cupid’s craft

gentle, one sided. i really liked how bo-yeong had her hearts always set on je-wook, and min-ho never stood a chance. but bo-yeong did like min-ho in the past, and he appreciated her far too late. still, bo-yeong and min-ho became friends, and that’s sweet.

one sided, fake. how i loved mudeok pretending to be in love with seo yul, and then both figuring out that they were friends in the childhood. seo yul loved her and recognised her always, and his conflict deeply distressed him from saying anything. but still, they were friends, and i wish they had ended up together instead of mudeok and jang uk, who i couldn’t care for anything more than platonic.

bonus! park jin/kim do-ju/lee cheol being fools in love! lee cheol swooning over maid kim do-ju, who enjoyed the attention but oblivious to his affection while waiting for the dense park jin to figure out that he liked her, meanwhile he can’t understand why he’s getting angry, jealous and upsetting her with his inaction. poly would have been sweet, but honestly this was a v. cute straight up love triangle.

messy, gentle. but look, i was charmed by seol-hee/kang-woo/yeon-seo/dan, with kang-woo initially seeing yeon-seo as a replacement for seol-hee, before loving her for herself. i loved dan trying to pair yeon-seo and kang-woo at first before falling for yeon-seo himself. the show made the right decision, and i loved watching everyone figure it out.

nonexistent, background. but look, nam-shin is trying to mess with everyone in his rage at being replaced, and i won’t deny that i think that young-hoon/nam-shin/ye-na could have had *something* in the future, with both ye-na and young-hoon definitely, a little bit in love with nam-shin himself.

messy, intense. god knows i love drama and weddings and dramatic weddings, and this drama delivers it in spades and murder. love made them all unhinged, and i love that for them, fighting for jin-mi’s love in more desperate and underhanded ways. maybe i like the concept of the unfeeling pill preventing jin-mi from falling in love with xu-feng (or run-yu) more than the execution, but still, i enjoyed every moment of everything falling apart the more entangled in love that everyone became.

that being said, nobody should have ended up together.

messy, supernatural. tbh, the show chose the wrong endgame ship, but i still loved the interconnected triangle of hyung-bin/ha-eun/ji-chul transcending their next lifetime where soo-hyuk/sa-bin/jong-beom confuses their past-present selves, as they figure out their unresolved business and whether they choose to repeat or change their history the second time around. 

as much as i liked sa-bin’s bond with jong-beom, i wish she chose to stay with soo-hyuk because of how strongly they were drawn to each other.

bonus: sang-ah/soo-hyuk/sa-bin, with sang-ah gradually becoming more and more unhinged and soo-hyuk only dating sang-ah because she subconsciously reminded soo-hyuk of ha-eun, inhis past life, which only gets more complicated as soo-hyuk becomes more and more drawn to sa-bin. what a mess. i loved every second of how this triangle was constructed to explode.

(soo-hyuk/sa-bin/jong-beom could have been poly, because i did like the connection they all had with each other, with psychic pain being delivered whenever they were around each other as a bonus. but i love hyung-bin&soo-hyuk/ha-eun&sa-bin too much as reincarnated lovers who falls for each other again to ever separate them.)

messy. look, this show has issues with the gai/kaori/ryuu/rie love square and yet! something about it compels me. how kaori pursues ryuu with wild abandon, and ryuu is impervious because his heart is stuck on rie, and gai loves kaori aggressively but is her friend nevertheless. and. idk, it surprised me that kaori does eventually fall for gai, but they break up anyway because they’re too different and it was doomed from the start, and their relationship fizzles apart. i think ryuu/kaori makes sense but i do wish there was some onscreen development instead of it happening during the three year time skip.

the world was not ready for the poly ship, even though ryuu and gai become close, after so much love triangle drama, but. y’know. maybe? in an ideal world where gai doesn’t die and goes to the hospital?

gentle, onesided. it got ugly at the end with the alternate suitors unable to take rejection at all, but i enjoyed both ae-ri and jung-woo considering their options before falling for each other again.

messy, intense. because despite the frustration and the lies, i kind of adored every petty combo of ha-jin/yeo-reum/tae-ha, how loved blinded these three flawed individuals and how they grew and changed and learned about love because of each other. how yeo reum was torn between the perfect boyfriend slowly becoming less than perfect, and her ex who wants her back, and resolving their issue… i just. i understood why she wavered and liked how her heart knew before yeo reum realised it herself.

honesty, despite being doomed from the start, i could never stop rooting for ha-jin/yeo-reum, despite them lying to each other. they were just. adorbs.

poly could have been cute, tbh! 

