A Shoulder To Cry On – K-Drama Episode 5 Recap & Review

 Not Passion, But Acceptance

Episode 5 of A Shoulder To Cry On continues where it left off, with Da-yeol dropping Tae-hyun home. Tae-hyun is still acting awkwardly after Da-yeol’s reassuring words about the accident. Da-yeol bids Tae-hyun farewell and leaves but notices that Tae-hyun has already gone inside his apartment when he turned to wave at him.

Inside his room, Tae-hyun gets a call from his adoptive father, who asks him about being in the ER. Tae-hyun brushes off the injury, and his father asks him if he would be there for his mother’s death anniversary. He responds by saying that he would not be welcomed by anyone and hangs up the phone.

Tae-hyun ends up feeling sick and throws up while still thinking how Da-yeol was the first person to tell him that he was not to be blamed for the accident. At his house, Da-yeol’s father is celebrating his archery win with a cake. Da-yeol is shocked at his father’s reaction. The next morning, Tae-hyun is still thinking about Da-yeol’s words.

Meanwhile, Da-yeol is curious about Tae-hyun’s absence from school and Min-jung’s absence from the practice session. The other archers are gossiping about Da-yeol being the person who caused Min-jung a shoulder injury. Later that night, Tae-hyun visits his adoptive mother’s tombstone and apologises for not seeing her often.

On his way out, his mother’s sister (his aunt) finds him there and lashes out at him for killing her sister. Tae-hyun asks the woman to stop putting her guilt on him because she was the one who caused Tae-hyun to run away from home in the first place. Tae-hyun breaks down and puts the blame on his aunt and asks her to leave him alone.

His adoptive father hugs Tae-hyun as the young boy breaks down. Tae-hyun confesses that he had started hating himself so much that he could not bring himself to like anyone. At home, Da-yeol is debating about texting Tae-hyun when he suddenly gets a text from him instead.

They end up texting for a bit and Da-yeol is about to confess that he is concerned about Tae-hyun. Tae-hyun interrupts Da-yeol’s text and claims that he would come back to school when his wound has healed. They chat for a bit and instead of sending a text to thank Da-yeol, Tae-hyun ends up telling his friend that he will see him next week.

Da-yeol looks at Tae-hyun’s profile photo before going to sleep. The next week, Tae-hyun is back at school and hanging out with Da-yeol when Won-kyung finds them. Da-yeol leaves just as Won-kyung joins them. Won-kyung is jealous that Tae-hyun was hanging out with Da-yeol and not him.

At archery practice, the juniors are still gossiping about Da-yeol. In class, Da-yeol and Tae-hyun end up sitting together and are punished for causing chaos in class. Tae-hyun claims that he hates that they won’t be allowed to sit together in the next class. During sports period and lunch, Tae-hyun and Da-yeol’s closeness makes So-yeong suspicious. She wonders how the two male friends are comfortably drinking from the same glass.

Later that day, Tae-hyun and Da-yeol are the only ones in class and Da-yeol ends up calling Tae-hyun cute for sleeping on the desk. However, Da-yeol is flummoxed when he learns that Tae-hyun was awake all along so he rushes outside the class.

So-yeong and Da-yeol are talking outside class when Won-kyung asks to talk to him about Tae-hyun. During their chat, Won-kyung tries to bully Da-yeol for brushing him aside and only talking to Tae-hyun when it was Tae-hyun who was mean to him all along. Won-kyung claims that Da-yeol has feelings for Tae-hyun which shocks Da-yeol.

However, So-yeong comes just in time to save Da-yeol. Da-yeol asks So-yeong to keep the incident a secret and leaves for archery practice. After practice, the coach give Da-yeol some advice about his recent distraction over the past few weeks. After school, Da-yeol and Tae-hyun are walking home when Tae-hyun asks about Da-yeol’s bad mood.

Da-yeol asks Tae-hyun to keep his lucky charm keychain as a safe keep leaving Tae-hyun shocked. Da-yeol comes home to find that his dad was out on a trip to Busan. Tae-hyun thinks about the keychain Da-yeol left with him.

Da-yeol had said that the keychain only consisted of fletches from good memories of his life as an archer and had asked Tae-hyun to hold on to it for him. With a new determination, Da-yeol now wants to perform well in the final match. The episode ends with Da-yeol at his district qualifiers match.

The Episode Review

Tae-hyun needed comfort and reassurance all his life in order for him to stop feeling guilty about an accident that ruined his and four other people’s life. I love how Tae-hyun finally confronts his adoptive aunt because she was gaslighting him over all these years and possibly drove him to behave like a sociopath.

I think this show, realistically, seems very rushed and the credit Tae-hyun gives to Da-yeol for his perspective shift seems a little overwhelming. With that being said, I have a feeling that Da-yeol could possibly get his heart broken in the next few episodes because Tae-hyun does not look like he is on the same page as Da-yeol about his feelings for the other.

Since there are only two episodes remaining in this show, it seems like we are being robbed because we just got started falling in love with these characters.