Episode 2 of Boyfriend on Demand begins with Mi-rae inside this virtual reality world, surrounded by a number of orbs that look a bit like the memories from Inside Out. Instead of emotions popping out though, Mi-rae instead meets her new, personalized dating manager. She's here to guide Mi-rae through this experience, managing all her dates personally.
Mi-rae is given a ring to wear while she's inside the experience, which she can wear while logged in. When she takes it off, she'll return to the real world. Mi-rae places it on her thumb and heads on in to see Si-woo at the beach where we left off in episode 1.
Mi-rae decides to remove the ring when he touches her, especially as it seems so real. Our protagonist does some research online, where she learns that the game is experienced with all senses and the technology hones in to every aspect of this, designed to revolutionize the romantic landscape forever.
There are over 900 different themes and numerous boyfriends to choose from too, which piques Mi-rae's interest. She's rather impressed over the whole endeavor, even if she hasn't even processed it properly—or gone on dates either.
At the office, she's still taken aback by what's happened. While she sits at her desk contemplating the game, Kyeong-nam is concerned when he learns that his client, Hwany, is being moved to a different day. Their webtoon is now being switched over to Fridays which will directly compete with Yun-song's webtoon.
The Director believes it'll bring the best out of both writers, breeding healthy competition, but Kyeong-nam is not so sure. For now he doesn't tell Mi-rae about what's happening. That's probably for the best given Mi-rae ends up seeing Si-woo everywhere.
That night, she dons the headset and decides to indulge in this date with Si-woo. She winds up at a hotel with him, where she poses as a worker and gets involved in these cliched tropes. It's actually pretty funny, especially as she ends up cringing and struggles to indulge in the dialogue. She hurriedly removes her ring.
At work, Mi-rae learns about the Hwany switch and immediately confronts the Director about this change. Yun-song is obviously not going to take well to this news, but she's currently in a karaoke booth ignoring Mi-rae's calls.
Now, Yun-song is actually aware of the date switching and has decided to just lackadaisically concede and let him have it. The thing is, if Song's ratings drop and switch to Hwany, that would not reflect well on her and it would conversely give Kyeong-nam the edge too.
Mi-rae sweet-talks Song into competing properly, which comes from working together to come up with some good story ideas. The thing is, Song is ready to throw in the towel, tired of this slop she's been writing and knowing she's only coasted for as long as she has because of Si-woo's good looks.
Needing a break from everything, Mi-rae decides to don the headset and get back into the Boyfriend on Demand game again. It doesn't take long for her to meet the Chief Secretary assisting Mr. Choi, Choi Min-ju. There's also the driver, Mr. Ko, who isn't afraid to turn things into an action flick by getting into fights with fellow drivers, as you do.
These characters are simply here to serve as a reminder of Song's cheesy writing, and also show that Mi-rae has taken her words to heart, bringing in Song's supporting characters to this experience.
The real main event though is Si-woo's date with Mi-rae, which leans into a number of different indulgences, including expensive outfits, drinking champagne on the rooftop and eating good food.
This then leads in nicely to the opening scenes from episode 1, as Mi-rae has an idea over how to spruce up the webtoon. Mi-rae heads over to Song's place and decides they need to "go backward to go forward." In essence, Mi-rae believes Si-woo exhibits the very essence of classic romantic fantasy. Song needs to produce more of this sort of content and lean into the tropes and skip out on cheesy dialogue; back to basics and leaning into the chaebol fantasy elements to appease readers.
Of course, there's still the real-life tension between Kyeong-nam and Mi-rae to contend with as well, who are now competing with one another professionally, and end up staying late in the office together. It takes a while but Song does upload her story… and 'The Man to Know' hits the top spot!
When Mi-rae heads to the office the next day, she's the talk of the town. She throws shade at Kyeong-nam with a thin smile, and revels in the applause from her teammates. Funnily enough, all the online comments and reviews are glowing, happy with the direction the story is now going.
In her free time, Mi-rae continues to do her chaebol dating with Si-woo, who even tries to propose to her. However, Mi-rae wants to keep things casual. In the end, he agrees not to push the engagement… but he does want her to be his girlfriend.
Si-woo leans in to kiss her, causing Mi-rae to hit a "dopamine explosion" as she calls it. In the middle of this though, the entire experience suddenly freezes. Turns out she's already gone over her 50-hour allotment and she can no longer date Si-woo.
Mi-rae is shocked when she finds out and it spills over into her real world persona, as she's distracted and certainly not herself at work. When Mr. Min questions her over her experience with the app, Mi-rae points out Si-woo's demeanor.
Min encourages her to branch out, given there are 899 other men on this app to date and she's only seen a fraction of what's available. Sure, Si-woo has left an impression on her, but hey, it can't hurt to get another dopamine hit right?
Mi-rae jumps into another experience and meets her next potential virtual boyfriend…
The Episode Review
Boyfriend on Demand, while positioning itself as a cutesy romance, also has an interesting edge to it now that it's exploring the difference between virtual and real life dating. We touch on (very briefly) the effect this has on your real job when you become too addicted to technology as well. Let's be honest here though, the show isn't meant to be a deep exploration of these topics, but it's good to have this included all the same.
What's interesting though is the way Mi-rae's own dating experiences have led her to become a better producer for this webtoon, which largely leans into the "write what you know" motif for authenticity. It works for the most part, even if Mi-rae's ideas are so bare bones and basic that anybody with any experience in this field could have come up with it without much hassle.
Either way though, Boyfriend on Demand manages to blend these two differing worlds together in an interesting manner and it poses an interesting dilemma, especially as the chemistry between Mi-rae and Kyeong-nam continues to grow in the background.
The situation involving Si-woo is an interesting one and we have yet to see whether it drastically alters the way Mi-rae perceives love. It's also clear that Kyeong-nam and Mi-rae are likely to hook up in the real world by the time this show finishes, but right now, Mi-rae is having the time of her life exploring all these different romances.
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