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Now that Yoon-young’s forged an identity in the 1987 world, she continues her mission of bonding with her mother as well as learning more about who her mother was when she was younger. But things aren’t as simple or peaceful as Yoon-young initially thought because she begins to pick up on little details and clues that point towards something more sinister and dark. Was her encounter with Hae-joon and her trip to the 1987 world really all just a coincidence or is there something else going on?

My Perfect Stranger Episode 4: All This is a Coincidence?

Yoon-young and Hae-joon sit in the living room and they want to know about each other’s reasons for being in the 1987 universe. Hae-joon starts off by handing over the small box of matches that he assumed Yoon-young dropped on accident in the living room but Yoon-young isn’t too familiar with the item either. She found it floating in the village river on the day that she lost her mother. What exactly does this item have to do with Hae-joon? He answers that it’s the reason as to why he’s in 1987. It’s the cause and result of everything that’s happened. But it’s clear the two aren’t too trusting of each other yet and they don’t share the full details of their stories. Hae-joon leaves the house to walk to the police station. During his walk, he revisits his investigation on the serial murder case. That day, May 11, 1987, was an important day because he realized that the past was changing. Yoon-young’s incident with Min-soo was a new incident that led to the arrest of Min-soo. With Min-soo arrested, what will happen now? And who exactly is Yoon-young and what is she hiding?

After giving Detective Baek his account of the incident, Hae-joon shifts his attention to Min-soo who’s locked up in a jail cell. Hae-joon goes over to talk to Min-soo and comments that he stays still in the cell and does nothing for an entire week. If there aren’t any deaths or murders, then that will prove that he was indeed the serial murder case culprit. The next week will determine either Min-soo’s guilt or innocence. Back at home, Yoon-young is also curious about the small box of matches and its meaning to Hae-joon. But she gets anxious when the lights begin to flicker and memories of her incident with Min-soo flash in her mind. Hae-joon arrives back home to find Yoon-young asleep. He also realizes that she hasn’t eaten anything all day so he takes her out to eat, haha.

Even though Yoon-young claims that she’s not hungry, she goes out with Hae-joon to a teahouse called ‘H Teahouse.’ The owner, Chung-Ah, stays for another thirty-minutes to feed Hae-joon and Yoon-young and the two munch on some bread with orange juice. There’s also a small bowl of soy sauce on the side which the two assume they dip the bread in so they do just exactly that while talking to each other. During this very very late dinner, the two housemates get to know each other better (or at least Hae-joon). Yoon-young goes on a small ramble about her job at a publishing company while Hae-joon keeps his mouth shut. She also apologizes for the trouble that Hae-joon went through to save her but Hae-joon reassures Yoon-young that it wasn’t her fault. It was all Min-soo’s doing and what he did to her earlier should not have happened at all. They finish their bread with the soy sauce and then run out in the rain back home together (I would have loved to see them do the iconic rain run in ‘The Classic’ here! Haha).

Mi-sook returns home to find their house broken into but her mom doesn’t seem too surprised by it. She’s told to clean up the mess and to not tell anyone about what happened. Hmm. The curiosity about Hae-joon continues for Yoon-young but there’s also something else she’s curious about when she wakes up the next morning: breakfast at the table and a note written from Hae-joon. He left early because he had something to take care of so he encourages her to eat and then to visit Soon-ae afterwards who’s expecting her. Oh and she doesn’t have to do the dishes. Haha. 

Soon-ae’s house is full of chaos and while everyone else goes crazy about breakfast and lost belongings, Soon-ae sits peacefully in the living room doing some laundry while reading. Her mom scolds her for not helping around the house and Soon-ae is forced to cook some eggs for her brother, Oh-bok. Haha. Yoon-young enters the gate into their house and she’s soon greeted by Oh-bok as well as Grandpa. They, of course, don’t know who she is but Yoon-young reacts excitedly upon seeing them. She meets the rest of her mom’s side of the family when her mom, grandma, and aunty step outside the house as well. Yoon-young ends up getting smacked in the head by a pair of socks that was originally meant to be thrown at for Grandpa. Haha. But Grandma makes up for it by kindly greeting Yoon-young and handing her some food that she made for both her and Hae-joon. Grandpa treats Yoon-young differently upon learning that she’s Hae-joon’s relative and Yoon-young sets off for the school trip with Soon-ae.

