As it turns out, it doesn't take much to make our caregiver crack. He's been broken for years, barely managing to keep himself together in order to care for other broken souls. And now, with Go Moon-young in his life, she threatens to change his whole way of life. It could lead to the undoing he's been afraid of or the rebuilding he doesn't even know he needs.
EPISODE 4: "Zombie boy"
Watching patient Kwon Gi-do onstage, Kang-tae wonders if he should have fun with Moon-young after all. Mere seconds later, as Gi-do is carried down, Kang-tae walks off, and a confused Moon-young reminds him that he wanted to do something fun.
"When did I say that?" he asks. He looks away and explains that he was just talking to himself. Moving on, she wants him to compliment her for doing the right thing and kidnapping Gi-do. He starts to argue, but she points out that he didn't stop Gi-do just now. His excuse? That Gi-do was dancing and singing so well.
One of Assemblyman Kwon's men confronts the couple, warning them that there will be hell to pay, and Moon-young scoffs and says that she's oh-so-scared. The man lunges forward to hit her, but Kang-tae grabs his hand and shoves him to the ground. Moon-young smiles, impressed, while the man scurries off.
Joo-ri shows up, informing Kang-tae that Gi-do wants to see him. While he joins him, Joo-ri heads over to the ambulance, where Assemblyman Kwon is being lifted into, to find a family member to go accompany Gi-do back to the hospital.
Gi-do urges Kang-tae not to be mad with Moon-young; he feels so much better now. But then Gi-do's mother stalks over and slaps him. She yells at him for humiliating their family when he should've lived quietly and then leaves to rejoin her husband. Gi-do smiles sadly and notes that his mother must really love him.
Kang-tae asks how Gi-do knows, and he replies, "You can tell when you're the one getting hit. For some reason, when someone hits you with affection, it strangely doesn't make you upset." This triggers a memory for Kang-tae, of his own mother hitting him for sending Sang-tae home alone, resulting in him getting beaten up.
We also see the family on a rainy day, with Mom making sure Sang-tae was covered by the umbrella and paying Kang-tae no attention. One night, on the anniversary of his father's death, Kang-tae overheard Mom drinking and declaring that she'd only die after watching Sang-tae live a full life.
Mom heard Kang-tae get up and crawled over to hug him, which made him smile and hug back. Mom rocked him back and forth and told him to protect Sang-tae until the day he dies. She added, "That's why I gave birth to you," and his arms around her slowly dropped. Oh, that hurts...
In the present, Kang-tae tells Joo-ri that he's going to ride back with Moon-young, because he thinks she shouldn't be driving alone. So it's Joo-ri who ends up driving back alone, looking like she's holding back anger.
Moon-young teases Kang-tae that she saw the look on his face when watching Gi-do and, sensing his discomfort, promises to only kidnap him when he's ready. He grumbles for her to forget it, so she offers this instead: "When it looks like you want to run away, I'll run away with you right then and there."
Kang-tae's mind goes to the cherry blossom petals falling around them, until Moon-young rolls up the windows. She curses that she hates flowers that fall petal by petal, preferring magnolias and the way the petals fall all at once. He laughs at her comparison, but he does think the flower suits her.
She asks him what his favorite flower is, and he says that he doesn't have one. He gazes out the window again, his voice getting softer as he continues that he hates spring in general, that being the time he and Sang-tae always leave.
