What a ride

reconnect August 7, 2024 8:17 pm

I first started reading this in 2021. I kept picking it up and dropping it as I would lose the will to wait for the chapters and I was getting bored at points, wondering when I’d finally see the couple get together. Today, I finally decided to pick it up again and read it from scratch and finish it. I’m so glad I did.

The pacing is perfect, and it is short enough to finish within one sitting. I think it got a bit dull at the start of season 2, as we had to build up for the finale, however it was well worth it, and all the small details the author would get into was needed for truly connecting with the characters and to resonate with their stories. You really do get to see the growth of all the characters involved, and as a woman in her early twenties, I feel as if I stand on the borderline between my teenage years and impending adulthood. Having our main character be an adult woman in her teenage body therefore resonated even more with me. I felt relieved and joyful to see Hwayoung’s story reach its happy ending as if it were my own, and to see her grow and find happiness, all within herself was incredibly moving. She displayed a lot of strength, of which she forged from within, rather than through love. There was definitely a lot of struggle involved, but that just made it all the better in my opinion, as life really isn’t that easy, and finding the will and courage to pick yourself up and keep moving forward is often the hardest thing to do of them all.

Most of all, I love how despite this being a story about first love, this most certainly did not feel like a romance story. For those looking for a soppy, cliché love story they will not find it here, and that’s okay. I think anyone who reads this can tell that the author never intended for this to be about romance. Instead, it truly displays a pure, genuine love that people foster for others and themselves. The characters are realistic and human; they make mistakes and are annoying sometimes just like us. We offend, forgive, hurt, get hurt, forget, get scared, heal, live and love and repeat it all again. It is raw, bittersweet and it is beautiful.

There is definitely a message to be found within this work, and I think the author is a genius for being able to convey it in this format; in a love story. 10/10 from me.

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