Actor Jang Hyuk brought hilarious puns and comic twists to the television screen, kicking off the first episode of MBC’s rom-com series “Fated to Love You” as a thick-skinned heartthrob with money. 

Jang Hyuk plays Lee Gun, a stuck-up aristocrat who has been indulged by his business tycoon family all his life. The first episode is packed with countless chains of unlikely events, following the golden rules of classic rom-com dramas.

He buys an engagement ring to propose to his Juliette, but drops it when Miss Nobody, Kim Mi-young, played by Jang Na-ra, accidently runs into him. The ring rolls into a dog’s cage, but Kim manages to retrieve it by giving “a candy” to the snarling dog. 

Meanwhile, two bandits, whose business failed because of Lee, decide to shame him by getting him to drink an aphrodisiac, but they fail -- it is the Ms. Nobody who ends up drinking the love potion.

The drama kicked off with speedy story development and visually stunning scenes, which did not immediately lead to a high audience rating. The hero won the hearts of female viewers as he exposed his six-pack, but the overall audience rating stayed low at 6.6 percent, according to television researchers’ data.

“Fated to Love You” is a romantic love story of a highly unlikely couple -- the only heir of a family that owns a conglomerate and an ordinary girl who comes out of nowhere.

By Chung Joo-won (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)