When the Phone Rings

November 22, 2024

Presidential spokesman Baek Sa-eon (Yoo Yeon-seok) and his wife Hong Hee-ju (Chae Soo-bin) have lived as polite strangers since their arranged marriage. She is mute; he prefers the distance. Then she is kidnapped.

November 23, 2024

The kidnapper calls — and demands to speak only to the mute woman's husband. Sa-eon, forced to communicate with someone he has barely acknowledged, discovers she has far more to say than he assumed.

November 30, 2024

Hee-ju communicates through writing, expression, and increasingly — through actions that Sa-eon has to learn to read. The drama's communication dynamic is its most inventive element.

December 6, 2024

Sa-eon begins to trust her instincts over his own. A role reversal neither expected.

December 14, 2024

Sa-eon learns to read Hee-ju's communication fully. The drama's central intimacy — two people learning each other's language — reaches its warmest point.

December 21, 2024

Sa-eon and Hee-ju work as genuine partners for the first time. What began as a forced pairing has become something real.

December 28, 2024

Sa-eon, who has never called his wife by name, does so for the first time. The drama treats this as the declaration it is.

January 3, 2025

A final phone call from the original kidnapper — now clearly a pawn in something larger. The drama's thriller elements reach their climax.

January 4, 2025

The conspiracy is exposed. The cost is high for everyone involved.