Behind Your Touch (2023) Episode 8

Episode 8 of Behind Your Touch resumes with the rite ceremony. After being possessed by the spirits of Si-a and Seung-gil, Mr. Park passes out. Jong-mook tries to follow the crowd to an ambulance and twists his ankle. Kwang-shik seizes the opportunity and rushes over, feeling Jong-mook’s leg and ankle.

At Mr. Park’s, Sun-woo places a rag on Mr. Park’s forehead as he awakes from a fever. Mr. Park says he doesn’t remember what happened.

At Ok-hui’s shop, Da-eun’s brother lifts some heavy bottles for her and then drinks some water. The droplets run down his neck, causing Ok-hui to drift into a dreamy daze. Then Jang-yeol buys something, and Ok-hui’s mind transforms him into an ugly squid. Meanwhile, Da-eun’s brother has radiant beams shining around him.

Ok-hui rushes to Ye-bun and tells her that she is going crazy because she doesn’t like Jang-yeol anymore but likes Da-eun’s brother (they are complete opposites). Ye-bun tells her that she must be sick and checks Ok-hui’s temperature, but tells her that she can’t tell if she has a fever or not.

Jang-yeol calls Ye-bun to come touch more people, and she immaturely hangs up the phone and tries to escape out the window. But he is standing right outside it. In a lengthy explanation, she tells Jang-yeol why she can’t help him because if the serial killer catches on to them, he will come after her. Jang-yeol assures her that he will never let anyone kill her, but she insists on wearing a motorcycle helmet when she accompanies him.

Dr. Jung is passing out flyers for Cha Ju-man when his former son-in-law sees him and asks him what he is doing. Dr. Jung tells him to come with him and pulls him away.

Mr. Park buys some food from Ok-hui’s shop, and the townspeople pester him with questions about the killer. Mr. Park says that he knows everything and that there will be another big incident soon, but he doesn’t reveal any more details.

At Ye-bun’s home, Dr. Jung is about to tell his former son-in-law why he is working with Ju-man when Hyun-ok bursts in and asks what he is doing there. Her ex tells her that he has quit drinking now and wants another chance. She kicks him in the shin and tells him that she likes someone else.

Meanwhile, a barista named Ae-ran is traveling alone when she gets attacked by the serial killer. The next day, the barista’s co-worker comes to the police station and tells Jang-yeol that Ae-ran never came home the night before. She tells him that Ae-ran had a really hard life. When she was young, she told her little brother that she was going to school, but she actually went to play with a friend.

When she came home, he was gone. Someone must have taken him when he was trying to look for her. Ye-bun is listening nearby, still wearing the motorcycle helmet. She sobs and reassures the woman that they will look for Ae-ran. Later, Mr. Park is told that he is right; someone else disappeared. He has a line of customers going around the block.

Ye-bun sees Sun-woo riding by on his bicycle, and she asks where he is going. He says that he is going to a workshop. Ye-bun hitches a ride on the back of his bike. Jang-yeol sees this and mutters that he told her to wait outside the clinic for him.

Inside Sun-woo’s workshop, Sun-woo shows Ye-bun his woodworking projects. Ye-bun steps outside to answer a call from Jang-yeol. She lies about where she is. When she looks around, she sees him standing there. After getting caught in her lie, Jang-yeol whisks her off to investigate with him and doesn’t give her a chance to let Sun-woo know that she is leaving.

Jong-mook is investigating at a nearby motorcycle shop when he sees Hyon-ok’s ex forcing her into a car to talk with him. He runs after the car and pulls Hyun-ok’s ex out of it when it comes to a stoplight. He turns off the engine and throws the keys away before grabbing Hyun-ok and running away.

They hold hands and run to the hospital. Jong-mook asks the first doctor he sees if his knees will be okay since he hasn’t sprinted in a very long time.

Jang-yeol lectures Ye-bun talks about liking Sun-woo and tells her that serial killers usually look like Sun-woo. They go to Mujin coffee shop, and the owner, Ms. Cho, says that Ae-ran going missing is a rumor and that she actually went to her hometown. When the woman stands and turns around, Ye-bun touches her butt, and sees memories of the woman talking down to Ae-ran.

The woman turns around and assumes Jang-yeol touched her butt. She grabs his butt in turn, much to his shock and Ye-bun’s amusement. Ye-bun notices that Ae-ran’s coworker has the same motorcycle keychain that Sun-woo has to unlock his workshop. The barista says that Ae-ran only made two. One for herself, and one for her.

