‘ Siwon needs to start picking better projects’ 👈🏾 Are you thinking this after his role in Love is for Suckers? I agree episode 15 was not needed at all so frustrating.

The slow mail concept has been shown in other dramas where the letter/postcard arrives a year after they post it. I didn’t get why they showed it in this drama though as we didn't see the postcard being delivered🫤

I could not even watch as much as you. I wated 1-4 then read recaps and then to 16. And even then I wasted too much time on this drama. Big fan of Siwon, but back you up on the statement that he needs to choose wiser.

I just realised this must have been a mortgage payment role for Siwon. It looked harmless enough in the early episodes, he is getting up there in age for male lead roles. I can forgive actors for the occasional random drama I just need to get better at identifying these dramas and walk away quickly or stay for the bean and save my write up for the Bean of disappoint post.

sighs, yes to siwon needing better projects. there aren't enough affidable rom.com writers anyway.

Was disappointing to me also.

Great summary of the missing issues not dealt with - glaring holes there. However, I have to admit, my mind was so numbed and apathetic by the end I hardly failed to register the holes. Yes, that's how poor it was - it simply made me care less and less each week. Completer gene got me to ep16 :)

What happened to the fast growing hair??? The only fun thing about this drama was killed under 10 minutes.

Honestly I don't feel like the lady firefighter/doctor love story was resolved well, either. Love is great and I fully believe they're in love, but she REALLY wants kids and he can't have them. Won't that pose an issue later on?

‘For example, it turns out the reason why the mother withheld affection from her children is that she blamed her husband's sentimentality for his decision to commit suicide’👈🏾I must have slept through that 3 minute reveal as I completely missed this. Thank you for adding this reveal here as that mum was frustrating me no end with her lovely relationship with the second female lead and disgraceful behaviour towards her birth children. I could not understand the happy beach flashback at all.
Maybe future lurkers would benefit from your insights on all 13+ characters’ resolved or left hanging arcs. I have benefitted from your perspective as clearly I watched an alternative version of this drama.

Take your time and don't feel obligated to write a war and peace style essay. I don't want to kill the joy😊

Han So-Ri. She is FL's biological sister. She is also a colleague of 2FL and has a professional rivalry with her. She is abandoned by her mother and feels uncomfortable around her older sister. She partly blames her older sister for the death of her father because she wasn't able to save him when he committed suicide. Because of her trauma, she tries to avoid her family. But, it is revealed that she actually loves her sister very much and she is frustrated by her because her sister still has affection for her family members despite their avoidance. And, it hurts her to see her sister get repeatedly hurt. While the layers of the relationship between her and her mother and her sister is shown in this series, there is no real development. Her primary purpose in the series is to show that sometimes people treat other people badly out of their own frustration. Also, love can make you try to avoid someone because you can't treat them the way you think they deserve to be treated.

Yi Myung. He is Fr Andrea's brother. As a child, he knocks over a kerosene lamp that burns down his Mother's greenhouse with his mother inside. After her death, he approaches ML's father to take care of him and his brother. Instead of adopting them into his family, he sends them to an orphanage. He is adopted from the orphanage to a family that abuses him. He kills them in a fire. He is sent back to the orphanage/jail. When he gets out of jail, he attends the grand opening of the Sim hospital. He is jealous of Yeon-wu's life and vows revenge on his family. He kills a lot of people associated with ML including his father, half-brother, and father's fiancé. He tries to kill So-Jin and Yeon-wu. He illogically feels like he was entitled to the life that ML has. He initially presents as an angry and jealous person. However, we learn that his rage is misdirected because he blames himself for causing his mother's death. He is caught by the police, but decides to burn himself to death because he can't deal with his guilt. His preferred method of murder is to use a plant whose seeds only germinate in a fire to conceal his incendiary device. It is a symbol of rebirth. He views fire as a cleansing symbol and initially views the death of his mother as a cleansing of her affair with a married man. However, it is all a cover for the guilt he feels for her death. He deeply loves his mother. His role is to show how love can turn into guilt and rage. Guilt for bad things that happen to the person you love. And, rage against the people who wronged the person you love.

Fr Andrea. His father died when he was young and his mother died in a fire when he was 14. He loved his parents very much. He grew up in a Catholic orphanage. At the orphanage, he learned his faith from the nuns. He later attended divinity school and became a priest. ML's father sponsored his schooling and he is grateful for the financial aid. He feels obligated to pay back the support by becoming a priest and helping others. His faith helped him deal with the loss of his parents. (The people we love who we lost are reborn as flowers in our hearts.)

