Contains spoilers for this episode and earlier episodes.
Back in Korea, Mo-yeon refuses the hospital director's attempt at a warmer welcome and resigns. Her plan to open a clinic falters when the bank will not approve her loan without her job, forcing her to ask for the resignation back. She accepts a return to emergency work with demanding night shifts. Shi-jin also returns, meets her mother after a drinking session, and tries to make room for ordinary dates. Dae-young and Myung-joo enjoy their reunion before his discharge divides them again. He has submitted the papers to satisfy her father, despite the permission she secured during her illness.
Dae-young wants acceptance freely given, and Myung-joo cannot understand sacrificing his career for it. Their argument ends in a breakup, despite the affection neither has put aside. Shi-jin's next assignment involves protecting talks between North and South Korean representatives. He encounters the North Korean officer from their earlier confrontation, and the men share a guarded respect over lunch. The officer's movements then become worrying. While Mo-yeon waits at the hospital, ambulances bring in two injured men. One is the North Korean soldier; the other is Shi-jin, unconscious and covered in blood, turning her workplace into the scene of the danger she feared.