Hae-joon is already on the school trip with some of his students and he confronts Beom-ryong about the small box of matches that he saw Beom-ryong almost give to Yoon-young the day before at school. Beom-ryong defends that it’s the newest trend to put love letters inside and he does as he is told. But Hae-joon is suspicious of Beom-ryong and feels as if there’s more to him than Beom-ryong is letting on. He recalls his visit to the restroom the night before where Beom-ryong and Hee-seob were located. After Beom-ryong had left the restroom, Hae-joon entered the bathroom stall that Beom-ryong was in and discovered an empty envelope hidden inside the wall. There’s something that Beom-ryong is hiding but Hae-joon hasn’t found any concrete evidence just yet.

On the walk to school, Soon-ae pauses to hand over an apology letter to Yoon-young for the incident with Mi-sook the day before. She knew that Yoon-young was only acting out of sincerity so she’s sorry for the way that she treated Yoon-young. Yoon-young notes that Soon-ae never wrote her apology letters and that she used to apologize in person but Soon-ae grows confused by the comment. Her? She apologized to Yoon-young before? After Yoon-young clarifies that she was talking about her “mom”, Soon-ae points out that maybe her mom enjoyed writing. Yoon-young once again learns something new about her mom.

It’s Hee-seob’s turn to turn in the small box of matches to Hae-joon. But unlike Beom-ryong’s, there’s actual sticks inside and Hee-seob explains that he visited the teahouse with his brother. Hae-joon also grows concerned with how light Hee-seob’s bag is and he gives him some money to buy some drinks. He also permits Hee-seob to look into his bag to eat his packed lunch. Yoon-young and Soon-ae continue to walk and it’s clear that Soon-ae loves books. Even if it isn’t something her mom approves of, Soon-ae enjoys reading. She loves reading so much she wishes that she could just read all the books she wants while listening to music all she wants. Yoon-young realizes that her mom did achieve her dream – through her. Yoon-young is reminded of all the times when her mom watched her read and listen to music in the house. Yoon-young vows to make it up to her mom by giving her the same opportunity to read and listen to music as much as she wants.

Hae-joon grows nervous when Yoon-young doesn’t arrive to join the rest of her group for the school field trip so he runs off to look for her. On the way back from buying some drinks, Hee-seob grows curious about Hae-joon and ponders over how Hae-joon was aware that his key necklace was for a lock. But his thinking gets interrupted when he discovers Soon-ae running from behind him. He’s delighted at the sight of his crush and he assumes it must be fate. But it must also be fate when Yoon-young shows up to join the duo just a few seconds later. Haha. She attempts to prevent her parents from walking together but she’s also exhausted and out of breath. So Soon-ae and Hee-seob head off first while Yoon-young finds her own walking partner just a few seconds later. It’s none other than our ‘Five-second Prince.’ Hahaha.

Hae-joon and his co-worker, Mr. Park, brief their groups of students during their school trip. Hae-joon’s a bit more relaxed and he reminds his students to have some fun. But Mr. Park isn’t so lenient and he nags at the group of female students to study and prepare for the college entrance exam. His students get tired of his nagging so they rush over to watch Hee-seob’s performance. Since Soon-ae did share with Hee-seob that she likes someone who can sing, Hee-seob puts in the effort to impress the young lady. With an actual guitar in his hand, Hee-seob is a bit nervous at first. But he shortly gets the hang of it and he sings while playing the guitar. All the spectators are impressed and they sing along with Hee-seob while all the male students get small boxes of matches passed out to them (uh-oh). Hae-joon himself is focused on thinking about the serial murder case. In two days, the first victim will get murdered. Min-soo is in jail and the other two suspects, Hee-seob and Beom-ryong, aren’t acting suspicious. So who exactly will kill her? Plus, now all the male students in the class own their own box of matches. It also doesn’t help when the first murdered victim, Lee Ju-young, shows up to the field trip with Principal Yoon. She’s introduced to the group of students as their student-teacher and as a first introduction, she sings a slow melancholy song for them. Yoon-young feels as if she’s seen Ju-young before and even the song that Ju-young sings sounds familiar. Hmm.

