49 Days: Episode 10

by girlfriday

Ooooh, it’s gettin’ GOOD. I didn’t think this episode would top yesterday’s surprise, but we’re totally letting all sorts of cats out of bags, with confrontations, doppelgänger theories, jealousy between ghost and host, and of course, our first glimpse into the Scheduler’s past. Ji-hyun faces harsh truths about love and human beings, and learns that choosing to live is a lot harder than choosing to die.

 
EPISODE 10 RECAP

Kang follows the sound of Ji-hyun’s song, and it’s the last straw that puts him over the edge. He walks up to her at the piano and asks, “Who are you? Are you…Ji-hyun?” Ji-hyun’s mouth opens, unable to hide her shock. She stammers, unable to get a word of protest out.

Her hesitation makes him even more sure of his instinct, though she begins to protest that he’s nuts. And Kang knows it’s crazy. Except…”You feel like Ji-hyun.” He starts shouting all the ways they’re the same, and Ji-hyun starts to panic. She grabs her tear necklace (which will break if anyone catches wind of her true identity) and insists she doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Manager Oh walks in to see Kang shouting at her, and interrupts them before things get out of hand. He tells Ji-hyun that this piano is the only thing Kang has left of his mother’s, and to just consider him being sensitive and acting out because of that.

As they stand side by side with a wall between them, they each think to themselves: Ji-hyun: “Han Kang, how did you know?” Kang: “It doesn’t make sense.” Ji-hyun: “What if Kang keeps suspecting?” Kang: “I must’ve seemed like a total crazy person.”

He rounds the corner and finds her standing there. She offers up that she must remind him of his friend a lot, and he says that she does…and doesn’t too. He then adorably asks her for her phone number, pretending to be cool about it.

He hides his embarrassment by nagging her that she shouldn’t make people worry like that, and asks what happened yesterday. She just says she wasn’t feeling well, but he adds that he went to her place, but she wasn’t home. Ji-hyun realizes that it was Kang knocking on the door last night.

And then, the not-quite-so-bright Ji-hyun puts the puzzle pieces together this way: that Kang was that worried about Yi-kyung, and that noticing her similarities to Ji-hyun made him angry…because he dislikes Ji-hyun. Oh, silly girl. Not that the very simple and direct Ji-hyun would know that Kang’s shouting is just masking his feelings. That’s just not in her nature. But still.

She goes to see Seo-woo, and gets the rare chance to sit down with her friend and eat some pastries. But Seo-woo keeps turning the conversation to In-jung and the thermos, asking about her mystery boyfriend. Ji-hyun thinks to herself that Seo-woo’s already forgotten about her too.

Min-ho and In-jung go out on a date, and she tells him that she’s going to quit her job tomorrow. The rumor mill is running rampant that a ghost kept the president from signing his will yesterday, and she doesn’t want to be reminded of Ji-hyun anymore.

Meanwhile Dad collapses, and Ji-hyun shows up at the hospital soon after, planning to play the part of her friend. She sees Dad lying next to her comatose body and cries, assuming that Dad’s just exhausted himself from worry.

She comes out into the lobby, tears streaming down her face, which is when Min-ho arrives and sees her. He stops her by grabbing her arm and asking why she’s here, and in her head, Ji-hyun thinks to herself that he’s daring to come here, in an effort to get that will signed.

She just says, “Take your hand off of me,” and walks away. When Min-ho goes upstairs, he finds that Dad is trying to keep his condition a secret from Mom, and decides he has to step in. He pulls her aside and tells her the truth, insisting that Dad needs surgery right away. Ji-hyun has followed him up and sees her mom crying, but doesn’t hear what he’s said to her.

Seo-woo asks In-jung again about her secret boyfriend, and In-jung freaks out that she’s going around asking Yi-kyung about her. Seo-woo confesses to following her out that night, and thinks that her boyfriend looks a lot like Min-ho…but is naïve enough to believe that he just looks like Min-ho, and not the other thing—the backstabby thing.

Ji-hyun gets impatient waiting for Yi-kyung to come home from work the next morning, and calls the Scheduler for help. Still upset about the last time he interfered on her behalf, he yells at her to stop calling him…and then shows up in person to yell at her some more. HA.

He lets her know just how upset he is, having had his five-year scheduler sentence extended by a week because of her. She apologizes as he whines that he hasn’t ONCE broken the rules in all this time. But…that’d be your own damn fault in choosing to help her, buddy.

