They Don't Kiss Until Episode 16

We go to the palace where the maids prepare a feast the king specially requested for his mother (or who he thinks is his mother). A palace maid named Myeong-yi sees another palace maid put something in the food. She decides to report it to her boss, and her boss says I will investigate it secretly, and asks Myeong-yi if she toldl anyone else. Myeong-yi tells her boss no.

Now, you and I both know that when a higher-up says they will investigate secretly, that means they won’t.

Let’s fast forward to that night. Myeong-yi is dragged out of the room she shares with her best friend and taken to the forest. The head of all the palace maids tells her she has two significant charges against her. First, she is accused of having an affair with a palace guard. Now, this is a lie but she was caught receiving a gift from a guard as a thank you. She helped the guard when he was ill. 

Then, they accused her of falsely accusing her fellow palace maid of poisoning. Now, we all know they could have done this in the town square, but they did it in a rainy forest, so clearly that palace maid was poisoning the queen dowager. Never mind the truth when it comes to the affairs of the palace. The group, including Myeong-yi’s friend, forces her to drink poison and toss her body under a bush.

She wakes up, barely. How? she should be dead? Ah, her friend came through. She mixed the antidote with the poison. Myeong-yi is still at death’s door, but she is able to drag herself to a river, and there she passes out.

Can you see the wheels of fate yet?

There, our former royal guard sees her, with her head sort of in the river. He rescues her and carries her body from the river all the way to the Buddhist priest’s home. The royal guard nurses her back to health, holding her in his arms and feeding her the antidote. It is not until the priest brings it up that he realizes he has saved this woman’s life. He realizes that the prophecy has happened. 

Myeong-yi realizes she must leave, though our royal guard tells her she hasn’t fully recovered. Concerned that the results of the prophecy will be immediate, he follows her on her journey, literally making her path clear (which is so romantic; I want a man to move stones so my path will be steady!). He sees her go to a little restaurant and pays the owner to give Myeong-yi a “free meal.” She goes to another spot and gets a job at a tavern-type place. But the joy of finding a job is quickly short-lived when one of the customers tries to SA her. Our royal guard, hiding in the cut, jumps out, beats up the guy, and drags her out of there, telling her she has to find a more suitable place. Then he leaves. Walks away.

And she follows. Because in 15-something, finding a partner is that easy. This man saved my life twice; he should be my husband. This woman was almost dead, and I saved her, and why she cleaned up pretty nicely. She will be my wife.

She follows him and follows him. He tries to run from her and gets on a boat, leaving her stranded on the bank of the river. But he looked back and saw her, and he couldn’t help it!

Swoon!

He turns the boat around himself and tells her about the prophecy, how she is the second woman, and asks if she is sure she wants to be with him.

We don’t hear her answer, but we fast forward some years, and a little girl calls our royal guard father. Then, the Myeong-yi appears decked out in the traditional married woman hairstyle. She looks very stern and very unhappy with her daughter, but by the end of the episode, you realize that his daughter is woman number three. 

I’m so excited to watch this show. So much happened in just one episode. How is it possible that the show is riveting yet not fast-paced? I’m invested in seeing why Myeong-yi is so stern. How has their life been, and what is going to happen next. Is his daughter really the third woman who will kill him but save thousands?