It is funny/ironic/whatever that the first episode of Lovely Runner featured an eclipse on the day an eclipse happened haha. Honestly, I was a bit taken out of it cause of the lack of solar glasses haha
Then again I was told it was safe to look at a TOTAL eclipse without glasses.

After learning this was based on a webtoon, I was tempted to look for it to see what happens but I shall resist haha. I'm just so curious and hungry for more of this show.
I think that this is one of those shows where rewatching after more is revealed will give added appreciation for what's come before. For example, I'm not 100% sure if Sun Jae recognized Sol over the phone or when he met on her bridge but after watching episode 2, those interactions hit differently.

Also one of the reasons I wasn't sure about Sun Jae's memory of her is because Sol's memory was portrayed as bad(?). She didn't remember her first crush/fan/stan focus so I just thought too/so much time had passed that maybe his memory was hazy too. It's probably a dumb leap but it's what came to mind.

Speaking of that crush, I wonder if/how he's related to her accident. I think he was the blurry image shown in her memory of it and the fact that they only alluded to him during the original future timeline makes me think he plays a bigger role in things somehow.

It's funny how she time traveled one day after she confessed to the guy when she didn't even remember who he was haha. Her whole interaction, with the hindsight perspective, was amusing to me.

The thing I like most about the episodes was the second hand embarrassment haha. That always made me chuckle. Sticking her fingers in his nostrils haha

I think the show has done a good job of establishing why Sol is such a devoted fangirl.

Lovely runner is indeed lovely LOL.
It were very good 2 eps. The main characters are so alive and well acted so you are rooting for them right in the spot.
I think there is more in this story above romance bcs of the incident after which Sol end up in wheelchair.
I liked every single character in this drama and pace is also quite good.
Really looking forward to Mondays now ;)

This was fun!

1. I really like how the story connected them. Sometimes fangirling is just that. A little light in the darkness.

And I'm sure we all understand her desperation to do the same for him. To give him a little of light... But omo. My girl, I get it, but you better put your shirt together. Why did common sense stayed in 2023?
If you don't want to give "first days as a sasaeng" vibes, you better stop telling lies. You're bad at it.

It's obvious our girl didn't watch kdramas in the OG timeline. 😂 She's all over the place.

If "going back in time to save my favorite idol/character" is a new trend, I'm here for it. I just which Sol had a little help from her sunbae from Love for Love's Sake. That dude even had the ML chasing for him, while Sol is keeps kicking her ML too the other side of the room.

Even if the ML likes her and wants to be with her, she's being so weird he can't. 😭😂😂

I feel like the 13 years they lived were a dream, because this girl is giving 30 but 17 vibes. You all sure she wasn't in a coma?

2. I'm curious about the ML and his relationship with his dad, and his relationship with the members of Eclipse, and his reasons behind his decision. He's such a nice kid, I really hope that whatever that happened in 2009 to break him like that changes. I don't think it was the shoulder/swimming...

And what happened during his 5-years break? Why didn't he retired back then?
And when/how did he loose his watch?

This guy is just a question mark. I like that.

3. I feel like we have a really cute show ahead of us. Sol and her family are sweet and fun. They're so bright and energetic!
The ML is very cute too.
The leads have great chemistry!

And I want the SL to become besties with them? High school dramas need friendship, imo.

Anyway, I really like this show. Great energy to start the week!

4. Is it me or the music in this show sounds old? Except for that second they played Genie (Yuri's cameo was everything), nothing really sounds like something from 2009.
The track they play when they show "the distance" between the leads sounds like something from the 80's.
I'm not complaining, it just confuses me. LOL

I liked Eclipse's songs. I wasn't expecting that type of ballad for their debut song, tho. Hahaha.

The leads are really cute together and I love how the female lead switched boy camp overnight (we know what happened but the leads don’t). I LOL-ed at the embarrassment she felt reading her own love letter. He he. I felt it.
I am usually not too thrilled about timeslip but the leads are wonderful and I will be continuing for them.

