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| My Bias, My Boss EP 4 Summary, Recap and Review. (Photo: tvN) |
My Bias, My Boss (최애의 사원) Episode 4 turns the drama’s central love triangle into something considerably messier, with Nam Da-reum caught between the celebrity she has adored for years and the difficult boss who may be developing feelings for her. The episode gives Lee Chan and Da-reum their most direct romantic moment yet, while Kang Ha-gi quietly moves from suspicious CEO to surprisingly attentive protector. Naturally, Da-reum remains the last person to notice what is happening around her, because apparently surviving your first week at a fashion company was not enough trouble.
The episode opens with Lee Chan visiting APPELLO in his role as the Fashion Department Director, where he reviews new apparel designs and shares his thoughts with Mi-yeong and Hye-su.
He later meets Ha-gi to discuss the brands he wants the company to work with before directing a photoshoot. His presence at the office immediately changes the atmosphere for Da-reum, who has spent years admiring him from afar and suddenly finds herself sharing the same workplace.
As Chan leaves the office, he crosses paths with Ha-gi, who is chasing after Da-reum. She ends up in the lift with her long-time bias and is visibly overwhelmed when Chan introduces himself properly.
He welcomes her to APPELLO and even asks to shake her hand, leaving Da-reum trying very hard to behave like a normal employee rather than someone whose lifelong celebrity crush has just spoken directly to her.
Chan then notices Da-reum’s necklace, and the small accessory triggers an old memory. Years earlier, he had volunteered at a craft workshop and made the necklace himself. Da-reum later visited the shop where it was displayed and wanted to buy it, but the shopkeeper initially refused.
When she mentioned that she was a DNX fan, Chan took notice of her. In the present, he realises that Da-reum is the same student he encountered back then, giving their relationship an unexpected connection that goes far beyond the usual fan-meets-idol setup.
The revelation makes Da-reum’s excitement even greater when she gets home and tells Mi-mi and Seul-a about her elevator encounter. Mi-mi suggests that this may actually have been her second meeting with Chan because she suspects he was the mysterious person who gave Da-reum the necklace.
A flashback shows Chan rushing after her with it, although she never saw his face because he was wearing a dust mask. Da-reum, however, decides not to overthink the coincidence and simply enjoys the fact that her favourite star knows she exists. Fair enough.
The next day, Da-reum learns that APPELLO sends an outstanding employee to New York every year for New York Fashion Week, and Chan originally established the tradition. Naturally, her interest levels shoot through the roof when she discovers that Chan attends the trip with the chosen employee.
There is one inconvenient detail: Ha-gi gets to decide who goes. Da-reum immediately begins researching her boss’s preferences and attempts to win his approval, but her efforts go nowhere because Ha-gi seems determined to remain completely unimpressed.
Ha-gi has other concerns. Sung-wook gives him information about Da-reum’s previous resignation from SE Trading and raises the possibility that Han-chul deliberately sent her to get close to him.
Ha-gi therefore becomes even more suspicious of her intentions, while Da-reum has absolutely no idea that her attempts to impress him are being interpreted as something much more complicated.
That evening, Da-reum asks Mi-mi and Seul-a how she can get Ha-gi on her side. Instead of receiving sensible workplace advice, she is shown an online rumour claiming that Chan and Ha-gi are romantically involved.
Da-reum immediately refuses to believe it, insisting that Chan is not interested in men. Her friends, meanwhile, are considerably more entertained by the possibility than she is.
The following morning adds another layer to the mystery. Ha-gi returns from his run and prepares breakfast for Chan, who has spent the night at his flat. Chan accidentally mentions Ha-gi’s mother, which clearly touches a painful nerve, so he quickly changes the subject and asks Ha-gi to take a box of cupcakes to the office.
Except they are not cupcakes. Ha-gi opens the box to discover a very different surprise and immediately calls Chan. It is the sort of ridiculous misunderstanding that only becomes funnier because Ha-gi looks like a man who has just realised his morning has somehow become even more complicated.
At work, Ha-gi remains his usual demanding self during a marketing meeting. Hye-su presents her ideas, only for him to ask her to cut the presentation short, leaving her visibly embarrassed.
