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What do you do when you reunite with someone who you weren’t expecting to encounter? How do you greet someone who you didn’t have the chance to say goodbye to? Hee-wan struggles to make sense of the strange situation she’s found herself in. And as she reels in all of the emotions and feelings during this new experience, she’s also reminded of the times back then when things were much happier and brighter.

Way Back Love: Episode 2 Recap

Ram-woo visits Hee-wan at her place to deliver some grim news: he’s the Grim Reaper and Hee-wan only has one week left to live. She’s going to die in a week. Hee-wan is in complete disbelief at the news and sight of Ram-woo. From having a random deliveryman check out her space to calling her doctor about the prescription medicine that she was given, Hee-wan assumes she must be hallucinating. There’s no way she’s seeing Ram-woo. But the truth is that she does see him – she’s the only one who can see him. Hee-wan pulls other tricks to test Ram-woo such as pulling a fire extinguisher on him, but nope, that doesn’t work either. She really can see and talk to him.

We return back to the high school era and Hee-wan receives a visit from Bang Ji-soo, one of the more popular and pretty students at the school. Ji-soo asks Hee-wan for a favor: in exchange for some money, she’d like for Hee-wan to handwrite a love letter for her crush. Because of her beautiful handwriting, Hee-wan utilizes her talent and skill to her advantage and she makes some money on the side to handwrite love letters. There’s only one caveat to Ji-soo’s request: the love letter is for none other than Ram-woo (GAAAAAH!). Hee-wan is shocked to find out that Ram-woo is the recipient of Ji-soo’s love letter. Ji-soo is confident that she won’t get rejected by him. So with that, Hee-wan attempts to handwrite Ji-soo’s love letter for Ram-woo but it’s a struggle. Because she too has a crush on Ram-woo.

Ji-soo bothers Tae-kyung everyday outside of her classroom asking for Hee-wan. She wants updates on her love letter but Tae-kyung continues to make excuses for her best friend. She didn’t come to school that day or she’s at the teacher’s office or she got into a traffic accident so she’s at the hospital. LOL. One day, while sitting outside on the rooftop, Tae-kyung and Hee-wan chat about the love letter. Maybe Hee-wan should just confess to Ram-woo first to avoid having to give Ji-soo the love letter. But speaking of Ji-soo, she catches Tae-kyung and Hee-wan sitting outside on the rooftop so she chases after Hee-wan. Hee-wan ends up sneaking inside the boy’s restroom and her only option left to escape is to jump out the window. So she jumps out the window but the jump is quite high and she gets injured. Rumors that she attempted suicide spreads and Ram-woo writes a note for Hee-wan at school: if she needs anything, she can let him know. All Hee-wan can do is just laugh things off in disbelief.

To get a brief break from Ram-woo, Hee-wan heads to the sauna. Just like she wanted, she gets some alone time to just catch her breath and process everything that’s happening. While in the pool, she dips her head underwater and she’s reminded of the question that her doctor asked her about her dream: does she still have the same dream where her friend died? It’s been a few years since Ram-woo died but Hee-wan is still haunted by it everyday.

It’s not until Hee-wan witnesses Ram-woo announce a man’s death at the hospital that she finally starts to understand how serious and real her situation is. Ram-woo is indeed the Grim Reaper like he claimed he was and she watches as he says the man’s name three final times before another Grim Reaper takes the man away. Afterwards, Hee-wan and Ram-woo sit down at a bench at the park to talk things through. She only has one week left to live and she can’t find out how she dies. There’s nothing she wants to do in particular except just go home and sleep so Ram-woo suggests that they do some stuff that he’s listed on his bucket list instead. Yes, he’s already dead but that doesn’t mean that they still can’t fulfill some of the activities on there. So Hee-wan and Ram-woo ride a tandem bike together – one of the things on his bucket list. Aww, how cute.

We jump back in time to the high school era and Ji-soo finally gets to meet with Tae-kyung and Hee-wan about her love letter. Hee-wan makes up some excuses as to why she hasn’t gotten around to delivering it to Ji-soo yet so Ji-soo assumes Hee-wan must have a crush on Ram-woo. That’s the only explanation left that makes sense. Hee-wan panics and denies the accusations. What?? Her?? Liking Ram-woo?? No way!! That can’t be! Ha-ha-ha-ha. So to prove her statement, Hee-wan shows Ji-soo the love letter that she had been waiting for the entire time. It’s plain and traditional and Hee-wan adds her own little special touch to it: she adds a brown heart sticker to the bottom of the page next to Ji-soo’s name (Tae-kyung: “the poop brown one??” LOL).

Back in the present, Ram-woo and Hee-wan sit outside together and stare at the night sky. Hee-wan takes another glance at Ram-woo’s bucket list and points out how non-realistic some of the things on the list are. But there is one wish in particular that stands out to her and it’s Ram-woo’s desire to meet his mom. She’s reminded of their conversation from earlier that day and how Ram-woo vowed to disappear from Hee-wan’s sight forever once they finished ten of the items on his bucket list. So the two don’t waste anymore time and they proceed to enjoy some activities together. From bird watching to eating some ramen noodles in the “Artic” to attending a classical concert together, Hee-wan and Ram-woo make the most of their remaining time together.

