AH

I put together some notes on the contract if you're still confused: https://mydramalist.com/discussions/destruction/62551-notes-to-keep-track-of-plot-points.

I understood the simulation part, but didn't understand what that world was meant to be exactly when I watched. Thank you for clarifying!

It's interesting that even though the writers didn't really explain what that world was (we're just supposed to figure it out by inference I guess?) the scenes with that world clarify that every time Myeol Mang talked about doom befalling the world, he basically meant all people disappearing from the world, which is not what I was picturing.

If you are confused about the details of the contract, or how the Deity affected the contract, I have updated my notes in the Rules of the Contract / Plot Points discussion thread (https://mydramalist.com/discussions/destruction/62551-notes-to-keep-track-of-plot-points).

If you are a new viewer, the first part is safe to read if you've watched up to episode 3.

I'm also open to feedback if you notice any inconsistencies or have alternative theories (about the contract specifically) to add.

"Why was Dong Kyung even scared of someone else dying instead of her, when she got into the contract knowing she is suppose to wish for the doom and the end of the world, hence everyone she loved would die anyway? The writer made her have negative IQ with that."

TDK found out about that penalty when she asked what would happen if she didn't wish for the world to end. She was forced to accept Myeol Mang's bargain and to promise that she would complete her wish for the world to end when her life was in immediate danger. It seems pretty clear that she never wanted or intended to actually complete the wish. That's why she asked Myeol Mang what would happen if she didn't. It makes sense that she would be upset about the person she loved most dying (at that point, her brother) if she didn't wish for the world to end, because this introduced a new (and very serious) consequence for her intended course of action (not wishing for the world to end).

She went from having a bad choice (wishing for the world to end) and a choice with an unknown outcome (not wishing for the world to end - which might have a penalty, but she's already going to die in 100 days so what penalty would really matter?) to facing two terrible choices: wish to end the world for everyone (including her brother and herself) or not wish to end the world which would mean that everyone gets to live (herself included) but her brother will die in her place and she will have to live with that responsibility for the rest of her life.

I'm glad it was helpful, but I'd add that there are definitely a few plot holes / parts where the drama isn't logical or where new rules are added or situations aren't explained.

The answer to your specific question is fairly clear, but even in this case we currently just have to infer that TDK's cancer has been cured because the penalty was invoked and MM said that she would get to live if it was invoked. But maybe they'll have a scene in the next episode to confirm it. Like a scene where TDK goes to the hospital and a test shows that her tumour is gone or something.

"I actually made a connection with a scene serving as an analogy to a larger part of the story from writing my unfinshed longer reply" - I'm curious about this!

I think we agree that the writers have not explained why TDK's death on March 2nd is sealed by fate so that MM cannot affect it (except through the contract penalty) but he can otherwise save her when her life is in danger before March 2nd, and that they should have.

It makes sense to me that MM was able to "save" the murderer - because "saving" him was actually dooming him to face the consequences of his actions. The show was pretty clear about that. We don't know if the kid would have died if he was hit by the car, so that one might not be an apples-to-apples comparison. It makes sense to me that since he can't change her death fate (again - except through the contract penalty and the writers should have explained all that ), he also can't heal her cancer / tumour, because that is supposed to be the cause of her death on March 2nd.

We have to rely on translations for the exact wording of his promises re: TDK's pain. Translations are never perfect (at least not for the purposes of contractual interpretation), which makes it difficult to determine whether he really violated his promise as it was worded in Korean.

Viki subs translate his promise as:

Episode 1: "I will make it not hurt. You won't be in pain for not even a day while you are dying."
Episode 2: "Since I told you I won't make it hurt." (Clearly not a precise translation.)
Episode 3: (per TDK's summary) "During the contract period of 100 days I will not be in pain."

Wastchasian subs translate his promise as:

Episode 1: "I'll help you feel no pain. You won't feel any kind of pain as you die."
Episode 2: "I said I'd make sure you don't feel pain."
Episode 3: (per TDK's summary) "During the 100 day contract period I will not feel any pain."

