slightexag

I'm a sucker for the enemies-to-lovers contract marriage trope and so was predisposed to like this going in. If you've seen that plot before, this has absolutely zero curveballs; it's a well executed version of something very typical. The leads have great chemistry, though it was more interesting when they were still in the early stages and there was tension. FL is so cute, it's ridiculous, and ML is good at playing both jerk and cute in a believable way. Their banter especially early works well, though I felt like when the drama gets really serious towards the end, it's not as engaging. The external conflict is the typical chaebol stuff (petty aunt, competition over inheritance, ex-fiance, sick patriarch, house break-in, etc). This is such an old drama I'm willing to give a bit of a pass for all the cliches. However, several of these conflict points are pretty weak, like the aunt, the cousin who oozes 2ML vibes, and the ridiculous ex who has a one-track mind over ML for no reason whatsoever. The main romance is cute, even if there's a bit of boundary crossing and emotional immaturity throughout.

One thing that persistently annoyed me through this is how pushy ML is--he literally drags her everywhere, grabs her arm, uses his body to block her path, gets jealous whenever she talks to literally any man, forces her to do things she doesn't want to do, etc. I know he's supposed to be the arrogant jerk kind of character, but there's a lot of toxic stuff that happens between them that the drama does not treat as toxic, but rather normalizes.

Still, when they're flirting, I found myself smiling every time and since that is the dominant appeal of this and it lands, I'm more willing to be lenient in my score than otherwise. The leads won me over and the other stuff is just okay.