1. Cheong Ha and Eun Gyeol finally together!!

It made me sad that Eun Gyeol had to witness all the abuse his mom suffered in the past. I suppose his mom never talked about her "family" or school life because she didn't want to share those painful memories with her kids. Or maybe because she didn't wanted them pitying her? Idk, but whatever reason she had it's understandable. Her "family" was trash.

Anyway, it was nice watching Eun Gyeol protecting his mom. The speech he gave his grandfather made me cry. And then when he told Cheong Ha his name and she made the sign...😭

2. Yi Chan and Eun Yul are hilarious together. I hope they become besties. I also love the whole band dynamic and how Eun Yul is part of their group.
They're fun to watch. Super cute. I loved the hospital scenes.

3. Dear Eun Gyeol. You have nothing to worry about. There's no way the future changes and your dad marries another person. You still exist! That proves your mom and dad got together. Remember how babies are made? Yeah, it's impossible your mom changes. Don't worry.

4. I thought we were going to start moving on from Yi Chan's crush on Se Kyeong, but I guess they're going to use that to move the story along till the end. I wouldn't be surprised if the parents get together in the last 10 minutes or something like that. We only get like one 30 seconds scene between those two per episode (or per week?).

...I just hope we get more Cheong Ha and Eun Gyeol moments next week. And I hope the "love triangle" problem doesn't last, I really think the story would progress better if they stop using Se Kyeong's character as an obstacle.

The funny thing is that Eun Yul is the only one that should be having problems because of Se Kyeong. As far as I know, a person can't be in two places at the same time. But she she lives in her mom's house, goes to her dad's hospital and now she's going to school???

Someone has to recognize her and start asking questions. There's no way Se Kyeong's parents won't get a call from her the school or her dad won't hear about Se Kyeong being back.

But the biggest problem is: how is Eun Yul going to make her mother's first love fall for her and send him to the USA to seduce her mom??? That's my major question.

Her plan wouldn't work even in a show like A Time Called You. Even tho the FLs shared the same memories at one point, the ML only liked one girl. Why? Because they're different people. It doesn't matter if the guy falls in love with Eun Yul, that doesn't affect Se Kyeong. At all.

The best she can do is make her dad marry another girl, imo.

But that also confuse me. We know Eun Yul and Eun Gyeol (Eun couple?) are endgame. They have to meet in the future. So Eun Yul can't separate her parents... And she can't also meet them... She doesn't have other relatives... Wait. What is she doing in the past? Is she supposed to enjoy one year of freedom and get a boyfriend? Okay, I should...

Oof! The family bits are really the heart of the drama. The sign interaction scene between Eun Gyeol and Chung Ah made me teary eyed. Everything from the dialogue delivery, acting to scene transition between them was so lovely ❤ I thought I wouldn't miss Eun Gyeol's presence because I am more behind the parents' story, but I realized he is the bridge that connects the story. The bandmates in 1995 are already a much better people than the 2023 bandmates. Eun Yu is a lot likeable when she is reassessing her decisions in a comic way than sabotaging Yi Chan's life. I don't care for Eun Gyeol and Eun Yu's love story, but it better not cause a rift between the dad and son.

I am curious about the reason why Yi Chan is the past trying to achieve some non-existing mission when he is already a good, mature kid with some misunderstandings. What more growth does this kid require to appreciate his parents even more than he already does?

Thanks @dramaddictally for the weecap. I am in this for Eungyeol’s family dynamics and loved the return to the present seeing everyone happy until the wrong mum came in!
I hope Chungha gets to meet her mum again because of Eungyeol’s random arrival changing the future. I am really looking forward to seeing Chungha front and centre in her love story with Yichan.
The rival school band turning up to play a serenade was such great scene.

I love how the drama balances the emotional tone throughout. My favourite scene was the signing scene between son and mother as he vows to teach her what she taught him. I also loved the hospital scenes with Yichan engaging with the other patients, knowing his friends were hiding and telling his one man fight against the hordes.

I am calling it now, mid series, knowing that I may end up eating my words, but this is my K drama of 2023.

