Ifa

My Bias, My Boss is essentially every fangirl’s dream scenario with one important plot twist: you finally get accepted into your bias’s company, only to discover that your bias is no longer the person running the show.

Nam Da Reum has been a fan of D.N.X for 12 years, with Lee Chan as her longtime bias. Chan co-founded APPELLO with his friend Kang Ha Gi, but by the time Da Reum joins the company, Ha Gi is the sole CEO while Chan is merely a director who only occasionally shows up. To make things even more complicated, Ha Gi initially suspects Da Reum of being a company spy, while she desperately tries to hide the fact that she is secretly Chan’s fangirl. From there, misunderstandings slowly turn into romance.

What got me interested in this drama was actually the opening script. Da Reum says, “It was his song that rescued me from my loneliness. Being a fan gave me friends when I was lonely. Most of all, I felt alive. But to him, I’m just another light among many.” As a fangirl myself, I felt seen. That line understood something that dramas about fandom do not always capture. Being a fan is not simply about liking a celebrity. Sometimes, it gives you a community when you have none, friendships when you feel alone, and something to look forward to when life feels a little dull. My Bias, My Boss understood that energy surprisingly well.

I especially liked that Da Reum started out as a loner but eventually found her best friends through the fan community, and those friendships lasted for years. There were plenty of fangirl moments, y/n moments, and little things that made me go, “Yep, that is so me.” In that sense, the drama felt like a small tribute to the fangirl life, and honestly, that was probably the part I enjoyed the most. That is why I was so curious about how the drama would handle its central dilemma. A fangirl, her bias, and her boss? That sounds like a recipe for delicious chaos. Unfortunately, this is also where the drama starts losing its footing.

The title promises a story about choosing between a bias and a boss, but there is barely any real competition between the two. From the beginning, it is obvious that Ha Gi is going to win. That alone is not a problem. We all know how romcoms usually work. The problem is that the drama gives us almost no reason to wonder what might happen in between.

Chan has very little going for him as a potential boyfriend compared to Ha Gi. Da Reum does give him a chance, but their first date quickly kills whatever romantic possibility there might have been. After that, she goes out with him almost half-heartedly and visibly uncomfortable. Even the fangirl spark seems to disappear. The drama basically cuts the cord between Da Reum and Chan before the love triangle has a chance to become a triangle.

I was hoping for the dilemma, the pursuit, the tension, the “Who will she choose?” moments. Instead, once Chan was out of the picture, the story shifted gears into a fairly standard office romcom. And because the outcome was so obvious and the journey lacked much conflict, things eventually became predictable and, unfortunately, boring.

Another issue for me was the emotional writing. I understood what the characters were supposed to be going through, but I rarely felt what they were feeling. Da Reum is introduced as an outcast, but the drama never really shows us why she became one. Was there something she did? Something she said? Was she simply singled out by the people around her? Being told that someone is lonely is not quite the same as making us understand their loneliness. I wanted to see the events that shaped her rather than simply being handed the label.

Ha Gi has also been abandoned by people around him, including his mother, but the drama often communicates this through absence rather than experience. People leave, we see that they are gone, and the script tells us that it hurt him. But the emotional aftermath is rarely explored deeply enough. As a result, his pain felt strangely bland despite supposedly being one of the foundations of his character.

Chan's struggles were even harder for me to understand. He seems hurt because he believes fans left him and D.N.X, because he has always felt like he loses to Ha Gi, and because he thinks Ha Gi does not treat him honestly as a friend. These could have been compelling emotional conflicts, but the drama never digs deep enough into any of them. His concerns are presented more like bullet points than wounds.

That became my biggest issue with the writing and directing. The drama often feels like it is saying, “So this happened, and then this happened, and then that happened,” without spending enough time on the whys and hows. I knew what was happening, but I did not always understand why it mattered. Even the visual style contributed to that feeling. The bright, low-contrast, dreamy visuals gave the drama a soft daydream quality. Instead of showing how events unfold, it was more like I was watching someone's memory or a brief summary of what happened. It was pretty, but it also created a certain emotional distance.

The casting itself was one of the more pleasant surprises, particularly Kim Hye Jun and Cha Woo Min. Kim Hye Jun playing Da Reum was a refreshing change. She has played fiercer or quirkier characters as a lead before, so seeing her as a slightly awkward, enthusiastic fangirl in a light romcom felt different. And she absolutely understood the fangirl assignment. Her reactions felt familiar enough that I could recognize myself in them. Unfortunately, some of her scenes eventually crossed into cringe territory. For me, that was more a writing problem than an acting problem.

Kang Hoon also did well as Ha Gi. He brought the young CEO energy to the character, and I could see why Da Reum would eventually fall for him. However, some of the more emotional scenes did not land for me. There was one scene where Ha Gi told Da Reum about what happened to his mother, and I found myself more aware of the acting and camera work than the heartbreak he was supposed to be expressing. His gaze stayed on Da Reum for so long that instead of feeling like I was watching someone process pain, I was wondering why he was staring at her nonstop. A few changes in gaze, facial expression, or camera angle could have done a lot more to communicate his heartbreak and the feeling of being genuinely touched by Da Reum's words.

As for Da Reum and Ha Gi, their relationship was... alright. I could tell when and why they started falling for each other, and their relationship was cute without becoming overwhelmingly sugary. But I never really got the butterflies. Most of the time, I felt either indifferent or slightly embarrassed for them. The accidental kiss scene was particularly painful. Romcoms can ask us to suspend disbelief, but even within the wonderfully unrealistic ecosystem of K-dramas, that scene felt too forced. Their other romantic moments were fine, but nothing that made me want to replay them.

Cha Woo Min as Chan, meanwhile, was a fun surprise. I never expected to see him play an idol, although I was not surprised that he could pull off the celebrity aura. He has the soft, smooth, slightly suave presence that works well for a superstar character, and his whispery voice adds to that image. Ironically, though, his idol life mostly exists at the beginning and end of the drama. In between, he spends more time being an actor and celebrity than actually being an idol.

The ending was pretty much what I expected. The drama tried to give its major characters growth and closure, and while it was not painfully rushed, it was definitely quick. Everything wrapped up neatly enough, but there was no real surprise or wow factor. By the time the curtains rolled, I was simply... there.

Overall, I enjoyed My Bias, My Boss most when it was being a drama about being a fan. Unfortunately, the drama eventually lost its grip on the premise that made it interesting in the first place. There was potential for something much more fun hiding underneath all that fluff, but the drama never quite found it. If you're a fangirl, My Bias, My Boss might still be worth checking out for the relatable fan moments and y/n energy. If you're not, it can still work as a light watch, provided you have a decent tolerance for cringe. Just don't expect your bias and your boss to fight very hard for your heart.