AH

I won't share my thoughts about those things at this point since my theories are influenced by the novel, but I will say that the drama has changed enough details to make it so that even as a novel reader I can't be sure about who some of those characters will end up being / how they will end up relating to certain other characters. ^^

That term can also refer to someone who is a pro or master of their craft or field of study / someone who excels in their field. Netflix's English subtitles use that translation ("Master") rather than teacher or doctor, although it's possible they chose to use that more ambiguous translation because the meaning of the word in Korean is ambiguous and international viewers shouldn't get an extra tip-off from unambiguous English subtitles that Korean viewers wouldn't get when they view the drama. https://korean.dict.naver.com/koendict/#/entry/koen/84ad3259526447fd90f7c0f06d14daa9

As HHJ mentioned at the end of episode 7, the kidnapper is not a person who seems capable of the advanced car hacking, tracking, security / VPN / encryption configuration, bomb-making, and planning that has been part of the kidnapper's activities so far. So, logically, he must be working with an accomplice who has a more sophisticated skillset.

Ah, we still have four more episodes after episode 8, which we've already seen a preview of / will be getting in just a few more hours. That makes sense 😊

We still have five episodes left! 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. That's already a small enough number!

I agree with everything else ^^

Agreed!

Novel spoilers ahead.

There have been a lot of changes so this probably won't cover everything, but I'll give it a try! ^^

(1) In the novel, HHJ doesn't find out that BSE knows that she is 406 until almost the end of the story. BSE pretending he doesn't know (and flirting with HHJ / going much further - all the way to phone sex) goes on for much longer / many more calls. And HHJ does not speak in front of BSE during all of that time (with the exception of yelling "stop!" when he kisses her intensely). Near the end of the story, BSE intentionally leaked clips of him speaking to 406 (after finding out that 406 was HHJ / after the calls turned flirtatious and NSFW) on the phone to the public, which created a scandal. When he takes a final stand against the kidnapper and the master, he publicly announces that the "406" he was speaking to in those clips was his wife. That's how HHJ finds out that he knew 406 was her (and that she could speak), along with BSE's big secret that he is not the real BSE. Then he disappears and they don't get to talk about it for a long time. It's just all very different.

(2) On a related point, in the novel, BSE does not learn sign language (Korean or international) at any point in the story, even though HHJ continued to not speak in front of him for much longer. Although I can understand why the author made that choice for plot reasons I won't get into, and the novel made a point of emphasizing how difficult it is to learn sign language and how much work HHJ had to put in to learn it, it is very satisfying to see BSE working on learning it so he can communicate with HHJ in the drama before she willingly revealed to him that she could speak. It also seemed to me that, in the novel, HHJ's mutism wasn't entirely fake / something she could just decide to stop on her own at any time. It seemed like there were several situations where she tried to speak but wasn't able to for psychological reasons that went back to her mother physically disciplining her when she didn't keep up the lie as a child.

(3) In the novel, Park Do Jae does not give the kidnapper's phone to BSE after HHJ is rescued and taken to the hospital. He intentionally hides it from BSE and then makes sure that HHJ gets it back so she can continue making calls as 406.

(4) In the novel, HIA knew that BSE was not the real BSE since she was a child. She made the mistake of saying something about it in front of BSE's grandfather, and that was why BSE's grandfather arranged the car crash: to keep her from spilling the secret. It's also why HIA didn't want to marry BSE. Not because some mysterious other person gave her a file right before the wedding.

(5) In the novel, it's never explicitly acknowledged that exposing BSE's secrets would really hurt SGJ (BSE's mother) and basically ruin her life. This felt like one of the biggest plot holes in the novel. Her actions were just so self destructive. In the drama, SGJ acknowledged this, showing that she's at least aware of it. We'll see if the drama provides more of an explanation for why she acts the way she does than how it was "explained" in the novel.

(6) The novel does not make any mention of twins or an orphanage. It does make mention of a girl who went missing (Park Do Jae's younger sister... and that his sister's disappearance destroyed his parents) and it's also mentioned that there were victims of violent crimes and attempted murder (crimes that led to the real BSE being sent to jail before he reconnected with his mother / before the start of the story), but it doesn't specifically get into the details of those other victims. It's also mentioned that the male lead, BSE's grandfather, and BSE's parents all thought that BSE's grandfather succeeded when he tried to drown the real BSE. Hence why he took the ML (his illegitimate son, who was being raised by the fisherman who made a brief appearance in episode 7) and forced him to take over BSE's identity. In the novel, the real BSE survived but lost his memory and was raised by the fisherman before eventually ending up in jail (and later regaining his memory). There was no mention of him or the male lead living in an orphanage at any point, or of either of them interacting with twins or orphans who lived in an orphanage.

(7) The drama has reduced the role of Director Han from the sign language centre (who featured in episode 7) and taken a lot of his characteristics and given them to the new SML, who doesn't exist in the novel. In the novel, there is no sub-plot where people look into the orphans that disappeared / into the boy who harmed animals / into the identity of the person depicted in the portrait that previously hung in that country estate... for the purpose of a TV exposé. Although the novel does include something that is sort of journalistic / exposé-like related to BSE's grandfather.


If I think of more, I'll add them.

I know everyone loves the intensity of the later part of the kiss, but I think one of my favourite parts that no one's talking about is when they take their first pause and draw apart a little. BSE takes a beat to let go of some tension with a shaky breath before opening his eyes to look at HHJ and then up into her eyes before looking back down to her lips and going back in for more. A+++

Sorry CSB but I haven't paid much attention to your side of things in my 3 million rewatches. YYS' performance is just too captivating!

Nice to see you again unbeliebubble! ^^

Yes, congrats to the screenwriters for the emotional journey they've provided so far. I forgive them for the occasional details that defy logic (as that's standard practice for this genre), and I hope I don't regret congratulating them after watching the remaining episodes!