Jang-yeol forces Ye-bun to go touch Sun-woo’s butt. She reluctantly chews up some gum and pretends to get it off of Sun-woo’s buttocks. She sees his memories of buying a laptop. The seller gives him a USB that goes with it, and it is attached to the keychain. The seller appears to be a teenage boy, and he has an Ae-ran motorcycle. Ye-bun tells this to Jang-yeol outside the convenience store, and Sun-woo watches from inside.

Jang-yeol and Ye-bun meet with Ok-hui and Da-eun’s brother, who works at Mujin’s high school. Da-eun’s brother lets Ye-bun touch his butt, and she sees the same kid that sold Sun-woo the laptop in his memories. Da-eun’s brother asks Jang-yeol if he can get the motorcycle back himself.

Later, Ok-hui and Da-eun’s brother wait at the teen’s house. When he sees them, he races off on the motorcycle. Then, Ok-hui and Da-eun’s brother take off after him on Ok-hui’s bike. When they catch up to him, Da-eun’s brother explains that, as the teen’s teacher, he felt partially responsible for his actions.

He gives the student a firm but compassionate lesson on responsibility. Ok-hui watches the touching interaction. She tells him that she would have turned out better if she had had a teacher like him. He says that she is dazzling just as she is and strokes her hair, but she angrily pushes him away.

Jang-yeol and Ye-bun investigate the scene of the accident that night and find blood on the ground and a knife. Jang-yeol notices a nearby security camera. The next day, the police team confirms that the blood is Ae-ran’s, and Deok-hee runs in with the security footage, but the killer is still concealed by his raincoat, and they aren’t able to see anything after the killer takes Ae-ran off of her bike.

They visit Kwang-shik, who tells them that he only saw Ae-ran at the coffee shop. But Ye-bun remembers that isn’t true because she saw Ae-ran in his memories previously. The two of them were flirting with each other at Kwang-shik’s farm. Kwang-shik tries to “brush something off” Jang-yeol’s leg, but Ye-bun stops him and pulls Jang-yeol away. She tells Jang-yeol that Kwang-shik is also psychic.

Kwang-shik pulls out of his driveway, and Ye-bun and Jang-yeol decide to follow him. They follow him to a market and split up to find him. Ye-bun sees him get back in his truck and calls a taxi to follow him. She calls Jang-yeol and tells him that she followed Kwang-shik to the Mujin Industrial Plant. Meanwhile, Mr. Park tells the townspeople that another victim will appear soon.

Back at the plant, Ye-bun’s phone dies. Kwang-shik finds her, and Ye-bun asks why he lied. He tells her that if he had told the truth, he would have been made a suspect. She asks if he will let her touch his butt to prove his innocence. But he doesn’t let her. Jang-yeol appears and walks past Kwang-shik to a partial room. He tells Ae-ran that he knows she is hiding there.

Outside, Kwang-shik and Ye-bun comically try to touch each other’s psychic areas. They stop when they see Jang-yeol and Ae-ran standing together. They all sit down, and Jang-yeol says that he thought everything was too obvious to be the serial killer’s work. Kwang-shik says that Ae-ran owed too much debt to Ms. Cho, and they faked her death so that she could live in peace.

Ye-bun tells Kwang-shik that she told Jang-yeol the truth about him. And Kwang-shik tells her that when they were hit by the meteor shower, there was someone else at the farm, but he doesn’t know who. There appears to be another psychic.

The Episode Review

This drama is full of unusual quirks and staggering surprises. “She asks if he will let her touch his butt to prove his innocence” is not a sentence I thought I would ever write. Everything in this episode is really tied together well. The only side story is Jong-mook’s and Hyun-ok’s, but even that is kind of a tie-in too because of Hyuh-ok’s ex and his conversation with Dr. Jung.

And Ok-hui fell head over heels for Jang-yeol so easily, so why is she having such a hard time with Da-eun’s brother? And equally important—when are they going to reveal this guy’s actual name?

I’m starting to wonder if Ju-man is the serial killer, and perhaps his victims threatened to exploit him in some way. But if the killer is the other psychic, it doesn’t make sense that Ju-man would have been at Kwang-shik’s farm. Though I don’t know who in Mujin would have a good reason to be.