I guess, in terms of Woong, NJ is an escape route.

One of the new information we get this week is Woong's terrible experience about being abandoned*, and Yeonsu is his nightmare in the physical form. It is not the first time he said that to her "You are getting away from me, slowly. Woong does said this week, "It's okay to be alone from the start, You'll be used to it. But being alone after being with someone isn't something I want to experience again." This is the whole reason behind he won't apologize for the kiss yet not prepare to get back to her, but want to being friend instead.

This also makes NJ a pretty formidable competitor to Yeonsu: Woong may not love NJ that much, but at least she has not yet betraying him. The route is pretty handy, too. In the end of this week, we know him and NJ's relationship, in the form of a scandal, is out in the open, what he need to do is simply admit that he loves her (the consequence? That's not the point here), or at least, "we are trying to get to know each other." This will be the apocalypses for Yeonsu.

I have to stress that, Woong may not just "fall in love" with NJ (in reality, he won't), because he is such a caring and responsible person; but for Yeonsu, this is a huge possibility.

So now, "Woong is leaving" has become Yeonsu's nightmare in physical form. The stake is so high, next week will be very interesting (and hats off to Kim Dami, her fear is played--twice--very well this week, I rewatched and cried numerous time for that).

*I hope the abandonment scene in Episode 9 will only be Woong's nightmare, and not some "lost brother/sister" cliché, because I hate recycled cheap plots, this is the only worry I have for now, because that assistant loving PD plot (which we just saw in Hometown Cha-cha-cha) is pretty obvious.

Thank you sincerely @missvictrix for wee capping this drama. Because I am so invested I will not wait to comment. I will remain the lone voice in the wilderness that cannot ship these two. I am hoping for a clever anti-Hallmark resolution that allows for actual adult growth and interaction.
Yes, our FL had a terrible time getting an education, paying off a debt and supporting her grandma.
Yes the ML had life in the easy chair where he could laze in the sun and devote hours to his art.
How can these two meet on common ground? How can he ever understand her except through the lens of his best bud? How can she ever understand him except through the lens of NJ, who seems to be living the pampered life but who actually worked her a-double-scribble off and invested wisely?
If they end up together I give up.

So turns out Woong comes from a rather rich family with restaurants business. Shall we add this to Yeonsu's inferior syndrome?
Two of the are still suffering from heartbreaks even after 5 years. While there are lack of communications between them, Yeonsu being insecure and Woong being easygoing, it's obvious there is no room for someone else between them. There is NJ, there is Jiwoong, but their existance are not good enough to bring happiness, fulfillment for Woong and Yeonsu.
Relationships can be as complicated as such. You know that person will bring a lot of hurts, and yet at the same time, you also know there is no else can replace that person. Is it toxic? Maybe.
So a little bit of advise, try to ask Joonyoung and Songah in DYLB? How to communicate with each other. Jiwoong/Hyunho can introduce you two 😄😄
Anyway, I wish Yeonsu will open up a little bit. She should have realized her so called pride brought her nothing but pain when it comes to Woong.
I was expecting bickering but cheerful drama, but instead it delivers so much feels.

Woong is such a darn lucky guy, got the best parents, devoted gf/ex-gf, best best friends and manager, an idol whom crush on him, wonderful career and doing what he likes for living while spending day bask in the sun in high school. Sometimes I dont get his sadness, but Sadness doesnt need reason and validation. Hah. I want to grow up old like him! His life principle is absolutely like mine but me with less luck ha ha ha.
Still want them back together, should live his luck to the fullest 😂 Choi woo shik is just adorb

I only watched episode 9 to see if there was any progress. But alas! I'll watch episode 10 along with next week's episodes if something actually happens because I've run out of patience. Woong was wrong not to apologize after the kiss but i can still give him some leeway. Probably because we saw what he went through after the break up. He became an insomniac and had to depend on pills and his drawings also became dark based on what his manager wrote in his artbook. In contrast, I still feel like we didn't see the effects on yeon su's life post break up. Maybe they'll show more later because there are 16 eps. But because of that I'm having a hard time relating to her. It's clear they both still like each other. But this time it has to be yeon su who should take the initiative since we've seen woong's attempts to reconcile and failing. Maybe she wanted to get back together with him this week but I can understand his reluctance. She has to show him that she cares equally about this and hopefully we'll see this next week.

I’m in love with this drama. It’s just beautifully filmed, scripted and wonderfully acted. CW is such an oddball but his fears are real. His eyes speak volumes on what he feels for YS but his actions and words contrast it. Words mainly - I find him really harsh in the things he say to her. It’s like I curl up in pain on behalf of her. Maybe she deserves it. The breakup have been alluded as brutal. We saw just one scene but I believe the brutality is more than that considering his abandonment issues. But still.. it’s undeniable they care a lot of each other and I don’t think for a second they can be just friends. Maybe this is what CW wants, a little bit of greed from him, you want her close but not close enough to hurt. Thing is love doesn’t work that way, it is often all or nothing. I believe YS will rather choose nothing the way she is. I’m not sure we can take the heartbreak along the way - but if the endgame is still the OTP, I’m in for the ride

P/S they definitely have issues so I think before they get together they should talk , easier said than done though

Thanks so much for another brilliant weecap @missvictrix! So glad you pulled out the point about mothers - yes, not only having a pretty useless mother but having a friend with such a great one (who basically adopts you anyway) makes your loss that much harder to swallow.