Episode 7 made so many huge changes to the story from the novel and yet... I'm not mad about it. Not even a little bit.

I don't think I've ever seen a drama that's adapted from a novel do such a good job of improving on the original work. While there are things from the novel version of the story that I enjoy (and a few details that make a bit more sense to me) and I'm glad that it exists separately as something I can go back and read again, the drama version of the story has gone in a different direction and I'm enjoying the new approach. And they've fixed some of the weakest parts of the novel. I can't wait to see how they tackle the rest of the story over the next five episodes!

@cornbread, If it’s any consolation, those “spoilers” mostly aren’t accurate. So, for the most part, they aren’t really spoilers.

While I think it is better to err on the side of caution when it comes to hiding spoilers, if I was forced to pick one comment with novel spoilers to leave uncovered, this would be a good one to pick given how little it reveals. The inaccuracies almost make them anti-spoilers.

The users in this comment section are fellow fans of this drama, and with the spoiler tag feature it’s so easy to hide and provide warnings for spoilers out of consideration for them. No one here has the authority to make another user tag their spoilers, it’s up to you. But it’s the kind and considerate thing to do.

Plus, hiding spoilers will improve your own experience, too. If you hide spoilers properly they should only be seen by those who actually want to see them, and then instead of getting comments from those who have been spoiled against their will and are, quite understandably, unhappy about it, you’ll just get comments from those who wanted to see them. It’s a much better experience.

The National Assembly voting portion of the process is complete, but the whole impeachment process is not "done" quite yet. The Constitutional Court still needs to hold a trial and to vote on whether or not they will sustain the impeachment. The preliminary hearing has been scheduled for December 27 and the court won't vote until the trial is complete. So there shouldn't be any impeachment-related votes that could disrupt the drama airing schedule for a good while. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2pl4edk13o

Novel spoilers ahead.

The ML in the novel does not have a twin of any kind. He does have a nephew who is the same age.

The novel reader you mentioned might've been referring to Park Do Jae rather than the ML. He had a sister who disappeared, although there was no indication that she was Park Do Jae's twin. The novel does not make any mention of twins or an orphanage.

Also, although Ji Sang U's character (the SML in the drama) doesn't exist in the novel, that character reflects elements of several characters that do exist in the novel, including a secondary male character that was HHJ's long-time colleague who knew her "since she was little". Like JSU in the drama, that character makes BSE quite jealous in the novel.

“Completely different” feels like a stretch as almost all of the core elements of the story have been retained, but it is accurate to say that, so far, the drama has made several changes to the story that was told in the novel and I am expecting that the second half of the drama will have more changes. Notably the drama has not yet gotten to the parts of the novel that include the more explicit scenes.

The drama is rated TV-14, so there's pretty much no chance that the explicit scenes from the novel will be included in the drama. But hopefully we'll at least get a good kiss.

One or two of the things you mentioned hearing from a novel reader about the details in the novel aren't accurate, but I’ll address them under a spoiler cover.

You’re welcome!

Chapter 40: https://kisskh.at/discussions/the-number-you-have-dialed/132368-novel-translation?pid=3186566&page=4#p3186566

I really don't expect the drama to handle the end portion of the story the way the novel did.

---

Novel spoilers ahead.

"I just looked at the last chapter of the web novel and does she fr not talk to him in person till the very end when they almost drown?"

After BSE disappears, he starts to call HHJ from an international number but doesn't say anything. Consequently, HHJ speaks to BSE on the phone (but not under the guise of 406) in chapter 64, but BSE does not answer her.

HHJ speaks to BSE in chapter 66, but only as a translator for a deaf soldier. She also signs BSE's words back to the soldier. In the novel, BSE still hadn't learned Korean or international sign language by this point.

HHJ and BSE speak to each other in chapter 67. Although HHJ had made noises or shouted one word in front of BSE before in person (and obviously spoke to him more over the phone), this was the first time they had an actual conversation face-to-face and both using their own words.

The near-drowning occurs in chapter 68, the last main chapter of the novel. There are also bonus chapters.

Novel spoilers ahead, but they aren’t really spoilers if you’ve watched episode 6.

In the novel, when HHJ was pushed, she badly injured her back when her fall was broken by a tree. She hit several branches on the way down and tried to grab them, but failed to keep a hold on them. She continued to fall through trees that were growing on the cliff.

Then she hit the cliff (injuring her head) and the surface collapsed. She was sucked into a narrow cave / fissure in the rock. Based on what I gathered from the translation, it sounded like it was the type of space that would be difficult to see into from above (hence why the helicopter search failed) and nearly impossible to find if you were searching from the bottom of the cliff on foot and didn’t know exactly where to look (hence why the flare was so important). It sounded like she didn’t fall all the way to the bottom of the whole cliff face and the area where she landed wasn’t nearly as open and easy to find as it was in the drama.

Novel spoilers ahead for stuff that hasn't happened in the drama yet / might be covered in episode 7.

When HHJ was found (four hours after her fall), HHJ was covered in blood and bruises and she was pretty much unconscious and she later fell into a coma. Her head wound needed 10 stitches and her right and left limbs needed 7 and 8 stitches respectively. She was hospitalized for several days and covered in bandages.

I think it’s probably fair to say it was “laid out a bit differently” in the novel and was *slightly* more logical than in the drama. Happy to share the details (under a spoiler cover) if you’d like to try to mentally overwrite the drama details with the novel details. Let me know 😊

Agreed! Although I do get a bit annoyed when the story gets diverted to include her new storyline, I don’t dislike her character. For the most part she’s likeable and definitely doesn’t fall into the category of typical awful SFL.