My Perfect Stranger, AKA Run Into You (Season 1), Episode 9: This episode focuses on Hee Seop and Yu Seop’s family history. A lot about them is revealed, making us empathize with the characters more. The purity of Soon Ae and Hee Seop’s love is also revealed in this episode. We get to see Yoon Young be at peace in her heart after understanding the life of her parents and uncle. This article contains spoilers.
My Perfect Stranger, AKA Run Into You (Season 1), Episode 9 Recap:
“Me in your darkest night”
The episode begins with Hae Joon and Yoon Young arguing. Yoon Young believes Hee Seop’s confession, but Hae Joon explains to her that Hee Seop was not the murderer because he gave irrelevant answers to the questions he had asked. Kyung Ae’s father is furious when he finds out that Hee Seop may have killed Kyung Ae, and the entire family stops him from going to the police station. Soon Ae pleads that Hee Seop would never do such a thing.
In front of their house, Dong Sik is reconfirming with Hee Seop if he had committed the murder. He asks Hee Seop how he could commit the murders, and Hee Seop is taken aback by asking what he is talking about. Dong Sik warns him not to play innocent as all the evidence points at him. They show a scene in which Hee Seop emptied the Bong Bong Teahouse matchboxes and wrote notes to put them in the empty boxes. Hee Seop tells him that he has got everything wrong.
Hae Joon, Yoon Young, and Kyung Ae’s family gathered in Kyung Ae’s house as Soon Ae revealed to everyone that Hee Seop visited them the previous night to check on Soon Ae after saving her from Bum Ryung. She explained that Kyung had left home to meet someone late at night while she spent late into the night with Hee Seop at their house rooftop. Hae Joon asks Soon Ae if she remembered what time Hee Seop had left, and she tells him that he stayed with her until the next morning. Soon Ae’s father asks Soon Ae if anyone else knew about this, and she says no one else knew.
Her father warns everyone in the room that nobody should know about it. As Soon Ae shows concern towards Hee Seop, her father gets infuriated and yells, saying the entire village gossiped about Kyung Ae, questioning why she had visited the abandoned house to meet boys after drinking, and he did not want people to make rumors about Soon Ae as well. He also did not want to put Soon Ae’s mother through such heartbreak all over again. He requests Hae Joon not to tell anybody anything.
At the police station, Dong Sik’s fellow officer smacks Hee Seop’s head, asking him to confess his crime. Dong Sik tells him that he will interrogate Hee Seop, but the officer tells him it’s against the rules and asks the other officers to take him inside a cell and make him confess.
Hae Joon asks Soon Ae if she knows who Kyung Ae went to meet that night. Soon Ae tells him Kyung Ae had told her that he was someone nice and had saved her life during the day. Hae Joon and Yoon Young realize it was Yu Seop, and Yoon Young realizes that Hee Seop falsely admitted to the murder to save Yu Seop.
Hae Joon and Yoon Young find a villager and ask her about Yu Seop’s whereabouts; at first, she does not want to tell them but later reveals that he hasn’t visited his boarding house for three days. He works at a factory to take Hee Seop to Seoul one day and loves his brother dearly. Upon asking further, she gives them the location of Yu Seop’s boarding house. As they walk back, they discuss how Yu Seop’s name never came up during the investigation, and Hae Joon tells Yoon Young that it did come up only once and briefly. They also realize that Yu Seop knew Ju Young probably because of the same college they studied in.
At the police station, we can hear Hee Seop being beaten up while Dong Sik is trying to wrap his head around the case. A police officer brings a necklace with a lock pendant and tells them it was found near the abandoned house. Dong Sik seeing, grabs it and rushes to Hee Seop and confirms with him if it was Yu Seop’s necklace. Seeing the necklace, Hee Seop is shocked and tells him that it was his necklace that he had lent to Yu Seop and was always his.
A still from My Perfect Stranger, AKA Run Into You (Season 1), Episode 9Hae Joon shows the image of the necklace to Yoon Young, and she confirms that it was not her father’s (Hee Seop) necklace and Yu Seop had never let Hee Seop touch it. Hae Joon tells her that Hee Seop will insist that the necklace is his, and the police will believe it. He also tells her that if things had not turned out to be this way, then by this time, Hee Soep would have been released, and they should find Yu Seop quickly.
Moreover, he explains that the bloodied shirt is important evidence. In this timeline, they still needed to learn how to use scientific methods properly, and a small mistake could change everything. He also tells her that because the police officer who was driving with the evidence spilled coffee, they never used that evidence, which was one reason they could not catch the real culprit. Hae Joon sets out to find the lost evidence before the actual time to set things right as he decides to change that fate by not letting that evidence be destroyed.
Hae Joon takes away the coffee from the officer and gives him a plastic bag saying Detective Lee had given him that to keep the evidence safe. He decides to find Yu Seop before the results of the evidence examination would be out.
Soon Ae is locked in her room by her father. She begs him to let her out and blames herself for what happened to Kyung Ae. She also tells him that because of what happened to Kyung Ae, they should not sit idly and watch bad things happen to others. Her father does not open the door, but Soon Ae jumps out of her window, goes out to find Yoon Young, and asks her for help.
As Soon Ae drags her, Yoon Young asks her where they are going. Soon Ae tells Yoon Young that they are going to the police station. Yoon Young asks her not to get involved and stay still while the adults deal with this. Soon Ae tells her that Yoon Young has Hae Joon and she has her parents who have their back, but Hee Seop does not. Yoon Young does not let her go. She cries and tells her that she had promised Hee Seop that night on the rooftop that she would not leave him.
