Reviews

a beautiful and heartwarming youth story?

> Back to Seventeen is such a beautiful and heartwarming drama. I really enjoyed the story and the way it brings together friendship, youth, family and emotions. The characters are interesting and easy to connect with, and the cast did a wonderful job bringing their feelings to life. I especially loved the youthful atmosphere and the meaningful moments between the characters. The story has a lovely balance of emotional, funny and heartwarming scenes, which made it enjoyable to watch. The music also fits the mood of the drama really well. Overall, this drama gave me a warm and comforting feeling, and I enjoyed every moment of it. The story, acting and characters all made it special for me. I would definitely recommend Back to Seventeen to anyone who enjoys sweet, emotional and meaningful youth dramas. 💗✨

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a sweet and adorable with youth romance ?

> Exclusive Fairy Tale is such a sweet, heartwarming and enjoyable youth romance. I really loved the chemistry between the main leads and the way their relationship slowly developed from childhood friendship into something more meaningful. The story is simple, cute and comforting, with lots of funny, wholesome and memorable moments. The characters feel natural and easy to connect with, and the cast did a wonderful job bringing them to life. I especially enjoyed the friendship, school-life atmosphere and the little moments between the leads. The drama made me smile so many times and gave me such a warm feeling while watching it. The music also suited the story beautifully. Overall, Exclusive Fairy Tale is a lovely drama that I would happily rewatch whenever I want something light, cute and comforting. Definitely recommended for anyone who enjoys sweet youth romances! 💗✨





> Exclusive Fairy Tale is such a sweet and heartwarming youth romance. I loved the cute chemistry between the leads and how natural their friendship and relationship felt. The story is simple, fun, and comforting, with many adorable moments. The cast did a great job, and the drama kept me smiling throughout.

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A definite must watch for romance lovers! ♥️

High-stakes, intensely emotional, devastatingly romantic, and deeply passionate!

This is the most epic, beautiful magnetic, sensual, devastatingly tragic and swoon-worthy romance ever in kdrama. The couple pairing was exceptional and unforgettable. Their chemistry and heartbreaking love was just undeniably intense. Very few dramas have reached this kind of perfect romance.

This drama and both ML and FL deserved the multiple awards. Namkoong min's performance won him the prestigious Grand Prize (Daesang) at the Baeksang Arts Awards and he definitely deserved it. He delivered a virtuosic performance as a tormented soul consumed by an absolute, unwavering, and obsessive devotion to the female lead. Janghyeon's complete devotion to Gilchae is what I will remember in My dearest.
There are Lots of dramas where the the ML is obsessed and infatuated with the FL, for example Lovely Runner or Empress Ki (JCW's magnificent performance as the obsessed and infatuated emperor) but Janghyeon is the gold standard for me!
Namkoong min's micro-expressions, his voice, fighting skills and acting were extraordinary. The FL's transformation from innocent, charming, stubborn, spoilt, feisty to later as mature, dependent fierce protector and lover was sublime. She perfectly captured the character's essence as a flawed yet endearing figure. Gilchae is now one of my favourite FL's in kdramas as well as Ko Moon-young in Its OK to not be okay and Seung-nyang in Empress Ki.

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Can they employ me...

I love every character on this drama :')

It's actually a crime how low it's rated, because the rating does not match the quality whatsoever.

As someone who couldn't care less about business storylines and corporate arcs, I was completely hooked! I started the drama with absolutely no context of what is was about, and the first episode almost had me thinking this was gonna be an idol/fan romance XD but somehow I ended up fully hooked for 16 episodes about trading! like who am I??

Genuinely, every character on this drama was so lovable and I feel like I cared about them as if they were my own friends... (well, everyone except Mr. Misogyny, idc if he had a redemption arc)

Tae Poong's mother is so sweet, I went full on heart-eyes whenever she was on screen.

