AH

100% agree with all those factors :)

Yu Tu agreeing to spend basically his entire vacation coaching Jing Jing on how to play a game right after meeting her again reminded me of a quote from Just Between Lovers. "To a woman he didn't even like, what man would lend his shoulder all night?"

I definitely don't think he had fallen for her at that point, but I do think that some part of him must have liked her a little bit (subconsciously and maybe platonically at that point) for someone with his personality to agree to that request.

True. My re-watches tend to focus on my favourite feel good or bittersweet moments from dramas, so I'm not sure if I'll rewatch this one. But we'll see.

Thank you, that's very helpful. I think I might end up watching the rest on my own.

He's in the second episode. The shower scene was pretty much the only reason I included "almost" in my first comment. Do his antics ramp up in the later episodes?

I started watching this with a friend on the premise that this was a black comedy but it didn't feel like that was an accurate description of what we watched. My friend doesn't normally watch kdramas, military shows, or shows that could be described as "brutal". She's hesitant to continue, so I'm trying to gauge whether the later episodes are as dark / heavy as the first two without some humor or lightness to balance it out a bit.

After watching the first two episodes, there seems to be almost no comedy (black comedy or otherwise). Does that change in later episodes?

A great feel good drama where the romance felt right and genuine (although not from the very beginning - I didn't love the tricks at first), the unnecessary drama was minimal but the writers and actors did a great job of making me care about / be engaged by low-stakes events like workplace basketball games, an all-around likeable (and beautiful) cast, a lovely OST, and so many beautiful location shots.

This drama gave me so much nostalgia for the summer I spent working in Shanghai (there were several shots of my office ^^!). I even felt nostalgic about the subway, which is quite a feat!

It was much lighter than I was expecting given all the hype, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it.

I added My Mister, Mr. Sunshine and Misty. Can't believe those weren't in the top 30 already.

Wang Lao Ji is absolutely gorgeous. I'd love to see her character in a full-length drama. I enjoyed the humour but hope Peng Jing Xian's character will get a little more depth too.

The FL never plays with the ML's feelings. Think about the circumstances of the scenes you mentioned. The FL is young commoner and effectively an orphan with no family influence or status to protect her. She was kidnapped and taken into the palace against her will, and has to carefully hide her gender every day because if it's discovered that she's a girl she will almost certainly be executed. The difference in power and status between her and the ML are enormous. As she said, she wouldn't have become friends with him if he hadn't hidden his identity from her. Then the ML saves her life from the Chinese envoy at great personal risk. The fact that she developed feelings for the ML even when she knows they definitely can't be together is completely understandable.

Then the ML confesses his own feelings for her and what is her very first reaction? They can't be together. The crown prince and a eunuch? That would be an impossible couple that no one would support. The ML kisses her anyway despite everything the FL said, and the next time we see her she's still in a bit of a daze after her first kiss. It seems very unfair to insist that she's a terrible person or toying with the ML just because she carefully and hesitantly (still always worrying about being discovered) accepts the ML's advances at that point instead of continuing her protests. She's head over heals for him, he's very sweet and charming to her, and he didn't listen when she pointed out the reasons they couldn't be together. And the Crown Prince of all people should know that he can't possibly have a real, not secret, long term relationship with a eunuch. The FL should not have to explain that to him, but she tried to anyway.

Then she sees the ML in the same garden where he kissed her speaking to a beautiful noble woman in a friendly manner. It's not totally crazy for her to worry that he might also be flirting with / have feelings for that woman. After all, there's no possible future where he could marry a eunuch, so it's logical to conclude that he might only intend to have a fling with her. And the FL confronts him right away and asks him to stop toying with her feelings if he also has (in his own words) a beautiful woman that he loves. And the FL responsibly distances herself from the ML at that point. She doesn't lead him on.

Then the ML reveals that he knows the FL is a woman and says he'll cherish her as a woman. But he should know that that's completely impossible. There's virtually no scenario the ML could come up with where she could live publicly as a woman and have a proper relationship with the ML that wouldn't result in the FL being sentenced to death and the ML likely facing consequences as well (as the FL says, she worries that he'll be injured trying to protect her from the inevitable consequences). He should be aware of that, but he doesn't consider the danger to the FL at all. He just knows that he can't stand to not have her by his side. At that point the FL steps back from him again and distances herself from him. She does not lead him on.

After all of that and hearing the FL's valid concerns several times, the ML still asks her to bear the danger to both of them (in her case, the risk of being killed) and constant worry of being exposed and to stay by his side where she will have to continue hiding her gender and their relationship. After several very heartfelt asks from the ML, the FL gives in.

I love both of the leads, but if one of them should be criticized as you say for not acting in the other person's best interests, it's definitely not the FL! She was always concerned about the ML's safety and well being, while he was so focused on keeping her by his side that he completely ignored the danger he was asking her to face.

Rewatched, but I stopped at 15 minutes and 15 seconds into the last episode. A bit abrupt, but still more satisfying that way.

