‘The Sound of Magic’ Finale: Is Ri-eul the Culprit? And What Happens to Ah-yi?

The finale of 'The Sound of Magic' has audiences and Ah-yi questioning who Ri-eul really is. After the criminal case is solved, Ah-yi goes on with her life but Ri-eul remains a mystery.

by Gabriela Silva

Published on May 6, 2022

3 min read

Ri-eul is a suspect in a disappearance by the ‘The Sound of Magic’ finale

By the finale of the May K-drama The Sound of Magic, Ah-yi has become loyal to Ri-eul and does not believe the police when they suspect him of a crime. The police are investigating the disappearance of one of Ah-yi’s schoolmates. Video footage shows a man in a magician’s cape destroying a banner asking for information about her whereabouts.

The police also have a video recording taken by another student. The video shows Ri-eul in a fight with another assailant. The angle of the video has police believing he murdered the assailant. Audiences also start to question Ri-eul’s motives when he assaulted another student who kept meddling in his life and said he was not a real magician.

Things get worse for Ri-eul when the convenience store owner who almost assaulted Ah-yi and disappeared returns. He explains that Ri-eul pushed him over the railing, and Ah-yi is led to believe Ri-eul’s magic was a trick. Ri-eul is in more trouble when an older woman reports a mugging by a man in a cape.

Ri-eul claims his innocence, but the evidence is against him. Ah-yi also learns Ri-eul was arrested in the past concerning another disappearance.

Ah-yi learns the truth about Ri-eul’s past and police uncover the real cirminal

As Ri-eul is taken in for questioning, Ah-yi and Il-deung (Hwang In-youp) meet Ri-eul’s old schoolmate who has been helping him. They learned Ri-eul’s real name, and he was a top student in school. The pressure broke him and tried to end his life. He survived and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Years later, he escaped and lived as a nomad magician.

The real mystery occurs when Ah-yi gets a call from the police about Ri-eul escaping custody. She finds him at the amusement park, but the police have already arrived. Ri-eul is reluctant to be taken knowing he is innocent. The police are forced to draw their weapons, but Ah-yi convinces them to let her speak to him. In a musical number, she helps Ri-eul realize how he helped her regain her wonder and asks ‘Do you believe in magic?” Using his cape trick, she makes him disappear.

Sometime later in The Sound of Magic finale, the police find a new surveillance video of the amusement park. It proves the real culprit of the crimes. It was the convenience store owner. Ah-yi’s classmate also worked at the store and recorded the owner trying to assault her as evidence. He bribes her with money and tells her to meet him at the amusement park.

The surveillance video shows him murdering the young girl. Police uncover that he planted Ri-eul’s fingerprints during their scuffle in the other video. He buried the knife nearby to be found and dressed up in Ri-eul’s cape for the other crimes to incriminate him. Ri-eul was innocent the whole time.

Audiences never learn what happened to Ri-eul in ‘The Sound of Magic’ finale

Ah-yi uses magic to make Ri-eul disappear to save him from the police. After the real culprit is found, Ri-eul does not return. Audiences have no idea where he is or how Ah-yi made him disappear. As the K-drama teases fans with the possibility of magic being real, Ri-eul vanished.

Time passes, and Ah-yi’s life has gotten better. She has long hair and is happily living with her little sister. Audiences learn her father got a job in the countryside and provides for them. Despite becoming an adult, she kept her promise to Ri-eul and followed her dream. She works as a magician and enthralls children with tricks she learned from Ri-eul. She writes him letters and puts them in the mailbox at the amusement park, hoping he will one day answer.