The plot is so interesting and easy to follow even if you don't know anything about any of that stuff (hint: Tae Poong doesn't either lmao)

The scene when Tae Poong and Mi Seon see each other on the bus during that first episode!! Oh my God I haven't stopped thinking about that... It was shot and written in a way that I honestly adored so much, it was so captivating to me... Some people might see it as a simple scene but idk man it was perfect to me.

Some of the interactions between the characters felt so natural and genuine and so full of heart, they had me smiling like I'm one of them.

And the comedy parts were hilarious and managed to actually make me laugh :p

I LOVED THIS DRAMA <3

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Devilishly Entertaining and Absolutely Addictive!

I absolutely LOVED When the Devil Calls Your Name! This drama had such a unique combination of fantasy, comedy, romance, emotion, and darker themes that kept me completely hooked. The storyline was creative and unpredictable, and I really enjoyed how it explored contracts, temptation, fame, sacrifice, and what people are willing to give up to get what they want. It had plenty of twists and emotional moments while still knowing exactly when to have fun with its premise.

And Jung Kyung-ho... WOW. He was absolutely fantastic, and yes, he is SO HANDSOME! His performance had so much charisma, personality, and emotional depth. I loved watching him carry the story, especially when the drama shifted between comedy and more serious emotional scenes. He made his character incredibly entertaining to watch, and I honestly couldn't take my eyes off him whenever he was on screen.

Park Sung-woong was another highlight for me. His devilish presence, comedic timing, expressions, and sheer confidence made every scene with him ridiculously entertaining. He managed to make the Devil feel intimidating while also being hilariously funny, which created such a fun dynamic with Jung Kyung-ho. Lee Seol was also wonderful, especially in the emotional scenes. Her acting brought a lot of sincerity and vulnerability to the story, and I really felt the emotions behind her character. Lee El was fantastic too, adding even more personality and intensity to the drama.

The OST deserves special praise because it fit the atmosphere beautifully and made many scenes hit even harder emotionally. The cinematography, supernatural elements, character relationships, comedy, and overall storyline came together really well for me. When the Devil Calls Your Name is one of those dramas that can make you laugh one minute and then suddenly hit you with something surprisingly emotional the next. I had such a great time watching it, and the combination of Jung Kyung-ho, Park Sung-woong, Lee Seol, Lee El, the storyline, and the OST made this a very memorable K-drama for me. Definitely a drama I would recommend to anyone looking for something fun, emotional, supernatural, and wonderfully weird!

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Vanilla Sky in 1969

I had to write a review. This is a rare drama among bl dramas. Most are really just entertainment. But this drama gives us something emotional and real; it provoked our hearts for an era. And it captured that era so faultlessly and transported us to that tumultuous time. Watching it, experiencing it, equally caught up in what choice to make hoping to make an impact on a country struggling with social inequalities, challenging cultural norms under economic conditions that divide people by wealth and social standing.

This drama is wonderfully delightful and so lovely we smile and our hearts soar. Yet just as much this drama is raw and gritty and painful and our hearts ache. There was no other time in history like the late 60s - 70s that produced this remarkable union of a political and musical explosion wherein life itself became a song and in this drama, we get to watch each character flow with that song, even if it isn't fully understood. Not just in Thailand, but all the world fell under the order 'nothing remains the same'. In this drama we get to watch how each character navigates how they will respond to this order - never question it or question it, never rise above or back down, take a chance or don't, never break apart then never be put back together, never lose yourself then never find yourself...

Relationships:
Episode one breaks our heart for the main pair under a curtain of stars and we don't yet understand. This is Trin and Tanwa's story. It's blurry and unsure.
Episode two breaks our heart again with the second pairing instantly and clearly when we hardly had time to recover from the first break. Lert's and Naran's story in contrast is more direct and clearly displayed.

Acting:
Every single role, every single actor in this drama did a phenomenal job, which is only heightened by the costume and makeup. You are invested in every character, every moment and hold every drop of emotion very dear.


Music:
I'm the harshest critic when it comes to a drama's OST. Only a handful have received a 9 or higher from me. To acquire such a rating an OST must have: at least one banger, songs that fit the mood and tell the story well and also have good original scores. The soundtrack plays a big part in the emotional depth of a drama, and this one hit me from the very beginning to end.



