This review may contain spoilers
Teen Masterpiece
I started watching with very low expectations because I had just finished a lot of heavier dramas and wanted something silly and coming-of-age.
What I didn't expect was a character study disguised as a cheesy teen romantic dramedy.
For me, this was also the first love triangle that made sense psychologically, not simply because of fate, pheromones, plot armor, or "the script says so."
First there were three friends. Then there were two estranged people. Then somehow they became three again. The triangle felt deeply tied to grief, guilt, abandonment, friendship, and reconciliation.
What I find interesting about Seo-jun's feelings is that I don't think they can be reduced to "first love" or "not being able to get over someone because you never confessed." I believe that, just as he initially coped with his pain by blaming Soo-ho, he also coped by holding on to this connection. This isn't meant to undermine his feelings at all. They're clearly real. We watch him grow tremendously throughout the show, especially after Soo-ho leaves. I just think both things can be true at the same time.
I understand why so many people preferred Seo-jun. He was generally less flawed and easier to love because he wasn't carrying the same amount of emotional baggage as Soo-ho. But the aspects of Seo-jun that make him so attractive to the general public are of no concern to her. Actually now that I think about it, after her heartbreak with Hyun Bin (the cafeteria worker guy from first school) I could see her at least subconsciously developing an ick to cool guys.
Soo-ho and Ju-kyung's relationship felt purer to me.
Yes, Soo-ho made questionable choices. But most of them were completely understandable for someone who had experienced that level of abandonment and who had spent years pouring himself into everything except intimate relationships. What mattered more to me was his willingness to grow.
I can understand why some viewers feel Seo-jun never got the chance he deserved. Honestly, if I were Ju-kyung I probably would have given him a chance too lol. But I'm neither Ju-kyung nor monogamous, so looking at it through the lens of the characters themselves, I found the strength of Soo-ho and Ju-kyung's connection very believable.
She was the first person to truly enter his secluded world, while he was the first person to read the book "regardless" of the cover.
Seo-jun, meanwhile, is presented as someone who is more experienced and emotionally sheltered. He has a loving mother, a bigger support network, loyal friends, and eventually a clear path toward success. I never got the feeling that Ju-kyung felt as needed in Seo-jun's world as she did in Soo-ho's.
The abandoned child and the middle child whose mother later grieved not having raised as a princess but almost as an adopted child. Their wounds reflected and complemented each other.
In less words: Soo-ho's abandonment wound mirrors Ju-kyung's need to be needed.
I also loved how the show visualizes this. Ju-kyung's house is full of people, color, texture, noise, and life. Soo-ho's house is empty, cold, flat, and sterile. Her keepsakes often need close-ups because affection is already overflowing in her environment. His keepsakes stand out immediately because there is so little emotional warmth surrounding them.
The locked music room is probably the best example. To me, it's a visual representation of Soo-ho's heart. We only really discover that room through Ju-kyung entering his life, and by opening that room, she is effectively opening him.
One thing I rarely see mentioned is how much support Ju-kyung actually had throughout the series. Sure, she was bullied, but later she also recognizes that she often kept her pain to herself instead of seeking support, opening up, or fighting back. Her mother was awful at first, but she grows and repents once she knows about the bullying. Even that dynamic is an interesting gender-role reversal, since the harsh breadwinner parent is often the father in these stories.
As someone who had to deal with the death of a parent in a foreign country with almost no family and very few friends, I deeply related to Soo-ho's actions after his father became ill. He was stuck. He was exhausted. As heartbreaking as it was for Ju-kyung, I'm convinced it was even worse for him as both a grieving child and a caretaker. The fact that he never changed her contact name says everything.
Because of that, I never felt Seo-jun was the one who got "done dirty." If anything, I felt that Soo-ho was simply incredibly unlucky.
You can survive heartbreak.
Heartbreak combined with the looming death of the only parent you were finally beginning to reconnect with can push someone to the edge.
In the end, I think Ju-kyung's decision comes down to something very simple.
