How did Se-Jin’s parents ever get together, they are mismatched.
🧂 salt attack = assaulted 🙄
Is Yeon-Doo‘s job search over ?
I would like a 4 episodes weekend format since it’s 50eps

First impressions (Ep1-10):
a mediocre family drama at best; I can bear some makjang, but the big scene made by FL during the ML's wedding, nah, it's a bit too much. I mean, it's ok to call off the wedding beforehand, but for the wedding ceremony to be aborted this way, I have to question FL's judgement.... I hope the writer would not sacrifice the character's likeablity for this sort of theatrics.

Predictions

- Tae-kyung is the stepfather's son by blood; that's why his mom would marry into this family with the abusive halmoni.

- (Some others suspected so too in this Hangout) Yeon-doo will lost the baby and divorce (or at least, separate) with Tae-kyung for a while.

Ten episodes into THE REAL HAS COME! and are finally arriving at the promised contract relationship. These two episodes largely focused on our two leads so, for the moment the side couple stories were sidelined. Out two leads are in fact learning to talk to each other. To trust each other and work with each other: They have become a team. Really it is now just a matter of time before they look at each other and realize that they might as well be married given that they already have a fully functioning marriage in reality. We are not quite to that point yet and both of them have things to learn but that time is clearly coming.

But that does not mean that they have not already had an impact to their families, and in TK’s parents in particular. At the beginning of the show his dad, the Chairman, seemed unable to act like a real husband and father to his wife and son- at least in the sense of standing up for them to his mother. I have little doubt that he did pay for TK’s college and medical school- our Dr. Gong has no student debt and had the freedom not only to become a specialist in OB/GYN but then to go on to further education and training as a Fertility Specialist. Paying for his education and training was no small thing as it means that TK is in fact financially independent of his family: He truly does not need their money. But in the most recent episodes we saw a very significant shift in TK’s father- he and TK’s mom agreed that our couple would move into the Annex without even consulting Grandma or TK’s adopted siblings. This is a huge change in our Chairman and no one feels it more than Grandma.

This actually explains why Grandma threw salt. Yes, it was a funny way to end episode ten, but it also represents her feeling of helplessness at her loss of power- all she could do was stage another protest after her hunger strike went nowhere.

I am not sure why we saw Ms. Jang resigning though, other than her further total humiliation over her mother’s behavior. What if Yeon-doo goes to work for Mr. Jang after all? I also wonder what will happen with Yeon-doo’s Ex.

There are a lot of other threads hanging loose right now. For instance: Will jay and his family show up and try to lay claim to TK’s younger sister- you can just bet that Grandma will jump on that band wagon- and the Chairman will now have to stand up to Halmoni on behalf of his youngest child, and in addition to his wife and adopted son. Speaking of little sister, will she develop feelings for Yeondoo’s little brother, thereby creating a new story with her family. And do not forget that we also have TK’s older brother and sister and the problems raised by their relationships as well.

I just watched the first 10 ep. and can not believe there will be FORTY more! Are they kidding? There really is nothing to this story that hasn't been done before(to death). I like the leads and typical back-biting relatives w/ one rooting for the ostracized couple, but not really. What? I did not do my research-I thought 10 ep. was it and HOW are they wrapping this up? Then the last episode I watch ends w/ 'halmoni' (which I totally butchered, I know) doing THAT! And WHY do they pronounce it 'Harmony' (to my ears), when OMG she is anything but?? I LOVED 'Fated to Love You' and yeah shades of that all over, but not. You know. I just did not know this was that long. I think I did one that was 52 ep, but only 30 min long so basically-the usual 16 ep. I will wait for many more to come out before I try this again, cos I have a feeling this will not stay on track and I'll need to jump thru some of them. I might just wait til the end and see if my predictions are right-I won't have wasted forty more hours of my life I'll never get back. Please notice I'm not giving anything away. I might be being harsh to the show, but at this point-I don't see a point.

Our side stories are once again under way.

Most humorous moment in Episode 11: TK’s younger sister lifting up the shirt of YD’s younger brother to check for a mole- to prove that he is not Jay- so very inappropriate but funny, but also demonstrating her sense of privilege. And then she comes back in episode twelve- and is told that he is not interested in women because he has a seven year old daughter. This looks like a story that could travel. with lots of humor.

It looks like another side story took a step forward as TK's pregnant sister will not be divorcing after all- and everyone knows she is pregnant now.

The most significant moment in episode eleven was actually when TK’s father insists that TK is indeed his son- and insists that he honor the grandfather on his memorial day. Our Chairman is becoming stronger as a husband and a father.

It would have been too easy if Ms. Jang Se-rin just went away. Instead, she takes a stroll in the Annex and just happens to pick the Our FL's Maternity Diary. She reads the note about "It all ends in three months". So ended episode twelve- on a cliffhanger.