messy. honestly, hye-mi/sam-dong/jin-gook/baek-hee was a delightful with everyone having a bit of a crush on everyone, and everyone being a little bit terrible. i don’t feel like there was an actual endgame ship, but.

poly ot4 would have been the best.

gentle, messy. if i had my way, ji-hye/chun-soo/jin-hee/chang-min/ah-reum/yong-kyu would becanon because i loved everybody’s interactions with everybody, and i loved how everything resolved itself naturally. but everyone is super cute! with the exception of chang-min, pettiness king, everyone was ready nice and supportive towards each other, for most part, which i reallyliked for this group.

gentle. i adored seung-nyang with both ta-hwan and wang yoo (and tal-tal). she was happy with wang yoo, their noble upright hearts fighting for what is right. they were soft, and gentle with each other, and they could have had a wonderful life together, had seung-nyang not decided that vengeance meant more to her than love did. wang yoo understood that, understood her, and bore her no ill-will. despite ending their relationship, they still cared about each other so much. she was happy with ta-hwan, despite their miscommunication giving each other much heartbreak. they gave each other such grief, first because of their immaturity and silliness, then because of her iciness and his drunken misery. and yet, their love remained, despite everything, as fragile and fraught as things were. they left me weeping.

(there’s a world where seung-nyang and tal-tal were happy, understanding what needed to be done to improve the world. equals in the truest sense, comrades and eventual allies. the show kept it ambiguous, but i suspect they harboured a crush on each other, even though it was kept close to the chest.)

gentle, messy. cha joo-hyuk, my beloved, thinking that his life would be better having married lee hee-won instead of woo-jin, and then him coming to the slow realisation that actually he is to blame with the disintegration of his marriages. that he loved woo-jin with all his heart, couldn’t stop worrying and caring about her. similarly, i loved woo-jin considering dating yoon jong-hoo, before her heart yearns for joo-hyuk with every fibre of her being, and she insists on being true to her heart.

gentle. both cha-woong/seul-hae and hee-soo/seul-hae were super adorable. the show made the right call, because cha-woong/seul-hae are soulmates, but i have such a soft spot for hee-soo/seul-hae that i wouldn’t have minded who seul-hae ended up with either way. could have gone poly.

bonus: chun-moo/seul-hae/cha-woong, because chun-moo’s love for seul-hae turned him evil, turned him murderous, turned him into a spirit, and he possessed so many people in trying to get seul-hae to love him.

gentle. i love both ma jin-joo and choi ban-do unintentionally and intentionally exploring what could have been with jung nam-gil and min seo-young, while they work out their heartache with each other and fall back in love again.

gentle, messy. ngl, the teen shenanigans of min hyo-rin/lee shin/shin chae-kyung/lee yul delights me to no end. i love hyo-rin deciding to choose her career over love, before regretting it, and deciding to be the camilla to lee shin’s charles, before eventually realising belatedly that their romance is well and truly over. i love yul alternating between truly loving chae-kyung and wanting her to be free of her marriage with lee shin, and being happy that they’re friends. while chae-kyung never reciprocates yul’s feelings, she likes him well enough, even though yul is caught in this odd position of initially being chae-kyung’s original fiancé, and trying to manipulate things to disastrous and devastating effects. even though it takes a while for chae-kyung and shin to fall for each other, it’s still sweet to see their love grow, and deal with things in a very teen way.

gentle. what’s better than a two person love triangle? absolutely nothing! i adored seo jung-hoo and chae young-shin falling for each other, while chae young-shin also falls for seo jung-hoo’s alter ego first.

gentle, nonexistent tbh. listen, ban ha-ni and han yoo-hyun were such a slowburn, but honestly, i loved both their interactions with anthony/yang chun-sik as well that by the end, i could see them being a poly ship some time in the future, just because i liked how much they grew and changed from their young selves, the more they interacted  and inspired each other to do better, even if some pettiness was definitely involved. 

despite anthony/chun-sik and yoo-hyun clearly having feelings for ha-ni, tbh, they didn’t really fight over her.

nonexistent. look, jo kang-hwa loved both cha yu-ri and oh min-jun, but the death of cha yu-ri prevented jo kang-hwa from fully loving oh min-jun. and when cha yu-ri temporarily returned, she didn’t fight over jo kang-hwa with oh min-jun, but rather preferring to be a third parent. it took time for jo kang-hwa to open up his heart, but he loved both his wives.

messy, delusional. this qualifies for the first half of the series only, pre-reveal! but i super liked lee min-seok, 18 pretending to be 28, falling in love with jung soo-young, 28, who is already in love with yoo jin-woo, 29, who only intends to use jung soo-young for his own interests, before realising too late that he messed up. i love how out of step everyone was with each other, because no one had the whole facts, but it was fun while it lasted.

