Shin Hye-Sun’s much-anticipated comeback is a webtoon adaptation. See You In My 19th Life is extremely fun, and it’s so interesting to see Ahn Bo-Hyun in this role that’s so different from anything we’ve seen him do before, although he slightly resembles his character in “Yumi’s Cells.” Still, that’s a more realistic show, whereas See You In My 19th Life has a fantastical element that makes him feel even more out of place, but it works perfectly. In the first two episodes, we got introduced to the characters Seo-Ha and Yoon Ju-Won. Ju-Won was a beloved friend to Seo-Ha, but she died when they were young, leaving Seo-Ha alone; except that that was Ju-Won’s 18th life, and she remembers all her past lives. When she’s born again in her 19th life, she’s determined to come back to Seo-Ha, so that’s how we meet Ban Ji-Eum in her 19th life.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In Episode 3?
In episode 2, Ji-Eum drove Seo-Ha to Ju-Won’s grave. Ji-Eum is terribly good at comforting Seo-Ha when he’s in a difficult situation. It looks like Seo-Ha’s feelings are getting warmer towards Ji-Eum as she tries to make him feel comfortable in her company. When they’re about to leave the place, though, a truck comes by, and Ji-Eum stops her car in a rush. Hearing the sound and seeing the truck remind Seo-Ha of the accident with Ju-Won, and he has a panic attack. Ji-Eum is by his side the whole time and gets him out of there as quickly as possible. At home, Ji-Eum ponders over how she never thought about the people she left behind but only about her own feelings when she was reborn. Ae-Gyeong and she share a sweet moment as they remember the last few days they spent together when Ji-Eum was Ae-Gyeong’s uncle. In all the commotion, Ji-Eum had forgotten that Ju-Won’s death anniversary also happens to be Seo-Ha’s birthday. She runs out in the rain (with the urge to start singing “You to Me, Me to You” every time there’s rain in a K-drama, though) so that she can reach Seo-Ha as quickly as possible. She wishes to tell him she has feelings for him, so he can start remembering that as a memory of his birthday rather than the death of Ju-Won. It does distract him a little bit, but Ji-Eum is the one to be more shocked when she sees Cho-Won there. Cho-Won had come by earlier to give Seo-Ha a cake, so he would make a wish on his birthday. She tries really hard to make things better for Seo-Ha, but he keeps reminding her that things are much harder and very different for him and her. Cho-Won was very kind to be so supportive when she was Ju-Won’s sister, and she could’ve blamed Seo-Ha for stealing her sister away.
Seo-Ha mistreats Cho-Won even though her intentions are good, and she walks out of the house soon after. Ji-Eum wonders if Cho-Won has feelings for Seo-Ha and asks her to her face, but Cho-Won evades the question. The next day, Cho-Won gets a call for her landscaping project with the MI Hotel. She’s pretended to be another person named Emily, and it’s worked for her because the two men see her potential through her work rather than plain rejection because she’s Cho-Won. We get a glimpse of how close Seo-Ha and Do-Yun’s friendship is when an old classmate insults Do-Yun and breaks his phone. Seo-Ha is immediately defensive and is willing to go physical with the fight until Do-Yun stops him. In the meantime, a young girl places a new set of flowers in the hotel lobby, and they’re the same ones that Seo-Ha had planned to place there. When Cho-Won arrives for the meeting, Seo-Ha is immediately furious with Do-Yun for not checking first about who Emily really was. Cho-Won hears some of their conversations until Ji-Eum shuts the door completely. Cho-Won walks out of the office, and Ji-Eum follows her out. Ji-Eum can’t bear to see her little sister (you know, from back in the day) so sad, so she takes her out for a drink. Through all the blabbering, she finally finds out that the man Cho-Won is pining after is not Seo-Ha but his assistant, Do-Yun.
Seo-Ha feels bad about how he treated Cho-Won and decides to bring her some gifts as an apology. In the meantime, Ji-Eum brings a very drunk Cho-Won back to her parents’ home. Ji-Eum treats her just as she used to when she was Ju-Won, and Cho-Won gets certain glimpses of her sister in her drunken state. Reaching there, Ji-Eum is reminded of her mother, and we see her watch from afar as she takes Cho-Won inside. Ji-Eum is so mesmerized that she imagines a scenario where her mother would come out, remember Ji-Eum’s words from her previous life, and hug her tightly. While she’s crying this way on the street in front of the Yoon household, Seo-Ha walks by and stops her from doing her strange dance.
What Happens In Episode 4?
