This story is like a coin with 2 sides.

One side is a romance where a FMC resistant to romance falling in love with the male lead. This side is similar the common manwha/webtoon stories I have read.

The other side is a genderswap reincarnation where a man reluctantly learns to embrace his her new life as a woman, letting the femininity outside, in.

Together it becomes a story where a man ends up possessing/reborn as a side character in some story she knew. Because of her knowledge, she adamantly refused the end... more>> where she would become engaged to the prince male lead. One day while recovering at a villa (she is sickly) she finds a boy who is wounded. She helps him, and they become childhood friends, with him coming and going periodically.

She eventually becomes an adult and needs to have a spouse. In desperation because she is avoiding marriage with that prince, she requests a contract marriage with her childhood friend that would end after a year. When he asks why, she says because she doesn't want to marry the prince. He accepts.

Surprise, her friend

Spoiler

was actually the prince she wanted to avoid marriage with who already fell in love with her.

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Begin the romance, and gender acceptance plot, with a married (on paper) couple. MC wants to do her roll as best as possible to step aside after the contract is over (for her childhood friend). Male lead wants her to come to feel the same as he does about her, make the marriage real.

Meanwhile there is politics (male lead is the black sheep of the royal family) and so on in the background.

Worldbuiding is precisely what a story like this needs. It tells and develops unique things for its setting, without being just cookie cutter, copy paste. And yet it's not so expansive that you get a bunch of names countries, etc that you were never going to remember anyways. It's concise, to the point, giving you exactly enough of what you need (while being interesting), kinda like how home cooked meals are.

I think a lot of people who write non-epics stories could learn a lot from writing like this.

The genderswap elements are handled well, a lot of stories could learn from this (IE living as a different person, would, shocker, make you become a different person in various ways (not to mention how a man who became a woman would be influenced by hormonal, physical, and psychiatric changes))

Just a pet peeve of mine, where authors will have something as significant as a gender swap be less relevant than many stories treat hair color changes. If they are going to use that plot element, it should actually matter, at least a little. It's like making a protagonist with superpowers, who doesn't even use them, completely pointless.

All in all this is a solid story that was well done. It's like a movie you watch and then come out thinking that was a good watch. That said, I gave it a 4/5 because A) only one half of the coin was what I particularly prefer reading (I prefer a bit different romance, and/or it to be secondary to the plot) and B) while it did everything very well and was enjoyable, it didn't quite have the hook or really unique thing that might make it stand out.

To use the movie analogy, it's like a movie I enjoy and enjoy while watching again when it comes on TV. Its not a movie I buy and watch again and again on purpose.

Tldr

If either side of the coin is your cup of tea, give it a read, you probably will enjoy it. <<less

If you haven't realized it from the title, this is a typical romance novel with a gender bent Male-to-Female Main Character touch to it. If you dislike these types of stories, then this really isn't it for you.

If you've read similar stories, then it's practically the same. The Female Main Character (FMC) goofs around with the Male Lead (ML) which makes him fall in love with the FMC, something that was never the intention of the FMC to begin with. Shenanigans happen and the FMC unknowingly starts developing feelings for... more>> the ML. You get the gist of the story.

As for the review itself: The Male Lead is the type of character you see in shoujo novels where the ML is batsh*t insane and would never be able to function as a member of society (I'm exaggerating, but he's a bit unhinged, not too much, though).

The Female Lead/Protagonist's is... well. She isn't that interesting. She gets flustered around the ML but otherwise is a smart, capable individual, that's it. Which is where the gender bent and transmigration genres come to play: the FMC is DENSE, or should I say DELUSIONAL. Like many other transmigrated main characters, she has the hardcore belief that the world should ALWAYS and will ALWAYS follow the original storyline. This may be the case in some novels where fate is crucial in the settings of the original story but this isn't this type of story; so she's stuck believing that the ML will never fall in love with her despite the blatant signs. However, since it's well executed I find it funny. Though, for some of you, it may be frustrating since she's oblivious.

Overall, this is a good old slice of life, romance novel; if you can ignore the gender bender. <<less

very good story and the gender bender is taken seriously for once... finally.

she sees herself as a straight guy but gradually becomes feminine because of living as a woman, and then starts to like the ML overtime even though it confuses her a lot since she thought she liked girls. but I think she changed sexuality probably because of being in a womans body and being treated as a girl for a long time.

and another thing someone said that she is dense, in a way she is, but it feels... more>> like she is just in denial because she used to be a man. <<less

First of all thank you for translating this series translator nim.

The story is really interesting especially the Male lead, man I love him and his character 😩he is Straightforward (some time a lil scheming) and no unnecessary drama.

I really hope you guys continue translating this.

Thank you for your hard work❤️

This is a very odd novel to rate cause I like it but I can't exactly say it's good. I can't say it's good because this is a story that has been done about a hundred times. I'm only kinda just reading this cause the interactions between ML and MC are sexy.

If you've ever dipped your toes into Korean manwha you'll know what I mean. Like all the tropes of a rom fan transmigration story are there: Obsessive domineering ML, dense oblivious MC, MC's obsession with the idea that the... more>> world is guaranteed to go down the same path as the og novel, shitty villains that are 1D and only exist to make the MC or ML look better (omg it's cannon fodder, the thing every Chinese novel goes on about) .

The only new this is that it's gender bender. But honestly like who cares. It's not even made out to be that big of a deal. It's just brought up constantly to create some sort of conflict and I just couldn't care less.

TLDR: it's generic Korean rom fan transmigration story but with gender bender tropes with a dash of sexy kissing and stuff <<less