What an entertaining and intense two episodes. I feel transported back to my teenage years of devouring romantic thrillers. In real life, I would give ML a wide berth, but in the fictional realm, tsunderes are my guilty pleasure.
At the moment, however, I'm trying to keep my expectations low. Too many KDramas have started out quite spicy only to end bland.

Actually, Yoo Yeon-seok is not really my type, but I find it damn sexy how his character manages to take charge of the conversation during the phone call and set his own rules.
I'm looking forward to seeing ML slowly realise that FL isn't the scared little mouse he thinks he knows. This is going to be fun.

Some assumptions:
FL is not selectively mute (anymore). But she continues to pretend to be, presumably so that the rest of the family will leave her alone as much as possible.
ML has been in love with FL for a long time. I assume that the families already knew each other well before. And I wouldn't be surprised if he has at least a rudimentary knowledge of sign language.
ML knows at the end of episode 2 that they are two different callers. (In the morning, he receives the news that the results of the language analysis are available, but we don't see what the results are.)

- I feel like the show might become a victim of poor marketing. I wasn’t planning to watch it at first because it seemed like Chae Soo Bin was playing a damsel in distress, and that most of her scenes with Yoo Yeon Seok would only appear as flashbacks after her kidnapping. The only reason I decided to check it out was because of how excited everyone seemed about it on here.

-I am SO glad I gave it a chance! The show is fun in a charming, Wattpad-like way. The leads’ chemistry is also chef’s kiss. I do wish the second episode had stayed more in line with the serious tone of the first, but given the plot, I suppose the comedic moments were inevitable.

-I really hope the show doesn’t go with the whole he loved her all along storyline, because, honestly, throughout their three years together, he put zero effort into the relationship. Protecting her is not a valid excuse for failing to learn sign language or for never extending even basic, friendly gestures toward her.

-Once again, I am having so much fun with this show! Thanks everyone for talking about it!

Does this remind anyone else of the drama Mask [2015]

The quasi makjang-mystery setup and the atmosphere are somewhat similar.

Anyway i enjoyed the first 2 episodes, i hope the plot remains engaging and it manages to stick its landing (this seems to be difficult to accomplish for asian dramas im 2024)

Thank you for the recap, @mistyisles! I don't really go for mystery but I became interested after these episodes. What has happened to the family that Hee-joo 'needs' to marry into the family? Did Hee-joo's family go bankrupt because of her father who's in the hospital? I liked how Hee-joo had turned the tables on the kidnapper. Sa-on has the video of the kidnapper in the middle of the road, maybe that's when Hee-joo dumped him.

I AM OBSESSED!!
Love this show!! Yoo Yeon-seok is killing me..
I Really liked the twists we saw so far. Uri FL is no meek person. So it was fun to see the other side of her.

Paik Sa-eon - Dude!! He thinks he knows everything about her while knowing nothing about her. Everytime he gets rattled when he learns something about his wife, its so satisfying
- Sees that his wife has a college friend.
- Sees his wife smile brightly with another man - NEVER seen her smile like that have you?? Atleast not with you.
I like how slowly his facade cracks open.

This drama made me feels like we went to the olden day of cold/icy ML who deep down does care. I have kinda missed this!! so it's fun to watch this. His possessive 'my person'. His angry car ride back home to check if his wife is ok (cant he just text her??) all make for an interesting drama.

Selective mutism - I do think she had this problem. But is now cured. Her mom does say in the passing about her not going to the clinic anymore. My guess is that she is cured but he chose not to reveal it.

The tension is so good! Their chemistry is electric. YYS in those three piece suits which are containing all his emotions from overflowing, is everything I needed...
With only 12 episodes this should be gripping for most parts. Dont fail us show!!

This show indeed reminded of Mask, which was coincendentally in 2015. Love the camerawork and how Chae Soo Bin play a spunky type. I hope YYS do not end up to be the big bad villian and yes...he rocks in a three-piece suit.

@mistyisles Thank you for the recap. I think DB initially did not have plans to recap this show, but looking at the positive feedback on fanwall or by beanie staff themselves, I was glad to see the drama added in recap section.

