THE SHORT VERDICT:

If you’re looking for something short, cute and not very deep, this mini drama could potentially work well for you.

Chae Jong Hyeop and Kim So Hyun make a cute couple, and our drama world is very prettily shot, and has a lovely, breezy OST to score it all.

On the downside, there is little to no depth in this, and Show does seem more interested in problem-solving, rather than basking in Cuteness, once it hits its second half.

If you’re willing to roll with that, this does work out to be a harmless little ball of fluff.

THE LONG VERDICT:

The ability to leave a really strong first impression can really be a double-edged sword, I realize.

This little show left a really strong first impression on me (I’ll talk more about that shortly), so much so that I was hopeful that this little show would be able to bat above its weight, and surprise us all, by being amazing. 🥲

Sigh. That was not to be, unfortunately, and I have to confess that I was disappointed about that.

However, if you take away my unreasonably high initial expectations, this little show basically accomplishes what a little show in its weight bracket tends to be able to accomplish, so.. as long as your expectations are in the right place (more on that soon), you should be able to enjoy this one just fine?

HOW I’M APPROACHING THIS REVIEW

First I’ll talk about how to manage your expectations going into this one, and what viewing lens would be most helpful.

After that, I talk about stuff I liked and didn’t like so much. I’m opting not to do a separate section on characters and relationships, for this review. Finally, I spend some time talking about my thoughts on the finale episodes.

If you’re interested in my blow-by-blow reactions, &/or all the various Patreon members’ comments during the course of our watch, you might like to check out my episode notes on Patreon here.

MANAGING EXPECTATIONS / THE VIEWING LENS

Here are some things that I think would be helpful to keep in mind, to maximize your enjoyment of your watch:

1. Don’t expect a lot of depth

I mean this both in terms of the story, as well as the relationships. Show opts to stay in shallow waters on both these counts, and I think knowing to expect that, helps.

2. Expect tropes

Show is basically built on tropes, and I honestly don’t fault it, because I do feel like tropes can be useful narrative shorthand, particularly in short little stories.

Embracing the tropes instead of fighting them, helps too.

STUFF I LIKED

Our drama world is very pretty

One of my favorite things, which struck me right away, really, is how pretty our story world is.

Everything is beautifully filmed, so much so that our story world kinda feels like it came out of a manhwa, with the warm lighting and the Spring-Summer colors.

Just look at that pretty street setting above, and this quick-but-thoughtful little shot, below.

It sounds like a small thing, but it was absolutely a highlight of my watch. My eyes, they were content. 🥰

The music

One of the first things that jumped out at me right away, is how present the music is.

The music pervades this story world right away, and it honestly kinda-sorta reminds of Goong (review here!), in the way the music takes up such a key space.

It’s all very breezy and cheery, and that makes this story world feel like a breezy, cheery place, and I liked that a lot. 🥰

You can check out the OST album that I’ve linked above, where I find all the tracks very enjoyable, or you might like to check out Track 5, Destiny, below, which I would pick as my favorite, if I absolutely had to pick.

Our story moves quickly

One of the things I liked quite quickly into my watch, is the fact that our story moves along pretty quickly, thanks to it being a short little 8-episode deal.

There’s literally no time to dawdle on things, so we get early gratification from things like confirmation of hidden feelings, as well as a general lack of misunderstandings, which would be typical in a 16-episode show about the same story.

Things tend to breeze along pretty quickly, with Show toggling the present timeline with flashbacks from the past, in order to quickly build context.

I find that very efficient and effective.

It makes our grasp of our story world feel that much richer, but it doesn’t necessitate spending a lot of screen time. Very nice.

Chae Jong Hyeop as Hu Yeong

One of the things I’d really been looking forward to, in this show, was the chance to see Chae Jong Hyeop play a true tsundere type, y’know, all cold and aloof on the outside, but all tender and squishy on the inside, and Show is absolutely giving us that.

To be clear, Chae Jong Hyeop did play a rather tsundere sort of character in Castaway Diva (review here!), so strictly speaking, this isn’t his first time playing a tsundere type.

However, it is his first time playing the classic tsundere chaebol prince type, complete with styling that makes him look like he just stepped out of a manhwa, and I think he does quite nicely.

Nuance

I know I stated earlier that there really isn’t a lot of depth in this story, so there isn’t really a lot of depth of Hu Yeong as a character either, but, we do see nuance in Chae Jong Hyeop’s delivery of Hu Yeong, and I thought that was pretty great.

[SPOILER ALERT]

E1-2. Like during that mistaken blind date moment, when Hong Ju (Kim So Hyun) hastily apologizes for mistaking him for someone else, and then excuses herself to go to her actual blind date; you can totally see the wistfulness in Hu Yeong’s gaze, and I really appreciate that.

