This Week, My Wife Will Have an Affair: Episode 10

by chocolatte

I’m amazed at the way this show keeps surprising me with its unexpected emotional punches, even this late into the series. Just when there seems to be a little bit of clarity on where our lead couple will go, and just when I think I know where the story is heading, I’m proven wrong. At this point, I have no idea what the end game for Hyun-woo and Soo-yeon will be, but I’m okay with that — as long as the show continues its deft and biting portrayal of what marriage, romance, and adultery look like in real life, I’ll be happy to tune in until the very end.

 
EPISODE 10 RECAP

Hyun-woo and Soo-yeon reconnect over some beer, and for the first time in a long while, they actually look happy to be together.

But over on the stocks forum, a mysterious commenter writes that he’s found out more about TOYCRANE’s wife: She’s a graphic designer.

Bo-young and Joon-young are on Joon-soo Duty again, and end up coming across a telescope at Hyun-woo’s house. It’s dated November 27 — which happens to be tomorrow — and Joon-soo says the date is his mother’s birthday. Bo-young tells Joon-soo that it will be great to have his whole family celebrate Soo-yeon’s birthday together, then she surreptitiously tells Joon-young that they need to work together to make sure that happens.

When Hyun-woo comes come, the two ask him about the significance of November 27. Hyun-woo has no idea and looks completely flummoxed when they tell him that it’s Soo-yeon’s birthday. Bo-young encourages Hyun-woo to bring home flowers and a cake, adding that Soo-yeon will return home tomorrow, if only for Joon-soo’s sake.

As they’re leaving Hyun-woo’s place, Bo-young declines Joon-young’s invitation to go eat, but not before mentioning how good roasted clams would be. The next thing she knows, Joon-young pulls the car to a stop at the beach. Bo-young accuses Joon-young of kidnapping her, but he huffily tells her he drove all the way to the beach for her, since she said she wanted clams. These two.

At the restaurant, Joon-young tells Bo-young that she once told him that roasted clams are best eaten at the beach. He thinks that was her way of asking him to take her to the beach; she, of course, denies it. The two argue back and forth, until two men from the next table chime in. They take Joon-young’s side, saying that Bo-young must like Joon-young.

Joon-young’s totally on board with that observation, but Bo-young is most definitely not. Then, a drunk woman at a nearby table also jumps into their conversation, loudly slurring that men are garbage anyway. Bo-young’s happy to have found someone who agrees with her, and the two take a shot together, kicking off a night of epic drinking.

Yoon-ki’s startled to find Ara at home — she’s returned from her parents’ house for their wedding anniversary like she said she would. After the two blow out candles on their anniversary cake, Ara hands Yoon-ki an envelope containing papers for his office building, which is now in his name. He’s at once uneasy and overwhelmed by this gesture, but Ara just tells Yoon-ki that he’ll do well with the building.

Joon-young and Bo-young adorably sing and dance their way into Joon-young’s apartment, thoroughly drunk and armed with more alcohol. This can’t end well, but they’re still awfully cute.

The next morning, Joon-young gulps his morning coffee like it’s hangover soup, and tells Hyun-woo that he actually woke up in his apartment this time after a night of drinking.

Meanwhile, Bo-young sits at Soo-yeon’s apartment for breakfast, looking like a lot is on her mind. She remembers that it’s Soo-yeon’s birthday, and tells Soo-yeon that Joon-soo did a lot to prepare for her big day. She suggests that Soo-yeon go home tonight, then adds that it’s going to be harder for Soo-yeon and Hyun-woo if they continue to stay separated.

Hyun-woo takes Bo-young’s advice and stops by a florist, happily picking out a basket of flowers for Soo-yeon.

Soo-yeon’s at the office when she receives a flower basket delivery. She smiles and opens the card in anticipation, but her eyes widen in horror when she reads the message: “There is no forgiveness for a cheater who betrayed her family. Your husband may have forgiven you, but I will never forgive you!” Okay, so the flowers are definitely not from Hyun-woo.

Her mind racing, Soo-yeon logs into the stocks forum, where she sees the post outing TOYCRANE’s wife as a graphic designer. Completely freaked out, she looks around her office suspiciously, and then her phone rings from an unknown number.

Thank goodness it’s only Joon-soo on the other end, wanting to know if Soo-yeon’s coming home for her birthday. Soo-yeon exhales loudly with relief as she assures him that she will come home.

