wants to make South Korea a clean country.

Rep. Nam Joong-do tries to live by high moral standards as a politician and never uses his power for personal gain. Some people think it’s inappropriate that his wife (Hye-joo) never publicly supports him, but others say it’s an agreement they made before he entered politics, “She will not interfere in her husband’s political affairs.”

On that evening, Hye-joo’s daughter came home upset that her mother wouldn’t let her go to Seoul University with her friends to write papers for their thesis for the Resume. She even accused her mother of not understanding anything. Hye-joo tried to calm her down and explain why she couldn’t go, but it didn’t matter. When young people are prohibited from doing something, it doesn’t matter what the reason is, it’s not the reason they listen to.

“Why can’t I live like everyone else because of my dad… I’m not going, I won’t go, it’s over.” The 14-year-old daughter turned to her mother, slammed the door and locked herself in the room.”

Searching for a missing daughter

That night, Hye-joo enters to her daughter’s room and shocks to find her missing. She immediately went to the police station to report. All they could do now was search for the missing teenager in places where they thought she might have gone. For the entire night, Hye-joo and her husband searched everywhere they could think of, but to no avail.

The next morning, Hye-joo begged her husband to use his political power to get the authorities to search for their missing daughter. At first, he resisted, but eventually he agreed. He received a call from the police chief and the search for the missing teenage daughter began.

The search continued until late that night, when there was a phone call from the authorities informing them that they had found the body of Nam Joon-ho, the 22-year-old son of Rep. Nam Joong-do, had been found by the Han River at 8:55 pm. The authorities also found 1 gram of methamphetamine in his shirt pocket.

The authorities also reported that there was a witness who saw Joon-ho alone at a nightclub in Gangnam a few hours before his death, and there were surveillance footage confirming this. In addition, there were no signs of injury or violence on the body, leading the authorities to initially suspect that it was an accidental drowning due to intoxication or the effects of drugs.

The authorities question Hye-joo further and found that Joon-ho had a history of alcohol abuse and had recently been in jail for assaulting someone. Hye-joo informs the police that she rented a room for him to stay alone.

Meanwhile, the young daughter returned home and explained that she had run away to get her parents to pay attention to her. Hye-joo hugged her daughter with tears of joy.

Two weeks later, a young woman came to Hye-joo’s house and started banging on the door. Hye-joo opened the door and greeted her normally, but the young woman said calmly, “I’m pregnant with your son”

Ep.2 The Accident

The death of a son due to drug use, and the use of authority to search for a runaway daughter, have become major problems that have pressured Rep. Nam Joong-do to resign. His situation is currently not good, as the general election is approaching.

Soo-bin (Jong Soo-bin) takes the pregnancy test and hospital blood test results as evidence to confirm that she is truly pregnant. Hye-joo just sits quietly and listens, but she is stunned again when the young girl asks to stay at their house afterwards. Because she has no father, mother, or anyone to rely on.

Joong-do returns home drunk. Hye-joo tells him the story of Soo-bin and tries to persuade him to allow the girl to stay. At first, he refuses to let the girl stay here, but Hye-joo tries to make him understand, “She is like me when I was new here, alone, without money, without a father or mother, and when I was pregnant, I was around the same age as her. The difference is that I had you back then.”

The next morning, reporters follow and surround the house, asking for an interview about the case involving Rep. Nam Joong-do’s son and drugs, and his use of authority to have the police search for his runaway daughter. However, he avoids answering their questions.

Later, an elderly woman who has just lost her granddaughter to suicide after being bullied and filmed by her boyfriend, a medical student. She comes out and angrily confronts the reporters who are giving her harsh news. Rep. Nam Joong-do, moved by her admiration for him, comes to her defense.

When Rep. Nam Joong-do sees the elderly woman’s video confronting the reporters who have become viral on the internet, he comes up with a plan to divert the public’s attention and the news attack away from himself. This strategy is referred to as spinning the news.

Rep. Nam Joong-do appears on a tv show and admits to his son’s involvement with drugs and the use of his influence to have the police search for his runaway daughter. He apologizes and says that he acted wrongly because he panicked when his daughter had been missing for more than 12 hours.

After that, Rep. Nam Joong-do also urges the public to pay attention to the case of online sexual assault involving the elderly woman’s granddaughter, promising to strengthen laws to provide harsher punishment for the perpetrators. He finishes by attacking the medical student who released the video, saying that he will pursue legal action to the fullest extent.

