I dedicate this site to recipes but I have to get this off my chest. Like many viewers and fans, CitT's ending made me wanna pitch-throw my ipad into the wall.
I've never heard of the webtoon version (which is the original) before so I went in unbiased and with an open mind when I started watching the drama. After the first 2 episodes I thought to myself, Daaang! This is going to be my all-time favorite drama ever! The drama started out strong; it was fresh and really quite different from anything I've seen before (not that I've seen so many to compare it to anyway). But it failed me, and this is why I'm writing this alternate ending -- to mend my broken heart! After seeing the finale I first felt anger (What kind of an ending was that?!), followed by disappointment (the main cast did such a wonderful job portraying their characters only for the latter half of the drama, especially the ending to fall flat), then heartbreak and sadness (It was gonna be my top 1!).
I'm not one to write about my comments and thoughts on dramas because I know they're fiction. Heck, I was burned by Big's (Gong Yoo and Lee Min-Jung) finale but I got over it since it wasn't on its way to my top 5. But CitT is a different story. Park Hae Jin was the perfect Yoo Jung, and Kim Go Eun was the perfect Hong Seol. The drama had so much potential! Now I'm neither a skilled writer nor do I know anything about directing (or anything that has to do with theater/film), but this is my imaginary alternate ending so that I can get over the feeling of being stabbed with a serrated knife and the knife being pulled out, slowly.
Here goes..
1] Episodes 13-14 could've been used to show us insights on Yoo Jung. But I know there are many viewers that were happy to see a lot of Baek In Ho so I think the drama should have extended one, if not two more episodes to make up for that.
2] I understand that the webtoon is ongoing and that the creator asked for the drama ending be different from hers. If the CitT crew really didn't know what to do with the ending, they could have asked the creator for an idea they can play with and make an ending out of it. I mean, the creator is the expert! Another idea would have been to ask the viewers/fans in advance to submit their ideas on how they think the drama should/could end. This idea might be a hassle, but it would give the crew plenty of ideas to work with and the drama might have ended on a better note. Get the audience involved, we like that. There are a lot of good creative thinkers and writers out there. Who knows, a hidden gem might even be found. Plus, this will bump up the ratings because people will tune in to see how the drama ends. Poll voting is another way but that would spoil the ending. It's okay to deviate from the original and give focus on other characters, but you have to bring it back around to show Jung and Seol's complex relationship and their growth together and as individuals.
3] Episode 15 felt rushed, as if they were shoving Yoo Jung down our throat. They could have trickled in flashbacks and such in the previous episodes or throughout the drama. But I was happy just to see a lot more of Yoo Jung since he's been pretty absent.
4] Episode 16 Finale *sigh*.. Imagine this.....
• The scene where Yoo Jung's dad talks about cleaning up the mess.. We then see a quick flashback of In ho's hand incident.
- Some viewers might go 'So, Jung really was responsible for that?!'. The way I took it from episode 12 is yes and no. True, Jung manipulated the situation. He was invited by the older kids to a bar and he invited the piano boy. We don't know whether he really intended to go or not. In Ho shows up, and here I think is when Jung started to plan things out in his head. Piano boy was there when Jung tells In Ho that Dad would only find out if someone tells on him. And to make it worse, In Ho once again talked down on piano boy. So when piano boy shows up at the bar (Jung nowhere to be seen) and they get busted, his immediate conclusion is that In Ho told on them. Jung maybe had an idea that In Ho will get a beating but I don't think he knew that piano boy would go as far as to crush In Ho's hand. Even if Jung could foresee that (after all, piano boy knows how important hands are to pianists), he wasn't the one to actually break In Ho's hand and he didn't tell piano boy to do that. It wasn't entirely his fault.
• Omit the scene where Jae Woo dares to ask Seol for a favor regarding In Ha.
- Jae Woo knew he was out of place to ask for a favor but he did anyways as if he's planting some sort of pity on Seol for In Ha. I felt like that scene was unnecessary. I had a feeling that Seol would settle out of court (because that's how nice she is) even without anyone telling her to.
• Take away the whole restaurant scene where the family talks about son-in-law and In Ho having dinner with them.
- I hated this scene! It made me so mad and so sad that they treated Jung the way they did when he finally came over to their house, but they treated In Ho so much better. I understand that from a parent's point of view I would be disappointed as well if my kid's lover doesn't show up or contact us for that long after the accident. But they didn't even try to have a conversation with Jung when he visited. They pretty much took their hate out on Jung and gave him the cold shoulder. Even if they treated In Ho like family from the very beginning, I think they could have showed a little more affection towards Jung (especially at the hospital). Clearly they know that Seol loves Jung seeing how brokenhearted she was after the breakup.
• Now that we took away the restaurant scene it means we also have to take out the scene that immediately followed where Joon is in Seol's room talking about how In Ho is an all right guy.
• The scene where In Ho gets a call and finds out that the gangster deal is over and done with, rather than scoffing at the idea that Jung might have been behind it, I wanted In Ho to show some regret in his face. And maybe a slight smile after the regret to acknowledge that not everything was Jung's fault.
- I want the following scenes from where he's looking out to the stage to the end of him playing to be decreased. I didn't think we needed more piano scenes!
• Take away the scene where Seol's family is gathered around the table eating fruits and talking about In Ha's sentence.
