Korean drama "The Secret Life of My Secretary": Recaps for episode's seven and eight

 Air Dates: May 6th to June 25, 2019 on SBS, two episodes Monday and Tuesdays at 10:00 pm
Ratings, episode seven 3.0%, episode eight 3.5%

Main Cast:

Jin Ki-Joo as Jung Gal-Hee.... 27 year old secretary to Min-Ik, she's the only person he can see

Kim Young-Kwang as Do Min-Ik.... President of TnT Media, has mysterious vision problem

Koo Ja-Sung as Ki Dae-Joo.... Min-Ik's best friend and a director at TnT

Kim Jae-Kyung as Veronica Park.... major character but hasn't been seen in four episodes

Jang So-Yeon as Yi Yul-Wang.... executive secretary to Dae-Joo

Kim Min-Sang as Sim Hae-Yung.... Min-Ik's uncle who wants the role of president back

Jung Ae-Ri as Sim Hae-Ra.... Min-Ik's mother though not his biological one

Seo Dong-Won as Jung Joong-Hee.... Gal-Hee's younger blind brother

Kim Ji-Min as Jung Nam-Hee.... Gal-Hee's younger sister who wants to attend college 

Kim Byung-Choon as Dr. Gu.... Min-Ik's long time doctor

Han Ji-Sun as Mo Ha-Ni.... part of the 'temp secretary group'

Son San as Koo Myung-Jung.... part of the 'temp secretary group'

Choi Yoon-Ra as Boo Se-Young.... part of the 'temp secretary group'

Kwon So-Hyun as Ha Ri-Ra.... part of the 'temp secretary group'
Choi Tae-Hwan as Eun Jung-Soo.... Min-Ik's new driver

 Whew, big cast and there are more characters whose names will be added if their roles get bigger. As is my norm with 32 episode dramas will be recapping four shows at a time with two in each recap. Keep saying that rom-com's aren't my cup of tea yet seems I've been watching more in that genre lately than any other Korean drama. It's been a hit or miss with them but so far my hit rate is much higher than the failures. To date will count this one as a big hit as I really enjoyed the first four episodes but it is hard to keep things interesting for 32 shows, wish they would decrease the number to twenty for some series. There's quite a few videos on YT for this series such as ones with interviews, behind the scenes and trailers, will have a different one for every post. Today's is a short interview from the SBS site which is subbed in English.

 Sure most have read the above recap so let's jump right into the action. Where we ended off was with two dinner dates where thanks to some behind the scenes interventions on behalf of Min-Ik's uncle Hae-Yung and mother he never did get to meet Veronica Park. But Min-Ik thinks he has as his personal secretary Gal-Hee came to the rescue impersonating her for the date. As most should know by now Min-Ik has a rare condition called Prosopagnasia which means he's unable to recognize faces. His getting it took place near the end of the second episode and the only reason Min-Ik has been able to lead a somewhat normal life has been thanks to his secretary Gal-Hee.
 She's the only person he can recognize but it's not because Min-Ik can actually see her face but it's due to the clothing and glasses she wears which somehow enables him to see her clearly. Min-Ik was supposed to meet Veronica at the Kingdom Hotel but because of his uncle's shrewdness she ended up at the Queen Hotel. Gal-Hee heard of the error and rushed to see her boss for dinner at the Kingdom Hotel but she was dressed rather elegantly which made Min-Ik unable to recognizer her. Somehow Gal-Hee was also able to imitate Veronica's whiny voice though she often slipped up doing it. Kind of hard to believe such an intelligent man like Min-Ik wouldn't have been able to deduce who he was having dinner with but it is a drama.
 He even tried to escort Gal-Hee home much to her dismay, there's no way she could allow Min-Ik to see where she actually lived. It began raining during their walk home which may have been a blessing for Gal-Hee as she was able to jump into a taxi. But before that the pair were using her yellow umbrella which Min-Ik should have recognized but didn't, she let him keep it for now and wonder if that umbrella may come into play later.
 On to the other dinner date which was between Veronica and Min-Ik's best friend Dae-Joo. He's been kind of a mystery up until now, though an exec at TnT Media he's been accused of having a part in Min-Ik's attack and may also be voting against his friend in the upcoming president election at the company. This meeting had been set up by Min-Ik's uncle who wants to regain the position of president again, he had given Dae-Joo a proposal to offer Veronica who is the president of the very successful Cinepark company. They want to retain the ownership but wish for another company to handle the day to day duties which was the proposal Dae-Joo offered her. But Veronica is a big time swinger and never talks business on a date, she just wants to bring Dae-Joo out on the town which he declines so for now the offer has gone nowhere but the pair will be hooking up again.

