Reunited Worlds: Episodes 31-32

by LollyPip

It’s an episode full of shocking discoveries as Hae-sung grows ever closer to solving the mystery of who killed the bully from all those years ago. He may regret ever starting down this path if the truth becomes more of a burden than remaining in the dark. Hae-sung may have a difficult decision ahead of him — keep silent and hurt those he loves, or tell the truth and hurt them even worse than before?

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EPISODE 31 RECAP

Young-joon confesses to Hae-sung that despite what he said before, CEO Cha did pay his way through medical school. He asks why Hae-sung wanted to know, so Hae-sung tells him that CEO Cha had already told him about it, and he wanted to confirm it with Young-joon.

Young-joon had thought that when Hae-sung asked about it, that he was there to judge him for taking money from CEO Cha, so he’s surprised that Hae-sung was actually looking into Kyung-chul’s death. He says that he came to the wrong place to ask his question.

Hae-sung says, “You believe that I’m the murderer, don’t you?” He asks why, and Young-joon says that a lot of people think that he’s the murderer because he hated Kyung-chul for beating him up, and because he wasn’t home that night. But he insists that he wasn’t even near the school when Kyung-chul was killed, so if it wasn’t him, then it must have been Hae-sung.

But Hae-sung tells Young-joon firmly that he didn’t do it either. He realizes that whoever CEO Cha is covering for, it’s not Young-joon. He thinks to himself, “There’s no way… Tae-hoon?”

Young-joon tells Hae-sung that he’s getting married soon, and that he doesn’t want any distractions from that. He asks Hae-sung not to pull him into this matter any further.

Devastated by the thought that Tae-hoon might be the killer, Hae-sung calls Ho-bang. But he changes his mind before mentioning his suspicion, deciding that he won’t say anything until he’s absolutely sure.

That night, Hae-sung goes to visit his sisters, and he sees Tae-hoon walking Young-in home after a date. He watches them say goodnight, looking troubled at the thought that his friend might be guilty of murder.

Over dinner, Jin-ju brightly tells Jung-won and Moon-shik about Ho-bang’s handcuff confession, but she says it as if it happened to a friend. They both think it sounds like a very romantic proposal, so Jin-ju asks why the guy has been ignoring her “friend” ever since then.

Jung-won says that the guy is playing hard to get, prompting Jin-ju to bark, “Why would I play hard to get?” HAHA, whoops. Jin-ju swears it wasn’t her, adding that her “friend” has felt weird ever since then. Jung-won asks if she feels weird around Ho-bang, and Jin-ju nods sadly before remembering that the story isn’t supposed to be about her, hee.

Jung-won heads home to find Hae-chul waiting on the landing for Hae-sung. She invites him in and gives him a pretty dress she bought for Gong-ju. She notices that he seems upset, so Hae-chul tells her that Gong-ju’s mother wants to take Gong-ju from him.

Jung-won is shocked, but she counsels Hae-chul to hear Yoo-min out. Hae-chul says that he doesn’t want to see her, so Jung-won offers to meet with Yoo-min and ask her what she’s thinking.

As she walks Hae-chul out, Jung-won overhears Ho-bang on the phone confirming plans for a blind date. She runs inside to call Jin-ju, who tries to play it cool at the news that Ho-bang has a date, but she makes sure to get the time and place from Jung-won even while denying that she’s totally not going there.

Of course she does go there, and she finds Ho-bang talking comfortably with a beautiful woman. Jin-ju plunks herself down right next to them, shooting dirty looks at them both and ignoring their attempts to wave her away.

She’s so upset that she doesn’t notice Ho-bang’s cop sunbaes lurking around the restaurant — oh no, it’s not a date, it’s a sting! They’re targeting someone who appears to be a man in a lady’s wig, and when someone enters and joins the perp, Ho-bang tries even harder to ignore Jin-ju’s interruptions.

That just makes Jin-ju even angrier, and she grows louder, demanding Ho-bang’s attention. The distraction allows the two criminals to make a bag switch, so Ho-bang’s sunbae orders two cops posing as bartenders to drag her outside.

