A Tale about Sodeok-dong – II
In the morning, Ra-mi prepares her style of gimbap for Young Woo. Young Woo who crashed at Ra-mi’s because of the fight with her father, tells that she was uncomfortable all night as it is a new place. Ra-mi and Young Woo sit to have breakfast. Young Woo says the gimbap is surprisingly and strangely good and they start giggling. Young Woo says she will find a new place for her as she is also an adult now. Ra-mi asks if she can afford it (This lovely duo has all my heart. For a second, I thought Ra-mi is gonna ask if Young Woo can manage alone).
In Hanbada, everyone gossips about the article written on the anonymous bulletin board which says “Exposing Hanbada’s corrupt hiring practices. Recently, I found out that a rookie attorney at Hanbada benefited from firm nepotism. Unlike the other rookies, this attorney joined the firm after the formal recruitment process. She did not principate in the training for rookies either. How is this possible? Wasn’t it because this rookie attorney’s father and the attorney at the highest position in Hanbada went to school together? I truly feel robbed seeing someone use personal connections to be handed the job of the attorney, which I gave up my youth to earn”. Everyone links that it is Young Woo but she goes to her office unbothered.
In Attorney Jung’s office, Jung and Choi reads the article. Choi mocks Kwon saying “I am sorry that you felt robbed”. She then directly asks if he is the one who wrote the post about Young Woo. Kwon struggles to reply. Young Woo enters the office at this point and everyone settles down for the meeting. CEO Han joins them and asks for updates about the case. She says they are already losing and impressing Judges by showing them the site is a romantic method but not everything works that way and asks them to come up with a way to solve this politically and less romantically. She also mentions the post on the bulletin board and says that kind of groundless rumours won’t work and says they should not lose against Su-mi.
After the meeting, Attorney Choi pulls Young Woo into the hallway and asks if she saw the post on the bulletin board and says it is about her. Young Woo asks why it is her and Choi says she is the only one who joined the firm after the recruitment process. Young Woo says it is true that she joined the firm through connections. Choi notices that they are grabbing attention and with her loud voice she says all the students from the SNU university with good grades do their internships at major law firms and get employed before graduating. But Young Woo was always top in school but still was not hired anywhere. Everyone knows that it is unfair but nobody did anything including herself because it was none of their business. Young Woo says she has autism. Choi loses it and shouts “Hey” which makes everyone including Attorney Kwon stop. She says discrimination against the disabled is legally prohibited. The reason she did not get the job was discrimination so no matter what they say, it is only fair for Young Woo to join the firm. Attorney Kwon leaves and Choi tells Young Woo that Kwon is the one who wrote that article and asks her to smack his head or punch his stomach hard when she finds him alone. Young Woo says it is crime, to which Choi says she should not let people walk all over her. She also asks to remember what CEO said about being political rather than romantic.
At the Sodeok-dong site, it pours. Hanbada team reaches first and is worried. Su-mi and her team reach and pull out Taesan umbrella. Attorney Jung asks if Hanbada does not have any umbrella and Jun Ho pulls out Hanbada’s umbrella for them. Finally, the Judges arrive. Young Woo notices a dolphin symbol on the Judge’s umbrella. Attorney Choi asks Han-Su to lead the way just like he did for them. Han-Su takes them to Heung-min’s house and Attorney Jung explains that the resident calls each other by nicknames. But Heung-sim seems off and asks Han-Su to not call him that. Everyone is confused why he is acting that way when Su-mi says Heung-sim signed the Land Expropriation Compensation Amount that Gyeonghae-ho newly offered. Han-Su is in disbelief. And they realise that most of their resident did sign the consent form. Attorney Jung says if Gyeonghae-do decided to raise the compensation amount, they should have let the Residents Countermeasures Committee know first. He says, there is nothing the consent forms can prove as it is not official. He also says they are merely trying to divide the residents with those forms.
The Judges agree to only look around the site. Attorney Jung asks Han-Su to show them the hackberry tree and to skip introductions. They start hiking to see the tree. The Judge slips in his way where Young Woo did last time, and without refraining, Young Woo says that is why she is wearing sneakers today. The Judge is annoyed and asks if she is bragging and keeps walking.
