Dear sweet Jin's dad asked Sun NOT to reveal the truth (Sun knows Jin's dad is alive). Jin's dad (such an honorable man) was deeply hurt when he found out Jin told Sun "my father's dead"...due to the shame factor.

If I remember correctly, Jin NEVER told Sun his father was a fisherman did he? I'm trying to piece together some of the puzzle and I remember Sun screaming at Jin (after Jin thought Sun was deceptive about having children) "yeah, I wanted to trap a fisherman's son".

If I'm correct, Sun revealed at that point she knew Jin's secret (Jin was hiding his fisherman past/poor upbringing) - probably one of the reasons the Jin-Sun marraige was strained.

Am I on the right track or did I miss something?

Didn't Jin tell Mr. Paik that he was the son of a fisherman before bringing up the lie that his father was dead?

Jin told Paik that he was from a fishing village in In Translation, and then he told him that his father was dead. I assume he didn't want anyone going there and seeing for themselves.

How did Sun break her promise to Jin's father? He asked her not to tell him his mother was still alive, and not to say that she had met with him. When did Sun tell Jin either of these things?

Dear sweet Jin's dad asked Sun NOT to reveal the truth (Sun knows Jin's dad is alive). Jin's dad (such an honorable man) was deeply hurt when he found out Jin told Sun "my father's dead"...due to the shame factor.

If I remember correctly, Jin NEVER told Sun his father was a fisherman did he? I'm trying to piece together some of the puzzle and I remember Sun screaming at Jin (after Jin thought Sun was deceptive about having children) "yeah, I wanted to trap a fisherman's son".

If I'm correct, Sun revealed at that point she knew Jin's secret (Jin was hiding his fisherman past/poor upbringing) - probably one of the reasons the Jin-Sun marraige was strained.

Am I on the right track or did I miss something?

IMO, the reason their marriage was strained was the vicious circle of deception that surrounded them even before they met.

Sun grew up "pretending" about her father. As did Jin. In Jin's case, add the fact that he believed his mother to be dead and didn't know that his father wasn't even sure he was his father.

Once married, Sun learns about Jin's mother, and she asks her father for money. Her father gives her the money, but lets her know that Jin will repay it.

To this point (I assume out of compassion for his daughter. As far as he knew, she didn't know about him, therefore he didn't drag Jin into his business) Sun's father employed Jin as a simple floor manager. Jin was happy with that, and Sun was happy with Jin.

But Sun didn't trust Jin to be able to handle the truth. She felt the need to protect him, for his own good. She would pay the woman off. In coming up with the money, she let her father know she was not a fragile flower requiring protection from reality. She was every bit as tough as him. She could face reality and slap it back if need be.

But she got caught. Jin found the money.

This was her last chance, but she still didn't trust that Jin could cope with the same things she was coping with without dying. Jin found the money ... and she lied. She got the money from her father ... for the apartment. Jin tells her he will provide for her ... but what has she told Jin?

She has unwittingly told Jin that even though she knows he is a fisherman's son and that he is only employed as a floor manager, and even though she says to him that he is enough ... that she still needs the money. She has said that she wants the trappings that money can buy. Of course, she didn't say these words, but she told him the money was for the apartment. How else was he to interpret this? Sun is doing what she thinks Jin needs, because she loves Jin, madly.

Now ... her father will make Jin repay the debt, by working for him. And Jin will accept. Why? Because this new job (even though it is against everything he believes in, everything that makes him Jin) will pay the kind of money he thinks Sun needs and wants, and he loves Sun, madly.

How differently would things have been for them, had they only been honest with one another? Had they only thought enough of one another to each believe the other capable of handling the truth? Had they not thought so little of one another that they each believed the other to be weak and fragile and in need of protection?

She already knew that his father was a fisherman. When his mother sits beside her and threatens her she says what would people say if they knew you were married to the sun of a fisherman. Sun already knew.