Tomorrow With You: Episode 2

by gummimochi

Mm, that’s better. We get answers to some of our lingering questions about our resident time-traveler with an hour that spends more time in the here and now. His personal search for the answers to his own life can spur him to jump from one time to another at any given moment, but he’ll quickly find out that messing with fate will come with its own set of consequences and revelations he never even dreamed of.

 
EPISODE 2 RECAP

Seven years ago, March 2009. So-joon was riding the subway with his parents and moved away from them to escape Dad’s nagging. In the same car, Ma-rin was sighing at another set of embarrassing candid photos of her online, when she heard a camera phone click behind her.

She confronted the young man across from her—So-joon—and accused him of taking a photo of her. He denied it, and their ensuing argument drew attention from the other passengers, who recognized her. She insisted that they get off at the next stop to continue the conversation away from the crowd.

Although the memory is fuzzy, So-joon narrates that he thought getting off at the next stop with the strange woman he was arguing with was a chance for him to slip away from his folks.

So they got off, but Ma-rin stopped him from leaving and demanded to see his phone. He insisted that he didn’t take a photo of her and refused to show her his phone.

She told him to delete it, but then they heard the blast of the subway car explode on the tracks. Shell-shocked, So-joon ran toward the tunnel. He narrates, “Thanks to that woman whose name I didn’t know, I survived.”

On the 49th day following his parents’ deaths, So-joon returned to that tunnel to bid them farewell. “That’s when it happened,” So-joon tells us. An intense, stabbing headache overwhelmed him and he disappeared in the tunnel, only to reappear in a subway car—much to the passengers’ alarm—still in pain.

That was his first trip to the future, to early 2015. When he exited Seoul Station, Doo-shik immediately recognized him as an ill-prepared time-traveler. Giving him a warm coat, he advised So-joon to always carry summer and winter clothes with him until the newbie time-traveler could control what time he wants to jump to.

Doo-shik somehow knew about his parents’ death, which made So-joon draw back in fear. He clucked at So-joon for speaking in banmal and called himself “someone who knew you’d come to this place and time.”

From that day forward, he taught So-joon everything he knew about time-travel: Take the subway from Namyeong Station to Seoul Station to travel to the future, and the opposite way to travel back to the present.

So-joon also learned that there were consequences to time travel: If he were to meet his future self, his time-traveling self would start to disappear. Most importantly, he realized that Doo-shik already knew when he’d die in the future.

Now we pick up where we left off: So-joon travels three months into the future and learns that he’s now married to Ma-rin. He averts his eyes as she sidles up to him in her robe and tells him that it’s been two whole days since their honeymoon.

He shrinks back when she caresses his face and giggles that he overexerted himself last night (snerk), but then it occurs to her that his outfit looks different from this morning. Still flustered, he tells her to wear some clothes and tries to draw away, but she pulls him back and trips, making her robe slide off one shoulder… and So-joon covers his eyes. Ha.

Pulling him back toward her, she coyly asks him to do “that,” and he stares at her wide-eyed, while she says she wants “Kkot-soon-ie” (kkot means “flower”). So-joon’s utterly baffled expression cracks me up. He thinks to himself, What is that? A dog’s name? Bahahaha.

He’s told that “Kkot-soon-ie” is his lovey-dovey nickname for her, and he wonders to himself if his future self has lost it. Ma-rin bashfully says she loves it when he calls her that and waits eagerly for him to say it… but So-joon bolts.

Back in the present, Ma-rin visits her friend OH SO-RI, who runs a piano academy, and ha—one of her students is playing the Wedding March. She tells So-ri all about her encounters with So-joon, and they both find it strange that a guy would still want to see Ma-rin after witnessing her inebriated behavior firsthand.

Meanwhile, So-joon tells his buddy Ki-doong that Ma-rin is so strange that she can’t possibly be his type—even if they were stuck on a deserted island, he’d keep to himself. Ki-doong chuckles in disbelief and mentions that they got married anyway.

So-joon is unable to wrap his head around the idea of being married—to Ma-rin of all people, at that—which prompts Ki-doong to ask why he saved her life in the first place. Unable to divulge the truth, So-joon said he had his reasons.

So-ri scolds her friend for even entertaining the idea that So-joon might like her, but they’re both surprised when he calls to say they should meet up. Now. That’s enough for So-ri to believe that So-joon has totally fallen for Ma-rin, who now has an extra skip in her step.

