Thank you for giving us a cute campus drama!

I am a sucker for campus dramas alright. There’s just something in the inner child of mine who still thinks that school is a place to fall in love with the most perfect man out there. Hahaha. Well, the adult me knows 99% of the time, most of our love stories don’t start this way, but it’s still fun to indulge once in a while!

This episode doesn’t backtrack a little and show us the kiss once again, which is such a waste, because that was a good kiss of two characters who just had their first kiss. The first kiss is a light peck of course, and the second is when Kyung Seok really moves in hurhur.

In any case,  here, he pulls back and apologises for startling Mi Rae. Mi Rae, in her daze, asks if they should go to bed. Which startles Kyung Seok instead. HAHA. Must also say that Cha Eun Woo’s eyes of ~desire~ are pretty alluring.

She quickly jumps away, clarifying that she means they should sleep. Kyung Seok offers to sleep in the living room, knowing that Mi Rae wouldn’t be able to fall sleep otherwise. After some shy goodnight and sleep wells, Mi Rae goes inside her room and replays her first kiss. She jumps onto her bed and starts thrashing about on her bed, which Kyung Seok hears and smiles. Awwwww. You know, once upon a time, the dramas used to be really crazy over ‘bad boys’ who sleep around but end up loving only the female lead. I, on the other hand, really dig these innocent types.

Mi Rae realises that she left her photo outside and comes outside to grab it. Kyung Seok leaps upright (kekeke what have you been thinking) and she quickly goes back to her room, falling asleep thereafter. She leaves her phone outside and her mum’s call wakes Kyung Seok up. Kyung Seok tries to wake Mi Rae up but she doesn’t stir. Whilst trying to craft a message to reply to the worried mum, the mum calls.

Kyung Seok picks up the call and the mum immediately hangs up for a video call instead. Hahahaha. Kyung Seok bows to her as a first meeting (cute boy) and even shows the living room as proof that they are sleeping separately. He introduces himself as Mi Rae’s boyfriend and explains why they are at the house.

Mum quickly hangs up when Dad appears and squeals in delight that such a handsome man is Mi Rae’s boyfriend.

Dad video-calls this time with a simple message, “There are CCTVs in our house.”

Kyung Seok’s eyes immediately widen as he recalls what he just did to Mi Rae (kiss kiss kiss) and he quickly packs the soju all whilst checking his surroundings. HAHAHA.

Anyway, here’s one more for viewing pleasure.

In the morning, Mi Rae goes outside to pick up her phone and Kyung Seok asks through half closed eyes where the CCTVs are. Mi Rae answers that there are no CCTVs in the house and Kyung Seok finally realises that he has been had.

He immediately falls back onto the sofa to sleep. Aww poor boy has been kept up all night in worry eh!

Later, Mi Rae’s dad rushes to go home but the couple has already left. Mi Rae exchanges a phone call with her mother and smiles. Kyung Seok is worried that her parents don’t like him, much to her surprise, since he never cares about what strangers think. But he replies that they aren’t strangers; they are her parents. She assures him that they just find it fascinating that she has a boyfriend.

He tells her to lean on him and she pulls his head in so that he can lean on hers.

Cute.

Woo Young tries very hard to get the stalker photos off the internet but each time, the other person tells him that the victim herself has to come forward to give a statement. Left with no choice, Woo Young meets up with Soo Ah and suggests that she makes a report.

Soo Ah immediately reels at the thought of it, knowing that being made to be a victim will cause others to gossip about her. This is so even if the one at fault is the stalker.

The couple talks to each other on the phone and has that cringy moment of who should hang up first hehe. Luckily, it doesn’t go on for too long and Mi Rae hangs up first, squealing to herself that she didn’t know hanging up could be so difficult.

Aww you two are such cuties!

Eun calls to meet up with Mi Rae to discuss something about Soo Ah, so Mi Rae calls Kyung Seok back to reschedule their dinner. Although Kyung Seok doesn’t want Mi Rae to go, Mi Rae decides to hear Eun out.

