This is nice. I like your point about holding on to those we love. Why was he still there?

I was also separated from my nearest and dearest at that time and for the next five years because of work, travelling across continents from where I was working to my home at six monthly intervals. It's a hard thing to do, but not enough to break up relationships. In fact, it gave me a different perspective on myself and a renewed appreciation of my family.

Realistically our leads had already overcome so much that it's not believable that they would have ended it at this point. The only way I could understand their decision was in the context of her never having her mother there when she was growing up, and the pattern being replicated with him was too much. And that was the point she made. But their love was so strong and the bonds they forged were not going be dissolved so easily, if at all.

Your version of the conversation with the mother is perfect because it shifts Hee-do out of that pattern. She resolves her issues with her mother and then has the freedom to move into a mature acceptance of Ye-jin's profession. She is freed from the past, as a mature adult.

I did like the granddaughter's coming-of-age realisation from reading her mother's journals, but yes, I can see how it could be dropped. Your rewritten ending is more realistic. Well done.

LOL Are all the Fix That Endings going to be Twenty-Five Twenty-One and Business Proposal?

The present-day storyline ruined this show. Thank goodness Kim So-hyun doesn't do dramas because I am never watching her in another drama again.

I'd rather not give our boy more depression, so I would take out 9/11. As a matter of fact, I don't want Yi-jin to be a reporter at all.

Oh well done!
During the 9/11 aftermath part I kept thinking, is that how it was? I don’t remember it like that. I remember the search for survivors ending quickly. There were several things that didn’t really compute in the 9/11 part, like how he even got there when (as I recall) all North American flights were stopped for about a week (he said he “ came over the border “).

Nice inclusion of the fencer who left to become a patissier 🍰

wow. the conversation between hee-do and her mother should've gone the way you wrote it, rather than how it was in the drama. there was a clear difference between how yijin treated heedo as a reporter compared to how her mother did (which the drama itself showed) so i hated how that distinction wasn't mentioned by heedo to her mother, i'm still mad/disappointed at how they fell apart :(

😭😭😭 Thank you 😭😭😭

I think changing the end of this drama means changing the message of the drama. It's not same than changing the end of Business Proposal by adding two marriages for example.

I love the messages about first love, a great but painful one, about youth versus adulthood, about past days and present days.

If I needed to change something, it would be about their dating days. It was vey short and not very well explored because they put it in a time jump. We entered in the separating phase too fast after the very long period of friendship.

I’d have enjoyed that ending!
I think if I were to change the ending (and keep it in line with the writer’s idea), I’d cut out present day, move through the ages faster, have the 9/11 crisis earlier, then show how Hee do and Yi Jin grow after their break up, how everyone remembers that summer, the Madrid match, the interview minus wedding comment, Hee Do’s retirement and a reunion of the gang on the beach reminiscing about the past. Open ended but not totally shattering.

What was that funeral reunion?!

I agree that Yi Jin had no character growth, thrice he ran away or hid when he went through a difficult time. His stay in New York should've taught him to share his burdens with Hee Do. It wasn't going to solve any of their problems, but it meant being together, and that would've made a world of difference in their relationship. Hee Do wasn't afraid of hard times even in her relationship with her mom, in fact she wanted the two of them to share their sadness about her dad. What she couldn't live with was being shut out.

Although I appreciate this ending, it changes the theme of the show of the daughter finding the desire to dance again through the mother’s diaries and her vigor for fencing. The first love story, although super compelling, was never meant to be the end game. And the ending never explains how the daughter got to be there and why she has a different surname. The dialogue is great though and I picked how you used current scenes to make sense of new scenes you’ve made. And now should I write my own ending???

As much as I'd like the two walking off into the sunset also, this is a completely different story, and with this ending a rewrite from episode 1 would have been needed too to tie up the plot starting with MinChae having a different surname, and not recognizing pictures of his BYJ. From the get go, this was not a romance only genre, had always been a slice of life coming of age story, and thus a bit of realism is expected. True, the show could have paced this better by showing us more episodes of them coming to terms with the fact that love is not always the answer to happiness and fulfillment. So my disappointment lies with the fact that the show lost its identity for a bit by the 10th episode or so by dangling the romance further than they should have (which ultimately backfired). If the show is rewritten and reproduced entirely to be a love story of MinChae's parents and the people around them, then this ending is perfect.

Thank you, thank you @kathystrobos!!
I never cared for the present day storyline. Maybe because present day Hee-do seemed nothing like 19 year old Hee-do. And I don’t think all the blame can be placed on the actor portraying her. While it’s true that life does change us, it doesn’t change us 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 much. At our core, we are still the same.
I think your rewrite of Hee-do’s conversation with her mom is more realistic. If Hee-do and Yi-Jin had not spent years building a foundation of friendship and then love, I could more readily believe they would not fight harder for the relationship. But it wasn’t just a simple crush. These two had so much more. And if the show taught us anything, it taught us that Hee-do was not a quitter. Wasn’t that the point of her chastising her daughter for giving up so easily?!
FYI: I know many first loves who married and are now grandparents. It’s not out of the realm of possibility.
Yes, some dramas call for happy endings and others do not. Personally, I’d prefer to see more.

This made me smile.
Thank you for such a warm ending.

You can't hear it but I'm clapping my ghostly hands together for you. I would have loved to see your ending unfold.

You are a genius. This version is balm for my soul. And you are completely consistent with the show's tone and theme. THANK YOU for fixing it so beautifully.

Thanks everyone for such supportive comments. It was healing for me to write this.

This is brilliant! I love how you turned that conversation with Na Heedo's mother because what happened in the drama was such a forceful writing. That's what would she say, though, I would try to toned it down a little bit, but the fact is out of all people, it is Na Heedo who knows that Yijin is not similar to her mother.

I would also add more depth on Heedo's character by making her more concerned and feel deeply with the 9/11 event, because I didn't appreciate how the writers only used that part as a way to break-up, it is just bad writing and such a disrespect over the event. It was also like a mockery to Na Heedo's character by making her only excited and disappointed that she's not seeing Yijin reporting the news.

I would also made sure that Yijin would consult that New York City position to Heedo, he would slowly break down in the conversation and he would come back to Korea to get his therapy.

I would also add Yijin's family especially his father while he's in New York to give him some advice and to affirm him that he doesn't need to save all people and that what he's already doing is already enough and that he also needs to save himself too if he wanted to save others. It's just fitting and would remove Yijin from that martyr trope.

I also love the other lesson you pointed out because in episode 15 he said to Heedo that they should love with no regrets, so instead of just feeling guilty and killing himself more, he would learn to value life especially the precious ones around him, especially Heedo.

After he completes his therapy, he will not go back to New York after realizing that he's already contented here but there are many things he can do for others in Korea as well and will probably go with your chosen career for him because it's such a good one!

He will propose to her with the nudging of his parents and family and she would accept it. Of course it is not smooth sailing always, but the fact is they would persevere together.

YES YES YES.