Ep12: What a stroke of writer’s genius to nickname the fetus “Real.”

Week 6 - E11-E12
That Annex is not good for our contract-partners! Too much pressure and tension everywhere! Luckily Taekyung came around, apologised and stood behind Yeondoo. (I have more and more faith in this couple. ❤️ )
Sejin upped herself and to lying and selfishness she added trespassing and snooping this week. 😤

Se-jin's terrible mom offered to divorce Se-jin's dad and he didn't take it!! I wanted to crawl into the screen and shake him.

I want my ship of Se-jin's dad with Yeon-doo's mom to sail!

After seeing all the activity here and experiencing some mild form of FOMO I checked out the drama with some FF.
Wow, this is what a weekender feels like!! ; )
Not sure if I will finish it. but so far the leads are decent and I like their relationship.
The 2FL is cray! totally cray cray.
The 2ML/ex I don't get him. Why is he still insisting its not his child when she made it clear its his? He didn't leave for the US did he? That message he sent her was weird.
Her mother is too screechy.
The MIL is just wow!
Maknae is the best.

I like the youngest maknae, the bro in law and our leads. Will be good if they become friends.

And seriously what's with people being in a fake relationship leaving clues everywhere!! Why no just put up a poster in the living room.
First, they write down rules in a paper. And they document things on post-it..

I would have liked the FL to be more assertive and throw some tantrums and not fall for their power trips. But I guess in a family drama they want to show her 'win over' the family with her kindness..

With regards to the campaign to increase the birth rate, I am very intrigued by the co-parenting storyline!! The couple that visited the clinic were not what I expected to see in this drama at all! What a way to introduce a new kind of family model!

I am also hoping that we will finally have a drama that has characters who adopt! That would be a perfect arc for Chun Myung and his wife - and it would be a great way to blast the family-must-be-related-by-blood thing to smithereens once and for all!

I'm sure some things are lost in translations since I'm watching it with subtitles, but why was the Grandma completely okay with the grandson marrying the secretary but is angry that he is "married" now? I thought she just wanted him to marry someone; why does it have to be Ms. Jang? I understand that she doesn't really like her Step-Grandson because she doesn't want him to take anything away from her bio grandchildren (who are awful). I also can't figure out if Ms. Jang has feelings for him or does she just really really really want to be wealthy. I can't figure out her motives, though.

Maybe it’s because I watched episode 12 when I stayed home sick, but I already need a break. It’s not my first rodeo; I know it’s a weekender and all that entails, but this one’s a bit much. There are way too many antagonists and their constant bickering is exhausting. Not the least of which is Mrs. Jang’s mother and her shrill screeching. Aye, aye, aye. As I said, it’s too much. If I’m going to endure 50 episodes, I need more comical and tender moments sprinkled in between.

By the way, just received news that the actor of Tae-kyung's stepfather, Hong Yo-seob will no longer be in the show for personal reasons (not specified) and would be replaced by Sunwoo Jae-duk from EP15.

Well, it's not like it's unheard of before. Weekenders or not, there have been actors/ actresses replaced halfway for various reasons.

After 12 episodes we are a quarter of the way through this family story. The developing side stories will obviously be important to the overarching theme of having (or not having) children. The most dramatic example will be the coming story of TK’s and SD’s maknae’s. Now that we have seen them meet for a third time (Perhaps it would be more accurate to describe the third time as Yoo-myung having Dong-wook summoned) it is obvious that our writer is setting them up for a full side story. It could be a fun story precisely because they are coming from such different places.

Even more than her older siblings Gong Yoo-myung is a daughter of privilege. To Jay’s family she was definitely the right kind of people to join their Chaebol family, to eventually become the Madam of their conglomerate and, in the fullness of time the Halmoni of their family. She was in love with Jay and had made her views on marriage and children known to him but, when he ambushed her with proposal before his entire extended family they all expected that she would accept- after all, she would still be able to do almost everything that she could do without marriage and children (“Don’t worry, will get a nanny, and an assistant nanny, etc)- she would just need to learn to manage an entourage Surely any sane person would accept such a proposal. Except, of course, that is, that it was not the life she wanted and so she was right to turn Jay down, even though it broke her heart to do it. Which is why she is so shaken when she meets Dong-wook, who is Jay’s doppelganger.

Dong-wook has almost nothing- except he has a seven year old daughter, so maybe he has everything. But he is not privileged. At this third meeting this very young father tells Yoo-myung about his daughter- and her reaction is ‘as if’- this is just a brush off. He can only get her to leave by seeming to be calling her in as a stalker.

Of course, they will meet again- it is inevitable, given that they are apparently in-laws. In most stories that alone would create a problem but here the real issue will raise its head when she is confronted with a very real Soo-gyeom. That is where the real fun will begin.

Se-rins entrance at the end of episode 13 was actually frightening- she actually looked demonic.