This is a story is about freedom. Freedom of rights and opportunities, freedom in love, freedom of life and the pursuit of dreams during a time when economic growth and class stratification created a disparity of wealth and opportunity that was deeply felt between the elite class and the people. The people of this time wondered, can the voice of even a single person be heard over the deafening sound of progress in the hands of those with power? Is there a governing system that can't be taken advantage of in which the people won't fall through the cracks?

This story shows how deeply felt the problems of society were during a time that was marked with political upheaval. The drama gives us a look at Bangkok when hundreds of thousands of students and citizens took to protesting demanding reform when military influence held power. This drama gave us a look through each character's lense at how a person has to find their own courage to stand and fight in their own way. How does a wave break upon traditions, rules, the hopes of the future and the ocean of the present reality to carve a good and bright pathway forward?


Far Side of the Moon Lyrics

Never question it, then you'll never know
Never rise above, then you'll never grow
Take a chance now, don't go losing your hope
Never break apart, then you'll never heal
Never lose yourself, then you'll never feel
Never face the fear, then nothing is real

On the far side of the moon
Where only hеarts that dare to dream could evеr break through
On the far side of the moon

Never dream too big, it's nice to pretend
Never risk the pain, it's all in your head
Never start again, then this is the end
Never trust yourself, then you'll never stand
Never reach for more, then you'll miss the landing
Never give your love, then you're missing all of the magic

Take a chance, take a chance
Just take a chance, take a chance
Just take a chance, take a chance on love

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one of the best ongoing drama I watch

I watched Twinkling Watermelon when it was still ongoing, and honestly, I don't know why people now find it slow. At that time, it was hands down the best ongoing K-drama.

I never watched any spoilers, so every episode was a rollercoaster for me. I genuinely thought it was going to have a really bad and sad ending, but it ended beautifully.

The absolute best part for me was Yi-chan and Eun-ah's chemistry. I never really liked Yi-chan's chemistry with any other girl, but / Eun-ah was the exception. Their soft romance was everything. And can we talk about how amazingly they portrayed sign language? No one is going to play it as beautifully and respectfully as they did. The way they were so gentle and soft with each other, it felt so pure and real.

The comedy in this drama is also perfect. Without being too loud or over-the-top, the fun is very subtle and natural. If you watch it without any spoilers, this drama will get you completely addicted.

My only complaint is the time-travel girl, Eun-gyeol's daughter. She was so annoying. I know whatever happens to her in the future is sad, but she tried so hard to ruin the main couple. Like, just because you don't want your mother to marry your father, why are you randomly picking another guy for her? That's so lame. She is not a teenager anymore, so why act so dumb? Maybe just go and talk to your mother, or find a way to stop her from marrying your father, instead of picking another guy without even knowing if your mother likes him or not. You are also destroying her life in the process. She was literally trying to force a love triangle.

The only sane point was that Yi-chan only ever had a crush on her mother, he never got romantically attached to her. That saved the story. I personally didn't find any chemistry between the future time-travel couple either. They are good alone, as single individuals. Or maybe I am just more into the family aspect - I wanted Eun-gyeol to spend more time with his father and mother only, that's why the future couple's romance felt annoying and unnecessary to me.

The last episode was a bit rushed for me, but still, Twinkling Watermelon is one of the best ongoing dramas I have watched. It's about family, youth, first love, and music. A truly healing drama.

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We have everything in the end, just not each other

Us and Them is such a gem, and honestly… what the hell was the director thinking when making something this raw??? This movie feels like a reality check disguised as a love story. It follows Xiaoxiao and Jiang Qing, two young people leaving their hometown for Beijing to chase a better life, basically starting with nothing but their dreams and each other. And the movie doesn’t romanticize their struggle at all. Poverty, being looked down on because of their education, money problems, love scams, doing shady things just to survive, the pressure to look successful in front of people back home… life keeps hitting them like an old friend who never runs out of problems. Yet through all of it, they have each other. They are together at their absolute lowest, and that’s what makes everything later hurt like hell.

