If you could return to the past and rewrite the fate of someone you love, would you, even knowing it might not turn out the way you hope?

The Korean BL Always Meet Again leans into that question. Reuniting Woo Ji Han and Shin Jeong You (who previously shared the screen in Breeze of Love) the series builds its story around second chances, lingering regrets, and the fragile hope that love might survive time itself.

Woo Ji Han portrays Jang Hye Seong, a painter who returns to his old high school for a guest lecture, only to find himself pulled back into 2008 after sketching his deceased first love, Lee U Jin, played by Shin Jeong You. Given the chance to relive the past, Hye Seong walks a careful line, trying not to repeat old mistakes while quietly carrying the weight of everything he remembers. But U Jin refuses to be kept at a distance.

At its heart, the story is a nostalgic time-slip romance, where memory and reality blur together. The series leans into the tension of “what was” versus “what could be,” letting small, intimate moments carry as much of the plot as the larger twists of fate.

It approaches love tenderly, focusing more on the quiet pull between two people who were never truly finished with each other.

From the very beginning, the emotional foundation rests heavily on longing and what-ifs, and unfinished business. It’s emotionally-driven by hesitation, recognition, and love tinged by the fear of loss.

Always Meet Again stays rooted in that sense of nostalgia all the way to the end. It becomes a story about trying again and again to save Lee U Jin, whether through careful choices, desperate moments, or even through art itself. And for much of its run, it works. The chemistry between Woo Ji Han and Shin Jeong You carries the narrative naturally.

But when it comes to the ending, the series transitions into something more abstract, and that’s where it stumbles. There’s a clear intention behind it, something poetic and symbolic, but it doesn’t fully materialize. If there is a meaning I was meant to understand, I somehow missed it. Important threads feel left hanging such as the hints surrounding Hye Seong’s color blindness, the uncertainty of what truly happened to U Jin, and the recurring images of the two of them meeting across different seasons by the water. They’re beautiful moments, but without enough clarity, their meaning falls a little flat.

Even so, it’s hard to overlook what the series does right. At its heart, it’s still a tender story about love that refuses to fade, anchored by two actors who bring an undeniable warmth and tension to every scene they share. There’s something compelling about how they look at each other, restrained but always charged with emotion.

For all its imperfections, Always Meet Again remains a nostalgic watch, one that lingers more in feeling than in explanation. And if nothing else, it leaves you hoping to see these two leads find their way back to each other again, in another story, another time, another series. Hopefully with a happy, clear ending.

For a nostalgic series with an abstract conclusion, check out Always Meet Again now on iQiyi.

Rating- 4 out of 5