Lovely Runner is a time-slip romance about Im Sol, a devoted fan who travels back to the past to save her favorite star, Ryu Sun-jae.
But the biggest twist is that Sun-jae was not simply her idol.
He had already loved Sol first.
After multiple timelines, deaths, lost memories, and repeated attempts to change fate, Sun-jae and Sol finally end up together in a fully happy ending.
SPOILER WARNING: Major spoilers for Lovely Runner below.
Q1. Does Lovely Runner Have a Happy Ending?
Yes. Lovely Runner has a very happy ending.
Sun-jae survives, reunites with Sol, remembers their past together, and the two are finally able to love each other without another tragedy separating them.
The final episode does not leave their relationship ambiguous.
After everything they go through, Sun-jae and Sol are clearly shown planning a future together.
This was one of my favorite things about the drama.
Too many dramas suddenly become strange in the final episode, but Lovely Runner stays enjoyable until the end and gives viewers the happy ending they have been waiting for.
Q2. Do Sun-jae and Sol End Up Together?
Yes. Ryu Sun-jae and Im Sol end up together.
Sol repeatedly changes the past because she believes staying away from Sun-jae is the only way to keep him alive.
Eventually, she even creates a timeline where Sun-jae never meets her at all.
But despite losing those memories, Sun-jae is drawn to Sol again.
That is basically the heart of the drama:
Even when their timeline changes, they keep finding their way back to each other.
Q3. Did Sun-jae Love Sol First?
Yes. Sun-jae actually fell in love with Sol first.
At the beginning, Sol thinks of Sun-jae as the celebrity who gave her hope during the most difficult time in her life.
But when she travels back to 2008, she discovers that Sun-jae already knew her and had secretly liked her.
That reveal makes their romance much more interesting.
Sol goes back in time thinking that she has to save her favorite idol, only to discover that she was already Sun-jae's first love.
For me, this is one of the reasons the romance works so well.
It is not simply a fan falling in love with a celebrity.
They become two people who repeatedly save each other.
Q4. Why Does Sol Erase Her First Meeting With Sun-jae?
Sol removes herself from Sun-jae's life because she believes that meeting her is what keeps leading him toward death.
After watching him die or become endangered again and again, she reaches the painful conclusion that the safest future for Sun-jae is one where he never knows her.
So she prevents their original meeting from happening.
And I was genuinely angry when this happened. 😂
The umbrella scene was one of the most important moments in their love story, so watching Sol erase even that memory was frustrating.
At the same time, it creates one of the drama's most important questions:
If Sun-jae has no memories of Sol, will he still fall in love with her?
And the answer is yes.
Q5. Does Sun-jae Get His Memories Back?
Yes. Sun-jae eventually regains his memories of Sol and their previous timelines.
In the final timeline, he initially does not remember the love they shared.
However, after meeting Sol again, he continues to feel strangely connected to her.
Those lost memories gradually return, allowing Sun-jae to understand what Sol went through to save him.
This was especially satisfying because I did not want the drama to end with Sun-jae simply falling in love with Sol again while everything they had experienced together remained erased.
For me, the memories mattered almost as much as Sun-jae surviving.
Q6. Why Does Kim Young-soo Keep Chasing Sol?
This is one part of the drama that I still think is underexplained.
Kim Young-soo is the dangerous criminal connected to Sol's repeated tragedies, but the drama never gives a deeply satisfying explanation for why he becomes so persistently obsessed with her across the different timelines.
He functions mainly as the thriller element that keeps threatening Sol and Sun-jae.
Personally, I expected the drama to explain his fixation more clearly.
It never really did.
So even though the thriller storyline creates tension, Kim Young-soo remains one of the weaker parts of the story for me.
Q7. Why Does Kim Tae-sung Become a Police Officer?
In the final timeline, Kim Tae-sung becomes a police officer and plays an important role in dealing with Kim Young-soo.
His father was already a police officer, so there is at least a connection to that career.
Still, I found the change a little abrupt.
Earlier versions of Tae-sung feel much more like a rebellious troublemaker, so I wish the drama had spent a little more time showing why he eventually chose to become a police officer.
The plot needs him in that position, but the character development could have been smoother.
Q8. Is Lovely Runner Based on a Novel or Webtoon?
Yes.
Lovely Runner is based on the Korean web novel Tomorrow's #1: Lovely Runner by Kimbbang.
The story was later adapted into a webtoon, and Tapas offers official English versions of both the original novel and the comic adaptation
▶ Read Tomorrow's #1: Lovely Runner on Tapas
Quick Review
Lovely Runner is easily one of my favorite youth romance dramas.
At first, I thought the idol-and-fandom setup might make the drama feel childish.
Instead, it became much more exciting than I expected because it mixed first love, time travel, romance, and a little thriller tension.
I especially loved the visual direction.
The umbrellas, rain, snow, cherry blossoms, bright lighting, and youthful atmosphere made almost every romantic scene feel fresh and beautiful.
Kim Hye-yoon also impressed me because she had to play Sol across different ages and timelines while crying constantly. I seriously wondered how many times she had to cry during filming.
And Byeon Woo-seok was simply perfect for Ryu Sun-jae.
The tall, devoted, one-woman-only romantic hero suited him so well that when I think about the spring of 2024, I still think of Ryu Sun-jae.
The drama definitely has flaws. I wanted a better explanation for Kim Young-soo, some comedy felt too childish, and by the later time slips I was starting to think, “How many times are we going back again?”
But none of that changed how much I enjoyed it.
Sometimes the dramas you love the most are also the ones you complain about the most. 😂
Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)
Drama Information
Title: Lovely Runner
Korean Title: 선재 업고 튀어
Episodes: 16
Genre: Romance, Youth, Fantasy, Time Travel
Main Cast: Byeon Woo-seok, Kim Hye-yoon, Song Geon-hee, Lee Seung-hyub
Director: Yoon Jong-ho, Kim Tae-yeop
Writer: Lee Si-eun
Based on: Tomorrow's #1: Lovely Runner by Kimbbang
Where to Watch: Rakuten Viki. Availability may vary by country, and Viki lists the series with English subtitles.
Prefer reading in Korean? Read my Korean review here.
