Thirteen Year old Lee Goon was at the top of his game, playing the final match for a tennis junior cup competition. Just when he wins, he has an accident trying to save his younger brother from a flying racket. But the incident leads him to breaking his arm unable to play tennis again.
This incident leaves a deep scar in Lee Goon’s heart as he’s unable to forget it. On the plane returning to Korea, Lee Goon has a rather uncomfortable first encounter with Kyung ju Yeon, a psychiatrist getting ready for her presentation in Korea as the plane turbulence causes the two to hit each other. She seems to resemble Lee Goon’s first love whom he’s eager to meet again. She’s unable to help him up after he falls due to his hand injury so she leaves him her card.
Lee Goon recalls how his parents abandoned him with his grandmother while they left with his younger brother who continued tennis. While running after their car, his gold medal fell into the water. He tried to fetch it and fell into the water as well. When he opened his eyes, he was looking at his first love.
Lee Goon bumps into Ju Yeon again when acting as a distraction for his star tennis player brother Lee Shin at the airport but he is masked so she can’t recognize him. He is frustrated when his family forgets him and embarrassed when Ju Yeon notices him standing idly at the side of the road before she gets into a cab then goes to the hospital to hold her presentation called Bad memory eraser where she hopes to erase a person’s bad memories.
Meanwhile, Lee Goon returns to his family house where he feels sidelined especially by his mother who prioritizes his younger brother Lee shin as the most important in the family. He feels she values the family dog Cola even more than him. When he tries threatening Cola, it bites him in the mouth.
Ju Yeon’s presentation is a sucess and she’s congratulated by her peers and seniors but becomes embarrassed when her front teeth comes off in front of her crush Tae o. She gets it fixed in the dental clinic, getting angry that her teeth problem happened because of her altercation with the loser from the plane.
Her team is preparing to celebrate but Ju Yeon crushes the mood by ordering them to ensure the next presentation to the minister goes well the next day so that their six years of research don’t go down the drain. Her superior Dr Han berates her for killing the atmosphere calling her Elsa but Tae o secretly compliments her before leaving her with her superior who scolds her for no longer doing counseling but Ju Yeon explains it’s due to her research which she has bet everything on.
She wants to bring out her research documents from her luggage only to find that the luggage is not hers but Lee Goon’s. However, she doesn’t let her superior know. She calls the number written in his luggage but it’s busy because Lee Goon is on a call with his friend who teaches young children tennis. His friend is urging him to attend their school reunion so he can meet his first love again and confess his feelings but Lee Goon doesn’t want to, believing he isn’t good enough. This upsets his friend who chastises him for having low self esteem.
Lee Goon stops at a tennis agency where he scribbles on his brother’s poster while he’s taking a dump in the toilet. As he comes out, he runs into Cha si on, a tennis player who surprisingly remembers him as a tennis genius. She has been a fan of Lee Goon, recalling him as the first person in their country to win a world championship. She states that it’s because of him she started to play tennis. She asks if she can see his medal but he replies sadly that he lost it. Just then, the director whom she doesn’t seem to like takes her away.
Just then, Lee Goon runs into his brother Lee Shin who orders him to get him a cold drink as punishment for scribbling on his poster in the toilet. Lee Goon suddenly gets a call from Ju Yeon about their luggage. He tells her he would return it to her next week, cutting the line abruptly and incurring Ju Yeon’s anger. Just as Lee Goon awkwardly enters the meeting between his brother, Cha si on and the director, he is rudely ordered by the director to make photocopies of documents but upon looking at the document, Lee Goon notices something citing that Cha si on must have injured her knee. This rouses the director’s fury who accuses Lee Goon of trying to jinx Cha Si on. He throws the documents at him, insulting him that he mooches off his brother, which causes some staff to gather outside the office and gossip about Lee Goon.
Lee Goon starts to suffer a panic attack. His wrists start hurting and he rushes out of the agency. Meanwhile, Ju yeon who has been frustrated all along due to Lee Goon’s silence is surprised when she is called to attend to him. She immediately recognises him as he cries out to be relieved of his pain but Ju Yeon tells him that his pain isn’t real. It’s a pain he’s hallucinating.
