The chemistry between Lee Sun-Joon and Kim Yoon-Shik (Kim Yoon-Hee, referred as Yoon-Shik when mentioned in regard to Sun-Joon and addressed using feminine second & third person hereafter throughout) builds gradually in the first eight episodes. They reach a point where they both have feelings for each other but are yet to identify it. The homosexual narrative materializes when Kim Yoon-Shik is accused of stealing. After returning to Sungkyunkwan after a short break, relation between Yoon-Shik and San-Joon are strained – San-Joon’s covert financial help does not settle well with Yoon-Shik who feels like a charity case. The news of Sun-Joon getting married to Student Body President Ha In-Soo’s younger sister Hyo-Eun further devastates Yoon-Shik. …show more content…
The merchant leader asks Minister Ha, while giving him a bribe to attend the merchants’ “meeting” and repeat his reassurances about the support of the Noron faction. The Jalgeum Quartet arrive on the same conclusion – legal merchants are paying the guards and that is where the money is piling up and the quartet make plans to infiltrate the merchant’s meeting (not so much a meeting as it is a party) - there’s a list of transactions that they must find hidden within the storage of the estate which will prove that the products that the guards destroyed are actually being taken to the legal merchants and being sold again to the people for a higher price. Yong-Ha and Sun-Joon decide to go alone and not involve Geol-Oh and Yoon-Shik. They set off to the merchant’s party, followed shortly by Geol-Oh and Yoon-Shik – she cannot stand to be indebted …show more content…
Yoon-Shik arrives at the estate but is denied entry - that is, until she sees some gisaengs enter and disguises herself as one, enters the party and rescues Sun-Joon - who at first doesn’t recognize her and when he does he is shocked. They manage to successfully steal evidence – including a ledger of illegal transactions between merchants and Noron officials. They escape with the help from Yong-ha who sends a group of gisaengs their way to help them leave undetected. On their way to Sungkyunkwan, Sun-Joon explains to Yoon-Shik that he never pitied her – he just wanted to help her but since he hasn’t done this kind of gestures ever he didn’t know how to go about it and apologizes for his behavior; the two reconcile. While Yoon-Shik is discussing about the information they discovered, Sun-Joon cannot get Yoon-Shik’s gisaeng image out of his head and is continuously