City girl, Hyejin, having found herself facing continuous misalignment with her current superior, moves to the country side for a fresh start setting up her own private dental clinic in the seaside village of Gongjin. Reason being: a trip to its beach with family when she was younger. There, she is faced with different trials as your token “Seoul girl” and runs into Dusik, the village’s own “Chief Hong” and their jack of all trades.

We follow along as she gets settled, starting off rocky and slowly but surely warming up to everyone and to our ML in particular as she finds herself indebted to him for saving her ass one too many times.

And just as simple as that. Your regular degular romcom. Nothing too deep yet, not at all lacking in depth.

The characters were very well-written and not a second was spared creating an amazing backstory for each and every one of them. Our two main leads’ banter, chemistry and dynamics were the focus of this show and at the heart of it and they kept us thoroughly entertained throughout as we witness their relationship slowly develops from enemies? to friends to lovers.

Shin Mina (FL) was the perfect match for this role and while I don’t find her to be the best of actresses out there, she offered an amazing performance and I got to see many strengths to her I haven’t noticed before as we follow her character’s growth arc. This role was meant for her.

Kim Seonho (ML) was flawless. I don’t see the actor when I look at him, I just see Dusik and that’s the best compliment I could come up with at the moment knowing it doesn’t do him enough justice. With his character arc being the leading plot point, to say he perfected this role would be an understatement. And don’t even get me started on how charming he was.

The people of the village were not a force to mess with either. And despite the fact that there were many of them, each packed a solid backstory and the drama did a great job at introducing everyone and unfolding their struggles at a good pace and order in a very clean, non-overwhelming manner. My special shoutouts goes to all of them but especially Lee Bongryun as Hwajeong. Out of everyone her story arc was my favorite and her phenomenal performance brought things to new heights.

On text, this drama is perfect, the writers knew exactly what story they wanted to tell and tell that story they did. There were no plot holes, pacing was perfect; nothing too rushed, nothing too slow and when we approached the climax of the show, we knew what to expect in the best way possible. There were no unnecessary plot twists or over-the-top predictable tropes (for the most part). Everything worked itself into a neat bow with a satisfying conclusion.

In reality, the show was perfect, too. Great casting, talented actors who embodied their roles, amazing character development and beautiful music and scenery.

But here comes the “but”, or at least “my but” and where I’ll probably be dropping minor spoilers.

If I were to complain or nitpick about anything on this drama, which I’m gonna (duh), it would be on how everyone at the end was conveniently connected and how they, apparently, ran into each other multiple times at different times in their life. When, technically speaking, only one coincidence mattered to the plot leading to the big reveal. But they over did it too much by the time you got to it, you’re burnt out on the entire concept. Needless to say, the rest were unnecessary and served no purpose or function in moving the story other than being a cliché K-drama trope.

As a viewer too, at times I found the show to be too slow for my own liking, and was bored with some parts of it. The drama was 1h 20m an episode and I did not particularly find myself dying to watch the next one and even took breaks between some. All these aspects however are tied to my personal preferences and got no bearing on the writing.

After finishing this drama, I came here to read some reviews -as I usually do- and to my surprise there were lots of people who were disappointed or thought this show might have not deserved the hype it got. It might be because I came late to this said hype train, but this drama was exactly what I expected it to be and one of the best written recent pieces out there. Simple and compact and did not need to be anything more than what it promised it would be.

I’ve started that first episode a couple of times before and dropped it, not gonna lie, but I knew I’d comeback to it one day. I just needed to be in the right mood, first. And when I was, it delivered. Now I’m left homesick for a place I’ve never been, missing people I’ve never met and fantasizing about my own country-side romance.

And despite my personal grievances with the show (and why I’m docking it a point), credit must be given where credit is due. A 10/10 drama, otherwise, if I’ve ever seen one. I would strongly recommend.