'Between Steps' Hits Series-High 2.8% Rating as Kim So-hyun Rejects Choo Young-woo

Actress Kim So-hyun closed the latest episode of "Between Steps" in tears. Her character finally let out the feelings she had been holding back, in a heavy final scene opposite Choo Young-woo.

Episode 10 of the Monday-Tuesday drama aired on Nov. 3 on ENA, a South Korean cable channel. The episode drew a 2.8% nationwide household rating, according to Nielsen Korea. This being a new high for the series.

The episode followed Park Min-jae (played by Choo) and Lim Yu-jin (Kim So-hyun). Neither can forget the other, but neither can easily close the distance either.

Min-jae kept thinking about the moment he saw Yu-jin with Lee Ji-hoon (Jang In-sub), and it bothered him. Yu-jin had not fully let go of Min-jae. She worried about him enough to pray that he would stay healthy and not get sick.

Still, she could not understand how he had ended things on his own, saying it was for her sake. He had promised they would stay together to the end. Then he made the decision alone and left her. She still resented him for it.

While Yu-jin was having dinner with Ji-hoon, Min-jae called. The thought of the two of them together had been weighing on him, and he reached out after thinking it over. Yu-jin coldly hung up.

Ji-hoon started to show his feelings for Yu-jin. But after seeing Min-jae again and learning why he had broken up with her, Yu-jin kept bringing him up around Ji-hoon. On the walk home, she stopped in an alley that held memories of Min-jae.

Ji-hoon snapped at her. If she couldn't forget Min-jae, he said, she should just get back together with him. Then he caught her off guard. "If I asked you out, would you go out with me?"

Min-jae eventually met Ji-hoon alone. He believed the two were a couple, and he wanted to know why Ji-hoon had gone out of his way to set up his reunion with Yu-jin. Ji-hoon pushed back hard. He reminded Min-jae that he was the one who ended the relationship, and told him to step aside.

Min-jae explained why he had broken up with her. "Isn't it right to hurt her a little and end it now, instead of hurting her badly later?" he said.

"Your chance is over," Ji-hoon warned. "Don't shake Yu-jin up."

Min-jae kept hovering around Yu-jin, trying to win her back. She stayed cold. Min-jae had been hired as a professor at Seohan University, and their lab colleagues planned a welcome party ahead of his first day. Yu-jin tried to skip it, saying she already had plans. She went after Kim Se-jin (Lim Jin-hyo) reassured her that she wasn't the only one who felt uncomfortable.

Yu-jin left the party early, and Min-jae followed her out. On the way to a taxi, he carefully asked about her and Ji-hoon. She told him they weren't like that.

Min-jae stopped her. "If you're not marrying him and you're not dating him, can't you get back together with me?" he asked.

That was when Yu-jin let out everything she had been holding in.

"I thought I'd rather die than break up with you," she said. "You didn't die, but I died back then. So how am I supposed to forgive you? How am I supposed to take you back? If it can't happen, it can't happen."

She turned away in tears. Min-jae, crying too, could not hold on to her any longer.