 Also seems as though Veronica's daffy mother had a part in the switching of her dinner dates. The true details of why that switch happened hasn't been completely revealed yet but remember we're only up the the seventh and eighth episodes. That's Dae-Joo in the second to bottom screenshot and we learned much about his background in that short scene. He's known Min-Ik and his family since he was seven, Dae-Joo's father had passed away when he was very young and his mother died just after he graduated high school. He had wanted to attend college and paying his entire bill was
Min-Ik's adopted father so Dae-Joo has many ties to the family. But what we haven't learned is what happened to the father and why was Min-Ik adopted by the Sim family?
 Min-Ik had hired another chauffeur which was a man named Jung-Soo who is a very suspicious character. He knows the secretary Ha-Ni though they've kept it private, Jung-Soo has ordered her to keep quiet about him as she had caught him sneaking around the company one night. That sneaking around had led him to Min-Ik's office where he was looking for a USB drive which contains some unknown company secrets. Jung-Soo had found the flash drive but to his dismay Min-Ik had forgotten something and returned to his office to find Jung-Soo snooping about. That's the above bottom screenshot as he began to pummel his new driver and it was only because of Gal-Hee coming into the office did the attack stop.
 Gal-Hee had stood up for Jung-Soo and not sure why, it's true that Min-Ik couldn't recognize his new driver's face but he's not to blame for attacking an intruder. Jung-Soo had given some lame excuse that he had just returned to the office to fix the lights, for now he's in the clear but can't imagine
Min-Ik is buying that excuse. The following day was a big one for Gal-Hee's family as her younger sister Nam-Hee was heading off to school in America. Gal-Hee and her nearly blind brother saw the younger sister off at the airport but we do wonder if she's really going to school. She had been accepted at the University of Pensylvania, see how I spelled that? That was the spelling on the acceptance letter and as someone pointed out how could they get the spelling wrong? We'll soon find out a little bit of what Nam-Hee is up to but not why.

 The top screenshot is of Jung-Soo calling Min-Ik's devilish uncle to let him know that he was able to steal the secret flash drive. But more importantly, least for Min-Ik, was the return of the skilled Dr. Park to Korea. She's an expert at his condition which is very rare and could possibly cure him but the operation would be very risky as we see Min-Ik tell himself above. When he was seven Min-Ik had an Aneurysm operation, the attack in episode one plus getting hit hard in the head by Gal-Hee had moved the chip around in his brain. Though Park is an expert in the field she says it's quite a dangerous operation and to date she's actually only performed it successfully once. For now Min-Ik has put the decision on hold, is seeing faces again worth such a complicated operation?
 Min-Ik had a good time on his 'date' with Veronica though of course he didn't know it was his secretary Gal-Hee filling in for her. He's asked Gal-Hee to set another date up for him but this time he wanted to speak to Veronica personally. That's out of the question as the ruse would then be discovered and we're not even sure Veronica wants to meet Min-Ik. So as you can see above once again Gal-Hee impersonates Veronica's voice but this time just on the telephone. Another date is set up but it doesn't take place this episode, still can't believe Min-Ik can't recognize his secretary's voice.
 But Veronica does have another mini date and once again it's with Dae-Joo who visits her at one of the many Cinepark theaters. She's glanced at the TnT Media proposal which was written up by
Min-Ik's uncle but she'd rather not talk business. As mentioned Veronica is quite the swinger and when she wants a man she gets him 100% of the time. That didn't happen though with Dae-Joo who is not a party man and wondering if the script has been written this way to make us viewers suspicious of Dae-Joo. It's true that it appears he's turning his back on Min-Ik but deep down don't think that's the case and perhaps Dae-Joo is actually using the uncle Hae-Yung. For now the offer to run Cinepark has been out on hold by Veronica, bet it'll eventually play out where she'll accept the offer but only if Dae-Joo goes out with her.

 On to the final segment and though so much does happen this series has been the easiest one ever for me to recap or at least up until now. Those above two screenshots are of Gal-Hee's sister Nam-Hee, as you notice she's still in Korea and didn't travel to America to attend 'UPen'. She had just gotten off the phone with Gal-Hee telling her college life has been going great but obviously it was a very large lie. Have no clue what's going on with Nam-Hee, did she just get turned down by the university or has this been some sort of ruse from the beginning by her?
 We've only seen Dae-Joo's personal secretary Eul-Wang off and on up until now but think she's going to be an important character. She's the only permanent secretary at TnT Media and seems to know more about what's going on then anyone. We're hitting the end of the eighth episode and with just a few minutes left she had been called into the police station by the pair of detectives investigating
Min-Ik's attack. They had checked out Dae-Joo's alibi about him helping Eul-Wang out at the office when the attack took place and what they discovered was that the alibi was a hoax. She had told the detectives she had been away from Seoul that night visiting her parents as Eul-Wang had no idea about the alibi. Though Min-Ik had asked the detectives to drop the case they didn't and with that lie being revealed they've made Dae-Joo the prime suspect again.
 As mentioned well above Min-Ik had set up another 'date' with Veronica though of course he's never had one yet with her nor has he ever met her. So once again Gal-Hee has dressed up like Veronica to take her place on the date and how long does Gal-Hee think she can fool her boss or possibly his mother in future episodes? That we don't know yet as the pair of shows reached their conclusion with the second date about to happen.

 The character of Gal-Hee looks okay in the show but can Ki-Joo make heads turn when she dresses up elegantly! She's rapidly moving up on my list of fave Korean actresses and will work on having a few regular posts for her. Won't rave about this being a must watch series but so far it's been one of the more enjoyable ones I've viewed in a long time and all eight episodes have been superb. Hopefully will be back on Wednesday for the next pair of recaps though may be taking a very short break from the series or then again maybe not. The second season of "Kakegurui" has been subbed and really want to view it but to my shock there were only five episodes. Will be recapping it but undecided if I'll be waiting until this drama is finished or to start on it next week, you'll soon find out.