He tells her that if she’s really sorry, she’ll stop calling him, since “just seeing your face annoys me.” Heh. She asks if maybe he can’t just find out when Yi-kyung might return… He can’t believe the nerve on this girl, and screams out a “NO!” before disappearing.

Yi-kyung is sleeping in Dr. Noh’s office today, hooked up to monitors checking to see if she has sleep apnea or any other crazy goings on to explain the things she can’t remember.

As she sleeps peacefully, we get our first flashback of Yi-soo and Yi-kyung, who are…totally not brother and sister. Rawr. Kisses! Aw, they look utterly, blissfully in love, as they have a picnic and talk about their dream house (the one marked in the book that Yi-kyung still has).

Oh my god, they’re already breaking my heart. I don’t know if I can take it. It’s hard enough imagining how happy they could’ve been, knowing how they ended up…but seeing this is KILLING ME.

Kang listens to the song that Ji-hyun was playing on the piano, mulling over all the connections he’s made between Ji-hyun and Yi-kyung so far. He asks if Yi-kyung’s come to work, upset that she made him worry yesterday and isn’t even here yet. The waiter reminds him that she’s freelance, but the worry just gnaws at him, made worse by the fact that she’s not picking up her phone.

So he goes to her house, and this time, he runs into Yi-kyung, but without Ji-hyun’s soul inside. Omo! FINALLY! He sees her and stands in her path, but she just looks at him and walks right past, not acknowledging him.

He calls out, “Song!” and asks why she’s pretending not to see him. Yi-kyung: “Who are you?” and she walks inside. Kang, totally taken aback, just watches her wondering, “Wha…is it a twin?” HAHAHA. I don’t know why that’s funny, but it is.

Kang sits in his car, wondering if maybe Yi-kyung had a twin all this time, but then remembers her saying that she didn’t have siblings. Just then, Ji-hyun runs out in Yi-kyung’s body, and grabs a cab before he can get out and ask her.

Meanwhile, Dad has gone ahead and signed his will anyway. It’s bad news, but also makes things interesting, since this new development gives Min-ho motivation to reverse the land deal/hostile takeover, so that he can just inherit the entire company, free and clear.

And that’s exactly what he sets out to do. He meets with a contact to put the brakes on the deal, saying that he’s not about to sell something for a third of the value when he can get the whole enchilada. His evil cohort wants to go ahead with the original plan anyway, but Min-ho’s got enough blackmail leverage on the guy to make him cooperate.

At the same time, Mom calls In-jung and Seo-woo to the house to ask them for their help in convincing Dad to get surgery. She tells them about the tumor, and In-jung puts it all together—the will, and Min-ho’s knowledge of all these proceedings.

She calls Min-ho and demands to meet right away, and when he says he’s on his way home to pick up a file, she says she’ll meet him there.

Only…that’s exactly where Ji-hyun is, trying to get into the safe. She’s in his room when Min-ho arrives, so she thinks quickly and grabs a handful of laundry and comes out, pretending to be surprised. She claims to have returned to drop off the key, but then felt bad about leaving the laundry that day, so thought she’d do a load before leaving.

Min-ho barely has time to say that makes no sense, before In-jung arrives right behind him. Panicking, he pushes Ji-hyun into his room and asks that she stay in here, and not make her presence known. Ooooh, liar liar pants on fire!

She agrees and he goes out to meet In-jung, who lays into him for not telling her that he knew…about Ji-hyun’s father, the tumor, the will. Ji-hyun hears everything, and nearly collapses in tears.

Min-ho tries to calm In-jung down, for one because he knows that Yi-kyung is overhearing. She accuses him of keeping it from her on purpose, and insists that he go through with the land deal like he’s supposed to. She tells him that since Ji-hyun ended up this way, every day she’s been waiting has been hell. You know what they say about what goes around…

Min-ho lies that he’ll take care of it, and then goes into the room to change. Ji-hyun doesn’t say anything but just silently darts him a hateful glare. As she turns her back, he opens the safe, takes out a file, and leaves, whispering that he’ll explain later. She crumples to the ground in tears once he’s gone.

Ji-hyun wanders back to Heaven in a daze, her phone continuously going off. I love the Scheduler’s annoyed voice as her ring tone, alerting her to how many calls she’s ignoring, and from whom. Where can I get one of those?

Min-ho calls over and over, and finally calls Kang to ask if Yi-kyung’s at work. Kang lies that he doesn’t know her address, and both boys stew over their unanswered calls. But Kang heads out to find Ji-hyun sitting on the patio, clearly frazzled over something.

