My Perfect Stranger, AKA Run Into You (Season 1), Episode 12 Recap & Ending, Explained: This episode gave us the feels and a rush of adrenaline too. We get to see the chemistry between Hae Joon and Yoon Young come to light. All the people who were suspected of committing the murder are no longer under suspicion as the backstory of every character is revealed. A new mysterious man has entered the scene and now it’s a major mystery, finding out who he is. The only person who can help solve the puzzle is Mi Sook.
This article contains spoilers.
My Perfect Stranger, AKA Run Into You (Season 1), Episode 12 Recap:
“A man who doesn’t exist”
The episode begins with Hae Joon asking Yeon Woo who he thought the former was. He asks him if he should have gone to the police to find out who Hae Joon was, but in the end, he decides to come to him to find answers. Hae Joon assures him that he is not the murderer and that if he fixes the car, he can find the truth out about who he is. The police arrested Min Soo and found the red string and Bong Bong Teahouse matchboxes in Min Soo’s room. Seeing Hae Joon distressed about the situation, Yoon Young takes him out on a walk to get some fresh air.
Yoon Young tries to comfort Hae Joon by saying that she has some experience in facing family members, in 1987, and Yeon Woo had let things go because he would have trusted him because of a gut feeling. Hae Joon reveals that after his mother abandoned him, his father returned to the States to finish his studies and become a professor. He would visit him twice a year and use the time to work on his research. His grandfather hated and ignored him all his life but he never found out why.
Yoon Young tells Hae Joon that he must have felt unloved, but she thought of him fondly. She reveals that in her nightmare, she saw that her parents were happy, but he had disappeared without a trace, which scared her. She tells him that she wants a future with him in it, and that she wants to take him to her favorite restaurants and talk about silly things. That’s the future she wants, and she asks if this is the wrong way of consoling him. Hae Joon asks her if he had to look at it only as a consolation, and she blushes and replies, ‘No’. Hae Joon tells her that he had assumed it was only him dreaming of such a future, but now he is glad. He hugs her and tells her they do not have much time but asks her to pretend that time has briefly been paused.
The police bring Min Soo to the police station where the reporters are already waiting for them. In his drunken state, Min Soo confesses to committing the crimes and asks for his sister. The police let him nap and get a confession once he is sober. Dong Sik tells his colleague that the matchboxes did not have the notes and that the handwriting differed from the note. The colleague brushes off his idea of investigating further and is hell-bent on putting Min Soo behind bars.
Yoon Young and Hae Joon are conversing about the future and having fun together but Yoon Young sees Soon Ae’s dad and calls him grandpa in a panicked state. Soon Ae’s father tells them that her daughter became a novelist, but he cannot be happy as people will talk about it, saying he does not deserve to be happy as he lost his first daughter. Hae Joon tells him to celebrate. He asks Hae Joon if he should help Soon Ae study further, and Yoon Young immediately tells him that he should.
Hae Joon and Yoon Young discuss the hardships of bringing Min Soo out of custody until the real culprit is found. Yoon Young hopes Hae Kyung will step forward as the witness, but Hae Joon tells her that she is probably afraid. In Yoon Young’s classroom, the girls discuss the arrest and the stolen novel. This annoys Hae Kyung and he leaves the room to get some fresh air. Hae Joon stands around Hae Kyung and she gets irritated seeing him. He promises not to ask her anything when she tells him that she knows nothing. Hae Joon asks her to talk to him if she is afraid of the police and Hae Kyung walks away from him.
Bum Ryung tries to talk to Hee Seop, but he ignores him. Bum Ryung gave a hairpin asking Hee Seop to give it to Soon Ae as it was hers and Hae Joon asked It to give it to her. He sniffles, saying he feels terrible and Soon Ae would not like to see his face. Hee Seop gives him one final chance to change himself. Mi Sook does not attend school and Yoon Young catches Hae Kyung staring at Soon Ae, who is asleep.
Hee Seop walks Soon Ae home. Yoon Young bumps into Hae Kyung and her friends in the corridor. One of the girls asks if Soon Ae is suffering, and Yoon Young tells her that her sister has died and that her family wants the culprit to be found so they can pay the price for their sins. Hae Kyung is disturbed by this statement and she walks off.
