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The Secret Life of My Secretary (2019) Series Recap

The Secret Life of My Secretary (2019)

The Secret Life of My Secretary is a romance comedy set in the corporate business world—specifically, an IPTV company by the name of T&T Mobile which streams children’s content with plans to expand. The company’s CEO is Sim Hae Yong (Kim Min Sang), the uncle of male protagonist, Do Min Ik (Kim Young Kwang). There’s an upcoming vote for the company’s next CEO and as things currently stand, Do Min Ik stands a good chance of taking the position from his uncle. Aside being the son of the late CEO and founder of the company, Do Wan Bae (Choi Jung Woo), Do Min Ik has great judgement which is helped by his ability to recognise people with one encounter and read people without fail.

Nothing gets past him. That is, until one night a scuffle with Eun Jung Soo (Choi Tae Hwan), a chauffeur who once worked for Sim Hae Yong, causes Do Min Ik to lose the ability to see faces because of a ledger Do Min Ik had unwittingly picked up.

The scuffle for the ledger sees Do Min Ik falling over a high walkway. As someone who has a congenital brain aneurysm, the fall causes the clip in his brain to shift and narrow the blood vessel not far from the part responsible for facial recognition. Do Min Ik develops the facial recognition disorder known as prosopagnosia aka face blindness.

Unsure who’s a friend and who’s a foe, who’s lying to him and who’s telling the truth, his chances of becoming company CEO is at risk.

There is one face he can see, though. That face is Jeong Gal Hui’s (Jin Ki Joo), a secretary who’s worked for him for the past year, who he fired not long before the attack and who he manages to get back after learning she’s the only person he sees. Why? She’s been imprinted in his mind as the woman who wears that red cardigan for pretty much the whole year she’s worked for him.

Back working as his secretary, Jeong Gal Hui hides a secret. A small joke born from a misunderstanding over meeting places for Do Min Ik’s blind date, Jeong Gal Hui’s discovery that Do Min Ik can’t recognise her when without her usual red cardigan, she plays what she later calls a small joke which sees her act as Veronica Park (Kim Jae Kyung), heir to Park Group and Cinepark’s CEO and the blind date his stepmother, Sim Hae Ra (Jung Ae Ri), set him up with.

Jeong Gal Hui didn’t intend to play the joke on Do Min Ik from the start. She had gone to the restaurant wanting to tell him Veronica Park has mistaken the meeting place and wasn’t showing up, but she was presented with a Do Min Ik who didn’t recognise her and she was curious. She was curious how it would feel to have people wait on her and eat nice food because it had alway been the other way: she only ever waited on people being Do Min Ik’s secretary and ever ordered expensive, fine food and drinks for others and never had them herself. Maybe what she was most curious about is how Do Min Ik treats other women, especially a woman who he dates, because she is treated so poorly as his secretary. She’s dubbed T&T Mobile Minion, which references just subservient she is to him.

And so begins Jeong Gal Hui’s double act. By day she is Do Min Ik’s secretary. By night, she is Veronica Park, the woman Do Min Ik was not keen to meet when he heard from his stepmother he was to go on a blind date with the Cinepark CEO. However, after meeting Veronica Park—as in after meeting the Veronica Park Jeong Gal Hui had gone to pretend to be—Do Min Ik ends up developing feelings for her, which makes things difficult and painful for Jeong Gal Hui because eventually she develops feelings for Do Min Ik, too. Do Min Ik likes her but it’s not her he likes but Veronica Park.

It’s been a while since we’ve come across a cute, funny, seriously enjoyable romance drama like The Secret Life of My Secretary. The Secret Life of My Secretary has your typical set of characters, typical setting and plot. There’s an assailant doing the bidding of his superior because of a lost secret ledger. There is a fight between wealthy family members for the position of the company CEO. But there’s a slight change to the typical in that the assailant and the secret ledger isn’t associated with who we think they are associated with.

What is also different is the relationship between Do Min Ik and his stepmother. It’s not one where they both mutually hate each other. His stepmother, Sim Hae Ra (Jung Ae Ri), doesn’t love him. She seems to have Do Min Ik around the house only to see Do Min Ik become T&T Mobile CEO. Do Min Ik, though, truly loves his stepmother and hopes that by becoming company CEO he will be accepted by his stepmother. This is the reason he wants to become CEO. He also goes along with the being set up with Veronica Park because it will help him become CEO and in turn gain his stepmother’s acceptance. We don’t remember seeing this kind of relationship in other dramas. It’s quite different and refreshing to see.

The best part of this drama, though, is watching Do Min Ik fall for who he thinks is two women at the same time when it really is just one. It was clear he liked Jeong Gal Hui and not Veronica Park. The part of Veronica Park he responded to was Jeong Gal Hui’s caring, tending, thoughtful side. He couldn’t see Veronica Park’s face when he was with her, so he could only ever fall for what’s inside, and what’s inside are the things that make Jeong Gal Hui her. Do Min Ik doesn’t realise it for some time, but when his heart only pounds when he was close to Jeong Gal Hui (and never with anyone else, not even when he was with Jeong Gal Hui acting as Veronica Park), it was hard for him not to see the person he actually has feelings for is Jeong Gal Hui.

We totally recommend this drama if you haven’t gotten around to watching this. Below is a quick recap of all 32 super enjoyable episodes of The Secret Life of My Secretary and some of our favourite scenes in pictures. With the Christmas holiday coming up, it’s the perfect drama to marathon in one go or rewatch!

The Secret Life of My Secretary Episode Summary

Episode 1

Jeong Gal Hui is one hardworking secretary. For her boss, Do Min Ik, is at his beck and call, 24-7 on the most smallest tasks (things like moisturising his lips with lip balm, be a stabilising object for him when he puts in his shoes for example). Jeong Gal Hui does things which are way beyond what is expected from a normal secretary, all with hopes her hard work would be acknowledged with the renewal of her contract. But Do Min Ik has not kept a secretary for more than a year ever since that one time many years ago, and she is let go from her job right after the sacrifice she made by taking part in the work sports event which was held on the same day of her mum’s death anniversary.

Episode 2

Do Min Ik unwittingly comes across a secret ledger which sees him chased by a masked attacker and topple over a high walkway. Miraculously, he survives with no injuries internally or externally. However, that ability to recognise people perfectly with only one encounter is gone. Waking from his fall, he’s unable to recognise the doctor, Doctor Gu (Kim Byung Choon), whom he’s known for 20 years, people’s faces morph and he addresses a patient he runs into as a doctor.

“I might hear her voice even if I go deaf. I might recognise her even if I go blind,” were Do Min Ik’s words to his child friend, Gi Dae Ju (Koo Ja Sung). He was right. The only person he recognises after the fall is Jeong Gal Hui.

Episode 3

Do Min Ik’s condition isn’t getting better. People’s facial features are disappearing now, and it’s all because of his congenital brain aneurysm which saw the clip securing the ballooning vessel near the area responsible for facial recognition shift after he fell.

His inability to recognise faces sees him unable to figure out who to stand next to when he should know. He mistakes a stranger for his mother at the art gallery and walks past Gi Dae Ju after making eye contact with him.

Do Min Ik also makes a statement to the police he’d got a view of his attacker’s face. This was possible when Jeong Gal Hui (who was semi-intoxicated and had come in search for Do Min Ik to “kill him” for unreasonably terminating her contract) clobbered the attacker in the head (Episode 2). It allowed Do Min Ik to uncover and see the attacker’s face whilst the attacker lay unconscious, but with Do Min Ik unable to see faces, he’s no better than if he had never seen his attacker’s face. He fails to confirm his attacker’s identity at the police station when asked by police.

Episode 4

Do Min Ik desperately needs Jeong Gal Hui and wants to get her back as his secretary. His reasons for wanting her back are obvious. She’s the only one he can see and rely on. The reason he gives her when Jeong Gal Hui asks why he wants her back, though, is that she’s “convenient”, which doesn’t go well with Jeong Gal Hui. To her ears, she’s not someone he sees as important, or someone he’s grateful for or someone he cherishes which she thought he might’ve meant when he said she was “that person” to him. To her ears, it sounded like she was a remote he can press and make her do what he wants her to do.

She rejects him and goes about enjoying her vacation spending the money her blind brother, Jeong Jung Hui (Seo Dong Won), worked so hard to earn just for the above purpose.

