No Gain, No Love | Recap and Review

A smart woman who hates to lose [money] finds a unforgettable "groom" from her pyeon-uijeom.
Notable Actors/Actresses

Shin Min-a: Son Hae-yeong

Kim Young-dae: Kim Ji-uk

Lee Sang-yi: Bok Gyu-hyun

Han Ji-hyun: Nam Ja-yeon / Yeon Bo-ra

Director: Kim Jung-seok

Screenwriter: Kim Hye-yong

Hangul Title Translation
I Don't Want To Lose Money

Genres: Contemporary, Romcom, Contemporary Romcom

Year: 2024
Episodes: 12

Recapper: FanFanX

Recap Grade: A/B
First Impression: 3/5

Jump to: Remarks | Comments

Recaps: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] 

Cast

Shin Min-a: Son Hae-yeong	Kim Young-dae: Kim Ji-uk
Lee Sang-yi: Bok Gyu-hyun	Han Ji-hyun: Nam Ja-yeon / Yeon Bo-ra

Romcom / Romance Checklist

How much of the plot is angst/romance?

0.50 / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

The ML: 

Cold – Lukewarm –Warm / Timid / Tsundere / Falls in Love First / Noble Idiot / CEO / General 

The FL: 

Bold / Cute / Cool & Independent / Falls in Love First / Better Than ML / Noble Idiot 

Describe the Relationship (the tropes):

Annoying Love (F/M) Rival+++ / Bickering Start  / Childhood Connection / Cohabitation / Contract Marriage or Fake Couple / Enemies to Lovers / Friends to Lovers / Harem / Hidden Identity / School to Adulthood / Love Triangle / Married Couple (Real) / Secretly in Love (F/ML) / Star-Crossed Lovers 

Relationship Progress (officially together; first (official) kiss; breakup*):

Ep 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12* 

# of CPs (including main CP):
0 / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Ending:

Happy / Sad / Open Happy / Open Sad / Bad / Rushed+++

FanFanX: Fake contract marriage initiated by FL? ✋ Say no more, I'm all in for 12eps. 🤪

Mini Recaps

[Ep1] [Jump to: Top | Comments]

1. Son Hae-yeong goes to her ex, Ahn Woo-jae’s wedding… and finds out that when she dumped him 6 months ago, but he’d been with his bride, Kwon Yi-rin for a year already. Here's a bird! They all also worked together at Kkulbee Education. 🐝 The other kind of bird.
2. Kim Ji-uk, a cashier at her neighborhood convenience store, is a darling angel (he is) to everyone – except her. He's now eaten the last bag of her favorite candies, Mustard Pang Pang Jelly, which was recently discontinued. 
3. Her besties / roomies: Sweet and sparkling Nam Ja-yeon [nom de plume Yeon Bo-ra] and loud and fierce Cha Hui-seong.
4. Bok Gyu-hyun is the typical CEO – a demanding workaholic and his not-so-secret nickname is ForkGyu. xD Yes, it’s really the other F-word. His parents have a strained relationship as his father once [more than once?] cheated on his mother. 
5. His poor assistant, Yeo Ha-jun wants to transfer out to coding but our CEO refuses. 
6. Hae-yeong demands the return of her 300k won (congratulatory wedding money) from her ex, or else she’ll reveal the true nature of their relationship to his dearly beloved wife. If I were her, I’d expose him anyway. Y'know what they say about cheaters... 
7. Due to a work contest, she needs to get married quickly. [Winner gets fast tracked to promotions but not for single women…]
8. Later she gets drunk outside the convenience store, and then asks Ji-uk to become her fake groom. 
9. Epilogue: Ji-uk feeds his stray cat, Agi [baby] as he overhears her talking to her ex. The latter is complaining about her having to take responsibility for her mother and whines about how there's really no one else besides her who can do this.  

