A Woman You Can Be Polite To

Dare to Love Me Episode 1 drops us straight into a love confession by Kim Hong-do to Shin Yoon-bok. It doesn’t go well, she’s immediately shot down. From a table away. But she persists, in multiple languages, even after the staff try to shoo her out of the café. With a six-year age gap, the 30-year-old Hong-do only wishes for her former student to stop treating her so politely.

At a private auction, guests bid on stolen artworks. The highlight is a piece from the Kim collection. Outside the venue, a man in Joseon dress knocks out the guards and locks the door. He proceeds to disrupt the event. It’s our man Yoon-bok, accusing the attendees of theft. He takes them all down with a paper fan and his fists, having locked everyone in. Eventually the police show up to drag the culprits away. While Yoon-bok checks through the booty.

Cut to Seongsan Village, a World Heritage site where tourists experience the Joseon era. Yoon-bok, still in traditional costume, greets villagers, who keep traditions and aesthetics alive. Yoon-bok introduces himself as the central figure of the town.

The village head and someone from the Cultural Heritage Administration discuss the number of works that have been stolen over the last three years. Yoon-bok joins them to report a counterfeit he’d detected. It seems one truck of goods escaped the auction heading toward Seoul. Yoon-bok is sent to retrieve the originals, taking a young female warrior, Yoon-ah, along with him.

At work, Hong-do is an assistant designer who serves a pernickety senior, as the bottom rung in the fashion world. As a second senior enters, bickering with the first, Hong-do must assist them both. Handsome colleague Do Yeong is the bright spot in her day, covertly kinder than the others.

At home, she has a board full of photos of the two of them, along with fashion magazine cuttings. While her brother complains about eating the leftovers Hong-do brought from work, she steps to her antique sewing machine, gazing at on a competition entry poster. She makes a bag as a gift for Do Yeong, claiming he’ll prefer something handmade to designer but her brother doubts that.

Yet the next day at work, Do Yeong is thrilled over receiving a designer product from another colleague. Hong-do tries to secretly present her hand made gift, but they both hide when that same colleague comes outside, Do Yeong claiming someone must have left the bag there by mistake.

In Seoul, Yoon-bok meets his stolen artifact contact but most verify the piece. He and Yoon-ah head to a club to check it, but he’s stopped at the door because of his attire. Yoon-ah quickly changes into something fashionable and slides in to scout around.

At a café, Hong-do gives Do Yeong a branded gift, offering to take him to dinner. But he’s got plans with his family so she relents. She takes her brother out instead, having a rare Joseon-era specialty. The restaurant manager, Jun-ho, gives them a treat, explaining the history of the dish.

Still on the hunt, Yoon-ah checks everywhere except the inaccessible VIP area for clues. They decide they must become regulars in order to check that area fully.

At the restaurant, Hong-do overhears her manager, Hyang-gi, with Do Yeong at the next table, as he recites similar lines as he did with her in the café. He’s even wearing the shirt she bought him, claiming he bought it to impress his date. When Hong-do can’t contain herself, peeking over the divider, and surprising everyone. As Do Yeong pushes her out the door, Hyang-gi begs Hong-do not to tell anyone that they’re secretly dating. So, Hong-do downs her soju, chasing after them and grabbing him by the shirt she’d bought. Why does everyone treat her so rudely? As they struggle, she falls back, caught by Yoon-bok.

The next day, Hong-do wakes in her bed thinking it was a dream. Late for the office, when she arrives, the couple have announced their relationship. They’d been together three months. As everyone congratulates the pair, Hong-do vacuums loudly, shoving people around. Do Yeong does his best to avoid her all day. 

Meanwhile, Yoon-bok and Yoon-ah move into a temporary residence, a furnished rooftop apartment. In another part of town, the restaurant manager Jun-ho, donates gifts to an orphanage.

That evening, Hong-do confronts Do Yeong, who’s unrepentant, claiming they were never in a relationship. She heads home to drink and sing sad songs holding the returned t-shirt. She’s even more distraught to discover she’s been blocked by him. A complete mess and out to buy more beer, she runs into Yoon-bok in his usual outfit. In a flashback she recognizes her former student whom she hasn’t seen in seven years.

Back then he’d run away from home enrolling in school. But everyone gave him a hard time for his clothing and mannerisms, even teachers thought him weird. But Hong-do had been nice and encouraging. In front of the corner shop, he gives her flowers as a gratitude for her treatment back then. She panics when she catches her reflection and he catches her once again. She suddenly recalls him helping her outside the restaurant where she’s tried to strip off his hanbok.

The Episode Review

So, we’re off to a silly start with the righteous Yoon-bok and the ridiculous Hong-do, knowing where this will go – that rejection we saw up front. But already we see they have a past where she was a forthright teacher and he an object of mockery. With that past in mind, is it merely appropriateness that will keep them apart?

Throughout the story, Yoon-bok faces difficulties as he’s clueless about train schedules, ordering coffee from a kiosk, appropriate dress codes at Seoul night clubs and even swallowing hard at women in short skirts. So his thinking is old skool to say the least. With his obvious interest in Hong-do – whether it’s respect or a shine – there seem to be feeling in there somewhere. And so far, it doesn’t look like Hong-do’s silliness is an issue. For either of them.

Early days but we’re lucky enough to have two drops per week of this drama. More to soon be revealed…

What do you think about the opening of Dare to Love Me? Let us know in the comments below. 

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