😭😭😭😭😭😭 The hair is gone. The glasses too!
I am going to miss their convenient store banter

I love this show even in the full trope mode. It’s just so much fun. The actors and writing just works for me.

Hae-young Is such an interesting character and I love her. Even if her words are prickly at times she is someone who genuinely cares and is thoughtful.

The chemistry is fire!! The hotel room scene was so awesome I don’t know if I can handle the future!!

So Ji wook is one of the foster kids and I am glad the show didn’t try to build the suspense to the last minute. We audience know it already. We also have some idea that he might be a chaebol son. lol.

Our other couple. I really liked how the show handled the trolling. He did bad and hope he realizes how terrible his behavior was and makes amends wholeheartedly. We know he is a good guy so I have hope.
His scenes with Secretary are a hoot!! I can I just ship these two please 😜

I love this show a little too much and it’s ruined all romcoms currently airing and had to drop them all.

I liked these episodes better than the last and I'll keep watching, but only because I have nothing on Mon-Tues. It is still just okay for me. Idk if I am going to like the show for our 2Ls though. Hmmmm

The balance is kinda weird, I have the feelings to get 90% of Shin Min-Ah and 10% of Kim Young-Dae. I hope the story will be more balanced between the FL and the ML in the future.

JW is very mysterious. He knew her mother and he accepted the wedding because of the mother. But if HY seemed angry with all these kids, it looks like she cared about them. She helped our spicy writer. So shouldn't she remember him? I'm not so a big fan of this trope, but we will see.

The Grandmother was wrong for everything... Let him show his eyes and handsome face! There is nothing wrong with them. Separating a kid from his mother didn't help any of them...

Heo Jeong-Min made "awful boyfriend" his trademark in KDramas. HS needs to learn herself and to see she deserves better!

I wonder if Kwon Yi-Lin really never knew about her boyfriend and HY.

The cigarettes makes me chuckle because it's like they're combining the fact that cigarettes seem to be shown in dramas more often nowadays with the fact that THEY ARE BAD FOR YOU!!! Like do you actively want to increase your chances of cancer and/or stroke? No judgement but some judgement but just know what choice you're making. Also when she's shown smoking, I don't *think* it's acting shown (but I don't remember) but I think she's shown from behind and there might be billows of smoke.

That's gotta be weird and an ego boost at the same time to have an actual montage of you just being fangirled over due looking good in a suit/tux haha

But I do kinda love how excited the shop attendant and Yi Lin were haha. Like "THIS is the reason I work here/dreamed of weddings" haha

I knew or suspected that Ji Uk was one of the foster kids shown during the first episode. I think there was a boy shown. (Then again, maybe he wasn't that particular boy). I found it a bit more surprising that the mom remembered him. But maybe he's been visiting her since she's been in the hospital and keeping in touch with her while everyone didn't know?
The use of the waiting room so ALL the foster kids could come, take pictures, and speak to the mom was really sweet.

I actually liked his version of a proposal. I get that for a high powered office worker (or probably any real mature woman) it is immature or as she said "wouldn't cut it" but it was just sweet and cute to me. I just liked the effort to be considerate and fairly original/unique to their dynamic.

I like their dynamic in general! The hotel scenes had me like☺️😊😁🙈 haha

I don't really get the grandmother telling him not to visit his mother cause it would ruin her new life yet the mother had been reaching out to him. Ah, familial relations are weird and hard because to me, he has reasons to be quite resentful and yet he seemed quite caring to the grandmother to the point he's still respecting her wishes.

So I just started watching this show after reading the raves here, and you all were so right! I LOVE it. It's been a long time since I felt this way about a drama. This is also the first drama in an even longer time where I love and care about the entire cast, even secondary characters (uh, minus the ex, but his wife is precious so at least there's that).

