All That We Loved: Episodes 1-2 (First Impressions)

by Dramaddictally

The new high school drama from TVING is a retro-themed look at first love, with dream-like lighting, easy humor, and a tried-and-true love triangle at its center. Add to that some life-or-death bromance and a little mystification over who survives and we’ve got quite a story packed into an 8-episode drama.

Editor’s note: Weekly drama coverage will continue.
 
EPISODES 1-2

Our story opens in a hospital room in 2006, where two 18-year-old boys are about to go into surgery. We learn that one of them, GO YOO (Sehun), is donating an organ to the other, GO JOON-HEE (Jo Joon-young).

In this first sequence, we see how carefree they feel — laughing together right up to the moment of anesthesia — and the narrator tells us, “We had no worries or fears back then.” But not long after the surgery starts, one of them flatlines and appears to die.

The setup this week moves us between 2006 and 2023, where one of the boys is now “Dr. Go” (Song Jae-rim), an award-winning psychiatrist, living alone in a monochrome high-rise apartment and looking like he needs a hug. It’s no accident that our two young protagonists have the same surname, as the drama has set up a mystery (a la the Answer Me series) about which one of them we are seeing in the 2023 timeline.

Dr. Go is our narrator, looking back on his last year in high school and the adventures he had with his best friend. While we know that the boys will have this life-threatening experience at the hospital at some point, we don’t actually get to it in this week’s episodes. What we focus on instead, is love.

Enter our female lead, HAN SO-YEON (Jang Yeo-bin), who’s a new transfer student at Hara High School. Our bromantic besties meet her one day while at the nurse’s office and it’s puppy love at first sight for both of our boys. So-yeon, though, doesn’t take much (or any) interest in either of them.

But before we get too deep in the first love department, we learn a few things about our male leads. Yoo is a star basketball player — good at sports and bad at studies — while Joon-hee is just the opposite. We find Joon-hee studying at all times of day and night, looking a little feeble and facing relentless bullying from some of the older boys. Yoo is the constant savior that shows up at just the right moment to fight the bullies and protect Joon-hee — he might not win, but he’s happy to be the one to take the punches.

Both boys have troubled backstories. Yoo’s parents are doctors, so tied up with their careers that they haven’t been around much to take care of him. And Joon-hee lives with his grandmother, who sells flowers in the street to make a living.

The two became friends when they were eight and Yoo’s mom was the doctor attending to Joon-hee’s older brother, Joon-young — a character who is already absent in the 2006 timeline. With an overarching sense of loss and loneliness, we can see why our “polar opposites” became such close friends.

When So-yeon enters the picture, it’s not surprising that Joon-hee and Yoo are both immediately attracted to her. In fact, every boy in school is rambunctiously in love with her. But they’re all just projecting their ideals onto her, rather than getting to know her. The minute they meet, Yoo describes So-yeon as “pure” (he’s a fan of Sohn Ye-jin) and Joon-hee describes her as “sexy” (he’s a fan of Lee Hyori). So far, the real So-yeon is a bit of an enigma.

We learn that, like Joon-hee, So-yeon is a top student — but, unlike him, she’s keeping her grades up while also working part-time at a café. We hear that she’s transferred schools many times, and there’s also some indication that she’s got a few troubles of her own (I don’t want to call her a thief, but if she’s not, then the drama is definitely trying to frame her). She generally wanders around by herself, and is in a perpetual bad mood when anyone tries to talk to her.

When we see So-yeon smile for the first time, it’s because she’s looking for her big brother and she thinks she’s stumbled on him in the street. Of course, it’s a mix-up. She’s recognized a sports jersey that her brother owns — and run up to a person wearing the same jersey, yelling, “Oppa!” But the person she’s now hugging, with a giant smile on her face, is Joon-hee.

And the shot of this hug is soooo old-school! My heart instantly perked up. We get a frozen hug, with Joon-hee wide-eyed, as the camera catches them from twenty different angles and the music kicks in. Oh my, how I missed these sequences.

But, more importantly, the jersey has a backstory. It actually belongs to Yoo, but Joon-hee happens to be wearing it right then. The narrator says, “If we hadn’t switched t-shirts, would our fates have been different?” And in the 2023 timeline, we see that Dr. Go has the jersey framed and hanging on his office wall.

However, it might be more of a red herring than an actual clue because, also in 2023, we see So-yeon (cameo by Jung Yoo-jin) visit Dr. Go, where we learn that the two haven’t seen each other since they graduated high school 16 years ago. She’s a famous actress now and has suddenly shown up (and keeps showing up) because she wants to be friends again (although she notably asks if he’s single).

Back in 2006, when So-yeon realizes her mistake, she walks away from the hug with Joon-hee, not showing any interest. In fact, signs are starting to point toward Yoo. The swoony highlight this week comes when So-yeon forgets her gym clothes and can’t participate in PE class. Yoo — an athlete with an extra set of clothes — offers to let So-yeon borrow some of his. The two are alone in a classroom and that one little question creates enormous chemical tension.

When she’s actually wearing the clothes, which are too big, he rolls up the sleeves for her (swoon!) and their two-way interest is obvious. They walk into the gym together, eliciting a ton of attention, and you can see Joon-hee’s heart sink when he notices So-yeon is outfitted in Yoo’s clothes (I mean, his name is on the shirt she’s wearing).

Our premiere week closes with what I think will be the leadup to the hospital scene that was at the beginning. Throughout these episodes we’ve seen that Joon-hee is sick in some way. He has these random attacks of blurry vision and head pain, where he hears a high-pitched sound. When it happens, it stops him in his tracks. He’s been taking over-the-counter medication to treat the symptoms and, near the end, we see him in spiffy new glasses, likely for the blurry vision problem.

In the final scene, Joon-hee has one of these debilitating attacks and is cornered by the bully that’s been bothering him. It’s a brutal scene, really tough to watch, as Joon-hee is beaten up in the street. As it’s happening, Yoo is in bed, tossing and turning as if in pain himself. Usually, he would be the one to save Joon-hee, but he’s not there this time.

These episodes were way more complex than I was anticipating! Jumping between timelines makes it a little confusing because the story is not in order. I don’t know if the hospital scene at the beginning is the end of our story — meaning one of our lovely leads will die! Or, if it’s where we’ll pick up next week and the flatlining was a fake out.

Since the show was billed with the concept of cellular memory after an organ transplant, I think we have more story to tell after the organ donation. But, if that’s the case, doesn’t it take some of the intensity out of wondering which Go is narrating our story?

Truthfully, I’m not sure it matters because I’ve already fallen into the world of these characters, with its gritty light and nostalgic feel. All of the leads are likable, and I’m especially drawn to Yoo (might be the sleeve rolling, might be the way he sticks up for Joon-hee). I don’t want to see any of them hurt more than they already have been — they’ve all had tough lives. But since we’ve got a lonely Dr. Go in the present, I’m preparing myself for pain. The good news is, the 2006 timeline looks like it will be enough fun to make the journey worth it.

 
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