The tender love between Nam Ji-hyun and Moon Sang-min ultimately turned blood-soaked.
Episode 9 of To My Beloved Thief, which aired on KBS2 on Jan. 31, delivered a shocking development as Hong Eun-jo, driven as if she had lost the entire world, aimed her arrow at Crown Prince Lee-yeol. The episode recorded 5.5 percent nationwide, while a key talisman scene peaked at 6.5 percent, proving the drama’s rising tension.
Lee-yeol once again rescued Eun-jo from danger and revealed his feelings. “You keep giving me courage,” he said, words that were nearly a confession. Already shaken by his every word and gesture, Eun-jo expressed her sincerity, saying she wanted to keep the secret proposal letter he had quietly given her, adding to the poignancy of their romance.
However, harsh reality stood in their way. After her father Hong Min-jik rejected the proposal, Lee-yeol decided to leave her side. His decision to distance himself in order to protect the woman he loved cut deeply into viewers’ hearts.
On the night before leaving under the pretext of studying abroad, Lee-yeol visited Eun-jo one last time. Beneath lanterns filling the night sky in the marketplace, she released a heartfelt wish, while he silently etched her image into memory. His lonely smile, unable to say goodbye, left a lingering ache.
The tragedy did not end there. Returning from Namwon, Hong Min-jik came back as a cold corpse. The arrow lodged in his back suggested it was no accident. Confronted with her father’s death, Eun-jo finally collapsed. Her empty gaze as she prepared for the funeral captured pure devastation.
But Eun-jo did not head to the market. She went to the edge of a cliff. Gripping the arrow that had pierced her father’s back, she drew her bowstring as if determined to take revenge. At the end of her aim stood King Lee-gyu, returning from a hunt.
At that very moment, Lee-yeol appeared. As if sensing everything, he stepped in front of the king and took the arrow himself. Throwing his body to stop the woman he loved, he fell. Their fate once again became intertwined in blood.
With her father’s death, hatred toward the king, and her lover struck down in her place, anticipation is mounting over what ending awaits their irreversible tragedy.
Episode 10 airs tonight at 9:20 p.m.
Reported by News Culture M.J._mj94070777@nc.press
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