A 2023 romance between Eun-yu and Eun-gyeol will certainly be interesting because by all accounts she matches the description of Eun-ho's girlfriend - cello player + pretending to be hearing impaired 😅! This show sure loves its love triangles and squares 😂.

I loved the Eun-gyeol and Chung-ah scenes this week. I've been wanting more Chung-ah and it was so lovely to see her slowly begin to open up with Eun-gyeol's help. We're at the halfway mark and there's never a dull moment in this show. Loving it!

Prior to ep8, I have a hard time picking my favorite couple, Eun Gyeol and Yi Chan, Eun Gyeol and Eun Yu or Yi Chan and Chung Ah.
But I think this last episode, I was blindsided by Eun Gyeol and Chung Ah. His love for his mother was so unconditional that I feel emotional whenever they are together. Their scenes were my favorite despite absolutely loving the serenade scene in the end of ep8. That scene was iconic.
I can't wait for stirrings of jealousy of Yi Chan's part when he witnesses how sweet Eun Gyeol is to Chung Ah. That will prompt YC to rethink who really has the place in his heart, Seo Kyeong, Chung Ah or Eun Gyeol (I am kidding on EG).
Eun Gyeol and Eun Yu is of course the traditional OTP so will always have a special place in my heart. I must've replayed their shouting fest of Ahjumma and Ahjusshi a few times. I will always have a soft spot for enemies-to-lovers storylines. So once it was established that Se Kyeong is Eun Yu, then I am all for this time traveling pair.
But of course lets not forget our cute couple Yi Chan and Chung Ah. YC has been making up for his initial awful treatment of her. The misunderstanding with the ticket and him yelling at her. I am all for all his cute antics just to get her to forgive him.
Now for that serenade scene, I love that the boys were wooing Eun Gyeol to come back to them. There is nothing cuter than a sincere and heartfelt plea.

The one thing that I really love about this drama was the strong sense of youth that permeated all its scenes. I'm probably in the minority, but I like how the teenagers' brand of impulsiveness amidst the pressure for them to make life-changing decisions (not to mention the particular pressure for both Eun-yu and Eun-gyeol about literally changing the future as they know it) stayed as the core spirit of this story. It tinged everything with optimism, no matter how dire and tragic the real situation was, and I'm honestly a fan. It was clearly a different take on this familiar time slip concept, and I'm here for all the shenanigans that will ensue.

In fact, this spirit of youth was specifically my reason for choosing to enjoy Seol In-ah's depiction of On Eun-yu. At first I thought something in her delivery just didn't blend well with the rest of the cast. But then I realized that maybe it was... intentional? I like her as Se-kyung, where her loneliness and her burden to be loved by her adopted parents was palpable, and yet it didn't stop her to be caring and genuinely interested in building a friendship with Chung-ah. And yet, there was a sense of detachment when she returned as Eun-yu, and coming from a girl so determined to live as recklessly as possible (which was already a common problem among teenagers, before we even added in the tons of problematic family dynamic she has to faced daily), I guess it made sense.

Eun-yu wasn't even capable of thinking whose lives she might inadvertently changed irrevocably by her selfish meddling. She couldn't think beyond alleviating her own pain and resentment over the selfish adults in her life, who somehow saw it fit to live vicariously (and demandingly) through her for all her life. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it did feel like she hid her disappointment and anger and loneliness behind her determined cheerfulness in the "harmless" matchmaking between her mom and her dreamy first love (though even there, she didn't seem to think much about how to make it happened properly, given the fact that her mother wasn't even aware of her future daughter masquerading as her back in South Korea). I would definitely take issue if she was older, but from a teenager who was in over her head and facing a potential change of the future that seemed abstract at best, I could let a lot slide.

On the other hand, we have another time traveler in Eun-gyeol, and while his goal seemed more well thought-out, I love that he was just as impulsive. The way he reacted to Yi-chan's immaturity (it was a lovely touch though, how this unexpected moment triggered a much needed growing up in Yi-chan), the determined way he entered his young mom's life to give her world back a few years earlier than in the original timeline, and the way he desperately threw a wrench in Yichan-Sekyung possible coupling. Ryeoun always brought with him his A++ game whenever he has a scene with his young parents, and he didn't...

