AH

Please mark your comment about Tak Dong Kyung as a spoiler.

That first part is a big spoiler for viewers who haven't seen episode 15 yet. Please mark your comment as a spoiler for those viewers' benefit.

"But maybe they'll have a scene in the next episode to confirm it. Like a scene where TDK goes to the hospital and..."

Literally the very first scene! （＾∀＾）ゞ

The Deity said she would do anything to make sure that Myeol Mang does not make Tak Dong Kyung "resign herself to the world" the way Myeol Mang did.

Remember that Myeol Mang has tried (but failed) to "doom" the world before and he and Tak Dong Kyung both wished for the world to be doomed at the same time. We find out later that "dooming the world" would just mean making all the people in the world permanently disappear btw (not a spoiler about anything that happens, just clarification about what they mean when they use that phrase, because that line always made me picture like... the world ending in fire or something).

So I think the Deity meant that she would do anything to make sure that Myeol Mang doesn't succeed in getting Tak Dong Kyung to complete her wish for doom to befall the world (which, in addition to making all humans die / disappear, would presumably make the Deity and Myeol Mang disappear too). Keep in mind that the Deity is manipulative. Even when she seems like she's trying to convince Myeol Mang to be heartless or trying to force Myeol Mang and Tak Dong Kyung apart, she might really be playing a long game with the opposite intention.

Soft spoilers for later episodes - the Deity seems to want Myeol Mang to have a happy ending and wants him to grow / develop his humanity / do good things with a specific objective, but she believes Myeol Mang (and, to an extent, Tak Dong Kyung) has to suffer and struggle for it all to be meaningful and worthwhile. So often times she does things (pulling Myeol Mang and Tak Dong Kyung apart, making Myeol Mang doubt himself, etc.) to either make them suffer / struggle, to make them fall more deeply in love (which both contributes to Myeol Mang developing his empathy and humanity and contributes to his suffering), or to hide her true intentions (she believes Myeol Mang rebelling against her is an important part of his development).

A bit more spoilery now - the seed in the Deity's flower pot represents Myeol Mang. At certain points the Deity tells Myeol Mang he'll be punished for doing bad things and that he should do good things. We learn that Myeol Mang once longed to be human and asked the Deity to give him a name. There is a scene where the Deity leaves out a children's picture book (a version of Pinocchio) for Myeol Mang to see where a boy puppet (Pinnochio) asks the blue fairy how he can grow up quickly to become a human man. The blue fairy initially tells him he can't (because he's a puppet) and then says he must be good / worthy in order to grow up / become a human man.

The Deity said that Myeol Mang is a butterfly, but think of him as a caterpillar right now. He needs a catalyst (like a caterpillar's cocoon) in order to undergo a metamorphosis in order to become a butterfly. The Deity seems to be pushing and manipulating Myeol Mang in order to get him to grow and ultimately transform, hopefully with a happy ending at the end of it all.

That said, even as of episode 14, the notes above are mostly not fully confirmed. The writers seem to have intentionally written the Deity's lines and scenes to be mysterious, and even now it's not 100% clear what her exact intentions are.

***spoilers for episode 1 and 2 only*** Jasper, you're correct that there's no written contract and that TDK initially accepted MM's offer when she took MM's hand at the end of episode 1. She re-accepted in episode 2 after: (i) MM added the condition that TDK need to "recharge" MM's promise to take away her pain on a daily basis; (ii) MM told her about the contract penalty; and (iii) MM put her back in the life-threatening truck scenario in order to prove that she would still accept the contract even when she was aware of all the terms.

However, TDK's life and stopping the truck are NOT consideration for this contract (collateral is not a relevant concept here*). Stopping the truck in order to prevent TDK from immediately dying was a method that MM used to force TDK to accept the contract (which wouldn't work in the human world btw, because TDK's consent was given under duress which would make the contract void).

TDK's consideration was promising to complete her wish for the world to be doomed before she dies (and as of the day MM approaches her, she is destined to die in 100 days - March 2nd). MM's promises did NOT include saving TDK's life, and the main contract terms did not affect the fact that TDK is destined to die on March 2nd. MM's promises / consideration were: (1) taking away TDK's pain as long as she keeps that protection "charged"; and (2) granting her an extra wish, in addition to completing her wish for the world to be doomed.

