“The Glory” Part 1 follows the story of Dong Eun as she plots her revenge against the people who bullied her in high school. Her bullies are Park Yeon Jin and her group, which includes Jeon Jae Joon, Choi Hye Joeng, Lee Sa Ra, and Son Myeong Oh. Dong Eun came from an impoverished background, which made her an easy target for other students. Yeon Jin and her group’s modus operandi was to target one person and physically assault them again and again. Yeon Jin’s favorite tool was her hair curler, with which she liked to burn her victims. Yoon So Hee was her initial target, and then came Dong Eun. The bullies came from wealthy and influential families, and they knew that they would never have to face the consequences of their actions, which made them all crueler. Due to the horrific physical abuse at the hands of the group, Dong Eun decides to quit school, but even that is not easy for her. Yeon Jin’s mother bribes Dong Eun’s mother to change the reason for her quitting to “adjustment issues” rather than the “bullying.” As if that wasn’t enough, one of the teachers continuously slaps Dong Eun when she tries to complain. Dong Eun eventually leaves, but it is evident that she is a shell of a person. But before the group sees the last of her for years to come, she makes it a point to ask them what their dreams are. There is a promise in those words—that Dong Eun will come back for them.
Once she leaves school, life gets incredibly hard for Dong Eun. She works day and night to earn enough money to complete her education. Dong Eun lives a joyless life, one with the sole objective of taking revenge on her assailants. All she does is study, work, and, in her free time, collect information on the members of the group. This has been her life for close to 20 years; all spent planning her moment of vengeance. It is during this time that she meets Joo Yeo Jeong, a brilliant medical student who is a bit of a prodigy. They first meet when they both end up on adjacent beds in a hospital. Later, she asks him to teach her how to play the game “Go.” Yeo Jeong has an idea that Dong Eun’s boundaries will not allow him to get close to her, but he likes her and takes the time that he gets with her. But once the day comes when Dong Eun finally defeats him at “Go,” it is the last time she meets him, at least for a while.
The Start Of Dong Eun’s Revenge
The problem with “The Glory” Part 1 was that it spent too much time setting the stage. Our hearts broke when we saw everything that Dong Eun was subjected to, but we got to see none of the revenge or redemption we so craved. That was left for “The Glory” Part 2.
In Part 1, we saw Dong Eun blackmail one of the authorities to get a job as a teacher in the same school that Yeon Jin’s daughter, Ye Sol, went to. When Yeon Jin learns about it, she is furious and scared, but she knows that she cannot do anything since Dong Eun will just take a job at whatever school she transfers Ye Sol to. Ye Sol is the daughter of Yeon Jin and Jae Joon, though her mother has been raising her as her husband, Ha Do Yeong’s daughter. Dong Eun learns about this when she notices that her mother has been taking her to a hospital to get her treated for her color blindness, which even Jae Joon suffers from. She further confirms it with the help of a DNA test, and she uses Myeong Oh to get some of Jae Joon’s hair samples for it.
Myeong Oh was one of the easier people to deal with for Dong Eun. He worked as Jae Joon’s manager and, along with Hye Jeong, was the one constantly pushed around in the group. Dong Eun just told him to help her, and she would help him earn the kind of money he wanted. She told him that Yeon Jin was involved in the death of Yoon So Hee. Myeong Oh tried to use the information to blackmail her, but that ended up costing him his life. From the looks of it, he was killed by Yeon Jin.
The other person who was an easy target for Dong Eun was Hye Jeong. She worked as an air hostess, and her entire life revolved around being humiliated by her friends because they did not accept her as their equal. She was engaged to a very rich man and was happy that she could finally have things that were better than those of her friends. But things don’t go as planned, as Dong Eun gets her hands on Hye Jeong’s phone and is now aware that she even had a relationship with Jae Joon. Armed with this information, Dong Eun can use it anytime she wants to destroy the life of Hye Jeong, as the former is close friends with the latter’s mother-in-law.
As for Sara, she is a god-fearing drug addict, and all Dong Eun does is cut off the drug supply that she used to get through Myeong Oh. That is enough to push her over the edge. Dong Eun asked for a bag of cash in exchange for drugs. Sara is as cornered as everybody else.
Finally, there was Jae Joon. While Part 1 of “The Glory” just showed him looking at Dong Eun lecherously, we believe that there might also be sexual assault involved. Either way, he comes to know through Dong Eun that Ye Sol is his daughter. He is infuriated at Yeon Jin and wants to be the legal father of Ye Sol. Spending some time with her, he discovers that even she is colorblind.
Meanwhile, Do Young has started catching on that there might be something between his wife and Jae Joon. He notices that they smoke the same cigarettes, and Jae Joon’s behavior when he comes to meet Ye Sol is suspicious. Do Young learns that the mysterious woman he saw playing “Go,” Dong Eun, is also Ye Sol’s teacher and the woman who sent him the photographs of when they had spoken at a convenience store. He knows that she is related to Yeon Jin in some way. He asks Hye Jeong about it, and she reveals that Dong Eun was brutally bullied by Yeon Jin and their group in school.
With all the pieces in place, it is time for Dong Eun to start moving them in Part 2 of “The Glory.” The people who are going to help her in her mission are Yeo Jeong and Hyeon Nam, both of whom suffer from a past of their own. Yeo Jeong is a successful plastic surgeon whose father was killed by one of his patients, who happened to be a serial killer. Yeo Jeong has discontinued therapy even though, to this day, he keeps receiving letters from his father’s killer. He has always liked Dong Eun, and she finally tells him everything that happens to her, asking him if he will help her on her journey. Knowing what the overpowering desire for revenge is like, Yeo Jeong promises to be her “executioner.”
As for Hyeon Nam, she used to work as the housekeeper at Yeon Jin’s house. When she noticed Dong Eun taking the trash from their dustbins, she blackmailed her for some help. Hyeon Nam asked Dong Eun to kill her husband in exchange for her silence and anything else she might need. Dong Eun does the needful, as Hyeon Nam was a victim of domestic violence. She asks her to be her detective and help her get revenge, though she gives her the details sparingly. Despite Dong Eun’s reluctance, she finds herself forming a friendship with Hyeon Nam due to her bright nature and her willingness to smile despite everything she has faced in life. As they move to the next part of their plan, Dong Eun decides to send Hyeon Nam’s daughter abroad to study to guarantee her safety while she moves her pieces for revenge. It has been a long wait for Part 2 of “The Glory.” What Dong Eun has faced has set her on a path with the sole purpose of revenge. And we are finally going to see how she gets her peace.
See More: ‘The Glory’ Ending, Explained: Did Dong Eun Take Her Revenge? What Happens To Yeo Jeong?
