‘The Glory’: Did Do-young Love Dong-eun? K-Drama Writer Breaks It Down
One of The Glory K-drama‘s biggest open-ended questions fans were left with was Do-young’s feelings for Dong-eun. Dong-eun planned for over a decade a meticulous plan to ruin the lives of her high school bullies. By The Glory Part 2 finale, she breaks Yeon-jin’s pristine walls using her husband, Do-young, and their daughter as leverage. But fans felt an inherent affection on Do-young’s part for Dong-eun, but was it love?
Dong-eun piqued Do-young’s interest from the moment he saw her in ‘The Glory’
Dong-eun planned to get close to Yeon-jin through her husband, Do-young. They first meet as a Go club at night. While never speaking to him directly, her mere aura and stories told by the other players intrigued him. He soon found himself going to the club, hoping to see her. An infatuation develops, but Do-young is unsure why, seeing as he loves his wife, unaware of the truth.
As The Glory progresses, so does Dong-eun’s plan of exposing Yeon-jin’s wicked ways. It soon takes hold of Do-young as he realizes the 10-year relationship is a sham. But by The Glory finale, Do-young also realizes his infatuation with Dong-eun was planned, and she set up their interactions on purpose.
While slightly angered by Dong-eun’s deceit, some form of attraction still exists. In The Glory Part 2 Episode 11, Do-young learns Dong-eun believes he is Yeon-jin’s glory. When Yeon-jin confronted her husband about being with Dong-eun, he revealed, “When I first met her, it was curiosity. When she disappeared for a while, I found myself waiting. And when we met again, I wanted to beat her. But I lost the upper hand and floundered. I couldn’t breathe. But I’d been wanting those moments. To feel like I can’t breathe during a Go match.”
Could it be that Do-young loved the challenge Dong-eun provided in The Glory? In Part 2, he somehow admires her when he tells Yeo-jeong he wants Dong-eun to be happy, despite the chaos she will cause.
‘The Glory’ writer revealed Do-young realized he liked Dong-eun during one crucial scene
After the success of the revenge K-drama, the cast and writer Kim Eun-sook have broken down the nitty gritty details of the characters. But fans desperately wanted to know from the writer herself if Do-young loved or liked Dong-eun at the end of The Glory.
“He says that he doesn’t know. Although he hates saying that. I think that line conveys his feelings pretty well,” said Kim in an interview with Netflix Korea. She is referring to the scene when the two characters sit together at dinner for the first time. Do-young sees her scars in The Glory. He told Dong-eun he would not leave Yeon-jin. But Kim explained why.
“He’sonly useful to Dong-eun is he’s still Yeon-jin’s husband. If he leaves Yeon-jin, he has no reason to meet Dong-eun. He wasn’t sure how he felt about her back then. I think it was when he was eating the triangle kimbap that he realized he liked her,” said the K-drama writer. She also explained that Do-young was kind enough to leave quietly after Dong-eun gave him a chance to leave.
But Kim explained that Yeo-jeong fell in love with Dong-eun because they both were victims. They have a shared experience of pain but with different outlooks. Yeo-jeong is bright and helped Dong-eun heal and accepted her pain. He saw Dong-eun as his salvation and had him forget he was a victim.
Who else was ‘in love’ in ‘The Glory’?
While the Netflix K-drama relies heavily on the female lead’s quest for revenge, a few other complex love stories occur. It was revealed that Yeon-jin had been having an affair with Jae-jun for years. It becomes clear in The Glory that Jae-jun is in love with her, but she chose Do-young instead. But the K-drama also develops the storyline of Hye-jeong being hopelessly in love with Jae-jun.
She adamantly tries to win his interest but fails, likely knowing his feelings for Yeon-jin. Kim was asked if Hye-jeong loved Jae-jun, and she agreed. “She never gave up hope,” explained the writer about Hye-jeong. Despite the cruelty he showed her, the character was always by his side. In The Glory Part 2, Jae-jun asked if she would raise a child and leave.
Without hesitation, Hye-jeong says yes. “I think that’s the truest form of love,” said Kim. But the K-drama also revealed that Myeong-o is in love with Hye-jeong Flashbacks showed that he told her the truth and asked her to leave to Russia with him. These ‘love’ relationships are toxic and filled with greed and pain.
The Glory is available to stream on Netflix.
