'She Would Never Know' Episode 1 comic spoilers: 'Sunbae, Don't Put on That Lipstick' show sticks to manhwa
Based on a popular webcomic, 'She Would Never Know' is based on a mentee falling in love with his mentor while the two work together in a makeup company. Hyun-seung (Ro Woon) is a year younger than Soon-ah (Won Jin-ah) and he is two years her junior at work so he is usually forced to treat her purely as just his mentor. She doesn't allow him any leeway when it comes to crossing that strict line in their relationship but Hyun-seung holds a secret. He is in love with his senior but is yet to find a way to confess his feelings to her. While the opening panel of the comic starts in the future and then rewinds back to the beginning, the show starts simply with the two of them working together in the office. There are certain similarities to the comics in terms of scenes, especially the one where Soon-ah is asked by Hyun-seung if she would date someone in her workplace.
She responds that while it can become messy, she would do it if she really liked someone. Of course, Hyun-seung believes that this gives him the hope to continue to have a crush on her. However, we know from the comics that Soon-ah is dating secretly and that she is in a relationship with none other than her branch manager (BM) Mr. Lee Jae Sin (Lee Hyun-Wook). In fact, in the very first chapter Hyun-seung finds out about this. So what happens in the show?
Hyun-seung ends up finding out about Soon-ah's relationship in a similar fashion and this is right when he is about to tell her something important on his birthday. So the impact of learning the truth about his mentor dating her manager hits harder than it does in the comic, where it is more shock and less heartbreak than in the show. What happens after is that he begins to notice things that he hadn't before, like when the two take breaks at the same time or the excuses that they make to meet each other. All of this makes Hyun-seung feel worse and he also realizes that it had never crossed his mind that she might be with someone already and that is the reason why she wasn't interested in him. However, when he is confessing to his sister that he should probably stop liking Soon-ah since she looked so happy, he sees Jae-sin, his BM arrive at his sister's bridal dress shop but with a completely different woman. Considering how Soon-ah is thinking of marriage seriously after having dated Jae-sin for two years, she doesn't seem to know about his secret.
Turns out, the reason Jae-sin was so quickly promoted to BM was not because he was the director's cousin as the rumors suggested, but because he was getting married to the director's sister who happens to be a hotshot fashion photographer. Will Hyun-seung decide to out his manager for the cheat that he is or will he try to hide the truth but still attempt to get Soon-ah to learn about the truth herself?
Other than the main plotline, another thing that the show has followed the comic in terms of the plotline is how Soon-ah doesn't seem to do well with her mother's excessive interest in her level. When Soon-ah refuses to answer her mother's call, she rings Soon-ah's best friend who knows better than to respond.
'She Would Never Know' is a TV adaptation of the webcomic 'Sunbae, Geu Lipstick Bareujimayo' which literally means 'Sunbae, Don't Put on That Lipstick' and it airs every Monday and Tuesday on JTBC. The show can be streamed on iQiyi.