'Notes From The Last Row' Ending Explained: Why Did Kang Destroy Mun-oh?

Notes from the Last Row’s ending was all about Professor Mun-oh learning the authentic aspects of the tall tales that his student and prodigy, Kang, had told him as a part of his mission to get revenge. Kang was a student of Mun-oh’s English class who impressed him with his writing prowess and compelled Mun-oh to mentor him. As per the narrative he told via his daily assignments, he had become obsessed with a boy named Se-yun. Under the garb of helping him with his computer coding, he became a part of his family. Documenting Se-yun’s family life gave him plenty of writing material, which seemed quite voyeuristic from the get-go, but then Kang began to notice that Se-yun’s father was supposedly having an affair with the housekeeper. After that the housekeeper died and was apparently killed by the dad. At that point, both Mun-oh and Kang knew that a line had been crossed and it was time for the latter to bail out of that family because it was dangerous for him to stay there. However, once Mun-oh learnt that the father in question was his nemesis, Su-hun, which meant that his wife was his college crush, Eun-joo, he compelled Kang to continue living with them. Kang, through his daily assignments, scripted this tale where Su-hun had plagiarized housekeeper Min-hui’s dead sister’s (Eun-hui) book. When Min-hui tried to expose that fact, Su-hun killed her.  Se-yun had allegedly witnessed that and wanted to put his father in jail. Jeong-hu, Su-hun’s daughter and a published writer, learnt about this and told Se-yun to keep a lid on it because if Su-hun’s reputation went up in flames, hers would as well. That said, Eun-joo and Se-yun couldn’t let Min-hui’s death go in vain, and they joined hands to take down Su-hun. Unable to tolerate his family’s righteous behavior, as per Kang, Su-hun had murdered Se-yun, was about to kill Eun-joo, and burn his house. After listening to that, Mun-oh rushed to Eun-joo’s rescue only to learn that everyone was alive and fine. So, which parts of Kang’s story was true? Why did Kang tell Mun-oh such an elaborate lie? And did Mun-oh deserve the punishment he got? Let’s find out.

Spoiler Alert

Hyeon-suk Left Mun-oh

After realizing that Kang had duped him, Mun-oh returned home and saw him exiting the apartment building. He went after him but Kang was too fast and he evaded capture. When Mun-oh went up to his flat, he found out that his wife, Hyeon-suk, had packed her bags and was leaving him. Why? Because Mun-oh never really loved Hyeon-suk. His true love was Eun-joo and the one and only novel he had ever written was centered around her. Hyeon-suk did everything to keep his morale up but Mun-oh never reciprocated her feelings. They didn’t even sleep in the same bedroom crying out loud. It’s possible that since Hyeon-suk had problems getting pregnant, Mun-oh didn’t feel that she was worth his attention. Maybe that was one of the reasons why he never saw her as his companion, but it’s evident that the main reason why Mun-oh never embraced Hyeon-suk was because of his desire to be with Eun-joo. And that divide was exacerbated by Mun-oh’s obsession with Hyeon-suk and Su-hun. Now, you could say that Kang was instrumental in Mun-oh and Hyeon-suk’s divorce. However, I see him as a catalyst. If Kang hadn’t entered Mun-oh and Hyeon-suk’s life, it’s possible that Hyeon-suk would have continued her duties as Mun-oh’s wife till her dying days. 

Deep down, Hyeon-suk knew that she deserved more. She wanted to be loved by someone who saw her as the beautiful, kind, and intelligent human being that she was. Kang merely gave her that push and Hyeon-suk accepted that nudge. Mun-oh had no quality that would make me at least say that Hyeon-suk should have given him another chance. He absolutely deserved to be ditched; to be honest, he should have been ditched several years ago since their marriage was anyway running on fumes. Which brings us to the whole “Kang and Hyeon-suk getting intimate” part of the subplot. It’s totally possible that, as we saw in Notes from the Last Row, Hyeon-suk and Kang did have a romantic entanglement; that led to some kind of sexually-charged awakening in Hyeon-suk, and she decided to leave Mun-oh in search of greener pastures. There’s also a distinct possibility that nothing romantic happened between Kang and Hyeon-suk, and all those moments of intimacy were merely figments of Mun-oh’s imagination because that was the only way he could process everything that was happening with him. He couldn’t think of any other reason but lust that could have brought 2 people together after being wronged by him. Hyeon-suk knew that, which was why she let him imagine what might have happened between her and Kang instead of giving him any kind of closure. That said, was the alleged romance with Hyeon-suk, and getting her to divorce Mun-oh, the sole motivation for Kang’s revenge plan? No.

Mun-oh Was Fired

Soon after Hyeon-suk left Mun-oh, he learnt that Kang had framed him anonymously, via his university’s student’s forum, for making him write a defamatory story about Su-hun, bribing him when he called out his sick intentions, and then forcefully claiming his work. All of those things are true. Mun-oh did tell Kang to paint Su-hun and his family in a negative light. When it comes to bribing Kang, you can say that he made Mun-oh steal the questions for the computer coding exam in exchange for being his mentee. But after making that proposal, Kang walked away from this whole deal and Mun-oh could have used that opportunity to stay focused on his life. But his obsession with Su-hun and Eun-joo compelled him to bribe Kang. As for the plagiarism part, despite learning that Kang had gone away to take care of his “father” (he was actually the manager of the orphanage that Kang was from), he kept harping on about finishing the story that’d prove that Su-hun was a killer. He had no respect for Kang’s feelings; he just wanted the conclusion that would prove that Su-hun was worse than him and hence had no right to judge Mun-oh’s writing. 

