This is a very strong drama but had several flaws which really undermined the quality and – most damning of all – the writing of certain characters. Based on the experiences of children studying to prepare for college entrance, their teachers, and their parents. The romance is enjoyed by an elite maths teacher with an apparent inability to tolerate food, and the humble mother of one of his students: after he realises that the food from her side dish shop does not make him vomit he wants to know her better. Understandable.
Let me talk first about some of all the things that were good. Of course the acting was wonderful. It is beautifully shot in attractive locations. Characters are for the most part well rounded, and mostly the plot is character driven. The plot is engaging and charismatic, and some of the people are just lovely.
The pushy mum's are all witches though which is a bit lazy. Dads are almost universally invisible.
School work and pressures seem mostly realistic, and teachers are shown as genuinely caring – though the schools' administration and leaders are much less so.
The murder sub-plot was OK : well presented, and an interesting concept. We start to catch onto it though, and once that happens, the culprit and motive are fairly quickly identified, though the way it is resolved is rather sad.
The relationship between ML and FL is fine – I enjoyed it, but sadly the excellent writing of both characters was hugely undermined by the absymal styling for the FL. This was a major flaw and it persistently spoiled most of the drama.
It's by no means the case that a hot teacher like him could not have fallen for a frumpy, badly dressed, badly aged wee woman from a food shop, but I could not believe that, even with the responsibility of raising a child perhaps ten years younger than her, an elite athlete from a national team would have resented herself to the world like this - none of the other mums did that.
That was absolutely and damningly confirmed by the fact that once a certain part of the plot is reached, she tidies herself up, gets some decent clothes, sorts out her hair and looks hot!
Good for her, and at LAST, but pathetic styling. Shoddy. And don't blame the stylists - they are following Directors' demands.
And I think the other main failing here is that the drama could easily have ended a couple of episodes earlier.
The FL's sister turns up out of the blue. Expecting open arms. Despite the fact that ten years ago she abandoned her daughter with her "mum", and has never been in contact since. The reason for her appearing is never made fully clear, but when her daughter made a fuss saying she will return with her to Japan ... she promptly absconds again. So that worked!
I found this whole sub-plot entirely unnecessary. I make no apology for mentioning it here, because it is SO OBVIOUS from the very start. I expected it from the point at which she dumps the child in ep1.
The only reason I could see for these 2 redundant episodes was the chance to tie up the few remaining 'loose ends' for some of the characters – with better writing, that could have been done by ep14.
Overall, I expected to give this drama at least a 9 but it limps in at a mildly weak 7.5 /10 for me ... especially since waiting for new episodes was torture! Disappointing