At night, Soo Ah hears the cat purring outside her house and immediately prepares some food.

In the cafe, Eun tells Mi Rae she knows Soo Ah has been very mean to Mi Rae. Mi Rae explains that she was genuinely happy to be Soo Ah’s friend but she doesn’t really want to help Soo Ah out now. Eun gently explains that she thinks Soo Ah’s life will change if Mi Rae becomes her friend. “The scars you get from other people can only be healed by other people.”

But somehow, she knows that no one else, not Kyung Seok and others, will be able to help Soo Ah.

I had a good impression of Park Yoo Na ever since her performance in the Package, and I must say I enjoyed her character here too! I heard that Eun had a more important role to play in the webtoon but thankfully, she was given more air time in the finale and we can see that she played a pivotal role in helping Soo Ah.

Meanwhile, Kyung Seok worries about how nice Mi Rae is for listening about Soo Ah and decides to find her. Woo Young comes home and asks Kyung Seok if he knows anyone who stalks Soo Ah in school. Kyung Seok answers, “Won Ho,” which is hilarious and really sad at the same time. Woo Young quickly says that it’s nothing but searches up the stalker, who just posted a message that he would go to Soo Ah’s house tonight.

And true enough, Dong Won appears with a suspicious bottle whilst Soo Ah is outside her house feeding a stray cat. He closes her gate and demands an apology. We cut back to the cafe where Eun teases Mi Rae that Kyung Seok must have loved her more. Woo Young calls Eun, asking if she has seen Soo Ah that day, but doesn’t explain why. He hangs up and quickly makes a police report.

Kyung Seok who has arrived by this point hears the conversation and also recalls Woo Young asking about Soo Ah’s stalker. He asks Eun to bring them to where Soo Ah lives.

Dong Won tells Soo Ah that initially, he thought only he had a crush on Soo Ah, but one day, she was the one who smiled at him first. He starts losing control of himself, “You named the cat Dong Won on purpose to draw my attention.”

She liked the drink he gave her and she wanted to take pictures with him. You know come to think of it, when we see the flashbacks this time round, I feel like Soo Ah didn’t actually name the cat Dong Won to seek attention. She really thought of it as a coincidence. She could have also told Won Ho to take photos of Dong Won because she just wanted to be nice and Dong Won was always alone.

Dong Won inches towards Soo Ah, who tries to run away, but he throws her on the ground.

Why is she pretending like she didn’t flirt with him? “Apologise!” Soo Ah refuses to, so he brings up the suspicious bottle, “You know what this is?”

Eun, Kyung Seok and Mi Rae reach the neighbourhood just as they hear a scream. They trace the scream and see Dong Won. Kyung Seok immediately gives chase, Eun follows after, but Mi Rae separates from them to find Soo Ah instead.

Kyung Seok gives his famous flying kick and there goes Dong Won on the floor. Ah, nobody really stands a chance against Kyung Seok’s Flying Kick. I wish I could see this behind-the-scenes. Also, thought Cha Eun Woo ran a little funnily here heh, which surprises me because he seems very athletic. Maybe it’s because his limbs are too long and he has to act like he’s running very fast when he’s actually not or he would easily overtake Dong Won.

Kyung Seok pulls Dong Won’s shirt in anger, “What have you done?” and Dong Won looks shiftily away, “She wouldn’t apologise.”

Gah, Cha Eun Woo’s angry face is hot.

Mi Rae finds Soo Ah in hysterics and covering her face because Dong Won splashed something on her face. Mi Rae smells the liquid on the floor and tells her it’s just water.

Soo Ah pushes her away and cries as she grabs a piece of broken glass to kill herself. Mi Rae yells at her and tells her to check for herself that her face is fine. Through Mi Rae’s phone camera, Soo Ah finally sees that the liquid is just water, not acid.