Mr. Park and Hae-joon walk Principal Yoon back to his car but Principal Yoon hints that he wants to talk to Hae-joon privately so the teacher leaves to reunite with the students. Principal Yoon is reminded of his agreement with Hae-joon to look after Ju-young and he also hints for Hae-joon to acknowledge that they both look alike. But Hae-joon refuses to believe that he resembles Principal Yoon and he bids farewell with his grandpa. When he returns to the rest of the students, Hae-joon finds Yoon-young sitting with Soon-ae. She has a love letter in her hand that was delivered to her in the ‘Bong Bong Teahouse’ box of matches and it’s not just her who has it. The love letters are delivered to the rest of the female students in the same box of matches as well. Yoon-young, Hae-joon, and Soon-ae watch as Mi-sook rejects one of the love letters and Ju-young goes up to check in on her.

After the trip ends, Hae-joon catches up with Ju-young and asks her about her living situation. She lies that she’s living with relatives in the neighborhood and Hae-joon becomes even more confused. Why would she lie to him about that? He hands her a note with his phone number on there – something that he has even provided for his students. With that, the two bid farewell. Soon-ae and Yoon-young prepare to walk back home together but Soon-ae heads back up to retrieve her flask. So Yoon-young has a moment alone with Mi-sook who discusses with her about Min-soo. Yoon-young notes that it was all Min-soo’s doing and that he did this to himself. But Mi-sook isn’t as down or frustrated about her brother’s situation as one would think; she mentions that she could be happy about how things ended up for her brother. Yoon-young has no interest in knowing what Mi-sook thinks or feels about her brother’s arrest but Mi-sook warns Yoon-young to stay alert. She’s aware that Yoon-young’s weakness is Soon-ae and she’s willing to use Soon-ae to get what she wants.

When Yoon-young and Hae-joon arrive home, Yoon-young heads to the bathroom to wash her hands. She suspects that something is up and things are beginning to feel strange. Hae-joon himself debates on informing Yoon-young about everything and what’s going to happen within the next few days. But the night isn’t done just yet and Hae-joon receives a phone call from Principal Yoon who’s worried that he can’t seem to get in touch with Ju-young. Hae-joon reminds Yoon-young not to go anywhere before he runs out of the house.

While at home, Yoon-young digs deeper and she pulls from her bag the draft of Mi-sook’s upcoming novel that she edited on the bus in 2021. The title is called The People I Killed and in it, Mi-sook described her first impression of Ju-young who she first saw on their field trip. She noticed Ju-young’s dirty shoes as well as the wooden ring on her index finger and now it makes sense to Yoon-young as to why Ju-young felt so familiar to her. She read about Ju-young in that draft of Mi-sook’s novel.

Hae-joon runs to the police station and bumps into Detective Baek. He learns that Min-soo’s been released so he heads straight to Min-soo’s house. Upon arriving, he’s approached by Mi-sook instead and has no choice but to leave. Yoon-young herself heads out to search for Ju-young. The rest of Mi-sook’s draft runs in her mind where Mi-sook continues to describe her first impression of Ju-young. And it was on this field trip that Mi-sook then selected her first victim, Ju-young (AHHHH!! NO WAY!!). Both Hae-joon and Yoon-young run around the neighborhood to look for Ju-young but they end up finding each other instead right outside by Soon-ae’s family store. Yoon-young suspects that Ju-young will be killed which only confuses Hae-joon even further. How did she know? Or did she already know before she traveled to the 1987 world? The murder hasn’t even occurred yet so how did Yoon-young know that such a thing will happen? So with that, Yoon-young takes a look at the draft of Mi-sook’s upcoming novel in her hand and she comments that maybe it’s time she and Hae-joon be honest with each other. The fact that they met each other must not be a coincidence.

Epilogue

We pick up where the epilogue in episode 7 left off. It’s the year 2021 and Min-soo returns back home after getting released from prison but he’s not the only one in the house. Mi-sook walks out just a few seconds after and she reminds her brother of the advice that she told him about before: if you only look at one thing and recklessly rush at it, you’re bound to fall into multiple traps. She chuckles after reminding Min-soo about her advice.

My Thoughts:

OKAAAAAAAY! So we’re finally getting started! The last few minutes of this episode was incredibly thrilling and exciting and I love that things are starting to pick up. We were led to believe that Mi-sook was the killer of the victims because her draft contained information about the first victim, Ju-young. With this update, we also now know how Yoon-young and Hae-joon are connected and it seems as if Yoon-young will soon be looped into knowing about the serial murder case. But of course, things aren’t as easy as it seems and we’re still not entirely sure if Mi-sook was all alone or if she targeted her victims with the assistance of other people.