Taino

I am willing to give this one a try, but I reserve myself the right of fast forwarding or skipping through that annoying second male lead and the break up stage if necessary...

I am on episode 11, and I believe the rom-com element of the show is done very well, and the dynamic and chemistry of the main couple is great, but other tropes and some inconsistencies take a lot away from this one. I believe it is worth watching, but don't expect a masterpiece with great writing, but an average rom-com with another unnecessary love triangle and some plot holes.

This one suffers from something that other Japanese Dramas often do as well. The female lead doesn't have any feelings for the other dude after he left, and we are also supposed to believe that it was more admiration that actual love. However, in reality, we get another female lead that seems to be unable to set proper boundaries with other men and that cares way too much for a person that is not her boyfriend. She cares too much about the other guy, and sometimes feels like she has lingering feelings or that this other dude was so important in her heart that she cannot simply move on or shut him down, but instead, allow him to hover around her while he continues his pursuit almost as she is still available and even welcoming his advances. I know this sounds extremely annoying, but it is very common, specially in Japanese dramas where all girls seem to be pushovers.

I am watching the episode where they eat with the father, and I understand that it is supposed to be comedy, but I don't find any of that funny at all. SML was already rejected, but insists and now became a creepy stalker by moving next door. If that wasn't enough SML calls FL's dad his "in-law" in front of the actual boyfriend... Disgusting, and not funny at all.

It would've been a lot better if he had his own love interest...

Hehehe... Okay

What..? He is in every episode and keeps pushing his way after he is rejected, and even after she is already dating ML...

Indeed!

I am doing the same thing... His character adds nothing to the story

It is most definitely a love triangle even if the girl doesn't like him. The guy shows in every episode and gets special attention from the writers with exclusive scenes only to highlight his unrequited love and his dumb pursuit.

What do you mean..? He is overused. The guy is in all episodes and contributes nothing.

The guy was rejected on episode 4, and that should have been it with him... waste of time with this dude...

Indeed. I am on episode 5 now, and was expecting to see less from SML as many comments mentioned that he had very little screentime. The guy not only shows in every single episode, but receives special attention from the writers with dedicated scenes to him and his delusion. I was surprised to see how he is too nice to her on episode 5 with obvious pursuit intentions even after she rejected him in the previous episode. Unfortunately, this kind of characters don't know how to take a no for an answer and the girl is always too kind to set proper boundaries with creeps like this SML.

For those that say that the second male lead barely has any time on this show, the guy presence is harmless by episode 5 as he has no chance, but his presence is constant and the writers have given him several exclusive scenes since episode 1, with close ups, romantic music and everything, so I genuinely don't think what you were expecting... you wanted him to date her or something because he is annoying enough as he is and with the screentime and attention he already receives from the writers.

I am only on episode 5, but a friend that recommended this one to me said that while the first half is about the female lead healing, the second part is about male lead healing journey, so I assume that they will talk about his past in the second half of the show.

I love their dynamic (watching episode 3), but time is wasted with the second male lead falling in love all by himself in a separate dimension...

I find very nonsensical whenever this trope is used. The person is not responsible for the company mistake, they are just doing their job promoting items. If anything bad happens, and the person keeps promoting the thing in question, I could understand, but this is not th case.

One of the biggest problems of love triangles in general is the intention of the writers. On episode 1, the second male lead is introduced, it is made obvious that he likes the female lead and they even interact before we can see her interacting with the male lead, but none of this is a problem. This is an introduction episode anyway. The problem is the intention of the writer because while for her this is no more than a business meeting the writers themselves treat this as a main event closing these scenes with the second male lead with soft music and a special effect where the world seems to be moving very fast, but the female lead and second male lead seem to be frozen in that moment. Once again, the girl doesn't seem interested in the slightest and the boy seems to be harmless, but that scene alone annoys me because you can clearly see that we are supposed to register this as something romantic when the romance of the main couple has not even been introduced yet. This is just a short analysis, and only after one episode, but I bring this up because if you watch this and other dramas carefully, you'll notice that no angle, no music queue, no close up and other elements to highlight a scene are random, but try to send a message or communicate intention.

I do hate love triangles... but still hope I can enjoy this one.

I don't know if it is because the main target of Asian Dramas is women, but Joyboy while too passionate sometimes about these topics, is right. The balance is most of the time in favor of the girl. Most love triangles are two men and one woman, and in the rare cases where there are two love triangles and the male lead gets a second female lead, ML is usually distant, while the girl will often play best friends with the other guy. In the examples you gave, the male lead rarely has any lingering feelings for his past relationships, while the women will keep some attachment to their previous partners, at least until she are in a relationship with the male lead. It is not false, that rom-com writers love writing the perfect bachelor virgin simp male lead for the normal person FL, who is not a bad catch but is not a holy treasure like these men.