This drama is trying to make a contest in sob stories between the leads? Like now it's Se-kyung and I didn't think it made sense when we got the sob story of her mum.

I like this drama when it's about Cheong Ha, the scene with Eun Gyeol was great. Even if I don't like how he's tutoring his both parents, they need him in the past, in the present.... I would have prefered he was the one they helped in the past. Yi-Chan trying to communicate with her was cute too (he writes very well :p). But I don't understand how a deaf person can't think to a way to communicate with people. She was stressed by Yi-Chan's wound but showing a piece of paper with help written on would have been more efficient than gesticulating. Sometimes, they made her very strong and then completely useless... It's kinda frustrating.

I don't like the rest to be honest. I don't specially like Se-Kyung and I was completely bored during the episode 7. I don't like Seol In-ah in this role neither.

I’m glad that this week started with Eun-yoo’s POV. My main qualm last week was that I wasn’t a fan of the new character, but in retrospect I think it’s because I was naturally just echoing Eun-gyeol’s own frustrations at the newcomer throwing a spanner in the works, especially since we’d spent like 5 episodes getting to know and getting invested in Eun-gyeol so I’d begun conflating my viewing experience with his perspective after some point. This week shifting POV helped solve that issue, because it made Eun-yoo a much more understandable character, although I still think her plan is a bit (very flawed) I'll give it a pass because teenagers hahaha. And I'm glad EG finally met his mum this ep - more Cheong-ah scenes next week please!!

I’m quite enjoying this show. There has been so much angst from the get-go (tho mostly well done) that I for one don’t mind the silly hijinks. I didn’t love Seol In-ah as the mother, but she’s grown on me as the daughter. It’s fun to see a woman play the messed-up troublemaker—but I’m sure she’ll learn and grow. The show has its heart in the right place.

Like everyone else, I’d love to see more of Cheong-ah. I shed a tear or more during her reunion with Eun-gyeol. Tho they sure laid it on thick with her suffering. Kudos to the actress for her restrained portrayal.

But I hope the show keeps braiding the light with the angst all the way thru. I’m a bit tired of the comedy>romance>angst>implosion of recent fantasy rom-coms. Twinkling Watermelon’s mix can be a bit chaotic but it’s mostly working for me.

I think I'm a little in love with this drama. This week just catapulted me fully onboard the storyline and I trust it to serve up the heart and the feels while leading to a fitting end.
Happy to see I was right about Eun Yoo being the daughter though seeing how Se Kyung turned into another version of her own mother was sad to see. Which is all the more reason I have immense love and respect for Chung ah. Despite the harsh surroundings and horrible people she was raised in, she grew to be a person full of love and joy and was able to impart the same into her own children.
The scenes between Eun Gyeol and Chung Ah were conveyed so beautifully I had to tear up. The guardedness in her eyes giving way to brittle vulnerability while his is just immensely sad to see the person who taught him best in this state. I need more of them!
Yi Chan coming to terms with Eun Gyeol no being a constant in his life was also nice to watch. And I was so glad his hearing wasnt damaged because of the incident, because what a horrible twist of fate that would be for Eun Gyeol.
And I cant wait to watch Eun Gyeol navigate the square he's wiggled himself into !
Though I get Eun Yoo's aspirations and its cute watching her work it out, I don't quite understand how her plan is going to work. Since Se Kyung is in the US and even if she finds the first love how that will end up changing Se Kyung's future. But she's an angsty don't-think-feel 18 year old so I guess its more make up as you go vibes.

I love this drama, I'm enjoying it a lot. However, I am a bit jealous of other beanies who are being moved to tears. I want my tears too XD
It's a lovely show but I need a bit more of "something" to be moved (that almost happened when we saw the brief flashback of great-grandma and baby Eun-gyeol).

I'm looking forward to watching my favorite couple, Yi Chan and Chung-ah, creating new and stronger bonds.
The 2023 couple is less interesting for me, even though I like them both as independent characters, especially Eun-gyeol.

