Dy Victor

I think we’ll have the cute moments sprinkled among a lot of pain. From the teaser, it looks like we’re finally going to learn more about Doha’s wounds and traumas. Now it’s his “Pandora’s box” that will be opened — and I’ve been waiting for that.

I liked episode 8 so much that I’m going to hold on to the feelings it gave me throughout the entire week. And not every drama makes me feel this way…

I’m also going to watch episodes 7 and 8 again. I feel like there are things between the lines that I need to pay attention to in order to notice the nuances of these two “fallen heroes.”

I think that after eight episodes, it has become clear that it was never the author’s intention to portray Doha and Ha-Gyeong as perfectly proper, flawless humans. They are full of imperfections. And Doha told the lawyer that, when it came to Ha-Gyeong, he wasn’t going to play fair. The lawyer was the one who took the risk by stepping into the middle of a relationship that was obviously unresolved. He was the one who chose to ask Ha-Gyeong to date him and to take the risk of having his heart broken.

Ha-Gyeong didn’t kiss Doha. She was kissed. And yes, she didn’t pull away. But she was at the height of her fear, and standing right in front of her was the man she truly likes. So I don’t think it’s fair to demand righteousness and coherence from her. She is at the peak of her emotions.

Episodes 7 and 8 were really good. I decided to watch them only once both had been released, and I think it was a good decision. Although I found some moments in episode 7 frustrating, I realized that episode 8 made everything clear.

Song Ha-Gyeong is not the kind of heroine we’re used to seeing in romance dramas. She works almost as her own antagonist. She constantly fights her own demons and insecurities, hiding her true feelings and desires beneath that hard exterior.

She is confused and, perhaps at times, unsure of what she really wants — she’s raw and deeply human.

Doha is one of the few people who truly know her. That’s why he is able to understand her, and life ended up making him fall in love with her.

Doha is persistent because he knows he must break through all those layers of trauma and insecurity if he wants to get close to her again. And even though he is just as broken, just as human and flawed as she is — and sometimes makes the wrong choices in his attempts to win her over — I can still see how genuine and real he is.

In these two episodes, I laughed a lot, got emotional, and, for the first time, truly grasped the reason behind the love between them.

I hope the last four episodes keep the same rhythm and bring them the understanding and healing they need.

If you already have this syndrome without the two of them having had any romantic interaction, imagine how you’ll be after episodes 7 and 8? Get ready!
But I don’t think the author would make such a drastic turn. Not when the opening theme and the cover of the novel feature only the main “couple.”

It will be the focus of episodes 7 and 8. We’ll see a pink-colored romance between Ha-gyeong and the lawyer. And we’ll see Doha going crazy with jealousy. They will try to make Doha’s jealousy look funny… I’m curious to see how that’s going to work.

Summary of the Official Synopsis for Episodes 7 and 8 of Last Summer

Episodes 7 and 8 show that, after the painful distance that grows between Doha and Ha-gyeong, she finds unexpected comfort in Su-hyeok. He begins to listen to her worries with sincerity, offers support, and treats her with gentleness, creating a lighter atmosphere between them. Su-hyeok does not hide his romantic interest and, after his confession, their relationship progresses quickly — even leading to a “pink date” that leaves the audience unsure about the direction of the love triangle.

Meanwhile, Doha — who watches the two grow closer — is swallowed by intense and unavoidable jealousy. Usually cold and composed, he completely loses his self-control when he sees Ha-gyeong smiling and relaxing beside another man. The mere sight of Su-hyeok looking at her with tenderness eats away at him, and the need to know what the two are doing together leaves him consumed with worry and frustration.

The emotions of the three begin to intertwine even more deeply, creating a true “emotional storm.” The episodes promise to show how this new dynamic shakes the hearts of the characters and may become the major turning point in Doha and Ha-gyeong’s relationship — while Su-hyeok emerges as a real contender, not just a temporary obstacle.
So, did you like what awaits us in tomorrow’s episode?

The lawyer is, by far, the character who causes me the greatest discomfort in this narrative. There is something undeniably peculiar about him — to use the gentlest possible characterization.
He is fully aware that Doha loves Ha Gyeong, and that the entire matter involving the house has nothing to do with the property itself, but rather with his attempt to draw closer to her once more.

