I had a love-hate relationship with this drama. I’d be loving it and then next scene it would be a chore to keep watching. So I’ll separate the things I loved, and the things I didn’t.

things I loved:

- this show was realistic, I liked that. In terms of jobs, sometimes you can’t necessarily get your ‘dream’ job and just need to earn money. (of course this show was about the characters turning their life around and doing what they wanted, and yes it was nice to see them live out their dreams)
- dong man x ae ra’s relationship was a great example of friends to lovers. they had a lot of chemistry (bonus points for the most bedsharing scenes I've seen in a drama yet)
- Park Seo Joon’s character definitely suited him. I loved him in ‘What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim (2018)’ but this character felt much more natural to him - personality and such.

things I didn’t:

- the second lead’s relationship plot line. Joo-man is trash and Sul-hee deserves so so much better. We spend 90% of the show watching the slow development of an affair? I’m still confused as to why they were dating for 6 years and never told any of their work colleagues. How could they not know? And I get they didn’t need to go ‘public’ per say, but when the situation called for it (aka, a girl is flirting with a man in a relationship) what’s the big deal? Just simply say “sorry, I have a girlfriend” SIMPLE. It’s not like dating is forbidden at their work? Hell Joo-man’s clueless colleague/boss/whatever kept pushing him towards Ye-Jin like there was no tomorrow.
- While I’m at it, is there something I’m missing??? Why tf were those 2 girls so enthralled with Joo-man to begin with?? He is literally the most bland person, and he isn’t even attractive??
- Anyways, I’m still bitter that she ended up taking him back in the end

- We had to go down the ‘long lost parent’ road, yet again ~sigh~ “why did you abandon me?!” here we go
- Why is nearly every man on this show trash?? Like Dong-Man and his coach are the only ones that are bloody decent guys? Wtf?
- Poor Choi Ae-Ra. She had a crazed stalker, a cheating asshole, and then a guy who was a jackass who was secretly getting married?? Jesus christ, this poor girl.
- Why did they have to stuff so many storylines at the end of the show? It felt like the writers had bitten off too much than they could chew. If I re-watched it all I feel like I would still have questions. For e.g. what was that filmed ’preview’ with the 3 kids?? Choi Ae-Ra’s mum was like ‘don’t ruin the kids!!’. How?? And how did all their parents have history?? I swear that never got answered
- Shows with sports always bore me, because: it’s sports. So I was never all that into Dong Man’s MMA fights. But I will admit the show made them not that bad to watch.

Anyways, long story short, all things considered - this show was average. I’m glad I was able to cross it off my watch list.