Character Arc
Kim Woo-joo, played by Choi Woo-shik, is the male lead of Would You Marry Me, introduced as a brilliant but emotionally guarded heir to South Korea's oldest bakery. Polished and capable on the surface, he carries a reserve that keeps people at a distance, making him an unlikely candidate for the role he ends up taking on: a pretend husband in a scheme to win a luxury home reserved for newlyweds. His arrangement with Yoo Me-ri begins as a cold, transactional contract rather than anything resembling romance.
As the fake marriage unfolds, Woo-joo is drawn out of his careful detachment by the daily intimacy of playing house with a near-stranger. The pressure of fooling a watchful inspector, the small domestic routines, and Me-ri's persistence chip away at his guarded exterior, and the performance of being a newlywed slowly stops feeling like a performance. His arc is the classic slow thaw of a closed-off romantic-comedy lead, learning to let someone in while the stakes of their shared secret keep rising.
Across the single season, Woo-joo anchors the show's central will-they-won't-they tension, with the contradiction between the contract he signed and the feelings he develops driving much of the comedy and the heart of the story. Choi Woo-shik plays him with the understated charm the actor is known for. As a recent release, specific plot points for Kim Woo-joo should be verified against official sources.