Potato the cutie

Considering the mannerisms/honorifics system in the asian culture in general, I think listing people from most important/most respected to second to third and so on is common sense and since Soo ho's character is the driving force at this point in the plot and Jung hae in being the bigger celebrity between him and jisoo (as actors ofc), I think it's the most logical reason for such thing, again this is from personal observation/speculations and I'm very much open for other opinions regarding this theory and other theories.

He's defdefinitely in love with Young ro, as for the whole ordeal with Cheong ya, he saved her before, so I guess she fell in love with him back then and one of the wives of the higher ups mentioned at some point how she couldn't forget him or something, so I'm guessing she's still in love with him based on that and general observation, as for him giving her false hope/showing sympathy for her, he never gave her false hope, however, he does feel bad for her so you could say that the sympathy part is the most accurate label for their relationship if you can even call it that.

This drama is definitely a one-time watch for a lot of people considering everything that's happened so far. I'm pretty sure the only reason this drama was hyped up so much and was one of the most anticipated series this year (besides the controversy) is because of how strong the cast is, like at this point I'm only watching it for the cast, not even the characters.
As for the situation with Young ro, look at it this way, she plays two main roles as of right now, being Soo ho's love interest and the ANSP's director's daughter (and if you want a third role, she was the spies' ticket out of this mess) and with the direction the plot has taken, Young ro's role in the current situation neither brings nor takes anything away from the plot, and planting romance in this type of situations would be really tricky, especially if not done carefully, so they decided to focus on the situation at hand and tone down the romance for the mean time, hence her character being pushed to the back and lacking any development, maybe after the whole hostage situation is over, they'll give her another major role to play in all of this, but I think it really doesn't matter at this point since we're nearing the end and the dorm arc took the majority of the storyline.
Something that I've noticed (this is purely personal observation/speculation, it's not proven or anything) is that when the names of the cast is displayed in the opening, Hae in's name is displayed first THEN they show Jisoo's name in the next frame, and to me it kinda alludes to him being the main focus of this drama instead of both of them, because while some might argue that it's a stylistic choice or that it's because he's a more prominent figure (in the acting scene that is) so he should be put first, I feel like if you're going to focus on two characters, you'll put the names of BOTH actors together in the very first frame, so to me it feels a bit intentional.

I did talk about this in the very beginning once where I predicted this type of persona for her, especially considering how the story starts with her being very naive leading all the way until now. She is a very one dimensional character and I do agree that the rest of the characters are far more intriguing, I'd like to believe that the reason she was written this way is because:
A) the writer started working on this drama more than 10 years ago, meaning this specific trope was quite popular when she started working on her characters and having a naive/too innocent/goody-two-shoes FL was really famous back then and B) jisoo is very much an amateur so giving her a layered complex role would've really highlighted how much of an amateur she is so they gave her a relatively easy-to-tackle role to start with so she wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb, not so much at least.

Honestly, yeah, I can see it making more sense as such rather than actual melodrama/drama, although not my most preferred genre, I do find black comedy to be entertaining if done correctly

Did they promote it as dark comedy tho? Pretty sure they said it was gonna be drama/romance, they never mentioned the dark rom-com element in here. As for the love at first sight part, considering the plot and every other problem which followed it, I didn't really expect them to actually go through with the love at first sight thing, and even tho I'm not a fan of it, I think it's the least disappointing aspect in here, doesn't mean I find the way they had her forget all about his a-holeness towards her through coffee any less bizarre, also, nothing wrong with enjoying it lol, the series doesn't have to be deep/logical for you to enjoy it.

Ok so I'm actually slightly, like, veeery slightly amused with the way they tried to save this drama, instead of pushing the action/thriller/spy genre to the very front (a shame really) they decided to take a couple of steps back and turn it into some sort of dark-ish rom-com for preteens/teens who aren't looking for a deep/reasonable series and honestly, it's not necessarily a bad thing. Is it a big let down for viewers like me who wanted the romance gone from this drama? That's a hard yes. Was it able to somehow save this series from going farther down the drain? I mean, at least now it doesn't mentality hurt as much to think about a logical way for their relationship to actually work so yeah, I guess it did kinda save it (although the way they made her forgive his uh..... actions, for lack of better wording, through a sIngLe cUp oF CofFeE is just so ridiculous Idk what to say anymore).
I definitely see them taking the Romeo&Juliet route now to kinda make this series less unintelligible so kudos to reviewer Kimsamsoom for foreseeing this turn of events, I honestly didn't know what to expect from the writer anymore because so far, her writing has made close to zero sense she might as well just make the whole crew (herself included) dress up in circus attire. I gotta admit, the kiss wasn't as mortifying as I thought it would be, sure it was embarrassing and Hae in did all the heart-fluttering work while home gurl jisoo sat there like 🗿 but it wasn't the worst I've seen (a-not-so-spoiler, there is in fact, much worse kisses in kdramas, believe me Ik).

I actually had friends who wrote fanfics back in the day, but they all knew it was purely fiction, as I started getting into kpop/kdramas I couldn't help but notice that were too many of those who genuinely think that their ship is real, and as bad as it is for the targeted party, the shippers are eventually hurting their mentality with these fantasies

As I mentioned before, I don't mind shipping as long as it's in the acceptable limits, my comment was not directed to those who already know it's just for marketing/it's just for fun, I specifically meant those who take it way too far and start writing fanfics with sexual scenes or start demanding their ship become real, true shipping benefits the drama and veiwership, but if left to its own accord it can harm the people involved, not just the ship, but the shippers will be harmed too

Considering YGE's history with such thing? I say there's a pretty good chance they won't bat an eyelid at this situation unless their artists get physically hurt

Ik that eventually it'll somewhat die down but the fact that many don't understand that their fantasies shouldn't cloud their judgement is just very unsettling for me

I honestly agree with you, the only thing that I'm liking so far other than the soundtrack and visuals is the action in somea scenes, the rest is just so so to me

I get your point. My concern is mostly due to the history of ships in general and how intense they could get so seeing this huge response is really concerning to me

I didn't mean that, what I meant is that the amount of people already obsessing over them and just straight up making up their own facts and "proofs" is concerning and I've seen similar situations and it doesn't usually end that well

As I mentioned before, I don't mind shippers in general, but I've already seen quite a few of them making videos and fanfics and it's starting to get out of hand, especially since jisoo is a big celebrity, and I've already seen some cases where shipping almost ruined an actor's/artist's career

Idk, I'm not really feeling their chemistry really, maybe it's just me but I just don't feel anything whenever a romantic scene between them is on

Thank you I guess 😂

I don't mind shipping in general, however, going overboard is a big no no, I've seen some cases where the "shippers" literally harassed artists/actors online just so they could satisfy their delusions it's actually disgusting, so seeing this huge wave of people just forcing this ship onto the actors is just ridiculous imo

Honestly, I blame it on the lack of chemistry between the characters of the drama, Ik it's basically just marketing but damn some people are just extreme

Ik but like, it's gotten to a point where these so called "fans" are trying to force their delusions onto the actors and knowing how the industry works, I doubt they'd let it die down