Hee-su in class 2 South Korean BL Drama

Show: Hee-su in class 2 (2반 이희수)

Director: Park Kyung-min

Cast: Ahn Ji-ho, Lee Sang-jun, Cho Jun-young, Kim Do-yeon, Jeon Yeong-in, Kim Han-na, Park Kyung-hee, Jung Ye-nok, Yeon Si-woo, Park Jung-yeon, Yang Jung-ah, Ko Kyu-pil, Kim Shi-hoo and others.

Adapted from the Webtoon under the same name Hee-su in class 2 (2반 이희수) by Lily Zuzu.

About the show:

Lee Hee-su, our protagonist, has never been in a relationship. But he somehow turned out to give the best advice in terms of relationships. The whole school flocked to him with questions, doubts, suggestions, help and advice. Advice, which always worked out for the best for most, as stated by the students themselves. How did that happen? No one really knows and no one really cares. They needed advice and they were getting the best. 

Lee Hee-su of class two has two things always on his mind, the first astronomy and the second, his best friend Ju Chan-young. Hee-su known as Ju Chan-young’s shadow, although great at giving relationship advice, is really bad at taking it himself. One thing he cannot bring himself to do, confess his feelings to Ju Chan-young, his best friend since childhood that he has always had a crush on. 

Ju Chan-young, our second lead is known to be a perfectionist. He’s got the looks, the girls, the fame, the success, the brains and the best friends. A prodigy at tennis and a professional at skateboard, you name it and Ju Chan-young’s already great at it. One thing that he cannot be good at is getting the support of his father for his career. 

Ju Chan-young has always had a favourite singer, named Summer. Turns out Summer is his schoolmate Choi Ji-yu. While trying to befriend Ji-yu, Ju Chan-young doesn’t realize that he’s already fallen in love with her.

Shin Ho-shik, is our third lead, a cute, funny, loud best friend of Ju Chan-young and Lee Hee-su. He is always loyal to his two best friends. The only problem with Ho-shik is that he never finds success in love. 

Choi Ji-Yu, a young girl from the same school as Hee-su and Chan-young, has always been famous for being aloof. She doesn’t talk to people and doesn’t befriend anyone. She has her headphones on and is always reading a book or two or studying. What she fails to predict is that she may finally be ready to befriend someone other than her best friend Kim Seung-won.

Kim Seung-won, our main lead is a silent, studious and smart young classmate of Lee Hee-su. As described by our beloved Hee-su himself, Seung-won is a perfectionist who is brilliant at studies, is the class president, vice president of the counseling club, 2^nd in studies in the entire school and quite the good looking man himself. He is not picky about food but picky about friends, he doesn’t waste time in useless things but the one thing he can’t keep himself from wasting his time on is his feelings for someone. 

There are only two people Kim Seung-won pays attention to in school, his best friend Choi Ji-Yu and his new friend Lee Hee-su.

What happens when these five friends from the same school get entangled with emotions and feelings for one another? What lies ahead for Lee Hee-su? Can Hee-su finally confess his feelings to Ju Chan-young, his best friend of 10 years or is someone else harboring feelings for our dear Lee Hee-su is going to step in to complicate things?

Watch this delightful drama about five young students, their friendships, love stories, confessions and rejections, and how they navigate through school life.

A bonus for this drama is Lee Hee-su’s three crazy sisters and the story of Kim Seung-won’s two wonderful mothers.

This drama adaptation of the webtoon may be a lot different from the original but it has got the one main ingredient that director Park Kyung-min didn’t forget to add, it has got the heart. It could be considered a beautiful standalone drama.

(*This review may contain spoilers. If you have already watched the show, please continue reading. If you haven’t watched the show yet, you can still continue reading or you can come back to the review later.)

What I love about the show:

1) I love the fact that director Park Kyung-min showed that love is beyond colour, gender, race or any other division. Hee-su in class 2 showed all kinds of love- a love that got accepted, a love that got rejected, a love that had to lie to succeed at the end, a love that had two mothers raising a boy together, a love between best friends, a love between siblings.

2) Ju Chan-young, Lee Hee-su and Shin Ho-shik’s friendship and Choi Ji-yu and Kim Seung-won’s friendship is underrated in the BL world. A friendship where the other person accepts you the way you are, no questions, no changes, no judgments, is very rare to find in today’s world. 

Chan-young, Hee-su and Ho-shik have different interests and very different personalities but when they are together, their friendship somehow comes together like a jigsaw puzzle, all different in their own way but once you piece them together, they fit just right. 