During this time, she receives some great news: her younger sister, Jeong Nam Hui (Kim Ji Min), got into a university in the US. This great news is followed by the realisation that she needs a job to support the expensive tuition fees, and this is what makes Jeong Gal Hui return to work.

Jeong Gal Hui shows up nice and early, surprising Do Min Ik with breakfast prepared and reports on the weather as well as the stock. She also introduces his new driver, a man who should be familiar, but with his facial recognition abilities deteriorating, he doesn’t realise that his attacker, Eun Jung Won, just walked through the door.

Furthermore, his good friend Gi Dae Ju is now a suspect in the attack as he was spotted on CCTV camera appearing to be speaking to the attacker.

Episode 5

Gi Dae Ju is brought into the police station and questioned about being caught on CCTV footage with the attacker. Gi Dae Ju definitely knows the guy: he was seen talking to him in the morning, but at the police station later in the evening, he claims he was just someone he borrowed a phone off from to call Do Min Ik.

He tells a story of having tried calling Do Min Ik many times to tell him he couldn’t meet at the boat because something came up with his secretary, but he couldn’t get through the whole time he was trying. Sometime in the night, after tending to the call from his secretary, he returned to the boat and tried calling again, but his phone ran out of battery, and this is when he met the attacker and asked to borrow the phone to try calling Do Min Ik.

As someone who appears to know the attacker, he comes off quite suspicious when he claims he didn’t get a good look at the attacker (therefore can’t provide a description of the attacker). When asked for the contact number to his secretary so police can verify Gi Dae Ju’s story, he wasn’t immediate in handing it over. He was also quick to agree when Do Min Ik (for the sake of the friendship possibly) requests police stop investigating, making Gi Dae Ju a bit suspicious.

Still, Gi Dae Ju does have a point when he explains his reasons for agreeing with Do Min Ik to stop investigating. Others, for example, Sim Hae Yong, will use this attack to slander Do Min Ik. Sim Hae Yong’s already having his secretary digging around for damaging information on Do Min Ik after seeing police show up at the company because of the investigation. Continuing will have an effect on Do Min Ik’s appointment as CEO.

Investigation seemingly closed (or maybe put on hold), Do Min Ik returns home to hear about his step mother wanting to set him up with an heiress of Park Group and the CEO of cinema chain, Cinepark. As someone whose family owns distributing agencies, production companies and movie theatres, an alliance between Do Min Ik and this CEO of Cinepark (aka marriage) could help Do Min Ik become T&T Mobile CEO. Going out with Veronica Park and securing his chances of becoming T&T Mobile will also please and have his stepmother, Sim Hae Ra, accept him as her son. Her acceptance is seemingly the main reason he wants to be CEO.

Episode 6

A mix-up with the meeting place for Do Min Ik’s date with Veronica Park sees Jeong Gal Hui at a crossroad to what she should do. She had arranged the meeting place to be at Kingdom Hotel at 9pm as Do Min Ik had instructed; but, through a misunderstanding created by Sim Hae Yong, who wanted Veronica Park to meet with Gi Dae Ju, Veronica Park mistaken this to be related to the date with Do Min Ik and shows up at the place Sim Hae Yong arranges, Princess Hotel.

With Veronica Park having no intention of correcting the mistake by going to meet Do Min Ik at Kingdom Hotel (she seems to like what she sees and decides she will go with the flow and see the date through with Gi Dae Ju), Jeong Gal Hui is stuck on whether she should pretend to be Veronica Park or tell him what happened.

Pretending to be Veronica Park won’t be hard: she was her secretary before she was Do Min Ik’s. A part of her job was to imitate Veronica Park when the Cinepark CEO was busy fooling around with guys, causing clients to wait. Not only that, when she arrived and stood before Do Min Ik dressed up and made over, not wearing the red cardigan, he didn’t recognise her.

Jeong Gal Hui, who seems to want to experience what it felt like to be waited on and fine dine, but most importantly, see how differently Do Min Ik treats a woman other than her, she introduces herself as his blind date, Veronica Park.

Episode 7

Like an heiress who does not do anything herself, Jeong Gal Hui deliberately drops a fork for Do Min Ik to pick up and dips her finger in steak sauce for Do Min Ik to wipe at their dinner together, and learns Do Min Ik as a man is a lot different than Do Min Ik as her boss. He tolerates her over-the-top requests and has the fork picked up and comes to her to personally to wipe the sauce-covered finger she purposefully dipped for him to wipe.

Breaking out of the habits she’s developed as Do Min Ik’s secretary looks to be a hard thing to do, though. Jeong Gal Hui can’t help but do un-Veronica-like things, things such as making him spit out steak the moment she tasted peanut in the steak sauce and catching his chewed up food in her hand (Do Min Ik has a peanut allergy and can’t eat anything with peanuts in it). Rain falls and Jeong Gal Hui can’t help but whip out an umbrella to shield him from the rain on their walk home. He talks about having indigestion and Jeong Gal Hui goes straight to massaging a spot between his index finger and thumb to cure it. It gives Do Min Ik a rather positive impression her.

Episode 8

Do Min Ik gets into another scuffle with his chauffeur, Eun Jung Soo, who had gone to Do Min Ik’s office in search of the USB drive containing the ledger. Do Min Ik correctly guesses the late night intruder to be his attacker, but is made to believe he was mistaken all because he can’t see faces. Eun Jung Soo makes up a believable excuse, too: despite having been dismissed for the day, he was back in the office because he wanted to fix the broken lighting that was bothering Do Min Ik during the day. Eun Jung Soo uses the darkness of the office and not being able to see it was Do Min Ik in the office to explain why he started attacking.

The chances of seeing faces again is low according to Doctor Park, a doctor who’s seen patients in the United States with similar symptoms to Do Min Ik’s. She mentions that removing the clip in his head is an option, but highly risky. She does say a very tiny bit of good news. Facial recognition has been seen to return temporarily in a few states and situations: when nervous or excited, working long hours without rest, and when one met someone they loved.

Do Min Ik might have met that someone. After that dinner with “Veronica Park”, he want to see her again and uses the yellow umbrella she left him to convince she meet with him so he can return it only he doesn’t bring the umbrella. He just wants to see her. “I have indigestion. When I think of you, I feel funny in the stomach,” he confesses.

Episode 9

The Board of Directors demand Do Min Ik resign for fear the scuffle with Eun Jung Won (which his Uncle was responsible for spreading) would ruin the company’s image. The other directors have done some inappropriate, awful things which are worthy of what they’re demanding, but they only focus Do Min Ik’s scuffle with his chauffeur.

Time to vote, Gi Dae Ju who was the tiebreaker in ending this call for his resignation, voted against him. Gi Dae Ju’s explanation for doing that is he was afraid the directors would drag him down till the election and ruin his chances of becoming CEO. Taking this matter to the General Meeting of Stockholders and hearing their decision is a safer bet Gi Dae Ju reckons. It requires one-third attendance so it could get cancelled then they only need to wait a couple months for the election for CEO.

Gi Dae Ju appears to genuinely want to help Do Min Ik. However, equally possible, Gi Dae Ju could be scheming away. Firstly, he announces his intention to leave his job, which could be a sign of him breaking away from Do Min Ik. Second, the latest develop regarding the attack and Gi Dae Ju’s involvement reveals that there’s a discrepancy in his alibi for the night Do Min Ik was attacked, making him a possible mastermind. He claims he went to see his secretary, Lee Eul Wang (Jang So Yeon), but she testifies she was on her way to her mother’s place and didn’t meet him.

While so many come off as trying to stop Do Min Ik from becoming CEO, asking him to resign, Jeong Gal Hui stand by Do Min Ik and encourages he keep going. It’s not so she can hold onto her job, but because she thinks he really is that great. She admires that he was able to swallow his pride to get her back and his willingness to fight his incurable disorder and carry on: “When my boss is proud, I feel proud. When my boss feels down, I feel the same… So don’t give up and get to the CEO position. I’ll help.”

Episode 10

Do Min Ik lets the outcome of his future on the Board go to the Extraordinary General Meeting in two weeks’ time. In the meantime, he and Jeong Gal Hui head to a six-star hotel to prepare Do Min Ik’s fight to stay on the Board, away from further monitoring that was evident in his office with the video footage of Do Min Ik’s scuffle with Eun Jung Won. The stay there sees Jeong Gal Hui in a conversation with a sleeping, tired Do Min Ik for much of the evening.