Later, Soo-yeon’s mom group starts texting about the news that TOYCRANE’s wife is a graphic designer. One mom wonders if Soo-yeon might know her, and another points out how horribly the child will be treated once their identity is revealed. Poor Soo-yeon looks terrified as she reads through each message.

She’s super jumpy leaving work that night, and when she gets home, she walks in cautiously, calling out for Hyun-woo and Joon-soo. She jumps when Joon-soo emerges from around a corner and sets off a party popper, followed by Hyun-woo. The boys are adorned in party hats and enormous grins, and Hyun-woo even chuckles at Soo-yeon’s stunned reaction.

They continue Soo-yeon’s celebration with cake and gifts, which include a family picture that Joon-soo drew for Soo-yeon and a gold star necklace from Hyun-woo. Soo-yeon’s face is filled with emotion as she gratefully looks at her family.

Later that night, Hyun-woo apologizes to Soo-yeon for not taking care of her properly. After a pause, she starts to say something to Hyun-woo, but then stops herself, unable to tell him about the flower delivery.

Bo-young reads through the stocks forum, where a commenter claims that he sent flowers to TOYCRANE’s wife today. He even posts pictures of the flower basket and the receipt, which Bo-young notes with worry on her face.

Back at her new apartment and still looking incredibly anxious, Soo-yeon heads downstairs to take out a trash bag containing the flower basket. She runs into Bo-young, who immediately notices the flowers and asks if she received a delivery today from one of the online commenters.

Bo-young and Joon-young break the news about Soo-yeon’s online stalker to a horrified Hyun-woo. Joon-young runs through some options to find out the stalker’s identity: They could look up his current user ID, or they could trace his IP address (which is illegal) to find a location. As Hyun-woo agonizes over what to do, Bo-young tells him that Soo-yeon is probably the most shocked out of all of them right now.

Hyun-woo calls Soo-yeon and apologizes for posting his story online and getting them into this mess. He tells her not to worry, but Soo-yeon’s more concerned about how Joon-soo will be affected. Hyun-woo promises that he won’t let anything happen to Joon-soo or her.

The next day, Hyun-woo enlists the help of Lee PD to do an online search of the stalker, whose username is ADULTERYPATCH. The search comes up clean — it looks like the username is brand new, with no trace of other online activity. Outraged, Hyun-woo asks Lee PD to try tracing the commenter’s IP address, but he refuses on the grounds that it’s illegal.

Joon-young tries to contact the Cyber Crimes Department but gets nowhere, since they won’t do an investigation until there’s been an actual breech of personal information.

As Bo-young, Hyun-woo, and Joon-young regroup, Bo-young says that ADULTERYPATCH might be someone who used to post messages under a different username. She muses that people are driven to social media for various reasons, and that it’s easy to develop a god complex online, or to insert yourself into someone else’s story as if it were your own.

Hyun-woo reviews all the comments on the forum, writing down every user who sounds like the stalker — and there sure are a lot of potential candidates. He thinks to himself that anyone and no one could be ADULTERYPATCH.

While all of this is going on, Yoon-ki is carefree as can be as he drops in on another one of the flower teacher’s lectures.

Hyun-woo decides to write another post online, asking ADULTERYPATCH and others not to share his wife’s personal information with the public. “Please support my wife and I as we embark on a new beginning together,” he writes.

The responses are swift and pretty unforgiving, as many are rooting for Soo-yeon’s identity to be revealed. ADULTERYPATCH himself soon responds, writing that he’ll punish Soo-yeon in Hyun-woo’s stead by releasing Soo-yeon’s information tomorrow night.

Deep into her lecture, the flower teacher clicks over to the next slide, which draws gasps from the crowd — instead of her usual flower arrangements, the slide features a photo of her arranging petals on a topless Yoon-ki. Mortified, she hurriedly presses her clicker, but her humiliation continues as more incriminating photos pop up, slide after slide.

She looks over to Yoon-ki in desperation, but he’s not there — he’s already outside, looking confused as to what just happened. He tries to call Ara, but she doesn’t pick up.

Back at the office, Joon-young takes charge, telling Hyun-woo and Bo-young he’ll do whatever he needs to do — including tracing the IP address — to stop ADULTERYPATCH. He asks Bo-young to bring Joon-soo to Soo-yeon and to stay with them for the night.

It looks like Soo-yeon needs the company, as she can’t even walk down the street in broad daylight without looking afraid for her life. She looks so relieved to see Bo-young and Joon-soo, and embraces her son tightly.

