Polo749

Well now I have my hopes up for HJP. Damn you if you're wrong. xD

Your theory does make sense but there are two things that make me doubt it. The first is that it was advertised as though NDS is the lead. I know that may have been a ploy but it seems almost cruel to give the inevitable DalDo shippers that much confidence. I wouldn't put it past them but still it's unlikely isn't it?

The second thing is the epilogue in episode 7. That epilogue seemed to imply that DM was growing legitimate feelings for NDS. If NDS isn't end game then what was the point of that?

There are a few other things as well but those are the main two that are on my mind at the moment.

I do like your theory but am I to understand that you're thinking HJP is end game? I don't want to hope for that yet.

I don't like the hate that NDS is getting either even though I'm team HJP. However, the problem with NDS isn't so much that he lied, I agree with you that he is the least to blame for the lie. The problem is he pursued her knowing the lie which was worse than the lie itself in my opinion. I blame the writers for this, I don't think it's really in character based on how they set him up.

Preview- "I keep thinking about her, I want her and it feels so unfair."

I'm assuming that's HJP although I can't tell for sure. If it is, that's on point for what I feel for him. I feel like next week is going to have everyone in tears. I don't want to see NDS cry either.

Yes, I actually didn't like her in that scene. I don't like to to see the protagonists get their way by doing something underhanded even if they deserve what they want but that's becoming a running theme in this drama.

I'm team HJP all the way but I've found myself defending NDS because I feel like the writers keep setting him up for hate.

Do you know what's funny? I was worried that HJP was going to get screwed by the writers, not just in the sense that he wouldn't get the girl but that he would just become a useless second lead and his character would be wasted. That may yet happen but from what I've seen so far I'm starting to think it's NDS who is getting screwed over. You're pretty harsh on him and I understand why but I can't really dislike NDS because I see it as a problem with the writing. They set him up as a sweet, honest, endearingly/humorously incompetent character only to have him pursuit a woman despite knowing that she was projecting feelings for someone else onto him because of a lie. His character arc should have been focused on making him more competent and assertive, not dishonest and opportunistic. I may be exaggerating a little but I feel like they've gone in the wrong direction with him. They've also put him up against a brilliant second lead which just makes him look worse. Maybe that was partly the point, instead of going for the obvious choice DM will pick the shy, awkward lovable one. That's not bad in principle but they haven't executed it well so far.

I wasn't thinking of kdramas so unfortunately I can't give an example. I was just thinking of stories in general. I can think of books, films and TV series that had romance but it wasn't the main focus so it didn't necessarily involve both leads. Lord of the Rings for instance.

I think it makes total sense that NDS is the male lead. However, I think this drama would have been excellent if a few things were different. For one, instead of NDS being the love interest, his relationship with DM should have remained platonic. There is no rule in storytelling that states the two main leads have to be in a relationship. I know it’s common for a reason but sometimes it works better when it’s not the case, usually when the romance is not the main focus of the story. This brings me to the second way in which the drama could have been better. The best episodes so far were arguably the ones most steeped in the sandbox story line. Imagine a drama that has a friendship at the centre of it (DM and DS), that is mainly about Sandbox and the competition between two estranged sisters but that has some romance on the side (between HJP and DM). I mean I know I’m biased because I’m an HJP simp but I honestly think that would make so much more sense and would get around a lot of the problems with the plot. For instance, while still dramatic, it would be nowhere near as problematic or troublesome that NDS, HJP and Grandma are all lying about who really wrote the letters. This way, NDS is still the main lead which makes sense because the company was his baby, he isn’t doing anything seriously wrong in his relationship with DM (I’d like to emphasise here that it’s not so much the lie which is arguably not his fault but the fact that he started pursuing her in spite of the lie and has also benefited from it) and there’s no tedious love triangle distracting from the more interesting story line (the business side of the drama involving Sandbox and the competition between the sisters). This is almost what it was set up to be and it started out much better than what it is now. I think this drama is now living off the first five or six episodes.

Okay, I really want to detach a little from SLS and get on board with the main couple but I think that will only be possible for me once the lie is revealed and NDS is no longer sponging off her feelings for HJP. Please let today be the end of the misunderstanding.

The fact that you think this is worth being so rude and sarcastic proves that you're not as objective about this drama as you think you are.

I'm not sure why you feel the need to rub this in people's faces so much. As you know, your ship has sailed and will probably continue to sail so why don't you just be satisfied with that? Not everyone has to like it.

Yes, I'm praying it doesn't get dragged out to the end.

I see what you meant but all Mariposatraicionera asked for was some closure. She didn't say she wanted them to get together. I think it's reasonable to expect that they will probably have some resolution.

Sorry for cutting in but what do you mean? Even though they won't end up together they will probably get some closure.

Yes, I'm wondering how the character has gone down with Korean viewers. I feel like they will be the ones to determine if KSH takes off. Unfortunately, even if he gets more lead roles after this, his character and story line won't necessarily be as gripping. I will look out for him in the future though.

I used to never get SLS but lately I've been getting it. I watched one drama recently that was so bad I refuse to speak its name but it gave me SLS really for the first time. The SL wasn't even that likeable but I liked his backstory with the FL. I can think of dramas where I sort of had SLS in that I completely understood why people had it and thought the drama should have gone that way but I didn't personally feel it strongly. I also had second lead syndrome for a female character once. Her character wasn't that nice but a combination of good acting and good chemistry made me ship her with the male lead. So for me SLS is slim pickings and I've never had it as strongly as this. In fact, even when it comes to main couples I can't think of another couple I've shipped this strongly in a kdrama.

For me, HJP is what makes this drama stand out. I think this drama could have been so much more if SML was ML. Whether that's because of the actor, the writing, the chemistry or all of the above I don't know. As many have pointed out, in a lot of ways he's quite stereotypical and not obviously different but for whatever reason I feel like he got a lot of people hooked. The point that some are making that he's only liked because he's stereotypical doesn't make sense to me as most stereotypical male leads don't win over the viewers to the same extent that he has.

It's strange to me that sometimes the writers don't know what makes their drama good, or what the strong point is. Even if you disagree with me in this case, I'm sure we've all had that experience where it seems like the strongest link in the drama (be it a character, a plot point or something else) isn't being properly exploited. I'm sure NDS fans are tired of all the SLS but we need to vent somewhere. Since your ship will probably sail (it basically already has) and ours is visibly sinking, please be patient with us.

I'm just going to cut in here to address your first point. I think there's actually a continuity error in this drama because in the first episode he does seem to recognise her name when she's speaking in the audience. In the next episode however, he can't remember her name so I don't know how he recognised her by her name in the first episode. If it's not a continuity error and you are correct in thinking he didn't recognise her then it was a badly written scene because it isn't clear why he reacted the way he did and then followed her home. I think many viewers assumed that he did in fact recognise her name and also her sister's name when she called her out. He seemed like he was putting two and two together.