Updated Review 2021:

This is an updated review after a recent re-watch:

I wondered as I was re-watching this drama if I would have trouble getting through it a second time. Would I find myself frustrated and disappointed with the story? Would a second viewing ruin the feelings I had the first time around? Would I find the age gap extremely uncomfortable? Surprisingly, I found the opposite to be true. I happily breezed through the entire thing over the course of 3 days and then subsequently suffered from the wonderful/dreadful drama hangover so many of us experience when we finish a drama we’ve loved. This, of course, makes me very happy as it means that I still enjoy the drama as much as I did the first time I watched it.

So I guess I’ll go about this review by addressing the thoughts/feelings/complaints I had with the drama the first time I watched it and how I think/feel/would complain about the drama now.

1) I have to start off with the most important aspect of this drama, that being the age difference. This is going to be the make or break part of the drama for most people, and understandably so. I myself couldn’t initially remember just how wide the age gap was between the leads, and for awhile, I secretly hoped it would be only five or six years. Alas, it is eventually revealed to be ten.

To be honest, I’m still confused about the exact ages of both leads, but the age gap didn’t bother me while re-watching. Of course, that’s probably solely because the male lead is played by a much older actor, so it’s easy to ignore the gap. Would I feel the same way if this were real life and not Seo In Guk playing a character much younger than himself? Absolutely not. Real life is very different from a Kdrama. But the leads work well together, you see very little of Min Seok’s school life, and there’s no untoward or inappropriate behavior in the main couple’s relationship, so I was able to overlook it. Not everyone else will be able to do so, however, so it’s something to keep in mind going into the drama.

2) I liked Director Yoo as a character much better this time around then I did the first time. I understood him better and wasn’t as turned off by him as I had been before. Yes, he’s a dismissive and thoughtless jerk, but up to the moment with the forced kiss and the fist fight with Min Seok, that’s all he is. And afterwards, he’s incredibly respectful and apologetic towards Soo Young and even displays some nobleness in his effort to save his father’s company from possible ruin. He’s not as fleshed out of a character as he could have been (which is a shame as he could have been much more interesting and provided some real competition for Min Seok), and the story still provides no compelling reason for me to believe he actually falls for Soo Young in any way, but he’s not as terrible a character as I thought he was, and I’m happy to be able to say that.

3) This isn’t something I personally had or have any complaints about, but it is something a lot of other viewers have complained about, so I think it’s worth mentioning. We get to see how masquerading as the Director affects the hockey side of Min Seok’s life, something that ends up being a very poignant part of the drama, but we don’t see it have any effect whatsoever on Min Seok’s academic life. He never gets caught skipping school, there’s little focus on his grades, there’s little focus on his school life at all. This will bother some people as it’s an unrealistic plot hole, but it never bothered me as I was never invested in that side of the story to begin with. Ultimately, Min Seok’s academics were never all that important to him. He was clearly not a superb student to begin with and most likely didn’t have any serious plans of higher education. His goal was to play hockey, and that’s why we spent so much time watching him working, practicing, and playing with his team. It’s also why it’s so poignant and heartbreaking to see him have to give up that dream later on in the drama. Is it a flaw of the drama that this part of his life gets so little screentime? Most likely, but I don’t really care.

4) Hyung is an underwhelming character and only serves as a vote in a boardroom, the catalyst for a beloved characters death, and a transit for a massive information dump long after we needed to know most of the information. He’s disappointing, and we never needed to see him in person. I did like Seo In Guk’s performance as Hyung better this time around then I did the first time, so I’ll give props for that, but otherwise, he’s useless. (The scene where Soo Young and Min Seok’s friends mistake Hyung for Min Seok is pretty funny though.)

The thing about this drama, after tallying up the flaws and the virtues, is that there are conflicts that need to happen and secrets that need to be revealed, but the writers consistently liked to put them off till later. Instead of building up to the right moment and slowly revealing information as they story went along, they would do it all at once. This is both a good thing and a bad thing in terms of storytelling. On the one hand, this alleviates a lot of the unnecessary tension and frustration you go through in most dramas. On the other hand, it means that a lot of things play out in a way that’s not realistic. For example, Soo Young and Min Seok’s relationship isn’t discovered by anyone outside of a small group of people until the very last episode, but there’s no way they were That good at hiding it. More people should have found out or at least have been suspicious. Am I saying that I’m bothered by this? No. I got what I wanted out of the drama, so I’m happy. But it is poor storytelling, and I can admit that.

So to wrap up this review, am I more aware of this drama’s flaws then I was before re-watching? Yes. I am. But do I love it just as much or more than I did before though? Also yes. Yes, I do.