'The Trunk' Recap And Ending Explained: Did In-ji and Jeong-won End Up Together?

It’s rather strange how human relationships are governed by a number of dialectical ideas—despite being social creatures, we must also accept that we are fundamentally alone. We need others for our emotional well-being and quantify their connection with us but remain unmindful whether their comfort rests with ours. We are too eager to seek validation but too stubborn to reflect on our shortcomings. When you take these issues into consideration, the premise of Kim Kyu-tae’s romantic-thriller series, The Trunk, doesn’t seem that far-fetched, which takes the notion of ‘marriage is a social contract’ to a whole new level. 

The Trunk is not the first to introduce the concept of conjugal relationships being treated as purely transactional, but the way it goes to great lengths to explore the inevitable emotional dependency by creating an entanglement of ‘real’ and ‘fake’ relations is unique. While the chemistry between the leads and the melodramatic elements keep viewers engaged through eight lengthy one-hour-long episodes, the murder mystery subplot shoehorned into the series didn’t really matter in the narrative, in my opinion.

Spoilers Ahead

Traumatic Memories and Broken Relations 

Han Jeong-won, a successful music producer, finds himself in a strange conundrum as his ex-wife, Seo-yeon, presents him with an odd ultimatum in order for her to return to his life: he must spend a year in an illegal contract marriage with Noh In-ji, an employee of a secretive matchmaking service offered by a company named NM (New Marriage). Jeong-won is unwilling to go through the ordeal, but in his desperation to get together with his wife, whom he has known and cared for since a long, long time ago, he is willing to do whatever it takes. Jeong-won is afflicted by a crippling separation anxiety due to his rough childhood; when he was a kid, he had to witness his abusive father putting his mother through a world of pain, resulting in her psyche getting broken through the years, which eventually culminated in her committing suicide in front of her son. It is understandable why Jeong-won is hopelessly attached to Seo-yeon, even though she appears to hate his guts and has found herself a husband in Ji-o, that too through NM. The name of the series actually refers to the trunk that every NM employee has, where they keep the secretive marital contracts and communication details and connection with the company itself. 

Years ago, Seo-yeon and Jeong-won had lost their unborn child as Seo-yeon had met with a horrid accident, and Jeong-won had wanted to prioritize saving the life of their child instead of his wife—a decision that created a permanent rift between the two. The truth of the incident isn’t so simple, though, as an eight-month pregnant Seo-yeon, who was exasperated by pre-natal anxiety and stress, couldn’t bear the totally contrasting, overjoyed reaction in her husband anticipating the birth of their child and had deliberately stepped out into traffic to kill herself and the child. Jeong-won, who was eager to prove himself to be a better father than his own ever was, chose his child over his wife, and the guilt made him feel that he owed his life to Seo-yeon. On the other hand, for Noh In-ji, who is the most successful employee of her company and has completed her fourth marriage contract in the span of just five years, the one-year tenure with Jeong-won was supposed to be just another assignment. In-ji knows how to keep herself consciously detached from the trappings of emotional investment, as she herself has suffered in matters of the heart as well. In-ji’s fiancé, Do-ha, had left her ten days before their wedding day after a private video of him cheating with someone else was leaked, which revealed his bisexuality, and it ended up ruining his reputation, personal life, and career. The most troubling part for In-ji is that her own mother was responsible for destroying the life of the man she loved, as she had leaked the clip, and to this day, she has held on to the hope that Do-ha will return. After Do-ha’s abandonment, In-ji was in a terrible state, and to cope with the loss, she resorted to seeking a career opportunity with NM. In-ji has spent five years tending to Do-ha’s apartment, eagerly awaiting his arrival and using her contacts in NM to search for him. 

In-ji has a dark past that she tries to move on from desperately but hasn’t been able to. Tae-seong, a defense instructor in NM, turned out to be In-ji’s psychopathic obsessive stalker, who had provided her mother with the means to ruin Do-ha’s life. Like a nemesis, Tae-seong has relentlessly pursued In-ji; unable to cope with her rejection, he had killed one of NM’s employees in public right in front of her eyes to prove the point that she would never be able to get rid of him. Tae-seong’s actions got him institutionalized in a mental asylum, and during the present timeline of the series, he has been released and is once again trying to find ways to get close to In-ji and ruin her life. 