He then outlines responsibilities for the upcoming fashion event and asks for someone to film social media content. Remembering Mi-yeong’s advice, Da-reum eagerly volunteers, hoping once again to demonstrate that she is exactly the kind of employee Ha-gi should choose for New York.
While visiting Ha-gi’s office, Da-reum notices a photograph of him with Chan and their friends. She begins wondering whether Ha-gi has feelings for Chan, particularly after discovering a note that she interprets as another possible clue.
Her imagination fills in the gaps, and suddenly every ordinary interaction between the two men appears suspicious. The fact that Ha-gi is simply a private and complicated person does not seem to have occurred to her.
Ha-gi later drives Da-reum to a pop-up sale venue so she can film content for APPELLO. During the journey, he asks why she applied to the company. Da-reum says she joined because of one special person, which immediately makes Ha-gi curious.
When he says that he can understand having someone special as a reason for making a major decision, Da-reum naturally assumes he must be talking about Chan. At this point, the poor woman is essentially writing her own romantic conspiracy board.
At the venue, the pair inspect the runway for the upcoming fashion show. Several models struggle with the dry ice, so Da-reum volunteers to test the walkway herself. She slips, but Ha-gi catches her before she falls. Their growing chemistry is obvious, even if neither is ready to admit what is happening.
Their relationship works particularly well because Da-reum is not initially trying to win Ha-gi’s heart. She is simply trying to survive his management style, while he slowly discovers that the employee he once distrusted is much more sincere than he expected.
Meanwhile, Chan attends the launch event for his new drama Bitter Sweet alongside his co-star Yoon Cho-yi. They praise each other publicly, but Cho-yi later asks Chan about a gift she gave him.
Chan reveals that he passed it on to a friend and reminds her that their relationship has already ended. Cho-yi clearly has not accepted that answer, setting up another complication just as Da-reum is beginning to believe her favourite actor might actually be interested in her.
Later that evening, Da-reum is organising fashion inventory while listening to DNX songs when Chan unexpectedly appears. He asks which former member is her favourite, and he is visibly pleased when she admits that it is him.
He then writes his phone number on her palm and offers to take her out for a meal. For Da-reum, this is practically the emotional equivalent of winning the lottery, although the situation quickly becomes less dreamy.
When Mi-mi calls the number from Da-reum’s phone, Cho-yi answers and says Chan is in the shower. Da-reum immediately assumes that Chan has a girlfriend and decides she should remain his fan from a respectable distance. It is actually one of the more grounded moments of the episode because Da-reum recognises that her feelings are getting ahead of reality and tries to pull herself back.
Her conclusion also leads her straight back to Ha-gi. If Chan is seeing someone, she reasons, then Ha-gi’s feelings for him must be one-sided. The audience knows that Da-reum is misunderstanding almost everything, but that is precisely what makes the triangle entertaining. She is confidently wrong in several different directions at once.
The next morning, Da-reum and Ha-gi unknowingly take the same train to work. She later sees him looking at a poster of Chan outside the office and assumes he is heartbroken. She offers him her coffee, leaving Sung-wook completely baffled when Ha-gi claims he has suddenly decided to become a coffee drinker.
Meanwhile, Chan is at his photoshoot wondering why Da-reum has not contacted him. For someone who supposedly just wants to be kind to a fan, he seems remarkably interested in whether she calls.
Da-reum’s work ethic also begins changing Ha-gi’s opinion of her. Mi-yeong praises her dedication while speaking with him, and Ha-gi appears genuinely impressed. But another workplace problem soon arrives when Hye-su asks Da-reum for a presentation file and she discovers that the document has disappeared from her computer.
Rather than make excuses, Da-reum stays late to recreate everything, raising questions about whether the missing file was simply an accident or whether someone is deliberately making her life harder.
When Da-reum finally leaves the office, Ha-gi is still working. She later finds herself caught in the rain without an umbrella, only for Ha-gi to appear and offer to walk her home. During their journey, Da-reum explains why she stayed late, and Ha-gi reassures her by admitting that he made plenty of mistakes when he was new to the industry. It is a quieter scene than their earlier exchanges, but it reveals a warmer side of Ha-gi that Da-reum has rarely seen.
