My Perfect Stranger, AKA Run Into You (Season 1), Episode 10: This episode goes a little in detail about each character’s back story. We see Hae Kyung’s life journey in this episode, understanding her character better. We see a softer and warm side to her that we had not seen before. A big piece of the puzzle from Hae Joon’s life is revealed. This article contains spoilers.
My Perfect Stranger, AKA Run Into You (Season 1), Episode 10 Recap:
“Far or close”
The episode begins with Yoon Young giving her hand to Hee Seop to take him to the hospital, but he refuses by saying that he will wait for his brother to come out of the Inn. She drags him anyway, and he resists. As they wait, Yoon Young recalls her promise to Yu Seop to take care of Hee Seop. At that moment, TV reporters arrive at the Inn.
We see Hae Joon telling Yu Seop before he enters the Inn that the TV reporters will arrive in 15 minutes, and he has to save Hee Seop and himself until then. The police officers receive a call updating them about the situation at hand. The TV reporters come banging at the door, demanding answers. Hae Joon carries Yu Seop on his back and takes him to the hospital.
At the hospital, Yoon Young asks Hae Joon if his friends from the TV station have left; he answers by saying that they got what they wanted and will probably be celebrating by now despite knowing they won’t be able to air the news. She asks him what kind of future Hee Seop and Yu Seop would have as they deserve to start over after going through many hardships. Hae Joon assures her that they will start over as their surgeries have gone well and things have already started to change.
As they leave, Yoon Young tells Hae Joon that she wants to buy him a meal, but he has to lend her the money as she does not have any. She promises to pay it back once they return to 2021. They walk out one door, and the principal enters the other. He enters the room and asks Yu Seop what had happened and why he could not get hold of him for the last few days. All Yu Seop did was look toward Hee Seop.
At the police station, Dong Sik is out of control due to frustration. He fights with his colleague, demanding his reason for letting those men take Hee Seop away. His fellow officer fights back by saying that if he was so concerned, why had he arrested him? As they get into a physical fight, the Chairman expresses his disappointment in them. He tells them that two people had died in the village, and they were fighting among themselves. He also tells them not to harm Hee Seop in any way again.
Soon Ae’s mother gets out of the house and weeps but finds a food parcel with a message that reads it tastes better with soy sauce. Soon Ae’s father asks her what was in it, and she looks and says it’s twisted breadsticks that were Kyung Ae’s favorite.
In Hae Joon’s house, Yoon Young runs to him and says that Yeon Woo is back. Yeon Woo tells Hae Joon that he has two conditions before he fixes the car and they were: first, he would only eat one meal in the evening, and the meal has to be a grilled cheese, and the second one is he should not be disturbed except at meal time. He also tells him that he would fix his car if he solves the Rubik’s cube in 5 seconds and Hae Joon solves it in 3 seconds.
Hae Joon also puts forth two conditions: Yeon Woo should not tell anybody what he sees inside the car, and he should stay in the garage so Yoon Young can be comfortable. As Yeon Woo looks inside, he is surprised to see new things (as the car is from the year 2021). Hae Joon challenges him, asking if he can repair it, and Yeon Woo affirms.
Hae Joon and Yoon Young get back to solving the murder case. Yoon Young suggests that since the car was being fixed, they needed to find the culprits and save the innocent ones before they left in 1987. She suggests that their next suspect should be Mi Sook as she had revealed to Yoon Young how she would write about the third victim in 2021, and she had also revealed that the third victim Hae Kyung was in love with her (Mi Sook).
Hae Kyung and her friends are having fun at the teahouse, and Mi Sook joins them. Yu Ri gives them matching hair bands, and Hae Kyung calls them tacky but sees Mi Sook wear them, and the girls compliment Mi Sook. Hae Kyung asks Mi Sook if they could talk in private. Hae Kyung asks her what she will do when Hee Seop is released. Mi Sook tells her that she had anticipated Hee Seop to behave that way because of his brother. Hae Kyung asks her if she will frame her brother, and Mi Sook tells her that her constant questioning about it annoys her as she is sure about framing Min Soo.
