Kimsamsoom

He doesn't believe in her, due to her ability, but because he is in love with her. In fact a lot of his decisions are based on pure faith due to nothing more than his infatuation, which doesn't help SDM. Your mom telling you, your the most beautiful girl in the world, isn't going to help you if your not. This kind of unwavering support SDM could have gotten from anyone, including Grandma.

She went to sandbox to compete with her sister. Part of me feels she went with NDS because she subconsciously feels she is able to control him because he is in love with her. In real life, an ambitious woman like SDM using a guys heart to manipulate him is very realistic.

TBH, SDM comes off as a bit shallow and materialistic to me. She is getting attracted to NDS due to his potential, but a lot of that potential is being shined brighter by the presence of HJP, without HJP, who knows if NDS would shine at all.

The show shows us that during SDM lowest point, her loneliness, her lack of self confidence was shored up by HJP's letters.

But if we read between the lines, it goes both ways. HJP himself was going through a rough patch himself, and although grandma was trying his best to help HJP's confidence by calling him a good boy, having someone similar aged, say how great HJP is, is an even bigger confidence booster, and loneliness settler.

That's what scenes between two emotionally mature adults, who are at their lowest point at the same time, and shared an emotional closeness looks like.

HJP represents every ML in other Kdrama. The aloof, cold, never admitting his feelings until the end Kdrama ML, but in the SL position.

not surprising.

In real life, most women don't like dating immature guys that they can fix. Women always feel they can fix guys, but so many relationships end up with the guy being "fixed" for a bit, then getting broken again. Or some guys never being fixed at all.

As a women, we strive to be with someone who will help us grow, and not be with a man we need to help grow.

Here is the thing though, the comfort that HJP is giving hasn't stopped, he is still in the background helping her. And although both HJP and NDS are lying, there have different reasons for it.

NDS is lying because, although he knows SDM falls for him because of their fake past history, he wants to keep the lie up, until she starts to fall for the real him, and create new history with her to erase the old fake past history. Also, he is coined as living Buddha, always giving way to the lesser guy, the loser and etc... but in the case of HJP, although he knows HJP has feelings for SDM, he doesn't give way, so he is already changing who he is because of SDM. Is this change a good thing? IMO it's not, because it's going to change who NDS is as a person, and it's tragic.

HJP on the other hand is lying because he has trouble with the notion of being loved. Due to his orphan background he likely has huge trust issues, and fears of rejection. There is a part of him that he is keeping bottled up, the kind, caring HJP that he only shows to Grandma, the part of him he is ashamed to show. So he is actively helping the SDM and NDS relationship, until she can get over the fake history and make new history with NDS, but unfortunately his feelings keep bubbling up, and it's forcing him to realize that he deserves to be loved as well.

That's the tragic thing, being the living buddha was actually a big part of who NDS was as a person.

And him changing is more to the benefit of SDM, and not NDS. There is no hard rule that says that NDS current character is a bad one that needs to be fixed.

Kdrama thrives on shipping wars. Having fans argue and talk about their show is the backbone of these dramas. That's why they always introduce the triangle so early in the shows.

the one aspect i'm really disliking. Is this supposed love between SDM and NDS is so interconnected into the business aspect. An outsider here would see a Nice Shark (SDM) eating up a young naive sheep (NDS). It constantly grinds at me, how transactional their relationship is, how SDM is bringing out the best out of NDS not for his sake, but for hers.

I disagree on a few things.

NDS is not really supporting SDM, he is a tool for SDM to achieve her goals. HJP is actually the one who is really supporting SDM dream unknowingly. NDS is just there along with the ride, his talent is what will get them to the next level, but that talent needs to be refined by SDM, so I don't really consider that support if SDM is the one deriving it, rather than it being freely given.

The way I see it, SDM is "loving" the real NDS, but a lot of that is because of the background of the fake Dosan. But even though HJP doesn't have the background of the fake Dosan, she is already kind of curios about HJP, and that says a lot. If NDS never had the fake Dosan background, who knows if SDM would ever have reached the point where she would have loved the real NDS.