An Unlikely Relationship

During the initial phase of his ‘fake’ marital life with In-ji, Jeong-won remains unapproachable, cold, and irrationally rude towards her; he has accepted the deal out of compulsion, but In-ji is no one to him. Seo-yeon, who was a control freak even before getting into a relationship with Jeong-won, derives a sick sense of pleasure by tormenting her ex-husband, knowing how miserably emotionally dependent he is upon her. After the death of his mother, Jeong-won had resorted to addiction, and Seo-yeon continued to supply him drugs to see him galloping down the path of self-destruction. In the beginning, In-ji simply performed her job as a dutiful, ideal wife, without getting emotionally attached to anything—but soon enough, she started to empathize with Jeong-won’s condition and found common ground with him over his parental woes. In-ji could see through Seo-yeon’s manipulative, emotionally abusive behaviors, which kept Jeong-won trapped in the shackles of his mind, and she decided to help him break free from her toxic influence. Seo-yeon’s nature was actually much more devious in the sense that all three of them somewhat knew each other by face since their college years, and Seo-yeon was aware that In-ji and Jeong-won had a brief connection. After knowing that In-ji worked for NM, Seo-yeon deliberately chose her to be paired with Seo-yeon to further torment him, as she was too confident that her ex-husband would never get over her and would continue to blame himself if the thought of moving on came across his mind. However, Seo-yeon became frustrated after realizing that Jeong-won was starting to live a happy life with In-ji by his side, and her wounded ego made her vindictive with each passing day. Funny thing is, Seo-yeon and her NM-provided husband, Ji-o, had a good thing going for them, with the latter even falling for her—but she continued to ignore her chance for a peaceful life to make Seo-yeon’s life miserable. She had secretly installed a camera in the chandelier in Jeong-won’s house to spy on him and In-ji, mirroring the actions of Jeong-won’s father, who did the same to spy on his mother. In-ji learns about this, but fearing it may hurt Jeong-won too much, chooses not to share the truth with him for now. 

Gradually, In-ji and Jeong-won connected with each other, and emotional entanglements inevitably made their way into their so-called fake relationship. Realizing that she was losing her grip over Jeong-won, Seo-yeon became desperate to undermine In-ji, going so far that she even asked her to break off her marriage with Jeong-won. However, Jeong-won had completely fallen for her at this point, and In-ji too had started growing feelings for him—which is why she couldn’t bear seeing him get hurt by the toxic presence of his ex-wife any longer. This resulted in a number of clashes between Jeong-won’s former and present wives, and their occasional fisticuffs turned out to be a hilarious sight to behold. Anyway, despite all this, at the same time, In-ji couldn’t acknowledge her feelings for Jeong-won for two reasons: she still hoped for Do-ha’s return, and she feared emotional entanglement would once again end up messing things up for both her and Jeong-won.

Did In-ji reunite with Do-ha?

In the meantime, Tae-seong returned to In-ji’s life, and right off the bat, he locked horns with Seo-yeon for picking a fight with In-ji and started antagonizing Jeong-won at the same time. He couldn’t bear anyone else being with In-ji and wanted to force her into accepting him. After a while, Do-ha made his temporary return as well and quickly scared off Tae-seong after threatening him and arranged a meeting with In-ji. As it turns out, even before his abandonment, his relationship with In-ji had hit a rough patch, as In-ji’s domineering presence was gradually becoming too much for Do-ha to bear. Although none of them would have wanted things to end like this, Do-ha surely doesn’t want to return to his old life ever again. In-ji was trying to escape from this truth by hopping onto fake relationships assigned by NM and living in the fantasy that everything would be fixed with Do-ha’s return. As Do-ha leaves In-ji for good this time, she experiences a cathartic release of emotions, and to some extent, she is prepared to accept her feelings for Jeong-won. In-ji quit her job at NM, as she had hoped to get together with Jeong-won for real this time after the end of their contract. 

On the other hand, Jeong-won is appalled by Seo-yeon’s hideous machinations after learning that she was spying on him and also realizes In-ji didn’t share the truth with him to spare him the misery. Jeong-won finally gets over Seo-yeon after learning the extent of his vindictiveness, and even though later on Seo-yeon tries to force him back into her life by attempting suicide by overdosing, Jeong-won makes it quite clear that he lacks any feelings or emotions towards her. Seo-yeon loses her relationship with Ji-o in the process as she had decided to end their fake marriage and realizes too late that he genuinely loved her. 

