hathor-nim

Search for it on Archive of Our Own has it. It's called "Gradual Love". It's not the full novel just the parts centered around Jeng and Pat.

He is! In the most adorable way possible. 🤣

Sure!

In the novel, Chot tells Pat that he was too harsh with Jeng when Jeng confessed his feelings. Chot tells Pat that it’s hard to confess your feelings to someone and he should have treated Jeng with more care. Pat realizes he should apologize to Jeng and that he should reconcile his own feelings for Jeng. At the same time, Jeng starts to pull away to protect his feelings and also to not make Pat uncomfortable because Pat told him to stop contacting him. But after the convo with Chot, Pat reaches out to Jeng via text and Jeng and Pat gradually start texting and calling each other again with a bit of flirting.

Jeng announces to the team that he is leaving the department but not Jian Group and that he will stick around for a month to train his replacement, which in the novel was an old friend and colleague of his who was equally as good as Jeng.

On Jeng's last day at the office, Jeng takes Pat home for the last time and Pat finally accepts Jeng's IG friend request, which Jeng sent almost a year before when Pat first found out he was his boss. Jeng then proceeds to like and watch everything on Pat's timeline and Pat starts to realize how much Jeng really likes him and Pat’s own feelings become clearer.

Once Pat was certain he had feelings for Jeng he decided to chase Jeng because he feels bad that Jeng has been doing all the chasing and he did not reciprocate Jeng's feelings. Jeng takes note of Pat’s efforts to reach out and he starts to hope that maybe they have a chance. Jeng follows through on the event he asked Pat to help him plan and Pat volunteers to help out at the event. After everyone leaves for the night, Pat confesses his feelings to Jeng and a steamy make-out session ensues. This is also where the infamous, “This is my own place” line happens. The context was that Pat realized thier make-out session might have been recorded on CCTV and Jeng was like.. “Nah baby, we good. This is my place.”

Once they start dating, they decided to keep it a secret, for obvious reasons. They secretly date during Jeng’s last month with as the department head but they have a hard time keeping thier relationship a secret because they basically can't keep thier hands or eyes off of each other. Sooo many smexy scenes, they are basically feral for each other.

After Jeng leaves the department, Pat decides to leave Jian Group entirely because Pat doesn’t want rumors about his relationship with Jeng to hurt Jeng's reputation or the company. And also because Jeng wants to shout from the rooftops that they are together and take Pat to networking events and introduce him as his boyfriend to everyone. Jeng is SO cute during the early stages of thier relationship. He just wants to cook for Pat and buy him everything. He’s too adorable.

I feel like the birth is there to show how much time has passed since Jeng confessed. But more scenes of them avoiding each other and awkwardness would have tied things together better, imo.

I LOVE that Jeng is becoming the standard of how to act like a mature adult. 😊

I agree! This is a break out role for Man. I would love to see him in more things. I'm curious about his range as an actor. His control over his facial expressions and the way he gestures and moves his body could make for some interesting roles. Seeing his interviews he's way more relaxed and down to earth, but as Jeng he's totally believable.

I agree, I was trying to figure out why Jeng was roped in with Jaab's silliness. Jane was going for everybody head. Then Pat's silly self sitting there agreeing, I was flabbergasted like, "What did Jeng do to you sir!?"

In the novel, it didn't happen. Pat rejected the promotion and Jeng's friend talked some sense into him. The man has never been in love before, he gone. 🤣

He was so uncomfy. Like he'd never seen his older brother break down before.

It was so graphic! 🥵 They knew what they were doing!

Next weeks preview on repeat!

Dang I didn't expect to be so close in my prediction. 🤣

woooo, They KNEW what they were doing having Man do those pushups and grunts. Hammercy.

I *think* that was the scene where they fixed the old ladies roof in the rain. In Episode 2 when Yechan and Yool went to the market the lady thanked Yechan for fixing her roof in the rain.

I have a feeling it will be. Or it will happen early and then we get a confused Pat and a crushed Jeng for the rest of the episode and then Pat pops up at Jeng's door for the next episode.

The one of Jeng crying crushed me! 😭

so, we’re all back this week hitting that refresh button?😂😫

Same! Every storyline is giving me whiplash. And I haven't figured out the purpose of the cafe at all.

Pat is avoiding Jeng for multiple reasons, this is from the novel:
- He's embarrassed about how he acted at the bar. And now he knows Jeng likes him which is double embarrassing.
- He also feels like Jeng is out of his league and that he will bring him problems.
- He's confused about whether it's proper for them to be together because of Jeng's position as both his boss and the future CEO.
- He's also upset because he doesn't know if Jeng was trying to help him because he liked him or because he was really good at his job. Which makes him question his marketing abilities.
TDLR: He's experiencing an array of emotions.

I agree with you! I thought a grown man being naive wouldn't work but Yoon Do Jin is playing this perfectly. I believe him as the young-lovable-loud-country-farmer. The chemistry between the actors is subtle. I'm waiting to see how they wrap this up in 4 episodes for such a long webtoon.