I didn't like episode 7 as much because it was lacking sign language, Yi Chan & Eun Gyeol, and the 21st century timeline. I had also thought they made Se Kyung unlikable by basically turning her into her mother (oh how people end up turning into their parents) Reading the recap almost makes feel for her because giving up what she (seemingly) loved (supposedly) turned her into this person. I also don't buy Yi Chan as her 1st love because one of the descriptions was "he was cold" and Yi Chan hasn't been cold to her even once. He hasn't been cold to anyone. Not sure he has a cold, indifferent bone in his body.

I also didn't like Eun Yoo throwing away her phone. Even if she was ignoring her dad, that was stupid.

3 things tickled me in epidode 8. 1: Eun Gyeol & Eun Yoo calling each other Ahjumma & Ahjeoshi. That made me laugh out loud. The meta fact of these 20 something year old actors playing 18 and then calling each other by that tickled me. Then character wise, it's funny that from both of their perspective, the other would be older but in actuality they're both 21st century 18 year olds. I wonder if they are going to realize that or divulge that at any point. Like will one of thing accidentally refer to a future thing in the other's presence? Will the Viva La Vida guy play a part? 2: The wanted/missing band t shirts. I laughed out loud when I saw it haha. And even though they grumbled and complained, they still wore them which brings me to 3: The fact that Yi Chan once again did a public declaration and when it ended with an ultimatum, the band started playing. The disconnect between what's being said and the happy go lucky music playing tickled me.

Poor Chung Ah. I know people like and want redemption arcs but I just want Chung Ah to separate from those people again and never look back. What type of ass backwards logic is "no one needs to know my child is disabled and I don't them to so I'm gonna ban the use of sign language at home and enroll her in a normal school where its evident that she can't hear or speak and additionally has to deal with bullying and harassment?" Why not just get her a private turor or send her away along with her mother? (But I know the show needs to happen).

Sidenote: if Eun Gyeol is able to do anything to change his mom's family for the future, I would want him to find Chung Ah's mom but does Chung Ah even know her name?

When the father was dismissing the importance of sign language and how it would allow her to communicate and connect with the world, I was truly like "what the ****?" cause this is basic stuff. Who WOULDN'T want to be able to communicate?! Even animals communicate. The chairman was beyond ignorant and clearly doesn't give a damn about his daughter which does make it confusing that he went along with Eun Gyeol teaching her. And we continue with the barely makes sense (to me) logic of "it's a secret that only the 3 of us will know" followed by him...

A reference list of Eungyeol's talents:

Guitar prodigy
Maths whizz (includes uni level assignments)
Sign language
Taekwondo - remember how he used to spar with his brother? (Wait he has a brother? thankfully we got a reminder in this week's flashback)
Fashion Design - this one's new (he was also meant to do some modelling, maybe next time?)
*feel free to add to the list as his hidden talents continue to emerge

Now before I label him as a tropey kdrama geeeenius, the writer did subvert some things in his intelligence which make him more relatable, like:

Calling his teenage parents omma and appa...and then not understanding why they (or in Chungha's case, her house's bodyguards) don't respond well to that
Acting and talking in a way that makes it looks like he has a massive crush on Yichan (this one's not really a complaint)
Falling for an ahjumma (can't blame him since we all know how much kdrama geniuses need love)
Oh yeah that one time when he got cough medicine for someone who was smoking
(I guess that guy watches the Worst of Evil).

Ngl, as much as Eungyeol frustrates me with repeatedly yelling mom and dad to perfectly young and unaware people (like why bro?), he warms my heart consistently with his aggressive protectiveness towards them. When it comes to his parents, he goes looney instantly. There's no boundary he won't cross. Eg; when he confronts Chung-ah's stepmom and stepsister, you can see his rage boiling up. I loved how his attitude was like,"WTF you just said!?" He was using formal speech but it did not feel like that at all. The way he was throwing his words was so satisfying. It felt fresh. Aaaand, the first tutoring scene!!! Ryeo-un is determined to make me cry every now and then I see and....I want it more.

This show is (in my opinion) a happier version of My Perfect Stranger, and I like it for the same reasons I liked that show. There, the time machine was put in place to solve serial killings, but the other main point was to have the FL understand her parents and the ML understand why his Mom left. But I like this show much better, not just because it removes the serial killing, but also because it involves 2 young adult protagonists who can't see things from their Dad or Mom's perspective (Although Eun-yoo's plight is a lot more serious than Eun-gyeol's disagreement with his Dad over touring with the band.).

