Business Proposal

Chapter 7: first kisses and fragile egos

You’ll recall that at the end of the previous episode Tae-moo had introduced himself as Ha-ri’s boyfriend in order for her to save face with her friends, and that ruse continues here, with some of the expected beats – Tae-moo’s on-the-fly cover story really giving away a lot of his true feelings that he hasn’t been able to express directly, them having to share a single hotel room, and a bit of jealousy from Min-woo’s direction. You know, the usual.

This leads to further familiar territory – the men competing in front of Ha-ri, not exactly dispelling the myth that grown men are just bigger boys, a bit of bickering, and the eventual confession from Tae-moo that he really does have feelings for Ha-ri, and his whole boyfriend act isn’t totally a fiction. All together now – the usual.

While Ha-ri thinks about all this, the jealousy begins to take hold. The two of them smile while thinking of one another, try to snatch glimpses at each other, and get aggravated when they spend time with other people. In the background of all this, there’s a class-conscious undercurrent that works to the show’s strengths a little. Ha-ri is openly worried about the opinions of others, and the perception of the two of them together – him a CEO, and she a lowly worker in his company. She’s not right for him, she thinks. And yet here we are. And by episode’s end, they’ve even shared a little kiss.

Elsewhere, we get a little more of Young-seo and Seong-hoon, who wake up in the same flat and continue to dance around their issues, trying to avoid and hide from one another rather than address their obvious connection. This, too, builds towards a kiss, so it’s hard to argue against this episode as a shipper’s delight. Beyond that, though, it offers little beyond what you expected it to, even if the sense of lies mounting up and a welcome feeling of the story’s direction being able to change at any moment keep it watchable for now