Doona Ending Explained: With Bae Suzy as the titular former K-pop star and Yang Se-jong as Lee Won-jun, an engineering student making his move to Seoul, the South Korean coming-of-age romance series has been directed by Lee Jung-hyo, known for his work in the Crash Landing On You K-drama. Based on Min Songa’s The Girl Downstairs webtoon (이두나), the show has been developed by Studio Dragon and created by Song Kyung-hee.

Also starring Oh Ha-young as Kim Jin-ju, Lee Jin-uk as Park In-wook and Park Se-wan as Choi I-ra alongside others, the live-action webtoon adaptation has 9 episodes, now streaming on Netflix. The series follows Lee Doona, Kpop singer at the height of her career who quit her profession, and Lee Won-jun, a university student who following his shift to Seoul, ends up becoming her neighbour. An unlikely romance blossoms between the two as they both also find their own place in the world and carve their path to a healing journey of self-discovery.

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Doona Kdrama Ending Explained Contains Spoilers

Doona Ending Explained

The series’ last episode is almost crafted to reflect a hazy memory. All events move forward in a non-linear pattern, with the story constantly moving back and forth. However, it is clear that Won-jun eventually moved out of his old apartment to focus on his studies away from Doona. Meanwhile, Doona regains her confidence and moves forward by returning to her K-pop roots, but this time as a soloist. They meet up a few times, and in 2023, Won-jun finally gives up even though Doona wants to fight for their relationship. The growing distance between them gets to Won-jun, and he breaks up with her.

All of Won-jun’s friends also move forward with their lives and get busy with their hectic schedules and jobs, and one of those days, Jin-ju comes back and meets up with Won-jun. It’s then that he finds out she’d always stayed in touch with Doona. With four years having passed, Doona was all set to release her new album, and Won-jun and others reunite one last time at their old place since the house was to be remodelled by the landlady for her son as a wedding gift, but with Doona not there, it doesn’t quite feel like a full-on reunion.

Won-jun informs the others of his job interviews and how he’s up in the last rounds and may soon land a good job. On bidding the rest farewell, he returns to the dorm once more to get his jacket and finds Doona there. They head out together for drinks and part ways later. Even after returning to the ladder of success, Doona is heartbroken and decides to confront Won-jun about their separation.

Although during their argument, Doona mentions that she doesn’t need a man in her life anymore, but still feeling hollow about it, she urges him to apologise for leaving her back then like that. Much like her, Won-jun, too, felt bad about how he ended things and acknowledges that he regrets his actions.

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In the 2027 National Civil Servant Level 5 Open Competitive Recruitment Exam, Won-jun’s name makes it to the list of top scorers, so he also achieves what he aspires to be. On the other hand, the ever-rising craze for Doona soars even higher. Throughout these years that elapse after their break up, the final episode emphasises the growing distance between their lives and their contrasting paths. Won-jun even serves in the military during these years, and everything pushes them further in opposite directions.

The final scenes fly us to Japan, where Doona arrives for an event, and the roaring crowd of her fans welcomes her. In a parallel scene, we also see Won-jun at the same place. While his boss buys something, he glances at cakes on display and looks rather happy compared to his former disposition.

Even though both Doona and Won-jun nearly cross paths, they don’t come face-to-face and end up walking in opposite directions on the same path. In a faint serendipitous moment, Doona turns back to catch a glimpse of Won-jun (it’s unclear if he saw him or just turned for a second upon sensing something). Yet, unaware of her presence, he keeps walking forward, almost as if the show is hinting at him having moved on.

In this way, the series is left off on a bittersweet, open-ended note. While it’s up to our interpretation to join the dots about whether they’re together, the series has pointed out that life has “its unexpected twists”, just as Doona remarks in the first episode. It was but an “unexpected twist” that Won-jun ended up living at the dorm as Doona, and then yet another twist that they happened to be in the same building in Japan.

It was all a game of chance, and they will always be a part of each other’s life. At first, they were quite literally in each other’s life, but now, they’ll remain back as a memory of their past as they race forward in different directions to their own destinations. Except for once in a while, when they have the urge to look back at what they had, they’ll keep moving on, just like Doona turned around to see Won-jun but then kept going ahead.

Doona is now streaming on Netflix.

Have you watched the K-drama yet? What did you think of the ending? Let us know your opinions and theories in the comments section below.

Also read: Doona Review: Suzy, Yang Se-jong’s Angsty Chemistry Works Out a Melodramatic Romance, but Other Elements Float on the Surface