I am about to watch episode 16- so let us see if I am right. Eun-seob, who was raised by his father to simply accept fate and isolation has already decided once that such an approach to life does not suit his real character. If he can just really understand himself then he will take action- and go get Hae-won.

Perhaps I will be wrong. We will see.

I am also rooting for Hwi and Yeong-soo.

And I am looking for Eun-shil to move forward with Jang-woo.

As much as this may be a story about love, it's also a story about turning your back on love. Myung-yeo turned her back on Yoon-taek for her own reasons, and Myung-joo did the same to Hae-won, and both of Eun-seob's bio parents did it to him. All with devastating consequences. Sadly now Hae-won is doing the same. For whatever reason, sorting out her feelings about her family makes breaking up her only option in her mind. So much for love.

I feel sorry for Eun-seob, because he knows from his mom that real love is giving. His gift is to let Hae-won go without any reproach and without asking anything for himself. But he deserves a better kind of love than he's getting from Hae-won.

Even I felt the same way about the separation. Why do they have to break up? There is a possibility of long distance?? This makes me feel bad about the way HW kind of forced ES to accept his feelings for her. I know that wasn't the case and ES had his own share of problems, but looking back I can't help but feel if it was better that he never acknowledged his feelings. He knew that she'll return once spring comes (even though that wasn't the reason he was holding back I know). I shouldn't be feeling this way, but I'm angry with how both of them handled it. Looking back, I feel it was selfish of HW to start the relationship if she was planning to leave anyway. And the way she broke up was so formal 😳-My feelings were sincere, but goodbye. And ES for once, could take initiative and fight for her. Not about staying back;ofc she needed time to process everything but it could've been done without breaking up!!
I'm really frustrated with how things turned out😤 but I understand if people don't share the same sentiment.

After Hae-won's initial reaction about the truth and how she focused on who killed dad rather than why/how dad died, made me less pay attention in her scenes this episode. I was disappointed because she somehow knew that her dad wasn't the nicest and the best. I get that her trust was broken and it felt like everyone was against her, I guess I can't relate much to her in this regard.

Jang-woo ah, oh Jang-woo. Finally! Can Lee Jae-wook be in another drama where he has more than 10mins of screen time?

I'm glad Eun-seob didn't ask or has never asked her to stay, especially at this time when Hae-won just levelled up some emotional baggage. He's passive (more than I'd wanted him to be) but he's not selfish. That he stayed silent during that exchange didn't give me the impression that he's resigned at all. He's probably feeling more upset that she had such a painful reason to leave.

In hindsight I did kinda feel it was a bit unfair of Hae-won to start a relationship and confront him about his feelings, knowing she'll leave soon. But I'm choosing to look at the prettier things in the drama.

First of all, I have to say that ES not telling HW to stay felt to me in character. I mean, we've been talking about how passive has he been sometimes, letting HW alway initiate everything, and now that she's telling she's leaving he understands. After all, he's always thought she would leave "when the weather is fine". Sure he could just have said, "we can have a distance relation" but that's what we all want ES to do, not what ES would do. At least that's what I think. And after all, HW needs time. She needs it.

I also loved the way the relation between BY and HW was handled. It's not like they are going to be BFF, but at least they can work a new relation or friendship from here. I can see how BY has changed from "everybody hates me" to understanding what she did wrong. I still don't like her, but I acknowledge she's advanced, and she's being honest. And as I look back to my teenage day and I remember some friendships and how the've changed now, I can see they can work a new relationship.

On a lighter note, how adorable are JW and WS together? So different and yet so similar!! Awwwww

The Mother, the Aunt and HW are very selfcentred persons. I don't mean selfish. But they react to the situation how it affects themselves. They all act cool and don't share their feelings. Honestly I just want to take one to hit the other with. They love each other, they care about each other and they want happiness for their family, why can't they talk like normal people, share their feelings, try to understand what the other is feeling...
HW is sad because they lied to her and I understand. But for me I would have so many questions for the Aunt : since when she knew for the abuse? Did she try to ask her Mother to divorce? To take her home? Did she Grandma know? Etc.

