Chapter 55 Summary, Analysis, and Key Takeaways

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary — Chapter 55

Chapter 55 opens with Ji-won in a dissociative, mechanical state. She stops at a gas station near her apartment to clean herself up, scrubbing dried blood and dirt from her skin in the bathroom sink. She makes repeated trips between the bathroom and her car, wiping bloodstains off the seats with paper towels and flushing the towels down the toilet. The work is physically demanding, but she finds a strange peace in it: she cannot undo what she has done, but she can at least erase every trace of it.

While cleaning the car floor, she discovers a single long golden hair, curled and nearly transparent. She picks it up and blows it out the window, watching it float away on the wind. The gesture triggers a memory of her sister Ji-hyun, who used to pick stray eyelashes off Ji-won's cheeks and tell her to make a wish — to wish for something big. Though the hair is not an eyelash, Ji-won closes her eyes and makes a wish anyway.

As she prepares to leave, the gas station attendant confronts her, rapping on her car door and demanding to know what she is doing. He accuses her of coming at all hours and doing strange things in the bathroom, and tells her not to return unless she is going to buy something. Ji-won flees, and in her rearview mirror she sees him standing with his arms crossed, watching to make sure she is really gone.

Instead of going home, Ji-won feels a restless energy and decides she wants to see Alexis. She takes the long way, driving past the bar where she picked up the man who is now dead and eyeless. She parks outside Alexis's apartment and hesitates, checking whether the light in Alexis's fifth-story window is on. It is off. She sits in her car, unsure what to do, then decides to call anyway.

Alexis answers, her voice thick with sleep. Ji-won tells her she is not okay and that she is parked outside. Alexis's light flicks on, she waves from the window, and she comes down to meet Ji-won. She has thrown a jacket over her pajamas, but the pattern underneath is visible: mistletoe. The absurdity of Christmas pajamas in June makes Ji-won burst into laughter, and the two share a moment of dark humor. Alexis jokingly threatens to murder Ji-won for waking her up, and Ji-won offers her neck, telling her to go ahead.

The mood shifts when Ji-won asks a hypothetical question: would Alexis still like her if she did something bad? Alexis grows solemn and asks what she means. Ji-won quickly backtracks, insisting she is speaking hypothetically. Alexis answers honestly: she wants to say yes, but it depends on what Ji-won did — if she killed someone, it would depend on whether that person deserved it. Alexis laughs, not noticing the tears springing to Ji-won's eyes. Ji-won blinks them back, tells Alexis she is just overwhelmed, and accepts a warm hug. She whispers for Alexis to go back to sleep and promises to call tomorrow.

Key Events

Ji-won cleans dried blood from her skin and scrubs bloodstains from her car seats at a gas station, flushing the paper towels down the toilet.
She finds a single golden hair on the car floor and blows it out the window, making a wish and recalling Ji-hyun's eyelash-wishing ritual.
The gas station attendant confronts her and tells her not to return unless she buys something.
Ji-won drives past the bar where she picked up the man who is now dead and eyeless, confirming the identity of her victim.
She calls Alexis in the middle of the night and waits outside her apartment.
Alexis comes down in Christmas pajamas with a mistletoe pattern, providing an absurd moment of levity.
Ji-won asks Alexis hypothetically whether she would still be her friend if she did something bad.
Alexis says it depends on whether the person deserved it, and Ji-won hides her tears.
Alexis hugs Ji-won, and Ji-won tells her to go back to sleep.

Character Development

Ji-won is in a state of emotional and psychological fragmentation throughout this chapter. Her mechanical, thoughtless cleaning suggests a dissociation from her actions — she is operating on autopilot, focused only on erasing evidence rather than processing what she has done. The peace she finds in scrubbing bloodstains is unsettling; it reveals a mind that has already accepted the crime and moved into damage control.

Her wish-making moment is significant. By blowing the golden hair out the window and making a wish, she is attempting to ritualize and release something that cannot be undone. The memory of Ji-hyun's eyelash ritual connects this moment to her sister, suggesting that Ji-won is reaching for comfort from a past relationship even as she stands alone in the present.

The encounter with Alexis shows Ji-won's desperate need for connection and her fear of judgment. She wants to confess — the hypothetical question is a veiled attempt to test Alexis's loyalty — but she cannot bring herself to say the words. When Alexis answers that it depends on whether the victim deserved it, Ji-won is left without the absolution she sought. The tears she blinks back reveal the gap between what she wants to hear and what she actually receives.

Alexis emerges as a loyal but imperfect friend. She comes down in the middle of the night without hesitation, jokes with Ji-won, and offers physical comfort. Yet her answer to the hypothetical question is honest rather than reassuring: she cannot promise unconditional loyalty. Her laughter at the moment Ji-won is crying shows that she is unaware of the gravity of the situation, making her comfort incomplete.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Erasing evidence is the dominant action of the chapter. Ji-won's obsessive scrubbing of blood from her skin and car seats mirrors her psychological attempt to erase the crime from her own memory. The flushing of paper towels is a literal disposal of guilt, but the stubborn spots she has to scrub suggest that some stains cannot be easily removed.

The golden hair functions as a symbol of the victim — a physical remnant of the person she killed. By blowing it out the window, Ji-won attempts to release it, but the act of making a wish over it is deeply ironic: she is wishing on the remains of her crime. The hair also connects to the eyelash ritual with Ji-hyun, linking death and sisterhood in a single image.

Wish-making appears as a motif. Ji-hyun's ritual of picking eyelashes and telling Ji-won to wish for something big is recalled at a moment when Ji-won is wishing for something she cannot articulate — perhaps forgiveness, perhaps escape, perhaps to be understood. The wish is made on a hair that is not an eyelash, suggesting that Ji-won is trying to force meaning onto a situation that has none.

Humor as coping is evident in the Christmas pajamas scene. Ji-won's laughter at the mistletoe pattern in June is a release of tension, a moment of absurdity that breaks through her despair. Alexis's joke about murdering Ji-won is darkly ironic given what Ji-won has actually done, and Ji-won's response — offering her neck — is a macabre acknowledgment of her guilt.

Fear of judgment drives the chapter's central conversation. Ji-won's hypothetical question is a test, and Alexis's conditional answer — it depends on whether the person deserved it — leaves Ji-won without certainty. The gas station attendant's suspicion adds another layer: Ji-won is now a person who draws scrutiny, and she must navigate a world that is beginning to look at her differently.

Why This Chapter Matters

Chapter 55 is a pivotal moment of aftermath. It shows Ji-won in the immediate wake of her crime, focused on practicalities rather than emotions. The chapter establishes that she has killed the man she picked up at the bar — the reference to her