The first episode of "Would You Marry Me" unfurls with Ms. Yoo Me-ri, a mastermind behind product advertisement design, taking the stage at the 2025 Blue Crab Festival Design, her presentation in front of an all-male panel of judgmental eyes. One panelist lets fly with an offensive joke, and the rest follow suit, embarrassing Me-ri into a corner. She plays dumb, asking the perpetrator to elucidate his intent, turning the awkward moment into a full-blown clash. Me-ri stands her ground and removes her company, Merry Design Studio, from the bidding process, leaving her assistant and sole employee, Shin Song-hee, to ponder the company's precarious financial state. Song-hee worries aloud about how they'll make next month's rent, but Me-ri assures her that she'll figure it out.
Me-ri is preparing for her wedding as she stops by to pick up the wedding rings and finalize honeymoon and hotel arrangements. She texts her fiancé, Kim Woo-ju, only to find him deeply engaged in a kiss with Jenny. When Me-ri inquires about his whereabouts, he lies about still being at work.
Later, as Me-ri unpacks at their newlywed's home while still on a call with her mother, it becomes clear that Me-ri took a loan from her to secure the new place and handle everything herself. As she steps on an earring that doesn't belong to her, her suspicion piques. A closer look reveals strands of hair on the pillow. A quick dive into Woo-ju's social media uncovers the girl, and Me-ri confronts Woo-ju head-on.
As Woo-ju remains indifferent to Me-ri's pain, he attempts to dismiss Jenny as a fleeting affair, assertively stating that he has already ended their relationship. However, Jenny sends him a photo, claiming she is waiting for him. Me-ri, desperate to prevent further embarrassment, tries to snatch the phone from Woo-ju's hand, leading to a public breakup spectacle. In a fit of rage, Me-ri hurls an iced coffee in his face before storming out of the restaurant.
Meanwhile, in another part of the world, Kim Woo-joo, the grandson of a chaebol family that owns Myungsoondang, the largest bakery in the country, boards a flight from New York to Incheon. A fellow passenger requests Woo-joo to give up his seat so he can sit beside his elderly mother, but Woo-joo declines the offer. Later, we learn that Woo-joo overheard the passenger's plan to force his mother to sign over some land deeds on the plane before landing in Incheon. The elderly passenger is grateful for Woo-joo's refusal and commends him for his moral courage.
However, Woo-joo's grandmother calls and asks him to stop by for some home-cooked meals. But Woo-joo insists on taking a one-month vacation before returning home. It turns out that Me-ri and Woo-ju had already registered their marriage before the wedding, so their divorce was approved one month later. Me-ri takes it upon herself to file the divorce decree later as Woo-ju quickly rushes off to join Jenny on a holiday. After crying her heart out at a batting field, wondering whether clean breakups are truly possible, she heads home and continues to live her life.
One month later, more trouble knocks on Me-ri's door when she is called to the police station following a rental con. It turns out that the house owner's mother helped pay millions in deposit as a newlywed since her home was out of the country. The realtor's assistant found someone to pretend to be the owner and signed a fake lease with Me-ri. Now she has one week to vacate the home or risk being sued for trespassing. The only way to get her deposit back is if she files a case against the con artists.
Devastated and seeking solace, Me-ri reaches out to her ex-fiancé Woo-ju for assistance, only to find him enjoying a vacation with Jenny and dismissing her call without hesitation. Alone and unsettled, she heads out for a drink, only to receive a call from her mother informing her of a heart-wrenching act: sending food to Woo-ju's family. The news sends her into a drunken stupor.
Meanwhile, Woo-joo, who is driving in the vicinity, is redirected by his GPS to the same street where the unsteady Me-ri is making her way home. She frantically calls out for Woo-ju, ignoring the path, and in her confusion, accidentally collides with Woo-joo's car. Woo-joo steps out to check on her, offering his phone number as a means of reaching out if she needs help later.
Confused and emotional, Me-ri mistakes Woo-joo for Woo-ju due to the resemblance of their names and starts hitting him. The situation reaches an embarrassing climax when Me-ri mistakenly grabs a cactus as a stool, resulting in a chaotic mess.
Me-ri finds herself at the hospital, where Woo-joo's friend, Doctor Yoon Jin-gyeong, who has a crush on Woo-joo, removes cactus needles from Me-ri's bottom. As Woo-joo chats casually with Jin-gyeong along the hospital corridors, he spots Me-ri limping away and rushes to her aid, driving her home.
Elsewhere, the luxury building company, Beaute Department Store, holds a lottery for a home giveaway to newlyweds. The draw is rigged, as the CEO, Lee Sung-woo, wants to use the house as a gift for the mayor to secure approval for a new building complex. Sung-woo's assistant and managing director of Beaute, Baek Sang-hyun, has everything arranged, and all Sung-woo has to do is pretend to pick the card from the applicants.
Before heading out for the grand prize drawing, Sung-woo folds the ballot and hides it in his coat so he can know which one to draw. However, fate has other plans as the ballot slips and falls into the mix, and luckily for Me-ri, she had done the same fold on her ballot.
When Me-ri receives the call from Mr Kwon informing her of her win, she must provide proof of marriage as a qualification. Disheartened, she checks online and discovers that she is still legally married to Woo-ju. She downloads the marriage certificate and sends it to Beaute. While Mr Kwon is excited to present the lucky winner with the house, Sang-hyun and Sung-woo are scrambling to figure out how to cancel the award.
Sang-hyun learns with a pang of disappointment that Me-ri's husband will not be joining her at the award ceremony, citing his absence due to being abroad. This revelation necessitates a new condition: both the husband and wife must be physically present and willing to participate in all publicity related to the event.
Me-ri, unwilling to relinquish her home, reaches out to Woo-ju in a desperate attempt to find a solution. But her calls go unanswered, as if they were cast into an electronic void. Just when she is about to abandon hope, a text message from Woo-joo interrupts her despair. The message inquires about her visit to the hospital for a hand check-up, and in that moment of respite, a bold idea sparks in her mind.
As the episode draws to a close, Me-ri finds herself standing face-to-face with Woo-joo. She lays out her proposition: Could he be her husband for the award ceremony? The air crackles with the intensity of their exchange, as if every word carries the weight of an unspoken understanding between them.
