The Heirs

Chapter 6

Tan and Young-do start their school day with an alpha dog sniffing session (ew, not like that), tossing tense greetings back and forth, all the while sizing each other up for the war ahead.

Of course Eun-sang walks obliviously in between them, breaking the glaring contest and surprising both boys. Tan asks why she’s here without a uniform, while Young-do happily considers this a two-for-one deal. Before the tension swallows her up whole, Chan-young steps in to drag her away by the wrist. We’re gonna get an earful about that later from your girlfriend, aren’t we?

And then Rachel steps in to try and put a stop to things before they escalate, but Young-do just yanks her close and says they aren’t done yet—there wasn’t even a hug, or tears.

Tan yanks her back to his side by the wrist (UGH, seriously, are you two going to have your pissing contest by yanking girls around?) and tells Young-do he won’t be getting a hug, but he can comply by wringing tears if he likes.

Young-do feigns worry at all the tense mornings in store, so Tan tells him he’s free to transfer schools any time he wants. After all, Tan can’t go since his mother is the principal. Young-do: “Ah, so you’re differentiating between mother and mommy now? Oops, was that going too far for our first day?”

Young-do walks away and Rachel takes Tan aside, leaving Bo-na to explain to her friend that that was Satan—her first love. Ha.

Rachel complains about having to hear about Tan’s return through the rumor mill, but he doesn’t seem concerned about her feelings, not that he ever was. He answers honestly that Eun-sang’s transfer was a decision made by his parents, as is everything in his life, “just like my engagement.” Not that I feel sorry for her, but ouch.

Chan-young sighs that Eun-sang should’ve called him so they could walk into school together, while she wonders why he didn’t tell her that Tan was Jeguk’s second son. Chan-young thought it was the least of her problems given that she and her mom have nowhere else to go at the moment (and to be fair, it’s not like he imagined Tan would return).

He turns her focus toward surviving here at Jeguk High, and tells her that there’s a strict class system here. Of course there is. First class: heirs to business conglomerates. These are your chaebol sons and daughters—Young-do, Rachel, et al.

Second class: stockholder heirs. They won’t end up running entire companies, but come with lives fully loaded and pre-paved, like Bo-na for instance. Third class: reputation heirs. These are the children of congressmen, generals, and other powerful people, and include Hyo-shin and Myung-soo.

And then the fourth and final class is where Chan-young and Eun-sang belong: the charity class. She sees how she might fit there, since she is here by the benevolence of others, but is surprised to learn that as the son of a secretary, Chan-young is a nobody here too.

Eun-sang gapes, wondering where that leaves her. Chan-young tells her to perk up—she has at least one friend here, which is more than anyone else had when they started, including him.

Eun-sang gets called to the office to fill out general forms, and already she rubs up against having to list her mother’s occupation, and another student overhears the teacher pointing out that she’s a maid.

She goes to her first class, which she shares with both Tan and Young-do. She introduces herself, and another student asks how she got into this school, leading to a long awkward silence. Finally Tan breaks the moment by insisting he’s a transfer student too, and gets up to give his introduction, saving Eun-sang from having to answer the question. It doesn’t go unnoticed by Young-do.

At home, Madam Han finds Mom wearing a maid’s uniform and scrubbing the bathtub, like a scene straight out of The Housemaid. Hilariously, it turns out Mom is actually role-playing Jeon Do-yeon for funsies. Madam Han grumbles at her choice of movies. Ha.