AH

"I assume this is a situation where this is how it went in the novel so we have to go this way even if it doesn't entirely make sense for the drama character?"

I think it's kind of the opposite actually.

Novel spoilers ahead.

In the novel, Sim Gyu Jin is the mastermind and the real Bake Sa Eon and Park Do Jae are her pawns. She is the connection between them, and it's not clear whether Park Do Jae would've ever directly communicated with the real Baek Sa Eon in the novel or if all of his communications would've gone through Sim Gyu Jin.

I think the drama might've changed the details in order to keep viewers (even those who read the novel) on their toes / to avoid the possibility of novel spoilers ruining the surprise for drama viewers. Sometimes asian dramas also shy away from having parents go full villain... but since the drama also added Sim Gyu Jin killing Baek Jang Ho herself, that doesn't seem to be the case here.

Thanks for saying that. ^^

Yes, talking with other fans here and going back to re-watch to clarify details has definitely helped with connecting the dots!

I can provide some details of how his plan unfolded in the novel, if you like?

Each of the four orphans who went missing first went to the Baek family country mansion themselves after Ji Sang Woo told them about all the toys he played with there (and Ji Sang Woo evidently feels quite guilty about this). They were not kidnapped. It is implied that the real Baek Sa Eon killed each of those orphans at the mansion, and then Baek Jang Ho (the real Baek Sa Eon's grandfather) sent their bodies to the fisherman to be discretely disposed of so that his grandson's crimes would not be exposed and stain the Baek family's reputation. Ji Sang Woo might have been the real Baek Sa Eon's first human victim if he had not run away (and never returned to the mansion) after seeing the cat that the real Baek Sa Eon killed and hearing the creepy things he said afterwards.

Only one of the twins from the orphanage went missing and was killed by the real Baek Sa Eon. The other twin (Park Do Jae) survived.

Park Do Jae mistakenly believed that the male lead (who was forced to secretly replace the real Baek Sa Eon) was the one who killed his twin.

The kidnapper with heterochromia (different coloured eyes) is indeed the real Bake Sa Eon. He is not Park Do Jae's twin. He is the one who actually killed Park Do Jae's twin.

Edit: Thanks for updating your first comment to mark it as a spoiler!

I agree. I think it's very, very unlikely and even a sibling fake-out would feel very out of place with the romantic set up that we've gotten so far. And yet, when it comes to over-the-top dramas like this where we frequently have to suspend our disbelief... it's hard to say that it's completely impossible.

I think HHJ likely does know that Baek Jang Ho specifically was behind the crash, even though it hasn't been 100% confirmed on screen.

HIA realized that Baek Jang Ho was likely the person behind the crash and was the one who got Chairman Hong to cover it up after he had thoroughly investigated it, and implied as much in front of HHJ in episode 10. And it seemed like they did tell Chairman Hong that the real BSE was alive and that he was "the culprit", which also implies that Chairman Hong first told HIA and HHJ what his deal with Baek Jang Ho entailed, as HHJ said that she wouldn't tell him who the culprit was until he told them about the deal.

There's a famous Japanese drama that has this trope (actual siblings)... and a famous Korean drama that has something similar. So admittedly these fans are not coming up with that possibility out of nowhere.

The scene with HHJ at the end of episode 11 takes place around Christmas (as the Christmas tree did not disappear, even after all of the other elements of HHJ's imagined scenario did disappear). The rest of the drama took place in June 2024. So viewers are guessing that the end-of-the-episode scene takes place six months after the scene with the gunshot sound.

The phone call that HHJ received in that scene comes in at at exactly 10:00 pm / 22:00 Korean Standard Time from an international phone number that begins with 604 (which mirrors 406). So HHJ guesses that the call might be coming from the male lead, even though it's implied that she hasn't seen him in a long time ("Only now, after he's gone..."). Perhaps she hasn't seen him for the whole six months since the night of the gunshot.

I feel like there's a good chance that the real BSE (and not the male lead) was the one who was shot, but I'm not sure how the male lead would end up disappearing in that scenario. I guess we'll find out in the last episode. ^^

In the drama, HHJ does know that the crash was not a random accident.

