Look at me. Still watching this. Lmao.

"Like, go away, boy, this is not your zone. It’s almost like I’m supposed to feel sorry for Hae-jin, but I really don’t care that much about him.

Okay, I do feel the tiniest bit of empathy over his situation with his crazy family, but that’s about it. "

Wow are you me? My exact feelings towards him, combined with the irritation towards a buzzing insect every time he makes dopey annoying eyes towards her as if he even remotely has a chance. Does the show even want him to be a legitimate contender at this point? They keep giving him all the swoony fancy date scene but she doesn't even look at him twice. Like why is he even here at this point I just want to see Ji Jo and Sang Eun fake be married until they eventually decide to stay/get married for real but nooooo Sic you have to watch a drama with conflict instead... how boring... 🤣🤣🤣

Go Kyung-pyo's smile is addictive, and contagious. I'm picturing it again and blushing alongside Sang-eun.

I guess I'll be praising him week in week out. It's so good that we see him talking more, and putting himself out there. Granted, his Auntie was mourning the death of his Dad, her brother still that's no way to tell a kid to get in line. Well, Choi Sang-eun to the rescue and she's doing a good job about it. If putting himself out there also involves him getting instantaneous jealousy at the matching tie, please give me more of it. I lurve it. His knockout confession...Oh please. Sweet Go Kyung-pyo overload.

Hae-jin's story really is depressing to know and hear. At least now we know he's a competent individual who can't risk coming out for fear of his mother's life. It's sad. I shouldn't have believed he had a good rapport with his elder brother based on the initial episodes. He's been suffering for too long. I do hope he find Jamie 3.0 in no time, and the he finds some good and needed closure cause he needs it ASAP.

Mi-ho kind of has more ground now that we are hearing what is going on in her mind. Her remorseful monologue brought added flesh to her character.

If I’m already like this, I wonder how I’ll feel when Ji-ho finally says his I like/love you to Sang-eun. I think I’m going to melt!....feel sorry for Hae-jin
You're not alone. How many times did I melt this two days. What remains is me becoming butter.
I don't feel sorry for Hae-jin either in this supposed love triangle.

Side note. It was first Joon-young in Today's Webtoon and now Ji-ho. Are we in the era of watching kdrama men who can't hold their liquor. I don't know how but it's adorable to see and note.

Poor guy looked like his heart was being ripped out as their couple pictures were taken down from the wall.

I almost thought he'd tell Sang-eun not to do it. I thought he'd protest. But then if he does, he's no longer the passionate lover Ji-ho who wears his heart on his sleeve but keeps a tight rein on his tongue🤭.

Go Kyung-pyo just dishes out his lines using his facial expressions and we don't have to guess twice before we heat him loud and clear.

Here comes the voice of minority here: Poor, poor Hae Jin. He totally breaks my heart. Maybe because of the actor, I don't know. I just hope they don't decide to move his love interest to that newly arrived ex wife, because I already hate her. What's with those characters in K-dramas that break somebody's heart and then appear years later happily smiling like nothing happened??? However, I am glad that she showed up so she can maybe be hurt back.
Also, the winner of my K-pet peeves this week is Jin-Ho's aunt, because really, could she have find a more idiotic (and hurtful) way to tell a child that he lost his only parent? But this is not the first drama I see similar behaviour so I really don't know, is that actually a thing? Not doing the most obvious thing and telling the kid immediately what happened???

OMG. I couldn't be any more on team JH than I am at the moment. The golf outing! I squeed most of the way through that. His facial expressions were mentioned previously. He conveys so much with a turn of his head or slight smile, I'm loving GKPs acting here. He's nailing it.
HJ seems to get all the fun dates for sure, but he's not at the races when it comes to SE. The only thing I want to see here is how he ditches his family.
My favourite scene with GN was when SE told him about the kiss. It was such a good friendship scene, and I love how open he is with SE. I'm hoping for good things for him.
And I'm still on the ditch MH ship. What is the point of her?
I'm going to fall off the couch when SE and JH kiss...😍🤣

Dang, the show highlighted how comfortable Sang Eun is with Hae Jin compared to how she is with Ji Ho. There is no tension! No spark! /sighs/ Just be friends by the end at least.... That would be better than seeing Hae Jin go crazy with jealousy.

