In “Once Upon A Small Town,” veterinary doctor Han Ji Yul has moved into the town of Huidong to look after his grandfather’s hospital. Ji Yul is a city man and finds it difficult to adjust to the lifestyle of the village, but he has a friend in the village, police officer Ahn Ja Young. She is a go-to person for every resident in Huidong; she even knows Ji Yul from childhood. However, Ji Yul doesn’t remember her.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Is Ji Yul Maintaining Distance From Ja Young?
Ji Yul and Ja Young had rescued a wild dog. While Ji Yul thinks it is dangerous to take the dog outside just yet, Ja Young has already taken him out for a walk. She asks Ji Yul to let her adopt the dog as she has no other family and has experience raising a dog previously. Ji Yul lets her adopt the dog and wonders if she is an animal person because she befriended a wild dog so quickly. However, the dog escapes and runs away, and they find him in a forest near his newly born puppies. In the middle of their conversation about the puppies, Ja Young receives a call that a cow has been facing difficulty giving birth and needs a doctor.
The village lacks resources, so Ji Yul uses a rope to pull the calf out, and Ja Young joins him to help. Ji Yul finished his task as a doctor perfectly, but he was scared and nervous while doing it. He relaxes a bit after hearing compliments from Ja Young. The women’s association leader invites Ji Yul and Ja Young to a dinner party, but Ji Yul did not expect most of the neighborhood to show up. Sung Hyun is also invited, and he gets jealous seeing Ja Young with Ji Yul. Sung Hyun keeps provoking Ji Yul for being a vegetarian and a light drinker, which leads him to leave the party eventually. Ja Young follows him as she needs to go for patrolling. Sung Hyun cannot bear it anymore and confesses to Ja Young about his feelings for her.
Ji Yul had been acting awkward around Ja Young after he heard Sung Hyun’s confession. Ja Young is more uncomfortable seeing Sung Hyun and knowing that he delivers coffee for her to her workplace. They have been friends for a long time, and Sung Hyun knows how to make Ja Young talk. Ja Young worries that she will lose her friendship with Sung Hyun if they get into a romantic relationship. Sung Hyun assures her that they will always be friends and gives her time to think about him. Ji Yul’s friend from Seoul doesn’t know what has been happening with him in Huidong, but he advises him to maintain boundaries with the townspeople so that they won’t bother them.
What Reminds Ji Yul Of His Past?
Ji Yul’s clients have been waiting for him to come back to Seoul, and he has made up his mind to not get involved with the town’s people as he is bound to leave soon. Sung Hyun knocks on Ji Yul’s door early in the morning with Seong Dong and his sick dog. Seong Dong had called Ja Young, crying that his dog was sick, so Ja Young hurried outside but fell off her bicycle. She sent Sung Hyun to help Seong Dong, who brought his dog to Ji Yul. Ji Yul treats Seong Dong’s pet and visits Ja Young soon afterward. She fell off her bike because she removed a part from her bicycle to fix Ji Yul’s bicycle. Ji Yul gets angry at her for thinking of others before herself and returns to the hospital.
Seong Dong is still a kid, but he has noticed that Ji Yul and Ja Young have been uncomfortable around each other and asks Ji Yul if they have had a fight. Ji Yul tells Seong Dong that he made Ja Young angry, so Seong Dong calls Ja Young and hands it over to Ji Yul as soon as she picks it up. Ja Young was patrolling in a car with her colleague when she received the call. It was raining hard, and their car skidded off the road. Ji Yul realizes that something wrong has happened and calls Ja Young’s senior first before going to the location Ja Young had mentioned. He finds the police officers unconscious in the car and tries to break the window. It reminds him of his past when his parents had died in a similar accident, and he survived because someone saved him by breaking the window.
‘Once Upon A Small Town’ Episode 6 Ending
The police officers aren’t injured much and go back to the office immediately, despite their boss instructing them not to. Ja Young tries to meet and thank Ji Yul for saving her, but he was busy somewhere else. It is his parents’ death anniversary, and he visits their memorial. He receives a call from an old man whose bull is extremely sick, and Ji Yul goes to his farm directly from the memorial. The old man treats his bull like a family member, and he has a difficult request for Ji Yul. He wants Ji Yul to give his bull euthanasia because he cannot see him suffer anymore. Before being a veterinary doctor, Ji Yul was an animal lover, and it saddens him to stop an animal’s breathing with his own hands.
The old man thanks Ji Yul for doing the difficult work and tells him something he did not expect to hear. After Ji Yul’s parents had passed away in the accident, the old man took care of him for a few days. The old man asks him if he is still good friends with Ja Young, like when they were kids. Ji Yul recalls his past and remembers Ja Young, who was her only friend in difficult times. Now that Ji Yul remembers his past, will the dynamic of his relationship with Ja Young change, or will he never reveal that he remembers her?
See more: ‘Once Upon A Small Town’ Episode 1, 2 & 3: Recap And Ending – Why Does Ja Young Treat Ji Yul Nicely?
