While being held captive at Seo's house, Dohyun kept racking his brain about one thing. That night, why had he been sneaking into that dark alley behind the bar? No matter how hard he tried, he still couldn't remember what he had been doing there before taking a high heel straight to the head. Maybe Seo's hit had been so hard that it gave him temporary amnesia about that exact moment.
At the same time, over at the management company, the troubled trio, the old CEO, the girlfriend Sarah, and the best friend Miran, were sitting down to talk things over. They pieced together the timeline and realised something weird. On that exact fateful night, Dohyun had scheduled separate meetings with all three of them at different times, but he had vanished into thin air before he could meet anyone.
They started to panic. If Dohyun really had been kidnapped, why hadn't there been a ransom call yet? What did this kidnapper actually want?
The more they analysed it, the more they felt completely in the dark.
Meanwhile, the kidnapper herself was going through some seriously rough days. To get the money to support the big shot Dohyun and meet all his demands for designer gear and gourmet food, Seo had to work herself to the bone at all sorts of part-time jobs. She even had to scrub toilets just to earn some spare change. Ironically, the money she worked so hard for all day was peanuts compared to the fancy food bill Dohyun demanded. Seo held the bag of food, feeling heartbroken for her wallet.
Just as she was trudging home, Seo accidentally bumped into Miran right on the street. The two of them crossed paths for only a split second. Miran looked at her and suddenly felt a strange sense of familiarity, as if he had seen this face somewhere before. However, Seo quickly brushed past him like the wind, leaving him with no time to process it.
After that chance meeting, Miran immediately went to the detective to give him more information. He revealed a huge piece of it, too. On that fateful night, Dohyun had scheduled private meetings with all three of them, Miran, Sarah and the old CEO. But in the end, no one saw him.
The detective grilled him. "Why didn't you say so the other day?"
Miran scratched his head. "Well, since we didn't actually meet, I didn't think it was important."
Talk about a face-palm answer.
Meanwhile, Sarah had started to sniff out the fact that Miran was secretly feeding information to the police.
Back at Seo's hideout, she had just spent all the money she earned from scrubbing toilets all day to buy the fanciest meal for King Dohyun. But he took one bite and spat it right out onto the floor, complaining that the taste was off.
Seo froze, her heart sinking. She had skimped on food and clothes and worked like a dog to serve him. Yet he looked down on her hard work like that. At that moment, she just wanted to kick this burden out of her house right away and be done with it.
While she was fuming, an old co-worker called to let her know about a part-time job. Seo initially planned to refuse, because she had already been fired, but the other side said, "If you want to get your back pay from last month, you have to come here and do handover duties right now."
So she had to drag herself back to her old company. Even though it was called a handover, in reality she was treated like a servant, doing all sorts of random chores, from carrying things to cleaning up. Once she was done and asked about her paycheque, Jian pulled a fast one and pushed the responsibility onto the manager. The manager then started his usual empty promises, finding every excuse to stiff her on the money. Seo was beyond furious, but she still had to suck it up and act sweet, hoping to get her money back.
Meanwhile, the detective was still persistently taking the CCTV photo around Seo's apartment complex. And Seo officially became the unluckiest person of the year when he stopped by the supermarket near her house. The new employee there didn't know who Seo was, but right then her neighbour Namu happened to be in the shop. As soon as he saw the photo, Namu blurted out, "Hey, this is my neighbour Seo."
Talk about a neighbour never letting you down.
The detective immediately followed Namu all the way to Seo's front door. Seeing her open it, Namu said excitedly, "Hey, Seo, someone wants to meet your crazy cousin."
Seo's face went pale as a ghost, and she tried to find every excuse to get them to leave, saying her cousin wasn't home.
But she had no idea that inside, the big star had heard the whole conversation. Hearing the detective and the neighbour at the door, Dohyun was overjoyed and planned to scream at the top of his lungs for help. However, just as he was about to open his mouth, he suddenly froze for a very awkward reason.
He wasn't wearing any pants.
You see, Dohyun's only pair of pants was dirty, and Seo was busy washing them. He had a huge internal struggle. On one side was his freedom, and on the other was the dignity of an A-list superstar. If he rushed out for help in this half-naked state, the headline tomorrow would definitely be: Superstar Dohyun Kidnapped, and the Pantless Ending.
Thinking about that, Dohyun would rather stay locked up than be completely humiliated in front of the whole world. So he frantically tried to find a way to put some pants on so he could escape. But because he was in such a rush, he slipped and fell with a loud bang. His face slammed into the floor and he was knocked out cold once again.
Outside the door, the detective heard the strange noise and started questioning her. Seo replied calmly, "Oh, it's nothing. The neighbour's cat just jumped into the kitchen and knocked over some pots and pans."
Thanks to her pro-level lying skills, Seo managed to get the detective to leave. He was still suspicious. But since he didn't have a search warrant, and the CCTV photo was too blurry, he had no choice but to back off.