[Ep2] [Jump to: Top | Comments]

1. Eight years ago. Ji-uk's grandmother had told him to get married to a kind and modest woman. He'd replied that she'd forgotten the most important attribute: Not a smoker.
2. For the last six years, Ji-uk has watched Hae-yeong bicker / break up with countless boyfriends.
3. Hui-seong and Ja-yeon are actually Hae-yeong's foster sisters, who she used to resent because they [and the other kids] robbed her of her own mother's love and attention. 
4. Gyu-hyun and Yi-rin are friends. Oh? Are they related?
5. Hae-yeong's mother lives in a nursing home as she has dementia, which only two of three sisters know about. Hui-seong is the last to know. 
6. Ji-uk, who finally agrees to marrying her, on the condition that Agi can stay with her for a week post-spaying. 
7. Wedding dress fitting: She is wearing the most beautiful embarrassing dress. [His choice of word!] If a cake-topper comprised of petticoats came to life...ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 
8. HajunLove aka Seon-A [Gyu-hyun's mother] is Bo-ra's [Ja-yeon's] number one fan, and the two have a first meeting. However, both end up ducking and hiding when they each see Gyu-hyun and Ha-jun walking around nearby.
9. Ja-yeon has a crush on Ha-jun, who is the source of her web novel's ideal man. [The in-novel sequences are delightfully suggestive.]
10. Epilogue: Ha-yeong wants Ji-uk as her groom as he can't be too good-looking or else everyone will remember him later. Hehe. 

[Ep3] [Jump to: Top | Comments]

1. Hae-yeong finally sees her dazzling, handsome groom to-be. Her first thought: She’s screwed. *snicker*
2. She later tells Ji-uk that he needs to propose to her. (~21:55) He says no and throws her out of the store. What's our girl do? Record herself. ㅋㅋ She's adorbz.
3. She buys herself a lovely ring, and rents his ring. 
4. Later she gets locked inside the dark convenience store – because he's proposing! (~31:00) Jelly cups and a toy train with a special delivery: a Mustard Pang Pang Jelly ring! Then he reveals an entire shelf full of the world's very last batch of MPPJ candies! He says she gets these plus him as a bonus. I'd yell yes and accept the bonus now!
5. Her sisters are watching via surveillance cam...and Ja-yeon notices that Hae-yeong's eyes are full of love. 
6. Wedding happens, and Hui-seong catches the bouquet. And her photographer boyfriend of ten years, Yun Tae-hyung, leaves right after the wedding is done. 
7. Ha-jun assumes that Ja-yeon is a children's novelist. Meanwhile, Gyu-hyun is getting worked up over her novel.
8. The newlyweds are forced spend the night together at the hotel (paid by the company), right next door to Woo-jae and Yi-rin.
9. She teasingly asks Ji-uk if he's going to be an angel or a dog tonight? They have a close moment on the bed but she ends up pushing him away. When he leaves to shower, she continues fanning at herself. 
10. Epilogue: At their wedding, he hugs her mother, who asks if he was her Ji-uk, her dear Ji-uk i. He replies yes. 

[Ep4] [Jump to: Top | Comments]

1. Back in high school, Ja-yeon and Ha-jun ended up getting in trouble at the same time.
   → Her sign: I’m a liberal arts dummy who doesn’t understand fractions.
   → His sign: I’m a natural sciences dummy who doesn’t understand themes.
   And a punk-looking Hae-yeong, as her guardian, had shown up to pick her up. 😍
2. Back to the hotel room: Hae-yeong yelps in pain... as Ji-uk removes the last of the hairpins from her hair. xD At the wedding, Ji-uk had given her a very chaste kiss on the cheek at the urging of the crowd. Now, he leans down as if to properly kiss her, but she shoves him off and says they've gotta do something else tonight: Count the congratulatory money. ㅋㅋㅋ
3. Gyu-hyun is disgusted by Bo-ra's Spice Up Our Love, and moreso because its ML’s name is Ha-jun. And because his mother enjoys this. *snort* 
4. The newlyweds go their separate ways. He leaves her a handwritten note:
   Congratulations on your wedding, Ms. Son Hae-yeong. A world where you wouldn’t suffer losses for being unmarried or an actual marriage with your true love would’ve been preferable. But we all make decisions to find happiness, don’t we? If this fake wedding leads to you finding true happiness, then that’s all that matters. I hope you find fortune in all your choices. As your fake, temporary husband, I’ll wholeheartedly wish you luck forever. 
5. Three months later. Hae-yeong has won the grand prize!
6. Gyu-hyun is in deep trouble for his hate comments on Bo-ra's site. [His handle: Luck You] Looking particularly disheveled and poor, he goes to the police station to turn himself in. He later finds out that Ha-jun is friends with this Bo-ra.
7. Hae-yeong misses Ji-uk and accosts the poor part-timer at the store, thinking he'd returned... again. This new guy, Woo-seok, has no issues selling her cigarettes: Lung cancer or stroke? ㅋㅋ
8. There are new recruits at work, including Ji-uk who sports a haircut. Finally! He's also still wearing his wedding band. He greets Hae-yeong with "I missed you, ma'am." 

