There’s No Such Thing As Fate.Nevertheless,

The day of her break-up, a suave stranger shows up and sits with her at the bar. “There’s no such thing as fate” indeed! He thinks her name is So-Ri and completely mistakes her for someone else. Only, fireworks clearly spark when they lock eyes.

He eventually cancels on his blind date, intending to stay with Na-Bi for the night instead. The two hit it off too, with talk of Jae-Eon’s butterfly tattoo and playing virtual darts.

This encounter sticks with Na-Bi, as she recalls further moments together throughout the episode. Cut around this though is Na-Bi’s intent to try and move on and forget her unfaithful ex.

An inked marking of a butterfly on her forearm helps. Or, well, it does to begin with. During her date she decided to leave after overhearing Jae-Eon on a call with someone, telling them he misses them.

Na-Bi finds herself caught up on this, which she carries with her back at the studio, Her and Yun-Sol are tasked with raising their GDP scores but have very different ways of going about it. While the latter continues to drink and have a good time, Na-Bi gets stuck in to her work and tries to find inspiration.

That inspiration eventually appears that evening when Na-Bi heads out and learns Jae-Eon is the new junior on the team. He specifically asked for her to show and drink as well. Those drinks then turn to games and laughter.

The pair keep their feelings in-check though, at least until the topic of cheating comes up. Na-Bi is visibly uncomfortable and Jae-Eon takes the opportunity to encourage her to join him in ditching the group. They intend to ditch the group and pick up where they left off from their last encounter.

Now, it’s worth bearing in mind that Jae-Eon is pretty touchy-feely, taking all the opportunities he can to touch Na-Bi. In Western culture this is, of course, normal flirting behaviour. In reserved Korea however, it’s pretty taboo.

Na-bi is already in over her head — that’s easy to see. She is completely overpowered by Jae-un (not that I can blame her), and as she tries to piece together who he is, each detail she discovers only pulls her in closer.

For instance, the metal sculpture that captivated her so utterly was actually his work. Also, there’s the detail that he’s fixated with butterflies. This works two-fold (or maybe even three-fold) in the story. It gives Jae-un a reason to use some flirty wordplay (Na-bi’s name literally means “butterfly”), it gives them both a symbol that connects them — and it also works on a metaphorical level too. Na-bi is surely the same delicate creature as the real butterflies he keeps at his apartment — one is left to wonder if he appreciates the fragility of these creatures and wants to protect them, or if he just likes knowing that he can tease them and then tear them apart. (Can you tell I don’t trust him at all?)

I might be wary of Jae-un at this point, and squarely on Na-bi’s side, but that’s not to say the attraction and flirtation isn’t mutual and reciprocated — it surely is. And while it’s sexy and exciting, there’s also this sense of danger to it, and unwritten questions about what will happen between them as this story plays out.

All in all it was a bold first episode that did what it intended — whether it’s one’s cup of tea is another question. I’m invested enough to see how this plays out, I just have to remind myself that the drama is being quite clear: it’s not going to be our typical drama, whether that’s in content, tone, mood, or any of it. If I don’t expect from it what I usually expect from my dramas, I think I can enjoy Nevertheless for what it is. But when it’s over, you’ll still find me sneaking back to the more sweet, innocent, and heart-filled dramas that brought me to dramaland in the first place.

After their evening together though, Na-Bi finds herself thinking about him a lot. “What am I doing?” She sighs.

You know that feeling when you get those butterflies and nervous energy, desperate to see your crush and hopefully strike up a conversation? Well, Na-Bi is experiencing that here, and doing an excellent job portraying it too.

She heads up to the smoking terrace in the hopes of catching a glimpse of Jae-Eon at the workshop across the way. She even constantly checks her phone and group messages too. This comes at the expense of neglecting her sculpting work though.

Well, that evening Jae-Eon stays late with Na-Bi and after some light flirting, winds up sketching while she does the intimate sculpting work on her piece. Afterwards, in the dead of night, thee two exchange numbers while the petals fall from the trees above. The pair get on really well but as Jae-Eon leans forward to give her a kiss, the episode comes to a close.

The chemistry between our two leads is fantastic too, which helps a lot to really allow fireworks to fly between them. It’s still early days of course but Nevertheless is turning into a real romantic scorcher. The one-episode-a-week is going to be absolutely excruciating to wait for off the back of this.

Still, that ending sets everything up nicely for the season ahead.

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