The episode then delivers its romantic cliffhanger. As the two walk together, Da-reum notices a bicycle approaching Ha-gi and instinctively pulls him out of the way. The sudden movement leaves them holding each other in the rain, bringing their unresolved chemistry right to the surface.
The moment is interrupted before either can properly process it, but the message is clear: whatever started as an awkward boss-and-employee relationship is becoming something much harder for either of them to ignore.
The epilogue makes the situation even more obvious from Ha-gi’s perspective. He had noticed Da-reum working late and deliberately stayed behind. When he saw that it had started raining, he took an umbrella with him, hoping he might run into her.
His relief when he finds her at the station confirms what the main episode has been quietly building towards: Ha-gi is no longer simply watching out for an employee he once suspected. He is beginning to seek her out.
For the My Bias, My Boss Episode 4 review, this is probably the point where the drama becomes genuinely enjoyable because the central romance finally has some momentum. The show understands that a good romantic comedy does not need every character to behave sensibly; sometimes the fun comes from watching intelligent people make hilariously bad assumptions.
Da-reum’s belief that Ha-gi is secretly pining for Chan gives the episode plenty of comedy, while Ha-gi’s increasingly obvious concern for her creates a much more convincing emotional thread.
The episode also deserves credit for letting Da-reum occasionally step outside the fantasy of being Chan’s fan. Her decision to control her jealousy after believing he has a girlfriend is one of her strongest moments because she recognises that being a devoted admirer does not automatically give her a place in his personal life.
By contrast, Chan’s decision to give her his number and invite her to dinner risks encouraging the very expectations she is trying to manage. He may genuinely like her, but his actions are not exactly helping her maintain sensible boundaries.
Where the episode becomes less comfortable is in the continued use of the Chan-and-Ha-gi rumours as a source of intrigue. The drama repeatedly places their relationship in a deliberately suggestive space, while Da-reum and the audience are encouraged to speculate about what they mean to each other.
That can be playful when handled carefully, but it becomes frustrating when the story appears to use the possibility of a same-gender romance primarily as a tease before steering the characters elsewhere. The issue is not that the show has to make every rumour true; it is that the joke works less well when representation itself becomes the punchline.
Still, the strongest material belongs to Ha-gi and Da-reum. Their relationship has an appealing slow-burn quality because neither character enters it expecting romance. Da-reum initially sees Ha-gi as an obstacle between herself and New York Fashion Week, while Ha-gi sees her as a possible threat to APPELLO.
Watching those assumptions gradually break down is more satisfying than simply pairing two characters because the script says they look good together. The rainy walk, the train encounter and Ha-gi’s decision to carry an umbrella are small moments, but they give the romance genuine movement.
The reaction from viewers is likely to remain divided. Some will enjoy the chaotic love triangle, especially the comedy created by Da-reum confidently misunderstanding Ha-gi’s feelings for Chan. Others may find the repeated rumours and suggestive scenes frustrating, particularly if they feel the show is using them as a cheap way to manufacture intrigue.
Chan’s behaviour is also likely to split opinion: some viewers will see his attention towards Da-reum as sweet, while others may wonder whether he is being too casual about the effect his attention has on a devoted former fan.
Overall, My Bias, My Boss Episode 4 is a lively episode that finally gives the central romance something substantial to work with. Chan and Da-reum have chemistry, but Ha-gi and Da-reum have the more interesting emotional progression, and the episode’s final rainy-night sequence makes that increasingly difficult to deny.
The drama still has some questionable choices around the rumours surrounding Chan and Ha-gi, but when it focuses on its workplace comedy and the slow shift between Da-reum and Ha-gi, it becomes much more engaging.
The big question now is whether Da-reum will eventually realise that the person quietly looking after her may be standing much closer than the celebrity she has spent years admiring. Will Da-reum and Ha-gi finally acknowledge their growing feelings, or will Chan complicate everything again just when things begin to settle?