The backlash shifted from Rep. Nam Joong-do to the medical student, and soon after, the police continued to investigate and issue arrest warrants. The student jumped to his death from his dormitory, leaving a note behind that read…

“Murderer Nam Joong-do.”

Ep.3 The Blame

Hye-joo takes care of Soo-bin like a member of the family, getting her food to eat and taking her to the book repair shop so she won’t feel lonely being alone.

The suicide of a medical student, who was targeted by Rep. Nam Joong-do in a live broadcast tv show, accused of being a cold-blooded killer who killed a young boy, the general opinion in social media is that the young boy deserved to die and praise Rep. Nam Joong-do as a rare and good politician who upholds justice.

But the person who knows best is Rep. Nam Joong-do, because his hidden intention is to make the public forget about his embarrassing news, in order to increase his popularity in politics. Because it’s not long until the general election. Even though he doesn’t think the matter will escalate to the point where the young boy will consider suicide… But that’s exactly what happened. In politics, it doesn’t matter what the truth is. It’s enough if a lot of people believe it!

Rep. Nam Joong-do feels terrible about the death of the boy. He asks his assistant to cancel all remaining schedules and go find Hye-joo. The first thing he tells his wife is, “I regret it too much, someone died because of me…” His tears won’t stop. The only person he shows weakness to is his wife, “…I made the parents lose their child.”

Ep.4 The Visit

Woo-jae (Kim Moo-yeol), an assistant to Rep. Nam Joong-do, unexpectedly meets Soo-bin. He calls her up and talks to her in the car. He speaks harshly to her, accusing her of being a prostitute. And saying that the child she is carrying may not be Rep. Nam Joong-do’s Grandchild. He also tells her to be quiet if she wants to stay at home, saying “if you want to stay at home, then stay quietly like a dead person, or if it’s better for you, just die for real.”

Soo-bin is looked down upon and her eyes are filled with tears. She quickly opens the car door and gets out. The harsh words that she never thought she would hear from the mouth of an assistant to a member of the National Assembly, are too much for even a young, worldly woman like her to bear.

Currently, Rep. Nam Joong-do’s team is investigating a case of illegal land speculation by the wife’s younger sister of a politician. who used insider information to buy land at a low price before a government project caused the land value to skyrocket by three times. The wife’s younger sister of a politician also seems to have a sketchy past involving her son, who has been gone.

Hye-joo sees a news report about an investigation into illegal land speculation by her husband. She hears the name of the perpetrator and realizes that it is someone she is familiar with. She goes online to search for more information and is shocked when she sees the name.

Ep.5 Confrontation

While Seung-hee (Ryu Hyun-kyung) was following the news that her mother was being accused of illegally profiting from land, she saw Hye-joo on TV. She immediately remembered Hye-joo. The next day, Seung-hee took the intercity bus to Seoul and knocked on Hye-joo’s door.

Hye-joo shocks! She never expected to see someone she didn’t expect to see, a beloved friend from high school and the first thing she heard from Seung-hee’s mouth was “Murderer!”

However, Soo-bin walked out. Hye-joo then asked Seung-hee to meet the next day.

That day, Hye-joo was feeling distressed. What was Hye-joo’s past that made her shake, her lips tremble, and her tears flow continuously, even though the incident happened more than twenty years ago.

The next morning, Seung-hee called and asked Hye-joo to come back to their hometown of Yongsan. Hye-joo agreed without hesitation.

Hye-joo got in the car and opened the GPS to guide her to Yongsan. Meanwhile, the flashbacks of the incident when she was still in high school returned. At that time, Hye-joo and Seung-hee were both classmates and friends. Seung-ho, Seung-hee’s older brother, chased Hye-joo and harassed her, going to her house and waiting for her. Until that night, Hye-joo refused him without hesitation and he hurt her out of anger.

Hye-joo was injured in her knee and all over her body. She went to Seung-ho’s mother to ask him to apologize. His mother came in and begged her not to report the case. At first, Hye Joo agreed. But while walking home, Seung-ho told her “Don’t be mistaken. It’s not like I actually liked you. If you needed money, you should have just said so. You pathetic orphan.”

What Hye-joo wanted was an apology and acceptance of wrongdoing, but she received the opposite. She then reported the case, which resulted in Seung-ho choosing to end his own life by hanging himself… and that was the turning point of everything.

Seung-hee confronted Hye-joo at school and accused her of being a “murderer !” However, Seung-ho’s death made Hye-joo feel guilty and she chose to run away and leave her past behind.

Hye-joo arrived at the meeting place with Seung-hee, but the person she least expected to see was there. Rep. Nam Joong-do, her husband!

