Beanie level: Errand boy

Lovestruck took way too long getting past the endless beach flashbacks but now it has, it’s much better.

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    Yes, I agree. It’s much easier to watch, especially since it feels like the side characters are getting more screen time. Also, while Eun-oh’s actions re Jae-won are completely inscrutable imo, she’s actually pretty likeable I find, especially when she’s around her friends. Mopey Jae-won is still meh, and I still want more of the other four friends (especially Rin-yi and Kyung-joon; they are so cute and both actors are so good!), but I’ll take the improvement.

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      I guess you might panic when you discovered the guy you pretend-married when you were taking a break from your real life was actually connected to your real life…..(and then I will just strategically ignore the bit where she didn’t own up and just let him go on being miserable and tortured for ages and ages). Jae-won gets to be angry mopey now instead of mopey mopey which I feel is an improvement 😄 either way it’s better than the Happy Flashback Jae-won, I found him so irritating.

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      I find both JaeWon and EunOh dislikable, but I have to be on JaeWon’s side. The fact that she’s been heartbroken doesn’t give her right to behave the way she did. Having said this, I think both JCW and KJW are doing a very good job, I’m liking their acting (and I found JCW meh at the beginning and couldn’t connect to KJW but now I do).

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        Yes, agree – being heartbroken yourself doesn’t give you a pass on breaking someone else’s heart. I think if they’d cut down the timeframe on him finding her again so she hadn’t left him wallowing in misery for quite so long/cut down on the time spent flashing back to the beach I would like this drama much better.

        Then again I’m still watching it so 🤷‍♀️

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        I don’t understand any of Eun-oh’s behaviour in re Jae-won, but I find her otherwise very likeable. I agree that being heartbroken is no excuse to yank Jae-won around, especially since she has knowledge of how devastating her behaviour has been for Jae-won.

        I still don’t connect to Jae-won or JCW’s acting at all; I still find him. I didn’t connect to KJW at all at first, but now I think she’s doing a pretty decent job.

        I still think the show should’ve focused on Sun-young, Geon, Kyung-joon, and Rin-yi more. They’re the real stars of this show.

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Well I’m sure that many of us feel a mysterious urge to rush out and buy glasses and/or contact lenses after that extremely subtle piece of marketing in Run On 😂

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    The amount of PPL in this episode…

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    One scene with two PPLs! 👏 👏 👏 Gentle Monster & that contact lenses

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    Yeah, I’m also supposed to believe Mi-joo uses a $500 hair style tool? Lol.

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    Yeong-Hwa even mentioned LASEK laser eye surgery when Seon-Gyeom was struggling to put his contact lenses on.

    I was like, “what in the world is going on with all this PPL???” 😅

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    Or perhaps the smoker grill on the shelf as the FL cried out her frustration over evil political dad’s threats?? Nice foyer tiles, though.

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    Realistically, though, most dudes aren’t gonna look anywhere near as good as Seongyeom, so it might have backfired!

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    What I didn’t get is why he didn’t get glasses AND contacts? Those who wear contacts will agree that you definitely need a pair of glasses as well! 😂

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      It’s good that he got daily disposals, I got once terrible eye infection and from that time I’m allowed to wear only those ones. But lastly I’m wearing and not wearing my last pair of glasses ( other two got broken by my little one). So yes glasses are always important.

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        😂😂😂 Aw – I have unbreakable lenses, so I haven’t managed to break a pair as yet.

        I was a dedicated contact wearer for years, and used all kinds – the dailies are definitely the best… Although, I got irritated with having to put them on, so switched back to glasses. The convenience and cost! I can get a decent pair of glasses for the same price of one month’s quota of dailies! Definitely never going back to contacts now.

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          Just curious because I’m considering contacts! The reusable contacts do need to be removed before sleeping right? So they would need to be put on every morning? Isn’t it the same experience, in that sense, as dailies?

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            Yes! The annual and monthly reusables I used had to be removed before sleeping, and soaked in solution overnight before putting them on in the morning.

            The critical difference between dailies and reusables is the maintenance: you don’t need to soak overnight – you just remove and throw. Plus with dailies, you get to wear a fresh new pair of contacts every day, so I found it relatively more comfortable.

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            You have to remove every lenses from your eyes, some of them can be worn for twelve hours, but if you’ll fell asleep with them on you’ll wake up with very dry irritated eyes and you need to wet them before you painfully remove your contacts. Put them on when the eyes are reposed and not red anymore. It happened to me so many times 😭 Anyway eye hygiene is the most important and because of the small closed space between the lense and your eye, the bacterias and viruses can spread very fast. Dailies are handy that you don’t have to be super careful to keep them clean in the container. Just a piece of dust can make your eyes irritated. On the other hand their are not Eco friendly.