Choi Ji-yu and Kim Seung-won are like two peas in a pod. Both are extremely studious, aloof from the world, silent and perfect in their own way. They don’t need attention from the world but the attention from the right person, they wouldn’t say no to. You see two silent souls turn into someone that can be themselves with, and not worry about being judged by their best friend. Ji-yu and Seung-won have an understanding that is extremely rare and you want to cherish all the times they are together on screen.

Ju Chan-young and Choi Ji-Yu form a friendship that allows them to explore parts of themselves that they are scared to show to the world. They share a friendship that makes them want to be better and eventually the best version of themselves. 

Lee Hee-su and Kim Seung-won are probably one of my most favourite duos in the Korean BL world. They went from strangers in a class to neighbours who help each other to friends to best friends to falling in love with each other. They have been each other’s comfort, providing solace to each other. The lies that existed in their friendship in the beginning did not cause any rifts; rather their willingness to be open and free with each other made their friendship stronger. 

Lee Hee-su’s third sister always tells him to live a simple life and not make things complicated, both in his head and in reality. Seung-won is that kind of simple when it comes to living. No judgments, no complaints. The only place he complicates things are when it comes to Hee-su. 

Hee-su and Seungwon’s talk about Seung-won’s mothers - 

In Episode 5, Hee-su and Seung-won talk about Seung-won’s two mothers and how that part of Seung-won’s life doesn’t affect Seung-won negatively rather it is the most comfortable part of his life. You can see how reassured Hee-su feels with the piece of information that Seung-won doesn’t judge people. He is simple that way. 

Hee-su : At least Seung-won wouldn’t hate me just for being myself. He wouldn’t be angry because I am different. With that thought, the weight on my mind was lightened by the weight of just one person. 

Imagine Hee-su finding Seung-won and his friendship with him so comforting that without realizing he is always different with him. His goofiness and his unserious side always comes out with Seung-won. 

At the same time, he also doesn’t shy away from letting his tears fall in front of Seung-won, letting his emotions out to Seung-won. 

Another peculiar aspect of Hee-su and Seung-won’s comfort level with each other–Hee-su had been hiding his feelings for Ju Chan-young for years before he wanted to confess. After finding out Chan-young’s feelings for Ji-yu, Hee-su lets those feelings die. But the minute he starts falling for Seung-won, he cannot hide his feelings for long. He always wants to be around Seung-won, wants to go out with him and immediately wants to confess his feelings to him. Hee-su and Seung-won are two perfectly imperfect individuals who are imperfectly perfect for each other.

3) Hee-su and his three noonas (sisters) are every child’s dream sibling group. I realised early into the show that their bond is probably why Seung-won, a single child, always looks longingly at their house. He wants to be part of a house like that.

Three of my favourite scenes are Seung-won and his moments with Hee-su and his sisters:

a) Seung-won sits on his bed in his room and listens from his window the ongoings at Hee-su’s house. Hee-su and his three sisters always yelling and screaming and having fun in contrast to him being alone in his house

b) Seung-won eating his breakfast imagining Hee-su and his sisters roaming around in his house

c) Seung-won’s sleepover at Hee-su’s house and spending the breakfast with Hee-su and his sisters

4) Seung-won and his mother – Seung-won and his mother have been through a lot. I guess that is probably why Seung-won likes to live a simple life. He is not embarrassed or disappointed with his mother’s decision to leave his father and live together with her lover (another woman) and raise him together with her. He is happy that they love each other and can live together without any drama, something he secretly wishes for himself (with Hee-su probably). He doesn’t judge people based on anything.

5) Seung-won stands up for Hee-su – This is probably one of my favourite scenes from the show. In Episode 5 when Ju Chan-young’s ex-girlfriend tries to bully Hee-su, Seung-won comes to his rescue, stands up for him and later also gives Hee-su an earful on why he shouldn’t just accept ill-treatment but fight back when he knows he is not wrong. This is one of the very rare moments when Seung-won is a completely different person. He is angry and agitated because someone ill-treated his person, Hee-su. That ill treatment against someone he loves, brought a reaction that is so unlike Seung-won but something that I really appreciate. Finally Hee-su has someone who wouldn’t just stand up for him but also help him understand that he needs to do that for himself too.

