So in the first half of this drama, I would have flat-out rated it a 10/10. Considering it's from 2014, the production quality might be a little low and the humor and timing a little awkward, but I was willing to overlook all that because I really loved, above all things, the main female lead. She was independent, strong-willed, confident, work-focused, and walled off romantically — everything I felt I could personally relate to. Kai Qi is precisely how I want strong female characters to be written, flaws and all. And I felt like the male lead was the perfect counter-balance. His personality was softer, quieter, more caring, and compromising, having grown up as the bullied younger sibling. They meshed perfectly and the storyline was stressful in all the best parts (I had no idea that a cooking show could stress me out so much!). The childhood friends backstory was integrated well too, as was the second lead's history with the FL.

Even after they got together, I really liked the romantic dynamic that was still fun and allowed the better parts of their personalities to shine through.

It was about an episode after that, that things started to go downhill. The plot started inputting random tropes (spoiler: a kidnapping plot) and character decision-making (the FL especially, who had always been straight to the point), started to make no sense. Of course, there was an obligatory break-up, and for two characters that had begun communicating so well before, it all just felt very dramatic and forced. The sudden extreme of the plot really felt like they just pulled random tropes and inputted them into the story.

It got worse because they just dragged this out so long, until the end of the drama, where it felt like there were no obstacles for them being together, other than the female lead just saying no for no good reason, for reasons that they had discussed multiple times.

The female lead had always been a straightforward character, and a lot of that was lost. This isn't limited to the main ship either, but also to the second couple — but I was wondering why there were so many episodes dedicated to coming up with elaborate schemes to get people to meet coincidentally or be part of random competitions to trick them into getting together when they could just sit down and talk things out like normal people. There was basically no plot, just the ML chasing after the FL again.

While all this was happening, the second lead's personality started to shine through more, but there really wasn't time dedicated to his character or a full plot for him at all. There were a few side plots for supporting characters and while I don't really have a problem with that, I felt as though the acting was mediocre and the writing was not really fleshed out enough for me to even care about them or see how they were relevant.

All in all, there's still a sort of nostalgia when I watch something like this, especially because there's some over-acting and it made me cringe, as old dramas often do. All that aside, I still do like the set-up of the female lead. The second half, however, is probably something I'll purposely overlook.