I love Miss Rose so much that even I’m flabbergasted how quickly this drama ratcheted up the awesome. The Taiwan audience appears to think so as well, since episode 3 easily broke 3 in ratings to hit 3.37. TTV clearly has a hit on its hands just as it had hoped for when it cloned the Office Girls formula with a twist. The similarities to City Hall appears to be that strange combination of cherry picking elements but making it different enough that comparisons don’t pop into mind and MR can happily create its own unique storyline. I’m pleasantly surprised at how quickly Cheng Kuan seems to be growing interested in Si Yi, but then all the little clues are being laid that she is someone he can be himself with as opposed to playing a role. His attraction to her appears sudden but is rooted in the basis for why opposite sexes attract – Si Yi is just someone who captures his attention for various reasons and then suddenly he realizes that he likes what he sees. That’s cool and really relatable.

I like that Vivian’s character, as the future fiancee daughter of Cheng Kuan’s boss and mentor, is a complete unapologetic bitch. She’s not evil and plotting (for now), she’s just flat out spoiled and has the personality of cow manure. I like that because I don’t even need to consider her feelings, she’s just a fun character to hate on. Sometimes we need someone around like that to throw poop at. Sheng Jun continues to be adorable and clearly aware of the improbable but hard to hide interest Cheng Kuan has in Si Yi, and I could see him playing matchmaking and wingman down the road. I love how the OTP chemistry is very understated but mature, and Roy Qiu has done a magnificent job of making Cheng Kuan a stand alone character as opposed to Zi Qi-lite from his OG days. I feel like MR has the best of both worlds – a light and enjoyable air about it but a palpable maturity underneath. Si Yi and Cheng Kuan are both capable and intelligent professionals, and together they sorta shake each other’s world off its normal axis.

Episode 3 recap:

After a disastrous management meeting where she witnessed Cheng Kuan wearing a suit with a giant iron-sized hole in the back, Si Yi storms back to her desk to call her sister and chew the idiot out. Si Qi answers the phone, and upon hearing that Si Yi knew what she did to the suit, pretends that her cell phone has bad reception and hangs up on Si Yi. Before Si Yi can do anything else, Sheng Jun comes over to summon Si Yi to see Cheng Kuan.

Si Yi knocks and enters Cheng Kuan’s office, immediately apologizing about ruining the suit and offering to pay for it. Cheng Kuan says the suit costs NT 400,000, because it was custom made in Milan from a famous designer. Si Yi asks to pay it back in installments, but Cheng Kuan has a better idea and asks her to have dinner.

Si Yi thinks he’s propositioning her and quickly explains that she’s very old-fashioned and doesn’t play that game. Cheng Kuan is aghast that she would assume he was interested in her, explaining that he would be moron if equated one night with her to equal NT 400,000. He just wanted to learn more about the company from her. He excuses Si Yi and she goes scurrying out.

Cheng Kuan and Sheng Jun go out to dinner and he opens an extremely expensive bottle of wine, explaining sarcastically that the wine is to celebrate his demotion to a crappy company. Cheng Kuan also reveals to Sheng Jun that Si Yi assumed he was propositioning her earlier today. He’s not sure if his communication was off, or her comprehension skills are skewed. As they sample the wine, Sheng Jun spots Si Yi walking into the same restaurant with her matchmaking date.

Sheng Jun points out that Cheng Kuan and Si Yi appeared to have an ill-fated destiny with each other, what with the constantly running into each other. Cheng Kuan acts like he doesn’t care but turns his head to check her out. Si Yi walks in with a really fugly looking guy who rudely sits down without pulling her chair out.

The guy introduces himself as a biology professor and haughtily launches into a discussion about Si Yi’s lack of potential to attract men and suggesting that she use her savings for plastic surgery and to freeze her eggs since she’s not getting married anytime soon. Si Yi tries to remain polite but the guy goes a step further and insults her looks as coming from her mom. This whole time Sheng Jun and Cheng Kuan are eavesdropping on this convo and Cheng Kuan does not look pleased in the slightest to hear Si Yi so insulted. Cheng Kuan downs his wine and tells Sheng Jun that their dinner is about to be taken care of.

When Si Yi finally can’t take anymore and gets up to leave, Cheng Kuan walks over and asks why his honey is out on a Friday night with some guy when they merely had a small fight. He offers to make it up to her by taking her to a trip and staying at the presidential suite. Si Yi looks shocked and goes along with it.

The date recognizes Cheng Kuan and knows that his company is very profitable and has allocations of money to fund research. He asks Cheng Kuan to consider funding his biology research and Cheng Kuan agrees if the guy pays for his dinner. After Cheng Kuan takes Si Yi away, the guy gets a check for an exorbitant bill due to the expensive bottle of wine Cheng Kuan orders. Nice one.

