My thoughts on this drama? That cartoon of that dude shrugging saying “…I guess?”

It was obvious it was a Chinese take on “Itazura na Kiss” but it’s not easy to replicate such a masterpiece.

There were many things I weren’t a fan of. Xiao Xi’s behaviour at the beginning of the show was very unsettling, from her stalker-ish behaviour and not respecting somebody’s wishes when they turn you down. She also came up with the dumbest lies and did such stupid things to try and win his affection. I understand she was young and naive, we all do dumb stuff at 16. But still, I’d expect that behaviour from a 13 year old, not a 16 year old one.

Meanwhile Jiang Chen’s side of the story and how he fell for her is revealed right at the end of the show. Apparently he loved her shortly (I’m guessing a few months?) after she confessed when they were sweeping leaves. But like, his behaviour towards her is cold & harsh 90% of the time??!! Yeah sure, that’s his ‘personality’ to be closed off and such. But it’s the words that get to me in particular.

E.g. (spoiler!!!!)
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[After she is in tears after what happened at the play, crying her eyes out on the stage, all because he was jealous he tells her “you were so embarrassing today” like DUDE. HOW can you SAY that?? You know you are this girl’s entire world, and how important your words mean to her. Knowing this, you deliberately made her feel worse about herself because you were jealous. (and btw he never apologises for that)]
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Like, I just hate that he strings her along this whole time. He gets mad whenever she is around Wu Bo Song (who treats her so well) even though she could be his in the blink of an eye if he just DID SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Here’s a pic of how Xiao Xi would surely be feeling:

[You don't want me to be with you;
You don't want me to be with someone else.
How miserable do I have to be before you're happy?]

I wanted to weep for Wu Bo Song honestly. Because he has always been there for her.

I also never felt any chemistry whatsoever between the secondary couple (Lu Yang - the nerd and Jingjing - the tomboy). It felt like the writers just put them together for convenience. Their relationship never made sense to me.

But getting back to the main couple, I still found it weird when they finally got together. Like, it just…happened?

(spoiler!!!)
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[They were in university and he called her his girlfriend and … that was that? Guess they’re dating?? It took what, 17 episodes for this and this is what we’ve been waiting for? The writers could have at LEAST let him confess to her.]
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There was something good that came out of all those time-skips though!! They both finally got better haircuts!!!! What an improvement omg. That bowl cut on Xiao Xi drove me nuts. She is SO pretty but that hair was weighing her down so much. I understand they needed to have different hair to show all the time-skips but couldn’t they have given her literally any other hairstyle??? His hair also got an uplift, nice.

Anyway, on the whole, it was a VERY long slowburn. The last episode was cute at least?