Let me preface this by saying I am not a person who rewatches a show in its entirety. I watch movies once, I watch TV shows once, and I do not do rewatches.

This show is different. I don't know what they put into this show but it is straight crack and I am an addict.

I have rewatched it a total of five times and each time the show never fails to make me laugh, to make me cry and scream in frustration and smile in happiness. This show is poignant, it's beautiful, it touches the soul and heart and pulls every emotion a person can have forth to the surface where you cannot help but feel them in their entirety. Watching this show feels like I am coming home to a place I never knew existed, being wrapped up in a blanket and comforted by people I never knew who would love me and feeling safe in my corner of the world.

The show is somewhat wacky in its premise; star-crossed lovers across boundaries and cultural divides, death is imminent and the two lovers are reluctant in their relationship - not exactly enemies-to-lovers because they never were enemies despite how they were brought up to believe. North and South, antagonistic towards one another and led to believe they cannot coexist because of how fundamentally different they are from one another. But Se-ri and Jung-hyuk soon realise that there's a thin line between love and hate.

Where to begin, where to end? The show begins as an adventure - get Se-ri home before everyone is found out and subsequently unalived for harbouring a South Korean. Jung-hyuk takes the role of Se-ri's protector and carer because she is extremely out of her depth here but she quickly adapts and learns to the situation at hand because if she doesn't, she'll be discovered and sent to meet her maker. The two clash in the beginning because of their cultural differences: communist vs capitalist, spoilt vs hardworking, but they quickly understand each other.

Se-ri comes across as "spoilt" because of the fact she is so far away from home and is trying to chase after the comforts she's used to because of the fact she's technically in a foreign land and is under immense stress to keep up this charade of being a member of an elite, NK spy team. Jung-hyuk comes across as aloof and stubborn because he's never been in this situation and is trying to remain as pragmatic as possible because he knows the stakes and the consequences if they fail.

But he starts to empathise with Se-ri, begins to realise that he can't exactly separate his empathy from his pragmatism because she's scared and frightened and placing all her trust in him to get her home and it's different to his subordinates relying on him. Se-ri disrupts his life and routine but Jung-hyuk doesn't seem to mind that much and the two learn to learn from each other, to trust and have fun and to laugh and find comfort. With Se-ri growing up with little to no love and a mother who hates her, and Jung-hyuk growing up under a dictatorship and forced to give up his dreams as a result of a dead brother, it's no wonder the two find companionship under one another.

The cast has a wonderful pool of side characters including Jung-hyuk's subordinates (who I affectionately call his ducklings), Jung-hyuk's fiancée, Seo Dan, and Se-ri's old con boyfriend, Seung-jun. Dan's family are even colourful who bring light and laughter to the otherwise serious storyline in the North, and Dan's story doesn't exactly revolve around Jung-hyuk and she begins her own life, with a very unexpectant love interest.

The show portrays the pure love of Se-ri and Jung-hyuk time and time again; you'll find no miscommunication tropes, no lying to save the others life, there is a moment when you think Jung-hyuk is going to go "i don't love you Se-ri it was all a lie" but he backs out almost immediately because he can't bear to keep the act up. There's not a single one dimensional character in this show, they all have different sides to them, different reasons to live and keep on living, they all have a life outside of the main storyline. The show manages to balance the cast and characters expertly, while never really forgetting the main couple in the meantime.

Son Ye-jin and Hyun Bin put their entire Yejinussy and Binussy into their respective roles and you don't know how happy I was when i found out the two actors are dating! Love IS real and these two are living proof of it! They expertly craft Se-ri and Jung-hyuk into real people with their own lives and motivations all the while never forgetting that Se-ri and Jung-hyuk are the main reason they keep on going. The way they are in love is something so beautiful to watch, while painful to know a person could never experience it. It makes me cry every single time to watch them come together and fall apart and then put each other back together again, the way these two soulmates managed to find each other time and time again despite all the impossibilities that should exist but dissolve because of their love and devotion to one another.

I really could go on and on about this show but then I would end up with a novel. This show will never be a regret for me, and it definitely won't be a regret for you if you decide to watch it. The romance, the comedy, the drama, and the politics - the show balances these all so equally with their large cast.

Watching this show makes me want to die alone because if I can't have what they have, then i don't WANT IT