Our tropey adventure continues as our contract wedding pivots into an office romance. A birth secret lurks around the horizon, and our secondary romance arc continues to inch towards the enemies to lovers playground.
EPISODES 5-6
We open with last week’s mystery visit to Ji-wook. The visitor, MANAGER JANG (Yoon Seo-hyun), threatened to reveal Ji-wook’s existence to his mom’s family in Canada if he didn’t come to work at Ggulbi Education. To keep the promise he made to his grandmother not to interfere with his mom’s life, Ji-wook agreed, and that’s how he ended up as a new recruit in his wife’s workplace.
Hae-young is not exactly pleased with the situation, and Ji-wook can’t tell her the full gist of why he has to work at Ggulbi or why he was unreachable for the past three months — hint: looking after her mom in the nursing home. But since Ji-wook’s new haircut prevents her colleagues from recognizing him, the contractual couple agree to keep their husband and wife status a secret at work. B-but I miss his old hair!
Ji-wook’s presence in the head office is a ticking time bomb for Hae-young, and she plots to lower his evaluation at a promotional/training event so that he’ll be sent to a branch office. But Ji-wook’s good looks and manners triumph over Hae-young’s bad plans, and he wins over Ggulbi Education staff and customers alike — by distributing Kopiko and drowning them in the sea of his handsomeness. Heh.
During the event, Hae-young strikes up a conversation with an abused kid, but the abusive father is having none of it. The father attacks Hae-young, Ji-wook charges at him in a bid to defend his wife, and the trio end up at the police station. Oops! Conversation about the abused kid leads Hae-young to mention that her mom used to run a foster home, but Ji-wook keeps it a secret that he already knows this because he was once under Mom’s care. I can’t wait for Hae-young to discover this juicy detail about Ji-wook.
Hae-young is surprised when Ggulbi’s lawyer shows up at the police station to represent them, and the lawyer fibs that she must be as vital to the company as a board member. Hae-young also convinces the lawyer to take up the child abuse case. But via a phone conversation between the lawyer and some higher up at Ggulbi, we see that Hae-young’s importance to the company had nothing to do with why the lawyer showed up. Hmmm.
If the lawyer didn’t come because of Hae-young, then it must have been because of Ji-wook. This dude got a job, a new apartment, a car, and a black card in less than two days! What I wouldn’t give to be a K-drama male lead right now. This sorta windfall mostly happens in fiction, but even our fictional man has to question why he’s the recipient of such manifold blessings. Could it be that Manager Jang is his f-f… Ji-wook can’t bring himself to complete the word, but Manager Jang shuts down the paternity suspicion with a deadpan, “I am infertile.” Dead. This entire exchange is hands-down my most hilarious scene of the week!
Ji-wook ends up assigned to Hae-young’s team, and she reiterates the importance of keeping their marital status a secret. After working so hard to climb the corporate ladder, she’d rather be known as a team leader, not as someone’s wife. The other new recruit overhears bits of the conversation where Hae-young tells Ji-wook that she’ll look incompetent if he makes mistakes. But while she referred to incompetence as a wife if Ji-wook, for instance, dresses shabbily to work or something, the recruit assumes she meant incompetence as a boss if the rookie makes a mistake. So he “helps” Ji-wook report their team leader for workplace harassment. Oh dear!
Hae-young is summoned to a disciplinary panel, and when Ji-wook learns about this, he rushes to the panel to clear the air — by revealing that he is Hae-young’s husband! Cue: members of the panel packing their surprised jaws from off the floor, and Hae-young’s farewell to her peaceful office life. Suddenly, everyone at work is interested in Mr. and Mrs. Hae-young’s plans to positively contribute to the country’s birth rate, and worried about Mrs. Team Leader’s objectiveness with her husband on her team. But Ji-wook assures Hae-young that everything will be fine as long as he’s transferred to another team, and he’ll make sure she doesn’t suffer any losses at work because of him. How sweet.
