49 Days: Episode 15

by girlfriday

Go, go, Drama, go! Things heat up all around, as loyalties get tested and jealousies flare up. And you know how I feel about jealousy and posturing and KANG-AH. Need I say more?

 
EPISODE 15 RECAP

Min-ho goes up to the counter and calls Yi-kyung by her name (only it’s not Ji-hyun in there) and she calmly responds, “Yes, Kang Min-ho-sshi?” It surprises him, but not as much as it startles her, and an instant later, Yi-kyung’s eyes dart back and forth, wondering where that came from, and why she knows this man.

He asks her what she’s doing here and if she recognizes him, but she tells him to go and turns around before she gives anything else away. Min-ho doesn’t look like he’s going to let it go, but luckily, Dr. Noh walks in just in time.

He calls Yi-kyung by name, and can see that she’s disturbed, so he sends Min-ho away. Whew. But it’s not enough to shake Min-ho’s doubts, as he thinks to himself, “Who is that woman? Is it Shin Ji-hyun? Song Yi-kyung?”

I like how fast people are catching on (because it keeps the drama fresh), but damn if the people in this world aren’t illogically quick to jump to supernatural conclusions. I mean, I like my sci-fi, but if someone doesn’t recognize me, my next thought isn’t, they must be possessed by mutant zombie ghosts!. I know what you’re thinking: when the zombie apocalypse hits, I won’t be long for this world.

Once Min-ho leaves, Yi-kyung sits down with Dr. Noh, who asks if she knows that man. She shakes her head no, and then nods her head yes—she doesn’t know him, and yet she knew his name, and could feel that he was bad news.

Dr. Noh then asks if she remembers seeing him yesterday. Nope. He tells her that she didn’t recognize him, and looked different too. He concludes that she likely has multiple personality disorder, brought on by her trauma. Well finally, somebody comes to a logical conclusion. Not that it’s right, mind you. But if you’re not at least exploring the possibility of split personality BEFORE ghost possession, I’m not gonna take you seriously.

She tells him that it’s not some made-up personality; and it’s not a ghost either. She tells him that she can feel this other person living with her, and caring for her, worrying for her. Aw. “It’s the first time, since then… the feeling that someone is genuinely concerned for me.”

She finally recounts her origin story: she was abandoned at an orphanage at the age of five, and never even knew her real name. Yi-soo, who had been there since infancy, came and told her she’d be called Song Yi-kyung (naming her after himself, by giving her the same surname and beginning of his given name), and gave her chocolate.

“Yi-soo took away the pain of being abandoned by my mother. Like siblings, like an oppa, like a friend, we were together for eighteen years. That Yi-soo… abandoned me.” Just then, we see the Scheduler standing there by the table, listening to their conversation.

Scheduler: “I… abandoned you?”

Yi-kyung: And then he died. I wasn’t ready to let him go. There were things I wanted to say. Something I needed to ask him. But Yi-soo left. Being abandoned my mom, I was able to forget that because of Yi-soo. But after being abandoned by Yi-soo… I can’t trust anyone anymore… because I’m someone that nobody wants.

Yi-soo finds that he’s crying. He wipes a tear away and wonders what this is. (He’s not used to being subject to pesky human emotions.) He scoffs in bewilderment: “Tears…”

Dr. Noh asks if she hasn’t considered moving (Ha—got a ghost? Move!) but she says that despite being scared, she can sense that this woman (Ji-hyun) is earnest and sincere. The doc is worried, but he leaves for now, and Min-ho follows him out. Heh, it’s stalker-on-stalker.

At home, Ji-hyun worries that Dr. Noh might’ve said something about running into her last night, and notices that she’s feeling really weak all of a sudden. Uh-oh. Hope it’s not a side effect of people getting close to the truth.

Min-ho goes home to find In-jung waiting outside, and she anxiously asks him if he checked to see if it’s really Ji-hyun in Yi-kyng’s body. He yells that it’s not, and that it was a ridiculous idea in the first place. Seems like he’s trying to convince himself as much as anything. In-jung isn’t satisfied, but he dismisses her and goes in.

