What if your fiancé betrays you right before the wedding, and then a rental scam takes your home? What an awful experience! Our heroine finds herself in that thankless situation and gets dejected. But then she hits the jackpot with a luxurious house as a raffle prize.
There is a minor problem, though. She needs a husband to claim the prize. And as luck would have it, another man with the same name as her fiancé shows up before her. Let the contract marriage and cohabitation hijinks begin!
Bunny S. watches Would You Marry Me on Disney+
Opening Week Ratings:
Would You Marry Me Opening Week Story
“If it is bound to happen one day, that might as well be today.”
Meeting our heroine, Designer Yoo Me-ri (Jung So-min), she is in the middle of a presentation, pitching her ideas to a panel. Except, they are a bunch of sleazy people who make sexual insinuations about her and act innocent when Me-ri confronts them about it. Standing up for herself, Me-ri asserts that she is the one who refuses to work with such scumbags.
Trying to forget about that terrible experience, Me-ri heads to her newlywed’s home, where she is supposed to live with her fiancé (Seo Beom-june) after their wedding. While unpacking, she stumbles across a woman’s earrings. Thus, figuring her fiancé is cheating on her in their bed. Seriously!
Confronting her fiancé, he blurts nonsense about being stressed at work and then starts slapping himself as if he regrets his actions. But then, he receives a message from his affair partner and scrambles to hide it from Me-ri, going as far as to stomp on his phone and step on Me-ri’s hand when she tries to stop him.
Sadly for Me-ri, the marriage was already registered. Which means she has to get a divorce before walking down the aisle. Mr. Trashy Fiancé tries to use that as leverage to change her mind. But it doesn’t work on Me-ri. Rather than live with a cheater and get divorced one day, she might as well get it over with and file for divorce now.
A month later, the divorce is final. And while Me-ri cries her heart out, Mr. Trashy Ex-Fiancé goes on a trip with his affair partner. Worse off, Me-ri is forced out of her newlywed’s home without getting the deposit back, having fallen victim to a rental scam. In addition to putting in her savings and her mother’s money, Me-ri took out a loan to rent this place. Not only will she be homeless now, but she is also left with tons of debts to repay.
“Why are you doing this to me? Why are you making me do this?”
Drinking her sorrow away, Me-ri wobbles down the street and bumps into a car. The driver gets off to check on her. As luck would have it, he has the same name as Mr. Trashy Ex-Fiancé, Kim Woo-ju. So, in her drunken state, Me-ri projects her ex-fiancé’s face onto the driver and starts hitting him and asking for her money back.
It is as crazy as it gets with Me-ri latching onto the driver and him trying to shake her off. The chaotic situation ends with poor Me-ri bawling while sitting on a cactus. And she doesn’t even realize the pain until the driver points it out. Still, he is kind-hearted enough to take her to a hospital, ask his doctor friend to treat her, and give her a ride home, while repeatedly urging her to see a doctor and check for any injuries.
“Could you be my husband?”
When it seems Me-ri has hit rock bottom, she receives a call from the PR team at a department store about winning a fancy townhouse in a prize raffle. The catch: only newlyweds are eligible to win, so Me-ri must submit proof of marriage. Luckily, she didn’t turn in the divorce documents, so she is still legally married. But there is another hurdle. Both parties must attend the ceremony. In other words, Me-ri can’t claim the prize if her husband isn’t there. She tries to contact the trashy ex-fiancé, but he ignores her calls.
Just as Me-ri is about to give up and accept her fate, a text from the other Kim Woo-ju (Choi Woo-sik) has the light bulb going off in her head. Cut to Me-ri asking if Woo-ju is married, getting relieved he isn’t, and proposing to him to be her husband for a day. Unsurprisingly, Me-ri gets a no, thank you from Woo-ju, and he even suspects her of being a scammer who wants to use him to con others.
“Before I was the only one who needed help but now you do, too, right?”
Meanwhile, we learn more about Woo-ju. He used to stay in the US and only came back to Korea recently. Born into a rich family running a renowned bakery group, Woo-ju is a fourth-generation heir. But his aunt and uncle-in-law aren’t pleased about his return and want the heir position given to their good-for-nothing son, Woo-ju’s cousin.
Joining the family business, Woo-ju is hired as the marketing team leader. But he is set up for a trap on his first day, getting tasked with renewing a copyright contract for a packaging design that is about to expire. Never mind that it is the former marketing team leader’s fault, who just happens to be Woo-ju’s cousin.
Meeting the design studio CEO to negotiate the terms, it is none other than Me-ri. Earlier, Me-ri got a mysterious call from Woo-ju’s cousin, urging her to demand a hefty sum of money for the design. But we don’t think the money will matter anymore. Both sides now need a favor from the other party. So, what about helping each other out? Luckily, Me-ri agrees with us. But it takes some effort to convince Woo-ju, who only gets on board because his position is on the line.
“The guy across the street will be watching us.”
Attending the ceremony, our fake couple is shocked to hear their photos will be released to the press. Thinking on his feet, Woo-ju claims he might contract a contagious disease and wears a face mask. Me-ri hides her face, too. And luckily, it goes quite smoothly. Having collected the prize, Managing Director Baek Sang-hyeon (Bae Na-ra) gives our fake couple a ride to their new house. Me-ri is thrilled to bits, yet Woo-ju can’t be bothered, wondering when this will be over.
The initial plan was for Me-ri to sell the townhouse and get a new place. But according to the conditions, the couple has to wait three months before selling the townhouse. Also, if they get divorced during that time, the prize will be annulled. So, they need to move in and act as a couple to avoid suspicion. Regularly, an inspector drops by to check on them, but that will be needless since Sang-hyeon lives across the street and is excited to have new neighbors.
With their lie getting bigger, Woo-ju is rightfully worried about the consequences. He warns Me-ri against moving in, but she has little to no choice when she is about to get kicked out on the streets. Woo-ju storms off, yet he runs into his nosy aunt out front and lies about meeting a friend. Just then, Sang-hyeon shows up and asks where “his wife” is. And on that note, the premiere week concludes, leaving us curious about how Woo-ju will explain the situation and whether Sang-hyeon will buy it or get more suspicious of our fake couple.
Would You Marry Me Opening Week Musings
That was an entertaining premiere. The premise is fun, our fake couple is likable, and the cast is doing a great job. Jung So-min and Choi Woo-sik are on fire. And we can’t wait for the cohabitation era to begin. We already know that there will be several love triangles, so we hope the drama handles that arc well without becoming annoying, though it seems unlikely given how nasty the ex-fiancé is.
Like any good chaebol heir, Woo-ju has a childhood trauma, having lost his parents in an accident at a young age. He was the only survivor and still has nightmares of that dreadful night. At the police station, young Woo-ju met a girl who comforted him and gave him her teddy bear. Do we have a childhood connection here? If that is the case, we hope the drama keeps our leads in the dark for as long as possible so we can see them falling in love as adults.
That was a promising start. Hopefully, the drama maintains its momentum and delivers on both romance and comedic notes, giving us a sweet rom-com.
Photos and Videos: SBS Drama
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