6 Moments From Episodes 9-10 Of “If You Wish Upon Me” That Had Us Cheering

After last week’s stomach-churning cliffhanger, “If You Wish Upon Me” returns with a fast-paced pair of episodes where old hurts are revealed, secrets are uncovered, and all but one truth remains to be told. Yoon Gyeo Re (Ji Chang Wook) has just been hit with the shock of his life upon finding Ha Jun Kyung (Won Ji An) at the hospice, more than happy to destroy his newfound happiness. But Team Genie isn’t about to let their favorite grump-turned-sunshine leave without a fight.

Warning: spoilers for episodes 9-10 below.

1. Yeon Joo respecting Gyeo Re’s space and working through her feelings

It’s heartbreaking watching Gyeo Re walk away from Seo Yeon Joo (Sooyoung) immediately after they shared such a tender moment. He leaves the hospice and is forced to ensure Jun Kyung’s psychotic brand of possessiveness, reverting to being a walking time-bomb while she looks happy that he’s miserable. Jun Kyung’s the poster girl for emotional abuse at this point, threatening violence the moment Gyeo Re tries to reason with her, then clinging to him out of fear that he’ll leave her.

dusiks

dusiks

Gyeo Re briefly sees Team Genie again for Mr. Jang’s (Park Kyung Chan’s) re-wedding, but he can’t bring himself to approach Yeon Joo and leaves without a word, which sends her into tears. Still, despite how depressing it is to see them apart, what’s wonderful is how they never doubt each other. Gyeo Re finds a way to think of Yeon Joo throughout the separation, repeating the same words Yeon Joo said about not holding pain in to Jun Kyung and getting a duplicate of Yeon Joo’s tattoo. And Yeon Joo gives him the space he needs. She doesn’t run off accusing him of two-timing her because she knows that he would never actually do that. She’s helpless in the face of a past that Gyeo Re has never been willing to share, but not for long!

2. Yeon Joo fighting for Gyeo Re

Part of the reason Yeon Joo hasn’t been chasing after Gyeo Re is that she simply doesn’t know the story between him and Jun Kyung. The other half is that she’s just plain afraid that her rescue efforts won’t be wanted. But when Kang Tae Shik (Sung Dong Il) tells her that Jun Kyung is obsessed with Gyeo Re and that he only wants to save her from death, Yeon Joo gears up for a fight.

And it’s a good thing too because Gyeo Re has had enough of living. He texts Jang Seok Joon (Nam Tae Hoon), the gangster after him, his address and waits on the rooftop. When he hears footsteps, he wearily asks Seok Joon to push him off the roof and call it a day, but it’s a furious Yeon Joo who answers, asking him if death is so easy for him to keep reaching for it. Jun Kyung finds them, and Gyeo Re tries to get Yeon Joo to safety, but she’s had enough of him playing the martyr.

koreandragon

koreandragon

koreandragon

She tells Jun Kyung to hit her all she wants because she’s taking Gyeo Re, and no one’s going to stop her. The best part about Yeon Joo is that she recognizes Jun Kyung isn’t well and tells her to come to the hospital for treatment and to learn how to protect herself. Yes!

3. Gyeo Re protecting Yeon Joo

Gyeo Re and Yeon Joo are just about to escape when Seok Joon shows up, ready to drag Gyeo Re back into service to be a gangster, just like he did before. We see that Gyeo Re really, truly didn’t chose his life. Seok Joon harassed him for years, even stealing his grant money so Gyeo Re wouldn’t be able to go to university and beating Gyeo Re up when he tried to get the money back. Wow. No wonder Gyeo Re felt nothing stealing the gangsters’ money when they stole years of his life and his money from him.

Gyeo Re’s ready to return the money and begs Seok Joon to let him walk away from this life, but apparently Jun Kyung isn’t the only one with an obsessive streak. Seok Joon has been crazy about Jun Kyung for the longest time. He sees Yeon Joo and realizes that this is the woman who’s “making Jun Kyung unhappy,” and he moves in to kill her! Gyeo Re goes feral the second Yeon Joo is in danger and throws Seok Joon down before speeding off on a motorbike.

Turns out that Gyeo Re, Seok Joon, and Jun Kyung were at the same orphanage growing up, and Seok Joon’s been obsessed with her since then, though she’s only had eyes for Gyeo Re. Yikes, at this point they deserve each other.

