The episode begins with the scene of Quan and Thuong going to the hospital when they hear that Mrs. Dung (Quan's mother) fainted and had to be taken to the emergency room due to exhaustion and anxiety disorders.
Although very worried and wanting to take this opportunity to take care of her to score points with her boyfriend's mother, Thuong quickly experienced a feeling of suffocation. That loneliness was pushed up when Quan's father took the initiative to make a private appointment with her at a coffee shop.
Without loudly forbidding or scolding, he used gentle but very profound words to subtly remind the poor girl about the class gap. He was heartbroken but also firmly affirmed: "The blood and flesh cannot ever be separated.
Quan may be angry and run away from home, but hearing the news of his mother like that, he rushed home immediately." That gentle reminder was enough for Thuong to clearly recognize her boundaries with Quan's family.
The peak of the tragedy came when Mrs. Dung, in extreme agitation because she saw Quan and Thuong still together, disregarded her health and knelt down, desperately begging: "I beg you, please let go of my son, please let go of my family". Mrs. Dung complained that Thuong had turned her son into an argumentator, "considering his mother as an outsider".
Even though Quan panicked and tried to hold on and protect his love: "What's wrong with us loving each other like that, Mom?", the pressure from the family has now become too heavy a burden for both of their love.
In another development, boss Dung was also stripped of the right to operate the "Heritage Road" project due to private scandals surrounding the divorce. Management rights fell into My Linh's hands, which was also when Trang began to taste difficulties when she was constantly squeezed by her new boss. However, amidst many obstacles in her work, Trang still cleverly took the opportunity to "flirt" back and forth with boss Dung.
Returning to Thuong, after the inner struggles from the subtle reminder of Quan's father and when she saw Mrs. Dung kneeling and praying. Standing in front of a dead end, she questioned her bitter maturity: "Pain will only pass from one form to another. If we know how to let go, it will help us grow up. It will only be a small scar that fades over the years.
The most heartbreaking part is when Thuong proactively asked her younger sister to put on very careful makeup and choked up saying: "I want to be beautiful in his eyes".
Episode 18 closes with a big question, is Thuong's abandonment a liberation or a silent pain?