So when they meet up in a cafe, Ma-rin wonders if So-joon is infatuated with her while So-joon wonders what made him marry this woman. She says he’s staring, and he tosses back that this is how he always look at people. But when he asks if she doesn’t have a boyfriend, she wonders if he wants to know about the men in her life.

She plays it cool, and So-joon immediately asks if she thinks she’ll continue to stay single or if there’s a guy she’s keeping on a hook or someone she hopes to marry or even a backup in case both parties were single by a certain age. She shrugs off that question, then coquettishly asks why he wants to know.

He explains that he just wants to help her out, and because he thinks it’d be dangerous for someone like her to drink alone, she should at least have a drinking buddy. She says she understands what he means—he must’ve thought she was lonely.

But So-joon insists that his intentions are noble, like a friend, and Ma-rin pipes up that no guy and girl can ever be just friends. So he goes for a different angle, suggesting that they share a friendly noona-dongsaeng relationship and tries calling her “noona”…

…And Ma-rin giggles in her seat and teases him for being so bad at this. She says there’s no need to press the point because she understands how he feels about her. Realizing that she’s jumped to the wrong conclusion, So-joon uses the more direct approach: “Don’t like me, no matter what. You can’t ever like me.”

“Okay, I won’t like you,” she agrees in a sing-songy voice. Her day is about to get even better because she’s called in for a gig, and Ma-rin unabashedly instructs So-joon to drive her home to grab her gear then take her to the shoot.

She marches up to a compact car, asking if this one is his. Scoffing, he unlocks his fancy SUV, then belatedly wonders why he’s taking orders from her.

So-joon helps her carry her stuff to the photo shoot, where he’s mistaken for a model. He declines participating in the shoot and marches out instead, fuming that he’ll ignore Ma-rin from here on out.

Meanwhile, So-joon’s friend Se-young deals with an uncooperative foreman at a residential construction site. She takes her frustrations out on her father, SHIN SUNG-GYU (Oh Kwang-rok), but Dad says they’re already exceeding their budget and is too ashamed to ask So-joon for more funds.

After Ma-rin’s shoot, the designer is reluctant to maintain a working relationship with Ma-rin unless she can convince that handsome fellow earlier to model her fashion line. Ma-rin later dishes to her online shopping mall model friend BIT-NA that while So-joon would likely agree, it’d feel like she’s taking advantage of him when she’s unsure of her own feelings.

So-joon arrives at a fancy bar in time to overhear his drunk friend Sung-min wonder when So-joon will get here to pick up the tab. Suffice it to say that he isn’t the least bit sympathetic to Sung-min’s relationship woes, and when Sung-min says he knows nothing about love, he retorts that love definitely isn’t breaking up with a girl because you get sick of her.

Ki-doong intervenes before the argument escalates any further, and So-joon chucks his card on the table before leaving.

When Ki-doong follows him upstairs to return his card, So-joon reveals that he was apathetic to Sung-min’s story because he already saw his future: Sung-min will get back together with his girlfriend, only to leave her for another woman. Ki-doong points out that their friend doesn’t know all of that—right now, his present girlfriend and heartache is all he sees.

“While you live in both the present and future, all we have is the now,” Ki-doong says. “Everyone else in the world lives that way, so I don’t know what to say if that seems like a joke to you. Must you always live your life tied to the future?”

So-joon has nightmares that night: a car toppling over his, blurry lights, and seeing a bloodied Ma-rin being taken away on a gurney. Wait a minute—he’s dreaming of an experience he hasn’t even been through yet?

He wakes with a start and steps outside for some fresh air. He appears to be in a better mood when he arrives at the office, though, and ignores Ma-rin’s text about meeting her at a cafe that afternoon.

Ma-rin rehearses how she’ll ask So-joon for the modeling favor while sitting alone in the cafe, but it isn’t long before she’s recognized, and her ears perk up at the mention of an article. She checks her phone and sure enough, there’s another article about her drunk antics.

She immediately calls the reporter and tears into him for habitually writing a new piece about her whenever people start to lose interest in her. Exasperated, she says she quit acting because she was terrible at it, not because she grew up to be a disappointment.

