Episode 9 of Boyfriend on Demand picks up with Kyeong-nam kissing Mi-rae. It's a bit awkward between them but Kyeong-nam hands over a ticket for the art exhibition after, and tells her he hopes they'll be able to go together.
At the exhibition, Kyeong-nam looks over the paintings and almost gives up hope when she doesn't show. When he leaves though, he notices Mi-rae about to cross the road, fashionably late. The pair even hold hands, and catch a scary movie afterwards.
The duo have a great time and they go all-in on dating. Mi-rae is ready to let her guard down here, and that extends to work too, where the pair have a cheeky hand hold in the elevator.
Meanwhile, Ji-yeon continues to indulge in BOD, but her sultry, passionate manner actually sees the dating manager struggle to keep up with her veracity. Ji-yeon is drunk on the power, racing through these different scenarios as somewhat of an expert. She writes an article on her experiences, where it winds up getting over 10k views online.
Mi-rae and Kyeong-nam continue their cutesy relationship in the midst of this, with the latter even calling her a cutie too. However, there are still work obligations to contend with in the midst of this, which includes Mi-rae's need to appease and help Song's popularity.
The biggest problem though is that Song is so wrapped up in her digital world and boyfriend that she's neglecting her career and obligations to the webtoon. This also explains why she had a big break from work beforehand.
At the office, an advert for BOD comes on TV and Kyeong-nam scoffs at the idea of any woman getting involved with it. Mi-rae remains silent. However, he's pulled away from Mi-rae that night by the rest of the writers, given Hwany has uploaded early and ahead of schedule.
Forced out with drinks with the others, lightweight Kyeong-nam shows up at the office and the pair have a cutesy little moment before parting ways for the night. However, in their absence, the rankings change for the webtoons and Song is back on top again.
However, she's very clearly losing her mojo and becoming way too invested in the game. Will she stick it out for the time being? Well, Hwany is starting to feel the pressure regardless!
Given the drama involved with Ji-yeon and her articles, this actually gets through to Mr. Min at work. Her alias is BoyfriendKiller and Ji-yeon's reviews have been likened to walkthroughs, guiding and navigating women through the dating world as a sort of hijack for their app to bypass most of the work.
The thing is, if women fly through candidates like she has, then they may well lose a lot of customers and they won't get renewals. Ji-yeon started 2 months ago and she's met 200 men so far, so she is certainly becoming somewhat of an expert here!
However, there's another problem. The Man To Know's new plots, despite their popularity, are struggling. In fact, they're now accused of plagiarizing Boyfriend on Demand. They've noticed similarities between Si-woo and the guy inside the game, but of course we knew this from episode 1.
Public sentiment on Boyfriend on Demand changes instantly. People turn on the app and the media cover it extensively, despite the app clearly making a lot of money prior to this. The comments are vicious and Song's fans are going mad.
In the midst of this chaos, Mi-rae messages Kyeong-nam and asks him to help get her USB key and look in her files. He agrees and heads to the office, just as Mi-rae realizes, with horror, that she has evidence of being logged into Boyfriend on Demand for 50+ hours on there.
Mi-rae scrambles back home, but it's too late because Kyeong-nam is already there and finds her headset. He also finds the USB drive and notices a folder labelled "Review". It would seem like Kyeong-nam isn't aware, given how he hugs her and acts nonchalantly, but Mi-rae is still worried. She doesn't want Kyeong-nam to think any differently of her.
Later that night, Kyeong-nam can't sleep so he heads out for a drink in Mi-rae's apartment. There, he finds a picture of Mi-rae and eventually a video from Yeong-il too.
Kyeong-nam ends up in the game, playing out as Mi-rae's avatar, and finds himself face to face with Yeong-il.
The Episode Review
The issue involving Song and the plagiarism is a bit of a nothing-burger here, and hilariously feels thrown in for the sake of late drama. I appreciate that she may have "stolen" one of the plots from BOD, but remember this is the same app that made a deal with Song in episode 1 to use her characters within the game.
So outside of a disclaimer that BOD should have maybe added and both coming out and mutually explaining what happened there… what's the big deal? BOD isn't an unknown app either, given their company can afford pop-up stores, TV adverts and more but yet it's only an issue now when people (after spending months on the game and not noticing any similarities in all that time) have only now decided that it's a problem.
Aside from the manufactured drama, we now have the situation involving Kyeong-nam and Yeong-il which is, admittedly, a little more intriguing. However, by this point it's clear that Boyfriend on Demand didn't need 10 episodes to tell its story. Still, we've got the finale up next and it's anyone's guess how this one will end.
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