Popular K-drama A Time Called You, starring Ahn Hyeo-Seop and Jeon Yeo-Been as leads, released on September 8, 2023, on Netflix. The series follows the story of a woman Han Jun-Hee (Jeon Yeo-Been) as she mourns the death of her boyfriend (Koo Yeon-Jun). However, she travels back in time after listening to a tape recorder. Eventually, she finds herself in Kwon Min-Ju’s body. She also falls in love with Nam Si-Heon, who resembles her deceased boyfriend.
A Time Called You is a story filled with time travel and complex narratives. The series not only documents Jun-Hee’s time travel, but even Si-Heon has his own version of the time travel story. While the time travel portion of the series seems confusing to viewers, a murder mystery makes it even more complicated to understand. However, the K-drama had a bittersweet ending, leaving viewers open to interpretation.
A Time Called You Ending Explained: Do Ahn Hyeo-Seop & Jeon Yeo-Been get together?
To understand A Time Called You, one needs to take a closer look into different time travel narratives. Jun-Hee mourns the death of her boyfriend Yeon-Jun, who is said to have died in a plane crash. However, she fails to believe as she’d not seen his body. Then while traveling, she listens to a tape recorder that transports her back in time to 1998.
Jun-Hee wakes up in the hospital in the body of Min-Ju. People around her are surprised to find her to be so outspoken when Min-Ju is known to be shy. Viewers also see Jung In-Gyu (Kang Hoon), who has a crush on Min-Ju. But she likes Nam Si-Heon. Eventually, Jun-Hee finds out that she’s stuck in Min-Ju’s body, who was murdered in October 1998.
Now, Jun-Hee has to avoid Min-Ju’s murder at any cost. As the three start a friendship, she falls for Si-Heon, who resembles her deceased boyfriend Yeon-Jun. Meanwhile, another narrative revolves around Si-Heon’s time travel. After he returns to Korea in 2002, Si-Heon gets into a bus accident and wakes up in 2007 in Yeon-Jun’s body. The latter was in a coma after suffering a car accident. At this point, Si-Heon knows everything about Jun-Hee and Yeon-Jun’s love story because she’d told him previously.
He aims to recreate the love story while pretending to be Yeon-Jun. He takes space as Yeon-Jun in Jun-Hee’s real life. Therefore, Jun-Hee always loved Si-Heon and not Yeon-Jun. The story proceeds to involve a more complicated narrative. The original Si-Heon, who has not time-traveled and hurts his leg in the bus accident, meets the time-traveled Si-Heon (pretending to be Yeon-Jun).
The original Si-Heon tells the time-traveled Si-Heon that the latter would die from a plane crash. This was Yeon-Jun’s storyline in the beginning. However, the other Si-Heon reveals that it’s better for him to die so that the original Si-Heon could continue his life in 2002. Therefore, Si-Heon in the original timeline sends over the tape to Jun-Hee.
Eventually, Si-Heon reveals his identity to Jun-Hee which solves the mystery of time travel. However, they are yet to solve Min-Ju’s murder. Si-Heon discovers about a classmate of Min-Ju, who went on sick leave after her death and had a crush on her. He eventually discovers that it was his brother Chan-Yeong, who kills Min-Ju while being in Chan-Hui’s body.
What’s more? Si-Heon finds out that Chan-Yeong is Jun-Hee’s friend in 2023. Meanwhile, Jun-Hee also reveals her time travel journey in a conversation with Chan-Yeong. The latter uses the tape recorder but she interrupts him. After Si-Heon arrives, she discovers the truth, but Chan-Yeong runs away, stabbing Si-Heon.
Chan-Yeong uses the recorder once again and goes back in time. In that period, Jun-Hee is Min-Ju. During the original timeline, In-Gyu accused himself of Min-Ju’s death, went to prison, and killed himself out of guilt. Jun-Hee travels back in time to avoid this, but this time, Min-Ju is in control. She already knows everything after witnessing Jun-Hee’s time travel.
Si-Heon, who also knows about Jun-Hee’s time travel, notices a difference in Min-Ju and confronts her. When she realizes there is no way Si-Heon will ever like her over Jun-Hee, Min-Ju asks Chan-Yeong to kill her. However, his brother Chan-Hui takes over when Chan-Yeong gets arrested by the police. Min-Ju still dies by suicide and In-Gyu takes the blame.
Jun-Hee eventually realizes that it is because of her time travel that Min-Ju and In-Gyu suffer. She goes back in time and gives In-Gyu the tape recorder asking him to destroy it. She spends one final day with Si-Heon, requesting him to find her in another timeline. With the tape broken, both their memories disappear and so do their time travel journeys.
The K-drama ends with the 1998 timeline when Min-Ju wakes up in the hospital. She and In-Gyu get together, while Si-Heon resumes his life. While traveling on a bus, he sees a woman singing a familiar song. The woman is none other than Jun-Hee. In the end, both deboard the bus and Si-Heon calls Jun-Hee.
The two look at each other when the drama ends. The ending is left open-ended. Although Jun-Hee and Si-Heon don’t end up together on their time travel journeys, it is also possible that they find each other in a brand new timeline as promised.
All episodes of A Time Called You are available to stream on Netflix.
