'When I was the most Beautiful' Episode 9: Jin returns with insecurities and lashes out at Ye-ji, Hwan watches
It is as if all of Hwan's (Ji Soo) repressed frustration has been forgotten in the face of his brother's return in 'When I was the Most Beautiful' Episode 9, and as everyone tries to accommodate the prodigal son, having experienced something similar themselves when Jin (Ha Seok-jin) and Hwan's (Ji Soo) father was hurt, it is only Ye-ji who feels like an outsider and she also feels as if she is not helping Jin in any way towards physical or mental recovery. Considering how Jin also distances himself from Ye-ji and even goes as far as to return home but not share his room with her, their relationship is definitely going through a rough phase.
From believing that he could very well be dead, to seeing him return with a disability, Ye-ji is in shock herself and she doesn't know yet that Jin had depended on his ex-girlfriend Carie to keep his whereabouts a secret. If she gets to know that, there is definitely going to repercussions that neither Jin nor Hwan would have expected. Jin claims that he is done getting treatment and he doesn't want to risk even awakening a shred of hope within himself because when and if things don't pan out, the pain that he has to experience is something that he cannot go through yet again.
When initially Jin refuses to meet his family because he doesn't want to meet them in his condition, he claims to Ye-ji that he knows he is being selfish but at that moment, his pain and his experiences weigh heavier on him than the others and so he says that he has no qualms about ignoring what his family has gone through in the past seven years. Does Jin truly believe that? Maybe. However, what he said does make sense, the one who is in most pain at that moment is him.
Everything that Jin has decided is based on his insecurities and his feelings that people would treat him less than he is if he were to return to his family. This is also why he lashes out at the simplest considerations that Ye-ji shows, but just as we could empathize and understand Jin's feelings in the beginning; there comes a time when we also see this entire ordeal from Ye-ji's perspective and it is heartbreaking. Everything that she had to experience because Jin decided to stay hidden resurfaces and when Jin is unreasonably mad at her, it all comes bursting out of her.
However, this burst of anger serves well for both of them. The two of them air out all the insecurities that they have about each other and it seems to do them some good. However, will this last long? Jin's insecurities are deep-seated, and somewhere, it all goes back to the time when he had cut the rope off as a child leading to his father's accident. So the self-hatred that he feels is not something that he can let go of soon. It is also this that leaves him wondering if Ye-ji really waited just for him or if she did, along the way, begin to like someone else.
Coincidentally, at this time, Jin meets Hwan's rival who tells Jin about the scandal and only stokes the doubts that have begun to surface in Jin's minds. Jin reads about the scandal that was posted by In-ho and this aggravates him further. So when Hwan arrives home that night, Jin asks him if he still likes Ye-ji and how he felt about his brother returning and ruining his chances at him getting together with Ye-ji. The episode comes to an end with the two brothers facing each other off trying to confront a half-truth.