'Meow: The Secret Boy' Episode 4 draws parallels between a pet and a child being abandoned
'Meow: The Secret Boy' Episode 4 is all about humans who abandon people and pets without a second thought. The previous episode uncovered how Jae-sun (Seo Ji-Hoon) was drowning in trauma about being abandoned and in this episode we see why the thought of being abandoned has a lot more to do with the number of couples who would adopt him from orphanage only to leave him again when they manage to get pregnant. It was not just his biological parents, but many others who ended up repeatedly slashing away at his self-esteem.
It is no wonder then that he stopped himself from confessing his love for Sol-ah (Shin Ye-eun) a year ago. When he saw the kitten abandoned on the street wrapped in her scarf, he did not see Sol-ah but everyone who had every abandoned him from the time he was born. To see that someone he loves is capable of turning away from her pet puts brakes on his overwhelming feelings. Since then, he has believed that Sol-ah hates cats. He doesn't know what really happened with the kitten and the scarf and so his misunderstanding has only continued to fester. Now that he has found another person to keep Hong-jo, he doesn't understand why Sol-ah would have a problem handing over the cat. After all, she hates them.
But he sees Sol-ah's attachment to Hong-jo when she thinks that the cat left her. She goes street by street searching for Hong-jo but instead hears about a cat meeting with an accident and believes the worst. She thinks that the cat that was buried by someone after meeting with an accident is none other than Hong-jo and tries to confirm it by digging the grave of the dead cat. The extent to which Sol-ah is feeling bad about not being able to find the cat shows how much she loves Hong-jo.
What Jae-sun finds shocking is when she comes over to his cafe and explains to him that Hong-jo was not missing after all but was sleeping in her wardrobe. She then tells him that she is not going to hand Hong-jo over, but is instead going to keep him with her. When Jae-sun tries to ask her why she would do that when she hates cats, Sol-ah says that she loves Hong-jo and this also gives her inspiration for a brand new webtoon.
All this while, Hong-jo (Kim Myung-soo) our cat-human has been busy trying to figure out how he can stay with Sol-ah and not be abandoned. He begins by getting himself a job and then he tries to figure out things that Sol-ah likes in order to do the same for her. Be it getting fried fish-shaped bread or getting her spicy tteokbeokki made of rice flour; he tries to do everything, but will this really ensure that he won't be abandoned?
The episode ended with Sol-ah's actual stepbrother having arrived in Seoul, so it is not going to be too long before Hong-jo's truth surfaces.
New episodes of 'Meow: The Secret Boy' will air on Wednesday and Thursday, on KBS2 at 10 pm.