A Realistic Romance that Doesnt Feel Very Realistic By the End

This drama is shot beautifully and well acted. The OST might be the best part of the show. Up to a certain point the romance is a warm hug with no cliche misunderstandings. Then the dreaded kdrama episodes 12-16 hit this show like a white kdrama truck. Everything was going too well in the show, so the director needed to spice things up by adding in unnecessary melodrama that didn't fit the characters or tone they were building.

This brings me to my biggest point of contention with the drama: the breakup. Its realistic for couples to breakup over misunderstandings and miscommunication. My problem doesn't lie with the breakup, even if its a kdrama cliche, rather the problem is the writing and character assassination that took place to get there. There is a way to write the FL becoming unhappy with the relationship as she moves on from the honeymoon phase. The show presents the FL as nice, caring, thoughtful, and a sweet person in every single scene until episode 12 when she becomes completely different. Her actions don't make sense, she becomes bitter and depressed like she is a scorned lover. The show tries to tell us that the barrier to communication was the reason, but to the audience it seems like she just fell out of love. This would be fine if the show's message is about appreciating the time you spent together and loving in spite of knowing the end, but the show doesn't stop there! In the last 5 minutes we get a ham fisted monologue (in a play) and then the couple is back together. The writers clearly didnt know how to properly get the couple to break up in a realistic manner, and then we also get a patch work reconciliation at the end. Either the show should've put more effort in showing the audience why and how the FL eventually grew distant or they needed the couple to break up for good and have the last episode with them reconciling and moving forward without each other.

The overall plot of this drama hinges on the "fire event" during their college years. So much of the ML's, 2FL's, and weird friend's motivations and character makeup begin from this traumatic event. Unfortunately like many kdramas that try to play up a large traumatic event in a character's past, the actual event is messy, borderline nonsensical, incoherent mumbo jumbo. Ultimately it led to me questioning why we needed a random unknown stalker who whistles, why the friend side character (whose name I cant even remember) is even needed in this story, why the ML and FL didn't just communicate or read the police report of such a big event? Sure, the FL admits she was looking for an excuse to run away in the end, but there are so many leaps in logic that we, the audience, have to jump over to get to where we are in the present day story.

I enjoyed the side romances in this show. Jinwoo's class was hysterical and the best side characters in the show. The FL's roommate and her brother's romance was enjoyable too, but it was clearly there to pad out the run time to 16 episodes because they are never mentioned again after they become a couple and have no relevance to the overall story or the ML/FL romance. I was expecting something from Modam because he had such a strong negative first impression of Jinwoo, but nothing comes from that. Also, Jinwoo's reunion with his birth mother was very well acted and well earned.

Its a very slow drama. I think it's worth watching for the cinematography, OST, and the first half of the show. I didn't love the main couple as much as I wanted to, but other's may feel differently and consequently you may love the show much more than I did.

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Stay for Romance, FF for Everything Else

This show has really good ML and FL chemistry, acting, and dialogue between them. Everything else is ok to actively detrimental to the show: the nonsensical business plots with analysts acting as hardened police detectives, the ridiculous tear allergy that doesn't really even matter that much because she just goes to the hospital and everything is fine, the absolutely snooze fest second couple which the show spends way too long on and doesn't matter to the main plot at all, the number of K-drama-esque cliches like people slow motion falling into each other and their lips land on each other...

The biggest sin of this story is how the FL loses all her agency. At the start she's competent and shows the ML that she's grown up from her past and isn't just someone who needs help all the time. The rest of the show is her needing help all the time. Her entire character arc builds to the point when she finds out about her dad's demise, but then the story doesn't let her do anything to giver her character resolution. Her very personal story about how her dad died due to corporate greed is written in a way where she contributes nothing to the outcome of her own character arc. She regresses and turns back into a damsel in distress.

Everything about the romance between the leads is really good. Their banter and how they interact is the reason to watch this show along with the cutest corgi who gets a lot of screen time. The only thing is you have to fast forward through so much drivel to get to the good parts. The show is at its best when the CP are bantering and the show revolves around them as a couple.

Pros:
Good acting
Great CP chemistry
Really witty, funny, cute dialogue
Most side characters get a good ending that feels true to their motivations
Lots of corgi scenes, dramas wish they had a mascot as good as Wealth
Most hilarious mother/son-in-law scene in any drama
Good last episode

Cons:
Bad character writing for FL
Horrendous secondary couple in terms of acting, writing, chemistry
More bad than good scenes with company politics
Lots of cliches/cringe moments like every race car scene, every fight scene, K-drama slow mo
Tear allergy that ultimately doesn't pay out in any creative way, they just forget about it after the introduction.
Really bad first episode

Overall:
Skip boring scenes with the second couple and boring company politics, watch for the ML and FL hilarious and cute banter

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A "You Are My Glory" for a Younger Audience

Verdict:
Overall its like a young adult version of (YA) You Are My Glory. Go in with medium expectations, use the fast forward button liberally, and you'll have a good time.

Negatives:
It has the same gaming scenes like YAMG that plague the first half of the show that I skip. Boring B-plots are abundant like the secondary couple and the Aerospace stuff in YAMG.
I rate this show worse than YAMG because I disliked every side character in this show especially the ML's roommates; the comedy in this show was almost never funny.
The FL acts like the one in college instead of her being older and a successful idol.
The first half of this show is pretty slow, but weirdly enough I like the first half more. I think I feel this way because the FL is more mature in the first half and then when the leads finally get together she turns into a teenage girl.
The actual ending was a strange choice. Left me with a "meh" impression. There are much better scenes they could have left it at.

Positives:
OST is pretty nice to listen to with some catchy songs that I listened to on spotify. One of the few shows that have managed to make me search for them.
Both shows are carried by the leads chemistry/romance. The biggest reason I rate this show positively and not negatively.
There is lots of fluff for those who enjoy fluff.
There are no actual "villains" and not that much melodrama.
The leads stick together all the way through, so no unnecessary break ups.

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