MadelineMaureen

For refernce im 5 minutes into episode 33.
Everytime Pei Yan smiles I want to stab him. Like, my guy, how many ways can she turn you down before you back off. "She'll only be safe when she's with me." sure buddy...when your own mother is actively trying to kill her and you KNOW this...please kindly take a nap you never wake from & save all the women by your lack of presence.

The tagline for this should truly be "All men are trash except Cui Liang"
He is the only one looking out for the girlies actual wishes(Miss Dong, girlie you found a good one, i believe in you). Yes the other men "save" the FL multiple times, but they are the reason she is always almost dying in the first place. Like 100% of the times she has been set up for assassination has been directly caused by the two MLs & the emperor. Hell, our main male lead almost kills her with his own hands 3 times before he realizes that he needs her alive & to his horror, has feelings for her.
I need all men watching this to look at Pei Yan & see this is who we mean when we say "nice guys" are the real creeps & dangerous to the objects of their attention/affection/obsession. We do not enjoy being forced into things after REPEATEDLY telling that person NO. 🙄 No matter how much you love someone, if they dont return that love let them be. Be supportive & listen, not forcful.

He just signed with an American agency last year. He's doing the networking necessary for Hollywood, so we shall see(lots and lots of events in the US). Also production lengths are very different in the West, so it could also be playing a factor into his decision making.

Everyone losing patience and I'm just kicking my feet giggling because they wanted to hold hands and finally did. A lot of yall didn't grow up reading/watching period romance and it shows. The slow burn can be cute and fun if you let it and embrace the awkward fumbling's of two people who have giant crushes.

As a 34 year old woman it honestly deepens on many factors. Context matters. So for the character I think she's setting boundaries for HERSELF. It felt like she was reminding herself not to think too deeply about their interactions.
Like SleepyInsomniac said...we tend to be around people we like. Whether those feelings go deeper depends on the person, but we don't force ourselves to go out of our way for people we don't want to be close to.

Also I've been in situations where male friends confess sometime months after being friends sometimes years later. When I would make it clear that I only saw them as a friend they would ghost completely and it felt horrible. Like they only ever were my friend to get something out of it physically. Sometimes you can tell if someone likes you romantically other times you can't until they make it clear. But 10 out of 10 times I've found that a guy can not except romantic rejection even if the woman truly likes them as a friend and wants to continue to be friends.

Also just word of advice....NEVER confess to a woman when she is fresh off a break up(where she didn't initiate the ending of the relationship) and seeking friendship to decompress and vent. 3 male friends did that after my first bad break up in college...they never spoke to me again when I said I didn't see them like that. Because I was very much still into my ex and didn't even know they liked me until I was crying about my ex and they were like "well I like you. You can date me."....yeah, no.

She's a classmate that all the guys BUT JSY had a crush on. His friend is projecting his own feelings memories of the girl onto JSY. If they did date it wasn't anything too deep for either party and she seem to be aware of JSY's feelings for TY more so than even he knew until recently.
JSY and TY are still in the clearing up past misconceptions faze of the transition from friends to lovers. They aren't being helped by their married friends who have no dating experience outside of each other. So why the main leads keep going to them for advice I will never understand.

Cheng Hui and Sheng Ni Na's romance is starting to kick off in episode 18. It's always been a bit in the background but the mutual interests are finally getting outed.

Well pretty sure he never liked the girl his partner was talking about...sounded like pure projection to me. Also the guy didn't let Tang Yang explain her relationship to that ex at all just talked over her. So for all we know they ended on good terms or barely even dated. They don't actually seem to be aware of the personal lives of their friends as much as they think they do.
Also the girl they knew in high school seems chill and more amused that JSY and TY haven't figured things out yet. She's going to call JSY out on it.

She probably clocked that he had a crush on Tang Yang in high school and just didn't say anything because even he wasn't really aware of his feelings yet. She seems chill in the preview and somewhat amused that they haven't figured it out yet.

that's not really how healthy poly relationships work...I guess they at least attempted something different...? but truly not a great representation of open/poly relationships.