6) Hee-su is affected by everything related to Seung-won: When Seung-won is angry because Hee-su doesn’t stand up for himself, Hee-su wants to make things alright with Seung-won. When Seung-won asks if he should confess his feelings, Hee-su hates the thought thinking the confession is towards Ji-yu. When Seung-won walks out of his house late at night, Hee-su wants to know where Seung-won is going. 

7) Hee-su and Seung-won just make me tear up with their unsaid emotions. Some episodes, their story really tears at your heartstrings. Their pain can be felt from across the screen. Ahn Ji-ho and Lee Sang-jun are so good with their portrayals. They really have an ability to shake your heart with their longing for each other. 

8) Hee-su and Seung-won watching the shooting stars together – Another favourite scene from the show is Episode 6 ending where Seung-won and Hee-su watch the shooting stars. Hee-su gets his heart broken by Ju Chan-young and on his way back Seung-won offers to walk alongside him. A sudden series of shooting stars catches Seung-won’s eyes and he is mesmerised. Hee-su watches the innocent and childlike Seung-won with adoration and love. The look on Hee-su’s face is priceless and this scene is in the top 5 for me.

9) Sometimes the right person is in front of you but you recognise it very late. 

Seung-won has always had a crush on Hee-su. But Hee-su starts developing feelings for Seung-won much later. 

It is the he fell first but he fell harder kind of a story.

After the trip and watching the shooting stars together, Hee-su starts looking at Seung-won differently. He starts observing Seung-won closely, voluntarily spends more time with him. He watches old videos of his friends and suddenly catches Seung-won in the frame. Seung-won,a friend, who has been in his life all along but caught his attention recently. Everything about Seung-won is fascinating to Hee-su. 

Ep 7 - Hee-su says “좋은 걸 보면 알거든 - Good things. You can tell when you see them”. He says that while looking straight at Seung-won. Seung-won is the good one. Hee-su thinks about how it took him a while too see, to really see Seung-won and how good he is for him.

10) Ep 8 – Hee-su’s observation of Seung-won

Once you have a crush on someone, you start to observe everything about him or her. Then you start doing things to be around them. 

In the beginning of episode 8, we finally get Hee-su being cutely attentive of Seung-won and his behaviour.

All his observations are spot on – Seung-won leaves his home every day at 7am. He likes to eat alone and isn’t picky about food. The thing he hates the most is wasting time and he doesn’t waste his energy on things he considers useless.

But the one thing he fails to observe- 

Seung-won who is such like Choi Ji-yu. 

Wrong about his crush. 

Kim Seung-won never had a crush on Ji-yu. It’s a lie or a misunderstanding that was never corrected that would come crashing on Seung-won sooner than later. Hee-su fails to observe that the one Seung-won has been crushing on since the very beginning is the one who has a crush on Seung-won now, that is, Hee-su himself.

11) It’s not as easy for me as it is for you – Hee-su to Chan-young and Seung-won to Ji-yu. 

Chan-young and Ji-yu are right on their part to push Hee-su and Seung-won to confess. But Seung-won and Hee-su are absolutely right. It is not easy for Hee-su and Seung-won to confess their feelings out loud or about their interest let alone confessing to each other.

12) Hee-su’s confession of “There is someone I like” to Chan-young is a big step for him. He’s finally admitting that his feelings for Seung-won are not momentary. Those feelings are here to stay. He has a crush on Seung-won and he likes him. So much so that with each passing day he is one-step closer to confessing.

13) 승원 : 짝사랑은 어떻게 끝내는거냐?

Seung-won : A crush, how do you end it?

Noona: If you confess, the crush ends. If they accept your feelings, it becomes love otherwise it ends there.

Hee-su : you wanted me to let you know how a crush ends. If you confess, it ends, that’s what I’ve been told. If you could end it by saying it, it would be easy. I think it ends when you use up all of your feelings.

Hee-su confessing “I like you” to Seung-won is such a bold yet an innocent move. 

The last four minutes of Hee-su and Seun-won together is perfect. It wasn’t about how late they got together and how we did not get many moments of them together. The show was their journey to confession to the start of their love story. Hee-su and Seung-won were the end-game from the beginning. But their journey of getting together was not an easy one. They had their obstacles, roadblocks and pitfalls. One is an introvert who keeps to himself, and is in love with the other who is hiding his secret. Their journey of shedding their inhibitions and becoming the person meant to stand next to the person they love was not an easy one. The last four minutes showed us how they fought against all odds to find each other. They finally found each other and it gives us hope for what may come in the future. Season 2 or a movie will definitely give us the next part of Hee-su and Seung-won’s journey. Their journey towards a beautiful love story may be just what’s awaiting us. It’s in the making. Here’s to hoping for a glimpse into their future together. 

