Numbers (2023) K Drama Episode 4

Episode 4 of Numbers starts where we left off when Ho-Woo overhead Jisan Bank’s CEO, Ma Hang-Sik, saying how Seung-Jo pushed for Haebit Construction to be declared bankrupt. Ho-Woo immediately confronts Seung-Jo, asking him why he pushed for bankrupty. You might want to buckle up because this episode is about to throw you off your seat with huge revelations!

Seung-Jo asks Ho-Woo why he’s asking about Haebit Construction’s liquidation, and Ho-Woo tells him that the person (Jang In-Ho) who was to ask this question is dead. Ho-Woo knows something was wrong with Haebit Construction’s audit report because it is not available in Taeil Accounting Firm’s filing room. The audit report means that they’re trying to hide something.

Ho-Woo then tells Seung-Jo that he has been looking for Haebit Construction’s audit report every day since he was hired at Taeil Accounting Firm. In fact, that is why he applied for a job at the firm in the first place. Seung-Jo asks Ho-Woo what difference it’ll make if he finds the audit report. Ho-Woo tells him that it will enable him to know who was behind, causing Haebit Construction to shut down so he could make their lives miserable.

Seung-Jo asks Ho-Woo if what he’s planning to do will be possible, and Ho-Woo assures him it will be. Ho-Woo then asks Seung-Jo if, when he came to declare Haebit Construction bankrupt, he ever thought that they would be having this conversation. Ho-Woo however, asks Seung-Jo where Haebit Construction’s audit report is.

Elsewhere, Hyeong-Woo is out drinking with Chan-Joo, who’s upset over buying People’s Entertainment’s bad loan for a huge amount of money. Hyeong-Woo tries to tell him to let it go since his brother, Lee Sang-Joo, won’t be able to know what his son, Lee Bo-Sung, did. Chan-Joo suddenly goes off on Hyeong-Woo, telling him not to think he’s equal to him and that he can get him fired from Taeil Accounting Firm if he wants to. Hyeong-Woo then starts begging Chan-Joo not to do that to him.

Seung-Jo arrives at his house, and his mind goes back to the conversation he just had with Ho-Woo. He also remembers going to the place where Jang In-Ho took his life and how he tried to stop Jang Ji-Soo from seeing his father’s body. Suddenly, he starts experiencing what seems like a panic attack.

Fortunately, one of the accountants at Taeil Accounting Firm, Eun Suk-Min, arrives just in time and helps Seung-Jo. It turns out, Seung-Jo is struggling with Panic Disorder. Eun Suk-Min asks Seung-Jo if working on People’s Entertainment’s bad debt deal has taken a toll on him, and Seung-Jo tells him it did. Eun Suk-Min asks Seung-Jo if that is the only cause of his panic attack or if it’s also because of hiring Ho-Woo, and Seung-Jo brushes that question off.

The next day, Je-Kyun recommends Hyeong-Woo for luring Chan-Joo into buying People’s Entertainment’s bad loan for that huge amount of money. But, Hyeong-Woo tells him that Seung-Jo was the one who made this happen. Je-Kyun tells Hyeong-Woo that he should make him a partner at Taeil Accounting Firm for his father’s sake.

While Hyeong-Woo thanks Je-Kyun for wanting to make him a partner, he still insists that Seung-Jo should take credit for luring Chan-Joo into buying People’s Entertainment’s bad loan. Is he saying this because Chan-Joo blamed him earlier?

Afterwards, Hyeong-Woo calls Woo Sang-Hyun, one of the accountants working under him at Taeil Accounting Firm. He tells Woo Sang-Hyun to find him any projects that will bring Taeil Accounting Firm more money so he can become a partner at the firm.

Seung-Jo takes over a project concerning a company called Soma Tech. This company has been taking loans from Jisan Bank. Now, Jisan Bank wants Taeil Accounting Firm to provide an audit report that will determine whether or not they should declare it bankrupt.

Ho-Woo is at Cheon-Ja’s new café having a meal with Yeo-Jin. They see a story on the news about Chan-Joo’s Sang-Ah Group building a lucrative building. Yeo-Jin mentions that Jang In-Ho wanted to construct that building. During that time, Jang Ji-Soo’s boyfriend wanted to marry her, but she wanted them to wait for her boyfriend’s parents to accept her first.

Seung-Jo is at his house when his mind goes back to the good times he had with Jang Ji-Soo. We now know he and Jang Ji-Soo dated, so, Seung-Jo is the boyfriend Yeo-Jin was talking about.

Later, Seung-Jo gives Ho-Woo a section of Haebit Construction’s audit report. He then tells him that he should work with his team handling Soma Tech’s audit report to get the rest of Haebit Construction’s audit report.

After Je-Kyun announces that Taeil Accounting Firm will be handling Soma Tech’s audit report, Hyeong-Woo goes to him privately and proposes that they sell off Soma Tech to a company abroad called PEF HK Private Equity. That way, it will bring Taeil Accounting Firm more money and they have to write in Soma Tech’s audit report that it has to be declared bankrupt even though it has the potential to continue its operations and pay off the loan they owe to Jisan Bank.

