It’s officially EOY season, which is when we look back on our drama years, and decide which dramas were worthy of our love, and which dramas we maybe shouldn’t have spent as much time on, as we did. 😁

As before, we’ll be seeing up to 2 guest posts per week, and this will unfold into January 2025, and my annual year-in-review will come out in early 2025, after all the guest posts have been published.

This way, by putting all our experiences together, we get a more wholistic view of Dramaland in 2024. Pretty great, yes? 🤩

If you missed our earlier posts, you can check it out here: Sean, Deni+JJ, Natalia, Ele.

Today, I’m pleased to announce that j3ffc’s sharing his drama year!

If you’ve been around the blog for a while, you might be coming to the same conclusion that I’ve arrived at; that j3ffc’s much more talented than his self-deprecating humor might suggest. 😉

This past year, he truly outdid himself, collaborating with Ele to come up with the most epic dream drama, Dark, which we all loved. 🤩

If you’re a fan of Dark, then you’d also be pleased to know that j3ffc’s snuck in an extra scene, in this EOY post!

If you love j3ffc’s style and want to read more of his writing, you might like to check out his earlier dream drama, New York State of Mind, &/or his EOY post from last year.

I hope you guys enjoy!

~ KFG ❤️

MY LIFE IN DRAMAS

“The details of my life are quite inconsequential…. Very well, where do I begin?”

—Dr. Evil

Since I’ve written about this before, I’ll try to be brief for those who do not know me and focus on those aspects particularly relevant for this year’s story.

I slid into K-Drama fanaticism waaaaay back in 2018. I was looking for something along the lines of my beloved “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, and came upon “Strong Woman Do Bong Soon” (spoiler alert: this connection turned out to be my main theme in dramas this year).

Now, many would not consider SWDBS a gateway show, but it sure was for me: a cool new setting, goofy off-kilter humor, and the wonderful Park Bo-young as a quirky superhero.

Semi-hooked, I sought out another PBY drama (“Oh My Ghost”), which I loved even more and, as they say, I was a goner.

The very next year, despite warnings from all over the internet, I watched “Pretty Noona Who Buys Me Food” (AKA “Something in the Damn Rain”).

In an attempt to make sense of how that show made me feel, I came across Kfangurl’s epic review right here at The Verdict, and as a result, snuck into this community (through the back door, at night) to partake in KFG’s fantastic drama criticism / journalism / leadership and to enjoy the fabulous community that has formed around this blog.

I want to thank KFG, both for her hard work and for founding such a fabulous feast, and to all of the contributors who make this such a safe and fun place for drama fandom (special shout out to new contributors who have really raised the level around here).

And, of course, thanks for the opportunity to contribute, yet again, on the big platform (and for not kicking me out of Patreon due to lack of proper ID and my bad attitude 😈).

I’m a scientist who teaches and does research at a US university.

Even though I’ve done my share of work as a pure basic scientist (inventing new chemical reactions and using them to synthesize cool molecules), in the last decade or so I’ve drifted onto collaborative research, which has allowed me the special opportunity of working with some top researchers in infectious disease research, neuroscience (pain, developmental syndromes), and cancer research.

My job is pretty time-consuming, but I still find it more fun than not, hence not retired just yet (despite cutting into my drama time).

MY YEAR IN WATCHING DRAMAS

Now, back to important stuff. I am the laziest person here.

It takes me for-ever to finish even the simplest show, partly because I tend to fall asleep at the drop of a trope and partly because I must limit my drama time to workout times at the gym, a couple of hours over the weekend, and the occasional plane ride.

I am continually challenged by the simplest plotlines, much less anything sophisticated (gah, I’m looking at you, time travel shows) and am constantly having to remind myself who is whom in any given show.

This year, I have an excuse (see below), but still my drama input barely made double digit shows over the entire year.

Here’s an unabridged list of shows that I watched in 2024:

Shows from 2024 (plus a few I started in ’23 and finished early in the year – see? cheating already): Blood Free  | Daily Dose of Sunshine (2023) |Judge from Hell |Lovely Runner | Moving (2023) | Mr. Plankton | Queen of Tears | Welcome to Samdal-ri (2023)

Shows from earlier: All of Us Are Dead | Goong | Hidden Love (C-drama) | Korean Odyssey

And as of now, I’m still watching Fated to Love You.

So, basically what @seankfletcher or @Deb or @Deni/Deni’s husband see in a week. 😬

Some general thoughts on this year’s viewing. Some of the shows I watched were homework for my year’s project/excuse (still see below), like AOUAD and KO, but I ended up enjoying them a lot.