If anyone's been reading my fanwall they will know that I am especially in love with the second leads. They haven't even technically met yet (well, not officially) and I am rooting for them. I think it's because they have such strong and interesting characters. I'm going to be honest, I feel like up until now Lee Sang-yi has played pretty bland 2MLs. It's SO FUN getting to see him have a personality and act kind of goofy. And Ja-yeon definitely has my heart. They're hitting tropes I adore, like enemies to lovers, one of the two being in love with someone else at the start, person who doesn't believe in love falling in love, and romance writer who has no actual romance experience. I also can't wait to see the dynamic between Ja-yeon and Gyu-hun's mom. I am assuming that he will apologize for his comments and it does seem he already feels bad about it, so I'm not really worried about this being a toxic relationship. I am SUPER curious about what he wrote that triggered Ja-yeon's (I'm assuming) PTSD. I'm also curious about Ja-yeon's history that the drama was alluding to is really terrible. Anyway, I want the spinoff, like, yesterday, lol.

I'm gonna be honest, I love the main leads but they interest me less! I love how this drama deals with female sexuality. No blushing and stammering women here. And the whole "Gyu-hun learns his mother is a sexual being" thing was great. It reminded me of Big Mouth where all of the girls read a historical romance novel and the boys are just baffled that, wow, girls have sex drives, too!

I'm assuming that the ML is the CEO's illegitimate son and, at some point, ML was a foster child with FL's mom - so, when he said they met as kids, he wasn't lying (and I knew he wasn't lying even before that, because this is a Kdrama).

I love Secretary Yeo and his relationship with Gu-hyun. Not gonna lie, I don't really find that actor sexy (cute, yes, sexy no) so he SHOCKED me in that scene from the romance novel. Talk about smoldering. I wonder how he's going to feel when he learns who wrote the character that shares his name. Speaking of, why didn't Ja-yeon just say that she writes romance novels? Is that too close to the truth, too?

I like the complex characterization of Hae-yeong's relationship with her foster sisters. It's not a black and white thing, she isn't perfect and she does let her bitterness show, but she also cares about them and in many ways seems to try her best.

I'm also INCREDIBLY intrigued about what's going on with Hui-seong's boyfriend. Are they in an open relationship? Did they break up and won't tell...

It’s a fun watch and proves again Shin Min-na is the romcom queen.

I can’t wait to see more interactions of the second couple and Lee Sang-yi is brilliant here. He’s such a prof if you check out the BTS for his reaction acting. No wonder there’s a spinoff of the second couple - but does it mean this current drama has no room for their relationship to blossom?

The scenes with the web novelist and the ceo made me wonder if that's really how malicious commenters are handled. Do they really make the commenter read their comments?

The whole situation also made me feel like it's a bit of commentary on people being critical of content just because they don't like it or are scandalized by it. Like just because they aren't into it, then the content shouldn't exist at all. Even though people *choose* to watch and/or pay for it. Maybe I'm just interpreting it that way haha.

I did wonder what the ceo could've written that was so bad that it darkened her whole room but geez, he wrote over 100 comments and over half of them were malicious?! Why? For what reason did he feel the need to read EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER just to comment on how he was outraged by the content, I ask even though I know people literally do this everyday haha. But to even become sickened over your own behavior to end up bedridden? That's crazy.

After learning that these characters are supposedly going to have a spinoff, I wondered how that could possibly work especially since they hadn't had any scenes together. I was not expecting this to be how they came together. Plus there's also the secretary so I wouldn't think the web novelist and the ceo are meant to end up the couple here. I wonder how their relationship is gonna develop. Seems like it will get worse before it changes for the better.

I know it's probably wrong but I did laugh/chuckle when the secretary was like "is this a new form of sexual harrassment?" Haha
It's just such a ridiculous situation and he is just funny to me. He weirdly seems to hold alot of power in his dynamic with the ceo yet not enough to get the transfer he wants haha.

Speaking of the secretary, why does he think she writes children's books?

