In the beginning we are introduced to a male lead that isn’t very likable. He harshly criticizes every mistake the people around him makes. He’s always pushing his employees really hard then yelling and losing his temper when they don’t live up to his expectations. But upon finding out about his upbringing and what transpired later when he was an adult we begin to understand him a little better. When he was a toddler his parents died in a tragic accident and his grandmother raised him by herself. Then she died when he was in grade school making him an orphan. Since he was orphaned at a young age, he lived in poverty and had to make his own way by himself living a very harsh life. But he’s a mathematical genius and his talents take him from being a janitor to being the CEO of his own huge company. But along the way he’s badly hurt again when his girlfriend abandons him and marries another man. Having been abandoned by every person he’s ever loved, he shuts down all emotions and becomes very cold and unfeeling. When the people around him fail to meet his expectations he immediately cuts them from his life. There is never any kindness or forgiveness , just harsh consequences.

Fortunately, when circumstances force him and the female lead to be together all the time, he slowly begins to be touched by her kindness. Going to her hometown reminds him of his home growing up. Simple things like being offered a freshly peeled apple or potato straight from the garden brought back warm childhood memories of his beloved grandmother. The female leads family are very warm and loving people that genuinely like him and welcome him. He slowly starts to regain his humanity and genuinely care about people and show kindness.

The character growth of the male lead was done wonderfully and is some of the best I’ve seen. There’s lots of character growth all around for the entire cast which makes it a really enjoyable drama. And the acting is way above average too. I’m not one to notice music in a drama and rarely address it. But the music in this drama was very good and fit every mood perfectly.

The female lead is a very likable character. She’s kind, forgiving, and an overall very sweet person. She’s strong minded, confident, and hardworking too. Her biggest flaw though, is her mindset regarding work. She puts up with a lot of harassment and mistreatment at work believing that if she just perseveres things will get better. Her father raised her to believe that you have to endure a lot of hardship in order to further your career. But what she goes through at work is awful and hard to watch. She’s mistreated badly. Fortunately it doesn’t last long and she finally stands up for herself and gets some backbone. Seeing her learn to navigate the workplace and excel in her career was fun to watch. She had great character growth too.

The storyline was a bit cliché but the acting was flawless. This drama balanced the mystery, romance, and melodrama quite well. Usually a drama will fixate on the romance so much that the mystery and workplace drama suffers. Or it will focus so much on the mystery and workplace stuff that the romance is lacking. This drama balanced it all very well. I liked that all of the characters were well developed and the storyline had a lot of depth and was very interesting. But the romance was really sweet too.

So why didn’t I give it a perfect 10? This is billed as a romcom but I was a bit disappointed with the romance aspect of it. Its not that it didn’t have romance in it, it had a sweet romance along with some great comedy. There were several nice kisses, lots of back hugs, and cuddles too. But the romance gave off the sweet cute vibes of a youthful couple rather than the more passionate vibes of a mature couple. For a number of years now asian dramas with mature couples have been showing a lot more passion, skinship and steamy kisses. So I felt letdown. I’m not against sweet cute fluffy romcoms by any means. I’ve watched lots of them and I really enjoyed them too. But in the past few years we’ve been seeing that the sweet cute romances are usually in college or school dramas with young actors. But in the mature dramas with older actors (that are experienced in dating) the trend has been to show a more realistic relationship that is more passionate and intimate. And I’ve really embraced this trend because it’s much more true to life and realistic. So there’s sort of an expectation nowadays in regards to the more mature dramas that the romance will be more appropriate to their age. So when this drama had the fluffy sweet youthful romance I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed. Seeing mature actors acting all sweet, innocent and shy around one another felt very unrealistic, (especially since they had previously dated other people and weren’t innocent in the dating arena). It just didn’t reflect the progress asian dramas have made in the last few years in terms of physical affection.

Overall I’d say this is a really good drama that I’ll probably rewatch at some point. The comedy is very good, the acting is superb, the mystery is fun to figure out, and the actors have a sweet romance. If you go into it not minding that some of the storyline is cliche and that even though the actors are mature the romance is a bit young sweet and fluffy, you’ll love it. It wasn’t perfect but it was one of those rare dramas I didn’t fast forward through and instead binge watched. I liked the message it’s trying to get across and how it makes us analyze love. Every person in the drama did crazy things for love. Some did it for romantic love, some did it for sibling love, some did it for parental love but they all did crazy things for love. Love makes us so crazy we might want to give up on it and all other emotions like the male lead did. But without love are we really even human? Is there even any quality to life without it? I love the wonderful journey this drama takes us on to answer these questions.

For Clarification:
I am aware that Asian dramas are known for being chaste and pure and I personally love that about them. When I watched my first drama, Boys Over Flowers 13 years ago, there was zero physical affection and the kisses were mere pecks and I absolutely adored the drama. But the industry has had tremendous growth since then and I’m loving it. Yes the youth dramas are still innocent and sweet. But the mature dramas are having a lot more physical affection, skinship, and steamy kisses. In my opinion this makes the drama much more realistic and easier to relate to. With dramas like Oh My Venus (2015), Another Miss Oh (2017), and What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim (2019), we’ve seen a a lot of progress in this area. Kisses aren’t little pecks or fish lips anymore and there’s lots more bedroom scenes. And I like that it’s not vulgar sexually like western dramas and is done very tastefully. So when I say I was disappointed in the innocent youthful type of romance this drama had, I’m not saying I don’t like the sweet pure romances Asian dramas depict or that I’m unaware of how these dramas are romance wise. I’m just saying that in this particular drama with mature leads in their 30’s that have admitted to having dated and been in previous relationships, their romance seemed a bit too innocent, shy and pure. Now if they had no dating or relationship experience despite their age I would have been okay with the shy sweet innocent romance because it would have been realistic. But considering their dating past their relationship just wasn’t realistic to me. Don’t get me wrong, I loved their romance, it was super sweet. But any drama that doesn’t keep up with the progress the industry has made and in doing so portrays things in an unrealistic manner, that effects how I feel about the drama and I’m going to say something. Hopefully you will understand where I’m coming from in my critique of this dramas romance.