The story, which started out light, romantic, and a little comedic, has veered into a shadowy twist that caught us off guard. Given the show’s premise and Gyeon U’s unlucky fate, viewers knew exactly what they were getting into. However, with Bongsu being more funny and cute than scary and dangerous, no one expected this week’s narrative to shift so dramatically, including someone’s death.
Yes, someone actually dies. Who? You’ll need to read further to know that.
Episode 9
The episode opens with Gyeon U’s spiritual eyes being opened due to Yeom-hwa’s spell. In addition to his hearing, he can now see ghosts, and this hinders his focus during the archery competition. Fortunately, with Seong A’s charming smile and encouragement, he regains his concentration. On the other hand, Seong A, who has made herself a barrier for Gyeon U, counters Yeom-hwa’s spell and is therefore hit with a curse, which attacks her spiritual aura and turns it darker.
At least, this helped Gyeon U in winning the competition, who ended up sharing happy moments with the team and putting the gold medal around Seong A’s neck—I found this to be especially romantic and touching.
So, Gyeon U doesn’t inform Seong A that his spiritual eyes have opened, nor does Seong A inform him about the curse. However, once Gyeon U sees the negative energy in Seong A’s spiritual clothes, he informs and reaches out to General Dongcheon’s spirit sister. The latter informs him that Fairy Cheonji’s energy got tainted, and she will soon receive divine punishment. Since she cannot undo the suppression technique, she takes Gyeon U’s lip balm amulet to pray to her patron deity to protect both him and Seong A. She further warns him to avoid ghosts and evil spirits at all costs. Most importantly, she tells him to avoid seeing or shedding blood in their presence.
But as is often the case, the very one thing that Gyeon U is advised not to do is precisely what he ends up doing. A suicide ghost —a figure clothed in all back, wearing a black gat —has attached itself to a classmate called Beom-su, who is being bullied by students from his previous school. Upon seeing the classmate rushing into the boys’ toilet, Seong A goes inside, leaving Gyeon U outside. Despite being warned by the grand shaman, Gyeon U goes inside to protect Seong A. When Bong-su encourages him, the latter ends up cutting his hand. As the droplets of blood fall on the floor, he passes out, and eventually his spiritual sense of taste and smell are awakened.
Waking up in the infirmary, he sees that Seong A is not well and takes her home on Ji-ho’s bicycle. As Seong A faces the punishment, he takes care of her. Once she had recovered, she insisted that Gyeon U go for archery practice. And that is exactly when she realises it’s not Gyeon U.
Seong A realized it when he didn’t do his familiar gesture during the archery practice, but I think we, the viewers, saw it coming way before that scene. Honestly, I sensed it during the scene when he was taking care of her —his tone was simply…different.
And, when asked, where is Gyeon U, Bongsu replies, “I devoured him.”
Episode 10
Let’s start with Yeom-hwa, who, in the previous episode, finds out that the invisible wooden box that Seong A saw her carrying is actually her dead baby trapped in a coffin. She faces her spirit mother, who explains that the deities decided to punish her with her baby’s suffering for all the bad deeds she did. Her words, “I’ll curse you”, feel really difficult to justify, especially when she refuses to see how much her spirit mother loves her. Driven by more hatred, it is revealed that she is the one who manipulated Bongsu into getting Gyeon U to shed his blood. Seong A is stunned, but General Dongcheon asks her to stay kind to Bongsu if she wants to protect Gyeon U and bring him back.
At school, upon seeing a funnier and new side of Gyeon U, new friends surround him, making him the latest school sensation. However, Seong A is sad and disappointed as she is the only one who knows that this is not the real Gyeon U.
At one point, after learning that Seong A and Gyeon U are talking at the hour of the ox, i.e., a time for the ghosts, and that they are discussing plans for his crossover, Bongsu is hurt. The next day, he ends up revealing the reason why he died and became a ghost —but just for the sake of preserving some suspense, I’ll refrain from disclosing this detail. From that moment, he stops cooperating with Seong A. Eventually, Ji-ho approaches Yeom-hwa and ends up making a mistake —again, I won’t be disclosing what mistake.
As a result, Yeom-hwa starts a ritual that will summon the grim reaper, who will take Bongsu and Gyeon U, along with him, to the underworld. Of course, Seong A and her family begin their rescue operation and carry out a fake ritual to confuse the Grim Reaper. Everything would have worked out, only if Bongsu hadn’t untied himself and counter-cursed Yeom-hwa.
That’s when the story takes a sharp and very, very dark turn. Yeom-hwa is spared, and it is General Dongcheon who pays the price — with her life. Due to the human amulet that her spirit mother gave her —the embroidered butterfly handkerchief —the grim reaper attacks and takes the soul of Yeom-hwa’s spirit mother.
The episode ends with Yeom-hwa crying near her spirit’s mother’s dead body.
Final Thoughts
Having watched countless K-dramas, I kind of anticipated, from the very beginning, that Seong A’ spirit mother would eventually have to die. Still, the fact that her death resulted from Yeom-hwa’s choice —or call it a mistake — adds a very beautiful layer to the narrative. Her descent into darkness and collaboration with evil deities demanded consequences. This was a brutal punishment for her. Yet, it remains to be seen if her character will ever find redemption or not.
And, again, what will happen to our lovely couple? From the trailer, it seemed that Gyeon U would be back. But what about Seong A? I don’t think the writers would present a sad and traumatic ending. However, I look forward to seeing how the story will progress towards its finale.
Written by Diksha Gangadeen
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