KDrama : She Was Pretty (2015)

She Was Pretty

SYNOPSIS

A romantic comedy about two past acquaintances who meet again after they've gone through a reversal of fortunes and appearances, set in the backdrop of a fashion magazine's publishing office. 

Kim Hye-jin was a very pretty girl from a rich family. After her family's publishing company went bankrupt, she experienced hardships then lost her beauty too. Ji Sung-joon was an unattractive boy with low self-esteem, but grows up as a handsome and successful editor. The two decided to meet again as adults, but Sung-joon was unable to recognize Hye-jin. Ashamed to meet her first love and ruin his perception of her, Hye-jin asks her attractive best friend, Ha-ri, to appear in her place. 

Things, however, soon get complicated as Hye-jin was assigned to work at The Most magazine publishing office where Sung-joon is the deputy chief editor. He openly mistreats and belittles her for her clumsy nature, not knowing that she was his real childhood friend. Ha-ri also continues to meet Sung-joon, and soon develops feelings for him. On the other hand, Hye-jin finds a good friend in her workplace, Shin-hyuk, who slowly falls in love with her.

Cast

• Hwang Jung-eum as Kim Hye-jin 
• Jung Da-bin as young Hye-jin

An intern in the administration section before being appointed as junior editor. She used to be a beautiful, wealthy, and smart girl, but lost everything. Embarrassed at her failures in life, she asked her best friend Ha-ri, to meet with her first love Sung-joon, using her name. She thought that would be the end of her fate with Sung-joon, but turns out it's only the beginning of her nightmare, as he then becomes her boss. Despite the misfortunes, she still strives to do her best.

• Park Seo-joon as Ji Sung-joon 
• Yang Han-yeol as young Sung-joon 

The youngest deputy chief editor in Korea. Stubborn and arrogant but also brilliant in his work. Contrary to Kim Hye-jin, he was unattractive and shy but grows up to become handsome and successful. Immediately after returning to Korea, he contacted his first love, Hye-jin. He and Kim hye-jin were each other’s best friend when they were younger. He was traumatized as a child when his mother had died in a car accident on a rainy day. After that, on days that it rained, he was unable to carry out his daily activities, that is, until he had met Hye-jin. He ends up falling for her even when he didn’t recognize that she was his childhood friend and first love.

• Go Joon-hee as Min Ha-ri 
• Lee Ja-in as young Ha-ri

A hotelier. She is Hye-jin's best friend and roommate. A beautiful and stylish woman with good personality. She follows Hye-jin’s words and tries to break up with Sung-joon quickly and cleanly by saying that she had to leave for England to study. She ends up being caught. While continuing to pretend to be Hye-jin, she ends up falling for him. Fearing that her relationship with her best friend might be compromised, she tries several times to tell him the truth only to fail in the end and having Hye-jin find out first.

•  Choi Siwon as Kim Shin-hyuk 
• A senior feature editor. He is generally a free-spirited, fair, and straightforward man but with mysterious identity. He is Hye-jin's direct supervisor at work, and they developed a close relationship. He calls Hye-jin Jackson because when he first met her she was wearing white socks like Michael Jackson. He ends up falling for her even before her beauty transformation. He found out about her relationship with the deputy chief editor, Sung-joon, one day when she was drunk. He also came to find out about how her friend Ha-ri was impersonating Sung-joon’s first love and persuaded her to come clean. He didn’t want him and Hye-jin to be just friends but in the end, he decided that it was better to have her as a friend than not at all.