The Heirs

Chapter 17

Chairman Dad outsmarts both his sons and puts them in their places with his stockholders’ vote maneuver, reminding them that he’s the one pulling the strings. Dance, monkeys, dance. While Won chafes to discover he was toyed with, Tan has bigger heartbreak waiting for him at his love nest, which is empty—Eun-sang is gone, just like Dad said.

He staggers home in a daze, while the song helpfully blares, “You’re crying again, you’re crying again, powerless, you send her away.” This is perhaps the most on-the-nose soundtrack ever...

He returns home and asks his father what he’s done with Eun-sang. Dad gives him the classic abuser line—This is all your fault, you made me do this—and warns him not to go looking for her, because he’ll really ruin her life then.

Chan-young worries about Eun-sang and asks whether his father knows anything. As it happens, Manager Yoon was tasked with facilitating her exile, though he can’t share much with his son. He just says that Eun-sang will call once she’s settled and that Chan-young can hear from her directly what happened.

Chairman Dad arranges for Eun-sang to be withdrawn from school, but none of the kids know that and wonder at her empty seat the next morning. Bo-na worries that Eun-sang hasn’t replied to her chat message, but balks about calling directly “because calling makes it seem like we’re friends.” Then she shoots a glare in Rachel’s direction and mutters, “Is she being harassed someplace where I don’t know?” Aw, there you go unconsciously playing Eun-sang’s protector again. Bo-na is a delightful ball of contradictory statements, and I love that about her.

Tan storms in and beelines for Chan-young to ask if he’s heard anything. Chan-young blames Tan for being the source of Eun-sang’s troubles, and then Young-do storms into class and beelines for Chan-young too. I don’t blame Chan-young for being annoyed with these two for causing trouble and then looking to him for help, and he leaves them to their frustration.

Determined to track her down, Tan asks Madam Jung to refrain from withdrawing Eun-sang from school. Young-do heads off on his own search, starting with the broadcasting club’s member records. Hyo-shin wonders at all the fuss, but agrees to help when Tan asks for help searching the flight records for departures abroad.

The Jeguk moms have a meeting, and Rachel’s mother receives barbed congratulations for her upcoming wedding—one mom drops the stinger that her fiancé’s Zeus Hotel is facing investigation. Hyo-shin’s mother (the prosecutor’s wife) says she knows nothing about this, but her smirk indicates that she’s lying.

Chan-young’s father gets promoted to vice president per his agreement with Won, so I guess we’ll call him VP Yoon now. Now he’s picked a side, and Won teasingly warns him not to two-time with his loyalties. They shake on it.

Tan combs through security footage for clues, while Hyo-shin works his connections and reports that Eun-sang wasn’t listed as leaving the country. Tan breathes a sigh of relief and calls Young-do right away to fill him in (cute), figuring two heads are better than one. It’s too bad those two heads are both at the bottom of the class, but I guess points for quantity.

Footage from the front gate shows Eun-sang loading a moving truck, and then turning to the camera to send up a wave at Tan, knowing he’d be watching. Sweet, or disturbing? Always the question with this romance.

Young-do lights up to hear Eun-sang is still in the country, then hatches a plan: He logs onto his hotel’s homepage and posts a message under Eun-sang’s name. He manages a few compliments toward himself, but mostly it’s a complaint against him. I’m not quite sure what the plan entails, but he calls it “setting a trap” so I suppose he’s trying to draw a response.

Tan collects car black box footage from his neighbors for more video clues, then goes to a cell phone store to reconnect Eun-sang’s old number. Upon logging in he links to her chat account, and finds a message from Young-do asking where she is: “I miss you. I’m just talking to a number that doesn’t exist.”