Way Back Love: Episodes 5-6 (Final) » Dramabeans
Way Back Love: Episodes 5-6 (Final)
by SailorJumun
This is it — our heroine is nearly done with her bucket list, nearly done with her goodbyes, and she’s facing death head-on. But after spending a wonderful week with her lovable reaper, she’s not so sure if she’s ready to accept her fate. There might still be time to change it, but as she’ll find out, changing it will bring on a whole new wave of heartache.
EPISODES 5-6
We start out with a flashback, after Ram-woo’s death, when he’s greeted by his grim reaper (cameo by Krystal). The reaper can tell he has regrets, and she admits that she was able to alleviate her own regrets by traveling to the physical world for work. Intrigued, Ram-woo asks how he can become a reaper.
In the present, Ram-woo sends Hee-wan off to the one person who might know where his mom is — his dad’s wife (cameo by Kim Ji-soo). It turns out that the dad had lied to the mom about being married, and they had Ram-woo out of wedlock. The wife found out and tried to keep Ram-woo and his mom away with money.
Initially, when Hee-wan approaches the wife, the wife doesn’t want to divulge where Ram-woo’s mom is. But Hee-wan explains that she’d been running away because she was cowardly, and she doesn’t want to do that anymore. It’s similar to something Ram-woo’s mom told the wife years ago, and it gets her to open up.
Before setting off, Ram-woo and Hee-wan argue about whether or not it’s a good idea to see Mom. To Ram-woo, it’d be better to leave Mom be, but to Hee-wan, it’s important she set the record straight, knowing his mom blames herself for his death. Ram-woo insists that it’s not Hee-wan’s fault either, but she’s not hearing him. Frustrated, Ram-woo demands to know why she can’t just move on — why she’s accepting her death so easily. He thinks back to when he first started working as a reaper, when most people would fight him or run away.
The two cool down on the bus ride to the countryside, where Mom has a small art gallery. A nervous Hee-wan goes into the gallery alone, and though Mom is surprised to see her, she’s all smiles. They get to talking, and as time goes on, Hee-wan seems to be itching to tell the truth. So she lets it all out, revealing that Ram-woo was in the observatory because she gave him the winning ticket with her name. Hee-wan says this ready for Mom’s wrath, as if Hee-wan deserves the blame and all the pain that comes with it. But Mom only looks at her, stunned.
Mom had already assumed there was some mixup with the kids’ names, but she hadn’t realized that Hee-wan was carrying so much guilt. She immediately brings Hee-wan into a hug, telling her not to blame herself anymore. She admits that she held in a lot of blame and anger too, but she gradually learned to stop being angry and simply miss her son.
Later, while Hee-wan is waiting outside, Ram-woo gets a moment alone with his mom. He watches as she takes out his old jacket and puts it on, and he hugs her from behind, making her comment that she feels warm. (Great, here come the tears.) Once Mom says goodbye to the jacket, she goes out to hand it over to Hee-wan.
The outdoor lights switch on, magically fixed earlier by our reaper, and the action reminds Hee-wan that seeing Mom was the last thing on her bucket list — and that Ram-woo promised to leave once the list was done. She runs off in a panic, searching the woods for him, but he’s nowhere in sight.
In flashback, we see Ram-woo chatting with some fellow reapers about a reaper that got too involved with a loved one. Because the reaper broke the rules, they disappeared completely, into nothing. (Um, what?! What does this mean for Ram-woo?) Thankfully, Ram-woo isn’t gone just yet — Hee-wan finds him, and she’s so relieved that she runs up to him and kisses him. When they break apart, she tells him that after he died, she felt stuck while everyone else was moving forward. But ever since he came back, she feels like time is flowing for her again.
As the couple embraces, Ram-woo remembers first seeing Hee-wan in his reaper assignments, her manner of death listed as suicide. And elsewhere, Hee-wan’s art department sunbae Young-hyun (Shim Eun-kyung) has a dream of Hee-wan getting ready to jump off a roof, as fireworks go off in the sky. In an interesting twist, we learn that Young-hyun can see reapers, and she noticed Ram-woo with Hee-wan the day of the school festival. She’s been concerned for Hee-wan ever since, trying and failing to contact her. Now, having had this ominous dream, she’s desperate to get to her before it’s too late.
