This is a train wreck in the making and I’m here because I’ve a morbid curiosity and — patience — to see how this story crashes and burns.

The various names of this drama were my first warning. Here’s the list of its working titles, as shown on My Dramalist, before the director/writer settled on “The Secret Life of My Secretary”:

Nun Meon Boseu Ggosigi
How to Train Your Blind Boss
I Love You from the Beginning (present tense)
I Loved You from the Beginning (past tense)
I Loved You from the Start
Hitting on the Blind Boss
Love at First Sight
Chomyune Saranghabmida

I can understand the four variations of falling in love at first sight. I can also understand “Hitting on the Blind Boss”. That means flirting with the boss. And I get the idea of “training” her blind boss, especially if the boss is a tyrant and needs to be taken a peg or two. However, I don’t see how the the secretary in this kdrama can lead a double life when she’s the only face the boss can identify.

I’m wary of dramas with dubious titles because the last drama I saw where writers couldn’t make up their mind on the script title, ended up in a disaster. That was “Where Stars Land.” It also went through several reincarnations: Incheongonghang Saramdeul, Incheon Airport People, People of Incheon Airport, Fox Bride Star, Star of the Foxes.

To me, titles are important because they telegraph what the kdrama is all about. The ambiguity in the title indicates many possibilities; none of them good. Perhaps the story is a work in progress at the time of press release. Maybe the finale is unresolved. Maybe the plot is directionless and narrative needs to be retooled. But the worst is the drama hasn’t been approved by the producers so they’re wrangling over the details to cater to the audience. 😂 Whatever it is, the title isn’t fixed when there’s a problem with the script.

The second warning sign that this drama is messed-up is the write-up on Viki. lol. Didn’t Viki get the memo?

Blurb from Viki:

Do Min Ik is a competent and clearheaded man who works as an executive of a leading telecommunications company. This smart guy not only recognizes people who he has met just once but also has an insight to read others’ thoughts until he is diagnosed with face blindness.

Gal Hee, a loyal secretary of Min Ik, is a dowdy and a little disheveled woman who has worked for Min Ik with all her might. On the day she gets fired out of the blue, she happens to witness Min Ik murdering someone and becomes his right hand man. Min Ik who suffers from face blindness mistakes Gal Hee for Veronica Park, a charming and influential figure in the filming industry, and falls in love with her.

Gal Hee starts to pretend to be Veronica, and as time passes, even she herself gets confused who she really is. But Veronica finds out about Gal Hee’s double life and puts an end to it. Would the intertwined relationships and feelings be untangled in the end?

The secretary Gal Hui wasn’t fired “out of the blue.” She knew of the possibility of her employed being terminated because the other secretaries warned her that her boss Min Ik dismissed his secretaries after a year. When Gal Hui checked with the HR Dept, she learned that only the last two secretaries lasted a year. His first secretary worked for him for three years, from 2013 to 2016. Not only that, the first secretary was also marked to be hired as a permanent employee.

🙃 From the way the story exaggerated Min Ik’s hiring/firing idiosyncrasy, it would seem like he had a steady stream of secretaries for the last ten years or more.

Moreover, although Gal Hui knew that she was going to be fired, she hoped that if she worked hard and showed loyalty, her boss Min Ik would sign on the renewal of her employment contract. She’d always been his “right-hand man” long before she was fired. In fact, he was almost about to tear up her contract but had a change of heart when he saw the medicine Gal Hui bought for him

and remembered some of their moments together.

Like, her first job interview when she displayed a nervous habit of pushing back her hair behind her ears.

Or when they walked in the rain and she held the umbrella like a good secretary.

Or when they dozed in his office.

Furthermore, Gal Hui did NOT witness her boss “murdering someone.” It’s the reverse. She witnessed – and saved — her boss from being murdered by an unknown masked assailant. Her boss Min Ik suffered a fall from the attack which resulted in his loss of ability to recognize faces.

To me, it’s also improbable that Min Ik would confuse his dowdy secretary Gal Hui for another woman, given that Gal Hui is the only person he could recognize without fail.  All other the faces have become blurry with his prosopagnosia but Gal Hui’s face remains clear and unchanging. In fact, even before his prosopagnosia, he professed, “Even if I go deaf, I’ll hear her. Even if I go blind, I’ll recognize her!”

So it’ll be interesting to see how the writer upends her own premise and why.

The third and last warning that this kdrama will be a colossal mess is this blurb from soompi:

In a drama all about (mistaken) first impressions, “The Secret Life of My Secretary” has left a strong impression of its own!

Kim Young Kwang and Jin Ki Joo’s teaser begins with their characters, Do Min Yik and Jung Gal Hee, meeting under the cherry blossoms. Their encounter is anything but romantic, however, as she realizes that she is being fired from her job.

However, Do Min Yik soon gets into an accident that leaves him unable to recognize faces. Taking advantage of this, Kim Jae Kyung’s character, Veronica Park, hires Jung Gal Hee to pretend to be Veronica and go on a date with Do Min Yik. The moment that Jung Gal Hee shows up to the date and gives Veronica’s trademark greeting, Do Min Yik looks smitten with her.

In a voiceover, Do Min Yik says, “We just met for the first time, but something about her seems familiar.” Do Min Yik treats his new love well, but Jung Gal Hee flashes back to the times when she had to help him out as his secretary. She says to herself, “This is treatment that I could not have received as a secretary.”

At the very end, a voiceover says, “When you meet someone you love, they say you can see their face as clear as day.”

Not to be outdone, Kim Jae Kyung and Goo Ja Sung’s teaser also gives a strong impression of their characters. Veronica Park is the flamboyant CEO of Cinepark and is known as the “crazy woman” of the movie industry. She throws things at her aides, engages in passionate love affairs, and acts dramatically in meetings.

Goo Ja Sung plays Ki Dae Joo, a chief at T&T Mobile Media (which is also where Kim Young Kwang works). He is completely unfazed by Veronica’s antics and says coldly to her, “You shouldn’t use company money to go drinking. This meal is being charged to the corporate card.” Despite their completely opposite personalities, however, romance begins to blossom between these two as well.

source: secret life of my secretary

From the blurb, it seems like this is the garden-variety romantic kdrama. But there’s actually a bit of mystery and suspense in the kdrama since the second male lead, Dae Joo, is a shady character. He’s Min Ik’s best friend from childhood yet in Episodes 3&4, he’s caught in the company of Min Ik’s assailant. Not only that. Although he knew Min Ik was suffering from prosopagnosia, he dressed up in totally different outfit and hairstyle, which I’m sure, he intended to confuse his best friend even more. Sigh. With friends like him, we don’t even need to guess who Min Ik’s enemies are.

In both the soompi and viki write-ups, the second female lead, Veronica Park, is given much buzz when she didn’t even figure in the first 2 hour-long episodes (or 4 half-hour episodes). lol. Frankly, I’m not interested in her character development if her only contribution to the script is to be an obnoxious, loud-mouth foil to the lead female, Gal Hui.

 

So, why am I again staying for this kdrama?

Because I’ve a morbid desire to see a train wreck.

It’s the family motto of the heroine, Gal Hui and it’s the opening line of the kdrama. “Her family motto when she was young was ‘Three moments of patience can ward off disaster.'” I feel like if I’m curious and patient enough to watch this kdrama, then perhaps I too can ward off the impending disaster.