Let me start with saying i had high hopes for this drama.
Yet if failed to deliver on the romance part misserably .Majority of people see this drama as a masterpiece but for the romance enjoyers this is a fake perception of the story that is called MY DEAREST.
As a drama on its own is well filmed , the music fits the show, the acting is great.This is not where problem stands with this drama.The true issue is with the setup of the main couple in this show by the writers.
From a drama aspect with ignoring the romance part which should be the main plot point how the title suggests its watchable.

FOR romance enjoyers i cannot recommend this drama because it fails on so many levels its crazy .For rating the romance aspect i would seriously give it a 2 of 10 its that bad .The writers separated the main couple in a way that if they back together it has to be forcesdor its HIGHLY damaging to the ML character and damaging the characters integrity as he is set up .If the second part of the drama forces the main couple together it will just tank the rating for this drama from a romance point of view even further.

In the next part will dissect this rotten romance story in details now .SPOILERS AHEAD SKIP IF YOU NOT FINISHED THE SHOW YET.

I will focus only on the main couple because i am doing a romance review.

Lets start with our beloved Female lead
This character is so unlikeable from a romance point of view its mindblowing .
We are introduced to her being selfish, manipulative , entitled.
From the begining she lusts for her friends fiance and she makes multiple attempts to split them.
She even attempts tp kiss him in a barn pretending to be sick .Well sick she is but in the head .
In the village there is a bunch of virgin schollars and she is teasing them trying to make her friend fiance jealous.
It failes so she promises a naive guy to marry him just again to make the fiance of the friend jealous .
The schollars are leaving for war because the country is invaded and yet AGAIN she asks the guy she just promised to marry to protect the fiances boyfriend and she is suggesting some intercourse after they return .
(And this is just the first couple of episodes.)What a lovely FML such a deity so far .Her selfishness in this drama is peaking constantly bending everybody to her will with 2 scenes where she was selfless and cared about others yet she demands irrational things from the ML constantly and being ungrateful over the span of the drama .
SHe is constantly pushing the ML away from her ignoring his action for her by her being stupid or her brain cant put 2 and 2 together .She is talking about being abandoned by the ML which is again just showing her selfish nature becaus shes literally telling him not to stay with her actions and words TLDR of this part she wants him to be a cuck .
By the comment section shes described as a strong and family oriented person yet there is nothing suggesting this in the drama itself . Yet again the audience is holding into the Family cope without any reasoning showed in the drama .
She gets separated from her family during the invasion and sme makes zero attempts to find them or find out if they are safe and sound.She is rather helping the injured soldiers in the camp with her friends and first moment she sees her friends fiance she drops everthing and goes to treat him holding his hand right there with her friend next to her .How shameless is this crooked character .The drama fails here again because its showing her only as a capable human in their family the rest of the crew a clearly depicted as a mumbling fools .Very little scenes family wise suggesting any hard bond between them .
To the being a strong character or mature this is just another cope of the audience .
Her every action in this drama is to make her life easier always picking the easier road yet everybody talks about character development well i cant see any character development she is acting at episode 9 just like she did in the first one but the only difference is she was FORCED BY HER CIRCUMSTANCES (WAR) to show some survival skills. She is just as manipulative , entitled , selfish as she was in the first episodes .What is strong about getting married to a military guy instead of trying to get your family back into the track by your brain and capabilities if yu can just marry somebody . Seems like this the new STRONG nowadays .
Overall this character is a crooked one. It wouldnt be a major issue romance wise because roamnce can be tragic and thats fine .if she would show some promise in her character developement but there is none.

Lets get into our Male lead
This one is can be described multiple ways . The ML can be seen from one side as obsessive with the FML since she has no good qualities to her so whats to obsess about but ok . On the other hand he can be described as somebody finding his true love .
From the begining the ML is trying to reach out to FML but in a more playful way Both her and him have a reputation of a player. By the scenes in the drama where he has some flashbacks its suggesting something happening in his family and made him reluctant towards marriage . The ML is constantly trying to prove himself to the FML. Not every action he does is presented to the FML yet those there are clear like the sky are being ignored by FML cuz shes that dumb .
As a examle i pick the scene where the ML is willing to help her block the marriage of the FM friend and her fiance .
He does so by giving war material to the villagers but his condition is to not allow the men marry before they go to war and he makes it reasonable so shes not exposed by this . Yet she didnt realize this even tho they had this discussion 2 days ago.
The ML is prepared to leave the village when the war begins to avoid being pulled into a conflict he doesnt want to be a soldier . Again he decides to risk his life to save the FML and being pulled into more and more danger at a point where he is leaving to be a spy help the country to end the war sooner because the people are starving etc .From FML perspective this is abandoning her again even tho he asked her if he stays will she only focus on him and not think about her friends fiance she said no. Again FML selfishness showing how amazing of a FML she is .
ML dodged multiple death scenarios for FML or were put into these positions because of the FML .
At the point where she breaks his heart as much as possible in he bounds of the setting of the drama .
The ML is clearly more mature than the FML and his love towards her is shown over the whole show .
Of course some of his actions are flawed but there is not flawless person on the planet. We cant blame him for anything he promised the FML he kept . This is where i think the ML deserves a second change with somebody else but these writers dont have the balls to do that and he will most likely sacrifice himself for the FML in the next part .

NOW as a Main couple :
There is no much romance to be talking about . Its a one sided love by the ML and some lukewarm feeling from the FML side .
This is where i blame the writers again because when they are separated and even before that the FML is having dreams of the ML and when they are separated and thinks hes dead she is seeing him in front of her having dreams of him crying in sleep etc .This is suggesting deep feelings for somebody romance wise yet she doesnt sacrifice herself for the ML once over this part of the drama on the other hand the ML is constantly doing this . Again terrible romance writing shown by these scenes .
After their 3rd separation where the FML is breaking the ML heart as much as possible in the setting they are in by not going with him because family which she paid litttle to none attention to (classic Kdrama cliche . Not only she refuses to go with him she gives him back the boots he promised her he will bring for her but also writing a letter to him that he wasnt enough for her to let everything behind (yet she had fk all )and yet again she will stay and rather marry the Military guy because this is the easier way and thats what she choose over the whole drama . This is the most you can do to spit into his face after he went thru everything for you .Romance drama is build on strong connection where the characters in love go over hardships and willing to sacrifice their life for the ultimate love especially in historical dramas. Sometimes this love cannot prevail and is doomed but here the FML shows 0 sacrifices for their love or determination on any level . This created from a romance point of view such a broken relationship that is not possible to recover from because if you force somehow the ML back to the FML its very damaging to his character and makes him from beinga mature character into a obsessive stupid one which his actions dont suggest so far and would be a huge step back for him .

Like i said this romance doesnt work and is ocassionaly forced by the writers with some weird scenes where the FML is demanding unreasonable things and the ML is sacrificing himself for somebody showing little to none interest in him .
The FML is a very badly written character from a romance point of view with nothing to be in love with other than being in love with her on first sight because thats an option .

My overall score for the drama is 8 points because as a romance drama the romance part heavily tanking the rating.
I highly not recommend this drama for romance enjoyers. There are tons of better romance stories than this out there you can find them just by closing your eyes rather than suffer the stupidity in this one .

PS. First and last review they are deleting negative comments under the drama thread .