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          I had two pairs of glasses very chic and expensive, they both were destroyed by my little one. What’s plastic it’s not fantastic… I got one not expensive one and that one was broken also (babies don’t like glasses and masks). Still have one pair – metal one and I hardly wear my daily disposals anymore – my eyes get tired faster.

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      I have two different glasses. Annual contacts and monthly disposable… just in case.
      But I’m very, very, very short-sighted and I can’t live in a world without glasses.
      I have a backup for the backup!

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        Same! I’m probably legally blind for some kinds of jobs and assignments. I have really really bad eyes. So there’s no way I can live without glasses. So I have a drawer full of spectacles of different vintage and types – plain, photochromic, framed, rimless, powered shades… (many are scratched though. I should probably get rid of some :/ )

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          Oh, I forgot sunglasses (two that I can recall) and my reenactment glasses. These one belonged to my great grandmother and I replaced the glasses so if in a reenactment event I can’t wear my lenses, my glasses would fit better with my whole attire.

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            ooh reenactment glasses! But surely, this will be specific to a particular costume? or can you wear it generally with any ensemble? I don’t have glasses like these. Though your story reminds me Notting Hill and that scene where Hugh Grant goes to the cinema hall with his powered swimming goggles because he can’t find his regular spectacles. 🤓

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            I have pictures of my great grandmother with them (I think the oldest is in the 1930’s) so I basically can wear them with any 19th and 20th century attire. They are not the best for regency (too big, made of tortoiseshell and those were not common until mid 19th century), but obviously better than my everyday glasses!

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        Have you tried eyes gymnastics? It worked for me – from -2,75 to – 1,75 in four years. Even my ophthalmologist couldn’t believe it. I get serious headaches when I’m wearing glasses all day so even if I can’t see clearly in nature and home I try to do without them.

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          I tried when I was a teenager, but gave up.
          I have +9 on both eyes, so…

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            While teenager my eyes got wrong, I was literally like SG in Run On from one day to another couldn’t see people greeting me and couldn’t recognise them when farther than two meters. Hormones play an important role in eye sight, maybe you could have hormonal imbalance. I will be leaving my entire 30’s this year and I’ve met few people in their 60’s who improved their eye sight by doing little exercises like 3 to 4 times per day. It’s tiresome but the brain gets different signals and is forced to find other solutions.

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          Wow. Never tried but now I’m probably too old. Also I have a family history of really bad eyes. My power has been stable for ~15 years or so now, at -7 and -6.5, so I’m happy with just this much. 😀

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            It’s those screens and reading in the night time. It’s a great invention – glasses, I think without them we would have been considered as useless human beings.

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      I always had a back up pair – these days I don’t wear contacts so much because it was easier to just put glasses on with small kids around. But I still have to have backups for when the baby pulls the arms off my current pair 😠 I’m way too blind without 😅

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        Haha. I have no kids, but I agree on the convenience of just putting glasses on versus the tedium of contacts.

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    I always imagine the conversation in the writer’s room when they get these PPLs.

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      Like the be melo ppl insertions. I loved that aspect in that drama.

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        I was thinking the same! Like it’s a meta joke – the writer of Run On is a product of the Kim Eun Sook factory (just like in Be Melo). Maybe she’s just having a laugh at all the sponsors, lumping all the PPL they could find into one episode.

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    The PPLs in this episode were so random yet hilarious. Seeing Sungyeom in those spectrespecs really reminded me to get a new prescription though 😂

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This was so good!

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So do we think we’ll actually get an explanation for why Eun-o ghosted Jae-won, or is that asking too much?

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    At this point I don’t even care.
    She’s been really a bad person and so childish.
    I mean: be an adult and go tell him it was all a lie and you don’t want to see him ever again. Be an adult.
    But in today’s episode, learning she knew how bad he was doing, how much he was missing her, how much he needed a closure and even so, she did nothing.
    I mean, it’s clear to me she had feelings for JW (I don’t think she’s in love, it feels to me like she’s sorry she’s used him to escape reality), but she doesn’t care a little bit about him to help him understand why. She knows it’s driving him crazy, and even so, she does nothing.
    I don’t know what reason she may have or even if she has one, but it’s not valid to me.
    If they end up together they will be unhappy ever after.

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      It really went beyond ridiculous as soon as he was friends with her friends and she didn’t own up.

      At this point the only excuse I can think of is some kind of curse that will make him drop dead if she tells him the truth 😄

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        I hope they don’t go with the terminal disease.

