leadtheprotection

Crash course in romance 2.0? I'm not complaining ^^

7 eps r plenty for a thriller if they use it as well as a shop for killers for eg. Hopefully there wont be any last minute changes and compromises to ruin the pacing like the first season.

Lord Kopiko makes an appearance at last! Probably the first 2026 drama to feature it? Really took me out when i saw whj looking all tense and serious only to pop out the whole packet out of nowhere 🤣😆

Yaa i dont blame him...this feels like a drama he couldnt pass up

Yess apparently he's been looking for a proper romcom for a long time now? I hope makers consider him in them more than melo or thrillers for a change...

This is exactly what i thought too after seeing the casting! And looks like there will be a second couple and hong hwa yeon and gong myung would've made a more age appropriate pairing too, as with the leads too...

Omg K mentioned!! I was thinking the same thing! And it got me wishing wi ha joon does a comedy again soon. He's so effortless with his comedic timing and has a natural gift for it

Yaa the boss lady sucking on that fish head was terrifying to watch lol...that foreshadowing couldn't be more obvious... seolah throwing up the fish she was given despite the boss reminiscing on how much seolah used to love seafood when she was young made me wonder if seolah is even seolah?? Like could she be pretending to be the real seolah for revenge like u said? The guy in the lift mentioned seolah could be the boss's secret daughter so there could be something there too?

Also what exactly the boss is upto tho i have no guesses. With kim minju tho i was thinking her being a stalker/jealous would be too obvious so i was thinking along the lines of her being appointed or blackmailed by someone somehow into stalking and tormenting seolah at work? Idk...her keeping tabs on seolah's whereabouts could be to inform someone else?

The bartender seems shady too, i do hope she's just a good friend tho. I didn't think about the syrian bf being kim jung hyun's character but that could be a cool twist!

I'm nitpicking but i keep thinking this show and concept would hit 10x more if it was more mellowed down? Like minimal grandeur and ost and more subtle progression?

Overall tho i really have no idea what seolah is upto. Just cannot get a read on her. I'm as lost as wooseok

No i get that but again i think the fundamental point of difference for me is that i do see a lot of development between the leads' relationship already! From ep 1 when they were bickering strangers to being completely indifferent towards each other at the funeral to barely tolerating each other's presence while sharing a flat to finding a common ground rooted in friendship and shared responsibility...this is already a whole arc that i can definitely buy into when it eventually turns (and already has!) romantic.

After they "sleep" together, the leads r shown to mutually experience attraction, then the ml speeds ahead in recognizing and actually expressing hia feelings, while the fl gets a more slow burn treatment for her own eventual recognition of feelings, which is what I believe the majority of viewers have trouble accepting. But again, the proof is already there in the way she worries about him, cares that he does well at his job and takes pride in his achievements, recognizes and validates his grief, how he is the only person she allows herself to be vulnerable with, the only one she allows to take care of her, something completely novel and uncomfortable for someone like hyunjin, how she actually does prioritize him over the sml (like when he fell sick and she worried the whole day, then another time, her saying if she knew he'd organized a dinner party for her with cake after she did well at her job, she'd have run straight back home) and I could go on and on.

I agree that the problem seems to be mostly in the writing and general direction of the story but it also looks like they ran into problems during post production coz there r scenes they seemed to have cut out of the final edit like an almost kiss between the leads that popped up in the bts videos of ep 7&8.

But my point is also that even with the love triangle i am still totally buying the depth of their feelings for each other, and i actually prefer this slow burn and wish they had more such moments together. It's so refreshing to see a show finally choose this subtle way of developing a relationship instead of the usual cliche fests at least with the leads.

And actually, i do not agree that hyunjin spends most of her emotionally significant moments with the sml. In fact i think if we zoom out and take a real look at how much actual time hyun jin spends with the sml (outside of work) compared to taehyung and woojoo, we can actually see how few and insignificant her moments with the sml actually are...

I cant really defend the seeming lack of direction with the overall story, but considering everything, i still believe they did a great job with actually developing the leads' relationship from scratch and it's definitely worth watching for exactly that reason is my opinion

Days on? Okay that's clearly an exaggeration and i wish viewers didnt share blatant lies like this to discourage and ruin other new viewers from having a fair watching experience with this drama.

