Khottie of the Week: Second Lead Syndrome

I won’t continue watching this stupid drama until they a) give Park Shin Hye a freaking backbone, and b) rewrite her as falling in love with the RIGHT FREAKING GUY!

This was uttered recently by a friend who is still pretty new to dramas after I asked her about how You’re Beautiful was going.  I laughed (Kindly, I hope).  I remember those feels.  Right now, she’s working her way through some of the classics, and while it its fun to listen to her rant about our heroines’ bad choices, it also brings me back to my own fangirl indignation.

This inspired me to do a holiday post of sorts.  I am going to wave my magical blogger wand and let us dream – like children of sugarplums – about the second leads who really should have gotten the girl.

Asking around,  the most popular response by far to the question, “Who is your favorite second lead?” was Jung Yong Hwa, as Shin Woo, in You’re Beautiful.  I have yet to talk to anyone who thought Tae Kyun was the better choice.

The phone date is still burned in my mind as one of the cutest, most romantic things ever.  What the heck was Go Minam thinking?!  The lesson here might be not to let naive almost-nuns to make romantic choices straight out of the convent.

Another drama that made a lot of us give the heroine the side-eye was To the Beautiful You.  I couldn’t understand Goo Jae Hee passing over handsome Cha Eun Gyeol, played by Lee Hyun Woo.

Now, there was nothing wrong with the lead, Tae Joon, per se… He wasn’t a terrible human being like a lot of the leads on this list, but Eun Gyeol was perfect. He was super handsome (despite the stylists trying to make him be goofy).

He was funny.  He was the person she could talk to.  He was sweet, and supportive, and loved her whole-heartedly.  He wanted her to smile.  I never understood why she didn’t pick him.

And let’s not forget, she could also have chosen Woo Bin!  The guy was outrageously hot, successful, artistic, and devoted enough to fly to Korea to find her.  Minho is beautiful and all, but really?

I was undecided about including this next one, but its another classic, and probably the one I feel mostly strongly about.  Boys Over Flowers.  If I could take my wand and make it so that the heroine came to her senses and decided its not healthy to shackle yourself to a horrible, emotionally stunted bully with mommy issues…  I’d have had her pick Ji Hoo, played by Kim Hyun Joong.

He was her hero, and not her tormentor.  He was kind and devoted, without being boring.  Also, rich, if we want to take that into account. AND no evil family.  Basically a better choice in every way.  I’ve heard all the arguments, and I say if we can forgive some of the things Joon Pyo does to her, surely we can forgive a little case of unrequited first love.

Which leads us to another drama with Kim Hyun Joong, Playful Kiss!  Except, I’m going to swap it out for the Japanese version, Itazura na Kiss – Love in Tokyo (Mischievous Kiss), which was significantly better (Ok, maybe not better… less horrible?).

Ikezawa Kinnosuke, played by Yamada Yuki, may not have been the brightest bulb in the box, but lets be honest, neither was our heroine.

My informal poll of second leads actually gave me a really long list!  For this post, I only chose the ones where, in my opinion, the second lead was clearly the better choice.  However, I have many more lovelies I can cover for another post at some point.  Possibly titled, “Second Leads – Not a Bad Decision Either.”  I’d also be interested in any of your favorite second leads.  Post your suggestions down below!

P.S.  While the abs pictures were not strictly necessary, and in some cases were a little awkward, I thought I would toss them in there as an early Christmas present, from me to you.  I knew you wouldn’t mind.