Bloodhounds 2023 K Drama Episode 2

Episode 2 of Bloodhounds starts with Gun-woo coming out of surgery after getting 30 stitches for his scar. He goes to the doctor for a regular checkup and she tells him that his wound is healing and adds that he was lucky that the knife did not hit any nerve. He could opt to get plastic surgery for the scar but after learning that it will be an expensive procedure, Gun-woo tells her that he’ll reconsider it.

Woo-jin waits outside for Gun-woo as he reads the loan contract. He learns that Myeong-gil’s company – Smile Capital – have conned his mother. He offers to take Gun-woo out for a meal and tries to seek help from someone that he was friends with so that they can pay off Gun-woo’s debt. Gun-woo overhears Woo-jin talking to one of his friends who’s also a loan shark asking for his help.

Gun-woo is overwhelmed with emotion to see the lengths to which Woo-jin is willing to help him. Woo-jin takes Gun-woo to the loan shark’s office where he agrees to help Gun-woo out in exchange for working for him. He claims that Gun-woo and Woo-jin both have to work as Bloodhounds/Hound Dogs chasing after borrowers, making them return the money. Gun-woo is against harassing poor borrowers and refuses the offer.

Woo-jin follows suit and is shocked by Gun-woo’s sense of pride and bravery. He tells Gun-woo that he had a real boxer’s heart. That evening, Woo-jin calls his senior from the military and asks to meet him. The senior is President Choi’s right-hand man, Mr Moon and invites the two boys over for a chat. He tells the boxers who President Choi is and how he used to work for one of the biggest loan sharks in South Korea.

Mr Moon also tells them that President Choi had quit working for Mr Bang and had now set up an interest-free loan agency that lent money to the needy. The two boys give their details to Mr Moon for an interview with President Choi. Meanwhile, Hyeon-ju is on a mission of her own as she follows the borrower around to see what he was up to. She finds that he was having a meeting with Smile Capital’s Kim Jun-min – the same man who had conned Gun-woo’s mother.

Hyeon-ju tells her grandfather that the borrower – Yang Jae-myeong had gone around taking loans worth 400 million won in total, all under the names of poor people who had been in prison. President Choi tells his granddaughter that he had left the world and that he did not want Hyeon-ju trying to get involved in it either.

That night, Myeong-gil’s bodyguard Jang-do asks him why he slit Gun-woo’s face. Myeong-gil claims that because Gun-woo spat on him in front of his thugs, he wanted to show them who the person in power was. The next day, President Choi learns about Woo-jin and Gun-woo and asks only to meet with Gun-woo over lunch. Both boys show up at the restaurant but only Gun-woo is allowed to meet the old man for his interview.

President Choi tells Gun-woo that he treated Hyeon-ju like his grandchild and wanted to hire a bodyguard for her. He learns from Gun-woo that his parents had split and that he needs 100 million won to repay a loan. President Choi agrees to hire Gun-woo and offers him the job.

Later that night, he sends one of his men to give Gun-woo 100 million won in exchange for 2 years of his life working as Hyeon-jo’s bodyguard. Gun-woo is touched by the old man’s gesture and gives the money to his mother. He thanks Woo-jin for his help and support as they have dinner together at Gun-woo’s house.

That night, In-yeong tells Myeong-gil that she’s worried about him because the person he was going to meet that evening is a very influential chaebol (rich heir). She insists that Mr Hong looks like a shady man. Jang-do tells Myeong-gil that Mr Hong was accompanied by a government officer as well. Inside the meeting room, Mr Hong and his cousin, the government officer, forcefully get Myeong-gil drunk.

After the trio have a few drinks, Mr Hong threatens to destroy Myeong-gil because he had lied about helping Hong’s family. He claims that Smile Capitals was a bankrupt agency and threatens to use his cousin to have the National Tax Agency investigate Myeong-gil’s business. Myeong-gil claims that he had the money that Hong needed and offers to help him with it.

Hong leaves the room threatening to destroy Myeog-gil in the event of foul play from the loan shark’s end. Afterwards, Myeong-gil asks Jang-do to run a background check on Hong’s cousin. The next day, both Gun-woo and Woo-jin show up at the location where Gun-woo will start working for President Choi. Woo-jin asks Gun-woo to put in a good word for him so that he too can get a job there.

Inside, President Choi is glad to see Gun-woo, thanking Choi for his benevolence. Woo-jin talks non-stop about his merits, asking President Choi to consider him for a position there. He agrees to let the two work but claims that the decision of hiring them is up to Hyeong-jo.

President Choi leaves his credit card for the two boys to have a meal, which Gun-woo is apprehensive to use. The old man also adds that if Hyeon-jo does not hire them, Gun-woo has to find a way to pay back the 100 million won. Once President Choi leaves, the two boys have a look around and find that the library is full of millions of won in cash which was hidden away behind cardboard boxes that looked like books.

Woo-jin is more concerned about the money that was just lying in front of him while Gun-woo is worried that he had run into Hyeon-jo before. He tells Woo-jin about the incident and the latter of the two promises to help him. However, when Hyeon-jo arrives, Woo-jin is not able to persuade her. She kicks him out but Gun-woo stays back and gets on his knees, begging Hyeon-jo to let him stay for a month at least.

He tells her how Smile Capitals conned his mother and how he needed the money to pay the debt. Hyeon-jo is interested in helping Gun-woo because of Smile Capitals and offers to chat with them over lunch. Woo-jin is still confused about how Gun-woo managed to crack through Hyeon-jo as he collects their meal.

Meanwhile, Hyeon-jo and Gun-woo discuss the organisation. She tells Gun-woo that she had been tailing the borrower for a while and had learned that he was part of an organisation that conned homeless people. Hyeon-jo claims that these men pretend to be homeless too and take away the identity cards of actual homeless people. She asks Woo-jin and Gun-woo to follow these men and take an estimate of the number of id cards they collect.

The boys follow these men down the subway and discover that they were lying to the homeless claiming to be a government employee. They ask for the id cards of these homeless people with the promise of a monthly stipend from the government in exchange. The homeless people willingly give away their IDs to these men until one old man yells at them for stealing his id.

The men beat up the homeless guy but Woo-jin stops Gun-woo from helping him because of Hyeon-jo’s instruction. The episode ends with Gun-woo rushing to help the homeless man as the thugs beat him until he bleeds.

The Episode Review

The relationship between Gun-woo and Woo-jin looks like it’s really starting to take off now. They have a chaotic energy about them that reminds me of the energy between Lee Min-ho and Woo Do-hwan’s characters in The King: Eternal Monarch. I hope that these two do not turn against each other. While Hyeon-jo’s character and personality would work well with a street-smart Woo-jin, I’m sure President Choi has a soft spot for Gun-woo.

Seeing how the man had cameras installed outside, I am sure he purposely left the duo in a room full of money under inspection to see if they really are trustworthy or not. It would be good to see Woo-jin turn away from his ways and whatever issues he had in the past because Gun-woo is a good influence on him.

With how Gun-woo rushed to save the homeless man, I am sure Hyeon-jo will be pissed at him for intervening. It’ll be interesting to see where this story goes next!