Chibi

I really enjoy the fact that she is flawed to her bone, and that gives us so much space for character growth over 16 well-paced episodes! I'm tired of the perfect and ideal Mary-Sues, (and even anti Mary-Sues to a certain extent)... it's refreshing to watch a MC screw-up and receive their due consequences. She frequently puts her foot in her mouth, and it's hilarious!

And her 'quirks' don't magically endear her to an entire population of villagers, and she's shown her place, and schooled quite immediately following her goof-ups. She works hard to be an ethical professional, and the kindness she ultimately displays is what garners her all the love, admiration and affection.... which is pretty realistic! :)

Also, given her prickly nature and history, her reaction to being friend-zoned is pretty logical. She after-all made the first move, only to be turned down, AND have her pride hurt in the process of having her feeling completely trivialized and invalidated by the man of her affection. She has every right to draw the boundaries, and infact I think it's very selfish of Du-Shik wanting to blur boundaries every now-and-then (only the ones HE'S comfortable crossing, though...) almost as he wants to have his cake and eat it too. I wish HJ calls him out on his BS more :D

No hate to fellow agency-mate Kim Ji-Won and earlier co-star Moon Ga-Young... but I'm GLAD he turned down scripts with them in favor of Home-Cha... and look he's getting the recognition he deserves and got two movies in a span of 10 days. Honestly, picking the project with those actresses would have been playing it safe... and would have cloistered him-in even more... Good-boy... i hope you keep going far, farrrr ahead! :D

I have entertained this EXACT chain of thoughts my friend, and I'm glad you took time to explain everything logically! I agree with every little thing you theorized in the subsequent 3 paragraphs... but the argument relies heavily on the fact that Du-Shik friend-zoned her based on A. his own trauma, and B. her nasty comment on being misfits due to social positions.
The first is on him completely... whereas I wonder if he'd have friend-zoned her (at all, or as brutally) had she NOT made snide remarks on their finances.
Secondly, you say in Du-Shik's perspective, HJ does not remember the kiss. I had assumed the same (up to ep5) and your argument holds, till we actually see early on in ep6 that Du-Shik DOES realize the reason she's acting sour is definitely *because* she has finally remembered, and highly likely because he lied about it on the beach (for whatever reason... we'll get to that later). Hence, the friend-zoning happens very clearly *after* Du-Shik's realized that she remembers.

I think I was cool with him denying it initially, assuming he just wanted to be gentlemanly (let's give him the benefit of doubt here)... but his 'clarification in the clinic' post-realization that HJ now remembers, was a douche-move. Not saying he doesn't have the right to turn her down (esp considering it follows the movie plot where DS turns her down not once, but multiple times...), I think he could have been less of an ass about it. Trivializing somebody's feelings just because you can't deal with emotions and attachments is not cool (aka making light of the kiss calling it 'western traditions' and 'biological crisis' is just uncalled for... even high-schoolers aren't that petty!) Also, what's with the 'are you now going to overthink my kind gestures as hitting on you?' and making fun of her? I get that's his character... but ugh DS -__- I instantly flashback to the time where my feelings were once a subject of jokes among boys, and I might be projecting a little here :'(

HJ was clearly hurt, and she's done plenty of her share of hurting DS too. I hope they can overcome their prickliness and tone it down to casual bickering about inconsequential things like wallpaper instead... the amount of times I have felt second-hand embarrassment for them trying to one-up the other! TT But then again, if they were mature, sorted individuals... would we have as much fun watching and talking about them? :P

Yep, i hope he does a good balance of mindless fluff and 'serious' scripts, because heaven knows, man is multi-talented and has potential in both areas :D

hahaha, 100% on this :P

As someone who lives far away from their parents and belongs to an emotionally (& verbally) stunted Asian family... I really choked up when HJ rings Dad, and they talk randomly about a plant, and Dad's just happy to hear from his daughter after so long! :')
Gosh, Home-Cha gets some things magically right! <3

Yep, we love us some criminal-husbands :D

Yayyy! Plot sounds cliche, but I guess it's going to be one of those really warm and sweet Christmas-movies! <3

