Trying to remember what I read so far.
Marry My Husband - I've only completed the webtoon so far. I will try to watch the Kdrama adaptation and read the original web novel if I can find it. I kept seeing Youtube shorts and it peeked my interest to read the webtoon first. Somehow I kept on reading it over the weeks as I wanted to follow Jiwon's revenge. How devastating for her to see her best friend and husband sleeping together. Only then she dies by accident and awakens to find herself a decade into the past which gives her the opportunity to rewrite some moments and prevent some mistakes from happening even going to lengths to push her former best friend and then fiance to get together.
I Hold The Tyrant's Heart - webtoon only so far. An isekai story where the main female character Eucenielle dies and reawakens in another world as a daughter born into a noble family with a mother who has Elven blood. She's not ditzy or a damsel and can hold her own thanks to her combat skills but naturally she will go back and forth with the charisma of her childhood friend Tes.
The male lead Tes is a Yandere I have a love/hate relationship with. Obviously the bloodline from the earliest generations does not help his insanity. The ending was so abrupt and I had seen spoilers lurking on forums about this story's ending from the original novel.
Best Of Tomorrow/Tomorrow's #1 / Lovely Runner - have read the webtoon (minus the side stories) but not yet the web novel nor watched the Kdrama adaptation in full. So far I'm seeing a lot of differences between the webtoon and drama however what is still there in these versions is how Im Sol is a fan of the boy group Eclipse/Potato Pancakes and that Ryu Sunjae is the newest member that is somehow hated by the fandom.
Im Sol's favourite member Ryu Sunjae commits suicide. Devastated by this tragedy, she then finds herself transported back in time to when she was still in secondary school and meets a predebut/younger version of Sunjae. Assuming this is all a dream, she throws herself into his arms at the beginning and saying how much she loves him. Unsurprisingly, Sunjae is baffled and shocked over this strange girl constantly declaring herself a big fan of him and wants her to leave him alone. A stalker in the making. That is how it appears in the earlier episodes of this story.
For certainty, the cringeworthy moments where Im Sol constantly sneaks in to give Sunjae books on depression and sleeping better make me shake my head and also worry on how she'll get caught. How far will you go for your idol/bias/fave?
Moonrise by the Cliff - An exiled royal named Hwan is imprisoned in a small house by a steep cliff and a young lady named Samwol acts as a guard outside in place of her father who has lost his mind and fallen ill.
Despite just being a guard, Samwol ends up talking to Hwan and wonders if this is the man who everyone claims is dangerous and seduced many men and women. They soon have insightful conversations each time Samwol is on duty and they get to know each other. Things turn sour when rumours spread about Samwol getting too close to a criminal.
This is a story where erotic fiction in historical dramas is done to good effect and things are done with consent. I'm not fussed with there being less sex scenes as originally anticipated and maybe I'm just picky or prudish. The actual story is appealing by itself and I found myself rooting for the main couple so hard together and individually.
The pacing of this webtoon was decent and there were so many side stories after the main epilogue, it made me wonder whether they should have just extended these side stories and made them into the final chapters of the main story.
Yeonnam-Dong's Smiley Laundromat (Kim, Jihyun) - Read this quickly within a week and it soothed my stressful soul when there were heartwarming moments. Can you really find kind souls in a public laundromat who are willing to help you out? This book explores seeking help, finding a place to let your negativity go (in this case the laundromat) and confiding in random people. This laundromat builds friendships from different people in the story where a mysterious green diary is left on the table and customers who visit to wash and dry their laundry spontaneously write their thoughts and ask for advice.
I love how once the characters have written their heartfelt worries in the diary their stories intertwine with one another which then leads to another plot involving a rather exciting moment of catching a bad guy.
Not everyone can pour their heart out and ask for help so readily and the characters show this. Their pride and anxiety evident before they enter the laundromat. If such a place existed, I would make plenty of excuses to do my laundry here if it calmed me down.
ATEEZ's In Your Fantasy may be one of my top favourite songs. It is also one of the few that works well in English and Korean.
I was disappointed at first it was all in English after watching the MV but then I realised when I listened to the album that there was a Korean version and it was more to my taste. Perhaps because the lyrics flowed better in the Korean language (especially in the translations).
"Read between the lines, look here, Lucifer
Devil in disguise, we know how this works"
I hear you ATEEZ.