I will first start off with a warning that this drama is EXTREMELY slow-paced and repetitive , especially in the first 10 episodes. There are points where the story is seriously dragged out and with the same things happening over and over again. This drama was advertised as being based on a book, but I did some googling and discovered that it was based on a short story and not an entire book (the short story collection is also called reflection of you) which honestly explains why the story is so dragged out - there simply isn't enough content to last 16 episodes!

Aside from the plodding pace, almost all characters in the drama are portrayed as unlikeable, unsympathetic, with virtually ZERO redeeming qualities. Even the kids. Everyone is so bad that I felt myself rooting for the affair couple in the show... which is making me reflecting on my own morals right now lol. This drama has a very typical makjang plot centered around the theme of extramarital affairs, betrayal, love... you get the idea. Nothing groundbreaking. Except the woman who got cheated on (Gu Hae Won) is the most unlikeable person EVER. Even worse than the "third party" Jeong Hui Ju. Why? Because our introduction to Hae Won is where we see her while working as an art teacher, slap the shit out of Hui Ju's daughters Lisa who happens to be a student in Hae Won's class. It is later revealed that Hae Won being an art teacher at Lisa's school isn't a coincidence at all, and her main reason for slapping Lisa was to kickstart her revenge plans and punish Hui Ju for having an "affair" with her husband. It's hard to retain any ounce of sympathy for a woman who decides to viciously assault one of her students just because of a past transgression by said student's mother, and when viewers did not even know about the supposed "affair" at the point of the assault. Haewon also does other scummy stuff like manipulate one of her student's deadbeat dad into kidnapping Hui Ju's other kid, resulting in prison time for deadbeat dad. She also manipulates said student into taking secret videos of Hui Ju's husband and Lisa. Compared to this, Hui Ju is a saint, whose only crime (not counting her actions in the last ep) was just being an unfaithful spouse and a terrible friend who just wanted to have a live in boytoy while enjoying the perks of being a chaebol wife in peace (LMAO)

The reason why "third party" and "affair" are in quotation marks is simply because the show doesn't adequately explain Hae won's relationship and her husband (Seo Woo Jae). They were described as getting married for the sake of obtaining a visa. Hae Won addresses him as "sunbae" throughout the show and there were no scenes of where he treated her as anything more than a friend. She on the other hand, is obsessed with him, if anything, it was an unrequited love relationship on her part. So how does one feel sympathy for a woman who is supposedly being "cheated" on when she isn't technically in a relationship in the first place? Though to be fair, Hae Won did mention rather obliquely about possibly having a miscarriage after Woo Jae went to live in Ireland with Hui Ju, which brings me to my next point of critique: WHY DO ALL THE CHARACTERS NEED TO SPEAK IN SUCH A CRYPTIC WAY?????

When Hae Won first starts harassing Hui Ju, she goes on and on about Hui Ju needing to apologize yada yada without actually saying WHAT exactly she wants an apology for. Of course, at the start the show needs to build suspense and wouldn't reveal all the events that happened but COME ON. This dragged on till literally episode 10 at least. She/Hui Ju refuses to speak about the affair when it's plain as day she is referring to it. They dance around the topic, talking in circles about forgiveness, being wrong...waxing poetic about pain and suffering like they were philosophizing about the root of mankind's suffering when the crux of the issue is just one woman stealing the other woman's husband. This really boggles my mind. If Hui Ju was actually sorry she would have apologized YEARS ago, not now. And if she was actually a decent person she wouldn't have had an affair right? So what's the point of all these apologizing bullshit? Seriously. And Hae Won had evidence of their infidelity too. She could have gone public and ruined Hui Ju's reputation and career as a high profile artist but no...her solution is to stalk Hui Ju CONSTANTLY, make cryptic comments, ingratiate herself with Hui Ju's friends/family for some reason and lastly...reintroduce an amnesiac Woo Jae to Hui Ju JUST SO HE CAN CHEAT ON HER WITH HUI JU AGAIN.

To add to the frustration, all these long winded conversations occur when the characters (Haewon, Hui ju, Hui ju's husband, woo jae) "unexpectedly" run into each other. The frequency of these run-ins make it seem like they are living in a small town with a population of 500 people instead of metropolitan Seoul. Because what in the world???? Yes it's a show but it doesn't mean all logic flies out of the window. The frequency of these run ins drop off after episode 11 but no, the frustration does not end. Because Hae Won still miraculously retains the ability to be in HJ's proximity at any critical juncture, especially in the last episode. With superpowers like that, who needs revenge plans? She should have just straight up teleported to Hui Ju and just murdered her.

Plot critiques aside, the only bright spots in this drama are the acting, cinematography and OST. Shin Hyun Bin is excellent as a self-righteous mentally deranged/traumatized woman and Go Hyung Jung is excellent at portraying a repressed chaebol wife who shows no remorse for her infidelity. The OST is sublime and while I won't rewatch this show, I will definitely be replaying the OSTs.

TLDR: woman gets cheated on and decides to get revenge in the most ridiculous way possible. watch world of the married for more satisfying revenge plots instead.