That's a very interesting take on this! Zishu and WKX are our MCs, but were they really heroes?
To me, ZZS seemed like he wanted to be a righteous man, but he ended up being on the wrong side because of his allegiances, that made him do very bad things. Sadly, he's too far down the road which won't bring back the dead, or undo his deeds. He also likes to think of himself as more morally upright, about what he can mess with, and what is absolutely out-of-bounds unethical... but he isn't AS good as he'd like to believe.
Whereas WKX is an out-and-out gangster. Nothing is forbidden to him as long as he gets to achieve his end-goal, aka his redemption. He knows he's bad, and has no ambiguity about that!
I think more than their individual moral-compass, WoH was always about a relative-comparison of their morality with the rest of the Jiang-Hu. In textbook terms, yes they are 'villains'; but what about the 'good side'? I think the concept of a 'villain' is completely moot here, because literally everybody did bad stuff in the end. Were there really any heroes in the WoH-verse? :O Maybe you're right... ChengLing was the only one <3

They had palpable chemistry over a SONG. heck...
He's getting casted next to women considered as some of the prettiest by S.Koreans... ohhhhooo, the visuals! <3

She's a little bit of a kill-joy, and also an emotional masochist. If she hates Gongjin, she should just leave, right? :P I think that makes her characterization consistent yet fun to watch xD Like you said, it's going to be sooo good when she comes around :D

I think the negative reaction towards Hye-Jin comes from the fact that her intentions and her stand can be conveyed equally effectively, while being a little LESS mean and petty, doing it. She's right to put in boundaries, but she's also unnecessarily rude in the process.
A mature individual would explain their stand clearly, without being on the defensive, and with adequate reasoning to how they feel, and how the other person makes them feel, without bringing in caustic comments on 'social position' and 'being nosy.'
I 100% am with Hye-Jin on this one, while I do enjoy friendship with multiple men (and have been on both ends of a friend-zone before)... but I also agree she could have gone about it in a nicer, more civil manner, and not been so bitter and offended about it all. Though, I believe her successful medic-persona is a nice contrast to how childish and immature she can be at times.. and that makes her fun to watch :D

I think they wanted show that he spared her 10cents for her milk back then... even though he didn't give her the 4USD for coffee as an adult xD It's far-fetched, but also cute :D

110% with you... :)

C-netz love Chinese/Taiwanese dramas set in the countryside/ fishing-villages... :')

I agree with everything you said... except for the fact that he acted the way he thought she wanted him to act. I really don't think Du-Shik friend-zoned her, because he thought she wanted him to friendzone her... He did it very selfishly, to protect himself :)

Amen, Du-Shik is the king of sending mixed-signals, and then proceeding to trivialize the other's feelings and emotions, claiming that they 'overthink' too much and 'misinterpret nice gestures'. Hoo boy, you got some serious issues my friend...

Absolutely, Du-Shik was an ass, and an entitled douche-bag calling her 'feelings' a 'biological crisis.' He belittled her emotions, and I'm not cool with that. Also, what's with the 'some lines can be crossed as long as they're done comfortably..' ????!! Sounds a lot like 'i wanna have my cake and eat it too.' I'm glad Hye-Jin called him out on his BS.
No matter, how much I adore KSH, Du-Shik was a jerk, just like HJ was a jerk in ep5 saying they got no chance, cuz they belong to different 'social positions.' Again, that kind of stuff is just mean, petty and uncalled for. But, she has every right to tell him to keep his nosy concern away right after he has friend-zoned her... I don't see her behavior as rude if she wants to maintain distance after being so BRUTALLY turned-down.

Like I said earlier, I immensely enjoy these characters even though they're not exactly very lovable.... and I would sure as hell would not like to date either of them, even if they came with SMA or KSH's faces. :')

Seriously? Guess what, fans manifested it ever since the two sang the Princess Hours theme song on stage together <3

Zhou Zishu went from a pragmatic AH to a disney AH... whereas WKX went from an unscrupulous hero to a classical AH? WKX's really hard to classify though :')