It’s time to draw a close to this chapter, as our characters finally reap the rewards of the seeds they’ve been painstakingly sowing all this while. They’ve come a long way from where they first started, and adversity has only made them stronger.
EPISODES 15-16 WEECAP
Dae-ryuk and Dong-hee toil away at their tablets, and at the end of it, they manage to submit Dae-ryuk’s manuscript before the deadline. The latest chapter goes up right on time, and Ma-eum’s eyes tear up as she reads it. For the first time, there’s color in Dae-ryuk’s art — the yellow flowers reflect the hope that has begun to bloom in his heart.
Ma-eum asks Dae-ryuk how he thought of adding color to his manuscript, and he answers that he recalls doodling with his mom as a child, using colored crayons. It was a happy memory that had gotten lost with the sands of time, until now.
So many people pour in effort behind the scenes just to produce one piece of creative work, and their presence is equally important. We’re shown a montage of the drama’s production team hard at work, which is a really sweet acknowledgement of their hard work.
Ji-hyung admits that he was skeptical of Ma-eum at the start, since she would’ve been used to receiving love as an athlete, rather than giving others support. However, she’s since proven him wrong, and he encourages her to continue doing well.
Chief Heo’s office gets searched by the audit team, under CEO Yoon’s orders. It turns out that Joon-young finally reported Chief Heo’s corruption and backstabbing to the CEO, along with the evidence he’s painstakingly collected. Hah, Chief Heo’s fallen into the very trap he laid. He’s made to take a long break from work, after which he’ll have to resign.
When Chief Heo runs into Man-cheol in the hallway, he’s as unrepentant as ever, putting on an air of superiority. However, Man-cheol isn’t cowed, and he asserts that his webtoon team will continue to grow even stronger. Ever the bigger man, he advises Chief Heo to stop sabotaging others and playing dirty, and to instead treat the people around him with sincerity.
Now that the webtoon team is finally producing good results, they have more leeway to launch projects, and they decide to hold another webtoon contest. When the winners are announced, first place turns out to be the author of a slice-of-life travel comic that both Young-bae and Ma-eum have their eyes on.
Oh no, the artist is Seul-ah, who submitted her entry using a pen name. After the traumatic experience working with Young-bae previously, Seul-ah is very much inclined to choose Ma-eum as her PD in charge.
At night, Joon-young considers calling Ma-eum, but chickens out at the last minute — until his ringtone has him tripping over himself to answer Ma-eum’s call, HAHA. She calls him out to their usual pojangmacha for a drink, and she tells him that she also feels like she’s ended a chapter of her life.
Ma-eum recounts her last judo match, confiding in Joon-young about how she finally mustered up the courage to see that friend again. She muses that she doesn’t think she could’ve done it without the lessons she learned and the strength she gained from the webtoon team, but Joon-young disagrees, saying that he thinks she’s fully capable as her own person.
I’ll admit I started this show purely for the main cast, since I loved them all in their previous roles. Kim Se-jung is simply a breeze to watch; her effervescent exuberance always brought a smile to my face every week, and I liked the touch of vulnerability she gave Ma-eum.
Nam Yoon-soo was adorable as the awkwardly reserved Joon-young, and it was so endearing to watch his heart gradually thaw out as he developed feelings for Ma-eum. (If you want to watch him in another cutely lovestruck puppy role, I’d recommend the web drama The Temperature of Language: Our Nineteen!)
Of course, Daniel Choi is great in the mentor role, as always — I first watched him in School 2013, and while he was certainly more prickly there, he has a reassuring presence that exudes a steady dependability.
Today’s Webtoon may have its shortcomings, but if I’m willing to overlook them and suspend my disbelief in certain scenes, I think I still enjoyed the drama a fair bit. Just like how the team healed one another and grew together over the course of the show, their determined optimism and words of wisdom touched my heart. As much as the plot could be frustrating at times, the central tale was one that offered comfort and warmth, and many of its quotes will stay with me. One particularly poignant line I liked was uttered by Dong-hee this week:
Just because we’ve woken up from a dream today, doesn’t mean we can’t dream again tomorrow. There’s always room for hope; where one door closes, another opens. Just as the sun always rises every morning, heralding the start of a new day, we can always pick ourselves back up and continue onwards towards what makes us happy.
