HIGH SCHOOL: LOVE ON EPISODE 4

Jae Suk prepares to crush Woo Hyun with his motorbike

Recap:
***WARNING: SPOILERS***
Seeing her sunbae, Seul Bi takes off and Woo Hyun calls after her. Sunbae vanishes and Seul Bi gets frantic looking for him, then promptly collapses. When she recovers, Woo Hyun gives the angel her first cellphone. In the school cafeteria, both Woo Hyun and Ji Hye eat soup with crab meat in it and end up in the hospital following allergic reactions. Ji Hye continues to steal glances at Woo Hyun whenever she can, paralyzed by the fact that this might be her Woo Hyun. The next day, Seul Bi provokes one of the bullies, Woo Hyun sends her out, and Sung Yeol teases the leader, Jae Suk, on his way out the door. Their conversation, resulting in Sung Yeol's hand slammed in a locker and bloodied, indicates they know each other -- that Sung Yeol at some point saved this bully's life.

Jae Suk intimidates another student, Seok Hoon, into cheating on a test for him.  When he is caught by Ji Hye, the bully claims it was Sung Yeol he was copying from. On the stairway, Woo Hyun catches up to the teacher and informs her it couldn't be Sung Yeol who cheated, but he runs off to gather proof. Jae Suk's father shows up, harangues him, and tells him he's ordered a DNA test to prove Jae Suk is not his son. Woo Hyun witnesses this exchange and earns a beating from Jae Suk and his bully boys.  Sung Yeol and Seul Bi are hanging out together. She calls Woo Hyun, but Jae Suk answers the phone, and playfully suggests things are going to get downright ugly. Seul Bi runs off to save Woo Hyun with Sung Yeol in tow. Jae Suk revs up his motorcycle, intending to run Woo Hyun down...


Ji Hye: "Are you my Woo Hyun?"

My take:
The bullies really seem to be into skinship, particularly this episode. The favorite tactic of the theirs is to put an arm around someone's shoulders and lead them away. It seems like it would be counterproductive, particularly if the person being led simply ducked. Why not a headlock or have your friends bodily drag the person? I can understand the girls doing the arm-around-the-shoulders thing; they may have an image to protect and don't want to be seen as savage (not saying they aren't, but they may not want to appear that way). I dunno, maybe it's to deflect attention from teachers; let's face it, which is more obvious: leading someone away or dragging someone away?

Also, we may have a homosexual character. When Woo Hyun steps in to protect Seul Bi, he sends her outside with a male classmate, Chun Shik. Chun Shik turns to her and says, "It must be nice being you." When Seul Bi asks why, he replies, "Because you live with Woo Hyun," and smiles shyly. She regards him quizzically. All this leads me to believe that Chun Shik might have a crush on our angel-saving boy. It could be nothing more than hero worship, but it didn't feel that way. I hope that they treat this topic sensitively, a la 'Reply 1997,' and I'm actually curious to see more. In a show, unrequited love can be entertaining. This episode, the scene went by blindingly fast.


"You're going to help me raise my [class] rank."

There's some kind of history between Jae Suk and Sung Yeol. So Sung Yeol ended up saving his life? The bully said to Woo Hyun in Episode 2 that he didn't like being indebted to others. Is this especially because of Sung Yeol? The thing is, our idol doesn't make anything out of it. He doesn't lord it over him, he doesn't bring it up, he just puts headphones on and retreats into his own little world. Jae Suk seems bitter this episode, like he didn't want to be saved and seems to regret that he's still alive. Of course, with a father who hates him it might be understandable.

The two idols from INFINITE continue to have their characters grow and develop, which is nice. Woo Hyun was already well-established as the good guy, the student who got good grades without trying, but Sung Yeol just seemed to be the kid who enjoyed torturing his stepmother. Through their interactions with Seul Bi, more things come out about their characters. Seul Bi sees Sung Yeol in an entirely positive light: in this episode she lets him know he wouldn't cheat because he lent her an umbrella, came to eat with her, and puts a smile on people's faces when they feel down.  I thought that was a very different way to view him (accurate, too), and he seemed to like to hear it, as well.


Sung Yeol: "From the moment you appeared I have not been happy"

I like where this is going. In contrast to the other broken-up-family drama that I watched, 'Triangle,' this seems to be approaching the problem differently, tenuously, and it turns Ji Hye into even more of a sympathetic character. This is a pleasure to watch from Seul Bi wrangling with being mortal to Sung Yeol and Woo Hyun wrangling with life. I just wish it aired more often than it does.

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