bloomingtide

ugh, mdl just swallowed up a long text so i try to keep it short in summarizing my points:

This is an unfair view of Taeho. While he made mistakes and certainly behaved like a brat at the start, he owned up to it recently and apologized to HS for it. She also ALWAYS called him out on every bit/snide remark, never backed down which led to his changed attitude toward her, and that gave way for curiosity and his attraction. Everything between them happens and happened on equal ground, even their bickering and currently their banter/teasing too. It's always a fair give and take between them. They just click and she is comfortable and authentic with him, enough to forget her do not meet up with client rules and to fall into casual speech with him accidentally. Which is large part of her blooming attraction to him and yeah also because she sees herself in him, as both leads are equally as lonely, just in different ways. Worrying about him is just another form of care and he did the same about her when she was sick. However that shift from dislike to attraction was gradual instead of a magic "irredeemable asshole suddenly becomes nice due to having the hots for FL" fingersnip you weirdly see it as.

And his reason of being high-strung is sensible bc we saw how desperately he's searched for, and at what length he went to find his grandmother. Doesn't make it right but he has shown throughout to be a guy who listens, reflects and apologizes when it is needed unlike TM who lives in his own conceited world and forces others to conform, no matter what. Especially HS whom he likes for her beauty and wants her to whisk away from her poor pooooooor life to make her his trophy wife, while Taeho has been shown to accept her for who she is, no makeup, sport clothes and her job despite starting off on a literal wrong, bratty foot with her. He cared for her in small ways during them meeting (the taxi, drumsticks) and while he may need more support in the current falsified crisis (his not so dead grandma being their unintentional matchmaker is hilarious tho) he certainly will respond in kind and support her as much bc a) everything between them happens on one eye-level and at the same pace b) this whole fake death thing is meant to bring them closer so TH can respond in kind with support for her when needed without it being weird like... Taemin buying jewelry to make the fantasy relationship in his head reality with a virtual stranger he "knows for 3 years" and is creepily possessive about. Any woman with common sense picks up on TM's obsession and how he disrespects boundaries in never listening to anything, and runs the other way, while vastly preferring a guy who DOES listen and learn from mistakes made and shows care and real interest in oneself. So her choice of and attraction toward TH is a literal no brainer to me, lol.

I am quite easy to please too but i need to have characters that take me on the journey with them and i can root for/relate to or else i will only going thru the motions watching a show, no matter how highly regarded a drama is by others then.

The writer is a very veteran one i have seen. I watched While You Were Sleeping of her thus far which was good but not the greatest drama some people make it out to be as it had too many boring bits in between. And Page Turner which was a weird one, did not like it that much.

I do have Start Up and Pinocchio on my list to catch up on one of these days. Since i am virtually immune to SLS (never got it ever, team leads all the way) this will be interesting in regards of start up hehe. Not this year anymore i think tho since there are too many Q4 dramas coming out that hold my attention captured on them and i tend to get overwhelmed if i have more than 10 concurrent dramas in my current watch list tbh. So yeah. I have them shortlisted on my list here tho:

https://kisskh.at/list/47aywwAL

i have, in fact. It was the drama i did not know i needed bc i intended to skip over it as it sounded too much of a cheap makjang daily lmao. But it is surprisingly fun and SH as ML is definitely helping/delivering too 😁

Imo it is very good with a cozy, warm feel and a tang of melancholy of things lost/chances missed. Characters are interesting and endearing too throughout, no annoyances thus far. Even the child/teen actors in eps 1 are great and it is a very enjoyable drama with enjoyable music bits/songs thus far imo. (Park Eun Bin can sing so so so well holy shit)

There is depiction of domestic violence/child abuse in episode one to set up the leads bg tho, so fair warning about that.

Yeah, i have it happening too often that there are dramas airing that has people raving about it without end and when i watch it is like...what is the deal? This is...boring/mid etc and i don't understand it lmao. Goes to show that popular doesn't mean automatically good, bc liking a show is always subjective. But i am always frustrated with myself additionally when i fail to connect with what i can recognize is a good show...like Twinkling Watermelons most recently, so i tried watching up to eps 10 and yet not having a good time. Or Moving, tried till eps 12 when i finally gave up, bored out my mind lol. So hit and miss sounds about right. (I started watching kdrama quite late (2021) so i still have a lot of catch up left to do but have watched almost all the big ones already from which i admittedly liked about 10-20% at best if you look at my ratings of finished or dropped shows in general, lmao)

