when my love blooms

 i'm waiting for hospital playlist or any drama from jang ki yong to be played in netflix, but apparently it won't be aired until early to mid june, so i didn't have anything to watch for now. but recently i found out about got7 and was interested in park jin young. apparently he had a drama in netflix that i haven't watched yet and it was the same drama which yoo ji tae appeared as well. at first i was interested because of yoo ji tae, but it was jin young that made me watch it at last. oh well, let's see how it goes.

title: when my love blooms

cast: yoo ji tae, lee bo young, park jin young, jeon so nee

genre: romantic melodrama

han jae hyun (yoo ji tae) is a VP of hyung sung group who recently got out jail after being a scapegoat for his father in law. everyone was wondering what he would do next when suddenly he met his long lost ex-girlfriend, yoon ji soo (lee bo young). honestly, this drama is full of back and forth storyline, so it's a bit confusing going forward and backward all the time, so let's talk about it from the past to the present time.

back in his college days, young jae hyun (park jin young) was famous for being a defender for labor union. he was in law department and has been going on rallies to defend people who couldn't defend themselves. on one of his rallies, he saw young yoon ji soo (jeon so nee). when the rallies went awry, jae hyun helped ji soo before disappearing. since ji soo was in music department, she asked around the law department and got help from young young woo (byung hun). long story short, young ji soo was determined to date young jae hyun. 

however, their love story wasn't that smooth. since jae hyun has been in rallies constantly, it might affect his career. while ji soo, was apparently came from a high class family. her father was apparently the chief prosecutor at that time, and he was furious when ji soo was caught when she was in the same rally as jae hyun. jae hyun met her father, but ji soo father deemed jae hyun wasn't the right man for ji soo. facing opposition from ji soo family made their relationship became a bit like romeo juliet. at the first half of the series we could see that ji soo decided to leave jae hyun for his sake, under the oppression from her father but that's not the entire story on the second half. ji soo managed to disappear while jae hyun was in military service (a bit forced by ji soo's father) and couldn't find her after years. later, when his father ended his own life because he was accused of accepting bribe from the company and betrayed his friends in labor union, jae hyun's world collapsed. suddenly he couldn't find the meaning of all he's been doing these time. he's been defending the labor union while his father was accused of betraying his own labor union. determined to get the bottom of it, he decided to work as hard as he could and found the truth about his father's death. however, in the middle of his way, he met jang seo kyung (park si yeon), an heiress from hyung sung group and married her. they had a son, han joon seo (park min soo) who apparently was in the same school as ji soo's son, lee young min (go woo rim).

fast forward to present days, young min was a bright young boy that got scholarship so he could attend prestigious school. however, other students knew about his financial situation and they deemed he was not fit for the school and bullied him for being poor. young min has been hiding the bullying from his mother because he was afraid that his father, lee se hoon (kim young hoon) might use that reason to gain the custody right. however, he snapped when the other students, especially joon seo, kept bullying him and the headmaster had no choice but to call both parents. since seo kyung was away, jae hyun came to school instead and to his surprise, he met adult ji soo. jae hyun knew that his own son might be the reason young min snapped, but since joon seo didn't admit anything, jae hyun asked the headmaster to keep it quiet and didn't charge young min.

but when seo kyung and the CEO found out about it, they forced the school to kick young min out. the rest is predictable. jae hyun found out that ji soo has been struggling all these time, while he's been living in comfort. she had no stable job, and she was one of the hyung sung supermarket's branch owner before the contract was annulled. she has been helping the other women in the labor union to put rally in front of the company. ji soo also had divorced her husband because he was cheating on her but she didn't want to receive any money for both her and her son. her husband was her former lawyer, and still became a lawyer when he found out about ji soo and her past with jae hyun. he worked together with seo kyung to prevent ji soo getting back with jae hyun. at first his effort seemed to be working, but ji soo determined not to let anyone else stepping on her life, so his plan fell apart.

meanwhile, jae hyun has been working on a plan to let the truth about his father in law out. he also asked seo kyung for divorce but seo kyung didn't want to sign the paper at first and made ji soo suffered because of it. young min also suffered because joon seo once again bullied young min because he was afraid that his dad might leave his mom for young min's mom. at this time, young min decided that the school wasn't worth it and left the school with ji soo's approval. at this time, se hoon had no choice but to support young min's decision. however, he still didn't give up on ji soo entirely. his last effort was telling a father whose son has died because of suicide because he was accused accepting bribe from hyung sung group, exactly like jae hyun's dad and he believed that jae hyun was the culprit and after being told jae hyun's location, he stabbed jae hyun. at the end, jae hyun decided not to charge the man, and that man learnt the truth that jae hyun wasn't the culprit. at first, se hoon has been called as witness, but later the police told him that jae hyun knew the truth about se hoon's involvement in the case but decided to let it go. that shocked se hoon and changed him.

so.. back to the love story.. after jae hyun met ji soo's dad, ji soo dad told ji soo to left korea for germany, but ji soo didn't go and even run away with jae hyun for awhile. while running away, jae hyun was caught by the military police because of ji soo's dad and forced to fulfill his military duty. around the same time, ji soo's dad was furious of jae hyun, so when he knew that jae hyun's dad was reporting hyung sung CEO of corruption, ji soo's dad decided to help hyung sung CEO (present day jae hyun's father in law) and framed jae hyun's dad instead. on ji soo's birthday, when ji soo decided to visit jae hyun on his first military visitation permit, ji soo's mom and younger sister died because the mall collapsed. couldn't accept the reality, ji soo's dad mental health was shaken and he was caught accepting bribe as well. so in short time, ji soo's family lost their home, his dad was removed from the prosecution department, thus made ji soo left jae hyun without any explanation. back to present day, ji soo explained her reason for leaving and ji soo also found out that jae hyun decided to be with her even though he knew that her father was the one that's behind jae hyun's father's death. talking about complicated love story.

anyway, at the end, jae hyun managed to get the hyung sung CEO apprehended. he was put in jail. he divorced seo kyung but he resigned from the company. both seo kyung and her dad still had their shares in the company as owners, but they weren't allowed to involve in the management. while ji soo moved and opened her own piano school. jae hyun proposed to her, but honestly i couldn't see that they got married at the end. 

what i like:

- well, all actresses and actors are good. however, i still don't like park si yeon's acting though. she still seemed "extra". 

- at least there were some sweet memories during their youth days. i like how it was sweet between young jae hyun and young ji soo. if only the drama was only about their youth days... i won't be skipping the drama like crazy. fyi, i don't quite like the present plot, so i often skip the present days. but i never skip the younger days. 

what i don't like:

- this story is about infidelity and people are supporting it. gee.. i get that their love was sooo strong that even though it's been years they couldn't forget it. but for ji soo, she's divorced. but jae hyun was not. he was the one that made the decision to marry seo kyung when he couldn't find ji soo, so after finding ji soo, it's not right to leave seo kyung because he finally found his first and true love. at least he should divorce her first before pursuing ji soo again. 

- again, same plot about being the powerful stepped on the lowlies. ji soo dad and the CEO were plotting against jae hyun's powerless dad was one example of it.

- again, bullying story. 

rating: 7/10

binge worthy: so-so

recommended for: fans of park jin young, yoo ji tae and lee bo young. and don't mind about the infidelity part.