49 Days Episode 16

So the Scheduler/Yi-soo finally remembers Yi-kyung, and rips our hearts out in the process. His pain is palpable as he takes in her haggard face and asks, “Why do you look like this? What have you done to yourself?” Ji-hyun is unnerved and reminds him that she’s Ji-hyun, which takes him out of his memory.

Yi-soo wonders at the photo found in Yi-kyung’s hotel locker, because he’s never seen it before. It makes one puzzle piece fall into place for him, and he breaks down sobbing, realizing, “So that’s why Yi-kyung…”A flashback gives us a rounder picture of their argument: Yi-kyung had broached a topic they’d argued about many times before, only today she’s clutching the photo in her hands She’d accepted that he moved out into his studio to pursue music, but now suspects he’s using music as an excuse to cover up for a new girlfriend, while he hears her words as nagging mistrust when he’d repeatedly told her that he’s not fooling around.

Finally, Yi-soo had declared, “I’m sick of it! I’m sick of you. The thought of marrying you feels suffocating! Thinking of spending the next 30, 40 years with you like I’ve spent the last 18 — it’s horrifying.”How could you? He’d yelled, “How is it you never change? How can you be exactly the same as you were at age 5?”After that blowup, he’d headed away for a few weeks to perform with the band, working construction in the daytime. His pissiness eventually faded and he’d bought a set of couple rings, which he had engraved, “S love K.” It’s the same thing printed on his bike, which means, Yi-Soo loves Yi-Kyung.

On his way back to Seoul, like a lovesick fool he’d been looking at the rings while riding his bike, thinking of their reconciliation. One collision with a truck later and he’d been twitching on the ground, looking at his rings and flashing back to all the happy times in his final moments.Yi-soo realizes that the girl had taken it while he slept, and wants to explain himself to Yi-kyung right away. Except…something feels weird. Why did he recover his memory? He calls his reaper sunbae to ask angrily how he could’ve let Yi-kyung live like this for five years, and what he gets in response is a shrill ringing tone — a summons. With that, he sends Ji-hyun away In-jung turns to a shaman for advice The shaman returns bad news, saying that In-jung’s stuck in a bind, all right. But at least the girl didn’t really die, because she’d have haunted her forever then. The only way for her to fix this is to chuck the soul out of her host body.At Heaven, the ridiculous lovebirds (Manager Oh and his wife) have a spat, because wifey is frustrated with her husband’s refusal to tell her what he’s talking about with Kang that is so secretive. She’s been nagging for a while, but he has put his foot down, and now she feels their marital trust is threatened. Finally she walks away and he breaks down, saying that he has an important reason for doing it, and that he’s just as miserable.

Wifey can’t stand to see him crying, and rushes back to his side. She explains to a just-arrived Kang, “He must really love me to cry like this.” That sparks an idea in Kang’s brain, and he recalls how Ji-hyun had clutched her pendant every time he’d insisted she was Ji-hyun. The pendant was in the shape of a tear…and she needs proof of a person’s love…

Wifey and Su-jin both come to the same conclusion to their “How do you show proof of love?” puzzle, confirming his hunch. So when Ji-hyun arrives, he steals surreptitious looks at the pendant, noticing that it looks different than before.

He asks where she bought the pendant, why it changed, and when she swapped them. That puts Ji-hyun on her guard, especially when he tests the waters by mentioning that the thing inside looks like a teardrop, too. But he plays dumb and says that it’s a simple question that normal people can ask. Ji-hyun answers cautiously that it changed on the day she submitted her resignation, and Kang thinks back to that day…when he raced to the hospital…and cried. He thinks to himself, “Then is that…my tear?”Ji-hyun wonders why he’s so interested in all this, and he explains, “That day, I was so upset that you’d turned in your resignation that I visited my friend Ji-hyun in the hospital, and cried a little.”Ji-hyun is stunned, and wonders to herself, “Kang-ah, so it was you?”Tears fill her eyes and he asks why, to which she says, “It’s because I’m so thankful.” Seeing that she clutches her necklace in fear, Kang hurriedly sends her back to work.