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          It’s probably going to be a Big Misunderstanding and magically resolve itself over the course of an episode after they’ve spent all this time being mysterious about it.

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Happy new year, everyone! Thanks for making me feel welcome when I stopped lurking and started posting. It’s a beautiful summer’s day here, hopefully the start of a much better year.

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I think Run On is trying to kill me 😍

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So we watched episode 1 of Vagabond with my parents last night and tonight my mother suggested unprompted that we watch the next. Is it too soon to hope I might have another drama convert?

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Merry Christmas everyone! I know not everyone is lucky enough to be able to be with their families this year but I hope everyone can have a safe and happy day.

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Day 13: Most Fashionable/Elegant
Just like everyone else I’m going to give this to Ko Moon Young from IOTNBO.

Day 14: Drama that could have been
The King: Eternal Monarch had an interesting concept, some great characters (played by WDH 😅), an entertainingly large amount of PPL…but it just buried anything good under a needless large amount of arty landscape shots, falling in love with an ID card and generally terrible pacing.

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Day 12 – an oldie you loved

I watched so many older dramas this year it’s hard to pick just one but I’m going to go with My Girlfriend Is A Gumiho. It wasn’t my first time seeing but this year I watched it twice practically back to back.
I used it to lure my sister into being my kdrama watching buddy and it was super effective. We watch dramas together regularly! She watches them on her own! She suggests things to me to watch! 🎉

It’s dated a bit in some respects but it’s funny and sweet and really hits you in the feelings. It makes me cry every single time.
Shin Mi-na and Lee Seung Gi are both adorable (and so young! LSG had not yet worked out how to run dramatically without looking ridiculous). Miho and Daewoong are my favouritest favourite OTP ever.
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Watching Kairos and super confused about something that I thought would be happening in the future timeline – then I realised that 2020/09/10 is probably 9th October not 10 September 😅

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    Honestly, I don’t pay too much attention to the date stamps. The multiple plot threads occurring in this drama confuses me enough.

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      I’d hasnt really noticed them up till then but I happened to see that one, and then I was like “wait, what? I thought this was future timeline?”

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    It keeps happening to me too.

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    I’m not seeing Kairos even if I want to (someday maybe when it’s legally available to me), but this is the most annoying to put dates.
    My mind only comprehends date/month/year but even if it’s year/month/date atleast it’s in order. What even is year/date/month?

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Day 9- Drama you watched just because and ended up loving

Like many others, this is Mystic Pop Up Bar for me. It was kind of on my radar because of YSJ but I just needed something to watch, and there it was.

Day 10 – Drama beanies convinced you watch and you can’t be grateful enough

This is a bold call, given it’s not finished yet, but Kairos. I started it yesterday and am up to episode six. I stayed up FAR too late yesterday 😂

Day 11 – your 2020 crush
If they have to be in a 2020 drama, then I guess it’s Captain Ri. If not, then it’s Lee Seung Gi. My sister and I have been marathoning his dramas this year which I have enjoyed very, very much, and I have been inflicting his new album on my children all day 😄

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    Yay! Another Kairos watcher!!! 🤗🥳

    Hoping it will be good until the end too 😆

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I’m just going to leave this here while I listen to new album on repeat.
https://youtu.be/5cZ4EDEZ0XQ

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    (If I’m honest I prefer this song without the MV because I can’t take people being sad in a bathtub to music seriously, but anyway.)

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      I listened to it without watching the MV and then spent five minutes humming the song… I don’t know if I love you for this or not.

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I’ve started watching Kairos. Two episodes in and so far, so very good.

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    Although for a show which is very clear what year it is, where are your masks? Is there no pandemic in this timeline?

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      There’s no pandemic in any timeline.
      I haven’t seen any in any drama, tbh.

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        I know, but normally dramas are vaguely “the present” about the date so I can pretend they were preCovid.

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      Of course. No masks needed in the timelines because beauty needs to be shared with the masses 😂

      Exhibit a

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Huh, I’m suddenly The Goblin’s underpants!

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End of year round up catch up post!
 
My theme for this year should be failure to follow through – I have lost count of the number of dramas I started and then just stopped watching even if I was actually enjoying them. Maybe I’ll finish some one of these days.
I watched a lot of old dramas but I only finished two 2020 dramas (properly).
 
Day 1: Male Lead You’ll Never Forget
This is going to Captain Ri from CLOY. Strong, capable man in uniform trying but failing to restrain himself from love because of duty is basically exactly my ideal drama hero 😃 I finally understood the appeal of Hyun Bin.
 
