The Unexpected Reunion in ‘Our Dating Sim’ EPs 1-4

BL Recaps Korea

2023-03-20
17:31

Our Dating Sim has finally started! How will Lee Wan’s unrequited love end after his unexpected reunion with Shin Ki Tae, his first love?

‘Our Dating Sim’ is an eight-episode Korean BL web drama starring Lee Seung Gyu and Lee Jong Hyuk as Lee Wan and Shin Ki Tae, respectively. It follows the story of Lee Wan and Shin Ki Tae, who were best friends in school. But Lee Wan harbored romantic feelings for Shin Ki Tae and confessed them, causing the two to part on unhappy terms. Seven years later, they’re both navigating the job market, with Shin Ki Tae working as a programming ace at a gaming startup and Lee Wan pursuing his passion for illustration. When Shin Ki Tae’s company starts looking for an illustrator for a new dating-themed game, Lee Wan applies for the job, raising the possibility of a second chance at romance.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead. Read at your own risk.

Episode 1. Would you like to restart the game?

The story begins with two young men getting ready — one in a suit running to the bus stop — and the other one in casual wear, doing some coding on his computer before heading out of his apartment. The two arrived at the same time and accidentally bumped into the same elevator. The young man in a suit, introduced himself as Lee Wan to the CEO of RE:TRY, a game startup company who later asks him to relax as his hands were sweating out of nervousness. And the other young man in casual wear enters the room and introduced himself to Lee Wan as Shin Ki Tae, a planner, and developer. Lee Wan is stunned knowing that the person he bumped into is his old karma where a few seconds of flashback appears where he kissed him. However, it was cut when Ki Tae forcefully shakes his hands.

The meeting between Lee Wan, Shin Ki Tae, and the CEO begins, where the CEO wonders when he starts drawing. Lee Wan replies that he started drawing while preparing for his college admission. The CEO asks him again to relax and loosen up when he is shuttering. He also introduced that the company is planning to develop a dating simulator that focuses on school-related and is aimed at female users. He also expresses his love for Lee Wan’s webtoon and from the moment he saw it, without hesitation, he contacted him right away. Shin Ki Tae break the conversation by asking Lee Wan if he ever played their previous game before. Lee Wan respond he did. Ki Tae continues to ask him if he recalls the ending. Lee Wan can’t remember how it ends correctly but he thinks it had to do with escaping in the build. Upon hearing his answer, Ki Tae emphasizes an ending where he escaped. The CEO breaks their heated conversation by asking Lee Wan if their previous game was fun and his first job at a company. Lee Wan replied yes to the questions. Ki Tae resumes asking him related his art style and what he receives another recruitment offer while rendering his service to the project without delays as their goal is to launch the app in 3 months. Lee Wan’s art style is quite different from the company and at first, he asks to compromise. He later ended up agreeing to what the company requested and had no choice but to work with Ki Tae. He once imagined how their reunion looks like but it’s different from what it’s happening now.

As the meeting ended, they head to the elevator and later a girl named Jamie joined them. Inside the elevator, Jamie asks Ki Tae why he leave in rush yesterday and got bored when he left. Ki Tae smiled and replied, he had to leave earlier to fix the bug and promised to join the next company dinner. Ki Tae asks Lee Wan if he’s seeing someone. He added that he is curious since they were developing a dating simulator game. Lee Wan got surprised by Ki Tae’s question and when the elevator rang, he rushes to leave. Lee Wan receives a call from his sister who is asking how’s the job interview and where he shared that he’s not confident and uncomfortable working with Shin Ki Tae.

After seven years, Lee Wan meets his first love at the gaming company where he got a job interview. A flashback began where all started that set on February 10, 2015, when Lee Wan’s family suddenly went bankrupt and they started moving out their belongings from their house to a mover truck. Lee Wan’s received a text message from Shin Ki Tae to celebrate their graduation and he must join him and bring the camera. He left his sister inside the mover truck and runs towards Ki Tae to confirm something. At the school rooftop, Lee Wan courageously confessed his feelings to Shin Ki Tae and kisses him.

Episode 2: Timing.

After Lee Wan’s unexpected reunion with his first love, he is now drinking a can of alcohol and is still undecided about whether to accept the job offer or not.

A flashback begins, on their high school graduation day 7 years ago. Lee Wan headed to the rooftop where Shin Ki Tae and his classmates waiting for him. When Ki Tae noticed the camera, he asked his two classmates to take a photo of them together. After taking photos of Ki Tae and Wan, the two leave them on the rooftop to go to their next agenda. Lee Wan gathered all of his courage to confess his feeling to his first love, Shin Ki Tae, and kisses him. After what he did, Wan runs away intending to abandon everything including the camera. Meanwhile, Ki Tae was searching for him.

In their 20s, Lee Wan draws a man’s figure on his sketchpad while doing an errand by helping his sister in the restaurant run by his Aunt while Ki Tae is hanging out with his classmates in a restaurant. Tipsy Ki Tae takes out his mobile phone, refreshing his text conversation with Wan and hoping he will respond even tried to call him. Ki Tae blames himself for pushing Wan away, the one who likes him and disappeared and left him behind. Even though four years have passed by, Ki Tae still checks their text conversation while Wan, who is unbelievably sad, however, he doesn’t dare to talk with him.