Soon Ae’s mother hears Hee Seop’s voice and listens in on Hee Seop and Soon Ae’s conversation. Hee Seop tries to cheer Soon Ae up but she refuses all his offers. He asks her if she can hug her, and hearing this, Soon Ae’s mother is about to go to the gate to yell at them but hears Soon Ae refuse the hug, which makes her stop. Soon Ae tells Hee Seop that her mother cleans the entire house and does dishes and laundry when distressed, which worries her. Her mother is saddened to hear this. Soon Ae gives in and hugs Hee Seop before walking into the house. At home, Soon Ae’s mother pretends to have taken a nap and asks to cook tteokbokki for Soon Ae. She tells her that the publishing house have sent her an advance copy of her book and says that her sister would have been happy for her.

While fixing Hae Joon’s car, Yeon Woo remembers a conversation with his father. His father tells him Hae Joon is an odd man and explains that he had saved a school student the first time he met him. He tells Yeon Woo that Hae Joon was known to save people around the village. Yeon Woo asks him if he thought Hae Joon was cool or odd, and his father tells him that he was oddly cool. Yeon Woo wonders what it was about him that seemed odd.
Hae Kyung asks to speak to Hae Joon alone, and they visit Bong Bong Teahouse. Hae Kyung explains what happened the day one of the victims died. She tells him that she had brought Mi Sook to Min Soo that night and they saw someone dead and a man near the body. Hae Kyung wanted to go to the police but Mi Sook refused. She showed Hae Kyung her body and explained that Min Soo had done that to her and she could get rid of him once and for all. Hae Kyung asks her what if the real culprit is caught, and Mi Sook assures her that the real culprit will not be caught. Hae Kyung insists that they go to the police but gives in to Mi Sook’s wishes and hugs her.
Hae Joon comes home and tells Yoon Young that Mi Sook wasn’t the culprit but an actual witness, and the only one to have seen the face of the culprit. She had written exactly what she had witnessed in the novel. The phone rings, and on the other side of the line is Bum Ryung. He informs Hae Joon that something must have happened to Soon Ae as he had seen her on the hill. He had gone up there to return Ju Young’s ring but found Soon Ae there. Upon returning, he saw her hairpin and looked for her but did not find her. He had called his parents, but they said she wasn’t home, and the police said since the culprit was found, Soon Ae would be safe. Hae Joon tells him he will be there and asks Bum Ryung to stay where he is.
Hae Joon asks Yoon Young to go to Hee Seop and take Dong Sik. Soon Ae is tied up in a room with her book lying on the floor, getting tortured by an unknown man. Yoon Young and Hee Seop inform Dong Sik about the situation. Bum Ryung finds Soon Ae and sees a man around her. He immediately hits him and saves Soon Ae. He asks her to run while he deals with the culprit. As they leave, the culprit hits Bum Ryung and he asks her to run. The culprit beats Bum Ryung to death and Soon Ae realizes this and decides to run for her life. Soon Ae runs, and the criminal catches up to her just as he is about to attack Soon Ae. He goes into the shadow seeing Hae Joon. Soon Ae tells Hae Joon that the criminal is chasing her, and he sees him run. He chases after him while the police, Hee Seop, and Yoon Young arrive.
Dong Sik asks his colleague to take Soon Ae to the hospital and chases after the culprit. Hae Joon loses sight of the culprit but reaches the abandoned house to find Bum Ryung dead. Seeing Bum Ryung dead, he recalls his dead body in the future. He remembers his words of wanting to change after seeing fear in Soon Ae’s eyes.
The episode ends with Dong Sik finding Hae Joon in front of Bum Ryung’s body with blood on his hands from having touched Bum Ryung. He finds the Bong Bong Teahouse matchbox with the note in it, and he handcuffs him. Yoon Young sees him in handcuffs and Bum Ryung’s dead body and is shocked.
My Perfect Stranger, AKA Run Into You (Season 1), Episode 12 Ending, Explained:
The episode ends with an unexpected twist. Hae Joon is handcuffed because of Dong Sik’s misunderstanding. Was this pre-planned by Yoon Young and Hae Joon to catch the real culprit? The arrest seemed odd as Hae Joon was seen near all the crime scenes before, but why was he arrested now? Will we see Yeon Woo play a major role in solving this puzzle?
Mi Sook, who looks more suspicious than anyone else, is a real witness. Will she come forward to tell the police the truth to save Hae Joon, or will she play along? Who is this mysterious man killing everyone? All the previous suspects have been eliminated from the suspicion of being the murderer. It is also important to note that we did not see Yu Seop in this episode. Does he have anything to do with this mystery? The episode began with the long-awaited romantic union of Hae Joon and Yoon Young but quickly turned dark with new situations cropping up.