Early Access: More Than Friends E1 (Patreon)

E1. What is this feeling? I think I'm reluctantly sucked in..?

We spend most of episode 1 in a flashback detailing how Woo Yeon and Lee Soo became friends, and I'm having mixed feelings.

On the one hand, the way he is so flippant towards her, even though he does show a reasonable measure of care and concern, is rather perplexing. His self-aggrandizing one-liners are also not very funny to me at the moment. Plus, I find Ong Seong Wu's delivery rather opaque, as in, I feel like I don't have insight into what Lee Soo is really thinking, most of the time. And while this is quite possibly by design, it does make me a little annoyed with Lee Soo because he seems to care, and then he seems to not care much at all - and then he seems to care again.

I also don't know how I feel about Woo Yeon nursing a crush on Lee Soo for so many years, after he's told her that he doesn't like her as anything but a friend. It doesn't seem healthy to not be able to move on, and that feels.. old school Hallyu?

On the other hand, I am guessing that at some point in the story, we will get some kind of role reversal, where Lee Soo will be the one pining after Woo Yeon, and I kind of want to see him have a taste of his own medicine. Eep. Is it bad that my motivation for sticking with this show, is essentially schadenfreude?

It was nice to see how the friendship among the girls came about, and I find it heartwarming that they've remained close all these years. It's even more touching because the three girls are so very different in every way. Woo Yeon is the literary flaky shy one; Jin Joo is the rich, smart one who seems to have life handed to her on a plate, while Young Hee is the one who works long hours, has a sick dad to care for, and is quite a bit jaded as a result - though not too jaded to care about her friends. I like the idea that they know one another for who they are and yet can get along, without having to put up pretenses with one another. That just warms my heart.

We get hints that Lee Soo's life isn't as picture perfect as it seems, with his parents divorced, and him clearly having some struggles around how his parents now seem nicer to each other after their divorce. I rationalize that this is probably a big factor in how he appears so flippant and closed-off, but I'll need more convincing, which I hope future episodes will accomplish.

I do give Woo Yeon credit for owning her feelings and making her confession at the airport, so that she won't have any regrets. But like I said, I'm not super pleased with how she's basically ruined every relationship she's ever had since then, because of her lingering feelings for Lee Soo. That can't be healthy.

And now, in the present, Lee Soo is back, finally. Will I get the schadenfreude that I'm hoping for?