Like Flowers in Sand – K-drama Episode 9 Recap & Review

All That We Have Lost

Episode 9 of Like Flowers in Sand begins with a young Baek-du arriving at Du-shik’s house. He misses his friend and reminisces about what she had told him before they parted – to become a champion and not forget her. As the young Baek-du ponders these lines, the scene transitions him into the present-day Baek-du, suggesting a passage of time. 

In the present time, Mi-ran, Yu-gyeong and Baek-du are gathered in the arena and Mi-ran explains her position. She doesn’t believe the rumours that Yu-gyeong’s father was the culprit and expresses what Yu-gyeong has also mentioned before – that people just believe what they want to.

Mi-ran came back to the town to re-investigate her father’s death. She further tells them that Choi Chil-seong started visiting her cafe 2 months earlier.

One day, he confessed to Mi-ran that whatever happened to her father was his fault. He seems riddled with guilt as he says, “Technically, I killed him”. Mi-ran says that she went with Choi to know about the truth.

In a flashback, Choi tells her that the real culprit is still living in this town and that she needs to leave immediately. They run into a drunken Baek-du and Mi-ran notices Choi’s phone ringing continuously. Choi finally picks up the call, argues with someone, and gives Mi-ran an address telling her to visit the place the next day so that he can tell her everything. The next day, he is found dead in the reservoir. 

Mi-ran tells the group that she visited the meeting place quite recently and came back with a large black bag. She shows them the bag which is filled with bundles of cash. Finally, she says that she only wants to know the truth about her father’s death and leave the pair.

Yu-gyeong and Baek-du discuss about Mi-ran and their childhood. Baek-du comes back home and tells his father that they shouldn’t have let Du-shik and her family leave like they did. 

As one of the townsfolk saw Baek-du and Yu-gyeong together at the bus station, there is a new rumour in town. Yu-gyeong and Hyeon-wook discuss the real culprit as Mi-suk joins them. They have the ledger and the evidence, and can safely work from Seoul but Yu-gyeong says she wants to catch the culprit herself much to Hyeon-wook’s dismay who’s eager to go back. 

Back home, Baek-du’s family is watching a melodrama where one of the women has an affair. His mother tells everyone that she will kill them if any of her children gets involved in such affairs. Meanwhile, the entire town is discussing Baek-du’s inappropriate acquittance and blames  and questions his morality. They decide to look for concrete evidence. 

As the townsfolk are being obvious about their new endeavour and pastime, they try to ascertain if Yu-gyeong is the woman that one of them saw at the bus terminal. They also mistake Mi-suk as Yu-gyeong’s mother-in-law. Meanwhile, Mi-suk asks Yu-gyeong if there’s another reason for her to stay back in town to which she doesn’t quite have an answer. Baek-du’s mother teases him about his “girlfriend”. 

As Mi-ran is trying to remember the phone number of the caller who was calling Choi, the old ssireum team gathers at the cafe. They talk about Baek-du’s love affair and how his father will react. Mi-ran comments under her breath, “I knew this would happen someday”.

Mrs Lim calls Jin-su as the team is practising to tell him about Baek-du’s affair and just as he is denying the charge, he sees Baek-du staring at Yu-gyeong (oops). Jin-su tells Baek-du to live a moral life (lol). The entire team later discuss about Baek-du and Yu-gyeong’s potential love affair until they realise that Yu-gyeong is married (apparently the team had no idea). 

Meanwhile, Baek-du and Yu-gyeong are talking in the office and he finds out that Yu-gyeong is leaving in 10 days for Seoul as she promised Mi-suk to solve the case. At the same time, Hyeon-wook also decides to leave in 10 days along with Yu-gyeong.

Everyone at Baek-du’s house senses that there’s something wrong in town and comically look at Baek-du who says that he hasn’t done anything wrong. Hyeon-wook has sensed something off about the townsfolk as well but Yu-gyeong brushes it off. 

While the entire town is busy gossiping, Yu-gyeong visits Mi-ran. Mi-ran tells her that the phone number began with 056 which is their region code. She also tells her about the new scandal in town about Yu-gyeong and Baek-du and says, “Once word spreads, people won’t care about whether it’s true or not. They’ll just believe it.” Yu-gyeong later sighs to herself, “They haven’t changed a bit”. 

Elsewhere Baek-du is distracted during the practice due to Yu-gyeong’s absence while she visits the inn where Choi was staying, and finds a business card from a used car company. Yu-gyeong comes back to the arena and tells Baek-du about the rumour going on in town.

Since she has experience with the damage that such rumours do, she unilaterally coaches Baek-du to negate all their allegations and stand his ground. As Baek-du clearly has feelings for Yu-gyeong, he gets upset about her telling him to strongly deny that they are dating, and leaves. 

As he is going back home, the old ssireum team members confront him about his relationship with Yu-gyeong. He tells them exactly what Yu-gyeong has told him to say, leaving the neighbourhood uncles stunned. Elsewhere, the neighbourhood aunties are gossiping about the same thing when Baek-du’s mother finds out about the whole issue.

In a fit of rage, she sees Baek-du and asks him to deny the ridiculous charges. As people are whispering about him, he realises how Du-shik might have felt 20 years ago. He lectures everyone about the harmful effects of such rumours on people who are wrongfully accused, remembering Yu-gyeong’s pain and loneliness when the townsfolk ostracised her family. 

Baek-du runs to the arena to find Yu-gyeong leaving work. He declares that the rumour “is half right and half wrong”. He confesses his feelings for her and tells her, finally, about what he lost when Yu-gyeong was forced to leave town. “It’s you”, he says.

He tells her how much he regrets letting her leave and not understanding the things she last said to him before her family was forced to leave town. The episode ends with Baek-du telling Yu-gyeong, “I really like you. I really do. I really like you”. 

The Episode Review

Finally. We will now see an end to Baek-du’s grumblings about Yu-gyeong and his suppressed feelings towards her. Since it’s clear that the culprit is someone from the town, the mystery has become even more interesting than before. Who could it be? Baek-du’s father looks quite suspicious or is it someone else? 

The colours in this episode are especially beautiful. From the refreshing hues of blue of Du-shik’s house to Mi-ran’s cafe, the landscape and props look nostalgic – almost conveying how these characters and even the town itself are living under the shadows of the incident that happened 20 years ago.

This feeling of a shadowed past, along with Yu-gyeong’s comment about how the townsfolk haven’t changed, is the crux of this episode. The chapter does also shed light on how rumours can affect a person’s life and how most people are just interested in believing what is entertaining to them instead of unravelling the truth.

As the episodes progress, the show is aging like a fine wine. So stay tuned as we will be back with a recap of episode 10 very soon!