This is my first ever review because I am genuinely very confused, this drama was made for someone like me, I enjoy student teacher romances when fictional, and i was really excited to see a new series exploring that dynamic. But I have to be honest, for a lot of it i was bored, it felt like there wasnt much of a story at all and what story there was, was extremely simplistic. Not only that, I felt there wasnt much of a reason for the two to like each other, they liked each other since episode one and we were just supposed to accept that a student and teacher would somehow have crushes on each other without much interaction outside of the classroom before the attempted suicide in episode one, students have crushes on teachers all the time, but what good reason does the teacher have to have a crush on a student other than she was obedient in class and he found her attractive? Not really a good base for a healthy romance to me. But okay, once they do get to know each other outside of the classroom and their feelings are cemented as real, the whole relationship comes across as predatory and down right creepy, and thats coming from someone that likes this trope! I say this because their big connection is feeling like they dont belong, and being suicidal and lonely, which can be things that bond people, but it makes a relationship that is already inappropriate seem even moreso when you have a young and impressionable girl, struggling with her mental health, and a teacher who is using that as an excuse to spend time with her, and get closer to her, all the while being pretty jealous of those she gets close to, and being overall very immature and irresponsible. I understand that this is all a part of his character, and he uses humor/flirting to make her feel better, and at times it actually was effective and sweet, but i do think with this kind of topic the teacher does need to retain some level of responsibility and seriousness because it is a serious situation, and i dont find recklessly flirting at school, charming, even if it is meant to be a comedy, its also meant to be a romance, and i dont think its romantic to put someone you love at risk of being expelled, and throwing away your career. So i guess a lot of my problems came down to his character specifically, i didnt like that he constantly called her highschool girl, as it made it seem like a fetish and that any girl fitting her profile would have sufficed, and i didnt like the whole back story with his highschool teacher, it threw off the whole story. The assumption I made was that they are paralleling his romantic relationship with his HS teacher with his relationship with this highschool girl, as they were literally doing the same scenes as he did in the past, but no, they throw a curveball and say that his teacher was like family to him. What?? You do realize when you parallel scene by scene with this new relationship with Mikoto, it comes across that he views her as family as well, right? I just think it was a waste of a storyline and a failed attempt to make Mikoto and Jin's relationship seem like it had more depth than it did, just because she finally knew one thing about him now.
I think part of my disappointment is that there actually was some stuff I liked about the drama, i did think some scenes were genuinely funny, and I think the acting was pretty good, and they looked good together and there were a few sweet scenes, but i almost think the drama didnt know what it wanted to be. I believe that if there was no romance, and instead Haiba was more of a goofy, fun loving big brother figure, the constant "Highschool girl" and the confusing parallel to his own teacher being family, would make a lot more sense narratively, but i think they knew there's less people interested in a story like that, so they made it a romance, even when it didnt fit the characters personalities, and general vibe. Because here's the thing, a teacher helping a struggling student find friends, happiness and providing guidance sounds like an amazing plot! But when you add in the fact that he has romantic feelings for her, rather than professional or familial, it makes his intentions a lot less pure and kind of ruins that storyline altogether for me, its kind of like you have to pick and choose, and they didnt do that here, it was just a weird mash up of stuff that never felt satisfying. But clearly, based on the rating, im in the minority on this one!