However, Soo Ah still pushes Mi Rae’s helping hand away, “Why you of all people are here? Why do you keep acting like you’re above me? Why do you keep acting like you’re happier than me? You aren’t even prettier than me.”

Mi Rae finally breaks at the nonsensical nature of all those, “Please stop it! I really hate you, do you know that? Right, I’m not pretty. I did plastic surgeries. But what about you? Are you happy because you are pretty? Are you happy??”

“Why in the world do we have to be like this? We give marks on people’s faces and fight ourselves.”

“I will…think over about what will make me happy again from now on.”

You know whilst Mi Rae is having this fantastic speech, I do think that the product placement of the slimming drinks seems a bit odd and hypocritical. Does anyone else feel this way?? It’s so strange to advocate self-love and not caring what society thinks about appearance, but at the same time, promote losing weight.

At the hospital, Mi Rae asks Kyung Seok if she can keep by Soo Ah’s side for the night. Kyung Seok asks if she doesn’t hate Soo Ah and Mi Rae answers, “I do. And I know you do too, but you also helped her just now.”

I like it that this couple does what’s right according to their principles, even if they may dislike the person. Kyung Seok tells her it’s her decision and she smiles.

After she leaves, Woo Young comes over and reveals that Dong Won will be expelled from school. There will also be a police investigation. He asks if Kyung Seok is waiting for Mi Rae and learns that nope, he’s waiting for him. “What’s with this sudden sweetness?” Kyung Seok’s like, well, I even brushed your teeth when you were drunk. Hahaha.

Kyung Seok maintains his cool facade but you can tell that he’s gleeful about having one-up Woo Young as he walks off with a little swag, “Come to think of it, that was too sweet.”

Woo Young comments, “You must have a really strong stomach,” and Kyung Seok cool-ly replies, “It was disgusting.”

As Mi Rae watches over Soo Ah, she murmurs that Soo Ah turned out to be a bigger fool than her. “Let’s stop living the way we used to.” She tears a little watching Soo Ah’s sleeping form.

In the morning, Soo Ah wakes up to find Mi Rae asleep by her bed, her hand over hers.

All the sidekicks gather at the Berlin. Soo Ah’s image in school has reached rock bottom – people know she has been throwing up, and that she has been going out with various guys in the department.  The kids even realise that Soo Ah isn’t from a rich family. Ji Hyo notes that Dong Won has always been a bit strange and Jung Boon points out that Ji Hyo really has a bad habit of badmouthing people. Although I don’t like the character of Ji Hyo, I think she represents a group of people that is definitely present in our society. Heck, I can easily name people I know who are just like this. The problem is, there is a thin, very fine line between sharing opinions and toxic gossiping. Sometimes, one really fades into another without there being clear barriers. And when you confront these people, they will be very self-righteous about just “having their views”.

Soo Ah has to go for counselling after the incident and she confesses that she doesn’t think she can be alone for a while. The counsellor asks if she has anyone to rely on and she shakes her head, but to her surprise, Eun turns up after her counselling session.

They take the bus together and Eun assures Mi Rae that nobody knows what happened. Everyone who was involved in that incident knows how to keep a secret, and Mi Rae observes, “Even you too.” Eun ponders over this and decides to tell Soo Ah that Mi Rae really treated Soo Ah as a friend initially.

At night, Eun walks Soo Ah home. Soo Ah’s face brightens up when she hears the cat purring and Eun notes she must like cats a lot. They probably insert this bit about Soo Ah and cats because this is the only time in the drama where you can get to see Soo Ah being herself for once, without the pretence.

After some time, school reopens and people share the news of Kyung Seok and Mi Rae being together. The girls are jealous and complain that Mi Rae must hae saved a country in her previous life. When the couple enters the lecture room, people cheer and ask if they are really together.

Kyung Seok smiles, “Yes, we are dating,” causing a ripple to spread across the room.

The couple shyly takes their seat next to Jung Boom and Eun. Sung Woon tells Kyung Seok not to kiss Mi Rae in class, and Kyung Seok actually replies, “Okay, I won’t kiss her in class.”

