A mission of Love

Episode: 18

Kang-woo finds Myung-wol in the cave and tells her that he can't live without her. Heaven or hell, he won't let her go, and if they die, they die together. She still refuses (after that?) telling him that she doesn't have it in her to stay here with him.

She tries to walk away but he backhugs her and asks if she'll let him stay with her on her last night here. It's a last-ditch effort, but he says if she leaves, he'll never get to see her again.

Meanwhile, outside the cave, Ryu fights off Chairman Joo's minions who have come after them, and finds In-ah hiding, having followed Kang-woo. He gruffly walks her down the mountain grumbling at her for coming up here, and finally snaps off her heels when she starts complaining.

He asks why she came, and she confesses that she was worried about him. He asks how much she knows, and by her evasive look, he can tell she knows everything about who he is. He asks why she's still here then, if she knows.

In-ah: "Because I like you! You don't know women. That's why you're always getting dumped." Haha. One point for the princess. She adds, "You only see the woman you like. You can't see the woman who likes you, can you?"

She asks him to turn himself in, but he tells her not to like someone like him. He apologizes and tells her that he can't accept her feelings. She starts to cry and he's startled by her tears, perhaps not realizing that she was serious until that moment. Aw, I actually feel bad for In-ah. (I know!)

She goes home and cries, and he contemplates the scarf she had given him to wrap around his knife wound the night before.

Back at spy central, Dae-kang rushes over to tell Hee-bok the big news that Myung-wol is a spy. He then deduces that Ok-soon must be a spy as well, since they're mother-daughter. Eyes wide, he yells, "You were conned into your marriage!"

Hee-bok pretends to faint at the news, and wonders if he should just turn them in for the reward money, since no one suspects him. Sure, there's no way that plan will backfire on you.

In the cave, Kang-woo leans on Myung-wol's shoulder and they sit by the fire. He reminisces about their first meeting, and she's surprised to hear that he knows it was in Singapore, when she chased him down for an autograph pretending to be the crazy fangirl.

He asks if she won't run away with him, to somewhere where they won't be recognized or found. That's what I'm sayin'! But she refuses, asking why he should have to give up everything in his life for her.

She says that she won't be happy that way, and has decided to think of it all — her being born in the north, falling in love with a man from the south, their having to part like this — as fate.

And she adds that if they're fated to be, they'll meet again. But... that's... so passive and lame. Guh.

She wakes up the next morning and comes out to meet Ryu and asks why he led Kang-woo here. He asks if she wants to change her mind there's still time...

She tells him that either way she'll regret it. But she'd rather regret it alone than to watch Kang-woo suffer as well, and says that she'll carry that pain on her own. Sigh. I'm not even going to argue with you anymore. Go ahead and be alone with your pain. I hope you have a lovely life together, you and PAIN.

Kang-woo wakes up alone and finds Myung-wol's ring sitting next to him. He comes out of the cave and shouts her name over and over, breaking my heart. She stops when she hears him, but keeps going forward with determination.

They stop in to say goodbye to the spy parents, and Hee-bok sends Ryu off with worries over their well-being, and they thank each other for everything. And then Ok-soon cooks for Myung-wol, wanting once to make her food like a real mom.