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What Comes After Love, starring Lee Se-young, Sakaguchi Kentaro, and more, aired the 6th and final episode of the drama on Coupang Play on October 25, 2024. The drama is based on the joint Korean-Japanese novel Things that Come After Love (Korean title: 사랑 후에 오는 것들) written by South Korea’s Gong Ji-Yeong and Japan’s Hitonari Tsuji.
The drama follows the story of Hong, played by Lee Se-young, a South Korean woman who moves to Japan for further studies. There, Hong meets Jungo, depicted by Sakaguchi Kentaro, a Japanese aspiring writer. Hong and Jungo fall in love; however, they soon go through a heartbreaking breakup. The duo reunites after five years in South Korea; however, Hong has moved on while Jungo still regrets his past.
In the final episode, Jungo explains the meaning behind the title of his book What Comes After Love in an interview. He shares that only after love does one realize and understand its true meaning. He adds that it's a sad irony but after love, people are left with regrets; the deeper the love, the bigger the regret. Despite their past issues, Hong and Jungo reconcile by the end of the drama and achieve a happy ending.
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What Comes After Love ending explained: Hong asks Jungo to leave all the regrets behind and expresses her gratitude
In the final episode of What Comes After Love, Hong went to see Jungo at his hotel. However, she saw him with Kanna (Anne Nakamura) and left the hotel because she believed they were together.
Kanna saw Hong and informed Jungo about it. Jungo ran outside, but he missed Hong. The next day, Kanna encouraged him to express his honest feelings to Hong and clear the misunderstandings. She also wished him luck before leaving for Japan.
Jungo visited the publication house where Hong worked, bid farewell to all the employees, and left the Pippo keychain at Hong's desk. Hong saw the keychain and started reading What Comes After Love and reminisced about the days when they were in love.
Jungo took Hong's contact details from the interpreter a day before his flight to Japan, and as he saved her number, he received a call from her. Hong called him to thank him for leaving the keychain and Jungo explained that Kanna was just a colleague.
He then told her that at least Pippo and Dai Nee should be together, the couple keychain they bought before they started dating five years back. He asked her to meet him as he wanted to clear up the misunderstandings.
When they met, Hong told him that she came to express her gratitude towards him for loving her in the past. She further added that she wanted to meet him and ask why he didn't hold her back and turned a blind eye when she cried. She also said that after reading the book, she realized that what mattered more was the beautiful moments they spent together. It was previously shown that Jungo did follow her in the past but she had already left.
Jungo then said that he regretted everything he did and accepted that he could not understand her loneliness as something that should be taken seriously. Jungo found himself pathetic at the moment and that was why he wrote the novel.
Hong then replied that he should stop regretting it now. She reminded him of his words from the novel that love is a blessing in itself. Jungo thanked her for reading the book and Hong thanked him for writing a book about their love.
As Hong was about to leave, Jungo asked her to be happy and in return, she said yes with a smile. She smiled for the first time after they reunited in five years and wished him happiness too.
Hong moved towards the parking and as she sat in the car, she burst into tears. The next day, Jungo received the bouquet Hong left for him at the hotel on his birthday. On his way to the airport, he read the note attached to the bouquet by Hong.
“I'm sorry about earlier, Happy Birthday!” the note read.
What Comes After Love season 2 possibilities explored
What Comes After Love's ending showcased Song Min-jun (Hong Jong-hyun) at the hospital and Kanna with an author, both moving on with their lives. Hong went out for her daily jog and saw Jungo match her pace while running.
The two ran until Jungo said that he had discontinued jogging. When they stopped, Jungo stated that he understood why Hong jogged for a longer time to overcome her loneliness. Hong replied that after their break up, she could run for a while as he mentioned in his novel.
Hong said that she also regretted her actions and acknowledged that she always complained and didn't try to understand his feelings. The two apologized to each other. Hong started shedding tears and Jungo wiped it off, along with his own tears. They held hands and it started snowing, while the narration states:
“SPRING BLOSSOMS ARE THE ANSWER TO THE SNOWFLAKES OF WINTER.”
The final scene depicted Hong and Jungo jogging near the lake during spring. Seeing how their story ends, the possibility of a second season appears less likely. Notably, the production team of What Comes After Love has not confirmed anything yet.
All six episodes of What Comes After Love are available on Coupang Play and Rakuten Viki for streaming.