[Ep5] [Jump to: Top | Comments]

1. A man had found Ji-uk and told him to join Kkulbeol Education. To keep his promise to his grandmother, he'd reluctantly agreed. 
2. Hae-yeong is displeased with his appearance – because he'd ghosted her. (~7:45) But he soon bidongs her and then quickly shoves a piece of MPPJ into her mouth. (~9:00) ㅋㅋ  It only temporarily stops the rapid fire of questions. He asks if she missed him, too. She replies if he gets caught, then she’ll have another ceremony and it’ll be real this time – his funeral! ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Before she leaves, she "fixes" his hair so he's much less attractive. 
3. At the work fair, she forces him to wear the bee mascot costume as the children swarm around him. Our angel is a cute bee! ㅋㅋ Later when he removes the bee's head, all the mothers suddenly very interested in hearing about the educational products from him. 
4. Hae-yeong documents a boy whose body is covered with bruises and cuts. But she ends up in an altercative with his abusive father. Soon they're at the police station, where the man is even more shameless. The company attorney shows up... because of Ji-uk?
5. Hui-seong is angry that Tae-hyung now wants to get married and have kids…and it's all because of Hae-yeong's wedding. That photo though. ㅋㅋ
6. Gyu-hyun isn’t getting punished for his hate comments. But he writes an apology letter. Ja-yeon is outraged as he’d actually told her to die hundreds of times. >:( A truck appears which causes her to faint, and he ends up carrying her on his back all the way to the emergency room. 
7. His friend (and fellow intern), Bok Gi-un, reports Hae-yeong for workplace harassment…as he'd seen her with Ji-uk.
8. So Ji-uk runs to the board room to save her. He barges in and announces that he’s not a victim but her husband! 

[Ep6] [Jump to: Top | Comments]

1. Up until that moment…she’d been cursing and plotting her revenge against him. She confirms that they’re married. However, they’re now in even bigger trouble as she shouldn't be his supervisor and he shouldn't be in her department. Then he finds out what she thinks of him. ㅋㅋ
2. Poor Ja-yeon wakes up in the hospital after a nightmare about her abusive father. She looks over and finds Gyu-hyun laying face down on the floor next to her bed. She screams in fright as she thinks he's dead. (~6:30) ㅋㅋ His eyes are wide open! It turns out that she passed out but was fine, and just slept for 20 hours. He's paid for the VIP room, instead of a hotel room. It's 1.7M won for a VIP room he still doesn’t know who he is. He’s also bought her a new phone. He’d been dropping it off…but then she'd woken up. That’s why he was on the floor. ㅋㅋ After her insistence on paying him back (as she doesn't know who he really is), she now owes him a total of 3.2M won. 
3. Ji-uk is angry that Hae-yeong thought he reported her… He hates that she didn’t trust him. She points out there wasn't much to trust him on as he'd disappeared on her. Truth. 
4. How to fight rumors:
   a) So what? Calmly ignore what has been said and defend yourself with a smile.
   b) Go screw yourself. Stay with a perfunctory agreement.
   c) What do I care? Look down on those who turn their noses up.
   d) Come again? Act clueless with random answers to play tricks. 
5. When Hae-yeong checks on the rental ring, she finds out that it's been purchased already. (~27:00) 
6. At the orphanage, Ji-uk catches the falling basket of clean linens but not Gyu-hyun (~41:00) ㅋㅋㅋ Bromance is dead.
7. Later there's this awkward work dinner which includes her husband and her ex. However, neither one of the guys can drink, and they both end up very drunk.  ㅋㅋㅋ
8. The next morning… our newlyweds wake up in bed together. But there's another arm wrapped around Ji-uk's waist. Ji-uk screams, which wakes up... Woo-jae! (~1:06:20) ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Ep7] [Jump to: Top | Comments]