Once alone, he betrays more confusion than he let on. Looking at his engagement photo, he says over and over, “It doesn’t make sense.”

Ji-hyun waits nervously, and when Yi-kyung comes home, she asks her to please go to sleep early for her today, because it’s the day of her dad’s surgery. Perhaps Yi-kyung can sense what she means (I don’t think she’s straight-up hearing her) but she goes to bed right away.

Ji-hyun comes bounding out, only to run into Kang, who’s there to take her to the hospital. He of course says it in his totally unsubtle roundabout way, telling her that she ought to accompany him because he’ll be bored otherwise, and that they should go see him early before other people get there, because she shouldn’t be overstepping like she usually does, crying all over the place; it’s not like she’s their daughter or anything. Heh. Elephant in a tutu this guy. But So. Cute.

He adds that In-jung could also blurt out that she’s dating Ji-hyun’s fiancé, out of spite. She says that she’s NOT dating Kang Min-ho. He fires back, “That pretending to date, then… I wish you’d hurry and cut it out.” Swoon.

He takes her to the hospital to visit Dad before surgery, and he’s touched that Ji-hyun has such loyal friends. Aw. He asks her to visit often when Ji-hyun wakes up, and to keep Mom company too (implication: if I’m not around to do so).

Ji-hyun asks if she can hug him, and she does, patting him on the back and surprising him in a gesture of warmth. Aw, I’m not gonna cry. I’m not gonna cry…

She runs out to the hallway before the tears come tumbling out. Kang tries to comfort her, practically yelling at her to stop crying, and tells her that he’ll keep watch over Dad’s surgery.

Min-ho walks up behind them just in time to see her crying buckets, and Kang putting his hand on her shoulder. His jealousy flares up, and he makes it abundantly clear. Min-ho: “Why are you here, with my woman?”

That just makes Kang’s jealousy spark in return, and they start to butt heads over who should be here right now and with whom. Seriously, two dogs could not be this territorial. Seeing that it’s going to cause problems, Ji-hyun goes to Min-ho and puts her hand on his arm.

She asks to go with him, and Min-ho makes sure to put his arm around her, just to make it clear who’s won. Kang bites his tongue knowing why she’s doing this, but it still kills him. With his fist clenched, he watches them go and says, “I might go crazy.”

He wonders to himself what on earth she’s trying to find out from him, and how much longer she has to keep putting on this act. What you’re REALLY wondering is how much skinship’s goin’ on, amiright?

Ji-hyun arrives at Heaven to find Manager Oh arguing with his wife, who’s still upset that he won’t tell her what he’s up to these days, with all his secret conversations with Kang and cryptic questions about how to prove your sincerity.

He snaps that it’s the anniversary of Kang’s mother’s death, and that despite requesting in her living will that it not be observed, there are still things to prepare. Ji-hyun thinks to herself: “It’s the anniversary of his mother’s death, and yet Han Kang is watching over my father.”

Time for the boys to go into battle mode. Kang meets with a friend who’s done some digging into the Haemido project, and tells him that there’s definitely something fishy with the cost at which they bought the land. He speculates that there’s a separate account where money is being siphoned. If only they could get some evidence…

At the same time, Min-ho meets with the waiter from Kang’s restaurant. He baits him with money to pay off the rest of school, and then a job with him when he graduates. He just needs him to prove his loyalty first…

Back at the hospital, Kang makes the offhanded comment that In-jung plays her part well, and she asks why he hasn’t told Ji-hyun’s parents about her and Min-ho. He just says that they’ve got enough to deal with right now. Yes, but… remember the will? No one’s caring about that anymore?

On her way back into the hospital, Ji-hyun runs into a strange man who does a double take as he walks past her. It turns out what he notices is her tear necklace, because he’s got one too, only his is empty. Taken aback, she asks if he’s a 49er too.

He’s down to his last day without a single tear, and asks curiously how she managed to get a tear. He also provides some insight into her physical state, saying that with 13 days left, she must be feeling weak in her spirit state. He tells her that it just gets harder every day, and that it’s going to get increasingly difficult to pop in and out of the host body.

