L13

Fake marriage contracts are not real contracts, the two of them are mot actually married yet, and even if they were really married and their contract had legal force, keeping someone married to you by force is extremely unethical no matter whether they cheated on you or not.

I’m not reading all that, sorry, but just to respond to your first few sentences, I think people are criticising Dohan for refusing to let Ajeong go and trying to guilt-trip her into marrying him when she likes someone else and not for refusing to come out. There are options available to him other than trapping his friend into an unwanted marriage and coming out.

ABP didn’t grip me personally, while WI is keeping me glued to the screen. The plot is more intricate, the leads have more entertaining dynamics and the secondary characters are more like real people. The protagonists are not stereotypes either. Just my opinion, though; I know a lot of people loved ABP.

Well, they left Dohan in the salon, so I guess he'll have to take care of that.

Yeah, at this point this is the one thing that doesn't make sense to me. Sure, his grandfather may cut him off financially if he just leaves without permission. Whatever! I'm sure he can get an apartment in New York in his name and buy a nice sports car or two using his family's fortune before shit hits the fan, or maybe he already owns assets like that. If he sells off everything in his name, including shares and what not, he'll probably have at least a few million dollars plus a university degree, which is enough to start a new life even without his grandfather's support. So if he finds his family that oppressive and unpleasant to be around, he can just leave... and he doesn't need a wife for that.

A woman of lower social status (a former courtesan in ADoS and a divorcee here) meets an honourable official and sparks fly, but they are too different in status and outlook to forge a romantic connection. However, they meet again in a different city after the woman moves there and starts her own business (a teahouse in ADoS and a flower shop here) with other female friends who are struggling to find a place in society. And ultimately our heroine and our hero fall in love and overcome their class differences to get together.

At least that's what I gather from the plot summary above.

This sounds a lot like A Dream of Splendor, which I'm thrilled with because ADoS was great.

I think she's already coming around to the possibility he's not the culprit in eps 6-7. I don't know what reason she'll have to keep her identity a secret after she accepts that, but it seems she must, otherwise a lot of the dramatic tension in the story will dissipate.

Yeah, but I never really thought of them as real best friends. They hadn't spoken in 5 years prior to the first episode and Ajeong was pretending to be successful in front of him to keep up appearances, so clearly there was distance between them. They used to be very close in school, which gives you "best friend emeritus" status for life unless you've had a falling out, but I always thought her actual adult best friends were the two actresses she always hangs out with.

What "chemistry" are you talking about? Chemistry is a two-way street and Jihan doesn't even see her as a woman at this point.

I just don't understand how this show can have haters. It's giving me EVERYTHING.

Are we sure this will be only 6 episodes? I feel like with all this hype it has to be longer than that.

The part where she said their "concept" was going to be "madly in love" 10 minutes before that?!?!?! lmao

1. She agreed to be his wife, not just to act like it, and 2. did you miss the whole point of their agreement, which was to convince grandpa and the general public that they’re in love, which doesn’t really work if all of Ajeong’s colleagues and Jihan’s social circle see Ajeong going into a hotel room with Jihan at the same time she’s supposed to be submitting her marriage registration form with Dohan in a different city?

If you agree to act like a woman in love for your friend’s sake, you should do that instead of discrediting your fake relationship in public and ghosting your friend for his brother without telling him. That is indeed so obvious and simple that even people of very basic intelligence should understand it.

A bunch of different people including Ajeong’s sworn enemy who’s constantly talking behind her back and a massive gossip (you know, the guy she offended!) just saw her and Jihan go on a romantic date in an expensive restaurant, meet a famous director together, spend the night in a hotel and act like a quarreling couple in a bar. There’s absolutely nothing private about their flirtation, which was Jihan’s intention. By going along with his nonsense, Ajeong is sabotaging the fake marriage she agreed to. If you’re gonna do a contract marriage, you still have to do it right. You can’t make everyone think you’re fucking your brother in law lmao. Especially when you’re doing your best friend a favor!

I agree, she and Jihan are both acting crazy. Going on an overnight trip with her fiancé’s brother, who told her directly he would try to seduce her, when she was supposed to be meeting her fiancé instead was total insanity. I hope Dohan lays into her because she betrayed his trust for sure.

She may not be in an actual relationship with him, but she agreed to act like she’s totally in love with him in public and so far that’s not how she’s coming across. A bunch of people just saw her spend the night in a hotel with a different man—with his brother even! What is this, amateur hour?

That said, I kinda stopped being mad at her when she ditched her friends in the middle of filling out her marriage registration form just because Jihan told her to. Like, that’s when it became obvious to me she’s down horrendous for Jihan, just like he is for her. They’re both clowns, they’re in love, they’re not acting rationally and they’re making mistakes. Whatever.

We don’t know the full contents of the contract, but whatever the conditions, she owes it to her best friend whom she’s supposedly saving from a life of misery not to blow up their story before they’ve even gotten married by spending the night with his brother :) Especially when she was supposed to be meeting with her husband-to-be to register their marriage and ghosted him to go on a date :) With his brother :) That just makes her a bad friend :)

He clearly realises they’re planning to get married to disrupt grandpa’s plans and that they’re friends, not lovers.

Me putting on my clown makeup: Surely they're not gonna waste the premise of girlboss HHJ and shady bodyguard JJH... they'll give us what we want, I know they will...

Putting on my clown wig next: They just haven't added the romance tag yet because they're keeping it a surprise... obviously there will be a kiss scene...

He was 14 when he graduated from elementary school in 2007 as per episode 2 and the show takes place in 2023 as per episode 3, so probably 30. These are all Korean ages, BTW; in reality they're all a year younger.