[Drama 2013] Thorn Flower / Spine Flower 가시꽃

[baduy]

Triton823 said: Which episode does it show who raped her mother or it is implied? Think I've missed that one.

[baduy]

To round off the week, here's my translation of the ep 56 text preview that jtbc has just put up.


Nam Joon goes to where Hyeok Min and Jennifer are getting married and says that he loves Jennifer, that Jennifer doesn't love Hyeok Min, and that this wedding is a sham. [in the video preview, we hear Jennifer responding that she does indeed love Hyeok Min and coldly telling Nam Joon to go away and stop disrupting the ceremony]

When Hyeok Min's family hear the news of the wedding from Seo Won, his mother collapses, and his father bans Hyeok Min from leaving on honeymoon. Soo Ji, who was at Hyeokmin's  house when she heard the news, has to hurriedly go home. Encountering Hyeok Min and Jennifer together, she tells him that he ought to be begging her forgiveness, even if he doesn't really mean it. [And in what appears to be the corresponding snippet in the video preview clip, we hear Jennifer inwardly begging Soo Ji's forgiveness, and doubtless for her part meaning it, though she doesn't actually speak aloud. EDIT: in the actual episode, though, she does speak aloud and ask for forgiveness, which Soo Ji refuses.].

[Triton823]

Thank you baduy for that. Will look more into that episode later this weekend! Can't believe that we are almost the end of this show 56 out of 120? Almost half way!

[baduy]

Looking at the way the plot is developing, and in view of the fact that such subbing and recapping as is available is missing a lot of the subtle characterization built into the Korean dialogue (it isn't really being appreciated by a good proportion of Korean viewers either, because the more discerning among them tend to turn their nose up at dailies -- understandably enough, on past form --  and so aren't watching or discussing this drama)  I thought it might help people grasp what the writer is trying to do in the coming episodes if I translated the character outline of Soo Ji from the jtbc site, which shows the very important role she plays in the plot structure.

I normally avoid reading these character outlines, because on the mainstream stations they are very often inaccurate and seriously misleading, but character outlines for jtbc dramas are much more reliable (and generally seem to be vetted, if not actually composed, by the actual scriptwiters).

Sadly, jtbc is the most paranoid of all the stations about protecting its intellectual property, and one measure they deploy to that end (alongside persecuting anyone who dares to offer "unauthorised" subs) is to put all their quite extensive character outlines up as graphics images only, This stops people cutting and pasting them into Google Translate or suchlike and producing "English" versions from the text. While this does protect innocent non-Korean readers from some of the dafter excesses of robot translation (and from the sometimes misguided efforts of people who think they can translate Korean passages by just looking things up word-by-word in online dictionaries) it makes human translation more of a chore, because having to repeatedly peer at a graphics image in one part of the screen and type an English translation into another window is much more time consuming that having the original as text and being able to type an English translation between the lines in the same window.

But since I get the impression that the character and significance of Soo Ji aren't coming across in translation as the writer intended, and since it looks like she is going to play a very important part in the next phase of the plot, I think translating her character outline here would be of considerable help, so here goes.  The formatting roughly reflects the appearance of the original as far as the emphasized bits are concerned.

Cheon Soo Ji,
28 years old, only child of Mme Hyeon, owner of the Jinkung Group.

A pure and innocent girl, quite unlike either Se Mi or Ji Min.

She was raised as the only child of a wealthy family, but unlike Ji Min, she is warm-hearted and candid. She grew up as a princess within her own family, and though she came into contact with many people, she could not gain much experience of the ways of society. She was always surrounded by nothing but lovely, beautiful, wholesome sights and sounds.

In that sense, her innocence could be said to stem from her lack of experience, and thanks to her mother's vigilance, she did not have the chance to meet many men.

So it came about that when, still very young, she met Heok Min through family contacts, she fell head over heels in love with him. In her eyes, he was a handsome, smart, outgoing boyfriend she could always lean on, but her innocence prevented her from seeing the ugliness within him.

As she had always resolved, immediately after she graduated college she became engaged to Hyeok Min. But then Hyeok Min deserted her for Se Mi and said their engagement was ended. Thanks to Se Mi's quest for vengeance, Soo Ji's dreams of pure love and happiness are dealt a devastating blow.

But that doesn't put an end to Soo Ji's steadfast love for Hyeok Min. In the hope of changing Hyeok Min's mind, she goes down on her knees to Se Mi and pleads with her, holding up to Se Mi through this devoted love a counter-image of herself.

