When a high school shooting athlete’s twin brother falls from the roof of his high school and dies, everyone, including the police, says that it was a suicide.  But she is sure that is not true.  So she transfers to that school, hiding her true identity and begins gathering information about her brother’s life at school and his death.  When she meets a young man who was the first person to see her brother’s fall and call the police, she enlists his help in uncovering what really happened.  And as the pair dig in, they find evidence of abuse and bullying from several unexpected classmates.  

Lomon as Ji Soo Heon

Ji Soo Heon lost his brother to school violence, and his mother never recovered from the shock of losing her son.  Now Soo Heon lives alone at the gym where his coach teaches him boxing in between his studies and his part time job at the bowling alley.  His mother is in a nursing care factility, but her bills are piling up and the doctors are threatening to throw her out.  He is approaches by a classmate, who was also bullied, about beating up the worst offenders of school violence and being paid for it.  Desperate for money, he agrees to take the job.  But as the cases grow, the police start to get involved, and they are close on Soo Heon’s tail.  When he meets Chan Mi, she is also looking to punish the people who hurt her brother.  He can’t help but become involved in helping her find the truth and punish those responsible.  

Ji Soo Heon is a complicated character who lost both his mother and brother to school violence.  On top of trying to pay for his mother’s hospital bills, he also finds out that he has an inoperable brain tumor.  For him, he is aware that even if he is caught taking revenge on these terrible bullies, he will probably die before he has to pay for it legally.  Lomon’s popularity has really grown over the last year or so.  He is rough around the edges and yet very charming.  His characters have a rawness that makes them feel realistic.  I liked him in this role and felt like the sincerity he brought to this character helped make the drama a success.  

Chae Sang Woo as Gi O Sung

Gi O Sung is a class president who is the son of the Police Chief.  He is one of the only people left who knows anything about Ok Chan Kyu’s death.  But as pieces of the truth begin to come out, it is hard to tell when he is telling the truth, and when he is purposely misleading someone to protect himself.

 ♥ Students vs. Detectives

I liked the push and pull this drama had between the professional detectives and the students, who always seemed to be one step ahead of the officers.  Detective Jin was a great character, who insisted on seeing justice served, even when she had to challenge her boss to do it.  But even her best training and resources could never compete with students who were living in the reality of school violence every day.  This sad truth was well displayed throughout the story.  

♥ Ok Chan Kyu

Especially since Ok Chan Kyu is already dead when the drama starts, it would be easy to make him either the perfect villain or victim.  But when all facts come to light, we find Chan Kyu to be neither all good nor all bad.  The terrible things that Chan Mi heard that he did, did actually happen.  But he did them because of O Sung’s blackmail.  This balance and realistic portrayal of Chan Kyu fits the tone of this drama well.  Few people or things in life are strictly black or white.  Many of us fall into that blurry gray area.  

Open Questions

As the credits rolled on the final episode of this drama, I couldn’t help but wonder about all the unanswered questions.  There was so much left unresolved, that I felt a bit let down.  What was the point of Soo Heon’s brain tumor?  What happened with A Jung’s idol boyfriend and pregnancy?  Is Jae Beom punished for his actions?  There is a whole drama worth of open-ended storylines.  On the plus side, I was invested enough in all these characters, especially Jae Beom, to care what happened to them next.  But I was definitely left wanting more.  

DID

The whole Disassociative Identity Disorder story felt kind of sudden and unexplored.  First of all, was the twin all in Jae Beom’s imagination or did Jae Beom really assume his identity when he died?  Also, it seems like Jae Beom’s parents were aware of his condition, but they just let him to drift alone with no professional help?  What kind of parents do that?  And what is the outcome of it all?  I mean Jae Beom is also a victim of O Sung besides the fact that he has a diagnosable mental health issue.  Did the police take all of this into account?  I think Jae Beom was one of the best characters in this whole drama, so I wish he had gotten a stronger ending.  

So, if you are here for the romance, than the good news is that our leads do get a happy ending.  But as I said earlier, most of the other characters don’t get much of an ending at all.  The full truth about Ok Kyun’s death finally comes out.  Jae Beom is arrested by the police before Jae Jin can pull the trigger to kill himself.  O Sung and Soo Heon have one final battle, where O Sung ends up falling off the roof of the school and dying.  All of the students see Soo Heon there, but when Seon Ha spreads the rumor that Soo Heon is the real “Hero”, they all decide to cover up the fact that Soo Heon was there at all.  The final scene shows everyone but Jae Beom and Soo Heon graduating.  The voice over tells us that Soo Heon dropped out of school to do what he wanted and that Cha Min got accepted to the Marines, as she had always dreamed.  Cha Min leaves the group and meets Soo Heon.  The two join hands and walk off together.