The golf scenes were great. Ji Ho was so cute and swoony and funny!!

I felt a little bad that Hae Jin was stressed and taking a bunch of pills, but I wasn't convinced by his brother's threats. Sure, he looks creepy, but a scene of him being scary or abusive to Hae Jin would have been more effective than his short talk.

Hope to see more of Gwang Nam now that he is Hae Jin's bodyguard. Hope they will become friends. He was hot when he saved Sang Eun and Hae Jin too, heh.

Why did the ex have to be back in the picture?! She looks like a shark. It was strange that she *happened* to find Hae Jin at that hotel. She probably planned it after seeing the news articles. And why did she have to call out Ji Ho like that? She dumped him.

This week had less humor & antics. EP 8 was better and more interesting than EP 7.

thank you @unit for the recaps always!

I'm still on Team Ji-Ho! i was happy he took the advice of his male colleague/staff in episode 8 "if he does not understand something just check on it" (by asking nicely of course, instead of asking it with an angrily/negative emotion).

I also noticed that the rain kinda is like a good thing. Ji-Ho kinda opened up a tiny bit about how he felt after Sang-Eun's drunken kiss ..... how come i have a feeling the rain will also be a good thing for episode 9??? (WISHFUL THINKING ON MY PART!!)

I am still hoping Gwang-Nam gets more development for his storyline & gets a happy ending when this kdrama ends. At least Hae-jin is not afraid of Gwang-Nam telling him he is gay.

Oh Gwang-Nam & Sang-Eun please kick Mi-Ho out of your condo/apartment..... i could be totally wrong here but is Mi-Ho trying to do something right/set-things right/amend-things BUT IT IS KINDA HURTING Sang-Eun in a way?
(i think Mi-Ho is trying to bring back Sang-Eun back to the chaebol group again??? i could be superrr totally wrong in my hunches)

this chaebol group they want Sang-Eun out of the country + they kinda banned Sang-Eun to find work for any company/office/enterprise in South Korea. How much evil they can be to Sang-Eun??? :(
(wow that female assistant with the male staff from ina group has no respect for Sang-Eun's privacy! She somehow looked at Sang-Eun's laptop emails/documents on the table... if i am wrong in how i understood this scene please correct me!)

Poor Hae-Jin. I never liked his character in all honesty. I tend to skip his scenes most of the time. But i do hope he does solve his family problems.

Hae-Jin was never a viable second lead in this drama from the start, and that really annoys me. He's absent 75% of the time, and when the show remembers him, his storyline has little to do with the contract marriage premise. He has a good back story, but it has little to do with the main plot.

The drama made a mistake by setting the stage with Sang-Eun fake marrying dozens of men. It should've either been a Sang-Eun-centered story (with prominent display of friends and childhood relationships) about falling for Ji-Ho even though she shouldn't, or a all-in-the-neighborhood, who will she choose, dating hijinks type drama. Sigh.

My favorite scene was the office group trash talking the blog poster (aka Ji Ho) and him giving the super side eye to the male assistant over being called a loser. I’d like a screen cap of GKP making that face.

@unit thanks for the weecap.

Memorable moments for me this week:

The ‘aunt’ is she a real aunt or a woman his dad hired? Another example of a really young child running a house alone as she only popped in at weekends. She did not act as a relative in terms of her complete lack of warmth towards a boy who was about to have his whole world irreversibly destroyed with her one shouted sentence in response to his reluctance to leave his home temporarily. My most hated mum character prior to this week was the mum in Uncontrollably fond coincidentally played by the actress playing Miho but this aunt has well and truly taken her place. Maybe her husband was annoyed because he had to provide for someone else’s child when their budget was already tight or her own children were jealous but seriously how could any mother treat any child like that.

