The Unbreakable Tie
Episode 7 of Youth Of May begins with Myung-Hee awakening to find herself tied up and captured. While she breathes heavily, trying to compose herself, Hee-Tae drops off a book for Jin-A. He asks about Myung-Hee but she hasn’t come home – and she’s obviously not at work either. Hee-Tae starts to worry, calling Soo-Ryeon and letting her know. Soo-Chan grabs the phone though and hangs up, telling Soo-Ryeon not to answer his calls until everything is sorted out. Hee-Tae even tries to speak to the police too, but they simply tell him to come back in 3 days. While Hee-Tae contemplates over whether to visit Myung-Hee’s parents, he’s stopped by a worried old lady who brings her back to her place. Only… it happens to be Myung-Hee’s parents’ house. Her son happens to be Hyun-Chul, who’s Myung-Hee’s father of course. They soon realize who he is and believe that Myung-Hee is dating him. When Hee-Tae heads back after eating a meal, he runs into Myung-Hee who happens to be walking home. She’s not happy to see him and even backs away from Hee-Tae when he tries to step forward. Now we cut back and see exactly what happened to our heroine. It wasn’t the protestors after all but in fact two men hired by Hee-Tae’s father, Ki-Nam. He blackmailed Myung-Hee, bringing up protests from the past. Even worse, Myung-Hee learns her father is actually a communist and that makes her a communist’s daughter. Just to show how serious Ki-Nam is, he puts her passport on hold indefinitely. When Myung-Hee is returned, she speaks to Soo-Chan who finds out Ki-Nam is being very serious. He tells her to wait but she’s crushed, eventually heading home which catches us up to the here and now. Back at Myung-Hee’s place, she confronts her Father over his ideologies and everything spills over into a messy, emotionally-charged confrontation. In fact, further flashbacks show Ki-Nam taking Hyun-Chul and beating him badly, forcing him into submission. This also explains Hyun-Chul’s limp too; a direct result of his torture. When Myung-Hee returns home, Hee-Tae waits for her at the station but she simply walks away. Symbolically walking through the middle of an ongoing protest, she refuses to talk to him. Hee-Tae eventually catches up though where Myung-Hee eventually admits that she’s scared and tells him to talk to his Father if he wants more details. “Hee-Tae, I’m scared of you now.” She admits, as the gravity of this situation hits home for them both. Hee-Tae immediately speaks to his Father and pleads with him to let Myung-Hee go and live her own life. Ki-Nam is cold and tells his son to go to Seoul and stay there until he says otherwise. As for Myung-Hee, he’s going to deal with her in his own way. Well, back home Soo-Ryeon and Soo-Chan sit their father down and reveal everything they’ve been up to, including the deception in the past and present. Soo-Chan doesn’t want Myung-Hee to be thrown under the bus for this and eventually decides to walk away. Only, in doing so he winds up having a cardiac arrest. He’s okay, but extreme stress has definitely taken its toll on him. Off the back of this, Soo-Ryeon is left with a big decision to make. Hee-Tae is obviously being forced to go to Seoul and reveals as much to Myung-Hee later that evening, thanking her for a couple of excellent weeks together. Hands trembling, he hands back her earrings and apologizes for breaking them. As she walks away, she doesn’t look back which breaks Hee-Tae and every single viewer watching this. It also affects Myung-Hee too of course, who’s being forced into this because of Ki-Nam.
The Episode Review
Youth of May returns with another solid episode of heart-wrenching drama as Myung-Hee and Hee-Tae are forced apart thanks to Ki-Nam. His cruel demeanor is enough to tear this couple apart, with Soo-Ryeon caught in the middle of this. In fact, Soo-Ryeon’s protesting is the real catalyst in all of this, and she now has a big choice to make going forward. Will she choose to protect Myung-Hee and make sure she’s not thrown under the bus? Or will she stand by her father’s side? So far though, she’s the one who’s to blame for everything that’s happened and her inability to stand up for herself and be accountable has caused a whole world of pain for Myung-Hee to endure. This drama has been really solid so far though, and the acting has been on-point throughout. The simple but effective ideas are delivered well and just like in Crash Landing on You, Ki-Nam is a very cold and easy to hate villain. It truly is heartbreaking to see these two characters torn apart. Korean dramas have been on an absolute roll with these depressing, tear-jerking shows as of late and Youth of May is another very solid one to add to the list.