For his part, Hyun-woo does the only thing he knows how to do: write a post online. He sends a note directly to ADULTERYPATCH, imploring him to stop, but ADULTERYPATCH replies that his wife needs to be punished. Hyun-woo writes back that this punishment will not only hurt his wife, but him and his child too.

When ADULTERYPATCH doesn’t budge, Hyun-woo loses his temper and replies with a nasty message. That gets him nowhere, so he pedals back, writing that he’ll punish Soo-yeon himself so that ADULTERYPATCH doesn’t have to. The lack of a response prompts Hyun-woo to write yet another note, desperately saying that he’ll do whatever ADULTERYPATCH wants him to do.

Hyun-woo quickly closes his laptop when his CEO stops by to chat, then opens it back up, looking unsure about what to do.

He heads outside for some fresh air, where he sends a message to TUNAMAYO, seeking some words of encouragement. TUNAMAYO responds quickly, but not in the way Hyun-woo expected: She tells him that none of this would have happened if his wife hadn’t cheated. At this, Hyun-woo yells and screams in frustration.

The flower teacher returns to her studio to find Ara waiting for her. The teacher is strangely arrogant when she confronts Ara, telling her that while her career may be over, she’s not going down alone. When Ara doesn’t respond, the teacher gets angry and slaps her hard across the face again and again, until Ara’s lip splits open.

Ara looks up at the teacher and asks if she’s finished — because if she is, it’s her turn now. Oh snap. Ara throws a monster punch at the teacher, sending her flying across the room. She next grabs her by her hair and smacks her across the face, causing her to crumple onto the floor.

The teacher starts pleading with Ara to stop, but Ara responds with a move straight out of professional wrestling, by wrapping her legs around the woman before flipping her to the ground. Before walking out, Ara stands over her opponent for a moment, soaking in her victory.

Later that night, Bo-young hangs out with Soo-yeon and Joon-soo, but none of them look like they’re going to get much sleep. Meanwhile, Hyun-woo writes another desperate message to ADULTERYPATCH, begging for mercy, but ADULTERYPATCH just deletes all his messages.

Hyun-woo wakes up the next morning to a post from ADULTERYPATCH announcing his plan to reveal TOYCRANE’s wife that day. In an effort to stop him, Hyun-woo decides to flood the forum with post after post, each with the same message: He, TOYCRANE, will forgive his wife. ADULTERYPATCH responds in kind, posting repeatedly with his intent to identify TOYCRANE’s wife.

Soo-yeon watches the battle between Hyun-woo and ADULTERYPATCH unfold on the forum, then starts typing. Identifying herself as TOYCRANE’s wife, she writes: “It’s okay if you reveal my information, but please don’t bother my husband and my child.”

This only makes ADULTERYPATCH angrier, and he writes that he’s going to post Soo-yeon’s information sooner than originally planned.

Hyun-woo calls Soo-yeon when he sees her post, but their conversation is cut short when Hyun-woo reads the latest ADULTERYPATCH post saying that he’s getting ready to reveal Soo-yeon’s information. Hyun-woo hurriedly tries to write another post to counter it, but his laptop battery’s dead, with no charger in sight.

He quickly heads to the study, but he kicks the power cord to his desktop computer out of the socket by accident. Restarting the computer takes forever, and by the time Hyun-woo’s able to log back into the stocks forum, he’s losing his mind.

He finally brings up the forum, then freezes in shock — it’s being flooded with posts from other users, all with the same message: “We forgive your wife.”

With Bo-young by her side, Soo-yeon tears up as she reads through all the supportive posts on the forum.

Elsewhere, the husband we know as a TOYCRANE follower and commenter angrily taps at his keyboard after reading through the latest messages on the forum. He’s soon interrupted by his wife (also another commenter), who tells him to stop what he’s doing, because it’s illegal. The husband says he can’t sit back and do nothing — he wants to catch ADULTERYPATCH. Oh, so he’s trying to track down the IP address?

His wife leaves the room, but returns a moment later with her own laptop — and ha, she joins in his efforts to track down the IP address, though she tells her husband that if they get caught, she’ll deny her involvement.

The two diligently try to hack the forum, but to no avail. The husband suggests an old-school method to collect ADULTERYPATCH’s IP address: They’ll send him an email and get him to open it.

The two quickly create a program, then the wife sends ADULTERYPATCH an email. To get him to open it, she’s set the sender name as “Wife,” with the subject line as “Honey.” ADULTERYPATCH falls for it and opens the email.

