We open with an interview-style introduction on LEE EUN-BI (Kim So-hyun), a second-year in high school who explains her contradictory feelings about school sheepishly: She doesn't like going, but not going makes her nervous. And if she weren't able to go, she'd want to.
Eun-bi lives in the southern province of Gyeongsamnam-do, in the city of Tongyeong. She works multiple part-time jobs and aspires to be a teacher-one who understands her students, their lies, and what they're hiding.
Eun-bi has a cheerful way of speaking, but once we join her at school, the reason for her answers becomes clear, because she's the target of some vicious bullying.
Case in point: A girl, So-young, is led by her friends to the special "birthday present" they've prepared for her. They've cornered Eun-bi and proceed to make a "birthday cake" of her, flinging eggs, flour, and fish sauce over her head. So-young and her posse laugh maliciously while Eun-bi chokes back tears.
She has to dress in her gym clothes for the rest of school, and everybody makes a big show of recoiling at her stink from the fish sauce. Her teacher pulls her aside to ask why she's always in gym clothes and whether she's being bothered, but doesn't press when Eun-bi lies that nobody's doing anything.
So she's left completely adrift while everyone gawks and laughs at her openly, enjoying her misery.
Her home life is more pleasant, and her bright personality is allowed to show through as she acts as de facto mother hen at the orphanage, Love's House, where she's spent most of her life. She's the eldest and makes the kiddos eat their vegetables and is lovingly naggy.
Eun-bi notices ripped clothing in the wash and checks on one of the other girls, Ra-jin, who's hiding a large bruise on her side. She lies that she just fell while playing with the other kids, but Eun-bi gently pries the story out of her-and then marches over to the home of the boy who did this to her.
The bully's mother dismisses Eun-bi huffily, but Eun-bi stands up to her boldly, unwilling to be turned aside. She doesn't accept the "they were just playing" excuse, pointing out that both sides ought to be having fun for that to qualify. She refuses to leave until Ra-jin gets an apology and a promise not to pick on her again, and they get it.
As they leave, Eun-bi urges Ra-jin to speak up when things like this happen, and to assert herself so the bully recognizes she won't just be pushed around. Ra-jin, who already looks up to Eun-bi as her shining role model, thanks her and says, "Unni, you're a present God gave me in place of a mother."
Eun-bi receives a gift in the mail, from a woman who appears to have been sending her gifts for some time. This note is signed with the name Song Mi-kyung and says that she bought a sweatshirt for Eun-bi while she was out buying one for her own daughter.
The orphanage director wonders at this generous benefactor, and Eun-bi marvels at how perfectly the gifts fit her size and her taste.
It's not so much a mystery to us, though, when we cut to Seoul to meet GO EUN-BYUL, who looks exactly like Eun-bi-and her mother's name is Song Mi-kyung.
The two have a healthy, affectionate relationship, and Eun-byul good-naturedly groans at her mother's overzealous packing for her upcoming school trip to a famous temple that'll have them in Tongyeong for four days. But interestingly, when Mom sees the matching sweatshirt in Eun-byul's suitcase, she doesn't recognize it-it's Eun-byul who must have sent it down using her mother's name. Hm, so she knows she has a twin?
Unlike her twin, Eun-byul is stylish and popular at school, and has an inner circle of friends with two girls, Song-joo and Shi-jin. She's extra-tight with Song-joo; the two have matched their outfits to a tee, and third wheel Shi-jin looks a little wistful to be left out.
