lilili

HJ is his father's favorite despite everything. Him retiring means he's a legit business threat to his brothers.

I gotta say I think the show is back on track despite tropey elements like the birth reveal and the chaebol bullshit. It started out being about people struggling to heal from trauma and I feel like we're finally circling back to the heart of the story.

To be fair to his coworkers he came across as rude at first, not intentionally but he couldn't help himself. It was only with the counseling and Sang Eun that his true personality was able to come out, still subdued, still introverted but warm and sweet as well. And that's when his coworkers could appreciate him, esp. when they saw him through Sang Eun's eyes.

You spelled it correctly! Also I love this: "Kind of a found family thing which is all the more great, because he never thought himself worth of being loved by others after how his aunt (actual family) and his ex treated him (one he thought as his family) and became closed off to everyone as result. Until Sangeun came along, that was." 🥹

You're the second person saying Jiho is giving 2ML vibes but I don't understand why. Would love to hear why you think so.

She squeezed his butt in one of the flashbacks so I think he groped or assaulted her when they were alone.

Go Kyung Pyo being ambidextrous is just 😍

So it was significant that Hae Jin was an actor as in he wasn't living an authentic life. He had a fake name, he hid his background and tried to escape from his effed up family. It was like a childish fantasy of running away and becoming famous but it didn't work. He was drinking, taking pills and getting depressed every time he had to deal with his mother and brother. When Sang Eun came back into his life he grabbed onto her because he thought she would save him from what he was running from. But he had to learn that another person couldn't save him.

By giving up acting and taking back his name, it's a signal that he's growing up. He's had his heart broken, he learned a lot about himself and what it means to take responsibility and truly love another person. And now with that knowledge he can give up pretending to be someone else and reclaim his identity and his place in the family. That's his journey.

The biggest problem with the character and the plotting of the story as a whole is it was framed as a triangle and he got treated as a 2ML when he's not really. He's never in the running to be with the FL. He's thematically important to the story which is really about healing from trauma but his role relative to the central romance has been weird and problematic from the start. Maybe now that he's stepping back into his real life we will get to enjoy and appreciate him more.

I have some thoughts about Hae Jin, spoiler comment below.

I think the reason Jiho and Sang Eun's relationship isn't as foregrounded at this point is because they have almost completed their healing journeys. Jiho has friends and can speak to people with ease even though he's still introverted and reserved. Sang Eun has stood up for herself and is enjoying giving and receiving love (though she still needs to finish resetting her relationship with her mother). Jiho and Sang Eun are rock solid, all we really need from them at this point are sweet loving moments so we can enjoy the feels.

On point! The 2ML getting his heart broken by Sang Eun was the means for him to become less immature, selfish and irresponsible and finally become a real adult.

But Jiho has grown and changed so much from the first episode. He's not a shut down lonely weirdo with no friends who's so socially awkward he alienates people at the office. Like he said to Sang Eun, he's now a person who gets visited when he's in the hospital. And the way he was able to speak so easily with his boss and accept Sang Eun caring for him. He's just farther down the road to healing than Hae Jin which is why at this point of the story HJ is starting his healing journey as represented by Jamie the Cat finally sitting next to him on the sofa.

I feel like a crazy person reading the comments I swear because I'm like holy shit I know what the drama is serving. You can reasonably debate whether the drama succeeds on what it's setting out to do (and I have a love-hate relationship with this drama) but it's crazy how many people just do not get it at all. I don't know if it's a failure of the writing or if people's expectations were cemented by the off-base marketing (selling this as a standard Park Min Young romcom when it's very much not that) and they just couldn't reset their expectations.

This is such a good summary. I swear I feel like you're the only person who's watching the same drama as me 😆. The child trafficking aspect is super interesting because Jiho is looking into the circumstance of the adoption and I'm so glad the show doesn't seem to be papering over that aspect of the story. It is absolutely human trafficking and we can see how much it's damaged Sang Eun.

Mi Ho is the closest thing to family Sang Eun has ever known, regardless of what their true relationship is it's not surprising that SE would struggle to cut ties with her. She has no other family. You just need to see abusive relationships in real life to understand it that it's very hard to cut people off if you care about them.

I don't think it's voluntary, she was going through a major personal scandal when the show launched and I think that's why she looks so thin and unwell

She won't.

Because she was brought up to be used and exploited and she never learned how to set boundaries

Assume that all the currently airing shows will be cancelled this week. When the Sewol ferry tragedy happened all shows were cancelled for two weeks.

I agree with you, I didn't like most of the popular dramas. The only one I really loved was Semantic Error.