If his promise could instead be translated as "I will take away your pain." or something similar (plus the requirement that she has to recharge her protection), then he hasn't broken his promise. Each time she has felt pain while her protection was charged, he took her pain away.

Also, the requirements of a contract only matter to the extent that they are enforceable. Keep in mind that the contract isn't subject to human laws of contractual interpretation (which differ between jurisdictions - for example: some jurisdictions have an implied requirement of good faith, and some don't). If the contract was subject to human laws, it would've been void from the beginning because TDK didn't freely give her consent to be bound by the contract. MM created a scenario where her life was in danger, and told her that she could only avoid immediate death if she accepted his offer. Since her consent was given under duress, the contract wouldn't be valid or enforceable in a human court of law. But it's not a contract between humans, so human rules don't apply.

Since the show doesn't spell out the exact rules of how the contract binds MM (I don't like that the writers have not been clear about many of the rules that apply to the Deity and MM, but I don't entirely blame the writers for this part specifically - it wouldn't make sense to spend loads of time setting out the equivalent of lengthy contractual interpretation laws and it would be difficult to do it in a meaningful way - even if TDK asked, MM could just lie about the rules) and context clues tell us that he can generally get away with a lot, we have to assume that he only has to technically fulfill his promises under the contract and isn't obligated to do anything extra.

"If he made it so she has to hold his hand, it's his responsibility to make sure she can do it midnight every day. His obligation is to be available." He never promised to be available for recharging. Under human contract law, there might be an implied obligation there, but again, this contract is not subject to human contract law so we can't assume there are any additional implied obligations.

The show also never specifies what the penalty would be if MM did not uphold his side of the contract, because TDK never asks. So we can only guess. My best guess is that MM failing to keep his promises would mean that TDK would not be required to uphold her side of the bargain. So the contract penalty would not kick in if she failed to wish for the world to end, meaning she would die as fated without the person she loves most dying in her place.

My Deity point is similar to the one above: it doesn't really make sense to interpret her words literally. We are reading a translation, and even if it wasn't a translation, "void" can be interpreted in multiple ways outside of the context of human contract law. Interestingly, in several computer programming languages, "void" refers to a function that returns normally, but does not provide a result value to its caller. Which seems like an interesting parallel to the Deity making TDK and MM forget about the contract. They can wrack their brains for answers about the past, but their brain isn't able to return a memory (result value) to them. I think that's just a coincidence (even though the writers had the Deity talk about systems, programs, deletions, etc.) but my point is that the word is open to interpretation.

I don't believe MM has technically broken any of his promises that are part of the contract. His first promise was to take away TDK's pain for the days she had left (100 days) before her destined death day (March 2nd). He also added a condition that she has to recharge this protection by holding his hand before midnight each night. He did not promise to always make his hand available to her for re-charging (so when he did not bring his hand to her in episode... 3 I think it was? for a few moments, he wasn't violating his obligations under the contract). He also said she can use her extra wish to wish for him to give her his hand. He didn't say he would make it so that nothing happened to her to cause her pain (she can still cut her finger on glass). And he didn't say that he would heal all of her injuries or illnesses (if she failed to recharge the pain protection before midnight, she would feel the pain caused by her tumor), just that he would take away any physical pain she felt (including as a result of her cancer) as long as she re-charged her protection on time.

He has also stated that he is not able (apart from enforcing the contract penalty) to change the fact that she will die on March 2nd. He can heal her finger (but isn't obligated to - he could just temporarily take the pain caused by the cut away instead) because that doesn't affect her destined death day. But he cannot take away her cancer (even if she wishes to live longer) because that would affect her destined death day.

