wrong choice!!!

baek inho was the best! like it was a genuinely interesting relationship, where both baek inho and hong sul tried to become better people, and idk!!! yoo jung was a sociopath and the end is not a good resolution to that arc!!

pyo na ri, i’m sorry but ‘the one who makes me feels the most jealous is proof i love them more’ is a terrible excuse and you know it!!!! that’s not a good reason to be with lee hwashin, even though i like him!!! be with go jungwon, who was cute and sweet and liked you for you since the beginning AND MAYBE DON’T MAKE HIM THE BEST MAN AT YOUR WEDDING AFTER THE LOVE TRIANGLE ENDS!!!

if not go jungwon and pyo na-ri endgame, then it should have been a poly ship tbqh!!!

i just. i liked nam ha jin and han yeo reum together to begin with. they were cute!!! i rooted for them despite the cracks!!

kang tae ha/han yeo reum was super cute tho.

I’m just saying. sls real. i loved nam ha-jin, and in my heart, he doesn’t end up with ah rim even though he reunites with her at the end.

i wanted things to work out between baek sooji and lee sangwoo so badly!!! I know they were incompatible because of how they felt about food but still! I liked sooji’s crush on sangwoo and watching them hang out. as much as i enjoy goo daeyeong and his love of food, i wasn’t a fan of his and baek sooji’s romance, preferring them as friends. (also i liked his first and third romance in the series). and to kill her off? just like that? so he can be with someone else, never mind that i like that pair? infuriating!!

yes, okay, the love triangle was barely a thing, but like??? she falls for the wrong guy when she still believes he’s her brother!!! hoping that he’s not does not remove the squick factor for me!!! also, just. the notion that her stories send the prince to sleep is a very cute idea of a ship to me, tbh. yes, I was less emotionally involved in this ship, but sometimes??? what could have been!!!

CONFESSION BY GUMMYBEAR??? HOW AM I NOT SUPPOSED TO BE MOVED BY THAT!!! listen, i would have less issue with the endgame ship had their parents not decided to get married, I just don’t think that having one of the kids emancipate themselves is a way to get rid of the wierdness factor for me. I did like the main lead, but, yeah.

idc that hwang sung-yeol kind of went out of control in the second half!!! his life kinda sucked! i liked his friendship with lee seul-bi and thought that they were cute together!!! i didn’t like shin woo-hyun at all!! the vindication i felt when lee seul-bi began to fall for hwang sung-yeol, only for EVERYONE to push her to fall in love with shin woo-hyun was INFURIATING!!!

listen. i grew to like eun dae-gu and eo soo-sun as a ship BUT what truly appealed to me was ji kook and eo soo-sun: idiots, incompetents, inseparable and part of me will always be sad that this ship was only one sided.

tbh, what grates is jung jae-min’s turn around on his stance on hating vampires. his falling in love with baek ma-ri and finding out she was a vampire and grappling with that conflict could have been moving, but instead felt lacklustre and sudden and unearned in present day. (though i do think their past incarnations was pretty cute tbh???) rip baek ma-ri but i would have dated han shi-hoo instead.

honestly, i hated every single ship in the show, but oh my god, the way the main two fought and cried about everything and anything every single episode made me really loathe them. one legitimately great make out is not enough to make this show worthwhile.

the problem with choi ae-ra and ko dong-man is that they worked better as friends than lovers. it’s not that choi ae-ra is wrong about being worried ko dong-man’s potential harm is bad, but her ultimatum of choose between your career and me is pretty awful, especially since dong-man has been nothing but supportive to choi ae-ra’s career path. also ngl, i hated the marriage proposal.

IDC THAT THEY WERE THE SAME AGE AND HE GOT EMANCIPATED!!! HE WAS LEGALLY HER UNCLE FOR A MAJORITY OF HER LIFE AND THE SHOW!!!

i know that tae-oh and song-yi were cute, but honestly i liked them as slightly too close friends, and also their romantic relationship was too abrupt and idealised. i adored the slow build of do-hun and song-yi navigating their budding attraction and the rockiness of a first relationship and them doing coupley things for the majority of the show, so i am sad they broke up tbh. i felt that it was pretty contrived in how song-yi fell out of love with do-hun, but admit that do-hun’s insecurities did torpedo their relationship to the ground as well.

the fact that do-san dates dal-mi under false pretences, and is so easily swayed to not tell dal-mi the truth is pretty questionable, tbh. also i just kinda hate how quickly forgiven he is by dal-mi.

