Business Proposal – K-Drama Episode 2 Recap & Review

A Fake-Dating Contract

Episode 2 of Business Proposal begins with Ha-ri getting into Tae-moo’s car as she tries to avoid Min-woo. She again refuses his proposal, but he insists that he’ll marry her anyway.

She insults him by saying she could never marry someone who looks like an archaeopteryx. This offends him more than anything else she’s said to him so far.

At work the next day, Ha-ri notices her co-worker Hye-ji getting a call from Min-woo. When Hye-ji goes out to meet him, Ha-ri follows. She spies on them and sees Min-woo give her co-worker a gift.

On her way back to her office, Ha-ri runs into Tae-moo. She immediately turns around and runs, but she trips and falls. This causes her shoe to fly off her foot and hit Tae-moo in the face.

She runs off without her shoe, and he chases after her. When he catches her, he takes notice of her name badge, but doesn’t see her face. He gives her shoe back and commends her on the work she’s been doing.

In her office, she finds out from Hye-ji that Min-woo was simply returning a gift she had given him. He said he was uncomfortable with the gesture.

Later that night, Young-seo meets with Tae-moo to clear up whom she actually is. First, she bumps into Sung-hoon and gives him her card.

Young-seo tells Tae-moo that she hired someone to impersonate her, but Tae-moo suspects that the impersonator was a friend of hers.

He has a peculiar reaction to her story. He’s more angry at the fake Young-seo than the real one, and he wants to see the woman from his blind date before he calls off the marriage proposal. Young-seo agrees to set up a meeting.

So, Young-seo dresses up Ha-ri in her clothes and wig right before telling her Tae-moo would be showing up. She insists that all he wants is an apology.

Tae-moo arrives and picks up a coupon from Ha-ri’s family’s shop that she dropped on the ground. She admits to him that her family owns a chicken restaurant, but she lies to him about her name.

“Shin Geum-hui.” She says the first name that pops into her head. And it turns out to be the name of a character in a TV drama who works in a chicken shop and falls in love with a rich man–just a little too on the nose.

Tae-moo is angry at her deception and the way she insulted his appearance. She says she’ll do him a favour to make up for everything. In response, he puts his number in her phone and insists she pick up anytime he calls.

Tae-moo informs his grandfather that he and “Young-seo” broke up. As a result, he must go on a long string of dates with other eligible women. But all of them bore him.

When Da-goo says that the dates won’t stop until his grandson chooses a wife, Tae-moo blurts out that he and Young-seo got back together.

He calls Ha-ri to propose that they pretend to date. He offers her 1.6 million won for each time she meets his grandfather while impersonating Young-seo. She doesn’t immediately accept, but she’s tempted, as she has a lot of debt.

Min-woo later calls her to ask why she hasn’t stopped by lately. She promises she’ll be by to see him soon.

That night, Ha-ri gets a call from Tae-moo, who is outside her house. She makes herself up to go down and meet him. He gives her a fake-dating contract he’s drafted and a profile of himself, which he tells her to memorize.

She thinks his idea is crazy and runs out of his car. He goes after her. Just then, she catches sight of Min-woo walking up to the shop. Ducking from his sight, she knocks over Tae-moo and collapses on top of him.

The Episode Review

Similarly to episode 1, this instalment slowly draws out the narrative. The flashback to Ha-ri’s and Young-seo’s drunken night is just one example of an entirely unnecessary scene to the plot. The episodes could stand to cut such distractions in favour of introducing completely new subplots.

Currently, the chemistry between Ha-ri and Tae-moo presents as disdain on both ends, which makes for some amusing moments (and should lead to some fun romantic tension). If anything is going to keep me from rooting for the couple, however, it’s going to be Tae-moo’s prideful and overbearing nature.

Just as zany and light-hearted as episode 1, there’s also some spot-on comedic timing in this episode, particularly from Kim Min-kyu, whose character arrests the screen despite his limited appearances.

I’m intrigued to see how Tae-moo and Ha-ri handle a dating contract that seems none too bright. How does Tae-moo plan on keeping “Young-seo/Geum-hui/Ha-ri’s” identity a secret if they ever end up meeting with the real Young-seo’s father, Chairman Jin? Hopefully, we’ll see how they deal with such a situation in future episodes.