6 MONTHS LATER.Soon Geum is checking the mail for her apartment and comes upon a letter from Gun Woo! Inside is the top half of the ticket and a letter; the committee has reevaluated their case. If no one has come forward to claim the prize on ticket 334 by October 4 at 4pm, then the maids can get their money.Tae Won hasn’t been idle the past six months either. He has had his men check and make sure that no one has come forward in the past six months to claim the prize. He too knows about the 6-month deadline, and so on that day, he heads over to the bank and meets the maids and Young Hee.All the maids present their ID cards so that the money can be divided between them. Young Hee is nice enough to say that 4.5 billion Won will be going to Tae Won, and the remaining 5 billion will go to the maids. He also still remembers all too clearly when he nearly got caught by the prosecutor in wanting to claim the ticket. As the seconds tick by, Tae Won finally musters enough energy to say, “Give my share to Soon Geum. Give her the 4.5 billion!”
It sounds like he may have had a change of heart, but everyone knows that he’ll ask for it from Soon Geum later. Sure enough, Tae Won demands his share as soon as they’re out of the bank.Hwang Yong knew that they’d come to claim the ticket as he overheard the maids calling for Zar Lin before. He makes the point that Gun Woo sent the ticket to Soon Geum, not his father – hence he doesn’t want his father to get a single cent.
But Soon Geum promises to give Tae Won his money, on the condition that he sincerely apologizes to her father.Tae Won’s troubles aren’t completely over. When he gets home, he gets a call from Hwang Yong, who knows that Tae Won filed the initial report against him. He informs Tae Won that everyone is meeting tomorrow at his home, and if he wants to get his money, he should come then.The next day, everyone gathers at Hwang Yong’s home, and even though it’s not their money, no one wants to hand over the cash to Tae Won. They all try to persuade Soon Geum to not give it – including Hwang Yong – but they tell Tae Won that if he would just acknowledge them if they see each other on the street, as equals, then all would be forgiven. But Tae Won refuses to budge from his prejudice – once a maid, always a maid. He will never acknowledge them as equals despite their newfound wealth.
Soon Geum disgustedly gives him the money. She expects nothing from him at all.TWO YEARS LATERGun Woo returns! Dressed looking a bit like a bum – albeit a hot one – he finds a small rooftop place to crash in and starts wandering around the neighborhood. He sees Soon Geum waitressing at a modest restaurant that she and her father run.Zar Lin, Soo Jung, and Da Kyum all go get facials at an exclusive spa, and they’re all not too sure about the proper etiquette when it comes to being treated. They decide to close their eyes and pretend they’re asleep – which ends up being a good thing because Yoon Joo enters to be Soo Jung’s facialist! Gun Woo returns to the trading area to play with some more stocks. He sees a little kid next to him with his mother, and offers several lollipops: “Sweet? Sweeter? Or sour?” Kid goes for sour – heh. A couple of reporters wait in the seats behind him, and one of them recognizes Gun Woo as the Korean ingenue who made millions on the stock market back in New York. Despite showing Gun Woo a photo of him in a magazine, Gun Woo denies that he’s that Gun Woo.Soon Geum calls up Young Hee to meet him at the trading area, and that’s when she gets her first glimpse of Gun Woo. “What is he doing here!?” is her first thought.
She follows him all the way to his shabby rooftop home, and then barges in to see him lazily watching TV on the floor. Gun Woo gets up and offers a hand, saying that it’s been a long time, but she slaps him instead. Yowch. Gun Woo didn’t contact her because he wanted to earn some money first before seeing her again, but she’s so disappointed that he comes back so poor when he ditched her so spectacularly two years ago.ae Won visits his son’s apartment, having heard that his big shot son is back in Korea through the reporters. He wants to use his son’s success in New York and channel it towards his company, but Gun Woo flatly rejects him. Hyun Joo, she’s still working at the same restaurant, and Hwang Yong is still patronizing it every night. As the only female waitress in the restaurant, she gets hassled by a group of drunk guys. Hwang Yong stands up and overturns their table in anger over their mistreatment of her. He then throws money on the ground, paying for their meal, but that’s when the guys gang up on him. Hwang Yong quietly takes in all the punches until they leave.Hyun Joo dabs a wet rag over his bloodied mouth, and Hwang Yong confesses: he bought the restaurant she works at. He comes every day because he just wants to eat her food. Could she please come and cook for him every day? Though he seems to objectify her as comfort food, he’s sincere. She’s the only woman who ever looked after him, and so he wants to do the same for her. And… Hyun Joo accepts.Da Kyum, now the owner of Young Hee’s home, calls him over to the house. He’s annoyed she’s kept the same furnishings – heh. She announces that she wants to go to college – there are hotter guys there. Young Hee actually smiles at the fact that Da Kyum has now let go of him. She wants him to tutor her, and in exchange she will pay him a large tutoring fee: his grandfather’s one true original painting.Gun Woo phones Yoon Joo, who’s surprised to hear him. He tells her that his father never sold her car, so she should go back to First Street and pick it up, and see him as well. Hyun Joo is thrilled to be invited – and not having to cook for once – and the guests come trickling in. The former maids all gather in the kitchen to light the cake, effectively shutting all the men out. (Heh.) They decide to put 35 candles on the cake to represent the cumulative number of years they’ve all worked as maids. In front of the burning candles, each maid reflects on her own life.
Soo Jung remembers her constant feeling of fear, afraid that she’d be fired from her job and left homeless and penniless. Hyun Joo can’t forget the injustice of having to serve a madame and work so hard, when both were equals as women and people. Da Kyum can’t forget the shame, as she was unable to tell anyone that she was a maid even though her job is less demeaning than being a bar hostess and constantly being fondled as an object rather than a person. Zar Lin remembers not being trusted, and always being the first suspect when something went missing. And Soon Geum remembers the indifference, never realizing until she became a maid that people could forget other humans’ existence even if they live in the same house.
They wipe away their tears and sorrows, and vow to live well from now on. They each make their silent wish, and blow the candles out together.
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