Don't be quick to judge, just give it a try!

As a Rowoon fan, I'm surprised I left this show in my watchlist for so so long. For some odd reason, I was on a hiatus from k-dramas and just could not pick this show up even though I liked the premise enough to put it in my watchlist. Last night, I randomly decided to give it a shot, and boy I'm glad I did. What a ride! 24 hours later, and I've finished this in it's entirety with very few skips here and there (I'm not a fan of costume/period trope).

Contrary to the majority of the views here, I actually did not find this drama to be unbearable, or the story to not fall into place. I'm still trying to think back to any major plot holes but I don't find many so I'm kinda falling short at understanding many of the reviews here. But to each it's own! Which is why I started this review with not judging until you give the show an honest unbiased try. I was lucky to have come here to read the reviews only post 6 episodes when I just needed a little spoiler on a happy or sad end. I'm not sure if I would've watched it had I seen the reviews earlier.

I like the story and what I like the most is that although it has those fluffy typical kdrama butterfly moments and some amazing chemistry between the leads, it is a refreshing take from your usual over the top sweet rom-coms. while there are other tropes like past life which are also relatively common, it was an easy watch for me personally. The leads have superb chemistry and I think the three: Hong Jo, Shin Hyu and Mr Kwon together gelled so well that it was a very pleasant watch.

I like how the second male lead was not vengeful which I why I absolutely abhor the same old trope of the vicious second female lead (if we can call her that, she was anything but a lead). But she has barely any screen-time so it's still fine. I also find the co-workers at City-Hall to be extremely rude, extra and not needed. Although a lot of redemption comes by towards the end of the show and once Ms Ma comes back, but before that I keep questioning which workplace allows such blatant infringement of privacy? These two women are just always shouting??? Who allows that? That was another aspect that was putting me off a bit.

ONE THING that has PUT ME OFF the most is the lack of respect shown to the second female lead. Even if she's a bad person, she deserved to be told that he's breaking up with her before he goes around telling another woman "he loves her" for whatever reasons those might be. This was done repeatedly, and not just under the spell trope. Even after that, this continued. I do not support such nonsense so it was a big downer which is why this show does not go into my all time fav list. Everything else was on-point for me otherwise as nothing is absolutely perfect.

However, I like how the story progresses. I also like the suspense of it in the beginning though it becomes quite predictable towards the mid of the show. But where it lacks in dramatics, the romanticism makes up for it. Lots of angst and cute moments between the leads to keep you smiling throughout. Even their banter is hilarious. I quite enjoyed it.

Although I liked Shin Hyu's parents as actors and roles, I'm pissed at how easily his mom overlooks the imprudence of the dad. That's where the feminist in me gets triggered but obviously they are not the main focus of the show so maybe something happens off the screen (other than that insufficient scene post drinking where he drunk hugs her and apologises once???) for her to forgive him! I also quite enjoyed the warm friendship between JSH and his lawyer friend and how he actually supported JSH throughout.

All in all, I quite enjoyed the show. I have a long watchlist and this is a little heavy so I'm not sure about a rewatch, but it's definitely worth one watch and I would recommend this show to people. In the end, I would just advice you to push through 2-3 episodes before deciding if this is your cup of tea or not. For me, it became better as it progressed. Cheers!

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