This series in amazing, and as some people have commented, addicting. Fortunately, there are words to describe the genius of this story.
The story, for one, features a calm, perceptive, and intelligent female lead. She's got the book smarts and the street smarts, but it's not as if she goes parading it around. She's also quite funny at times. In a nutshell, she's very real in her intelligence. I loved her basically from day one (of my reading the webcomic), and unlike some readers whose opinions I read, I sided with her from page one.
The story introduces you fairly quickly to the male lead, and frankly speaking, I found him somewhat creepy…. as does the main character. His charm was completely lost on both of us. Her paranoia is entirely justified---she does have grounds for her wariness toward him. In fact, I found him so creepy that at some point, I just really did not want the two to get together. My opinion has since adjusted a little bit, but it's still on ongoing debate whether he's actually a sociopath.
The author does a great job of cultivating the unease that the main character feels, easing the tension during the fluffy, yet oh-so-rare romantic moments, but bringing it back full force as bits of the characters' pasts come to the surface.
The story constantly switches from present-day to flashbacks, though it is primarily in Hong Sul's point of view. The flashbacks explain quite well the characters' motivations and emotions, and are differentiated by a different color background (black, I believe). There's something very simple about the art that I appreciate… and everyone has "normal" looking hair. All the characters feel like normal people as opposed to stereotypes---defined on a degree depending on their role in the story.
To sum up, there's definitely a mystery element to this romance, though I would hardly say that it's part of the genre. The story is crafted in a way that really draws you in precisely because Hong Sul is so intelligent and perceptive. That is, in being of comparable intellect to the male lead, she is able to piece together things about him… and therefore does not remain as uninvolved as she may like things to be. Unlike in other shoujo mangas, there is very little that goes over this girl's head---and because the story is told primarily from her POV, the readers can identify to the very human intelligence that she brings to the table… the same intelligence that causes her so much unease throughout the plot.