Just as her innocence was once her weakness, her pure devotion now transforms Soo Ji into a woman of incomparable strength.

Opposing Se Mi to the very end and bit by bit bringing her true identity to light, she is the most difficult of all her adversaries for Se Mi to deal with.

Embodying an image of the innocence Se Mi herself had in the past, she confronts Se Mi with a reflection of that former self. This woman who is so different from her own vengeful obsessiveness is the source of Se Mi's greatest vulnerability.

[baduy]

Most of today's episode (56) will be plain enough to people who've been following the action so far, even without understanding the spoken language, but I spotted three points where they may need a little help.

1. When Jennifer comes back into the church in her going-away outfit prior to setting out on their honeymoon, what Seo Won slyly asks her out of Hyeok Min's earshot is she really doing this out of love, or as part of some plan (목적, the Korean reading of 目的) That doesn't mean he suspects that plan is vengeance: he's convinced himself that Jennifer isn't Se Mi, but he's equally convinced that she's as much a cynical manipulator as he is, and he's sending out a signal that she can't fool him, and he knows she must be after something (such as a safe financial haven now her "family" riches have gone). Of course, his attempt to show her how clever he is only highlights how thoroughly he's being fooled.

2. Jae Joon has, by contrast, never been fooled for one moment by "Jennifer" though he has been, and remains, mightily perplexed by what Se Mi is doing. But after seeing the newly-weds in President Kang's hospital room and observing her closely, he walks home, speaking inwardly to Se Mi and telling her he's now decided it's time to let her go. He says he's never understood why she has chosen to live as Jennifer, but he has to accept that that is indeed her choice, so he will detach himself from his memories of her and live his own life from now on. What that entails becomes apparent shortly afterwards.

3. When Jae Joon gets back home and catches Ji Min on the phone to Seo Won, he takes the phone from her and calmly tells Seo Won it's too late to be phoning someone else's wife but he can continue the conversation tomorrow if he likes. Then he makes to get ready for bed without saying anything about the matter to Ji Min herself, and she holds him back, demanding to know why he isn't making a scene in the spot. Does he care so little for her than he can ignore her apparent infidelity? He calmly replies that the reason he isn't making a scene is that he loves her. "I love you a whole lot more than that jerk does, that's why".  

[Triton823]

from the comments, does Jae Joon not know what happened to Se Min? I know he dumped her and walked out on her because of his cheating wife. I'm looking forward to reality to come rearing its head with the truth that his wife lied to him and that Se Min actually was pregnant with his child.

On that note, I'm not a parent nor can I understand the ways of them, but there is one thing I know and that is you NEVER EVER mess with a momma and her child. What Nam Joon and company has done to me is as unforgivable as the near rape. Though they may have their opinions as to why they HAD to do it. I think for the most part every last one of them need to pay dearly.

I just hope and pray they don't pull a glass mask and have the victim actually forgive the true culprit in order to bring down the bigger evil! That is a load of BULL to do that which is what I think will happen here. I can see Se Min forgiving Hyeok Min in order to bring down Seo Won. Who knows...still thank you @baduy for your insight.

[baduy]

@ Triton823 "Dumped her and walked out on her" doesn't really fit what actually happened. I think you may need to watch the opening episodes again.

[baduy]

Ep 57 text preview:


Hyeok Min's mother says she will keep Hyeok Min and Jennifer under close observation for a month to establish whether she should acknowledge their marriage, and during that time they are to stay in separate rooms as before.

Jennifer goes to President Kang's hospital room and says she will act as his caregiver, but the President feels uncomfortable in her presence and asks his wife to send her back home.

After that, Hyeok Min's mother devises a plan to disrupt Hyeok Min and Jennifer's first night together.

Nam Joon encounters Hyeok Min at a bar. Hyeok Min taunts Nam Joon and a fight breaks out. Nam Joon tells Hyeok Min that he's caught in a trap of his own making, insinuating that Hyeok Min's situation is as unfortunate as his own.


EDIT: The prodigiously patient may like to know that the mvibo subtitling tortoise has just inched its way as far as ep 18. Probably it will now go back into hibernation for a week or two more. I guess all those morale-boosting ads for the 2018 Winter Olympics have influenced its planned finishing date.

[Auntie Mame]

Let me clarify that I don't understand the Korean language.  But, my take on Jae Joon was that he didn't abandon Se Mi.  He was tricked by Ji Min, who spiked his drink, at the bar and awoke the next morning to find himself in a hotel room with Ji Min. 

