I’m mostly happy with this little drama. I really loved that it was about believable people dealing with realistic problems and having a realistic relationship, but still leaned into all the tropey nonsense I love about kdramas.

Obviously there are things I would have done differently. The mom character probably doesn’t need to exist in person at all, but if they are going to have her, I would rather Hu-yeong have a conversation with her and convince her that going to the States might have been the right call for her, but he’s ready to give things a go where he is. Then we wouldn’t have had her ridiculous lawsuit dramatics, and Hu-yeong could have gone back to tie things up before returning to Korea. I think this is what I’m going to convince myself actually happened and just ffwd through all her scenes in the last episode if I ever rewatch. I could also have done without Junho continuing to be the worst, but at least he’s consistent, and I’m sure it was in his contract that he has to appear in all the episodes.

But I LOVED the conversation Hong-ju had with Hu-yeong’s mom. Mom was trying to undermine the relationship from every single angle she could think of, and Hong-ju would not let herself be made insecure! I was also feeling slightly weird about Hu-yeong and Hong-ju’s awkward silences last week but this week we got to see them doing fun things together and being silly and cute and I feel much better about their relationship going forward.

I also liked the steps forward that both leads took. Hu-yeong started to make decisions for himself and take risks on things that are important to him. He’s not moving through his life on autopilot anymore and he’s trying things he’s bad at and I love that. Hong-ju learned to prioritize herself when it came to projects that were once her dream but are now damaging to her mental health, drew firm boundaries with her ex, and is in a healthier place where she isn’t so afraid of abandonment constantly.

Sang-pil remains a hero of this show and if they ever make a little 4 episode spinoff starring him and his cute restaurant, I’ll be there with popcorn ready.

I liked it, it was a cute little show and an easy way to pass the time. I especially liked what she told her ex. That no matter what she did, he would have left.

Also, was anyone else expecting the truck of doom? In the penultimate episode he was speeding and the camera ominously went back to the street sign "Accident prone area, slow down". Like Chekov's gun, I was waiting for the accident.

Kim So-hyun had the best chemistry with Lee Won-jung. I didn't think she had any chemistry with Chae Jong-hyeop or Yoon Ji-on. Matter of fact, Kim Da-som also had the best chemistry with Lee Won-jung. Was Sang-pil's first love Hye-ji? It seemed that way after he paused at her question. But then in the morning when Sang-pil hugged Hoo-young while sending him off to the airport, I thought maybe Hoo-young was his first love.

The concept of this show - first loves reuniting as adults would have been better off as a web drama, which are never bogged down with delusional exes and controlling mothers-in-law, so even with only 8 episodes, this drama felt overlong. I didn't like Hoo-young as a character, so I never shipped them, but the coincidence that his foot was in a cast because he had saved Hong-joo from a bicyclist was super cute. Overall, the drama was forgetful, but I did love its OST "Destiny" by Yungyu of 8TURN.

Hum... this drama gave us cute scenes with Kim So-Hyun and Chae Jong-Hyeop without them having to push their talent.

Now, for the story or the characters, nothing was really interesting. We never really saw CJH working, when he was at the office he didn't do anything... The way he just followed his mother like when he was young showed no change... He said he was ready to do what he wants, to try new things... but we have no idea what is. For KSH, they spent the whole drama about her working or not on the project. She chose not but I'm not sure why. She didn't have any feelings for the writer, neither regret...

At the end, we didn't get the 5 things he wanted to do with her.

Well, at least there was no serial killer...

Cute but unfortunately the plot was meddling for only an 8 ep drama.

I realize this is a modest, intended to be light romance written by a first time writer that until the ending was unexciting but perfectly pleasant. But I will primarily remember this show for its incredibly frustrating ending, because I THINK the ending was supposed to be happy, but it wasn’t. None of the relationships were satisfactorily resolved in a way that supported the "serendipitous" theme or contributed anything to thoughts about first love. Above all, instead of getting their comeuppance, the “bad” characters—the cold manipulative mom and the self-absorbed ex-boyfriend, totally triumphed. She gets to destroy their relationship by capitalizing on their time apart, and (as @attiton pointed out), he gets to publish a roman a clef, which will celebrate himself and humiliate Hong joo. @unit 's fishbone stuck in the throat analogy for the ending was perfect, so thank you for that!