Perhaps what was nicest in these episodes is seeing TK actually caring for SD. He comes to her defense before her former nasty colleague, rushes to the hospital and even works hard at the opening of the family chicken restaurant.

Although we only got brief glimpses the second nicest was seeing our previously divorcing couple becoming friendlier to each other.

Dong-wook blew his interview because he had just been hit with the ‘if you meet your doppelganger you die’ line by Gong Yoo-myung and was too distraught in his interview. Which will give him something to be mad about when he meets her again.

Does SD’s uncle have a secret love child that even he does not know about? The writer may be setting up yet another additional side story, but all we got was an at this point enigmatic statement by an older lady as the family was about to open the restaurant.

Se-rin tearfully announces that she cannot go to the US Branch because her parents are divorcing- and then proceeds to make them split up to make it true. She then ends these episodes by falsely claiming to have saved SD. She has clearly gone completely mad- but in expressing her anger at her parents we can see what has driven her mad. She has also told Grandma that she will get to the bottom of the “its over in three months” thing. My prediction: This will be what forces our fake couple to actually register their marriage.

Conclusions: This show is NOT an extended contract relationship romcom at heart. It does use the common elements of that story line as the central motif around which to build what is really an ensemble show. I have actually come to appreciate TK and SD. They are good people who have both had it tough although in different ways. They both deserve better, and the heavens have intervened to see that they get what they deserve: They deserve each other.

LOL with the eldest son and sister-in-law switching allegiances!

I almost feel bad for Se-jin. Her parents- both of them - really messed her up. Her mom sees her as a piggy bank and the father is completely unrepentant and clueless to her feelings over the years. I hope this divorce sticks. And Se-jin should just abandon her family.

Could uncle be having an out of wedlock child too?

Rather than the only cafe in Seoul, we get the only gynecology office in Seoul where everyone just run into everyone else. The most happening place in this drama.

It's rather touching how Taekyung is finally experiencing that warm family life with his in-laws. He grew up with just his mom, and when she remarried and his family got multiple times bigger, the stepgranny and step-sibs ending up resenting him. Sucks that Yeon-doo dislikes group chats. I love them! It would be great to start one with just the pro-OTP characters until Grandma ends up being left out.

I wish Yeon-doo would be more wary of Se-jin and just not engage with her. She knows Se-jin is bad news. I'm glad she is refusing to have Se-jin rejoin the company, but I'm suspicious about this supposed meetup with Sejin's mom.

Yeon-doo and Tae-kyung are pretty cute as a couple. They misunderstand and get into fights, but they end up resolving things. Their ice cream scene was cute.

You know what this show is really good at? Inducing rage and raising blood pressure. If you suffer from low blood pressure, you may want to give this show a try! I seem to be addicted to this rage-relief cycle!

Each week, the limits of my tolerance are tested because the awful characters are just so one-dimensionally awful. I’m also watching Family: The Unbreakable Bond, and it’s alarming to me that I feel more sympathy for a sociopathic assassin than I do for Se Jin, but here we are.🤷🏻‍♀️

The one observation I have following this week’s episodes (13 & 14) is that it’s interesting the allies Se Jin and halmeoni continue to choose for themselves. Instead of aligning themselves with people who are trustworthy, they seek those whom they *believe* they can control. Maybe this is the lesson for them. You’d think Se Jin would know better, after her mother has sabotaged every single one of her schemes so far, and you’d think halmeoni would see that forming an alliance of two with someone no one else in her family trusts is a non-starter, but it hasn’t happened yet. Both of them are so caught up in their entitlement that they can’t see any of the good in their lives. As much as Se Jin has suffered because of her dad’s stubbornness and her mother’s debts, I think she has suffered more because she’s been fighting the reality of their circumstances (and change in status) for years. I do feel bad that she’s lacked support from her parents, but she has the same stubbornness as her father in that she keeps sticking to her underhanded methods, just as halmeoni sticks to her tantrums.

On the positive side, I was really happy for Tae Gyung to experience a more nurturing and accepting family dynamic. It’s slowly wearing down his prickliness and creating the conditions for vulnerability, communication and care in his relationship with Yeon Doo, which is rather sweet to see.

Kocawa blog is doing recaps for this series, in case anyone is interested.

I was about to give up on this drama but I was desultorily watching Episode 13 and got to the part where Halmoni Eun Gum Shil is listening to a sad old song on a boom box and crying. And then her daughter-in-law comes in and offers her abalone porridge and jollies her into coming in to dinner. It was just so funny. That actress is amazing. Her name is Kang Bu-Ja and she's 82. She really sold me on her character in that scene.