He then meets Ha Gyeong during the tree dispute. He knows the contents of the letter, he understands the emotional significance Doha holds in her life, and he is aware that she is in love with Doha.
Despite this, and despite knowing that the two are living under the same roof, that Doha is openly courting her, and that she carries deep emotional wounds stemming from her past, what does he do with all this information?
He proceeds to ask her to enter a relationship with him — and even claims that dating him would make her “an adult.”

This is profoundly unrealistic. He knows, beyond any doubt, that Ha Gyeong is not in a state to open her heart to anyone. She cannot even bring herself to do so with Doha — the very man she loves.
He understands that he would serve merely as an emotional escape, a relationship built on avoidance rather than genuine affection. And one must ask: who would willingly accept such a role?

Moreover, he does not seem truly in love. His behavior resembles mere curiosity, which only heightens the sense of strangeness surrounding him.

Doha was written in a far more balanced manner by the screenwriter than Song Ha Gyeong.
He is portrayed as significantly more humanized within the narrative. This is so evident that most viewers have grown far more weary of Ha Gyeong’s behavior than of his — and this has nothing to do with misogyny. Not in the slightest.

His flaws include being controlling (believing he knows what is best for others — the root of the lie concerning his brother) and being intrusive (an excessive inclination to fix things according to his own standards).
His strengths are equally notable: his love language is expressed through care and acts of service; he is optimistic, a brilliant architect, charming, and protective of those he loves — to name just a few.

The screenwriter failed to grant Ha Gyeong the same level of nuance.
On screen, we see her — even from childhood — as irritable, tense, and explosive. She does not articulate her emotions; instead, she shouts and tells people to leave. She has endured considerable suffering and has strong reasons to remain guarded, yet her character has been reduced to sheer bitterness. It lacks the vulnerability that enables the audience to connect with a character’s pain. Bitterness alone does not evoke empathy.

In short, the imbalance in the “aesthetic” of their personalities is excessively stark.
Doha desires too much.
She desires nothing.
Doha seeks dialogue.
She refuses to listen.
Doha wants to mend.
She wants to break…

This dynamic undermines any possibility of genuine chemistry between them.
Their few moments of past tenderness are insufficient to make the romance shine on screen. There are almost no meaningful conversations from their youth.

As adults, their gazes contrast profoundly: Doha looks at her with love, hope, yearning, tenderness, and desire.
Her gaze conveys only pain and distance.

The bond established through the trees and the dog is far too fragile.

Nevertheless, perhaps we will be surprised in the final six episodes.
I certainly hope so, as the premise of the story was quite promising.

Do you believe the screenwriter will be able to untangle, in a convincing and non-superficial way, the mess this story has become up to episode 6? They only have half of the plot left to deliver the protagonists’ healing and emotional growth.
My disappointment comes from the teaser for episode 7 — that could be catastrophic if poorly executed.
Anyway, let’s see how it turns out.

Last Summer is a drama that initially promised to be a healing romance — a story of reunion and reconstruction between two former friends who also represent each other’s first love. This premise generated a lot of interest, but in practice, up to episode 6, the series has delivered something very different: a deep plunge into trauma, discomfort, and emotional toxicity. The protagonists, Doha and Hakkyung, are two wounded adults who still don’t know how to love in a healthy way.
He shows intrusive behavior, crosses boundaries, reacts impulsively, and acts driven by guilt, panic, and jealousy, while she avoids, lies, shuts down, runs away from dialogue, and protects herself almost desperately. It’s difficult to root for a couple who, so far, only know how to hurt each other.

The audience’s discomfort is understandable: Doha entering her house without warning, interfering in her life, trying to get close through emotional force; and Hakkyung withdrawn, bitter, distrustful, and incapable of honest communication. The series hasn’t offered moments of tenderness, connection, or emotional relief — everything is pain, silence, resentment, and tension. This suffocates the viewer, especially when the marketing promoted a healing romance, but what we’ve seen so far is a romance built on trauma. For many, watching has been frustrating and even distressing, which explains why the ratings aren’t increasing and why so many viewers are dropping the show.

