There has been a lot of talk about the golden age of Korean dramas making a comeback. However, looking at the content this week, we felt that this new age was rather short-lived. That is why, as a saving grace, Behind Your Touch aired at exactly the right time. We can already tell that the guy is going to fall first. Them’s the rules. This drama is a comedy, and though it doesn’t have that laugh-out-loud quality, Han Ji Min, who plays Bong Ye Bun, is stealing the show with her wide-eyed expressions. This series is going to be easy to like if it keeps up this pace, and this is the recap of Behind Your Touch Episode 1 in the meantime.
Spoiler Alert
How Does Bong Ye Bun Get Her Powers?
The vulnerability of Bong Ye Bun has us floored. We are not talking about her tragic circumstances but about how she is a friend to Ok Hui. The way they go about first crushes, preparing for exams, or life in general, with Ok Hui being the crazy protector and Ye Bun acting as the caring anchor for her, is sweet to watch. Ye Bun goes on to top her veterinary exams, and Ok Hui chooses to stay back in town. But years later, Ok Hui is struggling to run her clinic. She doesn’t like poultry and prefers to treat domestic pets instead, but there is demand for neither.
When it comes to Moon Jang Yeol, he is as grumpy as Ye Bun is cute. He has been transferred from Seoul and is in a hurry to go back, which means that he has to solve some good cases for him to get that opportunity. But nothing ever happens in this town, and his first case is that of a cow running away with Ye Bun on its back. The next hindrance Jang Yeol faces is that he accidentally steps in some cow dung. These are the biggest problems the police have had to fight in a long time, and Jang Yeol is annoyed because this means that he will be stuck here for that much longer. He finds room and board with Deok Hee, who is the brother of Ok Hui. Deok Hee claims he became an officer to fight against his crazy sister, but he has certainly not had any luck with it. As for Jang Yeol, he had one hope, which was the town’s development. But Deok Hee tells him that nothing ever happened in that regard except some rumors around ten years ago.
Back to Ye Bun: she is hiding under her table after being kicked by the cow, only for her assistant to tell her that another cow needs her attention. Ye Bun has no choice but to go because she has to pay rent, and night visits mean more money. But this ends up being life-changing for her because when Ye Bun is inspecting the cow, the forecasted meteor shower starts while her hands are on the cow’s behind. The town’s vet passes out and stays that way for three days. In a normal world, that would be called a coma, but in the world of Behind Your Touch, nobody seems too heavily concerned about it.
Ye Bun has to resume work immediately, but she is disturbed when she finds that the moment she touches her pets, Meowie and Arfie, she can see their memories. First of all, we love the names. Secondly, the cat and her accessories are extra cute. Finally, why are the memories not more dumb, at least those of the dog? He doesn’t look particularly intelligent.
Moving on, disturbed by the visions she is seeing, Ye Bun goes to a doctor, who recommends that she see a psychiatrist. But our heroine goes to the convenience store, gets herself a bottle of soju, and passes out after two sips. Ok Hui is rightfully annoyed at her friend’s terrible capacity and recommends that she go to a shaman to get herself checked. Since Ye Bun doesn’t have a scientific explanation for what is happening to her, she takes her friend’s advice. The shaman says that he operates through the spirit of General MacArthur, but it is clear right off the bat that he is a fraud. Ye Bun plays along for now, and when the man recommends that she become a shaman, she agrees.
It may be a comedic sequence, but we have to wonder why she did not feel more attached to her life. We find the answer when she starts telling her story to the shaman. Her father passed away when she was a kid, and her mother committed suicide a few years later. She has been living with her grandfather, who prefers to pretend that she doesn’t exist since she is the product of a marriage that he strongly opposed. Ye Bun had tried hard to win his approval, but her efforts had neither gotten the appreciation nor the results they deserved. Additionally, there were no romantic prospects in the small town, meaning that her life was pretty much inconsequential for her. But Ye Bun is kind-hearted, and that is why, when she discovers that the shaman is a fake, she still can’t stop herself from granting his request for a small amount of money for his daughter, who wants to learn K-pop in Australia.
Can Ye Bun Read People’s Memories?
Ye Bun is alone in trying to find out what her power is and how far it extends. Therefore, the logical step is for her to get on a bus to see if she can cop a feel and read people’s memories as well. That means that she ends up behaving like a pervert and is arrested by Jang Yeol, who is on the same bus and sees her being shady and even records it as evidence. Of course, he is not able to hold her in the police station because the victim has not come forward, but he lets her off with a warning. Ye Bun continues her quest to figure out her power and finds that she can neither read people nor predict which lottery will make her rich. As for her auntie, Hyeon Ok, she is excited to go to the police station to meet her ex-boyfriend, who she is still in love with.
Ye Bun believes that her power might be useless, but when she ends up healing the dog of the old man by figuring out the reason he was not eating his food, she realizes that in her line of work, it is not a useless power after all. At the end of episode 1 of Behind Your Touch, Ye Bun accidentally touches Jang Yeol’s behind while trying to prevent him from falling. That was not required, but she found that she could read his memories. However, Jang Yeol is convinced that she is a pervert and flips her, making it extremely personal.
Final Thoughts
Maybe Ye Bun cannot read people’s thoughts but only Jang Yeol’s because they are going to be “in love.” We can already sense that this will be an interesting love story. Right now, Ye Bun can tell him about her power, but she cannot convince him of it because she may not want to go into his personal space by bringing up a painful past. As for Jang Yeol, he is already curious about her. Behind Your Touch is a drama we look forward to, so let’s see what it brings.