She works overtime coz shes a contract employee and needs to prove her worth. She is responsible for woojoo every weekend, mornings, after work, basically all hours except the contract hours the ml and fl both decided together on. She informs the ml every time she needs to work overtime. Other than the time woojoo got hurt, she was never actually negligent of him if u look at this unbiased. Just coz the drama gives the ml more screentime with woojoo, doesnt mean viewers should not infer these details that were already established from the beginning?

Thats exactly what i meant about spoonfeeding details. Coz if u actually look beyond the surface, the drama provides everything to show a slow burn real relationship developing between the leads from the foundation of friendship. This is more real than the superficial dates the sml took her on which was my original point

But again u r allowed to infer ur own conclusions from the show.

I personally thought both men were pretty underwhelming options for a woman who just started dating, but taeseop has my vote for now just coz i liked that he knew what he wanted, didn't play games or pretend to be anything he isn't, and kept things transparent. All signs of the potential for a healthy longterm relationship. Considering how practical minded uiyeong herself is in terms of avoiding dating all these years coz she wanted to focus on work, i guess she doesnt even realize yet how similar both her and taeseop r in terms of their priorities in life, of stability and peace

With jisu, i feel like he's just infactuated for now and dont see either him or someone like uiyeong settling for each other longterm

So considering taeseop has experience dating, i feel like the show could be setting up jisu to be that "experience" prior to settling down for uiyeong too?

Seeing wi ha joon again on screen reminded me of what good acting actually looks like aaahh...his eyes do half the job...the scene when he's confronting that criminal of a mom 😭

I dont think ive seen park min young look so fierce ever. She's downright scary here in some moments. Loving this new avatar from her usual romcoms.

Really loving the aesthetics, ost and cast.

Tho i did wish lee elijah was in more scenes.

Well she is allowed to be confused right? Considering this is a love triangle, and the triangle involves someone she has history with i think this makes it believable. Obviously the love triangle sucks but since this is what we r stuck with, i think the show does do a good job at building the leads' relationship beyond the usual trope-y stuff. I dont think her going on dates with the other guy means she doesn't have feelings for the ml either. Because she is confused, she just needs a trigger to finally recognize who she is actually in love with which i think will happen next week when the ml moves out (as was shown in the preview)

Thank u for writing this. It's exactly what i meant <33

Yeah i was rolling my eyes at their dates too and the fact that she went but on the other hand i also get it. She is obviously confused even tho we can see she has feelings for the ml and her feelings for the sml r very much nostalgic and wrapped in fantasy, he is still someone she had a history with and along with everything else going on in her life, it makes sense that she's confused just like she tells her friend.

I think considering the fact that they decided to bring in this love triangle, the best decision for the story is actually to let her explore her feelings with both of them like she did and then truly realize that her "home" really is taehyung and woojoo. Like from the preview for the next ep, it looks like taehyung will be moving out and hyun jin having to rely on the sml in the interim...that's a proven plot device to make hyun jin realize what taehyung really means to her.

So I still have faith in the final 4 eps just to see them wrap up the sml saga once and for all

Pls read my comment again coz thats obviously not what i meant🤦‍♀️

People keep saying the fl doesn't reciprocate and it's obvious that she does coz the proof is right there in the drama

Istg...this is a classic case of expecting one thing and the drama being another. That's not on the drama tho. It's ridiculous to expect a show to be different when this show is simply following the same kdrama tropes that have been used and rinsed several times before (and with success clearly coz look at the engagement even with this show). Besides, this show actually has much better character development considering everything and way better chemistry than a lot of other dramas.

People read the summary and just assumed this would be a life as u know it reboot but this is a kdrama. So it's going to behave like one 🤦‍♀️

I feel like the majority of kdrama viewers need to be spoonfed all those cringe rose tinted filtered moments & fake dates like the ones with the sml to be convinced of feelings between two characters when anyone who has been watching this drama from day 1 will recognize the depth of both the ml and fl's feelings for each other 🤦‍♀️