Once Upon A Small Town – K-drama Episode 8 Recap & Review

Episode 8 of Once Upon A Small Town starts with Ja-young thinking back on the apology from Ji-yul from the night before. She recalls him saying that Ja-young was his only good memory from when they were kids.

As she is leaving, Ji-yul gives her his bicycle to ride back home. He leaves stating it was great to see her and Ja-young gets flustered. The next morning, Ji-yul is busy working when he hears the women from the village talk badly about Ja-young being an orphan.

Just as he is leaving work, Mal-geum from Ma-jeong rushes to seek his help. Mal-geum’s mother was all by herself and the old woman’s pet dog was collapsing. Since the old woman lived in a remote part of the town, there were no vets who could rush there.

Ja-young tells him that she knows a shortcut and could take her there. Ji-yul takes her aside and tells her that the women from this town were badmouthing her but Ja-young tells declares she would be driving and he hesitantly agrees to go. Ja-young states that the dog was innocent and should not suffer because of the woman’s bad attitude.

They bicker about their contrasting ideologies but still manage to have fun on their drive. After Ji-yul arrives in the town, he checks up on the dog and treats the animal. As they leave, Ja-young notices they have a flat tire. They take the car to a mechanic from far away who tells them the repair would take some time since he was busy.

The two then go to the docks to kill time. Ja-young is apologetic for dragging Ji-yul along when he was so busy already. Ji-yul jokes that it the view compensates for it and states that despite the unpredictability he does not hate being in the town altogether.

The two then spend some time on the beach and Ji-yul does cartwheels and they fill themselves up on snacks. Once back in the car, the two are back to being friends. As they arrive in town, they talk to each other and bid each other farewell when a woman approaches them.

Turns out she is Ji-yul’s girlfriend, Min. Ji-yul is shocked to see her and Min states that she missed him which is why she was there to see him. Ja-young leaves them be and goes back to work. Ji-yul’s boss also arrives at the animal clinic and greets Yeong-suk.

Min states that she is back in Korea and would not go to the states and wants to start seeing him again. Dr Choi apologises to Ji-yul for letting Min know where he was however, Min is adamant about winning Ji-yul over.

She states she will be living in the town for a week and will try to win him over. The women from town are at Ja-young’s house as they thank her for letting them use her house. The bed-and-breakfast was under repairs and they had a girl visiting their town.

The girl who will be sharing Ja-young’s house is Min and the women in town are shocked to learn she is Ji-yul’s girlfriend. They don’t hear his explanation and assume that Min and Ji-yul are still together and keep teasing him.

Min plays along and states they both are together as Ji-yul keeps looking uncomfortably at Ja-young. Just then, Sang-hyeon returns from Seoul and greets Ja-young. The villagers introduce Sang-hyeon as Ja-young’s boyfriend.

Sang-hyeon plays along and is rather happy to see that Ji-yul has a girlfriend. Ja-young takes Min on a tour of her house and Ji-yul talks to Sang-hyeon outside. Ji-yul clarifies that Min is not her girlfriend and Sang-hyeon.

As Ja-young leaves, Sang-hyeon joins her on her errand leaving no way for Ji-yul to explain his relationship with Min. Once back home, Ji-yul is frustrated with Dr Choi for showing up unannounced.

Dr Choi helps Ji-yul figure out his feelings for Ja-young and how he does not have any feelings left for Min. He leaves to go somewhere as Ja-young and Sang-hyeon are on a walk with Nurungji.

Ja-young is about to give Sang-hyeon an answer for his proposal but Nurungji runs away and the two run behind the dog. Nurungji finds Ji-yul on the street and both Ja-young and Sang-hyeon are shocked to see him there.

Ji-yul comes up close to the two and blatantly tells Ja-young that he is not seeing Min. He clarifies that he does not have a girlfriend at all leaving both Sang-hyeon and Ja-young shocked.

The Episode Review

This episode was really so romantic and cute despite the lack of any romantic relationship between Ji-yul and Ja-young. It shows that the two are really exploring a new friendship/relationship without confessing their feelings for each other.

Looks like Ji-yul just confessed his feelings for her as he made sure to mention he was very single and not actually dating Min. It seems like Min and Ja-young will not get along and it sucks for them to be living under the same roof for the next however-many-days.

Sang-hyeon’s potential relationship is under threat and it seems like we will get to see some romantic moments between the Seoul couple versus the Huidong couple as both Ji-yul and Ja-young could try making each other jealous using Min and Sang-hyeon respectively.