At first glance this seems like a light fluffy romance drama without a lot of substance. And for many viewers that’s all they will see. But for veteran drama lovers that like to dig beneath the surface and reveal all of the subtle nuances and underlying themes of a drama, you’ll enjoy this. Because there are lots of layers that you get to peel away in this drama if you’re paying close attention. You’ll find that it deals with some very real modern day problems like gaslighting, manipulation, and misogyny. It also tackles the preconceived notions many people make about one another based on a persons appearance, their social status, or their income level.

Listed below are the various social issues this drama tackles.

Gaslighting: The female leads ex fiancé cheats on her but makes her feel like the bad guy for not forgiving him. He says everyone makes mistakes and if she truly loved him she wouldn’t throw away the 10 years they had together. He insinuates that her feelings for him aren’t genuine if she leaves him. This is just one example but he gaslights her a lot.

Misogyny: Despite the female leads desire to continue working, the ex fiancé continually pushes her to quit her job. He expects his wife to stay at home and take care of the kids. He also gets involved in her personal life making big decisions for her without even consulting her because he feels that he knows what’s best for her like she’s a child. He brags about molding her into the ideal wife for himself as if she’s an object to be conformed to his needs.

Manipulation: The ex fiancé uses sympathy and guilt to manipulate the female lead. He convinces the female lead to take family photos with his mom (even though she’s already broken up with him) because she’s very ill and it’s her dying wish before her surgery. He constantly reminds her of how devastated both families will be if they don’t marry.

Preconceived notion’s: Most of the people surrounding the female lead (including her father) have preconceived notions about her fiancé. Like, since he’s very handsome he must be nice. Or he’s wealthy so he deserves our respect. Or he’s powerful so we should look up to him and admire him. Society as a whole tends to treat attractive or powerful people better. They just assume they’re superior to others whereas a less attractive or poor person is often looked down upon. These preconceived notions blind the female leads family and friends to her plight. They only make things worse by pushing her to stay with him. They don’t see her misery as the ex fiancé throws her into confusion and self doubt in order to manipulate her into marrying him. Fortunately her best friend and the male lead aren’t fooled. They see the fiancé for what he really is and endeavor to help her.

The ex fiancé’s actions are all classic tactics used by a narcissist. He’s always either gaslighting her, guilt tripping her, or using shady tactics behind the scenes to manipulate the situation. He never goes too far to where the angst and melodrama overwhelms things and makes it an emotional roller coaster. But his character did make the drama more interesting. And I especially enjoyed seeing the female lead learn how to handle him.

I also like that the female lead is strong, confident, and knows her worth. She never lets her personal life effect her job and she’s really good at what she does. She dresses superbly too. (I know that sounds very superficial but modern Chinese dramas tend to dress their female leads terribly which I find very annoying.) It’s difficult seeing her ex fiancé manipulate her but seeing her grow and learn from it and eventually stand up for herself is so worth it. I loved her character growth.

Some have said the male lead is overly aggressive with the female lead and is disrespectful by disregarding her personal space. I disagree. They are very attracted to each other and there’s obvious sexual tension between them. But she won’t acknowledge it and pretends there’s nothing there. This prods him to prove to her that there is definitely something sizzling between them by getting up close and personal. Plus he sees her ex fiancé’s true colors and wants to help her break free from him. It pains him to see her treated so badly. That’s why he’s always getting up close to her. It’s to get her to acknowledge and face her attraction to him. He knows they could be really happy together. He’s not being overly aggressive or overbearing, he’s trying to help her. What I really like about the male lead is his strength, self confidence, and unwavering loyalty. His character is very endearing.

Another thing I really liked about this drama was the main leads healthy relationship and sizzling romance. Once they get together they have a few issues pop up but like normal real life couples, they talk things over and work it out. It was so refreshing to see that because it’s a rarity in Asian dramas. And surprisingly I wasn’t bored after they got together even though it was midway through the drama. I think that’s because their relationship had such great chemistry. If you like romance dramas with lots of realistic kisses and skinship then you’ll love this drama because they kiss and cuddle a lot.

That being said, I have to address the mistakes this drama made. The biggest mistake was the amount of screen time they gave to the very boring secondary romance. Their characters lacked depth, their storyline wasn’t interesting, and they had zero chemistry. And they were given a lot of screen time too. So I was constantly hitting the forward button through their scenes.

The other big mistake was that there wasn’t much else going for this drama other than the romance. They didn’t give you enough information or background to make the office politics interesting. I know the male lead was an executive at a high end investment firm investing in the female leads company. But I’m still not sure what the female leads company actually did, I know she was a director with a team under her but they never gave a lot of details about the job itself. And you never really get to know the employees there either. So the office politics weren’t that interesting and added little to the story.

Therefore because they gave way too much screen time to a boring secondary romance and the only interesting thing in the drama was the main leads romance, I took 2 stars off in my rating. Since I love a good romance with chemistry I gave it an 8. It could have been perfect if they hadn’t given so much time to the second couple or if they had spent more time making the office politics more interesting. But the way they dealt with the misogyny, gaslighting, and manipulation by the ex fiancé did add a lot to the story. I enjoyed how they handled it. So overall it’s not the best drama ever but it’s cute, very romantic, it deals with some interesting social issues, and the acting is really good. I would recommend it for those that are into romance dramas.