Awkwardness At Work
Episode 2 of She Would Never Know returns to Hyun-Seung telling Song-A not to use her shade of lipstick. He tells her to meet at the crosswalk after work and walks away, leaving her speechless and wondering what to do. Meanwhile, Jae-Shin briefs the team about their latest endeavour, E-Project. Jae-Shin want to go global with Korean make-up products, believing that a wide-sweeping reach is better than just trying to break into the competitive Asian market. It turns out the Chairman has already agreed the project too, which certainly quietens any critics in the board meeting. Afterwards, Director Lee encourages Jae-Shin to press on, believing his time at becoming Chairman is coming up soon – if Lee can deliver the goods of course. Back downstairs, an angry Song-A leaves for the day, still annoyed at Hyun-Seung for touching her lips. When he messages “you’ll regret it” after work, curiosity gets the better of her and Song-A shows to meet him. Putting on her seatbelt and warning about the traffic, the pair find themselves stuck. Eventually they make it to the shop where Hyun-Seung admits outright that he likes Song-A. He’s doing all this because he doesn’t want her to be mistreated. Hyun-Seung takes her up to see his sister, apologizing for what she’s about to see. Lo and behold, Jae-Shin shows up in the office next door to them with Hyo-Joo. As we soon find out, Hyo-Joo is the chairman’s granddaughter too. As Hyun-Seung calls Song-A a fool for not seeing the truth, Song-A lashes out and raises her voice. Song-A eventually leaves, not saying a word to Hyun-Seung until he chases after her. He offers to give Song-A a lift home, telling her how scared he is. She also tells him not to like her. Song-A is not happy about him interfering in her business and tells him to leave her alone. Jae-Shin and Hyo-Joo are far from a perfect couple though, especially given her brother warns that she’s wearing Jae-Shin out. His troubled look when they hug goodbye certainly proves as much. As we cut back in time, we see Jae-Shin heading in to see Hyo-Joo while she’s in hospital. It turns out she took pills and ended up in hospital. With Hyo-Joo passed out and unconscious, Jae-Shin was essentially emotionally blackmailed into agreeing to this marriage, thanks in part to pressure from the Chairman and Lee Jae-Woon. Back at work, Director Lee continues to schmooze the staff, treating them to a staff dinner. While he does, he passes Chae Ji-Seung and hands her his business card. He’s completely infatuated by her presence but she declines his card and walks away. Back at the office, Hyun-Seung shows back up but things are tense between him and Song-A to say the least. She completely blanks Hyun-Seung, refusing to even talk to him about what happened. At lunch, Song-A and Hyun-Seung find themselves alone in the office but Hyun-Seung quickly leaves after making an excuse about his wallet. Although they manage to avoid each other, Song-A is called into a meeting room with Jae-Shin. When he reaches out to touch her, Song-A quickly pulls away and refuses to engage with him. When he asks what’s really going on, Song-A asks to meet after work. On the way out the building, Jae-Shin invites Hyun-Seung out for a game of tennis. Jae-Shin meets Song-A at a diner and she deicides to play him at his own game. Given they’ve been dating for 2 years, Song-A asks whether they should come out in the open and tell everyone about their relationship. As he looks set to tell the truth… he eventually changes his mind and tells her he’ll think about it instead. This pretty much confirms what Song-A feared and she heads home contemplating what to do next. Well, eventually she rings her Mother back who asks whether she’s eaten or not. Song-A is quiet though, asking why she’s doing this to her. Eventually she breaks down crying. There’s clearly something going on in the past between them but for now, that’s left for future episodes. Meanwhile. Hyun-Seung begins drowning his sorrows in alcohol, acting moody and struggling to break a smile. As he walks home, he bumps into Song-A who asks him what to do next. Well, Hyun-Seung takes advantage of the situation and suggests that she date him.
The Episode Review
She Would Never Know returns for its second episode, deepening the woes for Jae-Shin while allowing Song-A more screen-time. Hyun-Seung’s motivations are obviously purely selfish and there’s a part of me that kind of wishes the show went the route of having Hyun-Seung and Song-A as best friends at work who slowly fall for each other. Having Hyun-Seung liking Song-A so early and so much makes his actions feel quite insincere whereas a more natural build-up to the two getting together would perhaps have been better for the plot. The problem is, even if Hyun-Seung and Song-A end up together, he’s going to be her rebound boyfriend after what’s happened with Jae-Shin. The preview for next week seems to hint that these two will be growing closer together too, with Director Lee’s secret revealed for all to see. There’s a part of me that actually thinks Jae-Shin’s story is more interesting than Hyun-Seung’s. This man is stuck in an emotionally manipulative relationship with a girl that will literally hospitalize herself to get her man back. With the Chairman in charge of the cosmetic company and Hyo-Joo’s brother convincing Jae-Shin to “do the right thing”, he’s the one character with a lot of depth in this drama – I hope we see more of him going forward. This iQiyi Original bows out its first week with a relatively tepid few episodes and although there’s lots of scope for this one to progress and grow, so far there’s not enough here for it to stand out next to so many other Korean dramas. We’ll have to wait and see how the rest of the show plays out!
