The problem wasn't the romance, it wasn't the age gap, it wasn't even the fact that ceo was trash. But the problem was the execution. Ceo had 0 sympathy, 0 chemistry, 0 personality,, and 0 common ground with rael
They never had proper conversations, they never connected on anything (beside ceo projecting his mom being treated like trash to having his own mistress he didn't treat like trash)
He saw her pain, he never pushed her to explain, but he never tried to comfort her. He never tried to get to know her.
This is a bit of spoiler from Misty, but there they start off as a married couple losing touch, and the ml makes so much effort, they connected again and build a relationship. Then the spoiler part, then the writer snatched our hearts and stabbed us right in the feels and showed the ML was the murderer.. so he was "the bad guy", but he had depth, he had a backstory, he had a connection with the fl, he had a relationship and they took us on that journey with them then broke our hearts

Here, sure I was team eunpyung (and I'll talk more about him later), but here the ML starts off by lusting over the FL. He pushes her down and tells her to be his dog. He then becomes the dog because he wants to have her. He starts doing things he was missing in his marriage and projecting it on rael. The rose house with the kids, the laughter. It was all his playbook of a happy life. Then he gets angry at her for ignoring him.. then he hits her, pushes her badly and hurts her while she runs away scared and he doesn't stop, he continuedchasing her and hurting her.. until she pushes him once and he falls like the fragile old man he is..
Non of those are love. And his redemption? "Whoops, the company I wanted, and the guy that died, was your dad? Oh no..."
It didn't matter he killed. It didn't matter he killed her dad.. he was "sad" he was the reason her life fell apart.. and his solution? Pretend to run away to die.. and he just goes to his favorite church looking perfectly ok. No pain. No drinking to ease his pain. No regret. No tears. He was jut walking in to throw a pity party but rael was already there..

SHE had so MUCH more emotion. He didn't return or deserve.
Though her emotions are wrong too. His greed was the reason her dad died. He wasn't innocent. He didn't care he killed. He never treated her right. She was practically his victim, the victim he mentally kidnapped, until she thought he was showing her kindness and love

It's not even toxic love. It's a cheap attempt at makjang that failed miserably cuz the ML horribly portrayed his flat character

And what the writer didn't realize. The real HOT painful healing torturous love and chemistry could've come from eunpyung

He was the only person she showed her true face, her true heart. But she didn't think she deserved happiness or love so she'd run away from him. but once she wavers for 1 second eunpyung would've embraced her for a passionate kiss. Then she'd again feel guilty cuz all she wants is revenge. She doesn't think she can survive and her only goal is to break them all down and possibly kill/die. So she pushes him away. But his love would be too much for her so she'd cave, and they'd have had all the sweet scenes in the beach and church, but he gets hurt so she pushes him away again. And then that church scene at the end would've been them. With the people out for bloody murder being sora, and ceo who like his scene when he found out the truth, couldn't live with the idea that rael actually loved eunpyung and never him


In both vrs, the perfect ending is bloody murder. With ceo of course being the one dying
and updating this as the drama ended but, I'm satisfied with the bloody murder? I've been bamboozled by drama endings before, a happy romance ends up a tragedy, a makjnag ends up a romcom with a wedding scene ending, and many many dead leads come back at the end, I didn't trust them one bit
but this is the best option, he never repented or even acknowledged his wrongdoings, but atleast with his death rael could move on from all her pain, and with eunpyeong going to her, I can happily imagine their reunion. though no one mentioned the poor kids at the end?

▪︎Acting:
• Rael = 100/10. She carried the whole show with her expressions and emotions
• Sora = 8/10. She was a bit penthouse dramatic, but she was also all talk and not much bite. For someone who has killed before she was intimidated by Rael too much
• Ceo = 1/10. The only time he showed character and passion was when he tried to steal his father's company. Almost all of his other scenes were ???
• Eunpyung = 8.5/10. He did have a bit of ? face too much

▪︎Character:
• Rael = 8/10. She was crazy, not afraid, diabolical, tempting, captivating and dangerous. But her suckup persona was too unbelievable, if a person tells you what you want to hear in that low voice it's clear they're lying. Her passion and love for ceo made no sense even as someone who lacked love and couldn't differentiate between love and toxicity
• Sora = 6/10. She did all she wanted but she feared her dad. I'd have assume she'd have done more to Rael, fought back more and spread rumors instead of crying and screaming 90% of her time
• Ceo = 1/10. Zero personality, zero passion, zero drive. All lust, cheap traumatic past. Had no sense of responsibility, only cared for his child when he opposed his wife. Wanted a mistress to treat her like his toy. A murder but also a pity party thrower.
• eunpyung = 7/10. He had more potential, he ruined his character when he asked her if she liked ceo, then dug his own grave when he kept telling her she can't then put the final nail in his coffin when he told her to go after ceo..
His slow love, his care and passion for her though were beautiful, he ruined it when he became too devoted to her. But that scene when he cooked for her, and his confessions were my favorite scenes


▪︎Plot = 6/10. It was just another revenge drama, the cheating was supposed to make it different and it had potential
▪︎Plot development = 1/10. By ep 12 I just thought to myself, what did I watch for 12+ hours? Basically nothing. No character development, no move in revenge plot, and the cheating scandal became so flat and stale. The biggest tension was the kid's birthday party but it never went anyway

▪︎Romance = -100/10. I'm not a romance fanatic, I never supported the normal jerk ml/naive fl plot move. But this was even worse than that. There was no reason, no passion, no connection, no use. This should've 100% been Rael using him till the end, and then the Ceo losing his sht and showing his trash personality, which he did in ep, 12? But then they did a 180, with no real redemption and just went back to acting he was hurt. And then he would see how he was just as trashy as Sora.

▪︎OST = I love the main song so much, the whole ost was on par to seo yeji's mood and acting

▪︎Rewatch = I actually never Rewatch tho I did Rewatch some scenes to make edits and I wish I was a bit better at editing so I could take all of this and make it about Rael and Eunpyung