Business Proposal: Episodes 3-4 Open Thread

by DaebakGrits

Business Proposal continues to bring the magic, laughs, and archaeopteryx jokes this week as our leads settle into their fake relationship. And wouldn’t you know it, time flies when you’re pretending to be a couple! Their fake anniversary is quickly approaching, and Grandpa is going to make sure that they celebrate in trope-tastic style.

EPISODES 3-4 WEECAP

We pick up our story where we left off at the end of Episode 2 — with Hari and Tae-mu horizontal and locking lips. As Hari’s brother SHIN HA-MIN (Choi Byung-chan) comes dangerously close to catching her in a very compromising position, Hari’s father SHIN JOON-HAE (Kim Kwang-kyu) arrives home, too, and elevates her panic.

Luckily, both her brother and father have the peripheral vision of naked mole rats and fail to see Hari and Tae-mu behind their family’s vertically challenged garden fence. When the coast is clear, Hari sighs in relief, but in the process she accidentally headbutts Tae-mu in the forehead, knocking the poor workaholic chaebol unconscious.

Next we see him, he’s complaining about Hari’s hardheadedness as he hands her their official relationship contract. She balks at the penalty fee and objects to the unfair conditions, but he threatens to sue her if she doesn’t comply. Unwilling to instigate a lawsuit that will out her as Tae-mu’s employee, Hari signs the dotted line.

Once the documents are signed, sealed, and delivered, Tae-mu forces her to sit through a PowerPoint presentation of his life’s greatest hits. Cue a series of obvious green screen scenes that are as gloriously cheesy as his cliched perfection. But his dossier isn’t the only things she has to memorize; he’s also upgraded her pedigree in order to optimize her chances of earning Grandpa’s approval.

Hari is a bit of a method actor, becoming so absorbed in her new role as Shin Geum-hee that she reacts to the name when she hears it called out on television. Tae-mu, however, is unimpressed by her ability to memorize facts. He expects her to demonstrate a more advanced understanding of their backstory, being able to draw conclusions from the information and apply it to real-world situations. Case in point, she should know to reject a dinner invitation from Grandpa if it falls on their anniversary date.

For all his talk, though, Tae-mu is equally unprepared to answer Hari’s counter-question: what was I wearing when we first met? If they’re going to make Grandpa believe their love story is real, Hari argues, then he should be able to remember the smallest of details pertaining to their fateful first encounter in the rain, which Hari recalls in dreamy black-and-white detail.

It’s very Casablanca-esque, capturing both the hokeyness of old timey movies and the absolute romanticism of Hari’s imagination, but — not gonna lie — the scene is visually breathtaking and near cinematic perfection as the yellow from Hari’s rain jacket spreads to Tae-mu’s umbrella and the scene transitions from gray scale to color.

But, of course, a prehistoric bird like Tae-mu would find a fault. He says he hates the rain and suggests they change their fake anniversary date to a day when it wasn’t raining in order to make their story more believable.

Dealing with Tae-mu’s personality must have — understandably — worn Hari out because she falls asleep during the car ride home. As she lists to the side, Tae-mu catches her head in his palm, but before the moment has a chance to turn romantic, Hari stirs slightly. Tae-mu panic-hurls her noggin in the opposite direction like it’s a softball on fire, and — Whack! — her cranium hits the window.

At work, Hari’s team finds themselves scrambling for a new chef to promote their latest product line, and Hari’s team director YEO EUI-JU (Kim Hyun-sook) looks meaningfully at Hari and suggests Min-woo. Hari’s eager to promote her “friend” and puts together a top-tier presentation, but her enthusiastic pimping of Min-woo lands her in hot water. Eui-ju insists that Hari be the one to present her PowerPoint… to Tae-mu. Wuh-oh.

After borrowing Eui-ju’s stylish cat eye glasses and covering her lower face with a mask, she’s unrecognizable, but disguise doesn’t do well to dispel Tae-mu’s current opinion that she’s an absolute nutjob. Luckily, Tae-mu doesn’t hold her unorthodox getup against her, and the presentation goes well.

Hari stops by Min-woo’s restaurant to tell him the good news. Unfortunately, she catches him being romantic with GO YOO-RA (Woo Hee), his (former) ex-girlfriend. Surprise! They’re back together.

Hari doesn’t have time to wallow in her misery, though, because the next day is her first arranged meeting with Grandpa. Tae-mu picks her up, and he has the decency to pretend he didn’t overhear last night’s cathartic crying through the phone she dropped down a storm drain.

They arrive at the restaurant, where Grandpa mistakes the smartly dressed restaurant employee as Geum-hee. When he sees the real Geum-hee (a.k.a. Hari), his eyes sweep over her attire and blonde highlights in disapproval. Grandpa, you know you’ve got no business judging other people for their fashion choices!

