Realistic characters with muted chemistry

Overall, I enjoyed this drama thoroughly. Personally I don't like noona romances (I can never really "get" the chemistry in them and the vibes always feel kind of off to me) so I was planning to skip this one. However it seemed like all the drama reviewers had good things to say about this one and how it had very "normal" and non-icky vibes, plus I have a soft spot for Zhou Yutong in contemporary dramas since Remembrance of Things Past, so I decided to check this out.

Like many people, the thing I loved most about this drama is how realistic the characters were. Liang Youan's character (played by ZYT) was so relatable, especially with her frustrations with her job. There is one line that she said which is so unbelievably on point: she worked so hard to ensure that her boss could never be without her, but she now admits that she was wrong, because if your boss can never be without you, then you will never graduate (i.e., get promoted). As a single, working woman who is almost 30, I can relate so much to her frustration with being stuck in the corporate hamster wheel, working an all-consuming job but going nowhere fast, while also sacrificing your personal life and youth in the process (but you're almost too busy to really care or do anything about it). Throw in a couple of failed relationships when you were younger resulting in you still being single while your friends are already having kids, and it is just the perfect storm which was so well-portrayed in LYA's character. One reason I never liked noona romances was because the older woman was always either some kind of "high-powered CEO" or she was in her 30's but still acting like the typical "sweet but dumb" young girl. Both tropes are so unrealistic and cringey to watch and I am so happy that this drama showed how an actual, normal 30+ year old woman would act like and respond in various situations.

For the record, I also liked Song Sanchuan's character and thought WL did a great job. He was sweet, had that youthful optimism and energy, but was also grounded and mature when it mattered. I think this really helped the noona romance feel more palatable to me. I almost feel the characterization of the ML matters even more than the FL in these dramas, because when the ML is super immature, I have such a hard time reconciling why any real life grown-ass adult woman would want to waste their time in such a relationship or even why they would be attracted to the ML. To be honest I'm not sure if it is realistic for a boy in their early 20's to be as mature as he was (in his first relationship too), but I guess I don't hang out with a lot of 20 year-olds so maybe I'm underestimating them hahaha.

For the romance - the best thing I could say was that it was fine. I may be biased because I have never been able to get behind a noona romance before, so I'm not terribly surprised this one didn't really work on me. I enjoyed their scenes together and thought they were pretty cute at times, but the chemistry was not there for me. However, I loved the main leads so much as individuals and was super invested in their own stories, and I didn't really come here expecting to "get" the romantic chemistry anyway, so it didn't affect my watch experience negatively.

I thought the story was generally very well-written and well-paced. It didn't suffer heavily from mid-series drag (probably because it felt like the problems came one after another after another, but were also resolved quickly and cleanly) although the pacing did slow down a little in the last few episodes which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I also didn't mind most of the side characters and though there were a couple arcs I wasn't super interested in (Liang Tao and Jiang Jiaojiao's relationship, Zhang Jie's family drama) it didn't get to the point of annoying me or making me want to fast forward either. Just wanted to throw a quick shoutout to the Coach and Liang Nian's relationship, which got very little screen time but they were absolutely hilarious and I wished we could've seen more of their development.

All in all, this was a good drama and well-worth watching. I especially recommend it if you think you could relate to either of the main characters, because I think the real strength of the drama lies in the very realistic, "normal" characterization of our main leads.

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