Near the tree, they offer the Judge a cup of sikhye. The Judge sees the rain pouring in the cup of drink and denies the offer. To further annoy the Judge, Yu-jin starts playing the violin. The Judge asks them to quickly explain and Han-su does so but all the Judge can see is the ugly side of the site. The Judge says he seriously doubts if it is right to acknowledge the plaintiffs’ claims and says they should get the consent form from the residents and if their consent forms are not a majority over Gyeonghae-do’s consent form then they have no choice but to dismiss the plaintiff’s claim. The Judges take their leave.
When Hanbada comes with the consent form, Teasan has already hired part-timers to sign the consent form. Jun-ho says he will hire some too and they start by themselves for now. But Hanbada stands no chance against Taesan as Teasan is ahead of them and every other resident is talking about money.
Han-Su and a woman say they will get the signature from the woman’s association and asks if all they want is to sign in the consent form. Attorney Jung urges to say that they need their actual consent but then his urge to win sabotages the other urge. They get signatures from the old people in the association successfully after signing and dancing, but they are still lacking a lot.
Young Woo goes to pick her bag which she left under the hackberry tree. While she is looking for her bag, Su-mi comes there. She happens to have Young Woo’s bag. She gives the bag and says she remembers why Young Woo’s name was familiar to her and asks if she is the one who came up with a solution for the wedding dress sliped-off case (Episode 2 case). Young Woo says yes. Su-mi offers her a position in Teasan and says she is a talent that Su-mi wants to hire. Young Woo is flattered. Su-mi asks if they wanted to show the beautiful side of the site to the Judges and says Hanbada is naïve at times. She says there is nothing weaker than a person’s mind, especially in the face of money.
Young Woo and Su-mi stand under the tree and enjoy the breeze. Young Woo says the tree is amazing and Su-mi aggress.
Attorney Kwon looks at them. As soon as Young Woo comes down, he asks what she was talking about to Su-mi. Young Woo, who is already angry at him, asks him if he is gonna write it on the bulletin board. She tries to smack his head and punch his stomach but stops halfway and tells him she will not refrain the next time. Kwon asks why she is so shameless and tells her no matter who wrote the post, it is all true.
Gwang-ho finds Young Woo at home and asks if she is back. Young Woo says she is leaving again with her stuff and says she will find a place for herself and will be at Ra-mi’s till then. She leaves after saying he does not have to worry.
He follows her outside and asks how could she decide on something big without consulting him. She says she will change to Taesan firm as Su-mi offered her. Gwang-ho reveals that Su-mi is her mom in the fear that she might actually end up in Taesan. Young Woo could not intake the fact and slipped in her path down the stairs and becomes unconscious. Gwang-ho admits her to the hospital.
In the hospital, as soon as Young Woo wakes up, she says her whole body ached. He says thankfully she did not break any of her bones and she will be better after some rest. He sits beside her and apologies for telling her mom died after giving birth to her. Young Woo says she already knew that her mom abandoned her as her drunk grandma once told her that her mom is not dead.
Gwang-ho says Su-mi and he was from different worlds. He is a son of a poor farmer while Su-mi is the heir of Taesan. They met in college and started dating and unexpectedly got conceived with Young Woo. Once she got to know her pregnancy she changed and wanted to go back to her life instead of the new life with Gwang-ho.
In the flashback, we can see Gwang-ho begging Su-mi to give birth to the child. He promises that he will take care of the child and won’t get in her way. Su-mi is adamant but agrees in the end. She gives birth to Young Woo and hands her over to Gwang-ho using her maid and the maid tells him that there is no reason for him to meet Su-mi again.
Back to the present day, Gwang-ho says as promised he quit his university and started living for Young Woo. He says he felt that it is cool to live up to his words but could not take it when Young Woo started suffering. He says he regrets it now because if he were in a good position as an Attorney then he could have helped her when no one accepted her. Young Woo says he is cool and loyal. He says everything in the world is political and says there is a reason behind why Su-mi abandoned her and a political reason behind why CEO Han hired her. He says the foolish guy who wanted to keep his promises ended up making his daughter suffer.