I watched Goong at the suggestion by @Deni that we honor the founder by watching KFG’s gateway drama during one of her breaks.

That one was a delightful surprise that I’ve written about already (I strongly recommend KFG’s great review here and then, if you’re interested, pop on down to the comment section for my impressions).

Most of the rest were perfectly enjoyable time-spenders, with ups and downs to go around (although if I’m being honest, I just plain didn’t like Blood Free).

I really don’t think that my throughput qualifies me to offer the full slate of awards that these posts are supposed to entail, so instead I’d like to offer a modest tip of the hat to a few shows and performers who stood out this year.

ACTOR OF THE YEAR

Lee Yoo-mi is on a roll.

Although she’s been acting since she was a teenager, it’s been mostly minor roles and/or minor projects.

One notable example is the 2017 horror short, Superpower Girl, where LYM plays a meek high-schooler who suddenly develops weird powers. It’s 25 minutes of creep.

But everything changed with Squid Game, in which LYM’s relatively small (in screen time) supporting role brought her worldwide acclaim, even making her the first Korean actress to win an Emmy award.

(For those who aren’t familiar, this is a major international entertainment award, one of the four immortalized in the acronym EGOT.)

The year after, she made another big impression in All of Us Are Dead, playing a frosty high school student facing a zombie apocalypse.

I, on the other hand, being clueless as ever, did not even realize it was her until mentioned by @seankfletcher on Patreon 😅.

She followed this up in cartoonish superhero mode in Strong Girl Nam Soon, flexing the superpower thespian skills she obtained from Superpower Girl.

But the big prize was this year’s Mr. Plankton, one of the great drama successes this year.

The whole cast is terrific, especially the other half of the OTP, Woo Do-hwan; I also really enjoyed Lee El as the WDH’s complicated mother figure, whom I also had seen this year in Korean Odyssey as a dog demon/secretary (don’t ask).

Anyhoo, LYM was wonderful as “the unluckiest bride-to-be” (according to the Netflix publicity machine).

Coming off a string of genre and genre-adjacent shows, her performance as Jae-mi knocked it out of the park with depth, heart, and impeccable comic timing. As the expression goes, if the Inuit have [insert random number here] words for snow, LYM has just as many ways to cry.

I think one of her acting superpowers is to be relatable and believable regardless of setting.

No matter how you look at it, Lee Yoo-mi has arrived and should be counted among the top Korean actors. I look forward to seeing what she does next.

HALL OF FAME

I love great character actors, who have a “type”, but am even more impressed by actors who can inhabit different roles without seeming to break a sweat.

And, if you look up “sweatless” in the K-drama dictionary, you’ll surely find a picture of Oh Jung-se. [There is no cliché that I will not abuse.]

I’ve seen him as a jerky politician (When the Camellia Blooms), a duplicitous baseball executive (Hot Stove League), an autistic adult (It’s Okay to Not Be Okay), and, this year, mama’s boy/spurned bridegroom in Mr. Plankton.

Each role was indelible and raised the level of the overall production.

And this is just a part of Oh’s nearly 40 TV appearances, not counting movies (about 30 of those). I’m sure that not all of them are great but I’d be surprised if that would be due to a bad performance by my man.

To paraphrase the late, great Roger Ebert: No show with OJS in it is entirely bad.

I get the sense that OJS is an “actor’s actor”.

There’s a fun episode of “House of Wheels” where he hangs with Camellia star Gong Hyo-jin and hosts Sung Dong-il, Kim Hee-won, and Yeo Jin-goo; they go to the cute town where Camellia was filmed.

Maybe I’m projecting, but I thought all of them seemed to be a little in awe of Oh (say that three times fast! “Awe of Oh! Awe of Oh! Awe of Oh!”). And the guy already has two Baeksang awards.

What he doesn’t have is a leading romantic leading role. Even though that’s probably not in the cards, I am sure he’ll continue to steal scenes from better-looking actors and that shows will be better for it.

He can even have an off performance, and it won’t diminish his accomplishments, a theory that we might soon test when OJS appears as a fruit fly sci-guy in “When the Stars Gossip” (or whatever that show is called this week).

So, I propose to enshrine Oh Jung-se into the K-drama Hall of Fame, with admiration for his talent and thanks for hours of affecting performances.

GENRE SHOWS

I watched two horror shows this year. Not usually my jam, but I ended up really, really enjoying both All of Us Are Dead and Judge from Hell.