Cheng Kuan and Si Yi walk out of the restaurant and he pauses before offering to take her home. She accepts and they get in the car. Si Yi turns around and notices that he has a telescope in the backseat. She asks if he likes looking at the stars, and reveals that she loves looking at the star. It’s magical to her that the stars we see take millions of light years to reach earth. Si Yi discusses stargazing very wistfully and Cheng Kuan silently listens to her. He asks why she didn’t walk out of the date earlier since the guy was such an ass? Si Yi has gone on tons of bad dates and been insulted so its nothing she can’t handle, she just can’t accept someone insulting her mom.

Cheng Kuan pulls up to Si Yi’s house and she gets out. She leans down and wants to talk about repaying him for the suit in installments but he pauses and tells her to forget it. Si Yi walks towards her house, and then stops to turn around and bow to him in thanks again. Cheng Kuan stares at her for a few moments before driving off.

Si Yi goes home and her mom and sister start the 21 questions grilling on her matchmaking date. Si Yi doesn’t want to disappoint her mom so she describes her date as going well and paints the guy as looking as handsome as Cheng Kuan. As Cheng Kuan is driving, he notices that Si Yi left her shawl in his front seat. He grumbles but then turns the car around and goes to return it. Seriously? This guy is actually returning her shawl that very night as opposed to tossing it or bringing it to work the next day.

Cheng Kuan rings the doorbell to the dry cleaning store and Si Qi gets sent down to open the door. Si Qi opens the doors and is awed to see Cheng Kuan standing there. He explains that Si Yi left her shawl in his car so Si Qi assumes that he’s her matchmaking date. She drags him upstairs and he allows her. As they walk up to the living room, Cheng Kuan hears Si Yi describing her date with the biology professor in glowing terms. When Si Yi turns and sees him, her jaw drops while Si Yi’s mom immediately starts beaming.

When asked who he is, Cheng Kuan lies and says he’s a biology professor. He allows Mom to drag him to sit down and coo over him. Si Qi hilariously calls him brother-in-law, and even Mom asks if he can be her son-in-law. Si Yi is freaking out but Cheng Kuan reluctantly continues with the misunderstanding. Si Yi has no choice but to act like she doesn’t like him and wants him to stop stalking her. She drags him outside to kick him out, much to the disappointment of Si Qi and Mom.

Outside the house, Si Yi apologizes profusely for Cheng Kuan getting embroiled in her wild tales about the grand date with the biology professor, and how she had to act like she was dumping him to extricate him. She’s sorry but she had no choice back there, she had to seal his lips. Cheng Kuan looks up and notices Si Qi and Mom peeking at them.

Cheng Kuan looks annoyed and put out, and then he stalks over and says he ought to seal her lips instead. He presses towards her and the grabs her before dipping her down and twirling her around. Mom and Si Qi gasp in happiness and starts chanting for them to kiss. Cheng Kuan and Si Yi pauses for a minute, and it seems like Cheng Kuan finally regains his sanity because he starts to pull back up.

When is when Si Yi pulls him in for a forced kiss. WAHHHH! You go, girl! Cheng Kuan’s eyes are open for the kiss and then he closes his eyes as his hand grabs Si Yi around the waist. Si Qi and Mom are ecstatic to see the kiss and go inside to give them privacy. The kiss ends and Cheng Kuan pushes Si Yi away. She apologizes for the kiss since she knew her Mom was peeking at them and didn’t want to disappoint her. Cheng Kuan touches his lips and looks shocked.

Cheng Kuan asks why she doesn’t care if he’s disappointed? Si Yi asks if the kiss was really that bad? Cheng Kuan says this situation needs to happen in a place with a great mood, like some pretty lighting, trees surrounding them, and a pavilion in the background. Suddenly he looks around and realizes that he just described their surroundings. They pause and stare at each other, before Si Yi laughs and tells him to go home. She thanks him for being such a great guy and bringing her shawl home and also helping her earlier.

Si Yi goes home and her Mom and Si Qi are both cheering her on in this new relationship. Mom announces that this handsome scholar is great and she really likes him for Si Yi. Mom tells Si Qi to help improve Si Yi’s look with new clothes, hairstyle and make up. Cheng Kuan sits in his car and touches his lips, asking again whether the kiss was really that bad. He moves to drive off but backs his car up instead. He clears his head and drives off.

Si Yi has a dream whether Lily the fortune teller demands NT 1 million from Si Yi, who says she didn’t lose the bet, she’s found a guy. Si Yi points and Cheng Kuan shows up wearing a red suit and dancing. Dream Cheng Kuan grabs Si Yi for a kiss, which is when she wakes up. She is relieved that it was all just a dream.

When Si Yi goes down for breakfast, she overhears her dad asking for a new necktie since he’s had the same one from when they got married. Mom sees Si Yi dressed in her usual style and sends her off to Si Qi to get a make over. Dad is shocked to hear that Si Yi has a boyfriend but she tries to down play it. Si Yi is shocked at the style of clothes Si Qi brought over, which are too sheer and sexy. Si Yi changes and walks down wearing a pretty yellow shift dress and her hair down. The family claps at how pretty she looks.

