What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim: Episode 5

by LollyPip

Young-joon is bound and determined to convince Mi-so to marry him, but interestingly, he seems to be losing sight of his original purpose — to keep her as his secretary. He’s starting to feel some true discomfort at the idea of losing her, and not just as an employee. And Mi-so is so confused by Young-joon’s sudden attentiveness that she doesn’t seem to know what to think or feel… all she knows is that she’s terribly confused.

 
EPISODE 5 RECAP

Mi-so and Young-joon tumble onto her bed, landing with Mi-so on top of Young-joon… again. But this time he grabs her and hugs her tight, and says, “Just for a little while. Let me stay like this for a little while. From now on, I’m going to be madly in love with you.”

Mi-so is frozen for a moment, staring at him, then Young-joon abruptly lets go of her. He stammers that he read that in that romance book of hers (I knew he’d chicken out!), and she jumps up, babbling praise for his fantastic memory.

When Mi-so serves the ramyun, Young-joon complains that he doesn’t usually eat food with all those chemicals. He’s surprised that it actually tastes good, but he rears back when Mi-so adds a bite of kimchi, chastising her for doubling the sodium content. Then he tries it, and it’s like a lightbulb goes on — he stops complaining and just shovels the ramyun in as fast as he can.

Before he leaves, he notes that it’s the first time he’s eaten food that Mi-so made. She tells him to go home and put some medicine on the cut on his lip, and he haltingly thanks her for today. Back inside, Mi-so realizes that this was the first time Young-joon has been inside her house, and she smiles.

Her doorbell rings again, but this time it’s her sister Pil-nam with snacks. Pil-nam notices the two ramyun bowls, and when Mi-so says Young-joon was here, Pil-nam whacks her and calls her crazy for feeding a man ramyun in her home late at night.

Young-joon goes straight to Yoo-shik to ask if having ramyun with Mi-so is a big deal, and Yoo-shik says of course it is. He explains that a woman offering a man ramyun at night is like announcing that they’re dating, because it’s usually an excuse to be alone together.

He mimes a couple snuggling, and Young-joon nearly topples out of his chair at the thought, hee. Seeing Young-joon’s reaction, Yoo-shik asks if something happened, but Young-joon claims that it happened to his cousin’s college classmate. LOL, sure it did. But when Yoo-shik looks away, Young-joon smirks to himself like a teenage boy.

Pil-nam accuses Mi-so again of liking Young-joon, and Mi-so’s denial sounds weaker than ever. Pil-nam advises her that people are happiest when they date on their same level, comparing a relationship between Mi-so and Young-joon to a bird and a dog dating.

She says that someone rich like Young-joon could never understand the kind of life they led growing up, fighting over drumsticks instead of company shares. She sees Mi-so’s downcast expression and says she just doesn’t want to see her little sister get hurt. Mi-so replies, “I know, but it’s my problem.”

That night, it’s Young-joon’s brother Sung-yeon’s turn to have a nightmare, where a young boy cries for his mother in an old, abandoned house. He wakes with a start, and sits gasping for air.

Young-joon calls Mi-so the next morning to ask if she’s ready to leave. He tells her to hurry up and come out, and she’s surprised to find him waiting to drive her to work. Mi-so runs out to his car, so anxious that she hooks a heel on the curb and hurtles right into Young-joon’s arms.

They both swoon a little when he catches her, and it’s Mi-so who lets go first. They blink and stammer at each other in confusion, then finally Mi-so recovers and heads for the driver’s side. Young-joon says magnanimously that he’s driving, and even holds the passenger door open for her.

She catches Young-joon staring at her with a moony expression while she’s getting in, and he starts to say she looks pretty today. Then he stops himself, and says that if she wants to hear such things, she should dress more fashionably and not wear the same blouse several times a week. Wow, he just went from sweet to slappable in about three seconds.

