I’ve come full circle with this drama, Flowerboy Ramen Shop. Like my introduction to Kpop, my love affair with Kdramas began in high school, and Flower Boy Ramen Shop was the one that popped my cherry. Maybe this speaks to my immaturity, but many of the issues went over my head and into the garbage. Same place this drama should have gone. Flower Boy Ramen Shop simply did not age well; perhaps I was too enamored with Cha Chi Soo to spot the glaring red flags at the time.

Like most romantic dramas, this drama features your typical love triangle. And in this case, the rivals are Chi Soo, a spoiled brat with the silver spoon shoved so far down his throat that I’m the one gagging. The other is Choi Kang Hyug aka the sleepy giant, a kid at one time Eun Bi’s father saved and later bequeathed the ramen shop to. Behind Kang Hyug’s silly act is a man worth his weight in gold. If I were Yang Eun Bi I would have chosen him in a heartbeat. He’s stable, kind, and age-appropriate. It does not hurt that he is a tall glass of water. That being said this brings me to my first pain point.

Eun Bi should have been fired and put on watch as a child abuser. The moment she realized he was a student, one of hers no less, Chi Soo should have dropped off her radar. Her long-time friend and coworker, Kang Dong Joo has the right idea. In essence, she says, ‘to survive as a teacher you can’t take the actions of these students seriously.’ But no, not Eun Bi. She persists in pursuing Cha Chi Soo until she ‘inadvertently’ hears him talking shit about her (Queue the product placement for some fancy water).

Offended, Eun Bi confronts Chi Soo about toying with people’s feelings. Again these are the actions of a teenager, but why shouldn’t he have been trolling her? She’s an old lady preying on a teenager. You can argue that Chi Soo is, in fact, eighteen and an adult, but he isn’t mature. We’re talking about a guy who throws tantrums if he doesn’t get his way and, worse yet, places no value on human emotions. Just look at the manner he relates to Crazy Chicken’s girlfriend (don’t get me started on that hussy).

This may not be entirely Chi Soo’s fault, his father has this notion that ‘Cha Chi Soo must not feel pain.’ Which brings me to my next pain point: by shielding Chi Soo from life’s problems and even more the consequences of his actions he is not doing his son any favors. On many occasions, Chi Soo has shown blatant disrespect for authority figures, all of which were ignored by his father. I wanted to slap the man and say, ‘Um, sir you are raising a hellion. A little demon just waiting to be unleashed on the world.’ For example, when he tried to help his friend, Woo Hyun Woo, with the loan sharks. Kim Ba Wool aka Crazy Chicken’s friends were attacked by mistake, and what was his remedy? That fake card with his name on it because money fixes everything, duh! Lol.

I can imagine how perplexed he felt when they did not readily accept his offerings but instead attacked him (personally, I would have taken the money, but I guess that’s just me right?). You know it is kind of scary to think with all that money backing him, Cha Chi Soo is an untouchable. If he wanted to he could get away with anything just short of murder no?

I know the whole premise of the drama is that Eun Bi is supposed to love Cha Chi Soo despite his immaturity, but it just shows how immature or messed up she is. It just comes off as weird to me. Imagine if the roles were reversed, people would really be giving the writer, Yoon Nan-joong the side eye- at least they should. I’m kind of disappointed that it was Nan-Joong who wrote this crap. But anyway, this is my two cents on the drama. I’m feeling uncharacteristically generous today, are 2 rose petals too much?