littlepoodle

I doubt most people are shipping her with the bully, as such. They're probably hoping it somehow turns out he's not actually the bully. I can understand why people started shipping her with the prosecutor in the first place, though: they got the typical romcom meet-cute with the spilt coffee. It's not hard to extrapolate an enemies-to-lovers plot from that.

(Also, the actor is unnecessarily attractive for someone who's just supposed to be an obnoxious antagonist, lol. In fact all the three male leads are so unnecessarily good-looking that I'm pretty viewers are supposed to experience some shipping confusion.)

I don't know where this is going romance-wise, and I'm not really rooting for any pairing at all, which I find a bit odd. The main leads' relationship is very awkward, which I'm sure is the point. That can change. But what makes it unromantic for me is that he's clearly not over his ex-gf.

He doesn't really annoy me, as I can understand why he behaves the way he does, but I will agree that he hasn't been framed like a love interest yet. It's been very "never meet your heroes" so far, and if I didn't know anything about this drama, I would guess it's not going to be a romance at all but a mutually healing platonic friendship. But this has been marketed as a romance, hasn't it?

In fact, I originally felt like the prosecutor was introduced more like an enemies-to-lovers love interest. But then he was revealed as a disgusting bully so, yeah... guess not, lol.

If I had to ship the FL with anyone, it would be the investigator bestie. He's adorable. But I'm curious to see where this goes, both mystery and romance-wise. It's rare that I'm not invested in any relationship yet, four episodes in.

In my case, I loved the first episodes of this. I wanted to watch an old-fashioned romcom Kdrama, so the familiar tropes were right up my alley. Unlike many here, I loved the FL, I didn't think she was weak and stupid, and I understood why she was lying. I was still enjoying it halfway through.

Then the last few episodes happened, and I just can't defend them, sorry.

Well said. I'll go so far as to say that this was an extremely weird way to use cliches. Cliches tend to be used as shortcuts, to evoke familiar emotions in a simple (and often cheap) manner. But this... I honestly don't know what was going on here.

I would have loved a cliche romcom. Unfortunately, this started out as a lovely cliche romcom, and then turned into a weird mess of unrelated cliches.

Leaning into old-fashioned cliches can be lots of fun, but there's no requirement to include as many of them as possible in the last few episodes...

I still enjoy this because of the main characters, and I actually loved this drama *because* of the silly tropes. I loved how it felt intentionally old-fashioned and goofy, not stupidly so. But the more it goes on, it starts to feel like "hey ChatGPT, give me a classic romcom plot that hits all the old-fashioned Kdrama tropes".

I'm not actually accusing the writers of using AI, I'm just saying the plot has a lot of the same problems as AI-written stuff. Things just happen. Events don't seem to build up or lead anywhere, a lot of the time they just happen without consequences. Ideas are introduced without ever coming up again. (I haven't watched Episode 12 yet, but I assume Da-rim's sister still hasn't come back either.) Many characters lack motivations for doing what they do, and those with motivations are reduced to that single thing that motivates them: Ha-yeoung "I want Seon-u against all logic", Ji-hye "I hate my brother against all logic". Dramatic things seem to happen because we need "insert dramatic climax here". The fire was probably the worst offender in this respect. It happened because they needed something dramatic to happen that would let the FL rescue the ML this time around, lead to a dramatic confession, and make the villains appear really villainous. Nothing about that fire made sense otherwise, and there was no need for it to be a fire at all.

Like I said, I love silly tropes when they're done well, but I like them less when they start to feel empty.

Yeah, you can forgive a lot of things when watching a drama - but I can't for the life of me understand why they so blatantly broke the immersion here. It almost feels like a joke.

I feel like this is intentional...!

Yeah, that's what I'm going to do too. Just ignore it, lol.

I'm not going to drop the drama because of this, by any means, but what's crazy is that they could have made it less stupid (not realistic, but less stupid) with a few simple changes. Just have the fire start further away from the ML, in a different room. Let the ML catch the perpetrator in a corridor or on the stairs and collapse there, instead of a burning room where he'd be engulfed in flames within seconds. The guests might be frightened of an explosion from the evaporated gasoline in the burning part of the house, instead of smoke - it makes no sense that there's already smoke everywhere downstairs, at that point the ML would already have been burnt to crisp in that small room.

And of couse, let there be some visible aftereffects on the leads. I'm not even expecting CO poisoning here, but damn, couldn't they at least cough a few times, and how is there not blood on his head from being hit with a bottle?

There's a huge different between "okay, fine, I'm not expecting realism from a Kdrama" and "absolute nonsense". It would have been such an easy fix; it feels so lazy.