The whole '' What about our baby '' scene was hilarious, I replayed it so many times, love the bickering between these two.

I wish Ji Wook would have gone full Makjang Drama ML and said '' I am sterile '' or something similar just to add to the drama and to embarrass Hae Young.

This week's episodes said thanks to 5 people (I think it was 5) for their cameos but I only recognized 3.
- The seemingly rich pair who Hae Young rants to about Ji Uk being a hidden lottery ticket (actors from Strong Girl Namsoon)
- The replacement part timer at the store (actor from Lovely Runner)

Does anyone know who the other cameos were?
I was thinking maybe it was the employees giving out samples but I don't recognize them.

I believe it was @oldawyer who noted the similarity of this one to a classic U.S. screwball romantic comedy, with its somewhat hardbitten, cynical FL(s), dialogue that is often pretty witty, a surface cynicism about romance and sex, and absurd situations in which you know what is going to happen, but regardless, still cause laughter, at least for me. I had no idea that Shin Min Ah was such a good comic actress and I think that so far, all the actors are really excellent in their roles including—I have to give him credit here, because I’ve joked about him in the past—Kim Young Dae.

The highlights for me:

1. The FL filming herself doing pretend Aegyo. Including falling down dizzy when pretending to be spun around by her fiance.

2. The post wedding where at every point they ran into each other, the wife of the ex-boyfriend called out to the FLand waved, giggling, all the way up to their next door rooms.

3. The mother reading the Spice of Love and the phrase “girthy instrument." (That was the translation I had—I don’t know what the literal Korean was—if it wasn’t that, I give the translator kudos for capturing the ridiculous euphemisms that appear in this kind of racy fiction. The hilarious beauty of the ridiculous phrase “girthy instrument” is that if you weren't reading a sex scene, no one would have any idea of what you were talking about unless you gestured toward a nearby tuba player. (Whereas if I referred to a book’s “tumid” or “tumescent” prose, there would be some suspicion that I was using a double entendre, and that suspicion would be correct. )

The hyper reaction of the son-president to reading his mothers book, including hospitalization and typing comments on how Sejong, the creator of hangul, was “turning in his grave.” Something about the image of Sejong (at least how he has been pictured in a couple of sajeuks) rolling around in sexual tumult because of a racy scene made me laugh.
The interactions between the assistant and the president—both of them are really funny, even though the roles they are playing are totally cliched. The popcorn the assistant pulled out during the was clever.

One final thing, of course, this is not a U.S. screwball comedy, so there has to be mother trauma (on both sides!) something I’m not too happy about, BUT I thought the scene on the bus, where Nam Ja Leon talked about how scary it was that ordinary people could be that vicious on the Internet, really hit home for me. (Fortunately, there is none of that on Dramabeans!)

FL looked great in her youthful rebel look, the style suits her.

As funny as I found SML's reaction to the erotic romance novel, I still have reservations and concerns about his future romance with the author. Because he has clearly bullied her. Together with the extreme uptightness instilled in him by his mother, in another genre he would be a potential serial killer who targets women. But who knows, maybe that's how the writers will write the obligatory murder into this rom-com. 😀
In any case, his development has to be convincing for me to fully support his future relationship with the author. Even if he felt sorry for his actions, they caused her to have a panic attack.

No matter what happens, I hope the next episodes continue to be as cheeky and entertaining as the first four. We can finally look forward to Mondays again.

There's so much to like about this drama. I like the leads, ofc, but the other characters are fun too! CEO Fu-- I mean, Bok-gyu and his interactions with Secretary Yeo are so funny to me. Lee Sangyi's comedic abilities and puppy dog vibes in this drama make an otherwise despicable character fun to watch? I love how his secretary uses every opportunity get back at Gyu-hun, in the pettiest of ways. I just enjoy their bromance, or whatever it is they've got going on.

