L13

I don't think it hurts him at all? There's been no indication he's agonising over her feelings for him until *after* she kissed him, which proves it was the right move on her part. And her asking for a kiss as symbolic payment for the years she spent pining after him was a pretty cool and romantic gesture IMO. In the context of their conversation, it was basically, "Fine, I'll leave you alone, but let's kiss at least once."

I hope they'll go back and improve the quality later! I'll give it another try in a couple of weeks.

He's so annoying! He thinks he's "protecting" Xu Lai and fixing her problems for her when in reality he's crossing boundaries left and right. When he went to her workplace to pressure her boss not to discipline her, it only fuelled vicious rumours among her colleagues that she's untouchable because she has a rich boyfriend; I think most people would rather get punished once and move on than become the subject of workplace gossip and forever be viewed as an outsider/nepotistic hire by people they have to work with every day.

And in this episode Huo Yanzong tried to warn Jin Shichuan off Xu Lai supposedly to protect her feelings, but we all know it's because he's worried that JSC might actually grow to like XL if they spend enough time together, so HYZ wanted to nip their interactions in the bud.

I was kind of worried that JSC might say something passive/non-committal that counts as agreement because he doesn't like XL yet, but I guess either he's already irked by HYZ on a subconscious level or he got offended on XL's behalf by HYZ's underhanded and possessive attitude, or a combination of the two.

His resistance crumpled like a wet napkin lol

I like romance where the woman pursues the man first, but sadly cdramas get it wrong pretty often by presenting behaviour that would rightly be considered inappropriate and creepy if it came from a male character as cute just because it's a woman acting that way (see Go Go Squid! and its entitled stalker FL). However, while Xu Lai has come close to crossing the line a couple of times, I find that I like her and I'm rooting for her.

I think the difference lies in 1. the fact we can see that deep down JSC is not really annoyed by her antics, and 2. her bold and assertive personality, which shines through in every aspect of her life.

I absolutely can.

There are some pretty silly and unrealistic moments in this drama, but I'm enjoying it so far, so they don't bother me. I like Xu Lai's brazenness and in general, I'm a fan of heroines who know what they want and go after it first. It will be fun to watch Jin Shichuan's resistance crumble.

I read your comment and got pretty excited, but after trying to watch the first episode on YouTube, I have to report Mango's subtitles are complete gibberish as usual. I won't be able to follow this drama unless someone provides actual subtitles, which is a bummer because it looks pretty good.

Google "TV criticism" and you'll learn about the concept of watching shows and criticizing them at the same time. Believe it or not, it's totally legal to do and some people enjoy it.

Everyone saying they liked the first episode but grew bored by the subsequent ones is just outing themselves as having childish tastes in fiction. Overdramatic, poorly scripted nonsense like Flower of Evil and Beyond Evil gets credit for being smart when actual smart shows are dismissed as boring.

I did! I'm glad she finally spoke up, but she didn't even mention SJ's constant ILLEGAL SPYING on her! She's still way too polite.

Doesn't Yeondoo's phone have a passcode? Fingerprint lock? ANYTHING? Why does You Know Who have free access to it? When will YD realise that weird things keep happening to her phone when Sejin is around because SJ is crazy? This is so frustrating!

I finally got around to watching episode 1 and I really enjoyed it. I love this kind of dark institutional corruption thriller. Also the direction is great here. Nice camerawork and lighting and sparing use of music. And I love the body language of the actors—e.g. when Kizaki was visiting the politician who tipped him off and turned around next to the secretary's desk so he wouldn't look the politician's guests in the face, or when Saimi was meeting the division chief (I think that's his title) and the division chief sat down without inviting him to sit down, or when the whistleblower guy from the other team was submitting his report on the corrupt investigator and kept bowing sleazily—which conveys the politics and power dynamics in the workplace so clearly.

I wonder when the guys in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will start to catch on that they're being investigated.

Thanks to HPriest for subbing this!

You're totally right, but this site is full of people who are super invested in acting like a 16-year age gap is not off-putting at all. As usual, any time someone mentions the fact an actress is too young for her leading man, people crawl out of the woodwork to point out examples of other dramas with large age gaps between the actors as if they were any good.

For the record, I do believe a DILF romance can work/be sexy in some rare cases, but I don't expect that to happen here.

"apologizes for causing concern" how about he apologize for manipulating a woman into getting an abortion

I'm so happy he's getting a main role! I hope it will be a good step for his career.

I really hope the romance in this is not supposed to be between the main leads, who are SIBLINGS regardless of whether they’re half-siblings or stepsiblings… I can never trust kdramas not to hit me with some creepy incest plot.

People can be parents together without being in a romantic relationship.

He doesn't look like Gamin at all, though. They need to get someone tall, lanky and dorky. Rowoon is tall and can pull off glasses and Gamin's blank look. Or Choi Hyunwook if they want to go with someone less expensive.

But Tang Junsang would be my personal choice for the role. He's on the shorter side, but I think he comes closest to Gamin's appearance out of the younger actors I can think of and he's still the right age to be a believable high schooler.

I'm gonna guess the leads entered into a marriage of convenience, with the ML rising from humble beginnings to establish himself in the company and marrying into the owner's family as a way to legitimate his position in the tribal world of South Korean hyperwealth, and the drama will show us how they actually fall in love.