The Sound Of Magic – K-Drama Episode 3 Recap & Review

Merry-Go-Round

Episode 3 of The Sound of Magic begins with Ah-Yi realizing Il-Deung is being deadly serious about his proposition. This is well and truly in the realm of testing Ah-Yi’s morals, given how badly she needs money.

Although Ah0Yi is on the fence when she finds out Yoo-Yi has an upcoming field trip, it convinces her to cave. Given her sister is the most important part of Ah-yi’s life, she bites the bullet and agrees to take the fall, with Il-Deung offering up the cool sum of 500,000 won.

Ha-Na sees them exchanging money but believes the pair are actually holding hands and dating, which just makes things all the more awkward. The midterm exams are handed round and the students all begin filling out their answer sheet. It’s something that affects Ah-Yi’s character, as she tries to justify what she’s done.

That night, she heads to the theme park, where Ri-Eul is there to greet her. He suggests they turn on the merry-go-round. As he says the special words “Anna Summanara”, they both ride the carousel together. The horses inexplicably fly off and magically blast through Seoul, as we’re graced with another musical number to accompany this. Anyone else getting Aladdin vibes from this?

While she bounces around a proposition from Ri-Eul, Ah-Yi strikes up a long-term deal with Il-Deung. In exchange for large sums of money, Ah-Yi agrees to do his project work.

Meanwhile, the situation involving Ha-Yoon’s disappearance continues. The police are stumped and unsure what happened to her but are remaining on the hunt to try and find some clues.

Speaking of disappearing, Ah-Yi disappears into the theme park and agrees to be taught magic from Ri-Eul. As he teaches her the rules of misdirection, Ri-Eul admits that the real magic is her smile rather than the tricks. As he teaches her the different tricks, Il-Deung happens to be watching, and begins to feel jealous. Realizing she’s not doing this for the money, it leads him to believe it’s actually love.

After her lesson, Il-Deung shows up to confront Ri-Eul about what he’s doing. He turns it around though and questions Il-Deung over what he may be hiding. He points out his scar across his shoulder and that the path he’s on is cold and perilous, something that’s exacerbated by a musical number he gets involved in. Interestingly though, Il-Deung also receives an invitation in his pocket that night.

Il-Deung questions Ah-Yi about what she knows about the magician. He’s shocked when he finds out she knows nothing about him and has just blindly jumped into this.

Il-Deung suggests she find out more, pointing out that it could be dangerous. That afternoon, Ah-Yi asks Ri-Eul for his name, but he replies “For now, Ri-Eul.” Ah-Yi’s curiosity continues, as she ends up spotting a strange woman wearing yellow there. Could this be Ha-Yoon?

Either way though, Il-Deung and Ah-yi both show up at the theme park after-hours and agree to be taught magic by this magician. Il-Deung is sceptical and clearly a little jealous but the run-in with him before has certainly piqued his interest.

By the end, Il-Deung is clapping along (reservedly, mind you) with Ah-Yi. After, he even breaks off the agreement the pair have as well, starting to get back to being friends again.

Remember the situation involving Ha-Yoon? Well, it takes on a sinister turn later on in the episode. Police officers learn that there have been four banners regarding Ha-Yoon’s disappearance destroyed so far.

One of the incidents has been caught on camera with a man wearing magician gear. He takes a pair of scissors and absolutely destroys it. Sound familiar? Yep, it seems to be Ri-Eul’s doing. They even have camera footage of him around the area Ha-Yoon disappeared too.

Il-Deung’s mother has called the dean and pointed out that large amounts of money have been going missing from their son’s account. Unfortunately, the deal Il-Deung and Ah-Yi have been conducting outside has been filmed and as a result, Ah-Yi is in hot water.

The Episode Review

The blend of societal issues, high school problems and magic serves up an enticing cocktail that actually works surprising well in this K-drama. There’s certainly a lot to like with this one and the ending involving Ah-Yi, being found out by the dean regarding what’s happened with Il-Deung, looks like it’s about to completely destroy her reputation.

There’s a really interesting ebb and flow to this series now, with equal emphasis on Il-Deung’s plight alongside Ah-Yi. That’s quite the surprise too, given how much we focused on Ah-Yi early on. There’s a nice chemistry brewing between the two, despite the slightly cliched misunderstanding trope.

Will Ah-Yi manage to save herself from what’s happening? Or is she doomed to fail? How will Ri-Eung play into this? And what happened to Ha-Yoon? I’m sure we’ll find out in the coming episodes!