He hands Mi-so a bag with coffee and sandwiches inside, saying that his personal chef made them in case she hadn’t had breakfast. Okay, back to sweet. Then he says she can even keep the paper shopping bag, like it’s a huge gift… let’s just call him even on this one.

At work, it shows that Young-joon is making an effort to think of Mi-so when he gestures her into the elevator first, mightily confusing her. He even makes a point to stand next to her instead of in front like usual, and Mi-so looks incredibly confused while he silently preens over his gentlemanly behavior.

Alone in his office, Young-joon marvels at his own perfection, congratulating himself on looking great and having a warm, loving heart. Later Mi-so comes in to put more medicine on his lip, and this time she notices the way Young-joon gazes at her when their faces are in close proximity. She jumps back and tells him to put on the medicine himself, and he grumbles with disappointment that he’d rather she did it for him.

Mi-so quickly changes the subject to work matters, but she gives herself a bad papercut in her haste. Young-joon jumps up, worried, and grabs the medicine to doctor her finger. He says it’s repayment for her taking care of him last night, because he always repays favors.

Young-joon turns his attention to her hand, and Mi-so is stunned by his utter focus on her welfare. He says that he’ll take his reports on the tablet from now on, because paper is dangerous.

Mi-so is still a little dazed when she goes down to make tea, wondering what’s wrong with her. Ji-ah comes in and points out that she’s steeping the packaging, not the tea bag, ha.

Young-joon’s mom is still upset over the fight between her sons, so when his urging to buy herself a limited edition handbag fails to cheer her up (ha, she already bought it), he approaches Sung-yeon. He asks when Sung-yeon plans to apologize to Young-joon so their mom can sleep at night, and Sung-yeon promises he will soon. Dad also tells him to stop bothering Young-joon, who’s very busy and who could affect the whole company if he’s upset.

Sung-yeon goes to the Yumyoung building to visit Mi-so, who’s annoyed at his intrusion. She tells him flat-out that she’s not glad to see him, and that she found his insistence on getting her phone number rude. He asks if he should leave, and she says yes, so he complains, “That’s too harsh… you asked me to see you by email first.”

Mi-so suddenly realizes that this must be Morpheus, the famous author that she’s been trying to recruit for the art center opening event. They go to lunch, where she apologizes profusely and tells him she’s a big fan, and he lets her off the hook.

Sung-yeon notices Mi-so twitching and sniffling and calls over a waiter to take away the flowers that are setting off her allergies. She asks how he knew she was allergic, and he says he saw her expression when she saw the flowers, as if she’d found the problem. Mi-so asks for his answer as to the library event, but Sung-yeon just asks cheekily if he has to give an answer now.

Yoo-shik is surprised when Young-joon stops him from making a complaint when there’s a stone in his lunch, saying that anyone can make a mistake. He asks if Young-joon is up to something good, or maybe dating finally, but at Young-joon’s frown he amends his question to whether Young-joon’s “friend” is dating that girl he likes.

Young-joon says not yet, so Yoo-shik grumbles that that “friend” is bad at dating. He smirks when Young-joon overreacts, and tells Young-joon to advise his “friend” to confess soon, because girls hate a guy who’s wishy-washy. He smirks even bigger when Young-joon is all, “Really?!”

After lunch, Mi-so asks Sung-yeon to call her when he makes a decision, giving him an opening to ask for her real number this time. Starstruck, she agrees.

Young-joon stews over the idea of confessing to Mi-so, and he worries that he’s not ordinary enough for her. He thinks hard about how to be ordinary, then gets an idea. He goes to ask Ji-ah something, but Mi-so comes back from lunch and interrupts his question, so he just asks how the art center opening is going.

Ji-ah notices Mi-so’s mile-wide grin and asks if she had lunch with a suitor, but Mi-so denies it, keeping Sung-yeon’s secret. She tells Ji-ah that she’ll be excited when she finds out, promising to tell her everything when it’s settled.

