Thank you @packmule3!! Those are the leads but the fake marriage is with the older brother. This brother is trying to stop it from happening because he wants the older brother to marry someone else. It’s going to be a love/hate/friend quadrangle

In episode 1 the FL Na Ah-Jung gave the youngest brother two lipstick kiss prints – once on a document and once on a tissue. Do we count that as two indirect kisses? 😉

I like that the FL Jeon Jong-seo is not conventionally pretty. She acts with a kind of natural fluidity and speed. If you are watching you will know what I mean. The ML Moon Sang-min, I find more good looking than the FL. So far he’s doing well. I haven’t watched anything else that he was in.

Ooooooo this sounds very good. DND while I watch this drama… Ok whom am I kidding? The house is a pandemonium. My baby sister (not so baby anymore – more the type of baby people call NIW – giant, adult, a mother herself), her baby, my baby, the caretaker and another NIW type baby aka my husband… Gosh. I’m so grateful to God but it’s exhausting to have so many babies at one time. Everyone keeps asking for food.

Waaaa! Please delete one of my double post Queen. Thank you. 🙇🏻‍♀️

I’m using a browser because I can’t reply using my email now. When I click reply on email it says something about a field restriction.

Anyway I actually encountered the ugly wordings this morning using my safari on my phone. I had to clear the cookies and it’s ok now. 😊

@Arihsi, okay, your entire family of NIWs made me laugh this morning. And all asking to be fed, like you are their mother.

Are you watching Impossible Heir? It seems like one you would like. I’m not sure but that seems to be going into a Noir or thriller genre. It would be interesting to compare the themes of Wedding Impossible and Impossible Heir because the main theme – children fighting for a conglomerate – is the same or nearly.

@agdr03 and @fern I can’t wait to join you guys ❤️ hopefully it’ll be as good as MMH.

Hi Everyone on this thread! Now here’s a plot I like.

We get the hows and whys a protagonist makes the decisions she does against her initial inclinations which were just and her original decision which was wise. I loved how Ji Han did something unnecessary to manipulate Ah Jeong and shot himself in the foot. Everyone’s got a lot of growing to do.

🍪🍪🥠🥠🍪🍪 @packmule3, I don’t know why this posted twice since I wrote directly onto the blog and didn’t copy it from a document. It happened to @agdr03 on another post as well. Please delete if you have time.

Hello @Fern! Thank you for fleshing out the comparison between the attitudes of Ah Jeong and Ji Han with regards to friendship.

I find our 3 protagonists to be entertainingly and amazingly contradictory in what they will or will not do, in terms of pretending, acting, being false while still holding on to their self-image of being relatively good and honest.

We find that although Ah Jung will pretend to be someone she’s not as part of an acting job, she will only do ‘honest’ work and only if it does not hurt someone else. Ji Han, however, is not above pretending to be a friend or practically family, in order to get what he wants. He will use his money and connections to make things go his way without considering the cost to others. He is thoughtless and unaware of the pain he causes, while he probably considers himself a nice guy for buying up the jujubes.

Do Han has another sort of honesty. He cannot honestly marry his friend, Chae Won because it will be under false pretenses/expectations, however he can honestly pay his friend AJ to enter into a fake marriage to continue in the lie about his sexual orientation, and to avoid a ‘real’ marriage.

I find Chae Won intriguing too. She’s good friends with the brothers, knows the ropes with the elders, knows how to smooth things over and not rock the boat, and at the moment seems willing to go along with whatever the elders want. Yes, she prefers Ji Han to Do Han, but will let grandpa think she’s fine with marrying Do Han. Her brand of dishonesty is smarter ie to be on good terms with as many as possible, for as long as she can and give the impressions which gain the most approval.

I feel that Ah Jeong was so full of self-hate at the last because her getting the job had blighted the opportunity of another actress, and yet she still really wanted to continue in the job even after giving it up. She herself had lost many acting opportunities, and some might have been under similar circumstances, hence she felt especially horrible about wanting the job. But she was totally self-aware and honest about this.

With regards to the jujubes, I believe Ji Han shared them out at the meeting in the office. The camera made sure to show us the plates of fruit on the table.

