Ryu Sun Jae after receiving the award: I have never dreamt of receiving this. This feels like a dream come true.

Thank you so much for this award, to the people who stood by my side, my father, my friends,my director,my manager, my staff and my fans.

But special thanks to my biggest fan and supporter, who can transcend to space and time to be by my side and for whom I am head over heels for. To my first and last love, my beautiful fiancee Im Sol.

Thank you for being by my side.

*smiles brightly at the camera after leaving everyone shik shak shook*

Sounds like something Ryu Sun Jae would say...

i just want to talk about how bittersweet and beautiful this moment was.

the totalizing power of sunjae's love for sol completely overwhelms me. he came back for her. (he'll always come back for her.) after realizing that he dies in the future, his first instinct isn't to save himself. the thought doesn't even cross his mind. his first impulse, as always, is to seek out sol – in words, in actions, in touch.

sol's love for him is equally vast — even while on the run from someone she believes to be her kidnapper, when she sees sunjae her immediate reaction is to try and keep him safe, and away from her, even if that means she might get injured or worse. "you can't be here," she sobs. (you can't lose yourself because of me.)

"i'm not going anywhere," sunjae tells her. "i know you like me." "please keep liking me. even if i die saving you, that's okay, " he says: (because living with you is worth it.)

i can't think of a better reiteration of love. no matter where it leads or where they end up — it matters that the love was there. that the love was so immense it went against, and went past — death itself.

sunjae's utter devotion to sol shines through every single thing he does. it's in the reverent tenderness with which he cradles her face — the way he holds her like she's a pillar of sunlight given form. "if you burn me, i don't care," it means. "i know the smoke will be beautiful to behold." how his hands wrap around her with infinite gentleness — how poet robert bly writes: "tiny birds are singing / in the secluded prairies / and the deep valleys of the hand."

this show was distilled from love — its scent is in every scene.

the kiss was exquisitely shot — the way golden light leaks from the frame, then widens into a warmer landscape. just gorgeous. 🤍

can't wait for episode 11.