Yoon Young tells Hae Joon that Hae Kyung blackmailed Mi Sook to go with her to Seoul, but Mi Sook gets frustrated with her. She also mentions that Hae Kyung had run away from home for fear of being caught. Hae Joon tells her that he would consider that story as well, but he gets led to another side of the story. Hae Joon tells her that her homeroom teacher and Hae Kyung’s mother had feelings for each other. He explains that Hae Kyung had run away because of a misunderstanding.
A still from My Perfect Stranger, AKA Run Into You (Season 1), Episode 10.We see a flashback to a time when Hae Kyung’s mother was serving food to her customers, and one of them misbehaved towards her, and Yoon Young’s homeroom teacher hit the man. As the adults talk about sorting the matter before Hae Kyung returns home, Hae Kyung overhears the conversation. She later walks inside the bar to see her mother applying a pain relief patch on her homeroom teacher’s back. She sees that her mother has made Kimchi soup, which was his favorite, and she tells her mother that she likes seaweed soup and should never make kimchi soup again. But her mother had made the kimchi soup for the last time for Hae Kyung’s sake, but Hae Kyung misunderstood that and left home.
Yoon Young asks Hae Joon if that is why Hae Kyung runs away from home. Hae Joon tells her they should not leave out any possibilities and should focus on keeping Hae Kyung alive. Yoon Young suggests that if the cause for her running away from home is the kimchi soup, they should find a way to clear that misunderstanding before she runs away.
At school, Hae Joon and Yoon Young’s homeroom teacher watch the students, and the homeroom teacher comments on the matching hairbands, calling them tacky. Hae Joon seeing how the homeroom teacher is dressed and sees the bouquet asks him if he is going to propose, and the homeroom teacher says yes. Hae Joon asks him why he is so optimistic; he can also be rejected. The Homeroom teacher responds by saying there are so many rumors going on, and just because Hae Kyung’s mother works at a bar alone, people also talk differently. He intends to stop all the rumors and become the strength for the mother and daughter.
In the girl’s classroom, some girls are bad-mouthing Hae Kyung’s mother, and Hae Kyung walks in, listening to this gossip. Yoon Young starts to worry about Hae Kyung. Yoon Young rushes to bring Hae Joon to her classroom. When they both enter the classroom, they see Hae Kyung beating up one of the girls asking her if she had seen her mother enticing other men, which the girl says she had. The homeroom teacher breaks them apart, and he asks Hae Kyung to stop fighting and pull herself together for her mother’s sake. But she asks him to mind his own business and says that he is just a teacher who wants to have an affair with a bar owner. Hearing this, the homeroom teacher gets furious and slaps Hae Kyung. She runs back home, and Hae Joon follows her.
At home, Hae Kyung sees the kimchi soup and decides to leave, she packs up, writes a letter to her mother, and opens the door to run away, but Hae Joon asks her to return and bring the letter she had left for her mother. At the bus stand, Hae Joon reads the letter she had written out loud nine times, and Hae Kyung begs him to stop. Hae Kyung asks him where they were off to, and he says he knew she wouldn’t want to return home so soon, so she needed to get some fresh air first. Yoon Young takes permission from her homeroom teacher to leave school early that day.
Hae Joon takes Hae Kyung to observe a 300-year-old tree. He tells her that the tree withstood several draughts and floods but stayed strong. Hae Kyung responds by saying that’s how trees are, and he tells her she is right. The trees don’t have a choice. He also tells her he knew someone as strong as that tree long ago.
In a flashback to 2013, we see Hae Kyung’s mother still looking for Hae Kyung. Through the changing weather and harsh conditions, and after years had passed by, she was seen giving away pamphlets about her missing daughter. In 2020, her mother fell from exhaustion, and Hae Joon helped and talked to her. He asks her to rest or visit the hospital. Hae Kyung’s mother tells him that while she is resting, if her daughter showed up, then she would be disappointed. She breaks down and tells him about the letter and says she wants to apologize to her for being such a lousy mother.
Hae Joon relays this story to Hae Kyung without mentioning the names and tells Hae Kyung that the mother had repeated this cycle for 40 years and later passed away and never had a chance to see her daughter. Hae Kyung tells him that she wanted to go away from home for some time and not for 40 years, and he says he knows. He tells her to hate only those who spread the rumors and not her mother, especially when she does not hate her, as she was why she fought with that girl.
Yoon Young visits Soon Ae as she knows she will be holed up at home. Yoon Young tells Soon Ae that Hee Seop was released and asks if she wants to see him. As Soon Ae and Hee Seop talk at the hospital, Yoon Young watches from outside the door. Hee Seop asks her why she had come as he wants her to see only his handsome side. She asks Hee Seop why he had not told the police the truth, and he tells her that it was her privacy and explains that once you lose someone you love, you want to protect them, trying to understand each action you take. He consoles her, saying she has done nothing wrong by letting Kyung Ae leave that night. Soon Ae breaks down.
Hae Joon brings Hae Kyung home and asks her to see what her mother has made for her. She enters the house, and her mother gives her seaweed soup. Hae Kyung tells her that she thought she had made kimchi soup, but her mother tells her that she had and wanted to tell the homeroom teacher never to visit again, but he had refused to come on his own. She also tells her that she only wants to be with her daughter. Hae Kyung tells her about the situation at school, tells her to call the homeroom teacher back, and confesses that she does not really like seaweed soup.
As Hae Joon and Yoon Young grab a meal together, Yoon Young tells him she finally understands why her mother loved her father as he was with her through the most challenging time of her life. They both talk about going back to 2021 and grabbing a meal together. Yoon Young acts goofy while playing in the water. She asks Hae Joon to come and play with her, but he refuses. She asks him why he wouldn’t come, and he says he doesn’t want to. Yoon Young lies her head on his lap and goes to sleep.
Yeon Woo is busy trying to fix the car, and Hae Joon brings him his grilled cheese sandwich. Yeon Woo realizes the time and tells Hae Joon he has to leave to watch a movie, which has already started. Hae Joon remembers a conversation with his father from the future about his father and his mother’s movie dates. He visits the theatre, wondering to himself why he has come here. Moreover, he was curious to know who his mother was. From behind, he could see a pink hairband next to his father. He recalled his conversation with his grandfather in the future about the time he had asked about his mother. His grandfather had just said that after giving birth, his mother had left the village without blinking an eye. Going down memory lane, Hae Joon lost track of time, losing sight of his parents.
The episode ends with Hae Joon waiting outside the movie theatre and finally seeing his mother, who worked at the teahouse. At that moment, Mi Sook greets him out of the theatre. Hae Joon wondered why he had to know the truth now and how it was that she was his mother.
My Perfect Stranger, AKA Run Into You (Season 1), Episode 10 Ending, Explained:
This episode dives deeper into understanding Hae Kyung. We finally have the answer to why Hae Kyung had always protected Mi Sook as she was in love with her. We see her warmth towards her mother, which is a significant change compared to her rebellious attitude.
Mi Sook is getting a lot more suspicious. It’s time to see if she will pay a price for her crimes. In this episode, we do not see much of Bum Ryung. We must also find out what the police are doing to catch the culprit. With Hae Kyung not running away from the house, a lot of variables are already changing. Will there be a third victim now? We have to wait and find out.
We see a big reveal from Hae Joon’s life. He finally gets to see who his mother is. He is in shock now, but will he do something not to make his mother abandon him and his father in the future? We have to see if Hae Joon will act emotionally or rationally and what would be the consequences for the same.
<< Previous Episode
My Perfect Stranger AKA Run Into You (Season 1) Episode 10 Links – IMDb
My Perfect Stranger AKA Run Into You (Season 1) Episode 10 Cast – Dong-wook Kim, Ki-joo Jin, Lee Ji-hyun
Where to watch Run Into You