High five to the director because the rawness here is insane. The camera direction, cinematography, changing seasons, crowded buildings, tiny rented rooms, cold streets—it all feels so lived-in. Even the way the seasons change makes you feel how much time has passed and how their relationship slowly changes with it. The poverty doesn’t feel like some aesthetic tragedy; it feels genuinely uncomfortable and real. And Jing Boran + Zhou Dongyu??? A FEAST. This is truly the kind of acting where you finally understand why movie actors are treated as the top chain of the entertainment industry. They barely need words. Their expressions, silence, little gestures and the way they look at each other already tell you everything. They genuinely feel like two people who have loved, fought, struggled and grown up together.

But then everything starts falling apart. After New Year’s Eve, their arguments become more frequent, and honestly I understood Jiang Qing’s insecurity. They left home to make money, so he desperately didn’t want to return looking like a failure. He pretends he’s successful, pretends he has his own place and even an address, while he’s actually still living in a building packed with tenants. And the more he tries to prove that he’s not a failure, the more frustrated and insecure he becomes. Xiaoxiao, meanwhile, is just tired. She loves him, but love cannot pay the rent, fix their future or magically make survival easier. Eventually she leaves—not because she doesn’t love him anymore, but because she’s exhausted from living like this. Then Jiang Qing finally succeeds. His game gets released, his career takes off, he gets money, a house, an actual address… everything he thought Xiaoxiao wanted. And THIS is where the misunderstanding kills me. She wanted a home. He thought she wanted a house. He worked his ass off thinking, “I finally got everything you wanted, so why won’t you come back?” But she wanted the feeling of belonging, not four walls. By the time he understood, it was already too late.

And then the plane scene??? I was genuinely stupid enough to think, okay maybe they’ll finally get another chance. Ten years later, Jiang Qing is in business class while Xiaoxiao is in economy, basically showing us that he finally became the successful man he always wanted to be. They sit together, talk about the past, and for a second it feels like maybe the universe is finally giving them another chance. THEN HIS PHONE RINGS. A VIDEO CALL FROM HIS SON. EXCUSE ME???? I actually wanted to throw something. He has a wife. A son. A whole life. And suddenly Xiaoxiao says that she could have been his wife, but now she would only look like a homewrecker. THAT HURTS. Because you can tell they still love each other, but what are they supposed to do with that love now? They finally have the money, house, career and stability they were fighting for back then… just not each other. And honestly, I watched their conversation with a guilty feeling too, because no matter how obvious it is that something between them never really died, he has a family now. Love doesn’t erase consequences.

And that stupidly cruel line kept coming back to me: maybe a man only truly loves someone once, and everything after that is just surviving. WHAT A VILLAIN SENTENCE. I don’t even know if I believe it. I really don’t want to. People can love again. People can build happy families again. But watching Jiang Qing and Xiaoxiao made me understand why that sentence feels believable. Jiang Qing moved on with his life—married, had a son, became successful—but when he sees Xiaoxiao again, you can still feel that old love underneath everything. Meanwhile, Xiaoxiao still hasn’t found someone she loves enough to build another life with, and she still doesn’t have the home she was longing for all those years ago. Maybe Jiang Qing learned how to survive without her, while Xiaoxiao never really found another place that felt like home. And then his dad’s letter absolutely finished me. His father loved Xiaoxiao so much, already knew these two might not end up together, but still considered her his daughter. Even he couldn’t completely let her go. I WAS BAWLING.

What frustrates me most is that I still wanted them together. Even after everything. Even knowing it probably shouldn’t happen. Because what if Jiang Qing had gotten on that train and chased her? What if Xiaoxiao stayed? What if they had met at a different time, when they were more mature and financially stable? Maybe they would’ve been happy. Or maybe they would’ve stayed poor and miserable and eventually broken up anyway. That’s the cruel part—we will never know. Maybe if they had stayed together, Jiang Qing would never have become the man he is now. Maybe Xiaoxiao would have found her home with him, but they would have lost everything else they eventually achieved. Life basically forced them to choose, and neither of them knew what they were choosing at the time.

