First I would like to apologize for my grammar since English is not my first language. Thank you.

It has been five months since the last episode and I don't think I've had enough time to heal from this story yet. Maybe it's because I rewatched the whole drama two months ago. Since the drama was based on a novel which was based on real people's lives the ending was pretty much predictable. But since I'm not very educated about Korean history the ending hit me very hard.
In my eyes their story was portraited very beautifully. You could see how he was falling for her more and more. You could see that she had feelings for him as well but their were not as twice a big as his. She was more free spirited and wanted to live her live in her own way which completely understandable. But he didn't see that. He saw her. Only her. He wanted her for himself and since he was a king he didn't think it was a problem. When she finally said yes to him you could see she was no longer happy. She was only happy when he was with her. But since he was a king he couldn't be there for her the whole time. She didn't care for all the things she could have had as a king's woman. She didn't care for the ranks. The only thing she wanted was her life. Her life as a maid when she could spend her time with her best friends who were also her family. She died because of loneliness. She died because there was nothing to live for anymore. Also her friend died, and she couldn't even more for he lost child the way she wanted. She was trapped and the only way to get out of there was he death.
Since I have not read the book I can't really tell why she died. She was probably just very ill but the whole situation made it look like it was his love that killed her. That moment when she asked him weather he was ever thinking about them being just ordinary people and he replied with no was very sad. You could se that he was blind. His love blinded him and that's what caused them an ending they've got. I have to admit that watching it twice made me realize that their story was not that sweet as I first had thought.
I really loved the last scene where he was already old and lying ill in his bad. And as he was closing his eyes I could see a little smile and relief on his face and that made me burst into tears because I knew he couldn't wait any longer to meet her again. And they met again. He woke up in her arms as if it was a bad dream but this time he didn't leave their garden. He stayed. And that was when I realized it was their heaven. It was just the two of them in their favourite spot with flowers surrounding them. So we got an ending scene with them being in each other's arms at last and for that I'm very grateful. It was a beautiful drama with a bittersweet story. And even thought I have already watched it twice I will definitely watch it again. I just need to collect enough strength.