According to mydramalist, the original title of this kdrama is 나의 완벽한 비서 or, in English, “My Perfect Secretary.”
However, I’m glad that the show ended up being named “Love Scout” because it distributes the spotlight evenly to the main leads. It refers to the heroine JiYoon (JY) whose job as a headhunter is to scout for talented people for placement in her client’s company. At the same time, it refers to her secretary EunHo (EH) who must always “be prepared” like a Boy Scout to deal with her needs.
Last not least, it refers to JY’s Unnie who scouted EH to become JY’s office assistant and ended up finding JY’s love match. I like that scene when JY’s Unnie was enumerating the requirements of JY’s secretary.
Unnie: Are any good assistants available? The person must understand our field. HR experience would be ideal.
Hmmm…to be fair, EH misunderstood their field in the beginning. But he was willing to “toss out his presumptions and start over”. He was also willing to learn on the job. As for HR experience: check!
Unnie: Someone organized and clean.
Check. She had a glimpse of EH’s walk-in closet which looked like the menswear section in a department store. She also noted his indoor plants, all thriving well after winter, and some even labeled.
Unnie: Someone good at time management.
Check. She took note of the charts, schedules, and monthly calendar on his wall.
Unnie: Thoughtful with a good memory would be perfect. Most importantly, someone who can take care of CEO Kang when she gets into trouble.
Check. In perfect timing, EH saved his daughter Byeol who tripped on the rug. He cleaned up the orange juice mess without skipping a beat or raising a fuss. In the background, the strains of Pachelbel’s “Canon in D” began playing because, in that moment, EH looked like divine providence indeed. Even the spilt orange juice sparkled.
Unnie: An HR person like that is hard to find, right?
She quickly ended the call to check EH’s resume. She discovered that he was formerly a manager in Hansu’s HR Development Team,
Unnie: I found him.
For me, that’s the ultimate meaning of “Love Scout.” It means Cupid. Unnie found the ace, the best talent for the job.
Other things that stood out for me about the show.
1. JY’s daddy issue
It’s the cause-and-effect in the story.
Cause: When she was young, she and her father enjoyed a fine spring day at an amusement park. Cherry blossom petals swirled around them. She wore a frou-frou pink dress and pink headband. She was eating what looked like strawberry ice cream on a coke. Her father thanked her for growing up well although her mom was gone. She played it down, saying that her father was all that she needed. He then promised her, “Okay. I’ll be by your side for a long, long time and protect you. I’ll never let you be alone, JiYun.” They made a pinky promise. Bubbles came down from the sky along with the pink petals.
Fast forward a few days (or weeks or months). She and her father were gripping each other’s hands. He gave her a new promise, “JiYun, just wait here. Daddy will be back soon.” She begged him not to go but he entered the burning building anyway without a single fire protective clothing and gear. Assuming that he went in to save another life, I still say it was a foolhardy move to do.
Here are the effects.
a. As a grown-up, she couldn’t bear the sight of cherry blossoms. One landed in her palm, and she crushed it, saying, “Lies.” Instead of admiring the beauty of springtime and the cherry blossoms, she associated it with her father’s broken promises. He didn’t stay with her for a long time to protect her. He left her alone. He didn’t come back.
b. She got sick every springtime. Around April 2, to be exact.
c. She became emotional when she found out that EH put his career on hold for his daughter.
JY: So why did you take paternity leave, instead of working on your career?
EH: I wanted to see her smile. My daughter has such a pretty smile.
JY: (blinking)
EH: She needed me. I promised her I’d stay by her side, and I kept my promise. I am all that my daughter has.
She couldn’t help comparing her father and EH. She was reminded of her resentment against her father for failing to fulfill his promise and prioritizing another person’s life over hers. Unwittingly, EH brought her daddy issue to the forefront.
d. She doesn’t set much store by loyalty since her father “betrayed” her. Her modus operandi at work is to scout LOYAL and long-time senior employees for new positions, and to draw attention to these employees’ bottled-up dissatisfaction and grievances in their current job. She excels at insinuating that the company has been disloyal to the employee for ignoring his need for growth and more compensation, thus it’s justifiable if the employee seeks greener pasture elsewhere and ditches the company he’s been working at for decades.