Yes. I loved these past couple of episodes, but the fire scene kinda ruined the climax for me - it's hard to buy into the emotion when you're cracking up about the ridiculousness of the situation. I don't expect fire scenes in dramas to be realistic in the first place, but it's like no thought whatsoever went into this one. There was no need for the fire to be *in the same room*, which made it so stupid: in real life, he would have been dead within a couple of minutes.

Not to mention that he got hit with a bottle, but there's not a scratch on him...

Well, I haven't seen it yet so I don't know how exactly it plays out, but if my best friend confessed to me, I couldn't just tell them to piss off, either. I'd probably be extremely confused and come up with a way to let them down gently later.

Not to mention, once the secret is out, the conflict in the drama is going to come from scheming chaebols, the disapproving father, and probably Da-rim's sister and her godawful husband coming back to cause drama. Ji-hyeok's sister's boyfriend might turn out to be a complete sociopath too. Maybe a little bit of blackmail; and a little bit of noble idiocy here and there.

I don't know about you guys, but I tend to find that sort of thing infinitely more frustrating than a secret stretched out a bit too long. The only thing worse than chaebol shenanigans is if they somehow managed to throw in a serial killer too.

I trust this drama to pull it off, but I know I'm going to miss the more easygoing part of the plot...

I'm honestly surprised that most people are only judging Da-rim for her mistakes, and entirely forget that JI-HYEOK AGREED TO THE ARRANGED MARRIAGE WHILE HE WAS STILL SEARCHING FOR DA-RIM.

In order to save his mother, he was about to become just like his father: trapping Ha-yeong in a loveless marriage, whilst pursuing another woman he was in love with.

I'm not saying that makes him evil, but if you're going to be so harsh about Da-rim lying in order to save her mother, you should spare a little judgement for Ji-hyeok's hypocrisy as well.

Yes. Even their meet-cute was her being a weird, clumsy drunk.

She's clearly a competent person coming up with great ideas, but *also* awkward and nervous, which has held her back in life.

Really? I found the almost-kissing in the rain in Episode 7 the most electric it has been. I could have strangled Seon-u for showing up, lol.

Yeah, I guess it's a matter of taste. I do find the FL extremely relatable. Not that I've ever lied like this, but other than that, I do find it easier to empathise with her struggles than with those of a chaebol.

But isn't this also a matter of personalities and attachment styles? The ML is someone who's used to pursuing and getting what he wants. The FL is someone who's used to never getting what she wants and never being chosen for anything. They're bound to express their feelings differently. The FL expresses hers when she's drunk because she has so many in-built defences and so much anxiety.

Even their moral struggles are different. The ML felt guilty about selfishly feeling tempted to pursue someone who's married with a child; he wasn't afraid that she wouldn't want her, he doesn't struggle with feelings of inadequacy. The FL lies to protect her loved ones, and is afraid of failing those loved ones; she feels simultaneously guilty for her lies and her failures, and doesn't allow herself selfish desires. Her struggle is largely about feelings of inadequacy and self-denial.

Exactly! On top of the medical bills and the loan shark money, didn't Da-rim's sister also mortgage the house? If she were to lose this job, their entire life would basically come crashing down.

I think people are a bit naive when they say Da-rim should just tell Ji-hyeok and trust him because he likes her. In real life, the guy would probably be disgusted with her for lying and find her extremely unreliable, both as an employee and as a potential girlfriend.

I suspect the people wishing for her to suffer before the happy ending will probably get their wish, though. I think everything will come crashing down at some point, she will lose her job, think she's lost Ji-hyeok as well, have a dark night of the soul and regret the lies she told. And the sister with her useless husband are sure to cause some further drama as well.

I doubt the people wishing for that suffering are going to enjoy it very much if/when it happens. IMO Da-rim is the kind of heroine whose role is to be a stand-in for the unappreciated women who wish for someone to recognise their true worth. Heroines like that are usually punching bags even though they do their best. The fantasy is that at least the ML will recognise her worth and support her, if no one else will.

I'm not sure I agree. Da-rim has stress-induced gastritis and she's been under pressure from all sides. Even her own family members (well, her sister anyway) have been telling her how useless she is, and now she's supposed to be handling the entire disaster all by herself. It's not that she doesn't have feelings for the ML, she just can't afford to indulge in dreams of love when she's struggling for every penny. She has experienced a lot of pain already.

And with her poor self-esteem (and, let's face it, realism) it probably wouldn't take someone like her much to be convinced that she isn't good enough for a chaebol anyway. I'm sure she'll feel pain about having fallen in love with someone who's unattainable from her perspective. But I personally hope that doesn't last long. For me, it would be even more frustrating to watch than these past two episodes.