My Lovely Liar K-drama: Everything we know about Kim Do-ha’s supposed murder story

Kim Do-ha (Hwang Min-hyun) made his career as a music producer by hiding his face from the public. My Lovely Liar has a chilling mystery as Do-ha’s past includes a murder that he believes he committed, forcing him to conceal his identity.

The tvN K-drama has a fun storyline as Mok Sol-hee (Kim So-hyun) has a unique gift to hear when people are lying. She soon meets the mysterious and masked Do-ha. He is the first person to never lie to her, and they begin to develop feelings. But behind the seemingly quiet and talented producer, is a murder mystery.

Do-ha is haunted by his past as fans learn he was a murder suspect in the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend. While not implicated in the murder, her brother seeks revenge against him. Sol-hee hears her first lie from Do-ha when having a nightmare, he says he didn’t kill her.

So far, My Lovely Liar has teased bits and pieces of what could have happened to Do-ha and the supposed murder. Here is a breakdown of what we know so far.

Do-ha’s murder mystery happened before he became a producer in My Lovely Liar

Fans first see a glimpse of Do-ha’s murder story in My Lovely Liar in 2018, when Sol-hee comes back from a job late at night.

Sol-hee is driving back home when she sees a male walking on the side of the road. The first episode makes clear that this takes place in 2018, years before the current storyline. She is enthused to see a fellow soccer fan in the middle of nowhere. The scene shows Do-ha wearing a soccer jersey, but in his hand is a blooded white button-up shirt.

The following day, Sol-hee runs onto a bus to Seoul trying to escape a thug. At the same time, a distressed man enters the bus and confronts Do-ha. He shows Do-ha his phone with a text message and says his little sister, Eom-ji, texted him saying she wanted to kill herself and he cannot get a hold of her. Do-ha makes it clear they broke up and he never cheated on her. The K-drama then time jumps to 2023.

In a nightmare, fans see Do-ha dreaming of a beach and his hands covered in blood before he wakes up. In Episode 2, he meets his mother who seems to know about his past and urges him to wear more than a mask. Eom-ji’s brother is still looking for her and is detained due to impersonating an officer.

This is when fans learn that Eom-ji’s case was closed and police never found her body. He believes Do-ha is the perp. When Detective Lee Kang-nim (Seo Ji-hoon) looks at the case file, we know it took place at Hakcheon Beach and was filed as a missing persons case.

My Lovely Liar shows flashbacks of what happened to Eom-ji

In Episode 4, Do-ha is buying at the local market when someone touches his shoulder. It sends him into a flashback of three men ambushing him at the market. They saw his picture as a person of interest in the supposed murder case and beat him. Later in the My Lovely Liar episode, fans get more details about Do-ha and the supposed murder.

When Syaon spirals into her obsession with Do-ha, she goes to a beach and calls him. She implies she would rather die than no longer work with him. It sends Do-ha into chaos as it triggers his past. Fans see in a flashback that Do-ha was trying to stop Eom-ji from drowning in the ocean at a beach. When Do-ha arrives to stop Syaon, he sees her sandals in the sand.

Another flashback revealed Do-ha in an interrogation room being shown a photo of Eom-ji’s bloodied sandals at the beach. Later on, Do-ha is having a nightmare and fans learn even more.

His nightmare revealed a detective interrogating him asked why he changed his statement after confessing he killed Eom-ji. The flashback showed Do-ha wearing a red jersey with bloodied hands. Blood is seen dripping onto Eom-ji’s sandals, her falling onto Do-ha, and Do-ha holding a bloodied piece of glass.

Did Do-ha murder Eom-ji in My Lovely Liar?

My Lovely Liar is showing bits of Do-ha’s past and the supposed murder of Eom-ji, with him being the culprit, but details in Episode 8 reveal he wasn’t a killer.

The episode began with fans learning Do-ha met Eom-ji in high school, under his real name Kim Seung-joo. It then moves ahead when Do-ha visits Eom-mi at a beachside location and says he has to leave to go to class in the morning. But fans will notice that Eom-ji looks possessive when she throws his keys into the ocean and says he can’t go because he will never come back.

In Episode 7, Syaon revealed she knew how to add salt to Do-ha’s wounds to make him pay attention to her. Hence her stunt at the beach. Based on what fans have already seen, it may be that Eom-ji purposely harmed herself instead of living without Do-ha.

My Lovely Liar Episode 8 proved Do-ha did not murder Eom-ji. He is seen at the beach walking away, likely after breaking up with her. She screams that she would rather die than not have him. She then used a piece of glass to harm herself. Do-ha used the white shirt he was wearing over his jersey to stop the bleeding. Frustrated by Eom-ji, he yells at her that if she was that desperate to die, she should.

Fans can speculate that the reason why Do-ha says he didn’t kill her rings as a lie to Sol-hee is because he believes he inadvertently killed Eom-ji. He likely feels guilty about what he said to her. In hindsight, it is true that Do-ha did not physically kill her. But what happened to Eom-ji’s body? The episode revealed Do-ha has no idea or is his mother involved.

You can read more K-drama explainers like Mask Girl here, and learn about upcoming K-dramas like A good Day to Be a Dog here.