This also explains her remark to EH at their first meeting. She says, “Companies never take responsibility for individuals.” To me, she meant that he should stop viewing companies as “paternalistic,” i.e., making decisions for the supposed good of their employees because they have their best interests at heart. She expected companies to hang their workers to dry, even their best and brightest.
…Kinda like what her father did when he rushed into the burning apartment and died on her.
2. JY’s SELECTIVE blindness and nominal aphasia
Her quirks are funny.
She can’t recognize the car she rides in daily, although she remembers all her recruits/candidates perfectly. She reasoned out her recruits are her clients. Meaning, she works for them, therefore remembering them is required of her. However, SHE is the car’s client. Meaning, it works for her, so she doesn’t need to remember it.
Most likely, this is the same reason she can’t seem to remember her employees’ names, e.g., the man she fired because of misfeasance. She can’t be bothered to remember their names because they work for her. To me, her attitude implies that she views them as disposable, replaceable, interchangeable.
This is interesting since in these two episodes, she wasn’t shown interacting with her workers. She only conversed with her Unnie and the Chaebol Son, and the rest, she ignored as she breezed through the aisle.
I find her attitude hypocritical, given that she had expressed disdain for companies because they treat their workers without care. What she accused them doing, she was also doing to her own employees. I expected her to treat her workers differently.
At any rate…
I think her difficulty in remembering faces and names is a character quirk to highlight how easy it was for her to remember EH’s face and name. Unlike the others, he stood out. When she saw his business card in the pile of papers, she remembered who he was. When she entered the crowded elevator, for instance, she instantly spotted him although he was crammed in that little corner.
He was unforgettable.
3. EH’s service for JY
Do I need to make a list?
Nah. I don’t have time for all that. But three things stood out for me:
He baby-proofed her table and shelves with bumper guards.
He installed double pivots on the door so it would swing both ways.
He bought fresh flowers as needed. Lol. She could brag that she received flowers regularly from someone thoughtful and it wouldn’t be a lie.
4. EH’s single fatherhood
This is all cute and good, but JY doesn’t strike me as a warm and fuzzy woman. Right now, she’s as needy as Byeol. Since this kdrama is a romcom, I hope the story doesn’t conflate her need for a lover and a father figure.
More importantly, Byeol just finished receiving therapy for her own emotional issues. I hope the story doesn’t make EH face the dilemma of prioritizing her or JY’s needs first.
5. The ending scene
Later. Have to work now.
I am also very much enjoying this drama. I appreciate reading everyone’s thoughts.
To add to the previous comments, the FL was probably a child who needed more than most. How her character is presented is consistent with her having a type of “learning disability”, not only suffering from trauma of losing her parents. I am very curious to learn(hopefully) what she was like as a child. If this drama does not explore this I am OK. So far there are great avenues for plot and character development. This drama has shown a good awareness of psychological issues so far-like the daughter’s drawings, so maybe we will see some attempts at understanding her as atypical neurologically.
I particularly enjoyed the scene at the ML’s home where her work colleaugue observed his high level of organizational functioning. Is this natural to him or did he have to work to be this way? He has the skills and she has the brute force of motivation to do well in the work place. They will make a great team!
I only have minor concerns about these 2 episodes. Hopefully the side of “murder” does not become too central. Some of the scenes that were given a romantic tinge seemed too early in the drama. That is when I realized this is a 12 episode drama. The way her relationship with her father hinted at possible parallels with her relationship with the ML was not subtle or nuanced.
I realize the scene between her and her father about her growing up well contradicts some of my wonderings about her childhood. Either she did not have these difficulties as a child or her father was not attuned to her, as EH is clearly attuned to his daughter, and to FL.