That’s why this movie hurts so fucking much. There’s no real villain. No cheating. No huge betrayal. No one simply stopped loving the other. It was poverty, insecurity, timing, circumstances and two people who were just too tired and too young to understand what they actually needed. They were each other’s home when they had nothing, but somehow couldn’t stay together after they finally had everything. Sometimes you can love someone deeply, be perfect for each other at one point in your life, and still not be meant to stay. And honestly? That is such a horrible reality check. I finished this movie thinking about all the "what ifs" instead of the ending, and maybe that’s exactly why it hurts. They finally got the life they dreamed of. They just didn’t get to live it together.

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WE HAVE BEEN ROBBED

This had SO. MUCH. POTENTIAL that it physically hurts. 😭

I kept sighing throughout the whole drama thinking about what this could’ve been if the FL wasn’t Liu Haocun. 💀 I mean i respect her decision but why do romance then. U know what, I blame the casting director

Because honestly? The chemistry was THERE. I loved the chemistry so much, but somehow the drama still felt… incomplete. Like we were one ingredient away from a five-star meal. 😭

And my man Wang Anyu?? CARRIED.
Those lovestruck eyes were doing overtime. Somebody give that man an award because he was WORKING. 🫠

Meanwhile, the FL was serving us one gorgeous poker face after another. 😭 She looked beautiful, yes, but I just couldn’t feel her character. I genuinely tried. I really, really did.

The dialogue was kinda weird at times too, but honestly, I could overlook it because the chemistry kept pulling me back in.

Casting: 8/10 — and I’m giving half of that score to Wang Anyu and his lovestruck eyes. 😂

Such a frustrating watch because you can SEE the potential. It could’ve been SO GOOD. 😭

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Just… weird

I felt so uncomfortable throughout the whole thing… I have two dogs and I kept looking at them and thinking: “These are my babies… It’s like they’re my own children”, which means that even if they showed up one day looking like Seo Kang Joon or Jung Hae In, I would still feel a MOTHERLY love towards them. So excuse me for finding the whole “dating your pet” concept extremely weird.

Milk and Uncle’s relationship was easier to digest because 1) Uncle didn’t know Milk was a cat in a human’s body; 2) he himself did not raise the damn cat. But Jung Woo and Choco? Nah, bro… That’s just not it.

The plot had potential if it’d gone in a different direction, like leaning more towards them helping Jung Woo find romantic love with someone else, as in playing cupid.

Acting was lacking too, Milk was probably the best out of the four, but still cringey.

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What's Wrong With the Nobi?

Watched December 5, 2024. I gave it a two that night and never moved off it. Only one drama I've ever seen has gone lower. I left it alone for a long time after that because enough time had passed, enough dramas had come and gone, and I wanted to know if I still hated this thing or if I'd simply been in a particularly foul mood that night. I've learned more since then, too. I notice the places where Neo-Confucian ideas creep into a story, get dressed up in modern clothes, and quietly start telling everyone where they belong. So I thought maybe I'd see something different this time. Maybe I'd been too harsh. I watched all sixteen episodes again.

The two stays. Consider it a rounding error in this drama's favor.

What's Wrong With Secretary Kim is one of those dramas where the premise becomes more offensive the longer I sit with it because the woman at the center of it is making one of the most reasonable decisions anybody could possibly make. She wants to quit her job. She wants a life that isn't built around somebody else's schedule, somebody else's family, somebody else's needs. That's it. That's the thing this drama spends sixteen episodes trying to defeat. The title asks what's wrong with Secretary Kim, when the more interesting question would have been what's wrong with everybody who refuses to let her leave.