Why he *is* able to affect her destined death through the contract penalty has not been explained, but it seems like maybe some deaths are firmly sealed by fate (TDK's death by cancer) and some are not. For example, MM was able to save TDK from falling to her death from her roof before her destined death day. He was also able to prevent the murderer from dying from his self-inflicted wounds, although when he did so he was exercising his powers as Doom because he was forcing the murderer to face the consequences of his actions. He was also able to save that kid from being hit by a car when TDK was watching (it's unclear if that crash would've killed the kid), and MM said he wasn't allowed to do that but he did it anyway.

MM also promised to grant TDK a wish before her destined death day, but he didn't say that if TDK made a wish that he was able to fulfill, he would have to fulfill that specific wish. He also didn't say that he had to grant the wish immediately. Essentially if TDK makes multiple wishes (and she has), he can choose to not grant all of them (even ones he is able to grant) except for one, and he only has to grant that one wish sometime before TDK's destined death in order to not violate the terms of the contract. Since MM granted TDK's wish to see the doomed world before the moment of her destined death (when he ended up disappearing in her place), MM didn't violate that term of their contract.

I agree that the Deity didn't exactly void the contract in the legal sense of what the term "void" means (but I think that may have been a translation error or just imprecise writing, as the effect of the Deity's action was to make the contract not apply at least temporarily and potentially for all time if TDK and MM hadn't remembered each other, rather than a lie on the Deity's part). It was either temporarily erased (and the Deity didn't clarify that the contract would come back into force if their memories returned) or rendered temporarily unenforceable by MM because he couldn't remember it. I've included more notes on these possibilities in my response to Nav above).

The Deity did something more than only removing their memories (the marks that MM left on TDK's calendar also disappeared, and TDK's notes in her journal about the contract disappeared before returning when her memories returned) but something less than going back in time and making it so they never met / never entered into the contract. MM mentioned earlier that memories can be easily manipulated, after the Deity sharpened TDK's memory enough that she fully remembered seeing MM at the funeral hall. Although MM and the Deity can both travel back in time, perhaps they're not able to change the past? If so, the Deity might've only been able to change things in the present (e.g., erasing their memories and other things - like the notes in TDK's journal).

The writers didn't fully clarify the details, so there are several fan theories about how it all worked. To me, it seems like either: (i) the contract was temporarily erased along with their memories, and came back into force when their memories returned; or (ii) MM was not able to enforce the contract when he couldn't remember it, but after his memories returned, he could enforce it.

I think the second one is possible because MM has never stopped wanting to enforce the contract. In the beginning, he wanted TDK to complete the contract (i.e., complete her wish for the world to end) because he believed that was the only way he could die. Later, he was also good with just enforcing the contract penalty if TDK fell in love with him, as that would also allow him to die (the penalty being that the person she loves most will die in her place). And even later in the drama he still wanted to enforce the contract penalty (and die in TDK's place) because that was the only way he could save TDK. If the contract penalty wasn't enforced, he would have to watch TDK die and continue existing forever without her.

In the original contract, MM promised to take away any pain that TDK experienced in the days she had left (100 days) before her destined death day (March 2nd). MM later added a condition (which TDK accepted when MM re-created the impending-death-by-truck situation) that TDK must re-charge the pain protection before midnight each night (he said this was to ensure she didn't run away from him - as she had to be in his presence to complete her wish for doom to befall the world). He didn't make it so that nothing happened to her that would cause her pain (e.g., her finger was still cut by glass, but then he healed it as a means of removing the pain - presumably he could have left it un-healed and just temporarily removed the pain instead and that would still have fulfilled his promise) and he didn't get rid of her cancer (when she didn't recharge her protection before midnight, she felt the pain caused by her cancer until the protection was recharged by holding MM's hand). MM and the Deity have both said that (apart from the contract penalty - and the writers have not explained why the contract penalty is different) they cannot heal TDK's cancer / change the fact that she is fated to die on March 2nd. In addition to the promise about taking away TDK's pain, MM also offered TDK the opportunity to make another wish (in addition to completing her wish about ending the world) but she wasn't able to use that wish to live past her destined death day.