He has a twin brother. They have a supernatural connection, which gives him certain knowledge of his brother's actions. He is aware that his brother is a serial arsonist. He feels guilty about not being able to stop him. He initially believes that the only thing that he can do for his brother is to pray for him. This coincides with his vocation. However, he later learns that he is afraid of his brother and that becoming a priest is a means of running away from his brother by running to the Lord.

He is attracted to A-ri. First, because she is pathologically shy. He sees that she is generous with the church and devoted to the faith, but also wounded and he wants to help her. Later, he learns that she is suffering from similar experiences and they share a bond. Through conversations with her, he comes to terms with his own guilt for not stopping his brother and his fear that makes him run away from his brother.

In the end, he realizes that he should have been there as an older brother to his dongsaeng and that people need more than prayers, they need healthy enduring connections to help them get through their personal problems. He realizes this because his relationship with A-ri helped him get through his personal problems. He is one of several characters who initially idealizes love, but that concept actually creates a separation from the people around him. In the end, he quits being a priest and starts a relationship with A-ri not because he lost his faith, but because he has a different calling.

A-ri. She is the best friend and sometimes roommate of the FL. They are also co-workers and she also fetishizes science. She is a lover of artisanal food and she has a match-making dog. As a child, her friend was killed by bullies on a school trip. As her friend was bullied, she hid in a closet. She developed severe anxiety and sometimes sleeps in So-Jin's closet because she can detach herself from the world. She takes anti-anxiety medication, but stopped taking it because she was becoming dependent on it. Another reason she hides in the closet is because she is ashamed she didn't try to stop the bullies. So, she avoids human interaction because she feels unworthy of love. She goes to church to find forgiveness. There she sees Fr Andrea and falls in love with him. However, she actively avoids direct interaction, which interests Fr Andrea. When she is hiding in an armoire on the street, Fr Andrea finds her and sits in the closet with her, moving into her world. Finding the courage from this gesture, she confesses her past to him, but she still does not heal from the confession. While she is crying on a bench, he tells her that she has been suffering for a long time and that the suffering will allow her to shine in the future. And, the future is now. Also, to ease her guilt toward her dead friend, he tells her that the people we lose in our life are reborn as flowers in our heart. She finds comfort in this. Both of these ideas refocus her from the past pain to a future of possibilities, where she can be a flower for someone else in the future. She is someone whose past memories prevent her from finding love. As soon as she is freed from her past, she is able to love herself and express her interest in Fr Andrea.

Sung-Mi. She is a firefighter, sunbae of the 2ML, kickboxer, athlete badass. She meets Jung-Tam on the street and he happens to be the hubae of the ML. She goes to him for female hormone injections because no guy has ever looked at her as a woman. Jung-Tam is shocked because he finds her extremely attractive and tells her that he will treat her condition but will not give her the hormone injections that she wants because she doesn't need it. He chases after her using FL's destiny playbook. She is charmed by his forwardness and decides to show him how much of catch she is by fighting a UFC fighter. She is a try-hard and believes that she can get what she wants through effort. Jung-Tam is extremely hurt when she gets beat up and can't look at her. At that moment, he reveals his feelings and they kiss. Because both of them lack dating experience, they get into disagreements because they have very different interests and it leads to compromises and jealousy. But, after they consummate their relationship, Jung-Tam reveals that he is infertile. They break up. Jung-Tam goes on a dating show and trauma dumps on the other contestants because he still loves her. Sung-Mi is impressed by his devotion and goes back to him.

Sung-Mi's love story is the most straightforward. She wants to be noticed and loved and is attracted to Jung-Tam who loves her specifically for all the masculine things that make her insecure. However, because she is inexperienced, relationship challenges are new to her, which makes her break up with Jung-Tam until she is able to resolve the issues internally.

Jung-Tam. He is the hubae of the ML. He is an endocrinologist. He faints at the sight of blood and he is infertile. He falls in love with Sung-Mi. They successfully get together by the end of the show. He doesn't intentionally hide the fact that he is infertile, but it comes out anyway. He is inexperienced at romance and often relies on Yeon-woo and others for romantic advice. He successfully uses the manufactured destiny/telepathy to succeed romantically. Let me explain. He asks So-Jin whether coincidentally meeting at a bakery is destiny. She says that this is just a coincidence. The important thing is to meet after sending out a nonverbal signal to the partner. He mentions this in his wedding speech after saying that Sung-Mi is his destined partner. Here, it serves to critique the idea that a thoughtless coincidence is all that is needed to fall in love. Rather, it is the mutual intention of the two destined lovers to seek out their destined partner that acts as providence and creates a destiny. This along with Io, a moon of Jupiter, seem to be the main romantic themes of the show. But, more on that with our main pair.