Hi @pkml3, thanks for this thread. I believe @nrllee and I wrote on the other thread about both Ep 1 and 2. I’m not sure if you might like to move over those posts to this thread instead.
I was saying something similar in the other thread about how JY feels betrayed by her father. How her attitude and behaviour now is a defensive mechanism so that she will not get hurt again.
I like that the concept of the worth of people: whether we see them as persons or as disposable ‘things’ is being explored. It’s the situation many of us face at work, school and even at home. We consider in what way human beings are considered valuable, and examine our own attitudes.
EH values people’s worth as persons and trusts them while JY sees people only in terms of whether they are worth the money to be hired. They are disposable if they fail to meet their worth. EH like the father of JY goes in with his heart, while JY only encounters others with her head.
What JY needs most to begin with, seems to be to value herself first, and then move on to valuing others. Not only is she unable to appreciate the beauty of Cherry Blossoms because of it’s association with her dad’s broken promises, but she seems to behave as if she does not deserve happiness.
She has no home life, no home meals, no smiles (and she does not want others around her to smile!). The only thing in her fridge is water. She does not even seem to use a proper bed. She goes home only to take sleeping pills to drop unconscious on her couch. She works until she literally drops because there is nothing else she values about herself.
I desperately want JY to be healed. I’m happy that she has at least good friends in MA and her husband, and now a determined Secretary who will slowly change her attitude and her life.
I don’t know how well she’ll get on with children, but I’d like if Byeol could also help JY in her journey to being mentally and emotionally well.
An aside: I find that I’m watching something similar in both Under the Skin 2 and in this Show … the drawings of house, tree and person personality test. It’s a manifestation of a person’s state of mind and emotions concerning their relationship with family, environment and self. I’d have liked to have heard how the artists interpreted the drawings of Byeol and I’d like if JY gets a chance to draw as well.
I found some links on this personality test. Here’s one:
@MM,
The ‘murder’ as mentioned by the staff of Career Way or as played out in JY’s memory might be nothing more than that something she did (for eg. she decided to leave the company and form her own) caused her mentor distress. He might have had a stroke or something and died, and for that alone, using hyperbole, onlookers call her a killer.
The ‘acceptable’ behaviour would have been that she remained grateful to her mentor, that she stayed on ‘for life’ to contribute towards his company and that she should be the last to abandon him. We may get a little more backstory to know more clearly, but I imagine that it’s JY herself who’s the worst accuser of her own ‘sin’. Her mental distress was amplified as she recalled her ordeal in the past, but if she had felt herself above blame, it should not have debilitated her so badly.
My other take on it is that she felt guilty because she herself blamed her father for abandoning her. She’s applying the same judgement she made against her father, against herself.
Yes, the one person who would be most attuned to her needs is EH. His job is after all to anticipate the needs of his boss so that his boss will ‘love’ him. It’s nice to know in advance that this will bear fruit. However I do hope that she will not become too needy, or that he will also be aware not to be over-used by JY. We want them to have a healthy relationship between peers and not a one-sided-taking and not giving relationship.
I was thinking about the other Directors. It looks like MA and even the young Wu Jeong Hun who does no work but greets all with Aloha are on a relationship that is more intimate with JY. Jeong Hun even said that he might have to take responsibility for her. It might be that there is a distant possible familial relationship between them. It’s interesting that Kim Do Hoon who plays Jeong Hun is also a main actor in this Show.
It’s good to have a new drama to chat about. I look forward to the weekend for more episodes to set our brains to work on.
Yes I am hoping that is what the “murder” is. Come to think of it, The way that scene unfolded, It could have been at least in part her imagination.
Interest
Ing about this art actually being a method for Uncovering Psychological and social well being.
I want To take another look at those scenes in the drama.
Children just draw that way naturally, I have observed,
I imagine that at some point we may see JY in therapy, which would be positive as it was for Byeol.
