Meh

Fell flat. The word that I connected with most on other reviews was "underwhelming". That sums it up perfectly. Didn't feel like FL really won considering all she went through to get there. Even though the villain was jailed at the end, she murders the guy who got out of jail, almost murders the daughter and the FL. Felt like she dealt way more damage than she received. Not much revenge. The "revenge" seemed for the most part about the FL threatening to out her and reveal what she had done. That's it. Not much there.
Also the romance between the leads was practically non-existent. There was nothing written to really explain or show developing feelings between the two. He showed vague interest in her at the party but then goes out with villain and sleeps with her. He also goes out with another woman and accuses FL of deliberately getting close to him VIA tutoring his son. And while he later apologizes for it there is no real show of feelings for her. It's after the boat ride where he is, I guess, fallen in love with her, but there wasn't really anything to show that there. The only thing that happened on the boat was her falling into him when the boat rocked and her taking care of the son's cut. But no real chemistry was shown there. The two leads never even kiss for the whole drama despite how it ends. Weird.

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So Underwhelming

I knew this wasn't going to be great but this was even worse than I thought it would be in so many ways it's hard to keep track. Had a slight Mama Mia vibe to it with the story and ending. Thank goodness for the kids who were the saving grace of this show. Them, the gangster and the bar owner were the only characters I really liked. The story dragged and at times felt messy and a bit all over the place. I don't think I could have gotten through the whole thing without the FF button. The FL was so frustrating and annoying. She thinks he cheated but she didn't look longer than a couple seconds since it shows he pushed the girl away pretty quick. Never speaks to or confronts him but after one phone attempt, and a text, (both of which he never sees) disappears and never let's him know he has a kid. Even putting that aside, after the misunderstanding is cleared, and she knows he's a good guy, she is awful to him. Cruel even. Telling him he can't have a relationship with his own daughter and to stay away. Even saying something to the effect of it's almost funny how great they've been without him was horrible and cruel. This while he is reeling from suddenly finding out he has a 14 year old daughter he never knew about. She causes problems after problems with her continuous bad decision making. She is selfish, self righteous, and smug. She spent most of the time blowing up and getting pissed off at people. Yelling and giving dirty looks constantly. Even her pushing away and assuring everyone she was okay and strong even though she obviously wasn't came across more as her feeling self righteous and superior rather than feeling she was doing it to protect others or keeping them from worrying. More like it was a self affirmation for her own ego. Like assuring herself that her stupid decisions were best instead of self reflecting and realizing that she was not only hurting herself, but everyone around her. Especially her daughter.
The ML had a nice transition at first with him realizing his hate was much closer to love than he had ever imagined but the FL was written so poorly that after awhile I started feeling like he needed an intervention. It felt like he was just blindly obsessed and in love with his memory her so much that he couldn't see the real her. That all these guys were falling over themselves for her was just bizarre and weird. She had such an awful temper and a scowl over her face so much of the time it was like, why??? It didn't help that there was basically no romance between the leads the whole time. One small kiss and one peck on the cheek. Made the chemistry even more underwhelming.
One part I did think was funny was when I first heard that Korean song version, I thought, "That sounds a lot like that Cranberries song." only for them to play the actual song later.
The actor and actress characters were both the whiny "I liked them first!" characters which is a trope that is so annoying and lame and I wish would just die. For the actress, though, it seemed they were trying to rewrite history with her being that way. It comes across in the story that ML's family troubles come after they've gotten together, thus starting a strain in their relationship because he doesn't share what he's going through. Part of that, is his taking on tutoring students to bring in extra money which is where the actress comes in and causes the misunderstanding. So her whining to Ryu Jin about liking him first is wrong and put in there just to have her have the same rant as him. Poor writing.
The ending was just as bad as the rest of the story. There is a separation for no good reason. Who is going to wait around for years with no contact for someone? For all you know they could be dead, and there is no good reason to wait around for someone who can't even stay in contact with you. Another trope I wish would die. Weird Mama Mia-esque ending for no real reason and is just weird.

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This was well done and acted. I'm not a big fan of rip out your heart dramas. I like things more uplifting, than bawling my eyes out. I cry too easily for heartbreak. That's just personal preference though and has no bearing on my rating. The only place I low rated is the rewatch because the ending was too sad to go through again. This story is really similar to the J drama Heavenly Forest. If you really liked this you will probably like that as well. This was well casted and acted. I loved the father's character. He was so warm and funny. My only complaint is I wish that we had some time of them really being together. It kept being almost... almost... oh now he has to leave.

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