The thing is, even though NDS and SDM share the same age, SDM losing her father so early in her life, has made her mature at a very rapid pace, the same way HJP being an orphan made him grow up almost immediately. And watching this play on screen makes HJP and SDM seem more like older sister/brother to NDS.

NDS never really experienced hardship, he was supported by his parents for pretty much three years. And he has been disappointing his parents almost all his life, but his parents have enabled this lifestyle, and so has his friends. His parents and friends are still so hyped up on NDS being a genius and great coder. In a funny way, HJP and SDM serves as the good cop/bad cop to NDS. By feeding him with hot and cold emotions, NDS is able to tap into his potential.

I know the lie are being hyped up greatly, but in real life, it doesn't seem like such a big thing. These lies were done with good intention, and with good results, and a mature girl like SDM would realize this and not be so devastated by this. Like it's been done a lot in movies and tv show, where the mom/dad/family member ends up being the person writing to a lonely boy/girl to make her more happy. And it's never really a big thing. I just don't feel the lie is as big as the show is making it to be honest.

TBH, I wouldn't feel bad for NDS, because even without SDM, he has a lot of support from his friends, his parents, and his future is bright due to his talent. Plus he hasn't invested a lot of emotions time wise in the SDM relationship.

HJP on the other hand, has only two people in his life who knows the real him, the man before the great VC Sherpa, Grandma and SDM. So him losing SDM, and eventually Grandma due to age, would leave him a lonely man, whose only comfort is his robot butler.

I keep thinking of the term "Good Boy" by the grandma, it fits the saying "Good Guys Finish Last". I mean everything from the writers are pointing to a SDM and NDS end game...

BUT, the deeper plot of the story revolves around the play Cyrano De Bergerac, and the movie interpretations of the play have all been positive for our hero Cyrano at the end.

I think one of the interesting part of the show Start Up, is how important status, prestige, face is to Asian society.

As an Asian myself, this is very realistic outlook in a lot of countries in Asia. Face is so important, and sometimes you get really competitive with siblings, friends, and feel the pressure to outright lie to save face. Which is why social media like IG can get quite destructive in heavily traditional Asian societies.

I sometimes wonder to myself is this a positive or negative aspect of Asian culture.

In western society, I feel there is less pressure from parents, and there are all these freedoms to take gap years, take time to figure out your twenties. But in Asian societies, there is a very real Age vs Success graph that a lot of parents subscribe to, that expects specific milestones based on age.

NDS acting like that, just kind of shows his immaturity, it shows you that SDM is his first love, and he is acting like it. Which is why i'm not keen on this pairing.

Even though SDM also has never had boyfriends or w/e, she did experience her first love with a real person, and the love was so strong, it actually permeated until she was an adult, to her it was real. To her it was a love that matured, thru letters.

Each have their reason for continuing the charade.

Grandma - she has never seen SDM so motivated, this is the most confidence SDM has shown, and she doesn't want SDM to lose her momentum.

NDM - he continues to lie, because deep down, he is worried that without the fake history, without the letters, SDM will not love him anymore, so he would rather proceed with the charade, than to face the possible truth.

HJP - he says he continues the lie for guilt or debt or whatever. But the real reason he continues to lie, is because he is unwilling to face his growing attraction and love for SDM. Just like before when he is young, he feels he is unworthy of love.

I am sure a part of him was happy to see that SDM was able to love NDS right away because of HJP letters. It showed HJP that the relationship they had when they were young was real and powerful.

yeah, but how can we ignore the millions of slow motion, romantic cheesy, longing gaze between NDS and SDM, the show is practically feeding us the end game couple lol.

I'm not getting my hopes up for HJP. I'm hoping Grandma legally adopts HJP, so he gets some type happy ending. I already foresee NDS betraying HJP somehow due to jealousy.

I feel that the arc that the story is headed is going to turn NDS into a colder, more calculating guy, and that's going to take away a lot of his appeal, the cards are already being stacked to be that way.