The other thing I really like is that (at least initially) their goals were in conflict--with one anxious to promote what actually happened in the past and the other making ill-conceived efforts to stop it.
That's why I always liked the character of Eun-yoo, and still do, and I liked what I assume will be the hate to love relationship that they are developing. I hope Eun-yoo doesn't really give up the cello, and they go to each other's concerts at the end. I am happy that Eun-gyeol gave up his berating of Eun-yoo to stay away, and at the end finally decided on the "strategy" to say he liked Eun-yoo (which is of course not really a "strategy" at all, but an actual attraction that he's been denying.)

I'm with those whose favorite couple is Yi-chan and Chung-ah--they are both really appealing and belong together. I think it interesting that Yi-chan being beat up gave us a forshadowing of his hearing loss--maybe that will prove to be the key incident, although it didn't originally result in any deafness.
One scene I found funny, although it certainly wasn't that way for Eun-gyeol, was the dream where he went back, heard New Jeans Ditto to indicate it was 2023, found everything the same, except with Se-Kyeung is Mom. His horrified reaction was perfect.

Finally, as far as Se-kyeung, I think we probably won't see her again until the end, and her future will improve only in that her daughter AND Eun-gyeol will sympathize with her and support her, so that she can escape her wallowing in the past.

At some point I was like, oh cool, time for another tragic backstory. And I love that they just straight up confirmed our theories so casually at the start of ep. 7 with Sekyoung’s daughter reveal.

We love our intergenerational trauma. So basically Sekyoung treated her daughter exactly how her mom treated her… but perhaps worse, because her daughter was contemplating suicide??
Honestly, I would feel more bad for Sekyoung’s daughter if I didn’t find her so insufferable in her first few appearances and selfish on some level. like yeah, I do feel for her, Sekyoung is toxic beyond words. regardless, mental health issues is not an excuse to play with other people’s feelings or, um, wipe Eungyeol out of existence.

I dislike Chung-ah’s tsundere tendencies but they’re very understandable. But gosh, 🥺 Yichan and Chung-ah are so cute. It’s so wholesome how he makes her… happy? At peace? Plus, she’s such a love-struck dork gosh. HE CALLED ME BY MY NAME 🎶🎶🎶🎶 and all that.

I did like how Eun-gyu set up a board with photos and shit like she's a detective in a crime drama while trying to figure out her mom’s first love… meanwhile, Eun-gyeol had to go the ER T-T
Also, gotta admit, Eun-gyu’s snark and banter is genuinely endearing at times.

Damn did Eun-gyu straight up fall for Eungyeol… Bro got immaculate rizz frfr. But in all seriousness, I was kinda surprised that she likes him now? I hope they develop this further, bc it feels so half baked rn… I don't really feel the chemistry between Eungyeol & Sekyoung's daughter but I like their bickering ig

I love how Eun-gyeol just never manages to beat the gay allegations. tbh, we need to get his and Yichan’s actors in a BL. They got so much chemistry. Like, even at the end of ep. 8, Yichan’s speech just sounded like a love confession

I was so confused whether Eun-gyeol returned to his present or whether it was all a dream. I went from, “ayyo who is this woman…. Is this Sekyoung??” to “How do the brothers look the same even with diff moms?”
Whether it was a dream or not, it’s funny that maybe Sekyoung’s daughter is right… Sekyoung seemed happier and more loving with an alternate family & husband?

As to Chung-ah’s “family”…. Oh god. It's another makjang style inheritance plot. Yay I love those 🙄 and how did that ajumma go from live in tutor to his wife... You know what, idc. But hey, it's the Squid Game lady!
… and the corrupt guy from Bad Prosecutor. How is he a prick even in this? T-T Same with that poor lady, she was also a lil psycho in Revenge of Others…. Do you think she's tired of playing a bully AGAIN

I hope they don’t even try to redeem Chung-ah’s dad. Does this guy even love his daughter? But I'm sure we'll learn later he was doing all this to help her or some BS like that. It was so based of Eungyeol to straight up call his grandpa a colonizer

I was like initially like, do we need to see Yichan’s dramatic retelling of the ‘fight’ in full, can we just get back to the...