Day 2: Female Lead You’ll Never Forget
….I’m going to have to pick one from a drama I didn’t finish because otherwise my choices are too limited. I’ll go with Ko Moon-young from IOTNBO for her style. Honestly I didn’t find any of the female leads particularly memorable this year, sadly.
 
Day 3: That PPL a drama feels empty without
The Dyson. I don’t even like Dyson vacuums (my last one was not good to me) and I was still like “oooh, that looks good”
 
Day 4: A drama you couldn’t finish
Where do I start? Ha. I’ll give this to Dinner Mate, because of all the dramas I started yet did not finish (and there were MANY) this one is the one I am least interested in returning to one day.
Or maybe Sweet Munchies, because I forgot that was even a thing until right now.
 
Day 5: Drama you finished for the bean
Oh My Baby. Which was really great for a big stretch and then just…..I shouldn’t get disappointed any more when dramas let me down at the end but they DO. I did a lot of fast-forwarding. I don’t think it counts really as having finished it.
(I have not counted it in my bean count, because I didn’t know what that was until a couple of days ago).
 
Day 6: Drama that you know you’ll rewatch
Mystic Pop Up Bar, because it was lovely.
 
Day 7: That OST that you’re obsessed with
Not a drama OST, but I cannot get enough of Henry’s version of Youngblood from Begin Again Korea.
https://youtu.be/iqzxRt0AB5s
 
Day 8: OTP that you didn’t think you’d adore
Adore is probably a bit strong but I got much more invested in Woljoo and Manager Gwi than I expected to.

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    Wol-joo and Manager Gwi were a great OTP. I can’t believe I forgot about them! And agree with your ML choice – it was the show that made me get his appeal, too.

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    Hi @beffels, I love your round-up! It’s so fun to see where our tastes and preferences continue to line up! A number of your picks would have been mine, too. :o) I think the only major difference would be that I loved IOTNBO from beginning to end and even re-watched it. :oP

    Just wanted to say that if you liked Henry’s cover, you may enjoy checking out the youtube channels for Kurt Hugo Schneider, as well as Walk Off the Earth. They do lots of fun multi-instrumental musical arrangements (albeit not as a one-man band). I realise I’ve gone a bit off-topic and this is not k-drama-related…but I have such a soft spot for musical talent, creativity and innovation. :o)

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      I plan to finish IOTNBO one of these days, I was enjoying it but I just stopped watching and never picked it back up for some reason.

      I like Walk Off The Eartn, their cover of Somebody That I Used To Know is a favourite of mine, I’ll have to check out the other channel you recommend.. I find that kind of thing so impressive – possibly because I am so very not musical myself!

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        Sometimes it’s a mood/mindframe thing, isn’t it? I wouldn’t re-watch it right now because it’s not quite what I fancy at the moment.

        Kurt uses some interesting instruments/non-instruments… this cover collaboration of Sia’s Cheap Thrills with Kina Grannis (whom I adore in a big way) always puts me in a good mood for some reason: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk2l-CNUFR4&list=PLBzYyF9YRHeJ_xqiEgqDJBCDe6ynUdBVn&index=7

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          Definitely sometimes a mind frame thing, if you’re not in the mood you just won’t enjoy it.

          Thanks for the link!I can see myself descending down a YouTube spiral 😄 i saw they did a cover of Niall Horan as well so I’m off to send it to my sister who is a Niall Horan super fan 😎

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        P.S. I meant to say in my original comment that my favourite Capt Ri scene was in one of the epilogues, when he’s crouched down whilst talking to the plant. I feel a visceral pull at my heart just remembering that scene. Hyun Bin really was so good as Capt Ri (I did not get the hype in Secret Garden, which I haven’t been able to finish…).

        1
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          I only dragged myself to the end of Secret Garden with the help of the FF button. 😄

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    You are so right about FL. Not that there were many this year that I really liked, but then dramas are more about ML than FL mainly.
    And I feel your pain about Oh my Baby and all the dramas you love until… suddenly you feel abandoned by PD-nim, writer-nim and even actors while you keep asking yourself: what happened? what did I do wrong?

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Oh no, Six Flying Dragons is leaving Netflix on Christmas Day…I’m going to have to speed up my watching considerably 😅

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I should go to bed but I’ll just listen to this one more time 😎

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    I always loved his voice, but this song is really special. It sounds more mature and mellow — I just love it!

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Well I am EXTREMELY excited about this – https://www.soompi.com/article/1436161wpp/lee-seung-gi-to-make-comeback-as-singer-after-nearly-5-years

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This is a familiar name in SSR’s Instagram story….👀 @katakwasabi
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