Breaking Down the Sweet Ending of Romantic K-Drama Our Sticky Love

In the opening episode of Netflix Korean drama Our Sticky Love, Go Eun-sae (Ha Young) wakes up in a rural hospital with no memory of how she got there or what her prior life was like. When local boxing coach Jang Tae-ha (Jung Hae-in) shows up at the hospital claiming to be her devoted boyfriend, she is immediately suspicious. Tae-ha is much scruffier and less professionally ambitious than Eun-sae thinks her ideal type might be, but she doesn’t have much choice but to go with him to the taffy-making village he claims they both call home. 

Is Tae-ha telling Eun-sae the truth? And, if he is lying—as Eun-sae suspects—to what end? By the end of Our Sticky Love’s 12-episode run, all is revealed. Here’s everything that goes down in the Overboard-esque Netflix K-drama that combines smalltown romance and crime drama for a satisfying tale of love against all odds. 

Is Tae-ha really Eun-sae’s boyfriend?

Eun-sae’s instincts are good. Though Tae-ha and Eun-sae do share a past, he was not her boyfriend prior to the accident that caused Eun-sae’s amnesia. Eun-sae is actually a successful prosecutor who works in Seoul’s anti-corruption office. In the months before the action of the show, Eun-sae had been investigating a case of bribery and murder involving crime boss and company chairman Baek Sang-gil (Heo Sung-tae) and the Seoul mayor. When she records damning evidence of their crimes, Sang-il orders her killed. His goons start the job, but Sang-il sends in one of his best men, Jang Tae-ha, to finish the job.

Tae-ha’s gangster past

While Tae-ha may have a heart of gold, he has spent the past 14 years working as a violent yes man for Baek Sang-gil’s criminal enterprise. As a teenager and young adult, Tae-ha had a bright future as one of South Korea’s best young boxers. He was on track to go to the Olympics for his country, but when his grandmother fell sick, he chose to leave it all behind. In order to earn enough money for his grandmother’s cancer treatments, Tae-ha accepted a job with Sang-gil. 

For his final job as one of Sang-gil’s most trusted men, he is tasked with killing Eun-sae and disposing of the body. He accepts the job, eager to get back to life with his grandmother and his friends and neighbors in Taffy Village, where he grew up. However, when he realizes the identity of his target, he can’t go through with it. Instead, he risks everything by staging Eun-sae’s fake death and whisking her away to the small town he calls home. 

What caused Go Eun-sae’s amnesia?

Prior to Tae-ha’s arrival, Eun-sae was tortured by Sang-gil and his men. They burned off her fingerprints to make her body unidentifiable and beat her badly. The injuries lead to Eun-sae’s amnesia. The amnesia is inconvenient for Tae-ha, who feels he cannot risk telling Eun-sae the truth about the danger she is in. He fears that, rather than lay low in Taffy Village, Eun-sae will go back to Seoul in an effort to corroborate Tae-ha’s story. While Tae-ha waits for Eun-sae’s memory to return, he solicits the help of everyone in Taffy Village to go along with the story that they are a happy couple and have been living together in town since their move from Seoul two months ago. Meanwhile, Tae-ha uses his own contacts to arrange a boat to Japan for Eun-sae a month later. In the meantime, he must convince a confused and suspicious Eun-sae that they have been dating for two years.

Why does Tae-ha save Eun-sae?

Tae-ha’s task is made easier by the fact that he has real feelings for Eun-sae. He first met Eun-sae in 2010, when the first-year college student and aspiring prosecutor exposed Tae-ha’s boxing opponent for cheating. Years later, Eun-sae saves Tae-ha from a yakuza attack while she happens to be on vacation in Japan. Tae-ha, who is in Japan on business for Sang-gil, is ambushed by a bunch of men. Eun-sae, who has heard Tae-ha speaking Korean, speeds up on her motorbike to whisk Tae-ha away from danger. Tae-ha instantly recognizes Eun-sae as his “first love,” aka the girl who helped him win a boxing medal, but Eun-sae does not recognize him.

