leadtheprotection

Thats true and i wish they didnt add those moments with the sml, but i still dont think shes not prioritizing the ml over the sml simply because with the sml, hes always the one initiating and she doesn't even reciprocate beyond the usual drama heroine deer caught in headlights look. But with taehyung she is shown to make an active effort to see him as a person and reciprocate beyond just being a fantasy so im still staying positive. I feel like today's episode might also have a confused hyunjin but i think she will finally have a reckoning next week🤞

But she isnt suddenly switching tho? R we watching the same show haha...after they "sleep" together in the earlier episode and taehyung starts seeing hyun jin differently, the drama shows hyun jin seeing him differently too which means they both start becoming attracted to eo at the same time. Taehyung might be more forthcoming in his feelings because of his core abandonment wound and perpetual want to belong somewhere, but hyun jin is clearly very affectionate and caring to him too? She roots for him to succeed in his work, celebrates his big moments, trusts him the most with woojoo and even her own secrets, cares about when he's hurt etc etc. And everyone seems to be overlooking the biggest difference in her interactions with taehyung and literally everone else in her life: Taehyung is the only person she allows to take care of her and take care of things for her! From her sister to the sml, she's always been about proving herself to everyone and needing to present herself as being perfectly okay always, but taehung is the only person she shares her actual worries with and constantly asks for help from. Ironically while we're all hating on her for seeming so dependent on him, he is the only person she's actually asked help from for the first time ever.
Likewise, there's so many subtle signs that hyun jin is falling too but is in a very emotionally overwhelming situation with the sml triggering her nostalgia and grief attached to the nostalgia, not to mention juggling a whole new job trying to become a permanent worker (her biggest dream), being a guradian to woojoo, losing her only family etc etc?

Meanwhile all the sml is getting r nostalgic memories of their college years together, him always initiating driving her home, work meetings he initiates where she's redirecting every flirtation with talk of woojoo and taehyung...

I agree we should be getting more obvious signs from the fl and her character writing isn't perfect, but I personally think considering they decided to go with the usual love triangle here, the show is handling the triangle and the fl's feelings more realistically than is usually the case with this trope. It would be unrealistic for her to suddenly jump track to a whole new person considering her circumstances but the fact that the show has been subtly setting up these moments where she feels the same for taehyung is obvious if u watch closely and with an open mind.

I think we're all underestimating how difficult it must be for someone like hyunjin to finally accept help and her doing that and showing vulnerability is the biggest sign that she's in deep with taehyung even if she doesn't realize it fully yet

While i agree the love triangle is annoying and unnecessary and that taehyung deserves a fully reciprocal relationship, i dont see how this falls solely on the fl (other than the obvious lack of depth in her character writing). Purely objectively, the fl/anyone for that matter doesn't owe anyone her feelings just because they happen to have feelings for her. It's for taehyung to realize what he truly deserves and choose to walk away if he feels consistently let down. I don't think hyun jin should be bearing the responsibilty for taehyung's feelings along with all the other things she needs to juggle now she needs to be someone's personal therapist too? That's just a double standard.

My only gripe right now leaving the plot as it exists is hyun jin not setting clear boundaries with either of the guys in her life who r obviously interested in her. She does it subtly, like removing her hands from his when taehyung touches her or redirecting conversations back to safe territory (woojoo and taehyung) when the sml starts flirting. But she needs to be more straightforward with where she's at emotionally with both of them (which will obviously happen in the subsequent episodes). Coz rn it's certain that she has affection for both of them, but most likely, neither is romantic in nature other than her being obviously attracted to taehyung while i dont think she even has that with the sml anymore. She only seems to see the sml as a wonderful nostalgic memory attached to her life when it was still good, someone she can't hurt or disappoint.

Also taehyung might have a more obvious growth arc but internally he's also still very underdeveloped as a character. The writing should be focusing on him overcoming his perpetual core wound of abandonment and waiting but instead it just feels like he's fallen back into the same pattern of latching onto the next person he will continue waiting for. Meaning, i dont think he's in love with hyun jin as a person yet either, instead he's in love with the fantasy of finally feeling like he belongs in a place with a family like he tells his friend.

So ya i said this before too, but both characters have immense individual growth left to do before they can meet as equals to have a healthy mutually reciprocal relationship.

