Chi-yeol's conversation with Jae-woo in Jae-woo's room had me bothered on some levels. But someway as episode 13 and 14 progressed, some of my hesitations or flags were broken down little by little.
First, being bothered about her well-being doesn't mean he likes her. They are and could be two separate things. All the things Jae-woo has done as a gentleman now comes under a new viewing lens for him.
And if indeed Jae-woo likes Yeong-ju and it's not out of the blue, I acknowledge that Jae-woo might use a nudge or chat like the one he had with Chi-yeol to process what's in his heart and mind or for it to be brought to his notice. I understand and definitely like it if he's also told ' Don't you see how Yeong-ju looks at you. She likes you, and I see the way you treat her with care '. We all know Jae-woo can't lie to anybody, but we also know that even if he has been coached to lie thanks to his Pinocchio, he can't bring himself to lie to Yeong-ju. I wished CCIR had built up on some blocks before declaring them a potential ship. But I do not like the kinda nudge Yeong-ju pulled last week. It made thier interactions afterwards uncomfortable. But, I liked how he leaned on her this week.

This is one of the few times I'm thankful an accident happened. I prayed for an accident the moment I realized Hae-e was running towards a lighted street. A sigh of relief escaped my breathe immediately it happened. Please, no amnesia.

For a moment I thought it was Su-a that was responsible for Hae-e's missing case. I had began getting myself prepared for one serial killer case and one murder case. I kinda felt pity for her though. I thought she'd speak up to her mom about the double visions and now the addition of murderous hallucinations when she was queried but she didn't.

I liked that Haeng-seon spoke her mind without restraint to Chi-yeol once again. I also liked that she added that she doesn't need him to believe or take her side. I also liked that she acknowledged how important Donghui is to Chi-yeol, of which it doesn't have to change because of her. That's some maturity and understanding that she reflected. Just to add, I wished she had added that she doesn't want to see Royal Consort Ji anywhere close to her family. Chi-yeol can keep him close to himself but far away from her proximity i.e Make sure nothing that concerns you brings him into contact with my family. No errands from you to me from him. You can no longer allowed to tag him along in the family hangouts. Just keep him away from me.

And as for RC Ji. Really? Hae-e? What the hell did she do that brings her into your murderous radar?
And his jealousy is off the charts like crazy, more like an obsessed girlfriend.

The dilemma in form of the exam cheat aside, I found it as one last move to drive Sun-jae and Hae-e apart and make them best of friends who stopped being friends so Geon-hu can step in...fully. Any stomach butterflies Sun-jae or Hae-e or both feels...

Ok, don’t hate me: I don’t mind the serial killer aspect of this show that much. I mean, could the time be better spent elsewhere? Almost definitely. (We could get a fleshed out redemption arc for Seon-jae’s mom that involves her trying to make it right with Hui-jae and Hae-i also. We could see Haeng-seon learn how not to mother people sometimes. Heck, we could just follow our four awesome teens around their school for a while and watch them be great.) But this has always been part of what the show was about. From the very first week people were dropping like unceremoniously swatted flies. And in some ways, it really feels like this extreme behavior is a natural extension of the high-pressure academic situation everyone is in. It’s just one extreme behavior among many. They could have included it in the promos to warn people before the show even started, but they’ve been pretty up front that we would have to deal with this issue eventually.

What strikes me as way more out of the blue is Hae-i’s mom coming back into the picture. With all the other plot points we need to be taking care of (and hopefully all the growth we need to see), I don’t think we really needed this. (I’d love to hear a case for this plot point though - am I missing something?) Maybe she’ll advance the plot in some way or make us reconsider some relationship that we couldn’t have gotten another way, but I’m not holding my breath. I expect her to leave again as quickly as she’s arrived, and I hope Hae-i doesn’t get too hurt in the process. Girl’s got enough going on.

Despite finding it over-the-top and sometimes, deeply stupid, I haven't minded the murder "mystery" very much, either. I thought the editing made all the different components--murder, romance, comedy, satire, family drama--into one fairly harmonious whole, so I was content to just go along for the ride. But I really struggled to watch these episodes all the way through. They were so full of emotional pain, systemic abuse, and heartache that I wanted many times to turn away. When Sun-jae's mother said that line about their society being vulgar and savage (or something along those lines), I felt like that's exactly what the drama wanted to show without pulling any punches. I respect that, but I didn't particularly enjoy watching it.

