W-Two Worlds Apart

episode 2

Our heroine Yeon-joo, surgical resident and daughter to legendary manhwa artist, gives us a concise recap introducing us to the hero of her father's webtoon, Kang Chul. Helpful, that.

She's clearly been thinking a lot on the subject, ever since she got sucked into what she believes to be the parallel universe where her father's webtoon Wexists for real. Her bed is strewn with old volumes of W, like she's been up all night trying to confirm that she isn't crazy.

She calls Dad's assistant Su-bong again to suggest her latest theory-that Dad was kidnapped into Kang Chul's universe just like she was, by that mysterious hooded figure. But Su-bong has had it up to here with noona's crazy talk of parallel universes, and speaks to her like she's got brain damage: "They're drawings, that we drew ourselves! I drew each and every one of the backgrounds with my own hands! They're drawings. Drawings.DRAWINGS." I really love this character.

He rants until his face turns purple, insisting that he knows Yeon-joo's father better than she does, and he knows without a doubt that the latest issues are her father's artwork. Despite his staff doing all the support work, they can't draw the main characters-only Dad can do that, and Su-bong would perceive the slightest difference if anyone tried to copy his style.

Yeon-joo is silent for a moment, and then sighs that she knows how Galileo Galilei and Dae Jang Geum felt. Ha.

On the other end, Su-bong suddenly says, "Teacher..." and Dad walks into the workshop, looking like he hasn't slept for days. Yeon-joo hears them and goes running out of the house at light speed, lying to her mom that the hospital called. Over breakfast, Mom's sister sighs over all the money Mom could've had if she hadn't divorced Yeon-joo's father.

Yeon-joo dashes over to Dad's workshop and Su-bong says they still don't know where he was. Yeon-joo heads into Dad's office and chides him for making them worry, and Dad is frustratingly vague about what he did last night: "I went somewhere."

Yeon-joo asks, "Where?" The question is rife with meaning, but again Dad is evasive. But then he asks Yeon-joo if she's okay and not hurt, and seems relieved to hear that nothing happened to her. The fact that he asks her that intrigues her. Hm, does he know where she's been?

She brings up his webtoon, and Dad says he heard about her wild ideas from Su-bong, and quickly explains that he just needed a new female character to introduce and couldn't think of one, so he modeled the character after her.

Yeon-joo asks if Dad really drew the last two issues himself, and the air suddenly gets tense as he asks incredulously who would've drawn them if not him. She's clearly struck some sort of nerve, because he asks the question like a threat, and Yeon-joo immediately backs off.

Dad prepares to work, and Yeon-joo prods him to rest first. But he sighs, "I'm sick of it. I'm so sick of it that I want to hurry up and finish so I can rest." She finds the statement odd, but turns back to give him a little encouragement before heading out.

Dad's expression turns pensive as soon as she leaves the room. He works into the evening on the next issue, and suddenly calls Su-bong into his office to research a poison that's easy to obtain in a hospital. Oh noes...

Yeon-joo is so distracted with thoughts of the webtoon that she doesn't realize she's lost the office bet to go fetch snacks at the coffee shop. Her resident friend Seok-bum wonders why she's so spacey lately.

Yeon-joo calls Su-bong again to check on Dad. When she asks about this next issue's storyline, Su-bong tells her furtively that her father is back to killing off Kang Chul, and she yelps in alarm.

In Kang Chul's world, he's fast asleep in his hospital bed, with bodyguard hyung Do-yoon keeping watch at night. Elsewhere a nurse gathers supplies in her cart, and gets a mysterious call from someone, who orders her to do "it" now. She looks around and reaches for the drawer marked Potassium. The image melds into a drawing, and we see a reflection of Su-bong's hand, drawing in the background material.