I understand some people's misunderstanding about this drama. Even though I don't support cheating in reality, I don't view this drama as supporting cheating. I think it’s really important to look at this drama from the inside, not just from the outside. From a distance, it’s easy to say the show is normalizing desire for a “married woman” or brushing off infidelity. But when you step into the characters’ emotional world, that’s not what’s happening at all.
The ML isn’t someone chasing after a married woman. He’s someone fighting himself every step of the way. His feelings aren’t celebrated; they torment him. He distances himself, he pulls away, he respects the boundaries he believes exist, and every moment he’s near her feels like a conflict between what he feels and what he believes is right. That isn’t glorification; that’s pain. That’s restraint. That’s a man terrified of crossing a line.
And the FL isn’t betraying a real marriage. She’s carrying a fake identity built on fear, debt, and the desperate need to survive. She isn’t cheating; she’s drowning. Her hesitation, her confusion, they’re not signs of carelessness; they’re signs of someone who’s exhausted, traumatized, and pulled in too many directions to breathe.
The moments where they falter aren’t written as romantic triumphs. They’re written as cracks, places where their trauma leaks through. The ML’s guilt, the FL’s fear, the constant push and pull… none of it is treated as something to root for. The show never rewards them for their mistakes. If anything, these moments break them more.
This drama isn’t about “allowed cheating.” It’s about two people who are hurting, trying so hard to do the right thing, and failing sometimes because they’re human and overwhelmed. It’s about how love becomes complicated when life has already wounded you. The emotional intensity isn’t meant to justify their actions; it’s meant to show how much their circumstances crush them.
If anything, the story is saying the opposite of what some people think: that these situations are messy, painful, and destructive, not romantic fantasies. It’s not a show supporting cheating; it’s a show about how deeply people can suffer when their hearts and lives collide in the worst possible way.
I understand why it might look like infidelity from the outside, but I actually don’t see this drama that way…
From our viewpoint, with full context and distance, it’s easy to categorize things as “normalizing desire for married women” or “allowed infidelity.” But inside the drama’s world, and especially from the ML’s point of view, it plays out very differently.
1. “Normalizing men coping with their desire for married women” The drama isn’t normalizing it. It’s portraying it. Characters having complicated and inappropriate feelings isn’t the same thing as the show endorsing those feelings. Emotional conflict is literally the point of melodrama. What matters is how the character handles those emotions, not that he has them in the first place.
And the ML actually does try to cope ethically: - He distances himself. - He doesn’t confess. - He respects what he believes is her marriage. - He repeatedly chooses restraint over pursuit.
That's not normalization, that’s depiction of moral struggle.
2. “She accepts advances” She isn’t married. The fake marriage is a deception created for safety, not a real romantic covenant. From her perspective, she’s not betraying a spouse; she’s navigating fear, survival, and mistaken assumptions.
3. “He’s okay that she almost slept with him” He isn’t “okay” about it. He’s confused, guilty, and conflicted, because he believes she’s married. That’s why he withdraws and keeps trying to re-establish distance. The drama treats it as a moral dilemma, not a justified action.
4. “He never oversteps? He hides her hospital stay / cave kiss attempt / puts himself in her path” These moments aren’t examples of predatory behavior, they’re examples of flawed human judgment. He’s someone dealing with trauma, guilt, and emotional repression, and his mistakes are written as mistakes.The show doesn’t glorify these choices; it uses them to show his internal conflict and gradual unraveling.
5. “He gets engaged, so it’s emotional cheating” But that is the point: the engagement is a plot showing that he keeps making choices that look like the right choice on the outside, while internally he’s breaking down. It’s not meant to be admirable; it’s meant to show how deeply unresolved he is. This isn’t the drama praising cheating, it’s dramatizing emotional turmoil, not modeling ideal behavior.
6. “The FL doesn’t reject him or inform him about the fake marriage.” Because the fake marriage is tied to her safety, survival, and emotional burden, it’s not a lighthearted lie; it’s part of her trauma. Her ambiguity isn’t romantic dithering; it's fear, guilt, and obligation colliding.
7. The “stealing” analogy doesn’t apply cleanly here The ML’s “intent” isn’t to steal someone else’s spouse. - He never sets out to seduce her. - He tries to suppress his feelings. - He does not know her “marriage” is fake. - He continuously pulls away precisely because he believes she’s unavailable.
Intent matters, but so does context. His intentions are conflicted, not malicious.
Overall: The show isn’t trying to justify infidelity. It’s exploring how deeply flawed people handle impossible emotional situations, messily, imperfectly, sometimes poorly. That’s not “normalization” or “gaslighting.” It’s a melodrama built on human contradiction. In reality, many people cheat on their spouse because they believe they are attracted to someone else. Some people have complete self-control, but some don't, and that's why their affairs/cheating is going on, like ML's parents' situation.
From your perspective, it may come off as too morally ambiguous, and that’s completely valid. But within the story’s emotional logic, the characters aren’t being rewarded for bad behavior; they’re being crushed by it, which is a very different thing.
I understand why it might look like infidelity from the outside, but I actually don’t see this drama that way…
I see things differently. From the ML’s perspective, the FL is someone who’s barely holding her life together, and he sees how much she struggles just to get through each day. He watches her work herself to exhaustion and still be neglected by her “husband.” When she overworks or gets sick, he feels her husband should be the one supporting her, not leaving her to manage everything alone.
And from his point of view, despite how hard she works, her husband still has the time and emotional energy to get involved with another woman. Yes, technically he didn’t initiate the kiss or make the first move, but the important thing to the ML is that he didn’t pull away either. That’s what makes the ML feel sympathy for the FL, because to him, it looks like she’s giving everything while her husband gives nothing in return.
