Five families, parents and kids, go about their dynamic lives within a neighbourhood set in late 80's Seoul. While navigating their lives and youth, a 'mysterious' romance is blooming among our female leads and her childhood friends. Despite not being glamorous or full of suspense, it's a coming-of-age story focusing on family and community with lots of memorable and emotional moments.

Well, it’s an amazing drama to experience; from mother's friendship, community power, youths finding identities, parents coping with their children leaving home, first love, unrequited love to all the trials and tribulations that we've all gone through. Each episode has a life lesson for everyone.

The production is top-notch! The camera is incredibly playful and shows lots of unique angle. The show is teaching me patience to get into the story. The quiet moments are actually storytelling at its’ finest; They're showing what I need to know and not telling, building up a strong foundation towards a climax. So when it reaches the climax, I really got sink in that emotional arc. The choice of retro OSTs were wisely done. I didn't understand the lyrics but they give me all the nostalgia.

That said, the show can also feel so long, some people might not finish because of the lengthy episodes. But if you get invested with the quirky & real characters, you're going to love this drama. It’s beautifully acted with gentle humour and a coming-of-age story with a big focus on family.

PS: If you’re watching this, avoid googling to avoid spoilers!^^


===== SPOILERY PART=====
Of all the characters, my favourite character was Bora. Some of her moments with her father, especially the ones in the final episodes were so damn relatable to me. I cried so much and cried again upon my rewatches of their heart-warming, at the same time heart-breaking scenes. Also, I like Deok Sun's character, she is incredibly happy and I want to have a friend like her. Now talking about the love triangle between her and Jung Hwan and Taek, I thought they were both really compelling in separate ways like they both are amazing and neither one is better than the other. That's how I appreciate this love triangle. Of course, as the viewer I try to figure out who she will end up marrying and I think it was quite predictable once we reach the obvious foreshadowing scene midway. I was just a bit conflicted because the character of her future husband is nothing like his character in his youth. I read that this choice was deliberate as the writer changed the stories while it was airing, but still, I wasn't completely satisfied because I feel they kind of wrecked his adult character.

My complaints were mostly in the late part of the series, the time jump when the group of friends grew up and were busy with their day-to-day job feels too mundane. The parents are really pushed to the wayside and their conversations are not that interesting to me, but the vast majority of the screen time is devoted to them. I got bored and had the urge to skip ahead a few times on this part. I also am kind of disappointed as the families left their neighborhood just like that. There is no urgency that forces them to leave and had moved out from that street and we didn't need to see the neighborhood gets abandoned.

Finally, the final scene didn't have an uplifting feeling. The final voiceover gave the impression to me that it was really idolizing youth and this makes me feel sad growing up, like oh, I'm old now. While I know that's not true as life goes on and I can experience wonderful moments as an adult, that feeling of never being able to experience youth again felt bitter. I don't like it when it's put on the finale, I prefer that they cut the show without showing all of these.