while I’m terribly unhappy how everything turned out after the reveal, it was mainly because i think i would have preferred it if nobody had ended up with anyone in the end.

gentle. natch, i so loved the past history of yoon hye-in and ji sung-hyun, and the friendship of ji sung-hyun and hong du-sik, and the eventual romance of yoon hye-in and hong du-si, that poly would have been cute as well. but i loved how things unfolded all the same.

gentle. i found it sweet how jang man-hol tried to figure out if gu chan-sung was go chung-myung or not, and navigate her own feelings on top of that, how gu chan-sung was supposed to be the one to break her curse, and how she resisted and then went along with it. but i also liked gu chan-sung’s insistence that he was his own person, and all the wacky hi-jinks he suffered as he also fell in love with jang man-hol.

messy. should have ended poly, ngl. pyo na-ri loved them both, her reasoning for choosing lee hwa-shin over go jung-won was kinda shaky, imo? also, i loved the friendship and history of lee hwa-shin and go jung-won. they lived together for a time, i think they all should have ended up together forever, because they were all kinds of bonkers, tbh.

i don’t hate lee hwa-shin, but i do think go jung-won suited pyo na-ri better, tbh.

messy, intense. nothing could have prepared me for dae-so/so seo-no/ju-mong escalating into what it became, with everyone miserable at the final result at the dark horse oo-tae/so seo-no. 

it starts so simply with so seo-no weighing her options of ju-mong and dae-so like a business deal and dae-so patiently courting her. and then heart rules over mind, with so seo-no preferring and falls in love with ju-mong, and dae-so becoming more entitled and possessive and furious that so seo-no won’t choose him! so, he has one more reason to kill ju-mong! and so seo-no can’t stand him anymore, but with ju-mong believed dead, who can stop dae-su from making so seo-no his concubine, right after his diplomatic marriage with yang seo-ran? why nobody! who would want to marry so seo-no when nobody in their right mind would reject dae-so!

and when ju-mong returns, and finds out… it’s too late.  and has no choice but to let her go.

gentle. listen, kisugi koichi/sakura nanase was never meant to be, but at the same time? kisugi pretending to be in love with sakura to make tendou kairi jealous, only to actually fall for nanase for real is such catnip. tbh, i think tendou would have fallen in love regardless! but a lil jealousy helps, ngl.

the understated sakai yuika/kisugi koichi/sakura nanase is cute too, because sakai gets more annoyed at sakura at being a clumsy nurse rather than a love rival. also, it’s sweet that kisugi does eventually reciprocate sakai’s feelings.

i like miori/tendou/minori a lot too, and watching miori trying to live vicariously for her deceased sister minori (who used to date tendou prior to her death), was interesting. tendou treated miori’s  feelings kindly, but he wasn’t wrong when he said that miori didn‘t actually love him, the way she was trying to step into her sister’s shoes, and that she should live for herself, not minori.

the absolute lunacy of ryuko/nishi/koishikawa is a delight, because how do you misunderstanda situation THAT badly again and again? but then again, the results were v. charming! so. can’t complain, can only cackle.

messy, delusional. teens being teens! mmkay, so we’ve got osada yuka as penpals with kikuichi keitaro, who text each other constantly but don’t know each other’s actual appearance, but then do fall in love with each other for real, even though there’s a bunch of fun miscommunication and misunderstandings in between. yuka then falls for kaido naoya,  who falls for sonada mari, who is kinda smitten with kiba yuji (and possibly inui takumi), while yuji and takumi have got their own dual identities friends as civilians and enemies on the battlefield thing going on. it’sneedlessly complicated, heartbreaking and frustrating, but that’s the fun of it!

messy. first there’s the dual identities of mio/wataru, shyly in love with each other in civilian mode, then they’re enemies on the battlefield as kamen rider kiva and queen. then adding to the mix is taiga, wataru’s brother, aka king, who is mio’s fiancé. it didn’t have to be complicated, but shyness, low self-esteem and murder attempts make for one hell of a dramatic showdown with tragic results.

nonexistent. i’m sorry, but forgotten childhood trio reunited in a game show except one of them has rigged it so he dies in front of them except they try to save him anyway is so mind boggling bonkers that i can’t help but love it?

poly is a given.

gentle. i liked how orchid resisted falling for dongfang and instead clung to her idealised image of changheng, and while changheng mutually did return her affection from afar, gradually orchid does realise that her affection is more akin to admiration and gratitude after truly falling for dongfang and then the agony of destined future events that need to happen is just delightful, much to all three’s anguish. i also liked dongfang’s pettiness as he figures out his own feelings and then his own friendship developing with changheng in his mortal trials is super cute to watch.

