A Time Called You 2023 Episode 8

Episode 8 of A Time Called You begins with the real Yeon-jun studying for his CSATs with his friend Tae-ha (a cameo by Rowoon). Yeon-jun keeps shooting heart eyes at Tae-ha and at one point tries to confess but loses his nerve. Tae-ha says he drives 3 hours to be with Yeon-jun and asks him if he knows why. It looks like he wants to say more but gives up on seeing how clueless Yeon-jun is.

On a trip to Busan, Tae-ha takes his mom’s car but Yeon-jun is nervous as he is a novice driver. They keep bickering from messing with the glove box to looking at the map. Tae-ha accidentally touches Yeon-jun’s hand and they lock eyes. They hold hands and smile but at that moment their car crashes into a truck.

At the convenience store, Jun-hee gets a call and runs off. Si-heon thinks about her while painting the scene of her running through the rain at the park. He visits Chi-won’s new cafe and says he is applying to Jun-hee’s university even though she’s a business major and he is in arts. He wants to follow everything Jun-hee said till 2023 so they can have a second chance to fix what happened in 1998. From now on, he is officially Koo Yeon-jun.

On day 1 of uni, he follows Jun-hee who misunderstands and thinks he wants to join her club. He almost tears up but holds his composure. After thinking for a second, he immediately confesses. She scolds him and tells him she has a boyfriend who shows up. 

He is gloomy and the lively Chan-yeong befriends him. He takes him on a group date and he only agrees on hearing business majors will be there. Jun-hee is their server and she calls out Yeon-jun for confessing to her and then going on group dates.

He sulks the whole time and then rants to Chi-won that 1998 Jun-hee never told him about her ex. He gets disheartened but remembers what Jun-hee had said. She always saw Yeon-jun hanging around and even worked part-time at the same place as her, but he kept his distance. He never pressured her into liking him and they naturally got close.

He takes Chan-yeong wherever she goes and Na-eun is amused while Jun-hee is annoyed. He also joins as a part-timer at her restaurant and she bets he won’t last a day but he survives.

Elsewhere, Chi-won tells Scarred Guy that all is going according to plan. We see that Scarred Guy has a photo of the trio. It cuts to 2006 and Scarred Guy meets In-gyu who is finally released. As they drink, Scarred Guy says he was in a car accident and his legs are not the same anymore.

In-gyu asks why he pretends he didn’t kill Min-ju. Scarred Guy says they both loved her which is why he can’t believe that In-gyu would kill her. In-gyu calls him delusional and leaves. Scarred Guy goes home and he has clippings of Min-ju’s murder. On the side, he has written he will stop In-gyu’s death hinting that he has time travelled to 2006.

Back to 2008, Jun-hee almost changes her mind about Yeon-jun’s stalker behaviour when he helps an old lady. But he ruins it by applying to her club anyway that too with the help of her boyfriend, Do-hyeon. 

At work, a coworker cribs about her friend constantly asking for her help. It triggers Yeon-jun and he asks her how she would feel if it was indeed a cry for help and she wasn’t there. Turns out Chi-won told him that In-gyu got out of prison in 2006 and committed suicide. Jun-hee stays back to help Yeon-jun and also comforts him. She says he can talk to her if he ever needs to.

Soon, the two of them along with Na-eun and Chan-yeong hang out at uni. It is Jun-hee’s birthday but she needs to work as her boss is barely tolerating Do-hyeon slacking off. Yeon-jun offers to work her shift and she is touched. But she shows up anyway as her boyfriend is busy. Yeon-jun tries to surprise her by getting her a cake but she runs off as Do-hyeon calls her. Turns out he is cheating on her and dumps her.

She tries to go home but her wallet’s back at the restaurant and she miserably walks back. At that moment, Yeon-jun calls her to say he wants to wish her a happy birthday. She reaches and sees he has a cake. He is shocked to see her and asks about her boyfriend. She deflects and they go back to the cake. She makes a wish and asks him to make one as well. He says it came true as he wanted to spend her birthday with her.

The Episode Review

Episode 8 of A Time Called You is definitely a great pause in the storyline. The whole flashback helps us understand Scarred Guy and Chi-won’s motives better. But it also throws new plot twists that will keep us engaged till the end of the K-drama.

By the way, wait, Rowoon as Tae-ha and Ahn Hyo-seop as Yeon-jun? Excuse me? Did the writers just give us the best couple ever only to kill them in 30 seconds? RIP the best K-drama visual couple of 2023.

Oh and what happens in 1998 after Na-eun brings Jun-hee to 2023? If Min-ju takes over her body again, why can’t the trio figure out that Jun-hee is telling the truth and try to stop her murder? Why does it take till 2007 for Si-heon to understand it all? Also, Chan-yeong just keeps enjoying Yeon-jun’s antics as if he is in for a ride. Does he know something? Did he travel to the future like Si-heon?

Wait, does this mean Yeon-jun and Si-heon swapped bodies? Scarred Guy says he was in a car crash but Si-heon was in a bus. It was the original Yeon-jun who was in a car crash with Tae-ha. But if this theory isn’t true (since Scarred Guy says he loved Min-ju) how can there be two Si-heons in the same timeline? If 2002 Si-heon time travelled to 2007, how is there another Si-heon in 2006? We are going to need some Dark-level diagrams to understand this show by the time we reach the finale.