K-Drama Reaction: Strongest Deliveryman | Episode 1

Annyeong, my favorite people! It’s nice to be back in dramaland after a three-week off. Yes, yours truly has been living as a “normal” person in the outside world since the end of Suspicious Partner. Waeyo? Geu-nyang, I need to get over my existential crisis. Well, I’m not fully healed yet so I’m hoping Strongest Deliveryman could be of help. So with no further ado, off we go to the pilot episode!

THE MAIN LEADS

Reckless but charming—that is how I’m gonna describe our two main leads. We’re introduced to Choi Kang-soo (Go Kyung-pyo) as a veteran deliveryman who is known for being a crazy guy because of his fondness in meddling in other people’s business. The opening scene proved that description of him to us as he chased down a driver who hit and injured another deliveryman. And when he finally cornered the driver, he told him that the accident didn’t only cause harm to the victim but also to the person who ordered the food, who is probably very hungry and mad because his order didn’t arrive. HAH. Though he is tagged as somewhat crazy, we still saw that he is a good person by nature. Proof is when he fed and let a runaway highschooler whom we later known as Lee Ji-yoon (Ko Won-hee) stay for the night at the restaurant he works for. He is also notorious for staying at a job and a place in Seoul for only two months. One of the reasons for this, I believe, is his promise to his late abuji to look for his mom who left them with all his father’s money. I don’t know if there are other reasons for it, but if there are, let’s save the revelation for the next episodes.

Our heroine, Lee Dan-ah (Chae Soo-bin), meanwhile, is also as reckless as Kang-soo. We saw her as a feisty (and pretty) delivery girl who has her eyes set on one goal—to earn enough money to support her immigration to a foreign land (probably the U.S. because she’s studying English) and escape Hell Joseon that is Korea. We can sense that she’s strong-willed and streetsmart.

THE MEET CUTE

Kang-soo and Dan-ah’s first encounter is more of cool and badass-y rather than cute (yeah, I’m playing with words here and not taking meet cute literally). After Kang-soo successfully led the police to arrest the driver who hit and run a fellow deliveryman, he almost got into an accident himself. Thank goodness, he and the other party are pros in motorcycle riding. Who’s the other party? Well, it’s none other than our feisty and pretty heroine!

The almost road mishap resulted in a heated bickering between the two, who later on decided to just let it slide but not until Kang-soo discovered a damage on his cellphone. He asked Dan-ah to pay for it, but the latter firmly disagreed because “why would she pay for the repair of a cellphone that popped off his body”? Woah, I like this girl. And when Kang-soo insisted and tried to get her number so he could contact her for the repair payment, Dan-ah did the unexpected. She hit Kang-soo down “there” and dared “oppa” to sue her then left.

But that is just the start of their complicated relationship. Kang-soo found the next restaurant (his 33rd, actually) he targets to work for. The application process included tasting the jjajangmyun they serve there (because he is also known for turning down the job as deliveryman for a restaurant that doesn’t offer good food, HAH.), riding on a weird woman’s (probably the owner or one of the owners of that restaurant) odd sense of humor, and finally—a one-on-one interview with, guess who, none other than Dan-ah, the restaurant’s most prized delivery girl. Kang-soo passed the first two steps with no sweat, while the third and final one, well, he also passed it but not without some power-tripping from Dan-ah. Hee-hee.

So there it goes, our main leads became co-workers from just being strangers who almost crashed into each other on the road. Real quick, and I love it.

THE SECOND LEADS

Nothing much has been revealed yet about the supporting leads except that we learned about Ji-yoon’s rebellion against her parents in the form of running away from home. It wasn’t verbally confirmed, but it was obvious that Ji-yoon is the daughter of the Jung household that owns a food business empire.

Oh Jin-gyu (Kim Seon-ho), on the other hand, is portrayed as a happy-go-lucky guy who is also hailed from a rich family. It can be said that Jin-gyu is his family’s black sheep who is often compared to his responsible older brother by their strict father. He acts as if everything is fine, but deep inside he is broken because of his father’s lack of love and confidence in him. A setup that we usually see in this kind of dramas.

THE FIRST IMPRESSION

The pilot episode is so far, so good. I particularly like the strong characterization of our main leads specifically for Dan-ah because I like it when heroines are fierce.

And though the plot feels a bit familiar as it contains most of the basic characteristics of a rags-to-riches story, my hopes are high that the execution, acting, and chemistry will make up for it.

Gidaryeo for the next episodes!