Regarding the romantic arc between San Ha and Ju Won

Am I the only one who absolutely dislikes it? I understand they are from different families, different surnames and everything. I also acknowledge the fact that San Ha never acknowledged her as family but only as a close human/friend to him. So it would be perfectly fine if they two fall in love. But somehow it is feeling like incest to me, ik it's not, but I can't wrap around the idea of how you can literally grow up with someone, eating, reading, studying, playing everything together and then develop a romantic arc? I can see the possibility of that but somehow I absolutely dislike this dynamic and I find it very annoying to watch. Am I the only one? 🥲

Ik the Chinese original had the same plot and I was really hoping they'd change that one aspect in Korean version but they didn't. So yeah, anyway, please let me know 🥲

Incest is too strong to called their sibling relationship. As for me who have watched the original, siblings relationship in FbC didn't feel like sibling. Their interaction isn't convincing enough as sibling.

Although i don't like romance between Ling Xiao and Jian Jian, but the reason why Ling Xiao develop romantical feeling to Jian Jian is understandable. He like being around her, he is a loner and can't get along with other peoples, hence his friend called him "god". Because no one can't reach him or communicate with him. Ming Yue can get along with him through Jian Jian.

Then Ling Xiao's feeling to take care of Jian Jian become out of his control. It developed more than just a brother. He is care to her, and she is his world, something that make him stay sane. 

In FbC, there is no moment to highlight why or how San-Ha liked Ju-Won. His romantical feeling to Ju-Won didn't appeared suddenly, but the series also never give us any clue why, how, when? Maybe he never see her as sister to begin with, and just get used to her.

As from Ju-Won's side, the plot is even lazier. I know the series make them 10 years apart to reset their feeling to eachother, especially Ju-Won. So when they meet again, she can see him as a stranger. But still, us viewer only see it minutes apart, some minutes ago they're brother-sister then some minutes later they're lover.

In short, why some of us dislike it, because there is no moment to build their romantical feeling.

In Go Ahead there is scene when Jian Jian is mistaken Ling Xiao are about to leave China to Singapore. After that she realized her feeling that it hard for her to get separated again.

There is also a scene when Zi Qiu got in an motor accident, it make Jian Jian realized that she care for her brother.

There is no such scene or moment in Family by Choice.

For me, I categorize this romance in the popular “childhood  friends who eventually fall for each other” trope. I think it feels weird because to JuWon is desperate for an older brother when we first meet her. On some level she senses her family unit (single dad and daughter) is different, often pitied, even from a young age, and seeks to remedy this by adding more members to her family by force—declaring the new neighbor is her brother the moment she meets him. SanHa never really agrees to this, and just must accept the terms of JuWon’s friendship. The three leads start life with broken families, and their need for acceptance, for healing, cements their bond as they grow up. It is JuWon as a teenager that wants so badly to gain public acceptance of her found family, that she proposes legally changing their names. SanHa is absolutely not okay with this and has always seen JuWon as a childhood friend, playmate, and confidant. He meets JuWon during some of the worst moments of his life and she becomes a bright light that pulls him out of isolation and silence. Because of his trauma, SanHa is vulnerable to his abusive mother. JuWon is an active force pushing back from the harmful narratives his mother tries pin on him, so naturally she is a formative part of his childhood/coming of age. Add the tumultuous hormones of puberty to that mix, and it’s understandable why his feelings for JuWon takes a turn to the romantic. I also don’t think JuWon completely saw him as platonic oppa as she started coming of age, but that defining him as such made things simpler and without complications that might ruin their found family dynamic. There are hints here and there that teenage JuWon has feelings for SanHa that don’t fit into her imposed definition of their bond, so she ignores or denies them. For instance she is upset thinking SanHa has started dating in high school, but does not have the same reaction when it turns out to be her other found family brother. These suppressed feelings start resurfacing as they reconnect as adults. It is not that JuWon only ever sees SanHa as a brother, it is that she is worried what might change between them if they started dating. It is a classic quandary of the “best friends to lovers” trope—even if there are romantic feelings, why risk the relationship that is incredibly important to each other By dating? If she absolutely saw SanHa as her brother, she would have been repulsed by his confession rather than surprised and conflicted. Her reluctance comes from fear of change and uncertainty.  That’s my take at least!

I have not watched this drama and won't watch it because of this arc. I don't think it's incestuous, definitely not genetically, but it might be character of my upbringing\culture. The way I brought up, once you call someone brother or sister,  it is for life. That is same reason why I stopped watching "Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth" because I could not understand how Go Ara's character can have her heart "flutter" in first few episodes when she does NOT know "Park Seo-joon" character is NOT her real brother. Even similar reason why I could not watch "pinocchio"; it felt wrong *to me*.

Again, I think it's the way you are brought up \your culture. In Roman and ancient Greek, actual incestuous marriages were allowed, nay practised, so that throne is kept in the "family".  

Similarly, it might be okay in Korean society to have these relationships. I could not get answer whether they are on reddit or youtube.