Like Flowers in Sand follows Baek-du, a wrestler with a mediocre career, who finds a turning point when he reunites with his childhood best friend, Du-sik. All episodes are now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Kim Baek-du, who comes from a family of ssireum champions, used to be a ssireum prodigy once. However, unlike his brothers and father, Baek-du has yet to win a championship.
Baek-du’s wrestling career is at a standstill, and one day, after accidentally getting drunk with his friends, he tells his coach that he will retire if he fails to win the next championship.
Unfortunately, Baek-du’s first match is against Lim Dong-seok, the strongest wrestler in Taebaek class, and Baek-du loses.
Baek-du decides to retire, and that is when he meets Oh Yu-gyeong, Geosan-gun team’s new general manager who has just moved to their town, Geosan.
Baek-du immediately recognizes her as his childhood best friend, Du-sik. Even though Yu-gyeong keeps insisting that she is not Du-sik, Baek-du does not believe her.
It turns out that Baek-du is not wrong. Yu-gyeong is indeed Du-sik. She is hiding her real identity because she is an undercover police officer.
Recently, an infamous match-fixer, Choi Chil-seong, who had been evading the police, came to Geosan and was killed soon after his arrival.
Twenty years ago, Du-sik’s father, Oh Jun, a renowned wrestler, was accused of murdering Joo Cheol-yong, a wrestler he coached, due to a disagreement related to match-fixing.
The police found no evidence against Oh Jun, yet the townspeople did not believe that he was innocent, which led to Oh Jun’s family leaving Geosan.
Choi Chil-seong had come to Geosan twenty years ago, and Du-sik believes that he had something to do with Joo Cheol-yong’s murder.
Now, Du-sik has returned to Geosan with her colleague, Hyeon-uk, who is pretending to be her husband, to investigate Choi Chil-seong’s murder.
Du-sik cannot hide her true identity from Baek-du, so she confides in him about her reason for coming to Geosan.
As Du-sik and Baek-du used to be best friends, she knows that he is not happy about his retirement, so she tries to get him to become the coach of the team when Coach Yeon suddenly quits.
Coach Yeon is later found dead. Du-sik discovers that Coach Yeon took his life after meeting someone who could be Choi Chil-seong’s murderer.
It is Baek-du and Du-sik’s old friend, Kwak Jin-su, who becomes the coach. While Baek-du does not become the coach, he goes back to wrestling in order to help Du-sik with her investigation.
Baek-du and Du-sik grow close once again. Knowing that Du-sik is watching his matches motivates Baek-du to perform better.
Additionally, with Jin-su training him, Baek-du learns to fight for what he wants. In his next championship, Baek-du keeps winning matches but loses when he finds out that Du-sik is not watching him wrestle.
Baek-du manages to secure fourth place, proving to everyone that he is still capable of winning a championship.
Eventually, Baek-du confesses his feelings to Du-sik but asks her not to give him an answer just yet.
Meanwhile, Du-sik discovers that Mi-ran, the owner of a local cafe, is Joo Cheol-yong’s daughter.
Mi-ran does not believe that Oh Jun killed her father, so she agrees to cooperate with Du-sik. She tells Du-sik that Choi Chil-seong came to meet her.
Although Mi-ran did not reveal her true identity to anyone, Choi Chil-seong knew who she was. He blamed himself for Joo Cheol-yong’s death and wanted to give Mi-ran a bag full of cash.
Before his death, he told her that the person who murdered her father is still in Geosan. Du-sik then allows Baek-du to investigate with her and Hyeon-uk.
Du-sik’s other childhood friends, Mi-ran, Jin-su, and Seok-hui, also join them in finding the murderer when they come to know that she is Du-sik.
Ending explained:
The murderer reveals himself
To find Joo Cheol-yong and Choi Chil-seong’s murderer, Du-sik suggests that they lay a trap to lure the murderer.
Mi-ran reveals her true identity to the townspeople and spreads a rumor that she has come across evidence that can unveil the truth about what happened twenty years ago.
Du-sik and her friends hope that the murderer will show himself upon hearing the rumor. Together, they also discover various clues, including Choi Chil-seong’s phone.
The group takes turns to stay with Mi-ran to ensure her safety. However, Mi-ran is left alone when Jin-su gets a call and has to leave.
It is then that the murderer corners Mi-ran at her cafe. It is revealed that Lee Gyeong-mun, the man who owns the rice cake shop in town, is the murderer.
The truth from twenty years ago
Lee Gyeong-mun tells Mi-ran that twenty years ago, he approached her father with Choi Chil-seong, who was her father’s friend, to propose working together.
However, when Joo Cheol-yong refused to be involved in match-fixing, Lee Gyeong-mun killed him.
Then, years later, after convincing Coach Yeon to work with them, he approached Choi Chil-seong, but due to what happened the last time, Choi Chil-seong did not want anything to do with him.
In fact, Choi Chil-seong recorded their conversation because he wanted to prove that Lee Gyeong-mun, and not Oh Jun, killed Joo Cheol-yong.
This resulted in Lee Gyeong-mun murdering Choi Chil-seong. The phone that had his confession was taken by a dog and later found by Seok-hui.
When Lee Gyeong-mun comes to know that the police have Choi Chil-seong’s phone and that it is being restored, he tries to kill Mi-ran.
At the same time, an old picture reminds Du-sik that twenty years ago, she saw Lee Gyeong-mun meeting with Choi Chil-seong.
Du-sik and the rest of the group rush to rescue Mi-ran. Their arrival results in Lee Gyeong-mun escaping without killing Mi-ran.
A champion at last
To catch Lee Gyeong-mun, Du-sik puts out an APB. As the case has been solved and Du-sik has proved her father’s innocence, Du-sik and Hyeon-uk return to Seoul.
However, unlike last time, Baek-du does not lose contact with her. One day, when Du-sik visits Baek-du’s family, instead of asking her to stay, Baek-du asks her to go to Seoul.
He knows that Du-sik has always dreamed of being a police officer, so he encourages her to pursue what she has been working on all this time.
All he wants is for her to come to his next match. Confident that he is going to win the championship this time, he asks her to tell him then whether she reciprocates his feelings.
As Baek-du had claimed, he wins one match after another on the day of the championship. In the final match, he gets to face Lim Dong-seok again.
This time, Baek-du wins against Lim Dong-seok and finally secures a championship, making his family and friends proud.
A happy man
Du-sik had planned to come to Baek-du’s match, but she could not make it, as she had to keep her promise to Mi-ran; Du-sik went to catch Lee Gyeong-mun.
Similarly, Baek-du, who had promised Du-sik that he would tell people about her after becoming a champion, fulfills his 20-year-old promise and speaks only about her during interviews.
Du-sik then comes to Geosan to surprise Baek-du, and Hyeon-uk joins her. When Du-sik sees Baek-du, she tells him that she reciprocates his feelings.
Du-sik’s answer makes Baek-du extremely happy, and the two of them kiss. They then join their friends to celebrate Baek-du’s victory.
Du-sik, Baek-du, and their friends bicker and laugh together, the way they used to do when they were children, and Baek-du’s wish to always be with his friends comes true.
