Tomorrow With You: Episode 7

by gummimochi

Every worry that So-joon has about the future will come into question this hour when the crossed wires in his marriage keep him grounded in the present. Keeping him focused on today won’t be easy when he’s used to anticipating what might happen tomorrow. But even time travelers like So-joon sometimes need to live day by day if they want to create the invaluable memories that will last a lifetime.

 
EPISODE 7 RECAP

When So-joon tells time traveler Doo-shik how he thinks he’s headed towards a more complicated future, he’s told to focus on the present instead of the future. Mystery Doo-shik notices Ma-rin behind the gate and hides his face. She hides before So-joon can see her, and the time traveler runs away.

So-joon gives chase and flags him down, demanding to know why Doo-shik is avoiding him. Does So-joon not realize that this isn’t present-day Doo-shik? When asked if he’s seen something in the future, Mystery Doo-shik returns, “Do you think that knowing the future is a blessing?”

“It’d be horrific if I didn’t know that it was,” So-joon replies. But Mystery Doo-shik says they shouldn’t risk the present just to save the future, and he’s been questioning if their constant tinkering with the present will result in an even more complicated fate.

As someone who knows he’ll disappear in a few months and die in two years’ time, So-joon thinks he’s extremely lucky to know in advance what calamities will befall him. Frustrated, Mystery Doo-shik hollers, “The more you try to find out [about your futures], you two could be even more miserable!”

Having realized that he’s said too much, Mystery Doo-shik grabs So-joon’s hands and pleads with him to stop his fixation on the future for one month. He urges So-joon to trust him and to remember that he’s on his side, even if his present self acts strangely in the coming days: “You need to trust that to the very end.”

But So-joon shakes him off, unable to believe him when he knows so little about Doo-shik’s motives. He decides he’ll no longer ask for Doo-shik’s help: “You don’t think I can protect my woman?”

At home, Ma-rin wonders why the stranger looked away when she’d never seen him before. She gives So-joon an opportunity to explain when he returns, but he lies that he was out alone. Believing that she’s still angry with him, he heads into the master bedroom to give her emotional space.

He catches her sneaking up to the door, though, so he suggests that they switch rooms. Ma-rin sighs that she’ll stay in the smaller room so that they’re both uncomfortable one way or another.

She tosses in bed, unable to shake off this unsettling feeling from So-joon’s string of lies. But she falls asleep and has a lucid dream where she’s surrounded by a mountain of laundry. She tries pinching her cheeks to wake herself up, but it doesn’t work, and a flurry of North Korean propaganda flyers land around her.

Just then, So-joon appears behind her speaking the North Korean dialect, and though she doesn’t believe it at first, the idea that he could be a spy crosses her mind. Saying that she knows too much, Dream So-joon proceeds to strangle her, repeating, “Die! Die!” while Ma-rin yells at him to also wake up.

She wakes in a start in her bed and is utterly relieved to see So-joon standing in the doorway. But when he glides to her bed in seconds, she realizes that she’s still dreaming and screams until she’s finally awake.

She’s soon startled again by the sound of So-joon screaming from the other bedroom, where she finds him sweating and restless in his own nightmare, muttering, “You can’t die.” She gets close and asks who that is, trying to get him to speak truthfully in his subconscious state.

But her plan is foiled when So-joon wakes seconds later, and she backs out of the room, wondering what’s giving him such fitful sleep.

Gun-sook invites Secretary Hwang over to pick his brain on So-joon’s flaws, specifically anything gossip-worthy. She grows eager when she’s told that there is something, and the secretary whispers that he accidentally eavesdropped on a conversation that might put So-joon’s sexuality in question.

He shows her a recorded video on his phone—aha, he’d stumbled on So-joon and Ki-doong’s conversation on the rooftop. Even though he always thought the two men were eerily close, he points out the possible romance in this exchange, like So-joon saying he’s leading “two lives” and chasing Ki-doong for a hug.