In between the land of the nod and being awake, Do Min Ik startles Jeong Gal Hui by revealing he wasn’t fully asleep whilst she went on about her deception and how it hurt her when she sees him suffering because of his feelings for Veronica Park. Fortunately, he only catches to her talking about hurting and misunderstands it to mean she wasn’t feeling well.

A bit later, it’s Do Min Ik’s turn to go on about how he thought she was pretty in a state which looked like he was talking in his sleep. The strange thing is his eyes were open. He may possibly have been joking around with Jeong Gal Hui about being asleep and dreaming, but he seemed serious when he mentioned he thought she was Veronica Park because of a feeling he had at that moment. : oO : oO.

Two weeks pass on by to see the day of the Extraordinary General Meeting roll on in. Do Min Ik’s heart is beating fast. It’s one of those situations where Doctor Park had mentioned could bring on a temporary return of facial recognition in Episode 8. Sure enough, it happened. Up on stage, staring into the audience, not only can Do Min Ik see Jeong Gal Hui, he can see everyone else in the audience, too.

EPISODE 11

Backtrack to a day before the Extraordinary General Meeting, Eun Jung Soo has found the USB drive in an unexpected place that is Jeong Gal Hui’s home, and is instructed to have it left in Gi Dae Ju’s office. It’s suspicious, but it also comes off as a deliberate attempt to lead us astray as Gi Dae Ju’s actions of helping Do Min Ik get through the Extraordinary General Meeting by helping Jeong Gal Hui with a list of proxy statements to ensure shareholders don’t show up (forcing a cancellation of the meeting) contradicts the notion he’s plotting against Do Min Ik.

The hope that the Extraordinary General Meeting gets cancelled doesn’t happen, but Do Min Ik’s appeal to the shareholders sees Do Min Ik with a good chance of convincing the shareholders to let him stay on the Board. It’s an appeal which utilises Jeong Gal Hui’s idea of attacking Do Min Ik at the Extraordinary General Meeting only to give Do Min Ik the opportunity to defend, apologise and show how the other directors aren’t model citizens either. It’s an idea which looks to be one which might just save his position on the Board as Do Min Ik gets to show his sincere apology with a deep bow and promises to work hard to earn them a good profit.

Do Min Ik realises something quite important during this time together with Jeong Gal Hui. When she’s not there, he’s reminded of her when she was there. When he can’t sleep, a call to her will have him drifting off peacefully to sleep, because seemingly, it’s only after he hears her voice he feels at peace. It doesn’t matter if it’s her yelling at him for calling her too late and demanding so much from a secretary, either, because, he confesses in his thoughts, “It’s a paradise wherever she is.”

EPISODE 12

Do Min Ik treats Jeong Gal Hui to a trip to the seaside to enjoy some grilled clams and soju before the result of his appeal to stay on the Board is known with the unspoken acknowledgement of Jeong Gal Hui’s hard work as well as him being able to see faces momentarily. She isn’t pleased as she learns Do Min Ik’s treat involves her grilling the clams for him. Still, she does it.

It’s typical Do Min Ik style: do something nice for Jeong Gal Hui then add or do something to take the gesture back a bit. He does it again when they move to stare out at the ocean. He tells Jeong Gal Hui how glad he went on the trip with Jeong Gal Hui only to add that the clams taste the best when she, his secretary, grills them for him. It’s only after news come through from Gi Dae Ju that shareholders have voted for Do Min Ik to remain on the Board, Do Min Ik stops teasing her.

Jeong Gal Hui’s pure happiness in hearing the good news sees her leap onto Do Min Ik to give him a big hug. His arms stay by his side this whole time. He smiles in happiness, but he doesn’t hug her back. However, just when she lets go (finally realising what she was doing), Do Min Ik pulls her slowly back towards him to hug her meaningfully. He gently pats her on the back and thanks her for her work.

This is followed up with a gift: a new revised contract stipulating that the contract ends when she, Jeong Gal Hui, asks it to end it. In short, it’s a permanent position that can last forever if she wants. It should fill her with happiness, but instead, she is filled with guilt after hearing the story behind why Do Min Ik doesn’t keep a secretary for more than a year: the last one betrayed him. The secretary who was the only one he helped get her a permanent position learned he was taking some preventive medication for a medical condition and used it to help Sim Hae Yong become CEO. This story as well as learning that Do Min Ik will never ever be able to trust anyone for the rest of his life if he were to find out Jeong Gal Hui was lying to him has Jeong Gal Hui in tears. Do Min Ik sees none of this of course.

The gig might be up at the end of this episode as Do Min Ik receives a call from his stepmother, saying the real Veronica Park had attended the Extraordinary General Meeting especially to see Do Min Ik (Veronica Park didn’t really: she was just keeping up the act as discussed with Jeong Gal Hui), and suggests he return to meet her. Jeong Gal Hui’s act is in danger of being exposed.

EPISODE 13

With Do Min Ik not knowing the Veronica Park he really wants to see so much is standing before him and not at some lounging area in Seoul with his stepmother, Do Min Ik leaves Jeong Gal Hui. The fear Do Min Ik finally learned the truth sees Jeong Gal Hui show up back in the office, pale in the face the next day. She expected Do Min Ik to confront her about her deception. However, that doesn’t happen.

Do Min Ik never saw Veronica Park. By the time he got there, Veronica Park had left, leaving him to meet Veronica Park’s mother, Park Seok Ja (Baek Hyun Joo), and his stepmother. The person he ends up seeing is his doctor at a bar, who, in his drunken state, reveals how increasing his blood pressure can allow him to see faces for a short time. Hearing this, Do Min Ik goes about trying to increase his blood pressure by doing things like riding a bike and drinking soju after exercising.

Nothing works until Do Min Ik is riding on the back of his bicycle with Jeong Gal Hui pedalling it. He’s made to wrap his arm around her waist after she hit a speed bump and Do Min Ik’s heart monitor on his wrist begin to rise.

Do Min Ik denies Jeong Gal Hui could be someone he likes when Doctor Gu suggests it after hearing his story about seeing Jeong Gal Hui’s face back at the hotel in Episode 10. It seems, when he told Jeong Gal Hui she was pretty, he was not half-sleeping or dreaming at all.

EPISODE 14

Veronica Park’s mother is pressuring Veronica Park to set a wedding date. Veronica Park, who doesn’t want things to get to that point, calls Jeong Gal Hui to meet Do Min Ik and tell him she’s fallen for another man and end it. Jeong Gal Hui seems to display a bit of sadness as she won’t be by his side as his girlfriend anymore, but she can at least be by his side as his secretary. So, she, acting as Veronica Park, requests a time to end her relationship with Do Min Ik.

Just before the meeting happens, though, Do Min Ik seems to be trying to be a better boss to Jeong Gal Hui by dropping her off home. Jeong Gal Hui’s since rejected the contract and he thinks it’s because of him being a bad boss.

During the car ride home, the fact that Jeong Gal Hui had copied the contents of the USB drive also gets to Eun Jung Won’s ears. A spreadsheet containing some numbers resembling accounts and a title “Human unfair but fate shall be fair” was on it, she tells Do Min Ik. That has Eun Jung Soo stop the car suddenly and blame the sudden braking on a non-existent car fault which he recommends should be seen by a mechanic. He has Do Min Ik and Jeong Gal Hui get out of the car under that excuse in order to turn back to the office to search for the USB drive.

Jeong Gal Hui and Do Min Ik get caught in the rain shortly after. Taking shelter under a digger bucket, Do Min Ik’s heart rate rises. To his surprise, Jeong Gal Hui’s face clears up: “Am I recognising you now?… I’m not even drunk or nervous… You’re not even wearing the cardigan.”

EPISODE 15

Do Min Ik gets close, but not close enough. Not long after Jeong Gal Hui takes her leave, Veronica Park arrives to meet him at the changed meeting place (under the digger bucket where Jeong Gal Hui left him), he only get as far as seeing her lips before her face blurs again with his heart rate dropping. Do Min Ik tries to recreate the way he was with Jeong Gal Hui to get his heart rate up and see her face, but nothing happens. Jeong Gal Hui wasted no time with ending things after that. As discussed with the real Veronica Park, she tells him she’s seeing another man and wants to break up. Do Min Ik isn’t ready to end things, though, and asks for just 12 hours to have an affair with her, to try change her mind and choose him over the other man. He also hopes that in this time, he’ll see her face.

