MadelineMaureen

They meet each other the same way they did when 2023 Im Sol first went back in time. Kicking ass and taking cigarettes off kids smoking outside of the gym. If she stayed for any length of time in 2008 again she would have been watching Sun Jae from the shadows.
Also if she gets drunk simi regularly in the year since she's been back in 2023 around Tae Sung, I'm going to assume this isn't the first time she's cried out for Sun Jae as though he died.
She, hopefully, would have gone to his(Tae Sung) father about Kim Young Soo, and we know by now that Kim Tae Sung is extremely observant. Even if she hasn't flat out told him she's a time traveler again, he might suspect something being "different" about her.
He's also still close with Baek In Hyuk, and it's assumed that In Hyuk and Sung Jae remained friends as well. He just would have gone to America for rehab instead of auditioning/writing Sudden Shower for Im Sol...girl is the only one who knows those epic bops...and that is a tragedy in and of itself.

Fair warning you asked and this is the first time I'm processing my thoughts on it because I finally got some sleep.

I think that she might have stayed a few weeks instead of just a few days. The package scene happens in late April or early May...He rents the VHS on the 3rd of May after returning her umbrella...It's possible that she was able to make an impression on Tae Sung within a week, cause she's Im Sol, duh.
But we never got a set reason why she gets sent back to the present time.
She also never actually jumped to the present before going farther into the past, soooooo she could have "puddle jumped" so to speak. aka go back to 2008 for a short time and get pulled to May 7th 2009 for a shorter time and THEN finally get sent back to midnight on Jan 1st 2023. With the watch being on Ryu Sun Jae's wrist when she presses it, and it not being midnight...it makes it challenging to figure out if there are actually set rules/lengths of time.

Midnight(time travel time to go backwards) could simply be that his time of death was Midnight in the OG timeline. And it was near midnight when he held the broken watch in the hospital after being too late to save Im Sol from being hit by the car. Im Sol presses it when she sees it flash...and it happens to be midnight.

When Sun Jae is in the water the watch becomes a time machine at the time of his death. So I think that the go back time gets set when she presses it for the first time.

OG timeline she's in her friend's car talking about 'how could she not realize that they were at the schools across a courtyard from each other?'...so she ends up in her high school class room across of Sun Jae's school, because she didn't realize at the time they were actually neighbors.
In this new "first jump" she's thinking that they should have never met. So she gets pulled to BEFORE they meet for the first time.

I'm going to need a side comment from Baek In Hyuk, something along the lines of "I don't know about this..." kind of side eyeing the both of them. Because he would still possibly be close to both of them separately. Kim Tae Sung mentions him as though they still talk so it stands to reason that Im Sol could have stayed in some form of contact.

I feel like Grandma gets the most from the timeline alterations, because her brain isn't wired like everyone else's anymore. I think that those closest to Im Sol and Ryu Sun Jae will have a sort of Déjà vu feeling when they are around each other. At the very least Ryu Sun Jae will feel a deeper sense of connection to her.

Also I really think that my theory a long ass time ago might be right about the watch. Because Ryu Sun Jae is wearing it when he tries to save Im Sol all of his love, longing, and regret gets poured into it, powering it to become a time machine that brings them back to the moments in time they were closest together...aka neighbors.

She returned at midnight on new years of 2023 like the other two times. She mentions in the scene with her alarm going off that she's been back for many seasons.
So for a look inside my brain. I thought I might have had the year wrong for a second at the end, because my brain filled in that they are basing the "White Dragon Film Awards" off of the Blue Dragon awards ...The 44th Blue Dragon Awards happened on Nov 24, 2023(Byeon Woo Seok and Kim Hye Yoon actually attended this and presented together)....They are at the "45th White Dragon Film Awards" so I thought it might actually be Dec 7, 2024. BUUUUTTT when Sol is driving to work we clearly see Baek In Hyuk's fan event is going to be on Dec 30th 2023...So Dec 7th 2023 it is.

That could be an editing tactic...as every time they showed it the edit was slightly different. It could just be a continuity issue, but I'm leaning toward editing. I could have sworn I saw a scene of the friend searching an empty corridor, could have been prior to going outside and the students mentioning the storage closet.
If the show was longer I would even throw in a....it's their kid from the future who got a version of his father's powers. But considering how different each person's powers are that is the least likely scenario. Someone will have a wound on there neck and that will be the person who she remembers saving her.

Oh my god, she still protected Ryu Sun Jae from the shadows while she was in the past. She took the cigarettes from the kids smoking outside of the gym. She would have run into Tae Sung(they mention this dynamic in the latter portion of episode 13) he would have seen her switch from stalking HIM to stalking Sun Jae, mainly to avoid, but also to shield from certain things. So when Sol popped back 12 months ago she would have confused the hell out of Tae Sung again....unless of course he figures it out like he did before.
Would our Im Sol really forget to inform police of the abandoned building from the OG timeline that Kim Young Soo used for his crimes? I would very much hope that she went straight to Detective Kim and informed him. I see he's still around in Dec 2023 so imma need them to wrap that shit up and yeet it the hell away from our happily ever after....cause I swear...episode 16 better not see hide nor hair from Mr. Taxi man.