- When Seol's dad talked about taking In Ho into consideration I was mad. Did you ever take Jung into consideration? You could have appreciated the fact that Jung made a choice to leave Seol because he didn't want to hurt her further. They don't even know a lot about Jung (or the couple's relationship) besides that he's a chaebol, and the little interactions they had with him up to the point at the hospital should have painted him as a nice guy.
• The next scene where Seol gets a text from In Ha about Jung's flight -- yes, I wanted to see her breakdown and cry for just a bit after the flashbacks and after she sees their picture on her phone (hopefully the time isn't 3:01pm yet!). Then I wanted to see her run out the door (she had ready-to-go clothes on!) and try to get to the airport as fast as she can, not caring whether she makes it on time or not. I wanted to see her at the airport, standing there looking around with tears rolling down her face while the camera revolves around her to show the viewers every angle of Seol. I wanted the viewers to see how heartbroken she is not just from the front but also to show how lonely and hurt she is even from looking at her back. Of course one of the OST or background music plays while this is happening.
- The reason for this scene is that Seol told In Ho about not regretting anything. So, I wanted to see her try to see Jung (he looked like he was hoping to see her!) before he leaves even if she was too late.
• I don't mind seeing the Baek siblings happy at the venue where In Ho was playing the piano; their characters needed closure, too. But I think their screen time should have been decreased rather than being a minute and a half long.
• That moment at the crosswalk where Seol and Jung passed by each other. Aigoo! I don't mind a time-skip because soul-searching takes time. I just have to assume that Jung got treated, found himself and came back a better person. I don't know a lot about psychology so I can't make things up for this. I'll imagine something like It's Okay, That's Love Jae-yeol's treatment in the finale.
- Place another fella similar to Jung's build behind him. As Seol turns around, she acts on a hunch that it might be Jung so she runs and grabs onto the wrong guy. The real Jung would have already been at the sidewalk, and because he's observant by nature, he knows that Seol and him were crossing the street at the same time. He watches as Seol apologizes to the stranger for mistaking him for someone else. He smiles, seeing her again made him happy. Seol walks away.
• Drama's final scenes where Seol checks her email, Mom calls her to eat, and one of the emails change from Unread to Read.
- While Seol is checking her email we see a split screen of Jung opening up his email. Then in a single screen we see Jung getting into his car. Seol comes back to her computer after a long while to see that one message was read. She's surprised. She becomes excited, in a frantic-ottoke kind of way. Without thinking, she grabs her coat and runs out of the house. Jung is already down that familiar street standing in front of his car like in episode 11 (except the scenery is much beautiful -- think of episode 9 where Seol wanted both of them to take some time). Seol is running down the street, she looks up and the sight of Jung stopped her in her tracks. Jung with that same expression in episode 11 silently mouths: "Seol-ah. Were you looking for me?"
- We see Seol taking a few steps forward, tears pooling in her eyes. Jung doing the same. When they are at arm's length, Jung raises his left hand and we see it hover over Seol's fringe (we cut to flashbacks of those times Jung fixed Seol's bangs) before finally fixing it. Then his hand slides down her cheek and slightly cups it. Seol's right hand reaches for Jung's hand and she feels the ring. She finally breaks down and leans in for a hug. Jung embraces her, we see him closing his eyes as tears roll down his face. A rush of emotions on his face - first sadness, then he lets out a sigh of relief, followed by a smile and he hugs Seol even tighter.
- When they finally break the hug, Jung's hands reach for Seol's hands. Then, "Seol-ah. Want to eat together?" Seol lets out a small smile as she looks away for a second (we see flashbacks of early episodes when Jung constantly asked her to eat with him), then her eyes meet Jung's and they both burst out laughing. It's the happiest they've been in years! As they turn to walk away hand in hand, the camera stays behind to capture the beautiful moment and scenery.
- And finally, we see them in a convenience store. They're opening triangle kimbap and hands it to one another. We see a surprised expression on their faces, that both were opening the kimbap not for themselves, but to give it to the other. They switch kimbaps, happily take a bite and looks on at their reflections on the window. They see each other happy. We hear Seol's thoughts: Sunbae.. We hear Jung's thoughts blending in: Seol-ah.. They look at each other as if they're having a silent conversation like the one at the hospital after the accident. We hear both of their thoughts: Saranghae. They sweetly smile as they look fondly at each other. Jung swoops in to plant a kiss on her lips. Seol was startled, but she smiles, then returns a kiss like in episode 15. She pulls away with a smile on her face and we see Jung's lips curl into a smile. The camera pans out and captures a still of the moment while one of the OST plays in the background.
5] Rather than a "Special Episode" I think I would appreciate a post-credit scene more.
• In this scene: We see Eun Taek and Bo Ra, Jung and Seol on a double date in an arcade like in episode 4. The boys are playing against each other and the girls are cheering them on. All four look genuinely happy!
- The "Special Episode" they aired was a bit useless. Those were clips already out on YouTube put together. You can easily find those clips (plus more!) on YouTube.
Some may say that the ending was realistic; an open-ending drama creates imaginations like this. But after all that Seol and Jung have been through, and even me as a viewer who shed some tears, I felt that the couple deserved a happy ending. Everyone else around the couple seemed cheery in their current lives, so why not Jung and Seol have some happy, too? I wanted them to be happy so that I can be happy! Anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading and was able to imagine this alternate ending in your head so that you won't be so mad anymore at the drama's original ending. *sigh* This show went down as a coulda-shoulda-woulda been kind of drama. Saranghae if you made it this far reading!
