A hot-headed lawyer leaves a successful corporate law office to fulfill her dream of opening a law cafe.  By providing legal council at the cost of a cup of coffee, she hopes to help those who have no way to pay the expensive legal fees charged by most corporate lawyers. After shopping around for just the right building to rent, she is shocked to learn that her new landlord is one of her best friends from high school.  But he seems to be intent on avoiding her at all costs.  Will her business be doomed from the start or will she find a way to convince him to help her make her dreams reality.  

Lee Se Young as Kim Yu Ri

When taking pro bono cases at her law firm is no longer enough, Kim Yu Ri decides to strike out on her own by setting up a law cafe, where she can provide personal advice in a friendly, neighborhood setting.  But things get complicated when her new landlord turns out to be an old friend.  Excited to see a familiar face and a fellow-lawyer, she is excited to see him, but he doesn’t share her enthusiasm.  And when an unexpected and powerful enemy begins threatening her and her cafe, she finds herself leaning more and more on Jeong Ho’s friendship and their deepening relationship. 

Kim Yu Ri is strong and independent.  Her passion for justice and helping those in need drives her to be a successful lawyer.  Maybe because of all she was going through after losing her dad in high school, she never realized Jeong Ho’s true feelings for her.  But once he finally confesses, she begins to see how much she has always cared about and respected him.  Lee Se Young was fun to watch in this role.  Her enthusiasm and fiery spirit made this  character both entertaining and sincere.  And I enjoyed seeing her do a bit of comic silliness.   

Kim Nam Hee as Park Woo Jin

Park Woo Jin is Jeong Ho’s cousin.  He rents out the second floor of the building for his psychiatric clinic.  He falls for Yu Ri, but it doesn’t take him long to realize that she and Jeong Ho already have feelings for each other and a long history together.  So, he settles for keeping his feelings to himself and helping Yu Ri in any way he can.  

 ♥ Modern Female Lead

Kim Yu Ri is a free-thinking modern woman.  Even with her panic attacks, she manages to stand on her own two feet most of the time, and bravely faces whatever problems arise.  She has her own views on love and marriage, and isn’t afraid to speak up for herself when the occassion warrants.  All of these things made her the kind of female lead that is likable and makes you want to root for.

 ♥ Stages of Marriage

There is an interesting thread in this drama about stages of relationships and marriage.  Toward the end, those threads lace together to give us the drinking party scene with all the female characters.  Each one has her own story and is at a different place in their relationship with their significant other.  But strangely, that seems to give them all something in common knowing that whatever stage of life they are in, there are always both struggles and joy.  

Supporting Love Stories

The main love story for this drama was well done and fun to watch unfold.  But I wish the secondary characters had fared as well in their quests for love.  After watching Doctor Park struggle with his crazy stalker and gracefully give up on his feelings for Yu Ri, the poor guy deserved to find someone for himself.  At least a brief glimpse into a love interest would have been nice.  And watching Eun Kang fall head over heels for Hee Soo was sweet, but a little progress would have been nice.  

 Dog Death

Maybe this is just my animal-loving self talking, but I found the scene of Pyun Woong’s thugs killing the dog to be really disturbing.  Obviously they don’t actually show it, but the gruesome state of the cafe was enough to give a pretty clear idea.  And the fact that no one seems that upset about this poor creature after the fact felt a bit uncaring.  Jeong Ho even makes some off-hand comment about how it wasn’t really his dog anyway.  I felt like there must have been a better way to play that scene, rather than just an excuse for Jeong Ho to play the romantic hero.  

Most of our storylines for this one either end without any real closure or ended along the way.  But the two plots that have run through the whole drama are the story of our crazy villain and the love story of our leads.  So, first things first.  Pyun Woong finally loses it completely.  He takes Jeong Ho hostage and has a showdown with the police, which guarantees his arrest, once they finally bring him down.  He does stab Jeong Ho, which brings us to our romance.  Yu Ri is traumatized by seeing the one she loves seriously injured.  And that helps her to reevaluated her own feelings and attitudes toward marriage.  After talking with the other women in her life, she eventually is ready to commit.  And in true Yu Ri fashion, she rushes to Jeong Ho’s side and proposes to him this time.  They get married in the middle of a typhoon, surrounded by their friends and family.  Some time later we see the cafe bustling with business.  But now there are 2 lawyers available to offer advice.  Of course, their friends are still there, working and supporting them.  And I’m pretty sure, after a long 17 year wait, they are finally living happily ever after.