The Casette Player

Episode 2. The Casette Player

2023 – Han Jun-hee looks at the Instagram photo of three students sent to her the night before. Behind them is a shop sign: 27 Record. She recognizes only Koo Yeon-jun but wonders who the other two are. Searching online, she finds the shop’s address in Noksan with the tagline “Follow the music,” only to discover it has already closed down.

1998 – The alarm clock rings. Timid Kwon Min-ju tries to wake her brother, Kwon Do-hun, who angrily refuses. Their mother, still asleep, asks Min-ju to cook for him. Do-hun later blames Min-ju for making him late. 

At school, Nam Si-heon and Jung In-gyu are teased for paying attention to Min-ju instead of more popular girls. Even Da-hyeon, who likes Si-heon, grows jealous. When classmates bully them, Si-heon defends In-gyu and Min-ju, warning others not to pick on them.

2023 – Jun-hee asks her officemate if the girl in the photo is prettier than her. She’s told they look like mirror images. Curious, she visits Café 27 (which replaced the record shop) with her best friend, but it’s closed. They plan to return another day.

1998 - Jung In-gyu and Kwon Min-ju walk home and she tells him that she is envious of the friendship that he has with Si-heon. In-gyu hands her his hearing aid for the right ear and tells her that Si-heon made friends with him because of it. Si-heon exchanged his favorite marble to wear the hearing aid one time which amazed him when he heard the heightened sounds. In-gyu tells her that she was going to be his next best friend because she doesn’t mind his hearing aid. He tells her that because he is deaf in one ear, he has learned to read lips too.

2023 – Han Jun-hee is at the subway when she thinks she recognizes Yeon-jun walking with a limp in the other lane of the train station and chases after him. Unknown to her, he observed her searching for him and was watching her go up the steps downtrodden. She goes home and imagines a conversation with him. Talking about the girl in the photo, she wants to use it as proof that he loved someone else and not just her, so she could move on in life. She tells him that if she was the only girl that he loved, she would never let go of his memories. She tells him that she can’t live without him and he disappears again. 

1998 - Min-ju hears her parents argue over her brother Do-hun’s custody. She told them that she was hurt that they didn’t care about her. Si-heon catches her crying in the park and tells her that if she tells him why she’s crying, he will tell her about his secret in exchange. She tells him that her parents don’t remember her birthday and has never had a celebration unlike her brother who is lavished with gifts and attention. She says she is not memorable. Si-heon tells her that he is moving to America to live with his grandfather and that In-gyu didn’t know about it as his secret. He says In-gyu will be depressed about his moving away. He says he makes friends easily compared to In-gyu who is sensitive and that they became good friends. The tape arrives at the music shop and Min-ju intends to deliver the tape personally to Nam Si-heon but changes her mind and walks away when she sees the girls cheering at the basketball game. She lies that the tape of Seo Ji-won didn’t arrive yet even if  she had it.

2023 - The uncle of Kwon Min-ju was the person who owned 27 Café. Han Jun-hee asked who the three in the persons in the photograph were and he tells her that Min-ju died in 1998 the same year that he took the photograph. 

1998- Si-heon and In-gyu bring Min-ju a birthday gift and she is ecstatic at eating cake with them. In-gyu gifts her with a cassette player. In-gyu asks to leave early and tells Si-heon to walk her back to her house. Min-ju is thrilled riding the scooter with Si-heon. She hands him the tape of Seo Ji-won with a dedication that she wanted him to be happy listening to it. She thanks him for celebrating her birthday. She confesses to him that she liked him, and he tells her straight that he would never like her that way. He tells her that he only sees her as a friend and warns her not to let In-gyu know about their conversation. 

2023 - Han Jun-hee and her best friend deduce that Yeon-jun could not have been the boy in the photograph because in 1998 he would have been only 11 years old. She would be able to move on to find out that the girl was his first love. She opens the package that was given to her with the same tape of Seo Ji-won, “Gather my Tears,” and the dedication once written by Min-ju. She reviews the messages sent to Yeon-jun as she listens to the song. She tells him to go to her one more time. The cassette player falls and she is transported to the hospital bed of Min-ju.

1998- Min-ju goes into her house and finds she has been abandoned by her mother and brother. She calls her uncle and tells him. She runs along the road trying to catch a cab when she is hit by a vehicle. 

2023 – Han Jun-hee rides the bus and puts the earphones of the cassette player on and listens to the song by Seo Ji-won as she reads the messages she has sent to Koo Yeon-jun. She falls asleep and drops the recorder while on the bus.

1998- Nam Si-jeon puts the earphones on Min-ju but is unaware that it is Han Jun-hee  who wakes up and takes him for Koo Yeon-jun. She gets up and calls him Yeon-jun. Si-jeon is surprised but just allows Jun-hee to cry.