Recap: Secret Relationships, Episode 8 + Hindsight Review

Did everyone buckle up for this final episode? It was a pretty wild (and fun!) end to what was a wild (and very fun!) ride these eight episodes!

Daon is shocked to see his kidnapper is his very own Jaemin hyung. Jaemin takes the tape off of Daon’s mouth and Daon asks why he is doing this. Jaemin says today is the day their Christmas wish from seven years ago will come true. Jaemin prayed for his wish to come true every day since: That they will be together until they die.

Back at the convention center, Sunghyun gets a suspicious text from Daon saying he has quit and given up. There’s no answer when he calls and remembering Soohyun’s words to him earlier, Sunghyun hurries down to the garage.

Soohyun is meeting with someone who will work to sabotage Daon’s presentation so their company loses the bid. But their meeting is interrupted when Sunghyun arrives to confront him.

Soohyun has no idea what Sunghyun is talking about. Sunghyun shows him the text message and Soohyun immediately thinks of Jaemin’s words. He tells Sunghyun to go to the university to check on Jaemin while he goes to Jaemin’s house. They find Jaemin at neither location.

Sunghyun thinks Jaemin planned to kidnap Daon all along and asks if Soohyun knows of perhaps a secret hiding place. Soohyun immediately remembers just such a location.

Back at the cabin, Jaemin is now dressed in a white tux and taking polaroids. Daon pleads with Jaemin and says he is grateful for everything he’s done for him, starting from when Jaemin offered to be his tutor that first time they met.

Jaemin says Daon is wrong. He’s actually known him and been in love with him since high school. And since then, Jaemin has been waiting to appear by Daon’s side whenever he needs him.

Jaemin has a pair of wedding bands. He puts one on and the other on Daon’s finger. Daon tries to fight back, but the ring does not fit. Jaemin insists that he deserves Daon the most because he was the first to meet him.

Jaemin takes a polaroid of both their ringed fingers together, saying he wants these photos to record their love and ensure it will never disappear.

Daon says he doesn’t understand why Jaemin rejected his confession. But Jaemin says Daon knows exactly why. It is because Daon likes Soohyun. Daon apologizes for not knowing Jaemin liked Soohyun too. But Jaemin admits that he and Soohyun only pretended to date just so he could eventually win Daon for himself.

Jaemin says the one thing he has always wanted was for Daon to never leave his side. But Daon has always let him down and asks why he is always tempted away from him. Why can’t Daon just look at him and only him.

Jaemin says Daon should pray for forgiveness for disrespecting their love so that they can go “there” where nothing will ever separate them again. They can freely love each other there.

Daon begs Jaemin to stop this. But Jaemin says it’ll all be over soon. Daon realizes what Jaemin means by that. And sure enough, Jaemin pours gas all over the cabin.

Daon is still unable to free himself from the binds. Jaemin pulls a lighter out and prepares to light both of them in flames. Suddenly, however, a neighbor knocks on the door.

Jaemin heads outside to meet her as she is surprised to see someone back in this house after being empty for years. She strikes up a conversation with Jaemin as he tries to keep her from looking inside.

Daon is able to free himself from the chair and crawls over to a knife to cut the ropes on his body. He tries to open the door to escape, but it is locked from the outside.

Jaemin surprises Daon back inside the cabin and picks up the knife Daon used to cut himself free. Daon begs Jaemin to stop this. But Jaemin says he wants to go the perfect world where they can be together forever.

Before Jaemin can stab Daon, Soohyun barges in. Jaemin grabs Daon and holds the knife to his neck, upset that Soohyun is coming between them again. Soohyun tries to get Jaemin to put the knife down, but Jaemin reiterates that he met Daon first. Not Soohyun or Sunghyun. So he will never give Daon up.

Daon is able to break free of Jaemin’s hold and runs toward Soohyun. Soohyun steps back as Jaemin charges after Daon. However, Daon is stopped by Sunghyun who pushes him aside and absorbs the knife right in his stomach.

Daon catches Sunghyun as he collapses to the floor.

Jaemin can’t believe he missed. He starts to approach Daon to finish the job, but Soohyun kicks him. Jaemin hits his head on the banister and falls unconscious.

A devastated Daon asks Sunghyun why he would do this for a nobody like him. Sunghyun says what’s most important is Daon is not hurt. He loses consciousness as well.

Now in the ambulance, Daon is relieved to see Sunghyun is awake. Sunghyun says he didn’t mean it when he said he regretted not giving up on him. Ever since they met, Sunghyun has not regretted a single thing. He is very happy and thanks Daon for letting him love him.