Ji Min played this dirty trick for multiple reasons.  First, she has always liked Jae Joon even when he was Se Mi's boyfriend.  Second, she has always been jealous of Se Mi because of Jae Joon, the audition, etc.  Last and most importantly, Ji Min needed someone to make responsible for her pregnancy.  So, she got all that she wanted with one 'doctored' drink.

And, Jae Joon married her because he really believed that he got Ji Min pregnant.  And, not because he was in love with her, which Ji Min knew full well.  She also knew that Jae Joon has never forgotten or stopped loving Se Mi.

Red flags went up for me regarding Nam Jun and Seon Yeoung not revealing her son's existence to Se Mi.  When Jennifer first showed up at their home, I thought they were going to tell her the truth and introduce her to her son.  But, when they didn't,  I just knew that this was going to come back to haunt them somewhere and some how. 

They should have left the decision up to Jennifer, as to whether or not she wanted to pursue revenge, after knowing that she had a child that needed her.  By not telling her this life-turning piece of information, Nam Jun and Seon Yeoung essentially deprived Jennifer of the right to decide, based on all aspects.  /:)

[Triton823]

Auntie Mame said: Let me clarify that I don't understand the Korean language.  But, my take on Jae Joon was that he didn't abandon Se Mi.  He was tricked by Ji Min, who spiked his drink, at the bar and awoke the next morning to find himself in a hotel room with Ji Min. 

Ji Min played this dirty trick for multiple reasons.  First, she has always liked Jae Joon even when he was Se Mi's boyfriend.  Second, she has always been jealous of Se Mi because of Jae Joon, the audition, etc.  Last and most importantly, Ji Min needed someone to make responsible for her pregnancy.  So, she got all that she wanted with one 'doctored' drink.

And, Jae Joon married her because he really believed that he got Ji Min pregnant.  And, not because he was in love with her, which Ji Min knew full well.  She also knew that Jae Joon has never forgotten or stopped loving Se Mi.

Red flags went up for me regarding Nam Jun and Seon Yeoung not revealing her son's existence to Se Mi.  When Jennifer first showed up at their home, I thought they were going to tell her the truth and introduce her to her son.  But, when they didn't,  I just knew that this was going to come back to haunt them somewhere and some how. 

They should have left the decision up to Jennifer, as to whether or not she wanted to pursue revenge, after knowing that she had a child that needed her.  By not telling her this life-turning piece of information, Nam Jun and Seon Yeoung essentially deprived Jennifer of the right to decide, based on all aspects.  /:)

[Auntie Mame]

In my book, out of the entire nest of vipers, the worst are Seo Won and the Evil mother.  Neither of them have any conscience and is evil through and through.  Neither of them can be redeemed or rehabilitated.  >

In the ep 18 subs, Jennifer reveals that she wants her revenge to occur at the vacation home, where all her misery started.  Frankly, I hope her revenge plans are successful because I relish to see how Machiavellian she gets.   /:)

Thank you to Baduy for more interesting tidbits and the alert about ep 18 subs.  =D>

[Guest plummblossom]

Annyeoung everyone.
I just started watching this series and am very intrigued by it. I am looking forward to catching up and perhaps then joining your conversation if I may.
Nice to meet all of you. :-h

[baduy]

Well... with the notable exception of the fight in the bar, which failed to materialize and doesn't figure in tomorrow's teasers either (it's pretty rare for jtbc text previews to include things that aren't in the actual episode, though it happens all the time on the mainstream channels) the preview I already translated gives a reasonable guide for non-Korean speakers  to the parts of episode 57 that it covers, but there's a fair amount of other important stuff that won't be too clear from the visuals alone (including, maybe, Jennifer's secret expression of gleeful ironic gratitude to her mother-in-law for imposing the "separate rooms" rule, because it means she gets to undermine the family from within without actually having to sleep with Hyeok Min, as she had been steeling herself to do).

