What Comes After Love: Episode 6 (Final)

by Dramaddictally

It’s the finale and that means we finally get to find out what comes after love. We already know our leading duo is filled with a lot of regret, but will hard life lessons be the only outcome of their sadness and growing up? Or will this heartbroken pair get a second chance at their cherry blossom romance?

 
EPISODE 6

We pick up where we left off with Hong entering the hotel bar to find Jungo and Kanna chatting it up over drinks. Hong immediately leaves without saying a word, but Kanna does the right thing and tells Jungo that Hong was there. He runs out to try to locate her, but she’s gone by the time he gets outside.

Hong thinks to herself about all the things she wanted to say (mostly “thank you” and “I’m sorry”), but now that she mistakenly believes that Jungo and Kanna are together, she’s lost the desire to talk.

At the same time, we hear Jungo with similar sentiments. He’s sorry that he didn’t understand Hong in the past, but now he takes full responsibility for her loneliness. He wonders what we, as people, are supposed to learn from the feeling of regret.

As closure for Kanna, she tries to be a good friend and tells Jungo that he has to be honest with Hong. She knows it’s tough for him to say things out loud, but if he does, Hong will understand. She’s trying to release Jungo, so he can be happy, but also so that she can go back to being the confident and honest person she once was before this unrequited love stole her spirit.

On his last day in Korea, Jungo has another interview and this time he’s asked about the title of his book. What does he think comes after love? He responds that it’s only after love that we get a chance to understand what love means. He and the interviewer agree that it’s a sad irony, but Jungo thinks that’s why we’re always filled with regret. The deeper our love, the bigger our regret.

And it’s also on his final night in town that Hong decides to actually read his novel. We know that the point of him writing it was to get closer to Hong again, and the novel (and its dedication page) are very clear about that. His book is about watching Hong deteriorate, from the happy and smiling person she was when they met to someone who hardly smiled at all. Jungo says it was his fault that he couldn’t fill her emptiness.

Hong completes the book in one sitting and then decides to give Jungo a call. He’s happy to hear from her but both are tense and the sentences come out short and tight. He wants to meet up but she’s calling to say goodbye. However, when he spits out that there’s nothing between him and Kanna, Hong agrees to see him.

They meet at a restaurant and the second she arrives she says she can’t stay long because she has plans with her boyfriend. This isn’t true, obviously, since she broke up with Min-jun last episode. In any case, even if she’s about to marry another man, Jungo wants to clear up any misunderstandings between them.

Hong cuts him off and says there’s nothing to clear up. She just wants to thank him for loving her. After reading his book, all the questions about the breakup no longer seem important. She sees that what counts are the moments they shared while they loved each other.

Jungo admits that he regrets everything he did. He didn’t see her loneliness as something to be taken seriously at the time. He was wrong and that’s why he wrote the book. But Hong tells him to stop regretting because “love is a blessing in itself.” He thanks her for reading the novel and she thanks him for writing it, and then she says she’s got to go and wishes him a safe trip home tomorrow.

He doesn’t want to say goodbye and looks like he’s about to cry or break apart. And as she’s leaving he stops her and asks her to promise she’ll be happy. She smiles and agrees, telling him to be happy too, and then turns and walks away. Except, when she gets to her car, she sobs heavy, hearty tears that look and sound awfully painful.

But that is not our ending. The next day on the way to the airport, Jungo decides to bail on his flight and go find Hong while she’s on her daily run in the park. He runs up beside her, she’s surprised, and the two keep running side by side without speaking.

When they finally come to a halt, they say all the things they both wanted to say but were holding back the night before. He tells her that he kept running even after she left Japan in order to feel closer to her. But the more he ran the more he understood her loneliness and how she was trying to cope with it.

Hong responds that, like him, she also regrets everything she did. She complained too much when they were together, and she didn’t try to understand his side. She says she feels just like he does: that she didn’t get what was really important. “I made you feel lonely and miserable too,” she tells him.

Then they go in circles trying to claim fault for how things turned out, apologizing to each other for their behavior. Both of them cry, and then laugh at the fact that they’re crying. It starts to snow, and then they walk along the park path hand in hand. The last image is a flashback of the two of them in Tokyo, running together under the cherry blossom trees. And it seems our twosome is getting a new spring.

Well, we got ourselves a happy ending, even if it wasn’t the emotional uproar I was hoping for. I’m not totally sure why I found this conclusion underwhelming because I think the drama hit some authentic notes. I believe all the love and pain between these two characters — and I totally buy that they’ve both come to understand their own fault in what happened.

At the same time, the gigantic sparks that flew between them when they were in love were just hiding under the surface of all that resentment, raring to come back out, in the present. I really wanted a more visible sense of relief when they reunited. Sure, they’re sad and they’re sorry, but come on — they’re also super attracted to each other. Of all the K-drama couples, these two deserved a tight hug or a confirming kiss in that final scene.

And I do think the story would have been better told with two episodes per week. Not enough new information came through in each episode to keep it fiery. Rather than new reveals each time, we only found out more details about the things we already knew, which made it feel a little draggy for me — especially after the mega-excitement of the premiere week.

All that being said, I really liked this drama. Had I been able to binge the story in one sitting, or at least had more bites each week, I think my heart would have stayed tied to these characters from start to finish. The leads were phenomenal — beautiful, genuine, and with tons of chemistry — and the depth of emotion made certain scenes truly painful to watch. I think that on some quiet weekend this winter I’ll sit down with this one again, and these two might come out as my favorite characters of the year.

 
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