AKH

aaaaah my heart, this was so beautiful!

I love slow-burn and slice of life so it isn't the pace that's disappointing me as much as... the direction these few episodes have taken. I understand ML wanting to create distance so things like not saying yes to plans etc makes sense but I don't know why they've decided he needs to be kind of cruel to her face? Especially as he's predicted to some extent how she's been living the last few years causing her to comeback to korea so lost. He's been playing around with her and hanging out like old times and suddenly after overhearing a conversation she had with moeum has decided to pull the rug out from under her and suddenly act distant and tell her to act like an adult and leave him alone... ? He spent years successfully swallowing his unresolved crush the first time and it's been a decade since then, and yet NOW when she's at the lowest of the low he's going to act so harsh with her based on no fault of her own?

EDIT: I'm sorry the more I think about it the more frustrating it seems- imagine seeing your guy BFF for the first time in years and you're close just like old times and hanging out for weeks. And then he over hears you saying you still have love for the guy you just ended an engagement with last month and the guy BFF does an entire personality 180 and avoids you and tells you to leave him alone and to grow up and that you're driving him mad.... dude... how shitty of him

This is highly rated but I'm hesitating to watch cause of what people have said about the ending. Do people feel like it was worth it and satisfying to watch this even with the ending as it was?

I liked how good this drama was at showing us the two leads actually flirting. So many dramas either go heavy with the enemies to sudden lovers with a forced kiss, or a cold (usually male) lead who just stares longingly at the FL and shows interest through protecting her etc- which is great, I love a trope as much as anyone. But it felt like the way these two couldn't help giving eyes to eachother when they were supposed to be talking about other stuff, the slightly playful teasing quality behind their conversations, how Duke Su couldn't help but smile at her sometimes -- I totally believed these were two adults who were attracted to eachother. Honestly not that much physical contact in this but the chemistry was great.

This is one of those dramas that it's going to take me a while to recover from-- I have no idea what drama could possibly fill the void! (If anyone has any suggestions with an epic romance and a happy ending please feel free to suggest) I've only watched a handful of costume cdramas and have never really connected with them but I loved how this was slice of life, how even if people tried to take advantage of our FL she would get revenge quickly on her terms so it didn't drag out, how none of the characters were perfect but so many of them showed so much growth by the end of the show.

Thank you for the recs, I'll check these out!

Started watching this completely by chance and i am SO invested (and devestated I didn't even check the release schedule now I regret not waiting for it to be finished). Anyone have one or two recommendations of high quality japanese BLs to tide me over in the meantime? i've only watched a handful and the only ones memorable for me were Cherry Magic + My personal Weatherman. Preferably something shot pretilly + with good acting like this show so far!

I really loved the best friend's stance with The General Manager with what she said about throwing the word "mistake" around like an easy out. You go girl!

Just started this today- never seen this actress before but she is great! She really embodies the whole chaos-demon vibe when she's being cheeky, but then she manages to capture deep emotion really well everytime she gives someone an emotional speech. I've felt like her bestie cheering her on everytime she gives Dohan or Jihan a piece of her mind!

I also like how she's been written in terms of her agreeing to this whole marriage scheme- sometimes with this trope the person accepts blindly as if it's nbd to have a high-profile marriage + divorce so I thought it was great and realistic that her first reaction was to be like wtf and also insulted. Feels very on brand for her character to only agree out of spite after being pushed to her emotional limit.

Thanks so much, I think I can hold on that long lol!

2.5 episodes in and it's obviously really good but damn every episode has been heartwrenching... looking for some of that hope they're talking about in the title! Anyone wanna let me know how many episodes in to the show things start getting at least a little more positive so I know I can look foward to it? 😅

Idk on what grounds is it fair for the ML to ask her "Tengyue or me" and then be butthurt when she replies Tengyue- when *he* was the one who chose the company and the business over her to begin with and caused this mess? And I know people could argue "he wasn't choosing the company over her, he thought he was making the best business decision" but the point is he made that decision without her, knowing she would disagree, and then kept it from her, and continued to act lovey dovey with her while decieving her- knowing she would be devestated when she found out. So he was puting business ahead of his relationship, heck even ahead of his respect for her full stop. Is that supposed to be what he's realising right now...? I'd love for that to sink in a little faster.

Also, I almost laughed out loud at the ML being like "Can't we just move past this" !! Glad the FL was like "yeah that's easy for you to say". Imagine hurting someone and then coming them a few weeks later out of the blue and being like "... how about you just get over it now". [Maybe their dinner would have been a good time for some open and honest communication about his regrets about how things went down + his current hesitations over the acquision but I guess he still wasn't ready to be that open with her? Idk why it's on her to forgive him out of the blue when he has done nothing to show her he wants to rectify the situation except give her sad eyes??]

Honestly atm i'm sceptical over how the drama has sufficient space in two episodes to make me believe there's been enough character progression to suggest that the FL and ML's can compromise on their vastly different life values or overcome the broken trust in a healthy way? Honestly I'd have a huge amount of respect for the writers if the couple doesn't actually get together in the end and instead just take this whole ordeal as a learning experience for both of them but somehow I doubt that's happening.

(Finally just wanna say the actors have been doing a great job because it's been a while since I've felt so invested in the actions and motivations of drama characters and conceptualising it as if they're real people for me to love / resent rather than just being like "wtf is the writer thinking here")

Yes exactly I have such a hard time picturing the faces of people I went to high school with now if they don't have social media and I'm only in my late twenties lol! I can also suspend disbelief on that point because in 2023 it's not like Eun Gyeol in his 18 year old body pops up in front of them again out of nowhere and they might catch a resemblance. They have him as a baby who grows into, their infant, their child, their teen. So I could see how the face he grew into would be very much just their own child's face in their mind - until some weird coincidences might trigger some memories about a resemblance for Yichan later.

That scene with Grandma and Yichan in the last ep made me cry so much!!

I enjoyed this and thought Woo Ji Han especially did a great job- never seen him before but he really captured the emotional scenes well.

Guys I paused my binging of this show after ep 11 because the MLs actions towards the FL were still feeling frustratingly cold and borderline cruel and I wasn't in the mood to be as sad/angry for her as I was feeling (the mark of good writing, I feel so empathetic and stressed for the FL lol). So just checking in- has their been sufficient character growth from the ML yet? Is the FL starting to thrive yet? I'm not in the mood to extend my stress- I'm hoping to find when things start going better for her so when I binge the rest and catch up I know I'm going to be satisfied rather than vexxed !

(I'm only on ep 11) The thing is, I can tell the writing and the acting are both good in this show because I actively hate the ML and yet I'm still watching. I know he's logically right in a lot of these cases, and me (and the FL) are less business savvy/ more emotional but daaamn he lacks compassion. And he's constantly smug and taunting her despite the fact she's going through the lowest point in her life rn, having lost her only remaining family member, her home, all through no fault of her own- and now the pressure of the livelihoods of so many people on her shoulders. Not to mention she almost jumped off a roof in the earlier episodes and he knows it.

Usually most MLs are attractive to me to an extent on a personality level but tbh I'd sooner punch this man in the face than want to date him (not a comment on GJ lol he's doing a great job acting). Let's see if the writers can manage to convince me XS is the right person for our FL at least though...

I'm only on the first ep and damn this FL is like... distractingly beautiful. Ofc most fls in cdramas are usually pretty but this actress is like next level stunning.

(I'm only on ep 10) I know there's a lot of bigger problems going on rn but for some reason my brain is hung up on the fact his older brother seemed to have feelings for / have something going on with Eunyu in 2023 so I'm curious how that's going to play out once they're all back in the future.