Jeong Gal Hui agrees. She knows it’s bad to keep going as well as dangerous. Her whole act could be revealed, especially if Do Min Ik’s heart rate rises, but she clearly has developed feelings for him now: “Can’t I be his woman at least for these hours, instead of his secretary? I promise I’ll let him go without any regrets after then,” she speaks to her deceased mum in her thoughts.

Her identity stays safe for the most part. She escapes Do Min Ik connecting the dots when he notices the plaster on her finger which he had put on her finger earlier in the day when she nicked it whilst helping him cut through his compression socks. She made another tiny error when she gave him the impression she knew exactly where a spare set of clothing was stored in his office when she suggested he go there to get into some dry clothing after he got a bit doused from the rain.

But right at the end, at a sauna, Jeong Gal Hui is pointed out by Do Min Ik’s doctor that she was “also” at the sauna. With everyone looking the same, Jeong Gal Hui should be safe. That is if Do Min Ik doesn’t catch sight of that number “99” which customers are given. This is the only thing identifying the Veronica Park he knows and Jeong Gal Hui as being the same person.

EPISODE 16

Jeong Gal Hui’s act is safe. Despite Do Min Ik noticing the number “99” around her wrist, she gets away with explaining how she ran into Veronica Park and was given the number to get them drinks. But she’s stuck with trying to be two people, going back and forth between the two identities as Do Min Ik asks for Veronica Park one moment and Jeong Gal Hui the next.

Of all people, it’s Gi Dae Ju who discovers Jeong Gal Hui’s act. (They run into each other at Veronica Park’s Cinepark cinema where Jeong Gal Hui and Do Min Ik goes next for their date and where Gi Dae Ju had met the real Veronica Park to return the phone she purposely dropped into his bag to make him see her.) Jeong Gal Hui pleads Gi Dae Ju let it slide for the last hour she’s with Do Min Ik. Once this time is up, she will then tell Do Min Ik everything the next day. It’s a request Gi Dae Ju appears to allow as Jeong Gal Hui is able to return to Do Min Ik (with tears in her eyes, but Do Min Ik doesn’t see this and isn’t aware of it until he hears two cleaning ladies pass by mentioning it) to spend the remaining time with him.

The last part of their date sees them watching the sunset. Do Min Ik realises there’s no changing Veronica Park/Jeong Gal Hui’s mind at this point and slips in the secret that’s not a secret to Veronica Park. Do Min Ik tells her he actually can’t see faces and how the man she’s chosen must be someone who can be happy when she smiles and console when she’s sad (something he can’t do). This leads Jeong Gal Hui to giving Do Min Ik a chance to request anything he wants from her for their last 10 minutes together.

Do Min Ik requests something that shocks her: “A kiss” he says. He tells her he won’t date or fall in love with anyone until he’s recovered from his face blindness, so she’d be the last woman he likes and wants to have the last kiss of his life to be with someone he really likes. Jeong Gal Hui initially rejects the request, but for the second time that day, she just seems unable to stop. “Do it,” she says to a Do Min Ik who has already gotten up to leave. “Kissing is not a big deal to me.”

EPISODE 17

At the office, Do Min Ik is heartbroken and can’t bring himself to focus on work, while Jeong Gal Hui manages to be herself around him, except for one moment which had their faces a bit too close and she couldn’t help but stare at his lips upon remembering their kiss the night before.

In no mood to do any work, Do Min Ik instructs Jeong Gal Hui cancel his whole day’s schedule and suggest she take the day off. It worries Jeong Gal Hui seeing him like this, so she decides to tail him and see him visit all the places he went on their affair without eating a single thing. She had to do something. She goes in without her red cardigan and pretends to be a stranger to encourage him to eat a Choco Pie. It takes a bit of encouraging, but he eventually eats it. That’s when he’s reminded that he’s only had a coffee the whole day and thinks to call Jeong Gal Hui to take up her earlier offer to be his eating and drinking buddy. He wants to have the rice she cooks, just like the rice she cooked for him during their stay at the hotel in Episode 10.

For the first time ever, Do Min Ik goes to Jeong Gal Hui’s home for dinner. The house is a bit messed up. The night before, Eun Jung Soo had paid the house a visit, in search of Jeong Gal Hui’s laptop. The chauffeur never managed to get it as her brother, Jeong Jung Hui, managed to protect it despite being blind.

The intrusion appears to have Do Min Ik worried, as after enjoying a table full of dishes plus that rice he wanted to eat, Do Min Ik offers to stay over. However, when Jeong Gal Hui declines his offer (stating she’s been through worse) he accepts her response and just leaves. That has Jeong Gal Hui scrunching her face as she watches his departing back. She had hoped he’d at least ask a second time.

EPISODE 18

Do Min Ik didn’t just leave after Jeong Gal Hui more or less told him she was fine. For two hours he hung around the neighbourhood, keeping watch, and after running into Jeong Gal Hui whilst she took out the garbage, he ends up staying over at Jeong Gal Hui’s house, too. The overnight stay isn’t just for her, though. It was for himself, too. In order to stop himself from doing something stupid like call and try see Veronica Park because he missed her so much, he needed Jeong Gal Hui by his side. He wanted her to stay right next to him, hold his hand and sing him a lullaby to help him sleep so he can get through the night.

She does that, and they both sleep so well they’re rushing the next morning to get to work. Though late, they don’t head straight to the office. They head to the police station. Under a dresser, Jeong Gal Hui comes across the box cutter Eun Jung Soo had lost during his search for the laptop. The find points a finger towards Eun Jung Soo as a possible suspect in the break-in (the knife is no normal box cutter but a special safety tool which drivers or repairmen typically carry) and yet another finger at Gi Dae Ju when Jeong Gal Hui mentions how the target of the break-in, Jeong Gal Hui’s laptop, contained a file which was in the USB Do Min Ik found in Gi Dae Ju’s office. That has Do Min Ik question Gi Dae Ju about him being the file’s creator after going to the police station. Gi Dae Ju denies being the creator. Unable to read the expression and tell whether his friend was lying, Do Min Ik decides he’ll just have to take his friend’s word for it.

The mother of seemingly important person Park Hyun Chil passes away. The wake sees Do Min Ik temporarily see faces again. To his complete bewilderment, his blood pressure rise yet again after a stuck zip on a clothes protector (which he and Jeong Gal Hui tugged on together to free) sends Do Min Ik into the back of Jeong Gal Hui, causing them to be only inches from each other’s face again.

The temporary recognising of faces lets him spot his attacker, who he chases down, only to be stopped by the woman he was meant to meet on that date at King Hotel, the real Veronica Park.

EPISODE 19

The real Veronica Park is apparently such a turn-off for Do Min Ik, he calls her an impersonator when he finally sees her. He compares her to a voice phishing scam.

Veronica Park isn’t impressed. Discovering that it’s Jeong Gal Hui who’s impersonating her, Veronica Park comes up with a punishment which has Jeong Gal Hui continue her act. This is the only way Veronica Park can see Gi Dae Ju without being found out by her mother. With Jeong Gal Hui posing as her and dating Do Min Ik, Do Min Ik’s mother is sure to feed back to Veronica Park’s mother on it, giving her the month she needs to see if it’d work with Gi Dae Ju.

Jeong Gal Hui isn’t happy to go back to lying to Do Min Ik and refuses to take such punishment, that is, until Veronica Park reveals how she’ll have to walk down the aisle with Do Min Ik in a month’s time if Jeong Gal Hui doesn’t do it: her mother’s set a wedding date for the two to marry after hearing how much Do Min Ik likes her.

EPISODE 20

Is it Jeong Gal Hui or Veronica Park Do Min Ik likes? He says he can’t forget Veronica Park, yet it’s Jeong Gal Hui who makes his heart thump and the one he buys expensive jewellery for. After coming across some Cartier replica earrings in her bathroom during his stay at Jeong Gal Hui’s house (Episode 18), instead of getting suspicious with how they resembled so much like the ones he saw on Veronica Park, Do Min Ik takes them to the jewellery store to find the genuine Cartier earrings so he could replace the fake ones with the real ones.