Who Killed Tae-seong?

As I mentioned previously, the murder mystery plot felt kind of unnecessary and half-baked in the context of the narrative, especially when you consider the fact that the mystery became uninteresting the moment Tae-seong turned out to be the victim. In the lake In-ji used to frequent for kayaking in solitude, Tae-seong’s body is recovered along with a trunk—the likes of which belong to NM employees. Almost every one of the major characters had beef with Tae-seong, and it is revealed that he tried to blackmail In-ji, threatening to expose her secrets after obtaining her trunk from Jeong-won’s mansion. The confidential information stored in the trunk would not only put In-ji in jeopardy, it would also malign Jeong-won’s reputation and put NM in harm’s way. At this point, In-ji had started considering herself to be the problem, as anyone close to her ended up getting hurt, broken, or worse. In-ji had lost one of her closest friends during her college years and blamed herself for not being there for her. After separating with Do-ha, she feared she would end up hurting Jeong-won as well, which is why she broke off any connection she had with Jeong-won, real or otherwise, and decided to confront Tae-seong on her own. 

However, approaching Tae-seong near the lake, she realized the trunk, which was identical to her own, actually belonged to Seo-yeon, which contained dresses and gifts for her unborn child. In-ji tried to stall Tae-seong to keep him from opening the trunk, and in his anger, the vicious rascal ended up inviting Jeong-won to the location to torment him by threatening In-ji’s life. Jeong-won had brought In-ji’s handgun with him, which In-ji then fired at a fleeing Tae-seong with before turning the gun on herself, but it didn’t have actual bullets to begin with. As Tae-seong was escaping on a motor float tube with the trunk, he was actually pursued by Ji-o, who was assigned by NM to take care of this particular nuisance. Along with In-ji, Ji-o too had witnessed Tae-seong murder one of their colleagues—but back then he was unable to stop the crime as he lacked confidence. Getting a chance to get even, Ji-o didn’t think twice about piercing Tae-seong’s heart with a fencing rapier, sending him to a watery grave. He later confessed his actions to Seo-yeon, and as he was caught by the authorities as the prime suspect, Seo-yeon decided to extend their contract and use her influence to help Ji-o in the legal battle. She had finally realized that Ji-o was the one for her since the beginning, and she was a fool to ignore him all this while. 

Will In-ji and Jeong-won End Up Together?

One would think that after all this, In-ji and Jeong-won will finally end up together—but that’s not how things usually work in K-dramas. From her experiences in the past and present, In-ji has become aware of the inevitable repercussions of emotional attachments, and she knows no matter how much life might feel like a bed of roses at this point with Jeong-won, lies, deceit, and ugliness will inevitably find their way into their relationship sooner or later. The persons we feel closest to almost always turn out to be the reason for our deepest sorrows, and unlike her relations in NM, In-ji couldn’t just shrug off heartbreaks when it came to situations where emotions are involved. But still, she couldn’t turn her back on Jeong-won completely; he had begun to love her with all he had, and despite trying to put up a cold front, In-ji knew pretty well how painful it was for her to keep her feelings in check. She decided to give their relationship another chance if they have chance encounters, at least twice afterwards. Before leaving Jeong-won, In-ji helps him to heal from his childhood trauma as she encourages him to leave the mansion made by his father, which holds a number of sordid memories that tormented Jeong-won for a long time. 

After a certain span of time, both Jeong-won and In-ji have moved on with their lives. Jeong-won is living in an apartment with his cats, making music for the kind of horror movies that In-ji liked, and even though they don’t have any means to communicate with each other or know their whereabouts, the horror flicks turn out to be a connection as In-ji makes sure she watches those flicks that Jeong-won has worked on. With her retirement money from NM, In-ji lives happily with her dog, and even though both these lovebirds miss each other, they still appreciate their solitude. On one occasion, just like it happens with classic romance narratives, the duo have a chance encounter, and their faces express everything they wanted to share with each other in an instant. As they wait for a repeat of such a meeting for a second time to keep the promise they made with each other, viewers wonder whether life will eventually bring them back together soon enough. Or fate will perhaps deal a cruel hand which will make them regret their initial decisions for a lifetime? 

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