Secretary Hwang divulges that the two men even share an office space, and he twists So-joon’s words about meeting Ki-doong at his house in December to “tell him everything” as an opportunity to confess his feelings on a snowy day. HA, and Gun-sook believes that theory hook, line, and sinker.

Convinced that Ma-rin’s marriage is a sham to conceal his sexuality, Gun-sook invites Ma-rin out for coffee and forwards her Ki-doong’s address so she can find out for herself whether or not her husband actually loves men.

Gun-sook giggles at the thought of Ma-rin fighting with another man for her husband’s love, but Ma-rin is quick to nip this idea in the bud. Gun-sook tells her to think what she wants then, and Ma-rin gets up to scold her for trying to ruin someone else’s marriage.

Cut to: Ma-rin wearing a trench coat and sunglasses at night in Ki-doong’s neighborhood. So-joon is busy playing games and snacking in Ki-doong’s bed. When Ki-doong tries to get him to move so he can clean the crumbs, So-joon pulls him onto the bed and they play-wrestle until their faces are inches apart. Omo.

They stay like that for a few more seconds until So-joon says his friend’s too heavy, and they break apart.

Ma-rin sends a text to So-joon and believes him when he replies that he’s working late. She writes back that she’s sorry for doing something silly tonight and gets a reply. Moments later, we see So-joon and Ki-doong head outside laughing about where they should hang out tonight…

…And walk right up to Ma-rin. LOL. Several awkward seconds pass before Ma-rin cheerily greets her husband and sticks to him like glue. She pretends that this was a complete coincidence, but when Ki-doong jokingly points out that this meeting doesn’t seem at all coincidental, she looks at him threateningly and he scurries away.

Now that they’re alone, So-joon asks why he was following her. She in turn asks him why he lied about being at work and gets right to the point: “Are you dating Ki-doong?” She asks if he really likes men and their marriage is a sham, and So-joon laughs at the absurdity of those claims.

But Ma-rin would like for them to clear the air now—who was the ajusshi So-joon met outside their home last night? She repeats herself when he tries to sidestep the question and ends up getting even more frustrated.

So Ma-rin tries again by stating everything she knows about So-joon: He’s a philanthropist but barely works at the company he owns and chooses to spend his time playing games instead. Not only is she unable to understand his lifestyle, he’s constantly lying to her and meets with strange men at night.

Even stranger is how their house is filled with odd objects like an advanced robot vacuum and a magazine stating events that haven’t even taken place yet. What’s worse was So-joon’s insistence that she was imagining things, so it’s hard for her to understand any of this unless he were a North Korean spy or something.

So-joon gives her his South Korean military credentials, but he’s still vague about the rest and his inconsistent answers confuse her further. So then So-joon finally confesses, “I’m a time traveler.”

Thinking that he’s still toying with her with an absurd explanation, she breaks down crying, unable to take any more lies. He bends down to console her, but she shrugs him away and is too tired to talk to him when they return home.

Se-young and her father drive down to the countryside for the move-in ceremony of their organization’s newest built house. She protests when she hears that Ki-doong will be there because she remembers how she drunkenly called him So-joon.

Needless to say, she feels awkward when she sees him. Ki-doong, however, says she looks different to him today (oh?), adding that this house is the best one she’s ever built, including the one she built for his own family.

Ma-rin arrives behind them with her gear and works up the courage to speak to the woman she drank too much with and her husband’s alleged lover. The three of them stand around awkwardly, and Ki-doong makes it worse by obviously pointing out that it is awkward.

Se-young’s father makes a heartwarming speech about how a happy home comes from creating memories with loved ones, and that he hopes the elderly couple will do just that in their new house.

After the group photo, Se-young sits with Ki-doong and tells him to stop acting so awkward around him. He reminds her that she’s the one who can’t even look at him because she likes So-joon. He teases Se-young on her crush, saying that she’ll need to listen to him lest he let their mutual friend know.

She kicks him hard in the shin for that threat, but Ki-doong says he plans on making fun of her until she can get over her feelings for So-joon. She’s already annoyed that he knows about her crush, only to be told that she shouldn’t have gotten caught because he isn’t interested in how serious her feelings are for So-joon. Omo Ki-doong, what are you trying to say?

