Ji-hwan

Warning: Major spoilers for Spooky in Love Episodes 1–12.

For most of Netflix’s Spooky in Love, Cheon Yeo-ri lives with a supernatural ability that has completely changed her life.

She can see ghosts.

She avoids physical contact.

She wears gloves.

And when someone holds her hand, that person can temporarily see ghosts too.

For 12 years, Yeo-ri has accepted this as part of her existence.

Then something surprising happens in the finale.

Yeo-ri wakes from her coma — and she can no longer see ghosts.

So why did her ability suddenly disappear?

And perhaps more importantly:

Why could Yeo-ri see ghosts in the first place?

The finale finally connects everything to the yacht tragedy, Ji-hwan’s pendant and Yeo-ri’s refusal to let Ji-hwan cross into the afterlife.

The simplest answer is:

Yeo-ri could see ghosts because her fate became unnaturally connected to Ji-hwan’s death 12 years earlier. When Ji-hwan finally crosses over in the finale, that connection is broken — and Yeo-ri’s ability disappears with him.

Here is how the entire supernatural mystery works.

Why Can Yeo-ri See Ghosts in Spooky in Love?

Yeo-ri was not simply born with the ability to see ghosts.

Her supernatural life begins with the tragedy that happened 12 years before the main story.

That was the night Kang Ji-hwan died.

Before the yacht tragedy, Ji-hwan gave Yeo-ri a special pendant.

At the time, it seemed like an emotional gift.

But the pendant was much more important than either of them understood.

Later in the drama, Yeo-ri and Gang-uk investigate the pendant and discover that it has supernatural significance.

Its power became connected to what happened between Yeo-ri and Ji-hwan.

Their fates were changed.

Ji-hwan died.

Yeo-ri survived.

And afterward, Yeo-ri became connected to the world of the dead.

What Did Ji-hwan’s Pendant Do?

The pendant is one of the keys to understanding Yeo-ri’s curse.

Ji-hwan gave it to her shortly before his death.

The drama eventually reveals that the pendant carried a supernatural power capable of affecting fate.

What happened on the yacht therefore was not simply:

Ji-hwan died and Yeo-ri survived.

Something deeper occurred.

Their destinies became intertwined.

The pendant helped create a situation in which the fate surrounding Ji-hwan’s death and Yeo-ri’s survival was altered.

That is why the necklace repeatedly returns throughout the series.

It is not just a romantic memory of Ji-hwan.

It is one of the physical links connecting:

Ji-hwan’s death,
Yeo-ri’s survival,
and Yeo-ri’s ability to see ghosts.

Did Ji-hwan and Yeo-ri Swap Fates?

In supernatural terms, yes.

The explanation surrounding the pendant indicates that their intended fates were altered.

Ji-hwan had given the pendant to Yeo-ri before he died.

The result was that Ji-hwan died while Yeo-ri survived.

But that exchange did not happen without consequences.

Yeo-ri remained alive while becoming unnaturally connected to death.

That helps explain why her supernatural ability is portrayed less like a gift and more like a burden.

She survived.

But she never returned completely to an ordinary life.

For the next 12 years, the dead remained visible to her.

Why Did Yeo-ri Keep Seeing Ghosts for 12 Years?

The pendant alone is not the whole explanation.

Ji-hwan himself is also crucial.

After Ji-hwan died, his spirit was supposed to leave the world of the living.

But Yeo-ri could not let him go.

She was overwhelmed by grief and guilt.

She believed Ji-hwan had died because of her.

That emotional refusal to release him helped keep the connection between the living and the dead open.

Ji-hwan remained.

And Yeo-ri became someone capable of seeing spirits.

This is why the finale connects Yeo-ri’s supernatural ability directly to her unresolved relationship with Ji-hwan.

For 12 years, neither of them completely moved on.

Ji-hwan remained among the dead but close to Yeo-ri.

Yeo-ri remained alive but connected to the dead.

They were trapped on opposite sides of the same unfinished event.

Was Seeing Ghosts a Gift or a Curse?

For Yeo-ri, it was mostly a curse.

Seeing ghosts sounds extraordinary.

Living with them is different.

Yeo-ri cannot simply turn the ability off.

She sees spirits that other people cannot see.

She is approached by ghosts with unfinished problems.

And physical contact with another person can transfer the ability temporarily.

That makes ordinary intimacy difficult.

A handshake is not just a handshake.

Holding someone’s hand can pull them into Yeo-ri’s supernatural world.

As a result, she becomes increasingly isolated.

The gloves she constantly wears become a symbol of that isolation.

They create a physical barrier between Yeo-ri and everyone around her.

Why Does Yeo-ri Wear Gloves?

Because touching people can have supernatural consequences.

When someone holds Yeo-ri’s hand, that person can temporarily gain the ability to see ghosts.

Gang-uk experiences this directly.

