Introverted Boss: Episode 3

by chickachunga

There’s more to the penthouse recluse than meets the eye, and Ro-woon starts to become aware of this rather quickly. Her convictions regarding the “psychopath” don’t seem as conclusive as before, and the question of who he truly is is a deep-seated one. Although he continues to weird out and intimidate his employees, he’s a tough puzzle that our heroine is determined to crack. With revenge on her mind, nothing is off limits.

 
EPISODE 3: “I’m Not an Easygoing Person”

We pick up right where we left off with Hwan-ki and Ro-woon running towards each other. Hwan-ki spots a courier scooter speeding towards Ro-woon and yells at her to move, but she doesn’t hear him. As soon as he’s near, Hwan-ki pushes Ro-woon out of harm’s way and braces for impact, but the scooter halts right in front of him; the scooterist eyes Hwan-ki strangely before hopping off and delivering food to the family sitting on the bench nearby, heh.

Hwan-ki tries to play it cool as if he was stretching the whole time and totally not steeling himself for a crash while Ro-woon’s sprawled on the ground on top of the shopping bags, relieved that her “courier” finally came through. Woo-il arrives, befuddled to see Ro-woon refer to Hwan-ki as the delivery guy, but Hwan-ki promptly runs off. While dusting off a designer purse, Ro-woon accidentally damages it, much to the horror of Director Park, but Woo-il smiles in amusement. Ro-woon and Yoo-hee quickly bring the props to set and apologize for the delay, and Hwan-ki catches his breath during a solitary stroll along the river.

That evening, Ro-woon walks home with the purse she broke and enters through the barbershop where her father sharpens a blade against a strop. He asks if she’s eaten, and that’s the extent of their terse exchange before Ro-woon heads to her bedroom.

She sits on the floor and thinks to herself that being without her late sister Ji-hye makes their home seem like an empty, uninhabited house. She opens a box containing a necklace and is reminded of her sister’s wake, where she first discovered the necklace amidst her belongings. Ro-woon gazes at the necklace and says, “Don’t worry, Unni. This is the start of the revenge.”

The next morning, Brain employees gossip inside the elevator about the penthouse that’s now open and undergoing renovations. Once they exit, we see Hwan-ki standing in the back. It seems he didn’t get the memo, because he’s surprised to see construction workers moving in and out of his office while Woo-il supervises. The “CEO Room” sign has been replaced with “Silent Monster,” the name of the new internal venture Hwan-ki’s heading.

Hwan-ki protests opening up his office to his employees, but Woo-il reminds him that this was his father’s decision. Woo-il thanks Hwan-ki for having the courage to take on this new challenge, but Hwan-ki replies that this is his punishment. Woo-il tries to reassure him that he’s picked the best candidates for his new team, but Hwan-ki surprises him when he says he already has a few people in mind already.

Cut to Yoo-hee flying into the office with bags of bread for everyone. Woo-il narrates: “Her hobby? Tardiness. Her specialty? Bread delivery.” Yoo-hee tries to appease an unhappy colleague by offering her bread and massaging her shoulders. Woo-il continues by saying that Yoo-hee takes on the role of a mother and relies on affection more than her duties.

Cut to EOM SUN-BONG (Heo Jung-min) giving unsolicited critiques of his peers’ work. Woo-il says his specialty is being last-minute and standing back with his arms crossed. But Hwan-ki wants Yoo-hee and Sun-bong regardless, since they’re the “cards [Woo-il] is about to dispose of,” aka terminate. Hwan-ki explains that Yoo-hee’s attuned to her colleagues and listens to all their personal matters; furthermore, she does great work.

Hwan-ki describes Sun-bong as someone who sees things others don’t by stepping back, adding that he only procrastinates because he’s knowledgeable. Turns out Hwan-ki had surreptitiously observed and taken notes on them. Woo-il’s amazed to hear this and is shocked that Hwan-ki also wants to hire Kyo-ri, because he remembered that she had initially interviewed for an account executive role.