The criminals take advantage of the commotion to make a run for it, but luckily, Ho-bang sees them in time. He and his “date,” in reality another cop, catch them just outside and manage to cuff them. Ho-bang nearly gets in trouble for letting Jin-ju almost ruin their sting, so he tells her she’s guilty of obstruction of justice and orders her into a police car.

He sits with her, not buying her excuse that she showed up at the restaurant by coincidence. Ashamed, Jin-ju admits that she heard he was on a blind date, and Ho-bang utterly fails to hide his happy grin at her obvious jealousy. At the station, he twists Jin-ju’s arm behind her back and starts reading her rights, but she breaks and runs. Ho-bang watches her go, squealing at how cute she is.

Back at the apartment, Hae-sung sets up a recorder and sits to make a video. Later, Jung-won runs in with her hair a mass of wild curls from a disastrous perm, only to find him pointing the camera at her and laughing his butt off. She pouts and makes him promise to delete the video before dropping off some steamed buns she got for him.

Tae-hoon’s mother freaks out when she hears that Tae-hoon is dating Hae-sung’s sister. She gasps dramatically and shrieks at CEO Cha, who says that he told Tae-hoon to end things and warns her to let him handle it.

She doesn’t listen, and so the next day, she shows up at Young-in’s apartment just as Young-in and Soo-ji are leaving for the day. She asks how Young-in dares to date her son, and when Young-in says that they care for each other, Tae-hoon’s mother reminds her that her brother is a killer and tells her to have some shame.

Tears spring to Young-in’s eyes, but she says firmly that Hae-sung didn’t kill anyone. Tae-hoon’s mother tells her not to make her the bad guy, and Young-in retorts that she doesn’t want to be in a relationship with someone whose mother is so disrespectful to her brother. Scoffing, Tae-hoon’s mother says silkily that she hopes Young-in isn’t just saying that.

Having overheard their conversation, Soo-ji goes straight to Hae-sung at the gallery to tell him about it. She wails that Tae-hoon’s mother called Young-in the sister of a murderer, and Hae-sung vows to prove that he didn’t kill anyone. He apologizes, but he doesn’t have a ready answer when Soo-ji asks what he has to be sorry for.

Hae-sung walks her out, and they run into Tae-hoon on his way to see Hae-sung, having heard what happened. He apologizes to Hae-sung and tells him that he’s worried about Young-in, who didn’t come to work and who isn’t at home or answering her phone.

Tae-hoon says that his parents are against his relationship with Young-in, and that he hasn’t gone home for several days, so he didn’t know about his mother’s plans to confront Young-in. He promises that everything will be fine since they love each other, and seeing his sincerity, Hae-sung agrees to help look for Young-in.

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EPISODE 32 RECAP

Young-in calls Tae-hoon as he’s leaving the gallery to ask him to meet with her. He apologizes for his mother’s out of line behavior, but Young-in just says that she wants to break up. Tae-hoon refuses to accept it, telling Young-in that he’s so happy with her and that he can’t live without her.

He says that he can’t let things end because of his mother. But Young-in responds that if his mother can’t accept her because of Hae-sung, then she can’t be with him anymore. Stunned, but knowing that she’s right, Tae-hoon lets her go.

When Young-in arrives home later, she finds Hae-sung pacing nervously outside her door. He’s relieved to see that she’s okay and she invites him in for dinner. She seems fine, but suddenly, in the middle of cooking, she stops and begins to cry.

At a loss, Hae-sung leaves, and Young-in sinks to the floor and cries her heart out. Outside, Hae-sung fights his own tears at seeing his sister so heartbroken.

The next day, Hae-chul calls Jung-won to ask if she’ll meet with Gong-ju’s mother, Yoo-min, today. On her way there, Jung-won sees Yoo-min’s lawyer stepping out of a taxi, and she recognizes him. She calls out to him by name: Park Dong-seok, the boy in the cast who may have been the last person to see Kyung-chul alive.

He remembers her and smiles widely, and she tells him that they’ve been looking for him, to ask him about the night that Kyung-chul died. He remembers that night, telling Jung-won that Kyung-chul had said that he was going to meet up with Tae-hoon, so he’d gone with him.

Before Jung-won gets a chance to ask any more questions, Dong-seok gets an urgent phone call and quickly hails another taxi. Jung-won asks for his business card so she can reach him again, but he’s already gone.