I'm not sure what else to say other than the fact that I do still like the main couple together very much; I loved the way Chi-yeol supported Haeng-sun, as well as the way she confided her feelings to him. That was lovely.

I don't think we needed the return of Hae-yi's biological mom, especially since she's more of a caricature than a character. And having Hae-yi spend most of the two episodes unconscious meant the teen triangle sputtered and died (for me, at least).

I'm not going to skip the last two episodes, but I'm not sure there's much story left to tell her at this point.

I didn't really mind the serial killer bit; though quite likely I have been conditioned that this is just how some kdramas add suspense (just stick a serial killer in it). I've watched three other dramas - Oh My Ghost, Once Again, and Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo - by this same writer and I've enjoyed all three of them. Oh My Ghost had a serial killer in it too but was quite enjoyable. I'm just going to trust the writing and hope she sticks the landing.

Do kdrama moms not understand the negative effects of sleep deprivation?

I'll have more to say in What We're Watching.

Where did my sweet rom com for?
This week's episodes are the complete opposite of what I signed up for. I even can't decide what is more annoying, the shameless return of Hae-yi's mother who just have been in Japan for more than a decade and now coming to cry some crocodile tears and tell Haeng-soon off for not taking care of Hae-yi better.

The whole detectives in the drama be it the one who investigated Hae-yi's case and accused Haeng-soon of abusing her or the senior and junior detective who seem to push ahead with their opinion even if they were wrong. Dong-hee might be guilty this time but there is a possibility that he didn't push his mother.

I know he must have wished her dead in the balcony scene but I am not sure if he went through with it. Also the scene where said mother locked him up with barely clothes on was painful to watch and really traumatized me.

There are many dramas that depict those obsessive mothers in more detail so why are they taking a more prominent spot here when it is supposed to be a rom-com? Even if they are here to emphasize the difference between them and Haeng-soon, they have been given much screen time.

The best thing in the drama is the teenagers' arc and even that was destroyed by Hae-yi's accident. I am glad Seon-jae mustered up the courage and came clean. One death is enough. There is no need for more children to suffer because of their mothers' faulty behaviors.

I don't think this is a rom-com at all: I think it's a searing indictment of an education system that's so toxic it turns everyone into obsessed psychopaths. Dong-hee doesn't creep me out nearly as much as the horrible mothers. Chi-yeol and Haeng-sun's relationship is the only healthy one in the show (still not sure how I feel about Jae-woo and Yeong-ju, but at least they are also caring individuals). Those poor, poor messed up kids! Can we just get two episodes of them all on a break, maybe on a beach somewhere, with no adults in sight, so they can all be honest and heal each other? (I'm including Su-ah, too: she just needs some real friends!)(Geon-hu and the other girlfriend are the reason I'm still watching this show.)

This shows feels like a wannabe "Sky Castle" that disguised itself as rom-com, but ultimately failing in both fronts.

The dialogues are getting weirder by the day. Haeng Seon says "My eyes are not old yet. I can see better than an average eye" while storming out of the academy after witnessing Assistant Ji throw her food in trash. Sure, she is an athlete and her eye power must be good, but that dialogue just made me LOL. Another instance is the scene of Jae Woo asking suggestions for his problem and Chi Yeol chalking it upto as feelings for the women.

How does the writer even come up with these? Such waste!

They should start placing trigger warnings on eps that contain heavy themes because not a lot of people would be okay with those scenes.

aside from that, this week's eps were wild. Its like the writers are just using a decider wheel to pick which tropes/plots/plot device to add to the story. HY's birth mom is one of it, completely unnecessary and we could've used that time to expand on Mr Ji's backstory and motive (i still dont get why he shot haeng-seon's glass pane) or resolve for Su-a & her mom and/or sunjae & his mom instead.

my poor teens this week MAN its like the writers are just throwing every single curveball they have at them. what i would give to just watch them all go for coin kareoke and MSG-soaked food together :'))))))))))

also chiyeol has got to bffr with the "maybe she'll wake up quicker after hearing her mom's voice" like ???? no man what she needs are people who were actually there for her the entire time lol

I have this whole fomenting rant about these episodes but I barely know where to start in listing everything I hated about it.

