General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Be Loved in House: I Do (约・定～I do)

Be Loved in House: I Do (約・定; also written 約．定) is a 2021 Taiwanese BL (Boys' Love) television drama about an office romance that begins when a new director bans dating among his employees. It was produced as a Japan-Taiwan co-production and streamed simultaneously in both countries from May 20 to July 29, 2021, with a special epilogue episode on August 5, 2021.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Original title	約・定 (read "yakutei" in Japanese; the word means promise or covenant)³
Run	12 episodes of about 23 minutes, Thursdays, May 20 to July 29, 2021; a special "Epilogue" aired August 5, 2021¹^•³
Network / studio	KKTV (Taiwan); studio Vidol; also streamed on Rakuten TV, Viki, and WeTV¹^•⁴
Main cast	Aaron Lai (賴東賢) as Jin Yu Zhen; Hank Wang (王碩瀚) as Shi Lei¹
Key crew	Director Chiang Ping-chen (姜秉辰); writer Ji Dian (季電); producer Anita Sung (宋鎵琳); executive producer Scott Wang (王信貴)⁵
Production	Japan-Taiwan co-production with a Video Market employee as production producer; simultaneous Japan-Taiwan streaming from May 20, 2021²
Reported reach	No.1 on KKTV's Taiwan drama ranking, annual streaming champion on Rakuten TV in Japan, Asia TOP 1 on Video Market, and popularity in 26 countries, per the novelization's publisher⁶

Spoilers

Premise

The story is set at Jingcheng Studio (精誠工藝坊), a jewelry-making design and goldsmithing workshop of roughly ten years' standing that has fallen on hard times and is being sold. Jin Yu Zhen, a managerial genius known for merciless austerity, buys the business and arrives as the new art director. On his first day he posts the "Single Rule" (單身公約): romantic relationships or marriage between colleagues are forbidden, on pain of immediate dismissal. The rule immediately threatens Wang Jing and Bai Xiao-qian, a couple who were about to become engaged.⁴^•³

Shi Lei, the workshop's design team leader, is bright and open by nature but quick-thinking and detail-oriented beneath the surface. Outraged by the rule, he resolves to find evidence that his new boss is secretly in love, expose him, and drive him out, restoring the workshop's harmony. Through a series of circumstances he is forced to share a home with Jin Yu Zhen for several months, and the two sign a household covenant of their own. As he probes the director's private life, Shi Lei discovers that the steel-hearted tyrant carries loneliness and a heart wounded by a past love, and his curiosity turns into attachment.⁴^•³^•⁷

The series' own promotional copy frames the dynamic as "when your domination meets my stubbornness," and as a story of "the little prince and the fox, who will be conquered first," an allusion to the taming relationship in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince.⁸

Cast and characters

Aaron Lai, previously noted for Flying Fish High School Student (飛魚高校生) and HIStory: My Hero, plays Jin Yu Zhen, the domineering new director and president, whose flawless exterior hides a secret wound from a past relationship; he shows a gentler side only to Shi Lei, the employee he quietly prides himself on.³ Hank Wang, a former member of the Taiwanese band noovy, plays Shi Lei, the tsundere (character initially cold or hostile, gradually showing warmth) subordinate and team leader, teased by colleagues with the proverb that a rolling stone gathers no moss.³

The supporting cast includes Liao Wei-po as Yan Zhao-gang (言兆綱), JN Yu as Wu Si-qi (午思齊), Deyn Li as Yi Zi-tong (易子同), Stan Chen as Wang Jing (王靖), and Fairy Yao as Bai Xiao-qian (白筱倩); Ai Yu Fan plays Cheng Luo (程珞), the deputy manager of the in-story HWC Roasters café.⁵^•⁹ Wayne Song appears in the cast list as Cui Min Hao.⁹

Production

The series was a Japan-Taiwan co-production, with a Video Market employee participating as a production producer. The COVID-19 pandemic forced an unusual workflow: the producer entered Taiwan under a two-week full quarantine and joined preparations remotely, while the content advisor, Kim Kyung-eun (金京恩), based in Japan, attended script readings remotely. Filming wrapped on February 7, 2021.²

The workshop setting shaped the series' design. Because the story takes place in a jewelry-making atelier, each episode's subtitle is the name of a gemstone or metal; the listed titles include Yellow Jade, Nickel Allergy, Sapphire, Indium and Silver, Strawberry Quartz, Labradorite, Cat's Eye Stone, Tin and Copper, Broken Diamonds, and the finale, Pact of Gold and Stone.⁹^•⁵ The "House" of the English title is the story's central concept, a romance that begins with cohabitation.²

Ai Yu Fan, in her role as café deputy manager Cheng Luo, sang the opening theme "約定" (Yue Ding, "Promise"), the ending theme "I Do," and the insert songs "逗點" and "40Days," releasing a four-track EP to coincide with the streaming debut.⁵

Release and reception

Streaming began on May 20, 2021 at 13:00 with the first two episodes, released simultaneously in Japan and Taiwan, with one new episode each Thursday thereafter. Rakuten TV carried the premiere in Japan with Japanese subtitles; the audio track is Mandarin.²^•³ International streaming followed on Rakuten Viki and WeTV with English subtitles.¹⁰^•⁸ A 2022 TAICCA industry survey lists the series as distributed on Vidol and KKTV with sales to Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, and Vietnam, among other territories.¹¹

The novelization's publisher lists the series as No.1 on KKTV's Taiwanese drama ranking, the top original micro-drama on Taiwan's Vidol, the annual on-demand champion on Rakuten TV in Japan, and Asia TOP 1 on Video Market, with popularity in 26 countries.⁶ In early 2022 it was reported as the only Taiwanese drama selected in its category at an international awards lineup, competing alongside Japanese, Thai, and Hong Kong productions.¹² The series later appeared on Netflix in Taiwan under the title 約．定.¹³

A novelization by the writer Liang Xin (梁心), based on Ji Dian's screenplay, was published on September 24, 2021 by Da Yi Publishing (大藝出版), 352 pages, ISBN 9789869627023, with cover art by the comic artist Mei Ri Qing Cai (每日青菜).⁶

Follow-up and cataloging

Producer Anita Sung confirmed that after filming finished, the same creative team developed a follow-up on the theme of "two childhood sweethearts with contrary personalities," using the physics concept of plus and minus; the script took over four months to develop, and Japanese investors continued sponsoring the project because Be Loved in House: I Do had been so successful. That follow-up, Plus & Minus (正負之間), received development grants from TAICCA's international co-funding program and investment from the Taiwanese platform CATCHPLAY+ after promotion at TCCF in 2021.¹⁴

Catalogs disagree on the episode count. TVmaze, Rakuten TV, and the Sanlih E-Television catalog list 12 episodes (Sanlih as 12×30), while WeTV, the TAICCA Taiwan Pavilion, and World of BL list 13, counting the August 5 special.¹^•³^•¹⁵^•⁸^•¹⁶^•¹⁰ Sanlih catalogs the production as a 2021 love romance and LGBTQ genre work.¹⁵

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026