He wonders if he’ll have enough time to see his family one last time before he has to go, and Ji-hyun puts some money in his hand, and tells him to wash up before going to see them. Aw, I love her bleeding heart softie side. Or, I guess that’s really her only side, but it’s so HER.

He looks at her gratefully, and says that the 49 days are really cruel. I suppose it’s cruel if you’ve got nothing but regret at the end of it. In-jung sees this from a distance, and tries to bribe the man for information about Yi-kyung, but no dice.

Dad’s made it out of surgery okay, but he needs to wake up before they can rest assured. Kang runs out to tell Ji-hyun the good news. He suggests they go back and keep watch, but she says that they should pay their respects to his mom.

He sets up the memorial with wine by her piano. (In a non-traditional manner, per her wishes, but it’s still customary to offer alcohol—’cause Koreans like our likker, even in the afterlife.)

Kang tells her that his mom didn’t leave behind a single picture; just this piano, that she used to play after a glass of wine. He finally opens up about her, how his father used to travel back and forth to the States for work, and how she opened this wine bar. He hated it, thinking that his mother was selling her smiles and was divorcing his dad because she had met someone else.

He says that it never occurred to him that she might have been lonely. Then all of a sudden one day she moved them down to Jinan, and told him that she needed him by her side. He rebelled and never once treated her well or looked her in the eye.

As a tear falls, Kang tells her that she was dying of cancer, and he never knew. He confesses that her last memory of him must be one full of regret for ever having him. Ji-hyun cries and puts her hand on his, and tells him that if she left the piano, it means that she left him everything that was valuable to her.

He lets her comfort him, and even cracks a smile at her gurgling stomach. From outside, we see that they have an audience, as Min-ho looks on angrily. We flash back to when he had followed Dr. Noh that night, at which point the DOCTOR told him what Yi-kyung said about being possessed by a spirit. Um… okay, this is like the second time you’ve just spilled someone else’s beans, and I’m beginning to think you got your medical license on the internet. www.getmedcreds.com?

In-jung walks up and sees him watching the lovebirds angrily, and ’round and ’round we go on the wheel of jealousy.

Kang makes Ji-hyun some pasta, and over dinner she asks him what he meant when he said that he owed Shin Ji-hyun. He cheekily says she ought to know if she’s Ji-hyun’s friend, but she thinks that Ji-hyun doesn’t know.

He tells her that he’d bought a plane ticket to America, to run away, but then as soon as they arrived in Jinan, he sprained his ankle because of Ji-hyun, and was forced to stay. Then when his mother had made him birthday soup and he’d thrown a tantrum, she forced him to eat it—something he’s grateful for to this day, because if it weren’t for her, his mom would’ve died and he’d never have once eaten her birthday soup. Aw.

She’s surprised by his reaction, only remembering what a brat he’d been that day. Still, she says that it’s not really anything to be indebted to someone for. He adds that the last thing is that he feels bad for never having the chance to apologize and make things right with her before they both left Jinan.

He tells her that they had fought over nothing, but then he’d lost the chance to say that he was sorry. And then he takes her bracelet out of his pocket, and hands it to her. “Give this to Shin Ji-hyun. You’re her friend, right?”

Oh, you SLY FOX. Han Kang, are you getting smarter? Look at you, using your knowledge to sneak-attack some romance at her. Ngaw!

Ji-hyun stares down at the bracelet as she takes it in her hand. She flashes back to that day when she had seen him throw the tantrum over birthday soup, when she introduced herself to Mom and promised to make him eat it.

Afterwards, she went back to return the lunchbox dishes to her at home, and Kang’s mother was pleasantly surprised that Ji-hyun could curb her stubborn son. She took that bracelet off her own wrist and put in on Ji-hyun, saying that she doesn’t have a daughter, so she’d always intended to give it to Kang’s girlfriend. AW.

Ji-hyun tells her that she’s not his girlfriend, but Mom just says that she’s a friend and girl, and Ji-hyun mumbles, “I don’t even think we’re friends. Kang doesn’t like me much…” Oh, if you only knew.