Firstly, Dong-hui. How did this character go from somebody who's so obsessed with protecting and caring for Choi Chi-yeol that he will hurt anybody that messes with him become just a standard crazy person who wants Chi-yeol all to himself? He's turned into a completely different character (yes this started last week).

Mostly I just think there had to be a better way to do this plotline that didn't involve kidnapping and trucks of doom, it just feels like a bad makjang all of a sudden - especially with the reappearing mother. Yes I knew she was probably coming back but we didn't need her! We know she made the choice between motherhood and the other things she wanted to do with her life, we don't need her here to know that.

But to the bigger problem. I was concerned the show was so busy with the 'scandal' plotline that he never bothered to actually establish what this relationship looked like when it was functioning before it beset it with all kinds of external challenges. They were fighting ten seconds after getting together, they've never had a moment alone. Take a moment to show us this relationship before you put it under siege. Why do writers always do this?

Anyway Chi-yeol is now 100% all in, which is fine but take a hot second to show me this first! I don't see a romance that's even particularly functional at this point and frankly Haeg-seon just seems like she's too fracking busy to bother with it right now.

Which brings me to Jae-woo. I hated everything about this plotline this week. Absolutely everything. I hated him being told that he must have romantic feelings for somebody just because he's worried about her feelings, especially in light of the way this kind of emotional manipulation is what leads to abuse. I hated Chi-yeol telling him to snap out of it while he was spinning in the hospital because "he was a man" (WTAF was that?!). I just hated every part of it. This show needs to stop treating this character like this. It's ruining it.

I wish they had made Dong-Hee suffer from petty jealousy instead of being a serial killer. Chi-Yeol was upset in the beginning of the show that the system turned a little brother in mourning into a murderer; I wish the show would've stuck to that. There could've been an entire arc where they finally reveal who Dong-Hee really is, and both of them could heal from the trauma of years past. But no. And thanks for wasting Sun-Jae's brother as just a red herring instead of turning into a support system for his little brother and help prevent him from crushing under their mom's pressure like he did.

Random thoughts:
As someone who loves mysteries and detective shows, I’m fine with murder as long as it’s done well. I’m not such a fan of poorly developed serial killers or surprise twists that transform likable characters into psychopaths. Not only is the audience cruelly manipulated and the culprit rendered completely unrelatable, but the protagonists’ emotional or intellectual weaknesses mount as the plot twists become more cynical and sadistic. This week did a better job of developing the serial killer plot, so I’m mostly over my disappointment with the assistant’s trajectory. At this point, we’ve spent so much time in melodrama territory that I no longer remember when this show was funny or when criticism of tonal inconsistency still applied. I don’t mind that the assistant is the brother, either, but I just wanted the twist to be that he was actually innocent, someone who survived a tragedy and eventually overcame the loss of his beloved sister with the realization that both he and Choi Chi-yeol needed to move on. There could still be a mystery or even a murder, but the idea of him cavalierly killing off everyone with metal balls is too silly and incriminating, especially when the students and rival could have been handled differently.

Anyway, I’m over it, I really am. Moving on, here are some other random thoughts I had while watching this week’s episodes:
1. I love that both Hae-yi and Sun-jae pointed out the flaws in Seo-jin’s assertions and her subsequent self-reflection. It’s also nice to hear Sun-jae’s father on the phone, too. It’s about time for him to get involved.
2. I love Hae-yi’s intelligence, but why didn’t she shout for help while she was fleeing? And how does Dong-hee manage to kidnap and chase her without anyone noticing? Her mother was within earshot when she was kidnapped, and people were around when she ran into the street.
3. I’m not sure how I feel about Sun-jae’s suicide attempt, but at least he’s bonding with Geon-hu.
4. I suppose it was inevitable that Sun-jae was not the only one cheating. I enjoyed the parade of guilty adults.
5. When is this drama going to give Haeng-sun a break? First, the ridiculous cops’ unfounded assumption that she’s abusive and then the return of Hae-yi’s audacious mother. Enough is enough!
6. I’m glad Su-ah is getting therapy, something everyone in this show is going to need by the end of it.
7. As much as I prefer Yeong-ju comforting Jae-woo to last week’s unpleasantness, I’m still strongly opposed to any romantic relationship between them. Jae-woo has not demonstrated that he is capable of living as an independent adult, that he can grasp what being in an intimate relationship actually means, or that he is interested in her (or anyone else) in that way. Can he be considered a consenting adult?
8. Please tell me Choi Chi-yeol plans to call the police ASAP.