In fact, to compare it to another light romance with a bad ending, I would have been more satisfied if Hoo-Young had turned out to be a half-human vampire who at the end was killed by a dagger made of hawthorne and silver by his sobbing vampire hunter Mom, showing that to be human was to be betrayed by your parents.

However, as far as that theme of parental betrayal, I do have to say, I did appreciate the Mom suing the son, and found that totally realistic, because as you mothers out there know, that's what Moms do to their children—treat them with contempt and then sue them. I remember well my Mom suing me for the first time, for doing something she that she didn't approve of when I was 29. Some of our most heartwarming family time was spent in court, and I’ll never forget those years.

As for the show, this fits with the trend of this year, as being another light romance that started out somewhat promisingly and then died a painful death. Luckily, I can turn to new episodes of Bad Memory Eraser, which, even though it too has a self-centered controlling Mom as a villain, it at least has an appropriate theme for this year's rom-coms!

this is one of the driest romance dramas I have watched lol and I watch a lot of them. I'm surprised because I love both leading actors but I didn't feel anything from them as a couple. thinking about it now, I think this might be a kim sohyun issue because I never felt chemistry in any of her adult romance roles tbh. and when I do not feel the chemistry of the main couple in a romcom/romance drama, all the other weak points look bigger than ever and I think this was the case. the writing was really poor, the editing was choppy, and there were a lot of continuity errors. I think the acting was ok but as I said, I never felt any of the romance. considering this drama took years to finally be out, I guess a lot of people were not sure about its quality.

Good as a gap filler, but nothing that will stay with me for long.

Too bad they wasted a lot of time on the mother and the uncle's uninteresting love story. Instead, it would have been better to use the time to show that FL and ML are actually in love with each other and, more importantly, why. What I saw was not really convincing.

I will never understand why terrible parents never get yelled at. I mean, your mother is suing you. You are a grown up man and totally entitled to live your own life and you let her drag you around whithout any fight? I know filial duty is strong in Korea, but in the year 2024 it really is just crazy.
So many things I ffed in this drama.
And the whole story, the relationship between those two in the end it really didn't make much sense to me. Those flashbacks painted a story and a relationship in the past that totally wasn't there at the beginning of the drama.

And the main leads acting was quite weak. I really truly loved Chae Jong Hyeop in Love all play and he really has a lovely, bright smile but in all the other scenes he just seemed... bored. It didn't even help that they made him smile a lot, because often a smile as a reaction was just weird and a bit creepy.
And one last complaint: MLs need to stop saving girls from bikes, motorbikes, cars! This is getting ridicolous! Are girls unable to survive alone in a city?? And infact Hong Ju even got hit by a car when he wasn't around.....................
I guess we can say that this drama frustrated me a lot XD

I think this could have named "Flashbacks to Love"

Also could have been named "My Mostly Boring Love Story."

His mom is crazy, but our OTP is adorable and I got what I came for.

Nice

This drama had potential, but it also had so many elements that just fizzled, flopped, didn't make sense, or were just plain alienating. KSH is easy to watch. CJH is easy to watch when he's smiling, or close to smiling, but his bored, unhappy, expressionless persona is really hard to root for.

Uncle Wook was mostly hilarious, but his unresolved feelings for his first love were a little hard to understand. She treated him badly, but we never found out why she dumped him back then and why she seemed to despise him now.

Hye-Ji's loveline with the phys ed teacher was cute until he suddenly overcame his shyness and uncharacteristically blurted out his "you have always been the only one for me, I love you." I felt like that was an easy wrap-up rather than something the character really would have said. Which was disappointing.

Sang-pil -- did he just exist to make food for everyone else and listen to their problems?

And Mom was just over the top.

Why did the drama set us up to believe that Hoo-young was going to make his own life, his own decisions, and stay in Korea, only to have him cave at the end? Why did the drama set us up to believe that Hong-joo was going to do what was right for her, staying in Korea, only to put her on a plane to the U.S., even if it was only for a vacation? I thought the ending was a letdown.

This show was fun to watch at times, but the inconsistencies and disappointments just kept coming. I'd like to see the cast in something else that is better thought out, and follows a consistent arc to an ending that makes sense.

An average drama should get an average grade, but I have to subtract half a point for that puzzling ending and for making me lost interest in just eight episodes. So a B- for you Serendipity.

Still, like others, I want more straight up rom-coms like this. Just better.