He tells her to get over her crush with a smile, then takes her face in his hands. Gasp, are you going to kiss her? But he smiles at her and she slaps him away.

Ma-rin is carrying a plate for the elderly couple when she stops to snap a photo of them sitting happily on a bench. She’s startled when So-joon suddenly slips into the frame, reminding her of how she said she wanted to take lots of photos of him.

When asked what he’s doing here, he jokes that he was bored at home before revealing that he came to see her. He sticks by her side as she hands rice cakes to the elderly couple and introduces her as his wife.

Se-young tries sending Ma-rin home since her job is over, but Ma-rin plans on helping out with the move. She suggests that So-joon help unload the furniture and introduces him to Se-young’s coworker as a realtor.

So-joon whines that he hates doing manual labor, but he shrinks when Ma-rin says he’s free to go and play games or time travel. He trails behind her to help, and she smiles to see how hard he’s working.

From a distance, Ki-doong says it’s obvious that Se-young is jealous, and he runs interference when Se-young tries to give So-joon some water during a short break.

Over at the office, Director Kim attempts to revive the proposal So-joon has already shut down. He takes those plans to Doo-shik, who admits that all he knows is that this area in question could turn a profit.

Director Kim feels the same way, arguing that he doesn’t understand why So-joon is so against his idea. Per Doo-shik’s request, Director Kim calls him “Teacher” and makes a strong case about the profit to be gained.

Although Doo-shik agrees to invest, he’s confused when Director Kim plans to stay at MyReits to enact this plan behind So-joon’s back instead of leaving the company to do it. Director Kim explains that he has his own surefire strategy for success: Get all his investors on board with this proposal and eventually take them all to his own firm.

And so Doo-shik changes his mind from a solid yes to a maybe.

At dinner, So-joon complains that today was so grueling that he can barely move. His supposedly aching fingers manage to feed himself, though, and when Ki-doong suggests that the ladies drink tonight, So-joon issues a firm no, reminding them of what happened when they last went out.

He does, however, pay attention when Ki-doong asks Ma-rin if So-joon is good to her despite his immature personality. But Ma-rin doesn’t answer and gets up to fetch some water inside, where she asks the owner for a pain relief patch for her husband. Awww.

Back at the table, Se-young mentions that her father told her that Ma-rin didn’t have the faintest idea that So-joon was the one to re-establish Happiness—in fact, her father let Ma-rin think that his friends didn’t know either.

Little does Se-young know that Ma-rin is within earshot, and So-joon wonders why women have to make everything so complicated. “Why is it so important for them to know who knows what and who doesn’t?” he asks. “Are they only satisfied when they know everything there is to know?”

As much as she doesn’t want to take Ma-rin’s side, Se-young can understand because she hates it when Ki-doong and So-joon keep secrets from her: “How is it that your wife knows less about you than we do?”

So-joon says that’s a given since he’s known his friends longer than he’s known Ma-rin, and Se-young asks if So-joon even loves his wife.

It’s at that moment Ma-rin joins the table long enough to give So-joon the pain relief patch and excuse herself. Per Ki-doong’s urging, So-joon catches up to her to ask her why she’s so upset. Is it because his friends knew something about him before she did?

He adds that it’s all in the past now and what’s important is that she knows now. Ma-rin says she doesn’t know why she’s so upset and frustrated, but now So-joon has had enough, asking, “Honestly, do you know you’re being a pain too?”

He says they need time to get to know one another, and he’s tried hard to meet her demands and even came down to see her to try and make her feel better. He grows frustrated when she says while she appreciates the effort, he needn’t try so hard.

So-joon yells that she has no idea how hard it is for him to even be here at a Happiness event, to which she retorts that he never told her even when she wanted to know why.

He searches for a counterargument and settles for pointing out that instead of seeing all the things he’s done for her, she tries to change who he is instead. He claims that she had nothing to lose when she married him, and then stops himself mid-sentence, having realized that he’d broken down their relationship into business terms.

