A drama where classic and modern danced eternally in a beautiful and intriguing way

*THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*
I ALWAYS LOVE marriage contract & stand-in bride's trope
First of all, i started this without any expectation, i watched the trailer in early November and thought "hmm this is interesting", i mean it's so rare (or maybe none) to have a young presidential spokesman as the main character and a girl who's suffering from selective mutism who works as a sign language interpreter. Both also comes from a prestigious & prominent family (which is again, quite rare). Also, both MC looks so gorgeous, stunning and handsome/beautiful in that trailer so it quickly gets my attention. I wasn't familiar with the ML, apparently he's well known but not as popular other popular actors. I watched Chae Soobin's dramas before (i am not a robot, a piece of your mind & rookie cops) and i quite like her but not much, just enough. I came to know later after watched the trailer that Yoo Yeonseok was in Hospital Playlist (and i haven't watch hosplay at that time yet). Teaser by teaser, trailer by trailer made me excited even more. I can sense a dark romance, wattpad-coded vibes from this drama. And i love it! It's been so long for kdrama to have this kind of vibes (i don't even remember the last kdrama who had this similar vibes).
When episode 1 & 2 aired, i knew my guesses were right. IT'S SOOOO WATTPAD-CODED & HAS A VERY FANFICT FEELS. From the character visualization, the way the director shoots a scene, the chemistry, the sexual tension between the main leads, etc. What makes this drama leaning towards wattpad-coded more is they way YYS & CSB portrayed the characters. See i'm a fool of an arrogant, alpha, dominant, cold, demanding, charismatic, bad boy-kind of male lead, but mostly from what i've read from novel, webnovel, comics, or even some short dramas, made me cringe, not only what the ML said but also the way they acted it's so random and out of place i can't feel the emotion. But here YYS successfully portrayed Baek Sa Eon, just like a live action ver of a character that's coming out straight from webtoon/wattpad without getting cringe. I also shocked by CSB, i always knew she's pretty but here she's elegantly beautiful, fragile yet strong-willed ver of FL that you usually read in webtoon/manga/novel. Both are so suitable for each other, they're sooo good together.
The story itself maybe not new/fresh but since i never watched this kind of romance thriller story, i still find it interesting and arguably very good. I like how it is so fast-paced and has no filler scene, with decent/good character development, and slow burn romance. Some plotholes and mistakes did happen, but i can overlook that as i enjoy how the drama's going and how both the MC took my attention fully. It always has plus minus from a makjang soap opera kind of drama, the writers are trying to sell you something unrealistic that's supposed to be fun and like a guilty pleasure, and i like how the story execution and brilliant performances of the lead actors that elevated the quality of this drama that is filled with cliche and common tropes. I also loved how the romance progression makes perfect sense within the genre we're in and the characters were dealing with and what makes it better is that YYS and CSB have given so much life to our trashy romantic fantasy plots and made it fun. It's like watching the stories you read come to life and in a non-cringey way.
The ending (especially the war part) felt quite random & silly (at least explain why BSE needs to go there TT) but i understand they wanted to make the ending closely like in the novel and they gave us so many sweet moments of BSE HHJ so i forgive the scriptwriter
Overall i'm very satisfied with this drama and this easily in my top 3 favourites drama of all time (i'm a kdrama sucker, i followed kdrama since autumn in my heart era and up until yesterday i'm only obsessed with 4 kdrama : boys before flowers, princess hours, moon lovers scarlet heart ryeo, alchemy of souls, but right now i can easily add when the phone rings as my new obsession)

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