Let me also just say that I've had a shock as I just looked it up on AsianWiki to get all the actors names. I knew I'd seen them all in other things, but for some reason, I was thinking the male lead was a different actor. But it's Ahn Hyo-Seop! I think I always think of him as Yoo Chan in Still 17, soft and sweet and young, but here he's a chaebol businessman with a big ego. If I'd realised it was him, I probably would have started it earlier. And the main female lead I really liked when I saw her in the Uncanny Counter and I've been wanting to watch Today's Webtoon.
Anyway, let's start over. Shin Ha-Ri is the daughter of a family who owns a chicken restaurant and she works hard at a large food corporation, trying to pay off her family's debts. She's single, but has had a crush on a chef friend of hers for seven years. Her best friend is Jin Young-Seo played by Seol In-A (who I'd seen in Mr. Queen and Strong Woman Do-Bong Soon). Not sure how they met, as Young-Seo is from a very rich family too -- one that wants to marry her off and sets her up on blind dates.
When one of these blind dates is set up, Young-Seo asks Ha-Ri to take her place, something that she has done previously. Basically, she tanks the date or acts insane. Ha-Ri doesn't want to do it, but she really needs some cash, so she agrees in the end. But when she gets to the date, all done up like a Euro-trashy flighty airhead with lots of makeup and a long wig with blonde streaks, she realises the date is the CEO of the company she works for. Desperate to get it all over with, she is sure she's accomplished her task after she acts like a floozy who's had a boob job and only cares about dating.
But...Kang Tae-Moo has blind dating problems of his own. His grandfather, the Chairman, is making him go on blind dates to get him married. So, while he finds Ha-Ri as Young-Seo odd, she is, at least, apparently honest. He decides to marry her. It helps that, on a series of other blind dates over the course of a day (including one in Japan!), every other girl says basically the same thing like they all work from one playbook.
But then he and his assistant (Cha Sung-Hoon, played by Kim Min-Kyu, and the other half of the secondary couple with Young-Seo) soon figure out that Young-Seo fooled them. Mad, he even asks to meet with Ha-Ri to get an apology. All dressed up again, she does so, but gives a fake name hoping that she won't get fired from her actual job. Things happen and Tae-Moo asks her to pay him back (under contract) by pretending to be his longtime girlfriend for his grandfather.
I've no idea what his longterm plan with this would be -- they pretend to date and then she fake dies? Or they have a big breakup? No idea. Because grandpa isn't going to relent.
Anyway, Ha-Ri as Shin Guem-Hui (the name she gave, which is also the name of the downtrodden heroine in a Kdrama that the Chairman and everyone else likes to watch), meets Grandpa. At first he doesn't like her on sight (trashy), which, hey, maybe that was Tae-Moo's goal? But then her personality comes through and it ends on a high note. He also accidentally sees the concert tickets that her crush had given her for her birthday and thinks that she was going to take Tae-Moo, so he hurries them over there and waits until they go inside.
Min-Woo, the friend, had even given a special message, which the melo singer reads out -- about how his friend of 7 years has always been there for him, even through breakups, and he hopes she brought a boyfriend with her to the concert. Cue tears, of course.
There are other ways that Tae-Moo is seeing the "real" Ha-Ri (including at work, with her normal hair and make up), but I'm not going to rehash every scene. I don't actually think the charade will hold up much longer, but that's just as well. There's only 12 episodes in this one and that means things will need to move fast.
I'm really enjoying it. It's got a good balance of humour and a tinge of drama. Loving all the actors. It's a fun show. Will update later, either after some more episodes or at the end.
Edit: Okay! I finished this, er, a bit ago now. I was slightly disappointed in the ending as they did the whole unnecessary random separation for a year thing and didn't even really handle the whole "grandfather comes around and approves after all" which would have been SO easy to do, even in a montage. So it felt a bit lazy. Especially as all the dire warnings about things that would happen to either of them if they kept dating just...disappeared? No one tried to get him removed as CEO. She kept her job. It was all just empty threats.
Actually liked how the secondary couple wrapped up a bit more (she turned her back on her dad after he tried to buy off Sung-hoon and Sung-hoon supports her as she creates her own business); in general, they actually have a healthier and more mature relationship (though she's a bit prone to drama). BUT overall, yes, I very much enjoyed this one. And it was nice to see Ahn Hyo-Seop in something again.
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