My Royal Nemesis: Episodes 3-4
by Unit
Our transmigrated heroine takes no prisoners as she settles into her new world, but our chaebol leading man finds himself becoming her captive in love. It’s never too early for a romance that seems to have spilled over from Joseon to present-day. And apparently, it’s never too early for a timeline-spilling rivalry either.
EPISODES 3-4
We resume with Dan-shim hugging Se-gye to hide from monitoring spirit Mun-do. Mun-do is amused by the “romantic” scene playing out in front of him, and he leaves without believing his cousin’s “I don’t even know this woman like that” protest. Lol. Se-gye swears he’ll never get caught up in Dan-shim’s antics again. But less than five minutes later, he’s helping her fake a fainting spell and piggybacking her out of the building to avoid the pissed-off home shopping staff. ㅋㅋㅋ This is just the beginning of Se-gye’s Wrapped Around Dan-shim’s Finger era.
While Se-gye is busy picking up meds for Dan-shim’s carsickness at a gas station, she sees Mun-do on the news and learns he’s related to Se-gye and the Chail Group family. Now that Dan-shim has thought about it, Mun-do can’t possibly be the Joseon king or have transmigrated to kill her in this life too. But it doesn’t hurt to be careful, so she decides not to get tangled up with the Chail family. Dan-shim leaves the gas station — but not before accepting Se-gye’s credit card from the station attendant who assumes our OTP are a couple. And once our heroine learns the card can be used in place of cash, she goes on a junk food-buying spree. Aww. She’s so innocent and cute. Because the things I would have done with a black card…
Most people would’ve just blocked their stolen card online, but Se-gye, a.k.a Mr. Time is Gold, personally drives all the way to Dan-shim’s to retrieve his card. Because the sight of her helps him breathe better. For the teeniest tiny bit, he considers giving her the card to buy a hearty meal rather than cheap junk food — and he actually ends up caving into her beef craving. He even grills the meat himself! If you google “a finished man,” I’m sure Se-gye’s face will pop up in the search results. Heh. The man even has dreams about their Joseon days (more on that soon) and wakes up in tears! You just know he loved her so deeply back then. And nothing has changed in 2026, because what is that loony smile on Se-gye’s face when Dan-shim wins Biojei’s internal vote for the face of their new brand? Loool.
Dan-shim shows up at the company to sign the endorsement contract. But her agency’s CEO, HONG BU-SUN (Baek Ji-won), is here to contract-block her in favor of rival actress and face-of-brand runner up, YOON JI-HYO (Lee Se-hee). Smh. Ji-hyo and Dan-shim get into a makjang slapping session — which Se-gye comes to break up. And when Bu-sun rudely asks who he is to butt in, he introduces himself as “Cha Se-gye, CEO of Biojei Entertainment.” a.k.a Dan-shim’s new agency. Skrimmmmm! That was so hot of him. Even Dan-shim is feeling the heat. Whew! Ain’t no bigger flex than acquiring your crush’s agency just to save her from her belittling CEO. Mind you, Se-gye RAN all the way — after fixing his hair and stuff — just to be Dan-shim’s knight in shining armor. But he’s stuck in denial-land about his feelings for her. Talmbout “Me? In love with a crazy woman like that?” Yes!
Dan-shim runs into another man from the Chail family when Grandpa Cha asks to share a table with her at a packed gukbap restaurant. She’s initially unwilling until he offers to pay for her meal. Cue: Dan-shim ordering an extra serving after sussing grandpa’s wealthy status via physiognomy. Hehe. But Grandpa doesn’t mind the obvious fleecing and he looks a little impressed by her negotiation skills. I can’t wait for him to find out she’s his granddaughter-in-law-to-be. Heh. Speaking of fleecing, the home shopping staff sues Dan-shim for assault — after collecting settlement money from Se-gye in a separate lawsuit. Cue: Se-gye strolling into the police station with a countersuit of his own in Dan-shim’s defense. The man is utterly whipped, I tell ya! And Dan-shim is in awe of him at the moment.
After learning about fandom culture, Dan-shim assumes Se-gye is her fan because he’s out there moving mountains for her. Pfft. She doesn’t have much to give in appreciation, so she presents him with a stray dog (he’s allergic, but that’s not the point) and a handwritten letter. Se-gye is a little bummed that the “read it alone tonight before you go to sleep” letter is written in Hanja. But online translation is a thing, and he soon starts blushing in bilingual because Dan-shim’s letter of gratitude actually reads like a love letter. Loool. There’s a drawing of Se-gye attached to the note and signed “To my amazing fan.” But he reads “fan” as “man,” and is stunned at the delulu notion that Dan-shim is in love with him. LMAO! I can’t with this man.
Moving on, Bu-sun books a celebrity interview for Seo-ri/Dan-shim, and Dan-shim visits Seo-ri’s grandmother in order to learn more about her. Halmeoni mentions that Seo-ri was involved in a life-threatening accident as a child which changed her personality somewhat. Hmmm. But before Halmeoni can go into details, thugs descend on them. Turns out Chail Group has been buying up properties in the town to build a resort, and Mun-do — who’s in charge of land acquisition — is unsurprisingly choosing violence because Halmeoni refused to sell her restaurant. Dan-shim also chooses violence and beats up the thugs, and Se-gye — who’s also in town for the resort’s groundbreaking ceremony — shows up for the finishing touches. Aww. My violent romantics.