1. About last night... there's the drunk duo: Ji-uk and Woo-jae. But how did the three end up in bed together?! Yi-rin isn't too happy about this either... especially when Hae-yeong as she seems to know exactly where he's misplaces his where his watch and phone. o_o
2. It gets better worse: They're now also working in the same department. 
3. Hae-yeong sees Tae-hyung with another woman, whom he hugs and then moves to kiss her… Well, Hae-yeong isn't having any of this and gets fully involved. However, Hui-seong already knew about this, as they're in a polyamorous relationship, and she herself is seeing other people as well.
4. Nine years ago, Ji-uk lived in Hae-yeong's house as he'd been sent by his halmeoni. He's now staying in the same rooftop unit.
5. To keep away suspicions, Hae-yeong decides to have a housewarming party with her sisters' help. 
6. It almost works, but Woo-jae slips up when he mentions that she didn’t get any new furniture… 
7. Later, Hae-yeong follows Ji-uk upstairs and suddenly grabs him and kisses him. 
8. Epilogue: That drunken night. She’d kicked him off the bed to sleep on the couch. She’d struggled to remove her necklace and he’d done it for her. But when she’d gone to remove her ring, he’d stopped her with his hand and told her to not take off “our” ring. He’s her priority and her partner as long as their rings are on. She asks if that’s why he bought his ring. She’d asked if he wanted her to be his partner… She’d finally said he’s so adorable. 

[Ep8] [Jump to: Top | Comments]

1. She kisses him because Woo-jae was watching them from down below. Earlier, Ja-yeon had spotted him and warned her beforehand. Poor Ji-uk is upset that she used him. And when she says their lips barely touched, he kisses her. (~6:40) But she pulls away. He reels her back in for another kiss. He finally stops to ask how long she can keep up this fake act without feeling anything. 
2. Gyu-hyun is worried about Ja-yeon not being able to return to writing. Ja-yeon meets with Gyu-hyun one last time, and then tells him that she doesn’t want to see him again. It's pretty apparent that he's fallen for her... 
3. Hae-yeong is angry at Ji-uk…who then tries to prove his manliness by opening a jar of pasta sauce. But he fails and she opens it herself. ㅋㅋㅋ They're watching Lovely Runner! Anything that needs replacing or repairing, she really doesn't need his help as she's fully capable of taking care of everything. 💪💪
4. Ji-uk makes a promise to never kiss her again. Later, Hae-yeong buys him a bed as he’s sleeping directly on the cold floor.  And...she also wants them to date when work isn’t taking up her time, and she can focus on them. (~51:00) He agrees to wait. 
5. Woo-jae realizes that Hae-yeong’s marriage is fake, and he thinks she did that to spite him. Now he wants to get back together… 🙄
6. Ja-yeon finds out that Gyu-hyun outsourced the hate-writing comments to Ha-jun from Ep51 onwards. She’d filed the suit because of Ep51’s comment… so it was Ha-jun?!?! 
7. Epilogue: Ji-uk had looked up tips on how to make one’s wife talk to him first after a fight.
   a) Could you open this for me? He’d loosened the jam jar in advance. She'd opened the other jar instead.
   b) The remote didn’t work. He’d inverted a battery. She'd fixed it. 
   c) The bathroom light didn't work. He’d removed the bulb. She'd replaced it.
   
