Preview: My Dearest Nemesis is the story of Baek Su Jeong (Moon Ga-young) who leads a renowned department store. After orchestrating the retirement of three predecessors of the seat, she meets her new boss, Ban Ju Yeon (Choi Hyun-wook), her first love from an online game 16 years ago, stirring up memories of when he confessed his feelings to her and got rejected.

Our Male lead seems to be a two-faced director with a double life, and our female lead definitely won’t be retiring from her director-killer reputation. I can’t wait to be served the loads of fun I am expecting in this series.

Recap

We open on a rainy day in 2009 with a class of high schoolers. While Su Jeong is busy studying with her earpiece plugged into her ears, a duo of students tease her. Since after-school classes are canceled for the day, Su Jeong picks up her umbrella, ready to leave, only to find out the same students have slashed it up. They cite her lack of a mother or connections as a reason for her inability to retaliate. You would think this was another typical bully vs nerdy high school kid situation, but surprisingly, she retaliates by throwing their books into the rain before leaving. She goes home listening to music under her slashed umbrella.

Su Jeong comes home to find her younger brother engrossed in a video game. She nags him to always inform her when he needs anything since their father is always busy, tells him to clean up after himself when he eats, and yells at him to stop playing too many video games. Typical elder sister stuff.

She is startled awake by her brother screaming about losing the game after pulling an all-nighter. After angrily pulling out his hair, she finds out he's trying so hard because his classmates mock him for being a low-level player. Her protective instincts kick in and she takes over, pulling an all-nighter to play in his stead.

We are unexpectedly transformed into the game world. In what seems like a typical hunting ground of the Joseon dynasty, Su Jeong strolls into the game world as a male character and accepts a minor quest, which she completes without stress. However, her next task is to eliminate the wolf disturbing the villagers, but before she can start the quest, Black Dragon, a Level 77 player with a veil covering the lower part of his face, intercepts. He jumps out of nowhere, killing the wolf assigned to Ju Yeong. They get into an argument, which leads to angry questions about age and respect. Black Dragon demands she reveal hers first, to which she angrily replies that she is 19. She is shocked when he reveals he is 22. While still arguing, more wolves appear in the game, which Black Dragon swiftly moves to tackle. He soon runs out of HP, and just before he passes out, she refills his energy. They work together to kill the biggest bad wolf, and he invites her to be his partner after acknowledging her strength.

Black Dragon introduces her to the rest of his team, consisting of two other guys, TVXQ-tip and Bean-eating Bean Bug, and an older lady, The Ultimate Pro/Seo Ha Jin (Im Se-mi). During their in-game team dinner, the rest of the group is surprised to find out Su Jeong is female and they tease her about calling her "princess" instead of "prince" as they have been doing. She asked them to call her 'Strawberry', and I love how simple and straightforward they keep the scene. Su Jeong and Black Dragon leave the team members who are already shipping them and go to play by the riverside. While throwing stones, they share their sad back stories of how Su Jeong doesn’t have a mother, has a busy father, and has to be available for her brother to rely on. Black Dragon reveals his lack of parents, and they end up telling each other to rely on one another. Although all these are happening online and in chats, I specifically love how it is depicted to look real.

We finally get back to reality, and it is a back-and-forth of affectionate texts between the two. From exchanging numbers to talking about their dating styles and calling each other pet names, you can tell something is brewing within them (now I'm wondering why she rejects him). The team finally decides to have a physical meeting, and Su Jeong’s anticipation is oozing through the screens since she gets there before anyone else. While other team members come in one after the other, Su Jeong can’t wait to see Black Dragon, and to be honest, neither can I. However, when he finally shows up, my shock is as great as Su Jeong's disappointment because Black Dragon appears to be younger than we all expected (call it a case of what I ordered versus what I got). Not to mention his over-the-top attitude, his all-black leather outfit with studs everywhere, and his severely off-key noraebang serenade in which his wig flies off his head. It's all so hilariously cringe.

