navi

TLDR; as someone who's watched enough coming-of-age stories, I know that even w/ the first few eps, it's def skewed towards a certain direction. I would not recommend watching for the main romances--side ones are better imo--but what I like most are the messages from the parents, which def hit harder as an adult. There's also quite a lot of character development (albeit probably not fully realistic). Acting is natural. Music was alright. I do love the costuming, esp fl's outfits (which I would unironically wear if they existed). Ending was okay--had some parts I liked, others not so much. Would not rewatch bc of that teensy little plot drag that ruined my rating of this show.

Story: I do appreciate that it starts off w/ the childhood story instead of inserting it into the narrative just to check off a thing. It shows that they were planning that part from the start as an important plot point. I do appreciate the friend group dynamic.. Story is pretty predictable for the romance genre. Honestly, it could've been a better story if they did a switcheroo bc fun fact: puppy love exists and grade-school romances don't always work out. It could've been a better story if she knew how to move on from her first love and find her better self, but here we are. ep 15 ruined the story for me, and it rlly makes it hard for me to pity the ml, and ep 20 actually made me angry lool. Fl literally cannot move on from her first love/the past and needs to learn to grow up to realize that ppl move on. She's so clingy to ml after the climax like why. Even ml told her that everyone grows up. Her best friends moved on persuing their love interests, while she's over here stuck in the past bc ml said one thing and will follow him unconditionally. Also we never fully tie up the second leads' story. Ml isn't any better than fl. Has he ever heard of communication?? ig it's a result of his parents, but even among friends he never says anything even if it's life-changing..atp you're being hella selfish, and you're always changing the topic even when they ask directly. After ep 20 I started mentally spacing out. Now you might be wondering why I watched til the end. bc I hate myself and maybe the ending will redeem everything somehow, which it kinda did?
Acting/Cast: ml looks like 30 trying to play a high schooler lool. Anyways, acting is pretty natural, ml loves to cry, kid actors are surprisingly good.
Music: There's one particular song that's grating on the ears bc of that one part (see title of the review). Other than that, the rest aren't terrible.
Rewatch value: absolutely not. It is shorter than a lot of cdramas but not worth it if I have to endure ep 15+ lol.