A brief aside from the summaries to talk about storylines that were obviously cut. First, it is unclear how and when Yi-myung got the baby he brought to Sim Hospital. Did he find an abandoned baby or did he kill parents of an abused baby? Second, there are two actors who are well known but receive few lines and plot, comedian Yi-rang and Min-sung. Were they supposed to be another couple? They have no character arcs which is weird considering they have such high billing.

Everything you need to know about baby Pu-reum. Her mom's mother committed suicide when she was 17. Her mom, Yeong-a, was depressed ever since and wants to die. After she finds out she is pregnant, her mom tries to commit suicide. She is saved by firefighters including 2ML. Pu-reum has a congenital defect called Edwards disease or chromosome 18 trisomy, which means she has an extra chromosome. 13 in 100 die in the first year. The longest anyone has survived with the condition is at least 40. Her mom also has pulmonary hypertension. Dr Yeon-woo states that only 6 in 10 moms survive pregnancy. But, this seems incorrect according to my research. It is high risk and pregnancies are not advised. After Yeon-woo advises her to terminate her pregnancy, Yeong-a tries to jump off the Sim Hospital. She is saved by So-Jin. She also meets Dr Yo-han, another OB-GYN. They start a relationship. Dr Yo-han's brother is sick, which makes it difficult for him to marry. This is likely because the time and financial burdens are heavy. Yo-han is also depressed by nature. But, his brother gives him a reason to live. Yo-han and Yeong-a comfort each other from their depression and give each other strength. Their love keeps them positive and wanting to live. Pu-reum is born after a difficult childbirth where Yeong-a almost dies. It is a miracle. They are currently living happily as a family. This is the kind of life giving love that the FL is seeking and makes Yeon-woo reconsider his decision to break up with her.

Myung-Hui. She is FL's mother. She is a conceptual artist. She has two children. After her husband committed suicide, she emotionally abandoned her children and now that they are grown, they only meet as a family once a year to commemorate the death. She has a "motherly" relationship with 2FL. It is unclear what that means, but they meet often socially and they regularly communicate with each other. (I don't understand how this differs from an aunt-niece relationship.) Her daughter gets a benign tumor in her uterus and she doesn't reschedule her appointments to be with her during surgery. She is later diagnosed with lung cancer. She wants to call her children for support but she feels too ashamed to call them. It is unclear if she feels ashamed at her behavior or shame that she has a moment of weakness. She goes to Fr Andrea's church to pray. Her children and Mi-un discover that she has lung cancer. They are upset she didn't tell them. She says that the reason she didn't involve them is that she blames their father's death on his overly sentimental personality and that she didn't support them growing up because she wanted them to grow up strong and independent enough to deal with their own problems and not be like their father. Apparently, she was very broken emotionally by the loss of her husband and there is a lot of resentment toward him and fear of being hurt by others in the future. She doesn't get much development, but her motivations are explained. Her arc shows the risk of losing someone that you love and the emotional cost of that loss.

I was hoping to get to the main characters, but I realize that MDL doesn't have a few key characters in its cast list. So, I will add one more character from the Asianwiki page that I think is important.

Jang-Mi. She is ML's mother. She comes from a wealthy family. After falling in love with ML's father, they marry. He is never faithful to her and is constantly pursuing romantic trysts during their marriage.

When Yeon-wu is a child, they have a big fight. He moves out. She has someone follow him. But, she doesn't contact him the entire time, but waits patiently for his return after each tryst ends. However, while she waits, she withdraws to herself and badmouths Yeon-wu's father.

She is concerned when one of his partners gets pregnant. She gets skin treatments at So-Jin's medical center. She sees how So-jin freely gives her love to everyone around her and wishes that So-jin would date her son and give him the love that she wasn't able to give him.

She is the victim of arson after she tries to save Yeon-wu's father when he is passed out in her burning greenhouse. She realizes that she hurt Yeon-wu emotionally causing him to blame his father for the family dysfunction. But, she also didn't give Yeon-wu love growing up causing him to be skeptical of love.

After she wakes up from her coma. She realizes that her obsessive devotion to her husband wasn't motivated by love. Instead, it was motivated by jealousy. She thought that she was entitled to have him to herself because they are married. His lack of faithfulness offended her own sense of justice because she felt that she should be uniquely entitled to his romantic affection. She says this to Yeon-wu not to apologize for her behavior, but to move on from her past and ask him move into the future without being restricted by her past actions. She seeks a new start in the US to get medical treatment for herself and her son.

