A Time Called You Ending Explained: All Time Loops, Love Stories Explained

A Time Called You Ending Explained: Korean romance drama sci-fi series A Time Called You (너의 시간 속으로) is directed by Kim Jin-won and stars Jeon Yeo-been, Ahn Hyo-seop, Kang Hoon, Lee Min-goo, Kim Yi-kyung, Min Jin-woong, Harrison Xu and others. The series has 12 episodes, each with a runtime of around 60+ minutes.

A Time Called You Plot

After her boyfriend’s tragic passing a year ago, Jun-hee is still going through the process of accepting the heartbreak and anguish of his death. Although she projects outwardly that she is okay, inside, she is lost without Yeon-jun’s calming and nurturing presence and the love that they shared. In the midst of this, she suddenly finds herself to have time travelled back to 1998 as a high school student, Min-ju, and, furthermore, meets Si-heon, who looks exactly like her late boyfriend.

As past and present start to merge together, horrible secrets start to come to the surface and destroy everyone’s lives in the process.

A Time Called You Ending Explained

So, who is who? Si-heon, Min-ju, Jun-hee and Yeon-jun – who is living where?

When the series starts, we see two different timelines, Si-heon and Min-ju are in 1998, and Yeon-jun and Jun-hee are in 2023. Yeon-jun is already dead in the first episode.

We then see throughout that the cassette player and the tape help in making people go through these time jumps. People who look the same are able to swap bodies, and thus, at first, we learn about Jun-hee swapping bodies with Min-ju and then Yeon-jun and Si-heon also swap bodies.

Throughout the series, we learn that these characters have been time travelling for years, and then there’s another character whom we learn of later on in the series – Oh Chan-yeong is also someone who has been swapping bodies with his older brother between 2023 and 1998.

Who is in love with whom?

At first, we know that In-gyu is in love with Min-ju. However, when Min-ju’s personality changes after Jun-hee takes over her body, Si-heon falls in love with her. When Si-heon takes over Yeon-jun’s body later, he lives like that and tries to make the original Jun-hee (who hasn’t time-travelled yet) to fall for him. Thus, Jun-hee and Si-heon fall in love (although she thinks that he is actually Yeon-jun). When she finally learns the truth about the body swapping, she realises that the person she has been meeting as Min-ju is actually her soulmate in her original life.

A Time Called You Episode 11 Explained

Min-ju has been trapped in her own body, living Jun-hee’s reality in 1998 for far too long. Ignored at first for being herself, she realises that being like Jun-hee will get her Si-heon’s love, and she orchestrates things so that Jun-hee comes back to 1998 and she can feel close to Si-heon and keep him with her. Although she is aware of what is supposed to happen to her in October, she refuses to heed Jun-hee’s words, who seems to be stuck in Min-ju’s subconscious (just like Min-ju did at first) at this time.

She tries her best to imitate Jun-hee, but Si-heon catches on to her. Min-ju overhears Si-heon telling In-gyu this, who reveals that he always believed Min-ju to be imitating Jun-hee in order to impress him. As the friends fight, Min-ju is left heartbroken, learning that Si-heon, in fact, does not love her. Throughout this whole ordeal, Chan-yeong, as Chan-hui, keeps an eye on Min-ju and is left happy to learn that the real Min-ju is back.

(This Chan-yeong is actually from the future, so he knows about the tape and the time travel.)

Anyway, when Si-heon confronts Min-ju about her changed personality, she lies out of spite and tells him that he made everything up about Jun-hee in order to win his affection, much to Jun-hee’s frustration in the subconscious.

A Time Called You Episode 12 Explained

Min-ju has a hard time accepting that everyone she knows dislikes her and is actually friends with Jun-hee and like who she is. She tries very hard to become Jun-hee but is unable to do so and falls out of favour with Si-heon as well, who is heartbroken after the revelations of the previous episode.

