Furthermore, arguably this story is initiated by an act of storytelling by Dan-i when she chooses to lie at the final and successful job interview, one that through which she is able to break her cycle of rejections. Early on, Romance is a Bonus Book tells us that Dan-i and Cha Eun-ho (a role that allows Lee Jong-suk use his greatest strengths) connected through stories when she was in the hospital, a testament to their healing power. You can see the ways that this theme is woven in from the start. The stories it chooses to tell illuminate the ways in which people find and create stories and homes as tools of survival. Yet the show is, of course, an overall positive one filled with an unapologetic, unabashed love for what it loves. Romance is a bonus book throughout leans into this idea that the modern world has little to no care for the people at the heart of it, particularly its stories about the treatment of writers. Furthermore, she is seeking a home after the house that she lived in before has been demolished. She pleads with them for understanding and she is coldly rejected. A particular moment summarises it well when Kang Dan-i struggles in a phone call to convince a company to delay her job interview after she has lost her shoe and she is late.

In the first episode, we see our heroine, Kang Dan-i (played naturally and with an abundance of warmth by Lee Na-young) facing a series of rejections at job interviews all based on the fact that she has been away from the workplace for some time (something that was taken from the American show that inspired this show, Younger). The show starts off by painting a stark picture of the inhumane nature of modern living in South Korea. However, for me now, Romance is a bonus book is a show about both things and that all together, the show is a tapestry of stories about the things that give us and help us to survive in its world. When the show entered its final stretch, then it felt more like this was a story about storytelling, its importance of stories in the world and the stories we tell each other.

At first, Romance is a bonus book for me was a story about homes and how we attempt to find or create homes, places of love and support in the world.

At the end of Romance is a bonus book, the show leaves us with the words, ‘the moon is beautiful.’ For a moment, I was slightly taken aback but then I found myself whispering the words back. It is usually a brief ‘thank you for watching’ or a summary of the message of the show. It acts as a farewell message, an acknowledgement of and appreciation for the time spent together. Most K-dramas end with a final message which shows up on the screen after the final shot fades away.