In the first hospital scene, President Kang almost gives the game away when Seong Min, struggling ro peel an apple, remarks that he must have inherited his culinary incompetence from his mother. Oh no, his father blurts out,  your mother is a fantastic cook! OOPS!!  [And another of the writer's contrast scenes: we remember how Nam Hee tried to catch Jennifer out by handing her an apple to peel, hoping she'd do it left-handedly and umask herself as  Se Mi, but no, along with undergoing surgical scar removal proof against prying eyes in the shower, Jennifer has also mastered right-handed apple peeling]

No sooner has the President bluffed his way out of that than Jennifer ushers in Seong Min's mother, Jin Yang Hee. Yang Hee warns the President that she will keep turning up like this unless and until he tells his son who his real mother is and allows her to contact him as and when she pleases. Meanwhile, Jennifer has rushed back to the house in mock alarm to tip off Evil Mom that if she hurries back to the hospital, she can catch her husband with Yang Hee, which duly then happens. Despite her show of being on her mother-in-law's side in this matter, both the President and his wife now correctly suspect that Jennifer is in cahoots with Yang Hee. The upshot is that Hyeok Min and his mother hatch plans, which Jennifer overhears, to send Seong Min abroad and cause his mother to disappear. Jennifer passes on the warning to Yang Hee and Seon Yeong, so that they can plan counter-measures. Jennifer tells Seong Min, without revealing her reasons (and still, of course, concealing from him that the "nice lady" she introduced him to was his real mother) that it's now time to tell Nam Hee the truth about his family. So he does, and Nam Hee is horrifed, not just by the fact of who his father is, but by Seong Min's admission that both Jennifer and Seo Yeong had told him long ago of the role his father played in Nam Hee's father's death. But after she's thrown him out, she reacts to her granny's cursing of Seong Min (parallel to her earlier vituperation against Jennifer) by saying that she can't live without Seong Min, and she knows he can't live without her.

As the close of the previous episode led us to expect, Soo Ji has a miscarriage. But she goes to the hospital alone and in secret, where the doctor confirms that she has lost the baby, and she doesn't tell her mother where she's been or why (explaining her obvious misery merely as a reaction to Heok Min's wedding). It becomes plain that she intends everyone to believe she's still pregnant. [And this is the character who's supposed to be splendidly innocent and candid??]

President Kang's visit to Soo Ji's mother in this episode is to plead with her not to walk away from the deal that will save his company and also save her daughter from disgrace (they both think she's still pregnant, of course). He stresses that Jennifer is merely on a month's probation as daughter-in-law and hints that he's pretty sure she'll be kicked out within that month, clearing the way for Soo Ji again.

The follow-up to that is the cliffhanger meeting, also at the Jinkung HQ, to which Soo Ji's mother summons Hyeok Min and Jennifer. She tells them, initially via Nam Joon [who has swapped the Unsuitable Pants he was wearing in the previous meeting for an equally Unsuitable Jacket, though I don't think that's of any significance in the plot: maybe every day is Dressing Down Day at that company]  that the joint venture which will rescue Taekang can still go ahead, on one condition: that Jennifer is fired from her Director's post at Taekang and replaced by another person of Soo Ji's mother's choosing. "And who might that be?" he asks. "Cheon Soo Ji" is the reply. "What? Who did you say?" splutters Hyeok Min. At which the lady in question makes her dramatic entrance with the words "That's me. Have you forgotten my name already?"

[Auntie Mame]

[Nam Joon [who has swapped the Unsuitable Pants he was wearing in the previous meeting for an equally Unsuitable Jacket, though I don't think that's of any significance in the plot: maybe every day is Dressing Down Day at that company]

My immediate reaction was 'Oh, Spring has sprung.' on the color coordination of his outfit.  Note the lapel flower.  (I'm not calling it a boutonniere because it's not in the button hole.) 8-|

The description of Soo Ji may have her as innocent and candid.  However, the role, as it was played by this actress, gave no indication of innocence and candidness.  She's more naive than anything else.  And, interprets the world through her myopic eyes. :-S

When Jennifer hurried to 'rat' on President Kang to Evil Mother, I wondered if Jennifer was making a mistake intentionally or not.  Anyone should be smart enough to know that her ploy of bringing Yang Hee to the President and turning around to tell Evil Mother would be seen through by the evil ones.   So, is this another step in Jennifer's plan or did she foul up?

Regardless of her actions, Jennifer has made a new enemy, in the form of Soo Ji, who is now out for her own revenge.   Perhaps, Soo Ji is now paying the price for providing Hyeok Min with an alibi on the night of the attempted rape.  /:)

[Guest yukiyoshinori]

atomickitty said:
As to Hyuk Min's father raping Jennifer's mother, is it possible that Ji Min is Jennifer's half sister?

