With less than six weeks left before its premiere following The Blade and Petal on KBS Wed-Thurs time slot, the upcoming traditional melodrama Secret has finally locked down its leads. Ji Sung and Hwang Jung Eum will be reuniting in a drama after doing a slew of Himart CFs earlier this year together posing as a married couple. Secret is about a cold chaebol without a heart who seeks revenge on a betrayed woman and finds himself falling for her and learning to love. I initially dismissed the lame generic title and the by-the-books sounding convoluted love quadrangle, since the two second leads are going to be involved as exes or spurned lovers. Ji Sung’s agency finally confirmed his long rumored casting this morning though by and large everyone knew he was cast a few days ago when Ji Sung and Lee Bo Young announced their upcoming September wedding the morning after her hit series I Hear Your Voice wrapped up. The news reports stated that Ji Sung would be filming Secret even as he prepared for and then attended his wedding. To accommodate his filming schedule, their honeymoon has been postponed until after his drama wraps, and in the mean time Lee Bo Young will visit Africa on a humanitarian mission which is something she’s been involved with for quite some time. Ji Sung revealed that he’s been looking at lots of scripts for dramas and movies, and when Secret was offered to him it was a very difficult choice for him to decide whether to accept the drama knowing that his scheduled wedding would be during the drama’s run. Turns out Lee Bo Young was already the thoughtful and sensible future spouse and when she read the script she was the one who told him he had to accept the role and couldn’t let this great role pass him by. Okay, Lee Bo Young has been on fire with her drama choices lately, going from The Equator Man to My Daughter Seo Young to I Hear Your Voice. If she thinks the script and role is awesome for Ji Sung, then now my interest in Secret has revved up from 1 to 50 on faith in her good sense alone. I’m also interested because insiders compare Secret to the KBS hit drama Nice Guy (The Innocent Man) which featured a revenge, betrayal, and redemption traditional melodrama plot line. I was truly won over by the fantastic all-around writing, directing, and acting that combined to make NG one of the best traditional melodramas I’ve seen in years. It’s still not a genre I love, but when its done well it does demand rapt attention from the viewer. Now it’s on to the wait for confirmation on the second leads.

Ji Sung and Hwang Jung Eum Himart CFs: