This is a show that was ruined by what it thought it ought to do rather than just being what it should have - which was a story of two very different women who compete against each other, come from radically different lives, yet are shaped and scarred by the misfortunes of their family upbringing.

Instead this show gave us romantic plots that weren't necessary or interesting. Characters were shallow and never fleshed out beyond Hye-Jeong's character - who was a figure you could easily empathise with, portrayed very well by Park Shin-hye. She was a typical character of rough, hardened exterior barely concealing a broken and lonely soul too afraid of hope and happiness. Where the scenes centred on her and her trauma, the show was good. The problem was when it gave her a love triangle that was shallow and forced. At no point did I enjoy this. I despised Kim Rae-won's character, for how unethically he behaved as a teacher when he couldn't see the problems of his closeness to Hye-Jeong. I didn't like how he pursued her and I wasn't at all interested in his backstory.

The most interesting character besides Hye-Jeong was Jin Seo-Woo, portrayed by Lee Sung-Kyung. Her story arc of rich girl tormented by the burden of expectation and fear of failure was interesting and the show would have benefitted from dedicating more scenes to showing that there was more to her than just this resentful energy - the problem was that in not doing this, in making her jealousy towards Hye-Jeong seem so petty, vindictive and cruel, it made her fundamentally a very unlikeable character who you couldn't sympathise for even during her more distressed, human moments.

The show did not deliver, something i could tell would be the case just halfway into it. That says everything.