My laugh out loud moment was Haejin and the horse riding when he asked if Sangeun wanted lessons and she spoke about being asked to represent the country. It was such a gem of a moment.

I loved the way they used the tea incident to highlight the level of training that goes into being a Chaebol and gives context to the high fee Jamie paid back to Miho.

I thought the item Jiho had wrapped was a sanitary product and all I kept thinking was one of the reason she wanted to go was to use the facilities so bringing it to her wasn’t helping her.

Gwangnam disclosing and being treated with respect verbally and financially was a nice touch. I am glad they cleared up the ambiguity with Haejin and that Gwangnam said he doesn’t mix business with pleasure so there is no awkwardness or rejection. Gwangnam is such a great character I can see why out of all the husbands she chose to live with him but I still think their relationship is unequal as she rarely gets involved in supporting him with his issues apart from the time they were talking that led Jiho to know about her services.

I can see the couple relationship growing in trust but it will be interesting to see how things go forward. I really don’t want a typical second female lead character trying to break things up, in this case it was odd she called herself his wife when they are divorced and she was not interested in him before.

The drama has turned around and is more of the rom com I was hoping it would be but the Miho, stalker, and Haejin family dynamics story lines add a tone that just doesn’t need to be there.

translation question, did Ji Ho say he was afraid that SE won’t like him? My subs said he was afraid she would hate him (or come to hate him). The two feel quite different to me so I’m wondering what the Korean says b

Show did try hard to win us over to Hae-jin's side, not holding back anything--horseback-riding scene on the beach, sunset date on a yacht, crazy family drama, sickness, etc. But it's just no match to the quiet and awkward MWF dinners on the 2F. Hae-jin is locked in the friend zone and doesn't know it.

The ending scene with Hae-jin's hot lawyer who happens to be ex-Mrs. Jung Jin-ho is another impressive cliffhanger. This show should win Best Cliffhangers!

I want to love this show, but the story is just mediocre and I honestly can’t stand the FL’s personality. She’s not that much fun, she’s not nice, or mature, or easygoing. When she one upped people at the party, was that supposed to be cute? Why are we supposed to like her, other than pity?

I am fully with you swooning almost everytime Jo Ho speaks.
You put it all so nicely.

these two eps have been so toe-curling, screaming, shaking, crying, heart gripping, squealing like a little girl, AAAAAA (you get the picture)

Seriously I think the writers are ALL #TeamJiho at this point and I never actually expected to fall for him (i really thought id get SLS) this much. From a line i read previously about him, he has a gentle kindness to him. I LOVE their little dates and seeing jiho slowly open himself up to the idea of love again (his confessions at the end of both eps AAAAAAAA) is just so adorable to watch
(Also can we take a moment to talk about when he gave her a pad/tamp AND a heating pad??!??!?!? I was SO shocked I had to pause and take a breather for a sec)

I was losing my mind with the whole necktie fiasco and I would love to see more banter between the two MLs!

As for Hae-jin, I feel bad about his family plight, how they are so demanding and invasive (his mom istg) and it must be suffocating for him to reach this level of desperation to escape it all. I just really hope he finds emancipation and happiness as well.

my god i cant wait for the upcoming eps, seeing the preview for it im not sure how much more my heart can take

Ji-ho has always been the end-game from the very start, the show has made that very clear and maybe that is why, it took out the "squee" factor for me. So now, I am in the minority of the minority - as I am not warming up to this OTP at all, and I also still do not like Ji-ho as a character. I get that he is supposed to be socially awkward but he does not have to be rude and unnecessarily punish his team when he is annoyed. I hope his character arc will include not just opening up to SE, but also becoming polite and considerate to others.