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While You Were Sleeping | Ep 31-32 review topic eng sub part 1
There’s heartache and anguish ahead for many of our characters in the final hour, but in keeping with this show’s feel-good, hopeful nature, we send them off with complete arcs and promises of the future.
Dreams, past, and future come full circle, and it’s time to find out where the choices that they’ve made every step of the way will lead them.
EPISODE 31: “Goodbye My Friend”.
Just before the hearing resumes, Chief Choi tells the prosecutors that they need to put Yoo-bum on the no-fly list, because he saw a suitcase in the backseat of Yoo-bum’s car this morning.
He’s worried that Yoo-bum will flee the country after today’s hearing, so they rush to get that process started.
Woo-tak gets sworn in as a witness, and testifies that he came to the roof that night and found Yoo-bum carrying Hong-joo, and two open umbrellas on the ground.
Jae-chan says that the witness will prove that the two umbrellas found on the first floor with Yoo-bum’s fingerprints are the same ones he saw that night, and asks Woo-tak to describe them.
But when Jae-chan asks what color they are, Woo-tak hesitates.
His partner shakes his head and Hong-joo braces herself, knowing that Woo-tak won’t lie under oath.
He balls up his fist and finally says, “I can’t distinguish between colors very well.”.
He adds that it’s grounds for dismissal from the police force, and he says that he plans to resign as soon as he’s given his testimony.
Jae-chan drops his papers in shock, and from the audience, *** sunbae marvels at Woo-tak’s willingness to quit his job just to testify in this case.
Jae-chan is so shaken that it’s visible to Yoo-bum and his lawyer, who’ve already begun to gloat at this fortunate turn.
The defense tries to dismiss Woo-tak’s testimony altogether, but Woo-tak argues that he only sees colors differently, and that his vision is better than most.
Woo-tak begins to describe the umbrellas in more detail—their handles, the shapes, the exact patterns—and then compares the green umbrella to Yoo-bum’s necktie, which is also green, and the red umbrella as being close to Jae-chan’s prosecutor robes, which is reddish.
It’s accurate enough to make his testimony credible, and the defense starts to sweat.
Woo-tak smiles sadly to himself and then looks up at Jae-chan, who looks back at him with a devastated expression.
From the audience, Hong-joo cries.
Jae-chan’s hand is still shaking badly as the hearing ends, and Woo-tak sends him a text using his words from the night before: “Let’s not be awkward.
I’m okay, so let’s keep being friends.”.
Yoo-bum’s defense attorney advises him to consider a plea bargain to reduce his sentence, and tells him curtly that another lawyer from their firm will be representing him for the rest of the trial.
Yoo-bum calls after him and gets left all alone in the courtroom, right in front of the prosecutors.
Hong-joo runs through the courthouse looking for Woo-tak and finds him getting yelled at by his partner, who shouts that he should’ve kept his mouth shut and said that he didn’t remember anything.
He asks what Woo-tak’s strict parents will say when they find out that he threw away his police university education, but Woo-tak finally tells him the truth—that his parents divorced and each remarried long ago, and couldn’t care less about him.
Woo-tak’s lip begins to quiver and he barely holds back his tears as he touches his police badge and says, “It never felt like it was mine, so it always felt heavy and difficult.
” But he adds that he wanted to carry the burden and was happy when working with his partner.
He says that that’s enough for him, and then puts on his hat to salute him one last time.
His partner salutes back and hugs him tearfully, and down the hallway, Hong-joo watches with tears of her own.
Yoo-bum furiously washes his hands in the bathroom and tells himself that it’ll be okay, because it’s not over yet.
As Chief Choi had predicted, Yoo-bum is carrying his passport and a plane ticket for that day.
Prosecutor Sohn frantically calls to put Yoo-bum on the no-fly list, and Hee-min submits the paperwork.
Prosecutor Lee gets a text from his mystery girlfriend that it was approved, and Jae-chan and Chief Choi watch curiously as he kisses his phone and refers to her as “jagi.”.
Chief Choi promises to attend the next hearing and warmly takes Jae-chan’s hands in his before he goes, and Jae-chan watches him walk away for a long beat.
Outside, Yoo-bum confronts Chief Choi angrily about his testimony, and argues that he wasn’t looking for an award for the IV serial killer case—he really believed that Dr.
Myung was the killer and did everything he could to put him away.
Chief Choi says he knows.
Yoo-bum asks why everyone is being so cruel to him, and Chief Choi just recites Yoo-bum’s birthdate.
Yoo-bum says that even his parents don’t remember his birthday but Chief Choi always did, thinking it even crueler now to be betrayed by him.
But Chief Choi says he has the same birthday as his little brother, down to the day and year, which is why Yoo-bum was always special to him.
He takes Yoo-bum by the shoulders and urges him to stop running away, and tells him that it’ll be no use to go to the airport because he’s already been flagged as a flight risk.
Yoo-bum just shakes him off, furious.
Chief Choi looks heartbroken as Yoo-bum steps away from him, and then we cut to his perspective: It’s his little brother he’s looking at, and then he transforms into his younger self too, as he tearfully tells his brother not to run away and not to hurt other people.
He begs for his brother to come with him.
Jae-chan can’t shake this uneasy feeling and dumps his case files and robes on top of Prosecutor Lee and goes running after Chief Choi.
He sees Yoo-bum pushing him away and stalking off in anger, and Chief Choi’s slumped shoulders from behind.
In that moment, Chief Choi looks up at the sky and sees a single autumn leaf floating down at him, and he muses that it’s early for fall, and wonders where he’s seen this before.
The falling leaf takes us back to his hospital bed 13 years ago, when he’d dreamt of this moment.
In the present, he picks up the leaf and narrates that it’s now, and he’d mistaken the time for autumn because of this leaf.
He looks up to see Jae-chan walking toward him in slow motion and thinks, “I thought I had more time…” Oh no.
Time seems to pause for a moment, and then suddenly everything happens in a split-second: Yoo-bum’s car comes careening around the corner, straight at Chief Choi.
Jae-chan sees it happening and starts to run, but there isn’t enough time.
The car hits Chief Choi at full speed, and he goes flying over the top of the car.
Jae-chan runs as fast as his legs will take him, and the autumn leaf floats up from the impact.
Chief Choi lands on the concrete with a frightening thud, and he calls out to Jae-chan weakly as blood pools around his head.
NOoooooooooo!.
When he opens his eyes again, Jae-chan is covered in blood and holding him in his arms.
Yoo-bum gets pulled away from his car by security guards, and he looks back at Chief Choi with a distraught expression.