The introduction starts off rocky — Grandpa wants to know why Hari broke up with Tae-mu — but Hari slowly wins over Grandpa by explaining that she and Tae-mu have come to a mutual understanding about his work-life (im)balance. She continues with the added embellishment that Tae-mu even came running to her in the rain — Gasp! — in order to win her back and repair their relationship. By the time they make a special road trip for Grandpa’s favorite steamed buns, it’s clear he’s now firmly on Team Geum-hee and secretly picking out names for his future grandkids.

Over steamed buns, Hari spills the contents of her purse on the ground, and as Grandpa helps her collect her belongings, he spots the concert tickets — the ones Min-woo gave Hari. Grandpa just knows Tae-mu was going to make Hari attend alone so he could go work, so Grandpa insists on dropping them off, like they’re middle schoolers who are too young to drive themselves on their first date. Tae-mu reluctantly attends the concert, knowing Grandpa will probably camp out in parking lot all night, just to ensure Tae-mu doesn’t try to escape.

Even though Hari isn’t a MeloMance fan, she seems to be enjoying herself…until the duo pauses the concert to read some notes collected from audience members prior to the concert. And wouldn’t you know it, the first note they read is from Min-woo, who gushes about how great a friend Hari is and how he hopes she finds a special man to bring to the concert. While Hari silently cries — officially closing the chapter of her crush on Min-woo — Tae-mu awkwardly sits there and listens as the people around them whisper that he’s Min-woo’s replacement.

After the concert, they wander aimlessly, and Hari suspects that Tae-mu must think she’s an idiot for wasting seven years on a crush. Surprisingly, Tae-mu comforts her, saying he understands. While he doesn’t typically like to waste time in business, there are also instances when long-term investments can greatly pay off.

But later — after Hari stops a foul baseball with her eye socket — she asks him why he’s wasting his time on a pretend relationship with her. Their arrangement won’t lead to a future — Pfft! Oh, Hari, just you wait! — so wouldn’t it be a better investment to try and date someone for realsies? And, you know, maybe that relationship will pay off with marriage?

While Tae-mu stews on her advice, Hari wakes up with a very unattractive black eye. She screams, and her family — all wielding their weapon of choice — come running to protect her. They, too, gaze in shock at her horrifyingly swollen eye socket, which will probably make her recognizable to Tae-mu if she encounters him at work.

And wouldn’t you know it, as soon as she arrives at the office she finds herself trapped in an elevator with Tae-mu and Sung-hoon. Hari overhears them talking about attending the tasting event, so she fakes a bathroom emergency and hides in the toilet while Tae-mu and the rest of the company fawn over Min-woo’s white kimchi ravioli. (Okay, that sounds amazing, and this drama really needs to come out with an official recipe book.)

Over dinner, Young-seo updates Hari on her numerous coincidental meetings with Sung-hoon. Not only did her convenience store hunk turn out to be Tae-mu’s chief secretary, but he’s also her new neighbor! Sadly, he’s not the gallant bug-squashing kind of neighbor, and his method of killing a cockroach was the very definition of overkill.

But his liberal use of pesticides isn’t his only negative quality. No, he remains annoyingly faithful to Tae-mu for some reason, and he refuses to engage in any sort of flirtations or conversations beyond the passing neighborly courtesies. He claims he’s doing it out of loyalty to Tae-mu, who suffered a great embarrassment as a result of her orchestrated blind date fiasco.

It turns out Sung-hoon is faithful to the Kang family because he’s Grandpa’s adopted grandson, and over a family dinner, Grandpa expresses his desire to spend more meals with his boys. If only Tae-mu would get married so he could have some grandbabies running around. Then maybe, just maybe he wouldn’t be so lonely? But if he can’t have grandbabies, then he can make Sung-hoon and Tae-mu have dinner with him twice a week!

Both men protest, and Tae-mu has Sung-hoon pull up his schedule to prove just how excessively busy he is with work. Wouldn’t you know it, the event on Tae-mu’s calendar that catches Grandpa’s eye is Tae-mu’s one-year anniversary with Geum-hee.

Oops! Tae-mu forgot his (fake) anniversary! Grandpa tells Tae-mu to clear his schedule, and — much to Sung-hoon’s surprise — Tae-mu willingly listens to his grandfather and asks Sung-hoon to move around his appointments.

Meanwhile, Hari and her team have taken a company trip to film promotional videos for their ongoing project, but even on a farm in the middle of nowhere, Hari can’t avoid the trope god’s ire. It just so happens that Grandpa is nearby on unrelated business, and he spots the company bus. Always considerate of his employees, Grandpa stops by to take a peek at their progress and join them for lunch.

