Love in Contract: Episodes 1-2

by Benjamin Liu

The rom-com queen is back, and she brought her fashionista closet with her! Her return also comes with the old-school contract marriage and its hijinks, love triangles, lots of secrets, the “we met in the past” trope, and an opening sequence that I absolutely love. I’m afraid this show already has me in a chokehold.

EPISODES 1-2 WEECAP

I act like I’m okay, but deep down, I want to be our heroine CHOI SANG-EUN (Park Min-young) who lives the dream life of always coming home to fancy dinners prepared by her attractive, rich, and well-mannered husband, JUNG JI-HO (Go Kyung-pyo). Ji-ho is the perfect husband to Sang-eun, and everything about their five-year marriage is perfect – except there’s a little contract that binds them together. And no, I’m not talking about a marriage certificate.

Sang-eun is a professional wife with an array of clients. Whether you need a trophy wife to boost your self-esteem in front of your tacky friends, a proficient golfer wife to help you land a contract, a wife just to get your family off your back, or so your grandmother can pass away peacefully — Sang-eun is there to help you out. For a fee, of course, and there’s an extra charge if you want to register the marriage. Twelve divorces down the line with a dozen other skills and certifications to boot, Sang-eun is pretty much committed to her job.

Sang-eun is not all about the money, though, and she once married a client, WOO GWANG-NAM (Kang Hyung-seok) because he didn’t want to disappoint his parents by coming out as gay. They’re amicably divorced now, and live as roommates and best friends with a joint dream of relocating abroad, to fall in love for real. I love their relationship so much! Destination Canada is in view for them, and they happily countdown to Sang-eun’s upcoming retirement. Except retirement means ending her marriage arrangement with Ji-ho.

Their arrangement is simple: she is only required to have dinners with him on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. It’s really cool when you think about getting paid to eat fancy meals, but it’s also unsettling that Ji-ho’s life is shrouded in secrecy. There’s a woman he appears to be stalking, and he’s a man of very few words. Seriously, they don’t even talk about the weather over dinner! According to Ji-ho, “The perfect conversation skill to not reveal yourself is silence.” And if that doesn’t creep you out, I don’t know what else will.

During a Timid People Anonymous session of sorts, Ji-ho tells the others that his job doesn’t make people feel good, and he usually just watches them plead. I start to think okay, maybe he’s a judge, a prosecutor, or working some other law enforcement job, right?

But then he also says things like his job is to end someone’s everyday routine, and now he’s giving serial killer vibes. I mean, the woman he was stalking ends up dead, and he doesn’t seem to be affected by the news? Come on! Now I’m not so sure I want to be Sang-eun anymore. Besides, there are only so many quiet dinners I can take before I bail on such a boring marriage.

Thankfully, this is where KANG HAE-JIN (Kim Jae-young) comes in like a ray of sunshine! Hae-jin is an actor, and unlike Ji-ho, the only secret he keeps from the rest of the world is that he’s the son of a chaebol (Kangjin) group. Hae-jin thinks rich people are crazy, and considering he named his cat after his first love – a girl named JAMIE who he met just once – I’m inclined to agree. I can’t even blame his ex (cameo by Nana) who broke up with him because she thought Jamie the cat was his other woman. Who video calls a cat all the time and calls her “honey” anyway?

But the men in Sang-eun’s life are not the only ones with secrets. Sang-eun is also the daughter of another chaebol group (Eena), and the name she’s called at home is — wait for it — Jamie. Yes, the one and only. From childhood, she was stiflingly managed by a director at Eena group, YOO MI-HO (Jin Kyung). When Sang-eun was 20, she walked out on her family after violently ruining an arranged marriage meeting with Hae-jin’s elder brother KANG SUN-JIN (Oh Ryoong). Sang-eun’s actions cost Mi-ho her job, but on the bright side, Hae-jin witnessed the whole scene and was instantly wowed by Sang-eun. Lol.

Since then, Sang-eun has been sending Mi-ho money every month, but make no mistake, the women are not friends. Sang-eun is merely paying Mi-ho back for raising her, and after 13 years, she decides to retire and cut her off. Sang-eun is ready to rub it in Mi-ho’s face, but Mi-ho steals her thunder, and tells her to stop sending the money. Ooof! However, Mi-ho is broke after spending all the money (and the occasional checks from Eena’s chairman) on the dozens of luxury items scattered around her tiny studio apartment. At some point, she even attempts suicide, and I wonder what her story is.

Anyway, back to our wife for hire, Sang-eun is reluctant to end things with Ji-ho. And when he suddenly brings up a divorce, she gets upset because how dare he unilaterally decide to end their marriage? Turns out that earlier on, Ji-ho saw a ticket to Canada in her purse, and thought it’ll be best to end things so she can chase her dreams of falling in love abroad. But right now, destination Canada is on pause as Sang-eun insists that she will go through with their arrangement for the rest of the month because she’s a professional. Sure, Jan.