How ADORABLE is it that this bracelet that he’s been cherishing for umpteen years, all the while complaining that his mother left him nothing to remember her by, was hers to begin with? And given to the girl of his dreams as a gesture of warmth and gratitude? It’s too sweet.

In-jung asks Min-ho what he was doing at Kang’s, and if he really believes that Yi-kyung isn’t Ji-hyun. She accuses him of not wanting her to be Ji-hyun because of his feelings… and she’s not wrong. He refuses to believe that it could be her, and In-jung tries to talk some sense into him: Neither of the girls truly loved him. But Min-ho’s deep in Denial City, because his feelings are clouding his judgment.

Kang follows Yi-kyung to work that night to see if she’s caught on, but things look normal, so he rests assured for now. Ji-hyun goes to see Dad at the hospital, and calls to him by his bedside, asking him where he is.

Dad actually starts to hear her voice, and dreams of seeing her standing in a long hallway, telling him to wake up. He literally follows the sound of her voice and wakes up, and in that split second between conscious and unconscious states, he sees her looking down at him.

They both cry, and damnit, this daddy-daughter stuff is killing me today. *sniff*

The buses stop running so she walks home, and the Scheduler pulls up on his bike to offer her a ride. You big ol’ softie. He even changes her outfit to ride in style. Thank goodness. Dire need of a wardrobe change, this girl.

As he takes her for a ride, they talk about how one’s fate in the afterlife is determined:

Scheduler: A person’s own life determines it. A person’s past life in this district determines this one, and then that life determines the next one. That’s what I was taught.
Ji-hyun: Really, it’s like that? Then what about you?
Scheduler: I lived badly in my past life.
Ji-hyun: Sorry if I hit a sore spot. But I wish you a long and happy life in the next one.
Scheduler: I don’t even think that’s going to happen.
Ji-hyun: Why?
Scheduler: I must’ve been a bad person.
Ji-hyun: Why? Did someone say that?
Scheduler: Someone did.

At home, Ji-hyun thanks Yi-kyung and tells her the good news about Dad. She’s not worried anymore, since Kang knows everything and will tell him about Min-ho and In-jung. She decides to spend her remaining twelve days doing something nice for Yi-kyung, because she doesn’t want to be like that ajusshi she met, full of regrets.

Seo-woo comes home from the hospital in high spirits, only to discover an incoming call from Min-ho on In-jung’s phone. In-jung’s reaction is what triggers her suspicions, because she looks guilty, and makes a move to go into her bedroom to answer the call.

She finally puts it all together, letting herself believe what she wouldn’t before. She screams at In-jung, asking how a person could do this to someone that she owes so much to. Well FINALLY!

Kang gets the call that Dad has woken up, and he rushes toward the door to run and tell Ji-hyun. She beats him to it, appearing at his door with a tray of food, already in on the good news, of course. She cheerily starts using banmal freely with him, reminding him that Yi-kyung is a year older than him and his noona, so he ought to adapt to cultural standards by now. Haha.

She gives him his breakfast of sugared toast and strawberry milk, and he scoffs that it’s for a kid… remembering that it’s exactly what he used to like. Surprised, he asks if maybe Ji-hyun had ever met his mother, and she grabs her necklace in fear, then just says that maybe she may have mentioned something like that.

He just peers at her with an adorable smile, as she starts calling herself noona in the third person, like “If you like it, ask noona to make it for you again!” OMG, so cute.

Min-ho makes a mysterious phone call, “I think it’s time to start now.”

Ji-hyun goes to the hotel where Yi-kyung used to work, and explains her memory loss excuse to her coworker to ask what happened. She tells her that she was always with Yi-soo, who used to work there too, but then he left to go be a singer, and they broke up, and he died, and then she collapsed and never came back.

She gives her the contents of her locker and on her way home, Ji-hyun wonders what her life must’ve been like, to have stopped just like that. She gets a call from In-jung, and the Scheduler’s voice alerts have noticeably depreciated in spunk.

In-jung shows up to meet her with a bruised face, admitting to being found out by Seo-woo. How much do I love that someone finally gave this girl a black eye? She begins to volunteer her side of her relationship with Ji-hyun, recounting how grateful she was that her friend so selfishly gave her everything.

