Bora! Deborah: Episodes 1-2

Bora! Deborah: Episodes 1-2

by Unit

Dramaland’s newest rom-com on the block navigates the ups and downs of romance through the eyes of our eponymous leading lady who has it all: a thriving career, influence in her field, and the perfect boyfriend. On the other side of the equation is a man who doesn’t care about the various laws and theories as pertain to relationships. And in this cute and fun story, may the best romance strategy win.

 
EPISODES 1-2

In this generation where difficulty in getting a job, soaring house prices, and future uncertainty are the order of the day, dating is now a luxury which most people cannot afford. You can either choose work or romance, but you can’t have both. Except if you’re our titular character YEON BORA (Yoo In-na), or as she’s professionally called, DEBORAH.

Bora is a renowned dating coach and influencer, and she’s everywhere from social media to TV and radio, dishing out foolproof strategies for romantic relationships. Because why give up on either passion or profession when you can have it all? And just in case you miss out on her media segments, you can always catch her in between the pages of any of her three (!) bestsellers. (Have y’all grabbed your copies of What You Got Wrong About Your Love Life, yet? Lol).

Naturally, as a bestselling author (with a recently expired publishing contract), Bora catches the business eye of publishing CEO HAN SANG-JIN (Joo Sang-wook). But his co-CEO and best buddy, LEE SOO-HYUK (Yoon Hyun-min) doesn’t get the whole Deborah hype because he’s not a fan of being strategic when it comes to romance, as Bora often preaches. Soo-hyuk believes that being sincere and true to oneself is what a relationship needs. And to him, people like Bora bother about other people’s love lives when theirs is a mess.

Truly, truer words have never been spoken, because Bora’s love life is far from perfect. Contrary to her confident “I can have it all” mantra as Deborah, Bora is not really sure where her relationship is headed with her boyfriend NOH JU-WAN (Chansung). They’ve been dating for three years but he still hasn’t popped the big question. And unlike her best friend LEE YOO-JUNG (Sojin, yaay!) and her husband YANG JIN-WOO (Lee Sang-woon) who got married without a proposal, Bora is determined never to walk down the aisle without getting a proper proposal first.

On their third anniversary, Bora’s expectations for that diamond ring are at an all-time high, and I can’t blame her. Ju-wan says he has something important to tell her, and he picks a fancy restaurant befitting his status as the new generation chaebol heir to the popular Mom’s Chicken franchise. There’s wine, and there’s the nervous small talk that leads up to the important announcement of… wait for it… a successful M&A between Mom’s Chicken and Pizza University. LMAO! Talk about taking the wind out of Bora’s sails!

It’s Ju-wan’s complete lack of self awareness for me, and I’d probably have walked away in disappointment if I were in Bora’s shoes. But like a good girlfriend, she sits there and listens to Ju-wan go on and on about the revolutionary union of chicken and pizza. The dude is so passionate and invested in his company that she doesn’t even have the heart to stop him when work calls and he has to cut their date short. I mean, what’s an anniversary dinner compared to saving the world one chicken at a time?

Throughout these episodes, Ju-wan really does everything but propose to Bora. But Little Miss Purple is no chicken, and she’s not afraid to use her radio show to send him a hint. Coincidentally, one of her listeners writes to the show about dating a guy who won’t commit to a relationship. And Bora is quick to point out that “bad guys” who avoid commitment will actually summon the courage to propose when it’s with a girl they really love. To the listener, Bora says there’s no relationship unless it has been verbally defined.

At work, Ju-wan listens in, and he catches her proposal drift. Soo-hyuk also listens in as he drives and as usual, he’s not feeling Deborah’s advice. Sang-jin recommends Bora’s latest book to him, and Soo-hyuk ends up picking all three of her books. He’s oddly convinced after scanning through the books, and he agrees with Sang-jin to set up a meeting with Deborah.