After physical contact with Yeo-ri, he suddenly sees the same spirits she has been living with for years.

Unlike Yeo-ri, however, Gang-uk’s ability is temporary.

His ghost vision eventually disappears.

Yeo-ri’s does not.

That difference is important.

Gang-uk temporarily enters Yeo-ri’s world.

Yeo-ri is trapped inside it.

This is one reason the romance between them matters.

Gang-uk becomes one of the few people who actually experiences what Yeo-ri has been dealing with rather than simply being told about it.

Why Are Yeo-ri’s Hands So Cold?

Yeo-ri’s cold hands are another physical sign of her abnormal connection to the spirit world.

She is alive, but something about her remains connected to death.

That is why her condition affects more than what she can see.

Her body itself reflects the strange boundary she has occupied for 12 years.

The coldness also reinforces one of the drama’s recurring ideas:

Yeo-ri has spent years unable to experience ordinary human warmth.

Literally and emotionally.

Her supernatural condition keeps other people at a distance.

Can Yeo-ri Get Rid of the Curse?

Eventually, Yeo-ri learns that escaping her supernatural fate will require more than simply destroying the pendant or refusing to communicate with ghosts.

The problem began with an imbalance between life and death.

A fate was changed.

Someone who should have crossed over remained.

And Yeo-ri continued living while connected to that unfinished passage.

The supernatural balance therefore has to be restored.

That warning becomes especially important as the finale approaches.

Because Yeo-ri is about to find herself standing at the boundary between life and death herself.

Why Does Yeo-ri Nearly Die in Episode 12?

Min-hwan’s crimes eventually put Gang-uk in danger.

A truck comes toward Gang-uk.

Yeo-ri sees what is happening and pushes him out of the way.

She saves him.

But she is struck by the truck instead.

The accident leaves Yeo-ri in a coma.

This is important for more than the romance.

For the first time since Ji-hwan’s death, Yeo-ri herself reaches the boundary between the living and the dead.

And that allows the supernatural imbalance that began 12 years earlier to finally be resolved.

What Happens to Yeo-ri in the Spirit World?

While unconscious, Yeo-ri enters a liminal space between life and death.

There, something remarkable happens.

The ghosts she helped during the previous 12 years appear.

These are spirits whose unfinished problems Yeo-ri helped resolve.

For years, seeing ghosts had seemed like nothing but a punishment.

But now the story reveals another side of her ability.

Yeo-ri used her curse to help people.

And those acts matter.

The spirits gather around her and help keep her from crossing over.

The burden she carried for 12 years has also created relationships.

Yeo-ri gave warmth to the dead.

Now the dead return that warmth when she needs it most.

Why Does Ji-hwan Appear at the River?

Eventually, Yeo-ri reaches the final boundary.

A boat is waiting to take a soul to the other side.

And Ji-hwan appears.

This is the moment that resolves the supernatural story.

For 12 years, Yeo-ri has believed that Ji-hwan died because she lived.

She has carried guilt over surviving.

Ji-hwan finally tells her to stop.

Her life is not something she needs to apologize for.

She still has people waiting for her.

Most importantly, she has a future.

Gang-uk is part of that future.

Ji-hwan does not ask Yeo-ri to remain with him.

He tells her to return.

Why Does Ji-hwan Get on the Boat Instead of Yeo-ri?

Because Ji-hwan is finally ready to go where he should have gone 12 years earlier.

His spirit has remained connected to Yeo-ri ever since his death.

That connection helped keep the supernatural imbalance alive.

But now several unfinished things have been resolved.

The truth about his death is coming to light.

Yeo-ri understands that she does not need to blame herself.

Gang-uk — who carries Ji-hwan’s donated heart — is there to continue living beside her.

And Ji-hwan no longer needs to remain.

So when the boat comes, Ji-hwan boards it instead of Yeo-ri.

Yeo-ri returns to the living.

Ji-hwan finally crosses over.

The connection that had remained open for 12 years is closed.

Why Does Yeo-ri Stop Seeing Ghosts?

This is the key answer.

Yeo-ri stops seeing ghosts because Ji-hwan finally crosses into the afterlife, restoring the supernatural balance that had been disrupted 12 years earlier.

Her ability was connected to:

the altered fate created around the pendant,

Ji-hwan’s death,

Yeo-ri’s survival,

and Ji-hwan remaining in the world of the living.

Once Ji-hwan leaves, the supernatural bond holding Yeo-ri between the two worlds disappears.

She wakes from the coma.

And the ghosts are gone.

For the first time in 12 years, Yeo-ri sees only the living.

Did Ji-hwan Take Yeo-ri’s Place?

In a symbolic and supernatural sense, yes.

The drama presents Ji-hwan’s departure as the final restoration of the balance between them.

Twelve years earlier, their fates became tangled.

Yeo-ri lived.