I think they kept the Com part of the Romcom going from start to finish, which is generally hard to do for most shows. I think we could have done with some karmic punishment for her ex, but it's more realistic that the asshole still "wins" in the end. The major part I was sort of disappointed in was the poly/unexpected pregnancy plotline. It just didn't feel like it could actually say anything and played it safe, there was a bit of closure, but still didn't like how they portrayed non-monogamy. But for a first attempt, not completely horrible.
Great drama for Kim Young Dae to have before his enlistment starts. Looking forward to his return.

I remember watching this as it was airing and looking up TaecYeon and realizing that he grew up in America. Ended up watching Dream High after seeing him in this and did a deep dive into kpop. Figured out a lot of the people I had been watching were connected to the music industry as well as acting world.
Also if you've never seen this, look up Taec Yeon's scenes. This was his first ever drama and he has a southern accent(dialect) which was honestly really cute.
As another viewer mentioned the 2nd FL was...ummm hard to watch. Sadly she suffered the "I'm lying about my age so let me get enough tweakment that I'll look younger" and the Botox was ummm extra fresh...to put it kindly. And even saying that I feel like an asshole. To each their own, but if you are being paid to emote on screen...your face needs to be able to move.

I really need to know what the heck was happening in the mid 00s to make every screenwriter pull out the Romeo and Juliette plots. I'm not kidding when I say that from 2003-2009ish there was an extremely heavy focus on sad ending romances. There was either a suicide or accidental death(saving the other lead) or straight murder in every show I watched during that time. Unless it was booked as an "idol" drama for teens your fav wasn't making it to the final credits. I think at some point people voiced their distaste for dramas(that are in and of themselves a fantasy world of fiction)that had such pessimistic endings/plots. And because some of them were being aired while finishing up the shooting sometimes the plots would change week to week depending on audience reception. It was a wild wild time.

To this day I call Lee Ki Woo Lamppost. I only really remember loving the OST for this show...bop after sad bop. I remember thinking none of the characters should be anywhere near one another as they were all so toxic and depressed about everything. This was a very heavy on the MELO...drama. Sad, and pointless ending a la Romeo and Juliette. The reader can see how stupid the problems are, but the characters can't get over what they think is "epic/tragic love". Mental health awareness who? They don't know her.

Yes. He dies holding her in the mountains during the dead of winter. It's not 100% confirmed whether she survives or not. Her eyes are shown opening and a tear falling then closing again as the sun rises on a winter morning. The mid-00s were rife with sad ending kdramas...either both dying at the end or one dying in place of the other. You have been warned.

Even her more "damsel in distress" characters were immortal beings or a ghost. I think the only time her character was extremely flawed was in 'A Love to Kill' and I say this with love EVERY character in that show was extremely flawed, but the OST still slaps.

I think the scenes with the second lead couple give enough context to their relationships to the others in the show that their story can be separated. I think that this show actually balances the 2nd leads with the mains really well. The mains have more screen time, but honestly not much more than the 2nd couple in some episodes. You'll get to skip most of the office stuff. So yeah, I say skip around to the scenes with either one of them in it & you'll be fine.

Did we ever even see the other guy she was dating? Where is he in all of this, if that is his kid doesn't he also have a right to know what she decides? Not have a say it what she chooses to do, but like if she gives birth I would want to know if I gave life to another human. (I'm a woman, but you understand what i mean)

What I enjoy about this particular slow burn, which not everyone will like, is that you are seeing them interact with one another without them being aware of any extra romantic feelings for each other. It's a love that crept in without them realizing, and by the time they noticed they were already under.
The dipping the toes in to test the waters might be too extended for most, but I like that we are clearly getting an idea of their dynamics as friends and what their love languages are. They both give something to the other with acts of service and words of affirmation, gift giving and quality time. It's not just THEIR relationship(friendship) that they are worried about ruining. Their mothers are best friends, he no longer has a father and hers has kind of taken on that role for him. Her best friend is his cousin and married to his business partner. Starting anything that could end badly is scary and has a lot of pressure on them. Both of their support systems are so interconnected it would be irresponsible to just jump in without looking and making sure the water(romantic feelings) is deep enough to not get hurt in the fall.

Not an ex, i don't think. Just someone that his friend thinks he had a crush on...but that friend is wrong about a lot of things when it comes to the two leads so I'm going to take that with a large grain of salt.