Young-joon wanders off and runs into Team Leader Jung, and he asks for a recommendation of a restaurant that’s popular with ordinary people. Team Leader Jung recommends a tripe restaurant, but Young-joon wants somewhere more special. He leaves when Team Leader Jung can’t think of anyplace that doesn’t serve offal, ha.

He heads back to Yoo-shik’s office, but although Ma-eum, his secretary, says he’s in, his office is empty. He’s hiding under the desk, isn’t he? Young-joon asks Ma-eum for a restaurant a young woman would like, and when she suggests a place that serves chicken feet, he gives up.

Se-ra collects Ji-ah for a meeting and sighs that Young-joon looks sexiest when he’s working. Mi-so says that she hadn’t noticed because she sees him every day, but after they leave, she catches herself staring at Young-joon. He looks like he’s working hard, but he’s actually searching the internet for a restaurant suited for a romantic confession.

Gwi-nam, the office’s most popular bachelor, arrives to the meeting, and Ji-ah notices that that same piece of something is stuck to the tail of his suit jacket for the third day in a row. It contradicts the rumor that he owns ten of the same suit so that he doesn’t waste time choosing what to wear.

After the meeting, a button falls off Gwi-nam’s suit unnoticed. Ji-ah picks it up, but Se-ra snatches it away, planning to use it as an opening to ask Gwi-nam on a date. Ji-ah says she should do it now since he only has the one suit, explaining her theory, but Se-ra doesn’t take her seriously.

They’re still arguing over how many suits Gwi-nam owns later, when Mi-so tells them it’s not important, as long as the person works hard. Se-ra says she would know since she hardly owns any clothes but she’s still good at her job. She’s also noticed that Mi-so has worn the same blouse several times in the last week, making Mi-so self-conscious.

When she brings Young-joon his tea, he asks her to have a glass of wine with him that evening because he has something to tell her. She’s surprised, and grows even more surprised to learn that he even made a reservation himself. She accepts, then goes shopping for a badly-needed new outfit after work.

She ends up with a very pretty yellow dress, and as she’s on her way to meet Young-joon, practically giddy with excitement, she gets a call from Sung-yeon. She turns him down when he asks to meet with her right away, but he says he wants to give her his answer about the library event in person, so she agrees to see him at the same place she’s meeting Young-joon. Uh-oh…

He compliments her on how nice she looks, but she just asks for his decision. He says he’ll do the book concert for the library opening, and gives her an autographed copy of his new book, a week before it’s released. She reads the note he’s written inside: “Serendipity brought us together, but maybe we were meant to cross paths.”

Suddenly, Young-joon shows up and grabs the book, roughly shoving it back at Sung-yeon. The brothers glower at each other, then Young-joon pulls Mi-so away by the wrist. Inside, she breaks free and demands to know why he’s acting this way, but he barks at her to explain first.

She tells him what she knows — that Sung-yeon is Morpheus, the author, and that he’s agreed to do the book concert at the art center. Young-joon tells her not to do it, getting angry when she asks why and snapping that he just doesn’t like the idea.

Mi-so also grows angry at his confusing behavior, and she asks if Young-joon can say whatever he wanted to say to her another time. Young-joon says it wasn’t that important anyway, so Mi-so forces a smile and says goodbye.

She walks home disappointed, her new shoes giving her bad blisters, and she tells herself ruefully, “What was I thinking? I only ended up getting my feelings hurt.” Meanwhile Young-joon invites Sung-yeon to his house to ask what he wants.

Sung-yeon claims that he just wants to help the company, but that only makes Young-joon look angrier. Sung-yeon asks if he’s scared he’ll take Mi-so, taunting his brother when Young-joon denies it.

Young-joon tells him to go ahead and try to take Mi-so, that he doesn’t care either way. He adds, “If you thought you’d have an influence on her or the company, you overestimated yourself. You can’t do anything.” He walks away, and Sung-yeon looks both angry, and a little satisfied.