In episode 10 (minute 50:19 on Netflix), HHJ was with HIA when HIA asked her father why he covered up the fact that the car crash was orchestrated (after investigating it so thoroughly) and what kind of deal he made with Chairman Baek Jang Ho. The audience sees Chairman Hong's memory / flashback to the deal he made with Baek Jang Ho. The way the scene is cut, it's not clear if he told HIA and HHJ about the deal or not. But HHJ wasn't going to tell Chairman Hong that the kidnapper was the real BSE until he told them about the specifics of the deal he made.

After that conversation, HHJ and HIA accompanied Chairman Hong when he brought a shotgun to Baek Jang Ho's one-year memorial service and confronted Baek Eui Yong. Based on what he said to Baek Eui Yong, it seemed like HHJ told Chairman Hong that the real BSE was the kidnapper (i.e., the real BSE was still alive, despite the fact that Baek Jang Ho told Chairman Hong that he was dead).

We saw that HIA knew that Chairman Hong made an agreement with Baek Jang Ho in episode 8 because HIA overheard HHJ's mother talking about it ("the one who is all ears and loose tongued" - who we see also eavesdropping on that conversation between HIA and Chairman Hong). HIA realized that the agreement must be related to the car crash. After the car crash, Chairman Hong was angry for a while and investigated it thoroughly, and then suddenly he stopped. Or someone else made him stop. HIA realized the "someone" was probably Baek Jang Ho.

Also in episode 8, we see a flashback of Chairman Hong telling Baek Eui Yong and Sim Gyu Jin about the deal he made with Baek Jang Ho (and he shows them the contract he made with Baek Jang Ho) before HHJ and the male lead's wedding, when Baek Eui Yong and Sim Gyu Jin protested after Chairman Hong said that the male lead would marry HHJ instead of HIA.

Plus HHJ survived two car crashes without major injuries before the car crash in episode 10 (one as a child and one when the kidnapper first appeared) and the male lead survived a fire and explosion in his secondary office in episode 2 before he survived the fire and explosion in the fisherman's shack in episode 8.

Not episode cliffhangers like your examples, but they definitely add to the repetition.

Novel spoilers ahead.

In the novel, the kidnapper's internet phone was rigged so that it could make calls from an international number starting with 406 from South Korea. Later, the male lead used a similar phone to make calls from Argan (the novel's fictional version of Afghanistan, where he went after faking his death) from an international number that started with 675. In chapter 64, the female lead was told that the calls were coming from Papua New Guinea. The country code for Papua New Guinea is 675.

In the drama, the male lead could also be calling HHJ from Argan with an international number beginning with 604 in the same way that the male lead made calls from a 675 number from Argan in the novel.

You're welcome!

Novel spoilers ahead.

In addition to that point about unnie vs. noona (which I completely agree with), the real Baek Sa Eon also addresses HHJ that way in the novel, where it's established that the real Baek Sa Eon had no idea that the male lead was Baek Jang Ho's illegitimate son (and the real Baek Sa Eon's uncle), even in the moments before the real Baek Sa Eon died. The real Baek Sa Eon thought the male lead was the fisherman's son.

So, in the novel at least, that form of address had nothing to do with the fact that the real Baek Sa Eon thought he was actually blood-related to HHJ's husband, because he didn't think that they were blood-related.

You're welcome! And totally understandable. The drama makes it really hard to tell, especially since they aged the brother up.

In chapter 37 of the novel, the little brother was directly stated to be HHJ's mother's youngest child and he was closer to a year old when the car crash happened. It was implied that Chairman Hong married HHJ's mother (a lounge singer who became Chairman Hong's mistress) because she became pregnant with his son.

Based on what others have commented in this comment section before, this (using the wrong form of address, such as a male speaker like the real BSE addressing HHJ as if he were her younger sister or similar close female friend or relation) is a semi-common trope that is used in KDramas to indicate that the villain is unhinged because it sounds so "off" / unsettlingly wrong to a Korean speaker's ears.

I agree this is a possibility.

Also, I think it's worth noting that while HIA and HHJ are step-sisters, the boy who died was a half brother to both of them (born of HIA's father and HHJ's mother). He was HHJ's only blood-related sibling, not her step brother. And the car crash also killed their nanny, who was driving the car.

His close one?

Fun! Feel free to add it. ^^

Some fans are wildly speculating that the real BSE whispered that in the male lead's ear, but it is very, very, very unlikely to be true.

I didn't notice it the first time I watched, but not only did he call with a "604" number that mirrors her old "406" number, he also called her at *exactly* 10:00 pm / 22:00 Korean Standard Time. Their usual time. ^^