Fan Mail: Dear Kim Soo-hyun, your K-drama is nearing its end and I’m not okay with that

Dear Kim Soo-hyun,

I’m happy you’re finally active on Instagram, sharing moments from your latest drama your fans can easily identify. I can feel your warmest and most sincerest fondness for this show, and I can’t help but appreciate and look forward to its story even more. Your excitement excites me every week.

I’ve been rewatching videos produced by The Swoon nonstop for my daily Soo-hyun fix. It may be the 5-year-hiatus talking, but you’ve become more confident and charming since we last saw you on our screens. The chemistry you share with your tvN co-actors has just been so fun and phenomenal, too.

And now I honestly can’t believe we’re at the last four episodes of “It’s Okay To Not Be Okay.” I’ve forgotten how it’s like to look forward to the weekend without the release of drama’s newest chapters being its main event.

While it’s got the classic tropes of a Korean drama (the history long shared by characters, its slow and cryptic presentation of misfortunes, and the depiction of star-crossed lovers), “It’s Okay To Not Be Okay” is a refreshing take on romance.

It flawlessly weaves in elements of self-discovery, familial loyalty and enduring love. Its complex characters slowly walk us through their labyrinths of trauma, passion and emotions, and we find ourselves wanting to know more of each of you each week.

In the series, Ko Mun-yeong taught her literary students to disregard the moral lessons presented by fairytales, and instead dig deeper in the framework of each character’s mind. She said fairytales are made to wake us up to the harshness of realities we face. This is a new spin on how we can come to understand fairytales. With a new sense of wonder, it’s fascinating to uncover how each episode is guided by these well-known and well-loved stories, putting them into a modern context as playfully submerged connotations all throughout the narrative.

“It’s Okay To Not Be Okay” has been a fantasy romance that’s far from the fairytales we grew up taking to heart, that’s for sure—it’s incredibly human, its characters’ flaws are not guised as strengths, and uncertainty of the story’s direction perfectly reflect the everyday turmoil real life poses.

I know the next episodes are going to be filled with twists and turns, all in between sobs and heartwarming moments (the happy portrait at the end of episode 12 seems too much like the calm before the storm). I don’t think I’m ready for what’s next (or for the show to end, for that matter), but my alarm is.


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