Her arc is meant to show how emotional attachment is different from love and how some people can misattribute their jealous actions to love when they are just being one-sided and obsessive.

Mi-Eun. She is the 2FL. She is a relationship advice writer and self-proclaimed polyandrous. She is constantly harassed for stating this opinion. Her relationship approach boils down to two factors. First, she says that exclusivity isn't necessary in a relationship. Second, she says that the purpose of a relationship is to be accepted as you are by your partner and that being accepted by another person is a kind of freedom. This second point ties into the first point because she is simultaneously pursuing freedom and acceptance. In a conversation with Yeon-wu, she asks if he accepts her. He says that he does. She also asks why he didn't pursue the relationship. He tells her that he doesn't feel any attachment to her and enjoyed the distance between them during the relationship. Yeon-wu describes it as a relationship where there was nothing left to do. At this point, Mi-un realizes that her relationship approach is not novel at all. Rather, she is simply advocating for friends with benefits.

She decides to actively pursue Yeon-wu. They get along well and have similar interests, but he is not interested in her romantically. She actively tries to get in the way of Yeon-wu and So-jin. But, she doesn't know how to interest him in a relationship. She gets frustrated and asks him to move in with her after he gets dumped by So-jin. He leaves for the US instead. She realizes that while she is good at setting up boundaries in a relationship, she is unable to love other people. Her approach to relationships was simply self-satisfaction of her desire for acceptance and attention from men and her desire for individual freedom. In the end, she tells her audience that she is working on her own understanding of relationships by learning to love one person. She starts a relationship with Kang-hoon.

Her role in the story seems to criticize people who act like know it alls in a relationship and set rules for their own comfort. But, it also criticizes people who confuse the desire for attention with love. Ultimately, she has personal growth by doing exactly the opposite of what she advises. And, the story seems to recommend being bold and diving head-first into relationships and suggests that avoiding failures in relationships is the worst thing you can do. While Mi-un fails to seduce Yeon-wu, she succeeds at personal growth and that is more important.

Kang-hoon. Fire fighter, 2ML, dongsaeng of ML, hubae of Sung-mi, devoted son... When he was young, his mother gets sick. I assume it is brain cancer. She forgets who he is and he goes to the park and cries. So-jin finds him and tells him that she will remember him for his mom. His mother passes away. He is in too much shock to cry and he has to be strong for his father who is heartbroken because of his loss. So-jin cries for him. As children, she acts like a big sister to him and gives him the love and attention that his parents aren't able to give him. He is appreciative of her. When her father commits suicide, Kang-hoon is there in the ambulance as a fire fighter, but it is too late.

He blames himself for not being able to protect So-jin. He decides to protect her for the rest of his life. He does this because he is in love with So-jin but he doesn't realize it. He is voluntarily celibate and also doesn't realize it is because he is in love with her.

He is possibly So-jin's DNA match. A DNA match is a combination of pheromones, matching genetic tendencies and preferences, which might have telepathic powers. He plays basketball in Yeon-wu's jersey and So-jin tests the jersey for DNA compatibility and finds out that it is a match for her.

After catching So-jin when she falls from the stairs and kissing her, he realizes that he is in love with her. However, because she is in love with Yeon-wu, he decides to help them be together. When they breakup, he even encourages Yeon-wu to reconsider.

When Yeon-wu decides not to pursue So-jin, Kang-hoon decides to pursue her. They date, but So-jin is still in love with Yeon-wu. He helps save So-jin after she is kidnapped. However, after Yeon-wu leaves to the US for treatment, it is clear that So-jin is not in love with him. So, they stop seeing each other.

He and Mi-un mutually console each other. They start a relationship.

His love story emphasizes timing and taking the initiative. Secondary characters constantly emphasize timing and confessing in their conversations with him. He has had several opportunities to confess to So-jin throughout the years but didn't do it until she was already in love with Yeon-wu. In fact, early on in the series, So-jin takes A-ri's dog to look for her soulmate and she runs into him walking his neighbor's dog. But, he lets this chance pass him by.

There is the implication that he doesn't pursue So-jin because he doesn't want to lose his friendship with her if it doesn't work out. So, perhaps his story is meant to emphasize taking risks in relationships and not letting past events hinder the pursuit of love. Because his pursuit is unsuccessful, maybe the point is to value the people who show you love and pursue them without hesitation before it is too late. Or maybe, the point is that there is a difference between caring for someone else and romantic love. His romantic gestures seemed to work on a lot of...

