A Time Called You: Did Yeon-jun really die? Explaining Yeon-jun and Si-heon’s storylines

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.

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.