Even so, there is still room for hope. Everything suggests that the narrative was designed in phases: first, destruction; then, confrontation; and only afterward, reconstruction. Episodes 7 and 8 will be crucial for this shift, because only when Doha faces the consequences of his behavior and Hakkyung stops running away will the romance truly have a chance to exist.
If the drama commits to this transformation, Last Summer still has the potential to deliver the healing story it promised.

But at this moment, discomfort and toxicity dominate the plot — and that makes it hard for the audience to connect with the couple or believe in their love. Can it improve? Yes. But the narrative needs to stop merely showing the wounds and finally start treating them.

When she blames Doha for the wrong decisions she made, it only shows how much she still needs to mature and develop emotional control.
It would be fantastic if a psychiatrist and a psychologist were introduced into this story. They need therapy urgently.

Starting with Doha, who was separated from his brother in childhood because their parents thought they were objects that could be divided during a divorce. That is absurd. Even in adoption processes, there is an effort to keep siblings together. Imagine how much trauma that must have caused both brothers. Notice that he still hoped they could live as a family until the day his mother decided to remarry.

Then there’s Hakyung. She came from a strange household that seemed to take in orphans (or homeless children) only to return them later. How could that not affect the emotional development of a child?
And then came all the layers of loss and grief, until she became a person with no emotional self-regulation.

That’s why I’m rooting for the plot to finally focus on healing and restoration. Enough of the problems — they already have too many, starting from childhood.

Her hurt is completely valid and genuine. And Doha cannot change what he did in the past. Because of that, the protagonist has only one choice in this situation: she either forgives Doha or she doesn’t.
In episode 4, I thought that by agreeing to live with him, she was giving him an opportunity to get closer. But after that, the barriers only grew — all because of a visit from one of Doha’s friends.
I now realize that her anger is no longer about the lie concerning Doyoung. What makes her try to push Doha away is the fear of opening her heart again and being left alone. She lost everyone she loved who was around her. She fears that Doha will be just another one…
Notice that at the time of her mother’s death, she was dating the public architect, and she ended up accepting that relationship because of the emotional instability she was experiencing…
In short, she is extremely complex.

So there we have a flaw in the script. The first episodes make it very clear that Doha always did everything the female lead asked. Doha’s father tells her this over the phone, Doha himself narrates his choices that way, and he even says it directly to her…
But then comes the twist: he says he has changed. Unlike her, he changed. And in this change, he decides he will no longer do things the way she wants or orders. So now we have a Doha who deliberately creates opportunities to overcome the wall that the lie about Doyoung’s death built between them.
The audience won’t see his various acts of care and kindness toward her as bad or manipulative. Doha is there. And he says so, he confesses his feelings, he shows affection, concern, and interest…
That’s why the writer needs to give her some good substance as well — not just pouting, complaints, and sour expressions.
She needs to start growing and realize that the world really is difficult. She needs to look around and understand that others also suffer: to see her friend in a wheelchair and learn about resilience, to see Doha who lost his brother and understand that it’s possible to survive grief. Anyway… I’m eager for healing, and I hope the writer knows how to guide this journey.

The premise of two wounded people who need help to be happy again is very beautiful. But the execution needs improvement.
Doha was introduced to us as someone who always gave in to the female lead’s wishes—he let her win every time and accepted her decisions (this is shown in the early episodes). And he says that none of that led them anywhere.
He came back determined to do things differently. If he had given up at her first attempt to avoid him, the story would have ended right there. That’s why I said his previous strategies were tolerable—the little games and tactics to draw her closer to him… My issue is him inserting himself into her current relationship. That is my limit. I find it pathetic. It’s not funny, much less cute or romantic. That’s what bothered me.
And also, the fact that almost nothing good about the female lead has been explored. She needs to have her positive qualities presented. The audience needs to root for her, because otherwise it stops making sense for her to be the heroine of the romance. Feeling only pity for her won’t make us love her. We can even like a villain if he’s capable of generating empathy.

