Undercover Miss Hong: Episodes 5-6
by quirkycase
Our heroine’s mission gets more complicated when it turns out she’s not the only one seeking the whistleblower. Everyone here has secrets, making it hard to untangle the truth or know who to trust. And the longer she stays, the more she risks revealing her true identity.
EPISODES 5-6
This drama likes its cliffhangers, so we open right where we left off with our roommates ready to launch an attack on whoever’s hiding in their wardrobe. Geum-bo unzips the wardrobe and out pops a little kid who runs to Mi-sook crying, “Mom!” Somehow, No-ra has missed the fact that little KIM BOM (Kim Se-ah) has been sleeping with Mi-sook in their shared room for a week. Bom had been staying in a children’s home while Mi-sook works – she’s a single mom with no support network. But now Mi-sook asks her roommates to let Bom stay with them until she has enough money to get her own place.
Bok-hee and No-ra are inclined to allow it, but Geum-bo puts her foot down. They could all get kicked out over this, and she’s not willing to risk the mission. The problem is Bom refuses to stay away. She runs away on a rainy night and sneaks back to her mom. Mi-sook, Bok-hee, and No-ra try to hide her from Geum-bo, but that naturally fails. Geum-bo comes home one night to find Bom sick in Mi-sook’s bed and rushes her to the hospital.
The roommates struggle to find a way to convince Geum-bo to let Bom stay. However, it’s Bom herself who seals the deal. She’s seen and heard a lot in her time hiding in that apartment, including hearing Geum-bo’s real name and seeing her suspect notebook. The enterprising child sees Geum-bo’s panic and promises to keep her discoveries to herself if Geum-bo lets her stay. HA. Looks like we’ve got a fifth roommate.
Meanwhile, Geum-bo’s investigation gets a push when one of her sleazy FSS colleagues NAM DONG-GI (Han Soo-ho) feeds intel to Hanmin, including the rumor that FSS planted a spy at the company. They assume it’s a long-term employee and suspect it must be one of one of Myung-hwi’s closest advisors … who is also likely one of the whistleblowers Geum-bo is after. The candidates are known as the friend trio So-Bang-Cha: So Gyung-dong (who Geum-bo has already ruled out), Cha Jung-il, and BANG JIN-MOOK (Kim Do-hyun) who is on the Risk Management team.
While the company conducts an internal audit, Geum-bo gets Yong-gi to hack Jung-il’s computer. They find a recorded conversation from before Myung-hwi’s death where Ju-ran tells Jung-il that Myung-hwi will be set up to take the fall for Hanmin’s slush fund. Despite their friendship, Jung-il agrees to betray Myung-hwi for money his family needs.
Jin-mook isn’t exactly clean either. Geum-bo is stunned to learn he’s the one responsible for cooking the books for Hanmin during the incident that got her fired nine years ago. The incident seems to have caused a rift between Jin-mook and Myung-hwi who sneered at his friend for doing Chairman Kang’s dirty work.
The internal audit doesn’t turn up anything concrete, but both Jung-il and Jin-mook were seen talking to Myung-hwi the day before his accident, something they lied about. Now Hanmin gives them one day to prove their innocence. Jung-il hands over the recording, damning him as a traitor to Myung-hwi but proving his loyalty to the company. More troubling for Geum-bo is the evidence that Jin-mook hands over: pictures of her and Myung-hwi’s secret meeting the night before he died. She’s only visible in profile, but sharp Ju-ran notices the resemblance and even asks Geum-bo if she has a sister.
We then get a third investigation as Jung-woo has someone look into Geum-bo. After discovering she’s been put on leave from the FSS and seeing a photo of her sister Jang-mi who looks nothing like her, he has no more doubts. He’s quick enough to put two and two together after hearing about the audit and guesses she’s after the whistleblower.