Remember when Hyeong-Woo wanted a project that brought Taeil Accounting Firm more money, increasing his chances of becoming a partner? This may be it. Of course, Je-Kyun agrees with the plan because this will also increase his chances of becoming Taeil Accounting Firm’s chairman.

Hyeong-Woo manages to convince Jisan Bank’s President, Jin Tae-Soo, to liquidate Soma Tech and sell it off to PEF HK Private Equity. Meanwhile, Seung-Jo is still working on Soma Tech’s audit report without the knowledge of what Hyeong-Woo and Je-Kyun are planning.

As Seung-Jo works on Soma Tech’s audit report, he gives Ho-Woo, who’s part of Seung-Jo’s team, pieces of Haebit Construction’s audit report as he promised. Seung-Jo finally gives Ho-Woo the entire report, and Ho-Woo later realizes Seung-Jo gave him two different versions of the report.

One version concluded that Haebit Construction had the potential to grow and could pay off its debts, while the other one concluded that Haebit Construction be declared bankrupt. The first version told the truth about Haebit Construction’s financial situation, while the other lied about it. And the one that lied about it had Seung-Jo’s name on it.

Ho-Woo asks Seung-Jo why he lied about Haebit Construction’s financial situation, leading them to be declared bankrupt. Seung-Jo tells Ho-Woo to find out the answer for himself.

Je-Kyun later calls Seung-Jo to tell him about the decision to liquidate Soma Tech and sell it to PEF HK Private Equity. Seung-Jo is not on board with the idea because it turns out they did the same thing to Haebit Construction.

We’re then taken back to the day Seung-Jo discovered that Je-Kyun decided to liquidate Haebit Construction and sell it off. It turns out Je-Kyun switched Seung-Jo’s report with another, that concluded Haebit Construction would be declared bankrupt while Seung-Jo was at his mother’s funeral. The report also concluded that Haebit Construction still had the potential to grow and pay off its debts, which was actually done by Seung-Jo.

Jang Ji-Soo had come to Taeil Accounting Firm for help with Haebit Construction’s audit report through Seung-Jo. Unfortunately, Je-Kyun ended up betraying her.

Back to the present, Seung-Jo takes Ho-Woo with him and goes to confront Hyeong-Woo about switching his report with the one that concluded Haebit Construction be declared bankrupt. The worst thing is they printed Seung-Jo’s name on the fake report, which is why Ho-Woo thought Seung-Jo wrote it.

When Seung-Jo confronts Hyeong-Woo about this, Hyeong-Woo says he’s also the victim here because he was following orders from Je-Kyun. I mean, he’s not wrong. Ho-Woo now knows the truth about what happened and feels guilty for being angry at Seung-Jo, when he was innocent in all this.

Seung-Jo then invites Ho-Woo over to his house for drinks. Ho-Woo later sees a picture of Seung-Jo and Jang Ji-Soo at Seung-Jo’s house, leaving him shocked.

The next day, Seung-Jo gives Ho-Woo the original audit report he wrote about Haebit Construction. Seung-Jo then tells Ho-Woo that when he saw how frustrated he was when Haebit Construction was being shut down, he saw himself in him. Then when Seung-Jo saw Ho-Woo at Taeil Accounting Firm for an interview years later, he became interested and hired him. They then seemingly agree to work together to fight for justice at Taeil Accounting Firm.

Meanwhile, Hyeong-Woo decides to research Ho-Woo’s background after he saw how he reacted when Seung-Jo came to confront him about switching Haebit Construction’s audit report. He finds out that Ho-Woo is Jang In-Ho’s adoptive son.

The following day, Hyeong-Woo confronts Ho-Woo about his intentions when he joined Taeil Accounting Firm. He then tells Ho-Woo that a nobody like him can’t do anything to avenge what happened to Haebit Construction. Afterwards, he arranges a meeting with PEF HK Private Equity to sell off Soma Tech quickly.

It’s the day of the meeting, and both Je-Kyun and Hyeong-Woo talk about the representative from PEF HK Private Equity, Joyce Jang, who’ll be attending the meeting. Apparently, Joyce Jang is known to be ruthless when she wears a sword brooch. However, Je-Kyun suspects that she does that to observe the people she’s meeting with so she can decide how to act.

Meanwhile, Seung-Jo and Ho-Woo arrive at Taeil Accounting Firm for the same meeting. It seems they have a plan to save Soma Tech. Joyce Jang arrives at Taeil Accounting Firm for the meeting too. It turns out Joyce Jang is actually Jang Ji-Soo! The episode ends with Jang Ji-Soo introducing herself to Seung-Jo at the meeting as Joyce Jang.

The Episode Review

I expected this episode to be full of surprises, but I didn’t expect them to be as huge as they are. Am I the only one who jumped up from my seat when Joyce Jang turned out to be Jang Ji-Soo? I’m looking forward to seeing how things will go now that Jang Ji-Soo is seemingly the one calling the shots in this deal concerning Soma Tech.

At least we now have more details surrounding what happened to Haebit Construction. It’s clear that Seung-Jo and Hyeong-Woo were victims in this case. But I feel even worse for Seung-Jo, as he was wrapped up in all this, and it seemingly cost him his relationship with Jang Ji-Soo. Now that Ho-Woo knows the truth about what happened, will he help Seung-Jo explain things to Jang Ji-Soo?