And for me i'm not fond of characters that need so much coddling, prodding, and raising, as I feel in real life, trying to raise a man like a child, get's tiring real quick, especially when I have my own problems to deal with.

Plus the reasonings of everything, I can't help that SDM primary motive is to eke out every single bit of talent from NDS for her own personal gain, rather than for his.

If you think about the past life of both HJP and NDS, you will see that NDS "love" feels more like puppy love, like first girl who was nice to me love, and it doesn't feel as substantial.

On the other hand, HJP feels more similar to SDM in the sense that, he, just like SDM, may never have had a girlfriend because, no one could ever replace SDM in his life. So he goes on dates like SDM, but he never settles down. And it is only true the fated meeting with grandma that he is able to slowly come to this conclusion.

I agree with this, I think the first episode of HJP as a kid was very important in showing us his personality.

I think it's a very realistic view of how an orphan who was not raised in a loving household sees the world. having been kicked out, and with very little money, his self esteem and trust is at an all time low. Even the grandma who has shown him nothing but kindness he chose to deceive initially.

And before the kindness of the grandma has had time to effect his personality for the better, he leaves, once again alone to fend for himself, but now he had the ony thing that cannot lie to him, his money. And that makes him grow into this cold calculating VC guy, that lives in a lonely apartment by himself. The grandma even says, if she had met him sooner, the theory of HJP being a good buy, becomes more and more of a fact.

We don't get to read all of HJP letters, but I think we can infer, that a lot of those letters actually is the baring of his heart and soul. And because in HJP mind, he is using a different name, he can feel the freedom to let loose, and bare his soul out. Something he cannot do with his real name. I mean it took him almost 10 years to finally show his appreciation for grandma's kindness. But that's also probably since he is successful now. But for him to bare his soul, using his real name with SDM, it may never happen. As this risk averse VC guy, doesn't invest into things he know will fail. And the budding relationship of SDM and NDS probably isn't helping his psyche.

So far, I am enjoying this drama. I like seeing the tech aspect, and business plot lines in the show. The one thing i'm not so fond of is the romance part, I feel it's kind of out of place and awkward. I also kind of feel that the relationship at this point feels incredibly superficial, and is developing for all the wrong reasons.

I know that the sister is the clear enemy here, but I see so many flaws in dalmi as well, that kind of makes it hard to fully root for her.

I'm on Episode 6 so far, and I just have to say that there are way too many slow motion, scenes between the ML and FL, I really dislike this, as I feel the show is force feeding us on a certain love line. Ok we get it, no need to make it so obvious who the OTP will be.

And if I see NDS look at his hands, or the camera pans to his hands again, i'm going to flip. Like we understand the symbolism and the psyche at this point, no need to drill it in every 10 minutes of each episode. I feel the show is not a very subtle show, it instead chooses to spoon feed the viewers it's intended message, constantly, as if it fears the viewers will forget the message the show is trying to deliver.

This show I feel is a cross of Cyrano de Bergerac and Silicon Valley show on HBO, quite a few similarities, which I don't mind.

I think HJP is really stealing the show, I am finding myself just kind of getting bored of NDS and SDM relationship at this point, being more invested in Grandma, HJP, and even IJW's story. I don't think it's the actors fault at this point, seems more that the chemistry and lines SDM and NDS have is more of a brotherly/sisterly vibe. Which is why it kind of gets old to see the romance scenes being dragged so long with all these pointless flashbacks and slow motion, eyes gazing over a distance scenes.

I know the show is trying to make us pity NDS more, and feel bad for him, but I can't help but feed that HJP has had a MUCH MUCH more harder life. I mean if you compare SDM and HJP, even though HJP is richer, he has also had a much more brutal and difficult life as compared to SDM. But the show is trying to make the viewer favor the innocent, naive, and nicer SDM. But try as I may, i'm not getting much of any substance from NDS, I feel HJP, even with his limited scenes, is setting up as a more deeper and interesting character.