She didn't want Soo-ho to live with regrets.
The same way she didn't want to live with her own.
What I didn't expect was a character study disguised as a cheesy teen romantic dramedy.
For me, this was also the first love triangle that made sense psychologically, not simply because of fate, pheromones, plot armor, or "the script says so."
First there were three friends. Then there were two estranged people. Then somehow they became three again. The triangle felt deeply tied to grief, guilt, abandonment, friendship, and reconciliation.
What I find interesting about Seo-jun's feelings is that I don't think they can be reduced to "first love" or "not being able to get over someone because you never confessed." I believe that, just as he initially coped with his pain by blaming Soo-ho, he also coped by holding on to this connection. This isn't meant to undermine his feelings at all. They're clearly real. We watch him grow tremendously throughout the show, especially after Soo-ho leaves. I just think both things can be true at the same time.
I understand why so many people preferred Seo-jun. He was generally less flawed and easier to love because he wasn't carrying the same amount of emotional baggage as Soo-ho. But the aspects of Seo-jun that make him so attractive to the general public are of no concern to her. Actually now that I think about it, after her heartbreak with Hyun Bin (the cafeteria worker guy from first school) I could see her at least subconsciously developing an ick to cool guys.
Soo-ho and Ju-kyung's relationship felt purer to me.
Yes, Soo-ho made questionable choices. But most of them were completely understandable for someone who had experienced that level of abandonment and who had spent years pouring himself into everything except intimate relationships. What mattered more to me was his willingness to grow.
I can understand why some viewers feel Seo-jun never got the chance he deserved. Honestly, if I were Ju-kyung I probably would have given him a chance too lol. But I'm neither Ju-kyung nor monogamous, so looking at it through the lens of the characters themselves, I found the strength of Soo-ho and Ju-kyung's connection very believable.
She was the first person to truly enter his secluded world, while he was the first person to read the book "regardless" of the cover.
Seo-jun, meanwhile, is presented as someone who is more experienced and emotionally sheltered. He has a loving mother, a bigger support network, loyal friends, and eventually a clear path toward success. I never got the feeling that Ju-kyung felt as needed in Seo-jun's world as she did in Soo-ho's.
The abandoned child and the middle child whose mother later grieved not having raised as a princess but almost as an adopted child. Their wounds reflected and complemented each other.
In less words: Soo-ho's abandonment wound mirrors Ju-kyung's need to be needed.
I also loved how the show visualizes this. Ju-kyung's house is full of people, color, texture, noise, and life. Soo-ho's house is empty, cold, flat, and sterile. Her keepsakes often need close-ups because affection is already overflowing in her environment. His keepsakes stand out immediately because there is so little emotional warmth surrounding them.
The locked music room is probably the best example. To me, it's a visual representation of Soo-ho's heart. We only really discover that room through Ju-kyung entering his life, and by opening that room, she is effectively opening him.
One thing I rarely see mentioned is how much support Ju-kyung actually had throughout the series. Sure, she was bullied, but later she also recognizes that she often kept her pain to herself instead of seeking support, opening up, or fighting back. Her mother was awful at first, but she grows and repents once she knows about the bullying. Even that dynamic is an interesting gender-role reversal, since the harsh breadwinner parent is often the father in these stories.
As someone who had to deal with the death of a parent in a foreign country with almost no family and very few friends, I deeply related to Soo-ho's actions after his father became ill. He was stuck. He was exhausted. As heartbreaking as it was for Ju-kyung, I'm convinced it was even worse for him as both a grieving child and a caretaker. The fact that he never changed her contact name says everything.
Because of that, I never felt Seo-jun was the one who got "done dirty." If anything, I felt that Soo-ho was simply incredibly unlucky.
You can survive heartbreak.
Heartbreak combined with the looming death of the only parent you were finally beginning to reconnect with can push someone to the edge.
In the end, I think Ju-kyung's decision comes down to something very simple.
She didn't want Soo-ho to live with regrets.
The same way she didn't want to live with her own.
Was this review helpful to you?