The next day, Young-joon tries to compose an apology text to Mi-so, but everything he writes sounds like he’s blaming her for their fight. He thinks about seeing her with Sung-yeon, and gives up on texting her.

He’s back to being cold and distant when he arrives at work, only flashing Mi-so a longer-than-usual stare as he passes. But Team Leader Jung excitedly tells the team that Morpheus will be at the art center opening, and when Mi-so asks where he heard that, he says that Young-joon told the PR team to send out a press release about it.

Mi-so goes to ask Young-joon if it’s true, confused since he said last night that he wouldn’t allow it. She asks why he changed his mind, and when he hesitates, she says mockingly that he doesn’t have to explain himself to her. She tells him not to cross a line (and get personal) with her again, admitting that she started to think he meant it when he asked her to marry him.

He tries to say something, but she interrupts firmly, “Don’t shake me up ever again.”

Se-ra wails that she forgot Gwi-nam’s button the next time she sees him, and Ji-ah tells her to give it to him soon because he needs it. She starts to tell Se-ra about her proof that he only owns one suit, but she decides instead to offer a bet — the button fell off yesterday, so if he only owns one suit, he’ll be missing a button today.

Gwi-nam says from behind them, “I think you got the wrong idea,” scaring them both. He shows them his buttons, which are all present and accounted for, and even brandishes his spare. Ji-ah apologizes while Se-ra blurts out her date invitation, but Gwi-nam stops them both and asks them not to false spread rumors anymore.

Worried that Mi-so is really angry with him, Young-joon casually wanders to her desk and claims to have a headache. Without even looking at him, she calls his doctor, but he says it’s not that bad. When she comes to his office later, he loosens his tie in the hopes that she’ll come close to fix it, but she just ignores him.

Team Leader Jung brings Mi-so even bigger news than before — Morpheus is Young-joon’s older brother. That does shock her, as Team Leader Jung wonders if this means the family succession will change. Mi-so thinks of Young-joon telling her that his brother bullied him in school, worried that they aren’t on good terms.

Young-joon asks Yoo-shik how to say he’s sorry, and when Yoo-shik tells him to just say the words, he explains that he’s never done it before. He asks if there’s a way to make up with Mi-so without apologizing, but Yoo-shik says that if he doesn’t apologize, he’ll lose her.

On his way back to his office, Young-joon runs into Mi-so, both of them looking miserable. Young-joon looks like he wants to say something, but instead he slumps in defeat, and they walk past each other without a word. Then Young-joon turns back and calls to Mi-so, and although he looks uncomfortable, he makes himself say it: “I… apologize. I’m sorry.”

Mi-so says that she’s sorry, because she knows he wouldn’t get upset without a reason. She tells him that she pursued Morpheus because she thought it would be good for him, and he says he knows.

As they walk back to Young-joon’s office, Mi-so a few steps behind as usual, Young-joon slows his pace until they’re waking side-by-side.

They both work late that night in Young-joon’s office, and Young-joon mentions that Mi-so probably wants to celebrate their reconciliation with dinner, but they’re too busy. She says it’s okay, and he replies that she should be, since he was too upset earlier to work. She blurts out, “What??” and he gives her a little glance, and she tries to hide her own smile.

She turns back to her work, but Young-joon doesn’t look away from her. It makes her fidgety, and finally he stands and says, “Secretary Kim. Before, you told me not to shake you up again. I… want to shake you up.”

Mi-so only stammers and looks unsure of what to say, so Young-joon leans down, taking hold of either side of her chair. Mi-so closes her eyes, and Young-joon goes to kiss her… but just before their lips touch, he suddenly shoves her chair away, sending her rolling across the room, lips puckered.

