lara

in the case of taemu finding out about geumhee, sure, there’s the little bullying tangent he goes on (not his best moment, but it’s mostly because he gives her a chance to come clean and she decides to lie to his face instead which enrages him more) but we see his anger slowly subside into pity as he realises how much she’s struggling and when she finally does come clean (albeit drunk), he immediately puts an end to the fine-tuning of her product and their fake-dating contract, wanting to make things easier for her

then there’s the conflict between yoora, hari, minwoo (and in a way, taemu too). we get a glimpse of it in episode 7, where taemu pretends to be her boyfriend in front of her friends. when minwoo gets too possessive of hari and goes as far to imply that she is undeserving of taemu to his face, he tells him off (even drops honorifics for one line to make sure minwoo understands just how pissed off he is) but he doesn’t mix his work-personal life to fire minwoo/ruin his life like many other powerful male leads would’ve done. in fact, that is the ONLY instance in which taemu gets involved. otherwise, he respects the fact that this is hari’s issue and butting in and throwing his power around in a fit of anger would not be the best thing to do. he’s there to support her when she needs him but he never pushes boundaries.

when it all comes to a high after yoora spreads rumors about hari, minwoo, and taemu, hari actually EXPLAINS to youngseo (and the viewers) why she didn’t lash out at either yoora or minwoo. she could have done so and created more drama for the show, but the approach she takes is way more mature and realistic. she explains that initially she did feel angry, but she took the time to reflect on what she did that might’ve drove yoora to do such a thing and even tried to understand her. she doesn’t hide behind taemu and allow him to throw a fit about it either, nor does he even think of doing so (like i said, his main priority in this instance is protecting hari and supporting her)

also the way they resolved hari and minwoo’s relationship was VERY VERY mature, it really impressed me. any other drama would have had her telling him off, leaving him crying and regretting everything he ever did but this was sweet. she opened up about how much her crush on him impacted her personality that it would take a while for her to let go of that part of her completely. and it was really heartwarming that they were both willing to try to go back to the way things were when they were really just friends, it made ME, as a viewer who had BARELY seen them as friends miss that era of their friendship and even wish i had gotten to see their friendship without all that drama.

then there’s youngseo and her father. she cut ties with him but she was still understandably upset about it. it was nice to see that she didn’t magically girlboss her way out of it without feeling any emotions and she even tried to defend him despite it all so that sunghoon wouldn’t hate him. this was a very nice touch because in the webtoon, i don’t think they ever address the fact that her dad views her as an asset rather than a daughter. even when he approves of sunghoon, he’s more happy about the fact that she beat yoojung at something than actually finding happiness.

and with the chairman and hari, i’d actually like to point out that his reaction to being deceived by her is very similar to taemu’s initial reaction. he’s angry that he let himself get fooled so easily and also a little hurt because he genuinely liked geumhee (just like taemu did). i’d even argue that if yoora never spread that rumor, he would’ve warmed up to her much quicker because you could already tell by the way he looked at hari when she came back in the rain for taemu that he could see her sincerity. 

BUT while he didn’t go about it in the best way, i think you can see by pushing taemu to break up with her, he was trying to do what he thought was best for the situation. in a way, he was even protecting hari too when he talked about how she wouldn’t be able to continue working at the company normally after word about her relationship with taemu got out. he was just trying to salvage the company, protect taemu and his job (which has really always been his no 1 priority) and hari. 

of course, he’d already fallen for hari after she took care of him at the hospital but she didn’t even realise it. and overall, i have to say i really LOVE the way this drama handled parents’ disapproval of the relationship. if you’ve watched kdramas, you would know this trope is very common and VERY EXHAUSTING. in youngseo’s case, she didn’t hesitate to stand her ground (which was very in character of her and somehow not an option for a lot of other kdrama characters??)

but in hari and taemu’s case, taemu has a heart to heart with her dad (ONE OF THE SWEETEST CONVERSATIONS IN THE SHOW TOO) and eventually gains his favour. hari wanting to get the chairman’s approval is prominent since ep 9 and it’s obvious she struggles a lot with it but my most favourite part about this stuggle is that hari and taemu stand by each other but they don’t do anything to harm the chairman or each other. taemu tells him time and time again he’ll never give up on hari but he isn’t rude or disrespectful about it. and when hari’s upset about it, he always cheers her up, reassures her, reminds her that they’re not in a rush and can take their time...it’s just so realistic and imo, the BEST solution to these kinda conflicts. because all they really had to do was show that their love would persist throughout it all and keep trying their best. like it’s actually very possible to respect both your partner and your parents who have yet to approve of your relationship without doing something that could seriously hurt/ruin your relationship with either party, as is the case in many kdramas (i wish they would learn a little from this)