On the one hand, this is supposed to be a romantic comedy. On the other hand, I thought I was going to quit after episode 10, and I found 13 and 14 really dynamic and watchable. Does it all make sense? Well, no, actually, it doesn't make sense that Ji Dong-Hee is really someone else and a murderer. But I am interested and want to see the ending, and that's a success, even if it's not a rom/com.

Sun-jae and Geon-hu beating themselves up at the rooftop is a trope and cliche that needs to go. Did you really have to exchange punches. Would a fist fight have happened if it was another classmate that pulled him down from the rooftop😒. Pull and hold him back, not pull and descend into a meaningless fight.

As someone who is insanely in love with this show, I had to do a double take with all the heavy stuff.
Then I remembered the director saying this was more bittersweet romance than a rom com. The killer plot was actualy in the 4 minute promo, so they didn't hide things from people too. Plus: the English title of the drama is a disservice.
Once I remembered these, I was able to shift my lens, and I actually enjoyed episode 14 than 12 and 13.
I know this is my way of rationalising all the heavy stuff but it made things easier from then on. I have faith the writer will stick the landing.

And as expected, Hae-yi's bio mum is back in the picture, poking holes and Haeng-seon's fragile complex of her not doing enough for Hae-yi.
But after whatching Hae-yi's courage in the past 5 episodes, I know she is the one to shut her mum down. Makes me think back to Hae-yi and Haeng-seon's conversation in episode 3 about she wanting her mum to see her on national news for being the best. That has been her motivation and Haeng-seon's sore complex.
I see it as the drama using this new plot to finally seal the deal that this two are definitely mother and daughter, no doubt. To the characters, that is.

One question... how come the detective brought up Seong Hyun's name (Dong Hee) during his investigation of the current murder case? What was his clue or reasoning?

Slightly amused at how crucial the fountain pen turned out to be. I had expected the *unique* ink to be a factor, but then it helped Hae Yi escape. Guess I gotta pack my fountain pens wherever I go.

Two episodes left. I'll finish it, but I've been less excited about this drama lately.

I would have prefered that Dong-Hui's story doesn't crash with Hae-Yi. The poor girl has already enough to handle so adding a kidnapping and car of doom was really mean and too much.
The comeback of her mother was really bad... I don't understand how people can just let her come back like this? Their mother died when she brought Hae-Yi, did she go to her funeral? I'm pretty sure she didn't... I would take her phone number and give it to Hae-I but it's all.

Sung-Jae's mother really needs help and the fact she knows it. Both parents should have decided to let the father taking them... The older son was already a big sign about how she failed.

I'm happy Sung-Jae found help with Dong-Hee.

Chi-yeol was a little bit slow to understand what happened. But I'm happy he didn't try to hide it to Haeng-sun.

Sigh.

The whole kidnapping and accident:coma and the return of birth mother was terrible writing. If they did want to bring the birth mother would have been great if she returned to make the reveal of birth secret.
They can’t convince me of Dong hui’s motive anymore. As with kdrama he had to be a psycho killer.

The high school kids continue to be amazing. Their struggles are relatable and their friendship is amazing. Just the kids, mothers and a romance was all that we needed. So much to work with here.

Anyways.

I will finish it next week. Get my bean. And pretend the drama ended with 11 episodes.