[END SPOILER]

Restraint

At the same time, I did appreciate Chae Jong Hyeop’s restrained delivery, which adds to the nuance.

[SPOILER ALERT]

E3-4. Like when Hye Ji (Kim Da Som) asks him whether he likes Hong Ju, for example.

He doesn’t say anything in response, but just from the change in his gaze, you can tell that the answer is “yes.”

And then when Hye Ji, understanding that his answer is “yes,” asks if Hong Ju knows too, he still doesn’t say anything, but you can totally see from his gaze that Hong Ju doesn’t know, and that he’s kinda disappointed and sad about that.

I thought that was really well done; so subtle, yet so clear. 🤩🤩🤩

[END SPOILER]

Leaked smiles

Through it all, Hu Yeong’s little leaked smiles were one of the consistent highlights of my watch experience.

I do think that Chae Jong Hyeop owns one of the sunniest smiles in all of Dramaland 🥰 and so, to have leaked smiles of this caliber feels like a real treat, and to have them leaked early, and on a regular basis, feels like double the treat. 🤩😁

Kim So Hyun as Hong Ju

Overall, I wouldn’t say that Hong Ju is a very memorable character, but Kim So Hyun does the necessary, by making Hong Ju very likable and cute, so that I feel like I can totally understand why Hu Yeong can’t help but smile in response to her cuteness.

That doesn’t sound like a huge deal, but it’s important, because that got me to root for this OTP, and this OTP is basically the point of this story.

I don’t have a lot more to say in this solo section, but I’ll talk more about Hong Ju, in relation to the OTP relationship – which is up next. 😁

The OTP Cute in Show’s first half

Honestly, I really loved the OTP Cute that Show delivered in its first half.

With how deftly Show was giving all this OTP Cute, I’d honestly had pretty high hopes that we’d get a solid and satisfying second half as well.

That.. didn’t quite work out as I’d hoped, but I’ll talk about that later. 😉

For now, here’s a revisit to all the times that Show made me smile, because of this OTP. 🥰

[SPOILER ALERT]

E1-2. It’s tropey but amusing, that Hong Ju had been the deliverer of love letters from her best friend Hye Ji, who’d had this giant crush on Hu Yeong, and the whole reason that Hu Yeong hadn’t done anything to officially turn down Hye Ji, is because he actually liked getting to see Hong Ju, each time she delivered a letter.

Aw. How dorky is that, yes? 🥲

I also like that because Hong Ju never had a crush on Hu Yeong, she’s not at all bashful or shy or affected around him; she’s just blithely herself. I love this idea that Hu Yeong sees her exactly as she is, and likes her exactly as she is. 🥰

Plus, it is admittedly rather refreshing, that the reason Hong Ju is so able to be herself around Hu Yeong, is because she is completely unaffected by his cool aura and good looks, unlike most other girls.

I’m honestly quite tickled by the reveal, that she absolutely remembers who he is; she just hadn’t bothered to acknowledge it, when they’d come face to face at the cafe.

In that way, she totally has the upper hand here, since Hu Yeong’s not only fallen first, he’s fallen harder. 😁

E1-2. The way Hu Yeong gets Uncle (Choi Dae Chul) to get Hong Ju to take his nephew out for a day tickled me quite a bit, because here’s Hong Ju expecting a little girl (as you may know, the word for nephew, “조카” (joka), is gender neutral), and instead, she gets Hu Yeong showing up for his day out.

I was quite amused by this, not gonna lie. 🤭

Their day of fun is all very light and breezy to watch, and my favorite bit is when Hong Ju takes him to put on hanbok so that they can take photos of themselves.

Hong Ju looks freaking adorable in those kingly red dragon robes, while Hu Yeong looks very cute in the eunuch robes, hehehe.

I do think Kim So Hyun might be the cutest human being I’ve seen, wearing the red dragon robes. 😍

Which, of course, can only mean more leaked smiles coming from Hu Yeong, to my delight. 🤩

In a short little show like this, it’s not surprising (and very welcome) that we’re already getting a moment of hyper-awareness, in that moment when Hu Yeong leans over to close the car window, and ends up hovering over Hong Ju, ahem. 🔥

I do love that afterwards, he’s mentally kicking himself for only managing to eke out that they should have fried chicken together soon, while she’s perplexed at how sexy he manages to make eating fried chicken together sound. Tee hee hee. I love it. 😍

E1-2. Hu Yeong, observing that Jun Ho’s (Yun Ji On) making Hong Ju uncomfortable and claiming that she still has feelings for him, inserts himself into the situation by holding Hong Ju’s hand, and telling her that she’d left her hair-tie in his car, the night before.