"...she will die if she doesn't make the wish" - not at all. Everyone (including TDK) will die / disappear if she *does* complete her wish. If she DOESN'T complete her wish for the world to be doomed during the contract period (which ends on the day she is fated to die / March 2nd), then TDK will LIVE as a result of the contract penalty.

The contract penalty (not consideration, but an enforcement mechanism) was first discussed in episode 2 and confirmed in episode 3, so Spukhafte Fernwirkungen's comment was not a spoiler for lovindrama. The contract penalty is that if TDK does not fulfill her promise / consideration under the contract, the person she loves most will die in her place. If that happens, only the person she loves most will die. The world will not be doomed (because she didn't complete her wish) and TDK will also live.

*Collateral is only relevant in loan type agreements. I believe lovindrama meant to refer to consideration - a concept that is necessary for a contract to be complete. Consideration means that both parties to an agreement are getting something from each other. Imagine a loan agreement where person A asks bank B for a loan. Bank B gives person A money - that's one half of the consideration. Person A pays interest to Bank B (in addition to paying the initial loan amount) - that's the second half of the consideration. Bank B may also ask person A to use their car or home as collateral for the loan, meaning that if person A cannot pay back the money they owe, Bank B can take their car or home instead in order to make up the debt.

"When the reset was done, was the contract temporarily suspended or nonexistent at all?"

I've tried to consolidate my notes on this here: https://kisskh.at/discussions/destruction/62551-notes-to-keep-track-of-plot-points. Scroll down to "Effect of the Deity's Actions on the Contract" for the most relevant bit.

Myeol Mang and Tak Dong Kyung recap the terms of the contract in episode 3 (when Tak Dong Kyung writes them out in her journal). If you pay close attention to that scene hopefully it can clarify any points you missed in the first two episodes. If you still aren't sure about anything, there are notes on the contract terms here: https://kisskh.at/discussions/destruction/62551-notes-to-keep-track-of-plot-points

"At this point this explanation is getting way too far fetched for me, with assumptions of possible translation errors and language nuances."
Yes that post was a deep dive with the aim of exploring whether Myeol Mang had violated the contract or if the Deity lied when she made her offer to Tak Dong Kyung, as Kate suggested at the top of this thread. Definitely not necessary / intended for general viewers who aren't interested in those very narrow questions.

"I mean "void" (I'm a software engineer myself) in this context should not mean anything else other than a straight nullification of the contract (pun intended)."
I agree, that's what void normally means (I'm a contract lawyer specializing in technology-related commercial contracts). When I watched episodes 11 and 12 I thought the contract was gone for good and was quite surprised when that turned out to not be the case. My notes on the Deity's comments in this thread were only intended to explore whether she outright lied to Tak Dong Kyung. I think that point is debatable. But again, not really important outside of responding to Kate's original points / questions.

"I also understand Korean and I don't think translation is at blame here at all."
That's good to know. I've been trained to be very wary of translations when it comes to contractual interpretation (when we have a contract in one language that takes precedence and a translation, we rely on the interpretation of a native speaker of the first language whenever possible) but I agree that whether or not the translations create some additional confusion (and it sounds like they don't) the main source of any confusion / inconsistencies is with the original script writing.

"Frankly speaking, people are getting too hung up over the contract. At this point, it's nothing more than a plot device for the leads to get together (and separate) so it's only as useful as the writer deems. Some people consider it poor writing, others who don't mind just need to take a leap of faith to stay with it."
For sure it's a plot device. I'm having fun with the extra analysis, but that's just me. I don't normally watch airing dramas so I'm not used to waiting so long in between episodes. The time and energy I normally spend on bingeing completed shows has converted into time and energy spent on overanalyzing the details of this drama instead.

I put together some notes on the contract if you're still confused: https://kisskh.at/discussions/destruction/62551-notes-to-keep-track-of-plot-points.

I understood the simulation part, but didn't understand what that world was meant to be exactly when I watched. Thank you for clarifying!