tbh, i prefer ji-pyeong/dal-mi as friends instead of an accursed love triangle, but if i had to choose, then i would have chosen them. because regardless of romance, i did genuinely adore their friendship the most.

after everything ah chu and yan xun went through? being each other’s greatest support, ah chu saying that his home was her home, promising never to lie to each other and are the most important person in their lives. even when they fell out, she stuck with him. how could i not ship them? the greatest tragedy was their dissolution, and if the writers weren’t such cowards, the entire relationship arc could have been even more moving and tragic instead of undermining it and underwriting it for the sake of yue wenyue who i do not care for in the slightest.

he. just. I found lee kang so horrible to root for, so when he actually begins caring and falling for moon cha young, i had all but checked out, and did not care for them, and frankly, did not find the ship as uplifting as the show clearly wanted me to. also, the whole engagement with the best frien while secretly pining for him was just. ugh. he was so terrible to her, and she just put up with it, that i could not stand them as the endgame couple.

this show was too miserable to enjoy that it was real easy to feel apathetic when the show wanted to be hopeful 

wu bo-song is the real mvp here, and i know that xiao xi doesn’t deserve him, but bo-song loves her and tries to do his best to cheer her on, so! i have to root for them a little.

listen, it’s a nicer version of itakiss, but the main ship still is terrible. lead dude remains a jerk.

ngl, kang mo yeon getting mad at yoo shi jin drove me nuts, because i didn’t like her getting mad at him because of his job. if he genuinely wanted to ditch her because he couldn’t be bothered to date, that would be one thing, but the fact was, his soldier duties is what caused him to cancel on their dates, and as a surgeon, she should have been way more understanding of that, tbh.

i didn’t care for the secondary couple either. 

i really didn’t like the way the ml tried to isolate the fl from her friends. i get wanting to spend time with your gf, but the way he treated her friends just to get some alone time with her, really put  me off him.

second leads also were super terrible. sfl was genuinely a nice person, a good friend, but her taste in sml is awful, and deserves better. sml flat out sucked and his backstory did not make me feel sympathetic to him at all.

tbh, i definitely think jonathan and jin seon mi could have been a cute couple!

but with sun oh gong and jin seon mi... it’s complicated. i genuinely do like them as a pair, but with sun oh gong forced to be in love with her, it’s hard for me to think his feelings for her are sincere, even with the implication that he is falling for her in spite of that?

no matter how smitten dao ming si looks at dong shan cai... the early episodes where he acts like a jerk is rough, and absolutely have not aged well. i kind of wish dong shan cai and hua ze lei were given more of a chance tbh. alas, the curse of hana yori dango.

also holy cow, xi men and xiao you were cute up until xiao you’s final episode where she leaves, because a pity fuck is the complete opposite of romantic and completely destroyed my interest in them. if it was a mutual only chance to be with each other, not even bothering with long distance, but no!! xi men flat out says he doesn’t like her that way in that episode, so, rip a genuinely sweet ship that just. destroys itself in the worst possible way.

two moments stand out. first, they’re having a conversation about consent, and the ml decides to kiss fl without warning. second, didn’t like the fact that whe they went on holiday, with the ml having the expectation that of course they would spend the night together, the fl is portrayed in the wrong for not also sharing that thought, and ofc they do sleep together, and i just. idk. both scenes i didn’t like.

the ml came off as a jerk, imo, and just decided what he wanted without any consideration or communication to the fl, which i found off putting tbh.

tbh, with an atrocious first meeting, the back and forth of money, the revelation that they were siblings, and then the truth that they weren’t, i just. disliked that they fell in love so quickly after the truth was revealed. also hated that dokyung constantly ignored jian’s feelings to be leftalone because he thought he knew better.

i wanted jian and hyuk to end up together, ngl. forever bitter that they didn’t.

lee youn joon  should have just told kim mi-so that they were childhood friends when they first met again, rather than wait nine years and leave her in the dark.

you can take away the student/teacher aspect by changing your job, but you cannot take awaythe six year age difference between an 18 year old and a 24 year old.

ngl, the first romance between su su and ye hua was cute; but as soon as ye hua figured out that su su was bai qian, it was a nightmare, because he really didn't differentiate between the differences in her personality, so it just came off as creepy and obsessive with bai qian looking uncomfortable and unreceptive to his advances. also? moving into her home, fully knowing that she couldn't refuse him, so he and his son constantly impose on her? not a fan!