Daon says he did not mean what he said to push him away either. He apologizes for making him suffer all this time. Daon tells Sunghyun he will wait at the hospital as he gets surgery. But Sunghyun tells Daon to go do the presentation. If Daon is really thinking about Sunghyun, he will do the presentation.

Meanwhile, as Jaemin is taken into custody at the station, Soohyun grabs Jaemin from the police and locks themselves in a storage room. He slams him against the shelves demanding he explain why he wanted to kill Daon. Jaemin says he wasn’t trying to kill him, he just wanted them to die together. He loves Daon so much that he would give his life for him. But what did Soohyun do earlier? He just stood there like a fool while he couldn’t protect Daon.

How can Soohyun even think to stay by Daon’s side when he couldn’t even do that for him earlier. That’s not love.

The police get into the room and grab Jaemin who says he doesn’t even know why he got into a contract with Soohyun in the first place. He calls him an idiot before getting dragged away, laughing.

Back at the convention center, Daon comes running in just as they call for his team to present. He has wiped off the blood from his face and he heads on stage to begin, motivated and encouraged by Sunghyun’s words.

Later, Daon hurries to the hospital. But Soohyun meets him at the door of the convention center. He hands Daon the USB that was going to be used to sabotage his presentation so Daon wouldn’t go abroad.

Soohyun says he doesn’t want to do stupid things anymore. He just stood there like an idiot when Daon was almost killed. So he has no right to stand by his side anymore. Too much time has passed as well.

Soohyun apologizes for making Daon feel lonely, for abandoning him, not being honest with him and also acting like a jerk to him. While it’s useless to say now, he encourages Daon to go.

Daon hurries to the hospital where he waits as Sunghyun is still in surgery. A few days later, Daon visits Sunghyun’s hospital room where he is now awake. Daon immediately hugs Sunghyun and tells him he likes him very much. He was so scared that he wouldn’t have the chance to ever say that to him.

Sunghyun pulls Daon in and they share a passionate kiss. Sunghyun says he likes Daon very much as well. They hug.

Next day, Daon feeds Sunghyun some lunch. But their co-workers suddenly arrive and Daon has to hide. Sunghyun goes outside to sit with them and chat. But he feels sad when they say that their company will probably be awarded the contract and that means Daon will be transferred to Dubai.

Indeed, Daon gets the text from their manager about it. He is about to tell the manager that he will think about it first. But Sunghyun comes in and Daon tells him he’s not going.

Sunghyun says of course he should be going. He can wait for him no matter how long it takes. Daon does not need to worry about him, so he should go and pursue his dream. Daon thanks him and says it’ll only be one year.

Sunghyun asks Daon to go on dates with him every day until he leaves for Dubai. The two of them enjoy their time together until the day comes that Doan flies out.

Sunghyun brings Daon to the airport and tells him that if anyone ever confesses to him that he should show them his ring. Sunghyun gives Daon a ring matching his.

They hug. Daon says he has no intention of ever running away. Sunghyun reiterates that he will be waiting.

One year later, Sunghyun is excited for the day Daon is scheduled to return to Korea. But Daon texts that his return might be delayed a week. A previously excited Sunghyun now feels sad.

That evening, Sunghyun walks home and gets a call from Daon. Daon apologizes for making him wait one more week. But actually, Daon appears right in front of Sunghyun.

Daon tells us that he used to think only people on the same level can fall in love. Even if he had to lie, create secrets or even if he had to get hurt, he wanted to be on the same level as them to love them. But now, he realizes that there is no need for any of that because love is based on your heart, not class or level.

As long as you believe and have the sincerity to be by their side, just loving them is enough.

Daon and Sunghyun tell each other they love each other and they hug and kiss.

A flashback to 12 years ago, an exhausted Daon is walking home from school. He collapses on the ground and a young man runs over to check on him and make sure he’s okay and to call an ambulance.

This man was actually Sunghyun.

Episode Thoughts and Hindsight Review

I thought I was watching a Filipino teleserye finale week or something! Kidnapping? Mentally troubled villain? Damsel in distress? Hero getting stabbed and/or shot? Threats of being burned alive? That’s your Filipino teleserye finale week checklist right there! Lol

But it was the right amount of high drama that I think the previous seven episodes were truly building toward. And it was an exciting, (over)dramatic climax that helped to make the episode and the series itself all the more satisfying.