With Woo-il’s two picks plus Hwan-ki’s three, Silent Monster will have a total of five employees, which Hwan-ki finds excessive. But Woo-il insists on the additions and tells him to expect a surprise. Gee, I wonder who…

Ro-woon is surprised to see her theater friend JANG SE-JONG (Han Jae-suk) arrive outside the Brain office on his skateboard. He tells her he’s also been hired and that he begged his mom to be placed in the same department as her. Ro-woon rolls her eyes at his easy hire through connections.

Silent Monster employees Yoo-hee, Sun-bong, and Kyo-ri wait outside Hwan-ki’s office, dreading their new placement. Woo-il’s picks Ro-woon and Se-jong join them, and Ro-woon wonders why none of them have gone inside yet. Inside, Woo-il explains that the employee he has in mind is crucial to this new venture and the President Identity project (which aims to fix Hwan-ki’s image) because this person — besides Hwan-ki’s father — is the only one that managed to get Hwan-ki to move around.

“No, not her!” Hwan-ki panics, realizing that Ro-woon is the person in question. But just then, Ro-woon confidently bursts through the doors, leading the pack. She squints, trying to get a better look at her boss’s face that’s shrouded from the light shining behind him. Hwan-ki avoids her gaze, but Woo-il turns him so that he faces his new employees and pulls back his hood before introducing him as Eun Hwan-ki, the boss of Brain’s new venture, Silent Monster.

Ro-woon struggles to compute that the man she believed to be a deliveryman is actually her boss/CEO. She’s completely thrown, and Hwan-ki promptly exits so he can speak to Woo-il alone. Yoo-hee notes that Hwan-ki’s more handsome than she expected, and Sun-bong says he has all the markings of a rich heir who capitalizes on his employees’ pain.

Outside the office, Hwan-ki orders Woo-il to terminate Ro-woon immediately; she’s made enough mistakes to warrant it, and she’s too noisy, but Woo-il replies that he likes her and that her energy reminds him of his younger self. Internally, Hwan-ki worries that Ro-woon would get hurt if his identity is revealed. Woo-il adds that Hwan-ki might be turned off by her boldness, but likens her to a friendly dog who doesn’t get hurt easily by others. “You’re the type to easily hurt others,” Woo-il says matter-of-factly to Hwan-ki. Um, ouch?

Hwan-ki disagrees to himself, knowing full well that Ro-woon’s hiding something and has been more deeply hurt than anyone else. But Woo-il’s not budging, and he instructs Hwan-ki to fire her himself if he can’t deal. Woo-il chuckles at his fearful friend before leaving him. Psh.

In the restroom, Ro-woon tries to come to terms with the fact that the clumsy deliveryman is actually the notorious psychopath, Eun Hwan-ki. She thinks back to when he apologized profusely on the rooftop and sighs; that sincere image of him conflicts with her negative perception of him.

Hwan-ki’s seated at his desk mulling over how to go about firing Ro-woon while the five new employees fidget, stifled by the awkward atmosphere and their silent boss. Hwan-ki stands up abruptly and asks them to empty one of the desks, but he’s so far away from his employees that they mishear his request and move their desks closer to him, thinking that was what he wanted, heh.

Ro-woon eyes him suspiciously, puzzled that the people-averse psychopath wanted his team members closer to him. Hwan-ki decides to try and fire Ro-woon over e-mail, but he struggles to find the right words and only ends up with the same words he started out with: “Dear employee Chae Ro-woon.”

Kyo-ri timidly sets a cup of coffee on his desk, and Ro-woon informs him that they decided to celebrate Silent Monster’s inauguration over treats, gesturing to a table set up with various cakes. Earlier that day, Ro-woon and Kyo-ri had picked out desserts and placed everyone’s coffee orders, but drew a blank when it came to their boss’s drink of choice. Kyo-ri realized that he had never sent her out on coffee runs, which was his way of being considerate. “He’s unexpectedly aware and has manners?” Ro-woon had wondered to herself. Kyo-ri assumed he wasn’t into sweet drinks, so Ro-woon ordered a triple espresso shot for him.

