Nox

I don't think the writer is doing on purpose, i just think she lost her hand a little bit on NDS writing but hit the right target with HJP. I could totally see her being caught off-guard by the second lead popularity lol

Imagine spending most of your life alone: no family, genuine friends, a welcoming home to come back or someone to rely on whatsoever... coming back home and finding only silence, talking to his AI secretary because there's no else he feels he can talk to. I couldn't expect nothing of him but to cherish that soup like it was the most amazing dish ever, dude is used to have very little in life

If your theory holds true, this can be a good set up in the sense the author can milk out a really good second half for the drama. But at the same time is a slippery slope were he either makes something remarkable or fails to deliver.

I also been trying to figure out the lie significance as a plot device and so far this theory seems like the most interesting one plot-wise to be honest.

There's no one to blame in this situation, all of them had their own motives to lie and keep lying. It just happens that grandma and HJP were not romance rooted. Also, NDS shining through HJP doesn't mean he doesn't has his own light, but everything he does in amplified in DL eyes because of HJP, both the one in the present and the one in the letters. Also, and this is just my opinion, NDS fell in love really quick and quite hard, he has all the reasons to help, believe or support DM because of that...this is just not HJP case. Whereas NDS helps Dal Mi because she is Dal Mi, HJP helps Dal Mi because he is HJP.

@serendipidity People don't fall in love with a person but with the ideal they build of that person in their heads, overtime this ideal grows and adapt but never gets erased, wich is why there's the saying of love being blind: because it truly is. As much as any other feeling is irrational and not bound by truth, the way DM fell is just a amplified version of how this would go about it in the real world, where passion clogs the eyes and twist the reasons. So no third-party would be able to meet the standards of someone in love, just because when you are in love love becomes the standard and therefore not loving is the deal breaker. The fact that Dal Mi needed to come up with weak excuses to say the obvious (wich is: i rejected them because i couldn't feel the way i feel about Do San) tells a lot

If you felt like that in the soup scene (not gonna lie, i liked too) watch the next week episode with him crying in the rain shatter your heart lol

How would you feel if someone profited off the most important thing in your life, the feeling you cherish the most for over a decade? If only he didn't made obvious by cutting HPS way... Any guy who could claim to be the guy on the letters would have a key, or rather a shortcut, to DM heart and the worst part is that from all the characters NDS is the one who knows that the best because he is the one who has taken this shortcut. This all translate to a romance with a weak build up, a weak basis, and a fast pacing that seems uncalled for if you take it out the letters of the equation in my opinion...i think the root of the overall fandom disapproval lies there, but i can be wrong.

I couldn't have said better!

Or the love at first sight trope lol. I am intrigued were the writer is actually going with HJP, i just hope despite ships his character doesn't end unexplored. As for now, i am not getting my hopes up neither and i agree with the possibility of NDS betraying HJP, he has been shown to be quite reckless despite his naivety.

Yep, i agree. He is a flawed and complex character for sure. He loathes himself to the point he feels he is unworthy of help, wich in turn manifest in his trust issues... questioning grandma help again and again because in his mind no one could care for him without underhanded motives. The way he felt responsible for Dal Mi dropping college was heartbreaking and yet despite that he turns around and helps her with her presentation, all these things make me feel he is indeed a good person too, he is just hurt. There's a lot more to him (and ultimately to his dynamics with Dal Mi) than just a sharp tongued brat

You're welcome ☺️

Totally, another thing people seem to overlook is the motivation between the lie. Lying is wrong, period...but it's not always done with bad intentions behind. Both Ji Pyung and grandma lied in order to give Dal Mi something to cherish in a time of her life she had nothing, Jin Pyung has even gone to the extent of building Nam do San for Dal Mi herself. They are not exploiting the lie for personal reasons...neither they are lying just because.

To be honest, the way the author goes about it the whole Nam do San ordeal is the reason i can't buy the romance between the main couple yet.
It's strikingly clear that Nam do San is profiting from a connection he didn't built out of a eagerness to be loved and appreciated, and by doing so there's no room to build a legitimate relationship dynamic because whenever Dal Mi looks at Nam do San she doesn't actually "see" him but Goodboy instead, looking through the lenses that those letters created. Nam do San knows that, wich is why he is shown to be insecure whenever the image Dal Mi has of him and who he actually is clash, he even goes to the length of trying to mediate the relationship between Han Ji Pyung and Dal Mi in order to have control over Nam do San image ("you can ask me"), so he can keep feeding off it in the hope that overtime, he can re-direct Dal Mi feelings to who he really is.
When it comes to Ji Pyung, he built a connection with Dal Mi in a period of his life that he was the most vulnerable...yes, the grandma helped him but we see multiple instances were he is writing alone, he understands Dal Mi through the letters alone, kept them for a decade, he gave a meaningful wish for her and she in turn could understand it naturally, and many more but most of all: he is helping Dal Mi from the shadows, the same way he did back then he is doing now (the scene where he walks away while Dal Mi hugs Nam do San was quite powerful). Paying a debt is only his excuse to deal with his self-loath along with the fact he can't admit he cares: only by caring he could feel guilty about Dal Mi college situation, only by caring he would shield a vulnerable Dal Mi with his hand when she was entering his car... it's obvious he cares about Dal Mi beyond just paying a debt, it just happens he is a complex character that if you don't peel the layers is hard to fully grasp.