Delightfully Deceitful (2023) Episode 2

Episode 2 of Delightfully Deceitful takes us back to when Lee Ro-Um was a little girl. Lee Ro-Um was a TV star in a show called “Surprise.” Within this, she memorized information about the audience members within a short time and then narrated it to the audience. One time, she was asked to narrate the information about audience member number 25. Lee Ro-Um froze and didn’t say anything, as we soon learn that this was actually Moo-Young.

Back to the present, we’re taken back again to when Moo-Young stopped Yo-Han from checking the contents of Lee Ro-Um’s bag, and Moo-Young discovering tons of money inside that bag.

Moo-Young takes Lee Ro-Um to a restaurant and asks her where she got all that money from. Lee Ro-Um retorts that she earned it. Moo-Young reminds her that if she’s part of a crime, she should say so, so that he can help, but Lee Ro-Um assures him she earned the money legally.

Moo-Young then asks Lee Ro-Um if they can discuss her defamation lawsuit. Lee Ro-Um asks him if he’s just going to believe her that easily when she mentioned she earned money legally. Moo-Young tells her that he ought to believe her as her lawyer.

We’re taken back to when Lee Ro-Um’s house was set on fire with her dead parents inside. They were shot before the house was burnt down. The police find Lee Ro-Um at the crime scene the next day, and word quickly spreads that the TV star killed her parents. Soon, a crowd gathered at the crime scene to see the police make Lee Ro-Um re-enact, burning down her home.

The police realized that Lee Ro-Um might not have been living with her parents at the time of their murders, but the authorities didn’t bother to look into that. Lee Ro-Um also studied in a middle school run by a now non-existent foundation, where she lived full-time.

Back to the present, Lee Ro-Um calls her friend, Ja Da-Jung, to tell her she’s out of prison. She goes to Yo-Han to fill out her details, but Yo-Han seems to be the type who’s more interested in female criminals out on probation he’s overseeing. Elsewhere, Jae-Hyeok meets Moo-Young in court and voices out his doubts about whether they put the right person behind bars and released the right person in Lee Ro-Um’s parents’ murder case, given that Choong-Sik has a lot of money in his account and he was homeless before he was arrested.

Later, Moo-Young takes Lee Ro-Um to deposit her money in the bank and buy a phone to communicate more easily. They then go to eat, and Moo-Young asks Lee Ro-Um who the individual responsible for her parent’s murders actually is.

The next day, Yo-Han goes to see Lee Ro-Um at her studio apartment. He finds out Lee Ro-Um has a phone. Lee Ro-Um didn’t inform him she had a phone as she knew he would bother her. Lee Ro-Um finally agrees to take Yo-Han’s phone number, but she sends it to Da-Jung to use and track his location, determined to find out if he’s keeping any dirty secrets.

Elsewhere, Yo-Han catches one of the criminals on probation whom he’s overseeing, Kang Byung-Tae, stealing bikes. And instead of reporting him, he asks him to continue stealing them so they can sell and share the profit. While Yo-Han and Byung-Tae are doing all this, one of Da-Jung’s friends, Ring-Go, is taking pictures of him.

Moo-Young and Jae-Hyeok are discussing Lee Ro-Um’s parents’ murder case. Jae-Hyeok is convinced that the individual responsible for the murders is either Choong-Sik or Lee Ro-Um. But, Moo-Young thinks there’s someone else involved. Jae-Hyeok then tells Moo-Young he discovered that Lee Ro-Um studied in another middle school from the one the court knew. The middle she studied and resided in was managed by a foundation called Jeokmok Foundation.

Jae-Hyeok then tells Moo-Young to keep an eye on Lee Ro-Um because she may go after the people behind her parents’ murders now that she’s free, that is if there are other people involved.

Moo-Young starts investigating about Jeokmok Foundation and finds an article about Lee Ro-Um being sponsored by that foundation written by Woo Young-Ki.

