sachapz

It's a long battle since the drama looks at the ugly side of relationships if not handled properly but we will get a happy ending in the end

Honestly objectively speaking I really do like Luke as a ML because he's so complex. He has his good qualities but he's not perfect.

He's really likable once you get to know him/ break through his wall. I also prefer blunt people so he's perfect in that regard. He just needs to take a deep breath and think even for a minute when he gets mad- that's all I need 🙈

Like being jealous is completely fine..questioning her also is completely his right as her BF..
But how he does it is what keeps putting him in trouble 🥲

TMAI!!! Honestly that one question could clear most of their issues 🥲

I get why Luke behaves the way he does since 1.5-2 years of honesty (since their second chance from ep 19) vs. 30+ years of disappointment cannot fix a person overnight but we need to see more progress 🙈

Luke and his pride is a story for the ages 🥲

He does like to tease so the comment from ep 19 was just to get a rise out of her (specially since she also can read him better now) but yeah it would have been nice if he told the truth.

The writer might keep be purposely keeping this moment hidden for now so they could use it for their reunion?

That being said, I don't think I've seen a drama questioning the FL's mentality out of anger as much as Luke has so far🙈

Yes! Tao seems more confident and we now get to see Luke's vulnerable side more openly.

Yr 1 Luke's pride would have never allowed himself to be so clingy like in ep 19. Yr 1 Tao on the other hand would have spiralled into depression if she heard about his dating rumours in ep 20 during their first year. Both have come so far

Yesss! A few years back even at gun point you wouldn't be able to get a confession out of me 🙈

I really am glad he got out of the vehicle even if it took him so long 🥲

If you watch further, you learn that Tao wasn't the one insecure at first. The comparison in the car shows this.

Luke didn't give her a chance to explain even after being weeks apart after the incident. He had enough time to calm down before bringing it up in such a careless manner.

Whereas Tao chose to ignore his dating rumours and treat it as gossip (which is reasonable seeing as their colleagues do not know that Luke is already in a Long term relationship). That's why she mentioned about the lack of trust during their arguement.

Not attacking Luke btw- what he saw was questionable but even after 6 years if you can't simply ask "why were you two hugging and crying" instead of first accusing her of cheating/ looking for a backup partner/ won't give your partner a chance to even know why you are angry, then yeah you are insecure.

Him not trusting her, reignited her insecurities again. They are both stuck in a visious cycle.

I do love how this makes so much sense in retrospect since he too looked surprised to see her in the elevator in ep 1 and he only replied to her "good morning"🙈

TMAI- it was rather disappointing.

I only got to watch the episode midway but I really wish if he'd brought up his concerns before fleeing to the US. Specially since Tao actually contacted him within the same night 🥲


I mean from Luke's perspective it did look unusual but given that they were in a committed open-ish relationship excluding the office, he could have given her a chance to explain. He saw they were crying afterall.

Curious to see how Tao would reciprocate

The author of the novel made a point to mention that it's not a typical romance. It's more focussed on how young women like Tao move forward with life after they start working, etc as a whole. So how a close friend's death can affect you would be a good scenario.

As far as I know, they didn’t.

Luke was pretty much describes as a chaste monk and from Tao’s end, she was extremely busy building her life and start-up. I am not sure if she dated but seeing as nobody has brought it up so far she probably didn’t either.

Luke definitely is so gentle at heart. He’s so lonely and so for him he really needs to feel loved. And when he does like someone, he gives all his affection to them.🥲

I guess it makes Tao’s monologue more understandable if you look at it in her POV. As the audience we know he can be amazing. But for Tao, his words affect her more than his actions.

Unlike Luke, Tao has always been surrounded by loving people so she does have a tendency to take Luke’s actions for granted. But what she is not really used to is being criticized/ being mocked at so even the smallest thing Luke says can cut her like a knife. Since she looks up to him so much, it hurts her even more. So this particular honest conversation probably stood out to her?

Ah right.

My interpretation for the “ For the first time, I see him being this gentle.” scene was that in Luke’s previous outbursts he can be quite cruel and even quite degrading towards Tao. But in that particular dialog, eventhough his words were harsh, for once 80% or so of his words spoke ill of himself (even abit too harsh at times)? So in a strange way he was being gentle.

He could have lied or mocked her as usual, but he instead chose to be sincere. Instead of calling her stupid as usual for instance, he reminded her that she was still young and may not know what she wants. With her friendly interactions with the house mate and ex, he pointed out that he cannot give her that kind of support. He even started by listing down his short comings.

He didn’t want to lead her on. This is also why we can’t really call him a red flag. If he truly was bad, he could have manipulated her/ try to degrade her even more considering how he was feeling at the time.

8 episodes were axed so…..😅
They really should have used date stamps or made more use of their desk calendars/ sorroundings

I feel like the voice overs show her regret/ her reminiscing the scenes - her past is our present. After all episode 1 too started with a voice over from year 6 after the break up.

It’s not always the case though

Yesss! That’s the whole point of the drama :)

Going by the drama alone, his reasoning might be a bit complex. It’s not just one reason.

1. He’s naturally blunt and speaks his mind. He might actually not have thought that far because he’s still learning through his emotions (his friends and later even his mum keep hinting how Tao is the first woman he has shown real interest). In Yr1, where he said he wanted a daughter may have been just to tease his mother for all we know.

2. Bad timing - he was already extremely hurt because Tao kept cutting him out of her life. There is this wall she doesn’t allow him to cross either out of worry (like the SA incident), her inferiority complex, or because she herself is confused by their relationship’s boundaries at times because of the boss vs. BF dynamic. Between the incident with the Dating app, seeing how close Tao is with her house mate, and then being introduced to her ex as “Luke the boss” was just too much for him. Tao suddenly bringing up the possibility of a future together with him probably felt like it was contradicting with her recent actions. As if Tao herself may not know what she wants in his POV.

3. His own insecurities - we saw him ask his cousin and friend if he was intolerable several times. There’s his dad too who can’t stop putting him down. Even his mother is pretty vocal about his temper. And of course the fact that he himself knows that his words have hurt Tao so many times already. He also knows that Tao appreciates how kind the room mate is and he also knows that the Ex treated her really well too and even their breakup was amicable. So in the midst of all this, he might have felt that Tao deserves someone better? Someone who knows how to love her the way she wants to be? Luke isn’t the type to spin out fairytales and give false promises so that’s why he may have taken a more honest approach.

Unfortunately I saw the chapter (IDK why but I kept finding the same pages by accident on X, IG, as well as when I opened a random chapter)🙈

The writing was so impactful. I can only imaging just how much worse it must sound in mandarin (since their prose tends to be poetic in a way you cannot capture in english)

😂😂😂

I couldn’t help myself and ended up watching ep 19 again🙈
It looks like the timeline between ep 18’s break - 19’s reunion might have been about 5 months?

Approx 1 week - 1 month after the break up : Tao requests to be added to the project. It couldn’t have been that long based on Sun Yu’s reaction and the fact that Tao also mentioned how it wasn’t exactly an explicit break up since nobody used these words to end things suggest couldn’t have been thaaaaat long.

1 month - between requesting the project and starting it. It would also explain why Luke mentioned it was too late to get a rabies certificate since it takes 21 days to certify.

3 months -Project period that had lapsed after she moved

So the Tibet Trip would have to be a time skip right of at least a year?