Plot:
...Put simply, this is a story about the trials and tribulations of a college girl.
...Put simply, this is a story about the trials and tribulations of a college girl.
The more complicated description is that this is a fascinating story that is unafraid of delving deep into relationships and searching for the truth that so easily distorts between two people trying to get to know each other, and how friendships and family shape one's life (with a few stalkers, severe teachers, and lots of debt thrown into the mix). In a narrower sense, it's the story of a perceptive introvert learning whether or not she can love someone who is possibly sociopathic. Is he or is he not...and which of them will change more as they explore a relationship together?
Characters that most matter:
A girl working her way through college while trying to support her parent's home business and her shiftless father, as well as deal with her very spoiled and lazy younger brother. She's attracted to the super rich, good-looking, smart, and hardworking senior who happens has a massive crush on her...but she also has major trust issues and is legitimately afraid of him.
I've heard from more than one fellow drama-watcher that this girl is basically me. That was absolutely my feeling also. I've never seen another drama character I so easily understood, and watching her learn and grow in her family, in her classes, in her relationships with her friends, was marvelously enjoyable. Part of this I think is that the drama gives access to her thoughts, allowing the viewer to see the things her family and friends are not aware of, and making it very clear what she's thinking and feeling, regardless of how much she expresses to others. She's got friends who she has a hard time opening up to, but they love her anyway and yell at her when she tries to go it alone, and sometimes she's horrendously socially awkward but she's not an idiot, and smetimes she has weird outfits and sometimes super cute ones, and it's all just beautifully delightful.
She's the classic drama heroine...only with the twist that she does not sacrifice her life to her family without a pang of emotion, she does not instantly fall for the rich chaebol come to save her, and the open view into her mind makes her 3D in a way that is exceeding rare for the plucky Cinderella types most often seen in such dramas.
He took an entire drama to even partially explain, so one paragraph is not going to do him justice. With the drama from Seol's perspective, the question of who is Jung becomes a very vital one indeed. At first meeting she sees through his perfect facade and instantly dislikes him. At repeated meetings throughout their time at the same school, her opinion is only strengthened. Others adore him; she is appalled by him.
But she lives inside her head, and when he unexpectedly asks her out, she is caught with the question of if he actually has been tormenting her the past year, or if his explanations for what has occurred are true. Her perception versus reality...how close do they match? Should she trust her instincts or allow herself to be swayed by the many advantages that come with his intense interest in her and the fact that no one else shares her views of him? Has she actually been judging him wrongly this entire time?
She's poor; he's rich. He appears to be effortlessly smart; she fights for every perfect grade she gets. She has two very close and good friends; he has two very ex-close friends and a whole crowd of users constantly suffocating him. Yet somehow he tells her that they are alike, and she wants to believe him...sometimes.
Episode by episode you learn more about Jung, whether though Seol seeing more of him, through her meeting of his ex-friends, or through his explanations when she questions him, and each episode shifts your perspective as viewer. One episode he's a complete psychopath and Seol should run if she does not want to end up dead in a ditch somewhere...the next he's an absolute Prince Charming, and Seol will surely not be happy without him. His sense of justice is very black and white...but his skill as master manipulator - if Seol's imaginings are correct - is dangerous. (There stands the very large if.)
An ex-pianist who was practically adopted by Jung's father to "normalize" his son. Hot-headed and entirely too quick-fisted for someone who was once a piano prodigy, he clicks beautifully with Seol and Seol's entire family and begins working at their failing business in order to pay off a debt. The similarities in their lives make his eventual falling for Seol inevitable, but I honestly enjoyed his more sibling-like interactions with her, and the way her family drew him in as one of their own.
At times the most clear-sighted person in the story, he definitely has his blind spots. One of those is Jung, who he once considered a friend, back before betrayal, the ruination of all his piano dreams, and a prideful refusal to look at another person's point of view. The other is his sister, with extra shade from a massive helping of guilt regarding their childhood, which she twists to her own advantage whenever necessary.
