Dear X Who Doesn’t Love Me (나를 사랑하지 않는 X에게) is a Korean drama series directed by Go Jae-hong and stars Han Ji-hyo, Doyoung, Kwon Ah-reum, Bang Jae-min, Son Hyun-woo and Kim Ji-hoon, alongside other cast members. The first three episodes of the series have an average runtime of around 30 minutes.
TVING describes the seires as:
Hee-su, a college student with zero self-esteem and zero narcissism, discovers a mysterious lyric notebook that makes anyone fall in love with her for a month, and then becomes entangled with other men, including her best friend, Si-ho.
– Dear X Who Doesn’t Love Me Review Does Not Contain Spoilers –
Dear X Who Doesn’t Love Me episode 1 starts with a rather morose dream where Hee-soo dreams of her potential lover kissing her and then dying by puking up blood. It’s a visceral dream and is followed by her rushing to school, making eating plans with her best friend and trying to subtly hit on Gang Wook, her classmate and the object of her crush and wild dreams.
Dear X Who Doesn’t Love Me will give you major Soundtrack #1 vibes, the show has similar themes of one-sided love and the female protagonist not understanding her guy bestie’s feelings. She also desperately follows Gong Wook around, and it’s kind of sad to watch her be this way.
The series’ first three episodes that have been released give a good look into why you shouldn’t depend on magic to make your life better. Hee-soo has several problems in her life, and we get a nice rundown of what those are as time progresses – her relationship with Si-ho, her insecurities, her family and even Si-ho’s backstory.
The story progresses really well, albeit a bit slow, and as Hee-soo laps up the attention that she gets from her fellow peers, thanks to her newfound abilities, that comes with its own set of problems. Dear X Who Doesn’t Love Me is patient and kind; it’s warm in a way. It knows what desperation to get noticed can do to you and how one-sided love feels like.
All of these feelings can be all-consuming, especially if you’re not confident or lack self-esteem, which seems to be the case with Hee-soo. The series takes its leads’ problems seriously and takes time to tell us within its short runtime that both of their pasts matter and result in the way that they are right now. You feel bad for Hee-soo as you know how these decisions that she is making are going to turn out.
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At the end of Dear X Who Doesn’t Love Me episode 3, Hee-soo encounters her first heartbreak, her past traumas come back to haunt her and you get a glimpse of the baggage that she is carrying around. Her past trauma, it seems, is quite severe. We don’t get to know all of it, but the implications themselves are quite traumatic.
The result of her trauma, compounded with this magic notebook, makes her do some crazy stuff, much to Si-ho’s exasperation. Will they be able to figure out their feelings for each other? Will Hee-soo be able to stop herself from using that last page of the notebook? We have 7 more episodes to figure that out.
Summing Up: Dear X Who Doesn’t Love Me
Dear X Who Doesn’t Love Me’s first three episodes aptly describe the longing within us when things aren’t going that well romantically. The series is interesting and will keep you guessing about what happens in Hee-soo’s life next and whether she will depend on herself or take up the diary’s offer.
Dear X Who Doesn’t Love Me is streaming on Viki and TVING.
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