Even if the ending wasn’t what we hoped for, can we at least acknowledge how insanely good the cast was?? Especially Kim Yoo Jung, she carried every scene. No matter how people feel about the storyline, the acting alone deserves a high rating. Giving 1 star for acting just because you didn’t like the plot is wildly unfair 😭
People expected a fairytale ending. This is a psychological thriller with a sociopathic protagonist, get real,…
I dont't think it dropped because they expect romance. The show has a toxic romance not a rom com. Most people got the rating down because they wanted the ending to match their expectation.
They’re really not the same. Jun Seo and Moon Do Hyuk act from completely different places. Jun Seo’s actions…
No.. He did not want ahjin like how DoHyuk want Ah Jin. Jun Seo want Ah Jin to be normal but DoHYuk drugged her to be insane. Thats two dif intentions.
The ML isn’t someone chasing after a married woman. He’s someone fighting himself every step of the way. His feelings aren’t celebrated; they torment him. He distances himself, he pulls away, he respects the boundaries he believes exist, and every moment he’s near her feels like a conflict between what he feels and what he believes is right. That isn’t glorification; that’s pain. That’s restraint. That’s a man terrified of crossing a line.
And the FL isn’t betraying a real marriage. She’s carrying a fake identity built on fear, debt, and the desperate need to survive. She isn’t cheating; she’s drowning. Her hesitation, her confusion, they’re not signs of carelessness; they’re signs of someone who’s exhausted, traumatized, and pulled in too many directions to breathe.
The moments where they falter aren’t written as romantic triumphs. They’re written as cracks, places where their trauma leaks through. The ML’s guilt, the FL’s fear, the constant push and pull… none of it is treated as something to root for. The show never rewards them for their mistakes. If anything, these moments break them more.
This drama isn’t about “allowed cheating.” It’s about two people who are hurting, trying so hard to do the right thing, and failing sometimes because they’re human and overwhelmed. It’s about how love becomes complicated when life has already wounded you. The emotional intensity isn’t meant to justify their actions; it’s meant to show how much their circumstances crush them.
If anything, the story is saying the opposite of what some people think: that these situations are messy, painful, and destructive, not romantic fantasies. It’s not a show supporting cheating; it’s a show about how deeply people can suffer when their hearts and lives collide in the worst possible way.
1. “Normalizing men coping with their desire for married women”
The drama isn’t normalizing it. It’s portraying it. Characters having complicated and inappropriate feelings isn’t the same thing as the show endorsing those feelings. Emotional conflict is literally the point of melodrama. What matters is how the character handles those emotions, not that he has them in the first place.
And the ML actually does try to cope ethically:
- He distances himself.
- He doesn’t confess.
- He respects what he believes is her marriage.
- He repeatedly chooses restraint over pursuit.
That's not normalization, that’s depiction of moral struggle.
2. “She accepts advances”
She isn’t married. The fake marriage is a deception created for safety, not a real romantic covenant. From her perspective, she’s not betraying a spouse; she’s navigating fear, survival, and mistaken assumptions.
3. “He’s okay that she almost slept with him”
He isn’t “okay” about it. He’s confused, guilty, and conflicted, because he believes she’s married. That’s why he withdraws and keeps trying to re-establish distance. The drama treats it as a moral dilemma, not a justified action.
4. “He never oversteps? He hides her hospital stay / cave kiss attempt / puts himself in her path”
These moments aren’t examples of predatory behavior, they’re examples of flawed human judgment. He’s someone dealing with trauma, guilt, and emotional repression, and his mistakes are written as mistakes.The show doesn’t glorify these choices; it uses them to show his internal conflict and gradual unraveling.
5. “He gets engaged, so it’s emotional cheating”
But that is the point: the engagement is a plot showing that he keeps making choices that look like the right choice on the outside, while internally he’s breaking down. It’s not meant to be admirable; it’s meant to show how deeply unresolved he is. This isn’t the drama praising cheating, it’s dramatizing emotional turmoil, not modeling ideal behavior.
6. “The FL doesn’t reject him or inform him about the fake marriage.”
Because the fake marriage is tied to her safety, survival, and emotional burden, it’s not a lighthearted lie; it’s part of her trauma. Her ambiguity isn’t romantic dithering; it's fear, guilt, and obligation colliding.
7. The “stealing” analogy doesn’t apply cleanly here
The ML’s “intent” isn’t to steal someone else’s spouse.
- He never sets out to seduce her.
- He tries to suppress his feelings.
- He does not know her “marriage” is fake.
- He continuously pulls away precisely because he believes she’s unavailable.
Intent matters, but so does context. His intentions are conflicted, not malicious.
Overall:
The show isn’t trying to justify infidelity. It’s exploring how deeply flawed people handle impossible emotional situations, messily, imperfectly, sometimes poorly. That’s not “normalization” or “gaslighting.” It’s a melodrama built on human contradiction.
In reality, many people cheat on their spouse because they believe they are attracted to someone else. Some people have complete self-control, but some don't, and that's why their affairs/cheating is going on, like ML's parents' situation.
From your perspective, it may come off as too morally ambiguous, and that’s completely valid. But within the story’s emotional logic, the characters aren’t being rewarded for bad behavior; they’re being crushed by it, which is a very different thing.
And from his point of view, despite how hard she works, her husband still has the time and emotional energy to get involved with another woman. Yes, technically he didn’t initiate the kiss or make the first move, but the important thing to the ML is that he didn’t pull away either. That’s what makes the ML feel sympathy for the FL, because to him, it looks like she’s giving everything while her husband gives nothing in return.