Back in the present, Yoo-hee asks Hwan-ki to join them, but he says he has work to finish, so they start without him. Ro-woon suggests they address each other by their first names. They all seem to like the “American style” of addressing each other and encourage Kyo-ri to try it out on their boss, since she’s always had to call him by his title.

But as soon as she manages to say, “Hwan-ki,” the man in question chokes on his coffee. He looks livid as he escapes to another room, and Kyo-ri immediately regrets what she did. Hwan-ki gulps down some water in the kitchen. “Just ‘cause I wear black all the time, they get me a dark drink,” he laments to himself, heh. Turns out he likes his coffee very, very sweet and specific.

He wonders if he should divulge his coffee preferences, but decides against it since he figures they put a lot of thought into his drink, and it’d be discourteous to do so. Then he wonders if he should dump it in the sink (“I can’t do that to their sincerity”), or add boatloads of sugar (“But what if I get diabetes?”), or drink it plain (“But if I drink this poison, my intestines will suffer”), only to end up diluting the drink with water by first pouring some of the espresso out in the sink.

Unfortunately, Kyo-ri and Ro-woon witness him doing this and take offense. Ro-woon thinks he’s overreacting just because Kyo-ri called him by his first name, and Kyo-ri immediately apologizes to Hwan-ki, who merely sighs at this terrible misunderstanding. Ro-woon suggests Hwan-ki cut the cake already since the others are waiting, only to gasp when she opens up his terrifying knife cabinet, which looks straight out of a horror movie.

Ro-woon picks out a slender sashimi knife that Hwan-ki had freshly sharpened, but he smacks it out of her grip so she doesn’t cut herself. He stammers to his terrified employees that his knife collection is his personal stuff and asks them not to touch his possessions. Ro-woon concludes that Hwan-ki is no silent monster, but a psychotic one.

Hwan-ki enters his car and beats the steering wheel in frustration, lamenting that even his car vents better than he can. Meanwhile, Ro-woon visits Woo-il’s office with an inquiry, and the two decide to chat on their way out together. Hwan-ki spots Ro-woon entering Woo-il’s car and is reminded of what Woo-il said to him earlier about liking Ro-woon’s energetic spirit.

We flash back three years ago to a similar moment with Hwan-ki watching as Ji-hye conversed with Woo-il in his car. Woo-il had placed a hand on her shoulder and pulled her in for an embrace as Hwan-ki looked on, worried. Ji-hye appeared terrified as tears trickled down her face.

Back in the present, Hwan-ki experiences deja vu now that Ro-woon’s inside Woo-il’s car. He doesn’t take his eyes off them and calls Woo-il, but he doesn’t get a word in because Woo-il hangs up immediately. Hwan-ki watches Ro-woon’s smiling face as Woo-il’s car leaves the garage.

Flash back to the night Hwan-ki asked Ji-hye to locate his other cufflink. She called Ro-woon to inform her that she’d be missing her show, and Ro-woon responded in anger. A couple brushed past Ro-woon in the middle of the conversation, which caused her to drop her phone. The man picked it up and gave it back to Ro-woon, and we see that he was Woo-il, and the girlfriend at his side was Hwan-ki’s sister, Yi-soo. Ooh.

Back at the penthouse, Hwan-ki cracked his door open and watched Ji-hye call the flower delivery service to send a bouquet to Ro-woon. He opened his palm, revealing the other cufflink he asked Ji-hye to find. Hmm. Did he make her stay behind on purpose?

During the car ride, Ro-woon asks Woo-il to divulge what kind of person Hwan-ki is, since he’s the only close friend Hwan-ki has. Woo-il answers that the courier with the apologetic eyes is the closest representation of who Hwan-ki really is despite all the scary rumors, but adds that no matter how much he insists Hwan-ki is a good guy, the others don’t believe him. He places a hand on her shoulder (ugh) and commends her for volunteering to join Silent Monster before reminding her that the product they’re promoting is Hwan-ki, since it’s his image they’ll need to fix.