There is only one episode and I feel the writer forget ES's story. He left for 3 years to take care of his mother, his uncle... ES's dialogues are gone... All we have it's thoughts. He hugged a lot but I want him to speak! I need him to open to his family not only by gift like the saddle but with words. His scenes with his family are nice to see.

I missed the book club together.

So grateful for that scene with Hae-won and Bo-young. BY is right. It's not like you can't go on just because there's a slight crack in the relationship. It happens. We makes mistakes, learn from them, apologize, and do better. My bestfriend and I had a huge fight in high school. There were rumors going around about me and they all thought they were true and talking behind my back. I felt so betrayed when she came forward and talked to me about it. We didn't talk to each other for a long time but we reconciled after that and cried and cried. It still hurts when I think about it but we all learned from our mistakes and never had such a problem again. Been friends now for 21 years and I can't imagine life not having her as my friend.

Sorry. I got distracted there. Lol. But yeah, before, Hae-won talked about trust being like glass that will always have a crack no matter how you stick it together. I think that connects to this. Then, that scene made Hae-won realize that okay, that already happened with her aunt. What do we do next? Can it still be fixed? Am I going to throw this away or live with it having a crack on it?

Welp. Well, I didn't think much of this episode after I watched it, because not many significant things happened except the separation and the development of Jang-woo x Eun-sil's relationship.
So I thought of this as a sort of filler episode to lead us to the finale.

However:
After reading this recap, I really see the point about Eun-seop being rather passive in this relationship. Granted, it's understandable given his background, but now I'm also frustrated that at this point he's still slow to initiate significant action. It's definitely in line with his character, but it's a bit disappointing in terms of character development.
But without giving out any spoilers about the finale, I think in the end, there is a bit of an improvement on that front... so i'll leave my analysis about that for the last episode.

I shouldn't be here, I haven't watched the episode yet, la la la la laaaa!

Omo, Ive been waiting for this foreverrrrrr. Thanks for the recap. I feel like.... it was a lot. I feel like this could have been the last episode and I would be okay with it. It is not about love, they love each other, but it is about timing and happiness. If anything, one of the biggest topics in this drama is about timing. ES knew that the timing wasnt right yet. You can find love, but not happiness. And for them to be together, that happiness needs to be there.

I kinda disagree in one thing. I think that in this episode, ES took action, for the first time. When they went to her house, he explained to her (maybe because he read the whole book?), her aunt and mothers feelings/reasoning. This was a first for him. He is always the guy who support and listens. But not this time, he told her (what she could not see). So in this point, I was kinda surprised.

To me I understand HW reaction as she feel lied to and it is in character as we already knows what she think about not being honest. It also kinda a sett back from how far she had come from when she came to the village. It is new information about her dad death that she need to understand. Also wonder why she have no stronger reaction to her dad abuse, but I think she have worked true that in high school since she knows after hearing that in the trial. She said in last week episode she already had that feeling something was not right seeing how her parent where around each other. Kids can sense whats going on even though they do not understand.

Also I think it was a big step for ES growth giving support to HW in talking about her feelings, and giving another side to to see it from!

I liked that HW did talk have a talk with ES before leaving. Sure they could have talked about being in contact with each other. But her mind is filled with her own feelings. ES did already knew she was going to leave as he already comment on that to her in an early episode and even writing that goodbye letter. To me they both knew there was a time limit as they started their relationship. But I am glad she did run up to him in the mountain as she did already miss him. she need to feel the empty space ES left in her life to fully understand what he means to her. I think ES reward for being who he is, is having her coming back to him with a fresh mind. :)

There is a disturbing cone of silence surrounding domestic abuse in this drama, which, I hope, is a narrative choice to reflect reality. However, these past episodes have been hard to watch because of this silence, this insistence that Myung-yeo must pay, not only for killing Hae-won's father, but for betraying trust.

