This is gonna be long but bear with me. There's a lot for me to say. First off, the experience of watching this drama felt very much like getting prepared to eat a great dish with excellent ingredients. You know they are top notch, the chef preparing it is pretty well known (even though you have never particularly liked any of her dishes, everyone else does), and the dish itself sounds tasty. However, when you end up taking the first bite, all you taste is salt. You keep taking bites every week and it keeps getting saltier, sometimes you get a taste of the other high quality ingredients but in the end, the salt always overpowers everything. The salt in this case? The ridiculous love triangle.

I want to start by talking about Kim Seonho because I started the show for him and I was glad he got a lot of attention from this role but it was a shame it had to be this role because I found Jipyeong increasingly frustrating as the episodes went by. Despite being charming as ever, I never felt anything special about his character, he was a typical tsundre male with a tragic background that I have seen (frustratingly) so many times before, which I have never liked and now frankly hate lol. As he became more and more absorbed in the unnecessary love triangle, he embodied so many characteristics I despise in men: big ego, talking over others, thinking he’s always right, full of braggadocio, putting others down, kindness towards only people he finds attractive, cowardice, etc. But I could never fully despise him because of Seonho, that was until the scrunchie scene which left a horrible taste in my mouth. He became increasingly insecure and kept being a coward, I didn't want to see his scenes as much anymore, especially because they were so closely tied to the tired love triangle (which should have ended at like ep 10 or something omg). Although we did see some growth, it was not until the love triangle ended around ep 15 that I began to like him again. It was when the original, more positive aspects of Jipyeong began to show again. Again, Seonho was charming but I really truly felt him shine during the emotional scenes with the grandmother rather than any scene he had with Dalmi. Anyway, I’m just glad this ended and Seonho can shed the image of Jipyeong and move on to his next role.

In comparison, I adored Dosan. People that argued that Dosan’s character isn’t complex, I believe missed a fundamental aspect of his characterization. Just because his backstory was not as convoluted as Dalmi’s and Jipyeong’s did not make him a weaker character; in fact that’s the reason I liked him the most. I personally felt I could relate much more with a burned out childhood genius struggling with the overbearing expectations of his parent’s than an orphan who randomly met an old lady that just happened to help him and convinced him to write insincere letters to a girl he didn’t meet until 15 years later. For me, an overly complex background does not make a compelling character; Dosan felt more grounded and realistic and I felt he managed to embody the essence of what this show was about: a coming of age story about youths learning and embracing themselves. It’s like arguing a movie like Lady Bird isn’t good because it deals with a mundane topic of growing up and regular problems; it’s supposed to do that. I think he may have joined the ranks of some of my favourite male leads, such as Jang Geurae, Nam Sehee, Moon Hawon, and Moon Gangtae.

I, to be frank, felt no empathy during either Dalmi or Jipyeong’s background stories in the first episodes, I honestly found many of the adults decisions and choices confusing. However, you can bet I shed tears when Dosan confronted his parents and stated heartbreakingly: “No matter what I do or how I hard I try, it never seems to be enough” because it echoed a conversation I had not long before. Dosan embodied insecurities I could see so closely in myself and his relationship with his father closely related mine own with my mother, making him an even dearer character in my heart. Nam Joohyuk, I frankly was not a fan of at all (his last project I saw was Bride of Haebaek so please dont blame me lol) but this project changed my mind. He really improved; I felt he really immersed himself to the simplicities of Dosan’s character (the bus scene where he felt overwhelmed just to hold Dalmi’s hand felt so real it made my heart flutter). In addition, the simple changes after the time skip such as walking straighter, maintaining eye contact, being relaxed around people he previously found overwhelming were subtle aspects that showed his growth. I’ll definitely try his project “The Light in Your Eyes” with Han Ji-min and Kim Hye-ja next, I heard excellent things about it and was hesitant but now I’ll definitely take a look!

I also started the show for Kang Hanna. She was incredible as Injae even with the limited (and lacking) screen time. I couldn’t understand her decisions in the beginning (as they mostly stemmed from the same aforementioned confusing decisions from the adults of the show) but she still quickly became my favourite along with Dosan as the episodes progressed. We saw her grow, albeit slowly and I’m still frustratingly annoyed the love triangle took up scenes when they could have gone to her instead. Her meeting with her grandmother was another scene besides Dosan's that absolutely made my heart wrench (and I would have preferred if we had spent longer time on it, but oh well). She was a character we rarely see in kdramas, and I was hoping we would see more of her. Another highlight was definitely Samsan tech trio, they were utterly adorable and hilarious (the CODA acceptance speech video and the knitting club flashbacks are both in my top 3 favourite scenes lol). The romance was cute, I think Dalmi and Dosan were adorable with the innocent puppy love. Again, I felt a little bad for Jipyeong in the beginning but I always found his interactions with Dalmi as more of a mentor/older brother relationship than a romantic one, and I never felt a connection through the letters because he had never truly been sincere writing them. And if he had, he would have probably tried to seek her out sometime in 15 years, or even had shown up and told her the truth right away; instead he forgot he even wrote the letters, even forgot Dalmi's name, and dragged an innocent bystander into the situation.

Back to the food analogy, it was a great set of cast with a promising premise, but the writing felt flat, the pacing was terrible (they focused too much on scenes that were not necessary and too less on those that were), and plot was all over the place. I am excited for the next project of the cast members, and hopefully they will be more promising. Startup definitely had its ups, I was not always upset while watching the show, but again, when it was all said and done, the only thing left on the tip of my tongue was the saltiness that couldn't seem to go away.