Previously, Gwang-nam attempted to make a move on Hae-jin while hanging out with Sang-eun at a lounge. Hae-jin’s manager, YOO JUNG-HWAN (Kim Hyun-mok) mistook him for a reporter, and Gwang-nam ended up thinking Jung-hwan and Hae-jin are involved with each other. Heh. Hae-jin quietly extracted himself from the hilarious mix-up, and he didn’t get to see Sang-eun. But there’s plenty of time for them to run into each other, as he soon moves into the apartment above Ji-ho’s. Okay, this is going to be fun!

Our trio eventually runs into each other in the funniest of ways. First, Ji-ho goes to pick up a package downstairs at the same time Jamie the cat is dropped off from a staycation at a cat hotel (seriously?!). Jamie is in a delivery box carried by Hae-jin, whose face is plastered on the delivery van as the brand’s ambassador. Naturally, Ji-ho thinks Hae-jin is the dispatch driver, and in a struggle for the box, Jamie jumps out. Jamie refuses to return to her owner, and Ji-ho has to carry the cat to Hae-jin’s apartment.

They meet Sang-eun in the elevator, and Hae-jin is shocked to see her, but he quickly comports himself as she obviously doesn’t recognize him. Besides, Ji-ho calls her Sang-eun, not Jamie, and Hae-jin sees matching wedding rings on their fingers. Sang-eun is miffed that Ji-ho didn’t prepare dinner, and in her annoyance, she doesn’t recall that she insisted on making the meals for the remaining time they have left on the contract. When she finally remembers, she scrambles to make dinner – and a whole mess in the kitchen while she’s at it.

With Sang-eun’s actions, you’d almost think that she’s in love with Ji-ho, but of course, she denies this to Gwang-nam. I understand her, though. Five years is more than enough time to get used to a routine with someone even if the other party is the secretive Ji-ho. And while he gives me serial killer vibes, he’s also giving psychotic vibes to Hae-jin. Because who carries pictures of a murdered woman and goes out at night to practice stabbing techniques?

Hae-jin is traumatized on witnessing this, and he begins to worry about his first love who is married to the psychopath. Said first love only comes around once in two days, and he once saw her leaving the apartment without her ring. A murderer husband and a cheating wife make for a confusing couple to Hae-jin, but worry trumps confusion, and he tries to warn Sang-eun about Ji-ho. Like a good wife, Sang-eun refuses to listen to anything negative about her husband. But Hae-jin’s words get to her, and she becomes curious about her husband’s life.

Ji-ho doesn’t think his job is anybody’s business, and tells Sang-eun that she’s free to make something up the next time Hae-jin asks. Besides, she’ll soon stop coming around, and Hae-jin won’t be able to bug her about it anymore. With the way Ji-ho acts, you’d think he’s also not affected by their impending divorce. Pfft. All Sang-eun wants is to be acknowledged as the best wife by the best husband client she’s ever had, but it looks like she will not be getting that from Ji-ho. So, she decides that their next dinner appointment will be their last.

The day finally comes, and while Sang-eun is about to ring the bell to Ji-ho’s apartment, Hae-jin comes around. Like a good neighbor, he cannot keep his mouth shut about the potential danger he thinks she is walking into. But as Sang-eun prepares to give him a reply, the door opens and Ji-ho pokes his head out with a, “Honey, I’m hungry.” *Covers mouth to muffle excited squeals* Well, I’m not the only one, because Sang-eun is also taken by the “honey” bit, as it’s acknowledgement — finally!

What a way to wrap up a such a lovely premiere week! I was expecting a light and fluffy rom-com – which the drama delivers on – but I wasn’t expecting the whole backstory, and secrets and stuff. Hello, makjang, is that you? Heh. Not that I mind, though, as long as they balance both parts. I assumed the fake wife thing was just for dramatic effect to push the plot, until I saw Sang-eun walk away from the arranged marriage. Now it makes sense that after being groomed with the sole purpose to be married, she’d choose to profit off that same arrangement, but on her own terms. I also see why she genuinely doesn’t want to be bound by that institution, and it’s almost a miracle that she even has a dream of falling in love at all.

I find Ji-ho intriguing, and I know he’s not a psychopath or anything because it would be out of place in a rom-com (but hey, feel free to surprise me, Show). I want us to quickly get past the whole mystery of what his job is, though, so we can move on to other things like why is he such a man of few words? Why doesn’t he allow people to get close to him? And what is it about his past that he’s avoiding?

As for Hae-jin, while he appears to be so carefree, he’s obviously very lonely at heart. For some reason, he distances himself from his family, he doesn’t seem to have friends aside from his manager and his brother, and his cat doesn’t even return his affections. Thankfully, he has reconnected with his first love again, although she’s now “married.” But for someone who still went back to warn Sang-eun about Ji-ho even after being told off the first time, giving up on his feelings/instincts isn’t in Hae-jin’s dictionary.

We know that he’ll soon become one of Sang-eun’s clients, but I wonder how that’ll work out considering Jamie the first love might have an allergy to Jamie the cat. Heh. And this brings me to one of the highlights of a classic K-drama rom-com: the love triangle! I’m not a super fan of either actor, and for now, I’m undecided on which ship to board. So it’s left for their characters to win me over in the coming weeks — which cannot come soon enough. This is me impatiently counting down the days, because I need more episodes ASAP. *grubby hands*