Like Flowers in Sand 2023 K Drama Episode 6

Episode 6 of Like Flowers In Sand begins with another flashback. The boys ssireum team with their coach are having a meeting by the beach where Du-shik is waiting at a distance. The coach needs a volunteer for the team captain but the kids aren’t interested about additional duties.

To incentivise the position, the coach cleverly says that the captain will be exempted from school cleaning duties because he will be cleaning the arena, he will be at the centre for photographs and for receiving prizes if the team wins and while the team will train for 3 hours and the captain will only train for 180 minutes. Young Baek-du is completely enamoured by the prospective incentives while Du-shik, listening at a distance exclaims that he is an idiot.  The coach asks for volunteers again and a hand finally appears.

The scene changes to the present where the previous episode ended at. Baek-du confesses to Yu-gyeong that he chose to come back to the team because of her. She asks him if he likes her but Baek-du, flustered, justifies his position with a negative answer and additional excuses.

While they are returning, Yu-gyeong is concerned about the rumours going around regarding the match-fixing case where Baek-du is also involved. When Baek-du doesn’t seem to pay much attention, she comments that “nasty words spread even faster…and they don’t die down until they ruin everything”. Baek-du tries to ask her about the incident from 20 years ago but it is brushed off by Yu-gyeong just when Hyeon-woo arrives. 

Back at the house, Hyeon-woo asks Yu-gyeong about Du-shik but she feigns ignorance. Baek-du is back to grumbling about Hyeon-woo calling Yu-gyeong “honey”. The next-day, Yu-gyeong and Hyeon-woo discuss the additional information they received from Dong-seok along with the case before Hyeon-woo leaves to get more information.

Seok-hui is out trying to find a clue about the reservoir case and meets with the some of the townsfolk. When asked if somebody see something on that night, he says that “she didn’t exactly say it but I can feel it”. “Who?” the question is. Seok hui replies, “Snowball” (the dog). Just when the discussion is ongoing about the level of absurdity of Seok-hui’s claim, another lady comes in and claims that Baek-du is in a relationship as his husband saw Baek-du with a woman at the bus station. 

At the arena, Yu-gyeong tries to find out who Yeon was talking to on the championship day. At the same time, Jin-su announces that the draws for the match have been delayed for some reason and head coach will relay the results as soon as possible. While the team is invited to eat at his mother’s restaurant, Jin-su tells Baek-du to run 100 laps after practice everyday since he needs to start from the basics. Later, yu-gyeong tells Baek-du to toughen up and resist. 

At Mrs. Lim’s restaurant, the team is having a blast. Baek-du skips lunch since after 100 laps, he doesn’t feel like eating chicken anymore. Jin-su receives a call from the head coach and they discuss that the team might stand a chance looking at the draws. 

Back at the office, Yu-gyeong tries to determine who Yeon was looking at by zooming into his eyes’ refection on account of Baek-du’s influence (He likes to watch American shows) and catches herself from being ridiculous. 

Back at his house, Baek-du is resting when one of his brothers tries to make him appear at one of his streaming sessions, claiming that his subscribers are more interested in Baek-du. It turns out that he has filmed a 4+ hour long video of Baek-du’s championship match. Baek-du runs to Yu-gyeong who is still at the arena with his brothers phone. They can finally check who Yeon was looking at! They rewatch the video and have a moment of fun.

The next day at the arena, Baek-du is paired against a ex-wrestler known for his strength. Baek-du is clearly concerned about his prospects. Sometime later, Jin-su has a pep-talk with the team with additional instructions before the match and tells Baek-du to skip the match as he is not ready. The head coach agrees with his view and gives a competition withdrawal form with regards to Baek-du to Yu-gyeong for her to sign. 

Yu-gyeong is furious and complains about Baek-du being too soft and nice to Jin-su. Apparently, it is revealed that even though Baek-du wanted to become the captain, Jin-su raised his hand knowing that Baek-du wanted that position. Yu-gyeong tells him to live for himself and not put others before him all the time. 

Elsewhere the head coach meets with Baek-du father out of respect to explain the situation since he is not only the coach’s senior and but also a legendary athlete of the town. The coach tells him about Yu-gyeong that she resisted against Baek-du’s withdrawal and also that she is living in Du-shik’s house. It seems Baek-du’s father, who was also Du-shik’s father’s best friend and one amongst the people who know the mystery about Du-shik, has recognised Yu-gyeong as Du-shik.

At the arena, Jin-su is looking at Baek-du running laps when Yu-gyeong approaches him. She reluctantly gives him the withdrawal form after signing. She also mentions that Baek-du’s loose grip on the opponent’s satba might not be because of his lack of strength but because “it gives him the advantage of starting hand techniques early”.

Jin-su is taken aback with this observation as earlier he had interrupted Baek-du when he tried to explain about his loose grip. Yu-gyeong further explains that it is possible that Baek-du knows that he cannot win his opponent with strength and so he uses speed and techniques to gain leverage. Realising that she spoke too much, she quickly leaves while Jin-su seems to recognise her as Du-shik. 

While Du-shik is deeply pondering and weighing whether he should really speak his mind, Jin-su is also pondering upon the new possibility that Yu-gyeong introduced him to while sitting in Mi-ran’s cafe. Jin-su, on being questioned by Mi-ran, says that Baek-du is the the most talented ssireum wrestler he knows, the only problem is that Baek-du doesn’t know how to make use of his talent. 

While Baek-du has had an epiphany and runs to meet Jin-su with one of his hands up in the air, Hyeon-woo has put the pieces together and has figured out that Yu-gyeong is Du-shik. Hyeon-woo explains that he did his research and came across an article about a wrestler who was murdered for rejecting fixing a match 20 years ago. Further articles are titled, “Head coach of ssireum team charged with murder of wrestler”. He figures out that the suspect is Yu-geyong’s father and that Yu-gyeong is Oh Du-shik.

Meanwhile, Baek-du tells Jin-su that he also wanted to become the captain in 4th grade. It is revealed in the flashback that both Jin-su and Baek-du put up their hands to become the captain but Baek-du seeing Jin-su withdraw to maintain his good relations while curbing his desires. He tells Jin-su sincerely that he wants to participate in the match and to let him fight. As he proclaims with conviction, “I have to compete in this match!”, the episode ends.

The Episode Review

Like Flowers in Sand is back on track! This episode focused a lot on fleshing out Baek-du as a character and revolved around unravelling Du-shik’s past as opposed to focusing too much on the reservoir case which really helped with integrating the sub-plot of match-fixing to propel the main narrative beautifully.

There was much to understand about Jin-su and Baek-du’s relationship where it’s evident that even though Jin-su appears tough, he is actually one of the Baek-du’s well-wishers and supporters.

A twist in the tale puts the suspicion of match fixing from the head coach to Baek-du’s father. It is highly likely that he might be involved in the case. He might have fixed the match to make Baek-du win as he cherishes his son. This theory also fits with Yu-gyeong’s narrative.

Only Baek-du’s father, Du-shik and Du-shik’s father knew the truth about the murder case from 20 years ago. And the two were also close friends. It is possible that Du-shik’s father took the blame of himself. But it’s all just a theory, so anything could happen! Stay tuned for the next episode!