If I Had Your Face

Kyuri and her friend Nami are drinking together at her favorite street vendor’s booth. Men approach the pair constantly, commenting on how beautiful they look before cursing at them and calling them derogatory names when they ignore their advances. Kyuri thinks about how Nami is the only girl she still speaks to from her days at the less reputable salons in the red-light district. None of the girls she works with at Ajax knows about her previous experiences because they would judge her severely. Kyuri worries for Sujin, who desperately wants to become a room salon girl like her, stating that it’s not the life of luxury that Sujin believes it is. Kyuri explains that working for a room salon is actually an endless cycle of debt and repayment that is inescapable.

Kyuri left Miari, the place where she worked before going to Ajax, thanks to the help of one of her oldest customers, an elderly grandfather who gave her the money she needed to pay off her debts. Kyuri has continued to see the man after leaving Miari, removing her clothing so he can look at her. She states that it is nice that he only looks at her, and she feels slightly guilty that he believes she is going to school to become a teacher, when in reality, she has continued to work within room salons.

At Miari, Kyuri met Nami when Nami was 13 years old. She took a liking to her because she was so young and seemingly so innocent. Now, both Kyuri and Nami look very different due to their cosmetic surgeries. Miho joins the pair and informs them that Hanbin is going to be joining them as well. Kyuri thinks about Miho’s perception of Nami and herself, stating that Miho believes they do it simply because they want to make money. She thinks that Miho is extremely naive and asks her why she believes that Hanbin likes her. Miho becomes offended and tells Kyuri that she’d told Hanbin that Kyuri is a flight attendant, not wanting to tell him the truth about her job. Once Hanbin arrives, they quickly eat before leaving to meet up with some of Hanbin’s friends to go to karaoke. Everyone drinks and enjoys themselves; Miho and Kyuri go home together late into the night, leaving Hanbin, Nami, and his friends alone together.

The week passes quickly for Kyuri, but she can’t help but think about Bruce and why he hasn’t come to see her in the room salon. She thinks about the times that they’ve spent together and realizes that she always felt comfortable enough to sleep with him at her side on the nights where they would leave the room salon together. One night in the room salon, Kyuri is placed in a room with men who want the girls to drink with them, leading to many of them getting sick. Kyuri smiles and nods along with no other choice than to keep drinking.

The next day, Nami comes over to Miho and Kyuri’s apartment, seemingly nervous. She admits to Kyuri that she has been sleeping with Hanbin since they went to karaoke together several nights ago. Shocked, Kyuri asks Nami if Hanbin is paying her, which she denies. Nami says that Hanbin is very kind, but he has never said anything about Miho. After Nami leaves, Kyuri finds herself in a bad mood for reasons she can’t quite pinpoint. When Miho gets home, she asks Kyuri if she wants to go to the aquarium with her and that Hanbin can’t go with her because he has a family commitment. Kyuri states she doesn’t want to go because of all of the children that would be running around, stating that she never wants kids. Conversely, Miho admits that she wants four children in the future.

Kyuri thinks about how none of the women in her life besides Miho want to have children. Kyuri does not want to have children because she can’t imagine managing that responsibility when she struggles to manage her own life. Kyuri takes her birth control dutifully, remembering one of her old coworkers who’d quit because a sponsor had gotten her pregnant and moved her into an apartment. The woman ended up in a psychiatric hospital not long after.

Wonna is experiencing her fourth pregnancy, and she is convinced that she will have a miscarriage again, but she does not tell her husband about her fears. She goes to one of her check-ups, and she tells the doctor that she has a bad feeling about her pregnancy. The doctor comforts her, stating that she understands why Wonna would be apprehensive about her pregnancy given her history of miscarriage. She asks Wonna if she has considered seeing a therapist, to which Wonna responds by asking if that means that she would lose her health insurance since no one would want to cover her if she requires mental health treatment. The doctor continues with the check-up and tells Wonna to come back the next week for more tests.

Wonna uses the rest of her day off to avoid her husband, thinking about babies and their expensive strollers. She sees a child dressed in an expensive outfit with an embroidered blanket and tries to measure the cost of it against her monthly salary. When Wonna returns home, she accidentally runs into Sujin, whom she recognizes as being from the Loring Center. Wonna’s grandmother used to threaten to leave Wonna at the Center, and she decides she wants to be as free as Sujin and Miho who’d grown up at the Center. Later that night, Wonna finds herself nauseous and is unable to sleep. She thinks about work and the demands it places upon her.

In a flashback, Miho recounts her childhood to Ruby and Hanbin over lunch in New York City. Before Miho was sent to the Loring Center, she was raised by her aunt and uncle alongside her cousin. Miho’s cousin was a gifted student and very driven, while Miho struggled in school. Eventually, Miho’s cousin needed to be placed in tutoring and prep courses to help her get into an elevated science high school. The family struggled to afford to pay their bills and decided that for the sake of their own daughter, they would take Miho to the Loring Center and leave her there. For the first few months, they continued to visit her at the Center, bringing her containers of food and stationery. However, once Miho’s aunt gave birth to another child in the following year, she stopped visiting Miho entirely.

Ruby is outraged by Miho’s aunt’s actions. Ruby continues to ask Miho more questions but is stopped by Hanbin who tries to change the subject. Ruby asks him why he doesn’t want to know more about the situation, and he responds by stating that he doesn’t want to make Miho uncomfortable. Ruby, after a few moments of awkward silence, claims that what happened was for the best since it led to Miho going to school in New York. Miho agrees, thinking about the way that Mrs. Loring of the Loring Center had helped her with her art and that her story had been what had gotten her a scholarship to SVA.

After the group finishes eating, they go to a party at one of Hanbin’s friend’s apartments. There, Miho socializes with a young man named Jae who is in a different department than her at SVA. Hanbin, noticing that Miho is talking with Jae, joins them and speaks only to Miho, making Jae leave awkwardly. Hanbin tells Miho that he’s glad that despite her upbringing, she is in New York with him and Ruby. Miho excuses herself from Hanbin by telling him that Ruby is looking for him, and she leaves to find Jae to continue talking with him. She finds him upstairs with some of his friends, and they talk about school and Ruby. When pizza is delivered to the apartment, Jae and Miho are left alone. They continue talking, and Miho finds herself feeling affection toward Jae and kisses him.

Hanbin and some of Jae’s friends return upstairs, surprised to see Miho and Jae’s intimate moment. Miho feels embarrassed by Hanbin’s cold reaction to the scene. He tells her that her face is red and that she should go home. He tells her not to make a fool of herself and that it’s embarrassing. Miho leaves abruptly, crying and embarrassed by her actions.