Ep.6 Pain

Seung-hee, her husband, Rep. Nam Joong-do, and Hye Joo have dinner together… During that time, Rep. Nam Joong-do surprises to learn that both Seung-hee and her husband are former classmates of Hye-joo. It’s a mental battle that Seung-hee plays with Hye-joo, a mental battle that almost drives Hye-joo crazy. But he has to keep his feelings to himself so that her husband doesn’t know.

After dinner, Seung-hee and Hye Joo have a private conversation in the bathroom. “My family is falling apart because of you, but you are living a happy life. It’s not fair. Do you understand?” Then, Seung-hee tells Hye-joo to come to her house again tomorrow to ask her mother’s forgiveness for lying and causing harm by accusing Seung-ho of sexually assaulting and causing his death.

Hye-joo can’t speak and just stands there in silence because she knows that Seung-hee has the wrong understanding.

A flash back twenty years ago… before Seung-ho decided to end his life, he told Seung-hee that Hye-joo falsely accused him. After the funeral, Seung-hee’s mother also told her that Hye-joo falsely accused Seung-ho because she wanted money to go to college. When both people in the family speak the same thing, Seung-hee believes it and has believed it for the past twenty years.

In the morning, Rep. Nam Joong-do orders his assistant, Woo-jae, to investigate Hye-joo’s past because he suspects that there is something that his wife wants to keep secret. The previous night, he saw several abnormal things, especially the relationship between Hye-joo and Seung-hee, who claim to be friends but don’t look like it at all. Additionally, they don’t seem to like each other’s faces.

Hye-joo goes to Seung-hee’s house for their appointment, but in the meantime, the sound of someone pounding on the door becomes louder and louder. When both of them go to the computer screen to see who it is, they shock to see that it is Rep. Nam Joong-do in a fit of rage. “Seung-hee, open the door now!”

Ep.7 The Promise

Woo-jae calls and informs the story he has found out from the orphanage where Hye-joo lived when she was a child… Rep. Nam Joong-do finds out the truth about Hye-joo’s past and becomes emotionally disturbed. He quickly drives to Seung-hee’s house. He stops abruptly when he sees someone in the house. As soon as he sees the person in the house responding, he speeds off and crashes into the back of Hye-joo’s white sedan parked in the driveway.

The highly respected and admired politician, who is well-liked by the public and known for his cool and controlled emotions, at this moment, Joong-do is no different from a crazy person. He gets in his car again and sets out to drive recklessly and crash into the gate of the house to force his way inside. But before he can do so, the gate opens before he reaches it.

Rep. Nam Joong-do tries to force Hye-joo to go back home with him, but she refuses and tells him that she will handle this on her own. Then, Hye-joo tells Seung-hee that Seung-ho’s decision to end his own life is beyond her expectations. After that, the two of them argue back and forth until Hye-joo slaps Seung-hee’s face. Rep. Nam Joong-do then scowls at Seung-hee and says, “You can do whatever you want, but if you act recklessly like this again, I’ll take action.”

Ep.8 The Right Thing To Do

At one coffee shop… Ki-young (Ki Tae-young) meets with Hye-joo. He wants her to apologize to Seung-hee and her mother, so that the situation can be resolved… Ki-young tells Hye-joo that he believes she is telling the truth. But regardless, he still wants her to apologize, because it will at least help alleviate the feelings of the family who lost their son.

Ki-young speaks sincerely and honestly, earnestly pleading with Hye-joo.

Meanwhile, the grandma of the girl whose video was leaked and who attempted suicide is seeking to kill herself. Rep. Nam Joong-do uses his original plan, to create a good image for himself by using the family of the young medical student as a support for the emotions of the people of the internet.

On that day, he went on a live TV show on the same channel. He brought up the story of the girl’s grandma who became a victim and spoke about it, in order to create a trend of anger and direct it towards the family of the medical student, and that’s what he wanted.

Rep. Nam Joong-do said to his assistant “In the internet world, if we throw one person as a sacrifice, the people of the internet will follow and won’t stop.”

But the person who saw the way that Rep. Nam Joong-do created the scandalous image and disapproved of it was Hye-joo. She did not want her husband to use this issue as a political tool, and she did not want him to take the grief of the parents who lost their son and turn it into political gain. The parents did not do anything wrong. “I don’t want you to use this more than you already have.”

Rep. Nam Joong-do is refusing to give in. He wants to propose a law that would ensure the prosecution of sexual offenders even if they had died. He tells his wife that in the future there must be more retribution, because retribution will lead to pressure and result in changes in laws.