The latter has been rightly praised for Park Shin-hye’s against-type performance as the titular demon doing time on Earth and dispatching bad, bad, bad people to, well, Hell.

Although there was plenty of scene chewing, PSH never lost sight of her character’s inner contradictions and personal journey. It’s masterful and incredibly fun to watch.

But there was one aspect of the show that I found particularly engaging. No, not the theology, which was, let’s say, kind of sketchy.

It was the production design. The show’s creators made a very specific-looking place with clever quirks (weird heart object! cola addiction!) and created innovative set pieces.

For one example, there’s gonna be retribution for a car drowning, and the car in question drives out from bottom of a lake! So cool. I love a K-drama with style and JFH had it in spades.

For folks, like me, who are not zombie movie enthusiasts, it often seems as if you’ve seen one zombie apocalypse, you’ve seen ‘em all.

But midway through All of Us Are Dead’s careen toward collapse of civilization, they introduce a novel twist on zombie lore that I didn’t see coming and which opened the door to an entirely different story direction than would have been possible without it.

I’m not generally a fan of multi-season K-dramas but would actively welcome seeing how this show might expand on this concept.

It is incredibly hard to breathe new life into old forms, so how wonderful is it when that happens?  Both AOUAD and JFH deserve a tip of the hat for adding freshness into their genres.

SHOW OF THE YEAR

Mr. Plankton, hands down.

It has already gotten a lot of love in the EOY posts by, so I’ll be brief.

It did pretty much everything right, including assembling a fantastic cast who delivered, great pacing and storytelling, and an affecting OST. It even nailed the ending, which as we know, is not always the case for even top-shelf K-dramas.

I especially appreciated that there was not a cop-out to be found as the story progressed.

The only thing that it didn’t get quite right was picking a name, IMO. I hesitated to watch the show for a long time because I had no idea what it was about or would be like, but eventually caved into the FOMO fomenting on Patreon, and I’m glad that I did.

Mr. Plankton was remarkable for being an incredibly well-balanced show. It was clever without being precious, funny but not over the top or silly, and smartly-plotted without being convoluted. It wore its feels on its sleeves but earned every one of them. Bravo.

DARK (YOU KNEW IT WAS COMING)

My excuse for not watching more shows is that I spent most of my drama time this year working on an imaginary one.

When I set out on this project, I had modest ambitions but ended up having a mini-experience of many aspects of producing a show, from writing a story, to virtual casting, to assembling music (thanks to Sean F for endowing the moniker “the j3ffc production house” 🤗 ).

One aspect that I hadn’t counted on experiencing was the publicity phase of releasing something into the world. I’m not comfortable with self-promotion, either here or in real life (Hey! I can see you back there, shaking your head and saying, “Yeah, right, whatever you say.”).

So, I felt like one of those drama characters who say things like “I’ve just prepared a 20,000-word, highly derivative mash-up between two beloved forms while desperately trying not to look bad. Please have a look.”

I totally get that many will be tired of hearing about “Dark”—I do. But it was so much of my drama year that I couldn’t write this post without a little retrospection. So, apologies.

To Kfangurl: thank you for publishing this story and for your support throughout the process. It’s such an honor to be part of this community.

To those of you who read, commented on, and enjoyed “Dark”: thank you so very, very much from the bottom of my heart. It has meant the world to me.

The story was conceived about 15 months ago, when several of us in the comments here and on Patreon mentioned a love of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I had already tried my hand at a short “Dream Drama” called New York State of Mind and tossed the casual comment out that Buffy would make a nice drama.

A couple folks seized on it (especially JJ and Ele, I seem to recall) and I thought, well, since that’s what got me to check out Korean TV in the first place, why not have a go? I had written New York in about a week but quickly realized that doing this right would require a lot more effort.

Of course, I understand that not everyone is familiar with Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

If you are Buffy-curious, I’d recommend a 50-minute primer in the form of a single episode, “Prophecy Girl”, which was the finale to season 1 (it’s episode 12).

BTVS is available in the US on Hulu/Disney+ and Tubi (no subscription required); I’m not sure about international availability or if a VPN would work.

It’s not the best episode ever (the show in general hadn’t quite found its footing yet and got much better in subsequent seasons), but it was considered a solid season finale.

It’s basic BTVS, a fun watch, and gives a good feel for the main characters and includes a key villain from Dark, to boot.

The goals were simple but daunting. I wanted to capture the vibe and form of both K-dramas that I liked and Buffy in a way that would honor both source materials.