A tear rolls down Ma-rin’s cheek as she says she never viewed their marriage as something where one party had something to lose or gain. “All I wanted was to be the person closest to you!” she cries. “I didn’t need anything else, all I wanted was you! But if that’s being greedy and stubborn, then what is love?”

He tries holding onto her, but Ma-rin storms off. She cries during the bus ride home while So-joon drives back into the city.

Back at the restaurant, Ki-doong adorably tries to lift Se-young’s spirits as she pours herself another shot of soju. She figures that So-joon coming today means that he really does like Ma-rin, whereas he doesn’t listen to a word Se-young has to say, not realizing that Ki-doong is listening to her every word.

Ma-rin is woken up by the bus driver long after they arrive in Seoul, but she barely takes two steps before collapsing into the empty seats. So while So-joon returns to an empty house, we see So-ri running into a hospital to find Ma-rin.

Evidently, Ma-rin’s fainting spell was because of a swollen lymph node, and she tells her friend not to tell So-joon nor her mother. She refuses to tell So-ri what’s going on and curls up in her hospital bed.

Worried, So-joon waits outside and thinks back to how Future Ki-doong advised him to break up with Ma-rin while he still had the chance. He tries calling Mom the next day and learns Ma-rin isn’t with her at the hair salon. Although he says he’ll stop worrying about her, he’s distracted during his meeting and solemnly looks up things like, “My wife ran away.”

But once he gets a text from So-ri telling him that Ma-rin is in the hospital, he immediately runs out in the middle of the meeting. He’s breathless when he arrives at Ma-rin’s hospital room and asks in a wavering voice how serious it is.

She says it’s nothing, and when he argues that she should’ve told him that she was sick, she notes that he too stayed out all night once. He says that was completely different, but her point is that he doesn’t feel like family to her: “I feel like I have to hide things from you when things are hard. Because you do that with me.”

“Every now and then, you seem like a completely different person,” she says, sighing, “and I thought I knew everything about you. But I don’t know a thing about you, and you don’t seem like you’re mine.”

A tear falls from his eyes as he utters, “So you’re saying… you can’t depend on me at all.” Without looking at him, Ma-rin says she doesn’t know what she did wrong—maybe they got married too fast and she’s always scared and worried that she made a mistake by entrusting the rest of her life in his hands.

So-joon can’t bring himself to look at her either as he says that it wasn’t her fault. He’s asked to leave so she can be alone.

When Ki-doong calls to follow up afterward, So-joon explains that he’s at Namyeong Station. He needs to find out when he and Ma-rin make up, and asks if that makes him sound pathetic. The subway comes, but So-joon doesn’t get on.

He doubles back to the hospital, where So-ri asks Ma-rin to tell her why she’s mad at So-joon so she can at least insult him with her. What a good friend. But Ma-rin doesn’t tell her and nearly chokes on her lettuce wrap when So-joon appears in the doorway.

He chooses to wait out in the hall until Ma-rin joins him there, explaining that she nearly choked on her first bite of her first meal because of him. He smiles to hear that she was eating to keep up her strength. She tells him to go, and he asks if there’s anything else she wants to eat.

She says she doesn’t have an appetite, but he’s willing to get her anything her heart desires. She turns back at those words, asking, “Anything?” So Ma-rin asks for raspberries and laughs when he readily agrees to buy them because they aren’t available right now.

She says that they can’t move past their issues with food and tells him to go home. So-joon marches up to her and asserts that he can and promises to come back with the berries.

He takes off running and comes back with a basketful of raspberries, explaining that he had to travel pretty far to get them.

She thanks him, and he asks if there’s anything else she wants. He knows they can’t blow past their fight with food alone, but he wants to make sure that she’s eating well. That’s adorable.

Smiling now, Ma-rin asks for mugwort stew with wild-caught flounder, adding that it’s only available during the spring. But that’s no problem for So-joon and he returns with the stew. He even gets Ma-rin her favorite flowers which only bloom in the springtime, telling her, “There’s nothing I can’t get for you.”

