As You Stood By Episode 1 recap: Eun-su's shocking plan to protect Hui-su

Netflix's K-drama, As You Stood By, premiered on November 7, 2025, and revolves around complex female characters who have to stand up against the abuse either they or their loved ones were subjected to. It presented the story of Eun-su, a VIP department store employee, who has grown up watching her father abuse her mother, leaving her traumatised.

His traumatic past returns when she visits her mother and finds out about her still being abused. However, she is not the only victim around her as she meets another woman going through the same pain, and fails to save her. She also learns about her best friend, Hui-su, being in an abusive marriage, and when she discovers her attempting s*icide, she makes a shocking decision to kill Hui-su's husband, Noh Jin-pyo.

Here's what happened in As You Stood By Episode 1.

As You Stood By Episode 1 recap: Eun-su follows a customer who stole from the department store

Episode 1 of As You Stood By opens with Hui-su cancelling her lunch with Eun-su in the mall where the latter works in a VIP department store, even though she was in the same mall. However, Eun-su had to attend to a customer named Jin So-baek, who ended up stealing the diamond watch that was shown to him.

After learning about him being the thief, Eun-su goes to the Chinese market where he works to get the watch back. After bugging him all day for the watch, So-baek reveals he borrowed it for a business venture that has now failed and returns the watch to her. However, Eun-su notices that the strap of the watch had a scratch and again asks him to pay for it.

They later end up drinking together and playing Mahjong.

As You Stood By Episode 1 recap: Eun-su is surrounded by abuse victims

In Episode 1 of As You Stood By, we also get a look into Eun-su's traumatic childhood, where she encountered her mother being physically abused by her father. In her department store, she attends to a customer named Mrs. Kang, who has been beaten by her husband and is left with harrowing scars all over her body. Mrs. Kang asks Eun-su for help. However, she fails to do so.

In the same episode, she also visits her family for her mother's birthday and finds out that her mother is still being abused by her father. When she confronts her father and tries to report him, he tells her that the police do not care about domestic violence cases.

Her failure to protect any of the victims angers her, which she tries to vent off during her jiu-jitsu class. But due to trying to push herself beyond her limit, she gets banned from the gym.

She also learns that her own best friend, Hui-su, who used to be a successful children's book author, was also in an abusive marriage where her husband physically abuses her.

As You Stood By Episode 1 recap: Eun-su makes a shocking plan to protect Hui-su

While trying to deal with Mrs. Kang's and her mother's situation in Episode 1 of As You Stood By, Eun-su meets Hui-su's husband, who comes to teh store to buy jewellery for his wife as a surprise. However, Eun-su knows that her best friend does not like surprises and finds the situation confusing.

Through several flashbacks, it is shown how traumatic Eun-su's life has been due to the domestic violence around her, from which she tries to protect her brother. The flashbacks also show how Hui-su helped her during the tough times in her life.

At present, during a meal with So-baek, Eun-su learns about Mrs. Kan jumping in front of her husband's car and calls her mother and Hui-su to check whether they are alright. While her mother picks up her call and informs her she is fine, Hui-su doesn't pick up, resulting in Eun-su going to her house.

She arrives on time and stops Hui-su from attempting s*icide and tells her that they will kill her husband to protect Hui-su's life.

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