caffeinated muggle

A beautiful story of womanhood, friendship,dreams & justice set in a retro office. Watching women stand up to misogyny while supporting each other makes it truly heartwarming. Perfectly paced story w such memorable characs will stay w us for a long time.

Love how the series shows women lifting each other up instead of tearing each other down. Their bond—built on loyalty, love, integrity,&shared pain makes their relationship feel powerful and real.

I genuinely appreciate the writer for not bringing in romance to disturb the story.

The drama also does a great job making the financial &stock market side of the business world easy to follow. Even as someone not well-versed in it, I stayed intrigued through all 16 eps thanks to the mix of lighthearted comedy&tearjerking moments that brought in so much emotion.

Coming to the characs,our core 301 girlies were so different yet so similar.

Geumbo,one of my fav roles of park shinhye, truly rocked my world. The way she was so fierce,brave & still human enough to feel guilt and responsible for her actions. She truly owned the show w her acting

Go Bokhee, honestly turned out to be the most interesting character in the show. Coming from a history of abuse, she chose to build a life away from that trauma. She’s fearless, yet still longs to be loved& protected. She may seem money-driven& morally twisted at times, but her resilience to survive such a harsh world makes me love her even more. Truly MY GEUMBOKHEE AGENDA ALL THE WAY!!

Misook, a single mother who just wants to build a good life for her daughter, silently endures abuse at work just so she can keep going for her child. Her story feels especially tragic because it reflects the harsh reality many women face in workplaces being used &then discarded without guilt. I’m glad she had the others to pull her out of that dark place and help her grow emotionally stronger for both her daughter and herself.

Nora first comes across as a sheltered, spoiled rich girl with no real understanding of hardship, but beneath that is a deep trauma of feeling unloved& abandoned her whole life. That’s why she seems so timid at first. Being with the girls finally gives her a place where she feels. She truly belongs &is valued. Her standing up to her father in the end shows how she moved past that feeling of abandonment&grew into a stronger woman who knows she has people cheering for her.

Thats why I love these girls so much. All of their growth was so beautiful to see.

Special mention to the team of men- shin jungwoo, albert, lee yongi, ban jinmok and our dear yun jaebeom. All of them truly brough in such fun elements to the story. Their support to help geumbo achieve her goal was genuinely fun to watch.

I loved all their chemistry w geumbo!

A heartfelt mature romance of two individuals showcasing vulnerabilities& miscommunication and the sheer efforts to understand each other's language of love. Its layered & nuanced. Its a love that explores connection and demands trust, patience,empathy. Its not loud but caring and provides healing& comfort to the broken soul.

Sitting with this drama for a while, i have come to really appreciate the storytelling. It's very layered. Our main leads aren't the simple, cheerful , but complex charac with their own issues. I love how, throughout the drama, we explore their issues along w them. Since the very start, both laid out their true selves to each other, which they normally would hide from the world.

Its all important because this is eventually leading to them fully understanding each other amidst all the miscommunication between them. Because the central theme of this drama is understanding one another's love for each other.

Coming to hojin, he is a pretty emotionally restrained charac who translates people's words for a living. Hence, he is used to the direct ways of communication. language derived of emotions is where he loses his footing. He is someone very reserved and direct. Hence, his words can sometimes cut through like a knife, but he is also someone who is thoughtful in his own silent ways who eventually come around. And that's why muhee shakes his world. He has never been the one to initiate. We see his regrets over his first failed love. But muhee is the driving force that awakes his curiosity to understand the twisted language of love. Hence, you will see his gravity of loving someone isn't loud but quiet and profound. He observes, understands, and learns to reach out. Muhee is a tricky person to him. He sees himself drawn to her, and that's why he starts questioning everything. After understanding her trsuma more, he truly dives deep to help her out. Hence, kim seonho's performance might seem not so trivial, but in the end, it's exactly the opposite of it. He truly bought the simplicity yet the complexity of hojin's personality to life.

Coming to our muhee, truly broken and vulnerable charac. Her alter ego dorami being her protector of sort. Who is unapologetic and manipulative , helps her from getting hurt, and face more trauma. We are introduced to her since the very beginning, but her actual gravity comes in phases. She isn't a hateful version of muhee but a much more broken version of hers. Muhee is someone who is cheery and outgoing and wants to experience the world. But dorami holds her down. Not cos she is evil, but she is a shield for her to not face any more rejections from life. It's not easy to break away from that, considering everything she has been through in her life. It's sad and utterly heartbreaking. And that's where younjung does such a great job at potraying the stark difference in the characs. And that's why muhee doesn't want the world to know of it. She thinks she doesn't deserve the love and light of the world. She thinks she doesn't deserve the festival dedicated to her. But hojin being there to see both of her versions,thats why their love story brings a lot of mature points where we see them healing one another from their past and trauma.

