She Would Never Know – Season 1 Episode 1 Recap & Review

Lipstick

We begin episode 1 of She Would Never Know with a brief meeting as Chae Hyun-Seung and Yoon Song-A pitch their cosmetic brands. Song-A still looks at Hyun-Seung as a kid but as they get the bus home, he can’t help but look at her fondly. Well, the pair continue to work together, joining their team in the office for the latest news. It turns out Soo-Mi as been dating their assistant manager for 3 years and keeping it a secret.

Speaking of which, Hyun-Seung heads out with Song-A to do some secret market research. While she tells him to be more subtle, he instead takes the initiative and tells the sales rep there that Song-A is his girlfriend.

She’s pretty taken aback but it turns out this isn’t an isolated incident. Because of Hyun-Seung being at ease with her and speaking casually, rumours have circulated at work about them dating together – something she’s not too happy about. This is especially true given she has a boyfriend.

Back at the office, BM Lee reports to Director Lee. They haven’t met their sales targets this month and the group are in need of a killer idea. Despite it being the Director’s job to think of a plan, he wants BM Lee to take charge so it can make him look better. With a lot riding on this new product, BM Seo’s goofing off isn’t helping matters.

Hyun-Seung meets his two sisters and deliberates over the best way to celebrate his birthday. It’s clear he has the hots for Song-A but for now, he keeps quiet about it.

Instead, he invites his work colleagues out for a birthday dinner. Of course, this is all a ploy to get closer to Song-A who he invites personally. Song-A is distracted though when she receives a text, heading off to answer it midway through eating. She immediately heads outside, prompting Hyun-Seung to follow from afar.

There, his heart sinks as he spies Song-A with her boyfriend – Director Lee Jae-Shin. As they head off hand in hand, kissing in secret, Hyun-Seung heads back home disappointed.

The next day at work, he starts to distance himself from the girl. When he sees Director Lee in the elevator, Hyun-Seung thinks twice about heading up and decides to wait. His woes continue into the evening as he talks to his sister about Hyun-Seung and how she’s taken by someone else.

Alas, the plot thickens. When Hyun-Seung leaves his sister’s house he notices the Director with a completely different girl. A girl called Lee Hyo-Joo whom he’s about to marry. Well, based on this revelation, Hyun-Seung decides not to give up and go after the girl of his dreams – especially given Lee gets married in three months time. To make matters worse, Song-A is also contemplating whether to marry Lee or not.

At work the next day, Hyun-Seung immediately stamps his authority and gets between Song-A and Jae-Shin in the elevator, hinting that he knows what Jae-Shin was doing the past night. Hyun-Seung’s coldness and eyeballing the Director causes problems at work as Song-A calls him out for his behaviour. Hyun-Seung admits that he’s protective but doesn’t give much else away.

We then cut forward one month later. With two months to go until the wedding, the office is rife with chatter about church bells and wedding dresses. Hyun-Seung watches from afar, unable to take his eyes off Song-A, as she mentions she doesn’t have a boyfriend.

Well, she meets her aforementioned boyfriend on the stairway where she mentions their second anniversary and what his plans are surrounding that. Jae-Shin eventually cancels plans with her and walks away, just as Hyun-Seung shows up. He admits he’s overheard everything and warns Song-A that  what she’ll face in the future is far worse.

For now, he wants her to go out with him that evening and tells her not to put her lipstick on. As he brushes his thumb across her bottom lip, the episode comes to a close.

The Episode Review

She Would Never Know ends its first episode with a relatively enjoyable but formulaic slice of romantic drama.

The casting is decent with this one, bringing in a lot of good actors to an office romance setting and doing a pretty good job of making them all likable. Won Jin-A’s portrayal of Song-A is easily the stand out so far but Ro Woon does the best he can portraying the lovestruck Hyun-Seung.

Alongside the casting is a pretty good colour palette, making use of passionate pinks across the title screen which is a really nice touch and feeds back into the ideas portrayed in the show.

Unfortunately, everything else just feels so predictable and cliched. The hopeless, agonizing male glances, the hidden office romance and the twist that the Director has two girlfriends makes for a very cliched opening hour.

This one is bound to draw plaudits though for its acting and the story certainly has some scope to move into going forward. Given the fact 2021 has some heavy hitting k-dramas on the horizon, I’m struggling to see how this one will stand out alongside those.

Still, we’ll have to wait and see what happens in episode 2!