She raises her voice when he threatens to hang up, and stares directly at the gossiping patrons while yelling that it’s because of these headlines that people keep talking about her sad, pathetic life. She says they’ll likely meet in court one day before hanging up, and confronts the people whispering about her at the next table.

She dares them to insult her to her face or write hateful comments online because then at least she could report them for cyber bullying. But they shrink back, and she storms out.

Hours later, Ki-doong cracks up to read the latest article on Bap-soon. Ma-rin calls just then, and So-joon wonders if she’s still waiting for him at the cafe. But when he picks up, she apologizes if he felt like he was stood up today.

She’s actually having a beer by the river, and wonders if he’s being quiet because he’s still disappointed. He honestly tells her there’s no need to be sorry because he didn’t go, and she thanks him for being so polite to say that.

So-joon hopes that Ma-rin will just take his words at face value, but Ma-rin sorrowfully remarks, “I want to jump into that river.” That gets his attention, and she laughs—she was merely joking and thanks him for making her laugh.

Even though she feels lonely, she says she’d rather be alone today. She then realizes that he already hung up and figures that he’s upset with her. And he is, but more so because he thought he was being clear and she still misunderstood him.

So-joon heads to time-traveler Doo-shik’s apartment, knowing full well that he’s at home. We see that the walls are filled with calendars, news articles, and photos, and So-joon leaves a note for Doo-shik to contact him. Inside, Doo-shik makes a log on his voice recorder that So-joon stopped by today at June 13, 2016 at 9 PM. Curious.

A drunk Ma-rin tries calling So-joon, then an accidental run-in with a stranger causes her bag to spill onto the ground. So-joon finds her on the ground and yells at her for eating chestnuts, and she correctly identifies them as dates.

She slurs that he’s lacking in general knowledge, but he argues that there’s nothing normal about eating raw dates on the street. She points out that he’s the one pursuing her—after all, he came here too.

So-joon reminds her that she called him saying that she was lost—didn’t it ever occur to her that people call her Bap-soon because she’s putting herself in these situations? He pulls her up to her feet, and is surprised to see her upset.

It’s now that she explains that she asked to see him because she needed his help to continue working with the designer they met earlier today. She admits that she lied about being lost and wanted to petition his help in person. But now she feels embarrassed, and thinks that even if she were to die, she’d still be a target of ridicule.

So-joon draws closer as she starts to cry, telling her that there’s no point worrying about death; she should live well now. Says the man constantly worried about his tragic death. As he walks her home, she tells him that she opened a five-year savings account and plans to use that money to emigrate somewhere with the fewest number of Koreans possible.

He tells her not to bother saving, since she doesn’t know what might happen by then. She says she doesn’t live day by day like a mayfly, and he says she should: “Do everything you want to do, and eat whatever you want. Go date a ton of men.” Life is short, he says.

Mom comes outside looking for Ma-rin, who introduces So-joon as a friend. She quickly ushers her mother inside when Mom scolds him for making her daughter drink so much.

Mom explains that she’s here because she read the latest article on Ma-rin, who by now is unaffected by it. She’s arranged a seon (a blind date with an intention of marriage) with a reporter, and screeeams at Ma-rin for all the shame she’s caused.

Exasperated, Ma-rin apologizes for being a shameful daughter, but reminds Mom that she was the one who dragged her to the broadcasting station when she was six. Even when everyone else, including her, didn’t want her to act, Mom was the one who insisted.

She tearfully says she can’t even remember what led her down this path to becoming a pathetic adult, unable to fulfill her mother’s ambitions. But Mom gets defensive and leaves in a huff while Ma-rin sobs… and we see So-joon sitting just out the window, having heard everything.

Some time later, Se-young plops down her birthday gift in front of So-joon, who belatedly recalls that he bought it for her. She asks where he bought the shoes since they don’t fit, and he tells her to keep them because they can’t be returned, since he doesn’t remember where he got them from.

She asks him for a different gift then—specifically a donation to her non-profit organization, Happiness for Humanity. She’s having trouble getting the funds to pay for the construction for the residence buildings, but So-joon cuts her off, saying that he’ll do it and asks her to write up a proposal for him.

She can tell that he’s not in the best mood, and when he gets up to leave, she wonders why he’s so busy lately.