Ro-woon doubts Hwan-ki will comply, but Woo-il asks her to believe him as he drives her to her next lesson. They find themselves in a room with HWANG, a famous actor who’s caught up in a scandal with a younger girl. There are pictures of him with a girl all over the internet, but he insists he’s not having an affair, though he refuses to reveal the nature of their relationship.

Woo-il emphasizes that they can only help him if he speaks up, but the actor says he’s damned either way. Suddenly, Ro-woon’s phone rings; it’s Yoo-hee and Se-jong, and they order her to return to the office immediately because of “He Who Must Not Be Named.” But because she’s in the middle of something, Ro-woon asks them to relay to Hwan-ki that she’s with Woo-il before hanging up.

Yoo-hee informs Hwan-ki that Ro-woon’s with Woo-il, but Hwan-ki’s not appeased — she’s an employee of Silent Monster, yet she’s not in the office. The entire Silent Monster crew proceeds to call Ro-woon to tell her to return to the office stat, because Hwan-ki’s about to explode.

Ro-woon returns and faces Hwan-ki, who looks none too pleased. He asks about her whereabouts, and she answers that she was in a client meeting with Woo-il. She’s about to summarize the meeting when Hwan-ki cuts her off and promptly excuses her. She’s incredulous that she dashed all this way just to be briefly interrogated, and Hwan-ki responds by pointing to the leftover sweets and ordering her to clean up.

Ro-woon walks home furious with the way Hwan-ki ordered her around. Her dad seems like he has something to say to her, but Ro-woon cuts him off and heads straight for her room. She finds a bouquet on her bed and runs out of the house to see if Mr. Smith came by.

She opens the card, and in it, Mr. Smith wrote: “Looking forward to your return to the stage.” She touches the flowers and replies to him out loud: “But what can I say, Mr. Smith? I still have work to do.”

That evening, Ro-woon sneaks into Hwan-ki’s office and tries to pull out the locked drawer of his desk, but it doesn’t give. She screams when Hwan-ki catches her in the act, and is even more frightened to see him in rubber boots and carrying a large, wet styrofoam box. She sputters that she’s here for a client meeting which Hwan-ki finds odd at this hour, but he doesn’t question further and puts the contents of the box inside the kimchi fridge.

She says Woo-il advised her to take on a PR project and to fully understand the product before advertising it, and asks Hwan-ki who he really is: Is he a bumbling courier, or a privileged spendthrift? Hwan-ki quietly feeds his fish while Ro-woon wonders if he pushed her out of harm’s way or shoved her because he wanted her to get lost. She asks him to communicate since she has to shape his image into that of a communicative, easygoing leader, but he tells her to come up with a new concept, because he’s neither. He thinks she lied about the meeting, but just then, Woo-il enters with the Hwang, Silent Monster’s first client.

The next morning, the Silent Monster employees wait on the actor hand and foot. Woo-il and Hwan-ki look on, but only the former’s amused. The actor spills noodles on Hwan-ki’s expensive Italian leather couch, and Hwan-ki’s not enjoying the fact that the actor’s in his office to avoid the press, which was Ro-woon’s idea. Ro-woon tries to coax him to speak with alcohol, but it doesn’t work, and Woo-il informs Hwan-ki that the actor refuses to say anything except that he’s not having an affair, which Woo-il takes to mean that he actually is.

Se-jong crashes into a wall while on his skateboard, and Hwan-ki fumes because his office has become chaotic. Ro-woon has folders of articles regarding Hwang and instructs her colleagues to look through them, but no one’s interested since he refuses to talk, which makes him seem guilty. But Ro-woon states that he’s a family man who loves his son, though Se-jong reminds her that what she sees on variety TV differs from reality.

Sun-bong also adds that when someone is guilty, silence is the best solution, and Yoo-hee points to Hwan-ki’s silence during his scandal as an example, since Woo-il stepped up to handle it instead. They all nearly get a heart attack when they notice Hwan-ki silently standing nearby and watching them again, but are disappointed to hear him slowly state the obvious: “There must be a reason why he’s staying silent.”