Lee Young-joon makes me furious because the show keeps stripping away the context that makes his behavior so ugly and replacing it with expensive suits, pretty lighting and that smug little expression that apparently means I'm supposed to find him irresistible. He is her employer. He signs her paycheck, controls her working hours, controls her reference, controls the environment she has spent nine years surviving in, and then acts personally betrayed when she resigns. She tells him she wants to leave and he simply refuses to accept the answer. She tries to find another job and he interferes with the replacement process. She says no and he keeps pursuing her. There is no complicated mystery here. A woman is trying to leave her boss and her boss decides that her decision is something he gets to negotiate. The fact that he's rich and beautiful doesn't make that less disturbing. It just means the drama has the budget to make it look romantic.

And I hate the physicality of it. I hate the wrist grabbing, the blocking her path, the way he backs her into walls and desks and corners and uses his body to occupy the space she needs to move through. The camera keeps treating those moments like sexual tension, with soft music and close-ups and that breathless little pause dramas love when they're telling me two people are about to kiss. I'm sitting there thinking, why is he still standing there? Move. She is trying to get past you. This is not chemistry to me. It's a man taking advantage of the fact that he is physically bigger and socially more powerful than the woman who is trying to tell him no, while the production desperately begs me to find it sexy.

Then there is his dependence on her, which might be the part I despise most because the show turns his inability to function without Mi-so into evidence of how deeply he loves her. He can't sleep properly, he can't organize himself, he can't manage his own life, and apparently this is supposed to be adorable because it proves how important she is to him. No. It proves that he spent nine years making another human being responsible for his existence. He has built his entire life around her labor and then acts devastated when she finally decides she wants some of that life back for herself. It's emotional blackmail dressed up as vulnerability. Stay because I can't function without you. Stay because I'll fall apart if you leave. Stay because you'll feel guilty watching me suffer. And the drama looks at this enormous adult man making his employee responsible for his emotional stability and goes, isn't love beautiful?

It gets even worse when I think about what those nine years actually mean for Mi-so. She wasn't starting from some position of freedom when she took that job. She was already carrying her father's debts and the needs of her family, already accustomed to putting herself second, already living a life where being useful to other people was treated as her responsibility. She has spent her entire adulthood being needed. Her father needs something. Her sisters need something. Her boss needs everything. And then the romance comes along and tells her that the solution to spending her life orbiting other people is to find a man worth orbiting. Father, boss, husband. It's a relay race and she's the baton. Everybody celebrates when the final handoff happens because apparently she has finally found the correct person to belong to.

And none of that structure is an accident, which is the part that actually makes me want to scream. Confucian doctrine gave women three obediences. Her father before marriage, her husband during it, her son in widowhood. Cradle to grave she belonged to somebody, and her autonomy was never hers to hold, it was passed between men like property changing hands. Now look at Mi-so's life and tell me what's different. Father, employer, husband. The badge is corporate and the tower is in Gangnam and the script is four hundred years old. This drama isn't inventing a romance. It's larping Joseon in tailored suits with a good colorist and hoping nobody clocks the shape of it. I clocked it. It's the same arrangement, just better lit.

A Joseon father handed his daughter a silver knife and called it protection, and everybody understood what it actually meant, which was die before you're dishonored. Young-joon hands Mi-so a bag. I'm aware one of those objects kills you and the other doesn't. The message underneath them is the same message. Your worth is fragile, your worth is conditional, your worth is somebody else's to assess, and here is the beautiful object that proves you've accepted the terms. The knife made the arrangement obvious. The bag makes it feel like being loved.

That's the whole trick, and it works on millions of people. The drama makes the cage look like the way out. Mi-so is exhausted, she's carrying debts that were never hers, she has no time and no life and no room to move, and the story offers her exactly one exit from all of it, which is a bigger and better decorated version of the same room. She's allowed to be competent. She's allowed to be the most capable person in the building. She just has to be capable at him, permanently, and hand the whole thing over to a man's emotional needs before the credits roll. That's not liberation with a romance attached. That's the oldest confinement there is, restaged with money, and the show has the nerve to film her walking into it in a white dress like she chose it freely. So I guess servitude is fine as long as LV made the uniform and Hermès made the collar and leash.