He denies liking Jeong Gal Hui when Gi Dae Ju teases him about it, but it seems even Do Min Ik doesn’t realise that he might actually like Jeong Gal Hui. The death of Do Min Ik’s treasured fish (an expensive arowana which his late father kept for the luck it brought to his business during its early days) sees Do Min Ik almost kiss Jeong Gal Hui.

Afraid the tank’s removal would make Do Min Ik feel empty or remind him of the fish if the tank remained in his office, Jeong Gal Hui thinks to buy him three Marimo moss balls, which she tells will float when they feel good. As they wait to see if the moss balls do end up floating, Do Min Ik and Jeong Gal Hui reveal to each other more or less how they both liked being in each other’s company. With Jeong Gal Hui thinking that the only time Do Min Ik wants to see her is when he misses Veronica Park, and how Do Min Ik thinks Jeong Gal Hui hates him, their confession makes them both happy.

Seemingly, it made the moss balls happy, too. The one on the left and the one on the right float all the way to the water surface as each revealed the above. (They appear to represent each of their moods.) The third one, the one in the centre, remained at the bottom and didn’t float for a bit, but eventually it, too, floated. That made both Do Min Ik and Jeong Gal Hui follow it up with their fingers until their hands touched. The moment sees Do Min Ik trace Jeong Gal Hui’s eyebrows, her eyes and then her lips. He wants to kiss her, and leans in ever so slowly. He gets within an inch of her lips before the kiss between him and Veronica Park flashes through his mind, stopping him from going further.

Who exactly does Do Min Ik love? Gi Dae Ju was seen asking Do Min Ik sometime earlier. He wasn’t sure then and was supposed to meet Gi Dae Ju to give him an answer at the end of the evening, because since Episode 19, Gi Dae Ju has decided to date Veronica Park after being pursued by her for quite sometime. Do Min Ik’s response to Gi Dae Ju’s question when he meets him is interesting: “First, punch me hard, Dae Ju.” Does this mean it’s Veronica Park?

EPISODE 21

It’s Jeong Gal Hui and Veronica Park. Do Min Ik loves both. It freaks Do Min Ik out so much he goes straight to Doctor Gu for a CT scan of his brain, which his doctor turns down in performing. Instead, he gives him advice: don’t think about who is at the end of his heart but rather where his heart was in the first place. What Doctor Gu seems to be saying is for him to figure out what it is he loves about the two. Once he figures this out, he might then be able to find his answer to who he really loves.

Taking Doctor Gu’s advice, it would be Jeong Gal Hui Do Min Ik loves since it’s Jeong Gal Hui’s warmheartedness and thoughtfulness which had him like Veronica Park in the first place, but Do Min Ik seems more willing to accept his heart is with Veronica Park than with Jeong Gal Hui.

After his hospital visit, he has her take a few days off work so they’re not together so much because he’s afraid he might try do something crazy again. With Veronica Park though, he’s willing to go visit her to see if she’s willing to date him again. (It’s partially on the advice of his stepmother he thinks to try again with Veronica Park.)

It was never going to be a rejection since it was the plan to have Jeong Gal Hui be Veronica Park and date Do Min Ik again.

Do Min Ik’s reaction isn’t as one would expect. He isn’t over the moon and even appear to run away. He holds off on making things official till they meet for their date at the Art Centre. When he’s asked why, he lies about a meeting he forgot about and needed to get going. He also fakes a phone call from Jeong Gal Hui. There was no meeting, no phone call from Jeong Gal Hui. Jeong Gal Hui is standing right before him and she knows his whole schedule.

Once back in the office, Do Min Ik finds himself missing Jeong Gal Hui. Barely a day without seeing her, he wants to see her, and ends up waiting outside her house after work. He doesn’t admit he went to see her because he missed her, though. He uses the excuse of wanting to ask about the file in her laptop. This is when we learn that the secret ledger which Eun Jung Soo has since managed to find and delete still exists. It’s now in the form of an email attachment which Jeong Gal Hui sent to Do Min Ik’s email!

Secret ledger aside, Do Min Ik ends up telling Jeong Gal Hui to try understand him when Jeong Gal Hui mentions about their almost-kiss and her willingness to erase it if it makes him feel awkward and sorry towards her. He tells her he’s never gone through that stormy period of adolescence. He will make up his mind soon, hinting to the fact that he has feelings for both her and Veronica Park. Just that he has yet to choose.

EPISODE 22

Do Min Ik learns the identity of his attacker. Do Min Ik’s sighting of his attacker back in Episode 18/Episode 19 leads police to catch Eun Jung Soo on CCTV camera, but not yet arrested. The discovery doesn’t do much in terms of his reaction. He’s surprised, but calm. When he processes that the break-in at Jeong Gal Hui’s house is connected with Eun Jung Soo, too, Do Min Ik shoots up from his seat. He tells the police off for not doing more—for example, assign security detail to her home—before he strides off to tell Jeong Gal Hui about Eun Jung Soo and that he’d be arranging surveillance to be installed at her home the next day.

Only Jeong Gal Hui can make him worry and act like this. Still, he plans on making his relationship with Veronica Park official when they meet for their date at the Art Centre. However, a car accident which sees both Jeong Gal Hui and Veronica Park injured sees Do Min Ik forced to make his choice as both are taken to the hospital, but admitted to different departments.

EPISODE 23

It’s Jeong Gal Hui. Do Min Ik may like Veronica Park, but the reason he liked her in the first place was because she is so much like Jeong Gal Hui. The way she pressed his hands (when she helped him with his indigestion), the way she was so excited over a cup of coffee from a convenience store, and when she smiled with those lips of hers, they all were like Jeong Gal Hui. And so the woman he likes is Jeong Gal Hui.

Jeong Gal Hui’s beyond happy that Do Min Ik likes her not Veronica Park, but there’s still that problem of her lying to him. She plans on telling him the truth (and rejects an offer from Veronica Park to give Do Min Ik her 100,000 votes to make him CEO provided Jeong Gal Hui continues pretending to be her). Seeing as Jeong Gal Hui has made the decision to come clean, Veronica Park (who’s finally made progress with Gi Dae Ju: the seemingly chaste guy finally kissed her when she told him that between him and Do Min Ik it’s neither she chooses), decides that she will personally end things with Do Min Ik as promised. She will deal with her mother about the break-up while Jeong Gal Hui will tell Do Min Ik the truth about her act.

The plan is looking like it might be foiled as Do Min Ik’s mother invites Do Min Ik to a rare dinner between the two, only, it’s actually between four. Park Seok Ja and the real Veronica Park are to join them. Things might just get exposed before Jeong Gal Hui has the chance to come clean herself.

EPISODE 24

First it’s a call to Veronica Park’s phone which should ring but doesn’t, then it’s serving peanuts on his plate when Veronica Park should know he’s allergic, then not knowing how to massage his hand to bring down indigestion. The Veronica Park he’s with is not the same Veronica Park he knows. To make things indisputable, Jeong Gal Hui returns Do Min Ik’s missed call and tells him she (as in Veronica Park) is waiting for him in front of the carousel, which can’t be possible because Veronica Park is supposedly right in front of him, watching him take her call.

Jeong Gal Hui’s been found out. She tries to apologise and explain, but the truth that it started because of a no-show from Veronica Park, her being hungry when she went to meet him at King Hotel and that it was meant to be a joke only hurts Do Min Ik more. He was devastated when he learned he had developed the disorder so to play a joke like that hurts him more.

Following the discovery that Jeong Gal Hui lied to him, he mistakenly suspects Gi Dae Ju for plotting against him. As it turns out, Gi Dae Ju is a good guy through and through. He had no intention of stealing his spot as CEO or betray him by siding with his uncle. In fact, he’a been trying to help Do Min Ik the whole time and proves it by handing the contract Veronica Park had signed, giving T&T Mobile exclusive screening rights to all Cinepark content. This contract, as Gi Dae Ju writes in his note, should give Do Min Ik a pretty sure chance of becoming the company CEO. This lavish gift (as Gi Dae Ju writes in his note) happens just as Gi Dae Ju is called away to by police to answer for his appearance on CCTV footage with Eun Jung Soo looking suspicious (it’s all an innocent chance-meeting, though), just after Do Min Ik accuses Gi Dae Ju of having known Eun Jung Soo much longer than Gi Dae Ju claims, insinuating the two were plotting against him.