I wish Myung-joo would shake her sister and tell Myung-yeo that she saved their lives. Even though it was accidental, even though she had to go to prison, they fact remains that they were running for their lives from a man intent on beating them to death. I want her to shake Myung-yeo really hard and tell her to confront dream brother-in-law with what he did, and how he betrayed them all. Tell her to stop blaming herself. Myung-yeo saved their lives.

With Hae-won, I can't believe she didn't know her father abused her mother. What disturbs me most is her lack of sympathy, hell, empathy, for her mother and for her aunt. She can't see beyond her own feelings, and 15 episodes in, it turns out that she refuses to do so.

I felt the "break-up" chat in the bookstore was pretty bizarre. It was so cold and brief: "It's spring, I'm going, good luck with your bookshop." I just thought that given this relationship was apparently love, and seemed so significant to Hae-Won, it was very throwaway and cruel. I know ES could have asked her to stay, but wow, after that chat it seemed like her mind was made up. The face he made when he offered coffee and she said no - so gutted and resigned that she was going! HW made several comments throughout the eps that she wanted to stay / wanted him to ask her to stay so it seemed she was definitely contemplating that the relationship was for the long haul, which made that cold and quick break up all the more odd. I know she was going through some hard stuff, but after all her talk of ES "warming her" and being there for her at this crucial time, her leaving like that came across so dismissive of this important relationship. I don't know, it just left me feeling very sad, and a little confused.

Keeping things from people “for their own good” is rarely that. Good intentions don’t make up for the hurt of secrecy and lies, as Hae-won found.

I understand why they kept it from her when it happened though. She was a high school kid and it might have been too much to bear. Lying about it or choosing to keep it from Hae-won might have been instinctive. "She is the innocent child in all of this and so we should protect her at all costs".

I do think they should have told adult Hae-won earlier than they did if only to mend the relationships that had been fractured by the secret.

I don't understand Aunt's decision to turn herself in. I know she kept saying she killed Hae-won's dad and while that's technically true, it was self defense and an accident at that. I truly believe that man would have killed both of them that day, so great was his rage. With that in mind, I didn't think she had anything to atone for. But that's just the me who has absolutely no sympathy for abusers dead or alive.

I was a bit taken aback by Hae-won's reaction to the news that her dad was abusive towards her mother. I would have expected some anger on her mother's behalf but I can see how she would feel the way she felt. Her dad was a loving father and a trashy husband. It would be easy to put him on a pedestal since he never hurt Hae-won. A little empathy would have been nice though.

This episode made me tear up time after time. I can't really point out what did it, but it had this hypnotic feel again after I felt a bit more distanced watching episode 13 and 14. The interpretation above about the show being about "turning your back on love" is illuminating for me, thank you @lindag latebloomer. I didn't even have the strength anymore to question why all the characters (except Jang Woo, luckily) made the worst decisions that seemed like a sure way to make themselves feel miserable (like the cold hearted breakup scene in the book store, for example). Like them, I too felt the weight of depression from learned helplessness.

Thanks for the wonderful recap and insightful comments as always @quirkycase.
I feel as resigned to the direction of this episode as ES seems to be about HW and his place in her life. It felt like the show gave us the highlight reel of all the events that we were expecting to happen - the confrontation between the aunt and the niece, the departure of the female lead, Shim sisters finally talking honestly about the incident that broke both of them.it was all as we were expecting but just fell flat of the depth and nuance that I had come to expect of the show. At this point, the show has seriously run out of time to give them the space they deserve, but it's to the credit of the actors that they still manage to infuse these moments with enough undercurrents to let the devoted viewers draw conclusions that feel true to us.
*This might be controversial but I felt that HW asking MY to stay as she is the right thing to do. MY may not have gone to a physical prison but I feel that giving up your dreams, the love of your life and a literal eye is enough penance to have accidentally killed an abuser in self defence. She doesn't need to suffer more for a society that is just gonna judge and gawk at this family anew if she goes public with it. HW and MJ are not going to heal by seeing their beloved aunt/sister behind bars. What she really needs is for HW to know the truth and for MJ to break free of her own guilt. MY was right when she said death of one is the death of all as far as this family is concerned. None of them talk to each other and they all seem to be competing to sacrifice themselves for the greater god but these women are all tangled in together in their love for each other and healing for them would really be being finally looking at each other with shades off and learn to accept that sometimes the best penance you can do is live your life the best way you can.