Rep. Nam Joong-do is saying that he is trying to protect people. He also says that if this law had existed before, his wife, Hye-joo, would not have had to suffer for the last 20 years. He said it’s unavoidable and willing to sacrifice something small for it.

Hye-joo enters Rep. Nam Joong-do’s office to look for something and finds his hidden phone in a drawer. She remembers that the night of the incident. Her husband had told her that the police had not found Jee-hoon’s phone. She unlocks the phone and sees the message inside it and shocks and the phone slips out of her hand.

Ep.9 Sincerity

Hye-joo found a message on Ji-hoon’s phone. This led her to realize that Ji-hoon’s death was not an accident, but a suicide.

Hye-joo tries to collect herself and walks to Soo-bin’s room. But she finds out that Soo-bin has already left the house. What Hye-joo wants to know is what Ji-hoon said before he decided to end his life. Because the phone records show that Soo-bin was the last person Ji-hoon talked to. Hye-joo thinks that Soo-bin might be staying at a single mother’s shelter.

Soo-bin goes to find her mother. After her mother abandoned her, they haven’t seen each other for more than ten years. She tells her mother that she is pregnant, but her mother doesn’t seem to care at all. At that moment, a middle school girl student walks in, this girl is the new daughter of her mother, named “Yoon-seo” (the same name as Hye-joo’s daughter.) The sound of her mother talking to the new child is different from the sound of talking to her. Soo-bin could only feel a little heartbroken.

After that, Soo-bin goes to see her mother again, but her mother still has a cold attitude towards her and when Soo-bin asked about her new daughter, her mother’s mood immediately worsened. “How would you know? If you just go to compete with Yoon-seo, I’ll kill you.”

Hearing this from her mother, Soo-bin’s eyes welled up with tears immediately. “I don’t ask for anything, mom. I just wish you happiness with your new child.” Soo-bin can’t help but wonder how much pain and deep heartache a mother’s rejection can cause. Her mother’s behavior is like that of a stranger and Soo-bin’s tears won’t stop flowing. She throws her phone to her mother and quickly turns around and walks out.

Politician of the Human Race

Meanwhile, the opposing politician finds out that the girl who became a victim of the medical student is a sex worker. When this news comes out, public opinion immediately views the law that Rep. Nam Joong-do is being pushed as meaningless.

After that, Nam Joong-do releases a video of his visit to the parents of the medical student. It’s a video where he just stood by and let the parents of the medical student vent without interruption, and allowed his assistant, Woo-jae, to secretly record the video for political gain. It’s a video that was staged for political gain!

After the aforementioned video was released. Public opinion began to change, shifting back to supporting Nam Joong-do once again. This is politics, the people who are said to be the owners of power, but in reality, they are just tools that politicians use to justify their actions. Even Nam Joong-do, who is almost considered a model politician, is no exception. All that he is, is just a facade created for political gain. This is called “Politician of the human race.” No matter the country, they are all the same.

Ep.10 Doubt

A man claims to be a friend of Ji-hoon and calls Hye-joo to meet at a café. The man says he had traveled abroad for studies. And upon returning to Korea, he heard the news of Ji-hoon’s death. However, the man’s main objective for the meeting is to find out if the child in Soo-bin’s pregnancy is truly Ji-hoon’s. Hye-joo confirms that it is.

Ki-young sees Seung-hee struggling with the death of Seung-ho. And she also wants to take down Rep. Nam Joong-do and Hye-joo. Then he invites her to move to Australia and leave everything behind, but Seung-hee immediately refuses. She says she can’t abandon her mother alone.

That night, Ki-young made a decision and called Nam Joong-do to provide evidence of embezzlement of the land that his mother-in-law had owned.

Nam Joong-do then uses the evidence he had obtained to negotiate with the opposing party in order to have both sides reach an agreement before the general election.

When Nam Joong-do returned home, he made the decision to ask Hye-joo to reveal her past experiences of sexual harassment during her high school days to the public. This would be used as a rallying for the public to support the laws he is currently pushing for.

Hye-joo thinks about it for a while. And tells her husband that she is willing to reveal her past of sexual harassment. But she does not want to appear in the media. She asks him to promise not to make her appear in the media, and he agrees.

In the morning, As Hye-joo goes to work. She is confronted by a group of journalists and a barrage of questions, “Is it true that you were involved in a death twenty years ago?”

The camera flashes blind her as memories of the past flood back.