The inability to see faces has caused Do Min Ik to suspect Gi Dae Ju who was trying to help and trust a person like Eun Jung Soo who tried to harm him. Jeong Gal Hui was the only one he trusted. But with that trust between them now broken, Do Min Ik tells her that she’s fired.

EPISODE 25

Born from the unfair treatment of secretaries and drivers the Euldoguk was founded by Secretary Lee Eul Wang and a ledger was created to record the swapping, sale and distribution of money to the unfairly treated dispatch workers.

Gi Dae Ju isn’t the creator of the ledger. Rather, he is an unwitting Euldoguk recipient after his mother—a secretary for Do Min Ik’s father, Do Wan Bae—was killed trying to save her boss’ treasured arowana fish and received no industrial compensation. This is why his name was in the ledger. Eun Jung Soo, who had been suspected as an underling of Gi Dae Ju, is actually another recipient of Euldoguk after being unfairly treated when he, too, didn’t get any industrial compensation for a knee injury which Sim Hae Yong played a part in causing. The former chauffeur really had no association with Gi Dae Ju other than what Gi Dae Ju said about having met at the funeral where he learned of Eun Jung Won’s availability to to take on the post of being Do Min Ik’s chauffeur (which is obviously Eun Jung Won’s way of getting close to Do Min Ik so he could retrieve the ledger).

Jeong Gal Hui’s been crying and beating herself up for lying to Do Min Ik. She really wants to go to him to ask for forgiveness, but advice from Veronica Park shoots the thought down. Forgiveness isn’t something rich people do, she implies. Rather, she should go out, splurge on expensive food that makes her criticise its tiny portion, buy something pretty that’s not much use at all and watch a funny play that makes her laugh so much it makes her feel bad for laughing so much when she’s just been fired. She tells her that only then she will come up with what to do.

Whilst Jeong Gal Hui is lying in bed, sad and unsure what she wants to do, Veronica Park trues to help and defend Jeong Gal Hui. Meeting Do Min Ik for the first time, Veronica Park tells him that Jeong Gal Hui may have started the lie, but she made Jeong Gal Hui keep doing it so she could date Gi Dae Ju. She also have him know the extent of Jeong Gal Hui’s joy when he confessed he liked her: she wanted to throw up because her heart was fluttering so much. Jeong Gal Hui may have hurt her arm, but it felt like it was her heart she hurt, Veronica Park relays.

Gi Dae Ju tries to get Do Min Ik to give Jeong Gal Hui another chance, too. He also confirms just how much Jeong Gal Hui really likes him. He saw it at the movie theatre where he caught Jeong Gal Hui in her act. He also reminds him how she gave him a second chance when he needed her to be his secretary after firing her not long before he lost his ability to recognise faces.

EPISODE 26

Jeong Gal Hui takes Veronica Park’s advice to eat an outrageously expensive dish, buy something with absolutely no use and watch a play that’s supposed to make her laugh so much it makes her feel bad in hopes she’d come up with what to do with her situation. The idea doesn’t come to her while she ate, spent and laughed, but while she was lecturing her younger sister, Jeong Nam Hui, about how hiding is worse than lying and that they have to keep seeing each other even if she was afraid.

The lecture comes after discovering Jeong Nam Hui on stage performing in a play instead of being in the US and studying at Pennsylvania University. He younger sister had lied about making it into the university because she didn’t want to disappoint Jeong Gal Hui and decided to hide instead of face her.

Finally figuring it out, she goes to Do Min Ik asking to be his secretary for one day so it’d allow her to help him with the Board Meeting that’s scheduled the next day. It’s an important day because it would decide whether he’d become CEO, and she wants to see to it that he becomes CEO. She promises him she will leave once things are over. Do Min Ik seems not ready to forgive Jeong Gal Hui and give her a second chance at first, but after seeing her hang around outside even after Do Min Ik had long gone home, Do Min Ik gives her that second chance.

Returning to the office to grab the notes on the features of staff and Board members, Do Min Ik leaves the building with Jeong Gal Hui’s red cardiganwith what appears to be an intention to find her to give her that second chance. He doesn’t have to look long as Jeong Gal Hui appears before him just outside the building, asking if he needed anything. He tells her then to come to work the next day. He tells her he still hates her and is still upset, but he also needs her since he can’t recognise anyone. By giving her this chance, he also hopes it’ll allow her to leave without regrets.

Do Min Ik definitely needs all the help he can get. Do Min Ik’s uncle, Sim Hae Yong, has discovered Lee Eul Wang’s ledger, and to keep the secretaries, drivers and anyone in the recently disbanded Euldoguk free from being implicated, Lee Eul Wang is looking to make a deal with Sim Hae Yong by revealing Do Min Ik’s condition in exchange for their safety.

EPISODE 27

Sim Hae Yong’s plan to catch Do Min Ik out during the Board meeting fails. Despite having a line of similarly styled men dressed to expose him, Do Min Ik successfully points out everyone. He’s been studying his employees and keeping a journal to note down not only their appearance, but their traits, too, allowing him to not solely rely on physical appearance but characteristic behaviours as well to distinguish people.

Failing to catch Do Min Ik out in the above way, Sim Hae Yong moves to display a medical note about his prosopagnosia. According to the rule of the directorate, candidates with a physical or mental illness can’t assume the position of CEO. Sim Hae Yong probably backed on this to end Do Min Ik’s CEO hopes, but Do Min Ik stays in the running with an argument which he argues could very well make him quite suitable to be CEO.

Being able to read faces, he might try to cover things up with a lie. He wouldn’t necessarily have to pay attention to every single employee and he wouldn’t have to listen carefully to others. However, because he can’t read faces, he can only tell the truth, pay attention to his employees, and listen carefully to others around him. In his opinion, someone who does this deserves to be CEO.

Four of the 10 directors agree, five disagree and one abstains from the vote, making Do Min Ik’s appeal come out unsuccessful. That is until Gi Dae Ju shows up.

Jeong Gal Hui’s ability to read the situation from outside the meeting room and quick thinking sees her call Gi Dae Ju for help. Her fellow secretaries had mentioned Gi Dae Ju’s decision to resign, but because Sim Hae Yong wanted to hand him over to the disciplinary committee and frame Gi Dae Ju for leaking information or embezzlement as a kind of punishment for siding with Do Min Ik by handing the Cinepark contract to him, Gi Dae Ju’s resignation was never processed. He remains as a Director on the Board and was able to cast his vote in favour of Do Min Ik and force a revote (which will happen in two weeks’ time).

Although Jeong Gal Hui wasn’t able to see Do Min Ik get elected as CEO this time round, she is happy to keep her promise to leave without regret. All packed up, she tells Do Min Ik that all he needs to do now is convince the director who abstained from the vote and he’d be CEO before leaving him with handover notes and his next month’s schedule. She apologises again for betraying his trust and hurting him before thanking him for hiring her as his secretary even if for just one day. She then takes her leave.

Do Min Ik seems unwilling to see her go, but does nothing to stop her. He only halts her briefly to thank her for her help before watching her carry on out of his office.

EPISODE 28

Veronica Park sends Jeong Gal Hui and her brother Jeong Yong Hui to see a play Jeong Nam Hui is in to get them to not look down on it. Do Min Ik, seemingly unable to forget Jeong Gal Hui, makes up the excuse of wanting to treat her to a meal. This, he says, would be the last thing he will do before saying goodbye. It doesn’t end this way, though.

Through a call to Gi Dae Ju (which is hijacked by Veronica Park wanting Do Min Ik off the phone as quickly as possible so she can finish unbuttoning Gi Dae Ju’s shirt and more), he learns of her outing to the theatre. He’s not told Jeong Gal Hui’s out with her brother and mistaken the suavely dressed Jeong Yong Hui next to her as a guy she’s on a date with. To Do Min Ik, Jeong Gal Hui whispering in her brother’s ear, making little comments, her holding his hand to calm her brother’s nerves/excitement as they wait for Jeong Nam Hui to appear on stage, then getting flowers, and going out and enjoying ice cream together where Jeong Gal Hui is seen wiping her brother’s mouth from all the ice cream he got on his face, it all looks like date between a man and a woman going out, and it sees Do Min Ik feeling a bit jealous.