The contract was only "invalid" (not really the best word for it - more like "null") when MM and TDK couldn't remember making it. When their memories returned, the contract came back into force. That's whey MM disappears - on TDK's fated death day he is the person she loves most, so when the contract penalty is invoked (in the drama, MM says something about the contract being void at this point, but again it's not that the contract isn't in force - he just means that TDK has breached her obligations under the contract by not completing her wish for doom to befall the world before her fated death day, so the penalty is invoked) he "dies" / disappears in her place. TDK survives past her fated death day because that is also part of the contract penalty.

**Spoilers for episode 2**

That's how the penalty was originally explained. If TDK fails to complete her wish for doom to befall the world before her fated death day (100 days from her terminal diagnosis / her parents' memorial day), the person she loves most at that time will die IN HER PLACE. Meaning that she will get to live, but she will have to do so with the knowledge that the person she loved most died because of her.

When MM first explains the penalty in episode 2, he says that TDK's doom will transfer from her to the person she loves most. When TDK writes down the details of the contract in her notebook in episode 3, MM comments that she's a pessimist for focusing on the fact that the person she loves most will die instead of focusing on the fact that she gets to live.

Doesn't make a ton of sense as a penalty (since the person she loves most would die anyway if doom befell the world), but the drama was pretty clear about the fact that she would live if the penalty was invoked.

*Spoilers for episodes 1 and 2 only below*

Doom offered to take away TDK's pain and to grant her an extra wish (something other than wishing for doom to befall the world) in exchange for completing her first wish (for doom to befall the world). When that didn't work, he created a scenario where TDK was going to be hit by a truck and killed. He told her he would only save her if she took his hand, which obviously would mean accepting his contract. TDK decides to accept his offer because (despite her lack of emotion about her terminal diagnosis) she doesn't want to die.

Doom later adds that the promise to take away TDK's pain comes with a condition: she has to recharge the protection every day by holding his hand before midnight. Also, when TDK finds out the penalty (the person she loves most will die in her place) of not holding up her side of the bargain (completing her wish for doom to befall the world before her fated death in 100 days) later in episode 2, she protests. Doom recreates the same scenario where a truck is about to hit and kill her in order to prove that she would still accept the contract even after she knew all the details, and she does accept it again. You can kind of think of it as two agreements. First: if TDK accepts Doom's offer, he will save her from being killed immediately by the truck. Second: the real contract.

The parts that confuse most people are the extra wish (it's mentioned very quickly in episode 1) and the penalty (because people are confused by the fact that the penalty will result in TDK getting to live past her fated death day). Both of those points are confirmed in episode 3.

I've also kept track of the contract details here if you want to check when certain parts of the contract come up: https://mydramalist.com/discussions/destruction/62551-notes-to-keep-track-of-plot-points.

A swing and a miss. He's hung up on someone else.

You can try this list of dramas where a secondary character has feelings for one of the leads, but the leads' feelings never waiver: https://mydramalist.com/list/4YW5nGAL

The SML stops trying to constantly touch the FL even when she obviously tries to avoid being touched, but his role isn't minor (I thought it was going to be a much smaller and shorter role) and he continues to pursue her persistently in the second half of the drama.

If you feel like dropping it at episode 10, I'd say go ahead and drop it. The pace remains just as slow and the scenes are just as repetitive in the next six episodes, if not more so than in the first 10.

I totally agree. The writers really didn't do a good job of explaining why Myeol Mang was able to make it so that TDK would live as a result of the penalty when Myeol Mang and the Deity both said they were otherwise unable to change TDK's fated death.

Plus, as other viewers have pointed out, Myeol Mang was able to prevent the murderer from dying at the point in time when the murderer was originally going to die, so clearly Myeol Mang is able to use his powers to change a person's fated time of death in at least some cases. Maybe he can only delay a death when doing so can somehow be construed as dooming the person. But even if that's the case it still doesn't explain why he was able to change TDK's fated death via the contract penalty.

If I were to speculate, I think maybe Myeol Mang could always transfer TDK's death to another person. He made it the person she loves most for the contract penalty as an incentive, but maybe he could've transferred it to a murderer instead. But that would've totally thrown a wrench in the story arch so I get whey the writers didn't go there.

Also I think the Deity might be lying about not being able to save TDK from her cancer / not being able to change her fated death. The contract penalty plays into the outcome she wanted so it's very possible that she could've saved TDK without having to invoke the contract penalty but she chose not to in order to help Myeol Mang in the long run.

The girl in the hospital is a Deity (the one and only). She created Myeol Mang / Doom, who is the only other immortal.

She wants Myeol Mang and Tak Dong Kyung to be happy, but believes that they can only achieve a meaningful happy ending (with one big change in particular) if they suffer and have to struggle to achieve it. When she says cruel things to Myeol Mang or seems like she's trying to separate them, she's manipulating him and playing the long game in order to help them achieve a happy ending.

The Deity only exists because of the will / wishes of humans and she and Myeol Mang will disappear / die / cease to exist if all humans disappear / die / cease to exist, so ensuring the world doesn't end is understandably a priority for her. She said her illness / frailty / short lifespans are the price she pays for humanity's existence (the writers never explain this further) and she's willing to pay that price because humans are responsible for her existence.