It’s Hee-wan last day before dying, and she and Ram-woo spend it completing another last-minute bucket list. This includes buying her father a new suit, doing a nice thing for a stranger, and going on a normal date with Ram-woo (all while ignoring Young-hyun’s texts). It’s the happiest Hee-wan has looked in a long time.
As the day comes to a close, and the couple watches the sunset, Hee-wan asks how she’s supposed to die. Seeing Ram-woo’s sad expression, she correctly assumes that it’s by her own choice… and then realizes that that’s why Ram-woo came a week early. Ram-woo confirms this, saying she can still choose to live, that she should live now that time is flowing for her.
Hee-wan starts getting emotional and says that choosing to live will mean losing him again. Ram-woo comforts her as much as he can, saying he’ll be with her even if she can’t see him, but she can’t stop crying. She turns to the sun as it disappears, and when she turns back, Ram-woo is gone too. She tries to call out that, fine, she’ll live happily, only to crumble and cry that she can’t go on without him.
Hee-wan returns to her cold, dark apartment, reminders of Ram-woo’s absence everywhere. Meanwhile, Young-hyun is trying to find where Hee-wan lives, piecing together the images from her dream. She manages to find the apartment building and hurries to the roof, finding Hee-wan on the ledge.
Hee-wan is surprised to see her sunbae, but she won’t be talked down — not until Young-hyun mentions her reaper. Young-hyun tells her that her reaper must be in pain too, which gives Hee-wan pause. Then, as if he’d been summoned, Ram-woo appears by Hee-wan’s side, just in time for the fireworks to go off.
To Young-hyun’s relief, Ram-woo is able to get Hee-wan to step down, and they wordlessly watch the fireworks. After, Hee-wan apologizes to Ram-woo for not being able to save him, and he tells her that saving herself would be saving him — because she’s both Jung Hee-wan and Kim Ram-woo. Their love and their experiences will always live on in her.
After a final goodbye, with reassurance that they’ll meet again someday, Ram-woo says his own name three times and disappears. And though Hee-wan is crying again, she stands a little taller with acceptance.
Time moves on for Hee-wan, winter rolling into spring. She spends time with her family, she gets back in contact with Tae-kyung and Hong-suk, and she becomes good friends with Young-hyun, who has shared her own experiences with death. She and Young-hyun talk about the pain that a person’s passing can leave, and she notes that it may be best to shelve the grief but take it out every once and a while.
At Hee-wan’s graphic design showcase, she looks at her final project — a piece inspired by Ram-woo’s handwriting. It reads: “Nothing comes back and nothing is repeated. Because everything is real.” She thinks back to her last morning with Ram-woo, when she was disappointed that the stars had disappeared. He told her that the stars were still there, even if she couldn’t see them, and had her close her eyes to imagine them.
Hee-wan closes her eyes now, and when she opens them, she’s able to imagine her and Ram-woo together. With a smile, she narrates, “I’ll remember you. I’ll continue living. Because to us, loving myself means loving you.”
What a beautiful ending to this beautiful little drama. I’ve gotta say, I was really worried for Hee-wan the first time Ram-woo disappeared, because it was clear that her happiness had become dependent on his presence during their last week together. But I liked the way her arc was handled, having her realize that she can find that happiness within herself. I also appreciated the fact that she rediscovered joy in other things, like her social life and hobbies, but still kept a special place in her heart for her grief.
I am stuck on one detail, that being the revelation that reapers disappear forever if they break the rules. It was hinted that Ram-woo was breaking a rule by helping Hee-wan, but after it was mentioned, it was never brought up again. Maybe I misinterpreted it, but yeesh, I would hope that Ram-woo isn’t actually gone forever. It seems too cruel after everything he’d been through. I at least have some comfort in knowing that whatever happened, wherever he is, he made his mark — and that’s something that can’t disappear.
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