Before meeting Deborah, Soo-hyuk first meets Bora at a jewelry store because he’s decided to take Deborah’s advice and propose to his girlfriend. Of course, he doesn’t recognize that she’s the same person because Deborah’s pictures on social media are professionally retouched. (She looks the same to me, but okay.) As you’d expect, their first meeting is far from pleasant, and in a petty move, Soo-hyuk moves to buys Bora’s dream engagement ring. The last limited edition piece in stock! (And then, we see him try to beat down the price when Bora leaves. Hahaha.)

When Yoo-jung informs Bora that she spotted Ju-wan picking up a ring at the mall, an excited Bora floats on diamond-shaped clouds and readily forgives Soo-hyuk’s ring subterfuge, even wishing him good luck on his proposal. But as it turns out, his girlfriend is one of the writers of Bora’s radio show, and the uncommitted boyfriend story from earlier on is hers. Oops!

Soo-hyuk’s girlfriend dumps him, but up until the last minute, it’s clear that she was hoping he’d stop her. But he just lets her go without pulling out the ring. Then he has the nerve to blame Deborah for putting the proposal idea in his head. Tsk. What happened to following her full advice and going ahead with the proposal? Heck, what happened to his “be sincere and true to yourself” mantra? But then, this is probably his sincerity at play. He liked his girlfriend well enough for their breakup to hit him hard, but not well enough to propose to her.

As fallout from the failed proposal advice, Soo-hyuk changes his mind about working with Deborah, but it’s a little too late because she already confirmed the appointment with their company. On arrival at the meeting, she overhears him talk crap about her, and when they finally meet in person and recognize each other from the jewelry store, things only get worse. He provokes her and she bites back because in a war of nerves, she’s not one to back down.

But before the bickering duo spontaneously combust and take the whole office down with them, Yoo-jung and Sang-jin — who just so happens to be her ex brother-in-law — take Soo-hyuk and Bora out for drinks and karaoke. And when Bora asks Soo-hyuk how his proposal went, he gets all defensive, wondering why ladies cannot be the ones to make the first move when it comes to proposals.

Taking Soo-hyuk’s advice, Bora hops in a cab headed for Ju-wan’s and midway into the ride, she realizes she swapped phones with Soo-hyuk. But a bigger shocker awaits when she arrives at Ju-wan’s and catches him making out with another woman in his car! Why you little!! It’s bad enough that her chicken-brained boyfriend is cheating, but he had to do it in front of an audience!? Bora will probably not hear the end of it from Soo-hyuk (who trailed after her to retrieve his phone). The story of a dating coach with a disastrous love life? Now, that’s a book Soo-hyuk is more inclined to publish. Lol.

This is where we wrap up with Bora! Deborah’s premiere week which was everything I hoped for and more. Humor, likeable characters (including Ju-wan — whom I wanted to knock upside the head several times over the course of the episodes, but I still don’t have strong feelings of dislike towards), and a light-hearted plot (so far), featuring the delicious enemies-to-lovers trope.

Soo-hyuk and Bora are as different as can be, and I find their contrasting approach to romance and life in general quite fascinating. Soo-hyuk puts his common sense over passion, and we’ve seen where that got him: drunk, miserable, and heaping the blame on everyone but himself. He’s not averse to the idea of love — in fact, he wants love as evident from his post-break-up blues. But he’ll need to learn to lower his guard and verbally express what he really feels because humans are not x-ray machines and nobody hears unless you speak.

It’s tricky for Bora on the other hand, because as Deborah, she’s seemingly in control of her love life. But really, Bora just wants to wear her heart on her sleeve with none of that push and pull strategy she feeds her audience. Aside from the chicken nonsense, I found her anniversary dinner sad because you could tell she really wanted Ju-wan to stay back, but she had to act like she was cool with him leaving for work because she didn’t want to be like the clingy girlfriends she preaches against.

It’s interesting that despite being on different sides of the coin, Bora and Soo-hyuk are rolling in the same direction — which is opposite of where they want to be. Strategies aren’t always bad, and sincerity moves heaven (and the heart). So, if our bickering duo can just pause for a minute and put their heads together to learn compromise from each other, who knows? Their coin might just begin to roll in the right direction of love.

 
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Bora! Deborah: Episodes 1-2
Source: Buzz Pinay Daily