She pinches his left hand showing him that it’s the real pain he’s feeling. Lee Goon cries that he’s been in pain for so long and doesn’t know when it will end. He is willing to sell his soul to her if it can help him get rid of the bad memories. He starts to leave because his hand feels better but Ju Yeon asks him if he will still meet his first love having overheard him talking about it when they met. She thinks meeting her again will help remove his bad memories but Lee Goon tells her that good memories can also turn into bad memories and asks if he will be able to take responsibility if things don’t work out well. He leaves after getting no response. Just then, Ju Yeon realizes that he is the one with her luggage and runs after him but he’s already gone.
Lee Goon meets with his friend who again urged him to attend the reunion and meet his first love even though he might get rejected but Ju Yeon has no confidence due to how he turned out. He begs his friend to attend the reunion and ask around for her so he can at least know her name.
Ju Yeon sends Lee Goon an encouraging message. He then sends a text back telling her he would bring her luggage in the morning. Ju Yeon hopes her presentation will go well and she will forget her bad memories just like her test mouse did but she notices that her mouse cage lock is broken.
While dropping his brother Lee shin at the hospital the next day, Lee shin notices the reunion invitation and teases Lee Goon about it, ready to go to the reunion and show everyone he is his brother to heighten his status but Lee Goon grabs the card from his brother. Lee shin goes to see his psychiatric doctor Dr Han who secretly treats him. But he notices a document on a bad memory eraser when he mistakenly spills coffee on it. Dr Han who panics, clarifies that the procedure is to hide the memories by tricking the brain. Nevertheless, he sends Lee shin away but Lee shin is already curious about it.
An unfortunate circumstance takes place when Ju Yeon’s team loses the mouse after one of the doctors holding his cage slips on a wet floor. Ju Yeon manages to get the cage but the mouse goes missing due to the faulty lock. Lee shin witnesses Ju Yeon and her team run after the mouse. They try to lure it with food but it ends up running into the streets, ultimately getting crushed by Lee Goon’s car. He is unaware of the tension as he meets with an appalled Ju Yeon asking her why she didn’t pick her call when he wanted to give her her luggage.
He soon realises the dead mouse and asks if he’s her pet, wanting to compensate for it but Ju Yeon looses her temper on him accusing him of not valuing life, stressing that the mouse sacrificed for people like him. She asks if he has ever sacrificed for anyone in his life and Lee Goon, flustered asks if the mouse is worthier than him but Ju Yeon tells him harshly that if she were his first love, she would never like him because of his inferiority complex which he will always have until he dies.
Ju Yeon leaves while Lee Shin watches Lee Goon appear disoriented. The minister and the hospital director are waiting for the presentation when Ju Yeon comes into the hall with the dead mouse explaining it died and asking for another chance to show a proof of their successful experiment with a new sample 108 in the next thirty days. She shocks everyone when she reveals she will be using a human for the experiment.
While Lee Goon is holding an umbrella over his brother who is giving his autographs to his fans in the rain, he is burdened by Ju Yeon’s words and leaves without a word, surprising Lee Shin.
Ju Yeon is summoned to the ethics committee where they tell her that the consequences of erasing bad memories can lead to even more bad memories but Ju Yeon explained that many people who are suffering might not be aware that they are really loved by those around them .
We then see Lee Goon’s mother getting upset when Lee Goon leaves unaware that she had prepared his favorite fried chicken he had always wanted. Choi So Ra has his picture of when he was a young tennis pro as her phone screen wallpaper. Lee shin had told his agency director that he would no longer be renewing his contract with him after he had insulted Lee Goon.
Ju Yeon asks the committee if removing these unwanted memories is immoral and urges them not to take away the opportunity that a desperate person might need. Ju Yeon waits outside the meeting room for their decision.
That same moment, Lee Goon tries committing suicide by jumping into a river. We then see him being wheeled into surgery while Lee Shin who is wet from head to toe looks devastated. Ju Yeon is shocked by Lee Goon’s state while Lee shin pleads with Dr Han to save his brother.
While performing surgery on Lee Goon, Ju Yeon decides to stay feeling guilty that she may have been the reason for his extreme decision due to her harsh words earlier. They conduct the bad memories eraser experiment on Lee Gun and in the process, all his bad memories vanish. When Ju yeon checks on him the next morning, she’s surprised that he’s awake but even more shocked when he hugs her and calls her his first love.
What a good start. Jaejoong has me feeling for the character Lee Goon. He has gone through so much believing he isn’t loved. I teared up at the scenes showing that his family actually care and protect him but he doesn’t realise this. Now, that his had memories are gone, I wish to see how his life will turn out but I’m sure there will be consequences.