A group of college friends and roommates attend a class together at the beginning of the school year.  But shortly after their first class, an anonymous love letter shows up on the campus internet message board, signed simply “M”.  As the letters continue, each student will try to solve the mystery of who “M” really is, while wondering if there is any chance that they could be the mystery writers first love.

Jeong Jae Hyun as Cha Min Ho

Cha Min Ho is a Computer Science student who is already developing his own apps.  He has a natural talent for all things computer, that makes him a model student.  He is in love with his best friend, Ma Joo Ah, although he has never let on to her that he feels that way.  After years of friendship, the 2 are inseparable anyway, so he has been patiently waiting for her to realize how he feels.  But when she suddenly develops a crush for the first time in their lives, he knows that if he doesn’t confess to her soon, he could lose his chance. 

Cha Min Ho is confident and social.  But he lives with the sadness of having lost both of his parents in a car accident when he was young.  He was raised by his older sister, who gave up her own dreams and ambitions to take care of him.  Now he is determined to pay her back for everything she has done by working part-time jobs whenever he can.  NCT’s Jeong Jae Hyun made his acting debut in this drama, and  I thought he handled  it well.  He was able to convey plenty of sensitivity and emotion with this role and I enjoyed his character a lot.  

Bae Hyun Sung as Park Ha Neul

Park Ha Neul is one of Min Ho’s roommates.  He recently changed his major to Computer Science, but the shift has been more difficult for him than he expected.  He is going out with Ji Min, and their relationship is very stable and sincere, until Ro sa begins to plant doubts in Ji Min’s mind.  

 ♥ College Life

College dramas often spend all their time showing the social and dating lives of the students, but they often neglect the more day to day life style of what it is really like to be a University student in Korea.  I enjoyed the fact that the characters of this drama were shown studying and attending classes, as well as some of the more mundane things like trying to find someone to eat with in the cafeteria.  It gave the story a more natural and down-to-earth feeling than a lot of others in this genre.   

 ♥ Siblings

Min Ho’s relationship with his sister was very sweet.  I would have enjoyed even more moments with these two together.  But the few scenes we did get show his love for her and give his character some sincerity and depth that added dimension to his story.  His desire to pay her back and her assertion that she never resented being able to act as a second mom to him were both reasonable reactions to their situation.

 Moon Joon

Moon Joon’s character was a  difficult one for me.  The whole story between him and Joo Ah seemed weirdly unexplained.  I get that he wasn’t sure of his feelings and he was trying to gain some clarity.  But it seemed like he did it without any consideration of Joo Ah’s feelings.  For someone who was so well-liked and respected, this felt very out of character.  And his actions with Min Ho only made him more unlikeable.  But I couldn’t really understand whether he had always been kind of a jerk and no one actually knew the real him or if these actions were a change in his personality.  

Ro Sa Conclusion

The “villains”  were the weakest link in the characters for this drama.  Ro Sa’s story felt incomplete in several ways.  First of all, the reason she took a year off never felt fully explained.  It became obvious that the travel-abroad story wasn’t actually true.  Then there was some talk about her being involved in an unpleasant rumor that left her unable to face her fellow students.  But we never really hear what that rumor was about or if Ro Sa had somehow gotten in trouble for her habitual toxic behaviors.  I felt like her story got teased a bit but we never had any resolution to it.  She seemed to have some very unhealthy personality traits, and I would have like to see her character taking some kind of steps to actually heal that, rather than just moving on to a new friend who may just be a new potential “victim”.  

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“Dear.M” brings everything around for lots of happy endings with all our main couples.  All three “roommate couples” are finally out in the open and doing well.  Ro Sa has moved on to a new friend and seems to be doing well.  I guess only time will tell with that one.  Moon Joon finally tells his father everything and says he is quitting college to live his own life.  Good for him, I suppose, although his horrible behavior in the second half of this drama left me not caring much about his character.  And the big “Dear.M” reveal turns out to be none other than our impish psychology major, Gil Mok Jin.  It is unclear whether the confession was actually sincere, and from the smirk on his face, it may very well have been just a fun prank to pique everyone’s curiousity.  But I guess we get the last laugh, since he did meet his first love in that class after all.