Faked Love Confession, Then a Gun: 'Kim You-jung's Spy Is Abducted in '100 Days of Deception'

She won over a suspicious colleague with a love confession that was a lie. Now Lee Ga-gyeong (Kim You-jung), a spy for the National Salvation Corps inside the Government-General of Korea, is locked in a room after being abducted. tvN's Saturday-Sunday drama '100 Days of Deception' released stills ahead of episode 4, which is set to reveal who is behind the kidnapping.

In one still, Lee Ga-gyeong has a cut on her forehead, beads of sweat on her face and blood at the corner of her mouth. Another shows a gun pointed in front of her. The released material does not make clear who took her or how she ended up in the room. At the end of the previous episode, as she walked through a dark, empty back alley, a man pointed a gun at her and said, "You're a spy, aren't you? Geum Seo-hui, no, Lee Ga-gyeong." A sack was then pulled over her face. This came after she had passed information obtained at the Government-General of Korea to the National Salvation Corps and finished her mission. The producers said episode 4 will reveal the background of the abduction.

A spy whose cover may already be blown

The drama is set in Keijō in 1932, during the Japanese colonial period. Lee Ga-gyeong, once the city's best pickpocket, becomes a spy and finds herself across from an elite interpreter at the Government-General of Korea, in a 100-day espionage romance in the enemy's stronghold. In episode 3, she accepted Yoo So-ran's (Kim Hyun-joo) offer and took a job at the Government-General of Korea as an interpreter trainee under the name Geum Seo-hui. Not long after she began working as a spy, she was exposed to the risk of being identified. She met Sato Hideo (Park Jin-young) again, learned the schedule of Sato Shinichi and passed it to the National Salvation Corps. The ambush in the alley after her mission now threatens the spying she must continue inside the Government-General of Korea.

The lie that bought her a place at Sato Hideo's side

To get her the interpreter trainee post, Yoo Philip (Lee Moo-saeng) deceived Sato Shinichi, telling him that Lee Ga-gyeong was his mistress. Inside the Government-General of Korea, she ran into senior interpreter Sato Hideo, who grew suspicious of her sudden appearance. When she kept lying after their several earlier meetings, Sato Hideo asked whether she had ever told him anything true. Sato Shinichi said, "If you tell me the truth just once, not a lie, I will accept you as my colleague." Lee Ga-gyeong then told Sato Hideo, "I like you, since the first time we met." The words were a false confession meant to dispel his doubts. After Sato Hideo left work, she found out Sato Shinichi's schedule and passed it to the National Salvation Corps. Episode 3 ended with her carrying out that first mission, then being identified by name and abducted.

The first episode drew 5.3% and the second 7.6%. Episode 3 averaged 7.0% of households nationwide, peaking at 8.9%, according to Nielsen Korea's pay-platform figures.

Why the Corps turned to a pickpocket

Lee Ga-gyeong became a spy because an earlier assassination plot had failed. The National Salvation Corps tried to kill Sato Shinichi (Jin Seon-kyu) but did not succeed. Sato Shinichi ordered the Corps wiped out, and the Government-General of Korea put out a wanted notice for Han Cheol-ryong (Kim In-gwon). Suzuki (Kim Do-hyun), an interpreter at the Government-General of Korea who had been spying for the Corps, was shot and wounded. The Corps needed a new source of information inside. Yoo So-ran proposed Lee Ga-gyeong, who was quick-witted, a skilled liar and good at English. Yoo Philip and other members voiced concern about sending her, but Yoo So-ran believed a passage to the United States could bring her in. The members drew up a plan to persuade her. Lee Ga-gyeong, who had wanted to go to the United States, was furious when she learned she had been used in that plan. Yoo So-ran then offered to send her there in exchange for infiltrating the Government-General of Korea as a spy. Lee Ga-gyeong struggled to accept a mission that meant risking her life, but she agreed to escape her desperate circumstances.

A bandaged ankle and a second planning meeting

Other stills show Lee Ga-gyeong and Sato Hideo away from the office, at a traditional Korean medicine clinic. Sato Hideo wraps a bandage around her ankle, and the two avoid each other's eyes. The stills' descriptions do not explain why they went or how she hurt her ankle. Since meeting again at the Government-General of Korea, the two have been bound by lies and suspicion. She answered his doubts with a false confession, and he pressed her on whether she was telling the truth. The producers said that as her spying intensifies, the series will deliver both the tension of an espionage drama and the flutter of romance.

In the same episode, Yoo So-ran and the Corps members begin a second planning meeting for the assassination of Sato Shinichi. Lee Ga-gyeong, who joined as the new spy, was abducted after passing on his schedule, and the members discuss the next operation. "Lee Ga-gyeong's spying will intensify, delivering the tension of an espionage drama and the flutter of romance," the producers said. "Not only will the unpredictable developments sweep in more strongly with each episode, but the changes in emotion of Lee Ga-gyeong and the people around her will also gradually be revealed."

'100 Days of Deception' airs on tvN every Saturday and Sunday at 9:10 p.m. Episode 4 is scheduled for the 18th at 9:10 p.m.

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