In-Ho's sister, a manipulative drama-queen who lives from boyfriend to boyfriend after Jung's father cuts her off. The orphaned children of Yoo Young-Soo's friend, she actually believed that she was made part of the family when Yoo Young-Soo brought them into his home. (The utter disbelief when she finally realizes how easily the man is convinced to abandon her, while In-Ho cries Do you finally understand? We were like pets in that house! is one of the few moments I actually had to feel sorry for her.) She is convinced that she and Jung are alike enough that she is the only one to understand him, and in a way she is right. Unfortunately he completely understands her, and cannot stand her.
Other major characters include Seol's friends, Eun-Taek and Bo-Ra, and the classmates who make her life more difficult, particularly Sang-Cheol, Min-Soo, and Young-Gon, besides her parents, her brother Joon, and of course Jung's father, Yoo Young-Soo.
Cautionary Notes:
There is a very brief scene with a fortune teller in the beginning.
There is a part of a storyline involved an underwear thief, of all things, and a related storyline has to do with a gay couple who live next to Seol. It's kind of just weird, because everybody except Seol treats them horribly, and part of that may be because they're just not very nice people. The entire addition is strangely done. (It fulfills its purpose of showing exactly the kind of person Jung is - or puzzling the viewer further - but it doesn't particularly make sense.)
In-Ha...brings in a lot of negative elements, shall we say. Most of the time she's hilarious, but every once in a while it's a little much.
There is also some danger of/discussion regarding date rape.
Quotes:
As an example of how this drama works...
Seol: Get a hold of yourself, Hong Seol. You can't fall for that smile. This guy is cunning like a snake.
Jung: "By the way...I'm sorry."
Seol: He's cunning..."What?"
Jung: "I've pushed you too hard to eat a meal with me, haven't I? I wanted a chance to talk to you. I thought that you had every right to suspect me of canceling the class."
Seol: Pull yourself together. He's cunning like a snake.
Jung: "Sorry."
Seol: "Don't worry about it." He is cunning. Is he cunning? Maybe not? "It was my fault for wrongly suspecting you. Honestly, I should be the one to pay for all of this."
Jung: "Right? That's how it should be. Then don't be sorry and you can buy dinner next time."
Seol: Huh?
Jung: "Let's have something better than this next time."
Seol: "Okay. I'll pay next time." Just as I thought, he's as cunning as a snake.
More Seol Quotes:
I should not have argued with him. Behind his smile, there was a frightening double side he kept hidden – but I didn’t know about it back then.
"I have sensitive personality, so sometimes I misjudge and misunderstand people but I’m going to fix it."
“What went wrong if everything wasn’t other people’s fault, but a problem which lies within me?”
“The only thing I can do is… doing what needs to be done right now."
“I thought it was about you, but now I realized – it was me. I didn’t tell you my inner feelings and demanded you to be honest about your feelings, but I won’t do that anymore. So please do the same. Don’t hide your feelings, because I want to see you the way you are.”
Jung Quotes:
“Why is it that people always want what belongs to other people? Then they delude themselves thinking other people’s things are theirs, when in the end they lose what’s their own.”
“While you were struggling on your own, growing tired and getting hurt, I didn’t understand why you did it. The problem is mine and I was the one who should have been making the effort.”
In-Ho Quotes:
“You should try to win when you get into a fight.”
“You’re not alone. Don’t give up like your life is over.”
“Back then I didn’t know what it was to give up on a dream. What that meant…what it feels like when you think of a dream you’d forgotten.”
There is a very brief scene with a fortune teller in the beginning.
There is a part of a storyline involved an underwear thief, of all things, and a related storyline has to do with a gay couple who live next to Seol. It's kind of just weird, because everybody except Seol treats them horribly, and part of that may be because they're just not very nice people. The entire addition is strangely done. (It fulfills its purpose of showing exactly the kind of person Jung is - or puzzling the viewer further - but it doesn't particularly make sense.)
In-Ha...brings in a lot of negative elements, shall we say. Most of the time she's hilarious, but every once in a while it's a little much.
There is also some danger of/discussion regarding date rape.
Quotes:
As an example of how this drama works...
Seol: Get a hold of yourself, Hong Seol. You can't fall for that smile. This guy is cunning like a snake.
Jung: "By the way...I'm sorry."
Seol: He's cunning..."What?"
Jung: "I've pushed you too hard to eat a meal with me, haven't I? I wanted a chance to talk to you. I thought that you had every right to suspect me of canceling the class."
Seol: Pull yourself together. He's cunning like a snake.