This drama here however hits all the right notes for me (pun intended) and the metaphors used are so good and fitting too. ("you are my icebox" made me 😭) I am fully invested in both divas getting their late sucess story and the reunion of two childhood friends + romance. Bring it on while i watch huddled up in my blanket with tissues at the ready heh.

well the writer is offering you the most obvious solution to the mystery here. A dude who is open toward and caring about MH with convenient memory loss so he does not remember his childhood friends and thinks he Kiho and then gives him even blurry, painful flashbacks to a time before that contain the name Kiho too vs a dude who seems aloof and uncaring, even downright annoyed by Mooha's presence and wants her gone. He is also keeping to himself most of the time and is most cross with his brother being so infatuated with the idea of being Kiho.

So that is an easy one, right? Except with this show you gotta look past what is shoved into your face to distract you with shinies 😁 Because outside of the many hints given, boguel is most likely also keeping his distance and is apparently nonchalant toward MH because he does not want to be noticed and possibly discovered. But with him it is the small moments which counts, the way he looks at MH when he thinks no one notices, him being super emotional at her song while the focus was on Woohak. His anger when MH wanted to use the show to call out to Kiho with his insistence that "he would not want that" and again reacting real pissed when Rahjoo then ended up telling the story of how the song came to be, outing Kiho, in a sense. BG also kneeeew instantly that the flowers of kiho were from a fake, possibly dangerous person and ran off to save her, before his brother could even tell him where they are supposed to meet up. Because there was only one significant place he has waited all these years, and BG knew that and went there to swoop in as her hooded savior. He clearly did not want to be recognized. What other reason to that was there other than him avoiding his father bc he is Kiho who broke free from this life and the abuse long ago? heh.

yeah the whole thing with Woohak is a red herring tbh, in order to make it not too obvious and confuse viewers.

Not really. Just a mystery who her missing childhood friend is of the two brothers and ML's. But when you watch it and pay attention you will notice easily who is and who is just made out appearing to be that. A LT could still happen if SML falls for FL as he cares a lot about her already, but personally gives me more concerned brother vibes. ML keeps to the bg which probably is for a good reason heh. FL does see them as friends at best for now tho. She is still quite immature and stuck on her sixteen years old mind after being rescued from the island. She is slowly adapting and learning however.

Woohak is the second lead and always have been, tho? He is getting more screentime atm due to the writer lying down their red herrings everywhere and differences in the brother's characters. He is way more extroverted than his brother who keeps to the bg, most likely because he does not want to be noticed hehe.

Haha, yeah i noticed. I mean i am used to slow build and having patience for chars and rlships development due to the handful of weekenders i have watched by now, but dailies are indeed on another slow-crawling level with everything haha. I guess it is a good show to have running when i have some laundry to fold or my workout left to do? As it clearly does not require you to pay much attention😂

Perfect Marriage Revenge is also good if you like contract rlships and revenge themed romance

Highly recommend Thirty But Seventeen (Still 17 on NF) then. Such a heartwarming drama which is also ripping your heart out to stomp on it at times, only to put it back in with lots of care and humor and love for its characters. ML's depiction of trauma and how he acts due to it (him falling back into old, unhealthy behavior patterns after having a ptsd episode) and Haesun/Seori tearing down/melting those emotional walls little by little with just being her sweet caring and honest self (while he also takes up professional counseling to deal with his worsening ptsd) is so well done and their relationship one of the most wholesome dynamics in a kdrama ever. This is honestly one of the rare kdramas that leave you with a smile each time after watching an episode.

Another healing dramas i enjoyed were:
May I Help You
If You Wish Upon Me
Just Between Lovers
A Piece Of Your Mind

Some of these are on the more heavier tearjerker side but overall very wholesome. Hope you feel better soon tho.

At this point this drama finishes airing in March together with "Live Your Own Live" which has 50 eps 🤣

Finally a popular kdrama i can connect with again, lol. Had feared i would fail to give a shit about the characters like it happened for me in Twinkling Watermelon and Moving (both dropped), but i am invested in this story and really happy about that lol

yeeeeah true, which also is my one fear™ with further investing time into this lol. November is packed with good shows too or rather too many that interest me so this ain't helping either to keep my attention on this one here, lol

oh yeah, all the actors seem to have a very good rapport with each other. Something you did not find in this way in TRHC imo

Taemin is, because he pressures her whenever possible with HIS feelings and opinions and advances no matter if she wants it or not. And he always turns around and walks away when HS is in the middle of talking, completely disregarding and disrespecting her, and her thoughts and feelings. Hence i hope she does the same with him when he pulls out this damn ring box to... err... propose? It has been 24 hours and i am still in utter disbelief about delulu dude being THIS delulu, tbh. And this all the while Hyoshim openly and clearly makes hearteyes at Taeho which he also sees lmao.