It's interesting that even though the writers didn't really explain what that world was (we're just supposed to figure it out by inference I guess?) the scenes with that world clarify that every time Myeol Mang talked about doom befalling the world, he basically meant all people disappearing from the world, which is not what I was picturing.

If you are confused about the details of the contract, or how the Deity affected the contract, I have updated my notes in the Rules of the Contract / Plot Points discussion thread (https://kisskh.at/discussions/destruction/62551-notes-to-keep-track-of-plot-points).

If you are a new viewer, the first part is safe to read if you've watched up to episode 3.

I'm also open to feedback if you notice any inconsistencies or have alternative theories (about the contract specifically) to add.

"Why was Dong Kyung even scared of someone else dying instead of her, when she got into the contract knowing she is suppose to wish for the doom and the end of the world, hence everyone she loved would die anyway? The writer made her have negative IQ with that."

TDK found out about that penalty when she asked what would happen if she didn't wish for the world to end. She was forced to accept Myeol Mang's bargain and to promise that she would complete her wish for the world to end when her life was in immediate danger. It seems pretty clear that she never wanted or intended to actually complete the wish. That's why she asked Myeol Mang what would happen if she didn't. It makes sense that she would be upset about the person she loved most dying (at that point, her brother) if she didn't wish for the world to end, because this introduced a new (and very serious) consequence for her intended course of action (not wishing for the world to end).

She went from having a bad choice (wishing for the world to end) and a choice with an unknown outcome (not wishing for the world to end - which might have a penalty, but she's already going to die in 100 days so what penalty would really matter?) to facing two terrible choices: wish to end the world for everyone (including her brother and herself) or not wish to end the world which would mean that everyone gets to live (herself included) but her brother will die in her place and she will have to live with that responsibility for the rest of her life.

I'm glad it was helpful, but I'd add that there are definitely a few plot holes / parts where the drama isn't logical or where new rules are added or situations aren't explained.

The answer to your specific question is fairly clear, but even in this case we currently just have to infer that TDK's cancer has been cured because the penalty was invoked and MM said that she would get to live if it was invoked. But maybe they'll have a scene in the next episode to confirm it. Like a scene where TDK goes to the hospital and a test shows that her tumour is gone or something.

"I actually made a connection with a scene serving as an analogy to a larger part of the story from writing my unfinshed longer reply" - I'm curious about this!

I think we agree that the writers have not explained why TDK's death on March 2nd is sealed by fate so that MM cannot affect it (except through the contract penalty) but he can otherwise save her when her life is in danger before March 2nd, and that they should have.

It makes sense to me that MM was able to "save" the murderer - because "saving" him was actually dooming him to face the consequences of his actions. The show was pretty clear about that. We don't know if the kid would have died if he was hit by the car, so that one might not be an apples-to-apples comparison. It makes sense to me that since he can't change her death fate (again - except through the contract penalty and the writers should have explained all that ), he also can't heal her cancer / tumour, because that is supposed to be the cause of her death on March 2nd.

We have to rely on translations for the exact wording of his promises re: TDK's pain. Translations are never perfect (at least not for the purposes of contractual interpretation), which makes it difficult to determine whether he really violated his promise as it was worded in Korean.

Viki subs translate his promise as:

Episode 1: "I will make it not hurt. You won't be in pain for not even a day while you are dying."
Episode 2: "Since I told you I won't make it hurt." (Clearly not a precise translation.)
Episode 3: (per TDK's summary) "During the contract period of 100 days I will not be in pain."

Wastchasian subs translate his promise as:

Episode 1: "I'll help you feel no pain. You won't feel any kind of pain as you die."
Episode 2: "I said I'd make sure you don't feel pain."
Episode 3: (per TDK's summary) "During the 100 day contract period I will not feel any pain."

If his promise could instead be translated as "I will take away your pain." or something similar (plus the requirement that she has to recharge her protection), then he hasn't broken his promise. Each time she has felt pain while her protection was charged, he took her pain away.

Also, the requirements of a contract only matter to the extent that they are enforceable. Keep in mind that the contract isn't subject to human laws of contractual interpretation (which differ between jurisdictions - for example: some jurisdictions have an implied requirement of good faith, and some don't). If the contract was subject to human laws, it would've been void from the beginning because TDK didn't freely give her consent to be bound by the contract. MM created a scenario where her life was in danger, and told her that she could only avoid immediate death if she accepted his offer. Since her consent was given under duress, the contract wouldn't be valid or enforceable in a human court of law. But it's not a contract between humans, so human rules don't apply.

