Episode 5 of Boyfriend on Demand begins with Eun-ho and Mi-rae heading out together for dinner. She explains she's been working as a webtoon developer since the last time they met, and even gets a makeshift business card whisked into thin air for her to sell the story to him too.
Mi-rae is impressed over the game's reality, and believes she can be herself here properly. Blurring the line between reality and virtual reality, Eun-ho now has access to her phone in the real world, where they can exchange calls and text messages, even after logging out.
Because of Mi-rae's dependence on the technology, she winds up late to work. Kyeong-nam challenges her over the idea of a completely original new submission to pore over, and they also butt heads over the "silly plots" in the charts. This is a dig at Song's stories of course and the atmosphere is frosty between them, to say the least.
Given the pair are judging together, they also end up on an awkward lunch date, where Kyeong-nam interrogates her over what she likes and loathes.
It's super awkward and of course, we all know that Mi-rae is really just biding her time before she sees Eun-ho again. Her obsession with Eun-ho spills over at work too, where she begins smiling lovingly at her screen while sending messages back and forth. Kyeong-nam picks up on it but Mi-rae keeps what she's up to a secret.
Mi-rae's growing feelings for her perfect boyfriend are only compounded by Ji-yeon showing up at her place, bawling her eyes out and lamenting over what a mess she's caused. She feels like she's wasted so much time dating and after 30 guys, she's ready to leave it for a bit.
In fact, all that time she spent on dating, Ji-yeon can't help but wonder if there's really a soulmate or someone out there for her. This gets Mi-rae thinking too, as she contemplates her time spent with Eun-ho and all the perfect dates they've had.
In the real world, the Webtoon group prepare for the upcoming Naemo team workshop. Mi-rae doesn't really have much of a choice but to go ahead, given her Director is a master grudge-holder and she needs to get back in his good books.
The Director has been giving Mi-rae the cold shoulder for 3 weeks, both inside and outside of work. This time it's an overnight retreat that they'll be going on, and Kyeong-nam decides to head along too. There's not much signal here, so messaging Eun-ho is off the table, giving the group a chance to spend quality time with each other.
Whilst together and drunk, Kyeong-nam tries to make small talk with Mi-rae. He brings up how he doesn't do well with soju and in his drunken state, is more eccentric and weird than before. He stacks up the empty soju bottles in a row, neatly on the side, and even loses a bottle cap too.
After some impromptu karaoke, she winds up walking in on Eun-ju and Kyeong-nam sitting together outside talking. Mi-rae believes it's bordering on romance, but in the morning, as they head back, Eun-ju encourages Mi-rae to sit in the front.
In fact, Kyeong-nam drives her back and questions their work together. He's concerned because her sales numbers have dropped and Director Hwang is a little worried as a result. Kyeong-nam is en-route to meet with Hwany about a new ad campaign he has. He's replacing Yun-song this time as the advertisers are worried.
Kyeong-nam also admits just before dropping Mi-rae off that he likes her. He actually tries to ask her out for a date but she's so flustered and surprised that she can't reply. Mi-rae does play it over in her mind, and believes he may just be messing with her, until she remembers that Eun-ju's encounter that night was far more brutal than she'd let on. Kyeong-nam shot her down immediately, telling Eun-ju they have no chance of dating.
Mi-rae is scrambling and she's eventually confronted by Kyeong-nam who wants an answer. Mi-rae eventually tells him she has another guy (Eun-ho), and Kyeong-nam leaves her alone.
Despite spending more time with Eun-ho, Mi-rae finds herself reeling a little when she checks online and sees there are rave reviews for Eun-ho by multiple other women. Many have found him to be the best match on BOD and all the experiences she's had are identical to that of the other women.
The illusion of perfection starts to wear off for Mi-rae here, as she finds that her "experiences" aren't quite so unique the next time around. In fact, she decides to skip out on one experience with Eun-ho midway through and contemplates whether to just quit her subscription completely.
Mi-rae's dating manager shows up and talks to her about the current predicament she's facing. There are 12,434 other women also dating Eun-ho right now and it's continuing to rise. To combat that, BOD has a solution. They actually have a subscription level – BOD 901, which is a bespoke love match created entirely for her. This would be a perfect man created only for her, called Gu Yeong-il.
There are a ton of questions and the reviews are glowing, so Mi-rae winds up optimizing the perfect guy to meet in this virtual reality world. The funny thing is… he looks exactly like Kyeong-nam.
The Episode Review
The irony with the illusion of perfection is that in trying to find the perfect guy or gal, you sometimes miss out on what's right in front of you. Nobody is perfect, but sometimes you do find people you just naturally click with and this is precisely what Mi-rae is missing out on as she continues to indulge in the throngs of virtual dating.
It's an interesting dilemma and we're already seeing signs of this in real life, with recent news that women are dating GPT variants, and guys are indulging with virtual AI bots. However, this episode does a reasonably good job of explaining how these virtual companions have simply been programmed and don't think for themselves.
Mi-rae is starting to see that now but of course, it's going to take her a while to fully accept it! As we cross the halfway point, it'll be interesting to see what direction this one goes next.
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