I am not quite sure if I should leave a comment in a Ep. 15 recap, since we probably have watche Ep. 16 as well, and I probably have a final judgement. But I do remember when I was watching Ep. 15, I was pretty sure Hae-won is not leaving for good. She just need to calm down from such traumatic truth of her family. I am not so sure though, about why Eun-seob let her leave, just because he has accept the fact that she will leave in the spring, just as she did every year, and he just don't want to be block her way to live her live? According to some of his private entry of that blog, he is more as an observer of other people's live more than someone actively getting into other's live?

Honestly, I am still not sure about his motivation. I am pretty sure I have to watch the last 2 episodes again to make sure.

This was the first episode in the entire drama that I felt was a tad bit disappointing. But, I think that's what this show is about. People and relationships disappoint, no matter how much effort or love there is. These people are all flawed and have baggage and it's so difficult to work through everything in one winter. So, that way, it's real. But, heart-broken Eun-seob🙁🙁 My heart breaks for the both of them :(

Thanks for the recap.

I just finished the series. LOOK AWAY; HERE THERE BE SPOILERS.

So much of this series was so very good. It hit all the right notes for almost 15 full episodes. But beginning when HW breaks up with ES, the show lost me. Nobody these days who experiences the things HW and ES have simply assumes it's over because one of them has to move away. I mean, does Face Time not exist in this show's universe? The fact that HW didn't have a cell phone for most of the series was a clever way to create more tension. But once she gets it back, the story should reflect modern technology. I mean, the series was careful throughout to show cell phones that matched the year of the events taking place.

The breakup felt contrived, like it was the thing you're supposed to do before the finale of a romantic K-drama. The series had marched to its own beat for the entire time, subverting expectations and especially gender stereotypes. Then it becomes like every other K-drama in its closing stages. In any story, you have to nail the conclusion - "stick the landing," to use a gymnastics metaphor. And this series didn't. It's still very good. But it was almost great.

Thanks for recap, Quirkycase. In response to this:
“ I know the focus of the story has been on Hae-won and Myung-yeo with Myung-joo acting as a catalyst, but I wish they would give us more insight into her behavior, particularly when it comes to Hae-won. I still don’t get why Myung-joo was so harsh and wouldn’t accept Hae-won’s letters back then. We can guess she was trying to distance herself from Hae-won so the negative impact of having a “criminal” parent would be less, but that’s merely speculation. Even if that’s the case, it doesn’t make much sense for her to entirely cut her daughter out without any explanation.”
I found Myung-Joo very cold in the early stages. I don’t think the criminal parent perception thing was the key reason, but prob a factor. Understanding now what she went through - I get why she distanced herself. How do you tell your child about what happened without context? A rational but empathetic conversation as a supportive parent is almost impossible without triggering ones own memories of the psychological & physical abuse, lack of self-worth, & the emotional response that comes with recalling all that. It would be incredibly distressing, & much harder given she really was alone as a parent. Her mother was probably unaware, & sister quite matter of fact & coping with her own issues to be the emotional support Myung-Joo needed herself to be an effective, connected parent..

Domestic violence does become a buzzword in media, film & TV, but I think the show was quite realistic about the characterisations. It was probably a very difficult choice to portray this without getting in too deep, for a Korean TV show :)