As he rides away, Dong-seok calls Yoo-min to say that he can’t meet today as planned. He advises not to meet with Hae-chul alone, so she hangs up and tells Hae-chul that she’ll call him to reschedule.

Jung-won also leaves as soon as she hears that Yoo-min left, and she rushes back to the gallery to tell Hae-sung that she ran into Park Dong-seok. She says that he was surprisingly forthcoming about being with Kyung-chul that night, and that he said Kyung-chul was there to see Tae-hoon, finding it strange that Tae-hoon knows they’re trying to find the truth and never mentioned it.

His worst suspicions confirmed, Hae-sung calls Tae-hoon to meet him at the riverside. When Tae-hoon arrives, Hae-sung asks him, “Tae-hoon-ah, why did you do it? On the night of the murder, you met with Yang Kyung-chul. What happened?”

Tae-hoon goes pale and stammers nervously, so Hae-sung grabs him by the lapels and screams in his face, “How could you do this to me? How!? How could you date Young-in, hang out with our friends, and be nice to my siblings after what you did?”

Haltingly, Tae-hoon confesses that it’s true: He killed Kyung-chul. Hae-sung blanches and steps away as Tae-hoon explains that he’d been upset after seeing Hae-sung’s fight with Kyung-chul, so at lunch he’d told Kyung-chul to stop picking fights with Hae-sung and to stop bullying Young-joon.

He says that Kyung-chul called him after school and told him to come to the art classroom. When he did, Kyung-chul had started hitting Tae-hoon, so he’d shoved Kyung-chul as hard as he could and run away. He’d gone back a while later, but Kyung-chul was dead.

Tae-hoon confesses that he’d called his father out of fear, then he’d run home. The next day the police had announced that Hae-sung was the murderer, and Tae-hoon says that he knows that he should have come clean then.

We see in flashback that Tae-hoon had told his father that he planned to turn himself in and clear Hae-sung’s name. CEO Cha had slapped him hard and said that if he did that, his life would be over. He’d told Tae-hoon that turning himself in wouldn’t change anything or bring Hae-sung back to life, begging Tae-hoon to keep silent for his sake.

Crying now, Tae-hon starts to apologize over and over, saying that he’s felt guilty and sorry for the last twelve years. He tells Hae-sung that he wasn’t scared when he came back, that he was genuinely happy to see him again because he thought this could be his chance to pay Hae-sung back by treating him well.

He admits that he should have confessed and begged forgiveness, which he does now. He sinks to his knees, sobbing at Hae-sung’s feet, wracked with guilt. Hae-sung can’t even speak through his anger, and he walks away, leaving Tae-hoon alone.

Jung-won and Hae-chul wait for Yoo-min at their rescheduled meeting time, and Jung-won tells Hae-chul to hear Yoo-min out before saying anything. She reminds him that the lawyer will be here, so she tells him to just think about Gong-ju and not to get emotional, no matter what Yoo-min says.

As they head for the meeting, Yoo-min thanks Dong-seok for advising her to take legal action, which she hadn’t even considered. He says that he thinks all the time about taking Gong-ju to the U.S. to live with them, promising Yoo-min to make it happen no matter what. Wait, are they dating?

When they arrive at the restaurant, Yoo-min points out Hae-chul, but Dong-seok looks nervous when he sees Jung-won sitting with him. He hastily makes up an important meeting that he supposedly forgot about, and runs off.

Yoo-min goes to talk to Hae-chul anyway, and Jung-won introduces herself as Hae-chul’s friend. From a short distance away, Dong-seok watches Jung-won, his face taking on a frightening expression.

Grandmother finds Hae-sung brooding over Tae-hoon’s confession, trying to reconcile the friend he loves with the man who lied and let him be named a murderer. She reminds him that he doesn’t have much time left, asking when he plans to tell everyone.

Hae-sung says that he doesn’t think he’s able to do it, and neither of them sees Min-joon standing nearby with a tray of drinks. He hears Grandmother asking if Hae-sung plans to leave them without a word like he did when he died, and Hae-sung’s fear that once he tells them, they’ll only suffer until the moment he disappears.

Stunned, Min-joon goes back inside as Grandmother says gently that the pain of saying goodbye isn’t as bad as the pain of not being allowed to say goodbye. She tells Hae-sung to think about it carefully.

