She Would Never Know (Initial Thoughts)

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love romance dramas. As I neared the end of my drama watchlist last year, I scoured the web for dramas coming out in 2021 so that I could prolong my list's lifespan. The first of such additions was none other than She Would Never Know (or directly translated to Senior, Don't Put on That Lipstick), which is based on the webtoon of the same name by Elise. I can't stress just how much I waited for this drama to be released, partially because of the cast, with Won Jin-ah (Life, Melting Me Softly) as female lead YOON SONG-AH and SF9’s Rowoon (Where Stars Land, Extraordinary You) as male lead CHAE HYUN-SEUNG, but mostly because the drama's premise is just something that appeals to my soft heart. Let's dive right in. 

INITIAL THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS (SPOILER ALERT)

Older women romances, more commonly known as "noona" romances, aren't new concepts in K-dramas. While my research about the prevalence of younger male/older female relationships in South Korean society proved inconclusive, there's a slew of dramas where the female lead is confirmed to be older than the male lead but yet they have great chemistry and an adorable relationship. It seems like many fans love these kinds of romances and while not the majority, many South Koreans look favourably upon such relationships or even engage in them. I think it stems from older women wanting to feel a sort of maternal love for their partners and the younger men just seeing their older partners as more experienced or something. That's all speculation on my part but what I do know is that if viewers are into noona romances, they'll certainly swoon at this drama. 

Song-ah is part of the marketing team for cosmetic brand KLAR and is an assistant brand manager, while Hyun-seung is her trainee and is a year younger than her, although she has 2 more years of working experience than him. Instantly, we can tell they have a good working relationship, with Hyun-seung being a very hardworking and amiable chap, making friends with everyone else in the team. The pair are also quite comfortable with each other, enough for Hyun-seung to pretend she's his girlfriend in order to conduct "market research". Of course, Hyun-seung is actually head over heels in love with Song-ah and he surreptitiously chases after her, using his earlier market research technique as a cover for buying her lipstick. We find out that they first met when Hyun-seung was a university student at a job fair, with Song-ah being KLAR's representative. He's instantly smitten for her and even goes out of his way to buy lunch for her when he notices her stomach growling, a time he remembers fondly. 

It's pretty obvious to anyone that Hyun-seung has feelings for Song-ah, with many people having speculated in the past that they were dating. Our dear heroine is the only person who's none the wiser and denies everything, thinking that he's just very friendly with everyone and is comfortable with older women because of his two older sisters (more on this later). An idea in the drama is that of office romances and how they're difficult to maintain, with many of such relationships being kept secret. Wanting to enter such a relationship with his senior, Hyun-seung asks Song-ah on her thoughts about office romances and she states that she wouldn't actively seek out one but as she says, if you like someone what else can you do but date them? This is a beacon of hope for our hero and he plans to ask her out on his birthday. 

Unfortunately, he finds out that Song-ah's actually been in a secret relationship with none other than their brand manager, second male lead LEE JAE-SHIN [Lee Hyun-wook (Hell Is Other People, Search)], for 2 years. Song-ah's deeply in love with Jae-shin and is even contemplating marriage, something that she swore off in the past. This devastates Hyun-seung, who puts the pieces together and realises that whenever Jae-shin tells his staff that he's heading upstairs for a meeting, he'll see Song-ah reapplying her lipstick and following shortly after, with the couple meeting upstairs. It's like a signal of theirs that now Hyun-seung is privy to. This keeps him awake at night and absolutely kills him but being the magnanimous junior, he decides to take a step back, knowing that she wants to keep her office romance a secret. Confiding in his oldest sister, bridal dressmaker and third female lead CHAE JI-SEUNG [Wang Bit-na (First Love Again, Love in Sadness)], with whom he shares a close relationship with, he reveals that he's decided to give up on pursuing a relationship with Song-ah. 

Purely by chance, as they're leaving the bridal shop, the siblings see Jae-shin outside with his car, opening the door for a female. Is it Song-ah, who wants to marry Jae-shin? Nope, it turns out that Jae-shin is a cheating scumbag, as second female lead LEE HYO-JOO [Lee Joo-bin (Be Melodramatic, Hello Dracula)] steps out, much to Hyun-seung's complete shock. We don't get a lot of information about Hyo-joo in episode 1, we only know that she's a photographer with a potential flirtatious streak, acting way too intimately with a model she's shooting. Of course, we also know that Jae-shin and Hyo-joo are getting married, with them being customers at Ji-seung's bridal shop. This turn of events shouldn't be a surprise for anyone because the teasers have made this pretty clear but really finding out Jae-shin is a two-timing bastard really gets both Hyun-seung's and my blood boiling. Our male lead now rekindles his motivation to chase after Song-ah and ensure she doesn't get hurt by this. 