That’s because So-joon has agreed to stand in as a model for Ma-rin, and Ma-rin rushes down to the studio upon hearing the news. He acts all gruff when he sees her and feels awkward about standing in front of a camera, but then cracks a smile when he sees her jump to get her gear. D’aw.

Once the shoot begins, she directs him to loosen up and smile, and he comments that this modeling thing is much more difficult than he thought it’d be. She praises him afterward, and when she instinctually climbs into his car, he tells her to get out because he didn’t say he’d give her a ride.

She gets out and bashfully thanks him for being so considerate. He comes right out with it: “I’ve never liked you. If you thought that I did, then you were mistaken. I kept being honest, but you kept misunderstanding me, so I thought it’d be best to make myself clear.”

Ma-rin tries to mask her disappointment by playing it cool, saying that she was only playing along. But So-joon isn’t done—he’d like it if they didn’t contact one another or run into each other: “Let’s end things here.”

Unable to look at him, she asks him to leave first, then asks why he came here today to help her out. “Because you acted pitiful,” So-joon honestly replies. “I wanted to be of help one last time.”

But before he can leave, she asks for one last thing: his name. She thinks this farewell is pretty harsh when she doesn’t even know his name. But So-joon says nothing and drives away.

When So-joon tells Doo-shik that he plans on changing his own future without Ma-rin, he’s told that it’s no ordinary fate for two people to die at the same time. Doo-shik thinks he should get to know Ma-rin some more before writing her off, but So-joon has made up his mind and asks Do-shik to investigate his death further.

Doo-shik replies that death is something out of his control, and yells at So-joon for constantly asking for his help: “It’s your life, not mine! I’m not your father and you don’t listen to me anyway!”

“Then you shouldn’t have told me how I should live or die!” So-joon hollers back. Doo-shik admits that he’s right, then inquires why So-joon is wearing a sweater in this sweltering heat. So-joon explains that he came back from another trip, and Doo-shik chuckles that he sure is diligent.

As Ma-rin goes out and takes photos on her own, she tells us that a month passed without hearing from So-joon. She ends up going on that blind date with the reporter, and laughs when he asks what it was like when she studied abroad.

She says she’s actually a photographer for an online shopping mall, and apologizes on her mother’s behalf if he got the wrong idea about her. She offers to pay for their drinks as a show of apology, but then he offers to pay for dinner in return, admitting that he was surprised that she’d agree to go out with him since he’s a reporter.

At home, Ki-doong nags So-joon about attending Director Kim’s wedding today, whining that So-joon will look bad in front of the employees if he keeps skipping out on important company-related events. But So-joon would rather not go because someone he doesn’t want to see will be there. Ki-doong chases his buddy around the house trying to yank his clothes off, pestering him to get changed.

At the wedding, bride Gun-sook is crying a river of tears in her dressing room. Evidently these are joyous tears because she’s so proud of herself for successfully getting married today, though her bridesmaids couldn’t care less.

Ma-rin fetches Gun-sook an iced coffee and sincerely congratulates the bride for attaining her personal life goal to marry a rich man. But then Gun-sook starts coughing and stains her dress with coffee.

Thinking fast, Ma-rin tells her to take off the dress so they can spot-treat the stain. She runs out with it and takes a spill in the lobby, where Ki-doong helps her to her feet. And that’s when she sees him—So-joon dressed in a suit, congratulating Director Kim on his wedding day.

So-joon looks at Ma-rin before his attention is turned away, and So-ri marvels at how young the groom’s boss is. Ma-rin is shocked when So-joon is introduced to other people as the CEO, and he walks right past her without acknowledging her. A moment later, Ki-doong belatedly recalls that the woman outside is the notorious Bap-soon, and says it seemed as if she was looking at So-joon.

Neither So-joon nor Ma-rin look at each other during the ceremony, and afterward, So-joon waits for the subway at Namyeong Station. But the train comes and goes, and he stands there, unmoving.

At the same time, Ma-rin stands at the edge of the sidewalk, not moving when the pedestrian light turns green. Her blind date finds her standing there, so they go for a walk, and he asks if the wedding today tired her out.

She asks whether or not he knows of the real estate investment company MyReits. He says it’s a well-known firm, and asks if she plans on investing in that company. He can tell that she’s in low spirits and wonders if he’ll still be able to interview her.

