A Time Called You – K-drama Episode 9 Recap & Review

[trigger warning – suicide]

The Time Loop

Episode 9 of A Time Called You begins with Jun-hee telling Yeon-jun about Do-hyeon and he is mad on her behalf. She says her first love was a boy in 1998 who gave her rice snacks and protected her from bullies. Yeon-jun remembers the incident but is indignant with her when she says it was because of that boy she dated Do-hyeon.

He is suddenly excited that now he can pursue her and she says in his dreams. He is not discouraged and gives her a birthday gift. She sees that it is a pair of earrings and smiles.

In-gyu visits Min-ju’s grave with flowers. It cuts to him crying over her dead body and begging her to wake up. He later finds that Grandmother has a terminal illness and gets angry at Scarred Guy for not telling him. She says she told Si-heon to keep it a secret as it is anyway too late and they cry.

At uni, Jun-hee is surprised that Yeon-jun is popular among all the girls and thinks this is why he hits on everyone including her. Na-eun tells her he doesn’t hit on anyone and even told Ji-yeon, the popular girl, that he’s waiting for his destiny.

Later, Jun-hee walks in on him listening to ‘Gather My Tears’ and he says she is his first love. She gets flustered and runs off. In the next few days, he’s always around and helpful but doesn’t pester her. She wears his earrings and he is pleased. One night, she tells him not to be formal around her and he is excited to finally call her by her name.

One day, she falls sick and he goes as far as to visit her at home as he is worried. She faints and he takes her to the hospital. She wakes up but before he can get the nurse, she asks him to stay. He dotes on her and she says he should remember the date as they are now dating. He is overjoyed and she finds his excitement endearing.

In 2006, Grandmother passes away and the boys break down. Scarred Guy is the only one beside In-gyu as he goes through the funeral. They drink and In-gyu reminisces about the time Si-heon covered for him when he broke an expensive liquor bottle. Back then he had taken an oath that he would do the same for Si-heon till the day they die.

He then says he is moving away and when Scarred Guy asks where, he says Seoul offhandedly. After he puts Scarred Guy to sleep, he thinks about a Christmas with Si-heon and Jun-hee. They decorate the record shop and watch the snowfall.

Scarred Guy wakes up to see In-gyu missing. He remembers Chi-won saying that In-gyu died in 2006 at the same spot Min-ju died. He rushes to the location and sees In-gyu but before he can stop him, In-gyu jumps. 

As for the couple, Jun-hee hasn’t fully recovered and Yeon-jun looks after her. She plays around with his sweater and gets embarrassed when he catches her. She tries to play it off but he smiles. They kiss and then it cuts to 2023.

She tears up and hugs Scarred Guy. She takes him home and they recall their time moving in together. He tells her he wanted to change fate but realised it was all predetermined. She figures he knew he was going to die in the plane crash.

At the airport in 2022, a man approaches Scarred Guy when he was still Yeon-jun. The man is Si-heon, he is older, scarred and has a cane. Older Si-heon says Yeon-jun will get on the plane, the real Yeon-jun’s body will die and the current 2022 Si-heon’s soul will travel back to 2002 to his real but scarred and comatose body.

He will wake up and that version is the Scarred Guy we know. Older Si-heon begs him not to board but Yeon-jun realises if he doesn’t die, Jun-hee will never travel back in time to 1998. They deduce that they are stuck in a time loop where he has to die for them to meet.

Yeon-jun gets on the flight, dies and travels back to 6 weeks after his bus accident in 2002. He is now the Scarred Guy we have been seeing since episode 1. He is in the hospital and learns how to walk again and hence gets a cane for life.

But the hard part is not approaching Jun-hee cause it isn’t the right time. So, he spends his time investigating Min-ju’s murder. She was murdered with glass 2 months after Da-hyeon’s murder.

Scarred Guy was pessimistic that they are stuck but he tells Jun-hee something shocking happened. 

In a flashback, we see it is his turn to take on the role of Older Si-heon and warn the next time loop’s Yeon-jun. But this Yeon-jun gives him his phone and the engagement ring. He says he is choosing to die so that they can meet and fall in love with Jun-hee. And now it is Scarred Guy’s turn to go to her.

He tells her that it turns out that all this time, all the Yeon-juns getting on the plane and doing it because they loved Jun-hee were doing it out of their own free will. He puts on the engagement ring and apologises for being late. She apologises for picking a fight before her flight and they kiss. It cuts to a flashback to their first kiss in uni while she wears his hoodie.

The Episode Review

Episode 9 of A Time Called You is a sort of parallel. Jun-hee kept finding similarities between Si-heon and her ‘Yeon-jun’ and now we see it in action with the way he rejects Ji-yeon and acts like he has known Jun-hee all her life. By the way, the scene of In-gyu spending Christmas with Jun-hee and Si-heon may be his imagination. It is impossible for Jun-hee or Min-ju to be around for Christmas since she is killed in October.

And wait, we were joking about the Dark-level confusion but it seems that may be the case. Our Scarred Guy’s (let’s just call him Scarred Si-heon now) new plan may be to try to stop all the bad events from happening in the first place by changing the catalyst – Min-ju’s murder. If she doesn’t die, In-gyu doesn’t go to jail.

Does this mean the previous Scarred Si-heons have been staying away from Jun-hee? But then what is the point that turns into the repetitive time loop? Does he never meet with Jun-hee after she time travels and confronts Chi-won in 2023?

By the way, they could have at least made Scarred Si-heon look older since he is in his real body which is 43 years old in 2023. If 43-year-old Ahn Hyo-seop looks that good, none of us will have a chance when we are middle-aged.

Well maybe from the story’s point of view, it helps with the suspense since we couldn’t figure out who Scarred Guy was but we would have had a clue if he looked really old. Guess Scarred Si-heon telling In-gyu that he was in a car crash was a continuity error.