I tried this with low expectations anticipating a half clone of Business Proposal but with each passing episode was increasingly delighted. While they both have a Cinderella element involving a young woman getting caught up in a difficult relationship with a higher status male, the emphasis is so different.

The set up:

The female lead, Yun Seo, together with her little brother, ran away from an abusive drunken father (he beat her and her brother) and drunken mother (she let it all happen) within minutes of finding out she had been accepted into a college. Years later having overcome many obstacles she now works in a major company as a Team Leader.

The youngest member of the team is the male lead, Ju Won, who undergoes severe training as the junior most member. Over time Yun Seo and Ju Won begin a secret relationship that lasts almost two years until she stumbles upon the fact that Ju Won is actually the second son of the Chairwoman of their company who after returning from an extended study abroad was placed incognito inside the company to get on the job training.

And complications ensue:

The first episode opens with the Chairwoman meeting with Yun Seo to tell her to break up with her son for a huge amount of money. The story that unfolds has a lot to say about not only Yun Seo and her difficult upbringing and current situation, but also surprisingly about arranged marriages and the difficulties the upper crust face in finding marriage mates.

The Chairwoman is not an evil person. We learn she is in an arranged marriage with a man who lives in Germany and is not faithful (not that she seems to care). She’s tried to raise her two sons to be cold and calculating to survive in their upper class world.

The story contrasts the evolving relationships of the Chairwoman’s elder son, SiWon, and his wife, with the problems facing his younger brother, Ju Won, and his chosen mate, Yun Seo.

SiWon is in an arranged marriage. His wife has lived in Paris for the past two years and SiWon, we can tell, is lonely but has adjusted and even appreciates living alone (he goes pantless around the house). His life is disrupted when his wife returns suddenly to cohabit (pants now required).

Over in the other relationship Yun Seo tries to break up with Ju Won as per her agreement with the Chairwoman. However, Ju Won resists both Yun Seo and his mother, the Chairwoman, and fights to keep Yun Seo.

At first his behavior seems a bit pathetic but as the story develops we learn why Ju Won is being entirely rational in his pursuit to keep Yun Seo.

For someone in Ju Won’s upper rich crust it is nearly impossible to find a mate especially one from a lower income level who isn’t swayed by the opportunity to marry into power and money. The Chairwoman cannot imagine that Yun Seo is anything other than a gold digger motivated by marrying into the family for the money.

SiWon failed to find a love match and had to enter an arranged marriage.

Ju Won, however, spent two years being tortured incognito and all on his own wooed Yun Seo into a relationship. In fact once she knew his true identity she didn’t think it could work out so she was receptive to the Chairwoman’s offer. Ju Won at one point bursts out saying he’s not giving her up because the relationship he made with her is the single most worthwhile achievement in his entire life (where everything has been handed to him).

Now that his true identity is out he is destined for an arranged marriage like his elder brother, and Yun Seo represents his one and only chance to ever marry for love. So his refusal to give in to his mother’s demands is entirely rational.