Actors: Yang Se Jong, Suzy, Ha Young, Park Se Won, Kim Do Wan, Kim Min Ho

Plot

Won Jun (Yang Se Jong) is a university student and he moves into a house with roommates. The men are on the main floor. Doona (Suzy) is a formal idol who lives downstairs. Won Jun is kind and comes from a hard working family and he helps his mother as much as he can with his sick sister. Doona suddenly retired as the main vocalist of a popular girl group. She was the most popular member. She is drawn to Won Jun because of his warmth and sweetness. They start off as friends and eventually become closer.

If you need something warm and fuzzy, this is an excellent show. The two of them will suck you into their feelings and into their world.

My Review – Full of Spoilers Below

This show was way more intense and deep than I had expected. I thought it would be a light sexy sweet romance and it was far from that. Let’s dive right in…

Won Jun is a young 20 something who is trying to figure things out. He is kind and sweet and ready to love.

Let’s talk about Jin Joo (Ha Young) for a second. Jin Joo translates to pearl in English. Pearls are made when an oyster is infected with a parasite or dirt and they need to protect themselves. They are a beautiful product of something so dirty. Won Jun and Jin Joo missed their time to be together. Could they have had a beautiful relationship as well? Probably. Won Jun was too afraid to tell her and didn’t want to lose her as a friend. Jin Joo thought she didn’t deserve him because she comes from a family with an abusive father. She did not want to bring her problems to Won Jun who is so kind and smart. I love what he said to Jin Joo when he was rejecting her, you are worthy of being liked and don’t put up with being mistreated by anyone, even your family. It was kind of something he was saying to himself which we see in the last scene where him and Doona are together.

One thing that makes Kdramas more enjoyable is having a solid female friend group. There were no back stabbing weird passive aggressive relationships in this group. Even Jin Joo was straight forward and said, I hope Doona dumps you and I won’t take you back. She said it out of anger instead of pretending to be cool. She knew that one day they may be friends again but not right then.

Won Jun and Doona’s relationship was brief and intense and it ended as quickly as it started. They had the best passionate all night kissing scene I have seen in a while. The love they had came out of need for Doona and Won Jun wanted to be there for her. He told her he let his guard down and went into it knowing that she could leave him at any time and he just wanted to be there for her. Unlike Won Jun and Jin Joo, they had perfect timing.

Doona’s reasons for leaving the group were not clear. She had a panic attack on stage when she was forced to sing a plagiarized song. Her manager had a slightly creepy-perv-vibe but it was more a father figure for her. She didn’t have a stable family and she looked to him for it. Well, she saw him as her family but to him, she was a money making machine. She said she wasn’t able to sing anymore. When she got together with Won Jun, she was able to sing again on the stage and was so happy and it was the beginning for her return.

At the end after several years have passed and they didn’t see each other, Doona tells him that she is so happy with her life and has everything she wants and still misses him. She can’t understand why he wanted to be with her when she was at her lowest point. We see that Won Jun finally understands his own worth and wants someone who can give him as much as he gives and a famous celebrity would never be able to provide that for him.

This is an ultimate lesson for young people who are waiting for someone to swoop in and make them happy. Doona was only truly happy when she went back to singing and performing. She looked to Won Jun for happiness and despite how kind he was, it would never match the happiness that she got from doing things for herself.

The general overall theme is to be kind to yourself. If you’re kind to yourself, others will be kind to you as well.

They seemed to have had a tearful good-bye but the ending is open to your own interpretation. They end up in the same place in Japan but pass by each other without noticing. Did they make up or was it a final good-bye? For me, they grew out of each other and moved on with their lives.