can you expand on why you think songhwa's char is dumbed down in s2?

Hooooo boy, ok, I'll give you a short answer first: rejecting a guy in the beginning only to then send heart-eyes his way is a very juvenile thing to do at 40/42.

Long answer: Where to even begin lol The fact that she got all ditzy around the same man she rejected in most clear and sound words in S2E1? Or the fact that she literally wanted to crawl out of her skin in S1 whenever this man made overt advances? Or that the writers made sure that she shared 99% screen time (0% substance) with this man so that the eNdGaMe made sense? Or the fact that this man was "shown" to be caring towards her but actually was gaslighting her all the while into rethinking her decision? Or the fact that she didn't display an ounce of maternal affection for this man's little child during their camping trip (one that the child was so excited about), when he was clearly depressed all through it, and then suddenly got all gooey inside seeing a family portrait?

Sorry, a woman's no is a no. Especially a 40 year-old woman's NO is a big fat NO. There is no other way to spin this. You just don't get “divinely awakened” towards something when you're 40, your life and values are pretty set by the point. Neither can fiction tell me otherwise nor can it normalise it as an alternate reality. There were points in this 2nd season where I felt first-hand embarrassment for the way these characters acted in certain situations, so detached from their realities and own emotions. Actually, not just Song-hwa, but all these characters got majorly downgraded in S2, save for Jun-Wan and Seok-hyeong. I'm just pissed off about Song-hwa because she had the potential to be showcased as the independent 40+ year-old woman who didn't need a man in her life to feel "complete". Instead, the makers seized all agency they’d given her up until that point and dumbed her down to a giggly teenager who doesn't know how to act in front of a crush lmao She just came across as petty to me, with how she was rejected by IJ 20 years back, so she rejected him first to give him a taste of his own medicine, and then budged when he was in a near death situation. It's pretty distasteful in the context of a 40 year-old woman's life. I sure as hell hope that I'm not as indecisive and shrewd as her when I'm 40. She's everything I hope 40 year-old women AVOID being at that age as it's reverse ageing imo (mental age, not physical age lol).

I think the creators set up this great premise of portraying the lives of exemplary 40 year-old doctors, tackling myriad challenges that came their way in S1, but with S2, I can't even tell what the message is anymore; actually, I DO know what it wasn't: they made sure that the S1 message was completely warped in the mushy romance subplots. In short, they jumped the gun. The slice-of-life element, which was the USP of this drama, was traded unceremoniously for a romance mess that wasn't even convincingly executed and do you know why? Because 40 year olds don't act like they don't know their minds. ShinLee can gaslight Song-hwa all they want, but not me. For me, she will always be a case of what could have been had she used her brains and asserted her individuality a little more.

Nonnie, if you are an Ik/Song shipper, my answer probably will offend you. But you were the one asking, so I hope you appreciate that there is another way of looking at things.

What I do want to say finally is this: