If I've said this once, I've said it a thousand times before, I love romance dramas. Granted, they're even better with some comedy in there but there's just something about seeing a love story unfold that really plays to my interests. Dramas of this genre aren't uncommon and something else that's becoming increasingly common are K-dramas based on webtoons, which have started to become more prolific in recent years. What do you get when you combine the two? Well, you actually get a lot of possibilities but I'm specifically talking about Nevertheless, (or directly translated to I Know But,), based on the webtoon of the same name. Starring Han So-hee (Abyss, The World of the Married) as female lead YOO NA-BI and Song Kang (Love Alarm, Navillera) as male lead PARK JAE-EON, this Netflix Original tells the tale of a university romance between a woman who no longer believes in love and a man who doesn't believe in relationships. Without further ado, let's dive right in.
INITIAL THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS (SPOILER ALERT)
Before I begin, it's important for me to point out that I've never read this webtoon so if there's anything I say that has been brought up in the webtoon, don't yell at me, I just genuinely don't know anything about the source material. Anyway, the drama opens with an introduction to our female lead Na-bi, a sculpture major at Hongseo University who has just ended her relationship on a bad note. While she and her ex-boyfriend were seemingly madly in love with each other, the older man would raise a ton of red flags by being very obsessive over the smallest things and belittle Na-bi, eventually going so far as to place a very intimate sculpture based off her in a provocative sexual position in a public art exhibit. After catching him cheating on her, Na-bi breaks up with him and although she eventually moves on with her life, she no longer believes in fate or the concept of true love, since she once thought the man she was destined to be with was nothing but a cheating scumbag.
On the night of her breakup, our heartbroken heroine drowns her sorrows at a bar alone, only to meet Jae-eon, an extremely flirtatious man who gets very touchy-feely with her and does all sorts of actions that make her heart flutter. She's instantly drawn to the butterfly tattoo on the back of his neck and slowly starts to fall for him over the short few hours they're together. All this happens despite the fact that she knows that Jae-eon is someone who is "bad for her (still healing) heart" and to top it all off, she doesn't even know his name, age or anything about him for that matter. Evidently still hurt by her breakup, Na-bi gets very uncomfortable when Jae-eon makes as if he's about to kiss her and she avoids that situation at all costs. Unfortunately, our leads' first meeting definitely doesn't end well for Na-bi as she sees him having an intimate phone conversation with an unknown party, who she immediately assumes is his girlfriend. Upset that she was led on so easily, she leaves the bar, assuming that she'll never see Jae-eon again.
At present, Na-bi tries to put her breakup behind her and focuses on her schoolwork as well as applying for a student exchange programme. She also keeps a close group of friends, comprising of best friend and third female lead OH BIT-NA [Yang Hye-ji (When the Weather Is Fine, Live On)], "bruh girl" Yoon Sol (Lee Ho-jung) and "uwu girl" Seo Ji-wan (Yoon Seo-ah), whom she confides her problems in. Bit-na is outspoken and displays a tough girl image, dying the ends of her hair dark pink, smoking and dressing in leather, basically the total opposite of the soft-spoken Na-bi. After deciding to go for a drinking session with Bit-na and her fellow course-mates, our female lead meets Jae-eon once again, where it's revealed that he's the same age as Na-bi and is also a sculpture major.
The pair get closer through the night and when Na-bi finds out he doesn't have a girlfriend, she immediately becomes even more infatuated with him. Over time, Na-bi and Jae-eon seem to get closer to each other, with the latter flirting endlessly with the former, and he continues to make advances to her, causing Na-bi to believe that he genuinely likes her. The episode ends with the pair presumably sharing a kiss, something that Na-bi has been avoiding all this while but has finally given into. Now, I just want to take a moment to address Jae-eon's behaviour. For starters, even after he's led Na-bi on every single time, he continues to (seemingly) have intimate conversations with who we can only assume to be other women and in one particular scene, Na-bi catches someone who looks like him making out with someone in the library. This is a huge problem for me and I worry that it'll only get worse from here.
Now, the whole premise of the drama is that Jae-eon doesn't commit to relationships, something which will definitely be explored in later episodes but as of right now, he behaves very openly to everyone around him, flashing smiles to every woman regardless of their relationship with him. This will already become a problem in the next episode as the preview has shown us that Na-bi has a small falling out with Jae-eon because of his overly flirtatious ways. It's enough to make anyone tilted and I fear for Na-bi. Speaking of our heroine, she's so unbelievably naïve, to the extent that it baffles me. Don't get me wrong, I'm still a sucker who'll swoon at all the romantic scenes but at the same time, I don't know if Na-bi is really a strong character who'll stand on her own two feet rather than require a guy to be by her side.
Apart from the three leads who we've met in this episode, there's also second male lead YANG DO-HYEOK [Chae Jong-hyeop (Sisyphus: The Myth, The Witch's Diner)] and second female lead YOON SEOL-AH [Lee Yul-eum (My First Love, Queen: Love and War)], both of whom have yet to make an appearance. Based off information found online, Do-hyeok is Na-bi's childhood friend and Seol-ah is Jae-eon's ex so only time will tell what they bring to this drama. Lead characters aside, I feel like the supporting characters of Yoon Sol and Ji-wan will also have a pretty big presence. Like I mentioned earlier, their personalities are very contrasting but yet they're best friends. My theory however, and this is somewhat supported by social media posts I accidentally chanced upon, is that Sol is lesbian and is in love with Ji-wan, who clearly doesn't know about her friend's feelings and is constantly going on blind dates with guys. I think it's interesting territory that the drama will explore, especially in a conversative society like South Korea but we shall see.
Something I thought was pretty interesting was the way the episode title was worded. Specifically it went, "There's no such thing as fate. Nevertheless,", which is a great way to use the drama's title for added effect. From what I've read, this will be the case for every single episode here on out so props to the screenwriters for this pretty clever creative choice. This drama is a short one, only being 10 episodes-long, and has just finished airing so it should be a breeze to watch. While I do worry about any potential negative messages the drama might bring across because of the strange romance between Na-bi and Jae-eon, I think that it'll be a fairly interesting watch. Some viewers might be instantly turned off by our male lead's behaviour but Nevertheless, I hope you'll join me for the rest of this drama.
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