As I went along, I realized that the differences were not as great as one might imagine (could it be that some K-dramas were inspired by BTVS?). I wanted to feature characters that many of us would know and pepper the story with semi-original characters that would fit in with those I took directly from previous shows.

At no time did I dare to think that I could write something that would be objectively good, but I did my best to create something that would be fun and not terrible.

To any degree that Dark ended being not terrible, I owe Ele a ton of thanks.

In October, 2022, I had a bit of story and, through KFG, reached out to Ele in hopes of recruiting her as a sounding board/editor for the proposed story.

By this time last year (2 Jan 2024, to be exact), I had gotten a glimmer of a plot and sent my initial thoughts in an email to Ele. I’ll save you the details but will just say that the set up was more or less intact, I had gotten most of the main characters but had no idea where to go from there.

This original sketch had the awful idea of making the objective of the bad guy to enable North Korea’s nuclear program, but Ele thankfully talked me out of that.  I will share one joke that I really liked but got rid of eventually, though:

This section ends with one of those weird times where two characters stand about 10 feet apart and just look at each other for what seems like an eternity. (Buffy: “What?” Jang: “Nothing.” Buffy: “Why aren’t we saying or doing anything?” Jang: “Don’t know. Requirement.” Or some such nonsense.)

The full first section (Staves 1 and 2) was finished quickly, by the end of January, but the rest took until the first draft of the final section was sent to Ele by mid-May.

I also spent those months watching Korean Odyssey and All of Us Are Dead for research; it was then that Richie (AKA Zombie Girl) got more of a key role in the story (I fell in love with the character like most people who’ve seen KO did).

Throughout, there was a lot of back and forth about the story, plot points, and what to fix.

Knowing we wanted to have an October release for Halloween, I spent May to October revising and working on the music, photos, and graphic design for the story (there were four full revisions plus a lot of mostly unnecessary futzing around the closer we got to the publication date—stuff like “two gumiho” or “two gumihos”).

I cannot emphasize enough how much Ele contributed to Dark. She is herself an incredibly talented and creative writer—if you’ve read her EOY post, you know that (and if you haven’t, my goodness, what are you doing here? Go NOW!).

Besides offering keen insights on what was right and wrong with my story and writing, she contributed plenty of plot points and enhancements, encouraging me to keep it straightforward, minimize dream sequences or at least put them where they make sense, and avoid having so many characters that the reader couldn’t keep track of them (although many, if not most, of the cameos from other dramas are hers).

She did a magnificent edit on Version 3 that added a ton of pop and fun to the story. I could not have asked for a more generous writing partner.

The story was built from the outside in, meaning that I had the beginning and an ending in place early, and then blocked out sections that would get things from point A to point B.

I divided the store up into 12 “episodes” that I called “Staves” to accommodate this.

Fun fact: I picked “staves” because ghosts play a prominent role in Dark and I wanted to pay homage to the greatest ghost story of all time, Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Plus, it’s one letter from “stake” 🧛‍♂️.

I’ve already gone on too long, but here are a few more things I learned from this project:

1. Writing is hard.

I knew this before, but coming up with a story that made sense and that encompassed humor, action scenes, getting the feels right, etc., was challenging.

Total props to those who do this for a living, since writing even the most mundane drama requires real talent—and when shows rise above that, well, it’s practically a miracle.

If I were a good person, I would cut back on my snarky reactions to poor writing going forward. But you know….😈. (Hey, I’m partially making up to The Sound of Magic with the great photo of Ji Chang-wook above.)

2. Actions scenes are hard.

One of the most enjoyable things about writing this was the dialogue (The Master is horror comedy gold) but some things I found super-hard, like action scenes.

There’s one that I had to revise 10 times because I kept forgetting if a particular character was standing or on the floor.

3. Illustrating Dark was tough.

The convention of “casting” a dream drama and providing photos was simultaneously inspirational, challenging, and ultimately limiting.

Illustrating a story makes it much more accessible, especially when you’re mimicking a visual form like TV, but finding an appropriate photo for a new story can be tough.

For borrowed characters like Buffy, or for ones inspired by those in other stories, it was a little easier.

For example, Jang Nara has been in a million shows (only slightly exaggerating) but even there I had to limit myself mostly stills or screen caps from Sell Your Haunted House for our story.

And Hwang Min-hyun was a nightmare. I based his character on his look in Alchemy of Souls but anything that takes place in The Actual Flipping World was impossible because the dude never looks the same.

