He just continues to love and support her, while tracking down his own side-story of a mysterious author. Even in the most climactic scenes when she is compelled to leave the organisation, he doesn’t engage in an excessive outburst of tears or words-something that would jar the symphony of the whole show. He realises a little too late and hurries back inside the house and tries to backtrack, till later, he decides to face his feelings. In one of the most memorable scenes of the show, he lets slip that he is in love with her while they’re watching snowfall together. He doesn’t expound breathless vows of love and neither is there a grand confession of sorts-the romance of it all lingers in his looks, smiles and a handful of words. It’s almost a relief to see Lee Jong-suk away from the sort of roles he usually does as Romance Is A Bonus Book engages the gentler side in him. A still from Romance Is A Bonus Book (Photo: Netflix) The typical unconditional K-drama love that is so strong in most shows pervades this series too, but is delightfully subtle. It’s a slow, quiet burn of a romance, but never once do you feel impatient to see their story unfolding, as there’s so much else happening in their lives as well. The scene is far more impactful than any kiss would have been. In one of the most sensual scenes of the show, Kang Dan-i sleeps on Cha Eun-ho’s shoulder, and he just quietly touches her face and then withdraws his hand. Fans often claim that they have been robbed of a ‘real kissing’ scene between them in the show, but the truth is that Jong-suk and Lee Na-Young didn’t require it to prove their relationship.

They begin to share a house as flatmates and love slowly begins to brew between them. She is now divorced and has a child, and is on the brink of bankruptcy. It’s as if showrunners enjoy seeing him miserable, brooding and angry, because he never seems to have a stroke of happiness in most of his shows. In I Can Hear Your Voice, he plays the role of a man who can hear other people’s thoughts-a power that comes in handy as he needs to track down the man who murdered his father.

In Doctor Stranger, he is a North Korean defector, hunting for his missing lover.

In Pinocchio,he was determined to tear down sensationalist media, while in W Two Worlds he played the role of a comic-book character, ill-treated by his own author. There has been an onslaught of such shows from 2014. Apart from pounding tension complemented by equally pounding music, Lee Jong-suk’s shows are usually filled with a frantic energy, and a sense of thrilling, nervous dread. Lately, he returned to showbiz with Big Mouth, another grimy drama focusing on corruption and politics. Lee Jong-suk is almost synonymous with the revenge drama genre considering he has starred in around six popular intense shows in a span of a less than a decade.

Romance is a bonus book