Min-ho has another meeting with his Haemido cohort at rival company, back on track to carry out his evil plan. This time he has no intention of getting cold feet and second-guessing his scheme once they put things into motion. Now that Kang has figured out a huge missing piece of the Ji-hyun Is a Ghost puzzle, he’s ready to jump into action too. One of the companies involved in this whole Haemido issue is in the States, so Kang is ready to chuck his own pride aside to ask his own father for help. Kang-ah! Plus, while they know that tears are the key, they still need to figure out how to acquire them. Manager Oh offers to get to work on that, and also suggests that Kang try to acquaint himself with the real Yi-kyung, in case she notices him hanging around and feels creepy about it. Ji-hyun’s about to go meet Min-ho outside, and Kang grabs her arm to stop her, saying that there’s nothing she can do about this situation as Song Yi-kyung. Ji-hyun assures Kang that she’ll come back to him after sending Min-ho away, so he reluctantly backs off. Min-ho fumes, wanting Yi-kyung to quit her job here, and asks why she won’t. Ji-hyun answers levelly, “Because there’s somebody I like here.”She adds, “So don’t call me anymore. I don’t want to see you again.Min-ho grabs her arm to stop her,He asks her in a hurt voice, “What was I to you? Didn’t you like me?” and I love that he’s got tears in his eyes. It’s just so satisfying. She returns, “Nope. Not for one moment. Although I may have fooled myself into thinking I did — just like you’re fooling yourself now.” Kang can’t hold back any longer and comes forward to pull Ji-hyun away from Min-ho, and he orders his hyung to stay away from her and his restaurant. Min-ho asks, “Was it Ji-hyun?” which stops them all in their tracks. “You wanted to find a woman when you returned to Korea. Was it Ji-hyun?”

Kang merely says they were once close enough to talk about stuff like that, and takes Ji-hyun away. Ji-hyun sees that Kang is still worked up, and assures him that she’d told Min-ho off. He hadn’t heard their conversation, so this relieves him considerably, and he tells her not to go around alone at night anymore, as he’ll drive her home. She accepts, and adds that it’s great for her, as she doesn’t have many days left. The implication isn’t lost on him.

She looks at him and sadly wonders why it took her so long to realize all this about Kang. That night, Yi-kyung wakes up and Ji-hyun greets her happily to “inform” her that the Scheduler has remembered her. There’s a moment when it seems like Yi-kyung can hear her, and Ji-hyun tests it out, calling softly, “Unniiii.” But Yi-kyung doesn’t react, so Ji-hyun continues talking, assuring Yi-kyung that she was dearly loved by Yi-soo. …Yi-kyung wonders to herself, “How does she know Yi-soo?”Yi-kyung clutches her chest like she’s in pain, and Yi-soo holds himself back from going to her. Just then, Kang enters the cafe — there’s a nice juxtaposition of him, face to face with Yi-soo, both of them loving this woman in different forms — and asks if she’s okay. There’s a momentary flicker in Yi-kyung’s eyes but they carry out this transaction like a normal employee-customer scene. Which wouldn’t be so weird, if only they didn’t have an observer sitting in the cafe — In-jung, who is keeping an eye on Yi-kyung and thus puzzled at Kang’s behavior.In the morning, a hungover Min-ho has an unwelcome guest: In-jung, who comes in acting like the girlfriend she isn’t anymore, having prepared breakfast for him. He asks why, and she answers that she’s the only person who’d do this for him.In-jung tells him that he wouldn’t have been able to have Yi-kyung even if Yi-kyung weren’t inhabited by Ji-hyun’s spirit In-jung tells him that Kang also knows that Yi-kyung is really Ji-hyun, and hints that they can get rid of the spirit/host situation somehow.When she gets back home, Seo-woo tells her that she wants to live separately now, which is fantastic.In-jung pleads for her chance to explain, but Seo-woo tells her that in the aftermath of the accident, she’d seen In-jung’s grief and felt guilty, that “In-jung was truly her friend — I must have a fake friend” because in comparison, her sadness didn’t seem to measure up. Yet now she sees it was an act.

In-jung admits that she was jealous, “But Ji-hyun’s someone who has everything even in death.”You don’t know that Kang likes Ji-hyun, do you?” She adds that Yi-kyung is Ji-hyun’s friend, and it’s because he’s in love with Ji-hyun that he’s taking care of Yi-kyung. “So how do you feel now? Do you still like her unconditionally?”

Ji-hyun thinks of the other 49er she’d met, and how he’d wished he could do more for his loved ones before his time ran out. She writes a list of people to whom she can write thank-you letters, and crosses In-jung off that list. Ji-hyun realizes that if her tear came from Kang, that means Seo-woo hasn’t shed one yet, and that gives her hope Off she goes to the bakery to cheerily greet Seo-woo. However, the latter is feeling hurt and accuses her of deceiving them about knowing Ji-hyun. Next Mom and Kang visit Ji-hyun in her room, in a great mood. Kang asks for her recipe for seaweed soup, and Mom answers that she happens to have some because it’s Ji-hyun’s birthday. What coincidental timing!Back at his place, he invites Ji-hyun in and does the whole “I made too much, you have to help me clear my table” thing. To skirt her suspicions, he says that today is Children’s Day, and in America everyone eats seaweed soup on Children’s Day.She eats, and recognizes the taste of her mother’s cooking. She tells him that Ji-hyun would be thankful, while inwardly they both have their own mini-conversation, with him wishing her a happy birthday, and her thanking him. Min-ho throws his money around to get the better of Ji-hyun by contacting her landlord and offering triple the rent if she rents her room to him, and kicks her out immediately. He uses that to force Ji-hyun into meeting him for dinner, and she goes along because she’s afraid he’ll make things complicated for Yi-kyung. At dinner, Min-ho waits until Ji-hyun is eating to ask, “But I thought you didn’t like sujebi, Ji-hyun.” Uh-oh. Caught off-guard, Ji-hyun insists that she’s Yi-kyung, but he doesn’t waver from his conviction, guessing that there’s a reason she can’t admit her true identity. Losing his calm, he demands, “Why did you approach me?!”