In still other cases, I got plot ideas from other photos and shows, including the story’s MacGuffin. And all of this was OK, given the deliberately derivative nature of the project, but I think it would be a lot harder for something fully original. For that, AI would be a boon, as would actual artistic talent.

4. Creating an OST was challenging but fun.

I’ve written about the music at excruciating length on Patreon, but taking on the challenge of assembling an “OST” was fun and led to another rabbit hole for me to dive into. Beware of more music-oriented posts in the future.

All in all, while I would have enjoyed watching more dramas, this was for me a most enjoyable and educational project; I will always look at dramas a little differently in the future.

I even teared up a bit reading it at the very end. The experience reminded me of my high school drama days, when I’d fall into depression when a play was finished.

I know it’s silly, but I grew to love these characters (no matter how badly I may have treated them), and I miss spending time with them.

So once again, for you who read and enjoyed this project, thanks so very, very much.

And to you, here’s a little New Year’s gift. The following “deleted scene” takes place some months before the beginning of Dark (I beg your indulgence for minor continuity issues). (Music credit: “Standing” was written by Joss Whedon.)

And a Happy New Year to Kfangurl and all of you who make The Verdict a special place. May 2025 bring you peace, happiness, and only the best kinds of drama.

DARK: THE APT.

Over a black screen, we hear a knock and then the words, “It’s open.”

As the light comes up, Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan) and Dawn Summer (Michelle Trachtenberg) enter a small apartment. They are carrying a bottle in a brown paper sack and a grocery sack filled with treats.

As they take off their coats and look around, they hear a guitar strumming as Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) begins to sing from a couch. Willow sits across from Giles and closes her eyes, magically bringing forth a full aural accompaniment that envelopes the room. All sway as they enjoy the impromptu performance.

Standing

.

As the song concludes, Willow smiles at Giles. “Not bad, huh?” she inquires, chirpily.

Giles coughs and he removes his glasses, which he starts to wipe with a handkerchief. “Not bad at all. Maybe the strings were a little GarageBand-y….”

Willows expression drops and her eyes begin to blacken.

Giles quickly adds, with a subtle smile, “No reason to go Dark, Willow. You know I’m joking.”

Willow’s eyes lighten up and she chuckles, “Oh, sure, right. Of course!” Then, with eyebrows furrowing. “I guess I’m surprised you can still sing your song from our little musical adventure. I can’t remember mine at all.”

“Well, you didn’t really get….” begins Giles, but Dawn interrupts before he can finish the thought.

“I got to dance!” she says, unnecessarily loudly.

“Ah, yes, so you did,” mumbles Giles. Turning to Willow, “Did you have a chance to look at those unusual magical disturbances we were talking about?”

“Oh, right. The soul collection problem.”

“Indeed. I may have a lead.” Giles pulls out a laptop. “Signs lead to somewhere in Asia…can you feel anything in that direction?”

Willow closes her eyes, her pupils rapidly shifting under their eyelids. This goes on for a minute, until the witch shudders and her eyes snap open. “Korea.”

“Which one?”

“The South. There’s something afoot in Seoul.” Willow looks straight at the former librarian. “This is more than the usual psychic shenanigans, Giles. Someone there is amassing some serious magical mojo.”

Giles mutters, “Useful, if redundant. Recognize anything—or anyone?”

“I do but can’t quite place it. Someone familiar. Very powerful, and quite…old?” Willow closes her eyes again briefly. “But there are others. It’s quite the party starting. Misplaced souls abounding.” She looks at Giles. “We should do something.”

Giles nods. “I was afraid that might be the case.”

“Do we have anyone on the ground? Who can, you know, find a soul in Seoul …”

Giles snaps his fingers. “Ah, yes! I know just the person. A young woman with a remarkable connection to the spiritual world and capable of, as you say, finding a soul. I met her when she was very young. Even then, quite impressive.”

Giles pulls out his laptop. “We should check in with our Korean office.”

Dawn, flipping through a magazine, looks around Giles’s modest apartment. “I didn’t know we even had a Korean office. Must have got it with what we saved on this office.”

Giles looks over his glasses while tapping on the keyboard. “Very funny. Since the Council got, uh, blown up, I thought we ought to be a little more low-key.”

Giles is interrupted by a voice coming out of his computer. On his screen, we see Jo Min-ja (Kim Mi-kyung) looking up from a half-finished kimbap. She is in a disheveled state, as if she had just woken up.

“Rupert!” Min-ja shouts into her computer mic. “You just woke me up,” she lies, hiding the kimbap out of camera sight.