   Lesson learned: Don't mess with her. 😉

[Ep9] [Jump to: Top | Comments]

1. Ja-yeon asks Gyu-hyun if he likes her. He says yes but he knows that he has no right to. She replies that nothing will happen because she doesn’t think she’ll ever have a happy ending. She walks away and Ha-jun overhears Gyu-hyun calling her Yeon Bo-ra. So Gyu-hyun quickly drives her away. Gyu-hyun wants to remain friends with her, but she says no as it’ll be hard for him. 
2. Gyu-hyun receives more bad news as he finds out who Kim Ji-uk is. So he's going to ruin both Ji-uk and Hae-yeong's careers The latter two have decided to stay together as a team as they're partners. But she's been demoted. Gyu-hyun's mother wants him sent abroad. So Ji-uk says that they're divorced. Gyu-hyun starts referring to Ji-uk as "Lucifer". ㅋㅋ I like the way he says it.
3. Rumors flying around that Woo-jae is behind Hae-yeong's demotion. Now Yi-rin definitely knows that Hae-young is his ex-girlfriend. 
4. Hae-yeong goes on a business trip... and Ji-uk surprises her as he's going with her. After her work wraps up, it's a beach-aquarium-fireworks date for them. He's the most curious about who the person who taught her to smoke, ergo the person she’ll remember forever. She refuses to tell him. 
5. Ha-jun apologizes in person to Ja-yeon. She's disappointed that he did it because his boss told him to, but she forgives him. 
6. A worried Hae-yeong rushes toward home as Nam Chang-il, Ja-yeon’s father has been released from prison today. 
7. The two find Ja-yeon squealing in a man's embrace, so they pry the man off – it's Gyu-hyun!

[Ep10] [Jump to: Top | Comments]

1. Another member of the drunk crew: Gyu-hyun gets drunk from a single sniff of alcohol. ㅋㅋ Ha-jun places him inside a taxi and sends him off to Ja-yeon... To keep him from resisting, he gives him another sniff of the expensive alcohol. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
2. In the aftermath, Gyu-hyun admits to truth of what he did and how he's since fallen in love Ja-yeon. Hae-yeong goes to beat Gyu-hyun with her umbrella…and ends up hitting Ji-uk on the head just as Ja-yeon yells that she likes him, too. ㅋㅋ (~9:00) Chaotic CPs! Now she chases Ja-yeon around with the umbrella...  
3. With a kid's toy ring, Tae-hyung proposes to Hui-seong. But she doesn’t want to get married for sake of a child, or ruin the child's life based on her decisions. 
4. At breakfast, Gyu-hyun asks questions: About how Ja-yeon's home search is going and how Ji-uk is going abroad. Hae-yeong doesn't react well to any of this... 
5. Later, Ji-uk tells Hae-yeong that he loves her and they spend the night together. (~48:00)    
6. Gyu-hyun shows Ja-yeon his company, and then they kiss! (~55:00)
7. Woo-jae and Yi-rin argue over Hae-yeong's job status. He tells her about Hae-yeong father being murdered in college. Yi-rin tells him about who Ji-uk is, how Gyu-hyun is sending him abroad, and how Hae-yeong won’t regain her position here. 
8. After overhearing their conversation, Ja-yeon tells Gyu-hyun that this is their first and final date, as she’s decided to not see him anymore. 
9. The next morning, Hae-yeong finds an old picture of Ji-uk and her mother... When Ji-uk returns with breakfast, she asks him about being her mother's last foster child. She then tells him to get lost as she's sickened by the sight of him. 

[Ep11] [Jump to: Top | Comments]

