Netflix’s A Time Called You created a compelling and shocking reality for both Yeon-jun (Ahn Hyo-seop) and Si-heon’s (Ahn) storylines and intersecting timelines amid a story of love and time travel.
Jun-hee’s (Jeon Yeo-been) story centers on her boyfriend passing a year prior in a plane crash from Korea to New York. At the time, Jun-hee was working in New York. A year after his death, she received a photo of three teens from 1998. One of the teens in the picture looks exactly like Yeon-jun. One day she sees a man who looks exactly like Yeon-jun at the train station
While seeking answers, she receives a tape recorder that transports her to 1998 and becomes Mi-jun. She soon meets Si-heon, who looks like her deceased boyfriend but isn’t.
A Time Called You soon begins to interweave Jun-hee’s storyline as Min-ju in 1998, and the truth behind Yeon-jun and Si-heon in 1998 and 2023. As the K-drama progressed, fans were left in shock and awe over whether Yeon-jun really did die on the plane.
A Time Called You: Si-heon and Yeon-jun are not the same person
When Jun-hee travels back to 1998, she is living as Min-ju. Everyone realizes she’s no longer the shy and timid girl, seeing as Jun-hee is really in control and has always been outspoken and brave. Fans are aware that in Min-ju’s real 1998 timeline, she befriends Si-heon and In-gyu, and develops feelings for Si-heon.
Jun-hee traveled in time a few months before Min-ju’s murder and looked for ways to stop it. The problem is no one believes her. Over time and with continued time travel, Min-ju’s features begin to morph into Jun-hee’s. While not having feelings for Min-ju originally, Si-heon begins to fall in love with Jun-hee’s personality. At some point, Si-heon begins to truly believe Jun-hee and her stories of 2023.
Throughout the K-drama, fans learn more about Yeon-jun. He met Jun-hee in college and fell in love. He soon opened a carpentry studio. When Jun-hee’s career offers her a job in New York, she wants to take it. She vows to come back after some time and get married. But Yeon-jun cannot live without her. On the day of her leaving, she suggests taking time apart. Sometime later, Yeon-jun gets on a plane to New York but the plane malfunctions causing fatalities.
At the start of A Time Called You Episode 8, fans see an unexplained storyline of someone who looks like Yeon-jun and Si-heon in college. The scene plays out with another male student at an exam prep school. It implies that they have feelings for each other before getting into a car accident. Who is this person that looks like Si-heon and Yeon-jun?
A Time Called You: Did Yeon-jun die in the plane crash?
Yes, theoretically the real Yeon-jun did ultimately die in the crash from Korea to New York in A Time Called You. But the details behind his death are far more complicated.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
Back in the 1998 timeline, Si-heon left Korea to go to America. He returns in 2002 but gets into a bus accident while listening to the very same tape Jun-hee did. In a shocking twist, Si-heon wakes up in 2007 but as Yeon-jun. The scene in Episode 8 is in fact the real Yeon-jun. The car accident left him in a coma and allowed Si-heon to travel into his body. Before this, Yeon-jun and Jun-hee had never met.
Si-heon soon realizes what happened to him happened to Jun-hee. Knowing about her grand love story and already having feelings for her, Si-heon decides to recreate their love story. Si-heon becomes Yeon-jun. They successfully fall in love and fans soon realize that Jun-hee fell in love with Si-heon from the very beginning.
Fast forward, and the day comes when Si-heon/Yeon-jun is meant to die in the plane crash. Before boarding, he is approached by an exact version of himself with a scar and limp. This is the man Jun-hee saw at the train station. The man reveals he is the real Si-heon from 1998 and lived his timeline after Min-ju’s supposed murder.
He warns Si-heon/Yeon-jun that he’ll die. If he does, he will return back to his body in 2002 after the bus crash. The version of Si-heon with the scar and limp fans are seeing is that timeline. Si-heon/Yeon-jun realizes he must die to set off the chain reaction of Jun-hee’s time travel. As a result, it’s assumed the real Yeon-jun and his body did die in the plane crash. It’s speculated because, after his death, nothing changed in the real Yeon-jun’s timeline. He doesn’t miraculously wake up in a hospital after the car crash. Knowing everything, the real 1998 Si-heon rehabilitates and leaves clues for Jun-hee to travel back in time.
A Time Called You: Did the finale change their fates?
Jun-hee decides to destroy the tape recorder, never starting the chain reaction of time travel, and changes her and Si-heon’s timelines again for good.
In the finale, Jun-hee realizes Mi-jun and In-gyu’s timelines only occurred because of her and Si-heon’s love story. Destroying the tape recorder erased their lives together for good. In doing so, the 1998 Si-heon lives a good life and never dies in 2023.
While fans know that Yeon-jun technically died in the plane crash as intended, did the finale change that? It’s unclear. Because Jun-hee and Si-heon never happen, Si-heon never travels into his body leading to the plane crash. Fans can speculate that Yeon-jun did survive the car crash, woke up, and lived his life never having met Jun-hee.
You can read more K-drama news in our hub here, details about the killer in My Lovely Liar here, and theories about My Lovely Liar here.