CCIR was doing all right until it pushed interesting plots to make way for serial murder and finding the truth. I'm expecting a rushed and patched ending this week because I'm not feeling the romance at all. I just watched I'm not a robot for the 2nd time and they kept me aching for more. Why do most K-drama romances run out of steam and spice after the confession? This show had it well, It had The Bitchy mothers and their children, the sweet romance between the children and giving us a solution to unhealthy expectations from parents to their children. These are the few I noticed, I bet other beanies noticed more than I have and seriously as you said, this murder subplot is not needed at all. Few of humans, unfortunately, might come across murder and it's effects in their lives but these characters do not need it at all.
Consort Ji is not the first overprotective secretary of K-drama land. In the first episodes, he genuinely cared for Chi-yeol and his health, I remembered when he offered to help Chi-yeol purchase food at Ban-chan's store himself. You should have left him alone that way, writer. A conversation with Chi-yeol and the school teacher would have helped close the story of the young girl who unfortunately ended her life because of her parent.
Now, with two episodes left, what are you going to do with the budding romance between our kids? Throughout the past week aired episodes, you left just puppy eyes for my hockey player (I've forgotten his name). What is Sun-jae going to do with his prepared confession and the hair tie? Why even open the door to romance between Young-joo and Jae-woo?

My guess is that Sun-jae's mum did the same for his brother and that is why the boy flunked the exam. This mother does not have faith in her children. She also thought her son was the killer without any doubt.

I thought the murder subplot was great this week, actually. Like in Oh My Ghostess, where suspense rather than mystery is the thread of the murder, the whole unraveling of the lies and coverups was thrilling. It was entertaining to watch Dong Hui fall apart.

It might just be me, but doesn’t it feel like in most kdramas with 16 episodes they throw everything (including the kitchen sink) into the plot mix at about episode 12 or 13? Bringing back HY’s mom, the absent dads suddenly being written back in to the story, the inept police and their constant rush to false conclusions, etc, etc.

I’d love just once for the jealously obsessed character to turn out to be a simple manipulative lying jerk instead of always morphing into a serial killer. They completely yanked away any romance or light comedy last week to focus solely on that all too common trope. There’s a way to write a script that blends that plot points into a natural arc v this week we’ll concentrate on the romance, next week the struggling teens, next week the serial killer. As to the writing, don’t get me started on CY saying to JW “we’re men”

I’ll watch to the end, but it seems impossible to adequately wrap up every loose end which would include
-Hui-Jae living in his room 24/7 only to come out to serve the plot,
-HE’s mom suddenly turning up-she’ll want $$ of course.
-Seo-Jin’s alcohol abuse and her damaging parenting style
-the missing stalker girl who as far as we know is still lying in the weeds just off the path somewhere. (I STILL want to know who she was on the phone with when she was killed. All they had to do was say her body had been found to wrap that up.)
-Su-a’s mental unraveling complete with hallucinations and her clueless mom
-the teen’s relationship triangle
and many more. Almost every character has a hanging plot point that apparently will be wrapped up in just 2 episodes.

The only thing I hope for at this point is we forget that scene between Jae-woo and a drunken Yeong-ju ever happened.

The more I think of it, while I do not care negatively for the murder subplot, I keep thinking the drama would be better off without it.

Speaking of what the drama seems to want to comment on, it is the horrid way pupils are expected to act to study for this one exam, where immoral acts, cheating and abuse seems so easy to happen when it all depends on this one thing... even if they want it just to want it, not because of true happiness.

We already see how it affects Hae-i's rival and her psyche, without resorting to murder. Sure, she imagines hurting her, but she is obviously scared of herself for it, and in the end finally breaks, realizing that she could have killed herself as well and all her mother does is talk down on others for their "weaknesses" - weaknesses her own daughter is too ashamed to share with her due to that. But in that environment created in the drama's society, it is how mother's care for their children.

It would also come back up with the police downright dismissing the car case just because Hae-e is not the FL's biological daughter, which is just insane. What, just because I am not my nephew's mother, I would abuse him to the point of suicide? It screams classisism and I honestly wish they had done more than just lightly talk back, and hopefully they get properly reprimanded/sued for dismissing a mother's concern for crimes commited against her daughter. However, they could also point to Hae-e's grades and how it seems like she does not go on any extracorrucilar schools or the like. "She does not study herself half to death like any normal child should be doing, obviously you do not care about her future, so don't pretend you haven't neglected/abused her". It would be along with how it is expected of mothers to act for their children in this drama.

