8 Manhwa Like A Business Proposal Worth Reading Next
KuraManga Team··10 min read
A Business Proposal works on a setup most romance manhwa overcomplicate. Ha-ri agrees to one fake blind date as a favor to her best friend — show up as a 'super-vixen' to scare off any potential matches. The man she's supposed to scare is her own CEO, who has decided to marry the first woman willing to sign whatever paperwork his family demands. Both of them are pretending. Neither of them planned to keep pretending. The series spends most of its arcs on the fact that fake-dating works really well when neither party knows the other isn't actually faking.
The picks below all sit somewhere in that intersection — modern Korean office settings, fake identities or contract dynamics, comedic chemistry instead of fantasy palace politics. A few are pure office romance; a few add a body-swap or contract twist; one or two layer in the genre-jumping K-drama energy that made A Business Proposal a Netflix breakout. All of them are free to read on KuraManga, and all of them rest on the same emotional engine — two professionals who weren't supposed to fall for each other and don't know how to stop.
1
My Boss's Special Request
1
My Boss's Special Request
Choi Jung-woo runs G Cosmetics, an emerging brand competing in the Korean cosmetics industry. Her secretary, Shin Soohyun, is the kind of efficient, attractive employee every executive wants and most workplaces refuse to admit they want. The special order arrives one morning: 'Shin Secretary, marry me.' The marriage conditions are favorable. The professional logic is sound. The fact that the proposal is being made by Choi Jung-woo to her own male secretary — gender-flipping the standard CEO-romance dynamic — is the joke and the engine.
Of every manhwa on the site, My Boss's Special Request is the closest tonal twin to A Business Proposal — same Korean office setting, same business-arrangement-becomes-real-romance arc, same comedic chemistry between two people pretending the contract is purely professional. The gender flip (female CEO, male secretary) makes this a useful pivot for readers who liked the trope and want to see it from a less-explored angle. Recommended as the absolute first stop for any Business Proposal reader.
A one-night stand with a stranger after the BFF she'd been crushing on started dating her other BFF was supposed to be Hee-won's clean-break ending. The series picks up two months later, when the pregnancy test comes back positive and the stranger turns out to be Doo-joon — a man whose first instinct, upon being told, is to marry her. The series follows the regimented, by-the-book Doo-joon insisting on doing right by Hee-won while Hee-won keeps insisting she doesn't need rescuing.
Positively Yours shares A Business Proposal's specific tonal balance — strong comedic chemistry between two adults who both think they have the upper hand. The series also leans on the same misunderstanding-as-romance engine, where every interaction depends on which character knows what the other is hiding. The art is unusually polished for the modern-romance genre, with master-tier character expression work that does heavy emotional lifting. Best for readers who want the Business Proposal vibe with a heavier emotional layer.
The premise gets its energy from a soul-swap that happens during office hours. Cha Ju An is JK Electronics' most promoted career woman — competent, focused, alone. Yoo Do Jin is the office's golden boy — kind, attractive, bumbling. One morning the two of them switch bodies for reasons neither one understands, and the supernatural force responsible is apparently trying to make them date each other.
An Hour of Romance is by the same author as What's Wrong with Secretary Kim, which gives it the same crisp office-comedy timing fans of A Business Proposal know to look for. The body-swap mechanic also forces a level of mutual understanding most office romances handle with twenty chapters of misunderstanding instead — both characters have to live the other's job to misunderstand each other anymore. Recommended for readers who liked the workplace comedy and want it with a supernatural wrinkle.
Discovering your husband is in love with your younger sister on your birthday is the kind of betrayal that wraps up most romance manhwa. Discovering it's also the day you die is what kicks Perfect Marriage Revenge into gear. The protagonist regresses one year, with a new plan: marry her sister's man before her sister can, then make sure the marriage is unbearable enough that the sister's plan never lands. The complication is that the man this time is genuinely a perfect husband.
What this shares with A Business Proposal is the contract-marriage-becomes-real-romance engine, layered with a regression mechanic that gives the protagonist all the leverage. Where Ha-ri pretends to be someone else to scare off a marriage, this protagonist pretends to be in love to engineer one. Both heroines end up trapped by feelings they were trying to weaponize. Recommended for readers who want the Business Proposal premise with higher emotional stakes and a regressor's edge.
Kim Yooyoung is sick of being the nice, boring lawyer her overbearing mother raised. The night before an arranged blind date, she breaks character and spends it with a seductive stranger from the hotel bar. The stranger turns out to be Cha Jihoon — her blind date and the hotel's high-class owner. The series follows her attempts to keep the previous night a secret while also marrying the man she now has to pretend she didn't sleep with.
Marriage Situation shares the A Business Proposal trick of two people accidentally locking themselves into a romance neither one planned. The blind-date premise mirrors Ha-ri's arc closely — Yooyoung steps into a role she didn't expect to like, then has to keep performing it. The tonal register is more mature than Business Proposal's light comedy, with adult themes and more explicit chemistry, which makes it a useful pivot for readers who want the trope with more heat.
An ex-boyfriend walking into your office as a major client is the kind of professional disaster most people only have nightmares about. Jihyo is an Account Executive at a mid-size ad firm. Jegook is the ex she was determined to leave in the past. The firm cannot afford to lose him as a client, so Jihyo has to figure out how to spend her workdays in meetings with the man she just spent years trying to forget.
