From the first note of the music until the last, we are drawn into this captivating and mesmerizing drama…"What Comes After Love." When I first heard the title, it caught my attention but also the synopsis as well, which was quite simplistic – a Korean student is studying in Japan and falls in love with someone who is Japanese. Simple right. Nothing more. But it was that they fell in love. We all love a good love story and this by far lived up to my expectation and then some.

You always have to have the right couple and this pairing was exceptional. You have FL (Lee Se Young aka Cho Hong /Beni) and ML (Sakaguchi Kentaro aka Aoki Jungo/Sasae Hikari/Yun Oh) who made you feel in each scene, each frame their passion and longing desire of love for each other as all love stories begin. But life can intervene and what you thought was your “forever” lends itself to breaking up – a breakup that lasted for five years.

Life is funny. Fate can always play a part can’t it. That is what happened to Beni and Jungo. For those five years, while apart Jungo wrote “their” story in the novel, “What Comes After Love.” Coming to Korea to promote his novel, the interpreter he has is no other than the woman who has never left his heart, mind or soul…Beni. She too was shocked to see him. The play of emotion on her face, yet subtle, you could see when she first meets him. She is visibly shaken by the man she left without a word to come back to Korea, but she hid it well.

We feel the words, so many words not spoken between them, but each wanting to say but yet not say, for what, fear, more misunderstandings…neither would know until they were ready to take the step, leap of faith to find out but that was not to come…yet.

The tug of war throughout this drama was of their hearts and facing what had broken them up. The flashbacks of how they fell in love. The youthfulness of both of them. To see the beautiful smile of Beni, the illumination of light that radiated from her which drew Jungo to her. Her carefree nature and openness of love for him, you will see is a stark comparison of how we see her after those five years.

Jungo too was captivated by Beni. Love at first sight. She was just a shining beacon that he could see from afar that drew him to her no matter how far apart they were. Then life, misunderstanding, loneliness, and goodbye.

They both have others in their lives that wanted to get close to them but their always seem to be a barrier particularly for Jungo. Sung Ryung aka Manager Kong wanted Jungo in her life, but she knew once he saw Beni again. It was over, for her. The thoughts of what could be, we feel she had portrayed in her mind vanished. Her overall conclusion was to be his manager/friend. That is all his heart could give her. But being his friend, she gave him advice to take the steps towards Beni and look in her eyes without any more reservation and tell her his feelings that he could not do so before.

Beni had Hong Jong Hyn aka Kim Min Jun as the man that loved her, but which was not reciprocated in kind. I feel Beni never felt anything more for him but friendship as well. We all like to live in an illusion that a person has feeling for you and the misunderstanding of love is what was between her and Kim Min Jun. I feel he knew she was never “all in” but he was willing to overlook it because he loved her. He was the anchor that she did need in some respects when she came back from Japan. I felt like no one really ask her about what she thought but she just went along with the program. But once Jungo came back emotions that were hidden deep within her came rushing back so much so until she told Kim Min Jun, she couldn’t accept his proposal.

You probably are wondering what broke them up. It boiled down to me -- communication, misunderstanding, complaining and learning to say, “I’m sorry.” Loneliness for Beni was a big factor and Jungo after years of self-examination understood that he was the catalyst that pushed Beni even further to want to leave because he always left her alone. For Beni’s part it was her arguing and constant complaining wanting him to be with her.

Taking the first step towards rekindling the love was Beni. Going to him on his birthday and bringing flowers only to see he was with Manager Kong. Departs without a word. I thought Manager Hong wouldn’t tell Jungo that Beni was there. But to my surprise she did, leaving him to chase after her.

You see the utter defeat as Jungo sees Beni is gone.

Beni has never read Jungo’s novel, which she does after we find that Jungo has come to the office because he was leaving to go back home, leaves the keychain which symbolizes never begin apart but together. Jungo makes one last attempt to get Beni's information which he does from the interpreter. Getting ready to call, Beni calls and they meet. Sadness, no communication, words still left unspoken. goodbyes once again.

This is our first glimpse of seeing Beni’s rawness when she realizes how deep her love is for Jungo. You see the resilience of holding strong, the armor that she worn just fall fast and hard, exposing her to the harsh reality that he might finally be lost to her. Her crying uncontrollably makes your heart go out to her. And just wish if only….

At last, love does prevail...

Jungo is getting ready to depart for the airport when one of the concierges approaches him. Apologizes for not giving him the flowers that were to be his. He takes them and sees the card in the flowers as he is riding to the airport which simply states: "I'm sorry about earlier. Happy Birthday - Hong." Beni took her step towards him to let him know she was wrong; all of their misunderstandings were not only on his part but hers as well. The tears and sadness in Jungo's eyes make you scream at him to go back and get your girl.

Now it is Jungo's turn. Take his step to Beni but it wasn't steps it was running. He found her and ran alongside her every step of the way. Until they stopped and looked at each other, really looked at each other and talked.

Jungo: "Ever since we broke up, I wanted to be closer to your heart. So, I just kept running. I ran around Inokashira Park...and I thought about you. At first, it was because I missed you. But as I kept running...I started to understand.... how you must've felt back then. You were running to get over your loneliness. I thought...that I knew everything about you. But now I know...that I didn't understand the most important part."

Beni: "You know what? After we broke up...I couldn't even run for a while. It's just like you said in your novel. I was the same. I regret everything I did, too. When we were together...all I did was complain and didn't even try to understand how you felt. I was just the same. I didn't see what was actually important. I didn't see it until it was too late. I made you feel...lonely and miserable too."

Jungo: "No. It was my fault. I made you lonely. I'm sorry."

Beni: "No. It wasn't just your fault. I'm sorry too."

The simplest words to say, "I'm sorry" yet at times we cannot say them, can we. But through the tears and laughter, we see our couple clasping hands as they walk together hand and hand as the first snowfall of the year comes bringing a new beginning of the changing of season as well as new moments for them to share in their next chapter of.... forever,

The beautiful thing to me about this drama is we all have moments in our lives, particularly that all-encompassing love. The love that sets itself above all other loves. The one that made you smile to yourself when you thought of them, your youthfulness, your carefree spirit, a glance from someone who resembles them, all these things will bring you back to that "moment' that moment in time that has stayed etched in your heart and mind forever. Oh, we will love someone again, but we all have that "one" that you will never forget. So, we remember them and embrace them, hold onto them because even though they are moments they are ones we always will love and remember.... forever.

As a side note: The OST to this drama is so beautifully composed. You will definitely keep it on your playlist. Each track is better than the last.