for me the only good thing about this drama is eunsil and jangho and the beautiful place where they shot the drama.

trigger warning : domestic abuse

i hated two things about this drama.
one is the ml's behaviour at the very first few episodes. like why cant he just say something?? its not like i wanted him to pour his heart out all at once because i understand that he had a rough life and everybody processes their trauma differently but he can atleast give a simple reason for his actions or i dont know complete one freaking sentence. he was extremely frustrating to watch at the start of the story.
the second one is way more infuriating. as someone who has an abusive father like haewon, i cannot understand how could she get seriously mad with her mom and aunt but not with her criminal of a father. i would be very happy for my mom if she can get her freedom, not that i want her to commit murder or something but the point is i will never blame her if she does something to protect herself and i would never side and pity an abusive man.

and as if those werent stressful enough, kim boyeong gave me head-splitting headaches. she was extremely annoying and arrogant. she completely disregards haewon's feelings. she's the perfect example of a character who wants to be a victim so bad up until the very end she was very prideful and even tried to gaslight haewon into thinking that she hurt her more and that she deserved a second chance. kim boyeong made haewon's highschool life miserable but she still thinks she doesnt deserve how haewon treated her after.

also, they didnt explain why eunseop was calling haewon "irene" until the very end??! what the hell was that all about??

it took me 3 or probably 4 times until i was finally able to finish watching this drama. i did consider completely dropping it after haewon started getting mad at her mom and aunt for protecting themselves against her abusive father. it was a very slow and quiet drama at first. it was like reading a book. there werent a lot of rousing dialogues. most of the time the characters just convey their feelings through their eyes or through the books they read and/or share to each other. i needed to be in a particular mood to watch this drama. for some reason i only craved to watch this when it was raining outside or when the day feels very gloomy and cold. another thing i found entertaining besides eunsil and jangho's story is haewon's mom and aunt. the casting director knew what they were doing, like the actresses can actually pass as sisters even in real life. this drama also made me realize that you shouldnt really judge someone based on their looks especially when it comes to romantic relationships. like i was so confused when the flashbacks of haewon's mom and dad started because i cannot believe that kid would end up abusing haewon's mom. it was very disturbing to me.

surprisingly, i also liked oh yeong woo. normally when there is already an established love interest for the fl i dont really like when they bring out an ex or just someone from the past who has/had feelings for the fl/ml but oh yeongwoo kind of made it work for me.

anyways, the drama was fine but if i can go back to the past i think i wouldnt try this much just to finish watching it.