When we last left our cross-cultural duo, Yuri learned Tae-Oh’s secret about her secret. Now their happiness seems bound to a picture book prophesy. Or not.
Yuri wants to be sure about Tae-Oh’s secret about her secret
Yuri’s father tells Yuri that the professor wants the dad to force them to break up. Because if not, something bad might happen. A picture book says so.
Yuri consults with Mahiro, and their first question is: Who is this professor? Cute. Yuri can’t ask Tae-Oh directly if he knows her secret in case he doesn’t know her secret. So she calls him in for a performance review and administers a stress test. Unlike the last time I saw one, Yuri’s involves a sea otter stuffed animal.
Yuri texts what she hears from Tae-Oh’s mind to Mahiro, who types it into a translator and gets gibberish. That seems right.
That night Yuri invites Tae-Oh to an at-home date. He calls her “Uri Yuri,” which means “My Yuri”. They cook together, there’s a fantasy of a mind-read proposal, couples pajamas, and feeding each other. It’s a lot of cute but not much else.
Finally, Yuri very unsubtly asks Tae-Oh about picture books and superpowers and reading minds. He gives himself away with an answer about if he could “also” read minds. Realizing this, he runs home.
Everyone really, really wants Yuri and Tae-Oh to break up
Hanaoka brings the Korean investor, Ha-Na, to the office. She reads Yuri’s thoughts about Tae-Oh and leaves immediately. Later, she creepily watches them leave the office.
Later, when Tae-Oh comes out alone, she’s still there I guess. He hasn’t seen her since he was a kid. After they met in Hokkaido he realized the truth about Yuri. Ha-Na tells him to remember the ending of the book she wrote. He does, and he’s fine with it.
So Ha-Na gives Hanaoka the book to give to Yuri. And starts to tell him about the ending.
Hanaoka goes to Yuri’s place because Ha Na told him Yuri’s secret. Spilling someone’s private secret power? Rude.
Hanaoka gives the book to Yuri and tells her it’s based on Ha-Na’s life. Here at long last, we learn that in the end the boy turns into stars and can’t reach the girl who hears voices. Hanaoke found out the author’s boyfriend died very young.
Which is proof that a bad thing happened to the author. Why does everyone, including a science professor and a businessman who prides himself on rationality, believe this means anything?
Yuri realizes Tae-Oh was enjoying their time together because he didn’t know when it would end. Which is like, life? People we love die, sometimes too soon. It really sucks.
I understand too, that Yuri lives in terror of loss and being hurt. But it feels like she’s learned nothing in the last 8 episodes.
Because Yuri goes to Tae-Oh’s place to break up with him
Yuri cries as she tells him he helped her realize what love is and also she’s dumping him. He knows she knows his secret about her secret. No amount of professing his love changes her mind. She leaves and walks in front of a motorcycle, but is saved by Tae-Oh at the last moment.
Nope, he hasn’t turned into stars. Still, this near disaster is all the proof Yuri needs. Tae-Oh insists on walking her home and tries to lighten the mood, but still professes his love. They’re both sad. It’s sad. All because of a picture book.
The next day Tae-Oh doesn’t show up for work and sends in his resignation letter. He’s gone back to Korea. We see him tell the professor he’s leaving so Yuri won’t worry and blame herself. The professor is satisfied that Tae-Oh will now be safe. Because no one ever dies a tragic, early death in Korea.
So now Tae-Oh and Yuri are sad in different countries.
Mahiro, Hanaoka, and Yuri have a lackluster celebration of the company’s 9th anniversary. Hanaoka suggests Yuri stare into Tae-Oh’s eyes to lose her power so they can be together. While Ha-Na never tried it herself, she learned about it from Ainu legend. But since it didn’t work with her dad they think there must be more to it.
Mahiro is the MVP of these last two episodes
She’s the only one besides Tae-Oh trying to make Yuri happy. She discovers from the professor that he has untranslated Ainu writing that Onoda was supposed to decipher but didn’t. This writing reveals that staring into the eyes must occur under the stars to work.
Mahiro also learns to flirt with Onoda using sea slug metaphors. Eventually, she gets the back hug and declaration of love from Onoda that she deserves. These two are adorable.
Suddenly the book doesn’t matter anymore
Yuri’s father reminds her of what he told her when she was a kid, life can be bitter and sweet. She knew this at the beginning of the show but forgot I guess.
Meanwhile, Hanaoka meets with Tae-Oh on a bridge in Seoul. He wants Tae-Oh to come back instead of running away. This feels unfair but whatever. Hanaoka gives Tae-Oh his resignation back and a flight to Japan.
Tae-Oh shows up by the swing as Yuri runs with a suitcase to find him in Seoul. She sobs in his arms about how much she misses him and loves him. He loves her too.
Yuri isn’t worried about communicating with her father I guess, because she and Tae-Oh go to the roof to stare into each other’s eyes under the stars. Speaking to her with his thoughts, he shares what he was saying all those times she couldn’t understand him, it was all about how much he liked her. Aww.
He looks away before the 33 seconds is up. He loves her the way she is and doesn’t want her to change for him. They will get through this together.
There are kisses and hugs and sweetness. And I guess Yuri isn’t worried about bad things happening to him anymore. I’m guessing a lot here.
One Year Later
Hanaoka tells Ha-Na that her boyfriend died from a disease he had before they met. That she never knew about. So never mind that prophesy thing. But maybe she and Hanaoka can fall in love.
Onoda proposes to Mahiro by putting a ring in a fish tank for her to find. They’re adorable.
Yuri and Tae-Oh are enjoying a vacation in Korea and hot springs with her father. He meets her eyes and tells her he loves her with his mind. She says she loves him in Korean. They’re adorable.
The moral of the story is: Pictures Books can’t predict the future
For me, whatever the moral of the story was supposed to be got lost in weak writing.
Was it about Yuri learning to live with risk and fear despite what a picture book predicted? All it took was a reminder from her father that life is hard to get her past it. I would have liked to see something bigger in that case.
Was it about Yuri learning she could be loved as she was? But Yuri keeps her powers because Tae-Oh looks away. She doesn’t do anything but agree with him.
I’m not sure what they were trying to say in these last two episodes. It feels like the writers never fleshed Yuri out so her character was inconsistent and frustrating. It’s not as bad as Tharn and the ending of The Sign. It didn’t ruin the show for me. But it is disappointing.
At least it wasn’t dragged out too long, and Yuri apologized. Tae-Oh knows she’s a scaredy cat and what he’s getting into. They’re cute together.
Mahiro and Onoda were also really cute. It would have been nice to see more of them together too.