Jung: "Sorry."
Seol: "Don't worry about it." He is cunning. Is he cunning? Maybe not? "It was my fault for wrongly suspecting you. Honestly, I should be the one to pay for all of this."
Jung: "Right? That's how it should be. Then don't be sorry and you can buy dinner next time."
Seol: Huh?
Jung: "Let's have something better than this next time."
Seol: "Okay. I'll pay next time." Just as I thought, he's as cunning as a snake.
More Seol Quotes:
I should not have argued with him. Behind his smile, there was a frightening double side he kept hidden – but I didn’t know about it back then.
"I have sensitive personality, so sometimes I misjudge and misunderstand people but I’m going to fix it."
“What went wrong if everything wasn’t other people’s fault, but a problem which lies within me?”
“The only thing I can do is… doing what needs to be done right now."
“I thought it was about you, but now I realized – it was me. I didn’t tell you my inner feelings and demanded you to be honest about your feelings, but I won’t do that anymore. So please do the same. Don’t hide your feelings, because I want to see you the way you are.”
Jung Quotes:
“Why is it that people always want what belongs to other people? Then they delude themselves thinking other people’s things are theirs, when in the end they lose what’s their own.”
“While you were struggling on your own, growing tired and getting hurt, I didn’t understand why you did it. The problem is mine and I was the one who should have been making the effort.”
In-Ho Quotes:
“You should try to win when you get into a fight.”
“You’re not alone. Don’t give up like your life is over.”
“Back then I didn’t know what it was to give up on a dream. What that meant…what it feels like when you think of a dream you’d forgotten.”
Some of my favorite scenes were the ones that took well-used drama tropes and turned them on their heads. Difficult to explain if you have not seen the drama, but they consistently had me laughing, hard.
Like Seol, tripping over a doorstep into Jung's arms and yes, of course, he catches her. How romantic. Except she just freezes, and while mentally screaming, What am I supposed to do???? Invite him inside for coffee???? It's hilarious.
Or the typical vehicle-going-to-hit-girl scene - Jung dramatically pulls her out of danger, and she freaks out when he grabs her and shoves him away. This is made doubly hysterical by the fact that her flip-out reaction scares him and he practically jumps a foot in the air and gestures helplessly after the motorbike disappearing down the street.
And when Jung does the cool-man thing of Oh, you're staying here alone and it's dangerous so I'll stick around to guard you, there is of course an accidental-fall kiss scene...only Seol claps her hand to her mouth so their lips don't touch, distorting yet another classic drama moment.
Another randomly favorite scene is when during one of their arguments she storms, "You don't even know what a coupon is! This is never going to work!" It's a marvelously realistic dealing with the actual problems of a relationship between a rich company heir and working girl on a college scholarship. There are obviously going be miscommunications and things to talk about. (In a far more interesting vein than Jun Pyo kidnapping a girl for a make-over in Boys Over Flowers.)
Like Seol, tripping over a doorstep into Jung's arms and yes, of course, he catches her. How romantic. Except she just freezes, and while mentally screaming, What am I supposed to do???? Invite him inside for coffee???? It's hilarious.
Or the typical vehicle-going-to-hit-girl scene - Jung dramatically pulls her out of danger, and she freaks out when he grabs her and shoves him away. This is made doubly hysterical by the fact that her flip-out reaction scares him and he practically jumps a foot in the air and gestures helplessly after the motorbike disappearing down the street.
And when Jung does the cool-man thing of Oh, you're staying here alone and it's dangerous so I'll stick around to guard you, there is of course an accidental-fall kiss scene...only Seol claps her hand to her mouth so their lips don't touch, distorting yet another classic drama moment.
Another randomly favorite scene is when during one of their arguments she storms, "You don't even know what a coupon is! This is never going to work!" It's a marvelously realistic dealing with the actual problems of a relationship between a rich company heir and working girl on a college scholarship. There are obviously going be miscommunications and things to talk about. (In a far more interesting vein than Jun Pyo kidnapping a girl for a make-over in Boys Over Flowers.)
