Hi everyone!

I hope you guys enjoyed my episode 1-2 notes on Love Next Door (here!). Today I’m sharing my episode 1-2 notes on No Gain No love, because I am enjoying it nicely, and I was wondering if you’d like to join me? 🤗

These are my episode 1-2 notes, exactly as they appear on Patreon, ie, without screenshots (I’m saving those for the actual review).

I hope you all enjoy, and I hope you’ll consider joining us over on Patreon, for the rest of the discussions! ❤️

Episode notes:

E1-2. Guess what, you guys? I actually find myself enjoying this one quite well – which is honestly a lot more than I’d expected, given that I’d been iffy about Kim Young Dae’s casting.

I’m cautiously optimistic that my concern was unwarranted, because, so far at least, it does seem like he’s been cast well, for the role.

I will say that whether or not you enjoy this one, really depends on your mood, as well as your viewing lens.

I would imagine that if you came into this with a much more critical lens, that you would be able to find lots of stuff to.. well, criticize. 😅

I am opting for a classic k-romcom lens, because I think that’s the one that will likely serve me best, if I want to enjoy this show.

For example, I imagine that someone using a more critical lens would find lots to dislike about our female lead, Hae Yeong.

On a quick tangent, kdrama writers do tend to like their name puns, and so, our female lead’s name, Son Hae Yeong, literally sounds like “zero loss,” with “son hae” meaning loss (损害) and “yeong” meaning zero.

You could call her calculative and disingenuous, for always assessing whether she’s getting her fair share in any situation, and being so precise about her calculations.

However, I find that I don’t dislike her, at least, so far.

Part of it, not gonna lie, is because of Shin Min Ah’s personal charm.

The woman is so charming that even having to deliver unflattering, matter-of-factly calculating lines of dialogue, doesn’t actually diminish her appeal.

But, it does help as well, that Show shines the spotlight on this, and has Hae Yeong call out her own lack of lovability.

That level of self-awareness helps, and the context that we’re given about Hae Yeong’s growing up years, helps too.

I mean, you could call her out for being privileged and selfish, sure, but it’s hard to blame her for wanting more of her mom’s attention and affection, when all she’d seemed to see, growing up, had been Mom giving out that attention to other children.

Yes, Mom’s generosity to take in and foster all those children in need, had been amazing, but it does seem like Mom hadn’t figured out how to properly prepare Hae Yeong, and give her the sense of love and security that she’d craved.

And it’s not like Hae Yeong didn’t show her unhappiness; it was clear to see, that she hadn’t been happy about each foster kid that Mom took in.

I do think that Mom could have and should have put more thought and effort into assuring Hae Yeong, and helping her to process all these fosterings in a healthy way.

Anyway. Given the kind of environment in which Hae Yeong grew up, where she felt that she kept losing out in terms of Mom’s affection and attention, it’s not hard to see how she might have become an adult with a fixation on getting her fair share of anything and everything – not just in money, but in love and relationships too.

Additionally, if someone’s been losing out a lot, and on a consistent basis, over an extended period of time, I would totally buy the they’d be frustrated, and want to do something about it – and that’s the vibe I’m getting with Hae Yeong too.

Part of it is the wedding congratulatory money, yes, but I feel like that’s more like a symptom, than anything.

I get the sense that Hae Yeong’s been deeply frustrated in relationships too, and that scene, where she’s shown talking about that ex-boyfriend, who’d never ensured her, er, “happy ending” during their sexytimes, even once, says a lot, I think.

What I mean is, I get the sense that, if the sexytimes had been halfway satisfying, Hae Yeong wouldn’t have ended up making it an issue?

And so, overall, I’m getting the idea that Hae Yeong might appear to be prickly and calculative, but it seems to be coming from a place of long-term loneliness and neglect. At least, that’s what it looks like to me.

Additionally, even though Hae Yeong doesn’t really show it, we do get to see that she cares about her mom, and doesn’t like burdening other people.

She’d appeared heartless at first, with that scene of her breaking up with Woo Jae, while telling him that she simply doesn’t love him anymore.

But, with that extra bit of context, that the whole reason she’d broken up with him, was because he’d felt burdened at the prospect that he would have to help take care of her mom, if they were to get married, everything looks quite different.

And, as outrageous as some of her thoughts are, like wanting to march up to the photo op at the wedding, and let slip in front of the bride, that Woo Jae had two-timed her, Hae Yeong is, after all, quite restrained by her sense of decorum.

Extending that idea a little bit, you could say that she isn’t really living the way she wants, and is constraining herself, to fit into what other people deem acceptable or appropriate.