Frustrated with not being accepted for who she is, Min-ju thinks about ending her life and becomes severely depressed. Jun-hee realises that Chan-yeong really didn’t kill Min-ju; the latter kills herself after realising that she will never be loved or accepted and she would rather end her life and be remembered than live like who she is.

In-gyu overhears Min-ju having this morose conversation with Jun-hee and rushes to find her, but when he goes to the terrace, Min-ju is already gone. A severely depressed Min-ju comes across Chan-yeong on her way to end her life while In-gyu and Si-heon run around to find her, alarmed by her words. In the end, both the boys realise where Min-ju might be and rush to find her.

At the old abandoned building, Chan-yeong and Min-ju go in, but as he is about to inject something into Min-ju, Chan-yeong is awoken in 2023 by the police, and Chan-hui comes back to life in 1998. As Chan-hui, horrified by what he is about to do, rushes off, In-gyu gets there and witnesses Min-ju, now heartbroken by not being able to die and hating her own life, jumping off the building and ending her life.

Jun-hee wakes up in her own body in 2023, heartbroken at not being able to save Min-ju. In 2023, although the tape stops working, Jun-hee falls asleep, heartbroken about the tape, Min-ju and her lost love. It suddenly starts to play, and Jun-hee wakes up in Min-ju’s body just as she is about to fall off the building. Although she slips, In-gyu catches her, and the three friends meet once again.

However, this means that the future will change – Jun-hee and Si-heon won’t meet in the future, and Jun-hee won’t come back to the past anymore to meet him. However, Jun-hee seems to be okay with these changes. She goes back home and talks to Min-ju, apologising to her for not understanding her even though she has been with her for so long and giving her hope to move forward with her life.

The next morning, Jun-hee (in Min-ju’s body) asks In-gyu to get rid of the cassette player and tape and assures him that maybe after it’s destroyed, Si-heon will never know of her existence and things will change forever. So, it’s better that she doesn’t feel like coming back and ruining Min-ju’s life.

Si-heon and Jun-hee (in Min-ju’s body) spend a day at the beach and bid farewell to each other while In-gyu gets rid of the cassette player and tape at the abandoned building where Min-ju tried to end her life. As the cassette player and tape catch on fire, Si-heon and Jun-hee disappear into the air, having had their lives changed forever. In 2023, Jun-hee wakes up and realises that her life with Si-heon has ceased to exist, and, in 1998, Si-heon finds all traces of his time with Jun-hee removed as well. In the end, Jun-hee, too, disappears.

Back in 1998, Mun-ji wakes up after the accident and finds In-gyu there, who tells her that she was in a car accident. Yeon-jun and Jun-hee cross paths, but they don’t know each other. Si-heon passes by the cassette store and feels the remnants of a life he has forgotten but is unable to remember why the song is special to him. Min-ju, too, feels the remnants of her time with Jun-hee but without the details. However, she remembers that she is not alone and finds In-gyu right there beside her.

In the present, Si-heon, now in the business of webcomics and webtoons, comes across Jun-hee on the bus, both on their way back home, and he finds himself drawn to her. He asks her whether she is Min-ju, but she doesn’t recognise him. As she gets off, Si-heon can’t help but get down with her as well and follows her, two star-crossed lovers finally meeting each other once more.

Jun-hee’s choice vs Si-heon’s choice

Jun-hee and Si-heon were both given a choice to break the cycle and end everyone’s deaths. However, before getting on the plane, Si-heon chooses to get on and die in order for Jun-hee to travel back and meet him. If he had chosen to stay instead, he would’ve broken the cycle and Min-ju, In-gyu, Yeon-jun, and he himself would’ve survived. However, he chose his love for Jun-hee over all that.

Meanwhile, Jun-hee, having lived through all of this, chooses differently – even though her life with Si-heon would never exist, she chooses to put everyone else over her happiness and memories and breaks the cycle. Thus, she eventually does meet Si-heon, since they are soulmates who were destined to meet regardless.

A Time Called You is streaming on Netflix.

Also Read: A Time Called You Review: Jeon Yeo-been, Ahn Hyo-seop Are in For a Time Loop