In The Atypical Family, Baek Il-hong, played by Kim Geum-soon, is a loan shark who is Do Da-hae’s adoptive mother.
Da-hae lives with a group of scammers. They are the only family she has. Together, they scam rich people.
The boss of the group is Baek Il-hong, who makes all the important decisions, including selecting their targets and planning their schemes.
Taking Da-hae in
After Da-hae’s father passed away, she was left all alone, as her mother had abandoned them a long time ago.
The only person who attended her father’s funeral was a woman named Baek Il-hong. The woman turned out to be a loan shark.
Il-hong had come there to inform Da-hae that her father’s debts were hers now. Da-hae would be responsible for repaying the money her father owed to Il-hong.
Soon after, Da-hae was injured in a fire at her school. She was taken to the hospital, but she did not have the money for treatment.
Il-hong came to the hospital and stopped Da-hae from leaving. She offered to pay for Da-hae’s treatment if Da-hae agreed to be her daughter and scam rich people with her.
Da-hae was a school student back then, and since she did not have anyone to rely on, she got involved in Il-hong’s schemes.
Losing control over Da-hae
Da-hae obediently plays the roles that Il-hong wants her to play. She successfully marries two rich men and divorces them after getting their money.
The third target that Il-hong chooses for Da-hae is Gwi-ju, but things do not go as planned because the Bok family is not an ordinary family.
As Da-hae finds out about their powers and develops feelings for Gwi-ju, she tries to convince Il-hong to find a new target.
However, Il-hong disregards Da-hae’s feelings and fears, forcing her to marry Gwi-ju. She promises to consider all of Da-hae’s debts repaid after this one last scam.
Da-hae eventually chooses to reveal to Gwi-ju and his family that she is a fraud, ruining Il-hong’s plan and enraging her.
Gwi-ju then decides to free Da-hae from Il-hong by offering to use his powers to make Il-hong money. Il-hong accepts Gwi-ju’s offer.
Il-hong also sets her sights on using Gwi-ju’s mother’s power to make money, but Da-hae continues opposing Il-hong to protect the Boks.
Eventually, the conflict between them comes to a head. Da-hae then reveals to Il-hong that she could have bought her freedom from Il-hong with a lottery ticket that Gwi-ju gave her.
However, she chose to stay with Il-hong out of pity. Il-hong was in prison for some time, during which her only daughter died.
Da-hae believed that Il-hong desperately wanted a daughter and tried to keep Da-hae close by using her father’s debts as leverage.
Da-hae now realizes that Il-hong never saw her as her daughter; she just wanted to exploit her. Da-hae is unwilling to let her do that anymore.
Da-hae decides to cut ties with her, warning her that she will use every trick that Il-hong taught her against her if she tries to harm the Boks.
Da-hae even tells Man-heum about Il-hong’s only weakness—her daughter. Man-heum uses this against Il-hong.
Il-hong then tries to get Da-hae murdered and succeeds, unaware that her right-hand man worked with Da-hae to stage her death.
Da-hae is still not free of Il-hong, as Il-hong begins to suspect that Da-hae is alive and tracks her down.
Also Read: Bok I-na: The Atypical Family character explained