I am rewatching episode one of love scout. I will keep in mind the opening sequence on the race track. I am sure there is a metaphor here for the show. There is a scene after she has convinced him to change companies where she is watching him On stage and a little girl joins him. This had a fantasy quality to it so I wondered if it was about her as a child in some way.
As an aside , I have not liked this actor since his character wanted to make an exhibit of the mermaid(Jun Ji Hyun) in “The Legend of the Blue Sea”.
I was laughing thru much of episode 1- particuarly the dead plant, her not remembering how to open her door, not recognizing her car, and the ML babyproofing her office.
I have only seen this actor in 365 days and Stranger. I have wondered why he has not been a male lead more often and am happy to see him in a role that so seems to suit him.
As a snide aside, whatever the drama is doing to make them look younger is working well.
@PM3 I like the title Love Scout as well with its multiple meanings. Be Prepared!
I am rewatching ep1&2 (a rarity). I really like how this PD moves the plot along with seamless storytelling. He uses scene changes to tell a story. It’s subtle but effective. Like how he showed us how JY was “observing” EH over days by changing her outfits with each scenario. It intrigued her how he was endearing himself to the rest of the employees. He’s definitely a team player. She’s not. Then there was that scene change again in the lift. Where PD shows us EH, Byeol, female neighbour and son (I will eventually get their names 😂) heading into the lift together after the playground. Happy chatter and bright lights. Lift door shuts and when the doors open, it’s a scene change. We see dark monochrome colours again as JY emerges alone from the lift and then walks the dimly lit corridors into her apartment alone. Mood changes dramatically with the colour shifts (as @GB highlighted). That contrast is stark and highly effective for the viewer.
I also liked how PD filmed the honest interchange between the pair after their close encounter in the filing room (thank goodness he didn’t make a move there). He did have a Darcy moment (remember how Darcy (Macfadyen) clenched his fist after he took Lizzie’s hand to help her up the carriage?). Well EH’s hand had just connected with JY’s head 😂😂😂 and the open cabinet door. His hands fall back to his sides and PD shows us that subtle hand flinch. They blink and share a moment as they realize that they are both in each other’s personal space. Then she breaks the awkward silence by stammering, “y…you’re still here? What’s going on?” He takes a step back and gives her space before explaining himself and handing her the files she was looking for. It’s all business remember? 😂😂😂. She recovers and her frigid shields are back up. She tells him they need to have an honest talk. She walks off back to the “open space” and safety of the office (at his desk). He doesn’t crowd her and follows but only after she’s a safe distance away. PD shows us the book “The Courage to be Hated” on his desk and gives us a sneak peek as to the conversation that’s about to unfold. EH maintains a respectful distance and is no longer looming over her. You can see he is back to being her subject. She’s back to where she’s most comfortable. In control.
JY – Let’s stop wasting time. You persist, I ignore you…it’s exhausting. I hate to spend energy on useless things like this.
EH concedes – what don’t you like about me? If I can assist you better or if I made a work mistake, let me know. If not…
JY interrupts him (she’s impatient and gets straight to the point) – I want to work with someone who respects my job. What do you think a headhunter is, Yu EunHo?
EH (flashback to when he first met her and accused headhunters of not having a conscience) realizes where she’s coming from and lowers his head.
JY – I’ve said what I needed to say. You can go now. (She thinks she’s won the battle and makes to leave)
EH (in haste) – I’ll toss out my presumptions and start over. Please teach me. (Impressive for a man to eat humble pie. No macho ego. Apparently not enough for JY as she turns her back on him and starts to walk off)
EH stops her with his final plea of desperation (appealing to her “conscience”, something which he had accused her of not having) – I have nowhere else to go but here!
JY pauses, turns and looks at him.
EH bows and apologizes – I am sorry for that day’s incident CEO. (He takes a step toward her, maintaining eye contact to indicate his resolve to change, then sells himself) I have extensive lengthy HR experience. I can do anything you ask of me. So please judge me only as your secretary.
