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Hee-wan lets a little light into her life now that Ram-woo is also back in her life. She makes some new friends, puts some of her talent and skills to use, and enjoys her time with Ram-woo. But sometimes there are unexpected moments and times when that grief creeps up from behind her and she’s forced to accept the fact that she’s not okay. She was never okay.

Way Back Love: Episode 3 Recap

The episode starts off with Ram-woo and his mom riding in a moving truck with the driver. They’re once again moving to another apartment and the driver questions why they have so much stuff and where exactly Ram-woo’s dad is in all of this. It’s another year of school so it’s that time of the year again to fill out the handout with their personal information to give to their homeroom teacher. While Ram-woo isn’t so thrilled at filling out the form, he cheers up a bit after overhearing Hee-wan chat about how she just makes stuff up on the paper. Haha. Speaking of Ram-woo’s mom, Hee-wan admires the painting that his mom worked on and hangs it up in her dad’s restaurant instead of letting Ram-woo throw it away. Though Hee-wan’s dad is embarrassed at Hee-wan’s great excitement for the painting, Ram-woo’s mom isn’t turned off by it. She gives words of encouragement to Hee-wan and tells her to never listen to anyone who doesn’t recognize her talent.

So Hee-wan takes those words to heart and she requests that Ram-woo’s Mom starts teaching her how to paint. So the pair begin to paint together at Ram-woo’s apartment and Ram-woo finds himself interacting with Hee-wan both at school and at home. On one particular night, Ram-woo’s Mom briefly leaves to go pick up some food so it’s just Ram-woo and Hee-wan alone at his place. Things quickly get awkward between them and the two step out to the balcony for some fresh air. Just then, Hee-wan points out the shooting star that flies by in the night sky and how nice it’d be if it was just the two of them seeing a shooting star together. She panics right after she realizes what she just said so she quickly follows it up by adding Tae-kyung and Hong-seok into the picture. However, Ram-woo agrees with Hee-wan. He would like it too if it was just him and Hee-wan who got to see a shooting star together. Things eventually heat up between the two and Hee-wan runs out of the apartment to go back home. Later on that night, she writes a love letter for Ram-woo. Even though they’re shy, the two of them feel the same way about each other.

In the present, Hee-wan and Ram-woo spend the day together at Hee-wan’s college campus. They end up bumping (literally) into Go Yeong-hyun, a student who’s in the same department as Hee-wan and who took a class together with her once. The two eventually exchange introductions and Yeong-hyun invites Hee-wan to hang out with her and some classmates for the school festival that day. Though Hee-wan pretends that she has class, Ram-woo encourages her to go out and join Yeong-hyun that day. He also gets excited at the sight of some painted posters and is so excited that he accidentally knocks down all the posters and buckets of paint onto the ground. A mess ensues and Yeong-hyun’s group ends up having to clean up the mess. Hee-wan feels apologetic so she puts her painting skills to use and paints a new menu for Yeong-hyun’s booth at the festival. Aww.

Hee-wan’s posters are so popular that students from other departments stop by to ask for customized posters as well. Hee-wan (and Ram-woo) end up hanging out with Yeong-hyun and the group the rest of the day. Hee-wan wasn’t as social and active in college so she wasn’t aware of popular places around campus like the group knows. Hee-wan also makes a new friend in Yeong-hyun who offers to help her if she ever needs it.

We return back to the high school era. Hee-wan, Ram-woo, Tae-kyung, and Hong-seok all hang out together and commemorate the day with some photos in a photo booth. While walking to the park, Hong-seok and Ram-woo separate from Hee-wan and Tae-kyung for a bit so Hong-seok takes the opportunity to chat with Ram-woo about his crush… on Hee-wan. Oh noooo. Ram-woo’s surprised by the revelation as he initially assumed it was Tae-kyung who his best friend had a crush on. This gets Ram-woo thinking and he recalls how his friendship with Hong-seok started.

It all started when the both of them ended up at the same internet cafe on the same day. From there, they played board games together and hung out more often because well.. they didn’t have any friends except for each other. Ram-woo can’t quite exactly recall when Hong-seok began to develop feelings for Hee-wan. But he knew it bothered him. Everything little thing reminds him of her. The night sky reminds him of her. He’s afraid to move once again because he likes his school and wants to stay with his friends, including her. Things don’t help when his mom gets him the same exact jacket that Hee-wan’s dad got her. The two of them wear the same jacket at school and all their classmates tease them. But Ram-woo is embarrassed and he shoves the jacket into his locker to deny the dating rumors. Later on that day, he decides that he’s had enough and he plans to confess to Hee-wan thanks to his two female classmates who encourage him to just go for it.

Hee-wan and Hong-seok spend time together at a swimming pool. He assists her on her painting project and she gets to know about him a little bit better. She learns that he quit swimming even though it was once his talent and passion. It made him too anxious and he’s decided to avoid it and prepare to become a college physical education teacher instead. Since they’re already on the topic of swimming, Hong-seok shares that he wants Hee-wan to paint a tattoo on him. Maybe she can paint a seal since that used to be his nickname. Just then, a security guard enters the building and Hee-wan and Hong-seok get caught. When asked what they’re doing there, Hong-seok admits that he just wanted to spend time with Hee-wan because well.. he likes her. He inches his hand closer towards Hee-wan’s hands but she quickly moves it away. Hong-seok understands where Hee-wan stands in terms of how she feels about him.

When Hee-wan gets off at her bus stop that night, she comes across Ram-woo who was waiting at the bus stop for her. He notices that she’s wearing Hong-seok’s jacket and things get awkward between the two of them. Ram-woo has something that he wants to say to Hee-wan but Hee-wan speaks first. She assumes they’ve only been hanging out all this time with Hong-seok because of Hong-seok’s feelings for her and she heads home. That night, she throws away the love letter she had originally written for Ram-woo.

Back in the present at the college festival, Ram-woo grows jealous of any romantic topics related to Hee-wan. He doesn’t like the classmate who makes a move on Hee-wan and he’s also shocked to hear about the dating rumors between Hee-wan and Hong-seok even though Hee-wan vehemently denies it. Right at that moment, Ram-woo gets distracted by some sparklers so he runs over to the spot where they’re being given out. Hee-wan follows after him and she grows sad upon noticing how he can’t be seen. It’s another heartbreaking reminder that he’s not alive. Right at that moment, Yeong-hyun calls out Hee-wan’s name to take a picture on her polaroid camera and both Ram-woo and Hee-wan turn around. But only Hee-wan shows up in the photo. Then a group countdown with the sparklers reminds Hee-wan of the night of Ram-woo’s incident and she runs away. She can’t do this anymore. She needs to escape. So she runs off alone. She’s reminded of how her classmates blamed her for Ram-woo’s death back in high school because she was the one who initially suggested that they switch names.

Ram-woo catches up to Hee-wan shortly afterwards and he’s confused by her sudden outburst of emotions. She’s upset with him; she’s exhausted. What exactly is it that he wants from her? Did he come back just to torture her? She hasn’t been the same since he died four years ago. She still feels guilty for what happened to him. She also knows that he refuses to call her by her real name because he only does it for people who are about to die which is why he has been calling her Ram-woo this entire time. So Ram-woo grabs Hee-wan’s hand and with tears in his eyes, he tells her that he likes her. He likes her so much. And he came back to visit her because he missed her. Hee-wan breaks down into tears upon hearing Ram-woo’s confession. He finally was able to do the one thing he couldn’t do four years ago. These were the exact words that Hee-wan had always wanted to hear and that Ram-woo had always wanted to say.