As for Rubi, as said it wasn't the demonspawn's right nor place and with so much condescension at that. While it gives HS food for thought i would have preferred if another character would have pulled her aside and it had come from a place of care instead of disdain. Bc how tf dare a literal little shitkid that has her ass spoiled to the max lecture her grownass aunt about her life or life in general? The hell? It felt veeeeery displaced as said, but i guess the writer had no other character to deliver that message to HS? Weird. Didn't like it at all, despite the kernel of truth within.

You and me both regarding Taemin tbh 😂 Like the preview of next episode alone and the absolute gall of this delulu dude in these 10 seconds tops is enough to rise my blood pressure to unhealthy levels. See here what i mean bc the subs make it so much wooooorse 💀

https://twitter.com/sundogsnrainbow/status/1721361182580191310

Funny, i see it the exact other way around, because imo it would get unhealthy quickly if she were to date Taemin, as she would be pressured to match up a certain expectation this creep has of her with putting her on a pedestal and always admonishing her when she does not react or act the way he expects or wants her to. Not to mention his classist af fam who would never accept her and always belittle her. So it would be an expectation she can never match up to and it would end up suffocating her.

Also where do you see Taemin caring for her, lol? All i see is an entitled conceited dude who thinks it is a grace and privilege for HS to have his romantic interest, independent of if she reciprocates it or not. He does what he wants because he wants it, no matter what HS thinks or feels about it. He never listened to what she has to say, nor ever cared when she expressed her thoughts and feelings. He pursues her because he likes her and has build up this 3 yrs crush to a fully fledged relationship in his head already, including marriage, apparently. And if she does not want that... well tough luck for her then. Gotta deal with it bc he certainly does not care for her discomfort or annoyance with his advances. Or what Hyoshim wants in general. A good example is how he has monologued about his life in the park after she told him she is having a hard time, bc his life is hard too you know? Lol. Of course he never asked her anything further about it, bc he was too busy talking about himself and himself only. Taemin is the personified Main Character Syndrome and honestly Hyoshim does not need nor deserve yet another egocentric person in her life who is "but what about meeeeee" and takes takes takes 24/7. Let her have a relationship on equal grounds with a balanced give of and take of support instead. And the only person i see providing that for her is Taeho, not Taemin, ever.

Because with Taeho, everything happens on equal footing with each other, from dislike to easy friendship in the same pace. They always see eye to eye and maybe even themselves in each other. Because the show already went at length to show how Hyoshim is as lonely as he is, if in a slightly different way. But he's a good head on his shoulders and has shown to care for her already in all the small ways. Taeho listens, reflects and apologizes when needed, shows interest in Hyoshim as a person. Plus he is self-sufficient, independent with a good job/income. He would support HS as much if not more as she would with him emotionally and totally spoil her even otherwise😁 Because she is his person then with whom he can be himself & he loves, and she can be herself with him too, equally. That is what she needs, not a dude with a fantasy relationship in his head who wants to make her his trophy wife, since HE clearly confuses obsession for love. And this is why she is drawn to Taeho. She is comfortable and herself with him, no pretense needed whatsoever.

I'm torn on this tbh. While it wasn't wrong what the brat said it felt displaced? As if the writer needed to get the message across but due to HS having no friends & her fam being rotten as heck, she lacked a char to do so & thus allotted it to Rubi? Felt disjointed tbh and I wished it was said differently by another char. Someone who's seen what HS always does for the fam and genuinely wishes her to think more of herself instead of it being open disdain and condescension. I think Zero Waste Halmeoni would have been perfect for this, as she has shown concern for HS and anger of her treatment w HS' mother before. Plus halmeoni is very blunt too at that, but it still would have felt very different having her saying this vs. the brat who has had no place or right to do so. Thus it just made me angry & wanting to slap the demonspawn even if what she said to HS wasn't all wrong and will be serving as further food for thought. Still displaced tho, just like TM monologuing his father's history of abuse was toward HS a few episodes back.

They indeed are a meme 😂 I feel the only respectable elder in this show is indeed Myung Hee, TH's grandma lmao. Her warmhearted talk with Hyoshim and unintentional matchmaking with her grandson at that, was my fave scene of a very mid eps 13 tbh.