The Heirs

Chapter 9

Tan waits outside the front gate for Eun-sang, first putting on his teasing face to pout about his injuries. He doesn’t get much of a reaction and switches to his serious face, getting upset when she tries to brush aside his attempt to talk.

Big Bro interrupts with his arrival, and Eun-sang quickly heads inside. Tan tries to talk to him about moving back home, but Won counters, “Then do you want to be the one moving to a hotel?” Tan insists he doesn’t want to take anything away from his hyung, but Won replies that Jeguk Group decides Tan’s feelings for him, and therefore Tan’s very existence is a thorn in his side: “That’s what being an illegitimate son is.”

Tan rattles off a warning text to Eun-sang telling her to stay away from the wine cellar tonight, to avoid a run-in with Won. Cut to: the wine cellar, said run-in already in progress.

Eun-sang cowers nervously, but Won is polite as he makes small talk and says it was nice seeing her again. Won grabs some wine and heads to his hotel, where Hyun-joo waits for him. He’s waylaid in the lobby by Rachel, however, and he invites her for a cup of tea, leaving Hyun-joo unseen and deflated.

Rachel comments on Tan’s bruised face, saying that he fought over a girl, and Won has a pretty good idea of who that girl is. It’s too bad a Won-Rachel pairing seems unlikely (not merely because of the age gap but because of Hyun-joo’s presence), because I think these two are at their best when they’re together. They’re even able to make wry comments about their own weak spots, which you’d never see them admit to other people.

And so, our main love triangle spends the night in meaningful flashbacks and broody stares. Young-do looks particularly mopey, but I’m a bit confused as to why I should feel sorry for him, and so I don’t. Moving along.

Tan gets up extra early the next morning to take Eun-sang to school, waiting for well over an hour before realizing that she left even earlier just to avoid him.

She’s absent from school, and Tan and Young-do take turns casting dark looks at her empty seat in class. That goes noticed by Rachel and Chan-young— it’s a veritable stare-o-go-round. You practically expect that chair to burst into flames from all the concentrated attention it’s getting. The second the bell rings, Tan bolts from class to go in search of her.

She’s spent the day wandering the city streets in a funk, killing time. The school calls her mother to ask about her absence, and as Mom cannot speak, the caller hangs up. Still, she mutters enough about Eun-sang’s truancy to give Mom the general idea.

Tan calls Chan-young for ideas on where to find Eun-sang, and gets directed to a certain free movie theater where she sometimes goes. Sure enough, Tan finds her sitting in the audience, and watches her throughout the screening.

He follows her out, keeping his distance until she stops in front of a storefront to look at the dreamcatchers in the window. He then takes her by the hand (thank you) and pulls her along, informing her that he won’t let go even if she tells him that she’s causing his life more damage. I’d argue that the reverse is more true, but in any case he keeps his grip firm and says, “I’ll keep going like this, and if I do, you’ll still be there at the end of the road, won’t you?”

But she says no, pulling her hand from him in a meaningful slo-mo edit, telling him that she will have long run away. He vows to find her anyway, but she urges him not to because she’ll have nowhere to retreat. In frustration, Tan asks what he’s supposed to do when he likes her this much, and she actually admits to liking him back—it’s a bit of a surprise to be dropped with such little fanfare, but I like it better for the way that her delivery emphasizes that her feelings aren’t the point. Liking each other doesn’t solve anything.