Still, the two spend the night together, walking the streets of the city and falling asleep on the beach together. Eun-sae asks for Tae-ha’s number so they can stay in contact, but Tae-ha declines to give it to her. He doesn’t want to reveal his gangster status to prosecutor Eun-sae, and he knows a relationship between them could never work. When Tae-ha sees an unconscious Eun-sae years later, he knows exactly who she is. After 14 years of loyal service to Sang-gil, he disobeys a direct order and saves Eun-sae. 

Why does Eun-sae also go by Ji-won?

When Eun-sae wakes up and Tae-ha informs the hospital and Eun-sae herself of her name, it is different from the one she has been going by as a prosecutor: Go Ji-won. However, Tae-ha isn’t lying. When they bonded in Japan, Eun-sae told Tae-ha that Eun-sae was the name her mother gave her before she left her at an orphanage as a baby. However, it was only after the orphanage registered her birth as Go Ji-won that the original name was discovered. Years later, Eun-sae tells Tae-ha that she prefers to go by the beautiful name her mother gave her rather than her legal name. 

Does Eun-sae recover her memories?

Eun-sae recovers her memories at the end of Episode 8, after she has been rushed onto the boat to Japan by Tae-ha’s colleague Kaito. She watches from afar as Tae-ha faces off against Sang-gil and his goons. When Tae-ha starts a fire that erupts into an explosion, a horrified Eun-sae begins to remember her life before amnesia.

Our Sticky Love’s ending explained

Through much of Our Sticky Love, Tae-ha is the one protecting Eun-sae from Sang-gil. However, with her memories recovered, Eun-sae springs into action to bring Sang-gil down herself, and save Tae-ha from his former boss’ revenge. Though the trick watch that recorded Sang-gil’s incriminating meeting with the mayor has been destroyed, Eun-sae backed up the footage. She uses it to arrest both powerful men, seeking 15 years in prison for the mayor and life in prison for Sang-gil, who has murdered multiple people in his efforts to secure a lucrative construction project for his company.

However, before Sang-gil can be properly sentenced, he escapes from his transport. He immediately travels to the Taffy Village and takes Tae-ha’s grandmother hostage. He plans to kill Tae-ha for his betrayal, but is thrown for a loop when he sees baby pictures of Tae-ha with his mom. 

Tae-ha’s young mother was taken in by Go Yeong-hong, the woman we know as Tae-ha’s grandmother, when Tae-ha was just a baby. She died shortly after, and Go Yeong-hong decided to raise Tae-ha herself, despite not having a biological relation to him. As we learn through flashbacks, Sang-gil is Tae-ha’s biological father. Tae-ha’s mom left him after Sang-gil, who was also a boxer prior to becoming a thug, cheated in a match. When Sang-gil realizes that he is a father, he wants nothing to do with Tae-ha’s mom or baby Tae-ha, but he does offer them money. Tae-ha’s mom refuses, saying that she does not want to raise her son with dirty money.

Sang-gil has spent 14 years with Tae-ha as a right-hand man, never once guessing that he is his biological son. He only realizes the connection when he sees the baby pictures in Tae-ha’s grandmother’s house. When Tae-ha comes to save his grandmother, Sang-gil is still processing the reveal. He runs from the house, with Tae-ha hot on his heels. Tae-ha tackles Sang-gil, and takes his gun, pointing it at the man he doesn’t know is his father. 

When Eun-sae and the police show up, Sang-gil realizes that Tae-ha might actually kill him, which would ruin his life. Rather than letting this happen to Tae-ha, Sang-gil wrestles the weapon from his son’s grip and uses it on himself instead. He dies in front of a shocked Tae-ha, who will never know the truth about the man who caused him so much pain.

Does Our Sticky Love have a happy ending?

Yes, Our Sticky Love ends with protagonists Eun-sae and Tae-ha together. Though Eun-sae is initially angry with Tae-ha for lying to her, she has fallen in love with him during their time together. The two marry in Taffy Village, amongst the family they have found there.