I love that Hong Ju plays along without missing a beat, and she’s the one leading Hu Yeong away, by the hand.

E3-4. We get that reveal at the end of episode 4, where we see that Hu Yeong had actually caused Hong Ju’s heart to skip a beat, back when he’d fallen asleep on her shoulder, when they’d been trapped in that trough, and that honestly changes everythingggg.

I actually do relish when dramas do this, because it offers a critical piece of context that just makes everything land differently.

Most recently, we saw that in Lovely Runner (review here!), and I also recall seeing this done in c-drama A Love So Beautiful (review here!).

In both those shows, it had been a change in perspective from the male lead’s point of view, but in this case, it’s a change of perspective from the female lead’s point of view, and I find that quite refreshing.

With this little nugget of information, we can see that Hong Ju is absolutely not immune to Hu Yeong’s charms, even when he isn’t actually turning on the charm.

And, it’s not hard to deduce that the reason she’s been so adamant about treating him like he’s nothing special to her, is because she doesn’t want to be disloyal to Hye Ji, who’s had a crush on Hu Yeong since forever.

With this piece of context in place, everything makes so much more sense, in a way.

For example, last week, we saw that Hong Ju had been dealing with some hyper-awareness of Hu Yeong after the car incident, and had wondered how he’d managed to make eating fried chicken sound so alluring.

After that, however, she’s been keeping him at a distance in an almost aggressive manner, and now that we know that she’s felt something spark with Hu Yeong in the past, it gives the current spark that she felt some context – if that makes sense?

Like, ah, it wasn’t just a random spark that she felt; it’s something that recurs, as long as she allows herself to be around him. Which, ooh. 🔥😁

This also means that as I revisit the episodes now, for these notes, everything just kind of hits differently, because now I know that every time Hong Ju hastens to retreat from Hu Yeong, it doesn’t actually mean that she’s completely unaffected by him.

In fact, it likely means the opposite; that she is very affected by him. That is a thought that amuses me, as much as it gives me a bit of a thrill. 😉

Poor Hu Yeong, though.

I keep thinking about that moment, these episodes, when he’s so discouraged that he mutters that she’s rejected him so many times, when he hasn’t even managed to confess his feelings yet. 😅

If he only knew!! 🤭

Like when she asks him when he’s going back to the US, for example.

On my first viewing of the scene, it had just seemed like she was making conversation in an awkward moment, but on second viewing, I feel like I detect a cautious note of wistfulness in there, like she half doesn’t want to know, because she would prefer that he stay. 🥲

E3-4. From the way Hu Yeong drops everything to rush to the hospital, not even caring about his lugging, to the way he grabs Hong Ju’s hand and puts it to his heart so that she can feel how fast it’s beating because of her accident, it really feels like things are moving into place for a more meaningful connection between the two of them. 🥲

ALSO. We do get an indication that Hong Ju isn’t immune at all, to Hu Yeong’s presence, like how she asks the doctor to only check her heart rate after Hu Yeong leaves – ie, if he’s around, Hong Ju’s heart is likely to be racing. 😉🤭

I also really liked that Hong Ju’s injuries mean that Hu Yeong has the perfect excuse to be around her and take care of her, even though Hong Ju’s told him to keep his distance and stop being flirty.

But thanks to Hong Ju’s injuries, we get to see Hu Yeong being thoughtful and caring, AND, thanks to Hong Ju not being so able to walk, we get to see Hu Yeong scooping her up in a princess carry more than once, and I squeed a little inside each time, not gonna lie. 😍

With all this going on, I honestly can’t blame Hong Ju for having a sexy dream about kissing Hu Yeong, y’know? 😁

And this isn’t yet counting the fact that he cooks for her. For some reason, that really melts my knees. 🫠🫠

Like, how sweet and homely is Hu Yeong, when the opportunity arises?? 😍😍🥰🥰

E3-4. I’m honestly kind of thrilled to hear Hu Yeong tell Hong Ju that he’s actually kind of happy – that her relationship failed, and that he’d like her to recover quickly, both in terms of her foot, AND her heart.

And then he slowly leans into kiss her – and she lets him. Eeeee!!! 😍😍😍

[END SPOILER]

STUFF THAT WAS OK

The tropes in the writing

Before I started my watch of this show, I’d heard the online rumbles, that quite a few people were dissatisfied with this show, saying that it’s overly tropey, bringing nothing new to the table, and therefore quite boring.