Since the show doesn't spell out the exact rules of how the contract binds MM (I don't like that the writers have not been clear about many of the rules that apply to the Deity and MM, but I don't entirely blame the writers for this part specifically - it wouldn't make sense to spend loads of time setting out the equivalent of lengthy contractual interpretation laws and it would be difficult to do it in a meaningful way - even if TDK asked, MM could just lie about the rules) and context clues tell us that he can generally get away with a lot, we have to assume that he only has to technically fulfill his promises under the contract and isn't obligated to do anything extra.

"If he made it so she has to hold his hand, it's his responsibility to make sure she can do it midnight every day. His obligation is to be available." He never promised to be available for recharging. Under human contract law, there might be an implied obligation there, but again, this contract is not subject to human contract law so we can't assume there are any additional implied obligations.

The show also never specifies what the penalty would be if MM did not uphold his side of the contract, because TDK never asks. So we can only guess. My best guess is that MM failing to keep his promises would mean that TDK would not be required to uphold her side of the bargain. So the contract penalty would not kick in if she failed to wish for the world to end, meaning she would die as fated without the person she loves most dying in her place.

My Deity point is similar to the one above: it doesn't really make sense to interpret her words literally. We are reading a translation, and even if it wasn't a translation, "void" can be interpreted in multiple ways outside of the context of human contract law. Interestingly, in several computer programming languages, "void" refers to a function that returns normally, but does not provide a result value to its caller. Which seems like an interesting parallel to the Deity making TDK and MM forget about the contract. They can wrack their brains for answers about the past, but their brain isn't able to return a memory (result value) to them. I think that's just a coincidence (even though the writers had the Deity talk about systems, programs, deletions, etc.) but my point is that the word is open to interpretation.

I don't believe MM has technically broken any of his promises that are part of the contract. His first promise was to take away TDK's pain for the days she had left (100 days) before her destined death day (March 2nd). He also added a condition that she has to recharge this protection by holding his hand before midnight each night. He did not promise to always make his hand available to her for re-charging (so when he did not bring his hand to her in episode... 3 I think it was? for a few moments, he wasn't violating his obligations under the contract). He also said she can use her extra wish to wish for him to give her his hand. He didn't say he would make it so that nothing happened to her to cause her pain (she can still cut her finger on glass). And he didn't say that he would heal all of her injuries or illnesses (if she failed to recharge the pain protection before midnight, she would feel the pain caused by her tumor), just that he would take away any physical pain she felt (including as a result of her cancer) as long as she re-charged her protection on time.

He has also stated that he is not able (apart from enforcing the contract penalty) to change the fact that she will die on March 2nd. He can heal her finger (but isn't obligated to - he could just temporarily take the pain caused by the cut away instead) because that doesn't affect her destined death day. But he cannot take away her cancer (even if she wishes to live longer) because that would affect her destined death day.

Why he *is* able to affect her destined death through the contract penalty has not been explained, but it seems like maybe some deaths are firmly sealed by fate (TDK's death by cancer) and some are not. For example, MM was able to save TDK from falling to her death from her roof before her destined death day. He was also able to prevent the murderer from dying from his self-inflicted wounds, although when he did so he was exercising his powers as Doom because he was forcing the murderer to face the consequences of his actions. He was also able to save that kid from being hit by a car when TDK was watching (it's unclear if that crash would've killed the kid), and MM said he wasn't allowed to do that but he did it anyway.

MM also promised to grant TDK a wish before her destined death day, but he didn't say that if TDK made a wish that he was able to fulfill, he would have to fulfill that specific wish. He also didn't say that he had to grant the wish immediately. Essentially if TDK makes multiple wishes (and she has), he can choose to not grant all of them (even ones he is able to grant) except for one, and he only has to grant that one wish sometime before TDK's destined death in order to not violate the terms of the contract. Since MM granted TDK's wish to see the doomed world before the moment of her destined death (when he ended up disappearing in her place), MM didn't violate that term of their contract.