The outpouring of support from online commenters has successfully stalled ADULTERYPATCH’s reveal, and Hyun-woo reassures Soo-yeon over the phone that they’ll find a way to block her information from becoming public. After hanging up, Hyun-woo sees a new email — it’s from our hacker team, sending him the address they traced to ADULTERYPATCH.

Hyun-woo doesn’t waste any time and runs as fast as he can towards his target location. On his way, he passes by some of his regular commenters one by one, but none of them turn out to be the culprit.

Hyun-woo soon arrives at… his office building? What? He heads straight into the CEO’s office and grabs his monitor, confirming that the CEO is indeed ADULTERYPATCH. To the CEO’s surprise, Hyun-woo confesses that he’s TOYCRANE.

Hyun-woo asks the CEO why he did what he did. The CEO replies that he found his personal situation to be unfair — and when he read about someone else going through the same thing, he claims he just lost his mind.

The CEO tells Hyun-woo the whole story: He sent his wife and kid to live abroad, but his wife had an affair. Now, he says that all he has left is a wife who won’t return home, and a kid who’s like a stranger to him. When the CEO breaks down in tears, apologizing for what he did, Hyun-woo can’t hold back his tears either.

The CEO writes a final ADULTERYPATCH post on the forum, apologizing for threatening to reveal the identity of TOYCRANE’s wife. He writes that it was all a lie, adding that he only did it for attention. Soo-yeon reads the post and practically collapses from relief.

Yoon-ki’s on pins and needles as he waits for his wife to return home. As soon as she enters, he starts rambling about how his affair with the flower teacher was an “accident,” and how he was seduced. He trails after Ara all the way to her room, asking her to forgive him, but when she turns around, she bluntly tells him: “Let’s get divorced.”

Insisting that he’s sorry, Yoon-ki suggests that they talk again when she’s less angry. But Ara says that she’s not angry at him anymore, and repeats that they should get divorced. She tells him he doesn’t have to worry about the building, which is still his, and says that she’ll send him paperwork tomorrow. Then, she shuts the door on him.

Yoon-ki mulls over Ara’s words and decides that the divorce is not a bad deal after all, since he’d still be getting his building. In her room, Ara makes a phone call to a Manager Kim, instructing him to begin. Uh-oh.

Bo-young ribs Joon-young for not “handling” the ADULTERYPATCH problem like he said he would, while Joon-young protests that he did all he could. When the two decide to go get something to eat, Bo-young stops short just outside the restaurant, pointing out that Joon-young’s ex-wife is inside. She tells Joon-young that they should go elsewhere, but Joon-young insists that they go in.

Inside, Bo-young orders while waiting for Joon-young to finish chatting with his ex. When he rejoins her, he says he settled things — the relationship with this wife is really over. Bo-young just tells him to eat, but she doesn’t seem as unaffected as she pretends to be.

Faithful TOYCRANE fans Ajumma and Grandma are caught all up, having read the latest post from ADULTERYPATCH. Grandma’s happy with the ending to TOYCRANE’s story, and asks Ajumma why she’s such a proponent of divorce.

Getting teary, Ajumma says Grandma’s had a hard life because of her and her husband having an affair. She says that if Grandma had at least gotten a divorce, she would have felt better, and maybe Grandma would have lived a more comfortable life. Grandma dismisses Ajumma’s words, but back in the kitchen, she wipes away her own tears as she prepares a meal for the two of them.

Back at work, Joon-young fawns all over Bo-young at a staff meeting. This doesn’t go unnoticed by their colleagues, and they wonder why the two are being nice when they’re usually at each other’s throats.

As a response, Joon-young invites the team out to dinner, proudly announcing that he’s divorced. He keeps giving Bo-young little smiles while telling everyone he’s now a single “oppa.” Bo-young, on the other hand, looks exasperated as she urges everyone to focus on work.

Hyun-woo returns home to find Soo-yeon and Joon-soo decked out in party hats again, with another cake in front of them. Joon-soo helpfully explains that Soo-yeon forgot to make a wish the other day, so they’re having a birthday party do-over. Hyun-woo’s all in, so Soo-yeon makes her wish, then blows out the candles.

As Soo-yeon gets ready to leave, Hyun-woo notices that she’s folded all of his and Joon-soo’s laundry. He calls out to her that she’s a really bad woman — the worst, he says. “But,” he continues, “I’m even worse than you.”