So, so, so, so good this show! I was totally charmed and touched from the get go with no notes because this show strikes the perfect balance between charm, quirk, story and heart. The chemistry of the leads is amazing and their timing--comedic and romantic--is impeccable. Kim Hye Yoon has that X factor that infuses Sol with spunk and emotional depth that just makes you want to adore her, root for her and watch what happens. Byun Woo Seok as Sun Jae ah (because really now we can't hear that and not call him that) is great in his ability to receive that energy of Sol and show all the conflicting emotions of confusion, curiosity and awe.

It's so hard to put into words how and why drama works because it would be like dissecting magic, and I, for one, don't want to do that. There were so many funny scenes--the swimming meet hug, the fingers up the nose, the bus to school-- but they are also infused with heart such that I was laughing and touched at the same time. I want them to continue this magic, and I am grateful to have a drama where I can trust that thing they do and have not a single "what if they did this? or why did they do that?" triggered. Thank you, Lovely Runner, I am in your capable hands.

Byeon Woo-seok is so beautiful. How have I not known about him? JFC what a face.

Back to the show. That last reveal of him being in love with her added more depth and squee factor to a drama I was already in love with at this point.
I have a hypothesis that he didn't injure his shoulder at a competition, but when he saved her from that accident and that he became an idol for her.

I love love the first two episodes! Sol is just so adorable, their story is all sort of swoony and Sun Jae harboring a crush on her first is wonderful icing on the cake. I am fervently hoping this will have a happy ending with Sol and Sun Jae getting to live out their lives together until old age.
Of course it will not be all rainbows yet since there is still the mystery of her accident and his in the future to figure out. I get a feeling that Sun Jae was the one that saved her. But I wonder why her Mom is not talking about it at all years later.
This show is a keeper and I hope it continues to be good until the last episode.

I really liked this drama but... I feel like the reveal at the end kind of ruined the tension for me? I don't know, I guess I like romances that show emotional development of romantic feelings and some question of "will they or won't they?" That's why I often am disappointed by dual POV romance novels where you learn that both characters are really into each other. Or even if they'd held out a little bit longer in revealing his feelings, I really was enjoying the angst. Also, like, he has every valid reason to avoid her. The friend request rejection made perfect sense to me, lol.

I still like it and I'm gonna continue watching it, but that ep 2 ending sort of deflated the excitement I was feeling.

I will just lay out my adoration for this drama right here. I love everything about it. Everything!

Right there with you, @dramaddictally!

This show packs all the distinctive tropey charms of a teen idol romance kdrama in one appealing, heart-clutching (to use @Dramaddictally's terminology) story that even made me, a woman who is decidedly NOT a fangirl, and who finds kpop super cringey, squee.

Because I'm not a fangirl, I often struggle with scenes of women (especially women in their 30s) losing their minds over a member of a boy band, even if he's as handsome and charismatic as Byun Woo-seok. I just . . . can't with the cardboard cutouts, headbands, and other juvenile signs of obsession. But this one pulled me in with the backstory of how Sol became a rabid fan. Because Sun Jae quite literally made her want to live after her accident, it makes sense that she would become so devoted to him and the band. I also loved how the show slowly revealed the ways that Sol had already affected Sun Jae (although it's also so typical of this genre that even a very understandable, age-appropriate act like a 19 year old boy hiding a copy of "Basic Instinct" under his bed had to ultimately be given a completely vanilla explanation). This world the drama is depicting is pure fantasy, but it does have enough intricacy and intelligence to make me want to happily follow wherever these characters leads.

The height difference, scenes involving rain and water more generally, and any time Sun-jae steals glances at Sol all work together to create a very swoony watch.

I do have a few quibbles.

Why is it that with Tae-sung, Sol seemed very much like her 30-something self, scolding him for smoking and rolling her eyes at his Jr. Don Juan antics but with Sun Jae she's back to acting like a teen with no impulse control or maturity?

Along the same lines, there was one missed opportunity for a hilarious reversal. When Sun Jae tries to get rid of Sol by opening the room to the workout room, thereby revealing a bunch of well developed male torsos, I really wish she had reacted like a more worldly, adult woman (even if we're supposed to believe that due to her accident, she's probably a virgin who has never even been kissed) rather than immediately covering up her eyes. Sol acting nonchalant, smiling in delight, or simply not reacting at all (like "Heh. 19 year old guys without their shirts on are soooo 15 years ago for me") would have been much funnier.

