I burst out laughing at the first paragraph and laughed so much till the end my side is hurting! 🤣🤣 @mary How do you even come up with these!! 🤣🤣 The most I can do is take an open ended show and make a second season out of already established characters and actors.

Okay it's late so I've got one braincell functioning but this plot sounds too good to not share first impressions on cast:

The witch - either Lee Se-young or Shin Hye-sun because both have the comedic chops to really make the bumbling witch character both funny and endearing and I've got their Park's Marriage Contract and Mr Queen characters in my head right now.

The office guy - Park Seo-joon??? Like if Dong-man from Fight For My Way ended up as a corporate worker who just wanted a promotion and has absolutely no time for witchy nonsense. Also he always yells really well in dramas so he'd be good at an exasperated yelling scene (maybe when the registration office burns down lol).

As for the premise - I wish I could be more creative but I've not enough brain power left, but I will say this plot is begging for a past life interlude so tick that box off and fill in the gaps on how these two ended up being fated for one another.

When I read these synopsis of @Mary, I think a lot of plots should be made in Kdramas 😂

Lee Se Young, as Lapislazulli suggested. Now I only can imagine her as the modern witch.

And for him... I can't decide. Lee Min Ki? Go Kyung Pyo? My Shi Yoon (reuniting the two of them after The Best Hit)? Kang Ha Neul (repeating the "Superman" style from Misaeng)?
I imagine the ML as someone shy and, silent, hard working and soft voiced.

And the FL the total opposite.

For me any of these as ML or as SL or a cute cameo:
1. Honey Lee and Kim Nam Gil (need to see him in rom-com role)
2. Park Bo Young and Park Hyung Sik
3. Ahn Bo Hyun and Shin Hye Sun
4. Lee Dong Wook and Yoo In Na

not too young. Ra Mi Ran and Jang Hyuk
I would add a man-cat who starts seducing Jang Hyuks´ daughter in human shape but gets seduced himself into a one-sided love. then it tries to kill itself 9 times but it is a vampire so 9 lives doesnt apply
The witch does not fall in love and never develops feelings but she is tempted to keep the guy for convenience cause the guy is a great handiman
and the guy never falls in love either he just grows very interested in magic and becomes a student except he has dyslexia. yes.
I would make it about finding your true self and trying to overcome restrictions. ah the mans daughter plays guyitar in a band but has social anxiety. so the vampire/cat/human infiltrates the band in disguise and supports her through a big gig, also encourages her to sing. when she find out she has grown attached to him but doesnt recognise him in vampire form.
through helping the guy overcome dyslexia and still cast successful spells the witch finds a mission and purpose and sets out to travel all around the world. she undoes the spell and the guy forms a crush with a druid stuck in a tree he accidentally brought alive cause he mixed up a dead plant and an eggplant.
the witch has a lot of short term affairs but she is so annoyed when they spend more time together cause they are so weak willed
eventually the daughter figures out the cat vampire is her mentor, and witch starts to miss only guy who didnt annoy the hell out of her. after him accidentally turning her into a radio which keeps nagging in the corner, but they talk a lot so finally reach the understanging how they truly feel, and recruiting the help of the vampire cat they manage to set things right and live happily ever after or until the next misreading.

LEE YU-RI is a modern but not very good spell-casting witch which frustrates her to no end. When she tries to sabotage her co-worker AHN JAE HONG for the company promotion, her efforts backfire to his benefit. Example, she casts an ink spell on his report to make it say the opposite to make him look like a fool but the word processing auto-correct changes the wording to make the report brilliant.

When LEE wakes up next to AHN on their honeymoon night, she is shocked an appalled by it. She has no emotional attachment to him except contempt. AHN wakes up in a similar panic since he had just started dating his dream girl, PARK SO DAM. AHN claims it is a nightmare to be married to LEE, and as she is about to agree she notices that he totally lacks focus, drive and the ability to complete his sentences. LEE smiles at the prospect of this bumbling idiot at work.