I understand that this is a romantic comedy and that the point is to watch for the two leads to like each other. I am instead watching the two lead characters fall for each other's moms. It is the best. 😍

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Se-Jin is totally crazy.. and now she got some perm done to her hair and she looks even more crazy..
Asking her parents to divorce was just too much..
Also, she blames her dad while its her mom who keeps putting her in debt. The more she pays off, the more entitled mom becomes. And she picked a wrong team mate.
I hope the divorce does happen (finalize) and dad is a free man. You think there is a potential love line for him and YD's mom?

I quite enjoyed the group chat..

grandma's tantrums are just hilarious at this point.

p.s. anyone notice Se Jin's luggage to the US as just a hand baggage?

Is there a possibility that taekyung must be the father of yeon doo’s baby?? Since its crucial role and also its kinda normal on a 50 episode drama to have a plotwist..if you review the previous episode, yeondoo’s bf and taekyung lives in the same hotel and has a same car..maybe the baby has come to his real father

Episode 15 ended on a funny note- but one where SD’s mom now has delicious dirt on Grandma. Who could have expected this?

Our macknaes had another cute scene, with Gong Yoo-myung harassing Dong-wook and enjoying it while once again scoffing at the idea that he is a dad.

Episode 15 was hilarious when Grandma was exposed as a hypocrite. I was in stitches during the scene when Yeon-Doo's Mum was arm wrestled by Grandma and Grandma's hand was covering her mouth to prevent her from blurting out the truth that Grandma was illiterate. This is Rom Com at it's finest.

I have just finished E14 and Sejin is like that garden tennis ball on elastic for one player - the farther you try to get her, the more strength (and lies and manipulation) she comes back with.

This is my last post on the original Hangout. The new Drama Hangout starts with episode 17. But episode sixteen ended with The Big Cliffhanger That We all Knew Was coming. The catalyst for SD’s blurting out of the truth was Oh Soo-gyeom who was actually one of the central characters of this episode- center stage as it were. But we also saw a major side story with Grandma and SD’s mom. Want to bet that SD’s mom has found her a very specific job? One that forces her and Grandma to spend a lot of time together with SD being in the superior position socially? A society like Korea pays great deference to teachers, after all.

Looking forward to seeing everyone on the new drama hangout for THE REAL HAS COME!

Next weekend's episodes should be a lot of fun.

One thing that was surprising to me in these last two episodes (15 and 16!) was the subject of elder illiteracy. Most K-dramas emphasize the flip side of this issue--the centuries-long Confucian tendency to make everything depend on a high-stakes test. (I noticed this most recently in Doctor Cha, where apparently there is a test to become a resident that is separate from the medical license exam? That was a little confusing.) I decided to read the Wikipedia page on Korean education and received a salubrious shock: it claims that in 1945, South Korea had an adult literacy rate of 22%. Today, the estimate is 97%. It is therefore possible that a woman in her 70s or 80s could be illiterate in a country where the government spends a quarter of its budget (can this be correct?) on education! I am about to fall down a rabbit hole reading about real-life Korea, which I had not planned to do. My partner did get a book on the Gwangju Uprising, which has been taunting me.

Anyway, it seems clear that one thing that makes YD's mom a good person and Halmoni a villain is that YD's mom is willing to admit her ignorance and attempt to rectify it, while Halmoni uses her considerable brain power to hide her lack of education. Also, as a viewer new to weekenders, I can see that nearly every character has to be headed for some kind of redemption. Except possibly Se-jin, she might be eventually just punished. The writers wouldn't be creating all this sympathy for these basically terrible chaebol relatives if they didn't intend for them all to improve themselves over the series, right?

I watched this because I really liked the ML, but seriously thinking of dropping it.

The wide eyed innocent who unknowingly provides ammunition to the unrelenting evil that is constantly plotting to destroy her only goes so far before it becomes tiring. And this is likely to go on for 50 episodes. Shudder.
“I feel bad about lying. I lied unthinkingly “ huh? That’s pretty much all she has been doing. They are all understandable, but don’t say you feel bad about it.
The jilted fiancée’s continued presence in their life is inexplicable. It would never happen irl, but I guess they need it for the story to be interesting.

The FL refused to help the ML escape a marriage he didn’t want but she was happy to destroy it at the worst possible moment when she needed it to convince her mother to come home.
She insisted he had couvade syndrome, making him the butt of everyone’s jokes so she could evade suspicion. Trying hard to find redeeming characteristics in the FL.
Also the old woman is so clearly nasty. Not sure why everyone keeps enabling her.
I will prolly stick with this for a while cos I like the leads, but getting close to dropping it.

How does the OTP go back to trusting this lady.
Arghhhh who goes around saying ‘I saved your wife’. 🤬
They should have agreed to hiring her again on the condition she doesn’t visit the annex.
Need a restraining order on this lady.

I’ve been trying desperately to finally move on from episode five (5); keep getting delays in my daily life! I’ve kept up from reading fantastic, greatly appreciated recaps and these excellent episodes guides! Thank You!