Ji-hwan died but did not completely leave.

In the finale, Yeo-ri again approaches death.

This time Ji-hwan finally completes his own journey instead.

But this should not be interpreted as Ji-hwan “dying for Yeo-ri twice.”

He was already dead.

What changes is that his spirit finally accepts the passage he had been unable to complete.

Yeo-ri does not steal another life from him.

Ji-hwan chooses to let her continue hers.

Did the Ghosts Yeo-ri Help Save Her?

Yes, and this is one of the most important emotional details in the finale.

The ghosts Yeo-ri helped over the years gather around her while she is between life and death.

Their presence demonstrates that her 12 years of suffering were not meaningless.

Yeo-ri often experienced her supernatural ability as isolation.

But during that time, she also helped spirits who could not move on by themselves.

When Yeo-ri needs help, those connections return to her.

The curse that caused her pain also allowed her to give something to others.

And ultimately, that kindness helps guide her back toward life.

Why Is Ji-hwan’s Goodbye So Important?

Because Ji-hwan is not merely saying goodbye to Yeo-ri.

He is releasing her.

Yeo-ri’s life has been shaped by guilt since his death.

She has struggled to touch people.

She has lived among ghosts.

And she has believed, consciously or unconsciously, that her survival came at Ji-hwan’s expense.

His final act tells her the opposite.

Live.

That changes the meaning of his ghost.

Ji-hwan initially appears to be the spirit preventing Yeo-ri from escaping her past.

In the end, he becomes the person who finally allows her to leave that past behind.

Why Can Gang-uk No Longer See Ghosts Either?

Gang-uk’s ability was always different from Yeo-ri’s.

He temporarily gained the ability through physical contact with her.

He was never permanently connected to the spirit world in the same way.

Earlier in the series, his temporary ghost vision already disappears after a limited period.

Once Yeo-ri’s own supernatural connection ends, there is no longer a power for her to transfer.

That means the strange barrier that existed between them is finally gone.

They can touch each other normally.

No ghosts.

No supernatural consequences.

No gloves.

Why Are the Gloves Important in the Ending?

This may be the simplest visual symbol of Yeo-ri’s entire character arc.

For most of the drama, Yeo-ri wears gloves because touch is dangerous.

The gloves separate her from other people.

They represent fear.

Isolation.

And the supernatural burden she has carried since Ji-hwan’s death.

After her curse disappears, she no longer needs them.

That means something as ordinary as holding Gang-uk’s hand becomes emotionally important.

For almost anyone else, holding hands is nothing unusual.

For Yeo-ri, it represents a life she could not have for 12 years.

The absence of gloves tells us something before the characters even need to explain it:

Yeo-ri is finally back among the living.

Does Yeo-ri Lose Her Powers Forever?

The ending strongly presents the change as permanent.

Ji-hwan has crossed over.

The supernatural imbalance has been resolved.

Yeo-ri can no longer see or sense ghosts as she did before.

There is no final scene suggesting that the power secretly remains or suddenly returns.

That matters because Spooky in Love does not end by turning Yeo-ri into a professional ghost hunter or giving her an even stronger supernatural ability.

Her reward is much simpler.

An ordinary life.

For someone who spent 12 years surrounded by the dead, ordinary becomes extraordinary.

What Does Yeo-ri Losing Her Ghost Powers Really Mean?

On the plot level, it means the curse is broken.

On the emotional level, it means Yeo-ri finally stops living inside the moment Ji-hwan died.

For 12 years:

Ji-hwan remained a ghost.

Yeo-ri remained connected to ghosts.

Min-hwan hid the truth.

Yeo-ri carried guilt.

Gang-uk unknowingly lived with Ji-hwan’s heart.

Everyone was still connected to that single night on the yacht.

The finale finally separates those paths.

Ji-hwan goes with the dead.

Yeo-ri returns fully to the living.

Gang-uk continues living with the heart Ji-hwan donated.

And the truth about Ji-hwan’s death is finally exposed.

The past does not disappear.

But it no longer controls Yeo-ri’s life.

So Why Did Yeo-ri Stop Seeing Ghosts?

Because her ability was never simply a magical superpower.

It was the consequence of an unfinished relationship between life and death.

Ji-hwan died.

Yeo-ri survived.

Their fates became entangled through the pendant.

Yeo-ri could not let Ji-hwan go.

And for 12 years, she remained connected to the world he belonged to.

In the finale, that finally changes.

Yeo-ri reaches the boundary of death.

The ghosts she helped support her.

Ji-hwan tells her to return to life.

Then he boards the boat and finally crosses over.

Yeo-ri wakes up.

She looks around.

And for the first time in 12 years, there are no ghosts.

The curse is gone.

But the deeper meaning is even simpler:

Ji-hwan finally lets go of Yeo-ri.

And Yeo-ri finally lets go of Ji-hwan.