In return for MM taking away her pain and the extra wish, TDK was supposed to wish for all people to disappear / for the world to end (which MM believed would cause him and the Deity to also disappear - finally releasing him from his role as Doom) sometime before her destined death (again, March 2nd). If she failed to do so, the penalty would be that her doom / death would transfer to the person she loved most at that time (her destined death day). That person would die, and TDK would live. That point is covered in episode 2 and confirmed in episode 3.

In episode 14, MM died / disappeared in her place (he was the person she loved most on her destined death day and she failed to complete the contract by wishing for the world to end, so the penalty kicked in). Before disappearing, he said he would take away her sadness and her pain. It seems like that's not quite true and was meant to be comforting rather than a new promise to use his powers to do so, as TDK is currently (and it looks like she will continue to be) sad / heartbroken, even though she will try to become happy to fulfill his wish / prayer for her. Although he can't take away *all* of her pain and suffering, he can take away her destined death because he is dying in her place. So presumably her cancer is cured and the related physical pain and emotional suffering it caused will also stop.

Essentially yes. To clarify:

She did not. It was a dream.

I mean it was the only way to make sure he didn't die? There's plenty of things that aren't logical in this drama, but Tak Dong Kyung making that choice made sense given her options.

It was only selfish in a very narrow sense since she took away Myeol Mang's one chance to die as he wanted to, and also his best chance at saving her, and decided to reclaim her original fate even knowing that Myeol Mang would be forced to live on after her death. But unless Tak Dong Kyung actually wished for the world to end (something she was never going to do), one of them was going to live (Tak Dong Kyung) and one was going to die (Myeol Mang in her place) when the contract was broken. Now that the contract is void, the outcome is the same but reversed. Tak Dong Kyung is back to dying and Myeol Mang will have to live, until / unless the dynamics change again.

I *KNEW* it!

"...we are expecting some cool twists but writers have something else in mind." Yep. More repetition. As expected!

The premise has loads of potential, we know Seo In Guk and Park Bo Young are talented and capable, and the OST is fantastic. The only things left to blame for the way this drama didn't live up to its potential are the writers and the director.

In terms of specific gripes, I feel like the second couple story line gives me nothing to root for. Both of Na Ji Na's options are awful. For the main storyline, the writers included lots of hints and suggestions that could have turned into really cool plot lines (Tak Dong Kyung and Myeol Mang seeing each other at the funeral hall, the marble, etc.) but that ultimately didn't really turn into anything. Even one of the central challenges that Tak Dong Kyung faced (dealing with the contract) was suddenly removed from the plot simply because the Deity made her an offer. The price was the leads' memories, but they are obviously going to regain them very quickly. It's just not satisfying writing.

Instead of utilizing the premise to its full potential, the writers have instead focused on poetic repetition and creating scenes that feel like pretty pictures. What I mean by that is that many of the scenes in the middle of the drama involve Myeol Mang and Tak Dong Kyung, and sometimes her friends and family, being together and doing something happy (e.g., going on a date, eating a meal, etc.) and smiling while being sad underneath because they know Tak Dong Kyung's time is limited. Nothing meaningful happens in those scenes. It feels like the director is that camera man in the photo studio Tak Dong Kyung went to telling her to smile for the photo that will be used at her funeral: a posed "happy" image that will be used for everyone to look back on with bittersweet feelings when tragedy strikes. As if all these scenes are just preparation for flashbacks when the more tragic moments of the drama come about.

When you add in all the ambiguity around the Deity's intentions and when the leads really fell for each other (very hard to pinpoint given that Tak Dong Kyung was trying to force herself to love Myeol Mang for a while, and he was ostensibly trying to seduce her while denying his growing feelings for her), its just... not as clever, as satisfying or overall as good as it clearly could have been.