On her way to work, Si Yi gets a call from Manager Kang who wants her to go buy a new golf outfit for the General Manager to bring on a golf outing as a present for President Wang (his brother-in-law and the majority shareholder of the company). Si Yi asks what the President’s size is and Manager Kang insults her as being an old maid who can’t even figure out a man’s size.

Si Yi goes to department store and buys the golf outfit. She spies a nice tie and wants to buy it for her dad. The price tag shocks her but then she thinks about how frugal her dad is and decides to buy him something nice he can use for a long time. She grabs the tie and goes to pay, when is when super bitch Vivian walks up to the counter and sees the tie. She wants it but Si Yi isn’t cowed by her. Vivian asks to see the Manager and the man rudely says she is a VIP and can buy the tie. Si Yi is furious but can’t do anything about it.

Si Yi arrives at work late due to buying the golf outfit. Cheng Kuan walks in and asks her why she is late? He tells her that in the future, even if she is going to be late by one minute, she needs to let him know. Hee, someone wants to keep tabs on her. They head out to a meeting and while waiting for Sheng Jun to pull up in the car, Cheng Kuan and Si Yi awkwardly stand there. He turns to steal a few looks at her and flashes back to their kiss the night before.

The car pulls up and Si Yi goes to open the door for Cheng Kuan, and you can see his shock as he was subconsciously moving to open the door for her. Sheng Jun just smiles knowingly as he looks at the two of them. Cheng Kuan gets a call from Vivian demanding that he go see her at the photography studio right now, and to bring a bouquet of flowers. Cheng Kuan asks Si Yi to buy flowers for him, and when she asks what kind, Cheng Kuan tells her to buy the kind she likes. Cheng Kuan goes directly to meet Vivian while Sheng Jun takes Si Yi to buy flowers.

Vivian is taking photographs for a charity photo exhibition and she acts all sweet and kind. Barf. When Cheng Kuan arrives, Vivian tells him to come when she calls because she’s his number 1 priority. Vivian makes him wear the tie she bought from under Si Yi’s nose, saying it goes well with her outfit today.

She takes him to do a media event to drum up more interest for her charity photos since readers love reading about romances. When Vivian is asked how she feels about winning a poll of the woman most guys want to kiss, Vivian says a set of pretty red lips is the key to winning a man’s desire to kiss. Cheng Kuan has this fake smile on his face listening to her talk.

Si Yi arrives with the flowers and when the media urges Cheng Kuan and Vivian to kiss, he grabs the flowers and holds it in front of Vivian in lieu of the kiss. Vivian thanks him for the flowers, saying she loves the flowers and loves him. Vivian asks the media to please discuss the charity event and not just her.

Vivian stalks back to her waiting room and bitches out Cheng Kuan’s assistant for buying these ugly lilies that don’t match her at all. Cheng Kuan grabs the flowers and says he thinks its pretty. When Vivian takes a call from her dad about dinner tonight, Cheng Kuan sits there and studies the bouquet of lilies. After the call ends, Vivian storms off and after she leaves, Cheng Kuan goes back to looking at the lilies and he smiles a little before pulling off his tie in annoyance.

General Manager Wu and Manager Kang pretend to play golf with President Wang, but in truth the President hands them a golf bag filled with cash as a kick back. Turns out the Guang Qiang LED company has been buying products from President Wang’s company and both sides are scratching each other’s back. After President Wang leaves, the General Manager wonders how he can sabotage Cheng Kuan’s plan to win a government bid for the company and get him kicked out as quickly as possible.

Sheng Jun and Si Yi drive back to the company and Si Yi notes that she didn’t realize the flowers were for Cheng Kuan’s girlfriend. Sheng Jun asks if she’s curious or jealous? Si Yi says neither, she’s just surprised someone would like Cheng Kuan since he has such a bad temper and low EQ. Sheng Jun says that Cheng Kuan has endured a lot more than people realize to get succeed. They return to the company and happen to see Manager Kang dragging the cash-filled golf bag upstairs, but they don’t know its filled with cash.

Si Qi is having tea with Xiao Ke and describing Si Yi’s new boyfriend and the hot kissing from last night. Si Yi arrives and tells Si Qi to stop fanning the flames. Xiao Ke wants to meet the new guy, but Si Yi comes clean and says its all a misunderstanding. She explains that the man who dropped her off last night was not her biology professor date but was her new boss Gao Cheng Kuan. Plus he didn’t kiss her, she stole a kiss from him. Xiao Ke is shocked at how forward Si Yi has become. Si Yi says her mom was peeking and she didn’t want to disappoint her. Si Yi makes her sister promise to keep this a secret and not let their mom know.

Cheng Kuan has dinner with Vivian and her father. He explains his turnaround plan for Guang Qiang LED company and Vivian’s dad tells her to go to the company and help out Cheng Kuan from time to time. Vivian acts all sweet and says she will.

After dinner, Cheng Kuan drives Vivian home but she just checks her phone and ignores him. Finally he can’t stand it anymore and pulls over. He asks Vivian point blank what he means to her? Vivian says he means nothing to her, theirs is just a mutually advantageous arrangement. She gets out of the car and leaves. Cheng Kuan sits there deep in thought.