Our heroine’s happiness for being reunited with her first love gets cut short with her beloved ones getting into danger. The answer to protecting them lies in her first life she needs to remember and learn the reason behind her extraordinary ability. Something easier said than done as our leading lady is about to face a harsh reality that never crossed her mind.
We rewind back a little to before Ji-eum and Seo-ha got on the bridge. As he promised Ji-eum before, Seo-ha is the one delivering the third confession: together with a pretty star-shaped necklace and matching earrings. But Ji-eum won’t accept him that easily; not before teasing him out and playing hard to get for a while.
For the rest of the trip, Ji-eum tries to make the best of her time with Seo-ha while brushing off any terrible thoughts that might have emerged into her head after seeing that memory. But her happiness is short-lived. While Ji-eum was away, Ae-kyung collapsed, and Min-ki took her to the hospital.
Arriving at the hospital, Ji-eum is devastated to see Ae-kyung in that state. It hurts her that Ae-kyung kept her illness a secret. Through the night, Ji-eum stays by Ae-kyung’s bedside, looking back on their memories together during her time as Ae-kyung’s uncle. Soon, Ae-kyung wakes up and reassures Ji-eum she will be okay; both oblivious to the real reason Ae-kyung is sick and the danger looming around them.
With Ae-kyung hospitalized, Ji-eum tells Min-ki to look for another job since they plan to close the restaurant for a while. Something that he has been expecting. In a rather patronizing manner, he finally tells Ji-eum the truth he long knew. Sharing her secret with people from past lives and sticking by their side puts them in danger. Worse, Ae-kyung might even die if Ji-eum doesn’t leave her side.
Faced with this, Ji-eum is skeptical. That is her 19th rodeo. She has reunited with some of her old connections before, and nothing like that happened. Yet, as Min-ki argues, this is her first time being that close and living like a family with people she met in a previous life. Honestly, Ji-eum can’t call it a new life since she has been nothing but going on with her life as Joo-won.
Min-ki’s words hit Ji-eum hard. She only wanted to live happily with her beloved ones. But now that she saw Ae-kyung fall in danger and Cho-won might be the next, Ji-eum gets desperate to protect them. And to do so, she needs to solve the puzzle behind her first life and learn the cause of her extraordinary ability.
Ji-eum holds the bells tightly this time. She wants to get the whole story and not just unconnected snippets. In her first life, Ji-eum lived by the name Su, together with her sister Seol, Cho-won. She was probably a shaman, and because of a dangerous ritual, Cho-won might have lost her life.
Heartbroken over her sister’s demise, Ji-eum has sworn revenge. But the person to take revenge on is none other than Seo-ha, who went by the name Han-ya back then. Do-yoon and Min-ki are also there, but we have yet to know their connection.
Struck with those memories, Ji-eum bursts into a fit of tears where she can’t differentiate reality from memories anymore. A worried Seo-ha enters the room to check on her, but Ji-eum, fully absorbed in her memories, tries to strangle him, yelling that she will kill him.
Can’t we get the entire story already? It isn’t enough to have some snippets here and there. I can’t wait to see the whole thing unfold. That is my favorite part of the drama, and I am absolutely up for a spin-off. Better if we get a Goryeo era drama starring Shin Hye-sun and Ahn Bo-hyun.
Though I have tried my best to get behind it, I find Ji-eum’s approach toward Seo-ha pushy. It is understandable that since she got reincarnated early this time, Ji-eum might have felt the yearning to reunite with people from her life as Joo-won. But she could have done it as Ji-eum and got the same result instead of that annoying attitude of reminding Seo-ha of Joo-won every chance she gets, despite seeing firsthand how traumatized the guy is.
She might have thought telling Seo-ha the truth might soothe his pain after learning about his uncle’s involvement. But it brought him more nightmares and trauma-induced diving sessions. Actually, I can no longer take how often they repeat the car accident scene. That is off-putting and traumatizing and doesn’t add impact to the story.
On the contrary, there is Han-na. Though she clearly remembers being Seo-ha’s mother in her past life, she prefers to live as herself and not as the shadow of a dead person. She hung around in the background without getting directly involved to check on Seo-ha and help him only when necessary, like handing over the evidence against the stepmother. After sensing Seo-ha can handle it alone, Han-na bows out gracefully to live her life and meet new people.