Ji-hyun runs away, cowering in panic, and immediately starts to call Kang.But she recalls the Scheduler’s warnings and thinks twice, canceling the call, and races to Yi-soo instead. He’s upset with her, though, and tries to dismiss her quickly because now he can only see Yi-kyung when he sees her. And when she pleads for help with Yi-kyung’s face, he can’t handle it.

But Ji-hyun’s no pushover nd asks him pointedly who stole her life prematurely with that suicide attempt, wanting to know if they were punished for that. Yi-soo, chastened, says vaguely that he thinks she was punished. That’s not a good enough answer for her and he replies, “She probably did.” Ji-hyun picks up on his hedging, and guesses that it was Yi-kyung: “You made me enter the body of the one who killed me?”That’s too much, and Ji-hyun screams in frustration. She has 11 days left, In-jung betrayed her, and Min-ho’s discovered her identity: “The only friend I could talk to was the Scheduler, but he doesn’t want to see me because I carry his girlfriend’s appearance. But she’s the one who caused my death. On top of that, I’ve come to like her.”

He says that she doesn’t understand the pain of seeing the one he was crazy-in-love with and being unable to talk to her, but that doesn’t fly with Ji-hyun, who counters, “Do you think you’re the only one who loves? I love, too! I can’t say anything to Kang, either!”My feelings are Shin Ji-hyun’s, but if I reveal that I’m her, I might die.”

She starts to cry, and I love that Yi-soo is just as weak to the sight of a girl’s tears as Kang was, and he’s so uncomfortable and helpless at the sight of them. Ji-hyun casts off his comforting gesture, warning him to stay away from Yi-kyung unless she calls him. Ji-hyun is resentful and angry, especially since she’d been so worried for Yi-kyung. That night, while sitting beside her at home, Ji-hyun cries, “You’re the one who did this to me!” She strikes out as though wanting to hit Yi-kyung, but as her ghostly arm passes through the air, it actually finds purchase on something solid, and flings the chopsticks out of Yi-kyung’s hand. Yi-kyung looks up, squinting in the direction of the disturbance…and makes out Ji-hyun’s blurry outlines.Yi-kyung lurches back and asks, “Why are you doing this?”

But that’s when the landlord knocks on her door to tell her that she’s found a renter, and that she wants her out in a week. Suddenly contrite, Ji-hyun apologizes, but a spooked Yi-kyung runs out and away from her.

Yi-kyung arrives at the cafe that night to find Min-ho waiting for her, who knows this isn’t Ji-hyun and introduces himself formally. He knows of her hotel background and offers her a job at a new pension in Busan, wanting her out of Seoul and out of his hair. He references the “borrowing” of her body and presents this as her solution, and offers her the contact information. Yi-kyung drops by Dr. Noh’s office in the morning to run it by him e likes the idea, because it’s becoming clear that the two souls’ lives are intersecting, and two souls can’t occupy the same body. What if that tag-along soul decides to borrow her body forever?

Yi-kyung comes home and squints in the general area of Ji-hyun, sensing her presence, and again makes out her image. She opens her front door and says, “Leave. Please.” Ji-hyun apologizes, but feels guilty enough that she heads out as requested.

Outside, Ji-hyun staggers as her energy levels continue to drop. Yi-kyung packs up, only taking a small bag with her, and tells her landlady to do with the rest as she will. Ji-hyun worries to Yi-soo that Yi-kyung is leaving, but he doesn’t have much to say to her other than “You brought it on yourself.” Kang pulls into the neighborhood just as Yi-kyung hops into a cab like Death itself were chasing her — no, just Death’s minion — and wonders at her departure. He realizes that this Yi-kyung was dressed differently, though, and confirms with the landlord that she moved out.

Understanding that no host means no Ji-hyun he runs outside shouting Ji-hyun’s name. As Yi-kyung boards the train for Busan, Ji-hyun wanders the neighborhood, losing energy until she collapses on the sidewalk.