So, color me surprised, when I clicked on episode 1, and found myself sinking happily into this story world, right away. 🥰

Basically, I’m of the opinion that, yes, you can certainly spot lots of tropes in this show, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not enjoyable to watch. 😁

Yes, sometimes it didn’t work as well as it could have, which is why this is in this section.

The tone of the OTP relationship in Show’s second half

Mainly, I feel like writer-nim didn’t know what to do with our OTP, once the feelings were officially out there.

Remember when I said earlier, that there’s no time to waste, in a mini series like this?

Well, I feel like Show did waste some time here, first with minting the OTP, using Hong Ju’s reluctance, and then keeping the OTP apart for silly nonsense reasons, after they’ve been minted.

On top of that, I feel like the vibe between our leads turned a little more.. awkward and stagey, compared to the OTP pre-minting, thus making for OTP interactions that felt quite shallow and hollow, if I’m being brutally honest.

Yes, Chae Jong Hyeop and Kim So Hyun are still pretty to look at together, but I think that keeping the OTP chemistry at a very cutesy, bubblegum sort of level, very much limited the actual OTP feels that we got. I’m sad about that. 😭

However, the second half isn’t without its silver linings, and I mention them next, in this spoiler section.

[SPOILER ALERT]

E5-6. We do get a bit of OTP cuteness, before the relationship is confirmed, when they play together at the beach.

However, I’m sad to say that I found this specific spot of Intended Cute, rather hollow and try-hard.

Like, it felt quite random that Hong Ju would suddenly be all friendly to Hu Yeong, whom she’s been studiously avoiding, and as a result, the whole thing felt quite stagey and forced, to my eyes.

That said, I actually did enjoy the moment that our OTP confirms their relationship.

I feel bad to see that Hong Ju gets nightmares, and that her nightmares are basically around being abandoned and left behind by the people who were important to her: her mother, her aunt, and then Jun Ho.

It’s no wonder Hong Ju seems to put up a shield around herself, and shies away from dating.

In this dream, though, as he prepares to leave, Dream Hu Yeong asks if she won’t hold onto him, and I’m glad that Hong Ju takes this as a nudge to at least let Hu Yeong know that she doesn’t want him to leave.

I do love that Hu Yeong puts aside what he’s doing, turns around, and tells her with a gentle smile, that he’s not leaving.

And then it’s really sweet and cute, the way Hong Ju tells him that he can’t take it back – before she seals it with a kiss – which only gets swoonier, when Hu Yeong leans in, cups her face with his hands, and kisses her right back.

Ahem. I swooned and flailed, not gonna lie. 🔥🫠

I also do like the way Hu Yeong’s so unabashed about liking Hong Ju.

Like how he just likes to look at her, when they’re together, and then, the way he tells her over the phone, that he likes her.

There’s also the way he tells her, at the art gallery, that he likes hearing her say his name, so much so that he worries his heart will pop out of his chest. 🥲

YES PLEASE, I love unflinching, undaunted heart-eyes, and everything that goes with it. 🥰

I’m just disappointed that we don’t get more of that. 😭

[END SPOILER]

The secondary love line

I liked the idea of this secondary couple very much, actually.

I found Hye Ji endearing in how open she is, about showing Teacher Son (Hwang Sung Bin) that she would like to spend more time with him, and I liked how stiffly endearing Teacher Son is; he’s got no game, but is so very earnest and sincere in his feelings for Hye Jin.

This would-be couple seemed like a shoo-in for a spot on the “Stuff I Liked” list, yes?

..Except that Show just took too long, and took too many wrong turns, in minting this secondary OTP.

All the Early Cute in the first half of our show, gives way to a ridiculous amount of gaffes and blunders, as Teacher Son keeps stumbling over his own feet, as he and Hye Jin try to get closer to each other.

I honestly wasn’t too fussed about this at first, but Show drags it all out for so long, that I eventually started facepalming my way through this loveline; it just stopped being funny, y’know? 🤦🏻‍♀️

Overall, though, I’m glad that this secondary OTP finally does get minted, which is why it’s in this section.

STUFF I DIDN’T LIKE SO MUCH

Bang Jun Ho as a character

At first, I found Jun Ho halfway interesting as a character, thanks to the nuance that Yun Ji On injects into his delivery, and the distinct layers of wistfulness that we keep seeing, in Jun Ho’s gaze.

However, I lost my patience – and my goodwill – fairly quickly.

[SPOILER ALERT]

Essentially, everything about his arc had to do with his “poor me” pity party, when he’d been the one to ghost Hong Ju, back when they’d been an actual couple.

Even on hindsight, he fails to see that he’d hurt Hong Ju with his behavior, and can only focus on the fact that he’d been suffering the shame of writer’s block, and couldn’t bear to face her.