[baduy]

Just in case anyone doesn't remember that bit, Soo Ji doesn't lie to provide that aliibi. She falls victim to her own naivety, plus a weirdly deficient sense of time and the wiles of Seo Won, who turned back the  clock in Hyeok Min's car and instructed him to make sure Soo Ji checked the time against that doctored clock as soon as she got into the car. Hence she believes what she says when she testifies that it was 11 pm when she got into the car, at a juncture when her mother had told her she'd already observed Hyeok Min in his car outside the house for quite a while before drawing her daughter's attention to it.

Anyway...

Text preview for ep 58

Hyeok Min seeks to gain Soo Ji's mother's forgiveness [ = so she will save the Taekang company] but she says that her first condition is that he replaces Jennifer as company director by her daughter.

Forced into a tight corner, Seo Won threatens Ji Min that if necessary he will reveal that Jae Joon is not Ye Ji's father, and this threat demeans him in Ji Min's eyes.

Seo Won comes to the President's house, and in order to be allowed to see Ji Min, reminds the President of the case of Se Mi, and of all the past wrongs in which the President and all his family are implicated, with Jennifer listening in.

[The video preview, what bit I can persuade the currently stuttering jtbc server to let me see, shows Seo Won forcing his way past the housekeeper, suggesting he's been banned from the house, maybe on the President's or Evil Mama's orders, possibly at Ji Min's request, and is now blackmailing the President into allowing him to see his daughter, possibly against her own wishes. Whatever, the clip shows the President clutching the back of his head and passing out yet again as a result of what Seo Won says, with Jennifer leaving her eavesdropping post, creeping up to his unconscious form and whispering "Are you alright?" in tones that suggest she dearly hopes he isn't rather than any intention of bringing him round or summoning help. This is strikingly unlike the standard Kdrama response to unconscious persons, which consists of screaming at them to "wake up!!!", and then, especially if they have just suffered major trauma making spinal injury or rib fractures all too likely, picking them up bodily and giving them a good shaking. A good thing all Kdrama hospitals have those Magic Drips that cure all ills, including severed spinal nerves and punctured lungs, except when the script decrees it's time for a lovely funeral with buckets of tears.]

[Guest yukiyoshinori]

I usually watch promising dailies to see if it hooks me. So far only this and Smile Donghae are the only ones that I have stayed with.

[elegance1]

plummblossom said: Annyeoung everyone.
I just started watching this series and am very intrigued by it. I am looking forward to catching up and perhaps then joining your conversation if I may.
Nice to meet all of you. :-h

[baduy]

There's not a lot in today's episode (58) that won't be fairly clear from a combination of the visuals and the preview I translated earlier, except maybe the very last bits. But to fill in the main points that come across from the actual dialogue... (I'll skip the Seong Min/Nam Hee vs Tetchy Granny sequence, because there's nothing there that isn't apparent from the situation and the tones of voice.)

Hyeok Min initially protests that Soo Ji has neither the qualifications nor the experience to step into Jennifer's shoes as Director, but Jennifer says she's perfectly willing to yield her position to Soo Ji. She later confides in Hyeok Min that she's sure Soo Ji won't stick with it for long, and anyway she has ideas about other aspects of the business she's keen to develop drawing on her US marketing background.

Handing over her desk to Soo Jin, she flaunts her framed wedding photo and marriage certificate, but So Jin counters with the ultrascan image of her baby, implying that when that baby is born that wedding photo and certificate will count for much less, Jennifer of course doesn't know Soo Jin has miscarried, and this reminder of what she is helping Hyeok Min to do to Soo Jin clearly upsets her.

After Hyeok Min and Jennifer have left the meeting, Nam Joon asks Soo Ji's mother why she's so keen to save Taekang despite how Hyeok Min abandoned and humiliated her daughter (he doesn't let on, of course, that he knows of Soo Ji's pregnancy and that that might be the main motive, because that's a secret he's learned only via Jennifer, after Soo Ji told her, and he's sustaining the fiction that after Jennifer declared her intention to marry Hyeok Min he and his family are no longer on friendly terms with her.) The answer he gets surprises him, and Soo Ji as well, when her mother explains that although Taekang rightly enough thinks it needs an alliance with her Jinkung Group to overcome its current financial crisis, the Jinkung Group itself has vulnerabilities which it needs an alliance with Taekang to overcome.

Soo Ji is clearly somewhat taken aback (as we are as viewers) to learn that her mother's stance in forcing her appointment in Jennifer's place (and, before that, supporting her daughter's marriage to a man she makes no secret of mistrusting and disliking) was dictated by business necessities rather than concern for her, but Soo Ji puts a brave face on it and says she doesn't mind that: she's willing to do anything and everything that will make Jennifer suffer.

