Dare to Love Me (2024) , Kim Hong-do confesses her love to Shin Yoon-bok. Yoon-bok rejects her instantly. Hong-do doesn’t give up and tries again in multiple languages. Café staff attempt to remove her. Hong-do, 30, wants Yoon-bok, her former student, to be less polite to her.
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 disrupts the event. It’s Yoon-bok. He accuses the attendees of theft. He takes them all down with a paper fan and his fists. The police arrive and arrest everyone. Yoon-bok checks through the stolen items.
Cut to Seongsan Village, a World Heritage site. Tourists experience the Joseon era there. Yoon-bok, still in traditional costume, greets the villagers. They 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 stolen works over the past three years. Yoon-bok joins them to report a counterfeit he detected. One truck of goods escaped the auction and is heading toward Seoul. Yoon-bok is sent to retrieve the originals, taking a young female warrior, Yoon-ah, with him.
At work, Hong-do is an assistant designer. She serves a picky senior and is at the bottom rung in the fashion world. A second senior enters and starts bickering with the first. Hong-do must assist them both. Handsome colleague Do Yeong is the bright spot in her day. He is covertly kinder than the others. At home, Hong-do has a board full of photos of herself and Do Yeong, along with fashion magazine cuttings. Her brother complains about eating leftovers Hong-do brought from work. Hong-do steps to her antique sewing machine, gazing at a competition entry poster. She makes a bag as a gift for Do Yeong, claiming he’ll prefer something handmade, but her brother doubts it.
The next day at work, Do Yeong is thrilled to receive a designer product from another colleague. Hong-do tries to secretly present her handmade gift, but they both hide when the same colleague comes outside. Do Yeong claims someone must have left the bag there by mistake.
In Seoul, Yoon-bok meets his stolen artifact contact but must verify the piece. He and Yoon-ah head to a club to check it, but he’s stopped at the door due to 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 and offers to take him to dinner. He declines, saying he has plans with his family. Hong-do relents and takes her brother out instead. They enjoy a rare Joseon-era specialty at a restaurant. The manager, Jun-ho, gives them a treat and explains the history of the dish.
Still hunting for clues, Yoon-ah checks everywhere in the club except the VIP area. They decide to become regulars to access it fully. At the restaurant, Hong-do overhears her manager, Hyang-gi, with Do Yeong at the next table. Do Yeong repeats the same lines he used with her and wears the shirt she bought, claiming he bought it to impress his date. Hong-do can’t contain herself and peeks over the divider, surprising everyone. Do Yeong pushes her out the door. Hyang-gi begs Hong-do not to reveal their secret dating.
Frustrated, Hong-do downs her soju and chases after them, grabbing Do Yeong by the shirt she bought him. She wonders why everyone treats her so rudely. As they struggle, she falls back and is caught by Yoon-bok.
The next day, Hong-do wakes in her bed, thinking it was a dream. She is late for the office. When she arrives, the couple has announced their relationship. They had been together for three months. As everyone congratulates them, Hong-do vacuums loudly, shoving people around. Do Yeong avoids her all day.
Meanwhile, Yoon-bok and Yoon-ah move into a temporary rooftop apartment. In another part of town, the restaurant manager, Jun-ho, donates gifts to an orphanage. That evening, Hong-do confronts Do Yeong. He is unrepentant, claiming they were never in a relationship. She heads home to drink and sing sad songs, holding the returned t-shirt. She is even more distraught to discover he has blocked her.
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, Yoon-bok had run away from home and enrolled in school. Everyone gave him a hard time for his clothing and mannerisms, even the teachers thought he was weird. But Hong-do had been nice and encouraging.
In front of the corner shop, Yoon-bok gives her flowers as a token of gratitude for her kindness back then. Hong-do panics when she catches her reflection and he catches her once again. She suddenly recalls him helping her outside the restaurant, where she had tried to strip off his hanbok.
Dare to Love Me (2024) ep 1 Review
In the early episodes, Yoon-bok and Hong-do navigate their contrasting worlds: his old-fashioned views clash with her carefree demeanor. Despite their past where she was his supportive teacher, Yoon-bok’s struggles with modern life hint at deeper feelings. As their story unfolds biweekly, their evolving connection promises intriguing revelations ahead.
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