4. Tae Shik owning up to his mistakes

dusiks

dusiks

Gyeo Re’s return to the hospice is celebrated with open arms. Gyeo Re knows that Tae Shik was partially behind his rescue, having spotted his friends spying on him to ensure he was safe. He promises them all to never run away again, and Tae Shik smiles. We finally get some insight into his character as he takes on a new case for Team Genie this week: an elderly former cop who wants to make amends to the man he tried to frame for murder. Tae Shik contacts his old friends at broadcasting companies who reveal just what Tae Shik was actually like and what happened to derail his life so thoroughly. The show once again gets really dark, showing that Tae Shik was conned into starting his own entertainment agency by Gyeo Re’s father. He was essentially picking up young women, promising that they could make it big. He left his old job at the broadcasting station, went around all decked out in luxury products… and then learned the hard way that the company was a scam. Gyeo Re’s dad stole all the money, and the investors, including Tae Shik, were left with nothing.

Tae Shik felt a great deal of shame afterwards and apologizes when his old colleagues call him out for how he was then. But they understand he was conned too, and it’s a measure of how good a person Tae Shik always was that they forgive him easily. But Tae Shik has a surprise waiting for him afterwards, and it’s none other than Gyeo Re, eager to make up for leaving.

5. Gyeo Re coming in clutch for Tae Shik

dusiks

dusiks

There’s something so sweet about Gyeo Re getting Tae Shik ready for his work meeting. Tae Shik doesn’t have any dress shoes, so they end up having to borrow a pair. But Gyeo Re is determined to ensure that Tae Shik doesn’t feel bad about being poorer than his former colleagues. He shows up in a suit, pretending to be Tae Shik’s chauffeur and keeps calling him “Chairman.” Haha! Tae Shik is ready to die at Gyeo Re’s terrible acting, but he can’t help but love him when Gyeo Re insists that the “company sedan” wasn’t ready, so he reserved Tae Shik an ambulance to ride in style. Gyeo Re also bought him a new pair of dress shoes. Tae Shik grumbles after seeing the price tag but clearly loves the shoes. But you know what they say about giving someone shoes. Gyeo Re knows that Tae Shik will have to walk far away at some point, but that point may be sooner than he thinks.

hansomang

hansomang

The scene also serves as a heart-wrenching callback to when little Gyeo Re snuck out of his abusive father’s home to return to Tae Shik’s house after he and Gyeo Re’s dad had a violent argument. At the time, Tae Shik knew that Gyeo Re wouldn’t survive for long in that house and told him there was no shame in running away, which is what Gyeo Re ended up doing: running to an orphanage. And he and Gyeo Re have never forgotten each other since, though Gyeo Re doesn’t remember that it was Tae Shik.

6. Team Genie’s love for Tae Shik

In keeping with finding out Tae Shik’s past, we finally get the identity of the man in Room 403 and why everyone’s been hiding his existence. It’s Gyeo Re’s dad. Uh oh. Turns out that when everything collapsed, Tae Shik sought out Gyeo Re’s dad and almost killed him. The almost part is relevant because Tae Shik doesn’t know that Gyeo Re’s dad survived. Mr. Yoon (Jung Dong Hwan), the former head of Team Genie, found the comatose body and was terrified that Tae Shik would be arrested for murder. So he swore Yeon Joo to secrecy, hid Gyeo Re’s dad at the hospice in Room 403, and took care of him while he was in the coma. When Mr. Yoon died, Yeon Joo told the rest of Team Genie that this was Mr. Yoon’s real last wish. They all agreed to come through for Tae Shik, cursing Gyeo Re’s dad, even as they took care of him. Aww, there’s such love here.

Chi Hoon (Shin Joo Hwan) also finds out the truth and is aghast but keeps the secret out of a soft spot for Tae Shik. Gyeo Re overhears Yeon Joo telling Chi Hoon the truth but doesn’t know that the patient is his dad. Still, Gyeo Re’s dad isn’t as ill as they think he is anymore. He’s up and about, haunting the hospice hallways and only pretending to be asleep.

Speaking of ghosts, Seok Joon and Jun Kyung are eager to haunt Gyeo Re again. She actually jumps off the roof after Gyeo Re leaves but survives without a scratch. Tae Shik keeps the news from Gyeo Re because he isn’t and shouldn’t be responsible for her decisions. Instead, he, Yeon Joo, and Gyeo Re head off to Mokpo to fulfill the ex-cop’s last wish. All seems to be going so well that when Gyeo Re has an extended dream of all his good times with Tae Shik, you know something’s about to go wrong. And it does. Because Tae Shik falls unconscious, and Gyeo Re has to now face the reality that the man he’s come to love like a father could be leaving this world.

What a whirlwind of events we had this week! We seem to be past the worst with Jun Kyung, but there are still the gangster, Tae Shik’s illness, plus Gyeo Re’s dad and his history with Tae Shik waiting for a chance to hurt Gyeo Re. Next week seems to show Tae Shik recovering, but it’s hard to imagine a happy ending for him. At least we have Yeon Joo and Gyeo Re being adorable as a ray of sunshine throughout these painful moments!

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Source: Soompi