He later goes to see Lee Ro-Um at her studio apartment and takes her out for a walk. They go to a kiosk, and Lee Ro-Um asks Moo-Young if he’s interested in her. Moo-Young says he is, but it’s not how Lee Ro-Um thinks. Moo-Young then asks Lee Ro-Um again if she killed her parents. She tells him she didn’t, and Moo-Young asks her why she didn’t report Choong-Sik. He also asks her what exactly she’s hiding that she was willing to stay in prison for 10 years for a crime she didn’t commit.

Lee Ro-Um asks Moo-Young about his illness, which he mentioned in the last episode when he brought her clothes to wear when she was released from prison. Moo-Young tells her he has Hyper-empathy syndrome. Moo-Young tells Lee Ro-Um that he knows she knew he was overly empathetic, which is why she chose him as her lawyer in the defamation lawsuit. He also tells her to at least trust his illness to be by her side no matter what.

The next day, Moo-Young visits Choong-Sik in prison to ask who killed Lee Ro-Um’s parents, considering he had a lot of money in his account when he was homeless before being arrested. Moo-Young also tells Choong-Sik that Lee Ro-Um wants $1 million as compensation in the defamation lawsuit. He also tells Choong-Sik to consider how much time he’ll spend in prison and if it’s worth not telling the truth. Choong-Sik retorts to Moo-Young that if there are other people involved in Lee Ro-Um’s parents’ murders, Lee Ro-Um will kill them.

Lee Ro-Um goes to a hospice and pretends to be an important visitor for a professor in the hospice. What she really wants to do is get to Shin Ki-Ho, who worked at Jeokmok Foundation and possibly the other person involved in Lee Ro-Um’s parents’ murders. She then changes into the hospice staff’s uniform and goes to Shin Ki-Ho’s room with medicine so she can kill him.

Meanwhile, Woo Young-Ki informs Moo-Young of Shin Ki-Ho. He then remembers what the correctional officer said about Lee Ro-Um having no conscience in the last episode. He tries calling Lee Ro-Um, but she doesn’t pick up. He then calls the hospice and sends them a picture of Lee Ro-Um, asking if she was there. The receptionist confirms she is currently at the hospice, so, Moo-Young heads there. Fortunately, he gets to Shin Ki-Ho’s room just in time before Lee Ro-Um kills him and manages to stop her.

Later, Moo-Young tells Lee Ro-Um he now knows that she knows who else was involved in her parents’ deaths; otherwise, she wouldn’t have tried to kill Shin Ki-Ho. He also tells her he knows the things she did while in jail and asks her what happened to her in Jeokmok that made her this way. Lee Ro-Um tells him that she was born this way, and now that she stopped her from killing Shin Ki-Ho, he’s now an accomplice, so he should stick to his job if he doesn’t want trouble.

At night, Lee Ro-Um goes to see Yo-Han and shows him pictures of him stealing bikes with Byung-Tae. She then tells him to leave her alone, or she’ll report him to the police.

The next day, Lee Ro-Um and Moo-Young go to court for the defamation lawsuit hearing. Then, Moo-Young asks the judge to adjourn the court and wait until Choong-Sik’s retrial is over and Lee Ro-Um’s innocence is confirmed for her to file a defamation lawsuit. This means that Lee Ro-Um isn’t getting any compensation for now and as expected, she is pissed off.

We’re then taken back to when little Lee Ro-Um became nervous and could not narrate Moo-Young’s information when she was at the show. Lee Ro-Um had gone into hiding, and Moo-Young spotted her. He went and talked to her about telling her parents if she didn’t want to be on the show. Lee Ro-Um told Moo-Young that she has to be on the show so that her family could “eat meat.”

The episode ends with Moo-Young calling Lee Ro-Um, pleading with her to allow him to help her, and Lee Ro-Um telling him he’s fired from being her attorney.

The Episode Review

So, now we know a little more about Lee Ro-Um’s background, including her meeting with Moo-Young at some point when they were young. It’s clear Lee Ro-Um’s parents exploited her while she was young, which may contribute to her current personality and behaviour. She also knows who else was involved in her parents’ murders.

I just hope she allows Moo-Young to help her get justice the right way. Similarly, hopefully Moo-Young doesn’t get wrapped around Lee Ro-Um’s finger so much that he loses himself!