Ji-ung is *such* a fascinating character now - in a different personality, this man would be exploding with pent-up repressed emotion at this point. But although we can see cracks in the facade, he's still keeping it in check. How is his story going to end? Although hoobae is clearly devoted, I would be sceptical about them ending up together (unless we get a time jump, please no...) as it would feel inauthentic to who Ji-ung is. This is someone whose emotions move at a glacial pace, whose commitment to Yeonsu and whose distancing from his mother have stayed put for a decade. Is his end game going to be simple honesty, to admit to the people who have hurt him what's been going on in his heart/head for so long? Impatient to knoooooooow!

I was kinda hoping that sleepover will last longer then maybe we can get real talk between the leads. Despite that I still saw a lot of encouraging behavior from YeonSoo and Ung.

The best is that we see the walls that YS has put up crumble down. She has confided in SolYi and her grandmother. She realized that she has a crush on him and Ung is only interested in being friends at this point. She saw for herself that Ung has not forgotten her since he still has their couple shirts and that drawing of the amusement park when they broke up the nth time. She has seen for herself tangible things to see Ung's heart eventhough he has not said it in the past.

Ung on the other hand realizes for himself that he likes her company, and actively seeked it when he cancelled that interview so can spend the day with her. We know that she is the only woman in his heart since the way he looks at her secretly speaks volumes. Then when he saw the video of YS in the broadcast station, he has such a wistful smile. Which I would like to think made him realize for himself the bubbly YS that he met in the past. The YS version that she rarely showed to others. I also find it encouraging that he went out of his way to deliver YS's precious pouch immediately. When earlier in the episode he was asked to deliver the food to JU, he complained incessantly. Plus he got to hear from YS's grandma that YS cried for days after the breakup. So he got the confirmation that YS was not unaffected when they broke up years ago. Again he actively seeked to stay in her orbit that night and had dinner with YS's grumpy grandma. Grandma scares the sh*t out of him but he chose to stay and even had seconds (judging by him saying he ate a lot) so he can stay with YS longer.

Woong : I'm curious about his nightmare. If he was lost as a child and it traumatized him, he should talk about it to his parents. But I think he doesn't want to hurt them. His parents are great but everybody agreed about the fact he was all alone until Ji-Woong. But this fear to be abandonned is very strong and kept him to live his life.

Yeon-Su : She finally admitted her feelings! I think we will see her teen version more straighforward and more focused to be happy. The scene with her grandma was touching, again she opened to her for the first time. The diner scene was funny with the size of the zucchinis (were they really cooked?) but I was angry against the grandma, she's the one who was the colateral for the uncle debt and made her granddaugther to loose the will to dream.

Ji-Woong : I'm not sure to understand why he's so in love with Yeon-Su when he didn't see her for 5 years... But his story is really sad. He really tried to be a good friend and never let his feelings to be between them. I'm mixed between the fact he's really nice to him to not burden Yeon-Su with his feelings and in the same time, I think he could turn this page only after being honest about them with her... And his mother... He really needs to stop hoping something from her and change his door code!

NJ : She's cute and I like how she's only character being straight and honest! I don't want to see her being hurt because behind her bubbly energy, she's very alone too.

What if Show trolls us, break history & have the leads end up with 2nd leads?

Nahhhh.. just kidding that wont happen.

I just love that we got more NJ this week! I also like the epiloge, now I want more bromance (zero Yeon Soo related, please).

A bit confused by ep 10 title: A Soulmate. Who is and with whom? Mmm, a thought did creep that a laughing, smiling Ung with NJ was cute. Seems like a good pairing too. Yeon-su built her career in the years they were apart. She was able to get back to the old house they were in. The separation for her seemed like noble idiocy on her part. Ung, in the intervening years, did the same too - Paris, travel then serious art. What will be Ji-ung's? Eager to see what's for next week. Though, if we follow k-drama line, seems like angst time or will it be resolution, with the succeeding episodes to the ending showing a happier pairing.

I cracked up at the zucchini soup scene! Ung’s expression at the half cut zucchini in the soup and him trying to eat the thick slice of zucchini was hilarious 😂
On a serious note, I pity Ji woong. He is not able to control his feelings for Yeonsu anymore while she and Ung clearly aren’t over each other. I am not sure if Ji woong can’t see that or pretends not to see.