Dan-shim expresses her gratitude to Se-gye after the thugs are arrested, and she’s even more grateful when she learns the stray dog has been reunited with its owner. “You are the best fan in the world,” she says. And now Se-gye is upset at the realization that he’s just a fan and not Dan-shim’s man. Loool. Grandpa is surprised to see Dan-shim again and he’s curious about this fan business. But Se-gye hurriedly replies that Dan-shim is just someone he took pity on and helped out a few times. “You pity me?” Dan-shim asks, and her heartbroken expression instantly calls Se-gye’s attention to his blunder. This is a man who almost gave himself a panic attack when he imagined a scenario about getting rid of the stray dog and incurring Dan-shim’s anger and disappointment. Now his dreams have come true, sorta, and he doesn’t feel good about it.
Later on, Mun-do drops by Halmeoni’s house to make Dan-shim an offer to latch onto Se-gye so he can use her against him. Dan-shim is not surprised that Mun-do and his Joseon counterpart share an affinity for detestable antics, and this brings us to our Joseon bits for the week. Joseon Mun-do was also a monitoring spirit during his crown prince days, and he was watching from afar when Joseon Se-gye/Grand Prince Cheongheon saved Dan-shim from the wooden box. Dan-shim was assigned to the grand prince’s quarters afterwards. But unlike the other court ladies scared of the “ghost prince with the damaged eye,” she wasn’t afraid of her savior. Cheongheon’s curiosity was piqued, but he didn’t learn Dan-shim’s name — at least not yet — thanks to thunder and assassin interruptions.
Dan-shim realized she was specially assigned to the grand prince when the crown prince ordered her to become Cheongheon’s lover in order to use her to ensnare him. Smh. Not only did the crown prince threaten Dan-shim, he had the stray dog in Cheongheon’s quarters (yep, we also had a stray in Joseon) made into a soup and forced her to taste it! Ugh! If you google “evil,” that bastard’s face will pop up as the main search result. As for how Dan-shim became a royal consort, the bastard most likely “stole” her when he became king because he’s hellbent on taking everything his brother loves. His present-day counterpart is also pulling investor strings in order to swallow Biojei. But Se-gye already left Chail Group for Mun-do just like the grand prince left the kingship for the crown prince. So what else does that greedy and two-faced human want from him??
Back to the present, Halmeoni has realized Dan-shim is not Seo-ri. Perhaps it was Dan-shim’s claim that she can’t remember much of her (Seo-ri’s) childhood memories, or her sageuk-y mannerisms that reminded Halmeoni of Seo-ri’s personality switch after the accident back then. Halmeoni becomes cold to Dan-shim, Se-gye “pities” her, and Mun-do only sees her as a tool. “Have I ever once been loved unconditionally?” Our heroine sadly wonders as she makes her way back to Seoul. *sniffs* Earlier on, Dan-shim rented a rooftop apartment with her signing bonus from Se-gye, and she built a dog house for the stray — which is now back with its owner. The sight of the empty doghouse is Dan-shim’s last straw, and she tears it down amidst tears of her own.
Next thing you know, Se-gye shows up at Dan-shim’s place because a man in love cannot sleep without clearing the air with the woman he loves. He apologizes for the Chail resort drama with Halmeoni’s restaurant, and Dan-shim tells him not to look at her with pity because the look in his eyes makes her draw the wrong conclusion that he has affection for her. “What if you aren’t mistaken?” Se-gye replies. Whoosh! He continues by saying he sees strictly in black and white, but Dan-shim is all shades of gray and confusing to him. Double whoosh! Dan-shim puts Se-gye’s feelings to the test by placing her hand on his chest. But she doesn’t feel any movement and she takes this to mean he doesn’t like her. Se-gye then pulls her into a hug so she can properly listen to his heart beating for her. *swoons and dies!* I was expecting Se-gye’s check-for-feelings method to be a kiss based on the speed he’s using to race down the loserism highway, but this hug is even better!
Two weeks in, and the feels are feeling, the chemistry is chemistry-ing, the humor is humor-ing, and the overall plot progression is just great. I like how the Joseon scenes were worked into these episodes. We got just enough information to paint a general picture of the past and highlight its similarities with the present, but not too much detail to fully satisfy our curiosity and kill the intrigue.
Seo-ri’s personality-changing accident is another source of curiosity, and now I’m thinking maybe this isn’t the first time her body has been possessed by another soul. Perhaps the reason she struggled after her child acting days was because it was actually a transmigrator doing the acting in her body. Seeing how Dan-shim was moved to tears while watching Seo-ri’s old drama makes me wonder if she was the transmigrator and her tears were a reaction to a long-forgotten memory of herself. Or Dan-shim is actually the OG Seo-ri and she was sent to Joseon to live as Dan-shim after the accident. Or they’re the same person, but existing in alternate universes and have somehow swapped lives. I’m not sure about any of these transmigration and timeline theories, but it’s fun to speculate. And it’s up to Show to prove or disprove them.
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