Actors and Characters:

Ahn Ji-ho’s portrayal of Lee Hee-su has turned me into his admirer. He was born to be an actor. The subtle changes in his expression throughout the length of the show, shows us what an impeccable actor he is. His narration was the highlight of the entire show. The change in intonation, expression and emotions while delivering the narration as well as the dialogues is remarkable. During the shooting of the drama, he was 17 years old. His acting, expressions, deliverance of dialogue and his emotions (especially his eyes) shows he is a talent beyond his years.  

Lee Sang-jun as Kim Seung-won is what you call perfect casting. Lee Sang-jun is the total opposite of his character in real life, an extrovert. But when they turned the cameras on, you could see a complete transformation, an introverted Kim Seung-won. You could see an awkward, shy and soft Kim Seung-won. Lee Sang-jun brought the character Kim Seung-won to life. His acting was very detailed and his performance exemplary. 

Lee Sang-jun’s chemistry with Ahn Ji-ho is gold, like in every sense. I am rooting for a season 2 or a movie like director Park Kyung-min mentioned, where we can see the next journey of Hee-su and Seung-won, their transformation, the depths of their relationship and the chemistry which kept kept us hooked to the screen. 

Cho Jun-young as Ju Chan-young is brilliant. He is such a fine actor. His chemistry with Kim Do-yeon, Ahn Ji-ho, Jeon Yeong-in and even Lee Sang-jun is so comforting to watch. I loved the way he portrayed Chan-young’s perfection as well as his flaws. There couldn’t have been a better Chan-young than Cho Jun-young. From learning tennis and skateboard to creating a magical bond with his co-stars, Cho Jun-young nailed everything.

Kim Do-yeon as Choi Ji-yu is the perfect girl addition to a BL show. She is the perfect blend of talent meets beauty meets brain. Everything that Choi Ji-yu needs to be, Kim Do-yeon already is. Choi Ji-yu is that girl who every guy is best friends with and fascinatingly so is Kim Do-yeon. It is like Kim Do-yeon was meant to portray Choi Ji-yu. I loved with all my heart, her chemistry with all three boys Ahn Ji-ho, Cho Jun-young and Lee Sang-jun. But my favourite duo would be Choi Ji-yu and Kim Seung-won, hence her bond with Lee Sang-jun tops the chart for me. They are so best friend coded, in Gen Z slang.

Shin Ho-shik was a character written for Jeon Yeong-in. I laughed heartily while watching Hee-su in class 2 and it was thanks to Jeon Yeong-in. Ho-shik is funny, clumsy, adorable and also the sweetest best friend anyone can ask for. Jeon Yeong-in is just as adorable. Jeon Yeong-in is a director’s actor through and through who gave us the most perfect Shin Ho-shik.

The supporting cast (Hee-su’s siblings, Seung-won’s mother, Ho-shik’s girlfriend,etc) have all contributed wonderfully to the show and the show wouldn’t be this perfect with even one missing cast member. 

There’s a lot about the show that I would like to share but that would mean a volume of pages. Instead I would just like to extend my gratitude to the entire cast and crew of the show for their hard work, dedication and patience (especially for waiting for 3 years for the show to come out).

Director: I have the deepest respect, admiration and fascination for all the women writers and directors in the South Korean Entertainment Industry. They have managed to produce some of the most beautiful and intricate pieces of art, each magnificent in its own way.

Director Park Kyung-min’s name is added to my list of favourite directors. I thank her for bringing Hee-su to life and taking up the challenge of adapting the webtoon Hee-su in class 2 and bringing it to the small screen. 

Hee-su in class 2 has a special place in my heart. Hee-su and Seung-won have become my comfort characters and their pairing puts my heart at ease. Hee-su – Seung-won have healed wounds and scars in my life that needed attention. Ahn Ji-ho and Lee Sang-jun have the most amazing chemistry and I look forward to season 2 or a movie that would give us more of this pair, their chemistry and the next part of their journey.

I am confident that this trio combination of Park Kyung-min – Ahn Ji-ho – Lee Sang-jun would be the next big thing that the Korean Entertainment Industry is waiting for. Manifesting!!!!

"Give the ones you love wings to fly, roots to come back, and reasons to stay;

The more you are motivated by love, the more fearless and free your action will be;

Love is the absence of judgment."

– Dalai Lama