Called by the restaurant he had booked for him and Jeong Gal Hui, he abandons following her and her brother to make it to his reservation. It’s no longer a meal he will treat Jeong Gal Hui before he says goodbye for real. It’s a meal which he will have to win her back. He calls Jeong Gal Hui to have her meet him, and is told she can’t go to him straight away. (Jeong Nam Hui was still on stage and she couldn’t leave her blind brother alone). Do Min Ik tells her he will not move one inch until she comes. He doesn’t give her a chance to deny him as he hangs up after telling her to, “Come. Right now.”.

Jeong Gal Hui has never failed to go to him when told to. Fortunately, thanks to Jeong Nam Hui appearing not long after the call ended, Jeong Gal Hui is able to go to him without delay. Despite Jeong Gal Hui running to the restaurant as quickly as she can to meet him, Do Min Ik seem to lose hope she’d leave “her date” to meet him just because he told her to do so, and appears to give up on waiting.

Just as he gets up, Jeong Gal Hui calls out to him. She’s there, and it puts a small smile on his lips. He runs down the steps leading out to the grassy yard where she stands. Unlike in the past where he covered his desire to see her with work-related excuses, he tells her the exact reason he called her to meet him. He tells her how he doesn’t think he can forget her, how he regretted not stopping her when she left as promised, how he was more sad about her absence than happy about surviving the Board meeting that day, and how he went back home and didn’t stop by the office (because she want there). And then finally he reveals just how deep his feelings for her are: he got her to wear the cardigan because he missed her and he fired her because he loved her that much: “I love you,” Do Min Ik confesses.

EPISODE 29

Do Min Ik shows up at Jeong Gal Hui’s house to take her out on a date the next day only to have plans gate-crashed by Jeong Jung Hui and Jeong Nam Hui. Guilt-tripped by Jeong Jung Hui, Do Min Ik and Jeong Gal Hui are forced to spend their date at the beach where Do Min Ik is made to play chase with Jeong Jung Hui whilst Jeong Gal Hui is made to watch them. Jeong Gal Hui tries to escape with Do Min Ik without her brother noticing, but that fails and they’re made to dine at a restaurant eating Korean beef till Jeong Yong Hui and Jeong Nam Hui have had their fill. Do Min Ik is also pressured to drink soju her brother pours, leaving no chance of sending her brother and sister back to Seoul and spend what’s left of the evening with only Jeong Gal Hui.

All’s not lost, though. Forced to spend the night at a Bed and Breakfast, Jeong Gal Hui and Do Min Ik manage to spend the late hours of the night under the moonlight alone after Jeong Yong Hui and Jeong Nam Hui fall asleep. It sees them talk about Do Min Ik’s desire to see the way Jeong Gal Hui looked at him and how rising blood pressure and a pounding heart allowed him to see her. He tells her how it was strange that only when he’s with her, when his body is close to hers, does his blood pressure shoot up, allowing him to see her.

Jeong Gal Hui seems to like the idea of trying to get him to see her as well as be close to him after hearing that was what it took to see her. She, in not so many words, suggest they try some things which has Do Min Ik starts with holding her hand. It doesn’t work. He suggests hugging. That doesn’t work either. Do Min Ik’s comment about how it seems it’s not good enough has Jeong Gal Hui jump out of his embrace wondering how far they must go. Her mind seems to have gone to thinking about going ALL the way, which Do Min Ik doesn’t make a move to correct. He lets her decide how far she wants to go.

A kiss is how far. Jeong Gal Hui takes Do Min Ik’s hand and shows him with one of his fingers where her lips are. Do Min Ik teases her about how he was just thinking about putting an arm around her as the next thing he’d try. That has Jeong Gal Hui in a huff, exclaiming how backwards and out of order it was. Do Min Ik stops teasing her then. He cups her face and captures her lips. As he kissed her, the thought of whether or not he would have seen her face passes through his mind. It’s a thought he doesn’t care to have answered, though, because whether he saw her or not, he knew these were the lips and she was the person he’s been looking for. He didn’t need to see to know.

EPISODE 30

Jeong Gal Hui is torn between supporting Do Min Ik who can’t forgive and has every reason not to forgive Lee Eul Wang, Eun Jung Soo and all the dispatch workers involved in Euldoguk (they are responsible for his prosopagnosia after all), and supporting her fellow secretaries who‘s had their contracts ended for their involvement in Euldoguk and are now holding a protest involving a hunger strike to fight for their rights and fair treatment. Not only does she feel she needs to go to her fellow secretaries because they were there to cheer her up when she was fired from her job as Do Min Ik’s secretary, but because she knows that what they’re protesting about is very justified. The long working hours, the unpaid overtime, the unreasonable demands, and illegal contracts that don’t guarantee employment beyond a year, she understands it well. She wasn’t called the minion of T&T Mobile for no reason.

Jeong Gal Hui tries hard to stand by Do Min Ik and resent with him, but in the end she just couldn’t do it. Do Min Ik had invited her out to a nice dinner at a classy restaurant and the food sat there untouched. She couldn’t bring herself to enjoy eating in luxury while her secretary friends sat outside the company building starving themselves in their fight.

Do Min Ik, who didn’t invite her to see her so miserable, let’s her go and do what she obviously feels the need to do and protest alongside them. It sees Jeong Gal Hui and her friends ignored, pitied, and at one point threatened by a bunch of men sent by Sim Hae Yong to clear out the protest site. Jeong Gal Hui was close to getting hurt, but Do Min Ik was always keeping an eye on her, and had shown up to instruct the thugs to leave.

Four days into the hunger strike, a sick Jeong Gal Hui and her refusal to eat so she could take medicine he bought for her cold was enough for Do Min Ik. He approaches his uncle about ending the protests. For agreeing to opening the negotiation table for the dispatch workers, he tells his uncle he will withdraw from the running for CEO.

EPISODE 31

Do Min Ik was serious about withdrawing from running for CEO, but he was not going to leave Sim Hae Yong unchallenged. Do Min Ik brings in someone who not only has good chances of becoming T&T Mobile CEO, but this new candidate is willing to step aside for Do Min Ik when he feels he’s qualified to become CEO. Through the support of Do Min Ik, Do Min Ik’s supporters and a swing voter, Gi Dae Ju, an average guy who started at the bottom and worked his way up to the top, becomes the new CEO of T&T Mobile.

With Gi Dae Ju becoming the CEO, Do Min Ik pays back a debt he believes he owes him for the death of Gi Dae Ju’s mother which his father was indirectly responsible for. Magnanimously, Do Min Ik also pays an undisclosed amount to the now jailed Eun Jung Soo for what happened to his knee, too, compensating him for what his uncle refused to do.

It’s a call for a small celebration of cake and champagne between Do Min Ik, Jeong Gal Hui, Gi Dae Ju and Veronica Park. Veronica Park and Jeong Gal Hui switch positions here as Veronica Park is forced to do tasks Jeong Gal Hui usually does and went to do out of habit (things like setting the table and getting champagne), but was stopped by Do Min Ik because he didn’t want Jeong Gal Hui to always be thinking of others first. Each time Jeong Gal Hui habitually went and did things like her usual secretary-self, Do Min Ik took the task from her to do himself. Gi Dae Ju couldn’t let Do Min Ik do it, so he took the task. As a newly elected CEO, Veronica Park couldn’t let Gi Dae Ju do such tasks, and so, who’s left to do them? Veronica Park.

It frustrates Veronica Park so much to be acting like a minion, she causes Jeong Gal Hui’s arm to pass over candle flames after giving Jeong Gal Hui a shove in the shoulder, causing her sleeve to catch fire. Jeong Gal Hui is okay. Do Min Ik had managed to snuff the flames out with his bare hands : oO : oO. Her cardigan, though, now has a large unsightly hole in the sleeve, which is pretty much unwearable and leaves Jeong Gal Hui upset as it meant Do Min Ik won’t be able to immediately recognise her anymore.