Hmm....I think I'd feel more for Jiwoong's side of things if they showed any actual connection between him and Yeonsu. For now, we only see his one-sided yearning or really, infatuation with her, but there really hasn't been any sign that Yeonsu reciprocates. So even without Woong in the picture, I don't see how they could build a relationship when Jiwoong is in so deep, but Yeonsu just considers him as an old childhood friend.
But on Woong's side, I also want to figure out what he's thinking. This week round, he's switched to become the more opaque character, while Yeonsu's been poking at him to provoke him a bit. Like others, I also thought the pace was a bit slow, but I do appreciate the time taken to explore these maternal relationships and things outside of the romance~

Emperor Titus and I are thinking along the same lines. Noting a few movies used as episode titles, I decided to research. Don't know if this gives us any insight into the minds of writer-nim and PD-nim but I will say, the movies all share painful yet honest character insights and genuinely affecting romance. They also share unexpected plot twists.
Ep #1 "I Know What You Did Last Summer" is a 1997 American slasher/horror film about teens covering up a hit& run killing. Also made into a 2021 series that has an episode called "Mukbang".
Ep # 2 (1792) Days of Summer, could be based on a late '90's American rom com film deemed "a perfect love not meant to last". The FL's name is Summer. The ML writes Hallmark greeting cards and is head over heels but the FL is adverse to commitment. By the way, 1792 days equals 5 years and 12 days.
Ep #3 Ten Things I Hate About You, a modern re-telling of the Taming of the Shrew in high school. Has sisters with different personalities and fake couples (also Joseph Gorden-Levitt who was in 500 Days.
Ep #4 The Boy/Girl I Liked Back Then, could be based on the 2014 Jennie Han novels made into the 2018 series about American-Korean sisters the younger of which writes passionate letters to her crushes. There's a plot twist in the epilogue.
Ep # 5 The Secret That Cannot Be Told is a 2007 Taiwanese film by Jay Chou remade as a Korean drama While You Were Sleeping. Time travel romance with piano playing and 20 year jumps which I hope does not foretell that trope.
Ep #6 Pride and Prejudice which is obvious. Both ML and FL are interchangeably full of pride and suffering from prejudice.
Ep # 7 Catch Me If You Can is a 2002 Spielberg film about a con artist. A story with "people on the run from their sad pasts" at it's core.
Ep #8 Before Sunset is the 2004 middle film in Linklater's Before trilogy that centers on the reconnection of two people after many years. They met on a train, walked and talked all night and then lost track of each other. This post will be too long, I know.
Ep #9 Just Friends is a 2005 Xmas comedy about an obese ML and his "just friends" crush in high school. There are some humorous observations about strictly platonic relationships.
Ep # 10 Hello My Soulmate is a 2016 Chinese romantic drama film about 13 year old besties who grow apart. Very well reviewed and both FL's won awards. Also an unreleased Kdrama starring Kim Da mi!

Thank you for another weecap, @missvictrix. You are fast!
I am (too) invested in these characters, which is a mark of a good drama for me. Indeed, I think I will wait for the back half to air because I am not good at waiting for these episodes. But, I will continue to enjoy your recaps and comments here. Thanks, everyone!

What I miss the most from this week's episodes were clips from the old documentary between Ung and YS. I have started reading the webtoon (until ep6) and I am really interested what made them fall for the other. YS and Ung didnt really like each other from the start and took turns annoying the other. I would love to see more flashbacks of that in ep 11 and 12 please.

Its interesting since YS and Ung were by each other's side for a month. It only took that long for them to fall for the other. Considering they both take time to warm up to other people. So it must've been something big for them to change each other's first impression.

I think I am just obsessing too much on this. But I am still interested to know..

I thought it was very telling when CW did not get any inspiration to draw after that lunch with NJ, but after a meal with YS and her grandmother he was drawing. His drawings is heavy affected by YS as while they where together his drawings had color and was vibrant, but after the break up they where darker with darker color. I feel YS is the first person he gonna draw.

I have a feeling if NJ gonna push CW because she get inpatient with him and use the dating article she gonna ruin their budding friendship. Based on what we seen so far CW gonna be very uncomfortable with the article I belive.

still loving every bit of this drama and these characters. I dont mind leads ending up with each other, with second leads or by themselves at all but I think in this specific case it would be heavy handed if the drama put these two in full romance with their second leads in what? 4 eps? 6? bcs none of them had shown any sign of romantic interest in them at all. maybe the drama can end with a hint of a potential drama between them and the second leads? that I could buy. but putting them in an actualt relationship, liking these people would be too fast imo. especially for YS, it wouldnt make any sense.

I think we will get CW and YS together by the end. at max, we might get an open ending or both of them by themselves, but I dont see them with the second leads at all. I just hope the drama doesnt reduce NJ and JW to props that move the leads actions. bcs I really like both of them as characters in itself and they both have a lot of story to be told and arc to be developed that is not directly related to the leads.

Uh-oh @EmperorTitus, have you seen the title of episode 11? They're referencing a French film which means...., things about to get crazy.

It’s undeniable that the storytelling aspect of this drama is amazing. The narrative in the beginning and the epilogue, those are just so heartwarming because we get to know more about the characters. I absolutely love Jiung so much, i dont know if its bc of sungcheol or what but I’m always excited for his parts. Need more jiung with yeonsu moments honestly!! I just wanna see him being in love thats all. But I also love Chaeran and Jiung tgt