Ep.11 The Nightmare

Nam Joong-do tells Hye-joo that he has made the decision to reveal her past to journalists. Reasoning that if the opposing political party were to uncover it first, the consequences would be much worse. However, for Hye-joo, the situation is not so simple. She has been carrying the burden of keeping a secret for twenty years and it is not a story she wants to easily reveal.

Nam Joong-do knows that his decision will affect his wife’s feelings. But he still chooses to do it because it will maintain his good political image in the eyes of the public, and ultimately lead to victory in the upcoming election.

Later, Hye-joo meets Ki-young to thank him for helping her husband expose the Youngsan land speculation. At that moment, Seung-hee’s mother comes and hears the conversation, realizing that Ki-young stabs her in the back. The mother becomes emotional and cries out, “Mark my words.I won’t let you two get away with this.”

Seung Hee’s mother drove away angrily and had an accident not far from leaving. Despite this, she was safe after being taken to the hospital. Currently, she is unconscious but stable.

Seung Hee’s mother finds out that Hyaeju is Nam Joong-do’s wife. This forces Nam Joong-do to beg Hye-joo to reveal her past sexual harassment case on TV. But Hye-joo refuses.

Meanwhile, as the two are arguing, Hye-joo’s daughter comes in and convinces her mother to go on TV and courageously tell her past sexual harassment story to propose a bill in the parliament. Hye-joo’s heart begins to soften.

The next day, Hye-joo receives a call from Nam Joong-do, who informs her of the news that has shocked her: “Ji-hoon committed sexual assault. So I’ll be holding a press conference soon.”

The flashback then shows that Soo-bin report Ji-hoon for sexual assault at the police station.

Ep.12 The Reality

Nam Joong-do calls Hye-joo and tells her that he will hold a press conference in an hour. Then he quickly hangs up. Hye-joo tries to call him back but Nam Joong-do does not answer. She rushes to his office, but it seems like it’s too late.

Rep. Nam Joong-do publicly addresses the nation’s media and citizens, admitting that his son is the sexual assault perpetrator who violated a female friend they were both dating at the time. Afterwards, the honorable representative announces that he will draft a legislative amendment to ensure that the investigation will continue, even if the offender passes away or commits suicide.

When Nam Joong-do meets Hye-joo back at the office, he sees her crying. He apologizes and says, “She [Soo-bin] was here this morning and threatened to reveal everything.”

Hye-joo is confused. She had asked Soo-bin since the day she first came to live at the house, but Soo-bin replied that there was no violation of any kind. However, when Hye-joo discovers that Soo-bin blackmailed Nam Joong-do in order to obtain 50 million won to find a place for herself, it only intensifies her negative feelings.

However, Hye-joo perceives that what Nam Joong-do did was to exploit the death of his son to gain public support for the law he proposed. He is using the tragedy of the son for political gain. Politics that plays with people’s beliefs and thoughts is not suitable for someone like Hye-joo. Politics that relies on manipulation of people’s thoughts.

The truth lies buried in beliefs

Later on, Hye-joo coincidentally meets Soo-bin and she went to ask for the truth. Soo-bin also tells her the same thing as before. That she was not sexually assaulted by Ji-hoon and she never went to blackmail Nam Joong-do. “I really didn’t blackmail him. I wouldn’t ever stoop that low.”

And before Soo-bin leaves. She reveals a heart-wrenching truth that shatters Hye-joo’s beliefs completely. “Mr. Nam was the last person Ji-hoon met.”

That night at home… Hye-joo asked Nam Joong-do about what she heard from Soo-bin. However, he confirms that Soo-bin was lying.

The next day, Nam Joong-do is talking to Woo-jae who is worried that Hye-joo will find out the truth. The truth being that Nam Joong-do has been planning everything for political gain. But the respected representative responds to his trusted assistant, “My wife never doubts me.”

Afterwards, Nam Joong-do orders Woo-jae to handle the exposure of Seung-hee and ends with a confidently sinister remark, “There’s no way to prove the truth anyway. Which means whoever wins the public’s support will be the one telling the truth.”

False allegations of sexual assault

Then the flash-back reveals the truth. In the past, the opposing political party used a recording of an obstetrician claiming that Soo-bin had come to ask for an abortion because she claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Ji-hoon. And so, the opposing politician made a deal with Nam Joong-do to stop exploiting profits from the land.

