Korean drama Lovely Runner is winning hearts for its unique plot and notable performances by lead actors Byeon Woo Seok and Kim Hye Yoon, who play Ryu Seon-jae and Im Sol respectively. The show builds upon the concept of time-slip taking the story back-and-forth across 15 years, giving the audience four timelines to keep a tab of.
Lovely Runner Timelines And Time-Slips Explained: How Im Sol Travels Back To Alter Seon Jae’s Future
Korean drama Lovely Runner has found a place in the hearts of its audience. The intense chemistry between its lead pair Byeon Woo Seok and Kim Hye Yoon apart from their career defining performances and apt screenplay are among the prime reasons for its success. But an equal credit also goes to the story seamlessly swinging back-and-forth between its various timelines.
Those calling it the best K-drama of 2024 so far will know where this is going. And for those who are yet to tune into this unique rom-com, here’s how the time slip show keeps us hooked within its timelines.
Timeline 1 (2023): Im Sol‘s fandom and Seon-jae’s tragedy
Lovely Runner starts in 2023 where Ryu Seon-jae is a K-pop idol from the band Eclipse. Im Sol, a 34-year-old aspiring filmmaker and an ardent admirer of Seon-jae is living a normal life around her celebrity crush despite her physical challenges. A starstruck Sol bumps into him on Han river bridge. At a loss of words, she is only able to present herself as a regular fan. But, it doesn’t take long for the audience to get the first shock when just in its opening episode, Seon-jae commits suicide due to depression. Still reeling under the shattering news of his demise, Im Sol miraculously finds herself taken 15 years back in 2008 through a watch, when she was a high school student. This time, she knows that 19-year-old Seon-jae is her next door neighbour which she wasn’t aware about until now.
Timeline 2 (2008): Im Sol’s realisations and Seon-jae’s Summer Shower
Waking up in her classroom, which she initially believes to be a dream, Im Sol runs to the nearby school and into the arms of a shocked Seon-jae, a swimming champ who is presumably unaware about her existence. In this timeline, her sole motive is to avert the impending tragedy in 2023 by helping Seon-jae not feel low in life. She also hopes to ensure his swimming career doesn’t end due to a shoulder injury, and that he never turns to singing. On the sides, she plans to also avoid the accident that left her legs defunct forever.
The second timeline is full of adorable teenage moments and the big plot twist that Seon-jae always knew about Im Sol. Infact it was love at first sight for him when he met her on one rainy day under the umbrella, living as a silent lover much to the ignorance of Im Sol. Even the first song he wrote titled “Sudden Shower” was inspired by his first meeting with her. Now, we know that when Seon-jae met Sol on the bridge (in 2023) he not just recognised her but also had his unrequited love flaring up again, something she never knew of. It is revealed that Sol was the last person Seon-jae met before his suicide. This restructures the entire timeline 1 as we realise Lovely Runner isn’t just a story of a fan and her K-pop idol, but a tale of two lovers entangled in the game of fate.
Im Sol who travelled to 2008, however fails to remove one character, serial kidnapper Kim Young-soo from her past timeline as he becomes the reason for recurring tragedy in their story. She gets to know that it was Seon-jae who saved her from Young-soo in 2008. Fully aware, she manages to escape from Young-soo’s kidnapping attempt which had initially left her on a wheelchair. She now finds her disability gone upon her return to 2023. In this revised present day, she is walking. Seon-jae, still a star confesses his feelings which Sol accepts. But Young-soo reemerges and stabs Seon-jae (for saving Sol in 2008). This means she’s unable to stop the inevitable fate of our leading man. As Seon-jae battles for life in 2023, Sol makes another attempt at going back, this time with the motive of keeping Seon-jae away from her.
Timeline 3 (2009): Im Sol’s desperation and Seon-jae’s fate
This is just days after Im Sol escaped the kidnapper with Seon-jae’s help in 2008. She finds herself as a college girl with Seon-jae as a fellow university batchmate. After the failed kidnapping attempt on Sol, and how Seon-jae saved her in 2008, she cuts ties with him to make sure the kidnapper doesn’t come after him. But due to their hearts still fluttering for each other, and Seon-jae finding out about her time slip, he pleads Sol to give in to her emotions. She accepts their love, but also gets to know that there was another kidnapping attempt on her in 2009. She now aims to keep Seon-jae completely away from coming face-to-face with the kidnapper so that he doesn’t attack him in 2023. Despite grappling with the formidable challenge of altering Seon-jae’s future trajectory, Sol fails again as Seon-jae gets stabbed to death by the criminal, killing him from all future timelines. Sol concludes that she was the reason behind Seon-jae’s fate all this while. In a desperate attempt, she returns to timeline 2 to make sure Seon-jae never meets her on that rainy day in the first place.
Timeline 4 (new 2023): Im Sol-Seon-jae’s full circle and their happily ever after
Her new 2023 is different because she has completely erased herself from Seon-jae’s memories. The two live their separate lives in Seoul. Sol buries her deep love for Seon-jae in her heart and pretends to be a stranger even when they cross paths. All she wants is to make sure Seon-jae lives a happy and long life. But, Seon-jae continues to get flashes of his memories with Sol, feeling a pull towards her. Fate has its way with Seon-jae gaining back his memories. He reunites with Sol despite her resistance. On the sides, the kidnapper who has been eyeing Im Sol gets into a car crash after a police chase.
The fourth timeline might have brought us back full circle, but this world of Im Sol and Seon-jae is different. Here, Sol is a filmmaker and not physically challenged. Seon-jae is alive and a megastar actor (not singer). The kidnapper is dead and the lead pair have their happily ever after. Im Sol did manage to alter the future timelines, as Seon-jae continued to hold on to his memories. As Sol’s grandmother puts it, “memories don’t disappear. They’re all smeared into my soul. Even if my brain forgot them, my soul hasn’t. It’s been keeping every piece of it.”