I think the writers have intentionally written her scenes so that her intentions were not always clear. Maybe they wanted the audience to be kept on their toes. But at this point, assuming the Deity hasn't outright lied when talking to herself or to Tak Dong Kyung (but acknowledging the fact that she seems to have intentionally said things to mislead Myeol Mang), it seems pretty clear that she at least thinks that she loves Myeol Mang (even though she has a very strange way of showing it with her tough love philosophy).

It seems like her actions so far have been designed to: (a) void the contract to prevent the world from ending and to prevent Myeol Mang from dying; and (b) push Myeol Mang to develop compassion / humanity (episode 8 suggested that this might be a path for Myeol Mang to become human), which generally means pushing him to fall more deeply in love with Tak Dong Kyung, but often the way she does that is by pulling them apart.

We knew from pretty early on that the Deity wanted to stop Myeol Mang from ending the world. She said she was willing to do anything to stop Myeol Mang from making Tak Dong Kyung "resign herself to the world" the way Myeol Mang had . I believe that basically meant she would do anything to stop Tak Dong Kyung from completing her wish for the world to end in accordance with the contract - which was the same wish that Myeol Mang had when he wanted to die. Now we've seen her succeed in convincing Tak Dong Kyung to void the contract, so we know she was serious about that part.

But she also helped sent Tak Dong Kyung up to the hospital roof where she would run into Myeol Mang after their memories were erased and the contract was voided. And in episode 7 the Deity said to herself that "A child must rebel against their parent to grow. Love must suffer [from a broken heart]/[hardship] to [blaze up]/[burn hotter]." Which suggests that she said all those cruel things to Myeol Mang in episode 7 about being responsible for Tak Dong Kyung's misery and telling him to stay away from her as a reverse-psychology method of pushing them closer together / making them fall deeper in love / making Myeol Mang grow. Same thing for her making Tak Dong Kong disappear from the world for a bit in episode 8 in order to scare Myeol Mang.

In episode 12, the Deity told Myeol Mang that her plant is him (Myeol Mang) and previously she told Tak Dong Kyung that: (i) this was her first time planting; (ii) she had been tending to the plant for a long, long time; and (iii) the seed is a "possibility" that grew up feeding on Tak Dong Kyung's misfortunes because meeting Tak Dong Kyung led Myeol Mang to feel more pity for another person than for himself for the first time. Right now I believe the plant specifically represents Myeol Mang's humanity, which is largely an extension of his feelings for Tak Dong Kyung (e.g., his comment after saving that kid from getting hit). If that's the case, then the Deity has been trying to get that humanity to "sprout" for a long time.

The Deity also said she always wanted Tak Dong Kyung to be happy, but she didn't use her powers to make that happen because if a person always got their way and everything came easily to them, then life would be meaningless. It's really hard to tell if she was being hones in her next conversation with Myeol Mang. The Deity tells him that she was wrong - Tak Dong Kyung does love him (but her actions over the previous two episodes seem to have been intended to make their feelings stronger, so she should already have known that Tak Dong Kyung loved Myeol Mang) and they Deity tells Myeol Mang that she always hopes that she's wrong and they (Myeol Mang and Tak Dong Kyung) are right. That a vain hope is still hope and a vain love is still love. My best guess is that she is indeed rooting for them, but she seems determined to only say stuff like that in ways that will make Myeol Mang suspicious / not believe that her plan all along has been to get him to love Tak Dong Kyung. As someone who often decides to do the opposite of what their parent tells them to do out of a contrarian attitude, I can sort of understand why the Deity would do that.

So there's been a lot of misdirection, but in totality it seems like the Deity has achieved her first goal (voiding the contract) and now she presumably just wants Myeol Mang to find his humanity / become human / have a happy ending with Tak Dong Kyung, but she believes it will only be worthwhile if they have to struggle to achieve that happy ending. The other factor that's not clear is how she truly feels about Myeol Mang abandoning his role as Doom if he does become human.

