I'm a big fan of romance drama. But lately many romance dramas just become so cliché, boring, and too cringey with repititive and expected plot. And at times, I see that the chemistry between the two leads is just awkward and too fake. BUT Damnnn Hidden Love just breaks it for me. I was hesitant to watch the drama at first. Cause I've grown sick of school/campus romance drama. So it took me weeks until I decided to give the drama a try.

This drama has everything I'm trying to avoid from a drama. A secret crush thingy, a childhood love thingy, a ML with a terrible past and got prejudiced by the society, parents' disapproval of the leads' relationship, cutesy FL, high-school and campus love story, etc. But what I didn't expect is that I freaking love the drama since ep 1. The two leads' encounter was soooo cute. The love started to blossom from when the FL was so young and got called out by the school teacher. She met her brother's handsome friend and asked him to pretend to be her brother and came to her school. And ever since, the FL has a secret crush on the ML and that crush soon develop to become love.

Many people might find a huge age gap love story a bit weird. The thing that I find it funny is that the leads are actually has 5 years age gap. It's not too far in my opinion. But the actress who played the younger version of the FL was too much younger for a 5 years age gap (as the ML was already in his 'adult' look). So for me it will make sense if they simply dress the original actress much younger with different hairstyle or makeup instead of using a child actress. Cause people don't grow that much in 5 years. But it's not a big deal tho cause the child actress did a splendid job. Have so many things that I love about the drama that I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO START?

But I'll try to list them down.

1. An admirable female lead

As I said, they have a pretty huge age gap. The FL hides her love for the ML. But instead of pursuing the ML like a childish girl in many dramas, I love how she actually was determined to study hard and make herself worthy before pursuing the man she loves. She's giving me a smart, independent, and ambitious girl in love. She's also very strong (not in a physical way). The FL was very serious about the person she loves. To the point she didn't let any bad things that she heard about the ML from other people, wavered her love for the ML or made her rethinking about their relationship or suddenly breaking up with the ML. THANK GOD WE FINALLY HAVE A LOGICAL FEMALE LEAD.

And I love every single time the FL was protecting the ML or simply just comforting and trying to boast up his self-esteem. The scene where the victim's daughter threw water to the ML's face and the FL threw the water back to the girl's face, damnn she's so bad ass. And everytime the victim's daughter was trying to change the FL's mind by telling her bad things about the ML's family, and our FL always said "What his dad did, doesn't have anything to do with him" like I'M CRYING OUT OF HAPPINESS??

And just everytime the FL was trying to ensure the ML that he's an amazing person and nothing in the world that can change that is so cute and heart warming. "Duan Jiaxu you're the best. You're an amazing person. Everyone loves you" I'M SOBBING?? so yes, I still have plenty of good points about the FL but I'm gonna stop here or else I'm going to write a novel about her.

2. Loveable ML

I love how our ML was not a cold, arrogant, kinda mean person. Throughout the entire drama, from the beginning to the end, HE'S SO LOVABLE. He was so gentle, so caring, so warm, so loving, so loyal, so....sjskskskjs. I'm IN LOVE WITH HIM. I'm head over heels for him. You can't not love him I swear. You will find yourself fall in love with him IMMEDIATELY. I love his character so much to the point I kept thinking "I need a Duan Jiaxu in my life" while watching the entire drama. This drama has one of the best ML character I've ever seen. Chen Zheyuan really executed his character AMAZINGLY. I'm in love with both Chen and Duan?

3. Cliché NON-CRINGEY love story that make sense

The story of hidden crush is pretty common in dramas. But HIDDEN LOVE really executed this story perfectly and even took it on another level. I love how the FL waited until she's in a legal age to pursue the ML. And I love how the drama didn't drag the story for too long. Like it doesn't took forever for the ML to realise his feeling for the FL. So we get lots of lovely and beautiful romance scenes between the two leads. I also love how there's no sudden breakup due to misunderstanding in this drama??FINALLY. I love how both of them were fighting for each other to overcome each other's struggles and just be there for each other. So I really wanna hug the script writer, author, and all the production crews for this amazing story line.

4. Cute siblings relationship

You will find one of the cutest brother and sister relationship in this drama. Like all the fights and arguments that they had is VERY MAKE SENSE and relatable. Siblings do fight with each other, but at the end of the day they care and love for each other so much and hate to see each other's getting hurt.


I will end my list here as I'll seriously write a novel instead of a review if I keep going. Overall, this drama is a must watched and one of the best cdrama I've seen for a while. The story, the casts, the characters's and story's development, the makeup, the settings, the cinematography, the musics, EVERYTHING ARE JUST BEAUTIFULLY-MADE. so if you're still hesitant to watch this drama, well, DON'T BE. Cause I promise you this drama won't let you down.