DrBuni

"The Best Thing" is my recommendation, other than the already recommended "Love Me, Love My Voice".

"smiling like donkey" XD

How was it? What you are describing is giving me the ick, massive red flag alert :(

Thanks for the warning! You quite literally saved me from needless frustration.

Thanks for the warning. I apologize for the rambling in advance, but I cannot with romance dramas where the focus is on everything except the goddamn romance. Having SOME focus on the leads' jobs is important to make the world feel real and lived in [for instance, I enjoyed the Traditional Chinese Medicine stuff in The Best Thing and all the singing and dubbing in Love Me, Love My voice], buuuut...

I just finished "Amidst a Snowstorm of Love" and the second half was 90% billiards, 5% angst and 5% leads being together. It was so obnoxious I do not want to see a billiards table or cues for the next 20 years, if I live that long ;-; Even worse examples of this are "You Are My Hero" [I hated the dollar store Grey's Anatomy stuff so much and cop shit in non-police dramas is always garbage, no exceptions lmao] as well as "Road Home" [the damn ML should have married his job and his cop/swat coworkers].

B-bite? :O Say no more, I must watch this.

I think they meant enemies to lovers trope. It is not very realistic, I suppose, but that is why I watch dramas lmao. I do not want shitty realism in my escapism :D

Does MDL really hate wholesome MLs when dramas like Hidden Love and The First Frost are so popular in big part of because of their respective MLs?

I thought the leads were occasionally very cute, but yep, they barely talked! They were lovers, sure, but it did not seem to me like they were friends also, you know? There was a massive lack of chatting about whatever, banter, teasing and such.

I watched quite a few c-dramas with a fair amount of kisses and decent skinship, though. I personally do not expect nor want borderline porn-y levels of physical affection, buuuut... It can be done better.

Easily my favorite aspect of this drama. FL's cousin was the biggest shipper.

TFF is very charming, and the leads honestly have better chemistry than the leads in Snowstorm. Buuuuuuut... TFF has that demonic break up where the FL leaves the ML for six months, leaving him to wonder if she is even ALIVE. Who does that to someone they claim to love? Fuck me. That is after having left him for what, 6 years? 8 years? In a previous instance. That shit soured my enjoyment and memories of the drama. Yifan's trauma did not justify that in the slightest, even if it is "realistic".

What I mean is that there is a big focus on the billiards aspect of the drama in the second half. After the time skip, the ML inherits his master's business and gets giga busy. FL is also super busy with her own billiards tournaments and such, all while dating each other in secret.

Then, when they are finally dating in the open, yet another billiards tournament thingy starts and by then, it is episode 28 out of 30 and I am bored out of my mind -_-

In some of my favorite dramas such as "Love Me, Love My Voice", "The Best Thing" and "Hidden Love", the school/workplace stuff is there, but it does not take priority over the romance. I knew before I started watching that there was a big focus on billiards and stuff, but since both the ML and FL are professional players, I did not expect them to be apart from each other so often.

No break up per se, but the leads are separated for about 1 and a half years, because they are living in different countries. Once the ML moves back to China, they still do not spend that much time together, which I found giga frustrating.

First half is incredible. The sheer atmosphere was intoxicating to me, the way the ML "pursued" the FL was cute, all of his little and big gestures were cute, watching the FL fall for him like a meteor [with the ML falling HARDER for her] was cute. That episode where they spend a day or two together on an island, having fun and little romantic moments? Absolute perfection. My eyes got teary, I kicked my feet, I smiled.

But then, the time for the FL to return to China comes and after that... Oof. The second half of the drama is a bit too angsty for me, not to mention the drama falls into the annoying "leads are not allowed to be together/everything takes priority over giving the leads time to be happy together" territory. After the ML moved back to China post timeskip [the leads already spent something like 1 and a half years barely seeing each other during a timeskip, which fucking sucked], nothing really changes much? He is living in China, but everything takes priority over being together for both sides. They barely see each other still. Then, Mr. He dies and they somehow spend EVEN LESS TIME TOGETHER. Fucking hell.

The drama still is worth watching, IMO. The leads' relationship is very cute, for the most part, but I want to watch the leads together a HELL OF A LOT MORE when I am watching a freaking ROMANCE drama!!!

Also, I thought the FL's older cousin would be obnoxious only for him to turn out to be the biggest shipper, biggest supporter of the ML and his relationship with his cousin. Such a sweetheart!!

Ain't no way I would ever get into a relationship with a guy who disappears from long periods of time consistently because of his job [literally disappears, as he has to turn off his phone for days, weeks or more], and again, because of his job, he can literally disintegrate because of a bomb exploding in one of his secret missions. The anxiety would lead me to an early death, and the distance would 100% affect my feelings in the long run.

Honestly, I think FL's dad deserves to have his teeth kicked in [ML's dad deserves 10x worse btw], because he is a trashy immoral cheater and because I hate controlling parents/in-laws in dramas, but I do think he had a point: The ML's profession is incompatible with marriage.

Besides, I already dislike extreme workaholic leads in dramas [keyword being extreme, because literally every drama lead is a workaholic in a way or another, cuz propaganda], and the leads that happen to work with police and/or military are the worst, by far. From the perspective of a watcher, there are only a few things worse [break ups, love triangles, nosy ass/controlling in laws] worse than leads that spend 95% of the time working and only 5% together with their romantic partner.

If workaholic propaganda is 100% needed, at least make the leads work in the same place, so they can work their life away, but together instead of apart.

BUT, it is not me in FL's place! It is her and she loves her man and is happy with him, so more power to her.

A few random thoughts as of episoed 17:

I mentally check out or straight up skip scenes whenever the drama focuses on the ML's job. I thought the drama was rather boring before episode 12, but once the leads start actually talking to each other, being affectionate, planning their marriage and such, it is quite lovely [the back hugs ML gave FL in episode 12 left me craving, not gonna sugarcoat it]... Of course, when the ML is not stuck in his shitty job for days to weeks and the two leads are allowed to be together!

The relationship between FL's friend/coworker and ML's friend's kid is pretty cute, she is honestly more a parent to the kid now than his actual parents.

Why in god's name is the ML responsible for paying the debt his shitty dad accumulated? As someone who has a shitty dad, there is no way I would pay his debt when he did nothing for me. But, I am not Chinese. Is this a Confucianism thing? Gotta eat shit and respect your elders even when they do not deserve respect, instead of cutting ties and disappearing from their lives permanently?

Insane rambling below:

This is both lovely and also a very hard watch to me. I am not terminally ill, but I have lived a little bit over three decades in this lifetime, and there has not been one day in these three+ decades where I did not struggle because of my many mental illnesses [some from birth, others I developed as I grew older], that prevented me from enjoying way too many things in life too recount here.

There is SO much about the FL's body language, the things she says and the actions she takes that are very relatable to me, in a rather painful way. It is really not fair, but many of us [real or fictional people] never get to truly experience the good things in life, only mostly the rough things.

Nope. Just pure heartbreak.

If you are looking for other noona romance dramas, I am afraid this is the first one I watch, so I am out of recommendations. But if you want cute, chill dramas, with little to no angst and with lovable in-laws, I recommend "The Best Thing" and "Love Me, Love My Voice".