He tells her to eat, and says he knows something is wrong, so she can stop pretending. He asks if something’s wrong with her father, to which he grabs her necklace in fear and says no. Her sister? She says she doesn’t have one. He’s confused more than ever, and she makes the excuse that she has to be somewhere, and runs off.

In-jung returns home and Seo-woo questions her, this time her anger bubbling over at the way In-jung is repeatedly turning her back on Ji-hyun and her family. But In-jung doesn’t play nice anymore, and tells her that she’s sick and tired, and that Ji-hyun always assumed the world revolved around her. “Did you always like her? I didn’t.”

Min-ho tasks his secretary with tracking down Yi-kyung. Isn’t that going to be hard when the phone number she’s using is…supernatural? It’s a direct-to-reaper line. I don’t think you’ll get an address off of it.

Ji-hyun finds Reaper Boy lounging about, and whines at him about the whole tears-gathering thing. She wonders why it has to be tears—can’t people just genuinely love her, but not shed tears?

The Scheduler explains that human tears are the most direct expression of emotion, and though the types of tears can vary, when people are the happiest, the saddest, they will cry. He adds that she ought to stop blaming other people, since she’s not one to cry genuine tears for others either.

She defensively insists that she CAN TOO, but he just snickers that this is why he doesn’t like humans. He tells her to stop assuming things that she’s never even experienced.

Ji-hyun: Tell me the truth. Is there anyone who genuinely loves me?
Scheduler: How am I supposed to know?? That’s not my purview. Human beings’ hearts change…that’s their specialty. Forever? There’s no such thing. Love, then hate. Hot, then cold. Upset, then grateful. Full of resentment, then understanding.

Aw, his jaded view is sad, but it makes for a great setup, for when he discovers that he once loved someone with a forever kind of love.

Kang paces in his office, stomping back and forth in a furor of confusion. Manager Oh watches him and tells him to just go find Yi-kyung to figure out which one it is: (1) he’s curious about whether Yi-kyung lied; (2) he keeps seeing Ji-hyun in Yi-kyung; or (3) he’s worried about Yi-kyung because something’s clearly going on with her.

Kang: “All of the above!” Haha. He takes the advice and goes to find out for himself. Oh, this ought to be good.

He waits outside Yi-kyung’s place, and sees Ji-hyun coming home just before midnight. She goes in, and he waits outside, wondering what he should do. But then before he knows it, Yi-kyung comes out, and walks right past him without so much as a word.

Bewildered, he just follows her, all the way to Purple Coffee. He wonders if she’s meeting someone at this hour, and then realizes that she’s working two jobs. So he finally goes inside and walks up to the counter.

Only Yi-kyung doesn’t recognize him, and just asks what kind of coffee he wants. Dumbfounded, he just orders something, and then stares at her. He checks the nametag: Song Yi-kyung. He asks, “Song Yi-kyung-sshi?”

Yi-kyung finally remembers him from the other day when he stopped her before, and asks, “Do you know me?” Angry, confused, and totally spun around, Kang just rushes out of there without a word.

He heads straight for Manager Oh’s house, where he wakes the couple up with his confusing dilemma, and the three of them comically try to suss out what the logical explanation might be.

At Kang’s mention of Yi-kyung insisting that she needed a job for only 48 days, Manager Oh remembers hearing someone once say that 49 days was the time a wandering soul had to complete something, or find something, in order to live. Kang just dismisses the reference, wanting an explanation that makes sense.

In light of the possibilities, your twin theory really was a good one, until now.

Yi-kyung arrives back home in the morning, and Ji-hyun sits next to her, voice shaking. She thanks her for everything, and says she’s sorry too, and says that she’s leaving. Ji-hyun: “I’ve waited and tried, but figured out that there’s no one out there who loves me. I must’ve lived my life badly.”

She apologizes for not being able to keep her promise to find Yi-soo, and prepares for her last day. She wakes up in Yi-kyung’s body, and cleans the house, as a way to say thank you. She leaves a letter, thanking her and asking her not to be afraid, and that she won’t be coming back.

She also writes a letter to Dad, explaining that it’s Ji-hyun, and to listen to everything he hears from Yi-kyung. The Scheduler appears behind her, and catches wind of her plan to give up, and to blow her 49 days to save Dad.

