Most romance stories, in my experience as a lover of the romance genre (and as somebody who aspires to write in the genre), will follow a very specific pattern. It typically seems to go something like:

-two people who are well-suited to one another meet
-who want to be together
-and share moments of growing emotional, and often physical, intimacy
-but who struggle against internal and external obstacles
-that build up until there's a major complication
-which gets resolved happily.

Romance, as a whole, does not tend to deviate much from this structure; it's why a lot of people return to it, time and time over again. And in terms of being exactly this – a very, very sweet, wholesome, lighthearted and funny romance, in my opinion, this drama excelled.

There is no secret serial killer or hardcore thriller plotline, and in this way, it feels like a "pure" rom-com – most misunderstandings are easily resolved, and a lot of the drama consists of different scenarios involving the leads being sweet and falling deeper in love with each other, supporting each other when the relationship is tested.

The drama wastes no time in having the leads fall for and get with each other – it's certainly no slow-burn where the characters' hands brushing against each other will leave you gasping for air, but I personally found a lot of beauty in this drama's simplicity. Rather than missing the aching slowburn, or yearning for the higher stakes, this drama's low stakes kept me focused on the relationship, kept me believing in the strength of its foundations, and got me attached to them. Though these are perhaps not the most complex or layered characters, I found them well drawn out, acted, and lovable. In a lot of ways, it became my weekly injection of sunshine.

I admired how much it kept to its theme and heart in the pro-worker throughline. The ways that (especially service) workers are often mistreated, and especially how that interplays with the power/wealth disparity between the two leads as boss and employee felt like it was given the kind of treatment I'm not used to seeing just yet. I ended up liking how I felt the respect the female lead got in her romantic relationship was not only extended to her in her professional life, but to the professional lives of many in her line of service work.

To some, it might be slow, boring – I've even seen "lazy" tossed around, but to me, I don't think it was lazy at all. There were bits of symbolism, love shown in small, almost unnoticeable acts (like him closing the gate up to her apartment behind her, or them saving their names as stars and angels) that all add to the larger picture – there are themes and undercurrents of pro-worker sentiment and of the role of women, the links between their personal and professional lives (exploitation at work, and exploitation in the home – divorce, too, as a cultural taboo that threatens a woman's professional life) rippling throughout. There was meaning in their names – the male lead's full name, Gu Won, meaning "salvation" – a part of her name, Sa-Rang, meaning "love" (I'm not sure how the context/meaning is changed with her family name Cheon) – with salvation and love being the foundation of their mature, adult relationship. I found a great deal of small personal meaning in this drama.

Overall, in terms of the acting (Lee Jun-Ho's acting especially; I look forward to digging into his acting from before too – but Im Yoon-A I felt like did a very believable job of a woman working in service and of selling the chemistry too – the side cast of characters, and especially the woman who played the villainess Hwa-Ran, Kim Sun Young, who gave dimension to a character I feel like could have fallen quite flat, the direction, the writing, the music (my personal favourite from the OST being 'Confess To You' by Lim Kim) – I feel like they did a very very good job in delivering exactly what they promised: a fluffy rom-com.

While in terms of other, more complex and nuanced dramas that have captured my heart, it might not compare with my other 10/10s, which is why I will not rate it as such, but within its own genre, I think it deserves to be seen as extremely well crafted, and I do not believe it deserves a low rating for being what it is. For the other people this kind of lighthearted story will appeal to, I hope they feel just as well served as I do.