my secret romance

i need to stop skipping dramas.. after i watched the secret life of my secretary in 3 days, i watched this drama in 2 days. skipping unimportant scenes and just focusing on the main actor and actress. gee.. i need to stop. anyway, somehow i want to watch romcom again since it makes me laugh, so i hope this one too.

title: my secret romance

cast: sung hoon, song ji eun, kim jae young, jeong da sol

genre: romantic comedy, a bit melodrama

cha jin wook (sung hoon) is a chaebol from daebok company. he was having too much fun, playing around with girls and partying, but he never got serious with one girl. his father found out about it and sent him to the resort that they owned to work there as a bellboy. while lee yu mi (song ji eun) is an energetic hard-working girl who loves food but failed to be a cook. she became a nutritionist instead. her mother was getting married for the second time in the same resort, so yu mi had no option but to ride on a bus to go to the resort. while jin wook was forced to take the bus and met yu mi for the first time.

in the resort, jin wook kept playing around, doing nothing. at the same time, yu mi was embarrassed since her mother selfishly put her old pictures from an adult movie that she starred in, embarrassing both yu mi and her new husband. but yumi suffered the most since she has been getting the same treatment since high school. she then ran away from the venue, and accidentally ran over jin wook who was bringing the wedding cake. both were smitten for the first time. but their meeting didn't end there. the manager told jin wook to apologize to yu mi, but being a jackass, he sent wine to yu mi room instead of apologizing. unfortunately, while she was going to go in the bathtub, she slipped and spilled the wine on her. jin wook mistakenly thought that she was injured so he rushed her over and even called for ambulance. imagine how surprised they both when yu mi woke up feeling ticklish when the paramedic tested her reflex.

feeling embarrassed, yu mi walked around the resort while jin wook managed to steal his car key back and made a quick stop at his mother's place, leaving flowers in front of her porch. back on his way, he found yu mi sitting at the bus stop so he stopped and offered to accompany her. they both drank and one thing lead to another. they both spent the night together in jin wook's car. but in the morning, yu mi realized what they have done and ran away before jin wook woke up. she left her breast pad in his car while she brought jin wook's coat with her.

after that night, both of them couldn't forget each other, but yu mi thought they wouldn't meet again. three years later, jin wook had become a hardworking son, working his ass off in the company so he could forget yu mi. imagine his surprise when he saw yu mi walking in the same building. he found out that she was the new nutritionist and made a plan to pay her back for leaving him naked in the car the following morning. yu mi then found out that jin wook was the chaebol and worried that he might have wrong impression of her, so she pretended to forget it all. while jin wook was determined to make her remember. he asked her to make him three meals a day, sometimes even more in addition to her usual workload. he also asked her to date him 10 times. both still have feelings for each other, so after so many dates and stuff, both jin wook and yu mi couldn't deny their feeling.

however, there's a misunderstanding when jin wook saw yu mi with dong gu. dong gu was her mother's son with her new husband. but since dong gu is 3 years old, he thought dong gu was his since it was 3 years ago that they slept together. jin wook's father also misunderstood as well and thought jin wook had a wedlock son, but later it was cleared up that dong gu wasn't yumi's. and what a drama would be without other people that like them as well? entered anchor joo hye ri (jung da sol) who has crush on jin wook since high school, but jin wook didn't like her. his father also approved of hye ri but jin wook insisted that hye ri wasn't the one for him. using her position as anchor, she let out her love story a bit, making it public that she had one-sided love for a chaebol.

there's also jung hyun tae (kim jae young). yu mi's friend as well as a writer and cafe owner. he rented the first floor while yu mi lived in the second floor. he had crush on yu mi but never told her. when yu mi got shaken by hye ri and tried to leave jin wook, jin wook held off as he was afraid that yumi would run from him, but yu mi resigned from her post and moved to a rural college. at that time, yu mi's mom made it even worse. she appeared in a talk show talking about her past and even told the public that her daughter was dating a chaebol and that he and his dad mistaken about dong goo. the truth about yu mi's mom was an adult movie star stirred up again. this time it hit her even harder. jin wook, who found out from his assistant, instantly went out to find her. this time it took while before he found her.

accidentally, yu mi met jin wook's mom and got the recipe of abalone porridge, which was jin wook's favorite. later jin wook's mom told him that he should run after the girl that he loves. jin wook finally managed to find yu mi, spent the night again with her only to find yu mi left her once again. for yu mi, jin wook was a dream and it's time for her to wake up. while jin wook was desperate, yu mi's mom appeared again on talk show and this time she told everyone (probably directed to yu mi) that they should follow their heart. her past career being an adult movie star shouldn't affected anyone love's story. at that time, hyun tae lent yu mi his motorcycle so yu mi could go to jin wook's office. jin wook was racing back to his office but his car broke, so he ran. in the office, they both admitted that they still love each other, and hugged each other. they didn't care that everyone could see them now. 

at the end we saw that yu mi's mom remarried again with her second husband and she kept playing her old photos as adult movie star. yu mi and jin wook were back together and still in progress to get jin wook's dad approval.

what i like:

- simple story about life, i guess. the fact that yu mi's mom is an adult movie star has been haunted yu mi forever. but at the end her mom told her that she shouldn't let it affected her, and just follow her heart.

- how they make a mistake like a one night stand could be working. thought it's almost impossible, i think the message here is that you can correct your mistake.

what i don't like:

- cheesy typical love story. like how hye ri did everything she could even bashing yu mi so she could win jin wook. and how jin wook used cheesy tricks so he could kiss yu mi. like the accident in the pool. he managed to rent the whole pool but forgot to tell the lifeguard to be off duty? 

- another chaebol - ordinary girl love story. and the problem with the parent that only want their kids to marry another wealthy kid or famous kid and not just ordinary people.

- how they lean hard on sung hoon's masculinity. and that cheesy back fall? how many times must jin wook catch falling yu mi? ain't that back fall soooo outdated? at this time, i can tell that some dramas sell their actor actress kissing a lot too much, and this drama is one of them.

rating: 7/10

binge worthy: so-so

recommended for: those who like sung hoon and ji eun, don't mind cheesy love story.