I’m a sucker for a good love story, but this one felt like it was determined to get to the 16th episode at a snail’s pace. Don’t get me wrong ‘Because This Is My First Life’ was chef’s kiss. Well-rounded characters, a great plot with a satisfying ending; however, I was quickly turned off by the never-ending ‘I love him but he doesn’t love me’ sentiment. I understand that was the entire plot of the story, but by the end I was skipping parts I didn’t particularly care for.

The story follows three young ladies, each of whom imagined their lives to be a certain way by the time they reached their 30s.
We first encounter Yoon Ji-Ho, an optimistic assistant writer who graduated from the University of Seoul. Despite her father’s vehement opposition, she follows her dreams and becomes a writer. After completing the last episode of her group’s drama, she returns home to walk in on her little brother ‘tending’ to his pregnant fiancé. Faced with the prospect of being a live-in nanny with no say in a patriarchal household, she quickly finds herself homeless, all on her birthday.

Next, we have Woo Soo Ji, A spirited young salary worker, who clearly enjoys the pleasures of the bedroom, and has no issues telling you like it is. Motivated by her dream of being her own boss, Soo Ji coolly navigates the male-dominated office space despite ongoing sexual harassment by her penis-cancer of a boss. Her cold exterior betrays that she is a genuine friend with a heart of gold.

And last, but certainly not least we have Yang Ho-Rang. Ho-Rang is a vibrant and beautiful waitress who relishes the thought of being a homemaker. So much so that she’s been in a tumultuous relationship with her beau of seven years, Sim Won-Seok, who clearly does not have marriage on the brain. Solely concerned with marriage, Ho-rang may come off as an air-head, but she is very much self-aware and calculating.

From the opening scene with Ji-Ho’s younger brother, Ji-Suk, having relations with his pregnant fiancé, to Soo Ji who is clearly sexually active, and the almost r*pe scene. My thoughts were ‘Wow, this drama is really pushing the envelope,’ but that might be because I have not been exposed to many dramas- you let me know.

That brings me to my first pain point, I thought it was interesting that the drama acknowledged the reality of r*pe and how quickly the situation can take a left turn. Just listening to the words of her co-worker, Director Park, during their group meeting the first time Ji-Ho sees her would-be-r*pist after he attacked her displays the sentiment you typically see in this situation. That good old ‘Get over it already’ or ‘Boys will be boys’ mentality, cut to the next scene everything smoothed over because we don’t talk about it.

But instead of skirting around it, we really get into Ji-ho’s psyche. We see how vulnerable she is living in a space so accessible and the terror she feels fighting off Gye Yong-Seok’s advances. It made me question the identity of the writer, not to say that men are insensitive to the plight of women, but the delicate understanding it would take to write such a scene, I find is not that common among men. And you know what, after a quick Google search proved my instincts weren’t wrong, the drama was written by Yoon Nan-joong, a woman.

Quick sanity check: Hwang Se-Hee, Ji-ho’s senior writer, dragging her to meet her would-be-r*pist under the guise of getting a drink constitutes entrapment right? I wondered how her senior writer, another female, could be so callous. But then I thought maybe something happened to her too and someone told her to suck it up, so she forgot the pain. Or it speaks to how little the culture values women, and sexual harassment is just commonplace that she saw nothing wrong with it. But at the end of the day, I lost all respect for her. It was really fucked up to play on her dreams of writing to keep her quiet, I don’t blame Ji-Ho for quitting on writing.

My next pain point was Ji-ho’s why behind marrying Nam Se-Hee. Sadly, life can drive you to make such a drastic decision as entering a loveless marriage in exchange for peace of mind. In some cases maybe this relationship works, but I know for me I want love. And so does Ji-Ho; the drama flashes back to her and her two friend’s high school years where they each reveal their dreams.

Spoiler alert: she wants to experience love more than she wants to be a writer. So it’s no surprise after such a beautiful, tear-jerking wedding ceremony Ji-Ho slowly falls for her Landlord. However, to maintain his cat-lady lifestyle, Se-Hee has to crush her hopes. Their situationship is the perfect breeding ground for infidelity and resentment. Queue the slick-talking, bike-riding, stalker-hotty young lover boy.

I don’t have any romantic relationship experience to draw from, but I don’t think marriage is, was, or ever will be the answer for Ho-Rang and Won-Seok. I hoped that when they broke up they would have stayed broken up. Scenes including their mael-storm relationship were heavily skipped. Scenes with Soo-Ji’s relationship with Ma Sang-Goo, Se-Hee’s boss, on the other hand, were heavily indulged. It was cute seeing her fall in love, her cold exterior melt with Sang-Goo’s cheesy affection.

Quick sanity check: was I the only one wondering why Ho-Rang and Soo-Ji were still friends, I mean other than Ji-Ho, they would have never been friends. From the jump, these two were at each other’s throats. Maybe I’m being too hard on Ho-Rang, but she doesn’t seem like a nice person.

My two favorite characters out of the whole cast would first be Ji-soo’s mother, Kim Hyun-Ja (I thought it strange that her last name didn’t change when she married, is that a thing in Korea?). I love the relationship between her and her daughter.

From the moment she gave Ji-Ho that deposit money and pointed out the next-level bullshit her son pulled, she was my favorite. She’s very observant and clearly wants more for her daughter, during the wedding when she offered to make Se-Hee snake soup she had my heart. It must be stated that I am biased toward the actress, Kim Sun Young, herself, I think she’s phenomenal.

The other is no other than Nam Se-Hee. Initially, I thought who is this prick making all kinds of unreasonable demands during an important meeting to feed some damn cat; turned out he is a genius-level developer highly sought after by Sang-Goo, his college buddy and boss. Fast forward to after the misunderstanding of mistaken identity, he still didn’t kick Ji-Ho out. He recognized another human being struggling through life and offered her a safe place to stay at a fair price (lol).

Se-Hee’s character would be, for me at least, a difficult character to write. It was maddening to watch, but I loved how consistent his character was even after their first real kiss in Ji-Ho’s hometown. He didn’t suddenly become the mushy idiot people become once they get the girl/boy. After seeing the kind of man his father was and the reason behind his vow to never love again, I’m not shocked that Nam Se-Hee is the way he is. It doesn’t hurt either that he beat up Yong-Seok for what he did to Ji-Ho. It was pretty satisfying (though I don’t condone violence).

I give the drama 4 out of 5 rose petals for originality and character development.