This is the first drama I've watched where I found the b romance way, way more compelling than the main one. I liked their parts so much it overcame my apprehension with the rest. I felt really strongly about this show and particularly Huang Yi Lin's character, which I know some people may not care for.

I'll start with some criticism so I can work up to what I liked: with the main two, it's a lot of staring contest and creepy disregard for personal space, boundaries, and time- even if it's an idealistic fantasy, they come off as border-line if not outright codependent. In my view, they also have basically no legitimate relationship conflict or tension for most of the series besides the workaholism of their jobs, as well as the resultant obligatory jealousy (which to me is just fake, forced conflict). The jealousy always stems from some nobody fringe character who doesn't have a chance- this plotting is exactly the same as so many other dramas. Next, the childhood best friend card is such a cheap characterization tool in dramas. Memory isn't as vivid as such tropes make it out to be. For instance, it's hard for me to believe that a person would still be tied emotionally to someone they met 20 years before as a kid and haven't had contact within that time. And that such a weird attachment would be reciprocated is 1 in 100 million.

Now, then, I absolutely love the FL's best friend. She's ardent, funny, cute, determined, lonely, and wears her heart on her sleeve. I felt really attached to her emotional ups and downs and the headfirst, honest way she contended with her inadequacies (failed business, ignorance about a lot of things, etc). I'm sure some watching found her annoying but I thought Huang Yi Lin's performance was excellent and became the real heart of the show.

The relationship she has with her bookstore neighbor - a hard-shelled guy who somberly underestimates his value and lovability - is so compelling I don't know why this show isn't centered on them. The main two are flat characters in comparison. In my mind, best friend and bookstore guy's (b) romance is much more grounded in organic, real life emotions like being hung up on the past and thus not being able to takes steps forward into the future. They're such different people that the collision between their personalities (mixed with a shared rootedness in kindness) works very well dramatically. The show goes to too many lengths, by contrast, to make the leads seem basically perfect. Walking through the dynamics of complementary flaws is what make shows like this touching, compelling, and intimate, not seeing some successful, impossibly perfect and fated lovebirds who PDA like maniacs and creepily flirt with each other all the time.

Stylistically, this show has way too much slow motion and just a bit too many sound effects (though it's mild compared to other series). There are some really nice, beautiful shots like in the city and with interior spaces like the bbq shop. The cast has good chemistry overall, though like I said I have my hang ups on the main couple which I don't think good acting could possibly fix.

In most dramas, the viewer would want to be like the main couple given their romantic successes, but this show focuses the intimacy and flirting with them so much that it doesn't seem real. The imperfections and conflict of the b romance, though, does what the show should've done with the leads in making characters that strive to overcome their own deficiencies - along with external problems - to grow closer slowly and incrementally. In doing so, they also work through the setbacks and false starts endemic to this style of relationship-building, thus making the outcome earned rather than gifted by the goddesses of fate.