As they both arrive at the corporate building, PARK meets AHN in the plaza to ask why she was stood up for their date. LEE smiles when AHN begins to stutter a response when suddenly PARK slaps him across the face after seeing he is wearing a wedding ring. AHN falls to the ground and cries in a fetal position for 8 hours. After the work day ends, office workers are disgusted by the crying man in a pool of his own tears. LEE, in a fit of slight guilt, picks him up to take him home. As she recounts her work day victories and praise from her supervisors, CHO YEO JEONG and PARK HAE IL, AHN becomes an emotional wreck who tries to print out divorce and annulment papers but to no avail. The next day he drags LEE to the District office, but it is closed because of a fire. AHN begins to have public tantrums which embarrasses LEE to no end. She wants to end the marriage, too, but the curse will not allow her to sign the divorce papers (her hands become paralyzed every time she thinks of divorcing AHN which starts to get problematic at work).

LEE is so worried she goes to see her estranged shaman mother, IM YE JIN, who tells her the awful truth about her situation: to break the curse you must do the opposite. LEE is repulsed. “How am I going to love an ugly donkey?” Her mother sneers, “Well, alcohol can help.” As LEE leaves, her mother beckons, “And a grandchild would be nice!”

The more LEE is nice to AHN, the obstacles start to change. The printer works but the ink evaporates after an hour. At work, her hands now only twitch when she thinks negatively about AHN. AHN begins to bring her coffee and snacks during mid-morning and mid-afternoon breaks. After a few weeks, they start to get along but at a slight distance like a long married couple. At that point, the curse is lifted and the home printer spits out a clean copy of the divorce papers. They begrudgingly file the form and they are divorced.

However, a new go-getter transfer employee, KIM TAE-HEE, gets the attention of Board with her aggressive re-organization plans which effectively takes AHN and LEE’s promotion and jobs away. They...

We, the honorable witch community, do not claim any of these people)))

Jokes aside (maybe), I imagine leads being quite young, because no mature adult should behave like FL did here. So anyone above 30y.o. are out, leaving us with mainly new actors I do not know a very few choices. Kim So Hyun as a petty office witch - it's been a hot minute since we saw her famous bitchy mode in action, but I always enjoyed it, girl was born for feisty roles and bickering romances. For "I just want to work in peace, tyvm" ML, hmm... someone who can do innocent look yet also with comedy chops... how about Rowoon?

Alternatively - Moon Ga Young/Kim Se Jong and Jang Dong Yoon. Yes, I'm cheating a little here age-wise, but he's so baby-faced it could still work, OK?

I can totally see some of my fave couples doing this. 🤣 Maybe I will settle with Kim Dami and Choi Woo Shik or Lee Se Young and Bae In Hyuk.

Jang Hyuk and Jang Nara, can't fail.

Yeah I’m going with an ATYPICAL FAMILY fanfic for this one. My favourite ship in the drama is actually between Dong-hee and Grace and they are very much giving enemies to lovers vibes. Dong-hee can fly and we know the Bok family’s power can mutate so hey she could unintentionally put a curse on her enemy Grace and wake up married to her! Tho I’m gonna change it up a bit, Grace might hate being married to Dong-hee (and vice versa) but she wants a part of the Bok family’s fortune. When they finally settle to an agreement the civil office registration building is burnt down.

Dong-hee frustrated, realises that to break the curse of making Grace’s life miserable and in turn hers, she must make Grace fall in love with her. Grace a previous con artist is not easily able be to seduced, but Dong-hee earnest in nature is already charming Grace with their conversations. Grace has always been treated as sexy femme fatale and not “marriage material”. And Dong-hee treating her with respect and as an equal, and not objectifying her is making her slowly fall in love with Dong-hee. In turn through their banter Grace helps Dong-hee to stop feeling so insecure and instead helps her become confident in herself. And thus love blooms between the two 😉

Yes I know it’s cringe, cheesy and lame but my brain goes to places when I desperately want a fav ship to be together okay?!

Thanks, Mary. This will be just the cure I need.

I propose Suzi as the FL, BB (aka Kim Seon-ho) as the clueless ML wanting to be promoted and get more money, and Nam Do-san, ah sawry Nam Joo-hyuk as the driver of the ToD.

This is the final season of Start-up. 🤣