She gets dressed up and stops by work to give everyone presents. She goes downstairs, where Kang is nodding off to sleep at his desk. She shouts, “It’s a lovely morning, Han Kang!” He wakes up, startled.

She continues, brightly, talking to him like her old friend, “Why are you so surprised? Are you hearing banmal for the first time ever?”

She explains cheekily that Song Yi-kyung is technically one year older than him. “In this country, if I’m your noona, I can use banmal.” Hahaha. I don’t know what I love more, her having fun being his noona for a day, or his reaction to her statement.

She asks him to just listen to her for one minute.

Ji-hyun: Someone said once that love is letting someone misunderstand you, because that causes them less pain. If you love someone so much, I think it’s like that. You’d rather not give excuses. You’d rather that person not get hurt, even if you get misunderstood. How much it hurts to do that…I know that now. Hiding your heart…is a lot harder than not knowing your heart.

Aw. But Kang doesn’t listen very well (or understand what she really means, of course) and so she hands over her resignation. She tells him that she’s going away, but because of Min-ho’s phone call the other day, he assumes the worst.

He accuses her of going right back to work for Min-ho, or worse yet, to live with him. She insists that’s not the case, but he starts yelling: “If you liked Kang Min-ho from the start, why didn’t you just say so, instead of confusing people?!”

She asks why he’s so protective of Ji-hyun’s fiancé if they weren’t even that close. But he says this is about Yi-kyung. Which in turn hurts Ji-hyun’s feelings, assuming that Kang is only upset at losing Yi-kyung to Min-ho. Man, relationships are confusing enough without first-love-souls in other people’s bodies!

He asks what her real face is, jumping to the conclusion that she’s used him and jerked him around. Kang: “Where were you last night? Who did I meet?” Ji-hyun: “Are you that curious about Song Yi-kyung? Song Yi-kyung is an orphan. She has no one to lean on or talk to. And no one to love her.”

And with that she says goodbye to him with a grade-school insult, not unlike calling someone a butthead. Pfft.

He shouts after her ineffectually, “Fine! GO! And don’t you ever come back! You just TRY and come back!”

She walks away in tears, pouting that he ought to have sent her away with a smile since this is goodbye forever. And Kang goes to his room to brood.

She goes to hospital looking for her parents, and finds them at home. She walks in and overhears them talking, Mom begging Dad to get the operation. Dad tells her that he can’t, not with his daughter lying there like that. He tells her that he’s either got to send her away in peace or be the first to hold her when she comes back, but either way he won’t have the operation with Ji-hyun in limbo.

At the same time, Kang comes outside, where Manager Oh is repotting all the plants. He finds the seal that Ji-hyun hid there, and unwraps it. He reads the name: “Shin Ji-hyun.” Kang’s jaw drops.

Ji-hyun leaves her parents’ house, unable to go through with her plan when Dad is being so stubborn. She stands in the street, watching people pass by, and pleads to the heavens: “Someone save me. I have to live. I want to live.”

And then, as if the heavens answer her, a drop appears in her necklace. She looks down and sees her first genuine tear.

 
COMMENTS

Aw. Yay, her first tear! It’s funny, I didn’t realize that she didn’t have to be present for the tear gathering (I thought she literally had to scoop up the tear by hand) so this is a nice twist, because it’s technically a mystery whose tear it was. We’re made to assume it’s Kang’s, which would make sense, but then it’s also totally open-ended and could be anyone.

I’m glad that Kang is inching closer to the Ji-hyun/Yi-kyung mystery, all the while battling his very confused feelings. It’s an added layer of drama that Ji-hyun is growing ever more jealous of Kang’s feelings toward Yi-kyung, as if love between a ghost and a human isn’t hard enough.

I don’t know if it’s because of the Scheduler’s speech a few episodes ago about dying at 23 and feeling unfinished and unfulfilled, but seeing how happy he was with Yi-kyung in his past is seriously breaking my heart. I can’t take it. I’m not usually such a softie (romance has to be pretty damn epic for me to fall hook line and sinker) but goddamnit, it’s just so sad.

This is one drama where flashbacks are used really well, for dramatic effect. The past (both Yi-kyung/Yi-soo and Ji-hyun/Kang) is romantic, idealistic, and tinged with a what-could-have-been sadness. That in contrast with how everyone has ended up in the present makes for great conflict because it informs how they feel, but isn’t something they can return to, what with dimensional rifts and all. I feel like any way you go with the Scheduler, it’s bittersweet…which kind of makes me love this drama more.

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