He plans on writing a tell-all piece that allows Ma-rin to speak freely, in hopes that it will put her in a positive light. Uh oh, this sounds like a red flag. She shyly says no one would be interested, but he presses, adding that it might be even better with some dramatic flair.

Meanwhile, So-joon travels to the future on a snowy day to an empty house free of wedding photos, which has him remark that things have returned to normal.

As Ma-rin divulges in the present that she was one of the survivors of the 2009 subway explosion at Namyeong Station, So-joon looks up Ma-rin’s name on the internet. He finds the tell-all interview that Ma-rin is giving now, about how she got off the subway car after arguing with a stranger.

It dawns on So-joon that Ma-rin was the one who saved his life when they both got off at the Namyeong subway stop seven years ago. As he enters the Seoul Station stop, he thinks, “You and I miraculously survived that night, and you and I will die together. What is this? What is our connection?”

As the reporter walks Ma-rin home, he teases her for being hung up on what people will think of her once the interview is published. She hopes her story will humanize her, and says that not caring about what other people think is easier said than done.

She comments that time has flown by; it’s nearly autumn. He says she should try dating then, and asks her out to a movie. Niiiccce.

But then So-joon calls out, “Song Ma-rin!” and marches up to her and drags her away. When she finally gets him to let go, she demands to know why he’s shown up out of the blue.

She points out that he ignored her at the wedding, and he’s the one who wanted nothing to do with her. Remembering that he never gave her his name, So-joon says in a shaky voice, “My name…”

Ma-rin cuts him off, saying that there’s no need to feel sorry since they weren’t involved or anything. But So-joon loudly states again, “My name…”

“I’m… Yoo So-joon,” he finally says, his voice wavering. “But… what are you?”

 
COMMENTS

Oh boy, a much better second impression. Not to say that I didn’t enjoy the premiere, but that first hour pulled us in so many directions that it felt fast and furious, moving us through the story at blazing speed that it took a few rewinds and replays to get straight. So I’m relieved that this episode took time to explain the time travel rules of this world.

I had an inkling that So-joon was the stranger Ma-rin got into an argument with all those years ago, and now we know that night was the beginning of a new chapter of his life. As it turns out, his relationship with Doo-shik began as soon as his ability to time travel began, and I find it interesting that he had a teacher to teach him the ropes. But it certainly seems like Doo-shik knows a great deal more than he’s letting on, and he’s tracking most or if not all of So-joon’s comings and goings. Because of this, I can’t help but question his reasons for urging So-joon to find Ma-rin and keep her in his life. I have a number of theories in my head about Doo-shik that either paints him in a positive or negative light, but one thing that I can say for certain is that there is an ulterior motive behind all of his pointed comments to So-joon.

But moving onto the romance, I really do love our leads here in Lee Je-hoon and Shin Mina. I could feel a palpable chemistry from the start, and both their bickering and cutesy misunderstandings have me in a fit of giggles. A part of me wishes that we could’ve seen more of the future where So-joon and Ma-rin were newlyweds, but with so much of the story ahead of us, who’s to say that we won’t revisit that future or make that our present? I love how both actors have naturally stepped into these characters, though I must admit that I keep thinking that Lee Je-hoon will suddenly pull out a walkie-talkie (thanks Signal).

I adored the cafe scene where So-joon was trying to set clear boundaries and Ma-rin was caught up in her own idealistic ideas of romance. I almost can’t blame So-joon for cutting ties with her the way he did, though it did hurt to hear him say that he helped her out one final time because he felt sorry for her. My heart did break for Ma-rin while she was arguing with her mother about how a decision she never made for herself as a child left her feeling trapped well into her adult years. I’m impressed by her resilience, which masks a lot inner pain, and I’m relieved that she’s met people who try to draw her out of her shell.

While my heart does ache for Ma-rin, I see why So-joon tried to set himself on a different path away from hers. His motive for saving her from the Truck of Doom wasn’t entirely selfless, since he has tunnel vision about where his own future is headed. But what I’m hoping is that he realizes that he’s not the only agent of fate when it comes to a future that involves two people. I’m glad that he has a good friend like Ki-doong by his side, who not only adds in some comic relief, but is there to tell his time-traveling buddy like it is and remind him that while he’s busy criticizing choices made in the present because of what will happen in the future, being in the here and now is all the rest of us have.

 
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