 2nd lead syndrome, wanting so desperately for the lead actress of a drama to end up with a better guy. But you always know she's going to end up with the lead bad guy in the end, usually going with the feelings of either wanting to curl up and cry over you ramen, knock someone's teeth in, or both. There have been many dramas in the past that have given the audience feelings of 2nd lead syndrome or SLS. But no drama comes close to start up. No biggest case of 2nd lead syndrome in history. Start up is the hottest new drama in the K drama scene. With the first episode airing in October 17th, it has since blown up reaching the front page of everyone's Netflix. For those who are unfamiliar with start up, it begins with two sisters, so Talmi and so Inje. A divorce causes the two sisters to separate. Talmi leads a poor life raised by her grandma, while Inje leads this luxurious, rich life with her mom and stepdad. In an effort to help with Talmi's loneliness, a poor orphan boy named Han Jipyeong writes her letters under the pseudonym Namdo-san, thus giving her a close friend in her time of despair and need. As an orphan, Jipyeong finds his only family and mother figure in Talmi's grandmother, who provides him with food, shelter and love. He grows to love her and would do anything to repay the debt to Talmi's grandmother. After the course of a year of exchanging letters with Talmi, Talmi falls in love with Jipyeong and his letters. They shared their dreams, their hardships and their affection. Fast forward 15 years, Talmi, played by former Miss A idol Suzy, still has never had a boyfriend. Forever waiting for that Namdo-san from the letters, her first true love. Eventually she meets another Namdo-san, Talmi falls in love with the new Do-san under the guise that he was her first love and they start a successful business together. But in reality, Namdo-san from the letters is her business mentor, Han Jipyeong. She comes to a point where she has to choose between the Do-san of the present or the Do-san of the past, Han Jipyeong. Now if you know nothing about this drama, you would assume that Han Jipyeong is the main lead. But he's not. Now Namjuhuk, the actor who plays Namdo-san, is officially credited as the first lead, while Kim Son-ho, who plays Han Jipyeong, is officially credited as the second lead. Which just by going by normal K-drama standards, there's a 99% chance that Do-san's gonna end up with the girl. There have been dramas in the past where the second lead does end up with the main girl but those dramas are far and few in between. But what happened was something that TVN never expected. Instead of rooting for the first lead, Do-san, as you would expect and naturally would, nearly all of Korea and the online K-drama community has rallied behind Han Jipyeong. Never before has the second lead been so disproportionately liked in comparison to the first lead than there has in startup. So why Han Jipyeong? What do the audience love about him? This is the case for Han Jipyeong. Now let me be clear, this is not an attack on Namjuhuk. He has been a phenomenal actor and is simply reading the lines and playing the part that he was hired to do. He's been an amazing actor. This is simply an analysis of the fake fictional character Nam Do-san and Han Jipyeong. Number one, selflessness. Han Jipyeong is by far the most selfless person in the world. He would do anything for Taemil and grandmother. If it came to Taemil's happiness or his own, he would pick Taemil ten out of ten times. At the networking party, Han Jipyeong jumped through hoops to make sure that Taemil was happy. Jipyeong drove all the way to Gapyeong to pick up Taemil in the middle of nowhere going out of his way. When Taemil's shoes were covered in poop, he bought her new slippers. There was a time that Jipyeong promised Taemil that if Samsung Tech failed to secure investors, he would beat a safety net, personally investing in Samsung Tech. Even though he did not believe in the business model and he knew that he would lose out money. Number two, chemistry. Taemil and Jipyeong share such a great connection. They definitely butt-head sometimes, a lot actually, but their arguments and conversations help each other grow and open up in a way that lets them grow off each other. Taemil understands Jipyeong when they were playing Ghost Stop. She was the only one that understood his dreams, whereas Do-san just seems like an accessory to Taemil. Just level 99 simp energy. Number three, why does Do-san even like Taemil? There's still not a clear explanation for this. It seems like Do-san only likes Taemil for superficial reasons. He's never had a girlfriend and Suzy is, well, really, really attractive. He's not wrong. Number four, sandbox. Jipyeong is the sandbox. When Taemil was growing up, when she was a little girl, her father would put down sand at the bottom of her swing. This was so that she could have fun and symbolically enjoy life, take risks, without getting hurt. Han Jipyeong is that sandbox. Making sure that if she did fall, she wouldn't get hurt. And Taemil would always have a safety net. The last and biggest factor on this list, you guessed it, the letters. For 