I agree that the Deity didn't exactly void the contract in the legal sense of what the term "void" means (but I think that may have been a translation error or just imprecise writing, as the effect of the Deity's action was to make the contract not apply at least temporarily and potentially for all time if TDK and MM hadn't remembered each other, rather than a lie on the Deity's part). It was either temporarily erased (and the Deity didn't clarify that the contract would come back into force if their memories returned) or rendered temporarily unenforceable by MM because he couldn't remember it. I've included more notes on these possibilities in my response to Nav above).

The Deity did something more than only removing their memories (the marks that MM left on TDK's calendar also disappeared, and TDK's notes in her journal about the contract disappeared before returning when her memories returned) but something less than going back in time and making it so they never met / never entered into the contract. MM mentioned earlier that memories can be easily manipulated, after the Deity sharpened TDK's memory enough that she fully remembered seeing MM at the funeral hall. Although MM and the Deity can both travel back in time, perhaps they're not able to change the past? If so, the Deity might've only been able to change things in the present (e.g., erasing their memories and other things - like the notes in TDK's journal).

The writers didn't fully clarify the details, so there are several fan theories about how it all worked. To me, it seems like either: (i) the contract was temporarily erased along with their memories, and came back into force when their memories returned; or (ii) MM was not able to enforce the contract when he couldn't remember it, but after his memories returned, he could enforce it.

I think the second one is possible because MM has never stopped wanting to enforce the contract. In the beginning, he wanted TDK to complete the contract (i.e., complete her wish for the world to end) because he believed that was the only way he could die. Later, he was also good with just enforcing the contract penalty if TDK fell in love with him, as that would also allow him to die (the penalty being that the person she loves most will die in her place). And even later in the drama he still wanted to enforce the contract penalty (and die in TDK's place) because that was the only way he could save TDK. If the contract penalty wasn't enforced, he would have to watch TDK die and continue existing forever without her.

In the original contract, MM promised to take away any pain that TDK experienced in the days she had left (100 days) before her destined death day (March 2nd). MM later added a condition (which TDK accepted when MM re-created the impending-death-by-truck situation) that TDK must re-charge the pain protection before midnight each night (he said this was to ensure she didn't run away from him - as she had to be in his presence to complete her wish for doom to befall the world). He didn't make it so that nothing happened to her that would cause her pain (e.g., her finger was still cut by glass, but then he healed it as a means of removing the pain - presumably he could have left it un-healed and just temporarily removed the pain instead and that would still have fulfilled his promise) and he didn't get rid of her cancer (when she didn't recharge her protection before midnight, she felt the pain caused by her cancer until the protection was recharged by holding MM's hand). MM and the Deity have both said that (apart from the contract penalty - and the writers have not explained why the contract penalty is different) they cannot heal TDK's cancer / change the fact that she is fated to die on March 2nd. In addition to the promise about taking away TDK's pain, MM also offered TDK the opportunity to make another wish (in addition to completing her wish about ending the world) but she wasn't able to use that wish to live past her destined death day.

In return for MM taking away her pain and the extra wish, TDK was supposed to wish for all people to disappear / for the world to end (which MM believed would cause him and the Deity to also disappear - finally releasing him from his role as Doom) sometime before her destined death (again, March 2nd). If she failed to do so, the penalty would be that her doom / death would transfer to the person she loved most at that time (her destined death day). That person would die, and TDK would live. That point is covered in episode 2 and confirmed in episode 3.

In episode 14, MM died / disappeared in her place (he was the person she loved most on her destined death day and she failed to complete the contract by wishing for the world to end, so the penalty kicked in). Before disappearing, he said he would take away her sadness and her pain. It seems like that's not quite true and was meant to be comforting rather than a new promise to use his powers to do so, as TDK is currently (and it looks like she will continue to be) sad / heartbroken, even though she will try to become happy to fulfill his wish / prayer for her. Although he can't take away *all* of her pain and suffering, he can take away her destined death because he is dying in her place. So presumably her cancer is cured and the related physical pain and emotional suffering it caused will also stop.

Essentially yes. To clarify:

She did not. It was a dream.