Not only that, he’s quick to blame Hong Ju for just about anything, like how he starts yelling at Hong Ju after he finds out that her accident had delayed the meeting – never mind that Hong Ju had gotten hurt in said accident. UGH.

With all that as context, I just didn’t feel any sympathy for him, as he tried, time and time again, to get Hong Ju to consider taking him back. 🙄

[END SPOILER]

Uncle Wook’s bickering connection with President Bae

Over and above our two other lovelines, Show teases a potential third loveline between Uncle Wook and his first love, President Bae (Yoon Jung Hee).

It doesn’t take up a huge amount of narrative real estate, but Show keeps bringing it back into focus, like some persistent, lingering shadow.

To my eyes, it honestly feels like one potential loveline too many, for a little show like this, but I also think it’s likely because the comedic beats around it feel rather aggressive for my taste, and therefore land as being quite try-hard.

I wish Show would have done away with this, and used the extra screen time for actual OTP stuff instead.

Some of Show’s narrative decisions

I think the big mistake that Show makes, is that it tries to actually be a condensed version of a 16-episode drama.

To be clear, I was pretty happy with Show’s first half, so my remark only applies to Show’s second half.

Typically, we tend to get an OTP confirmation of sorts, by episode 8, and then when episode 13 or so rolls around, we get a season of angst, before we head into our finale.

The problem here, is that Show tries to do that, even though it doesn’t have 8 episodes to play with, but 4.

As a result, once we hit episode 5, even though we’ve literally only just had our OTP relationship minted literal minutes ago, we’re already at the penultimate stage where conflict and angst typically rear their heads. 😅

One of the things that I wished Show would have given us, is a good, solid amount of screen time for newly minted OTP happiness, where it’s all cuteness, rainbows and blushy sweetness, before the arrival of any angst.

I personally feel like that’s the big missing piece, in our second half.

Instead of getting to soak in some good OTP feels once the OTP gets minted, we’re being hit in the face, with various sources of angst.

This was not fun, and I wished that Show could have handled itself differently.

THOUGHTS ON THE ENDING [SPOILERS]

E7-8. Of course, all’s well that ends well, in this little drama world; I never doubted it for a second.

And, happily, I did enjoy these final episodes a bit more than the episodes prior, so Show does save it, somewhat.

At the end of episode 6, Show brings Hu Yeong’s mom (Kim Jung Nan) back from the US, to throw a spanner in the works, and she does – until she doesn’t.

Which, I’m honestly not too surprised by, since we need a happy ending, and Show doesn’t have a lot of time to get us there.

I thought it was a rather refreshing twist, that Mom would end up inviting Hong Ju to go to the US with Hu Yeong.

This way, Hu Yeong would be availing himself of the career opportunities in the US, which Mom feels is super important, and at the same time, Hu Yeong and Hong Ju wouldn’t be apart, which is what Hu Yeong wants.

At the same time, it makes sense to me that Hong Ju wouldn’t feel ready to just up and leave her entire life behind, particularly since she and Hu Yeong have just started dating.

And then, just as I was resigning myself to the cure-all time-skip that so many dramas employ, Show gives us a different twist.

Instead, while Hu Yeong prepares to leave and be apart from Hong Ju for an indefinite period of time, Hong Ju ends up choosing to surprise Hu Yeong at the airport, by finally using all her saved up vacation time, to go with him.

So no, she doesn’t uproot herself from her entire world for love, but she does find a way to go with him, and be with him for a good amount of time, which works out to a very nice compromise, in my view.

This way, they get to be together, without her having to leave her life in Korea, and eventually, Hu Yeong plans to return to Korea anyway, because that’s where he’s always felt he belonged. 🥲

That’s a pretty good happy ending, I’d say.

THE FINAL VERDICT:

Not bad overall; had potential to be better.

FINAL GRADE: B

TRAILER:

MV:

PATREON UPDATE!

The next drama I’m covering on Patreon, in place of  Serendipity’s Embrace, is Cinderella at 2 AM [Korea].

You can check out my episode 1-2 notes on Cinderella at 2 AM on Patreon here.

Here’s an overview of what I’m covering on Patreon right now (Tier benefits are cumulative)!

Foundation Tier (US$1): Entertainment Drop (Sundays) + the first set notes of all shows covered on Patreon (that’s 2 episodes for kdramas and 4 episodes for cdramas)

Early Access (US$5): +Cinderella at 2 AM [Korea]

Early Access Plus (US$10): +Love Next Door [Korea]

VIP (US$15): +Your Honor [Korea]