Hwan-ki steps out to answer a call from Yi-soo, who updates him on their mother: She’s feigning illness again, so he has nothing to worry about. He returns to his office when he hears the actor holler, and finds the employees playing hot potato with his phone. The phone lands in Hwan-ki’s hands, and Ro-woon urges him to flee with it, which he does.

Hwan-ki’s outside the office with the actor’s phone in his hands when it rings, and the caller ID says “My daughter.” Uh, doesn’t Hwang only have one son? Woo-il arrives wondering why he’s outside while Hwan-ki silently thinks.

Hwang bellows at Ro-woon to retrieve his phone, but Ro-woon suggests he quickly tell the truth instead so that he can return to his family. He’s furious that she has the audacity to bring up his family, but Ro-woon goes on, remembering that he told his son on TV how important honesty is.

Woo-il and Hwan-ki enter, and Hwan-ki says a call came in from his daughter. Ro-woon chides him for returning so soon with Hwang’s phone, but is puzzled to hear that a call came in from his daughter, since she knows he only has one son. Hwang snatches the phone from Hwan-ki and slaps Ro-woon, stunning everyone. That was NOT necessary. Woo-il holds her as she reels from the pain, and Hwan-ki looks at her, silently wondering why she’s putting herself through such humiliation.

Hwang curses at her for provoking him, and Hwan-ki agrees internally: “Why are you trying this hard unnecessarily?” Ro-woon recovers fast and admits that it’s refreshing to hear him tell it like it is even if it hurts, and that she’s being this persistent because she believes he’s not having affair, but that something is holding him back for telling the truth. Her determination puzzles Hwan-ki as he wonders, “Wasn’t your goal to destroy me?”

Ro-woon demands the truth from Hwang, and he gives it to her by crushing her acting aspirations. Her eyes glisten with tears from the harsh insults, and Hwan-ki surprises everyone when he orders everyone to leave, his gaze and tone dead serious.

This leaves Hwan-ki and the actor alone. Hwang quips that Hwan-ki gives off a different vibe as CEO, but Hwan-ki walks away mid-sentence. Hwang follows him, befuddled by his disregard, and Hwan-ki replies that he merely gave the actor what he wanted: silence.

But Hwang grows restless in the silent office with only the sound of Hwan-ki whittling his pencil. He warns Hwan-ki that this won’t get him to talk, but Hwan-ki answers that he’s not interested in what he has to say. Hwang then answers a call from his “daughter,” and his responses sound like he’s talking to his mistress, but Hwan-ki remains apathetic.

The actor heads to the kitchen, but Hwan-ki closes the knife cabinet and blocks him from opening the fridge drawer, suddenly reminded of the item he placed inside earlier. Hwang asks Hwan-ki why he can’t be easygoing, and Hwan-ki answers that it’s because he prefers protecting what’s precious to him — he won’t get in Hwang’s way if he, too, has something precious to protect.

Something finally clicks in him, and Hwang finally asks Hwan-ki if he wants to hear whether or not he’s protecting what’s dear to him correctly, and the two proceed to converse in the office. We don’t hear their conversation, but we do see Hwan-ki listening intently to Hwang’s words.

Hwan-ki finally pokes his head out to update everyone waiting outside. They can’t wait to hear what the two discussed, but Hwan-ki gives yet another slow and anticlimactic response: “I… no, we… are not going to say anything.” Everyone’s taken aback that Hwan-ki’s keeping the truth to himself.

Ro-woon’s on the rooftop, and she reminds herself not to get worked up since she didn’t come here to work, but rather to destroy Silent Monster. Woo-il joins her and thanks her for joining the new venture. He commends her for trusting someone based on the look in his/her eyes even when others are suspicious.

He believes she’ll become the best PR professional in the country, and Ro-woon jokes that he shouldn’t be so quick to trust her. He leaves with a smile, and Ro-woon muses to herself that she shouldn’t trust the very person she’s planning to exact revenge on.