15 years, or at the end of the series, 18 years, Taemil has saved herself not getting into a relationship once because she wanted her first and true love, Nam Do-san. Nam Do-san from the letters, aka Han Jipyeong. When she was at her lowest point in life, her most desolate time, she found solace in the heartwarming words of Han Jipyeong. She shared her hopes, her dreams, her fears, her trials. They shared their memories and he provided her with love, care, charity, and most importantly, he gave her a friend. In episode four, Nam Do-san asks, what do you like about me? To which Taemil responds, you're my first love. Your letters comforted me for a long time. After all these years, you're still brilliant and cool. All of which are attributes of Jipyeong. The reason Taemil even gives Do-san a chance was because she believed that these were all qualities of the real Nam Do-san. Finally, as the last reason, she states, you have nice big hands. Do-san, even at the end of the series, is an empty shell of a static character. He has little personality and almost no character development. If you had to describe Do-san's character to a third-party unfamiliar with startup, what do you even say? He's a programmer, he's really smart, and he likes Taemil. What connection exactly do Taemil and Do-san even have? What makes the audience want to even root for them? Because he's really attractive? I mean, that's a pretty shallow answer. He's extremely immature. When Tu-Sto bought Samsung Tech, Jipyeong was asked to give an honest evaluation of what happened and what they could do. Jipyeong gives an honest evaluation, and Do-san, of course, being the bigger man, physically attacks Jipyeong for literally doing what they asked him to do five minutes ago. And boy, does he like to cry a lot. Like this dude literally cries four times an episode, like props to Nam Joo-hyuk for being such an amazing actor, but his character never stops crying. There's no chemistry, there's no connection, and to Do-san's own admission, not my words, he's a fraud. And the writers want us to believe that after not dating a soul for 18 years, because she was saving herself for her first and true love, the man that comforted her in her lowest point in life, the man that she was madly in love with her whole entire life, Taemil would simply throw it all away for some random dude she has no connection with with big hands. And those points seem to have really connected with the audiences at home. Anyone with their grandma, especially their grandma, loves Han Jipyeong. He is by far the most popular second lead in K-drama history. In a neighbor poll, the question was asked, Nam Do-san vs. Han Jipyeong, who would you choose if you're so downing? 46,000 people voted in this poll, and overwhelming 81% of the votes won Han Jipyeong. The top netizens in comments, I'm surprised Nam Do-san got even 18%. I thought Han Jipyeong would win by 98%. To be honest, who would choose Nam Do-san? He's not charming at all. I really think Nam Do-san's character has nothing charming about him. He's like a totally old car. I don't know why the writer gave all the good characteristics to Han Jipyeong, but made Nam Do-san the male lead. In a similar poll in kpopmat.com, 76% again chose Han Jipyeong. In another poll by pet ph, a primarily Filipino audience, 76% voted for Han Jipyeong, and 60% voted for Do-san, with 8% stating that she doesn't need a band. Just give Jipyeong and Do-san to us. But votes can be manipulated and brigated, right? Well, what do the stats and trends say about it? I searched up the popularity of the hashtags Han Jipyeong and Nam Do-san. 89% of the mentions were Han Jipyeong. The hashtag Han Jipyeong was 9 times more popular than the hashtag Nam Do-san. Other results for the search term Han Jipyeong and Nam Do-san. Team Jipyeong and hashtag Team Do-san, 81%. I even searched the Hangul spelling of each character. Once again, 64% for Jipyeong. On Instagram, hashtag Team Jipyeong had 5,000 mentions when hashtag Team Do-san had only 1,000. Simply put, nobody wants to see Ta-mi and the Bu-do-san. Yet the writers keep trying to feed us this washed up, nonsensical narrative that Do-san is the right man for Ta-mi. He's not. He's simply wronged for every blog, news article, opinion piece, Reddit posts, advocating for the end game to be Ta-mi and Jipyeong. Jipyeong is an orphan who grew up with nothing. No riches, no family, and no home. And if Ta-mi is taken away from him, he will once again have nothing. He is the second lead that was written as a first lead. Han Jipyeong is a fan favorite. The people's champ, the good boy, Ta-mi's first and true love. Honestly, they should just make the last episode like a choose-your-own-adventure. You know, like Black Mirror's banner snatch? You know, at the end of the episode you can choose which person you want Ta-mi to end up with and then just let the audience choose. Hey, I hope you guys liked the video and if you did, remember to subscribe. If you guys want to help us out in any way, click on the Ko-fi link below and buy us a coffee. And remember, why search for answers that don't exist. So instead of searching for answers, make choices.