So-joon is out on another errand for her when he stops at the subway crash memorial. He calls to tease her for asking him to get her another soup so late at night, lightly joking that it’d be easier to catch a star for her. Ma-rin: “That thought did cross my mind.”

He tells her that on the night of the subway crash, he’d been dragged out to help his parents clean up after a charity event. Ma-rin carefully replies that she heard his parents managed Happiness when they were alive, and he says he was forced to help out about once or twice a month.

So when they met on the train, So-joon got off with her because he didn’t want to work. Looking at the photo of his parents, So-joon says he ran away from them. He knows their deaths weren’t his fault, but his voice starts to break as he thinks of how his parents must have felt when he left.

Ma-rin tells him that it’s okay and it wasn’t his fault, but So-joon says that in his parents’ final moments, they were disappointed in him. “I still don’t like to think about that night,” he says, holding back tears. “I don’t like bringing it up, either.”

They’re both crying now as So-joon asks, “A lot of things have happened to me since then, but for now, can’t we see each other? Can I go to you right now?”

Nodding, she tearily tells him to hurry, adding that he doesn’t need to pick up anything for her. He says there’s something he wants to say now because he isn’t sure he can say it to her face: “Back when you told me that you were relieved that I also survived… when you thanked me for surviving that night… I was so grateful that you said those words.”

As So-joon runs through the streets with happy tears in his eyes, Ma-rin washes her tear-stained face and heads downstairs to the lobby. So-joon calls her name and walks up to her, tears threatening to spill from his eyes.

They exchange smiles, and So-joon grabs her in a tight embrace.

 
COMMENTS

Even though I tried to do my best to brace myself for the inevitable moment when Ma-rin would find out about So-joon’s time traveling ability and the messy fallout that would follow, my heart still ached while watching them face that moment together. All those little lies So-joon told Ma-rin would directly contradict what she’d see or hear herself, and that led to a moment where no explanation added up in her head.

As much as it hurts watching our main couple battle the growing pains of their marriage, they’re also necessary steps for them to move forward and deepen their relationship. I can understand how Ma-rin would be upset over how she wasn’t her husband’s closest confidante despite the short amount of time they’ve known each other. If anything, that short timespan planted a seed of doubt in her head, and her fears and worries were exacerbated by the fact that his friends know much more about him than she does. I could see where she’d interpret him keeping secrets from her as an inability to trust her rather than attempts at protecting her from a potentially darker future. And when the words that So-joon does tell her contain more lies than truth, it’s hard for her to admit that she knows anything about her spouse at all.

What was harder to swallow was knowing that the damage had already been done by the time So-joon had realized he needed to patch the relationship and tell her the truth. He refused to heed Mystery Doo-shik’s warning about staying focused in the present, and we saw how his attempts to be considerate of her instead of working through the argument culminated in him losing his patience with her. He got a bitter taste of his own medicine when Ma-rin was in the hospital, and while I wasn’t too keen on the eye for an eye argument from Ma-rin, he needed to hear that they weren’t, in fact, as close as he thought. But even in those moments, I still felt hopeful because these rough patches and low lows are what make the highly emotional moments to follow so great.

So when So-joon proceeded to essentially woo his wife and show her that his actions can speak louder than his words, my heart couldn’t help but skip a beat. I appreciated how he acknowledged that a few errands wouldn’t resolve their issues, and looovved how he traveled back and forth in time to get Ma-rin her favorite things. If I had any doubt about So-joon’s feelings for Ma-rin before, this sequence solidified that I’m looking at a man who is in love and learning what it means to be in love.

But what was even better was the moment when So-joon shared his deepest fears about his parents in their final moments with the one person who knows how devastating of a loss it was. While I’m relieved that this episode ended with a loving embrace, I fear that they haven’t escaped the rough waters to come. But if there’s anything that I’ve learned in this series thus far, it’s that there’s no point in worrying about the distant future when the immediate present might be filled with hearts and kisses.

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