Since that day, drawing became Lee Wan’s comfort whenever Ki Tae crosses into his mind, and fond of reading the viewers’ comments. He received a text message from Magic Toon Business Center’s PD Ahn informing him that he is qualified for the final interview for the new artists’ boot camp where he grab the opportunity to venture a different path. He went on the interview and the PD raises his concern that he can abandon the same character with the same expressions and dialogues. PD also explains that the boot camp is looking for an artist with various spectrums who can draw various drawings. He continues, if he can’t make it then he can try next time. Lee Wan thanks PD Ahn for the opportunity and wonders if he is ‘Gameboy’, who leaves comments on his works. It turns out it’s not him, so Wan starts wondering who he is. Leaving the company, his sister called him because someone is looking for him. It was Tae Ho, the CEO in the first episode.

Back to the present, Wan got notified of the new comment from Gameboy on his latest release stating, hopefully, Ian won’t run away in the next episode, to which he replied with gratitude for rooting for his work. The identity of Gameboy has finally been revealed and it turns out it’s Shin Ki Tae.

Watch ‘Our Dating Sim’ on GagaOOLala

Episode 3: Your Social Media

It’s Lee Wan’s first day! His colleague Jamie, whom he met at the elevator before and the CEO welcomes him. Tae Oh introduces him to Sunny, and also asks him about his nickname since everyone in the company preferred using nicknames. After the warm welcome from his colleague, he proceed to his table but he stop at Shin Ki Tae (Eddy)’s table and was later got startled as Ki Tae arrives.

Lee Wan already predicted that his first day will full of workloads. Tae Oh even apologized for it and offered him a drink. He heard that Wan will be staying at the dorm for three months which Wan confirms since he doesn’t have a place to stay with. Tae Oh also reminded him to wear something comfortable. Ki Tae joins their conversation and asked Tae if the plan has been confirmed and later offers a jacket to Wan. He also added a few workloads to be accomplished by the next meeting with Wan. Wearing the jacket that Ki Tae gave earlier, Wan and Ki Tae are discussing Wan’s review of their game and he pointed out some problems. He got flustered when their hands accidentally touch each other as Ki Tae uses Wan’s laptop.

After adding some work to Wan, Ki Tae asked him if he had already thought of his nickname. He later suggests using the name, Ian because it suits him very well. Wan continue working on the task while wondering how did Ki Tae knew about Ian. Did he asks Tae Oh about it or has he already seen his blog?

The next morning, the whole seems exhausted at the conference room. Tae Oh noticed something wrong with Wan, so he asks him. Wan replied that he doesn’t have enough sleep last night. After that, the team starts with their agenda. Wan’s shares some points in developing for the dating game. He suggested to add ‘SNS’, or social media accounts to gave a hints to the users about their preferences and likes where Jamie and Ki Tae agreed to his idea and wrap up the meeting. Ki Tae leaves the room first. Sunny complimented Ian, and sees the reason why Eddy recommended him. Lee Wan reconfirm of what he heard from Sunny. He found out that Ki Tae found his blog and persistent recommending him to the team. After confirming it, he went out the room and asks Ki Tae to talk with him. At the rooftop, Wan wonders why Ki Tae recommended him just to annoy him. Ki Tae replied that he did it for work, he accidentally found his found and adore his drawing back then. He also revealed to him that he is Gameboy that made Wan got surprised after hearing it. Wan asks him if he is stalking him. Ki Tae respond that Wan said it earlier, the reason why we look for someone else’s social media but its not the exact reason he stated earlier.

Episode 4: A Flying Ball And Sudden Confession

Shin Ki Tae enters the pantry while Lee Wan prepares his coffee. Wan reminds him that don’t ever cross the line and focus on work instead as he heads to his desk. Tae Oh notices that the two are not on good terms, and he reminds Ki Tae to be kind to him since the company is short-staffed. After Wan and the CEO had a small discussion about their in-process project, Ki Tae enters the room and invites Wan to have lunch with him but he got rejected. Meanwhile, their colleagues noticed that since Wan’s joined the company, Ki Tae has changed. And Jamie wants to introduce Wan and set up a date with her friend.

Wan is having lunch at a cafe when Ki Tae sees him and joins him and offers him lunch. Wan rejected it first since he can pay for his meal but Ki Tae insisted on using their corporate card instead. Ki Tae notices there’s a grain of rice on Wan’s face and tells Wan later he picks it up with his hand. It seems both of them got startled as Ki Tae checked his watch and said there were only 15 mins left for their lunch. After paying for Wan’s meal and left the cafe.

Wan arrives at the office and Tae Oh asks him to place his bet between Ki Tae and Sunny. He bets on Sunny and his colleagues for Ki Tae. Ki Tae wins so he gets a wish ticket which he uses to work outside with Wan who tasks to do some sketches and he needs a model. In short, he wants to spend time with Wan. The two head to the school’s library where Wan starts sketching and Ki Tae starts doing some poses. After sketching in the library, they went to a football field, the last reference for their project. Wan asks Ki Tae to stop bothering him. Ki Tae asks him, did he use his camera before to draw him. Wan responded that he didn’t take pictures. But Ki Tae asks again, how about that camera he left after his confession 7 years ago and takes out the camera. Wan asks him, how did he have that camera? The two start to bicker — one asking to give him the camera — and another one continuously asking him why he threw away the camera. After Wan begged to give him the camera, he ran away. Ki Tae shouts, are you running away again? Wan stops and Ki Tae expresses what he felt that time and tries to look for him. He wonders how he survived without him. He added that he won’t let him run away again and confessed that he likes Wan. And suddenly, a flying ball reaches Wan, and Ki Tae rushes to block the ball.

“Our Dating Sim” is such an adorable Korean web drama between a graphic designer and a game developer’s relationship stirred by their past. The screenplay, cinematography, and leads’ acting are all great. The only complaint we can come up with is that it’s too short!

Watch ‘Our Dating Sim’ on GagaOOLala