hey, xu feng, maybe don’t sleep with jin mi when she has no concept of love, and obsess over her to that degree. it started off so cute, how did it end up like this.

gang-tae felt more like moon-young’s babysitter than boyfriend, and the romance didn’t feel particularly convincing either. both should have stayed single imo.

jb/rian exes to lovers could have been a wonderful ship. alas, the show was messy and unfocused, but at least they were friends who cared deeply about each other. jb/haeseung was boring. but. jin yoojin/rian had its moments.

issei/nao could have been it! the best choice for nao! (natsume/nao in s2 is very cute tho.)

i want to say that the main issue is miscommunication, because hisashi is too aloof and doesn’t  explain himself well, and nao constantly imagines problems that don’t exist. things actually do improve between them by s2, tho i still think they don’t work as a couple.

but. the real issue is nao. her insecurities ruin a lot of potentially good things about their relationship, and he she ignores how disinterested he is in other women because he loves her in favour of imagining love triangles and him leaving her. but it’s also the fact that she constantly dislikes his reactions to things that could be really awkward, and she wants him to be more jealous during those compromising situations, when instead he is actually fairly understanding/playing it off as no big deal. the fantasy version of hisashi that lives in her head is nothing like the actual hisashi, so, i’m just confused at why she wants her boyfriend to be that idealised version, when he’s the complete opposite and it’s like nothing he can do will really live up to her expectations, since she won’t voice them either.

ngl, i would have been happier if the love story between min seok and soo young had ended after she, a 28 year old, had found out that she’d been unknowingly dating an 18 year old high schooler, and changed their relationship into being best friends instead. the age gap was just too much, and i was just uncomfortable with the relationship after the reveal. while i did like the mutual one sidedness of the relationship, i kind of would have preferred it if they didn’t work out romantically, and become like siblings instead.

was i maybe just a bit partial to yoo jin woo being in love with jung soo young, despite him being mildly terrible and secretly lonely? maybe so!

not really a fan of bai hue erasing shang gu’s memories of being hou chi like that, and trying to make himself out to be the bad guy, when all shang gu wanted was the truth. so, third act issues, but tbh i wasn’t a fan of the teacher/student romance in the first act either. 

god, i was in love with reincarnated lovers ha eun/sa bin and hyung bin/soo hyuk the entire time and wanted them to be together again! yes, jong beom/sa bin was cute, but not in the same way. ugh, conceptually, i love what the show was trying to do, but execution-wise, i adored the connection between sa bin and soo hyuk so much more than sa bin and jong beom.

tbh, i don’t want to repeat myself because this is hana yori dango again, but, like. 

i really didn’t get at what point jan di fell for jun pyo instead of ji hoo, and hated how jun pyo acted throughout. at no point did it really seem that jan di liked jun pyo, and jun pyo’s actions were just atrocious. 

i felt like ji hoo was better suited for jan di, and jan di calling ji hoo her soulmate, is, um. something, alright. idk, i liked their friendship and how they stood by each other’s side, and wish jan di fell for him again because they were sweet.

also, i liked jun pyo with his fiancée, ha jae kyung, i thought they were suited each other with their eccentricities and strange upbringing.

the set-up was pretty bad from the get-go, tbh? trying to get revenge on his supposed bully, who was a little bossy but fairly nice, kind of left a sour taste, especially as the schemes became extremely unreasonable. tbh, they had a good ten episodes of being cute together once they resolved the miscommunication from their childhood, and both apologised for misunderstanding each other,  but then the next miscommunication happened and i disliked them again, and they never really recovered from the contrivance.

both the combo of master-servant and teacher-student kind of ruined jang uk/naksu for me. i liked them platonic and chaotic, but unfortunately, that was it!

but also i was v. taken by seo yul/naksu and their shared past as children and how they knew that they had a connection to each other but the situation prevented them from being able to say anything.

yeah. i know. third time. but god. rui/tsukushi is sooo cute and i like them so much, quietly helping each other and supporting each other, that i can’t believe that domyouji actually has that much of a connection with taukushi. i can’t help but wish that tsukushi remained drawn to rui romantically, and/or fallen back in love with him after a year passed.

the problem with domyouji is that he never grows enough, imo. never really becomes worthy of tsukushi, and frankly remains violent in a way i think she should disapprove of. also, gdi.i likehim better with either sakurako or shigeru, tbh!!!