He tells her that he’s sorry for never trying to fully understand her, and for making her feel alone. He says there were so many things he didn’t know, and for that, he’s sorry. Soo-yeon tells him that she’s the one who should apologize, because she was the one who caused their family so much pain.

Hyun-woo steps closer to Soo-yeon and proposes that the two start fresh. “I’ll do better. Let’s live happily together — you, me, and Joon-soo,” he says. Soo-yeon nods tearfully, and Hyun-woo draws her into an embrace.

But when he hugs her, all he can see is the face of Soo-yeon’s lover Sun-woo, which makes him recoil. Shaken, he takes a breath, then tries putting his arms around Soo-yeon one more time, only to have the same thing happen again. Hyun-woo looks totally confused and stunned, and stammers to Soo-yeon that it’s not what she thinks.

Soo-yeon looks back at him, tears streaming down her face. She tells him that she knows, and that she understands.

And back at her place, Bo-young stares down at a pregnancy test — it’s positive.

 
COMMENTS

There’s no way that baby isn’t Joon-young’s, right? It was clear something had happened between him and Bo-young during their drunken escapade, but I was surprised that it (probably) went that far. So now, I’m confused about just how much Joon-young actually knows. He seemed so normal the day after compared to Bo-young, who looked a little shell-shocked. Does he even remember what happened that night? Did they have a conversation about it off-screen? I’m dying to know the details, and I’m sure whatever happens next, it’s going to be entertaining.

This show continues to surprise me with its take on Hyun-woo and Soo-yeon’s story, as it throws in twists and reveals that really tug at the heart. I totally teared up when the online community stepped up to protect Soo-yeon against ADULTERYPATCH’s attacks — despite the terrible things that people had said about Soo-yeon over that very same forum, it truly felt like reason (and forgiveness) prevailed. In that same vein, I also liked that ADULTERYPATCH was ultimately outed by followers of the TOYCRANE story; all around, the best of their online community ultimately saved Hyun-woo and Soo-yeon from the worst. It makes me feel like there’s hope for us all.

The strongest emotional note for me came at the end, when Hyun-woo and Soo-yeon were on the verge of reconciling. I have to admit that I was a little surprised when Soo-yeon agreed to Hyun-woo’s proposal to start fresh. She did, after all, tell the world she couldn’t go back to him because she couldn’t forgive herself. That and the fact that we’re only on Episode 10 led me to wonder where we would go from here if our main couple were to get back together now. And then, the gut punch: that look on Hyun-woo’s face when he realizes that he can’t touch Soo-yeon without seeing Sun-woo. I felt like Hyun-woo in that moment, like I’d gotten the wind knocked out of me; then I felt Soo-yeon’s pain as she watched Hyun-woo have that reaction. It was one of the most powerful moments of the show thus far, and I have to give it up for Lee Seon-kyun and Song Ji-hyo for putting in such an incredible performance here.

I love that the show is continuing the story by having Hyun-woo and Soo-yeon deal with the very real ramifications of the reconciliation process. I thought the show might have easily ended with the two of them forgiving one another and moving on to happier times in their marriage — but it’s not that simple, is it? The show hasn’t hesitated so far in showing us what a marriage on the rocks really looks like, and I appreciate that they’re also highlighting that it’s not easy to move on from something like this, even with forgiveness and love. I do wonder where this leaves our couple — how hard will Hyun-woo work to power through this new hurdle? Is it really possible to forgive and forget? How do you erase the memory of the man your wife had an affair with, but not the memory of your wife?

Now, for our last couple: I’m trying to figure out why I’m not finding Ara’s revenge arc as satisfying as I thought it would be. Maybe it’s because I truly just don’t care at all about Yoon-ki at this point, or because the show took too long getting here. It could also be the fact that the show’s completely given up on telling this couple’s story in any sort of a realistic way. Just as everything about Yoon-ki’s affairs were over the top and hard to believe, Ara’s step-by-step destruction of his mistresses (and Yoon-ki, by extension) is similarly crazy and uncomfortable to watch.

Yoon-ki and Ara stand in such sharp contrast to the beautifully nuanced and human stories of our other two couples that it’s almost like they’re in a different show. I know that as characters, they’re not really meant to be realistic — that’s not the purpose they serve. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it, right? I can’t help but wish that I could just skip over their parts and spend more time with the rest of our characters in the episodes we have remaining. There’s so much more to mine there, and I can’t wait to see how we wrap up their stories next week.

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