Overall:
Like Jung, this drama is very hard to explain. It's the kind of drama where you struggle to describe the how or why of what is so intriguing about what seems like such a simple story...but intriguing it is, to the point that it was quite addicting while it was airing. Looking back, I loved this drama for 2 main reasons: Seol, who was an absolute delight to watch because of how well I got her, and Jung, one of the most fascinatingly twisted heroes I've ever seen. In-ho, as the wounded puppy/broken artist second lead, was just icing on the cake. Even In-ha, she of the loco eyes and very expensive tastes, was...actually enjoyably crazed. Somehow the world of the drama, despite being populated by way too many pretty people, crazy stalkers, and drama coincidences, is one of the most real I've seen in drama-land. The drama pulled from practically every classic drama trope, and then used them inside out to create something very far from the classic drama. 
It reminded me a little of Misaeng, which had me cringing every episode because of how excruciatingly true-to-life it was...only this drama was a little fluffier, a little happier. Moments like when Jung lays down in the dark and cracks his head on a table - and Seol smothers herself in her pillow trying to hide her laughter - had me howling. It was so perfectly realistic in those little tiny details that simply make the world of the story.
Even the epic fight three-quarters of the way through, where 2 characters who have been snapping at each since the beginning finally lose it and resort to actual blows...ends up being fought at a playground with a lot of falling over and flailing. It's a vicious fight, but basically exactly what you'd expect from two college boys, neither one of whom has been trained in any form of combat. And when the truck-of-doom showed up, it was also most realistic car accident I've seen in a drama.
The characters are fascinating - all of the main and quite a few of the side characters are excruciatingly well done. (A benefit of being made off a web-toon, I imagine.) They all feel as if there is much more to them, and every episode makes you change your mind about what's really underneath. (Is Seol dating a somewhat mind-blind sweetheart, a clueless robot, or a vicious psychopath? Neither she nor the viewers know, and it's incredibly intriguing.) Add to that clever directing, and the story definitely keeps you guessing in exactly the way it should.
But. There were moments that definitely veered into ridiculous territory. In a normal drama, I wouldn't have blinked, but in a drama that had me cheering because it was so hyperrealistic, they felt jarringly out of place. And, as the drama progressed, much of the intrigue and mystery that had me adoring the beginning seemed to fade. I was not the only viewer to notice this, and unfortunately, this drama may end up being remembered more for the drama that surrounded its production that the actual drama itself. I tried to ignore the rumors and the internet anger that surrounded it, and did not actually find much about the story itself to irritate me. It just...did not live up to the full potential it had.
The ending: {Herein be Spoilers.}
This was a much-debated portion of the drama. Basically, it could have been far better...but in my opinion, given the last few episodes, the ending we got was really the best one possible. I know too many people with personalities similar to Jung to have been at all pleased with a normal 'happily ever after'. The ending we got was the right one, even though had the last few episodes been different, the ending could have been far stronger. Which would obviously have been far preferable. But, all things being as they were, I actually loved the three years apart bit. He needed that time apart to learn what love meant, and having known people whose minds worked like his did, that acknowledgement that he didn't actually know how to love her was huge, and was what gave me serious hope that they could have a real, workable relationship in the future.
This was a much-debated portion of the drama. Basically, it could have been far better...but in my opinion, given the last few episodes, the ending we got was really the best one possible. I know too many people with personalities similar to Jung to have been at all pleased with a normal 'happily ever after'. The ending we got was the right one, even though had the last few episodes been different, the ending could have been far stronger. Which would obviously have been far preferable. But, all things being as they were, I actually loved the three years apart bit. He needed that time apart to learn what love meant, and having known people whose minds worked like his did, that acknowledgement that he didn't actually know how to love her was huge, and was what gave me serious hope that they could have a real, workable relationship in the future.
Overall: 3/5
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| Well, there's no surprise. And it is of course helpful In-Ha doing his best to make this a black-hat drama. XD |
This is a drama that started out 5/5 absolutely fascinating me, then dragged in a few annoying elements, and eventually turned into Every Other Drama Out There™. I still recommend it - the first few episodes can't be beat for their perfect characterization and absolutely incredible ability to intrigue and mess with one's drama-expectations. The rest of it wasn't terrible...it's just that after the unbelievably strong start, to have it stutter near the end was disappointing. Still, that beginning makes it worth it. And of course, had the start not been so outstanding, the rest of the drama would have been fine.
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| And, yes, Seol wears an occasional black hat as well. :) |
