This is the first time I started watching a drama from the last three episodes, because those were the episodes shown during the screening at the Jeonju International Film Festival. But I’m unlikely to actually watch the rest of the episodes because I didn’t like the ending of the drama (issues of feeling too strongly for a particular character who doesn’t end up with his happy ending)…
For those of you unfamiliar with the drama (like I was!), Secret Relationships is a BL romance Korean drama based on a webtoon of the same name, which centres around Jung Da-on (played by Kim Jun Seo), and his potential three love interests Joo Sung-hyun (played by Cha Sun Hyung), Kim Soo-hyun (played by Cha Jung Woo), and Shin Jae-min (played by Kim Ho Young).
[WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD]
As I mentioned earlier, I had no prior background knowledge of the drama or the webtoon, so I went in quite blind. I didn’t even realise it was a harem plot, foolishly thinking it’d be a fluffy romance between the two people I saw in the initial movie still used in the promotional material for the screening. Or even if not fluffy, that their romance would be end-game…
We began the screening at episode 6, at a rather intense point with Sung-hyun and Soo-hyun being in a heated argument, when Da-on enters the scene to break up the fight and ends up being dragged away by Soo-hyun. Then out of nowhere, Soo-hyun suddenly forcibly kisses Da-on, and things just feel super uncomfortable. Since I didn’t watch the earlier episodes, I was under the illusion that these two people were in a relationship (which looks quite toxic at this point), only to quickly learn that they were merely in a supervisor-subordinate relationship. Soo-hyun obviously has feelings for Da-on but it appears to be one-sided.
When Sung-hyun shows up to confess to Da-on and let him know that he’ll wait for him, Da-on rejects him. So it’s looking like a love triangle at this point. But we are soon introduced to yet another man in Da-on’s life, Jae-min, who happens to help Da-on’s sister out when she gets injured while at her part-time job. We find out that Jae-min orchestrated the accident, and he’s also “in love” with Da-on. So it’s a love… rectangle?
Emotions run high in these last 3 episodes, with Soo-hyun desperately trying to win back Da-on (we see sweet flashbacks of their previous relationship or at least a budding romance), Jae-min attempting suicide in his efforts to force Da-on to stay by his side, and Sung-hyun misunderstanding Da-on’s feelings for him when he notices the love bite forcefully planted on Da-on by Jae-min.
Although I only got to watch the last 3 episodes, I felt most strongly for Soo-hyun, being all too familiar with this idea of one-sided love. He is unfortunately quite violent, and has a lot of anger, and I usually wouldn’t root for such a character. But seeing the flashbacks, learning about the reason he parted with Da-on, and the desperate longing to go back to the past where his feelings were reciprocated, I just couldn’t help but feel for his character.
I think the character development for the drama was done really well because I only watched 3 episodes, and yet I got to learn so much about the characters, why they were the way they were, and even ended up rooting so strongly for a particular character. Unfortunately for me, it didn’t end well for that character, at least in the sense that he doesn’t end up with Da-on. He’ll still live a comfortable life though since he’s the rich heir of a conglomerate.
PS. It is a happy ending! Well at least for Da-on anyway. And his chosen guy. I just chose the wrong person to root for.
Secret Relationships is available on streaming platforms GagaOOLala and iQIYI.
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This drama was screened at the 2025 Jeonju International Film Festival.