Hwan-ki’s in the kitchen pacing back and forth while his employees watch through the partition. Finally, Sun-bong asks him to join tonight’s company dinner (courtesy of Woo-il), but Hwan-ki mutters that he needs more time, puzzling the employees. He looks at the timer, then at the kimchi fridge, and Kyo-ri walks toward it, wondering if there’s something wrong with it. But Hwan-ki stops her from opening the drawer and asks them all to wait for him.

They wait impatiently in the lobby, their stacked heads poking out from behind a wall, all of them dying for Hwan-ki to emerge. But they end up falling on top of each other, so Woo-il helps them up and suggests they leave without him. Noo, wait for Hwan-ki!

Back in the kitchen, the timer finally reaches zero, and Hwan-ki immediately opens the fridge. He takes out the plastic bag he put in earlier and opens it, revealing fresh raw fish. The actor sees it and understands; Hwan-ki didn’t let him open the drawer in order to thaw the fish at a constant temperature.

Hwan-ki asks Hwang if he’d like to eat with him since it’s too much for one person and proceeds to carefully slice the sashimi and arrange it into a platter. Meanwhile, Ro-woon’s following everyone to dinner when she spots a girl (cameo by Heo Young-ji) inside a car, speaking to her father over the phone.

Ro-woon recognizes her as the girl in Hwang’s paparazzi photos and remembers Hwan-ki saying that a call definitely came in from Hwang’s daughter. She tells her coworkers to go ahead without her and runs back into the building.

Ro-woon quietly enters the office and watches Hwan-ki and the actor chat over sashimi and drinks. Hwang says he doesn’t care what others say about him, but the problem is that she does. Hwan-ki turns his head and notices Ro-woon watching closely.

“Just ‘cause someone lives a different lifestyle, doesn’t mean they want to come out to the public,” the actor says. Ro-woon realizes that Hwang was keeping mum because he wanted to protect his family. A flashback reveals that Hwan-ki listened to Ro-woon as she was trying to convince her coworkers that Hwang was a family man, a fact that numerous articles confirmed.

We also see Hwang reassuring his fearful daughter that he’ll protect her. Ro-woon narrates, “The woman in the photo was his son. He chose to start anew as a woman.” The actor thanks Hwan-ki for his simple response, which was devoid of unnecessary consolation or curiosity. The two walk out together since Hwang has a flight to catch with his daughter, and Ro-woon wonders to herself, “What’s the true nature of this psychopath?”

Ro-woon’s at Hwan-ki’s desk once more and gives the locked drawer another yank, only to find it empty. She finds Hwan-ki silently watching her and asks him, “Who were you saying sorry to on the rooftop?” Hwan-ki thinks back to Ji-hye and answers in his mind, “To her.” Ro-woon looks at him expectantly for an answer, but only we hear his thoughts: “I wanted to protect her from harm. I am sorry.”

We see a shot of Yi-soo and Woo-il linking arms, and Hwan-ki says to himself that he has someone else he needs to protect. Hwan-ki takes out Ji-hye’s heels that he’s moved to another spot, and his eyes glisten as he takes them in.

 
COMMENTS

This episode was an unexpectedly moving one for me, but unsurprisingly, the scenes that struck me the most all revolved around Hwan-ki, the severely misunderstood and incredibly empathetic CEO who overthinks not because he’s crazy, but because he cares, and because he’s never at ease in order to protect what’s dear to him.

The Hwang storyline did a good job in shining a positive light on Hwan-ki’s mannerisms, which others only see as personality faults. Hwang saw Hwan-ki as a real, complex person with feelings instead of the terrifying and enigmatic weirdo the employees of Silent Monster make him out to be. To his employees, Hwan-ki is a frustrating lurker who says very little and is seemingly devoid of emotion. But in reality, his silence is never empty; the wheels in his mind are always turning, and while people forget that he’s there, his eyes and ears are wide open as they absorb every minute detail. His actions often make little sense in the moment, but are telling in hindsight. He’s meticulous in everything he does, from the way he prepares food to how closely he observes people. This episode has shown us that he feels things strongly and contemplates deeply, especially for the people close to him, which is why he’s still affected by Ji-hye’s tragic suicide even three years after the fact.

