Where to begin... I was one of those poor souls that was left waiting for 2 years to see the second season, and was also spoiled immediately after the first season about what the ending was going to be, so I thought I would be mentally prepared to have my heart ripped out watching it. I was not.

I understand what Love Alarm was going for. In a dystopian world, almost paralleling today's age of digital dating, it's hard to fall in love organically anymore. We rely on cryptic text messages and online dating profiles to determine who we're supposed to love, instead of relying on our own intuition, our own feelings and heart. Given a shield, she was able to choose who she truly loved without a confusing love Alarm ringing all the time. I think it's important to consider that you can love many people to varying degrees. Since her Love Alarm told her to love Sun Oh, she has no choice but to believe it. But Love Alarm strips them of their freedom to choose who they love, and strips them of their will to fight for someone who doesn't ring yours. So, with that in mind, I understand why they decided that Hae Young was ultimately the person she chose over Sun Oh.

That said... I really disliked the way they went about trying to portray this message. What irked me the VERY most, was Duk Goo. If it was supposed to be a truly organic love between JoJo and Hae Young, then he wouldn't have gotten involved at all. By giving her the shield and the spear, he's essentially playing cupid and fate to get them to fall in love. His reasoning of how it gave her the opportunity to see that she would love Hae Young imo was just stupid. If she was meant to fall in love with Hae Young, she would have. She and Sun Oh would have organically broken up because she was too young/scared/etc... and she would have naturally found comfort in Hae Young and realize that he was the one she truly felt comfortable with.

Frustrations:
- JoJo - girl, why didn't you just tell him you had the shield once you regret it?!
- Sun Oh lost his best friend AND girlfriend at once. I felt like he deserved a better explanation from them.
- I'm sorry, but I saw very little chemistry between Hae Young and JoJo

Pros:
- Sun Oh and JoJo were both broken people, and found comfort in each other, but weren't able to heal each other. That was a powerful message to send.
- I think Yook Jo was a perfect character for Sun Oh. I'm truly happy for her and their ending
- I think Hae Young is a great guy, and I am also happy he got the girl (that his best friend kinda stole from him in the first place lets be real)
- The consistency of the cherry blossoms + red whatever (telephone booth, mailbox, bus shelter) - that's when I knew Hae Young was the one.

All that said, my k-drama heart wished that Sun Oh and JoJo ended up together, and my heart is broken, but I did my best to take my personal attachments out of the bigger picture of this story, and hopefully that will give me the consolation I'll need going forward.