Let’s talk about the episode first. I guess we should’ve expected something like this when Jaemin stabbed his damn arm three times, yeah? I think him getting someone to sexually assault Daon just so he could swoop in to be his knight in shining armor was the biggest red flag already. So planning a murder-suicide for the man he “loves”? Certainly not surprising, but still emotionally shocking nonetheless of course.

It was really the culmination of all the suffering Daon has experienced from the toxicity that engulfed him and surrounded him pretty much all his life. And very much exacerbated by these two hyungs who did what they could to manipulate and control him and his feelings.

It was very interesting the way they had Soohyun and Sunghyun arrive. Soohyun the first to storm in, but hesitating once again. Just like him hesitating and eventually not telling Daon his true feelings when he had the chance. That missed opportunity, or perhaps enlightening moment for Soohyun was a big one. He realized that maybe he doesn’t deserve to be by Daon’s side in that way. Or that his love is not as strong as it should be.

Soohyun mentioning time though is probably the best explanation. All of this time has passed. Their feelings are far different now. Maybe his feelings were just out of habit at this point. And it was truly time for him to give up and move on.

It’s too bad that it took an attempted murder for him to realize that. But at least he finally did lol

While in other cases, Jaemin being a crazed murderer might be a simple plot device. But here it worked because Jaemin was still a reasonably well-developed character on his own, even though we still have a lot of things about his life we don’t know about. Still, the show gave just enough to make this final reveal work.

Of course Sunghyun would be the hero here since we know they are endgame. But that little epilogue showing that he was actually the one who met Daon first helped it all come full circle. They are really just the destined couple. But the show was able to not force them down our throat. Instead, developing all four main characters very well.

But especially the way they developed Daon and Sunghyun’s relationship. Even as we knew from the start that they were to end up together, the series was able to take it step by step. Instead of falling into being contrived, the development of their relationship worked hand in hand with the unfolding of Daon’s relationship with Jaemin and Sooyhun. Again, all four main characters were well-developed on their own and with each other. And those intertwined stories really helped to make the series a full and well-rounded narrative.

The rest of the episode featured all the happy, fluffy moments between Daon and Sunghyun. Happy dates. Happy kisses. Happy reunions. It was a good way to calm down and relax after the dramatic start to the episode. And of course, it was all part of what was ultimately a very satisfying story and series.

I am so happy to have watched the series in real time. My very first Korean BL drama for which I did that. Eagerly anticipating the new episodes Wednesday and Thursday morning, Pacific Time. I think that was the best way to experience this series. Not bingeing the series to know immediately what happens next. But stew on the events of the pair of episodes of the week and think about What If? or What could be?

I really didn’t know what to expect coming in to Secret Relationships. But its great tonal balance and dynamic narrative truly made it crazy fun. The series was able to explore deep themes and issues alongside the usual romance and the melodramatic and soapy moments.

Perhaps the series could’ve gone even more in depth for the characters. But they certainly put in a bit more care and focus on these characters than other productions might. Especially in mainstream Korean entertainment. But the Korean BL genre specifically as well.

The series also had a great cast. All four lead actors, Kim Junseo, Cha Sun Hyung, Kim Ho Young and Cha Jung Woo, really delivered in their roles. Especially for being rookies in the industry.

Kim Ho Young did very well in making Jaemin this shadowy, indescribable character early on. So his performance helped to make the final crazed reveal all the more impactful.

Cha Jung Woo as Soohyun was also very good in keeping the character grounded even with his violent acts toward Doan and others as well. That cocky, rich kid attitude was used well to flesh out the character. And Cha Jung Woo did a great job.

Cha Sun Hyung balanced comedy, drama and romance in his performance as Sunghyun. He was witty and cute when he needed to be. He was strong and confident in the dramatic, quieter moments. And he had excellent chemistry with Junseo too. All effortless for this experienced young actor.

And finally, Kim Junseo. He was (and still is!) my WEi bias. So I was happy to hear about this series. But he definitely showed what he is capable of here. Being able to evoke the conflicting emotions of his family and supposed-friends without feeling contrived and forced is already a great feat. But Junseo really proved he can be a great actor, delivering a perfectly nuanced and multi-faceted performance of a complex character. He made Daon empathetic, endearing and charming all at the same time.

Overall, I really enjoyed Secret Relationships. I think it might be one of my favorite Korean BL dramas I’ve watched so far. A strong cast and refreshing, engaging story ultimately make the series one that is enjoyable, satisfying and fulfilling. Thank you and congrats to the entire cast and crew!