porkman

I have the same thoughts. The FL is going from place to place through very coincidental connections, and things happening outside the troupe are being sped through.

The pace in episode 4 seems to have accelerated? We spent almost the entirety of episode 3 on a single performance, and now suddenly so much time seems to have passed in just one episode. At the end of ep 4 and in the preview for ep 5, things seem to be escalating a bit too quickly, and too... dramatically.

I am getting the feeling that we are speeding through a growth story. I know the focus is FL's journey inside the troupe, but it doesn't mean the events outside of the troupe should be glossed over. In fact, they should be dedicating more screen time to her other ventures as she is having the most character development now - the petty fighting between trainees in the troupe is getting repetitive. Maybe 16 episodes of runtime would have been better here.

Both of the MLs have their own set of issues too. HO doesn't know anything about proper communication, he only does what he thinks would be helpful but lacks consideration for the other party's true feelings. This is evident from the way he treated EH throughout episode 5. Sometimes I wonder how they even lasted 8 years lol.

JY said his wish was for the world to end in episode 1, which would be a huge red flag if we didn't know his background. He only really opened up after meeting Hyeri. However, it's in his nature that he doesn't really care about people in general. So he didn't spare a thought to how his words would hurt EH, whom he didn't really know as a person.

In conclusion, they all need to go for therapy together.

I don't think it was about what everyone else thought, EH clearly doesn't really care about what her colleagues think of her. It was more that she felt deeply betrayed by him. From her POV, him getting married now would mean that he made an excuse at the time to break up with her, while she poured true feelings and truly desired to spend her whole future with him. That's why her long rant towards HO ended with "What on earth did I mean to you?"

Also, right before hearing about his marriage, EH was worried about HO's career prospects and had something she urgently wanted to tell him on the phone (though it wasn't shown). It was probably a huge slap in the face for her to hear that.

Eunho has her flaws like any other person, but it really isn't hard to sympathise with her. She's a normal person driven to mental illness due to her circumstances. In fact, for someone with that many underlying issues she's been portrayed to be holding up very well. It's the neverending series of traumatic events that drove her to the edge.

If people can't understand why a fictional character with a fully fledged backstory can't get her shit together, that unfortunately translates to real life where actual mentally ill people don't get the understanding they deserve for their struggles.

The thing is, the past romance btw the leads is a big part of her trauma. Emotional dependence and differences in views on marriage are interesting real life topics. However, they should have dedicated more time to the healing part of the show as I don't see how it can be properly fleshed out in <4 episodes.

That's a very valid problem you raised lol. Well, she owns 2 apartments so she could rent out EH's house. But... HR's too slow to know how to do that. It's okay, pursuing your happiness comes first 😂

I think the ending showed that she quit, or at least took leave from work. She is fortunate that apart from the panic attack and recent accident, she didn't dissociate while on the job. That would sadly have gotten her fired for sure.

The depression and sorrow was seeping through the screen in ep 8. When she wrote in the diary, "I hate myself", it felt so hopeless. Why does the ending feel like another form of... a s****** attempt? She has basically started giving up on her life and decided to let "someone else" take over. This is getting very heavy and dangerous.

I don't think it's clickbait, it's just not that much of central theme as, say, Kill Me Heal Me. It's more about about EH's life and overall mental health.

There are layers to this conversation. Just like him, it also takes the audience some time to realize how painful his words were to her. I think he will come to realise this and apologize to her eventually.

He paid for the bathroom mirror that she (Eunho) broke before she passed out, and got her to a hospital room. I don't think Hyeri ever paid him back. But emotionally, Juyeon was indeed the taker. Part of it is because Hyeri was very curious about him, and she didn't have much to tell about herself since she barely has memories.

Looking at how the story is going, this seems to be the overall narrative structure.

First 4 episodes: Talks about EH's DID and gives the context to why she developed it.

Middle: She becomes aware of her condition and gets medication/treatment to get it under control. She faces the consequences of what she did, and previous unresolved problems in her life start impacting her. This is too overwhelming and her mental state hits rock bottom.

End: She probably takes a break from work, and finally faces her wounds head-on by taking the first step: writing back to Hyeri (and herself). Thus the title "Dear Hyeri".

If I'm right about this, the DID part only really takes the first third of this show. I think Hyeri might appear one/a few more times to give some closure (I do think there was a scene of her from the highlight trailer that hasn't been aired yet), but most of this show is actually talking about childhood, family and relationship trauma, and touches on depression/anxiety. Which isn't bad, these are very common psychological topics, but the DID would then come across as a bit of false marketing lol.

Thanks for the reply! I didn't realise the webtoon wasn't fully translated to english yet. It's quite disappointing that they seem to have taken out many important aspects of the story. The cross dressing, feminism and LGBT aspects are important topics and potentially groundbreaking material to work with in a kdrama. I can see why some webtoon fans aren't very happy.

But then again, conservatives in SK seem to already be going crazy over a BL drama so I guess it's understandable that the execs didn't want to take the risk for such a huge production...

To the webtoon readers, I am curious about this. How long does the story span over? Does it mostly take place in Jeongnyeon's teenage/underdog years? Because while I am genuinely impressed by the production quality and efforts of the actors, apart from the setting, this is leaning a bit much into Disney teen drama territory for my taste. I realised I am actually not that big a fan of watching petty rivalries between the trainees and cute teenage friendships lol.

But if this is just the beginning stage of the story and it transitions into telling the more complex struggles of stardom and being in the troupe, I will be very much onboard.

He was probably too caught in his emotions, but that conversation was extremely painful to EH. EH wanted to get a taste of happiness and tried being HR for one more day, attempting to befriend HY and JY. It ended in JY begging for HR and cutting EH off. Yes, she hurt him and did him wrong (unknowingly), and he deserved to be angry. But he didn't offer any sympathy to her situation and said one of the most triggering things possible to her. The message she got was that he only liked her as HR, he didn't care about her condition if HR didn't return, and neither did he accept her apology. She was in tears not only out of guilt, but because her last ditch attempt at finding happiness failed miserably, and left her feeling unloved and all alone once again.

I get it, just found it funny to mention how the actors also can get baited by the first episodes of the drama

Well, not watching her any further is very harsh... I heard kdrama actors only get the scripts for the first 4 episodes before deciding whether to accept a project, so she probably didn't know the ending too lmao.

Basing a personality off someone doesn't mean they have to "match" or completely imitate them. Firstly, it is based on the host's perception of the person -- which may be different from the actual person, especially in Eunho's case where she hadn't seen her real sister in years since she went missing. Maybe her most distinct memories of her are from when she was younger.

Also from a psychological perspective, an introject based on a real person is created because the host thinks some of their traits can be useful in protecting them, or getting them through their situation. The 2 Hyeris do have similar traits, such as being carefree, unambitious, a bit immature etc. These are the traits from the real Hyeri that are completely opposite from Eunho herself, so her mind is attempting to adopt these traits via a new personality, to see if getting through life is easier that way.

Finding this pretty funny, I actually laughed out loud at some parts. Watching KSY here after last seeing her in Penthouse is a bit of a trip lol.