poly would have been cute, ngl! i wouldn’t be opposed to it at all, but i liked how events unfolded all the same.

vague, messy. listen, there’s no denying that both kang oh-soo and oh seung-ha/jung tae-sung had feelings for seo hae-in, but it was treated in almost such a nebulous way, that it almost didn’t feel like a love triangle in the slightest, and yet i was unsure till the end who she would end up with. seo hae-in cared for both of them, and both possibilities were sweet. then you have kang oh-soo and oh seung-ha’s confusing and complicated relationship with each other, as the past unravels, in such tragedy.

poly would have been fantastic, ngl. they became so entwined as the show went on.

gentle, messy. it takes time for jang-mi to fall for gi-tae, dating yeo-reum in the meantime, but i love her gradual change of heart, and how yeo-reum is aware but also hopeful that it’s just because of the arrangement that jang-mi and gi-tae agreed to rather than genuine feelings. lmao, i can’t deny his indulgent pettiness. it’s cute that jang-mi and yeo-reum become business partners afterwards, with no ulterior motives. gi-tae and yeo-reum also had some adorable interactions. honestly, i liked both couples.

poly would have been cute, ngl, especially when they all live in gi-tae’s apartment, but the show chose the correct endgame.

gentle. once hae-soo makes her choice to be with wang so, it’s over for wang wook, who abandoned hae-soo first in order to attain power. but natch, i loved hae-soo being in love with wook, but gradually befriending so, and then feeling something deeper for him. even though wook was be increasingly complicated about everything and then awfully, pitifully, losing everything and everyone. even after hae-soo makes her choice, i find her relationship with wook so interesting.

delusional. the sheer smugness seo yi-do has from finally learning that min ye-rin and min jae-hee is that he is so romantic that he fell for the same person twice? ridiculous, i love it. and he tried so hard to analyse his feelings too!

but lighthearted love triangle between seo yi-do/min ye-rin/yun min-suk is also v. cute and i liked how everyone bounced off each other.

messy, intense. listen, chae-kyung had great relationships with both yi yeok and yi yoong, and how her loyalty to both got strained as she tried to lie to them and protect them both, as they turned on each other. yi yoong never had a chance, but that didn’t mean i wasn’t sad watching him destroy himself as he tried to protect them both in his own twisted way and give into his jealousy and desire to make them suffer. and it was sweet, watching chae-kyung and seok reconnect and find their moments of happiness amidst the turmoil.

also, i really liked the contrast of initially yeok being sweet to chae kyung but lied to her constantly, whereas yoong was harsh but honest, and how he slowly became resentful of them lying to him, and decided to sow discord between them. 

gentle. oh my heart, kim jung-hwan/sung deok-sun/choi taek was an ot3 of dreams. the show chose correctly, but god, i loved that both jung-hwan and taek hesitated when they found out about each other’s crush on deok-sun, and quietly remained friends. i liked every relationship in this triangle, with deok-sun always her goofy self with taek, and sure, maybe she was pushed into liking jung-hwan by her friends a bit, but i do think she genuinely felt attracted to him as well.

gentle. listen, byung-hee died far too soon to make it a true triangle, but. soo-ah was byung-hee’s muse, and ji-hyuk became protective over her, and felt guilt since byung-hee liked her first. and that made the romance between ji-hyuk and soo-ah complicated and confusing, because ji-hyuk wasn’t sure how he should feel about soo-ah, and yet he could not help but be drawn to her.

messy, intense. oh man, the chaotic love square of shunpei/ayumi/koushirou/zenko with the bonus trope of body swapping? delightful!

i know i have a soft spot for ayumi/shunpei, but ayumi/koushirou is sweet too, even though koushirou constantly had me guessing his true nature until the very end.

messy, fake. good god, the theatrics of min yu-ra/lee hyuk/oh sunny/na wang-shin is chaotic as hell. min yu-ra and lee hyuk and their secret affair as he marries oh sunny as a pretence, while she genuinely cares for him only to despise her husband as she learns the truth about their sham marriage. then you have oh sunny and na wang-shik working together to expose the monarchy’s corruption, and maybe fake date to make lee hyuk jealous… and fall in love with oh sunny for real. not to mention na wang-shik plan to become lee hyuk’s right hand man, while hating lee hyuk for his mother’s death, unaware that his childhood friend min yu-ra is an accomplice to that murder. also i love the late game min yu-ra and oh sunny partnership at the end.