This show was sweet, and I enjoyed it.
It neither had time travel or serial killers, nor tried to be too tongue in cheek and make a statement, so a big plus right there.
The leads were comfortable with each other, with not too much aegyo.
The other couples and ex were a bit cringe as always, but the FF button made them handleable.
Mom was ok, I thought, and not really evil or anything- she gave FL money to be with her son, not go away, so a plus there too.
Chae Jong Hyop.
A little, immature, show, but just the right amount of candy to make hard news days easier for me, and that's all I want at the moment.

Thanks for the recap @unit
I enjoyed this drama but I am beginning to wonder if there are writers, actors etc. somewhere who feel aggrieved because the criticism about things not making sense are due to missing scenes that were filmed or written but were then edited out. That person would have felt like the kid in The emperor’s new clothes because they were the only one in the room saying ‘but won’t the audience need that bit for the story to make sense or for a sense of satisfaction?’

I, for one, will continue to watch rom coms that don’t have serial killers because I am ever hopeful that as the demand for realistic romances increases the writers will get to test out alternatives until they find the next winning formula. In the meantime, the serial killer plot lines which also often don’t make sense either are still being churned out as the standard, for some reason.

Thank you for the recap! I am so happy that I didn't read the recaps for this one as I watched. In fact, I watched the whole show over a few days after it was all up.

I liked the ending. We didn't know through most of the eighth episode what was going to happen with the OTP. It drives me crazy that no matter how short a rom com is, there is always a ton of filler in the last episode. Well, there wasn't much filler here.

Also, I like a love interest who goes to find his girlfriend when he wants to know where she is. As morose and sad and cold as his character seemed for the first half of the drama, Hu-yeong was not going to let some dumb miscommunication screw up his chance with his person.

Here's one thing I want to complain about. This couple were stranded in a ditch all night when they were in high school. How did they get out? Who decided that we didn't need to know that? Also, how does the ML ditch an interview where everyone is waiting for him and spend the night in a ditch with a girl and...his mom doesn't know who the girl is? She had to know. You don't think that maybe *this* was the reason she grabbed her kid and took him to the US? I get that the lawsuit is ridiculously controlling, OK. But I put myself in her shoes: if my kid spent a night standing up in a ditch in a random rural area when I was waiting for him at a university, I might have some feelings about that.

Also, and this is weird to me, did Hong-joo grow up in Hye-ji's house? If not, where did she grow up? Didn't her aunt and uncle ditch her?

I liked the tight pacing and positive vibes of this show, but I feel like maybe some of that was because they cut some stuff!

It was an easy watch but the pacing has not been the best.

Okay to fill the gap while waiting for MOM'S FRIEND'S SON.

Well, it was cute, and parts were charming. But I was annoyed by parts as well, so it's a mixed one for me. Maybe I would've enjoyed it more had I not just finished the wonderful Tell Me That You Love Me as a comparison.

What I liked: simplicity of love story with minimal angst. The two leads, I like both actors and they were cute together. FL standing up for herself against previous bf and current bf's mom. The girls' friendship. I did smile and laugh here and there, always a good sign. Hoo Young was like Castaway Diva character 2.0, serious but willing to do anything for his crush.

And what I did not: the SL storyline, most of the secondary characters, the disappearing noble idiot bf, one of my least favorite tropes, ugh, visions of Sam Soon. I found the uncle character to be whiny and super annoying. Except when he was sleeping, that was funny, seeing him fast asleep in various locations, I kept remembering Weekend at Bernie's. And the ending, while I'm glad they stayed together, I was vastly disappointed that his mom was winning at pushing her son around. After forcing a teenage Hoo Young to move to the US as soon as she noticed his interest in Hong Joo, and later lying to her and pressuring her to leave him, she pulls out a lawsuit to try to control him. I would have liked seeing less of the side stories and more time spent countering and winning against mom.

A just ok drama for me. And hey, a bean!

The lead couple had their cute moments. It was a simple romance with low angst. Low stakes. The short episode length made it an easy watch. The little surprise detail about Hoo Young's foot cast was a nice touch at the end!

There was a lull in my watchlist while this drama was airing. I doubt I would have kept up with it if I was too busy. Ultimately, it won't really be memorable. I did like seeing Lee Won Jung and haven't seen enough of his roles so hoping he gets better ones soon.