They try the stores to try find a replacement red cardigan which might serve the same purpose as Jeong Gal Hui’s red cardigan, but the search fails. None of them allowed Do Min Ik to see Jeong Gal Hui’s face. This leads Do Min Ik to suggesting Jeong Gal Hui try on the Cartier earrings in her bathroom since they were a familiar item to him, earring which Jeong Gal Hui reveals she no longer has. The earrings reminds her of how she lied to him so she threw them out. She is then told she had just thrown out 5,000,000 won (~US$5,000) genuine Cartier earrings which he had gone and replaced her replica 5,000 won earrings (~US$5) with secretly, shocking Jeong Gal Hui.

EPISODE 32

Earrings not in the garbage, cardigan unwearable, Do Min Ik tries Doctor Gu again on suggestions, which the doctor suggests making another item do the same thing as the cardigan. With time, it could very well get him to see her again the way he did with the red cardigan. The doctor also tells him to keep his hopes up because he can never tell when and in what situation he might see faces. A patient he’s been using as reference saw faces when he burned steak, but strangely not when he was on a roller coaster or when he was in a car accident (which are typically heart-thumping events).

The doctor also suggests having a “deep discussion” about doing something couples who are together get excited about, because this might work for him, too. The doctor is talking about marriage and proposing to Jeong Gal Hui, but without specifically saying it out, it sounds like he was talking about Do Min Ik sleeping with Jeong Gal Hui, leading Do Min Ik off on the wrong track and thinking about all kinds of thoughts that has Do Min Ik hot and blushing for the whole day. He’s also easily aroused by things like Jeong Gal Hui cooling down his lips with her breath when he burns them after drinking a hot drink. Stroking the back of his head gets him turned on, too. Back at Jeong Gal Hui’s place, Do Min Ik reaches his limit when Jeong Gal Hui tells him to take his pants off after spilling tea on his lap. He backs Jeong Gal Hui onto her bed and starts kisses her. Presumably this didn’t get him to see her face.

Giving her a ring and proposing to her doesn’t work either. Despite not seeing that this is what Doctor Gu was suggesting to try, Do Min Ik does go as far as giving her a ring and lets her know he wants to marry her and will wait for the day she puts the ring on as her unspoken willingness to marry him. He still can’t see her.

But just like that patient which saw faces when he burned steak, what gets Do Min Ik to see is just as odd and unexpected. The time which has him seeing faces is when he’s late to his date with Jeong Gal Hui because he’s trapped in an elevator. He doesn’t realise he’s able to see until the elevator door is opened by his rescuers and he can see all their faces.

Realising that this was that lucky, small window of time where he’s able to see, he calls Jeong Gal Hui to meet him at their company rooftop as she had left the restaurant at which she was waiting after learning from Gi Dae Ju Do Min Ik had long left the meeting he had attended with Gi Dae Ju. Meeting at the rooftop, Do Min Ik kisses her on the forehead, nose and lips without trouble to suggest to her he can see. Jeong Gal Hui doesn’t miss the meaning of his kisses and smiles. Do Min Ik doesn’t waste time and tells her that everything about her face is beautiful: her eyes, her nose and her lips. He then leans in and gives her an intense kiss as his thoughts close off the drama:

“These moments came like a miracle. Every time such a moment came, the guy went running to her wherever she was. He looked at her for a long time and they shared an intense kiss. Being thankful that he can see at least for a moment, so that he can remember her face until he could see her again.”.

Favourite / Notable Moments in Pictures!

The Secret Life of My Secretary

EPISODE 10: Do Min Ik in his half waking state tells Jeong Gal Hui she looks pretty.

The Secret Life of My Secretary

EPISODE 12: Jeong Gal Hui hugs Do Min Ik after Do Min Ik’s plea to the shareholders to stay on the Board is successful. Do Min Ik smiles, but as for his arms, they stay by his side. It looks like Do Min Ik was just going to stand there and not reciprocate, but just as Jeong Gal Hui pulls away, Do Min Ik pulls her back in to hug her.

The Secret Life of My Secretary

EPISODE 14: No matter what Do Min Ik tries, he can’t get his blood pressure up and heart beating fast enough to see faces. Strangely, standing close to Jeong Gal Hui as they take shelter from the rain under the digger has him see.

The Secret Life of My Secretary
The Secret Life of My Secretary

EPISODE 15: First kiss between Do Min Ik and Jeong Gal Hui, but it’s not between Do Min Ik and Jeong Gal Hui but between Do Min Ik and Jeong Gal Hui acting as Veronica Park.

The Secret Life of My Secretary
The Secret Life of My Secretary

EPISODE 17: Veronica Park forced to do her business in the Ladies whilst Gi Dae Ju is on the other side of the door. The comedy portion of this drama is all about knocking Veronica Park down a few notches from her high perch.

The Secret Life of My Secretary

EPISODE 20: The Marimo moss balls floats! Do Min Ik and Jeong Gal Hui’s hands touch, and Do Min Ik finds himself wanting to kiss Jeong Gal Hui.

The Secret Life of My Secretary

EPISODE 22: “It’s you, Jeong Gal Hui.” Between Veronica Park and Jeong Gal Hui, Do Min Ik chooses to go to Jeong Gal Hui’s side following news the two women had gotten themselves into a car accident and were sent to different departments in the hospital.

The Secret Life of My Secretary

EPISODE 23: Do Min Ik gives Jeong Gal Hui’s hand a thorough wash by following the six steps to getting clean hands. The sensation gets too much for Jeong Gal Hui as Do Min Ik rubs and interlaces her hands with his.

The Secret Life of My Secretary

EPISODE 24: Do Min Ik is in tears after he learns Jeong Gal Hui’s been lying to him.

The Secret Life of My Secretary

EPISODE 26: Do Min Ik hasn’t forgiven her, but he allows Jeong Gal Hui the one day to come back as his secretary to help him with the Board meeting. It turns out, Do Min Ik later confesses he allowed her to return and had her wear the red cardigan because he really wanted to see her.

The Secret Life of My Secretary
The Secret Life of My Secretary

EPISODE 27: Veronica Park just can’t get a moment with Gi Dae Ju to herself with Jeong Gal Hui interrupting them at the most undesirable times. The interruptions are a running joke throughout the drama. She always gets close to having her way with Gi Dae Ju, but never gets there as she is always interrupted by a call from Jeong Gal Hui or Do Min Ik.

The Secret Life of My Secretary

EPISODE 28: Do Min Ik stalks Jeong Gal Hui and her brother, thinking she’s out on a date with a man.

The Secret Life of My Secretary
The Secret Life of My Secretary

EPISODE 28: Do Min Ik tells Jeong Gal Hui he can’t forget her and that he loves her.

The Secret Life of My Secretary
The Secret Life of My Secretary

EPISODE 29: Do Min Ik is a caring boyfriend to Jeong Gal Hui on their date at the beach. It’s quite a contrast to the way she was treated when Jeong Gal Hui was just Do Min Ik’s secretary. In the first episode, he used her head to stabilise himself while she helped put his shoes on as part of her job.

The Secret Life of My Secretary
The Secret Life of My Secretary

EPISODE 29: Do Min Ik kisses Jeong Gal Hui under the moonlight by the seaside. This happens after teasing Jeong Gal Hui about only wanting to put arms around her when she was hinting he try kissing her to see if it would get Do Min Ik to see her face.

The Secret Life of My Secretary
The Secret Life of My Secretary

EPISODE 32: Thanks to Doctor Gu and his suggestion for Do Min Ik try something which get couples excited to see faces, Do Min Ik can’t stop thinking about unsavoury thoughts and be aroused by Jeong Gal Hui when she cools his lips with her breath and by her light massaging at the back of his head.

The Secret Life of My Secretary
The Secret Life of My Secretary

EPISODE 32: Do Min Ik’s hit his limit with Jeong Gal Hui when she tells him to remove his pants after spilling tea on them. On the bed Do Min Ik has Jeong Gal Hui!

The Secret Life of My Secretary
The Secret Life of My Secretary
The Secret Life of My Secretary
The Secret Life of My Secretary

EPISODE 32: Do Min Ik gets lucky. Unexpectedly, it takes being stuck in an elevator whilst on his way to meet Jeong Gal Hui for him to see faces. Not wanting to waste this moment, he runs to Jeong Gal Hui and kisses her forehead, nose and lips perfectly! He can finally see the way he looks at him.

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