She Would Never Know, the first new Monday-Tuesday Korean drama of 2021, is an office-set romance from cable network JTBC between a new recruit at a make-up company and his senior. Or at least that’s what the marketing had us believe in the lead up to the launch.
In reality, the age gap between rookie Chae Hyun-seung (Rowoon) and manager Yoon Song-a (Won Jin-a) is only a year, something we learn very quickly. Sadly, this turns out to be a case of start as you mean to go on, as this ridiculous premise is followed by equally baffling behaviour and revelations over the course of the first four episodes. Even more unfortunate is that none of it is played for laughs – this is a dead-serious and deathly dull affair.
Based on the popular web novel Sunbae (Senior), Don’t Put on that Lipstick by Elise, She Would Never Know ticks many of the requisite Korean romantic drama boxes. Won once again plays a serious career woman – just as she did in the recent films Money (as an investment broker) and Long Live the King (as a human rights lawyer) – who has been working as a marketer for the cosmetics brand KLAR for two years.
Played by SF9 boy band member Rowoon, Hyun-seung is a handsome and rich young man living in a swanky bachelor pad who met Song-a at a college career forum, where she represented KLAR. He has just started at the company and his whole world revolves around his love for Song-a, which he doesn’t keep to himself for very long. However, his romantic intentions hit a snag when he discovers that she has been involved in a secret office romance with the rather grim team leader Lee Jae-shin (Lee Hyun-wook).
Hyun-seung’s sister Ji-seung (Wang Bit-na) runs a high-end wedding planning business, and while visiting her one afternoon, Jae-shin just happens to walk through the doors, arm in arm with his bride-to-be, fashion photographer Lee Hyo-joo (Lee Joo-bin).
As K-drama premises go, this one is fairly limp and hampered by lazier contrivances than usual, but more troubling is the behaviour of the male lead towards the apple of his eye. Hyun-seung is a hopeless romantic but his love is possessive and quickly proves to be very selfish.
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On several occasions Hyun-seung claims to be protective over Song-a, but in reality he’s being controlling. He routinely brushes his hand against her cheek, pulls her around by grabbing her arm and orders her to do things, like meet him in his car after work on a dark night. It’s important to note that when he starts exhibiting this behaviour, they haven’t known each other for a long time and don’t seem particularly close.
Early in the first episode, while touring a department store – the show spends an inordinate amount of time in department stores, work-related or not – Hyun-seung talks to Song-a about office romances and she says that if he were ever to see anything, he should keep it to himself.
When he discovers Jae-shin’s apparent infidelity toward Song-a, Hyun-seung agonises over what to do for all of two seconds. Forgetting Song-a’s advice, he shoves his scruples aside and proceeds to stage an elaborate event for Song-a to find out about her secret boyfriend’s secret fiancé at his sister’s place of business. He forces her to watch, going so far as to drag her to a window.
Song-a isn’t the only person that Hyun-seung controls. He also implicates his sister in his scheme by making her secretly inform him of Jae-shin’s next visit and tap on doors in the middle of it to help him with his big reveal, something she’s clearly not comfortable with. Later, he orders her not to sell a wedding dress to Jae-shin’s fiancé Hyo-joo, something that would clearly be a major loss for her and which she astonishingly goes along with.
In the early episodes Hyo-joo is positioned as a villain who may have entrapped Jae-shin in their forthcoming nuptials and explains that her philosophy as a photographer is to make her subjects fall in love with her to get the best snaps, and then discard them. Although Hyun-seung is supposed to be the romantic lead, the way he has acted thus far puts him on the same level as her. In fact, since he clearly considers himself to be righteous, it’s a more insidious characterisation.
While the K-drama landscape continues to welcome more progressive views and ideas, with several shows challenging established norms, She Would Never Know, despite its bright and colourful set-ups and locations, is a decidedly regressive start to 2021’s K-drama release slate.
She Would Never Know is streaming on iQIYI.
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