But on top of all that, the Deity's comment at the end of episode 6 about deleting or resetting something that messes with the system because it must have been programmed incorrectly was really strange. I still don't really understand that one as it doesn't really fit with all of the other things she said in later episodes and Myeol Mang wasn't there so she wasn't saying it to confuse him. So who knows? Maybe there's more to be explained with respect to all the system/program stuff they hinted at in the first half. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If you've watched the first four episodes and aren't finding anything you like so far, you probably won't enjoy the rest of the drama and should drop it. I would say the first four episodes were some of the better episodes out of the 12 that have aired so far, and although I've seen a few people comment that their favourite episode was among episodes 5 - 12, I haven't seen anyone who felt that the drama improved significantly overall after episode four.

'To make sure I'm understanding... Myeol Mang wants to die so Dong Kyung can live and enjoy her life?" At this point yes, but his reasons have definitely evolved. Myeol Mang originally wanted to disappear / die because he was tired of his role / unending existence as Doom. He had tried to kill himself in the past and wasn't able to. He also tried ending the world (believing that if the world ceased to exist, he and the Deity would also cease to exist even though they are otherwise immortal) and wasn't able to do that either. The rules of the Deity's "program" don't allow it. But the Deity was born out of humans' will, so the rules are different when it comes to a human's will. So Myeol Mang believes that if a human wishes for the world to end on his "birthday" (when he is supposed to grant a human's wish) and he grants that wish, he *would* be able to end the world under those circumstances.

Then, at the end of episode 3, Tak Dong Kyung declares that she's going to exploit the rules of the contract penalty (if she fails to wish for the world to be destroyed by March 2nd, the person she loves most at that time will die in her place) by falling in love with Myeol Mang on purpose. At the beginning of episode 4, Myeol Mang basically challenges / dares her to do it. At that point his primary motive for wanting to die still seems to be escaping his role as Doom. At this point we've seen evidence that Myeol Mang cares about Tak Dong Kyung on some level, so my interpretation is that the fact that Tak Dong Kyung would get to live as a result of him dying in her place is a very secondary consideration for Myeol Mang, but definitely not something he's opposed to. Like a side bonus.

A little bit later in episode 4 (when Tak Dong Kyung is going to sleep) Myeol Mang says "I love you. I'll die for you." (I've also seen this translated as "Love me. I'll die for you.") He says it strangely. Sort of tentatively? Or like a kid? Clearly it's not a confession like the one at the end of episode 9 when he sincerely tells Tak Dong Kyung that he loves her and that he's in love with her. He's still trying to convince her to carry through with her plan to love him so that he dies when the contract penalty is invoked, despite her change of mind. But I think there's room for interpretation as to whether he might have already started falling for her at this point and either his tone was a way of double-bluffing / masking those feelings, or he was just still in denial about or unaware of those feelings.

By the end of episode 5 / beginning of episode 6 though, his feelings have definitely developed. When he asks Tak Dong Kyung to do her best to try to love him, he says he's concerned about Tak Dong Kyung and wants to save her. She's skeptical and thinks he still just wants to die for his own reasons that have nothing to do with her. I think it's somewhere in the middle. His original motivation is still there, but he definitely cares about Tak Dong Kyung and I believe that he does want to save her. It's just really hard to tell how much he cares about the first motive vs. the second.

While the depth of his feelings wasn't totally clear / was open to interpretation for a few episodes, Myeol Mang's confession in episode 9 made it pretty clear that when he indicates that he wants to die in Tak Dong Kyung's place, his primary motivation is now saving Tak Dong Kyung rather than escaping his role as Doom. As he said in episode 9, he's not afraid of dying or disappearing (and it's noteworthy that he even feels the need to articulate that to himself, since dying / disappearing was his original goal) but he is afraid of not seeing Tak Dong Kyung again.

"I've been thinking of the plant as both...." I felt that the writers hinted the plant was only related to him earlier when the Deity said it was her first plant (since she also confirmed separately that he is her only creation) but the specifics of it are definitely still open / not fully confirmed.

"Like a quick scene not shown in episode 12 showing the pictures reappearing..." Yes that would also be very satisfying.