From what I saw, and read, I understood that this is a drama that you either love, or you hate. No in between.
I do understand why: characters are messed up, there is no silver lining and the episodes get so tense that is hard to actually pinpoint the moment you fall for this scheme.
For all those who hate it, but watched it until the end: congrats, you just wasted your time! For everyone who actually, even without enjoying it, liked the drama: hi, I'm one of you.
I was really excited to see this drama, and I've watched it fairly quickly, because I couldn't look away from my laptop.
The plotline, I admit was not of my favourites: everything was fine, until Gyuri just pushes her way in Jisoo's life and chaos ensues. The drama probably would haven't had that push to it, without Bae Gyuri : thank you for being the actual plotholder, the bad guy and the saviour all in one!
It's not hard to dislike Gyuri, let's be honest, but at the same time I related to her on so many levels: her internalized hatred for everyone and everything, her sociopathic side being full on display, and her just being a badass in a noir way. What changed Gyuri, and made her less obsessed with her own personal dilemmas was Jisoo. I think these two dysfunctional characters work so well with and for each other that it's hard to separate them. I loved the scene in which Jisoo and his father are drinking and just insulting each other while laughing. It was intensely sad, but also sarcastic.
I think all about this drama was doublefaced: Mr. Lee being a veteran with wars in his head, trying to fight them while protecting someone, Minhee who found a parental figure in Mr. Lee and just went berserk because she was lost, and Kitae, who hid his feelings that deep they came out too late and ended up being just a burden, for both him and Minhee. These characters are real, they are scarred, pitiful and rotten on the inside. But not everything is gone: the homeroom teacher, the detective (which paradoxically are adults, and instead try to fight for their gone kids, instead of kids trying to fight the rotten adult world) still believe there is something in them that it's worth looking at, fighting for.
If you don't see it this way, I'm sorry for you because you lost the biggest lesson of this drama: it's hard to keep a dream, and life does not help, so don't take short ways to achieve it, because it's probably gonna end bad. This drama is a massive warning about the bad sides of things and how quickly we are to judge everything around us.