Contract Rules & Details

This is safe (minus the hidden spoilers) to read if you have watched up to episode 2 (some points from episodes 1 and 2 are recapped in episode 3, but aren't new concepts so they're not spoilers). 

Summary of the Contract

Myeol Mang promises to make sure that Tak Dong Kyung does not feel pain for a single day during the contract period (the 100 days before her fated death day) as long as Tak Dong Kyung recharges this protection before midnight each day (by holding Myeol Mang's hand). Myeol Mang also promises to grant Tak Dong Kyung one extra wish (something other than wishing doom upon the world). In exchange, Tak Dong Kyung promises to complete her wish for doom to befall the world before she dies. If she does not complete her wish before her fated death day, the penalty will be that the person she loves most at that time will die in her place. Ironically, that means she will survive, but she will have to live with the knowledge that the person she loved most died in her place.

Point by point:

• Myeol Mang's promises: 
  • Tak Dong Kyung's Pain
    • Episode 1: Myeol Mang will make sure that Tak Dong Kyung does not feel pain for a single day during the contract period / before she dies. 
    • Episode 2: Tak Dong Kyung must recharge this protection each day by holding Myeol Mang's hand before midnight. 
    • Episode 3: It's up to Tak Dong Kyung to hold Myeol Mang's hand each day in order to recharge her protection. Myeol Mang can withhold his hand without breaking his side of the bargain, but Tak Dong Kyung could use her wish to demand that Myeol Mang give her his hand, if necessary.
    • This promise does not mean that:  
      • nothing will cause Tak Dong Kyung pain (she can cut her finger), but Myeol Mang is obligated to take that pain away as long as her protection is "charged";
      • Myeol Mang is not obligated / able to fully heal Tak Dong Kyung unless the penalty is invoked (after the contract is made, Tak Dong Kyung's cancer is still there and if / when she doesn't recharge her protection, the tumours still cause her pain). 
  • An Extra Wish
    • Episode 1: In addition to wishing doom on the whole world, Myeol Mang will grant Tak Dong Kyung another wish. One of her actual wishes. "Not removing alcohol smell, but something [she] really, really wants." 
    • Episode 3: Myeol Mang says he regrets offering this second wish as an incentive to get her to accept the bargain because it complicates things (this is why he keeps trying to get her to use up her extra wish for a while).

• Tak Dong Kyung's promise: 
  • Tak Dong Kyung will complete her wish for doom to befall the whole world / for everyone in the world to disappear sometime before the end of the contract period (which ends when she is fated to die on March 2nd).
    • Myeol Mang believes that once the world ends / all people disappear, that he and the Deity will also disappear. When the contract is first made, he believes this is the only way he can die. 
    • Later on (starting in episode 4) he and Tak Dong Kyung believe that if he becomes the person that Tak Dong Kyung loves the most, he can also die if Tak Dong Kyung breaches the contract, invoking the contract penalty described below. 

• Tak Dong Kyung's penalty if she breaks her promise / does not fulfill the contract:
  • If Tak Dong Kyung does not complete her wish for the world to end on or before March 2nd (her destined death day), her doom / ill fate (i.e. her death) will transfer to another person: the person she loves most at that time. 
    • So instead of Tak Dong Kyung dying on March 2nd, the person Tak Dong Kyung loves the most at that time will die in her place. The world would not end (because she didn't complete her wish) and Tak Dong Kyung would live (because her "doom" was transferred) but her punishment would be that she would have to live on knowing that she was responsible for the death of the person she loved most. 
    • Myeol Mang first reveals the penalty in episode 2 and re-emphasizes that Tak Dong Kyung will get to live if the penalty is invoked in episode 3.

