In the second season of D.P., Jun-ho and Ho-yeol are sent to find Jang Sung-min, a deserter who has been on the run for years now. Bae Na-ra plays the role of Sung-min.
Jang Sung-min became a deserter five years ago and has evaded capture since then, becoming one of the three legendary long-term deserters. Ten months ago, Ho-yeol found him and came very close to taking him back, but Sung-min managed to escape yet again by stabbing Ho-yeol.
Now, the police catch a petty criminal, and Sung-min’s name is found on the list of his clients, so Ho-yeol, along with Jun-ho, is sent to find him once again. Sung-min’s case is not like other cases for Ho-yeol, as he came very close to losing his life the last time he pursued Sung-min.
The price of being different
Jang Sung-min was a bright performing arts student. He wanted to play the role of Nina in Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull. However, he was mocked and bullied by his seniors for wanting to play a female character.
That does not change even after joining the military. He is constantly targeted and bullied for being queer; his seniors use homophobic slurs to humiliate him. When Sung-min cannot take it anymore, he runs away.
He then starts working at a club, where he almost gets caught by Ho-yeol. After stabbing him, he goes to the criminal, who later gets caught by the police, to ask for help. A desperate Sung-min begs him and even threatens to kill himself, as he believes he will die anyway if he gets caught.
The criminal assists him in meeting with people who create new identities for undocumented citizens. Sung-min then gets a job at a factory and lives in a small room, but he spends his nights singing at a club. There, he is known as Nina.
Nina’s talent does not go unnoticed for long, and he is approached by a theater producer and director to play the role of Nina in her production of The Seagull in England. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Sung-min.
In order to leave the country, he needs a new passport. He takes the help of another criminal and gets a fake passport made for Jang Nina. However, things go wrong at the airport; there seems to be a problem with Sung-min’s new passport.
This makes Sung-min nervous. The staff calls their senior to assist them, but Sung-min assumes that they have figured out that his passport is fake. The staff wants him to sit and wait, but Sung-min does not stay to hear them out.
He runs away, and on his way out, he gets badly injured. In that condition, he does not get too far. He collapses on a bridge and dies. In his last moments, he does what he loves doing the most — he sings.
The cause of his death is determined to be tetanus and excessive bleeding, along with malnourishment, which caused the shock. Sung-min struggled his whole life because he was different. The fact that he never got his happy ending made Ho-yeol cry for him.
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