JY steely gaze softens. There he goes again. Intriguing her. Contrast his response to the other guy she let go of. The one whom she couldn’t even remember the name of. Who kept defending himself and making excuses to explain away his deficiencies. And even tried to gas light her?
After this scene, PD shows us in her office looking through his resume on her computer but he films her from outside the glass panels. He shifts the cameras sideways so we get this effect of shifting panels as the camera interacts with the solid glass frames (a shift in her perspective of EH). Then he does this effect where we see a double image of JY as she sees Byeol’s name on his resume and realizes the reason for his desperation. A reflection of herself. Nicely done PD.
Hi @nrllee thanks for this analysis of camerawork and editing. Yes, masterful indeed! If we take the time to really watch (I also needed to rewatch. I didn’t get it on first go) there is much more story being told by the subtle shifts in ‘mise en scene’, lighting, colour, etc.
We watch all this gently and slowly build up so that we are not surprised that JY will ultimately not dismiss EH so easily. By the end of Episode 2 she no longer ignores him and reaches out to him instead. She finds that he is the only one who comes towards her in her need, and whom she has to trust.
I like Lee Joon Hyuk’s rendition of EH. This character might actually make it to the Bofriend/Husband/Father Hall of Fame for the many good qualities he has demonstrated.
I like that:
– he really puts love for his daughter into action, unlike so many career-minded parents whose excuse is that they need to sacrifice the child’s welfare now in for a better future. He believes in acting immediately to meet a need, and hence saved his daughter’s mental and emotional health.
– despite been told off by JY and having negative vibes between them, he slowed down and stayed on to help her make it down the mountain in the dark without waiting for her to humiliate herself to ask for help.
– he is human and makes mistakes, but is able to apologise, be humble and try again. He respects his boss as a person, rather than sees her only as a needy woman.
– he realised what Song had done to destroy his career, but he does not blame or complain.
– he does not make himself out to be a hero in any of the good things that he did.
– he is sincere in wanting to be a good Secretary, regardless of how his boss dislikes him.
– as a potential boyfriend we already see all the good stuff, in particular his attentiveness. That alone makes a potential lover very attractive!! And his attentiveness is not over silly things and aegyo but to meet practical needs and to keep the other person safe.
There are lots more, I’m sure!
@packmule thanks for breaking that down for us. So far I am enjoying the subtlety of their relationship. 🙂
@GB thanks for that video about HTP. I learnt something new. It shows the writer obviously did her research and homework. I also agree with you that it wasn’t “murder” per se by JY. Somehow her actions in the past precipitated a chain of events which ultimately ended with the CEO’s premature death. The female Crossway CEO sunbae puts all the blame on JY of course. I noted that the previous Crossway CEO was a man. Was he a representative father figure to her perhaps? 🤔
@Fern, this is actually in reply to your post in the first thread “Love Scout: On Romantic Scenes”
You said:
Yes, you’ve hit on the similarities between Byeol before her therapy and JY now. If JY had been asked to draw, she, too might have chosen monochromatic drawings with her drawn as a small figure and in the dark.
Instead we get an equivalent … we see that she enters her dark, bare apartment and curls up on the couch. She has the choice to switch on the light, but she switches it off again. She has a lovely view outside her window, but she does not look out. The proper comforts of home like a dining table to eat at with a chair are missing. She only has a chair at the side shelf to sit in for work.
You said:
It could be an abandonment disorder. My take on it is that she’s so afraid of being abandoned again, she keeps aloof, creates no new relationships and trusts hardly anyone.
@pkml3 also made an interesting point. Yes as you say her job it to get people to cut ties. However the ones she targets are those who have been loyal or who have worked for so long, it’s hard for them to leave. Still she is able to encourage them to abandon their jobs, hence showing that people will turn around and walk away.