• Background / Additional Notes: 
  • Tak Dong Kyung is fated to die due to brain cancer in 100 days (on March 2nd, 2021). The tumours will cause her immense pain before she dies. Even if she has surgery and it's successful (and keeping in mind that there's a risk the surgery could fail or kill her immediately), her doctor estimates that she would still only live for a year at most. 
  • Myeol Mang hates his unending existence as Doom and wants to die, disappear or (at certain points in time) become a mortal human.
    • Myeol Mang cannot die / disappear / become human using his own powers.
    • Myeol Mang believes that if all people in the world cease to exist, the Deity (and consequently her creation: Myeol Mang) will also cease to exist.
    • Myeol Mang cannot end the world / cause all people in the world to stop existing using his own powers.
    • Myeol Mang is tasked with granting a human's wish on his "birthday" (note that his "birthday" is unusual - it "doesn't always come", it "crosses over the centuries and leaps over destiny" and it didn't end at after midnight on the day that Myeol Mang first approached Tak Dong Kyung). Myeol Mang believes that if a human wishes for the world to end / all people to disappear on his birthday, he might be able to grant that wish under those circumstances.
    • When Tak Dong Kyung wishes for Myeol Mang to die or for her to live longer (past March 2nd), he is not able to grant those wishes even though he wants to. 
  • Myeol Mang approaches Tak Dong Kyung because she wished for the world to be doomed at the right time. She meant the wish sincerely. Myeol Mang would not have heard the wish if she didn't mean it.
  • This contract would not be valid or enforceable under human contract law for several reasons, but Myeol Mang isn't human and neither of our leads are ever going to go to a human court or arbitrator to interpret the contract, so human contract law isn't relevant.

Edit: I've updated and shortened this post a few times to focus on the contract only, instead of broader plot details.

 daisycastillo:

Omg. Thank you for this because tbh I was confused 

I'm glad someone else could benefit from my attempt to obsessively keep track of all the details ^^

Thank you!

This is probably the best thread for this little theory:

The deity and her little plant are interesting. She's actively trying to stop Doom from getting involved with Dong Kyung because it messes with her whole balance, right? But the plant also seems tied to them. It grew because Doom felt pity for her. She also said something about love needing adversity? I can't remember the exact line. So I wonder if that plant is meant to represent their feelings, or Doom's feelings? And the deity is testing them not because she actually wants them apart but to strengthen those feelings?

Shout out to AH for doing such a great job compiling the important bits for viewers who are invested in the story but having difficulty keeping it all straight. Very nicely done!


Following in the footsteps of someone who posted earlier, I also thought this might be the best thread to offer something up... So, as a brief aside for those who are enjoying what's going on in this show: you might be interested in checking out Neil Gaiman's 'Sandman' graphic novel series, which plays around with a lot of very similar ideas in a similar way to what I'm seeing in this drama (so much so, in fact, that I'm half-imagining this drama as a live action version of an unwritten 'Sandman' story arc, haha.)


Anyway, enjoy the show, everyone! And keep up the good work, AH!

Thanks! I had to consult this after ep 2 because I didn't understand anybody's behaviour...

Isn't it too convoluted and full of contradictions? Was the screenwriter a bit tipsy when she thought of this?

One thing tho, from what I understood Doom cannot transfer her death. She dies no matter what. She dies in 100 days but IF she does not make the wish for the world to end, someone she dies also dies, with her basically. 

Hence in episode 14, when the D-Day happens, she does not make a wish and Doom disappears, since he is the person she loves the most at that moment.

I don't get why she ain't dead tbh hahahaha 

 Kate:

One thing tho, from what I understood Doom cannot transfer her death. She dies no matter what. She dies in 100 days but IF she does not make the wish for the world to end, someone she dies also dies, with her basically. 

Hence in episode 14, when the D-Day happens, she does not make a wish and Doom disappears, since he is the person she loves the most at that moment.

I don't get why she ain't dead tbh hahahaha 

No. In episode 2 he talks about her death transferring and in episode 3 he's even clearer: if the person she loves most dies as a penalty for TDK breaking the contract, TDK will live. Apart from the penalty, MM cannot do anything *else* to save her. He can't, for example, void the contract so that there is no penalty and also make it so that she doesn't die. The only way he can save her is through the contract penalty, which is why episode 14 played out the way it did.