Like everything in life, I have my limits between what is acceptable and what is unacceptable or embarrassing.
The fact that he prepared himself mentally and surrounded himself with genuine intentions to win her back didn’t seem bad or intimidating to me. He had made a mistake (that lie is what separated them), so it was up to him to try to get closer again.
My discomfort starts when he would have to intrude on a romantic relationship she chose. That is my limit, because then he stops being intelligent (his previous strategies seemed smart to me) and becomes irrational, even disrespectful.
I had understood that this story would be about healing, rebuilding something that was broken, and the protagonists’ growth. But turning him into a “third wheel” in her relationship won’t heal anything. On the contrary, it will break them even more.
How is he supposed to feel watching the person he says he loves and wants to win back walking hand in hand with someone else, going out together, exchanging affection? (That is painful.) And making him still want to be in the middle of all that is strange, even if they try to present it in a humorous way.
I like the story, and I hope the writer uses good judgment in handling this. Honestly, I hope that next week I’ll be jumping with joy because of the episodes. But right now, I feel more fear than hope.

Indeed, but his feelings for her were already there. You can’t really say he fell in love at the exact moment she said the legal case was suspended (or over).
At the very least, it’s strange for the lawyer to immediately start dating the opposing party in the case he’s involved in.
But expecting the writer to think through these nuances might be asking too much.
It would have made more sense if, upon realizing he was attracted to her, he had talked to Doha and stepped away from the case. Anyway, I didn’t like how this part unfolded. But maybe that was just me being overly legalistic.

You summed up exactly how I feel. But I’m going to keep watching. Now I’m curious to see how they’re going to resolve this. They’ll need a really good twist for me to reconnect with the main romance again.

I hope Doha has the good sense to fire the lawyer and sue him. That was a serious ethical violation. At the very least, the lawyer should have stepped away from the case the moment he realized he had feelings for the female lead. I know Doha doesn’t really care about the legal side of things and that his focus is on winning Hakyung over, but keeping her boyfriend as his lawyer is just outright foolish.

My feelings about episode 6 were a mix of frustration and second-hand embarrassment. I had been genuinely excited about the plot—especially since episode 4, when Hakyung’s character finally started to be explored in depth and we could understand the reasons behind her coldness, distrust, and childish behavior around Doha.

However, in episode 6 the writer introduced something that, in my view, was completely unnecessary and even toxic: Doha suddenly declares that he loves Hakyung’s rudeness. (He loves it? Really?)

This narrative choice seems intended to suggest that he will put up with all her bitterness, as well as the verbal—and sometimes even physical—aggressions she directs at him. We’ve seen from the moment he arrived in that town that he constantly says he needs to prepare himself mentally and physically to face her (or “fight” with her), that she “hasn’t changed at all,” and that she continues to act in a childish way. And honestly, he’s not wrong.

But then I ask myself: what exactly made this man fall in love with this woman? What redeeming qualities does the female lead have? Apparently, according to him, it’s her rudeness—he claims that’s what made him fall for her.

It’s highly unlikely that the audience will share his taste. Most people don’t fall in love with behavior that is abrasive or emotionally harmful. And viewers certainly won’t start liking Hakyung simply because he claims to tolerate or even “love” the most irrational aspects of her personality.

I genuinely believe that people—and characters—are made of both strengths and flaws. I love complex characters written with dimension and realism. But I am still waiting to see the good in Hakyung. So far, we’ve only witnessed her most irritating traits, carried from childhood into adulthood.

Doha keeps trying, keeps pushing, keeps trying to get close to her. That's his choice; nobody forced him into this situation. And in a way, I can root for him, because I know he loves her. But the moment she officially entered a relationship with the lawyer, his attempts to approach her became, by definition, inappropriate and uncomfortable. Inserting himself between the couple, wanting to be wherever they are, or acting jealous will not come across as determination—it will make him appear desperate, even borderline intrusive.

And that crosses a line. It’s not romantic persistence; it’s intimidation.

I initially thought the lawyer would simply be written as a second love interest—another man trying to win her heart. But if she already has a boyfriend, that doesn’t create a love triangle; it ends the race. He’s already the one she chose.

I’ll keep watching the show, and I hope episode 7 resolves some of these narrative problems. But judging by the preview, I’m honestly concerned…

Unfortunately, we live in a time when people no longer have the patience to watch the plot unfold and grow. They want everything handed to them in the very first episode. Even the small thread of suspense was disliked, and no one has the patience to find out what made Hakyung so distrustful and sad.

It’s nice to swim against the current of the obvious. I’m loving the story too. I’ll keep following it here.