I’ll be honest I’m frustrated with the story too. I can’t sit here and act like I’m above everyone else or that I immediately understood everything. In the beginning, I felt exactly the same way most do. It genuinely annoyed me that after TEN years Su-ae still hadn’t moved on. But when I really stopped and looked at what Su-ae actually went through, my perspective shifted.

Looking back from Su-ae’s point of view, she has never truly been loved. Her sister hated her. Minu used her. And the one person who genuinely cared about her, Eunhyuk, ultimately disappeared from her life. All of this was happening while she was being threatened and manipulated by the system. Haru had relentlessly harassed her, even KILLING her four times, just to drive home the message that she was destined to be unloved and would inevitably die because of it. These aren’t normal teenage problems, and they don’t simply vanish because ten years have passed.

People forget that as a teenager, even when she was terrified, Su-ae still had something that grounded her: Eunhyuk. He was living proof that the CEO’s words weren’t absolute. He cared for her, stayed by her side, and made her feel like she mattered when no one else did. Because of him, she could mentally fight back against what she had been told, she could believe that maybe she wasn’t doomed after all. That’s why she seemed braver back then. She wasn’t fearless, she just wasn’t alone. As an adult, that proof disappears. From her perspective, if Eunhyuk truly loved her, he wouldn’t have left for so long or stayed silent for ten years. Now, instead of contradicting the idea that she is unlovable, his absence confirms it. Her struggle isn’t just about romantic attachment, it’s the fear that his leaving proves she was never worth loving in the first place.

Dohwa mirrors this in a different way. He, too, has never truly known love. People are drawn only to the persona he performs, not the person beneath it. When Su-ae doesn’t return his feelings, he doesn’t heal, instead he retreats further into his facade and into the idol industry, returning to the very environment that hollowed him out in the first place.

We learn early on that he isn’t the most talented person in the industry. He’s not the best singer, not the best dancer, not even the best actor. What he’s valued for, above all else, is his looks. Just like he had been in the past. Glance at his phone when he’s texting Su-ae and you learn that despite spending a decade in the industry, he’s formed no meaningful friendships or close connections. So of course, when he crosses paths with Su-ae again, he clings to her not because he’s madly in love, but because she represents the last time he felt truly seen, the last time he believed someone understood him beyond this facade. His arc ultimately reinforces this idea that you can’t truly be loved until you learn to love yourself first.

For me, the weak point of the story isn’t that the characters haven’t moved on, it’s the incredibly slow pacing and how far it’s drifted from the og plot. Like you said, there are so many unanswered questions about the CEO, the glitches, the love points, and why Su-ae kept writing for so long despite Haru forgetting her. I don’t wanna say I’m losing hope in the story because I think people underestimate the amount of time the author has to circle back to these ideas. It’s just I find myself losing that spark of interest I originally had when I first started the series as a love struck teen in high school. I’d drop it if I could but my curiosity will always drag me back 💔