Later, Nam Joong-do met with Soo-bin to ask for the truth. Soo-bin answered that she was not sexually assaulted by Ji-hoon. But she had to say it because she needed a reason to ask for an abortion. And the child in her womb was not Ji-hoon’s but her ex-boyfriend’s. Then Nam Joong-do gave a lump sum of money to Soo-bin to rent a house.

That means the story of Ji-hoon sexually assaulting Soo-bin is a fabrication made up by Nam Joong-do for political gain and is completely untrue, not even a bit of it!!!

Ep.13 Infidelity

Hye-joo finally finds out for sure that Nam Joong-do did not attend the funeral on the night before Ji-hoon died, contrary to what he told her. If not, then who did the husband she trusted secretly meet with? Or did he really meet with Ji-hoon as Soo-bin claimed?

When Hye-joo arrives home, she asks Nam Joong-do about that night. He denies meeting Ji-hoon, but evasively avoids telling her who he did meet with.

Meanwhile, Seung-hee posts about the blackmail scandal of Hye-joo that happened twenty years ago on the internet, causing it to quickly become a viral topic of discussion.

Nam Joong-do takes advantage of the situation and persuades Hye-joo to go on TV to tell the truth. He suggests, “Since the case was never properly investigated, It’ll be up to the court of public opinion. The public will decide who is telling the truth.” But Hye-joo refuses and says something that Nam Joong-do didn’t expect to hear, “I’ll sleep in another room tonight.”

Hye-joo wakes up with a start, disturbed to find that a YouTuber has been waiting outside her house. She has to hide and escape to the other side of the house.

Worse still, the teenage daughter suspects her mother of lying, despite Hye-joo revealing the truth about being sexually assaulted. It seems that it contradicts the daughter’s belief that her mother fabricated the story for financial gain, causing the young man to take his own life. This drives Hye-joo to ultimately choose to go on TV to reveal the whole truth.

Nam Joong-do receives a call from Hye-joo, who has decided to go on TV. He orders Woo-jae to arrange for a reporter to go on the show tomorrow. However, Woo-jae warns that this action will lead to Hye-joo being criticized and suffering more than before. But Nam Joong-do still says, “I have no choice. For the greater good.”

On the same day, Hye-joo receives a call from the obstetrician who is in charge of Soo-bin’s care. Hye-joo rushes to the hospital immediately. When she arrives, the doctor reveals Soo-bin’s treatment information to Hye-joo. The doctor specifies that Soo-bin has had a miscarriage, and that she was pregnant when Ji-hoon was in prison. That means the baby in Soo-bin’s womb is not Ji-hoon’s. The doctor concludes that Ji-hoon did not sexually assault Soo-bin.

The various truths that Hye-joo receives make her feel unsure of whom to trust, as she truly does not believe anyone.

That night, Hye-joo asks Nam Joong-do again, “Are you really not going to tell me who you met that night?” He stays silent and then answers with a tear in his eyes that he had met Ji-hoon and he felt sad about it. which had made Nam Joong-do feel very uncomfortable and he had unintentionally let out some harsh words. Hye-joo then tightly hugs her husband.

While Hye-joo is sleeping, a heavy rain starts to fall. She quickly gets up to go to the book repair store to adjust the dehumidifier machine. When she comes out of the store, Soo-bin is waiting for her holding an umbrella. And tells her that he has something important to say.

“Your husband [Nam Joong-do] and a lady from the noodle shop [Yeo-jin] are having an affair.” Su-bin speaks in a low voice, but it still makes Hye-joo tremble all over. “Ji-hoon and I saw everything at your house. It was that your husband might have killed Ji-hoon.”

“What! Have you gone crazy?” Hye-joo scolds back, but is immediately rebuffed.

Soo-bin’s voice became louder, while tears began to well up in her eyes. “Ji-hoon told me he was going to confront his dad about the affair that day. And he died right after that. That’s why I think he [Nam Joong-do] might have killed Ji-hoon.”

Ep.14 Denial

Soo-bin tells the truth about everything that happened… At that time, she wanted to end her relationship with her former boyfriend who was a drug dealer. So, she went to Ji-hoon to ask for a place to hide. Ji-hoon then decided to seek help from Hye-joo. When he arrived at Hye-joo’s house, he saw Nam Joong-do with a woman [Yeo-jin]. This brought back memories from five years ago. When he woke up in the middle of the night and saw his father doing something with that same woman. Hye-joo considered her as a true elder sister.

And then Ji-hoon goes to find Nam Joong-do, to ask him to stop that affair with that woman. Otherwise, he will reveal the embarrassing story to the entire country.