1. 6 Years Ago. Hae-yeong’s mother had told Ja-yeon about her illness. And she'd promised and forced Ja-yeon to promise to not tell anyone else about who had killed Hae-yeong’s father. 
2. Tae-hyeong breaks up with his other girlfriend, who taunts him about accepting a child that may not even be his. This makes him suddenly unsure about their foreseeable future life. Hui-seong senses his fear and wisely (and heartbreakingly) ends their long relationship. 
3. Hae-yeong and Ji-uk had first met on the first anniversary of her father’s death. She now asks why he disappeared after their wedding. He replies because he’d fallen for her and knew that he’d be unable to keep his promise to her mother. She now knows that he’d kept his promise to his halmeoni to keep away from his own mother, even though he missed his mother. Then he’d kept his promise to hers, which forced him to repress his feelings for her.
4. Ja-yeon’s father breaks into the house to terrorize Ja-yeon, who fights back. But he manages to strangle her. 
5. Hae-yeong has always known who murdered her father, and that one day he’d return for Ja-yeon. Ji-uk calls Gyu-hyun and frantically urges him to go to the house. 
6. Gyu-hyun beats her father with some lightsabers [cough🍌🍌cough ㅋㅋㅋ] from Hae-yeong's harem box. He ends up injured but he'll survive. Her father is arrested on the spot. Hae-young and Ji-uk arrive and when her father throws a fuss about not being allowed to see his own daughter, Hae-yeong snatches the bag of bananas to beat Ja-yeon's worthless father with and tells him that he abused his own child, so he has no right to call himself her father. 💪  
7. Ja-yeon realizes that Hae-yeong has always known who her father’s murderer was. She’d known that Ja-yeon had been living in hell back then. Knowing that she couldn’t save her own father, at least she could try to save Ja-yeon. She'd worried that she'd disappear forever. She could choose to hate her later, but she’d never have another chance to save her… and she didn’t want to lose her too. ㅜ^ㅜ Like mother, like daughter...
8. Hae-yeong says she sometimes regretted it…because she wonders if she made her live in a worse hell by not letting on that she knew and made her suffer more. Ja-yeon tearfully replies that her decision to keep her around is what kept her hanging in there. (~59:00) ㅜ^ㅜ Ja-yeon’s eonni here breaks my heart. ㅜ^ㅜ
9. To no one else's surprise, except hers, Gyu-hyun still likes Ja-yeon, even knowing everything about her. He tells her that he loves her and his love will continue to grow. These two… (~1:06:00) 😍 They're wearing matching hospital PJs with hearts all over them!
10. Later, Hae-yeong receives a call that her mother had passed…  She emotionlessly wakes up Ji-uk to tell him. But he won't let her walk off in this state. So she finally breaks down and sobs that her mother left her behind. 

[Ep12] [Jump to: Top | Comments]

1. Unsurprisngly, Hae-yeong barely keeps it together during her mother's funeral. Her sisters and Ji-uk help her through this. She also finds out that her mother was a closet smoker. Inside the columbarium, Ji-uk's halmeoni's niche is right across the way from her parents'.
2. Hui-seong tells her sisters that she broke up with her boyfriend. She’s still keeping the baby as she wants to live a long time like their mother. 
3. Later, Hae-yeong sets Ji-uk free, because she doesn’t want him to be bound by yet another promise to another person. So she removes his ring. www. 
4. At the airport, Gyu-hyun sees him off and Ji-uk actually calls him “hyung” before walking towards his gate. 
5. Even though she's reminded by everyone, Hae-yeong refuses to see him off. Instead, she rereads his letter as she’s accompanied by Agi. She's giving him the gift he gave her for their wedding...
   
   Six Months Later
6. Hui-seong who now has a very large baby bump… has a run in with Tae-hyeong, who now sports potbelly. ㅋㅋㅋ Ah, he's wearing a faux baby bump. He still loves her... and just like that, they’re back together. 
7. Ha-jun works for Hae-yeong’s startup, Royal Jelly Education but they need funding. They end up begging and then pitching to Gyu-hyun... as they make different hearts. (~56:00) Hae-yeong even mentions Ja-yeon to pressure him. Gyu-hyun calls them Traitors Nos. 1 and 2 and then sends them away. ㅋㅋ Moments later, he texts that he'll invest!
8. Gyu-hyun has plans to have lunch with his parents. He shows up and soon realizes that his father tricked him into having a blind date with Eom So-hye’s sister, Eom Ji-hye.ㅋㅋㅋ At this same hotel, Ja-yeon spots someone who looks Ji-uk…and ends up seeing Gyu-hyun with his blind date. Omo. On the drive home, jealous bickering ensues...
9. Gyu-hyun’s mother is now also a web novelist…just like her future scribbling DIL. Her husband isn't quite displeased. 
10. Ja-yeon nervously goes to her uni lecture… and becomes calmer when Gyu-hyun quietly appears with his giant fan sign. (~57:50) Later, he does something he's been wanting to for a long time, he gives the gift of couple’s rings. (~1:02:00) 
11. Hae-yeong is quite sad that her pyeon-uijeom is closed. While she's crying, Ji-uk suddenly appears. It's revealed that she'd asked him for a lighter for her cigarette. He's the person she'd never forget,  as he’d given her the lighter as she’d bought her first pack of cigarettes but not a lighter. (~1:09:00)  Tonight, he also chugs her beer. She misses him and won't forget about him but she doesn't regret letting him go ever. He says misses the bed she gave him as none is as comfortable as that one. He's come back to where he left his heart. Now he's totally drunk and starting to slump over. So she takes him home and he passes out on her bed. 
12. The next morning she wakes up and becomes panic-stricken when she can't find him anywhere inside the house. Just as she's about to run outside, he comes in through the gates carrying a paper bag.
13. He'd left to get her some miyeok guk as it was her birthday yesterday. He then points out that he's returned their rings to their homes. She looks down and says that she loves him. They kiss.
    