She did the same when she left her old company, to be blamed as disloyal and ungrateful by the CEO of Career Way, but perhaps she has blown up the blame in her own mind as well. Showing that other long-time workers too can be made to change jobs, may perhaps justify her stance. (We have yet to see what made her leave the previous company and start he own. She might have been abused).
You said:
I hope EH does not have to be JY’s caregiver entirely. I’d like them to have a ‘normal’ relationship and not one based on her neediness.
You said:
Yes, and he’s in my book as a possible candidate for our Boyfriend Hall of Fame, partly because of this!!!
^sorry I meant Career Way. 😂😂
@nrllee, Yes the previous CEO was a man and a more senior person. He might indeed have been a father figure. The current CEO claims that she ‘raised’ JY when JY was working in their company, which JY refutes, but she does not refute the accusation that she should have been grateful towards the first CEO. My guess is that seeing her potential, he might have brought her in and trained her, hoping that she’d stay on to lead the company. She did not meet his expectations and gets blamed for his disappointment.
@pkml3 Thanks for your take on the interesting JY.
As you said above, she expected companies to hang their workers out to dry… She did not claim to be better than other companies, hence I guess it was not so much hypocritical as that she’s just doing the ‘normal’ stuff of companies by not valuing her staff. I feel that she only values workers according to their $$$ worth in terms of their work. No, not a people-person at all as @nrllee? pointed out.
You said:
EH definitely stood out for a few reasons.
1)He was the one who dared to gate-crash her meeting with Yang and stopped her from successfully proceeding to recruit him.
2)She stared at him a lot in anger and disbelief at his judgement of her and told him to his face that it would be a mistake for them to run into each other again.
3)The joke is that when they did meet again, it was she who made the mistake of entering his car! He also made the mistake of accusing her of stealing Yang for China. She attributed her bad luck to him and threw his name card away.
4)Despite the several mistakes they each made, she finds that he’s once again in her orbit and that she can’t shake him off. It was another good joke when her friend MA found out that EH was the one who spoilt her chances with Yang. “That means he’s super competent!” LOL That confirmed double approval for EH.
5)He’s taller than most of the other men. 😁😇
Truly unforgettable and not in a good way at first!
@GB @PM3 I thought it very amusing that she was saying they should never see each other again, which is often said to lovers when they are breaking up(in Asian dramas).
I too am impressed with the detail in this show. Every scene(except perhaps the ones where the ahjummas are admiring the ML) has interesting detail. For example, in one of the first scenes with the babysitting family we see a photo on the wall of the three generations of this family, so we know she is likely unmarried. Another interesting detail that I missed at first is how quickly it gets dark in the mountains- stone stairway scene. Again the use of light and dark thematically.
I am very interested in how the drama will show the changes in the female lead’s character. Will she see a therapist, will she do art therapy, will she take antidepressants instead of sleeping pills, will she recover miraculously because of ML( I sure hope not).
As a follow up note to the above, maybe he will light the way for her
@MM, your comment reminded me that I noted the downward movement at a significant time. I guess then we should also note if there are any significant upward movements.
It’s appropriate that at first EH and JY take an uncertain walk down the bumpy, uneven mountain path together, a prelude to their bumpy interactions to come, which were also mostly downhill to begin with.
When EH found out that Yang had decided to leave for China, there was a great scene of EH in a glass elevator heading speedily downwards as the surroundings outside rose around him. He was heading for a crash in his career.
As EH begins work at Peoplez, he’s crushed in a corner of the elevator but finds himself heading upwards with a crowd and with JY who tries to see if it’s really him, while he tries to hide (unsuccessfully). The elevator stops a few times before JY gets a good long look at him to be sure it’s EH and then she heads out at her floor and he follows her from a distance. It might be reaching, but it could also be an analogy of their slow ascent in relationship together with many stops, with revelations and secrets, with uncertainties and people in the way, but they do end up together on the same floor. 🙂
What you have noted is what is making this drama so interesting to watch and rewatch.
Could the meaning of the race track scenes be something about going around in a loop over and over again and never really getting anywhere