This episode felt a bit like a filler even with the dad's entry...im still suspicious of him tho...didn’t the brother receive a text saying the dad was out of jail in the first ep? I wonder what his deal really is?

As always, hyun jin, girlie, take ur time. I know everyone and their grandma is rushing u to choose between three guys (third being woojoo), but u r what mid 20s? Lost ur only family, overnight became a guardian, still stuck in a contract job trying to keep ur head afloat? Of course u have better things to think about than choosing between guys. At least u show up when it matters. And if it takes one or two dates with either of the two guys to settle on one or the other or none even, I'm with u girl!

Life as u know it!

Yaa for sure, i also feel like he's totally into her and enjoys her teasing him lol...and the grandma mentions how he should stop taking care of her and even her granddaughters like he used to when he was her secretary now that he's the coo so maybe he still feels stuck in that role and feels uncomfortable seeing the sister differently but then he notices that she pretends to be alright when she's not etc and that will change their relationship slowly 🤔

So i just rewatched it and omg my bad it wasn't anyone else's face it was seonu chan himself lol...ig i got confused when the camera cut to him for some reason...my apologies again 😅

And woah these r all interesting points. I dont recall the trailer pic of him and his mom and the grandma's books actually. But now that u say it it's looking like they're going to pull a tragic ending for the grandma and maybe even grandpa coz he was already shown being ill :(( oh noo that makes me really sad coz the grandma is my fav character in the drama so far haha...

The animation switch makes sense true...he might have a difficult relationship with his mom or something along those lines and that must be related to why he studied engineering like u said...

But im still kinda confused about him running to the lab coz wasn't the bf already dead by then coz haran gets the call the same moment maybe minutes apart informing his death? Also why would he still keep using the bf's laptop if the bf wasn't still on vacation? So it feels like there might be someone else in the lab who he was trying to meet? Since like u said he hesitated, maybe there's someone he's fearing? Also seonu chan tells the bf they arent even that close for him to keep asking him favors so im wondering if he's being bullied or threatened somehow 🤔

Lots of questions haha and that keeps it interesting!

Same omg 😭

Yess agreed. But i do hope they dont drag out the secret too much, hopefully it will be revealed before the half way point at least. Coz haran will definitely be hurt and shocked to find out the truth, even about how indifferent her real bf was to her, so she will need time to process all that. And i totally agree with the second sister. Clearly she had to take up the role of peacekeeper in their family and it's obvious that could be burdening her too so it will be nice to see it explored well. Plus im excited about her pairing with the tsundere COO 🤣

That's interesting! Also did u notice a woman's face as he's opening the door to the lab right before the explosion in ep2?? I watched it like thrice that specific scene and i think it's a face we haven't been introduced to yet! So there should be something here too? Seonu chan looked like he'd been in a fight/bruised prior to attempting the jump and in some other scenes so there might be something really important with someone in that lab?

As for the bf, u r right that call informing his death was way too fast so the timing could've been coincidence but he still passed in some other way around then too.

Also totally random but how does he go from engineering and working in labs to being an animator?? That's interesting to me too...

Woah didnt think her next after call it love would be a romcom with white scandal! Excited to see how it goes :)) hope she writes amazing dialogues and character arcs again

Im most excited for the second sister’s plot lol...the ray of sunshine × tsundere combo is to die for i really hope the drama leans into exactly that vibe with these two

Ya the jacket scene tho felt kind kf reciprocal in effort for me tbh. She offered him help in the restaurant without asking him.and he simply accepted it. He simply returns the act but ya he was pretty persistent. And tbh i do wish he would've just told her the truth for a change actually. Or the drama gives a real plausible reason as to why he cant tell her the truth. Coz there is a novel out there with this plot but reversed the fl is the one who writes letters anonymosuly to an ml who actually she thinks hates her in real life. Thats a believable reason as to why she feels hesitant to tell him the truth when they actually meet again. Likewise i wish this drama added a real reason other than him being scared or whatever

Oh that timeline makes sense

Maybe they get funding or sponsors to promote or use ai services? That could explain why almost every new show has it...but at the same time im not anti-ai. This is the new reality. It will only get more prominent and normalized in lesser than a decade's time. We might as well start getting used to it or we'll be left with nothing to watch... 🤷‍♀️