And yet, that’s the thing that eventually divided them, and what made In-jung feel pathetic—she describes Ji-hyun as endlessly giving and yet completely clueless to what she took for granted. She began to wonder if Ji-hyun wasn’t born into her cushy circumstance, if she would have anything.

Ugh. It’s not without sympathy that I acknowledge you were the smart one who grew up poor and had to fight for everything in your life, but it’s your choice to see the world this way, and for that, I have no sympathies.

She drops the final bomb: that it was HER who asked Min-ho to bring Ji-hyun down a few pegs, to make her the same as In-jung. If she was so generous and giving, then she could give In-jung her father’s company, and her fiancé. She’d take it all.

Shocked, Ji-hyun can barely hide her reaction, and when In-jung gets up to leave she does manage to say, “But Ji-hyun’s love for In-jung, that was sincere.” In-jung responds in kind, “I sincerely loved Ji-hyun too.”

From outside, In-jung watches Ji-hyun/Yi-kyung cry, and pretty much confirms her suspicions. Ruh-roh.

Ji-hyun cries outside for a while, and decides that it still doesn’t make sense. She opens the box of Yi-kyung’s belongings, and finds some cute pictures of her with Yi-soo. Only right after, she finds more pictures of Yi-soo… with another girl.

Ji-hyun: “That PLAYER!” She gets all fired up in Yi-kyung’s defense, and stomps over to the studio to give him a piece of her mind.

She shows him the pictures and tells him that he was right, and that it’s all his fault. He starts getting defensive, insisting that it’s not what it looks like. She lays into him, not only in defense of her unni, but because she identifies with the betrayal.

She asks if all human beings are like this, if betrayal is their specialty, like he’s been saying all along. Nice reversal to have her be the one to throw that back in his face. He insists that it’s not that woman, that it’s not what it looks like.

The conversation starts taking on the sounds of a typical couple, having a universal fight. He insists she’s got it wrong; she tells him the proof is right there. He tells her that it’s not what it looks like, over and over again, and she says, “Just because it isn’t what it looks like, doesn’t mean that it’s not nothing!”

And that triggers Yi-soo’s memory. He screams back, “It’s not! Song Yi-kyung! Why won’t you believe me?!” Omo, omo!

He starts seeing Past Yi-kyung right in front of him, and the line between past and present starts to blur. He relives the exact same fight they had when he was alive, over that exact same photo, when she had said the exact same words that Ji-hyun just did.

Ji-hyun’s jaw drops as she realizes what’s happening, and it takes Yi-soo a moment, and then it finally dawns on him…

He REMEMBERS.

 
COMMENTS

EEEE! The Scheduler finally remembers! I love that Ji-hyun’s discovery and her desire to protect her unni led to the thing that triggers his memory, and I’m glad that at least one of the couples had an actual falling out with some real ramifications, unlike some Kang-ahs that I know.

I love that the Scheduler, who went around touting that all human beings are betrayers and liars and cheats… now finds himself in the position of having to defend his actions, despite not even remembering them fully. My how the tables have turned, eh?

I could watch Ji-hyun/Yi-kyung calling herself noona to Kang all day, and I’m also endlessly amused at their totally unsubtle you-know-I-know-who-knows-what game. Though I’m glad that their both stepping it up a notch, especially Kang with his romantic gestures at not-Ji-hyun.

It’s funny, normally all that meant-to-be stuff in the form of trinkets doesn’t really do it for me, not that this trinket works any better, but I like the innocence of the characters here, and especially Kang’s regrets at having been such a teenage brat to his mom. It’s really not something you should beat yourself up over. Teenagers are all hell. But Ji-hyun is set up to be the person to heal his mom-wounds, the same way that Yi-soo healed Yi-kyung’s abandonment issues with her mom. Both couples mirror each other, though years apart in time and space, but through Ji-hyun’s connection to the afterlife and her Scheduler, they start to overlap, and now they’ve literally doubled over past the barrier.

I can’t wait to see how else the course of one couple influences the other, and what Yi-soo will put on the line to make things right with Yi-kyung.

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