But it turns out that night was Ji-hoon’s last night… Before he died, he called Soo-bin, which made her confident by 100% that he didn’t kill himself. And that it may have been Nam Joong-do who was the killer?

Is it possible that the father killed his own son!?

Soo-bin tells Hye-joo that she believes that Nam Joong-do is capable of anything to gain political advantage. Even if it means putting his own son in danger and potentially killing him for the same purpose. Despite how difficult it is to believe, she still thinks so.

Hye-joo returns home with a blank expression, but deep sadness in her eyes. She asks Nam Joong-do about relationship with Yeo-jin, but he denies it. However, the truth is Yeo-jin walks in and confesses to Hye-joo, “Yes, there is something going on.”

The following day. Nam Joong-do asks his assistant, Woo-jae, about what happened on the night of Ji-hoon’s death. Woo-jae then sends a clip recorded from the car’s dash cam. The footage shows Woo-jae catching Ji-hoon with drugs (meth) and instructing him to throw it into the Han River. However, when Woo-jae walked back to the car, Ji-hoon walked into the Han River, leading to his tragic death.

In the live broadcast, Nam Joong-do and Hye-joo are sitting in front of the camera. Hye-joo talks about being sexually assaulted twenty years ago. But the person responsible for the crime committed suicide before an investigation could take place. Nam Joong-do, who played the role of her husband, showed his support and comforted her with his body language.

While a flashback reveals Yeo-jin’s past conversation with Woo-jae in which she says, “Five years ago, I was sexually assaulted by Mr. Nam Joong-do.” !!

Ep.15 The Truth

Hye-joo appears on a TV show to tell the story of her experience as a victim of sexual violence 20 years ago. She wants to raise awareness about the issue and show her daughter that it is a serious problem. However, she is uncertain of her husband’s motives that he is only interested in using the issue for political gain.

Following the TV show, Hye-Joo informs her husband of her intention to file for divorce immediately. However, Nam Joong-do insists that it can only happen after the bill is passed in parliament. In the meantime, he requests that she maintain a normal public appearance.

Hye-joo looks at her husband with an expression of even greater disappointment, “How can you be so shameless?”

The Five-year-long

During that time, Hye-joo receives news that Yeo-jin has taken drugs and committed suicide, prompting her to rush to the hospital immediately.

When Yeo-jin wakes up, she reveals to Hye-joo the reason why she tried to take her own life. Yeo-jin had been sexually assaulted by Nam Joong-do five years ago, and had been living in agony ever since. She shares with Hye-joo the heartache and pain that have plagued her for the past five years.

On the same night that Nam Joong-do had assaulted Yeo-jin, he returned and knelt before her, uttering the same words he had used countless times before: “I’m sorry.”

Nam Joong-do’s behavior was characterized by a familiar cycle: he would make a mistake, apologize, repeat the mistake, apologize again, and continue the pattern until he could write it off as a mere mistake.

To Hye-ju’s dismay, Seung-hee overhears Yeo-jin’s confession about Nam Joong-do and uses it as leverage to pressure her into retracting her earlier statements at the press conference. Seung-hee is willing to exploit the humiliating details of Yeo-jin’s story to force Hye-ju to publicly admit that she had lied.

For Oneself or For the Public?

That night, Hye-joo confronts Nam Joong-do once again. He bows his head and apologizes, repeating that it was a mistake and an accident. The words from her husband’s mouth shatter Hye-joo’s composure. She screams in disbelief, unable to accept that these words came from the man she believed was a gentleman. Yet, he says something so vile, acknowledging that sexual assault can happen to anyone, and that it was merely an accident. It was an intention so despicable!

And once again, Nam Joong-do utters the same words, “I’m sorry, I made a mistake.”

But Hye-joo no longer sways by his hollow apologies. She is determined to expose the scandal to the public and demands that he surrender. “You have betrayed Yeo-jin, me, and the trust of all the people who voted for you. Turn yourself in. If you don’t, I will reveal everything.”

Big Decision

Hye-joo is feeling overwhelmed and unsure of how to handle the situation, so she decides to meet with the president of the party. The president had been the one who had initially convinced Nam Joong-do to enter politics, but when Hye-joo brings up Nam Joong-do’s scandal, the president asks her to keep it a secret. The president provides many reasons why Nam Joong-do is a good politician who can make a positive impact on the country in the future. However, Hye-joo is still uncertain about what to do.

Soo-bin follows Yeo-jin to the hospital and learns the truth that Nam Joong-do had abused her. She asks Yeo-jin to report the matter to the police. Hye-joo arrives and stops Soo-bin, saying that the whole matter is Yeo Jin’s own decision.

