Seo In-Ho, one of the main characters in Doctor Cha, is the husband of the titular medical resident, Cha Jeong-Suk.
Cha Jeong-Suk has been a selfless and relentless housewife for twenty years. Making her thankless job even more difficult are a mother-in-law and husband who undermine her while also rarely acknowledging her efforts.
Seo In-Ho has been her husband but mostly on paper and in the eyes of the society for many years now. Additionally, to her unyielding loyalty and hardwork that borders subservience, In-Ho has nothing but promiscuity to offer.
Cold-heart husband
Seo In-Ho is a cold, stern-faced surgeon who is rather direct and dexterous with his professional work. Carrying an intimidating aura, he commands respect at his workplace and is great at his job.
However, when it comes to being a husband, his report card is but a giant red blot. In-Ho is absolutely repugnant with the way he treats his wife of twenty years. From scrutinizing the food made by her frequently at the dinner table, to shutting her down when she tries to advise her children, he considers Jeong-Suk to be rather inferior.
Apart from the biggest crime that he’s guilty of in his marriage, In-Ho disrespects Jeong-Suk with every little thing he does. In terms of intimacy, he’s almost revolted by Jeong-Suk’s efforts at getting closer to him.
In fact, it’s almost been a decade that he’s had sex with Jeong-Suk, and is shown to be physically repulsed by her intimate approaches. His biggest and cruelest actions towards his wife come when she has a liber failure and he doesn’t go through with the crucial surgery where’d he was supposed to donate a part of his liver.
Mama’s boy
From the smallest things to the biggest decisions, Seo In-Ho flocks to his mother for advice and requests. When it comes to the liver donation, he goes to his mother who continually refuses to permit him to go through with the surgery, no matter what happens to Jeong-Suk.
When Jeong-Suk asks to be made a part owner of the house, In-Ho asks his mother about it, and she obviously rejects the demands of her daughter-in-law.
When she throws an obviously fake and overtly dramatic fit at the hospital upon learning that her son matches the prerequisites for a donor, Seo In-Ho diverts his attention to his mother instead of even once addressing his wife’s dire needs.
Repeat offender
Seo In-Ho has certain proclivities and they have to do with his promiscuous behavior. He has been cheating on his wife for a long time now, with none other than his first love, Choi Seung-Hi.
He had cheated on Seung-Hi when he had sex with Jeong-Suk and conceived Jung-Min, eventually breaking things with her as well as her heart. Later on, he’d come to meet her again during his medical residency at a U.S. hospital.
He considers it fate that he crossed paths with Seung-Hi again in the U.S., where he rekindled his relationship with her and started cheating on his wife. In the present day, Seo In-Ho continues his affair with Seung-Hi, who works as his colleague at the Gusan University Hospital.