honestedly, i super love the ot3 of lee hyuk/oh sunny/na wang-shik, (though i’m so glad lee hyuk/oh sunny was the endgame ship) despite their tragic fates, but min yu-ra’s impact on all three characters is such a good addition, especially for the havoc she causes on purpose, and how she falls out of favour, only to claw her way back to her original plan.

delusional, messy. i’m sorry, but min gun-woo/gu eun-jae/jung gyo-bin/shin ae-ri have me screaming. the lies, the backstabbing, the lunacy. it starts by gyo-bin and ae-ri cheating on eun-jae, evolves into murder, and eun-jae swearing by taking on the identity of min so-hee, in a bonkers method to entrap her ex-husband and ruin her ex-best friend’s marriage, all the while falling for her new best friend, min gun-woo, who desperately wants her to cease her revenge. it only gets more unhinged from there as everything escalates to an impossible degree.

messy, intense. tae-hee/shi-won/soo-ji/se-joo is something alright. i have such a soft spot for the spoilt codependent trio of shi-won/soo-ji/se-joo, but shi-won/tae-hee is cute too because i love a seducer falling for his mark. i figure ot4 could work because tae-hee wanted a healthier relationship and in helping shi-won improve, maybe soo-ji and se-joo could also change due to her influence.

messy, one-sided. natch, identity shenanigans with clown sun falling for king hun’s queen so-woon is very cute. especially as king hun grows increasingly desperate and volatile, while so-woon is only ever drawn to sun’s gentleness. still, i enjoyed so-woon trying to figure out the reason for the king’s personality switches and realise who she had fallen in love with.

nonexistent. listen to me, yoon hwa-pyung/choi yoon/kang gil-young are a poly ship in my heart! you can’t convince me otherwise!

messy, intense. the absolute unhinged energy of ahn min-yeong/han jae-hee/kang ma-ru/seo eun-gi becoming more vindictive and spiteful towards each other in this escalating revenge tale is superb. and love and hate basically mean the same thing as they cruelly hurt anyone and anything in their way.

that being said, i loved that despite kang ma-ru intending to use seo eun-gi to punish han jae-he, their love becomes real, with inevitable disaster, they did find a way to be happy together, after much torment. meanwhile, ahn min-yeong decides to walk away from his consuming love for han jae-hee, and i am sad they didn’t work out, despite everything.

gentle. natch, there was something sweet about the way tae gong-shil first falls for kang woo and then falls in love with joo joong-won.

background, gentle. gwi/choi hye-ryung/lee yoon was great, with gwi intending to use choi hye-ryung to seduce the prince lee yoon, and then murder him and marry her himself in order to become king, only for choi hye-ryung to catch feelings for lee yoon, and lee yoon being aware that she was using him but was a kind person all the same, and gwi unaware that he really was in love with choi hye-ryung until he killed her himself, accidentally.

they were just. a tragedy waiting to happen, even tho i lovelovelove gwi/hye-ryung best.

gentle, messy. okay, so! personally, i think the show chose wrong, and i ship dal-hyang/yoon-seo and so-hyun/mi-ryung most.

however! i really like how dal-hyang/yoon-seo/so-hyun/mi-ryung unfolded all the same, with mi-ryung trying to find common ground with dal-hyang and yoon-seo; and dal-hyang deciding to prioritise yoon-seo’s happiness over a five year promise. i liked so-hyun and mi-ryung’s ill-fated history and i liked so-hyun and yoon-seo slowly falling for each other in their arranged marriage.

gentle. loved how this one played out! should seo-ri, now 30, after a 13 year coma, be with yoo chan, someone who is physically 17 like she is mentally, or gong woo-jin, someone who is physically 30? the show chose correctly, because in some ways gong woo-jin’s life also stopped when he was 17, and woo seo-ri does mentally age up later on. all round it was v. sweet.

gentle. natch, kim bok-joo/jung joon-hyeong was obvious from the start, but i adored her crush on jung jae-yi with jung joon-hyeong helping her out until he catches feelings himself. and even then, he’s really great friends with her even when they decide to start dating and fall adorably in love.

nonexistent. i’ll say it again and again, i wish han woo-tak/nam hong-ju/jung jae-chan had been a poly ship! they’re a very cute trio, and both jung jae-chan and han woo-tak have crushes on nam hong-ju! even though they didn’t fight over her, i really liked everyone’s relationship with each other and how they kept on saving each other with their dream seeing.

nonexistent. listen, eun dae-gu/eo so-sun grew on me, but i adored ji kook/eo so-sun slightly more because they were kindred idiots and oh so inseparable. and ji kook did have a crush on eo so-sun! even if she never noticed!