She would have met him as older Sol during her stay after making sure Sun Jae doesn't see her the first time in the rain. She was probably in the past for a few weeks, enough time to change things.
They mention the cigarettes in school soooooo, she probably still took the cigarettes from those kids to prevent it from hurting Sun Jae, Tae Sung would have "caught" her again and thus their Noona friendship would have started.
She would have avoided Sun Jae, but not been able to fully avoid Tae Sung. She would have still wanted to protect Sun Jae from a distance/in the shadows. Which....god damn that is so sad for Tae Sung having to watch it.

Okay so that ending completely changes the dynamic of Sol and Tae Sung....like my guy is listening to her pine over someone who most likely had nothing to do with her. And if Sol had stayed around long enough to impart some wisdom to Tae Sung he would have been in deep.....duuuudddeeee. I don't have any kind of 2nd lead syndrome, but the writers are foul for that.

I am not okay 😭😭😭😭😭🥺🥺

I've been stuck in a waiting room for almost 3 hours(car maintenance) .....send help. I just want my laptop or my tv....my phone is too small to watch episode 13 for the first time😭😫😭🥺🥺

One of my theories is that Gwi Joo will start to wear the ring after Dong Hee finds it amongst Da Hae's belongings. He'll be wearing it when he goes back to the day Yi Na was born/the school fire. In Da Hae's dazed confusion, because smoke inhalation, she'll grab at the ring on Gwi Joo's hand...before she can return it he goes back to the present. I don't see it in her hands at the hospital, but it could have been slipped into a pocket or something.
Something that has been on my mind as well is either his friend gets to her first and helps her with oxygen or Gwi Joo is smart enough to bring some with him when he goes back....though running all that way with an oxygen tank seems like a lot at least for right now.
I've been trying to figure out why he doesn't go back to when he first got the phone call about becoming a father. He would be closer to the school being at the firehouse, with enough time to get there to find an entrance he can go through. But maybe that memory is tainted too much with his friend taking his shift for him.
Also whatever the hell Yi Na's mother thought before she died really messed with Yi Na. Did she crash the car on purpose? Did Yi Na verbalize what her mother was thinking thus distracting her? Or was the sun just to bright coming out of the tunnel while being emotional about Gwi Joo disappearing into the past again. Did she think about Yi Na never being born because it would mean Gwi Joo wouldn't disappear all the time back to her birth? That reveal is going to be brutal.

I wonder if she's still interested in acting now that she's almost done with her schooling.

I really need to give Kim Hye Yoon her flowers. The subtle acting when it comes to her feelings about Ryu Sun Jae is so well done. You can actually see when her love switches from fan/savior-love/admiration into romantic feelings. They are both doing such an amazing job with conveying feelings with just their eyes and when/how they choose to breathe. Stay with me. Breath in a scene is the tension builder/tone setter. The way one chooses to pause can say more than a thousand words ever could. The director of this show needs all the awards because he is truly honed in on what level the characters should be at for each scene and makes sure the actors get there.

Okay, please forgive me, but you have unlocked the thing that I have been thinking about a lot lately as I keep track of everything I watch. Spoiler tag because long comment.
If you are used to Kdramas think about it this way. A 24 episode Cdrama is the average length of a 16 episode kdrama. (40min runtime for a Cdrama vs. 60min kdrama)
Thai and Japanese dramas are generally the shortest runtime as they tend to average about 10hours in total length.
Chinese dramas have about 2mins before and 3-4 minutes after each show for intro/outro.
Also also, Youtube FMV editors do a really good job condensing the love stories if you ever just want to experience the vibe of the show rather than watch the whole thing.
If you ever have any general/specific questions about a drama I've seen I'd be happy to help answer them.
If you enjoyed the Reply series from Korea I would also recommend 'Go Ahead'. Or you could just wait for it's Korean adaption which will be 'Family by Choice'

Okay I'm going to go update the timeline notes to fit May 4th as Im Sol's birthday

I just know that on May 4th they catch Im Sol's bestie and brother. If they put the birthday date in later in the day it could work....okay stopping mid thought because if Sun Jae looked at his phone after midnight it would have read the 4th. And would explain why her necklace isn't in the scenes prior but does appear around her neck on the 5th. But why are they going to school on a Sunday? I am confused.
Okay I swear to god those police files/dates are the bane of my existence. Multiple errors in production involve the timestamps/dates on the police files/footage. looking at you future CCTV LOOKING AT YOU!

Is the namuwiki run by the production or is it like Wikipedia where anyone can write in? Because the police file shows her birthdate as May 3rd 1990 in episode 9 at 34:35

Her birthdate is listed on a police file in I believe episode 9 or 10. Looking it up now...Ryu Sun Jae's birthdate appears in episode 9 at 5:30mins in...Im Sol's birthdate appears in the same episode at 34:45 on the police file.

Might I also recommend some Chinese dramas with similar vibes?
You Are My Glory (famous FL)
Love Scenery(famous FL, fan ML)
The Day Of Becoming You(Famous ML) body swapping hilarity
Intense Love(Famous FL)

I just double triple checked my notes...It's May 3rd 1990. May 5th is the day they are in Baek In Hyuk's hometown. https://mydramalist.com/discussions/time-walking-on-memory/124879-important-dates-to-remember?page=1