Hee-wan steals glances at Ram-woo while at the concert. She’s reminded of one particular day in high school when Ji-soo was about ready to confess her feelings to Ram-woo. Hee-wan who initially thought it would be better off to just remain friends with Ram-woo ends up rushing outside to greet Ji-soo and Ram-woo. She imagines a bunch of different ideas to interrupt the confession. She can either confess to Ram-woo in that exact moment herself. Or she can do a plot twist and pretend that she liked Ji-soo all along. Or she can loop Hong-seok in and pretend that he’ll be too lonely if Ram-woo was to get with Ji-soo. But none of these ideas seem logical to Hee-wan and she struggles to say anything to Ji-soo and Ram-woo. But before Hee-wan can even say anything, she gets hit in the head by a soccer ball and gets knocked out. Ram-woo carries her on his back to the nurse’s office. While Hee-wan stays inside of the nurse’s office, Ji-soo resumes with her initial plan to confess to Ram-woo and she does exactly just that. Hee-wan assumes it’s over for her and her doubts are reinforced when Ram-woo requests that she handwrite a letter for him. Upon glancing at the letter, she notices the recipient’s name has the initials “J.S.” so she assumes Ram-woo wants to give a love letter to Ji-soo. While writing Ram-woo’s letter that night, Hee-wan can’t help but cry in heartbreak.

In the present, Ram-woo and Hee-wan go on another adventure listed on Ram-woo’s bucket list. This time, it’s paragliding. But there’s just one slight difference. It’s only Hee-wan who’s participating in the fun activity. Ram-woo watches proudly as Hee-wan is forced encouraged to take off with the paragliding expert. Haha.

Unlike what Hee-wan thought, Ram-woo’s letter actually wasn’t for Ji-soo. It was a birthday letter for his mom. She doesn’t like the way that her name is spelled out so he refers to her by her initials. Hee-wan is relieved upon hearing the news about the letter. She feels even better when Ram-woo shares that he rejected Ji-soo’s confession. He comes up with some excuses as to why he didn’t accept her confession but it’s obvious there’s someone else who he likes. Hehe.

After paragliding, Hee-wan returns back on land and she panics when Ram-woo is nowhere to be found. She searches for him frantically while shouting his name repeatedly. Fortunately, Ram-woo didn’t disappear and he shows up a few seconds later. But Hee-wan doesn’t find the situation amusing and she sheds tears upon seeing Ram-woo again.

So how did Ram-woo come up with all of the activities on the bucket list? Well, it turns out they were actually things that Hee-wan wanted to do. Back in high school, Ram-woo overheard Hee-wan chatting with her friends about things that she wanted to do if she was to have a boyfriend. Things like going to a classical concert, paragliding, drinking beer while enjoying the night view, and riding a tandem bike together. Ram-woo paid extra attention to Hee-wan’s ideas and a few years later, they were finally able to accomplish all of those items together.

But the happiness in high school didn’t last long because Ram-woo passed away not too long after. A few days after his death, a bouquet of flowers is placed on his desk in his classroom. Classmates follow after the funeral vehicle with the casket inside. It’s a rainy day and all the classmates chatter about Hee-wan’s involvement in Ram-woo’s death. Hee-wan isn’t walking with the rest of them and she hasn’t been seen for two days. They assume that she must have had something to do with Ram-woo’s death. But little do they know, Hee-wan is there. She stands in the rain not too far behind them as she stares at her group of classmates.

My Thoughts:

In a strange way, this second episode was both better and not as good as episode one. I thought it was better in that it finally gave us some insight on Hee-wan’s feelings and thoughts regarding Ram-woo’s death. The scene that stood out to me in particular was the scene where she was at the sauna and her doctor’s question about the recurring nightmare came up. This was really our first glimpse of Hee-wan’s struggle in processing Ram-woo’s death and her inability to forgive herself or to move forward in her life. She still felt extremely guilty, devastated, and heartbroken over what happened to the point where she continued to dream about it. That sauna scene was so quiet but it also spoke volumes about where Hee-wan was at in terms of her grief and mourning over Ram-woo’s death. I also really liked all the ways that the drama showed us how strong and adorable of a connection Ram-woo and Hee-wan had with each other. I love the high school era because it’s funny and humorous but I also love just how cute and innocent Ram-woo and Hee-wan are. They harbor crushes on each other, they get nervous around each other, and they both really like each other. The high school era compared to the present era has been the stronger part so far in the drama and I enjoy all the high school flashbacks a lot more.

Unfortunately, this episode also gave us a preview on one thing that I wasn’t as big of a fan of which was that the editing left a little bit to be desired. For example, the scene of Hee-wan and Ram-woo attending the classical concert and then cutting back to the high school flashback and then jumping back to the present with the concert and then going back to the high school scene was a bit too sudden for my liking. I wished it had just played both scenes the whole way through without jumping back and forth so much. It doesn’t bother me a whole ton but it does get a bit distracting when I’m invested in one scene and then suddenly we’re transferred to another scene a few minutes later.

I loved the little plot twist at the end where all of the items that we thought initially were on Ram-woo’s bucket list were actually things that Hee-wan wanted to do. This was another example of Ram-woo having a crush on Hee-wan to the point where he paid attention to her in class and kept track of what she wanted to do. The interaction between them after Hee-wan finished paragliding was another really great moment. It’s clear that Hee-wan actually isn’t ready to say goodbye to Ram-woo yet and even if she pretends as if she wants him to disappear, we saw how she truly felt when she panicked upon thinking that he had disappeared. The tears in her eyes and the way she cried illustrated that she still cared for him deeply and missed him. It’s heartbreaking that this is how they reunite many years later. Ram-woo wasn’t supposed to pass away so early. He was supposed to live a much longer life and spend many more years with Hee-wan. But since this is their reality and the strange situation that they have both found themselves in, Ram-woo and Hee-wan are learning to make the most of what little time they have left together.