Dong-hui could still be manipulative, but now more pettily because he wants teachers to go through the exact torture that he had to as a child, because he feels they are the symbol of the system (even if they are not), so he thinks it is the least popular teachers like the ML could do, to work themselves to death as well. It might not be that he is murderous, but it is how he grew to think to survive the abusive family he was in.

He also thus harbors hatred for the FL, because not only does she help the ML toward healthier attitudes, but the FL herself is the opposite of everything Dung-hui knew; she did not get a degree but lives well and is liked/respected by many for those skills she has, proving to him that his torture was potentially for nothing. She does not pressure her daughter for academic goals unless the daughter asks for it, and instead gives her opportunities for practical work experience, and it is all what Dong-hui, deep inside, wishes his mother was. To bring in that the FL is very maternal, it could be how he sort of ends up thinking. "If only you were my mother." Perhaps that is why he ends up pushing Hae-e, or does not stop her,...

Weirdly, the serial killer thriller part was done very well once the romance takes back seat. It was the blending was that awkward. Maybe this should have been two separate dramas or the thriller could just be the thrill of cheating.

I really hate what happened with Hae-yi. Even when she wakes up, she can still have PTSD from being kidnapped, running for her life, and getting hit by a car. And this is after she was ghosted by her friend who inadvertently screwed her over. And weeks ago, she was the target of the jealous moms. And before that, she was abandoned by her birth mom. Someone give this girl a break!

More than the kdrama theme of academic pressure, the theme that gets my blood boiling is how adoption is so looked down upon. I wanted to ToD the cops when they accused Haeng-seon of being abusive and putting this case down as a runaway teen case because Haeng-seon's not the birth mom and had her do chores.

The other moms are such terrible pieces of work and the dads are useless. After Hee-jae admitted that he stalked the serial killer, witnessed him killing that teacher, and that he serial killer tried to strangle him to death in the elevator....all his mother could think about was how he made her look bad in court. Where's the dad in all this? And Su-a's mother is more concerned about Sun-jae and Hae-yi gossip than her own daughter.

I loved the twist that Hae-e saw DongHui about to kill her mom (because I was wondering how DongHui had found her and was chasing her -- that didn't make sense in the previous episode) but then the plot contrivance to use the fountain pen ink as a clue really got to me. Dong-Hui would've killed Hae-e (like he's killed everyone else) and not put her in the convenient shopping cart and then apparently carried her up several flights to his apartment. What was he going to do with her up there? It made no sense except for Hae-e to use the fountain pen to escape and have that ink so that Chi-Yeol and Hang-seon could find it as a clue.
I also really hated that whole "be a man" speech. Especially since it is out of character for Chi-Yeol.
I'm still annoyed that they haven't mentioned Stalker Girl.
And I agree with everyone else that they had enough going on with the moms etc that they didn't need this murder pot. I'm so frustrated with the two moms. And I agree that I think Sun-jae lost his chance with Hae-e. She was absolutely brilliant when she told off his mom. And as usual in a k-drama, they've got too much to wrap up now in 2 episodes.

I hate how Dong Hui went from cute and adorable to intensely dislikable. But I guess the story needed to go there. Hopefully the teens find some peace and happiness or this will be a waste of 8 weeks for me. I just have to be careful where I spend my time

I usually don't mind romantic + murder mysteries plot. It's not one of my fave catnip, but I don't hate it. Case in point, I actually enjoyed "when the camelia blooms"; I also loved "you are my spring" . But for some reason, I feel like this one has not done enough in terms of building the romance compared to the murder plot, which made me roll my eyes and lose interest throughout these two episodes. We all knew Dong Hee was the suspect, it wasn't hard so there was no suspense and some things just don't add up (why did it take that long for the police to contact Chi Yeol? How about the first murder of the young girl? Why didn't Dong-hui killed or tried to kill Su-a's Mom? For someone who has been able to murder so many ppl so easily, it has conveniently taken him quite a long time to kill Haeng-song...). Plus, I wanted to see more character development/redemption for so many of the characters: Sun Jae's Mom: what are her motivation? Why is she like this?; Su-a's Mom and Su-a herself; the biological Mom that just gets thrown there at the last hour; and our OTP that I wanted to see more interactions of in terms of building their relationship, adressing their future potential conflicts. Though it wasn't boring, I wanted less time on that and more time on the rom-com.