 
COMMENTS

As funny as Young-joon’s last-second chickening out, I have a feeling that him telling Mi-so he wants to shake her up was as honest as he’s ever been with someone who wasn’t a family member. I doubt he’s going to take this statement back like he did before. He’s had more time to think about what he’s really feeling, and he’s starting to accept that his feelings for Mi-so are real. Admitting that he wants to shake her up is about as close to a confession as he can get without actually saying he likes Mi-so – he made himself really vulnerable to her in that moment, so I hope she doesn’t make a joke and brush him off lightly again. Doing that now could actually hurt him, and after they day they’ve had together, I don’t think Mi-so is strong enough to turn him down.

I really want to know what Sung-yeon’s problem is with Young-joon. I assume he’s bitter because Young-joon was given control of the company even though he was the younger son, but that doesn’t seem to make much sense if looked at rationally. It may be tradition for the eldest to take over the family business, but Young-joon is an actual genius and the brother who’s good at business, so I commend his parents for doing the logical thing and giving the company to the son most likely to make it prosper. But why couldn’t Sung-yeon also go to work for the company if he wanted?

And it’s not like the break in tradition left Sung-yeon destitute — he’s talented in his own right, and his writing has afforded him a lot more fame and probably just as much income as Young-joon. So his resentment must just be about the insult of being passed over, and the fact that their parents are much more focused on Young-joon. I can even understand his feelings if that’s the case, but his attitude also seems to have a lot to do with whatever happened when they were kids. In which case I’m confused again, because all signs point to Young-joon as the one who was kidnapped, so why does Sung-yeon view the incident as something Young-joon did to him?

On a lighter note, I love how Young-joon is starting to show Mi-so his soft underbelly, letting her see a little of his insecurity and vulnerability. It’s interesting that he’s only doing so now, after they’ve worked together for so long, but I think they’ve just always been careful to keep their boundaries strong. Now that Young-joon has crossed that line in his attempt to convince Mi-so to marry him, not to mention the timing of Sung-yeon returning and making him remember whatever happened in their childhood, Young-joon is naturally opening up to Mi-so. I love his hilariously arrogant yet endearing public persona, but I find Young-joon’s real self a lot more compelling — he’s actually very gentle and sensitive, and that’s the side that Mi-so is just now seeing and seems to be falling for.

Besides that, Young-joon is getting a lot better at his efforts to take care of Mi-so, which I’ve touched on before. The little gestures he’s making mean so much more than big showy dates, and he’s really doing well with things like driving Mi-so to work and making sure she has breakfast, because they prove that he’s not just trying to impress her — he’s truly making an attempt to make her life easier. And it really feels like he’s no longer doing those things just to turn Mi-so’s head, but because he genuinely wants to do nice things for her. I don’t even mind that all of this is a huge effort for Young-joon… in fact, that just makes it cuter, because the effort proves that he’s sincere, even if he’s still a bit too self-congratulatory about it. Fake it ’til you make it, right?

I worried at first that Mi-so and Young-joon would be too different to make a relationship work, and they still have quite a long way to go before they’re able to meet in the middle. But their chemistry is off the charts, which makes their journey that much more fun to watch. I love how Young-joon is so quick to brag to himself how smooth and romantic he is, but whenever he’s around Mi-so, he can barely keep his head on straight from the effect she has on him. And Mi-so gets knocked off-balance just as easily, especially when Young-joon does something swoony at the office. She naturally gets flustered when they’re off the clock and she’s aware that he’s trying to woo her, but it’s cute to see her confusion when she thinks they’re in work mode but he’s urging her to enter the elevator first and getting so concerned over a little papercut. Once Young-joon figures out what his feelings for Mi-so really mean, she doesn’t stand a chance.

 
RELATED POSTS

• Premiere Watch: Are You Human Too, Secretary Kim, Life on Mars
• Park Min-young considers romancing Park Seo-joon in tvN’s Why Secretary Kim
• Park Seo-joon may become the boss in webtoon adaptation Why Secretary Kim