The Heirs

Chapter 1

Southern California coastline. Our hero surfs the day away with his buddies, laughing it up and looking light-hearted. And then… a broody shower scene on the beach. HAHA. I dunno whatchoo got to be so angsty about, uber-rich teenager hero-manchild, but the music and mood tells us he is Very Serious On the Inside about something.

May as well introduce him off the bat: This is 18-year-old KIM TAN (pronounced tahn and not, say, like the English word tan. He’s played by Lee Min-ho, but you either knew that already or this is your first drama ever).

His narration tells us of the parting words with which his older brother sent him abroad to the States, so blunt and succinct: No need to get good grades, just have fun and live lightly. “People with money just eat and play—they don’t bother with dreams,” he’d said. “If possible, don’t even come back.”

And thus Tan realized that his study abroad was more like exile, and that his cold older brother was staking his claim on what he thought Tan might steal from him. Hyung’s name is KIM WON (Choi Jin-hyuk), and at 31 he’s the president of Jeguk (Empire) Group. Their father is the Jeguk chairman and Tan its future heir. But while there’s no literal throne at stake here, royalty seems an apt metaphor: There’s only one crown in this family, and Big Bro’s gonna wear it.

Tan sits at a cafe and is served by a waitress who speaks to him in Korean. (Why hello there, Yoon Jin-seo, what are you doing in Heirs?) Overacting American Friend asks how Tan feels about his family relationships, or rather his lack of them. Doesn’t it sting that nobody’s on his side? Tan just looks around idly and thinks, “I’m too lazy to hate anyone.”

Next we meet CHOI YOUNG-DO (Kim Woo-bin), hotel heir and Big Man on Campus back in Seoul. He bullies a hapless fellow student with a baseball while his lackeys snicker. Aw, why you gotta be an asshole, Woo-bin-ah? His good cheer makes his actions all the more chilling, because everything is laced with underlying menace.

But more than being hit by the ball or mocked, the sense of terror comes from Young-do’s icy reminder that no matter what the victim does, his fate is sealed: His life will continue to be this way forever, and one day these bullies will be his employers.

Young-do gives the guy props for standing up to him, then leaves with a pleasant “See ya after vacation.” Behind him, his sidekicks start the beating.

Young-do drops by a motorcycle shop, where our heroine drops in to deliver a food order. She’s CHA EUN-SANG (Park Shin-hye), a no-nonsense high school student who won’t take crap from anyone (yay for that), calling the cops right away when a couple of the shop ajusshis harass her for a date. The ajusshi hastily backs the hell off, and she marches out to make her next delivery. She catches Young-do’s eye, at least for a moment.

As though we weren’t sure she were a poor Candy girl, she’s got a whole string of part-time jobs. Her friend drops by the cafe where she works; he’s YOON CHAN-YOUNG (Kang Min-hyuk), a platonic childhood buddy who has a girlfriend and encourages Eun-sang to find herself a boyfriend. She scoffs that any time spent not earning money is a waste. Chan-young eyes her with pity, though I’d say Eun-sang has no use for his pity. I do like that about her.

Then, a shrill voice orders Chan-young to look elsewhere—ha, this is the girlfriend, and right away we can tell she’s the high-maintenance type. Her name’s LEE BO-NA (Krystal), she’s an heir (to Mega Entertainment), and she shoots Eun-sang a glare, ordering her to stop flirting with her boyfriend.

Eun-sang is used to Bo-na’s possessive nature and has perfected the way to disarm her fuse with wry nonpliments about how Bo-na’s plenty pretty and how Eun-sang is too busy for this. I get the sense that Bo-na knows she’s being mocked but isn’t quite smart enough to figure out how (it’s all in the tone). Haha. I’m liking Eun-sang more and more.