The class keeps quiet before breaking into giggles because that just sounds like Kyung Seok is going to kiss her after class.

Mi Rae whispers that he didn’t actually have to reply that, but Kyung Seok says, “You told me to be nicer to people,” before beaming.

What a good boy, really. Hahaha.

Tae Young finds Tae Hee during one of the breaks and apologises for hurting her. “I can’t control my heart. I keep thinking about you.” Oh my goodness, such shamelessness. Tae Hee laughs and notes that she hasn’t thought about him. There are people who seem amazing to date but turn out to be a disappointment.

“That’s the case for you. So I’ve gotten over you quickly.” Boom, what a great comeback! I was almost scared that Tae Hee would take Tae Young back.

Woo Young turns down a blind date with the prettiest girl in the dance department who has a crush on him, noting that he’s more suited for love at first sight. He runs into Hyun Jung who asks him to buy her beer because she’s too upset about being set up on a blind date with a 33-year-old man.

She wonders who Woo Young will end up dating and he replies, “I’m not too sure either.” Hyun Jung looks down shyly.

Mi Rae is hard at work earning money through tuition but her student keeps asking about her surgeries and how much they cost. *Shakes my head*. Rude child, although funny.

Meanwhile, Kyung Seok is working at a upscale restaurant where the girls continue to ogle over him. Kyung Hee comes over with her friends and she isn’t too impressed with his ID, “What..is that…”

Kyung Seok looks down at his name tag which says, “I have a girlfriend,” and calmly notes, “My ID.”

HAHAH. LOVE IT. What a nice touch to parallel the drama’s title.

Sister isn’t too pleased.

While sneaking up on Mi Rae later, Kyung Seok realises that he’s called Do Kyung Seok, Chemistry Department in her phone and gets angry. Adorable, although cliche. Mi Rae asks if he has any plans on Saturday and asks if they should go somewhere.

Turns out, this Saturday is his birthday. On his phone call with Woo Jin (who walks past a drunk Hyun Jin in Berlin hahaha), he asks Woo Jin when girlfriends get tired of their boyfriends.

A flashback shows us a past conversation where Kyung Seok and Mi Rae exchanged their birthdays’ information and he smiled, “I’m your oppa by 10 days.”

Hahahaha. Back to the present, he wonders if Mi Rae forgot his birthday.

I’m so tickled that Kyung Seok has such normal-boyfriend’s worries too.

Jung Boon tells Woo Jin to return to his father’s business and he invites her to go with him to visit. She belatedly realises that his father’s business refers to running a church and notes that it must be such a problem for Woo Jin who loves drinking.

Kyung Seok’s dad tries to make amends by meeting CEO Na, who coldly rejects his idea of having a family gathering on Kyung Seok’s birthday. He tries another method, “I’ve loved only two women in my life. The 26-year-old Na Hye Sung and the 46-year-old Na Hye Sung.” CEO Na processes this and replies, “I’m 47,” before leaving. CEO Na really remains cool and chic till the very end.

We then learn that Kyung Seok’s dad fell from public’s favour, didn’t become a congressman, sacked his sidekick who is now working for the Congressman and in general, probably didn’t achieve any of his goals. It’s done with a light touch and with some comic relief, but I guess this is a befitting ending for a dad who only wanted fame. (Although I feel like I should point out that he didn’t actually buy that expensive bag for Kyung Hee, and that things just turned out unfortunate for him, but good in the big picture sense I guess.)

Won Ho notices a girl from the back in school and mistakes her for Soo Ah. I like this little touch, showing us that Won Ho probably genuinely cared for Soo Ah, even though his initial attraction was to her pretty face.

Kyung Seok finds Mi Rae who just wakes up from a nap and notices a perfume gift next to her stuff. Mi Rae puts on some ageyo, thinking it’s a surprise gift from Kyung Seok, but Kyung Seok’s face gets blacker as he says, “It’s not me. Someone else must know you as well as I do.”

