K-drama midseason recap: She Would Never Know – flimsy romance navigates troubling thematic territory
- Hyun-seung’s behaviour towards Song-a becomes increasingly hard to distinguish from that of a stalker as the show progresses
- Whether intentionally or not, poverty is presented as a kind of disease that haunts and intrudes on the lives of the characters at crucial moments
This article contains spoilers of the show.
When we last met Song-a (Won Jin-a) and Hyun-seung (Rowoon), the pair’s eyes were locked in a slow-mo scene playing against the sparkling strobe lights and raining confetti of a nightclub. A shared moment of intimacy? A hint of romance?
Not exactly. Song-a’s expression was one of surprise, as she was not expecting to bump into her colleague when she was on the dance floor with her friend, in a rare moment when she lets her guard down.
Hyun-seung didn’t just happen to be there, of course. He had followed her in after seeing her on the street. As the show picks up after their meeting in the club, she asks him if he’s there with friends. His answer – “no, I followed you here” – is blunt and creepy.
Throughout She Would Never Know, Hyun-seung has repeatedly seen Song-a across the street or waiting for the lift and always dashed towards her without hesitation. He also does so whenever she retreats to the emergency exit stairs, when she is presumably looking for privacy.
With this latest nighttime act it becomes increasingly hard to distinguish his behaviour from that of a stalker.
Yet this is hardly the extent of his inappropriate behaviour, and as the show has progressed, Hyun-seung’s possessiveness towards Song-a has continued unchecked. In episode six, the pair are working at an important event, and when a male model fails to show up, who should step into his shoes but Hyun-seung.
Working under the gun, Song-a needs to quickly apply some make-up on him, and it is in this high- pressure situation that Hyun-seung asks her if she’s going to accept a big work opportunity to transfer to Europe. Beyond being incredibly unprofessional under the circumstances, Hyun-seung deliberately tries to rattle Song-a in a vulnerable moment.
For a few episodes, the question of Song-a’s potential transfer to Europe hangs in the air. Beyond Hyun-seung’s desires, the matter is also complicated by Song-a’s erstwhile relationship with Lee Jae-shin (Lee Hyun-wook). It’s no surprise that Song-a eventually turns down the opportunity, despite it being made crystal clear that it would be a huge step for her.
She Would Never Know preview: toxic masculinity reigns in office romance
Love can be an extremely powerful motivator, but Song-a’s reasons here are somewhat opaque. We must assume it’s partly down to an attraction she has for Hyun-seung, but it’s also driven by pride, owing to Jae-shin’s connection to the offer. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. Not to mention that this flies in the face of the show’s initial story lines about young, independent career women.
She Would Never Know shows us a world filled with attractive and driven people working for a top corporation in a sleek Seoul high-rise. Everything about this world is desirable, and ambition appears to be valued. Naturally, the romantic aspirations of the characters don’t always align with these values, but if we peel away the lovey-dovey aspects, what’s left behind is a rather disturbing social world view.
In this show, social mobility is not only presented as a positive, it’s an imperative. As usual with a K-drama, the main characters either come from rich or poor backgrounds – middle-class characters are seldom important in these narratives – and in this case it is Song-a and Jae-shin who had modest upbringings.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to improve one’s station, but by implication She Would Never Know suggests that poverty is an extremely negative trait. It routinely comes back to haunt them, especially in the case of Jae-shin and his drunken leech of a father.
Whether intentionally or not, poverty in She Would Never Know is presented as a kind of disease. Jae-shin’s father is an alcoholic, while Song-a’s mother ultimately grapples with a potential cancer diagnosis.
Though not as destructive as the one Jae-shin shares with his father, Song-a’s relationship with her mother is also contentious and marked by shame. We’ve seen Song-a visit the countryside and clean up her mother’s filthy home, and she generally seems embarrassed by her.
Always impeccably dressed, and graceful (and guarded) in their movements, Jae-shin and Song-a have worked hard to improve their lot. They’ve built facades around themselves and it’s telling that they’ve done so within the walls of a major make-up manufacturer. But of course, the stink of poverty never completely escapes them. It haunts them and intrudes on their constructed lives at crucial moments.
Beyond these salient thematic points, She Would Never Know also remains a frustratingly thin show that has achieved very little over the course of 10 episodes. Various relationships have evolved to some degree, but the writing routinely fails to develop compelling plots to buttress the romantic arcs.
Clichés are rife and the overall mood of the series is one of stasis, which runs contrary to the show’s modern workplace setting. Beyond Hyun-seung’s cute mannerisms – well-performed by Rowoon but awkward given his character’s issues – the show’s dry dialogue and wooden staging give the cast few opportunities to shine.
From here on out, only a dramatic improvement can save this from going down in the annals of forgettable K-dramas.
She Would Never Know is streaming on IQIYI.
