Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Starring: Shin Min-a, Kim Young-dae, Lee Sang-yi, Han Ji-Hyun, Lee You-Jin
Where to watch: Prime Video (12 episodes, 60-odd minutes each)
To watch or not to watch: An example of progressive Korean drama which maintains the light-hearted tone throughout

Son Hae-yeong (Shin Min-a) has always shared her mother’s love with her various foster siblings, which has made her evaluate everything in her life in terms of give and take. In a separate development, her workplace is hosting an idea competition with very lucrative benefits and a position that reports directly to CEO Bok Gyoo-hyeon (Lee Sang-yi) at the end of it. But due to the bias against females in the workplace, which doesn’t take the fact that they might bear children and have monthly periods, positively, she knows she won’t be evaluated fairly for the position. To circumvent this issue, she decides to rope in Kim Ji-wook (Kim Young-dae) to be her fake husband, complete with a sham wedding and all. In the parallel, we have Nam Ja-yeon (Han Ji-hyun) who lives with Hae-young, is her foster sister and works as an adult web-series writer, and is very popular. Bok Gyu writes malicious comments on the series, Ja-yeon plans to sue him, and they have their meet-cute. Hae-young’s ex-boyfriend is in the same company and is totally jealous of her husband who has also joined the company and is reporting to Hae-young. The CEO’s secretary turns out to be Nam Ja-yeon’s school friend, who doesn’t know about her adult literature writing career, nor of her run-in with the CEO, and he is looking to transfer departments. All in all, there are much entangled connections sprinkled with hilarity and a bit of conflict regarding Ji-wook’s past and present which might disrupt his tender relationship with Hae-yeong.

In the majority of K-dramas, the story takes an angular turn at the middle point. While the first half is easy-going, funny, with the story about how the main actors fall in love with each other, the second half focuses on the lead actors’ relationship, tone is serious, the main conflict becomes the story. Not in this one! Well, not totally.
The series focuses on Son Hae-yeong primarily, followed by Nam Ja-yeon and then the third foster sister (who is mostly an after-thought). Compared to other K-dramas, the FL doesn’t suffer from main-character-syndrome (too much), and there is an explanation for the times she takes priority in the supporting casts’ lives. She is as caring for the people around her as they are for her. There is some really good humor in the enemies-to-lovers sequence between ML and FL. And the fact that they don’t demonise the non-virginal FL. There is some real progress in the series.
There are some things which might leave the viewer unsatisfied too – like the fact that her calculation only set the sequence of events in motion but did not feature in the story anymore. The story of the third sibling had weight to it – her becoming pregnant out of wedlock, with a cheating boyfriend. (Spoiler alert – she decides to live her life with him despite him being a cheat. Which is Ewww!) Her story would come on in the middle of another scene without any foreshadow and made it very jarring. Almost as if we are forced to remember she exists, which is unfair to the actor who is actually good at her job. Then there is this arc of Hae-yeong’s mother who is suffering from dementia, which is a secret, but not really?! This is one of the reasons the ending left the viewer unfulfilled and without proper closure.

There are many things this series does well and only a few it doesn’t. It is a real step forward towards progress in the field of women’s rights and feminism. The lead is a strong woman who takes unconventional steps to grow in her career. Her career is important to her and she is good at her job. She doesn’t take that for granted. She worked towards what she has received, and not because a chaebol took interest in her. In fact, she helped her ex-boyfriend and current husband in their careers, in small ways. She is undaunted in the face of adversity and retains good humour. What a character!
This series is different in the right way from other K-dramas and just for that reason it merits a watch. The fact that it has only 12 episodes is a bonus!