@thistle at soompi asked this question and I’ll reply here and post there later.

Her question:

Wasn’t there a scene in the first episode where her dad told her that she was out of the family if she didn’t get W H to marry her? My memory is fuzzy but it was something like that. She surely has a reason for being so determined.

My answer:

😀 I don’t think it was explicitly said that Wannabe Wife was going to be disowned by the family if she didn’t get WH to marry her.

However, she did receive a phone call, in Episode 3, while she was exercising on the treadmill where she was told she would have to “give up everything she was aiming for.” Her goal could be interpreted as being the Madam of Choego group and/or being a cherished daughter of her father’s family.

According to the subs, she said “Chairman” when she answered her phone. That’s why I originally thought she was speaking to WH’s dad, Chairman Cha. Here’s their conversation:

Chairman: You still haven’t confirmed the marriage details with Cha Woo Hyeon?
Wannabe Wife: We’re just getting to know each other better so please give me more time.
Chairman: You said if I created the context you could make Cha Woo Hyeon ours and be seated atop Choego Group. I trusted you to come this far because you were so confident.
Wannabe Wife: Yes, I know that well.
Chairman: If you can’t keep your promise to me, and miss that chance to align closely with Choego Group, you’re going to have to give up everything you’re aiming for now.
Wannabe Wife: Yes, Chairman.

Flashback to when she first met WooHyun. She was saying on the phone, “In order to cover the issue of my birth, we need to marry a son of a top five family. A talent that can be seated as the leader of the group.”

When she spotted WH walking by (yeah, right! What a coincidence, eh?) she decided, “I found my match.”

After that flashback, she vowed to herself, “I will definitely not miss it, Father.” 🤨 That’s when I realized that the “Chairman” she was addressing to earlier was her own father.

This odd father-daughter phone conversation substantiated what she told WH in Episode 2. She said her family’s lack of interest in her until she received a marriage proposal.

Her words: I’m also a child of wedlock. When I was seven, I moved into my father’s house. But I have no memory of ever being treated like family or as a person. I was only ignored and was an outcast. But because of the marriage proposal with you, for the first time I became someone important in my family.

Also, in Episode 3, shortly before Chairman Cha was going to announce WH’s transition as the company’s leader, she met her father in the company of Chairman Cha.

Kangan: I heard my HJ has been racking up a lot of favors recently. (Meaning, she’s been asking for favors, NOT granting favors.)
Cha: What favors? She’s so smart that I’m the one taking the help for granted.
Kangan: I’m so grateful to hear that. Anyway, with our new structure, I hope that our Cheogo group and Kangan group will become an organization that will lead South Korea into the future.
Cha: (laughing) Very well said. Your participation would be essential.
Kangan: Are we some strangers when we’re going to become family?

To me, Chairman Kang came off as fulsome or flattering in his appreciation of their partnership. When he told Cha that his daughter had been asking for favors, he was expecting to be denied graciously by Cha. He was “humble-bragging” about HJ in order to praise their great new partnership of the Cheogo and Kangan groups.

By the way, SaHyeon, the Other Son, was among the entourage, walking beside his mother.

Then Wannabe Wife arrived. WH’s father smiled at her but her own father pounced on her.

Kang/her father: When’s WooHyun coming?
Wannabe Wife: (looking at Chairman Cha who smiles back and nods at her): Any minute now, Father.

Her father frowned at her, side-eyed Chairman Cha, then gave her a displeased look.

It struck me odd that WH’s father was MORE pleased to see her than her own father was. This father-daughter encounter would indicate that, in her father’s eyes, she was a tool to expedite Kangan’s partnership with the Cheogo group. He was upset that his daughter didn’t deliver the goods, aka WooHyun, to Chairman Cha’s doorstep like Amazon Delivery would. 📦 📦 📦

Moreover, when we compare all three children, although both WooHyun and the Wannabe Wife are illegitimate children, the Wannabe Wife has more in common with the WooHyun’s stepbrother SaHyun than WH when it comes to self-identity.

WH doesn’t identify himself as his father’s son. He never curried favors from his father nor craved his attention. In Episode 7, when his mother wanted to seek revenge for the harm they did to him as a child, he observed that completely cutting ties with those kind of people and living a free and good life was her revenge.

On the other hand, the Wannabe Wife and the Stepbrother have lived their lives identifying themselves as their fathers’ off-springs.

In the case of the Wannabe Wife, having roots (that is, legitimate roots) is essential for her. In her own words, her mother tried to commit suicide and even decided to emigrate because she didn’t want her daughter to live as a person without a father, siblings, background and roots. Despite being sent to live in her father’s house, she still lived like an outcast until Chairman Cha came to propose marriage with his son.

…Which is another weird thing. Chairman Cha approached her family without consulting his own wife. The Stepmother accused WooHyun of forcing his father to “lower his head and make a match with the Kangam Group Chairman.” WH corrected her that it was all the Chairman’s decision, not his.

As for the Stepbrother, jealousy and insecurity have deformed him, according to the Stepmother.

Stepmother: He was a kind and innocent child. But since he started to believe that the Chairman cherishes you more than him, he became like this.
WH: I grew up well without a father and I’m living well without one now, too.
Stepmother: Thinking you had it stolen from you, and always wondering when you’ll have to throw it away and escape, that heart-wrenching tension. That is much more agonizing than thinking you never had it in the first place.

I don’t know what “it” exactly refers to. It can be paternal love, the inheritance, understanding and attention from the father, or simply the father’s presence. But whatever “it” may be, the mother is pointing out that WH is luckier than her son because WH grew up with no expectation of “it”. Having ZERO expectation of love, inheritance, understanding, or his father’s presence is much better than DREADING that day when “it” is withdrawn or relinquished.

Thus, I applaud the Stepbrother’s decision to give up seeking his father’s approval. I think it’s about time he cuts ties to toxic relationships. According to him, he has no more interest in his family’s company. Only the Wannabe Wife still deluded herself that she can gain love and recognition from her father by living up to his expectations.

I must confess that I’m not really paying attention to all the family dynamics and the ensuing power struggles. For now, I’m letting the subplots to develop, alliances to form and the battle lines to be drawn AND re-drawn. As shallow as I might sound, I’m really here just for the romance.

Hope this helps. 🙂