Min-joon paces the kitchen, the knowledge that Hae-sung isn’t long for this world weighing heavy on his shoulders. He calls Hae-sung to his office and tells him that he overheard that he’ll be leaving soon. Hae-sung asks him not to tell anyone for now, saying that he doesn’t even know when it will be, and Min-joon agrees to forget what he knows.

An excited Ho-bang calls Jung-won to the station, where he shows her the CCTV footage of her run-in with Dong-seok. He zooms in on the taxi that Dong-seok flagged, telling Jung-won proudly that they’re already looking into where the taxi dropped Dong-seok off and the name on his credit card.

At home, Hae-sung plugs in the video camera and reviews the recording he made a few days ago. It’s a video for Jung-won to watch after he’s gone, and he says that coming back and seeing her again gave him a lot of joy and happiness. As he watches himself say goodbye to the person he loves most in the world, Hae-sung breaks down crying.

 
COMMENTS

I can’t believe it was Tae-hoon all along… I suspected he knew what happened, but I never expected that everything happened because of him. Kyung-chul’s death, Hae-sung’s accident, Hae-sung’s family falling apart — it was all because Tae-hoon confronted Kyung-chul. I don’t think Tae-hoon is guilty of murder, obviously, and of course he’s a good person. He was just a kid who never intended any of it to happen, and I believe that he’s been haunted by the truth all these years. But because he got in over his head with a bully, and because he responded to the bully’s taunting, two boys died and their lives were destroyed, while Tae-hoon got off scot-free and went on to live a charmed life.

But I don’t think we know the whole story yet, because Dong-seok is definitely hiding something. It’s very strange that he’s popping up now, just coincidentally dating the mother of Hae-sung’s niece and influencing her to sue for custody when it wasn’t even on her mind. It almost seems like he’s trying to hurt Hae-sung’s family by taking away someone they love, and I can’t help but wonder if he’s on some sort of revenge path for Kyung-chul’s death. I don’t think Dong-seok planned to ever be found out, because his reaction to seeing Jung-won was to avoid her and hide, which is definitely fishy. I don’t think he’s the mild-mannered lawyer he pretends to be, and I believe that he’s probably the one person who knows the full truth of what happened that night twelve years ago.

On a different note, as everyone seems to be running around getting things done, I feel like Jung-won is sort of just stagnating as a character. Although she’s pursuing her own dreams now — sort of — she’s not really changing much as a person as a result of having Hae-sung back in her life. Toward the beginning of the drama, I felt like the difference in energy between Jung-won as a teenager and as an adult (and her seeming lack of maturity for her age in the present day) made sense, because of course she was deeply affected and stunted by Hae-sung’s untimely death. But I expected to see her blossom and change back into her old spunky, snarky self, at least a little bit, especially with having her first love back in her life.

But emotionally, she still feels very one-note to me, which makes me uninterested in her beyond how much Hae-sung cares for her. It’s very possible that this is also a result of the fact that to me, Yeo Jin-gu had a lot more chemistry with Jung Chae-yeon (who played Jung-won as a teen) than he does with Lee Yeon-hee — I just loved their scenes together, and Hae-sung’s interactions with adult Jung-won don’t have that same sparkle. I would love to see Yeo Jin-gu and Jung Chae-yeon play opposite each other in another drama some day, as leads for the entire show.

Surprisingly, I feel that the people who have experienced the most growth since having Hae-sung back are Hae-chul and Young-in. Hae-chul has gone from a floundering wastrel loan shark, to a man who wants nothing more than to be a good father to his daughter to the point that he’s turned his whole life around. And Young-in, who used to cower and shrink away from anyone who even looked at her sternly, now has the guts to stand firm and tell the man she loves that she’s not willing to be treated badly by his mother for the rest of her life, even if it means losing him. They’ve both become such impressively strong people, and that kind of character growth is what I was hoping to see from this drama from the very beginning.

Lastly, I feel so bad for poor Min-joon — he was the last to know about Hae-sung being back from the dead, and now he’s the first to know that Hae-sung will be leaving again. What a terrible burden, to be unable to tell the person you care about because you know it would devastate them. Or worse, to choose to tell them, and be the one who devastates them all over again.

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