Yeon-woo. He is the ML. He is an OB-GYN surgeon and director of the hospital his dad founded. As a child, he witnesses his father's cheating. His father almost decides to leave his mother for Fr Andrea's mother. However, he confronts her and she dies in a fire.

His father decides to leave his mother anyway and he blames him for ruining his mother's life. He reasons that because his father gave his mother expectations that they would be together forever, his father is responsible for his mother's heartbreak.

He has never said I love you because he doesn't want to give anyone else false expectations and ruin their lives. He is viewed as a player because he is pursued by many women. However, he avoids serious relationships and has never been in love with another woman. He breaks up with women as soon as they annoy him or become too needy. Ironically, even though he sets up boundaries in his relationships, they still often end messily.

He dated Mi-un and gets along well with her. They have similar tastes and interests and she has never annoyed him or been too demanding with his time. He enjoys his alone time and does puzzles in his spare time. (On a side note, the puzzle that he does in Ep 1 is entitled the kiss and it is by Gustav Klimt and is an idealized representation of the emotional beauty of love, which is ironic.) They break up uneventfully because neither prioritize their relationship.

He gets involved with So-jin and they date. He accepts every weird quirky thing about So-jin. He really likes everything about her even the parts that embarrass So-jin. He is very supportive of her. He is impressed by her willingness to sacrifice herself for others. She jumps off a building for a stranger.

She also listens to him and she points out that he stresses himself out and never gives himself a break. She gives him tools to deal with his stress and shows him how to live a life that is beautiful even after suffering. This impresses him because of his family history. He falls in love with her and his personality starts to change because of his love for her.

However, he is unwilling to say I love you to So-jin because he doesn't want to give her the expectation that they will be together forever. He doesn't want to be the cause of her future suffering. She is annoyed by this and they almost break up because while she recognizes they might break up, she rightly recognizes that he is not acting like he is committed to the relationship long term and that this perspective is a problem.

He is a people pleaser. He lies to So-jin to make her happy. He does this because he is interested in her. But, also, he tries to avoid confronting So-jin with the things that make her unhappy. This becomes a problem in their relationship because So-jin feels manipulated. He thinks that this is him being supportive. But, So-jin rightly points out that he is putting a distance between them as he has done in all...

So-jin. She is the main protagonist of this show. As a young adult, her father commits suicide. Her mother distances herself from the family. She is starved for love because both parents were unavailable during her childhood. She goes out of her way to help other people because their suffering triggers sympathy in her. Kang-hoon is drawn to her because of her giving heart as is Yeon-wu. She is a serial dater and always gives her all in every relationship even for men who don't deserve her love.

She literally falls for Yeon-wu when she falls off a building and he jumps off the building with her to protect her.

She is a DNA researcher. She gets interested in DNA because her father is a forensic scientist. His work helped unite families with the remains of lost loved ones. From this, she believes that DNA can help people connect with others who are important in their lives.

She was emotionally scared by her father's death. She is depressed and is worried that without someone to support her that she might also commit suicide in the future. She initially believes that she needs to find her DNA match to prevent this fate.

She steals Yeon-wu's basketball jersey and discovers that he is her DNA match. But, it turns out that the jersey was actually worn by Kang-hoon. So, who is the DNA match? Yeon-wu wore the jersey during the match. But, several times So-jin remarks that Kang-hoon doesn't smell like anything. Also, Yeon-wu is the one with the failing night vision. He is also the one with the octopus tentacle gene as every woman falls for him. The story suggests that the DNA actually tested was Yeon-wu. But, this is never made clear.

She is also a people pleaser and despite the fact that Yeon-wu does several things to make her jealous, she doesn't confront him about it because she doesn't want to scare him away. Ultimately, she lacks confidence in herself much in the same way that Yeon-wu lacks confidence in himself.

She has several interesting theories associated with science and she decides to test her theories on Yeon-wu. These tests fail spectacularly, which the story uses to criticize the act of testing a relationship. So, women, stop with the would you love me if I were a worm stuff ok?

However, she several of the science things are just masks for important parts about relationships. First, she suggests that DNA lovers can communicate telepathically by sending out a signal, which is different than a coincidence. In this case, coincidence is a short hand for compatibility. For example, if you both live in the same neighborhood and like macarons, you might meet each other in a macaron shop. But telepathy is about mutual intentionality. Like you both try to go there to see each other. So, it isn't just a coincidence but a mutual desire to meet up.

Another science metaphor is the gut biome. Here, eating together is scientifically bonding because you share microbes. But, in reality,...

LOL. Wait what!!?? he is going blind????