I’m also unclear about why Grandpa does not approve Ji Han as successor and why Ji Han does not consider himself equal to his brother in ranking. He seems to be carrying some guilt from his childhood trauma, thinking he had a hand in his parents’ death. He seems to be trying to make up for it by getting the best position for his brother.

What puzzles me is why the nasty grandchildren say that the Lee brothers are not in the family register and yet can be named as successor or heir. I’d have expected that they should have been asked to take on the Hyun or whatever surname of the family and should have been added to the family register by now.

At the moment it appears that no one in the family knows about Do Han’s secret. Even after his step-brother had him stalked and photographed in New York, they strangely did not realise that his lover was not a woman. If they’d known, they’d have made capital out of it immediately. Their brand of dishonesty is the boring type… they will brown nose Grandpa and pretend to be nice in order to get the inheritance. I like that Grandpa will have none of them.

If Grandpa actually does know DH’s secret, he’s pretending not to. He may be forcing the wedding in order to hide the truth as well.

My take on why AJ accepted DH’s proposal was that she suddenly decided to go on the attack. She turned around to thumb her nose at Ji Han for saying that she was not taking her golden opportunity and because she knew it would really p*ss him off. At the same time she needed the money to satisfy her disgruntled family. At least this ‘job’ was ‘honest’ in that only JH got ‘screwed over’ LOL.

I was saying that JH had shot himself in the foot. He doesn’t realise it yet but he shot himself in both feet because not only is DH going to marry the wrong girl and lose the company, but the girl, AJ, whom he had inadvertently pushed towards DH, was the girl that he himself had begun to like. I look forward to JH’s chagrin!

Many thanks, @packmule3. Safe trip home!

More examples of lies and pretending…

JH pretends to be a new employee but he is the real boss behind his ‘secretary’ who pretends to be his manager. At least he tries to get into the company and rise up the ranks by hard work instead of by nepotism. What irony that he imposed nepotism on AJ!

DH lies by omitting to tell AJ that he’s a 3rd generation chaebol. He worked alongside her to earn pittance instead of telling her that he didn’t need the money.

DH does not trust his brother enough to tell him his New York address. He lies easily to JH saying that AJ is his lover, to get JH off his back.

JH hires a reporter to follow Chae Won around.

AJ’s family tell her not to attend the ancestral rites (why? Because she is too outspoken and has no proper job to satisfy the relatives and they are embarrassed by her?)

DH and AJ have an interesting conversation after she left grandfather’s house. DH is bad at her for telling grandfather that she would break up with DH so he can inherit the company. He says to her “You’re not even interested in why I lied, right?” In response, she says her idea of a friendship isn’t someone taking her hand and running off together but instead “someone who tells me I can do this to the end.” He responds …”in some situations telling someone they can do it is the cruelest thing to say.” “Telling them you believe in them could become the heaviest burden.”

This dialogue is so smart. It also suggests that DH has another secret beyond being gay because AJ already knows that.

DH has a lot at stake in being outed – he was bullied in high school and at some point in the past someone (was it a family member ?) beat up his boyfriend back at his art studio.

I’m trying to decipher the slightly cryptic conversation between DH and his Grandfather Hyun. DH asks why after hiding him all these years, Grandpa is making such a show of him.

DH: “You thought of me as a blemish on my mother. So why are you doing this to me now?”
G Hyun: “I’m doing this because you are a blemish. Since you’re a blemish I cannot erase or cover up. Since things have come to this, my conclusion is to make everyone acknowledge you and shut them up.”
DH: “What about Ji Han?” (Camera shows us Chae Won’s expression… she looks up.) “Both Ji Han and I are my mother’s illegitimate children, so why only me?”
Hyun looks down, perhaps embarrassed: “Ji Han is my blemish. That’s why he’s not the one.”

Earlier, Ji Han has said something about inheriting to DH.
(Timestamp 30:16)
JH: “Just get married. He says he will pass on the company to you.”
DH won’t say why he won’t marry Chae Won. JH suggests that even if DH does not love Chae Won now, feelings could change.
DH: “If it’s that easy, you can just marry Chae Won and inherit the company.”
JH pauses at this with a studied look on his face. It’s something he’s thought about and knows won’t work.
JH: “Grandfather won’t give me that position. He’s giving it to you because it’s you, Hyung. Don’t make me say it when you know everything.”