Suddenly, Young Woo’s whale flies and she sits down and says could there be something like that behind the hackberry tree. She chases her confused father out and calls Attorney Jung, who is sleeping. He picks the call and pretty much sleeps through her talk. He tells her to talk about it in the morning and ends the call.
The next morning, Jun ho and Young Woo arrive at Gyeonghae-ho Heritage Committee. Young Woo thinks that there may be a political reason why Gyeonghae-ho Heritage Committee did not designate Sodeok-dong hackberry as a monument as they secretly knew that the road is gonna built. Han-Su says they asked Yu-jin to take care of the work back then as he works at the provincial office.
Young Woo and Jun ho meet up with Yu-jin and say that the committee said that they never received or wrote any report and ask if it was because the tree is not enough to be designated as a natural monument. Jun Ho asks if there is any material to show that the committee went to check on the hackberry tree. Yu-jin asks if they want it now and goes to his office (we can see that something is worrying Yu-jin).
As Young Woo and Jun ho are left alone, Jun ho tries to make a conversation and asks if she went home safe that day. He says he was worried as she left so suddenly from Attorney Jung’s office. She says her heart rate was really high even though she did not touch him and says she must like him to feel so. Jun ho thinks and says “I…” and Young Woo asks “Running away?”. She then points to Yu-jin who is running.
Jun ho and Young Woo start running behind him in confusion. It is pouring, Jun ho and Young Woo chase him in the rain. Finally, a security catches him, and he says he ran because he is embarrassed. He says his friend told him not to submit the report as subway line ten was coming to Sodeok-don and they were building Haengbok-ro too, so he did not submit the report and asked some of his friends to go investigate the tree to convince Han-Su. He says if the hackberry tree was designated as a monument, they would not have been able to build either the subway or the Haengbok-ro. Young Woo looks at his umbrella (the same umbrella the Judge was carrying) and asks where he got it. He says it is Kyungpo Construction’s logo. He says he went to look at a model house and they gave it to him. This intrigues Young Woo.
On the trial day, the Judge asks about the consent form. Su-mi says they got the majority of the consent form signed. The Judges proceed to dismiss the plaintiff’s claim. Attorney Jung stops him and says that they would like to file a motion to challenge the court and asks the Judge to suspend the proceedings. The Judge asks if they are buying time. Attorney Jung says the Judge bought the umbrella with a dolphin logo on it. Young Woo does not forget to remind him that it is an “Indo-pacific bottlenose dolphin” and not just a dolphin. Jung continues to say that it is the logo of Kyungpo Construction. Jung says if he is planning to buy the apartments planned to be built in Hamun, then his judgement might be biased and can lead to an unfair trial. The Judge is speechless and says he does not know how he got that umbrella. Young woo says there is nothing weaker than a person’s heart in face of the money. Su-mi smiles at how she used that against her.
At Taesan cafeteria, Su-mi and Taesan HR head wait for Young Woo. The HR says Young Woo must be very talented to be recommended by Su-mi herself. Su-mi seems totally impressed by Young Woo and praises her. Young Woo arrives and says she wants to talk to Su-mi alone. The HR is confused and leaves. Su-mi wonders what she wants to talk to her about. Young Woo asks if she does not recognise Young Woo and says she is Gwang-ho’s daughter. Su-mi realises and tears start flowing down her cheeks. Young Woo says she wanted to switch to Taesan in order to be independent of her father and be a real adult but she can’t leave her father to join her mom’s firm especially when her mom gave birth to her but abandoned and does not even recognise her. She politely then rejects the offer and says she will be by her father’s side.
Young Woo gets a text and says the hackberry tree seems to be designated as a natural monument and Gyeonghae-do will have to change the planned route. Su-mi asks if she resents what she has done. Young Woo gets teary as well and says it was nice to enjoy the view and breeze of the hackberry tree with her. She says she wanted to meet her once and it was nice meeting her and leaves Taesan.
The residents celebrate the good news and the episode ends here.
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