When Soo-bin speaks a sentence, it leaves Hye-joo speechless. “You [Hye-joo] claim to want to reveal the truth, yet you are ignoring another truth,” Soo-bin points out.

The next day, Hye-joo held a press conference in front of the media and the entire nation. “My son [Ji-hoon] did not commit sexual assault. I lied, even though I knew the truth. And my husband [Nam Joong-do] sexually assaulted a woman five years ago!”

Ep.16 Choice (Finale)

Hye-joo is struggling to make a decision due to a significant variable – her daughter. If she were to speak out about Nam Joong-do’s sexual assault, it would undoubtedly affect her daughter. However, Hye-joo has learned from past experiences that avoiding reality doesn’t improve the situation. She believes that this is an important lesson to teach her middle school-aged daughter: to confront problems head-on, regardless of their severity.

Assistant Woo-jae gives Rep. Nam Joong-do some advice during a crisis. He reveals that Nam Joong-Do is denying the accusations against him and intends to create a false story that Yeo-jin made up the allegations for monetary gain. “Your marriage is already over. So deny it at all costs. There’s no evidence. And people will have forgotten by then.”

Rep. Nam Joong-do remains silent, without any words or reactions, as his conscience battles within him. He struggles to determine the path he should choose for his future.

In the meantime, Nam Joong-do calls Hye-joo, who has been supporting him all along. Today, she reminds him to take responsibility for his own mistakes. As Rep. Nam Joong-do hears this, tears flow uncontrollably down his face. These tears indicate that, despite his false facade of goodness, deep down, he still possesses a conscience.

When Woo Jae is not paying attention, Nam Joong-do drives to a beach alone with the intention of taking his own life.

Woo-jae quickly calls Hye-joo to inform her of the situation. Upon hearing the news, Hye-joo immediately drives to the beach where she believes her husband might be. She arrives just in time to rescue him from drowning. As she pulls him onto the beach, Hye-joo scolds him for being a cowardly man who commits crimes and chooses to flee.

“I was so ashamed of what I had done. I couldn’t bear it any longer.” Nam Joong-do bows his head in shame and speaks in a sobbing voice that resembles that of a child’s.

“Then live with that shame. Live with shame and accept the punishment! Don’t run away like a coward!” Hye-joo responds with tears streaming down her face. She reminds her husband of his responsibility for his actions. The two of them collapse in tears on the beach, overcome with emotion.

Later, Rep. Nam Joong-do makes the decision to surrender and confess to his mistakes, apologizing to the people who trusted him to represent them. The party leader announces that Nam Joong-do has been expelled from the party. His once-promising political career comes to an abrupt end, leaving behind a legacy of disgrace that can never be forgiven.

Meanwhile, the flashback shows the events of the night when Ji-hoon drowned once again, but this time from a different perspective that is not from the dash camera. Woo-jae sees that Ji-hoon is drowning, but decides not to help because he believes that Ji-hoon is an obstacle in Nam Joong-do’s political path. Shockingly, he watches Ji-hoon drown before his very eyes.

Soo-bin confesses the truth to Jung-dae that the child she had aborted was actually his and not Ji-hoon’s. She explains that the reason she made the decision to abort was because she did not want to become involved with bad people like him again.

Seung-hee discovers the truth that her mother had kept hidden for twenty years – that Seung-ho had indeed sexually assaulted Hye-joo. Seung-hee feels deeply disappointed and hurt that she had been misled for so long. Nevertheless, she acknowledges that the truth is the truth and that no matter how painful it may be, one must accept it.

Seung-hee meets up with Hye-joo to apologize for the misunderstandings that had been present for so long. As they talk, they feel like they’re becoming high school friends again, now that the walls of distortion and lies have been broken down.

Six months later, at the prison, Hye-joo visits Nam Joong-do to file for divorce. As she is about to leave the visiting room, Nam Joong-do repeats the same words, “I’m sorry, truly sorry.”

Finally, Hye-joo’s daughter understands her mother’s actions and runs to embrace her, apologizing for being angry with her all this time. Yeo-jin seeks the help of a psychiatrist and after five years, she finally sees improvement. The psychiatrist notes the difference in Yeo-jin’s relaxed smile during their consultation.

Hye-joo starts living a simple life, running a book repair shop and finally letting go of the wounds that had haunted her for more than twenty years. The ends with a shot of Hye-joo’s happy smile, a symbol of her newfound peace and contentment.

The End

Image via SBS Korea
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