I came here for Shin Min-ah and the contract marriage trope, but I'm staying for Han Ji-hyun. She's absolutely adorable in this role. Gyu-hun has a lot of growing up to do and reparations to do, but I look forward to her loveline with him.

Yi-lin seems like a genuinely good person so far? Woo-jae... I would like to see his reaction when it turns out his ex married a secret chaebol heir.

I have such heart eyes for this show! I'm truly in the infatuation stage where as far as I'm concerned the drama can do no wrong; whatever it throws my way is either genuinely funny, touching, or both. Everything is clicking for me.

Highlights this week:

--The way the show balanced the poignant and moving scenes of mom at the wedding with intrigue (yes, it does seem like Ji-wook was one of her many foster kids) and the bittersweet and understandable sentiment from Hae-young that she loves her mother, but never really liked her. Although I personally can't relate to that (I both liked and loved my mother) I do know people who have felt that seemingly contradictory set of feelings for family members so it rang true to me. It was also somewhat of a relief to see in a drama--a genre that features many problematic parents--a lead who isn't expected to devote her life to pleasing or excusing a parent who has genuinely and understandably hurt them. I also like that for her part, mom certainly wasn't and isn't a villain. She tried to help people but it came at a cost for her daughter. That's true to life.

--The thing that initially I worried about when I heard about the casting was that I was never going to be able to accept these two actors together. It just felt *off* to me. Well, I'm happy to admit I was so, so wrong. Improbably, these two have great chemistry, and I must credit not just the actors, but the writing and directing as well. As @Unit said, there's attraction and interest here, but these are two experienced adults, so there's no heavy handed awkwardness. I like that both are intrigued by one another, and Ji-wook clearly has a burgeoning crush, but their exchanges still feel organic and real to me. And that proposal scene was amazingly swoony yet never cringey. Well done, show.

--The banter between the leads, the sisters, the chaebol and his secretary make the show consistently giggle-inducing. My favorite line this week: "Not every man has slept with me, but no one who has sleeps with me only once." LOL.

--The second leads. Now this is a secondary romance that deserves to take up time from the main story. I love everything about this arc so far. I will note, too, that in a lesser writer's hands, the way Gyu-hyun went after Ja-yeon's work via hate comments would not work as a set-up for the romance that's sure to develop between these two. But it was handled beautifully. We see that Gyu-hyun is not a misogynist, but a clear product of screwed up parents who sees sexuality as weakness and the source of great emotional pain. I loved, too, that Ja-yeon had the realization that the saddest and most difficult part of dealing with hate comments is learning that the other person is just as human as you are. I found those scenes very affecting, and despite everything, including Jae-young's crush on the secretary, I want to see these two figure things out together. And shout-out to Gyu-hyun's very expressive hair!

I really really love the leads, but I don't care at all about the chaebol boss story, so I was a bit bored with ep 4 - that just took up too much time. Ok, it really was hilarious when he discovered what his Mum's been reading, and I appreciate the commentary on the haters in general, but his character just feels somehow off to me. Like he's just being inserted into the story to fill up the minutes, without any organic connection to it. Like, it's already 4 episodes, and I still don't see why he was advertised as a 2nd lead here - nor the younger sister for that matter. I like her character better than his, but I don't see why she would be more important than the other sister and her story. The secretary is a much better character to me, at least I can empathize with his desire to change jobs.

This week this show surpassed GOOD PARTNER to become my favorite currently broadcasting show. Which is not a slight to GOOD PARTNER (a very good show). Shin Mina is really good but so many of the other characters are wonderful too. Not since

I Loved these episodes. Both couple stories are interesting. Let's see how they write office romance trope. The comedies are on point. They are also giving messages through comedies about cigarette and about hate comments. I like very much so far. So hoping it will keep it up.

I haven't seen such witty dialogue and refreshing takes on well-trod tropes in the romcom genre for a while.
I literally LOL through 3 & 4
Stay fresh and funny -- to the very end!
Hwaiting!

