Set against the hyper competitive world of headhunters, the premiere of Love Scout is already impressive with its refreshing take on gender roles and dynamics. Han Ji Min's CEO Kang Ji Yun means business. She is terrific at her job, but she is difficult to work with and struggles to nurture relationships. Yu Eun Ho (Lee Jun Hyuk) is her super competent secretary, who is not only an ace at everything he does but is super popular with people. As their ideologies and ethics are different in addition to their perspectives toward life, the two clash. Here's what you can expect from the premiere episodes below!
Warning: spoilers from episodes 1-2.
Yu Euh Ho, the endearing Mr. Fix It
Yu Eun Ho starts out as part of the HR department at Hansu Electronics. He is good at what he does but is constantly gaslighted and humiliated by his boss. The reason? Eun Ho had taken a year long paternity leave due to his daughter's mental health. His manager had caustically told him that his child is not that special for him to forsake an assignment that could help his career. However, Eun Ho, undeterred, responds that for him his daughter is the most special and to see her smile is his biggest victory. Feeling betrayed by Eun Ho's unexpected break, his manager continues to taunt and humiliate Eun Ho, who stoically keeps working. But one day, he is falsely accused for leaking official data and is asked to leave.
However, Eun Ho doesn't let his professional worries and challenges ever come between raising his seven-year-old daughter. As a single father, he has worked hard in providing his daughter with a protective and happy home. When he is told his daughter was showing signs of depression, he takes a leave of absence from work and devotes himself to her therapy and counseling sessions. From taking her to school and play dates to cooking fun meals, and tending to her needs, he is the ultimate cool dad. Eun Ho is also very quick with his reflexes, and when you have a young child at home, that's a necessary skill set.
Things get messy before he leaves Hansu when Eun Ho has a not-so-pleasant encounter with Kang Ji Yun, the boss of a headhunting firm, when she tries to place an employee from his organization in a rival company. After a heated exchange, the battle lines are clearly drawn between the two. Ironically, after losing his job and despite his previous organization giving him terrible references, Kang Ji Yun's second-in-command co-worker feels he would make the perfect assistant for her.
Eun Ho knows the repercussions of their encounter but zealously works hard and shows his aptitude. Even though Kang Ji Yun ignores and makes her dislike apparent, he has no qualms in saying he needs the job and has the experience she requires for her company. It's cute when he is seen taking books on how to get along with your boss to understand what more he needs to do to get on Kang Ji Yun's good side. One cannot help but applaud the man's resilience and conviction in being calm and in control in spite of having a tough boss around.
It is an absolute treat to watch Lee Jun Hyuk in the romantic genre. He slips with ease into the character, articulating Eun Ho's compassion, his strength to adapt to situations, and maintaining composure. His character is just infectious.
Kang Ji Yun, the no-nonsense boss
Han Ji Min's Kang Ji Yun means business. She doesn't mince her words and knows how to get the job done. A headhunter running her own firm Peoplez, Ji Yun lacks people skills the most. When she's asked what she looks for in a candidate, she sharply responds that it has to be someone who can earn their keep and justify the price attached to them. When she is told that this is cringe, she shrugs and says that in hardwired capitalist times, to not earn your keep is criminal, and she'd rather be cringe than criminal.
Ji Yun is so focused on work and what she does that it seems she is immune to everyone around her, which also includes feelings of her staff as well as taking care of herself. She can never remember the names of her employees, nor can she remember which car she was driven in or where she has kept her things. On top of that, she comes with her own quirks, from the coffee needing to be a certain temperature to papers being stapled at a particular angle. It's no surprise that she has been unable to keep an assistant, with several having resigned days into the job.
When her attempts at signing a candidate from Hansu Electronics to another company are thwarted by Hansu's HR manager Yu Eun Ho, she is not amused. Eun Ho tells her that loyalty and value matter over small-time gains, and it's clear Eun Ho sees her and headhunters as selfishly motivated individuals who would do anything for their own gain and commission. She tells him clearly that she hopes they never meet again, only to have him in her office as her newly appointed assistant.
Ji Yun is a woman who can keep a grudge, and she sees through Eun Ho, wanting him out. But he obstinately stands his ground. The only time one sees a flicker of emotion in Ji Yun's face is when she asks him why he took paternity leave at the expense of his career, to which Eun Ho says his daughter means the world to him.
Ji Yun is not as strong as one thinks her to be. She suffers from acute insomnia and tends to work herself to the bone. It's so much so that she lands at the hospital for having overworked her brain. Ji Yun remembers her own father, who had died in an accident. Seeing Eun Ho's devotion toward his own daughter, she gets riled up and remembers her own father, who had told her he would never leave her. It is clear she is carrying baggage from the past. Ji Yun also has a rival, her former mentor (played by Park Bo Kyung), who is out to destroy her. Haunted by an incident of the past, though Ji Yun refuses to accept defeat, it seems there are those who have set her up to fail.
Han Ji Min shines as the butter won't melt in her mouth boss. Even though she showcases a tough exterior, she guards her vulnerable side. It is clear this is also a woman who has been wronged and had no choice but to turn into an emotionally hardened person.
A refreshing take on gender roles
Who doesn't love a good office romance? There have been several dramas where the handsome, arrogant CEO is swept off his feet by his kind-hearted and meticulous secretary. However, Love Scout cleverly upends gender stereotypes. We have the successful boss, Kang Ji Yun, who is ambitious and unapologetic when it comes to her ideologies. She runs her firm with an iron hand, she studies and personally gets clients recruited, and it is imperative for her that individuals know their worth. She has no qualms in sacking an employee who has manipulated documents, and she plays by industry rules, even warning her rival that if she plays dirty with her, she will be taken down. This is a woman who lives by her rules and by herself. But it seems that when it comes to emotions and relationships, she has locked them away.
Yu Eun Ho, though a promising manager in the HR department, doesn't think twice before taking a work sabbatical, even though he is warned he would face repercussions. As a single dad, he has taken it upon himself to give his daughter a nurturing and happy environment. He is a super home-maker, excels in childcare, and is equally good with his job. Eun Ho tries to maintain a healthy work-life balance and is a devoted parent. No matter if he has a bad day at work, he makes sure his daughter doesn't see through his struggles.
In times where women are often burdened with responsibilities at home as well as work, Love Scout cleverly shows that whether in the work space or at home as well as with parenting, it doesn't need to be limited by boundaries of gender. Seeing a woman in a decision-making role and her assistant, who is an equally self-assured man, is a heartening sight.
One can't wait to see how the relationship between the haughty boss and her amiable secretary takes off from here. As Kang Ji Yun extends her hand towards Eun Ho, could he well be the one to bring normalcy in her chaotic life? We'll just have to wait to find out!
Start watching Love Scout:
[viki-watchnow url=https://www.viki.com/tv/40833c-love-scout]
Puja Talwar is a Soompi writer with a strong Yoo Yeon Seok and Lee Junho bias. A long time K-drama fan, she loves devising alternate scenarios to the narratives. She has interviewed Lee Min Ho, Gong Yoo, Cha Eun Woo, and Ji Chang Wook to name a few. You can follow her on @puja_talwar7 on Instagram.
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