We have a slight mystery of why the family agree that JH who has more business savvy, is hardworking, dependable and more on the scene than DH is not the one who should inherit the LJ Group. He’s even the one Chae Won would prefer to marry.

The only clue we get in Ep 2 is that JH thinks he’s responsible for his parents’ death, as if that disqualifies him from being the heir. I wonder if that’s the only reason. And why should JH be his grandfather’s blemish.

@agdr03, oh what a pity. I find that I have to change browser or have difficulty posting here. I hope you can get into the new thread after fiddling around with settings.

I’m trying to figure out some stuff and came back to leave thoughts here.

@GB, all good. There’s always a way to get to the blog. 😊

I picked up on that comment too and wasn’t sure what Grandpa meant. JH being his blemish.

I liked the reversal of AJ and JH’s position at the bridge at the end of episode 2. She will be on top now after deciding to marry DH.

@Fern, I’m sure AJ will make sure there is a contract for the fake marriage. It will be interesting if this fake marriage will ever happen though. I can’t imagine AJ marrying DH then divorcing him after 3 years so she can be with JH. Oh I’ve gone crazy. 😂 But I really wish AJ’s Dad will get his hair at the end. 😁

@Good Twin, I really like the dialogues in this drama. It’s very good and it makes you wonder.

I’m happy to join the watchers of this kdrama! I’ve watched the FL in movies “Burning” and “The Call” (where she totally upstaged the lead PSH) but her roles were dark and crazy. So I’ve been wondering and waiting for a lighter show for her and here it is. I agree with @Fern that she is no conventional beauty but there’s something organic when she acts, she draws you in. The ML is new to me but I like him. He resembles Choi Woo Shik but taller and I also like his voice. And he can sing and dance, too!

From the starting credits of animation (which I have to still study closer, my screen is kinda small) and the camera angle of opening scene – the lights/chandelier with the spiral staircase – this is going to be a rabbit hole I’ll be happily diving into for the next several weeks!

Several people already mentioned the good dialogues. I also like the pacing and snappy repartee although I had to often rewind to read through the translations.

The ending of second episode on the bridge was pretty good and I feel AJ’s frustration of being pushed to compromise her moral code. That sob of hers broke my heart. She capitulated but was still defiant in the end. I like this FL!

Hi @Janey and @Fern
Yes, this actress is somewhat special in that the minute I watched her, I liked what she was doing. I find her better than other more exalted female leads.

@Fern the Korean idiom or folktale or whatever of the Umbrella Seller and the Salt Seller/Vendor quite escaped me. I searched for it but without much success. There is at least one folk tale (a dark one) of a Salt Vendor who goes around a lot and knows what’s going on … and there’s murder involved. Not been able to find references to Umbrella Vendors though.

@Fern, I did wonder too if by blemish, Hyun meant that JH is his own illegitimate son. But then, all the more he should want to put his own son up for CEO of the LJ group. Why should he only favour DH?

Hello, Everyone.

In addition to the qualities listed above, maybe there is misunderstanding. DH accused JH of using him to further JH’s happiness, but we hear in a conversation between JH and AJ when she asks him why he is so invested in his brother, it seems that he is doing all he can to promote DH’s happiness because at some point in the past DH ‘saved’ JH. As at the end of episode 2, we don’t know what that means.

Do you suppose each brother is trying to support the other? Otherwise, why doesn’t DH come clean to his family and quit the business? I can only think it’s because he believes JH would suffer as well.

It makes me think that no one is really listening to DH. He said to AJ, “Telling them that you believe in them could become the heaviest burden.” He described how he is fearful since his studio got damaged and his friend got beaten. We saw that he ran away from that situation – it seemed like he didn’t even take care of his friend. I would say that DH lacks confidence when faced with stressful situations and shouldn’t be forced towards them. He prefers flight to fight.

@GrowingBeautifully, yes, it was indeed the salt seller vs the umbrella vendor. One anti-marriage and one pro-. In the animation in the intro, a woman places a large umbrella over a man. I’ll have a look to see if I can find out more.