Lovely Runner – K-drama Episode 14 Recap & Review

Protection Is Love

Episode 14 of Lovely Runner circles back to 2009, when Sun-jae died again, and Im Sol used his watch to turn back time and ensure they never met again. Soon after this, Im Sol and her family moved out, and she went to great lengths to ensure they never met again. However, even the best-laid plans are nothing against fate because a chance encounter brings them together in 2023. 

This time, Sun-jae, in a hilarious misunderstanding, mistakes Im Sol for a petty thief after witnessing her ‘steal’ her boss’s clutch bag. As they argue on the stairs, they accidentally drop the red envelopes they were holding, leading to a mix-up. Sun-jae ends up with Im Sol’s resignation letter, and the situation takes a comedic turn when he unknowingly presents it during an award show, becoming the centre of laughter. Taking this as a personal insult, he swears to make Im Sol pay. 

The next day, Im Sol and her team discuss their new strategy for the movie. Hyun-joo unknowingly suggests they contact Sun-jae and offer him the role. Im Sol is flustered but tries to dissuade the team. However, her boss insists Sun-jae is a good fit and orders Hyun-joo to send him a proposal. Hyun-joo gets a bit distracted when sending the files and sends Im Sol’s new project instead. After reading Im Sol’s script based on the story of a woman who time travels to save her man, Sun-jae is moved to tears and expresses his desire to be the lead. Sadly, his manager informs him there was a mistake and shows him the right proposal.

Elsewhere, Young-soo turns his attention to Sun-jae’s stalker and tries to kidnap her. She manages to escape, but Young-soo escapes. The police, led by Tae-sung, start a manhunt for him.

The following day, Im Sol’s boss surprises her with an impromptu meeting with Sun-jae. Sun-jae is stunned when he learns that Im Sol, his new archenemy, wrote the script. He makes up his mind to turn them down but is offended when Im Sol rejects him first. Once again, he takes this personally and attempts to find out why she hates him. Later that night, he waits for her to get off work and takes her to a restaurant to talk. 

Im Sol is clear that there is nothing personal, she doesn’t picture him as the lead in her project. She goes on to give flimsy excuses about how her shaman warned her about working with men born in the Year of the Horse and that she pictured a different older actor for the role. Sun-jae is stunned since her excuses don’t make sense. He is even more shocked when he later learns from In-yuk that the actor Im Sol mentioned was born in the Year of the Horse.

He tries to reach out to Im Sol, but she blocks him. This forces him to involve his manager, but even with multiple offers like working for free, Im Sol still says no. At the same time, Sun-jae’s team starts laughing at him since he keeps getting rejected for the project. While all this bickering is going on, Sun-jae starts having dreams and visions from his past lives. However, he never sees Im Sol’s face.

A few days later, Grandma disappears and visits Gyeon-deok’s restaurant. She immediately recognises him, and they drink while talking about the old days. Gyeon-deok brags effortlessly about his son and is excited when Sun-jae shows up. Grandma mistakes Sun-jae for her husband and starts scolding him for abandoning her. At this point, Gyeon-deok sees a picture fall from her jacket and upon reading the note behind it, he realises Grandma has dementia. Sun-jae is surprised to see Im Sol in the photo and offers to drop her at her house. In the meantime, Im Sol’s family is going crazy looking for grandma and is relieved to get the call from Gyeon-deok. Tae-sung offers to drop Im Sol home and she finds Sun-jae outside. 

She jumps to conclusions and thinks he is there to bug her again. However, Sun-jae is more curious about her relationship with Tae-sung. Im Sol explains she is single and wonders how he found her address. She thinks he is there to threaten her with her resignation letter even though he returned it to her. She sternly tells him off, but Grandma cuts her off. Bok-soon arrives just in time and orders Im Sol to treat Sun-jae to coffee as a sign of gratitude.

During the ‘coffee date’, Sun-jae does his best to explain why he is the best man for the role. He is embarrassed when two young girls fail to recognise him, but Im Sol finds the situation funny. He is so happy to watch her laugh; he couldn’t care less about the embarrassment. As he drops her home, Sun-jae says he feels like they have met before. Im Sol insists that her mind is made up and asks him not to jeopardise her work.

As he leaves, Sun-jae’s heart beats faster. It is like his heart recognises she is his owner. He also has a vision of being there before. After Sun-jae leaves, Im Sol heads in and talks to Grandma. As we suspected, Grandma knew exactly what she was doing. She brazenly asks Im Sol if she did well and adds that she knows Im Sol missed Sun-jae. It is official: Grandma is the best wingman ever! 

The following day at work, Im Sol’s boss insists on working with Sun-jae, so Im Sol quits. Hyun-joo is shocked and tries to talk to her friend. Sadly, Im Sol lashes out at her and blames her for accidentally sending the project to Sun-jae.

 After quitting her job, Im Sol heads to the arcade where she spent her birthday with Sun-jae. She can’t help but recall the memories and miss Sun-jae more. She ends up staying there until late into the night. At the same time, Sun-jae is at the arcade waiting to shoot a commercial, but the shoot is postponed. He starts looking around and gets a sense of familiarity even though he has never been there before.

He sees Im Sol getting into the Ferris Wheel and follows her inside. By the time Im Sol realises what is going on, the Ferris Wheel is already moving. Sun-jae asks why she is so intent on avoiding him that she even quit her job. Im Sol can barely look him in the eyes when she says that they can’t work together. Sun-jae asks why the story has a sad ending, but Im Sol defends it, saying that the man gets to live.

Sun-jae disagrees, pointing out it is sad that the man loses his memories and the woman loses love. He adds that the story gave him weird dreams and visions. Im Sol tries to hold back tears as Sun-jae explains how he has been feeling lately. He says he also feels like he has been at the arcade before.

Im Sol is touched and explains that he might die if they work together. As they talk, the Ferris Wheel comes to an abrupt stop, shoving them against each other. Sun-jae uses his body to protect Im Sol, and she looks up at him with sadness in her eyes. In her mind, she questions why their fate is like a never-ending circle that keeps repeating itself.

The Episode Review

In this episode, we saw Hyun-joo get angry at Im Geum. Did he lose their money again? Luckily, Im Sol saw this coming and gave him a winning lottery ticket. Now that Hyun-joo has won the money, maybe she will be less angry at her husband.

Grandma is suspicious. She has dementia but remembers Im Sol used to date Sun-jae. What is she up to? Either way, she is helping the ship SolJae sail, and we are thankful for her. As for our many leads, we have so many questions. Why is Sun-jae able to remember his past lives? Is he fated to die in every timeline, and will Im Sol weaken her resolve the more she sees him? At this point, our concern is whether these two will have a happy ending. At the moment, things look so bleak, and it saddens our hearts. 

We are also curious about Young-soo. What is his problem? For a man who has caused us so much pain, we know nothing about him other than that he is a serial killer who is infatuated with Im Sol. But why? It makes us wonder what would have happened if Im Sol had changed her fate to make sure she never met Young-soo! Wouldn’t this have solved the problem?