That's why the gifts bother me too. The show keeps presenting all the expensive things Young-joon gives her as evidence that he appreciates her, as though bags and clothes and access to his luxurious world somehow compensate for nine years of labor. He doesn't give her freedom. He doesn't give her time back. He doesn't give her the years she spent organizing his life. He gives her things. That's not the same thing. Those gifts feel less like generosity the longer I look at them and more like a leash with a very expensive clasp. The cage gets prettier. The bars get more expensive. The cage is still there.

And then the kidnapping storyline comes along and somehow manages to make an already infuriating drama even more unbearable because Mi-so's own trauma becomes another thing other people control for her. She was the child in that room. It happened to her body and her mind, and yet her memory becomes something the adults around her can suppress, debate, carry, write about and eventually reveal when they decide the timing is right. One brother turns the experience into a book. The other carries the memory for years. The family buries the truth. Young-joon stands beside her with information about her own past that she doesn't have. Everyone has a piece of her history except the person whose history it actually is. Then the drama hands the truth back to her like a romantic revelation and expects me to be grateful for the emotional timing. I'm not. I'm furious. Even her trauma gets processed through other people's decisions before it is allowed to belong to her.

Park Min-young is the one reason I can still see Mi-so underneath all of this. I am biased and I don't care. She is doing an enormous amount of work to make this woman feel like she exists beyond whatever the plot currently needs her to do. There are moments where Mi-so is supposed to be happy and I can still see the calculation in her face, the exhaustion, the little flashes of someone who has spent years being competent because everybody around her expects her to be. Park Min-young gives her an interior life that the script keeps trying to confiscate. That's what makes watching the drama so frustrating. I can see the woman. The writing keeps seeing the assistant. Then it sees the girlfriend. Then the fiancée. Then the wife. Every time Mi-so starts becoming her own person, the story finds another relationship for her to disappear into.

And then we get the ending, which is where the whole thing finally becomes insane. She quits because she wants a life of her own, and she ends up marrying the man whose life she has spent nine years managing. She still organizes his day. She still takes care of him. She still fixes his tie. She still revolves around his needs. The difference is that now she doesn't have a salary, a job title or an end of shift. The employment contract was at least a contract. What replaces it works more like a nobi munseo, the paper that used to certify a person as somebody's property, except this version gets signed in front of flowers while everybody cries about how beautiful it is. Marriage is where the show quietly deletes the paycheck and calls it happily ever after. I am supposed to look at this woman who spent the entire drama saying she wanted to experience life outside of service and feel moved because she has voluntarily made her service permanent. She didn't escape the job. She married the boss.

That's why I hate this drama as much as I do. It's not simply that I dislike Young-joon or that I think the romance is badly handled. I hate the fundamental argument the story keeps making about Mi-so. She says she wants to leave and the narrative treats that desire as something that needs to be corrected. She wants independence, so the plot gives her romance. She wants her own identity, so the plot gives her a husband. She wants to stop spending her life taking care of somebody else, so the plot gives her somebody else to take care of forever. The show keeps calling the thing she wants a misunderstanding while presenting the thing she is trying to escape as her destiny. And yes, it's a romcom. I'm aware. That's the packaging, not an alibi. A story doesn't stop arguing what it's arguing because the lighting is warm and everybody in it is beautiful. Sixteen hours is a long time to spend saying something, and this one said it very clearly.

Nothing is wrong with Secretary Kim. That's the fucking joke. She was the only person in this entire production who knew exactly what she wanted. She wanted to go home. The drama just couldn't stand the idea that home might be somewhere Lee Young-joon wasn't. So it spent sixteen episodes dragging her back toward him, dressing the cage up in romance, throwing confetti over it and calling the result freedom. Park Min-young fought like hell to make Mi-so feel like a person inside that story. I could see her fighting. I could see the person underneath it. And I could see the script winning anyway.

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