I genuinely think if I had not watched this immediately after finishing Nirvana in Fire, I would have been more invested.

Its a story about three extremely resilient friends broken down by the world they're born into, especially by men they trusted and now they are trying to succeed past it all.

I genuinely feel like it's a much better drama in terms of portrayal of women because it doesn't show them as delicate flowers always waiting to be rescued by men, with no agency. These women fight nail and tooth to grow and they have AGENCY. They're not passive. They're complex characters with their own baggage. The female friendship genuinely made me love the characters.

And the love story, man, it's so good. There's love here shown in tandem with sexual desire, which is oh my god, excellent for any asian drama. The male and female lead have sizzling chemistry and a very healthy relationship. Seriously, good job for showing romance can be sexy without it being toxic!

I didn't finish it so I don't know, but the direction of the two female friends love story is also very mature and excellent, dealing with themes of domestic abuse and a divorced woman with a child finding love again.

Some things I find weird is that the tone of some serious instances (Song's abusive husband's scenes is comedic in tone in some places) and some themes is not handled as it should be. Like saying musicians are better than sex workers because they have some talent which, ahem, okay. But I guess it's what they would've thought in that time and sex work is still demeaned in a lot of cultures. Still, I wish they didn't add that in.

I also found some of the acting to be a little confusing. The female lead is good, but she plays some of the scenes like she knows something that others don't (talking about the painting) and is part of a bigger mystery plot, but i don't think that's true. She's a decent actress but some of the acting choices really threw me off cause I kept waiting for them to pay off and maybe they do, but from what I've heard of this drama, it doesn't seem to be true.

The main reason I couldn't continue was that it's just a very slice of life story about how these women handle the various obstacles that come their way and like I said, I was craving more of an overarching plot, more mystery and more of just, something exciting. I just needed more.

Barring all that, I really and I mean REALLY hope that this drama sets a precedent for how women, female friendships and love is portrayed in cdramas. Hats off to the writer on this. They have great potential for writing more female driven stories and I hope they do.

I will say I'm hoping to come back to this drama again and finish it properly.