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Pierce Conran

This article contains mild spoilers.
Lead cast: Shin Min-a, Kim Young-dae, Lee Sang-yi, Han Ji-hyun
Latest Nielsen rating: 2.9 per cent
Things have been moving very fast for Son Hae-young (Shin Min-a, Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha) and Kim Ji-wook (Kim Young-dae, The Penthouse) in the romantic comedy-drama No Gain No Love, currently airing.


Starting the series as quasi-strangers – Hae-young was a regular customer in the convenience store Ji-wook worked at – the pair had tied the knot by episode three.
Granted, this is a marriage of convenience for Hae-young, who is sick of seeing her married colleagues receive benefits and opportunities seemingly not available to single employees.
Some time passes after their sham marriage and honeymoon, but by episode four their unusual relationship takes a strange turn when Ji-wook winds up as a new recruit in Hae-young’s company.
Hae-young tries her best to hide him but, given most of her colleagues attended her wedding, it is not a ruse she can keep up for long.

She soon finds herself before a disciplinary board after another new recruit reports her for workplace abuse against Ji-wook, finding no other way to interpret their unusual workplace dynamic.
In a classic K-drama show of devotion, Ji-wook sweeps into the boardroom and grabs her hand, outing them as a married couple. This initially causes embarrassment for Hae-young, but it is better than any of the alternatives.
However, their relationship is still a fictitious one and, through this dynamic, the show reveals some common truths about private relationships in general.
Few of us are likely to engage in a situation quite like Hae-young’s, but many of us understand what it means to project a desired image of our personal lives to colleagues and acquaintances by eliding certain facts.

Hae-young’s close friends know what she is up to, but what does it matter? As long as she remains a proficient worker and feels on an equal footing with her colleagues, her private life is surely none of their business.
Then again, this is a story in which fiction is destined to become reality. We know from the moment we hit play that Hae-young and Ji-wook will wind up together; it is only a matter of how and when.
The more composed and observant Ji-wook is the first to recognise the emotions bubbling up between the pair, but Hae-young’s friends catch on even earlier.
When Hae-young makes awkward fake couple videos by herself, they talk about her empty eyes. When they later observe her with Ji-wook, they notice them come alive.
The fake marriage process gives the pair a chance to spend more time together, sometimes at closer quarters than expected.
One instance is when they are forced to share a hotel room on their wedding night as Hae-young’s ex-boyfriend, Ahn Woo-jae (Go Wook), checks into the next-door room with his wife.

Later, they spend more time together in the office and then even more when the show ticks another major cliché off the K-drama romcom list – Hae-young insists Ji-wook move into the shack on the roof above her flat.
No Gain No Love also provides a meaty secondary romance between Hae-young’s erotic-web-novelist roommate Nam Ja-yeon (Han Ji-hyun, The Penthouse) and Hae-young’s boss Bok Gyu-hyun (Lee Sang-yi, Bloodhounds).
There is nothing cute about Ja-yeon and Gyu-hyun’s initial meeting, which happens when he is arrested for posting hateful online comments on chapters of her latest web novel.
Not only is Ja-yeon upset, but the comments reawaken traumatic memories from the time before she went to live in an orphanage and then as a foster child with Hae-young and her mother.

The prominence of this secondary pairing is partly down to the star wattage behind the characters being a bit stronger than for usual second-string roles. It is also because these characters are confirmed to be getting their own spin-off drama, called Spice Up Your Love.
This means it could be a long road ahead for the pair, but they are off to a good start, with Lee in particular shining in his role as a corporate heir who gradually proves more complex than meets the eye.
The most recent episode ended with Hae-young and Ji-wook starting to get serious. But once they are honest with one another, they will also need to be honest with everyone else.
Expect a bit of soul-searching as the story enters its final lap.
No Gain No Love is streaming on Amazon Prime.


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Shin Min-a and Kim Young-dae as sham newlyweds Son Hae-young and Kim Ji-wook in a still from No Gain No Love. Things are getting serious between the main characters in this unusual office romance K-drama, as they find themselves at closer quarters than expected.

Shin Min-a as Son Hae-young and Kim Young-dae as Kim Ji-wook in a still from No Gain No Love.

Shin Min-a as Son Hae-young in a still from No Gain No Love.

Kim Young-dae as Kim Ji-wook in a still from No Gain No Love.

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Kim Ji-soo as Moo-jin’s ex-wife, Geum Ae-yeong, in a still from Romance in the House.

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Kim Young-dae in a still from No Gain No Love.

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This office romance K-drama is heating up as the leads’ sham marriage turns into more. Can they be honest with each other and everyone else?
