Lovely Runner – K-drama Episode 7 Recap & Review

The Day of The Accident 

In episode 7 of Lovely Runner, we revisit the day of the accident before Im Sol’s time-travel journey. On that particular night, Im Sol fell asleep on the bus and missed her stop. Sun-jae was hesitant to wake her, but In-hyuk, our resident cupid, advised him to wake her up and walk her home to help Sun-jae spend time with his crush.

Unfortunately, Im Sol woke up at the next stop and got off the bus, while Sun-jae stayed behind to pick up the stuff that had fallen out of his bag. By the time he realised that Im Sol had gotten off the bus, it was already on the move.

It started raining, and Im Sol considered taking a taxi. However, she saw the cab driver had a rope and another questionable thing inside his car, so she pretended her mom was picking her up. Sadly, this didn’t deter the driver, and he forcefully drugged and kidnapped her. In the meantime, Sun-jae used his bag as a cover and rushed to the stop Im-sol was at. He didn’t see her and assumed she took a cab.

Meanwhile, Im Sol woke up and got a chance to escape since the driver had gone inside his house. She used a razor she found inside the car and freed herself. Im Sol took off running, and the driver followed her behind in his car. As she neared the reservoir, she saw Sun-jae running towards her. The driver accelerated and hit Im Sol, and she fell into the water.

As expected, Sunjae dived in to save her, but the driver circled back and attacked him. An intense fight ensued, and Sun-jae held the driver down until the police got there.

Presently, Sun-jae finds Im Sol’s yellow umbrella on the road and realises something is wrong. He rushes to her place and Im Geum says she is gone. Im-geum notes that Im Sol was acting weird and was refusing to leave the house that day. Sun-jae recalls the day he saved Im sol at the reservoir. She was able to remember more of what happened to her.

However, Im Geum says his sister has never had an accident. Sun-jae remembers that Im Sol always talked about having vivid dreams like him getting injured while swimming. He runs to the reservoir, but she isn’t there. He goes to report to the police, but they don’t take him seriously. The police think he is another paranoid person, just like Im Sol, who insisted she would be in danger on a specific date. After hearing this, Sun-jae returns to the reservoir.

This time, Im Sol’s memory helps her escape from the car, and she remembers to take the car keys. Unfortunately, the cab driver pursues her in his truck. Sun-jae spots Im Sol running and falling. He calls out to her just when she is about to be hit.

In that moment, Im Sol was ready to give in to fate. Thankfully, another car pulls up in front of her, and the perpetrator changes his intention and drives off. The watch on Im Sol’s hand glitches, and the number switches from 2 to 1. Before fainting, she fails to recognise Sun-jae

The next thing we know, Im Sol is in the Joseon era, or so we thought. Thankfully, she is only shooting a K-drama scene. In this new future, she is working for the film company that rejected her before. Sun-jae is alive and thriving as a star. Im Sol’s company has been trying to get him to accept their offer to headline their series. She returns to the future on the day she and Sun-jae had promised to open the time capsule. Unfortunately, she gets there late and misses Sun-jae, who unearths the time capsule and takes it home. 

Nonetheless, Im Sol is grateful that Sun-jae is alive and thinks her plan worked. She heads to his place and watches his house from afar. At the same time, a stalker dressed in the same white fir coat as Im Sol tries to get into Sun-jae’s apartment. The lady takes off, and security chases after her. She runs into Im Sol and drops her poster. The security guards mistake Im Sol for the stalker and take her to the police station.

At the police station, Im Sol tries to explain that she is innocent, but no one believes her. She causes even more drama when the police inform her that Sun-jae won’t sue. The police let her go with a stern warning, and she heads home. In this reality, she is no longer an Eclipse fan and has no merch in her room. She also doesn’t have the time-travelling watch.

Im Sol is also having nightmares of something terrible happening to Sun-jae. On the brighter side, she at least owns a car. The only thing that hasn’t changed in this reality is her grandmother’s sickness.

The next day, Im Sol excitedly prepares for work. However, her boss is not too happy with her. She heard about the misunderstanding with the stalker and believes Sun-jae turned their offer down because of the misunderstanding. She gives Im Sol a chance to meet Sun-jae and clear up the misunderstanding.

On the other hand, Sun-jae and his team think the stalker got into the film industry to stalk her idols. He has no idea that Im Sol is the mistaken stalker. On the day of their meeting. I Sol gets a call from Hyun-woo informing her she is about to give birth and needs her.

Im Sol rushes out of the hotel and accidentally pushes Sun-jae into a fountain. Sun-jae doesn’t get a chance to see her face, and neither does she. She gives his manager her contact card and hurriedly leaves. The manager identifies her as the stalker, and Sun-jae asks him to request the lady to pay for his ruined clothes.

When Im Sol gets to the hospital, she is shocked to learn Hyun-woo is having her second baby with Im-geum. This is the third silver lining in this reality. Later, Im Sol gets a message from Sun-jae’s manager informing her of the cost of the clothes. She is stunned by the amount and texts back asking for proof.

Sun-jae sees the message and responds. Initially, he was going to drop the issue until Im Sol subtly suggested he might be a scammer. Out of spite, he takes a picture of his clothes. He is about to send it when his manager stops him. Im Sol takes his silence as a sign of victory, but Sun-jae asks his manager to sue her. 

As the misunderstanding escalates, Im Sol’s boss asks her to back off from the project. The police also call her and have her sign a restraining order. It is at the police station that she learns that Sun-jae’s end-of-year concert was postponed and is happening that day.

She sets off to make things right and tries to get access to the concert. After her first trial fails, she calls Sun-jae’s manager and asks to be allowed to apologise personally. Sun-jae sends the manager to meet with Im Sol and inform her of the impending legal suit. In turn, Im Sol gives the manager a bouquet and insists that they call Sun-jae by her name.

By the time the manager gets back, Sun-jae is already on standby. The manager leaves the flowers and contact card in Sun-jae’s dressing room. Meanwhile, Im-sol waits outside and gets emotional hearing Sun-jae singing the 

She fears that history will repeat itself and decides to go to the bridge where Sun-jae spotted her and helped her. She is conflicted as she doesn’t want him to show up, but at the same time, she wants to see him. She is about to give up when Sun-jae shows up. He is glad to meet her as it has been awhile. However, the manager keeps asking him to leave as they are running late for the after-party. In desperation, Im Sol asks Sun-jae to spend the night with her. 

The Episode Review

Lovely Runner continues to surprise us with new twists every day. In one moment, we thought Im Sol had travelled to the Joseon era. That would have been a fun yet horrible fate because we know she would most likely end up in the famous torture chair of the Joseon era.

Episode 7 sees Im Sol change her fate and those of her loved ones. However, she is no longer close to Sun-jae, and we can’t help but wonder why. Im-gum touched on this at the hospital but didn’t explain. Why did Im Sol chase Sung-jae away? We also suspect that the watch transports Im Sol to the future every time she changes something in the past.

Im Sol only has one chance left if she wants to change the future. Even though she is satisfied with the current reality, will something happen and force her to use the last chance? The nightmares might be a warning that danger is lurking on the corner.

We have many questions, but we hope that the remaining nine episodes will answer them. We are mostly curious about how Grandma remembers both realities and what Tae-sung is up to.