But still, I want more of these two together.

Started with a BANG, I love love love that he had a crush on her first. It makes the story more interesting and adds great texture to all the previous scenes before it. I was wondering why he was oddly jealous and now it makes sense. I think I am going to like this.

I am in love with this drama.. watched the first two episodes and then re-watched them.. You have to re-watch them to get the clues.. I am hoping Im Sol is not in a wheelchair in the future but because this is Kdrama land and because episode 1 hinted at it.. I think she loses her memories somehow.. I am not sure but I am guessing..

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Sun Jae was already crushing on our female lead.. and I am excited to watch their love story unfold..

So am wondering if in the original timeline, he leaves her alone because she had the accident and he doesn’t contact her out of guilt and grief which leads to his eventual suicide. It would have been lovely if they had connected much earlier, he could have helped her cope with her life-altering injury without ablism coming into play because of the timeslip and she could get to know him as the person who crushed on her. I know this wouldn’t have been made but still.

"her wheelchair runs out of battery"

Surprise, surprise. They can't even keep their phones charged in Kdramaland. Wonder how they'll handle electric cars.

Im in love with these two so much its unreal.

Praying HARD that the series maintains its plot consistency well or ill cry

Come on! I have believed so much of the unbelievable in dramaland. But asking me to buy Sol did not notice Sun-jae under that baseball cap “disguise,” not even once during high school? Granted, it was a big school, but surely she spotted 1cm of Byeon Woo-seok's 189cm standing head above the crowd, with cheekbones that could cut ice, lips that could melt it and slurp it down. No, it defies all logic, even drama logic.

Other than that, cute, cute. It’s a bit childish for lil ol’ me but feels like the sparkly love child of Twinkling Watermelon and Extraordinary You. (Didn't KHY just slip back into that uniform like she never took it off?) Oh, and Some Day. With that last in mind, I have joined the manifestation circle formed by @lapislazulii for a happy ending. 

PS Despite the BWS fangirling, wasn’t the 2ML fun? Poor fella, his heart’s gonna break unless we get a fun little quadrangle with Sol’s bestie.

I just finished the first episode and will be back with my thoughts but wanted to swing by to say I have seldom loved ep 1 this much of any show.

I’m staying away from the source material and spoilers, but I wish I had a magic watch that would let me see the Ep. 15/16 recap’s opening sentence and reassure me that this drama stays this delightful all the way through. It’s so lovely to see Byun Woo-seok smiling after the train wreck that SGNS became. And I’m impressed that he sang Eclipse’s songs himself. I loved the revelation that Sun-jae and Sol crushed on each other at different times — it brings balance and depth to their relationship.

Ah, once upon a time it was Haru-yah~~~; now we get Sunjae-yah~~~. Kim Hye Yoon is back!
 
I had already loved the drama from the first episode; the heroine is so cute and easy to root for, but after the last few minutes of episode 2, I was full on obsessed. Rewatching their interactions up until that point with new context really changes everything. 
 
With the radio phone call, I just thought he's an incredibly chill guy since he barely reacted when Sol screamed at them through her phone, unlike others in the room, and he seemed mature beyond his age in how he responded to her and encouraged her to live on. But now, it's clear that he knew who she was and her condition when she picked up the call, and those words he said to her carried more meanings. I'm sure he's been waiting for the chance to say that to her, because he was actually one of the people who's thankful that she's alive. Also, he introduced himself as Ryu Sun Jae, not Eclipse's RSJ, as if he was hoping she would remember him from their high school days.
Another point that I thought was weird was that he looked a bit disappointed when her friend showed up on the bridge and he couldn't give her a ride home anymore. Or that his 19-year-old self was way too tolerant of her crazy antics and got jealous wayyy too fast.
 
The reveal was done really well; it not only increased the emotional weight but also lessened the slightly negative implications of Sol throwing herself at him and crossing boundaries to interfere with his life (in spite of her good intentions) and him potentially falling in love with her while she's doing that. Him already crushing on her and kind of letting her get away with a lot because he's actually enjoying her attention makes this blossoming romance easier to invest in. 
 
