The Heirs

Chapter 11

Tan arrives at the campgrounds after all and starts looking for Eun-sang. She’s currently being harassed/romanced by Young-do (which in his book is pretty much the same thing), who forces a hug. I almost thought he might mean it, but he’s staring straight at Tan while he does it, hammering in this drama’s recurring motif about this fight over Rag Doll Eun-sang to really be a dick-waving contest between two caveman heirs. GUH.

And then he hammers that in some more by telling Tan to tell Eun-sang for him that he likes her, because she’ll believe it more coming from Tan. Supposedly.

Hyo-shin has driven Tan to the camp, and Rachel storms up and lets herself into the car, assuming they’re headed back to Seoul. The two guys aren’t a part of the class trip so they’ve booked a hotel room nearby, and Rachel forces her presence upon them while demanding to know whether Tan spoke to Eun-sang.

The guys pay her little mind, and Hyo-shin refuses to be kicked out of his own room just so Rachel can pester Tan alone. But because her harping about Eun-sang is so incessant, Hyo-shin ends up leaving anyway out of distaste. I feel that feel.

Rachel reminds Tan that their engagement is a Big Effing Deal between their families and businesses, warning that his feelings have no power. He knows that, “And that’s why it’s driving me crazy.” That just pisses her off more, and she stomps out before he can suggest they break the agreement.

Eun-sang returns to her tent to find that a gossiping session is underway inside, with a trio of mean girls already aware of Young-do hugging her. They paint Eun-sang as the flirt/slut/vixen out to steal their menfolk, and it sounds like Ye-sol’s leading the charge, the girl with the crush on Young-do, which gives her words extra bite.

Young-do comes up behind her and pulls her hood up, telling her not to listen or be hurt by those words. Then he takes the girls’ shoes and drops them in a tub of water, saying that he’s getting revenge on her behalf. She points out that she’s going to be the one on the hook for that, but he tells her that anything’s easier than explaining why she’s living in the same house as Tan, which he’s deduced by now.

He tells her not to worry too much about it since he won’t be digging into it, “And whatever questions I ask of you, don’t answer. If you answer, I can’t ask anymore.” And that… is pretty much the perfect example of the logic characterizing this drama.

Young-do points out that she can’t answer the question anyway, and rattles off his five possibilities for explanations: (1) She’s the daughter to the family, (2) or daughter-in-law, (3) some kind of relative, (4) live-in maid, or (5) live-in tutor. None of those make sense, so he’s left wondering.

He comes to one last question: “Do you really like Kim Tan?” Is this the question you want her to answer, or the one you don’t? Eun-sang replies, “Yeah,” though, and I think that actually hurts his feelings, if in fact he has any. He slaps a smile on his face and warns her not to do anything about the drenched shoes.

Rachel’s mother finds Young-do’s father at a bar, in the arms of a scantily clad hostess. Skirt-chasing is pretty much his perpetual state but he bothers to use the “This is for business” line, which fools nobody. They have a clipped argument about his plan to release their wedding news without consulting her, but she’s distracted to see a familiar mom from the PTA in the same bar.

It’s Ye-sol’s mother, who also happens to be Madam Han’s saturi-speaking friend, and she gets identified as Madam Park. Now, we’ve been using “madam” for the other ladies in the sense of a woman being mistress of the house, but they’re using madam in the other sense here.

Tan shows up back at camp to pull Eun-sang aside, taking her for a walk through the woods. She follows warily until they get to a secluded alcove lit by string lights with a cozy trailer, though he scoffs that the setup was already here and not of his design.