While Hari does her best to hide her identity from Grandpa, Tae-mu calls to invite her out to dinner for their faux-anniversary — because that’s what Grandpa wants. Not him. It’s entirely his grandfather’s idea. Mmmhmm…

But if that’s the case, why does he purposely wait to answer his phone when Hari returns his call? And why is he so dang pleased when she remembers the fake anniversary that he forgot? Oh yeah, this boy is smitten, and he doesn’t even realize it yet!

Hari wraps up her call with Tae-mu, but as she exits the restroom where she found some privacy, she comes face to face with Grandpa! And he’s in the middle of a crap-attack, desperate to use the facilities.

Hari panics and locks herself in the bathroom, unable to face Grandpa, but he pulls at the door from the other side, really, really needing to go. Unfortunately, the exact moment she chooses to open the door and make a hasty exit, Grandpa pulls with all his strength, and Hari’s swift release of the door causes Grandpa to tumble backwards.

Grandpa falls in slow-motion, and it briefly looks like Hari is going to reach out and provide us with another slip-and-fall kiss (of a more awkward kind). Instead, Grandpa lands butt first in a water-and-lettuce-filled washing tub and has to head to the hospital wearing some ill-fitting clothes he borrowed from Hari’s annoying coworker Kevin (Lim Ki-hong).

The next day, Tae-mu picks Hari up for their anniversary date, and he’s pleased to see that the ointment he brought her the night before has cleared up her bruised eye. He escorts her to the first stop on their date, which is an expensive clothing boutique. The kind that serves Hari tea in gold-plated cups and has Tae-mu browse their catalog via a tablet. Very posh.

Hari jokes that she’s living through a K-drama trope, and Tae-mu tells her to blame his grandfather, whose inspiration for their date was his favorite drama. (I absolutely adore how they found a way to poke fun at the trope while unabashedly leaning into it.) After trying on several outfits, they finally settle on an outfit for Hari to wear to dinner. It’s a bit too tight, but it’s also a one-of-a-kind designer. So suck it in, Hari!

Over dinner, Tae-mu and Hari discuss their shared love of food, and it’s downright adorable how bashful Tae-mu appears when he catches himself rambling. As tropey as this drama may be, it still breaks the mold by giving these two a common interest, which makes the romance feel more realistic. Instead of manufacturing the romance through their unconventional circumstances and forced close proximity, they’ve been given a legitimate foundation for building intimacy.

It’s also very apparent as the night progresses that Tae-mu is starting to fall for her. After Hari has a wardrobe malfunction that everyone — Hari included — saw coming, Tae-mu shields her from embarrassment and then cutely teases and flirts with her when they’re alone. He also pointedly looks at Hari when complimenting the “fireworks.” She catches him looking, and she’s clearly taken aback, not quite there…yet.

After driving Hari home, Tae-mu realizes that she left her wallet in his car, so he turns back around to drop it off. And this is where things get juicy, folks, because as he pulls up, he sees Min-woo wave hello to Hari, who’s taking out the trash from her family’s restaurant.

The pieces start falling into place: Hari and Geum-hee both have had seven-year crushes on Min-woo. They both have the same ring back tone on their phones. They both know a lot about food. They both look and sound the same…

As the truth comes crashing down on him, Tae-mu takes a peek at the wallet in his hand and sees Hari’s identification. As if all that isn’t enough proof, he dials Geum-hee’s number and watches as Hari answers the call.

Finally our archaeopteryx knows! As much fun as it has been watching him be oblivious to the obvious truth, I’m glad he’s no longer in the dark. I usually hate dramas where the conflict is derived from a lack of communication and honesty, but this set-up and the resulting situations are so damn hilarious that I don’t care. I’ve abandoned all my usual cynicism, and I’m 100% here for the LOLs and romance.

That being said, I do have one gripe: Min-woo. He has absolutely no business looking jealous after Hari admits she took a date to the concert. I know there’s some realism to his jealousy, as there are plenty of people in the world who take advantage of their “friends’” crushes and suddenly feel bereft after they no longer have them at their platonic disposal.

Even so, I’m not sure how I feel about this additional conflict being added to the plot, especially since he’s already “rejected” Hari by getting back with his ex and making a big deal about her going to the concert with another man. By all accounts, those are the actions of a man who knows his friend has a crush on him and is doing everything in his power to hint that she should get over him. So why have him get all weird when she might have a man? It’s downright skeevy — but not as bad as Young-seo’s creepy neighbor, who probably put a spy camera in the lamp he gave her. If anyone needs a slap with a pork cutlet right about now, it’s Min-woo!

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Business Proposal: Episodes 3-4 Open Thread