Back at work, Hyun-seung treats Jae-shin with animosity, much to Song-ah's surprise. When she confronts him for his strange behaviour, he merely brushes it off because she doesn't want her relationship to be revealed but that point, she doesn't realise that he knows yet. We get a 1 month time skip and we see that Hyun-seung hasn't done anything yet, promising himself that he'll wait another month before taking any action if necessary. This comes to a head when Song-ah and Jae-shin have another of their secret meetups, with the latter telling her that they'll have to call off one of their prior arrangements because of a work trip. Anyone with half a brain can tell that he's clearly preoccupied with wedding preparations with Hyo-joo and so he's pushing Song-ah aside. Of course, she's so blinded by her love for him that she doesn't find anything amiss, with her only saying that their 2 year anniversary is coming and she wants to go on a trip with him, to which he agrees somewhat halfheartedly. 

After Jae-shin leaves, Hyun-seung comes up and reveals that he knows about their relationship and wants to expose Jae-shin's cheating to Song-ah, although he doesn't explicitly say it yet. She attempts to leave, frustrated at Hyun-seung's unexplainable behaviour, but he stops her and says possibly one of the most heart-fluttering lines in the history of drama. He tenderly wipes his thumb across her lips, telling her that colour doesn't suit her and says "senior, don't put on that lipstick". Let me tell you when I saw that I squealed like a crazy person because it was so unbelievably insane and also because it's where the drama gets its literal name from. Hyun-seung knows that the shade of lipstick she's wearing means that she's going to meet Jae-shin and he wants to protect her from getting hurt. I think it's super manly of him and I don't know, maybe it's because Rowoon is seriously tall (being over 190cm in height) but it's super cool when he does it. 

That's the gist of episode 1 but I also want to mention the presence of third male lead LEE JAE-WOON [Lee Kyu-han (The Rich Son, Graceful Family)], who's KLAR's director and Jae-shin's good friend, with their friendship dating back to their high school days. While I'm not very certain of this, Jae-woon seems to be Hyo-joo's brother, making him Jae-shin's future brother-in-law and he also only seems to know about their upcoming marriage, with Song-ah being unknown to him. We'll definitely see more of him in future and by accidentally stumbling upon a spoiler-y YouTube thumbnail, I know he'll end up in a relationship with Ji-seung. 

I'm already crazy for this drama, I think it's going to be a blast to watch and explore the junior/senior (or hoobae/sunbae) relationship between Hyun-seung and Song-ah. Being a romcom, it's bound to be chockful of heart-fluttering moments and if episode 1 is anything to go by, it'll only get better as the series progresses. There're some other plot elements that'll definitely get expanded on in future, with the foremost being Song-ah's rocky relationship with her mother, who for whatever reason is extremely opposed to her daughter getting married. I feel it might potentially be because Song-ah comes from a single parent household and her mother doesn't want to be alone. That'll certainly add an extra element to our female lead's character and should be really interesting to watch. I really liked Won Jin-ah's performance in Melting Me Softly and I'm sure she'll be equally as wonderful in this drama. She also looks gorgeous and that's definitely a plus. 

So far I have nothing but praise for Hyun-seung's portrayal and I'm sure many viewers will fall for his charms as well. A small detail I liked about his character is his relationship with his older sisters, especially the banter they share. His second sister Yeon-seung (played by Ha Yoon-kyung) is the only one of the three siblings that's in a relationship, in fact she's married with a daughter, and she's completely exasperated by her siblings' lack of love lives. She jokingly blames Ji-seung for leading Hyun-seung down the wrong path of singlehood and they bicker a little bit. I really like this family dynamic because it feels real and I also like how Hyun-seung is obviously doted on by the meeker Ji-seung. I hope we get more of such scenes in future because even though it's nothing special, I think it's very heartwarming to see. I'm also looking forward to seeing more of Ji-seung in future episodes and how she'll enter her relationship with Jae-woon.

I heaped praise on our leads but I swear I'm going to hate Jae-shin with a passion. There's no excuse for cheating and within one episode he's already cemented himself as scum of the Earth in my mind. Will he have a reason for two-timing? Maybe and I'm curious to find out his character motivations but as of right now, he's definitely not in my good books. As for Hyo-joo, I genuinely think that she doesn't know of the existence of Song-ah and might think her fiancé is devoted to her but we shall see. 

While the literal drama title is a great line from Hyun-seung, I actually think the English title is a far better choice because of its multiple meanings. Hyun-seung's spent a good portion of his time in KLAR secretly pining for Song-ah, waiting for the right time to confess his feelings for her. Unfortunately, after he finds out she's in a relationship, he initially decides to give up, ensuring that Song-ah would never know about this. Fast forward a little bit and we now know that Jae-shin has been cheating on her for who knows how long and yet has been able to keep this completely under the radar. An impressive feat for sure but it again reiterates the drama's title because Song-ah would never know about this two-timing nonsense unless Hyun-seung breaks the news to her. It's a perfect title really and I'm seriously interested to see how the character dynamics change as the series progresses. After all, She Would Never Know unless he tells her.