Cho-Won’s mother comes out of the house to see what the commotion is about (it’s not quite loud, but you know we need the leads to get some alone time). Seo-Ha immediately grabs Ji-Eum’s hands and makes a run for it, like she did when he almost had a panic attack back in the old town. She asks him to join her for a second round of drinks but ends up taking him to a convenience store. They eat ramyeon and have a beer while chit-chatting. Interestingly, Ji-Eum convinces Seo-Ha that he has become a fan of hers rather than falling for her charm. He’s put in a spot when she pretends to listen to his speeding heartbeat and brushes her hair, feeling affectionate. Seo-Ha gets dropped off at Do-Yun’s house, and he hasn’t realized that it’s the day of Do-Yun’s father’s death anniversary. In a flashback earlier, we saw them meeting at the funeral home when they were young. Do-Yun was all alone, taking care of his young brother while Seo-Ha was in his hospital clothes.
A strange young man who was near Ji-Eum visits a shaman and looks to be taking out some ancient tools to ward off spirits. Maybe this is Ji-Eum’s last life? Or maybe he’s trying to make sure she doesn’t remember her “lives” anymore. Either way, we’ve got to remember his face. Cho-Won finally gets the news she was hoping for! Seo-Ha sees her true potential and puts his feelings aside. During their time at Cho-Won’s shop, Cho-Won asks Ji-Eum some questions that make her uncomfortable because it looks like Cho-Won is picking up hints of Ji-Eum’s past lives, and she won’t be able to hide her truth for much longer. She knocks over some tea cups accidentally, and Seo-Ha is there immediately to clean things up for her. Ji-Eum loves this energy and later tells Seo-Ha that she’s going to confess her love to him three times after this day. If he doesn’t say yes to her even after that, she’ll give up on him. Cho-Won is exactly like her sister because she too, proudly asks out Do-Yun at the same time. He says no because he is looking for a partner who can be on the same level as him. Cho-Won is willing to do anything to get there, but that fact alone makes Do-Yun refuse her offer.
Seo-Ha openly starts a war with his father’s mistress and the person in charge of the hotel right now, Jang Yeon-Ok. We can understand that he thinks her son is his half-brother, and it might well be true. In his own office, he tells Do-Yun to bring in financial records so that he can bring out all her secrets. Now we meet the flower girl again; her name is Han-Na, and she’s a dancer in an underground-looking place where the shaman guy watches her performance. There’s something really fishy about these two, and we hope to find out soon. Ji-Eum’s older brother finds her and brazenly asks her to send him money again. He pulls her by the hair in the middle of the street, and people take videos of the drama unfolding live in front of them. Finally, Seo-Ha shows up and gets accidentally slapped in the face by Ji-Eum’s brother. She gets furious and chases him out of there. She realized then that it may look like she’s after Seo-Ha for money, but he assures her that she wouldn’t have been teasing him if she was there for the money.
Why Does Seo-Ha Have Difficulty Touching People?
Seo-Ha asks Ji-Eum if she wants to get food with him on the corner of the street, and she’s thrilled. While drinking Soju, they talk a lot until Seo-Ha is completely wasted. Ji-Eum takes him for a walk, and he can’t walk in a straight line, so she sits him down in front of a little lake. Seo-Ha admits to himself that all of Ji-Eum’s gestures remind him of Ju-Won, but they don’t actually look alike at all. Finally, he lays his head on her shoulder and tells her that he found it difficult to touch people after the accident because it took really long to bust the car open and Ju-Won had already been long dead on top of Seo-Ha’s body. He had felt her getting cold, and it had a terrible impact on him. On the other hand, Do-Yun is with the chairman, and he hands him some money for his father’s death ceremony. Do-Yun refuses it and speaks out of turn to the chairman. The chairman loses his temper and reminds Do-Yun to stop his habit of asking touchy questions when he’s offended by the chairman. It looks like there is an ulterior motive for having Seo-Ha come back from Germany out of the blue, and Do-Yun knows it.
Because he’s with the chairman, Do-Yun doesn’t respond to Ji-Eum’s calls, and she has no choice but to call Cho-Won to help her. Cho-Won then finds out for the first time that Seo-Ha can only sit in the front seat because of the trauma of the accident. When they reach home, they can’t open the door and call Do-Yun up for the passcode because Seo-Ha is fast asleep. The code is 0423, which happens to be Seo-Ha’s birthday, but that also means it’s Ju-Won’s death anniversary. At the end of the episode, Ji-Eum puts Seo-Ha to bed while Cho-Won prepares some water for him. When she’s about to grab the water from Cho-Won, Seo-Ha grabs her wrist, pleading for her not to leave. Seo-Ha remembers the time of the accident again, and everything about Ji-Eum reminds him more of Ju-Won. We can’t wait for next week’s episode because it looks like someone is going to find out about Ji-Eum’s secret. If you’ve read the webtoon, you know what we’re talking about, but we’re not giving you any spoilers if not!