While I appreciated the Hwang storyline, there were a few things I found to be problematic. The unnecessary slap Ro-woon received infuriated me and subsequently, I found it difficult to sympathize with Hwang despite his love for his family. Moreover, the reveal of Hwang’s transgender daughter was… puzzling, to say the least. My main issue here is the fact that this drama literally has every single supporting actor from the director’s previous drama Oh Hae-young Again appearing in a cameo, and while I found it mildly amusing when the cameos weren’t integral to the story, it was especially distracting with Heo Young-ji playing Hwang’s transgender daughter. A transgender daughter is more narratively interesting than an illegitimate one, but I wasn’t pleasantly surprised so much as perplexed that the twist was revealed so explicitly with Ro-woon’s straightforward line that basically told us the daughter was transgender. The hasty reveal really threw me since it came out of nowhere, and I wish we were shown (rather than told) details that once pieced together, would’ve made the twist seem more plausible and less forced. Without delving into the matter of cisgender actors taking on transgender roles, I will say that I’m glad Young-ji’s role was minor, and that Hwang accepted his child for who she is.

The layers of mystery surrounding Ji-hye’s death have unfolded some more, and I think it’s safe to say that our inklings were confirmed — Woo-il is bad news. Every time he places his hand on her shoulder, I cringe! There’s still a lot we don’t know about this guy, but a big red flag has been raised. It seemed like he made unwanted advances on a vulnerable Ji-hye while he was dating Yi-soo. And I think Hwan-ki purposely kept her from attending Ro-woon’s show by assigning her that cufflink task, perhaps so she wouldn’t cross paths with Woo-il. I’m just guessing at this point, but consider me intrigued and ready for more clues. Maybe Ji-hye’s heels are the key to unlocking more secrets?

I still can’t believe Ro-woon is oblivious to the fact that Hwan-ki is Mr. Smith, but I’m glad she knows that her boss is the guy she mistook for the deliveryman. She’s more bearable when her misguided notions of Hwan-ki waver, and I like that we’re already seeing her uncertainty. She still jumps to conclusions, but at least they’re of the shaky variety. She continues to sneak into Hwan-ki’s office and meddle with his belongings because she has revenge on her mind, but her bold moves oftentimes reveal a genuine side of Hwan-ki that wasn’t readily apparent.

I like the sundry Silent Monster bunch a lot! They’re a fun group of people each with their own unique set of quirks and talents, and I’m looking forward to seeing how they mesh (or clash) with Hwan-ki. And the cute little animations during Hwan-ki’s coffee conundrum were so adorable, and I do think they add to the humor. I’ve noticed that this director loves his off-kilter shots where we see the character’s head in one corner while the remaining space remains blank. I’m not sure why these kinds of shots appear so frequently, but I notice them every time (along with some other oddly composed shots), though they don’t do much for me or add to the narrative.

I have to reiterate how impressed I am with Yeon Woo-jin’s acting. His eyes speak volumes, and he’s able to switch so seamlessly from a sensitive gaze to a more fear-inducing glare. They say the eyes are windows to the soul, and it’s a pity so many are afraid to peer through Hwan-ki’s and realize that he’s anything but a psychopath.

RELATED POSTS

• Introverted Boss: Episode 2
• Introverted Boss: Episode 1
• Beware of the silent monster in the penthouse in Introverted Boss
• Late night car rides and parkside flirtations in Introverted Boss teasers
• Peek-a-boo posters and teaser for Introverted Boss
• Wallflower boss meets social butterfly in tvN’s Introverted Boss
• Dance like no one’s watching in Introverted Boss teaser
• Lee Kyu-han joins the cast of tvN’s Introverted Boss
• Introverted Boss lines up support staff and romantic rivals
• Park Hye-soo, Yoon Park for tvN rom-com Introverted Boss
• Yeon Woo-jin courted to become Introverted Boss