I did have a gripe about Sol acting not at all like a 34-year-old whenever she was with SJ. But I guess it made sense since (1) she was his fangirl, (2) she had always perceived SJ as someone her age, and (3) TS stayed forever a 19-year-old from her past, so she saw him and treated him as a boy.

I loved the first 2 episodes!

The FL is so fun and lovely. It's funny how she's still an adult in her head and her past crush has no power on her anymore. She still needs to work on her excuses. It was very touching to see her reactions to her family.

It was a nice reveal to see the ML fell for her the first. He had to be so surprised to see her so active with him. I wonder how the show will manage the difference of age.

I think we got a lot of cute scenes but there are a lot of mysteries :
- His death, is it really a suicide? He just saw Sol before.
- The fire at her house
- Her car accident

Oh, something else I noticed- During the concert- Sun-Jae starts talking at the beginning of his piano solo, then we switch to Im-Sol outside, and she ( and us, with the switch) can no longer hear what SJ is saying in his introduction I'm betting that what he said was important/relevant

The drama is a blast. The characters are likable, the cast is spot on (Kim Hye-yoon is nailing her role), the writing is solid, the mystery is interesting, .... What more can I ask for? Sol is living her dream of meeting her idol and I am living my dream of watching an entertaining drama.🎊🎊🎊🎆🎆

@dramaddictally It is so good to see recaps where the recappers are much bigger fans than beanies. First it was @unit with her KSH oppa, now you with BSW 😂😂 The recap is as energetic as Kim Hye Yoon.

Im Sol is such an hyperactive bunny. I got teary eyed in the scene where she sheds happy tears on meeting her idol. That there is great acting because it requires more talent to make viewers shed tears when the character is happy. The FL has great chemistry with both the leads, so let the drama be filled with hearts like @dramaddictally wants to fill rest of the page with hearts.

I don't want to harsh anyone's squee, as we used to say in the 1970s, but what actually appealed to me about especially the first episode was not just the cute fangirling, but the certain sadness behind the female lead's forced cheeriness. Her wheelchair confinement cost her not only a job--obviously they don't have much of an ADA enforcement in Korea--but also (because of struggles to get on the bus) her ticket, separated her from the rest of the crowd, and prevented her from hearing what proved to be the last song performed of her idol, and then there was the suicide.

Of course the second episode was more lighthearted and conventionally high school rom-commy, but are we really sure that the appearance of a photo on the table that still had the empty liquor bottles and pills scattered on it means that she merely needs to be by his side at key moments to save him? After all, she can't change the timeline directly, that causes everybody to go black and white and freeze.
It all depends on what the watch signifies--is it something that allows a change in the timeline, or is it some other metaphoric talisman?

By the way, I had a similar watch in the 1980s. If I dug it out and pressed the time button would it flash me back to graduate school, when I was among the fanbois waving my light stick to "Bette Davis Eyes?"

Adding my love to the drama and appreciation for @dramaddictally's fangirling - so glad to have your recaps blazing adoration like a neon headband!

As others have said, I'm thinking Sun-jae's decision to become an idol was inspired by Sol, but I'm wondering why an idol. Yep, his best friend is in a band; yep, the girl he likes seems to have a thing for another musician kid. Is that it? Or is there more to it? Looking forward to finding out - and already knowing it will set off my heart eyes...

I also enjoyed the heck out of this, and so looking forward to Byun Woo-seok finally getting the little powerhouse that his heart is yearning for (I'm looking at you, Strong Girl Nam-soon).

.... And I only just realised this could be manslaughter/murder. I don't think he was alone. The doorbell on his apartment is sounding just before he crashes into that pool. The pills are out when he is on the balcony, so he is having some issues, but I don't think the issues are the only reason he died.
Also, the watch flashes at Zero, probably right when he crashes into the pool/dies. But then when it turns on later its at three. ( Three what? Looks like hours, but could mean three of anything)

omg the time stopping thing is the most interesting thing so far!!!
she can use it to her advantage for random stuff like if she wanted to win against those bullies in the change room, she yells out something about the future and can just move freely while doing so?? hope the story makes use of this cuz there's infinite room for shenanigans!! c:

An underlying aspect of this drama is the erasing of Seoul’s older neighbourhoods in the quest for profit. Are there any dramas which include this issue in an intelligent and somewhat realistic way?