I was so excited to watch this show back when it was announced because of the cast, because Seo Hyun Jin and Hwang In Yeop are brilliant, so the show must be great as well! Well, turns out I was wrong. This was sooo boring and cringeworth, it felt like a telenovela that came straight out from Kwai.

The cast is good, and they acted good, I won't deny it. the reason I didn't drop this kdrama was mainly because I'm a huge fan of HIY, and I like Seo Hyun Jin too. She acted well as Oh Soo Jae, but poor HIY couldn't shine as much as he deserved, this is the first kdrama where he finally got to act as the main lead, it's a pity that things ended up like this. He is an awesome actor, I watched pretty much all of his kdramas except for Tale of Nokdu, and I can guarantee that he slayed on all the dramas he acted until now. His facial expressions are incredible, that's how he managed to shine even on his support roles like in 18 Again, and managed to steal everyone's hearts in True Beauty even tho he wasn't the main lead. But here, he was just... Plain. Boring. Blank. It didn't feel like Gong Chan was a main character, instead it felt more like he was Oh Soo Jae's loyal dog or whatever, everything he did was about Soo Jae, it was like he had no life of his own to care about. They mentioned his story with his half sister every now and then, but his focus was mainly on Soo Jae, it was kinda disappointing actually. It felt like the only reason for him to be on the show was to show up and save Soo Jae every now and then, run after her, and maybe, sometimes, think about his sister. While she was worried about her daughter stuff, her past, her present, her future, TK Law firm, the contracts, Choi Tae Guk, Ju Wan, and her other thousand problems that she had, Gong Chan was solely focused on her problems, and her. He was shallow, that's how I felt about his character. He could've been so much more. They could've had their development together on the story, but it seems like the only developments were given all to Soo Jae. That way, HIY didn't even have opportunities to show people his amazing acting skills, which is such a pity, what a loss. Some people met HIY for the first time on this kdrama, and I've seen people saying that he is a bad actor, that he is boring and etc, but that's just the character's fault, too bad that this is staining the actor's image.

About the romance. Gong Chan was solely focused on Soo Jae the entire series, but she seemed so distant from him tho. While she was on her own world, he seemed to be fully in love with her, in an obssessive way even, I'd say. But she didn't give that much attention to him, she kissed him once, they went out together a couple of times, and that was it. No chemistry at all. I could almost say that there was no romance at all there. The second male lead sucked as well, if he wasn't present on the kdrama it wouldn't even make a difference, honestly. Choi Yoon Sang tried to ruin things between Gong Chan and Soo Jae, and it didn't even bother me, he was such a weak character. Besides, why did he try to ruin things between Soo Jae and Gong Chan when there wasn't even anything to ruin from the start? Their love was cold as ice, idk what Yoon Sang tried to finish ruining there. Then he tried joining his father, which made no sense, then he betrayed his father, which was weird as well. Anyways, he was the most boring character there. He and Soo Jae barely had any interactions, I could even say that he didn't feel like a second male lead.

The rest of the characters were boring as well. Everybody's lives revolved around Soo Jae, it was like nobody had anything else to care about. The whole team of students were like Soo Jae servants. She was the perfect definition of a Mary Sue for me.

Some of the other things that bothered me on the story:

-Jae Yi's death. She barely had any screen time, we barely got to know her, and barely had time to find out that she was Soo Jae's daughter, then she suddenly died in a dramatic scene with flowers flying everywhere, and Soo Jae hugging her corpse later. We didn't have enough time to feel connected to Jae Yi and her story, so, I'm sorry but I couldn't feel so sad about her death. Not as sad as they wanted me to be at least.

-Soo Jae's heart disease. Why was it even mentioned there? It didn't make much of a difference in the story, except for some hurt/comfort scenes, which weren't even necessary. Her fever scene didn't make sense as well, and I'm a fan of whump scenes.

-Choi Tae Guk saying to Soo Jae on his last minutes that she didn't win the game, that something more was about to come, that this wasn't the end, and actually YES, this was the end because everybody had an happy ever after when he died. I was expecting something more when he said that. A final trap, maybe? Something vile, like his character was on the entire series? Idk. I was just disappointed.

-The rise and fall of Choi Tae Guk. He made hell out of Soo Jae's life in the entire show, right? The bigger they come, the harder they fall, I was expecting something UGLY on his defeat. But it was also... disappointing. He just heard everything everybody had to say and killed himself. That's all folks. Gone. He didn't even try to kill someone along with him, just, killed himself. Boring.

-Everybody decided to become good guys on the last episode. The guy who killed Na Jung apologized to Chan, turned himself in, the corrupt guys were caught, everybody decided to follow the laws, to live life happily later, and suddenly everything was good again. What the eff. I know this is a work of fiction, and it isn't supposed to be like in real life, but honestly, it was cringe to see everybody suddenly being good and lawful.

-Choi Ju Wan judging his father. He raped that girl, he thought he had killed Na Jung, he did a lot of atrocities throughout the show, but when he found out that his father killed the girl he was like NO WAYYY. That made no sense.

-Baek Jin Ki's planned revenge failed. After planning it for years and years. That was just.. disappointing. Then they solved everything in a whole other way, which made his former plannings pointless.

Anyways, I had my hopes that the show would get better maybe. It didn't happen. Before anyone says "maybe you just don't like melodramas", I DO like melodramas, I like mexican soap operas, the thing is that THIS ONE was so poorly written I can't stand it.