The latest episode of Marry My Husband introduces Kang Ji-Won’s mother. Lee Jung-Eun plays the character in the show.
Kang Ji-Won’s desperation to cling to seemingly kind people came about because of her mother Hee Sook.
She cheated on her husband, left her family, and ran away with another man.
Hee Sook is a person who had a profound impact on Ji-Won’s psyche growing up and also the reason why she ended up leaning on the worst possible people.
A hurt father, a broken daughter
Kang Ji-Won’s father loved her beyond anything. He cared for her, adored her, and showered her with all the love in the world.
He didn’t tend to himself all that much, though.
He eventually succumbed to cancer and passed away when Ji-Won was still in school.
Meanwhile, her mother who was known for being beautiful in the whole neighborhood, ran away with another man.
One day, Ji-Won spots her father walking somewhere in a despondent, defeated manner.
He stops and hides behind a wall to look at his wife, having a blissful time with the richer man who she is now in a relationship with.
Ji-Won sees the state of her father and sees the truth about her mother. It breaks her heart completely.
That is when she decides that to carry on with her life, she would have to accept that it was just her life, that her life was just one of the awful ones.
She made peace with the notion that she was just one of the unlucky ones. She felt all alone and abandoned.
Consequently, she grew desperate to feel a hand reaching out to her, someone who would be by her side and have her back.
That desperation blinded her to the true nature of the people who did reach out to her, like Jeong Su-Min and Park Min-Hwan.
Su-Min plays her hand
Ji-Won put her trust in her best friend Su-Min, and her boyfriend-turned-husband Min-Hwan.
They would have an affair and end up murdering her later on.
Ji-Won gets a second chance at life, however, and she decides to change all of what she has suffered through.
She overcomes her desperation.
She contends with Min-Hwan and Su-Min and manages to get them to marry each other.
However, Su-Min is relentless and keeps conspiring against Ji-Won.
When she realizes that she coveted Ji-Won’s trash when she married Min-Hwan, thinking he stole him from her, Su-Min is furious.
She plays another hand.
Hee Sook returns
She calls up Ji-Won’s mother and tells her about her daughter who has come into money by getting into a relationship with a wealthy man.
Kang Ji-Won is soon contacted by her mother, who can’t pass up on a golden opportunity to run for the one with money and riches.
Hee Sook can’t help but be obvious about her true colors, despite her best effort to pretend she’s a caring and remorseful mother.
Kang Ji-Won knows this and sees her mother for who she truly is, and yet she takes her out on a date and shops expensive stuff for her.
Later on, she tells Hee Sook that she’s not with the wealthy man anymore, and Hee Soon can’t help but be distressed at the news, angered even.
She asks with a frustrated tone as to why that is since it was her chance to keep extracting money from her daughter.
Hee Sook thinks she is deluded into believing her mother is just an innocent woman eager to reconnect with her daughter.
Kang Ji-Won tells her she knows about her true nature and why despite that she spent a joyous day with her.
Ji-Won’s reason is that she just wanted to experience a happy day out with her mother once in her life, even if it was just play pretend.
Hee Sook is left standing, frustrated and sour-faced, as Ji-Won walks out.