Jung-woo and Geum-bo finally stop dancing around the matter after it’s clear the jig is up. Her team is put on a big project with Research (led but Jung-il), and Jung-woo is heavily involved. That means frequent contact and no more hiding. Jung-woo confronts her about her fake identity, but he doesn’t actually do anything about it.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Jung-woo is also working at Hanmin under false pretenses. We don’t know what his goal is yet, but he’s determined to earn Chairman Kang’s trust and become an insider. To that end, he agrees to a matchmaking date with No-ra (set up by her greedy mother). The date goes about as you’d expect. Serious Jung-woo has no idea what to do with the sweet, unassuming No-ra who does a little yummy dance when she takes a bit of her expensive steak. (Just wait until he meets her teddy bears.)
With the whistleblower investigation at a standstill, Geum-bo and Jae-beom try another route. Geum-bo learns about the “Outstanding Women” association at Hanmin, a nomination-based group created and run by Ju-ran. Hanmin has been paying these women off to use their bank accounts for laundering their slush fund. But it’s a riskier role than the women realize until one of them ends up dead for being too greedy. Geum-bo decides she needs to get on that list if she wants evidence.
Clearly, Ju-ran is the real force to be reckoned with at Hanmin. She knows everything – thanks in part to the many bugs she’s placed in the offices – and is smarter than just about everyone else. Of course, being a woman, she’s sidelined despite her clear competence and the faith Chairman Kang puts in her. Albert’s father OH DEOK-GYU (Kim Hyung-mook) tries to compete with her, but it’s a pretty embarrassing display given that he’s nowhere near her level.
As one of Ju-ran’s loyal informers, Bok-hee is naturally on the list of Outstanding Women. When she learns that her abusive brother (who’s always gambling their money away) is getting out of prison soon, Bok-hee starts planning how to escape with Hanmin’s cash. But then her brother gets an early release. He tries to threaten her into giving him money, but Geum-bo sees him and gives him a flying kick to the stomach. He runs off for now, but it’s clear he’ll be back.
Once again, the roommate crew comes through. They form a ring of protection around Bok-hee, staying on the lookout for her brother to make sure he doesn’t get near her. Mi-sook gives her pepper spray and packs her lunch so she won’t have to leave the office. Prickly Bok-hee is touched, but she of course tries to hide it.
Despite their good intentions, the roommates get a little too zealous in their efforts to protect their friend. Mi-sook sees a tall man wearing a trenchcoat loitering outside the women’s dorms and the roommates fly into action. While No-ra and Mi-sook report the man to security, Geum-bo goes out armed with a frying pan … and almost clobbers Jung-woo. Before Geum-bo can stop it, Jung-woo is accosted by security and then pepper sprayed by No-ra.
Jung-woo gracefully lets the attack go, but he does a little double-take when Bok-hee tells Geum-bo to head on to her date. (Someone looks a little jealous.) I thought Yong-gi would make a move first, but it’s Albert who asks Geum-bo on a date. She turns him down flat at first, finding it ridiculous that this kid wants to date her. But Jae-beom reminds her the connection to the Kang family could be useful, so she pretties herself up and goes on the date.
It would seem neither of the young Kang chaebols have the best intuition for romance. While we know that Jung-woo is fixated on Geum-bo, which is why he was at the dorms, No-ra assumes he was there for her. So the next day, she marches into his office to ask him to pump the breaks. She needs to focus on work and hasn’t fallen for him yet and begs him, “Stop liking me so much!” LOL.
Elsewhere, Geum-bo heads to investigate an auto repair shop that had been asking around about the missing shell company CEO. In our final scene, she’s shocked to see Albert walk in and start chatting with a man she recognizes: the Hanmin enforcer who attacked her.
I’m not surprised Albert knows a man who is trusted by his family to handle their business. Maybe he’s more involved in the seedy side of the family business than we thought, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t know any of the specifics. It’s possible his aloofness is an act, which could be a fun twist, so I’m curious to see where we go with his character.
Until now, I’d been finding Jung-woo’s character rather boring, so I’m glad to see he’s also playing his own game. Maybe he’s keeping quiet about Geum-bo just because he has feelings for her, or maybe their goals are aligned. A team-up to take down Hanmin could be fun, but I also wouldn’t mind them getting in each other’s way as they try to reach opposing goals. I think Jung-woo could use a little more chaos in his life to loosen him up, albeit maybe without the pepper spray next time.
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