Three years out from the first airing of this drama in 2021, the sitting president in 2024 announced martial law and was swiftly countered by immediate fierce protests of citizens who assisted elected officials who did everything they could including climbing over the fences and barricaded themselves against the military to get their votes in to lift the martial. It was a bipartisan unanimous vote. The martial law from 1980 is still very much fresh in the historical memory of the country and remains remembered through holidays and dramatized depictions like this drama. The atrocities portrayed is a mere fraction of what occurred but is still sickening and sad. The stories are led by Myung Hee, a nurse of three years, and Hee Tae who is a top student in the final year of medical school. It took me a while to get to this drama because of the actor's strong performances as siblings in another show, but they show off their acting prowess depicting a different chemistry as different characters here.

Myung Hee has the tenacity to work towards her dreams, but she's always beaten back by the hostile political atmosphere of the country. She's has the dichotomy where she's extremely capable at her job and can take care of herself around guys being a creep, but she lets herself be taken advantaged of by her co-workers to do the tasks they don't want and to give in to her friend rather than follow her own feelings due the event of her getting all the blame for political posters and getting kicked out of high school and her father who is later revealed to have been branded a communist after being forced to confess as one under torture by Hee Tae's villain father, telling her to accept it. She also has the dumbest little brother. He's 12 but has zero awareness or thinking skills beyond his own wants and needs. He doesn't care that she has her own dreams and wants to put her already many years deferred dream of going to school in Germany, partially because she sent back a lot of her hard earned money for his living expenses to watch his race. He doesn't care that there's no out running soldiers with guns, except for a family member to sacrifice their life by blocking the bullets with their body. He knows that's how his father died, but still goes off by himself causing his family to go after him. Myung Hee deserved better. I do enjoy how her older sibling kindness fared better with Hee Tae's half brother Jung Tae who saved her life by foiling the assassin from murdering her. She also gave perspective to Hee Tae regarding his brother that led to the brother's finally connection with some true familial love in that abusive household.

It was moving when a tied up and beaten Hee Tae accepts that his step mom isn't able to help him and pleads for her to get away with Jung Tae instead, which leads to her bravely setting him free and facing down her abusive husband for divorce. The actor who plays him is really good, he brings a realistic, chilling gravitas that is more found in Korean films than television show and the scenes where he acts against Lee Do Hyun as his son are excellent. It was so sad when Hee Tae revealed that the only reason he joined his father's step family was to not be alone. Myung Hee was going to be his family, but she was murdered. She did reconcile his relationship with his brother who he looked to have kept in touch with his whole life. I really enjoyed the scenes where they both worked together as medical professionals to help patients as more and more victims of the atrocities poured into the hospital. It unfortunately meant that they missed their window to get out of the city again and again until it was too late. Hee Tae really has a head and body of steel, he received head trauma by taking a blow to the head for her, then probably more head and body trauma from a hit and run, then more injuries being tied up and banging himself against the furniture and the floor to get help, and he just shows back up at the hospital up and running just fine.

The drama also showed the conscripted soldiers point of view, where they were forced towards violence regardless of their personal views and could only do so much to counter it. This reflects real life where the conscripted soldiers in the real life 2024 martial law event also seemed a bit confused as to what they were supposed to do. Hee Tae and all the other main players got to live out their life to modern day while Myung Hee's body was finally unearthed decades later. She deserved to live and find happiness the most. There's also the plot of the rich best friend who let Myung Hee go down alone during high school, totally compromising her ideals to force Hee Tae to marry her for her family's financial stability fulling using Myung Hee who she knows loves him and vice versa to convince him, and a cop dies for her, a cohort of hers is in love with her, and her family learns what it means to really contribute to helping the city by using all of their stores after her brother gets kidnapped and tortured just like the regular plebs. The wealthy and the privileged get to survive just fine in the story while Myung Hee and her dad who both suffered a lot in both poverty and politically and were the bread winners of their family of five die horribly. It's weird messaging.