I didn't know I needed these four leads in a drama together until they showed up right in front of me. I think it's just crazy that despite not having any single spoken dialogue (except the narration) Shin Eunsoo manages to shine as much as the others and if that doesn't show how amazing she is in this one idk what will. I think I've watched her a lot, and in that one drama with Jang Hyuk I just thought she's gonna be that one young actress who is.. you know maybe fun to watch, but after Summer Strike she completely changed that view for me and she kept breaking my heart with these roles....

Love this so much. I started just a few days ago and caught up the the latest episodes. I love everything about the story line of the father/mother/son. I liked the introduction of the new time traveler Eun-gyu, but when they dived in on their backstory I was looking at the run time, because I wanted them to return the Eun Gyeol and his family.

I love this drama so much, and I love everyone in their roles and in their interactions with each other.

Chung-ha and Yi-chan bring on the the longing that hurts and feels so good at the same time. They take my breath away - individually and together.

Eun-yoo and Eun-gyeol - Hilarious! Love seeing them fight. It's good old-fashioned kdrama bickering and them getting under each other's skin and resisting their attraction to each other.

Eun-yoo and Yi-chan - Also hilarious because they are both self-absorbed and impulsive. They are the class clowns.

Chung-ha and Eun-gyeol - I love how EG protected his mom and is opening up her world. Just a heartwarming duo.

Eun-gyeol and Yi-chan - Another heartwarming duo. Yi-chan making all those efforts to find the missing Eun-gyeol and putting on a mini-concert for EG was adorable.

Part of me still suspects that Se-kyung was in love with Chung-ha. Once Eun-yoo gets close with Chung-ha (which I'm sure she'll attempt to do so that she can find out who the first love is), she'll pick up the clues.

I think it is hilarious that Eun-gyeol has sort of usurped Se-kyung's spot as school belle in episode 8. He's getting the serenade and pseudo-public-confession. And Eun-yoo, without the school uniform, played Yi-chan's role as the unwelcomed campus trespasser.

@Dramaddictally

Thank you for your very engaging weecaps.

I really appreciate your discretion as a writer. Your writing was strictly restricted to what the drama was showing (or intended to show) us and did not let even a wiff of the background murmuring (in the second week itself) of Se-kyung's daughter who was her doppelganger being a second time traveller, permeate your writing. Well done. 👏

Although there is no way you were unaware of this, but I liked the way you played along with the drama and let its reveal "surprise" you. Very impressive indeed and a clever piece of writing by not letting on more than what the drama was telling you at that moment or speculating beyond the story in the drama at that point.

In this day and age of abounding spoilers this is a very respectful approach for covering a drama. The fact that you did not succumb to temptation to reveal more is very commendable. Thank you. This is indeed the best (and old-school) way to enjoy dramas.

Respect!

I forgot to mention this and I don't think anyone has but Yi Chan's ears ringing. At first I thought this was the beginning of his hearing loss and he would associate that with Eun Gyeol which would lead to resentment. I thought maybe Eun Gyeol altered the time line of events leading to Yi Chan lossing his hearing earlier.

I'm still wondering if this is the start of the hearing loss but I'm also wondering if the accident Dad mentioned was just the final straw that led to the hearing loss. Maybe it was a gradual loss.

Also in addition to losing his hearing, in the current timeline, he lost his friend and that is sad to think about since they're so close in the past. There is a surprising amount of loneliness throughout this story when you think about it.

Hmmm, I don't know what to think about what might happen with the story. It's possible that Eun Gyeol prevents the accident that supposedly caused Dad's hearing loss but since he ended up with Cheong Ah, he still became fluent in signing.

I don't want that though haha. Even though the majority of the family was deaf, they were still happy and functioning (even though they definitely experience hardships to put it mildly). To change things to make things "neater" or more "normal" feels kinda weird to me. I just want Eun Gyeol to back to his regular family but I'm like 76% sure that the future will be altered somehow.