Hook, line and sinker of the drama is surely the leads' chemistry and the FL's acting because as much as the plot is thrilling, it appears more like an arranged marriage fanfiction.

I secondary OTP is fine, but I don't see the importance of their characters apart from stirring jealousy of the leads. Nothing much to add except hope that the drama can keep up with fun.

This was an amazing premiere week!! I did not expect this Wattpad ahh storyline to be this good!! I came in expecting an over the top makjang/melo drama, I did not expect to be rivetted to the screen from start to finish! Everything in the first two episodes just worked so well far - the writing, the music, the acting...

This show made my weekend. It's makjangy, intense, and slickly produced but it has an emotional core (two people who don't understand each other at all but desperately want to, even if they can't admit it to themselves) and that's why it works.

As I said elsewhere, I almost gave up on this one immediately, fearing another "Red Swan." The slo mo opening, everyone unnecessarily reminding the viewer that the ML is hot, the fetishism of the trappings of wealth, etc. But as soon as the FL gave her husband the bird while he cooly refused to negotiate with terrorists, I was hooked.

I started to suspect Hee Joo was on the other end of the line before it was revealed, but I was glad the show then didn't backtrack and say that she was all along. The fact that the initial kidnapping was real, but she managed to escape on her own devices was satisfying, as was the reveal that she is not truly mute (although it's not clear to me why she doesn't just speak if she can). I also appreciated that she was flustered and made mistakes, proving that she's ruled by emotion as much as her wall-punching husband. The darkly funny game that emerged after this was sexy and entertaining, but mostly it made Hee Joo feel more human to me, which is necessary when the plot is this over-the-top.

This is especially important because the side characters, especially the two mothers, seem very one-note.

I will say that whether or not he's been secretly smitten with Hee Joo all this time, it doesn't make sense to me that a man as smart as Sa-eon wouldn't have bothered to learn at least the basics of sign language so he could understand and more quickly and efficiently communicate with his wife.

But because it was so satisfying to see her tell him off at the party while he was all like "Wait, are you cursing at me?" I'll go along with his ignorance for now.

Can't wait for the weekend!

I am really enjoying this so far, it gives me Flower of Evil vibes. However, if they go with the "he was in love with her all along" trope, I will riot.

I tapped out and it seems that I'm the only one who doesn't like the ML at all because he's such a jerk.

I shall go back to the Cinnamon Roll MLs I like.

It's always good to be surprsied. I don't go near thrillers so this show was automatically a skip by leading its genre and description. If not for the word of mouth here, I wouldn't have checked it out. It is more of a romance and mystery than a thriller imo. Fingers crossed it remains good.

I love how our heroes don't live in the same world.

Sa-Eon : he works for the Blue House and used to machinations and blackmail. He has a lot of ressources and asks a lot of questions.

Hee-Joo : she acted by impulse and didn't really think ahead. She didn't really think about the guy who attacked her : his goal? how could he hijack her car? Can she still drive it? How he knew she was the wife? etc. She only thought about her plan to leave this family. Her amateurism makes things so funny. Again, by wanting to make her husband angry, she didn't think about every consequences to send a picture of her thigh.

For their couple, they clearly have feelings for each other but the situation made them hidding them.

I really like the mix between thriller and comedy. The intensity between the lead is the best part!

This show has me seated, waiting for the weekend, like no other. I'd never heard of Wattpad before reading the comments above, but I'm assuming it's a hearkening back to the Mills and Boons of my youth, featuring a kidnapped damsel and their overbearing husband who was secretly in love with her all along... And I'm here for it!!! I know it goes against every tenet of feminism that I've had to learn along the way, crossing generations and cultures, but there's still something primitive that beckons... And the reason why romance dramas exist.
YYS is absolutely killing it in my books, playing the seemingly coldhearted cad. He brings a raw energy, that's missing from the overly manicured Kdrama leads nowadays... Not handsome in an idol sense, but more like a boxer with broken nose and bloodied fists, literally. Disturbing to find that hot, I know, but it is... Maybe more wish fulfilment from the writer, that beneath every rough facade lies a green flag that a good woman's love will bring out 😂😂
I'm liking the contrast with the FL, because though she looks mostly innocent and doe eyed, she's using that to her full advantage, using her wits and wiles. I hope she stays smart throughout. May seem old-fashioned, but a story like this needs an old-fashioned lens.

