First of all, if you haven't watched this yet and you're thinking this is some kind of lighted-hearted musical, be forewarned that this should've given an advisory warning for depictions of self-harm (suicide), sexual assault, child abandonment, poverty, murder, highschool angst, peer pressure, moderate bullying, physical assault on a female high school student and a terrible pet death. Everything you would find in a typical musical... ya' no. You've been warned.

I don't really know how to briefly summarize this show. Basically, the FL, Ah-Yi, is a high school student who is struggling to make ends meet while trying to just get through school and at the same time take care of her little sister. Both parents abandoned them. So one evening she finally meets the ML, Ri Eul, the magician. Ri Eul basically performs some magical tricks to cheer her up. Later, they finally form an unlikely friendship after he manages to rescue her from getting sexually assaulted by her boss. That's pretty much the gist of it.

As the story develops later, a student goes missing and of course, the magician becomes the main suspect. This leads to questions about the magician and his background and whether or not Ah Yi and Il Deung, (the SML), believe if it's possible that he could be involved with her disappearance.

There are other secondary characters with their own subplots, the SML, Il Deung, her rich, smart classmate who has a crush on her, the annoying bully Ha-Na who bullies Ah-Yi and who becomes even more annoying when she keeps bugging the magician. There are also Il Deung's typically rich and no-nonsense parents and a useless teacher and an even more useless detective.

Now while this review has spoilers, I will only touch on a couple of scenes that really, really bothered me. Major spoilers are ahead...

At one point, a detective comes to Ah-Yi's school to question her about the magician who is now a suspect in the case of the missing student. But guess who walks in at her school as a witness? The former boss who sexually assaulted her. Like OMFG... how could this happen in real life? Then she's visibly shaken and the MALE detective and MALE teacher don't take note of her obvious, shaking discomfort and fear. To top it off, when she tries to explain what really transpired, (about the sexual assault), the boss, the abuser, cuts her off and interrupts her purposely so she never really gets to explain her side of the story.

This scene had me raging. I couldn't believe the writer(s) thought it was okay to write the victim basically being silenced and ignored in a place like her own school. It could've been written like she was able to stand her ground and have the courage and power to face and point out her abuser so that at the very least, she could've been instrumental to the case and helped the detective. We need more empowering scenes for young women who are victims of assault, not diminishing ones. The writer(s) really messed this up. Even with the detective and teacher being in the same room as her but being completely oblivious to her reaction was ridiculous. All they did was stop all the yelling the former boss was doing.

In another scene, I won't say which characters these two were but one scene happens, where a female student gets almost choked to death by a man. Now of course, perhaps he was so enraged at the time, but still, this is unacceptable to me as he never gets held accountable for it. It also made me dislike this character after. I get it, what she did was really bad but it was also accidental. I dunno, maybe it's a reasonable reaction on the guy's part in the heat of the moment... had it been a guy who made him angry but not a young woman. It would've been better for his character had he just chased her out enraged or she just ran out guiltily. A real man would never hit a woman. Ummm...

Another thing that bothered me... It's hard for me to understand the relationship between the two leads. I'm not sure if they tried giving the magician a "savior" concept or what but I feel confused as to his relationship with the female lead, a high school student and minor. Like, was he a big brother, uncle, friend, or possible future boyfriend? Did he like her "like" her or just liked her like a friend or little sister? It was kind of uncomfortable to watch because he's an adult and she's a minor and there are some scenes where it almost felt predatory and like "grooming". Just when you think you get comfortable with these two as "friends", something small happens that makes you cringe. He would do something subtly or intentionally that makes you uncomfortable even if it's related to "magic". I don't think that writers or directors were able to draw a fine line early enough between these two leads. And how many times can you ask, "Do you... believe in magic?" or say, "Annarasumanara"? Sigh... apparently, not enough times. Also, there are gaps in whether or not the magic is "real" or just tricks. Or maybe he's just a psychic. Or maybe the magic is real, or maybe the necklace he wears has magical powers, or maybe he's really a magical butterfly... whatevs man. I'll never know and I'm actually okay with it because a part of me doesn't care enough. I should also mention that I pretty much figured out the ending and who the main culprit was very early.

Lastly, that last ending musical performance. It just didn't fit into the overall show. I get it, I've watched a lot of musicals to know that in the end, they have a small musical number to feature and applaud all the characters, but for some reason, it felt out of place and cheesy, piled on with more cheese and more cheese. Even the audience's acting seemed awkward and forced. Perhaps because it was over the top with just bad choreography. Musical endings like that are usually found at the end of live Broadway shows. Musicals in movies, like Moulin Rouge, Sweeney Todd, Out of the Woods, Phantom of the Opera, etc., or TV musicals don't usually have endings like that unless it's animation. A blooper or gag reel would've been a more suitable ending.

Also, if you're looking for a happy ending with any of the characters, there isn't anything really impactful or worthy enough for the audience to be so happy about the ending. It's all just lacklustre.

I had strong hopes for this show, especially with the first episode but after that, it was just missing something. While the singing was good, I just felt they were missing some kind of strong emotions behind them. I felt like some voices weren't powerful enough. My only fave scene was when Hwang In Youp (Ryan Leon), who played Il Deung, sang with his guitar. That was really more of the kind of musical concept was I looking for. Uplifting, not like depressing and stressful throughout most of the whole show.

Unfortunately, I don't think I'll rewatch this one nor would I recommend it. I really had high hopes for this.