“Min-ja, I am very sorry to bother you. But there seems to be some unusual activity—very concerning, I must say—centered in your part of the world. We are getting worried.”

“Who is this “we”, Rupert?”

Willow leans into the picture and waves hi. “Hello, Madame Jo!”

Min-ja brightens. “Oh, hi Willow! How are the flute lessons going?”

“Just dandy! I’m working on—”

“Ahem, Min-ja,” interrupts Giles. “I was wondering if you’ve gotten any info on your side.”

Min-ja taps furiously on her keyboard and answers without stopping or looking up. “Yes. There is a lot of weird activity centered in Seoul but I’m not sure where, exactly. Or more important, why.”

“I’m wondering if we should ask Jang Nara to see what her team can find out.”

Min-ja continues tap-tap-tapping away. “Good idea. But her team is down a man—the big guy broke his leg in a karaoke accident. So, they’re light on muscle right now. Anyone you could send? You know that that Rufus is useless in a fight, should it come to that.”

Giles and Willow catch each other’s eyes, then turn to Min-ja and reply in rapid-fire agreement.

“Sorry, no.”

“Absolutely not!”

“No one coming to mind.”

“Nope-er-ooni.”

Min-ja’s eyes narrow as she stops typing and slams her kimbap stump on the table. “Rupert Giles! You called me, remember? Is this important or not?”

Rupert, cornered, sighs. “OK. I’ll see what I can do.”

Min-ja favors Giles with a microwink. “You could come yourself—bring out a bit of the old ‘Ripper’, no?”

Giles chuckles. “I appreciate your confidence, but this is, as you said, quite important. I’ll ask the Slayer to go.”

Min-ja’s whistles through her teeth. “You are serious. I’ll let Nara know help is coming and I’ll keep an eye on the dark web. But next time you’re in Korea, we need to finish what we started on Jeju—”

Giles loudly interrupts—“ThankyouMinjagoodluck”—as he quickly closes the laptop.

Willow, startled, blinks at Giles, who avoids her gaze and changes the subject.  “Hmm, yes, now I need to ask Buffy to go to a foreign country. She had problems enough with Canada.”

Dawn sighs in agreement. “She never did get comfortable with Tim Horton’s.”

Willow sits up straight and snaps her fingers. “I can spell her some Korean language skills.”

“Excellent idea, Willow.” But as is often the case with Giles, the smile is quickly followed by a frown. “I’m still concerned about sending Buffy over there by herself. She has a tendency to act—”

Willow finishes the sentence. “—without telling anybody. Trust me, I know.”

Thinking cap firmly affixed, Giles regards Willow. “It’s not ideal, I know, but I think we should ask Xander to accompany Buffy. He, at least, knows how operate a cell phone when I ask him to.”

Willow, suddenly looks uncomfortable, avoids Giles’s gaze, and gulps. “Xander?” she squeaks.

Dawn, who is now paying full attention, starts squirming in her chair.

“Yes. Xander.” Giles has to turn his head sideways to look Willow in the eyes. “I think we should send Xander to Korea.”

“Xander?” repeats the witch, practically whispering.

“Yes, Willow, let’s send Xander.”

“We can’t.”

Giles raises his voice. “Why can’t we?”

Willow blurts out, “Because he’s already there!”

“Already there??!”

Willow digs in. “Yes, he is, Giles. I sent him. He’s on a mission.”

“A mission??!”

“Yes, a mission. A very important mission.”

“A mission??!”

Dawn comes to Willow’s aid. “It’s a very challenging assignment.”

Giles can’t believe he’s hearing this and begins stuttering. “What mission? What is this very important and very challenging assignment that apparently the two of you would send Xander to Korea without telling me?”

Willow looks at Dawn, and Dawn at Willow, before both whisper in unison to Giles.

“BTS tickets.”

Giles is about to protest, but before he can speak, his eyes meet the women’s embarrassed expressions — and all three break out laughing.

The team discuss practical details, including arrangements for Xander to hook up with Nara’s team before Buffy arrives. As they finish their work, Willow suddenly remembers the original reason for their visit. It’s New Year’s Eve.

Now relaxing, Giles dials up “Love Actually” on the TV as Willow pours three glasses of the most fragrant, bubbly cider that one could imagine, and Dawn lays out a plate of powdery cookies.

“Happy New Year, Giles,” Willow offers her glass. “Another year and we’re still here.”

Giles responds, “In no small part thanks to you two.”

Dawn smiles broadly and adds, “All of us, together.”

The three clink glasses.

“Happy new year to all.”

~j3ffc