HAHA jealous Kyung Seok. I feel like we are shown so many facets of Kyung Seok in one episode.

At night, Soo Ah finds Kyung Seok at his part-time job and turns out, she was the girl Won Ho noticed earlier. She had cut her hair really short, and took a leave of absence from school. She comes to find Kyung Seok to tell him that she has never liked him before, not even for a second. I’m not quite sure what’s the significance of this; is it a sign that Soo Ah is finally being real now?

She stands up to leave and Kyung Seok notices that she has put on perfume. She replies, “I tried something I had never done before and everything else became easy.” In a flashback, we see that it was Soo Ah who gave Mi Rae the perfume gift.

Next day, Mi Rae shows Kyung Seok that his name is now – heart shape, Kyung Seok, heart shape – much to his quiet delight. She brings him to a restaurant where she has made a reservation and the waitress leads them to a table with a Happy Birthday banner.

She smiles cheekily, knowing that Kyung Seok probably thought she forgot.

She sets the candles and claps her hands together but Kyung Seok immediately looks around and says, “Don’t do it.”

Mi Rae doesn’t care and sings the happy birthday song loudly and happily.

You can just tell from Kyung Seok’s face that he thinks she’s cute.

Mi Rae confesses that she’s happy because she always wanted to throw a surprise birthday party aww.

She gives him his present which is a hoodie and when she asks if he likes it, he catches himself saying, “It doesn’t matt…I like it.”

Mi Rae brings out the selfie stick and kisses him on the cheek, to his surprise.

What a startled face hahaha.

The couple enjoys a quiet back hug later, where Mi Rae says that she used to rate people on the streets purely on their looks, but she stopped doing that. She thought others were doing that to her bcause she was doing that to other people, but she realises not many people are interested in her. I do agree this is an important realisation. You know, sometimes we are always so afraid of what others think, but honestly, most of the time, they don’t even care! Want to watch a movie alone? Do it. Eat alone? Do it.

Kyung Seok murmurs that this will be a nice spot to propose next time. While places like cafes eventually close down, mountains and nature don’t go anywhere. KYAA, what kind of pre-proposal is this? Kyung Seok has never thought that he would get married because of his parents, but…Mi Rae looks back at him, as he kisses her hair gently.

She turns her face slowly

and he pecks her on the lips.

She turns around and hugs him before shyly saying that she also bought a matching hoodie for herself.

Kyung Seok kisses her on the forehead,

and then her lips.

 The couple then hugs each other tightly.

And some time later in school, the couple wears matching hoodies to school and gets teased by their friends.

I like it that in this out shot, they are flanked by all their batchmates.

Mi Rae wonders if she shouldn’t have bought a hoodie for herself, and Kyung Seok replies, “Who cares? Do whatever you want.” Perhaps, delivering the key message of the drama.

-the end-

Wooo and that’s the end of the drama. Overall, I liked the ride. I wouldn’t say it’s a perfect drama but I think the fact that it was based on a webtoon does give the drama some drive in terms of where it’s supposed to end eventually.

My favourite bits 

In general, I just really like how light-hearted the drama is. We mostly spend our time rooting for the main couple and waiting for them to get together. I’m glad they actually got attached with enough time for us to see how they function as a couple, because the cuteness increased three-fold after that.

I also like the various messages driven across the drama. For me, this is what I took away: the notion of loving yourself being more important than appearance, the importance of treasuring your body, the fact that being pretty doesn’t equate to being happy and perhaps, also just as importantly, do whatever makes you happy. If you want to get a plastic surgery, so be it. But I like that the webtoon/drama actually points out that even a plastic surgery cannot change who you are on the inside. It cannot make you happy if you don’t know first how to find happiness. From this perspective, I can see why Mi Rae’s dad is so heartbroken to find that ultimately, her daughter couldn’t accept herself for who she was. Eventually, Mi Rae is happy because she becomes confident and learns to love herself.

