well i watched this drama because of JKS oppa and he obviously didn't disappoint. i liked this drama so much better than You're Beautiful.

in terms of story, i think i've almost forgotten almost entirely of what happened in the first half because Mary's character annoyed the hell out of me. the way she was intrusive to Moo Gyul's home and was physically clingy towards him made me feel like i was drawing blood from my eyes out of frustration LOL. i bawled my eyes so many times at the way Moo Gyul kept tolerating her when i would've literally just kicked her off to the curb, LMAO. but it's after ep. 8 specifically that the story has really drawn me in, when the two were handcuffed due to the prank by Moo Gyul's bandmates and how they finally owned up to each other's feeling that they kept on suppressing and denying all this while. so my favourable marks towards the story has obviously got a lot to do with the second half of the drama.

if i make any sincere attempt to detach Kang Moo Gyul's character from the actor JKS who played him, then i can obviously make a fairer assessment. he obviously does comes across very prideful at times. like when he went to Jung In's house one time and saw Mary trying out wedding dresses because she was instructed to, and she walked in her high heels to chase him, but he literally didn't stop to look at her. Jung In was the one who followed Mary, gave her his jacket and walked back with her when she had blisters from the heels. times and again such scenes happened where we can see Moo Gyul is the stubborn one and Jung In is the more gentlemanly one, so we as viewers started to wonder whether Mary would be better off with Jung In rather than Moo Gyul.

but throughout the story, i think the drama has also quite successfully laid bare the deeper parts of Moo Gyul's personality and how she's slowly melting his ice-cold heart or changing him to be more warm-hearted. this was probably the part i enjoyed the most while watching the show, the showing of his sensitivities and vulnerabilities worked on me, and i could relate and empathize to his character and childhood abandonment trauma deeply. by the end of it, that factor definitely determined my high level of enjoyment in watching this drama.

i definitely believe the low rating is caused by the way all three set of parents are written in this drama that comes across very absurd and despicable. Mary's father forces her to marry the son of a rich guy because he wants her to live a comfortable life, Jung In's father forces him to marry her because of his own undying love for Mary's mother and Moo Gyul's mother is literally a parasite who comes to him and goes whenever it conveniences her. but when i think back, the writer is not entirely wrong to make the parents this despicable because they do give motive to the story and happenings in the entanglement in the lives of their three children who got caught up in this mess.

without the parents' absurdities, Mary would not have pretended to be married to Moo Gyul and Moo Gyul if not as broken as he was, probably would not have found himself tolerating Mary's bullsh*t better LOL. and Mary's father is not entirely wrong to persist in wanting Mary to marry Jung In, after all, he's well mannered and well-to-do, someone who can secure a comfortable life for his daughter which he hasn't been able to do as a father, and when he finally fell in love with Mary too, that's literally game over for Moo Gyul, LOL. honestly i think Mary is a really lucky one in this case because her first love is someone who's fully committed to staying loyal to her and can steadily make a name for himself because he's so talented in what he does. first love rarely ends well as her father himself puts it and especially true for someone who's as novice as her in a relationship, because people do get blinded in love and ignore any red flags that may come their way.

all in all, i think this is the kind of couple that's really bound to last. it's the kind of drama that i feel has quite successfully build the case for a realistically well-matched couple, such that the drama ended not exactly at a fairytale romanticized ending but one that realistically say, "yes they are different, yes they still have issues that lead to childish breakups but as they mature more, they will also love each other better and that's how they'll survive this relationship until old age". ENDS

as for the music, the four songs that Jang Keun Suk himself sang that are I WILL PROMISE YOU, HELLO HELLO, MY PRECIOUS and TAKE CARE OF MY BUS are all outstanding, kekeke. i have them on my replays, the songs are really good and obviously I FCKIN LOVE HIS VOICE AND CHARISMA ON STAGE.

i'll definitely re-watch this at some point. definitely one of the better romance dramas out there despite all of its problems.