I really wanted to finish this drama (for a number of reasons). I even attempted to watch it twice, getting a couple of episodes farther along the second time around before ultimately giving up again. And the reason I made it as far as I did (all the way to 2 eps before the end) is because there are a lot of good things about this drama. It has a solid start, a compelling and well paced story, the characters are all interesting and three-dimensional (even the secondary male and female leads), and the female lead is absolutely kickass. (I flippin’ love No Eun Seol. She’s the one thing about the drama I enjoyed during both my attempts to watch. She’s feisty. She’s tough. She’s hard-working. She’s genuine and honest. She’s persistent. She’s a little odd and different (for a Korean woman, anyway.) She’s got a no-nonsense attitude. And she can kick some literal ass.)

But the story was missing one of the number one things I need in a drama to like it. Actual romance.

While I never had a problem believing Cha Ji Heon truly liked No Eun Seol (sometimes I worried he liked her a little Too much, he was so annoying and persistent about it), I never believed she liked him back, and it felt weird watching the writers trying to convince me that she did. There was zero romantic chemistry on her side. Friendship chemistry, sure, but not romantic.

And while Cha Ji Heon was an adorable man-child in the beginning who just needed a steady, guiding hand (in the form of No Eun Seol), he eventually stopped being adorable and just became annoying. I just didn't understand why No Eun Seol would fall in love with him.

I eventually reached a point in the drama where I could no longer figure out No Eun Seol’s motivation for staying at her job. It was clearly no longer worth it. Contrary to what the writers wanted me to believe, there were zero signs that she was starting to like Cha Ji Heon (and he’d started to become persistent in a way that was slowly edging towards stalkerish and creepy), she'd had the job long enough to use it as a reference on her resume, and she definitely could have gotten another job that paid equally as well. If I had been her, I would have just quit and never looked back. Her motivation for staying was clearly meant to be that she had fallen in love with Cha Ji Heon, but I have to call bull on that.

Lack of genuine romance aside, the thing that probably drove me the most nuts was the ‘princess lessons.’ No Eun Seol didn’t want to learn how to arrange flowers and eat with fancy silverware. She didn’t want to learn how to be the ‘perfect wife’ of a CEO. (Which wouldn’t have worked anyway. Women like No Eun Seol just don’t do princess well.) And I didn't want her to have to do any of those things either, so watching her be affectively forced into them was unbearable to watch. If I had believed in the romance, I probably could have overlooked this. I would have been able to put up with the ‘princess lessons’ and the petty fighting between the parents, because I knew our leads truly loved each other and would stand by each other no matter what. But I Didn’t believe in the romance, and that made all the difference.

I do think this is a drama a lot of people would enjoy, so I'm certainly not saying don't watch it. But it left me disappointed and frustrated.