Pureum Home For Girls
In episode 4 of Juvenile Justice, Eun-Seok sentences Won-Sik to 200 hours community service and banning him from seeing Yu-Ri. Not only that, she also puts up a restraining order and reminds him that this can be changed or modified at any time. Oh, and she also tells him he needs alcoholism treatment too… which he needs to pay for himself.
Yu-Ri stands with Eun-Seok outside, crying as she questions just why she’s doing this for her.
After imparting some sage advice, including being respectful to elders and smiling without a reason, she leaves. Interestingly though, Eun-Seok receives a message from Yu-Ji later that evening, telling her she’s going to try and be good from now on. ..
Tae-Ju’s connection to the past comes from his father. He was arrested for attempted patricide, and after being released, worked incredibly hard to be part of the juvenile court.
Tae-Ju wants to make sure that other kids are as lucky as he is to escape the hell he was born into. However, he can’t even remember the man’s face.
After divulging these details to Eun-Seok during a drunken night at the Pojangmacha, Eun-Seok sets her boundaries and reminds him not to open up about his personal life again. She doesn’t want to do the same thing and ultimately tells him to keep things work-related. Anything personal just makes her uncomfortable. ..
Kang’s decision to join the National Assembly weighs heavily on his mind. He sentences a girl called Yeon-Ji to join the Pureum Home for Girls after fraudulently obtaining 60,000 won. Kang decides that he will offer a lenient punishment because of this.
This facility is run by a woman who is a star lecturer and a pretty big deal. She’s designed an effective program that helps rehabilitate these young ladies and get them back on their feet, away from crime. These sort of homes are generally family-run facilities, as they get very little government funding.
Kang tasks Tae-Ju and Eun-Seok with visiting the foster home as part of their duties as juvenile judges. Eun-Seok naturally starts researching, learning about Seon-Ja’s actual kids too. So essentially she’s looking after 10 kids by herself.
Yeong-Sil tells her friends that she has been receiving a troubling call from Pureum, which she relays to Eun-Seok and Tae-Ju. She fears for the safety of her children, and believes that there may be child abuse involved.
Tae-Ju refuses to cover up the news about Kang and Eun-Seok. He tells Kang that regardless if the claims are true or not, they have a duty to look into it.
Kang is distracted by the Assemblyman messaging though, taking him away from the center of the stage. He waves away his responsibilities and urges Eun-Seok and Tae-Ju to continue their investigation like normal. Eun-Seok points out that kids are impatient and sooner or later, they’ll open up. ..
The kids are interviewed, one at a time, where they reveal the horrors of Pureun. Yu-Gyeong feeds them spoiled food, beats them and even forces them all to clean her house and the neighbours’ too. If they don’t complete chores they get no food. And in fact, the abuse is so bad that one of the girls is actually in hospital. Her name is Yu-Gyeong.
The girls in Seon-Ja’s story are mischievous and disobedient, but there is also a side to their story that is more interesting. One of the girls, Seon-Ja, has a very different personality. She is not the type to be content with just sitting around and smoking cigarettes. She instead becomes frustrated when she can’t get her hands on any smokes. This leads to some shenanigans, as one of the girls breaks a bowl of rice on the floor after trying in vain to bargain for cigarettes from Seon-Ja.
The girls in question have been through a lot and have shown great resilience. They are not criminals and should not be held responsible for what happened to them. The work with the neighbours is an opportunity to show that these girls are not the problem, but have just been led down a bad path. The girls know that they can change their lives here and have tried to do so. As for Yu-Gyeong? Well, she was actually abused and beaten by the group of girls, but she did nothing wrong. Seon-Ja had no part of this.
Eun-Seok brings up the 50,000 won support fund and how the expenses show Seon-Ja has spent 4.5 million more than last year as a whole. But yet, none of the kids have gone on any excursions. ..
Special investigators are expected to show up at the Girls Home, and may even take away its licence. Before reporting this to Kang, Eun-Seok and Tae-Ju visit Yu-Gyeong in hospital. According to her, the extra money spent was actually for her surgery. ..
That night, Eun-Seok returns to Pureum, where she finds the place completely trashed. Seon-Ja collapsed after Eun-Seok left, rushed to the hospital.
Eun-Seok’s mother tells her daughters to leave the place after they smashed it up themselves.
Eun-Seok is surprised to hear that the person who called in the report of embezzlement was actually A-Reum.
The Episode Review
The new case, which is being investigated by the Juvenile Justice Department, focuses on a 15-year-old girl who was sentenced to life in prison for a crime she didn’t commit. The girl has been in and out of prison for the past few years, and her case has drawn the attention of the Juvenile Justice Department.
The conflicting reports from both Seon-Ja and the girls help to shed some light on how difficult it must be to actually run a center like this. Eun-Seok also learns late on just how much Seon-Ja has put into this center, placing it ahead of her own daughters and losing her husband in the process. ..
This story is interesting because it helps show and reinforce – like the whole season has to be honest – how there are two sides to every story.
With the girls on the run and the case unresolved, everything is left wide open for the next episode.