The night Kyung Ae was murdered, Hee Seop confessed to Soon Ae that he lost everyone precious to him and was scared of feeling that towards her. Soon Ae advises him and tells him to keep a small door open in his heart; behind that door, she will always be waiting for him. Hee Seop listening to this had kissed her.
Yoon Young tells Soon Ae that she is mistaken that Hee Seop cared for her as much as she cared for him. Soon Ae retaliates by asking who she thought she was to say such things. Soon Ae’s father finds her, and Soon Ae tells Yoon Young that she is disappointed in her.
At school, the students are discussing Hee Seop’s arrest, and Yu Ri watches Mi Sook from the back. Mi Sook mumbles to herself that Hee Seop complicates the situation. In the boy’s class, the Principal addresses the students and asks who had not attended school that day. The students mock saying the murderer and continue gossiping about him. Bum Ryung is unsure how to feel about all that’s happening.
At home, Yoon Young recalls how Hee Seop had abandoned her mother and, in the past, prioritized Yu Seop, and is disappointed to realize he had always chosen Yu Seop over his own life. Yoon Young comes to the bus stand to pick up Hae Joon and asks about Yu Seop’s whereabouts. Yoon Young is angered, assuming that Yu Seop went into hiding even after knowing Hee Seop was arrested.
Hae Joon tells her that they were wrong in assuming Yu Seop was the killer as he explains that everyone he asked had either seen him on the night of the murder or denied knowing him. Yoon Young worries about Hee Seop’s future, and Hae Joon tells her that the bloodied shirt will save him. They both rush to the police station.
A still from My Perfect Stranger, AKA Run Into You (Season 1), Episode 9At the police station, the results had arrived, but the blood type on the shirt was ‘A,’ which did not match either the victims or Hee Seop. Two police officers from Seoul come to the station to take Hee Seop. They tell him that he has to come to find his brother Yu Seop. Dong Sik tries to stop them but cannot. Hae Joon asks Yoon Young to wait near the police station while he runs behind the van. In the van, the police officers blindfold Hee Seop. Hae Joon loses the van, and Yoon Young panics.
In her panicked state, she remembers an incident from 2021 when she was yelling at her father, and Yu Seop got scared because of all the yelling, and he decided to hide in the attic. As Hae Joon thinks about the next course of action, the van appears before him. Hae Joon realizes the van was circling the area. Yoon Young rushes to Hee Seop’s house and climbs into the attic, hoping to find Yu Seop, and she manages to find him. He was bleeding and saw Yoon Young ask her about Hee Seop.
Hee Seop was beaten up by people disguised as the Seoul Police. Hee Seop is seen screaming in pain because of being physically tortured. Those men ask him about Yu Seop, but Hee Seop says he does not know where his brother is. Hearing this, they start beating him again. Yu Seop tells Yoon Young that he did not know about the murders and that bloodied shirt was his. He also tells her Hee Seop knew what he was up to that night. Hee Seop is coughing up blood from being beaten repeatedly. Irrespective of being threatened, Hee Seop does not answer.
Between getting beat up, Hee Seop recalls waking up in the morning and seeing Yu Seop at the door. Seeing his state, Hee Seop asks him if he has gone to protest, and Yu Seop apologizes. Hee Seop sees that he has lost his lock necklace and reminds him about the promise they made the day their parents were shot. Yu Seop tells him that he cannot forget that day, which was the reason for his actions. They reveal that they had another sibling who had died. Hee Seop promised not to let Yu Seop get caught, and they embraced each other and cried. Hee Seop is left on the floor after being beaten. He remembers the promise the brothers made to their mother.
Yu Seop begs Yoon Young to take him to his brother. As they are about to enter the police station, Hae Joon stops them and takes them to the Inn. He tells them that this is where Hee Seop was. Yu Seop asks them to take good care of Hee Seop once he is released, and Hae Joon asks Yoon Young to wait outside as it is dangerous. Hae Joon rushes inside the Inn. Yoon Young sees the bloodied and injured Hee Seop walking out of the Inn. She realizes the reason for her father’s limp in old age.
The episode ends with Hee Seop bawling and telling Yoon Young that he must have done something wrong to be punished so badly. Yoon Young weeps, seeing his state, and tries to console him but cries more profusely.
My Perfect Stranger, AKA Run Into You (Season 1), Episode 9 Ending, Explained:
The episode ends with Yoon Young finally sympathizing with her father. The most stupid thing she uttered was asking if Hee Seop was okay after seeing his terrible state! The episode delves deep into eliminating Yu Seop and Hee Seop as murder suspects. They may not be murderers because if they were, they could kill the men who physically assaulted Hee Seop.
This leaves us with Mi Sook, Min Soo, Yu Ri, and Bum Ryung as the next suspects. By not delving deep into Mi Sook’s personality, the series makes us feel a lot more suspicious towards her. The more she is kept in the backseat, the more suspicious she is getting. Bum Ryung is not showing emotions or taking any action toward helping his best buddy Hee Seop is quite suspicious.
This episode surely did ease Yoon Young’s resentment as she learned much more about her family’s history. Her actions from now on towards all of them will surely be warmer, and she will probably relive the feeling of family that she had lost all these years.
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My Perfect Stranger AKA Run Into You (Season 1) Episode 9 Links – IMDb
My Perfect Stranger AKA Run Into You (Season 1) Episode 9 Cast – Dong-wook Kim, Ki-joo Jin, Lee Ji-hyun
Where to watch Run Into You
