Once Upon A Small Town – K-drama Episode 7 Recap & Review

By Essang Michael - October 7, 2022 | Categories: Movies Tags: Movie Reviews

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Episode 7 of Once Upon A Small Town starts with Ji-yul and Ja-young gazing at each other at the lake. A jump cut takes us to the next morning where Ji-yul is worried about running into the police officer. Ja-young talks to Officer Ma-sung. He is somehow able to pinpoint her problems right to the T as he mentions his dilemma with Ji-yul and Sang-hyeon’s respective confessions.

At the animal hospital, Ji-yul is lost in thought when Seon-dong arrives with his friend, Hui-won and her pet rabbit. According to the kids, the rabbit had diarrhoea. After Hui-won gets very emotional about the pet, Ji-yul promises to treat her. The vet and Nurse Yeong-suk notice that Hui-won was extremely furious with Seon-dong and they wonder if the two friends were in a fight.

After the treatment, Ji-yul tells Hui-won that the rabbit was better now and that it will have to stay at the hospital for a while. Seon-dong tries to talk to Hui-won but she stares him down meanwhile, Ji-yul senses something is wrong. After Hui-won has left, Ji-yul talks to Seon-dong, the child reveals that there was something Hui-won had given her as a present and that he had forgotten what it was.

Seon-dong states that Hui-won is now upset about that and he asks for Ji-yul’s advice. The vet tells him that the best solution was to give her time. He tells Seon-dong to stop talking to her for a while. The child agrees to accept Ji-yul’s advice as goes away. Ji-yul then recalls his awkward interaction with Ja-young after he had revealed to her that his memories had returned. Just as he is about to call her, Ji-yul gets called due to an emergency.

Ja-young is near the police station when she sees a sulky Seon-dong passing by. She calls him and is shocked to learn about Ji-yul’s advice to the child. She scolds Seon-dong for ignoring Hui-won as now the girl is further furious with him. Ja-young offers Seon-dong some advice herself and tells him to sincerely apologise to her. Seon-dong agrees to take the advice.

Meanwhile, Ji-yul is just back at the animal hospital after his house call when a crying Seon-dong comes running toward him. Seon-dong reveals that after following two contrasting pieces of advice given by Ja-young and the vet himself, Hui-won was further angry at Sean-dong for constantly changing his attitude towards her. Ji-yul is shocked to learn what Ja-young’s advice was and tells him to firmly follow his own advice.

Ji-yul feels Seon-dong that should be very patient and let Hui-won take her own time to come back to him. Seon-dong states that since Ji-yul has a girlfriend while Ja-young has been single her whole life, it was wise of him to listen to Ji-yul. That evening, Ji-yul is on a house call where he finds Ja-young. She takes the chance to thank him for saving her life during the car accident.

She uses suggestive words to instigate an apology out of him but as he is about to say something, Sang-hyeon joins them. An uncomfortable Ji-yul leaves after watching Ja-young interact with Sang-hyeon. She tells Sang-hyeon how she feels now that Ji-yul remembered her and states that she will move on from the incident in her childhood now. Sang-hyeon states that he is leaving for Seol for the next few days.

At the animal hospital, Ji-yul seeks advice from Dr Choi and the senior vet is able to exactly pinpoint the fallacies in Ji-yul’s judgement of his situation with Ja-young. Just as he ends the call, Hui-won comes running to the clinic to tell him that Seon-dong had gone missing because she was furious with him. Ji-yul is worried so he alerts Ja-young and the other cops. Together, Ja-young and Ji-yul team up to look for the child meanwhile the other two officers also go out on a lookout.

The two end up blaming each other for the child going missing upon listening to the other party’s advice. After roaming around the town for a while, Ja-young gets a call stating that they had found Seon-dong on a bus doing the rounds of the town. As a result of their banter, Ji-yul and Ja-young finally come to a realisation that they were both in the wrong in their situation and they both apologise to each other using Hui-won and Seon-dong as their reference points.

They finally reach the bus stop where Seon-dong was waiting for him and they take him back home. On the drive home, Ji-yul keeps looking at Ja-young from the rearview mirror. A flashback shows Ji-yul and Ja-young’s conversation from the lake when he insincerely apologized to her. After she had dropped Seon-dong home, Ja-young and Ji-yul meet when he grabs her hand and apologises seriously for not remembering her sooner.

The Episode Review

I find the interaction between Ji-yul and Ja-young extremely cute. The two clearly have feelings for each other and it seems like something is definitely bound to happen between them in the upcoming episodes. The fact that the two used their issues via Seon-dong, a child who was having similar problems in his “relationship”, was extremely funny.

The show at this point is rather slow for a short web drama and I still wish the makers progressed the plot faster to show the development of feelings between the main couple. The other characters seem unnecessary to the entire story and the world of Once Upon A Small Town only revolves around Ja-young and Ji-yul’s connection.

I wish the makers show us Ji-yul’s grandparents before he leaves town as the old couple seems interesting. We can only imagine how it will be if Ji-yul and Ja-young end up living as a couple with their grandparents. Petition for Sang-hyeon to find a partner asap because he is far too beautiful to be left alone after Ja-young eventually dumps him!