The drama "Boss's Sweet Temptation" (보스의 달콤한 유혹), starring Sung Hoon (성훈), Oh Se-young (오세영), and CNBLUE member Lee Jung-shin (이정신), recently premiered. This marks Sung Hoon’s return to the small screen approximately three years after his 2023 appearance in "Perfect Marriage Revenge." Despite initial high expectations, the first episode garnered just over 1% viewership, with the second episode dropping further to 0.97%, indicating a weaker-than-expected debut.
Beyond the low ratings, the drama’s dialogue features notably bold and explicit content, with the first episode including lines about "sex addiction." This, coupled with a past false report involving Sung Hoon and comedian Park Na-rae (박나래) about an alleged emergency room visit, has been revisited by netizens, unexpectedly drawing more attention to the new series.
"Boss's Sweet Temptation" premiered on the 11th, recording a national viewership rating of only 1.3% for its first episode, according to Nielsen Korea. The rating further declined to 0.97% for the second episode. The drama tells the story of Kwon Do-hyuk (played by Sung Hoon), a perfectionist boss, who encounters the only variable in his life: Lee Eun-chae (played by Oh Se-young), the lead singer of an indie band. The two engage in a fiery "fake romance" filled with unexpected events and misunderstandings, as they test each other’s "preferences" and navigate their interactions.
From the very first episode, their interactions are notably daring. Kwon Do-hyuk and Lee Eun-chae unexpectedly meet in a clinic and, by a twist of fate, find themselves in an absurd situation involving a "fake doctor" and a "fake patient." Lee Eun-chae dons her brother-in-law Seo Jin-woo’s (played by Lee Choong-joo) doctor’s gown and haphazardly attempts to treat someone, only for her true identity to be quickly exposed by Kwon Do-hyuk.
However, Kwon Do-hyuk doesn't immediately expose her. Instead, he deliberately throws out the line, "I have a sex addiction," leaving Lee Eun-chae stunned and completely bewildered by his intentions.
Their ill-fated connection continues into a job interview. Kwon Do-hyuk, serving as an interviewer for Seheon Group, spots Lee Eun-chae attempting to flee the scene. He calls her back and provocatively asks, "Do you like erotic things? I do." This puts immense pressure on Lee Eun-chae. Facing his challenge, she retorts without hesitation, "Then why don’t you just not hire me?" With that, she storms out of the interview, highlighting the intense friction between them.
With the broadcast of the new drama, past discussions involving Sung Hoon and Park Na-rae have resurfaced among netizens. The two previously appeared together on MBC’s variety show "I Live Alone" (나 혼자 산다), where their natural interactions and mutual public praise led to speculation of a romantic spark between them, with rumors circulating for some time.
Notably, at the 2019 MBC Entertainment Awards, Sung Hoon adjusted Park Na-rae’s long dress on the red carpet. Later, when Park Na-rae won the Grand Prize for "I Live Alone," Sung Hoon went on stage to hug and congratulate her, even shedding tears of emotion. The broadcast of these interactions immediately sparked heated discussion among netizens.
Furthermore, when Park Na-rae was embroiled in controversies surrounding "power abuse and workplace bullying," her former manager made accusations, claiming she had engaged in inappropriate behavior with a man in the back seat of a car while the manager was driving, and repeatedly kicked the driver’s seat back, almost causing a traffic accident. These claims, when revealed, caused a public uproar.
Amidst these ongoing controversies, a false report involving Park Na-rae and Sung Hoon from 2023 has been recirculated online. At the time, a KakaoTalk (카카오톡) chat screenshot circulated on Korean online forums, with someone claiming that "Park Na-rae and Sung Hoon went to the hospital together" and even identifying themselves as a hospital insider.
The screenshot contained extremely explicit and sexually demeaning descriptions, claiming that the two experienced an absurd situation due to sexual activity and were even sent to the emergency room at Yonsei University Severance Hospital (연세대학교 세브란스병원). This content quickly spread online, inadvertently dragging the two into the controversy.
Now, as Sung Hoon returns to the drama scene after approximately three years, his new drama faces low ratings and controversial dialogue, while past controversies have been revisited. This has unexpectedly made "Boss's Sweet Temptation" a hot topic on the Korean internet recently.
