Our highly anticipated spin-off comes hot on the heels of No Gain No Love’s recent finale, and at just two episodes, it’s a great dessert — or starter — depending on where you are with the parent drama. Spice Up Our Love is meta, fantastical, and sometimes cliché, but it’s also a light and breezy watch, so let’s get down to it.
EPISODES 1-2
One of my favorite sub-genres of webcomics are transmigration/isekai — stories featuring characters from the real world who slip into a fictional world — and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that our spin-off would be following this format. Unfortunately, it also means that the main characters in this spin-off are fictionalized versions of the second lead couple we came to know and love in No Gain No Love.
Spice Up Our Love takes place in the fictional world of its eponymous webnovel, and this office romance is about dietician SEO YEON-SEO’s (Han Ji-hyun) love story with her boss, KANG HA-JOON (Lee Yoo-jin). Before love enters their equation, Yeon-seo suffers many trials and tribulations trying to come up with the perfect sausage to match the taste of the one Ha-joon had in his childhood. Her every waking minute is spent on the sausage quest, and her boyfriend (Ha-joon’s secretary) eventually gets bored of the relationship and breaks up with her. Drunk Yeon-seo ends up scolding Ha-joon and his hard-to-please taste buds for her plight — but one thing leads to the other, and a steamy relationship is born.
We move over to the “real world” where writer, NAM JA-YEON (Han Ji-hyun), has sued BOK GYU-HYUN (Lee Sang-yi) for leaving hate comments on her webnovel. As we saw in the fifth episode of No Gain No Love, Ja-yeon and Gyu-hyun argued over his apology letter moments before the Truck of Doom came to join the discussion. The truck missed Gyu-hyun, but Ja-yeon has no idea because she already fainted in shock — and this unconscious state is the express ticket that transports her into the story world of Spice Up Our Love.
Ja-yeon wakes up in Yeon-seo’s body, and like every isekai character ever, she freaks out. What do you mean she now lives and breathes inside the world she created? What in the meta is going on here? Lol. She attempts to run out of the hospital, but runs into a very worried Ha-joon (who is now hilariously being played by Lee Sang-yi), and her freak level spikes. Is this a prank? Where are the cameras? Unfortunately, this is as real as it gets. Ja-yeon’s beloved male lead character has taken the form of her real life nemesis, Gyu-hyun. Her real life crush/muse for the Ha-joon character has also now become Yeon-seo’s ex-boyfriend, KIM DO-GYEOM (Lee Yoo-jin) — and this mirrors Lee Sang-yi and Lee Yoo-jin’s boss-secretary relationship in No Gain No Love. Heh.
Despite Ja-yeon’s — or rather, Yeon-seo’s — escape attempts, she remains stuck in the universe she created. The story’s plot also forces her to act out some critical scenes from the novel, and she loses control over her body whenever this happens. It was a little uncomfortable to watch Yeon-seo having to act out racy scenes when all she wanted was for Ha-joon to stay away from her. And while they don’t go all the way because they’re in the PG 15 version of the novel, there’s a reason why consent is a thing.
Of course, Ha-joon doesn’t believe Yeon-seo when she tells him that they’re living in a novel she created. Not until she uses the power vested in her as the creator to predict that she’s gonna be trapped in the freezer! Before Ha-joon can blink, it’s critical scene time, and Yeon-seo disappears from his sight and finds herself in the freezer. Now, Ms. Writer knows she’s not gonna die of hypothermia because: plot armor. But none of the other employees can save her until Ha-joon arrives and — very easily, because he has male lead powers — opens the door to carry her out. It’s very romantic and very My Sweet Mobster, and this is the point where Yeon-seo falls for Ha-joon.
Ha-joon can no longer deny that Yeon-seo is his creator and their world is her creation. But this knowledge fills him with much sadness because if the world is not real, it means his feelings for Yeon-seo aren’t real either. Aww. Yeon-seo uses her creator powers to take Ha-joon to the sausage restaurant from his childhood — which, by childhood connection logic, used to be owned by Yeon-seo’s grandmother. Lol. Yeon-seo tells Ha-joon that the sausage plot was inspired by memories of when her mother made sausages for her as a child — and she uses this to say that the story world and its characters are a part of her, so it means they are real. Cheer up, Ha-joon!
Ha-joon asks Yeon-seo what she wants to do in this world she created, and the most logical thing to do after creating a chaebol with a black card is to spend his money! Must be nice. Yeon-seo drags Ha-joon along for shopping sprees, lunch in Japan, dessert in France, massages in Thailand, and movie dates and cherry blossom strolls in Seoul. It’s literally Ms. Writer’s world, and she’s having the time of her life in it.
Yeon-seo also comes across this world’s version of Ja-yeon and her father — but unlike the abusive relationship they have in the real world, father and daughter have a loving relationship here. This sight makes her tear up, and it’s clear that writing is a form of escapism for her, and her story world is modeled after her dream of living with a loving family. Yeon-seo pledges to live a happy life with Ha-joon, and it looks like she has accepted her fate in this world.
Unfortunately, every good story has an antagonist, and this world’s villain is none other than Yeon-seo’s ex-boyfriend, Do-gyeom — who as it turns out, was the one who locked her in the freezer. For his next act of villainy, Do-gyeom gets behind the wheels of doom with his sights set on Yeon-seo. Yeon-seo makes her peace with the impending accident because the show must go on, but Ha-joon surprises Ms. Writer by going against the story’s plot to push her out of the way! ~So this is love, hmm hmm hmm hmm~
Vehicle of Doom scenes in real life — I mean, in K-dramas — leave me rolling my eyes, but this story-within-a-story version was hilarious. Ha-joon could have easily dodged even after he pushed Yeon-seo away, but he just stood there because the plot demanded an accident. Lol. But I liked the exaggeration because: 1) it highlighted the fantasy nature of this universe; 2) it poked fun at the ridiculousness of dramaland’s Truck of Doom scenes ft. its many deer-in-the-headlights heroes and heroines.
Anyway, Ha-joon wakes up in the hospital because the male lead never dies. *Laughs in Uncontrollably Fond, Mr. Sunshine and a host of other dramas.* In the romantic hospital rooftop setting, an emotional Yeon-seo asks Ha-joon why he saved her, and obviously, it’s because he loves her. “You’re the reason I exist. You’re the reason I want to exist. You’re the woman I love.” Swooooon! My swoon is further swooned when Ha-joon takes her hand and says, “I love you, Nam Ja-yeon.” Finally, he called Ms. Writer by her real name! Ha-joon and Yeon-seo kiss, and it’s a happily ever after for them.
Our spin-off concludes with Ms. Writer’s return to the real world to see her nemesis by her side. It’s a spoof of the scene where Ja-yeon wakes up in the hospital after fainting during Gyu-hyun’s confrontation with the Truck of Doom. Ja-yeon is surprised — and relieved — that Gyu-hyun didn’t die after all, and they exchange warm smiles. Just like her fictional characters are happy together in their spicy world, Ja-yeon is back in her world ready to embark on a real-life romance with the man of her dreams. The end.
Spice Up Our Love was good fan service, but I got more excitement from the anticipation than from the show itself. This is not to say that it wasn’t a fun watch — actually, it was a great way to imagine how Ja-yeon and Gyu-hyun relationship’s might have turned out without the added drama of his family problems. The problem was that I couldn’t fully immerse myself in the story world and in the characters because I kept seeing everything as, you know, a “story.” It’s the curse of self-awareness, really. But I guess that’s kinda the point of this spin-off. Anyway, for more realistic Ja-yeon and Gyu-hyun goodies, please go watch — or rewatch — No Gain No Love.