A drama that left me with mixed feelings about it. I literally stared at the screen for a few minutes trying to process the last episodes. I was stoked for this drama and hyped myself up for it which was a mistake to begin with. I pretty much set myself up to be disappointed. I know the ending could've been worse, but unfortunately, I was still left unsatisfied.

Story
To start off, the plot-line was something absolutely new to me. I had never seen a parallel universe type of drama as far as I can remember, so this concept was refreshing to see. It started off slow but promising. The first half of the drama seemed to lean more towards a full on rom-com genre with the always so present weak villain story-line. That obviously changed by the second half when it got serious and the writers started throwing everything at us. This was a huge mistake. There was now a time constraint to fully explore and execute the thriller side of the story that by the time the focus switched the audience had no idea what was going on. There was so many different conflicts back-to-back that were then quickly resolved without further or very limited explanation. We were just supposed to go along with the it. Up until episode 13, I was able to make inferences through context clues to find a suitable explanation and justification for an action that had taken place and how it progressed the story. After ep 13 all reason left the chat. Time traveling came to the picture followed up with a half-@ssed explanation for it's cause. I was honestly confused the whole time up until the end, it was hella rushed.

As for the romance, it quickly progressed in the first few episodes which was a bit unexpected. I was a appalled by the way Jung Tae Eul quickly accepted the fact that a parallel universe was possible and especially how she just suddenly fell head-over-heels for Lee Gon, almost overnight. Some scenes were just too forced. I saw no buildup to the the romance, If there was then perhaps the leads lacked the chemistry to relay those emotions to the audience.
Although, mostly all the romantic scenes were cliche af, I must admit at some point I became fond of their love. I did notice the main leads scenes began to turn repetitive, aka the running towards each other for a long deep embrace, with tears in their eyes followed up with crying. At first it was heart-wrenching to see them temporarily part ways, but it eventually became tiresome seeing the same thing play out every other episode. Romance was pretty much filler because director had no idea how to progress the main plot.

If the romance had been a slow-burn type this drama might have been more positively received. The concept was too ambiguous for the writers and directors to then go and purely focus on romance. It just became a watered down version of something that had the potential to become extraordinary, if only it focused more on the technicality and function of parallel universes. One thing I will add is that some of the plot-twists, I did not see coming. They added a great deal to the story.

I honestly expected too much from this drama.

Acting/Cast
The main reason watching this, made it worth it at the end. Props to all the actors for taking on the role of two different characters and doing it extremely well. It was very convincing that at times I truly believed they were two different people, it never felt awkward or obvious. The main cast were very likable and each character had their own persona and quirks which made them unique. You can go from absolutely loving one character to despising the other even though they are played by the same actor.

Rewatch Value
Will maybe rewatch from time to time for those cute scenes between the leads when they were in kingdom of corea. Of course also for Jo Eun Sub and Jo Young's funny scenes.

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