This drama consists of two main parts, the first 14 episodes are about the high school years of our four leads & episodes 15-28 are about university life.

If I consider the first one a separate drama, then I would rate it at 9+, it's more than just great. I enjoyed the high school years much more here than in the recent hit cdrama Our Secret. If I imagined how my favorite high school anime romance would look like as live action TV, something like this would be the end result. In fact I don't think I have ever seen a high school drama with more anime-like leads, second leads. Usually Chinese high school dramas have very little romantic substance, because the censorship kills any chance of puppy loves flourishing, not in this one though. I feel the production team really pushed the boundaries of what a high school cdrama can be. I mean sure kisses, or a direct non confusable confession did not end up happening, but there was never a doubt about their relationship. Like the drama had "we'll be together forever" and (just) sleeping with & on each other multiple times, hugs etc etc. This whole introverted guy + outspoken girl story just really worked for me. Also it was really wholesome, like all the moms & even the head teacher were mostly turning a blind eye to the obvious affair. Special circumstances notwithstanding I'm really surprised this passed censorship.

The second half of the drama, the university years was not nearly as good. The leads went through the motions and while it was mostly still very enjoyable, but it was a bit annoying how slowly they progressed, despite starting cohabitation relatively early on. The leads have grown on me & I enjoyed watching them, but their everyday life did certainly not have enough substance for 28 episodes.

This is a drama where the leads (effectively) have gotten together in episode 3? and stayed together till the last episode without a single major misunderstanding, or love triangles. So of course the writers felt they have to find some tension to make the drama more interesting and with this I arrived at the worst thing about the drama, which is the relationship of the second leads following high school graduation. This entire theme of the guy not knowing how the girl feels & how he himself feels, while seemingly not having working male hormones either was extremely frustrating to get through. That's not even all, when he had finally figured out what's going on, the girl suddenly changed her mind, because ehm why not?

I just finished binging the drama, but I cannot recall any of the songs, the most mediocre OST of 2020 award goes to.. !?

If I had to recommend Meeting You to a friend, I would probably just say to watch the first 22~ episodes & then just skip to the finale. Coffee making competitions & plagiarism accusations are probably not worth the time, especially considering how there was much less sweetness in the OTP relationship after they started to officially date.