My Lovely Sam Soon|COEX Aquarium — The Tank Where They Took Mi-ju

Sam-soon and Jin-heon do not take his niece to a park. They take her under COEX. The aquarium opened in 2000 inside the convention mall at Samseong, five years before the drama aired, and the production walked the same preset path visitors still walk: themed tanks, a tunnel, too many species under one roof.

The restaurant Deep Blue that sat beside the tanks in 2005 is gone. The building is not. SEA LIFE COEX still holds tens of thousands of animals in the basement of Starfield COEX Mall, a short walk from Samseong Station. The scene is domestic on purpose. A pastry chef, a reluctant uncle, and a child looking at fish is the closest the series comes to showing what the contract romance might look like if it were ordinary.

You buy a ticket and follow the arrows. The water is the same colour it was on analog tape. What has changed is the signage and the brand on the door. What has not is the reason to stand here: this is where the drama let three people who did not yet know how to be a family look at something that did not need them to talk.