Idk if there's more to it, for the sake of seonu chan i do hope there is, but from the first two episodes, the drama isn't really doing him any favors with ehat they reveal with the flashbacks. He says she saved him from taking his own life, meanwhile the only 4 interactions they've had so far is him replying to her text coz the real bf asked him to, then buying her a gift coz her real bf asked him to, another scene talking about the rain and then her calling him to say that she's visiting, but there's no reveal about deeper conversations where he might've felt understood by someone ekse? Like a proper friendship/relationship that would make someone second guess taking their own life right when they're in the act, but instead here, the scene just shows her text notification popping up and he what? Slips off the ledge and is now grateful to her for "saving him"? Like? What relationship did they form that he feels like life's worth living just coz he saw her text? Almost feels like they're trivializing something as grave as suicide just to have a plot device?

I understand they probably want it to stay vague deliberately coz we still have 10 eps left but imo if u were going to reveal something that literally forms the spine of this story and the central conflict, then u might as well have been more open with the past reveal. At least involving a short montage of all the times they interacted in linear order to show the progress...coz rn their past just feels like a plot device more than an actual fleshed out reason as to why seonu chan feels so indebted to haran. The non linear editing with the past reveals where some of their old interactions were shown in the first ep and some others in the 2nd dont make it easier to connect to whatever relationship they had developed back then either.

Long story short, i do wish there's an actual portrayal of their connection building in the past instead of making it look like it was really just that stupid as her texting him exactly when he was about to jump and him falling back into his room only coz of that interruption, or that seonu chan was just a lonely loner who jumped at the first opportunity with a person who was willing to talk to him (and not even him him at that!)

On the other hand, actually, if that is the case and if the drama's focus is actually on deliberately making haran's interruptions into seonu chan's life only mere disruptions that ended up adding way more meaning than they should've into seonu chan's life, that is actually a really novel concept. I wish they would match that same energy in the present tho with making seonu chan actually recognize the randomness of it instead of having him melodramatically proclaim "she saved him" when in reality that suicide/phone notification scene was portrayed to be just random coincidence so technically that text could've come from even a food delivery guy, u get what i mean 😅 they do lean into this randomness angle actually with seonu chan's actual interactions with haran but then when he's talking about her to others like the psychiatrist or the grandpa, it feels like the drama is inching towards deliberate attachment of more meaning to something that was just mere coincidence...so the tone becomes inconsistent from the past to present

I'm all for she falls firsts but miran, girl u can do so much better than minuk 🙄

Now that its over, i genuinely have no idea why they gave us that one scene between haerim and jaeyi with phenomenal chemistry in the first episode only to have literally 0 development in that direction for the rest of the show?? Seemed like a lost opportunity to me (tho haerim is too precious for anyone in this show...)

Istg!! Agree with everything. This has been a long time complaint for me too. It's like kdrama writers only know how to swing between extremes for the last half decade or so. Either make mls the most bland green flag with no character arc or growth outside of serving the fl or make them the most toxic moron ever. This is why im loving shows like our universe, spring fever, can this love be translated and even idol i from this year alone. Cant believe the beginning of this year alone made up slightly for the past 6 or so years of constant dissappointments with horribly written male leads. I still think a lot of work is left to be done, especially with how female leads r also written one dimensional but i think this year has already had a great start and hopefully while there r still shows with the same old cardboard cut out male leads like in your radiant season, positively yours and to my beloved thief, im glad that there's been at least some difference so far. Honestly i wouldn't even mind a boring green flag ml as long as the drama at least showed *how* he caught feelings and for what purpose?? It's like writers dont want to put in the labor of actually showing how feelings begin from scratch and want it preinstalled either through some weird childhood connection or begin the show 10+ years after he's caught feelings. How do they expect viewers to be invested in the relationship when we r *told* he loves her but they dont *show* why he does ?? Plus making the female lead look like she's forced to accept him instead of making her just as invested in the relationship. Which is why i enjoyed the shows i mentioned earlier, coz all those dramas had very reciprocal female leads who actually showed their affection to the male lead as well so it makes for a very balanced dynamic.

Ig chae jong hyeop is being typecast with these roles. Off the top of my head i feel like him, park bo gum, moon sangmin and a few others have become the poster boys for what i call the painfully green flag carboard mls. Their entire personality revolves around serving the fl and only the fl, no life or interests outside of living and breathing the fl, and it's in every other drama they do. Doesnt help that shows like lovely runner reinforce the popularity of one dimensional male leads like this either