Su Jeong walks away in anger, and he goes after her to confess his feelings to her publicly. Equal parts mortified and enraged, she lets out a barrage of insults, rejecting him as loudly as possible and then storming off in anger. He dramatically crumbles to the ground in tears and we get a glimpse of Su Jeong wailing just as dramatically back home.

Finally, we are transported to the present in 2024, where everyone is all grown and working. While Su Jeong is threatening a superior on the rooftop to keep him from quitting, Ju Yeon is whistle-blowing and getting some director arrested in a bar under a fake identity as some sort of secretary. We find out that Su Jeong is a strict team leader who has successfully made three ill-mannered directors quit their jobs, earning her the name Director Killer. In the same vein, Ju Yeon is being informed of his position as the new director of the departmental store (Su Jeong’s workplace). He's presented a file of portfolios with Su Jeong's portfolio at the top. His expression is unreadable as he stares intently at it but I find myself laughing either way.

We are shown a glimpse of Ju Yeon’s double life as he heads to a rock music club in a different attire but unfortunately gets a call from the chairwoman, whom he apparently takes orders from. Although his relationship with her has not been established, I am sensing some sort of heavy backstory. On his way to the chairwoman’s location, he unfortunately hits Su Jeong’s car, and tries to avoid her due to his unusual appearance. He tries to leave hurriedly, but she stops him and stubbornly enters his car since he has refused to settle the way she wants. They arrive and she is taken aback to see his destination is a hospital. They have a moment where he seems to recognize her, but it passes because she thinks he's trying to make a move on her. Irritated, he leaves and manages to lose her.

Ju Yeon meets the chairwoman who instructs him not to make any mistakes before entering a funeral parlor to give a mourning family of her dead employee her condolences. We get a quick flash into Ju Yeon’s past where the chairwoman tells him that he is responsible for her son’s death, and we get the feeling that she is his... Grandma? Anyway, we get to see more of Ju Yeon’s double life as he goes into an underground apartment full of gaming equipment and characters in his home. Here, he reads comic books while listening to rock music.

Su Jeong, on the other hand, meets Seo Ha Jin (The Ultimate Pro from the game), who is now a bar owner, and rants about her encounter with the random rude guy from earlier.

Ju Yeon arrives at work for his first day, and witnesses Su Jeong ranting about the accident from the night before in the elevator. He goes around inspecting and rating the company before resuming his office. His continued indirect encounters with Su Jeong keep reducing the office's ratings in his books. He eventually arrives at the office of Kim Shin Won (Kwak Si Yang), the head of the design department. Their conversation tells us they are close, although Ju Yeon is keeping his tsundere walls up. The latter leaves after a drop of juice touches his white shirt. Ju Yeon finally gets to his office, which he enters without acknowledging the presence of the team members who have been anticipating his arrival. Since Su Jeong has promised herself and her team members to be nicer to the new director, she decides to play office politics and welcome him warmly. After knocking and getting no response, she enters and comes face to face with the giant black dragon tattoo on his back. Like Su Jeong, I gasp very loudly in absolute shock.

Ju Yeon turns just in time to see her and hurries to silence the scream she's about to let out with a palm over her mouth while holding her up against the door.

This right here is the end we get for our first episode.

For the next episode, I am expecting some of the puzzle pieces to fall in place, like Chairwoman for instance - who exactly is she? We also got the impression that Ju Yeon was from a very wealthy home as a child. How did that go? Things are pretty ambiguous now that we can't tell. In the meantime, I have all the patience I need to wait for the plot to build up, but one thing is sure: we are getting a lot of bantering, fights, and a little backstory in the next episode. Because when you mix a childhood backstory, a love-based grudge, and two crazy characters, there's a lot of fun to be had. I honestly cannot wait for the next episode to air. If not for anything, for the story of that dragon on our male lead's back Like... how? And why?