Secret dating, handholding, hugs, smiles, squees, swoons, and general fits of feels — has anything ever been this fun? We already know our hero has been bitten by the love bug, but now our heroine is equally smitten. This drama wants us to fall in love right along with our leads, and boy does it know how to work some magic. And if you’re still not convinced about this show, it’s given us the only thing better than Junho in suits: Junho in hoodies!
EPISODES 5-6
Would it be wrong to fill up the next 1500 words with Eeeee?! Because that really sums up my feelings about these episodes. This is a crowd-pleaser, for sure, and why not? We deserve it. Watching this OTP get swept away on their feelings for two hours had me on cloud nine. The situations may sometimes feel forced, but the emotions are coming across as organic — and these two leads have snap-crackle-pop chemistry. Whether it’s because of the actors’ real-life closeness or they’re just that good, I don’t care, as long as they keep it coming!
After the heroic catch in the rain last week, our leads end up in a quiet car together as Won drives Sa-rang home. There’s nothing but rain sounds and Junho’s voice, which is enough to lull anyone into a blissful sleep, and so, before long our heroine is passed out. He covers her with a coat, stops to buy some (matching!) dry clothes, and then takes her to a nice restaurant — because he hasn’t forgotten that it’s her birthday. Awww!
Won is in full date mode wanting to know Sa-rang’s favorite food, color, climate, etc., but Sa-rang is still holding tight to a little office decorum. She intends to pay for dinner but learns it’s way out of her price range (because Won has ordered everything on the menu for her). Won pays, looking super proud of himself, and then takes her home where he produces a cake from the trunk — which he special ordered while they were at the restaurant.
Sa-rang doesn’t miss the opportunity for another (polite, lovely) teaching moment. She loves the cake, but she wants Won to know that because he called for a favor late at night, it means the poor chef had to work overtime. Won, to his eternal credit, says he’ll be more mindful next time. (I can’t be the only one swooning over this!)
They’re about to say their adorable goodbyes, when Sa-rang’s ex, Yoo-nam, shows up. He starts ranting about Sa-rang seeing someone else and accuses her of cheating while they were together. Not only does Sa-rang hold her own and tell him off, but Won steps up next to her and these two are an unmistakable team already. Just his stance in this scene says everything.
When she’s all safe inside and Yoo-nam finally takes a hike, Won calls to wish Sa-rang a final happy birthday. He says she can call him anytime Yoo-nam bothers her again, and we see that his general mood is a desire to protect her. It’s this goal that feeds into all his actions for the rest of the episodes — including when he goes to rescue her in the mountains with a helicopter. We’ll get to that!
Before any helicopter shenanigans, our leads go out on (what I’d call) a second date. It comes about when Sa-rang asks Won if he can meet up after work — and his face is off the charts with happiness. I mean, it’s reverberating through the screen. It turns out that she just wants to give him a small gift as thanks for her birthday, but he wants another dinner together. And we’re off! A secret date is in the works as she hops in his car to hide from their co-workers.
She takes him to a place she likes, where they have to wait in line and he has to learn about this thing called patience. Then she introduces him to draft beer and rowdy dining and he loves it. They’re both so happy that he wants to know when they’re going out again — and she sees him smile for the first time.
About the smiles, we learn in flashback that Won has some trauma surrounding fake smiles because on the day his mother disappeared from his life, all the staff in his household kept a plastered-on smile but wouldn’t tell him where his mom was. That’s about as deep as it gets with the backstory, but a second family secret is drummed up this week when we learn that Hwa-ran is married. Her husband is in love with someone else and wants a divorce, but she vetoes that idea because she doesn’t want it to interfere with her becoming the successor to King Group.
And the battle of the heirs does escalate a tiny bit this week in a kind of accidental way. Essentially, the hotel staff is sent to work on farms as a means to create relationships with important farmers. There’s a whole rigamarole about the decision to send them because it’s outside their job description, but Hwa-ran thinks the workers only care about money, so they’ll be happy to get the extra pay no matter what the work is. Way to step up your villain game, lady.
Anyway, the outcome is that Sa-rang ends up on a mountain by herself carrying a gift as she goes searching for the farmer she’s come to meet. She runs into a storm and takes a serious spill off the side of a small cliff. Won can’t get a hold of her, so he tracks the location of her phone, and this is when he gallantly rides in on a helicopter and jumps down the steep hillside to save her. Only, in true King the Land form, he gets trapped down there too, rather than pulling her up to safety. Lol. This drama.
On the upside, we get a genuine hug when Sa-rang cries in his arms at the thought of not dying out there alone. And there’s some squeezing up next to each other because Won is more afraid of the wilderness than she is. Luckily, they’re rescued by the farmer they came to meet and it all turns out well (and there’s even some handholding in the morning when Won gets jealous of Sa-rang being offered another job).
This whole escapade leads to the accidental increased antagonism with Hwa-ran because Won took the company helicopter even after Hwa-ran refused to give permission. Won was motivated by wanting to save Sa-rang, but the outcome is that he’s just entered into a power game with his sister — one he was trying to stay out of.
The last smile-inducing sequence happens when Won learns that Sa-rang’s only family is her grandmother, CHA SOON-HEE (Kim Young-ok), who runs a gukbap restaurant in Sa-rang’s hometown. They go to the restaurant, where Won is roped into peeling a bucket of onions (because Grandma has a take-no-sh*t attitude), and then they end up at the local street market.
This scene is by far my favorite because Won tries and loves all the things that Sa-rang loved growing up — including a game where they aim to win a king carp as a prize. He doesn’t have his wallet, she’s paying for the game, and he keeps asking for “just one more try.” She puts her foot down on giving him more money, and he turns into a one-man flirt-fest trying to work her out of a 1,000 won. You have to see it to believe it, but the affinity in this scene is just amazing.
After their win together, and Won’s attempts at wooing Grandma, these two are over the moon for each other and Sa-rang agrees to go on a proper date. But the next time they see each other, she’s at the VIP lounge handling the birthday party of a chaebol heiress, and he’s there to give the birthday girl, HAN YU-RI (Lee Soo-bin), a giant gift.
Yu-ri calls Won oppa, gives him a hug, and tells him to keep his attention on her — all in front of Sa-rang, who’s on the job right now. My heart broke and then sank into my stomach as I felt everything that Sa-rang must be feeling. We had two episodes of pure elation — building up our crush along with hers — because the drama knew it was going to knock the wind out of us with this scene. Touché, Drama, touché.
We learn that Won and Yu-ri are kind of betrothed because their fathers have decided on their marriage. They seem to know each other well, but Won isn’t interested in her and tells Yu-ri she should date someone who likes her (and luckily, she seems like a party girl who was probably going to do that anyway).
Before we can leave with our hearts all tattered, we end with Sa-rang having a great time with her friends, when Won comes to her door with a pretty smile, looking like he’s there to explain.
Phew! After more than two hours of high notes, my heart couldn’t take it if we ended without him at her door. Even so, waiting for next week might just kill me. I love this show more with each new episode and I’m happy to see it knows exactly what it’s doing. It’s got a backbone of comments about women and the workplace, and it’s giving meat to the story by having our hero’s growth come from learning — truly learning on the ground — about his business.
Even if it’s covered in feel-good fluff, at its core, there’s a tight little story here. Our heroine already knows all about the world our male lead lives in — her livelihood depends on knowing. So, watching him eagerly learn about her world, be impressed by it, and genuinely love what she loves, is a satisfying way to show these two bonding. If the drama can keep this up, it could be a rom-com GOAT. Until we know more, I stand by my initial reaction: eeeee!