Ok, now i know what a thriller romance is. The switch between YYS Very Serious face and CSB flailing “antagonist” one is surprisingly entertaining. I’m so curious how she started the whole mute act but also relieved she’s not a pitiful candy cos CSB has a great acting range that should not be wasted! YYS’s mom’s character was also a surprise - i thought she dressed so unlike a chaebol wife and it turns out she’s a chaebol negotiator. I’m looking forward to Friday even more now.

Does anyone else think that the kidnapper’s eyes look just like YYS? Or do I need new glasses 🤔
It bothered me that a big deal is made of putting the FL under guard but then she’s driving around and hanging at a convenience store all by herself at 10 o’clock at night (while making her kidnapper calls). Guess the guards only work 8-5 😏

I get how this could be somewhat comic, because of the absurdity of the setup, but because it involved actual physical threats to the FL, it didn't play like a comedy to me. I did like the fact (at first) that she was mute and the car was highjacked, out of her control at the beginning, mirroring her overall entrapped circumstances. Also, it will be interesting that her pretending to be the kidnapper will be discovered, and yet the kidnapper is still out there, so you know she will be caught in a "woman who cried wolf" situation in the future.

But by the end of the second episode, I didn't understand her "selective mutism." I know selective mutism is a thing, especially for younger children; and then, I've read it can happen in extreme situations. But, she told her father that she "had to pretend to be mute" because he abandoned her, and since her college friend saw her as mute, she must have been pretending for years.

Regardless, why would you talk to yourself out loud all the time, especially in your house with your husband, who sees you as mute? Also does the husband know she's pretending to be mute, and so that's why he hasn't learned sign language? Because otherwise, that failure to learn sign language, even if you despise the mute person you are forced to live with, signifies a total lack of decency in my book!

What a riveting start!!!! Certainly not bland. Juicy with melodrama, suspense, and sexual attraction. There were even a few comedic moments that didn't detract from the story. Anyone noticed Hee Joo's bed head and dark circles the next morning after the night Sa Eon visited her room and she was thinking of him? XD

I was iffy about starting this drama (mostly due to timing) and waited for the early reviews. Beanies (@missvictrix in particular) easily swayed me with her first line "this was fun" in the What We're Watching thread.

I thought this drama was going to be about the FL being kidnapped and the ML fighting to get her back and then all we would see of their time together was through flashbacks. I'm super glad with how the drama turned out instead with the kidnapping twist, hah!

Yoo Yeon Seok is so good at playing intense and tsundere characters. Chae Soo Bin is playing her role well too! She suddenly had a wild opportunity and took it. Maybe I was half worried about her speaking in the public bathroom on her secret phone and anxious about her flailing, but she is pretty proactive and trying to get out of her situation. The makeup artist did a good job with making her look innocent with her light, straightened brows and no cat eye/eyeliner look.

Sa Eon has already fallen for Hee Joo, but kept his true emotions hidden due to his job and the danger risk. I would like to see Hee Joo gradually falling for him too and not have the attraction to be too one-sided.

I loved this to bits and pieces. I'm gonna give this drama the medal for pulling me back into weekly watches that ain't a weekender.

I'm gonna take my seat, enjoy my 🍿 and sip my🍷.

The scene at the party where Hee-joo blasted him off... that was soo good. Imagine the next scene being the phone call toying with Sa-eon and its her at the other end of the call, I could feel the restraint Hee-joo had to rein in and not vocally blurt out her mid-finger in the previous scene. Such raw tension. At least Sa-eon knew she was cussing him out😂😂😂. I really thought he understood everything she was saying. I guess some things can't just be communicated via text and just have to be said by hands, whether or not the right person understands😂😂😂. As a quadrilingual, there's a particular language I prefer to use to cuss out and I don't care if anyone doesn't understand it. I'm gonna flow like that anyway.