As the preview anicipated, Seo Won, frustrated that Ji Min is refusing to jettison her husband and marry him, decides to force the issue. When she says on the phone that she won't consider a divorce, if only for the effect it would have on her daughter, he counters that in that case he'll reveal that Jae Joon isn't the girl's father so the child will suffer a lot more. Ji Min is so shocked and disgusted by this threat that she says she wants nothing more to do with him. But he insists that he won't take no for an answer and is coming right over to the house to press his case with her. That's why Ji Min tells her mother of his impending visit and flees the house with her, after her mother has briefed her husband and told him to put the unwanted visitor in his place then throw him out.

But Seo Won, finding only President Kang at home, is not intimidated. He resorts to a series of escalating threats of what he'll do if the President doesn't agree to accept him as his son-in-law, starting with making public the President's affair with Jin Yang Hee and the paternity of Seong Min. When that leads the President to hint that he has a lot of muck he could rake up about him and his father, too, Seo Won reminds him that he is now an influential prosecutor and his father a powerful Congressman. Just as Jennifer enters the house and starts to overhear what's being said in the study, Seo Won is asking the President scathingly whether he doesn't realise he and his father could get off the hook if he accused them, especially since to do so he would have to reveal the whole extent of his family's crimes in the case of Se Mi, and in particular the President's wife's responsibility for the murder of Se Mi's mother. (That's the point where Jennifer is on the point of blowing her cover by bursting in on them, but she manages to restrain herself).

Jennifer repairs to her secret vengeance-plotting HQ and makes a video call to a document forger in the US, after speaking to one of her helpers on the phone to confirm that "all the arrangements are in place". It emerges that now that the takeover of her adoptive father's business empire has stopped her being a desirable ally for Taekang, she has devised a scheme by which she will appear still to be extremely rich and a brilliant "catch". The forger shows images of the documents he has prepared (and which are now on their way to Korea in the mail) which attest that Jennifer is heir to a legacy of  $150 million.

Back at the mansion, the envelope duly arrives for Jennifer in her absence, and, just as she planned, Ji Min and her mother waste no time in surreptitiously opening it and discovering the forged papers. Neither of them is too hot on English, but they recognise bank notepaper and dollar signs with lots of zeroes after them when they see them, and so they immediately fax the documents through to Hyeok Min at his office, who in turn sends them for inspection to the chief company attorney, who verifies that they are genuine and that Hyeok Nin is married to a fabulously wealthy heiress. Hyeok Min tells Director Seo and the attorney that they must on no account breathe a word of it to any of his family.

The cliffhanger scene starts with Jennifer returning to the house and being asked mockingly by Ji Min why she's coming in at two o'clock in the afternoon instead of being still hard at at work. Jennifer breezily replies that this is her house, so she can come and go as she likes. Ji Min and her mother are outraged at Jennifer's temerity in calling it "her" house, but then Hyeok Min comes in and confirms that she's every right to call it that, since he has just had the property  transferred to his and her joint names. Jennifer goes off to her room, leaving Hyeok Min to fend of the protests of his sister and mother, and has the satisfaction of hearing him say that they can forget about ever again trying to throw Jennifer out. From now on, she'll be the one who decides who has to leave and who can stay.

[Auntie Mame]

Okay, this drama is moving into dangerous territory by using unsustainable plot devices, i.e., pregnancy and lack of wealth.

These are two items that, over time, cannot be concealed.   One can create or doctor up a CV.  But, one can hide neither the existence nor the non-existence of a pregnancy.  (Regardless of how easily k-dramas make it possible to go away, pretend to deliver the baby and return with an adopted baby.)  As for wealth, sooner or later, it needs to be 'coughed up'.  8-|

It is interesting that, 7 yrs ago, Ji Min won't give the time of day to Seo Won.  But, 7 yrs later, she has an affair with him; risking a scandal to her career and family.  Of course, even the affair is totally self-centered.  She had the affair because of her frustration with her loveless marriage, which was of her own making.  She should have spiked Seo Won's drink, instead of Je Joon's.  Since he was so smitten with her, I think Seo Won would have been happy to be father of her child.

And, I really believe that Seo Won's action of aiding and abetting Hyuk Min, in the attempted rape of Se Mi, was his attempt at ingratiating himself and making the Kang family indebted to him.  Thereby, making Ji Min fall in love with him. (Delusion will kill ya' every time.) :-<