No Loss in Love with Shin Mina’s fake marriage

by solstices

It’s time to ring the wedding bells for TVING’s upcoming rom-com No Loss in Love, starring a pragmatic heroine who walks down the aisle to safeguard her career. As with any contract marriage worth its while, of course, sparks soon begin to fly between our protagonist and her pretend husband.

Shin Mina (Our Blues) stars as as Sohn Hae-young, whose name itself is a homophone for “You’re losing out!” Alas, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy; Hae-young hasn’t had the best lot in life, from an unloving mother to a two-timing ex. Worse yet, Hae-young soon finds herself at risk of losing out on a job promotion. For some inexplicable reason, marriage would improve her career prospects — ironic since it’s often the opposite in the real world — and so Hae-young resolves to find herself a husband.

Said groom is Kim Young-dae (Moon in the Day), playing the convenience store part-timer Kim Ji-wook. With his righteous spirit, Ji-wook spends his days helping others as a civilian officer, while stocking shelves and scanning barcodes by night. Ji-wook’s diligent work ethic allows him to handle customers with ease, save for one obnoxious regular — none other than Hae-young, of course. Though her baffling proposal catches him off guard, he eventually agrees to play the role of the groom, not wanting to cause her trouble.

At our heroine’s office, we have Lee Sang-yi (My Demon) as the CEO Bok Gyu-hyun. A cynical chaebol, Gyu-hyun doesn’t believe in the far-fetched fantasies of fated love. Needless to say, he’s even less inclined towards marriage. For all his anti-romance sentiments, though, Gyu-hyun doesn’t disavow it in fiction. In his free time, Gyu-hyun is an avid reader of a web novel, consistently leaving enthusiastic yet anonymous comments.

Amusingly, that web novel is a 19+ rated work by the popular author Nam Ja-yeon, played by Han Ji-hyun (Cheer Up). Writing under the pen name Yeon Bo-ra, Ja-yeon lives together with Hae-young, and the two share a bond that’s closer than family. One day, Ja-yeon accidentally gets entangled with Gyu-hyun — presumably through their mutual link Hae-young — and Gyu-hyun quickly realizes his heart is capable of fluttering after all.