A drama that focuses on plastic surgeries and how the society reacts to it is also refreshing and interesting. It is especially pertinent in today’s time where plastic surgeries are only going to get more prevalent rather than scaled back. This drama helps us evaluate our own notions of plastic surgeries and how we react to people who have them. Therefore, it isn’t just a campus drama, but actually contains a rather deep social commentary that invokes questions.

The director is obviously also very thoughtful, for they never once put a face to how ‘Kang Orc’ looks like. I felt that was very wise and nicely-done. For one, we were fed so many descriptions of how horrid Mi Rae looked that I don’t quite know even if we were given a face, whether the face would match up to the description. For the other, it is great that they didn’t tag a face to what is considered unattractive and I like that there wasn’t a visual benchmark till the very end.

Of course, I have to say a large part of why I enjoy this is due to the characters. Do Kyung Seok is this impossibly perfect boyfriend and makes it perfect for squealing purposes. Just for an hour each episode, I get reminded of my young self who used to fantasize about meeting such people. I loveee the fact that Kyung Seok saw through Soo Ah right from the start and never fell for her tricks, not even for a second. In this regard, the drama is a little different then from the old-school dramas where the second female lead always triumps, even for a while, in her trickeries. As for Cha Eun Woo, he is sooo freaking adorable hahaha. I just watched a few of his videos and he’s so smile-y and cute in reality!

As the star of the show, I appreciate how far Mi Rae has come and how much she has learnt to stand up for herself. I also liked all the side characters, from Hyun Jung to Woo Young to Eun, and also CEO Na who is such a chic and cool mother and businesswoman. I think Mi Rae and Soo Ah are somewhat foils to each other; they actually are products of the same kind of societal pressure and bullying, but they are such different products. What’s different is that for Mi Rae, she had a loving family and she never lost grip with her personality. Although she similarly thought like Soo Ah that being pretty was the only way people would like her, Mi Rae’s character really plays a huge role in moulding her personality.

Not so favourite bits 

I don’t really have any particular parts I didn’t like of the drama. I do think that the front part of the show was really slow, and both Kyung Seok and Mi Rae spoke sooo slowly, I felt constipated watching them. I know this was how the webtoon developed, but I really struggled to stay engaged. This is my main gripe with the show I guess, where I think a lot of time can be saved if they spoke at x2 speed.

I’m also very interested to see Cha Eun Woo in a different role because I think it’s difficult to display acting skills in tsundere roles where the guy mostly keeps a stoic face. He already did a not bad job with his eyes here, but yes, a different role will be key to seeing if he has the chops.

For me, this drama was also not super addictive in the sense that I don’t itch for another episode when the week is over. This is because I know things are going to go swimmingly well, and there aren’t many cliffhangers or climaxes throughout. It was a drama that I could relax while watching and look forward to when the day comes for some doses of cuteness. But while it makes for a good re-watch, I think the drama ended on a right point of the relationship, and I don’t think I will have the drama blues. (Save for the fact that the couple is really very adorable and I wouldn’t mind stalking them while they are on their dates.)

This may also be an unpopular opinion, but I do think that Im Soo Hyang’s age shows when she’s next to Cha Eun Woo. I think they are both perfectly casted for their roles (another favourite bit), but for some scenes, she does look much older and physically bigger, just because Cha Eun Woo’s face is sooo small (and perfect).

Conclusion 

Did I enjoy this show? Yeah I sure did. The couple is undoubtedly adorable in their clicheness, shyness and excitement of a first love relationship. It gives me squeals and laughs just to watch them and it’s basically a manifestation of a girl’s dream. Working part time with your crush? Check. Going for classes with your crush? Check. Having your crush look at you and only you? Check. The fact that it’s set in university, instead of high school, just makes it so much more relatable too.

Here’s hoping that we won’t have to wait too long before another campus drama comes our way!

<3thoughtsramble