Our Sticky Love Ending Explained: Directed by Kim Jang-han and written by Mo Ji-hye, Netflix K-drama 이런 엿같은 사랑 stars Jung Hae-in as Jang Tae-ha, Ha Young as Go Eun-sae aka Go Ji-won, Heo Sung-tae as Baek Sang-gil, Lee Jae-won as An Gi-jun, Choi Yu-ju as Min Su-ji, alongside Jeon Bae-soo, Seo Jung-yeon, Kim Young-ok, Jang Hye-jin, Cha Chung-hwa, Kim Jong-tae and others.
Our Sticky Love Ending Explained
How Did Go Eun-sae Lose Her Memory?
In Our Sticky Love Kdrama, Go Eun-sae, who is in reality prosecutor Go Ji-won, loses her memory when she uncovers something that points toward Baek Sang-gil, who is a very influential businessman. As part of her investigation into the corruption case where Mayor Ju Min-jong and Baek Sang-gil were involved, Go Eun-sae successfully records the conversation between both of them with the help of a hidden microphone in her watch. As soon as she gets hold of the tape, Sang-gil tries to kill her because he fears she might reveal his crimes. She resists but is severely injured during the chase and falls into a coma.
Even though Sang-gil thinks that he has gotten rid of her, he does not realise that Jang Tae-ha finds her in time and takes her to the hospital under the pretence that she died in an accident. Two weeks after Eun-sae awoke from her unconsciousness, her entire memory was wiped out due to the accident. In addition, the severity of her injuries made it difficult for her identity to be confirmed since her fingerprints could not be found at the hospital.
Without any family members or anyone from her past coming to help her, Eun-sae had no idea she was, in fact, a prosecutor working to unravel a highly dangerous gang of criminals. The shock she experienced changed everything about her life and made her dependent on others.
Why Did Jang Tae-ha Want to Protect Go Eun-sae?
Jang Tae-ha did not decide to help Go Eun-sae just because he saw her after the accident. They knew each other before all this took place. When they were young, Eun-sae came to see Tae-ha participate in a boxing competition. Tae-ha kept getting wounded in his eye throughout the competition, yet despite being wounded, the competition went on until he was declared the loser. But there was one person in the audience who decided to reveal the truth about the competition. This was Eun-sae, who brought proof of how unfairly Tae-ha had been treated.
The officials had been giving him something else instead of proper antiseptic for his wound, which led to infection and negatively impacted his results. She helped him to prove his worth. Even though Eun-sae was practically a stranger to him, she decided to help him despite having no reason to do that. Some years later, they met each other again in Japan. Tae-ha was associated with Sang-gil’s gang, and he was running away from some Japanese gangsters after a fight. Suddenly, Eun-sae appeared out of nowhere, and with the help of fireworks, she distracted them and managed to help Tae-ha to run away on her bike.
She did not know that the man who needed her help was actually the same boy she had saved before. However, Tae-ha recognised her, and his love for her was even more intensified. That is why he did not leave her alone when she was suffering from amnesia. He was aware of the fact that Sang-gil was going to kill her, and by telling her the truth about herself, he would just send her into danger.
Therefore, pretending to be her boyfriend and taking her to Gujin was the only way of helping her while she was forgetting everything. Thus, Tae-ha lied because he wanted to return the favour he had got many times from someone who did not know how much he owed her.
Why Did Jang Tae-ha Become a Gangster?
The reason why Jang Tae-ha became a gangster was that he needed money to save his grandmother, who brought him up. When Tae-ha was just a little child, he came to the village with his mother. Although she was not Jang’s real grandmother of Jang, she provided shelter for them both and helped his mother establish herself in the new place. In spite of the fact that Jang’s mother died, she continued taking care of him and always considered him part of her family. Moreover, she appreciated Jang’s desire to become a boxer and tried to help him live the life he desired.
Tae-ha really wanted to become someone in his life as a boxer, but the money he earned from it was not sufficient when his grandmother was ill with cancer. Given her declining health and the fact that an expensive surgery was required to keep her alive, Tae-ha found himself in a position where his dream was no longer the most important thing to him. He needed a lot of money immediately, and boxing could never provide him with that.
That is the moment Tae-ha realised that he must join Baek Sang-gil’s gang, understanding that only in the underworld would he get enough money to support his grandmother. In other words, Tae-ha became a gangster out of desperation, and not ambition. The man was ready to forget about his dreams, as he simply could not afford to lose the person who gave him shelter, cared for him after the death of his mother and kept supporting his boxing dream.
Does Go Eun-sae Get Her Memory Back, and What Does She Do After Remembering?
Yes, at the end of Our Sticky Love, Go Eun-sae does regain her memories, but it takes place at the point where Tae-ha tries to get her out of the country. Understanding that Sang-gil will not give up on searching for her, Tae-ha decides to take her to Japan through sea passage so that she could be in a safe place and not within the range of Sang-gil. But Sang-gil’s men attack Tae-ha when he tries to take her out of the country. Tae-ha, along with his brothers, succeeds in taking Eun-sae to the boat while Tae-ha himself stays behind and fights the attackers in order to protect her.
