Currently watching the seventh episode of Royal Family, this means that I’m almost halfway the journey to the end of this 18-episode series. I’m not really sure why nowadays, I find dramas with serious tone and circles around people who are matured than me (am I that young to say so?) to be more entertaining than those centered around teenagers or youths like me. Well, there are times that we have to be more matured, right? I guess it’s the same for my Kdrama taste.

Ji Sung may be one of the reason why I’m suddenly watching this because I planned to watch it during my long holiday at first, but when I saw him in Protect the Boss, I can’t hold it much more longer. I’m the type of person who like to do some sort of background check on actors that I’ve never watched any of their dramas before, so that I’d know something about him. But after I started to watch it, it’s no longer Han Ji-Heon alone that keeps me watching the show.

Okay, let me give some brief introduction about the people.

The main entity of the story is JK Group. The company which becomes the reason why the most of the characters are in their current state, literally. It’s under the control of President Gong Sun-Ho (Kim Young-Ae), a widowed woman but has a slab of steel for her heart. In terms of her capability, I think she’s a level above Jun-Pyo’s mother Kang Hee-Soo of Boys Over Flowers but in terms of love towards her daughters in-law, she might be nicer than Joo-Won’s mother Moon Boon-Hong of Secret Garden. She’s technically in charge of everything happening inside the company and the JK family. She’s scary when something makes her angry but still, she has a sensible mind and at most of the time, she manages to take the decision that she thinks the best, befitting her role as the company’s leader.

At first, I thought they are all JK daughters, but it turns out that only Jo Hyun-Jin (Cha Ye-Ryun), the one with light brown jacket is the daughter of the house. Im Yun-Seo , the lady in white, is the first daughter-in-law, being called as hyung-nim by Yang Ki-Jung, the third daughter-in-law, sitting next to her. Beside Hyun-Jin is Jo Ji-Eun, Yun-Seo’s daughter. These ladies are the loved ones in the family, basically because they have decent background and thus, fit the household status accordingly.

Then, the men’s team of JK Group. They are not that shining in their own family, just running around causing troubles except for the underage Byung-Joon. I’m still wondering why President Gong doesn’t pay that much attention to her boys and she keeps pushing the women in the family to do better. Anyhow, from the left, Jo Dong-Min the third son, Jo Dong-Jin (Ahn Nae-Sang) the first son, and Jo Byung-Joon (Dong Ho), the son of the deceased second son Jo Dong-Ho, which makes him the grandson of the family.

There’s one person missing: Jo Dong-Ho’s wife, or the second daughter in-law of the family.

Kim In-Sook (Yum Jung-Ah), the ignored person in the family. Because of her background, everyone treats her like she’s an alien, to the extent of putting her inside another house. She has been living like that for 18 years and when Dong-Ho dies, she loses her protector inside the hell-like house. Known as K in the household, she has never been treated as one of the daughter-in-laws of JK family and she never admit that herself when she’s outside of the company and family. She is to be thrown out of the house, not without a large sum of money, but she refuses to so so as she’ll be parted from her son forever if she makes that decision.

So, here’s where the prosecutor comes into the little picture. Han Ji-Hoon (Ji Sung), a star prosecutor who just cleared his name from a 15-year-old murder case as a prime suspect. In-Sook has been his supporter from his early days at the orphanage. He learns the truth about how his ‘angel’ Mrs. Kim has been treated like an invisible human, so he decides to help her by entering the JK Group and assists her in making In-Sook able to trample over JK Group and the family members’ pride.

Pretty simple on the surface, but as the story goes on, it’s becoming more complicated, most of it thanks to In-Sook and her mysterious past.

She may be the kind and humble woman on the outside, but she’s hiding her ugly past somewhere. There’s no doubt that she knew Ji-Hoon before he entered the orphanage and she helped him because of that. As she is becoming more powerful inside the household, there’s something that keeps bugging her. There’s something that she still regret about as she is always apologizing to a woman whom she calls sister. In-Sook looks troubled when the woman calls for Ji-Hoon, so I assume that the woman is someone related to Ji-Hoon and her past.

I’m quite afraid to see what will happen if Ji-Hoon finds out about In-Sook’s true colors. He believes her too much, and sometimes, he is too blinded by his angel’s kindness. He’ll be severely hurt if he gets to know the truth and President Gong has made him promise that if anything happens and In-Sook has disgraced the JK family’s pride, he himself will be the one who remove her. That takes a huge amount of faith to be able to make promises like that.

Hyun-Jin is so strong, and I hope that Ji-Hoon will be just like her when he finds out the truth. She knows that In-Sook and JI-Hoon is using her to accomplish what they want but she takes the matter into her own hands and tries to work it with them although she knows the risks. She is the little miss in the house but as President Gong says, she’s growing up and has begun to be even better than herself. In the family, she’s the most normal person for me, although at times, she still acts like a child. She looks like she’s liking Ji-Hoon, maybe a bit.

Yoon-Seo has the brain, but she’s the real princess of Gu Seong Group and she still has that princess attitude, where she thinks that everything will be hers without much hassle. She has the ability, but she doesn’t do anything. She likes to be in her comfort zone, thinking that being the to the first son will guarantee her a good opportunity to inherit the fortune. Ki-Jung, on the other hand, is not that bright when it comes to..practically anything. She does everything using her own head and not thinking about the consequences. She just care about the outcomes of what she’s doing. If Yoon-Seo is a princess, Ki-Jung is like a spoiled girl.

So far, I’m liking this drama as it gives me something to think about besides my assignments. I’m trying hard not to watch too much episodes in one day to savor the pleasure of watching drama. This story is mainly on In-Sook’s journey to take back things that have been denied for her to experience and how she is coping with her past, present, and future. Ji Sung is a bonus for me to watch this show (hehe) but there’s another one that draws my attention…

It’s Ki Tae-Young! He’s playing Ji-Hoon’s prosecutor friend, Kang Chung-Ki. Hehe~

Back to the topic, there’s so many things that need answers and it keeps bugging me, even in my sleep. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to finish this soon, but looks like I’ve to keep this slow as I’m going to have examination so soon phew For the time being, Royal Family, to me, is worth watching if you love to see more matured dramas instead of cute, funny dramas. Get ready to feel your heart thumping rapidly along with the characters’, if you’re someone who put so much enthusiasm in watching dramas, just like me.