Happy to have a show I’m excited about. NGNL is showing that the most tired tropes can feel fresh when accompanied by witty writing and committed acting — shoutout to Lee Sang-yi for a truly vanity-free performance.

Let’s hope the show works the same magic with office romance/forced cohabitation that it did with contract marriage.

Like other Beanies, I think the 12-episode length is a good sign. All fun, no filler.

Gosh, I loveeeee how comfortable our leads are together (which is most of the time). They have great chemistry. Their flow of conversations & banter was nice and fun. This drama has only 12 episodes so the pacing has been great. I'm glad these two weren't fussing about their time at the hotel. I kinda wanted to see the next morning, but alas, they moved on. Ji Wook's proposal was the cutest thing ever. He was thoughtful and included wonderful touches to make Hae Young happy. (They got me googling those pang pang jellies haha.)

I'm so in love with Shin Mina in this role! She is delightful! Her solo dates with her camera were hilarious. It was slightly embarrassing, but I barely thought about that. I laughed and smiled more at her enthusiasm. I appreciated her courage in taking on this task, especially in crowded places. I could never.

Maknae Ja Yeon's loveline looks like it will be one with a love triangle? She likes Ha Joon, but I'm not yet sure if he likes her back as a friend or more. Ha Joon and Gyu Hyun are both fun and likable characters so I'm not sure what is going to happen next for these three. (I know about the spin-off so I am leaning towards that couple).

I miss Ji Wook's long hairstyle already! I wish they kept it longer past his ears like his look in this promo video & poster: https://www.dramabeans.com/2024/08/shin-mina-and-kim-young-dae-get-hitched-in-no-gain-no-love/ (He looks so hot with the shaggy, casual hair.)

I'm a little bummed about the change of setting and the likely office politics. The leads' relationship dynamic could be affected. I hope they continue to have good lines and conversations. And yessss, all the hijinks!

We're gradually getting more into the sisters' relationship. I liked seeing Hae Young's care and support of her sister in her particular ways, heh.

What's with the invisible cat?
I think there must be more to it than just the cat hiding.
I imagine ML-nim somehow hiding with the cat, or otherwise having trained it to hide because ... I don't know.
I hope it's creative, not lazy writing. ANd BTW, I hate that she talks as if her promise to him doesn't matter. She should be a proper and just person, even if society is neither proper nor just.

Loved these last two eps!!
So many small moments that had me spitting with laughter (which almost never happens for me!)...
- the border collie, pigeon, and the wary cat.
- no-one has ever slept with me just once... you go, girl!
- Baby and the two students.
- Secretary wondering how certain positions work LOL
and the piece de resistance that had my dirty brain cackling awayyyy...
-CEO squeezing the water bottle ahahaha... so juvenile, but so damn fun.

So refreshing to see a show that's not populated by blushing 30 yo's, and fully leans into their, and the viewers, being full adults with experience- except for the CEO, but I guess he has his reasons. I wish they'd taken it a step further with the writer authoring bl romances, and the second couple being the CEO and his secretary... truly upending the What's Wrong with the Secretary series! Okay, tiny steps... so I'll take what I get!

The emotional beats hit just right too...
-The wedding scene, with the foster sisters hugging each other at their mum's first funeral... damnnn
-FL's teary eyes reminiscing about her father, and while walking the aisle, and Ji-Uk knowing exactly what was happening
- Liked that she thanked him for sharing- that acknowledgment doesn't happen enough

Of course, the romance...
-The proposal was just so swoony- boy put a *lot* of thought and effort into a fake one, despite always wishing that her next one should be better
-his hand w/ the wedding band looked very sexy indeed when the camera kept not-so-subtly panning to it (I mourn the loss of his long hair though)
-really good banter- she's truly the Buddha to have resisted.

Waiting on Mondays now, and then for the comments after.
pangpang + recaps = 2 X fun
Hope they keep it up (ooooh pun unintended blame it on drama;) )