Maybe her big project, of getting married, is her way of allowing herself to do what she wants, for once?

After all, there are certainly some significant push factors, that build up on her.

First, there’s Woo Jae telling her that he won’t be able to give her back her congratulatory money until she gets married herself.

Then, there’s the whole company culture thing, where single women aren’t taken into elite project teams, thanks to Chairman Dad’s philandering ways.

And then, there’s how Woo Jae literally submits her idea as his own, and tells her to give it up, since she won’t be selected anyway.

Ugghh. I honestly can’t fault Hae Yeong for choosing to get married, if only to spite him. 😈

At the same time, I find myself quite intrigued by our male lead, Ji Uk.

Like, exactly what is his deal?

He works at a convenience store, and only goes to that job interview because it had been an assignment from his professor, and he says that he’s working on something that no one else knows about??

Is he some kind of graduate student working on a thesis..? And the convenience store is a cover for his, I dunno, social experiment..?

I’m just wildly stabbing in the dark here. 😁

But, it does seem like Ji Uk’s been noticing Hae Yeong for a while now, and, even though he’s all bickery and prickly with her, we do get that nugget of context, where he’d overheard her tipsy conversation with then-boyfriend Woo Jae, where Woo Jae had drunkenly asked if there was no one else who could take care of Hae Yeong’s sick mom, and had, afterwards, offered a moment of sympathy.

Given how sensitive he seems to be about the smell of cigarettes, it does seem like quite a concession, that he would not only offer Hae Yeong a cigarette to help her feel better, but even sit with her, while covering his nose with his sleeve, to make the cigarette smoke a little more tolerable.

This little tidbit is what makes me think that perhaps Ji Uk likes Hae Yeong more than he lets on – and, as you know, I do enjoy it quite well, when we get a male lead who’s got some secret loving feelings towards his female lead. 😁

PLUS. He takes it upon himself to become Hae Yeong’s fake groom, if only to protect her from running into sleazebags like his acquaintance, who’s just looking to take advantage of a desperate woman.

This definitely smells like concern to me. 😉

I do find it quite endearing, that his condition for being Hae Yeong’s fake groom, is that she take care of his cat for a week.

Awww. A caring cat dad always wins in my books. 🥰

Honestly, he could have just given Hae Yeong his measurements, since she was asking, and let her take care of the tux, but when he hears that she’s going alone, he opts to go with her.

That’s thoughtful of him, I thought.

And how especially handy, therefore, when Hae Yeong runs into Woo Jae and his new wife Yi Rin at the wedding boutique, that Ji Uk’s right there, to blow them all away with how handsome he looks, in a tux? 🤭

I mean, look, I know it’s completely tropey, but I am a sucker for moments like this. 😁

Plus, Ji Uk really does look like he’d walked out of a manhwa; he cleans up that nicely, and even has that rakish longish hair to go with. 🤩

He’s definitely turning out to be the opposite of the forgettable average Joe that Hae Yeong had hoped for, in a one-day groom – but as we know, Ji Uk’s absolutely going to be more than a one-day groom, so I guess it works out? 😁

As for our secondary characters, I’m pleased that we’ve got Lee Sang Yi in the mix, because I do like him, and I hope that his chaebol prince character gets a satisfying arc of his own.

I’m less enamored by Lee Yoo Jin as Secretary Yeo; I feel like the banter and Intended Funny around his character lands as try-hard and awkward, though that is very subjective.

I do like the idea of Lee Il Hwa being Chairman Mom, who’s the biggest fangirl of Ja Yeon.

Speaking of whom, I also like the idea that Hae Yeong’s closest friends are more like her sisters, because they’d both been fostered by Mom.

Hae Yeong might have been really frustrated at Mom fostering kids all the time, but Mom had ended up giving Hae Yeong two really close friends, because of that fostering.

There’s something quite poignant about that, that I like. 🥲

All in all, this was a very decent opening week, and I’m primed to find out more about this fake marriage, and where it will take our fake couple. 😁

*This show is being covered on the VVIP Early Access (US$20) Tier on Patreon*

To view episode 1-2 notes in Patreon, along with everyone’s comments, you can go here!

You can find my Patreon page here, and for all future episode notes for this show you can click here.

Episodes 3-4 notes will be out today! I hope you’ll consider joining us!

It’ll be a way to have fun, and support me at the same time? 🥲❤️

PS: For more information on what the Patreon experience is like, you might like to check out my Patreon update post for September, which you can find here!