Seo Yoo Kyung (Han Chae Ah) – Marry Him If You Dare/Mi Rae’s Choice
One of my favorite moments in this show is when Yoo Kyung automatically sets out the tableware for for Se Joo. This is a habit borne from the sexist culture of the news room, where the pretty young woman reporter takes on the role of deference to hopefully get the (male, obviously) PDs to approve her projects and let her stories get to air. Flirtatious sexiness and “aegyo” are also tools Yoo Kyung doesn’t hesitate to use, knowing that if she can make the men in power happy, she can get further in her career. That’s just what one does in this sexist culture.
So it’s instinctive to set out the tableware, because that’s just what a girl does, even if it’s only for a VJ (since she’s not aware that Se Joo actually owns the news station at this point). He immediately stops her, telling her that she shouldn’t have to do this. She’s valid as a person who doesn’t need to defer to anyone else, especially any guy, and should instead focus on how amazing and confident she is in front of the camera. That should be the reason she gets more reporting gigs, and not her ability to charm the PDs with her aegyo.
Thankfully, Se Joo decides to make a point of establishing a rule that reporters and PDs are selected based on talent and not on connections or prestige. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Except Yoo Kyung, without such prestige, connections, money, or ability to make herself known beyond her looks, knows that it’s all talk, because the people who get selected in this “fair” interview were already decided. She knows how the world works, and even if she has to sacrifice some of her pride, she’ll do what it takes to get ahead even when all the decks are stacked against her.
Yoo Kyung continues to do the flirtatious and deferential roles she’s used to – and that everyone expects – until one day she finally snaps and, during a work dinner where she’s the only female, stands her ground and refuses to serve the guys. It’s a triumph for her, but it’s also nerve-wracking because she’s the breadwinner for her family, and if she offends the wrong PD, her career could be toast.
When she decides to take a scholarship to study journalism overseas, she refuses Se Joo’s offer to help support her family while she’s away. This is her family, this is her career – she doesn’t want to rely on a man to save her. Even though she’s been in love with him and has had to watch him pursue another woman, she harbors no grudge against him. She just wants to stand on her own two feet, the boss of her own life.
In the end, she becomes an MC of her own talk show, proving that all her efforts and hard work have proved successful. While this show may have been frustrating on so many levels, particularly with the ending, it’s satisfactory to see that Yoo Kyung has fearlessly and ceaselessly strived to excel in her career. In that way, the ending is almost preferable to what we know of the original timeline, since Yoo Kyung’s success feels much more deservedly hard-won than simply falling in love with a chaebol who will then make her the director of a news station. I still have faith that Yoo Kyung will become the big boss one day – but on her terms, because of her talent and intelligence, and not just who happened to be her husband.
The Obsessive Dilettante 