    

The End.

[Jump to: Top | Comments]
 

Remarks

by FanFanX

[First Impression (Ep1-)] Shin Min-a shines in this one. And the situations get so absurd that you can't help but just laugh. Kim Young-dae never seems to shake off his stiffness yet I can't seem to stop watching as he becomes softer. The sister trio are fun. 

[Cast&Crew] 

→ Shin Min-a: Son Hae-yeong

→ Kim Young-dae: Kim Ji-uk

→ Lee Sang-yi: Bok Gyu-hyun

→ Han Ji-hyun: Nam Ja-yeon / Yeon Bo-ra [Hae-yeong's sister]

→ Lee Yoo-jin: Yeo Ha-jun [Gyu-hyun's secretary]

→ Go Wook: Ahn Woo-jae

→ Jeon Hye-won: Kwon Yi-rin [Woo-jae's wife]

→ Joo Min-kyung: Cha Hui-seong [Hae-yeong's sister]

→ Director Kim Jung-seok Previous work: Strong Girl Namsoon, Work Later, Drink Now

→ Screenwriter Kim Hye-yong Previous work: Her Private Life

Cross-reunion for the leads. Shin Min-a and Lee Sang-yi appeared together in Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha, and Kim Young-dae and Han Ji-hyun were siblings in Penthouse. They've already announced a spinoff, The CEO's Menu [please change this title] Spice Up Our Love (her web novel's title!!) for 2CP. [So does Lee Sang-yi finally get the girl?!] It's only two eps...

Cameos. 

→ Ep2. Kim Hae-sook as Geum Deok. [Ji-uk's halmeoni] 

→ Ep4. Byeon Woo-seok as Woo-seok, replacement part-time cashier.  

→ Ep6. Kim Sun-young reprises Um So-hye role from Her Private Life. 

→ Ep12. Joo Hyun-young as Um Ji-hye (Um So-hye's sister).

 

[Behind the Scenes] 

[OST] See Comments.

[Ending] Happy... barely got to the finish line. 

[A Highlight] Ji-uk catching the clean laundry instead of Gyu-hyun. 

[Review & Rating]

Aesthetics: A

Acting: A/B [Depends]

Plot: A→D

As always Shin Min-a shines in whatever role she’s in. Hae-yeong is a very capable woman who doesn’t need a man to do anything for her. For whatever reason, I still like Kim Dae-young, even though I think he’s a) stiff for certain scenes (like romance) and b) not really the best romance partner. Perhaps it’s because he has some of the funniest expressions when he’s in a pickle, or can showcase some intense angsty emotions. My favorite couple is Ja-yeon and Gyu-hyun. Yes, there are clearly issues with Gyu-hyun’s highhandedness – when it comes to Ha-jun, Ja-yeon, Hae-young, Ji-uk…and anyone else around him really. I think I was somewhat able to look past this because it’s Lee Sang-yi portraying him, especially as he falls first, fast and hard for her. 

I enjoyed the sisterhood/friendships of Hae-yeong, Ja-yeon and Hui-seong so much. They (especially with the first two) made me laugh and tear up so much. 

It starts sweet, smart and funny. After Ep7, this series takes a deep dive into quasi-angsty / psycho killer nonsense. Already mentioned this but the romance falls flat between the first leads. Second leads…well, they deserve the two-ep special, even though it’s barely the same characters. (It’s actually 2FL’s novel characters.) 

Random Recommendation: 

Rating: 2/5