Dorami, as mentioned above, is very bold in her actions, but the kindness and understanding that she never experienced from anyone, but now she does from hojin, confuses her. Hence, she becomes even more wary of him. But also can't help buy reach out to him as a last resort of her to save herself.

That's why episode 9s ending is so utterly heartbreaking but beautiful. It's her finally asking, letting herself breathe and tell hojin how she longs to be loved and that this facade of dorami is slowly weakening as she no longer wants to be this broken. She is pleading almost in a desperate attempt to disappear so that muhee can live her life and enjoy the festival.

Their love holds a lot of meaning considering we are so used to confessions being all promise of eternity but even though i have nothing against it but reality is far too twisted sometimes and someone dealing w trauma and healing through doesnt need things to be sugarcoated , especially in this case where muhee is still learning to let go of her trauma and trying to love herself. When all her life she believed she didn't deserve any bit and would run away. Hojin is trying his best to tell her that let's just love for today and not think bout tomorrow, and some might think this doesn't give a promising start to the future, but that's exactly the point. Future is too overwhelming, but assuring bout the present is sometimes one needs.

Overall, my one small complaint is that the personality disorder theme needed more medical attention. It needed a few more eps for finding a closure. I dont hate the outcome, but i genuinely felt 2 more eps could have been made to wrap up the journey.

But I'm m all in the feels and have come to appreciate this drama a lot. And a huge shoutout to the spectacular cinematography that made all the difference and elevated the drama to a whole another level. I truly wish kdramas would take this scenic route more, lol. Felt like living in a dream. 💜🍀

A drama that talks about women's complexities. Really strips away layers& layers of hidden emotions to show us the real&raw version of women. Jealousy, love,betrayal,sadness,anger&every small emotion that makes us who we are.Gut wrenchingly beautiful!

People have mixed emotions bout sangyeon's charac! You are free to dislike her but her choices are the direct consequences of the wounds that never healed.She is a truly tragic charac who had so much taken away from her at such a young age that time even couldnt help her heal.

This goes to show how jealousy,sadness, and pride can really break you from inside that you are left w nothing but bitterness. I dont condone her actions towards eunjung, especially in her professional life, but she was someone who just wanted to be loved in the end.

It's truly sad that she only focused on the loss. But thats just who we are as humans. We, too, sometimes never see the people who care bout us but more on the ones whom we can't have to ourselves. The director & writer didn't shy away from showing us their povs.

They were pretty frustrating to watch,as a 3rd person,their words would mean something else,but they would understand something entirely different. But again its an honest potrayal of human relationships but most of all the complexities of female friendships. Both love and hate..One another. No matter how toxic and messy it was but its a relationship that couldn't be cut cos it had too much love that was never given to one another.

Too many unexpressed emotions came off layer by layer at the later stages in life and finally towards the end where..They both laid opp each other on the bed & talked their heart out. It wasn't much but just genuine gratitude towards one another. Something they could never do all those years back due to pride & jealousy.

This story isn't just bout 2 girls fighting for a man! It's deeper than that!

My girl Eunjung, She too is an opp reflection of how sometimes even if you feel jealousy towards someone, you can still love your life. She too was broken so many times and picked herself up.

Two contrasting characs. One chose to rise above the hurt, and another succumbed to it.

What i love about eunjung is that she was fierce in putting herself first. She was always there for others but once she realised her worth she didnt turn back. The few times they cut off contact, it was genuinely needed for her to get back up and live her life again.People hated her for forgiving sangyeon but dont realise how it was needed for them to find closure for all the hurt they endured over the years. Eunjung had to let go off it all to finally make peace with the friendship, where there was hate but also abundant love.

And for sangyeon, it was finally the chance to show her vulnerable&real self!Talk about her honest feelings. Even if she shamelessly walked back, this was her chance at redemption. Finally, being true to herself&eunjung!Call it toxic or twisted connection, but they both needed this.

To me, this drama goes beyond mere dialogues. It's those unspoken words and those honest and hurtful gazes towards one another. It's more about those unsaid words. In reality, this show does a great job at making you see the real picture of us humans and how we deal w relationships. Sometimes, even without proper closure, there's so much unresolved grief that's carried throughout our lifetime. Hence, even if difficult,sometimes forgiving someone isn't wrong or erases the past hurt but more of finding closure to make peace with the past and focus on the present.

Here's my list over the years.

I am always up for a good healing show that also focuses on the realities of life. 💜🥹