Mun-oh got so desperate that he urged Kang to write something that he hadn’t actually witnessed with his own two eyes (technically everything that Kang said was a lie but you get the point); he gave Kang the creative liberty to treat Su-hun as a monster. Since Kang was a little tied up, as his “father” was ill and hospitalized, he gave Mun-oh the permission to write the final chapters of the story that he had scripted so far and bring it to a satisfying close. Now, what Mun-oh could have done in that situation was that he could have written the manuscript and put Kang’s name on it. I mean, he dreamt about Kang getting the Literary Debut Award and dedicating the prize to him. He could have remembered that and given Kang the credit for coming up with such an inventive, fictional tale. However, he was so desperate to get a second novel to his name that he claimed that he was the author of the in-universe book, Notes from the Last Row. He hadn’t published it or announced to the public that that was gonna be his new novel or anything, but the mere act of writing his name on that manuscript brought Kang to the realization that Mun-oh was truly irredeemable. That was why Kang decided to nuke Mun-oh’s reputation via that anonymous post, which eventually got him fired from his job. Did Kang craft this revenge saga to prove that Mun-oh was a grade-A Su-hun hater and a plagiarist though? No.

Kang’s 12-Year-Long Revenge Plan

When Mun-oh had hit rock bottom, Kang sent him one last story; this time it was the real one. So, 12 years ago, Mun-oh and Hyeon-suk went to an orphanage as a part of the latter’s degree. One of the kids present there was Kang. Mun-oh took a liking to Kang because of his irreverent attitude and taught him how to tell his own story with the help of fictional elements, which was so cathartic for Kang that he cried for the first time after his parents’ deaths. Kang liked Mun-oh too and wanted to become his mentee from that young age. But, as Mun-oh and Hyeon-suk were leaving, Kang overheard the former saying that his “sob story” was cliche and didn’t really stand out amongst all the sob stories in existence. On that day, Kang vowed to take revenge against Mun-oh for insulting him and his parents’ tragedy so frivolously. Now, everything from Kang choosing Se-yun as his target because he was the son of Mun-ho’s nemesis and his college crush to him gaining access to Se-yun’s house were true. Everything after that was completely fictional. Nobody called Min-hui died, Su-hun didn’t plagiarize anybody’s writing, and Su-hun’s family wasn’t in any kind of danger. The reason why Mun-oh wanted all that to be true was because he didn’t think he deserved the criticism he got from Su-hun all those years ago. 

To digest the fact that Su-hun was not only a much more successful writer than him, but had also married the love of Mun-oh’s life, Mun-oh constantly imagined Su-hun as this hack writer who didn’t deserve Eun-joo’s love; Kang merely fed those delusions to teach Mun-oh a lesson that he had no right to be critical of anyone when he himself was no good. Sure, Mun-oh had technical knowledge, he knew the difference between realistic and fictional writing, plot structure, plot twists, and more. However, when those storytelling tools were used against, he was oblivious to it because he was way too detached from reality and way too immersed in this fiction that he was about to be his beloved Eun-joo’s knight in shining armor. When Mun-oh was finally exposed to the truth, he had no choice but to laugh at his own misery. Had he accepted Su-hun’s advice all those decades ago, maybe he would’ve been a successful writer. Or maybe he would have come to terms with the fact that he was destined to be a literature teacher, not a famous writer. There’s nothing wrong with that because kingmakers are as important as kings. However, Mun-oh’s lack of talent and high levels of ego kept him from understanding this simple fact. Did Kang’s eye-opening revenge saga have a positive effect on Mun-oh? I don’t know.

Kang Reunited With Mun-oh

In Notes from the Last Row’s ending, it was revealed that Mun-oh was working as a librarian. Kang showed up there to buy or return a copy of Faust (I suppose the one written by Goethe). But he was really there to ask Mun-oh to help him publish his story. Mun-oh wondered which story Kang was talking about. Kang didn’t give an answer; he just smirked as the show cut to the credits. What does this exchange mean? I think Kang is there to see if Mun-oh has learnt anything from the ordeal he put him through. Kang probably won’t consider his revenge saga to be worthless if Mun-oh showed no signs of change. At the same time, he was interested to see how his actions have altered Mun-oh’s psyche. Much like Goethe, Kang had dedicated a major chunk of his life to scripting his revenge on Mun-oh. So, in a way, it was understandable that he returned to Mun-oh to see if he had changed for the better. Now, I have a feeling that Kang was the same to Mun-oh what the crossroads Devil was to Faust. Kang’s proposal could be a boon or a bane. Mun-oh might remember what he had just learned about playing to one’s strengths, reject Kang’s offer, continue working as a librarian while writing his second novel in his free time. That way Mun-oh would have no chance of being tricked by Kang again. 

If Mun-oh accepted the deal, there was a good chance that Kang would trick Mun-oh into making a fool of himself one more time. What’s the possibility of Kang genuinely helping Mun-oh repair his reputation by playing an integral part in the publishing of his book? Almost zero. Would I like to see that happen? Yeah, absolutely. I don’t know if the show will be greenlit for a second season. Hence, I am happy imagining Kang and Mun-oh locked in an eternal battle, with Mun-oh endlessly trying to gain the upper hand against Kang. Because the thing about egotistical people is that they never really learn. They might surrender for the time being but some part of them always yearns to surpass their competition. Many might interpret that as an anti-ambitious message, but that’s not the case at all. Everyone should reach for the stars; no doubts about that. That said, we should also partake in some self-assessment and decide if this self-imposed mission is truly worth it or not. Striving for greatness is amazing but knowing when to stop and cherishing what we have achieved is equally important. That’s what I feel is the moral of this story. If you have any alternative thoughts, let me know in the comments section below.

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