Moving on to our secondary couple and their ongoing hate comments lawsuit, Ja-yeon learns that the punishment for defamation differs depending on whether the comments are true or not. One of Gyu-hyun’s comments insulted her parents, and from her reaction, what was written is most likely true — and it might also be why she went into foster care. Ja-yeon rejects Gyu-hyun’s apology letter, and when he asks how else he can show his sincerity, she tells him to die. That’s what he told her to do countless times in his comments, and she wondered if she deserved to die. “It’s your turn to think about whether you deserve to live,” Ja-yeon says.
Next thing you know, a Truck of Doom beelines towards Gyu-hyun, and Ja-yeon faints because we have all seen this movie before and we know how it ends. But the most shocking thing happens… the truck swerves at the last minute, and Gyu-hyun will live to read more spicy novels fight another day! Wow! I’ve lived long enough to see the Truck of Doom miss a target. If this historic K-drama moment doesn’t tell you No Gain No Love is the rom-COM of the year, I don’t know what else will.
The infertility exchange between Ji-wook and Manager Jang might have been my most hilarious scene, but this Ja-yeon × Gyu-hyun scene is my favorite of the week. It just kept giving! I got sucked into their emotional confrontation, I cheered at the truck’s miss, and I nearly choked on my laughter when Gyu-hyun utilized his gym trainer’s instructions to lift the unconscious Ja-yeon and rush her to the hospital. (Two scenes ago, the trainer told a weak Gyu-hyun to set a goal for lifting weights — perhaps, to be able to carry his girlfriend. Lol.)
Gyu-hyun’s act of kindness softens Ja-yeon a little, and she decides to drop the lawsuit under one condition. No, she’s not going to extract a fat settlement check from him — neither is she going to hire a hitman to take him out. Thank you for your extreme suggestions, foster sisters of Ja-yeon. Ja-yeon’s condition is for Gyu-hyun to volunteer at an orphanage. And there, Gyu-hyun meets Ji-wook — who also volunteers — and both guys become somewhat friendly.
Ji-wook and Gyu-hyun meet again when Hae-young and Ji-wook are invited for dinner with Chairman Bok for their role in promoting the company’s image by championing the child abuse case. Previously, Ji-wook heard Manager Jang’s phone conversation which revealed that Chairman Bok is responsible for bringing him to Ggulbi. And it would seem the chairman has a big picture in mind which also includes Hae-young. Ji-wook attempts to tell Hae-young about his discovery, but she doesn’t have time for side talks because her focus is on advancing her career through this meeting with the chairman. Ji-wook then decides to swallow the information, and I hope this won’t come back to bite him in the behind.
It’s a party of seven at dinner: Hae-young, Ji-wook, Chairman Bok, Madam Fangirl, Gyu-hyun, Woo-jae, and his wife, KWON YI-LIN (Jeon Hye-won) — who’s a family friend to the Boks. And here we learn that: 1) Gyu-hyun inherited his father’s inability to hold his liquor, and Ji-wook seems to share this familial trait; 2) Chairman Bok lacks subtlety — or he just doesn’t give a flying fork about probing into Hae-young like a parent would do when vetting their child’s intended spouse.
Ji-wook launches into a passionate declaration of his love for Hae-young when asked about why he married her, but Madam Fangirl only likes romance in fiction. To get rid of the boredom from our OTP’s real life “love story,” Madam Fangirl kickstarts a drinking party, and everyone sets out to out-drink the other. Hae-young wakes up the next morning to find herself in bed beside Ji-wook, and while that is shocking enough, nothing prepares husband and wife for the sight of Woo-jae also in bed with them! LMAO! What on earth went down last night?
We’re already halfway through, and this show is still firing on all cylinders. Seriously, how much more fun can it get? But as much as I’m excited about the progress so far, I’m also trying to be cautious because dramas have a tendency of losing steam in their second half. Dear Show, please ramp up the romance and give us more of Hae-young’s wildass imaginations. Put her in more wedding dresses and play around with Ji-wook’s hairstyle as much as you can. Don’t forget that our OTP is supposed to be fostering a cat, but we haven’t seen Baby in a while. And most importantly, do not disappoint us by falling victim to the second half jinx. Amen?