From the boat, Eun-sae sees the battle that takes place, when suddenly there is an explosion. The shock brings back the memories of the accident that include her torture by Sang-gil, the burning of her fingerprints and almost death. Rather than continue on to Japan, Eun-sae flees from the ship, gets on a bicycle and goes back to Seoul because she now recalls the investigation she had done and the evidence she had gathered against Sang-gil.
She recalls that the watch with her voice recording was stolen by Sang-gil, but she also recalls that she had made a Plan B by putting a backup copy of the recording in her shoes. Eun-sae locates the shoes, collects the evidence, and turns it over, thus allowing the investigation against Sang-gil to go ahead. With the evidence now in the hands of the authorities, Sang-gil is arrested, and Eun-sae is able to complete the investigation which had once put her in jeopardy.
Who Was Jang Tae-ha’s Father?
At the ending of Our Sticky Love, it is disclosed that Baek Sang-gil is the biological father of Jang Tae-ha, even though Tae-ha never knew anything about it. At one time, Sang-gil was associated with boxing and was training under Coach Do-yeop. However, he was ultimately kicked out because he cheated to earn money. Afterwards, he got into the criminal world and lived around the gang. Meanwhile, at about the same time, he was seeing Tae-ha’s mother, who became pregnant with him. Nonetheless, Sang-gil denied any paternity and left Tae-ha’s mother alone.
What Happens to Baek Sang-gil at the End of Our Sticky Love?
After the legal hearing, Baek Sang-gil is sentenced to life imprisonment for his crimes. However, Baek does not serve his punishment. During the transportation in a prison van, some of his gang members assist him in his escape from imprisonment. Driven by anger and revengeful feelings toward Tae-ha, Sang-gil goes to the village where Tae-ha’s grandmother lives. Sang-gil threatens Tae-ha to come to this village in order to resolve their differences forever. However, after Tae-ha comes to the place, Sang-gil sees his mother’s photograph, where she is holding her baby boy. Sang-gil understands that this baby is his real son.
This revelation rocks Sang-gil to the core since he understands the pain associated with what he had experienced in his childhood and replicated by creating the same life for Tae-ha. He had been physically and psychologically tortured by his own father, and he had gone through life carrying the scars from it all along. But without knowing it, he ended up repeating the same act of violence and became the exact kind of person his own father was, thus becoming an instrument of torture for his own son.
When the police come, Sang-gil attempts to escape, but Tae-ha halts him and threatens him with a gun. But Sang-gil evades the shot from Tae-ha and captures him instead. But he does not fight him anymore and instead shoots himself, saying to Tae-ha, “Let’s end this here.” This ends the cycle of violence, but Tae-ha never learns the truth about his father.
Do An Gi-jun and Min Su-ji End Up Together?
Yes, Gi-jun and Su-ji do end up with each other in the end of Our Sticky Love Korean drama, but the development of their relationship is not an easy one. Gi-jun does care about Su-ji, but he is not a person who is able to communicate the fact. His inability to express his love and defend their relationship has a strong negative effect on Su-ji. Everything gets to such a point that she even proposes breaking up and resigns, thinking that it will be better if they separate because they work in the same clinic. The problem is not that they don’t love each other; it’s that Gi-jun cannot show it to Su-ji.
However, Gi-jun’s experiences with Go Eun-sae as his patient and the way she grows from her love with Jang Tae-ha make Gi-jun change his attitude towards love and understand that it’s not only about feeling for someone but also about expressing these feelings and making memories with the person you care about. In this way, Eun-sae’s situation indirectly shows Gi-jun what he was lacking in his relationship with Su-ji. At the end of the movie, Gi-jun tells Su-ji that he will try his best to be open and loving with her. Therefore, Gi-jun and Su-ji’s story ends happily, and Gi-jun proposes to her at the end of the drama.
Do Jang Tae-ha and Go Eun-sae Get Their Happy Ending?
Indeed, in Our Sticky Love Episode 12, Jang Tae-Ha and Go Eun-Sae find their happy ending after all. Eun-Sae’s restoration of her memory makes her recall not only the scary experiences that caused her accident but also what Tae-Ha has done to protect her from the time when she forgot who she really is. She realises that the stories he made up about her were not all lies because Tae-Ha had risked a lot in order to protect her from Sang-Gil, saved her life when she was seriously injured, and stayed with her when she lost her mind trying to remember herself.
After she recalls everything, Eun-Sae realises the depth of love that Tae-Ha has towards her and the sacrifices he has made for her. The truth brings her closer to him instead of pushing her away. Having been able to help bring about an end to the case against Sang-gil, Eun-sae goes back to the village to be with Tae-ha and finally tells him her true feelings.
The love of Eun-sae and Tae-ha is not based on the fabricated account which Tae-ha used to protect her anymore, but rather because this time, Eun-sae chooses him with all the facts about their past relationship known to her. Tae-ha ends up proposing to her romantically, and they finally get married in a beautiful and private marriage ceremony in front of the villagers who have by now become like family to them. With Jang Tae-Ha and Go Eun-Sae’s marriage ceremony, the story achieves the happy ending that they have long struggled for, marking a complete full-circle journey from a false life to a real life relationship.
Also Read: Our Sticky Love Review: Jung Hae-in and Ha Young Deliver a Heartwarming Romance That Turns Familiar Tropes into an Irresistible Comfort Watch