What this shares with A Business Proposal is the forced-proximity-via-work mechanic, played to maximum awkwardness. Where Ha-ri's setup is a fake date that becomes professional, this is a professional relationship that becomes a confrontation with a personal past. The series is shorter and more focused than most office romance — fewer subplots, more concentrated chemistry. Recommended for readers who liked the workplace-stakes element of Business Proposal and want it in a tighter package.
Max and Joy share a workspace and nothing else. He keeps his head down. She's the social center of the office. The setup is straightforward — until Max accidentally sees something on Joy's laptop he wasn't supposed to see, and the social distance he'd carefully maintained collapses overnight. The series follows him getting pulled into the office dynamics he'd been observing safely from the wall.
Ctrl+Alt+Resign shares A Business Proposal's interest in workplace dynamics as the romance setup rather than the romance obstacle. Both series treat the office as the actual chemistry venue — not a backdrop where romance happens despite the work. The introverted-meets-extroverted contrast also plays cleanly against Ha-ri and Taemu's opposing energy, just in a lower-stakes register. Best for readers who liked the workplace chemistry and want the comedy dialed down a little.
Taejun Kim turned thirty walking only on well-paved paths. Outstanding talent, perfect family, prosperous career — and a quiet boredom that pushes him to do something stupid. He seeks out Han So-eun, the daughter of the driver who killed his parents, with the intent of making her life miserable from inside her own workplace. The series follows what happens when his harassment campaign starts colliding with feelings he didn't budget for.
Can't Get Enough of You shares A Business Proposal's specific structure of one character planning to weaponize a workplace relationship and getting captured by it instead. The revenge angle pushes the stakes higher than Business Proposal's lighter comedy — this is a darker office romance where the protagonist is genuinely cruel before the feelings catch up. Best for readers who liked the workplace-romance frame and want it in a heavier moral register.
Why Office Romance Works When the Workplace Is the Romance
Most romance manhwa treats the workplace as a backdrop — a place where the protagonists meet, exchange knowing glances during meetings, and then conduct their real romance somewhere else. A Business Proposal does the opposite. The workplace is where the chemistry happens. The meetings are the dates. The fake-identity Ha-ri performs at work is the same identity Taemu falls for, because there is no offstage moment where the masks come off. The romance is happening on the clock, and the series refuses to step out of the office to give it room to breathe.
The bigger argument here is that office romance works specifically when the work and the romance share the same scenes. The picks above all share that discipline — Jung-woo's marriage proposal happens in her own office, Cha Ju An discovers her switched soulmate during a meeting, Jihyo has to handle her ex's account during the workday. The titles that fail this test are the ones where the office is wallpaper for after-hours romance. The picks above earn the workplace setting by making it the actual relationship venue, the way A Business Proposal does. The chemistry happens between coffee and email.
More Korean Office and Modern Romance Manhwa on KuraManga
The main eight picks are the closest tonal matches for A Business Proposal, but a few adjacent titles deserve a flag for readers who want to keep exploring. Each one below shares part of Business Proposal's DNA — the modern setting, the contract or fake-dating premise, the office chemistry — without being a perfect Ha-ri-archetype twin. The Selfish Romance leans into the messier side of workplace relationships, Cheese in the Trap moves the modern Korean tonal register onto a college campus, When a Genius Office Worker Goes Too Far adds a time-travel twist to office dynamics, Office Worker Who Sees Fate blends supernatural with the workplace setting, and See You in My 19th Life brings reincarnation-romance into a modern Korean register.
The Selfish Romance
— Office workers, comedy, and romance leaning into the messier side of workplace relationships. Recommended for readers who liked the comedic complications in A Business Proposal and want a series unafraid to let its characters be self-interested.
Cheese in the Trap
— Hong Sul accidentally crosses a suspiciously perfect senior at college, and a year later he's acting friendly. The series is set on campus rather than in an office, but the modern Korean tonal register is identical, recommended for readers who want the Business Proposal vibe with student-life stakes.
When a Genius Office Worker Goes Too Far
— Office worker manhwa with a time-travel wrinkle that lets the protagonist replay workplace situations until he gets them right. The genre twist makes this a useful pivot for readers who liked the office setting and want a slice-of-life fantasy layer.
Office Worker Who Sees Fate
— A shaman trying to live as an ordinary office worker against his own destiny. The series leans more supernatural than romance, well-suited for readers who liked Business Proposal's office setting and want a different genre blend in the same modern Korean register.
See You in My 19th Life
— A woman who remembers her past 18 lives tries to navigate a reincarnation-romance with the man who loved her in life 18. The series moves between past lives and present-day Korea rather than pure office, best for readers who want the modern romance feel with deeper emotional history.
Clock In
If you want the closest match to A Business Proposal's boss-employee-fake-dating formula, start with My Boss's Special Request — same Korean office, same proposal mechanic, gender-flipped CEO/secretary roles. If the workplace-comedy energy was what hooked you, An Hour of Romance comes from the same author as What's Wrong with Secretary Kim and delivers it cleanly. And if you came for the contract-marriage-becomes-real-romance engine, Perfect Marriage Revenge applies it with a regression twist and higher emotional stakes.
Every title above is free to read on KuraManga, complete catalogues, no skipped chapters. Pick the part of A Business Proposal that hooked you — the workplace comedy, the fake-identity setup, the boss-employee dynamic, or the slow shift from professional acting to genuine feelings — and start with the pick that mirrors it.
The KuraManga Team is a group of manga and manhwa readers who write guides, reading lists, and recommendations for fans worldwide. Every article is written by people who actually read the medium.
