Heesu in Class 2 Adaptations 2.0: I LOVED the argument in Episode 7!
I am once again going to say how grateful I am for the way the writers of Heesu in Class 2 have taken the original content in the manhwa and really just ran with it in a number of different directions. This show is taking, in my opinion, some pretty huge risks in the changes they are making to the story and as with any adaptations venture, obviously that can be a struggle to accept and I am immensely aided by reading the manhwa after watching the first couple episodes of Heesu in Class 2. But I so deeply believe the risks they are taking are paying off when it comes to adding depth and complexity to the storytelling.
Adding more screen time for Chanyoung and Jiyu to the show when they were far more background in the manhwa is something that I am actually finding incredibly important to the story that is unfolding on the screen. I am not often interested in heterosexual side couples in shows but making the change from Jiyu and Chanyoung being co-conspirators in a plot to get Heesu and Seong Won together to instead having them become a couple is something that I think has been an important shift, allowing Jiyu and Chanyoung as a couple to act as a narrative parallel to Heesu and Seong Won demonstrating both the ways in which being heterosexual can make certain aspects of the dating process easier. You have a lot less to lose in a confession when you are operating under the assumption that the other party is straight when you are also straight than you do when you are operating under the assumption that the other person is straight and you are queer.
We have already seen Heesu be threatened to be outed by a vindictive ex of Chanyoung, as much as this show has been primarily kind and adorable, this is not a show that exists outside of the dangers of homophobia and Heesu and his utter hesitancy to confess to Chanyoung after years of having a crush on him is a great indicator of the underlying anxiety of just how dramatically their relationship might change if he were to come out and admit his gay love for Chanyoung.
I appreciated so much in episode 7 how patient Jiyu was being with Heesu despite how shitty he was treating her because she knows exactly why he is acting that way. Heesu is mad at Jiyu for dating Chanyoung, his best friend, because he feels like Seong Won a person that he has increasingly deep romantic feelings for is being slighted by the person he thinks he has a crush on. But she isn’t going to out Heesu to Seong Won and she isn’t going to out Seong Won to Heesu because that is also an objectively shitty thing to do.
And that results in an actual argument!!
I will trade every part of the manhwa simply to have gotten that fight between Jiyu, Heesu, Chanyoung, and Seong Won. This is not something that existed in the original manhwa and I am so glad that the writing team actually took a minute to explore how deeply Seong Won and Heesu’s hesitancies to confess have caused very real pain to the people in their lives they care the most about. The way the anger and frustration different characters felt caused them to reveal truthful information in an attempt to hurt other people, or to even simply just get a behavior to stop for the love of GOD only for it to land on completely neutral emotional threads for the person the comments were directed to and ended up ricocheting and hurting someone else in the group who is missing a specific piece of context was fucking brilliant.
Because Seong Won refuses to confess to Heesu, Seong Won is hurting Jiyu because Jiyu is keeping her relationship with Chanyoung secret for him. But, in being tolerant of Seong Won’s absolute ridiculousness she is hurting Chanyoung, her boyfriend because she is forcing them to be a secret and she can’t tell him why. Thank FUCK Jiyu called Seong Young out for this in Episode 7.
Because Seong Won refuses to confess to Heesu, Heesu still thinks that he has a crush on Jiyu and is hurt on Seong Won’s behalf and is hurting Jiyu because he’s mad at her for hurting Seong Won’s feelings. And sure, I understand that Seong Won is hesitant to do so because he knows that Heesu has a crush on Chanyoung and that he is likely to get rejected, and Heesu’s negative reaction to finding out about the relationship can 100% be misinterpreted by Seong Won as Heesu sulking about his own crush on Chanyoung being foiled by his relationship with Jiyu.
Instead, Heesu realizes his feelings for Chanyoung have changed and that he has developed a crush on Seong Won. But Heesu refuses to confess to Seong Won. Instead, he wants to do something without Seong Won’s help to, idk, prove something so he tries to start the astronomy club. Thus Heesu hurts Seong Won because Seong Won does not know that Heesu has a crush on him and therefore does not understand why Heesu is pushing back so often against him joining the astronomy club. Seong Won cares about Heesu and wants to make sure that he can do what he is passionate about and he has been told pretty clearly that he is not invited to the astronomy club so he asks Jiyu to sign up because she is a part of STEM. Thus Seong Won hurts Heesu because he does not understand the motivation behind Seong Won’s actions. And Heesu hurts Jiyu because he thinks she is using Seong Won’s crush on her to get him to do things for her. Which is isn’t but Heesu has no way of knowing that because Seong Won WON’T FUCKING CONFESS.
[WHAT A GREAT FUCKING QUESTION, HEESU] gif by @taeminie
Heesu’s anger at Jiyu for what he assumes is her poor treatment of a friend hurts Chanyoung because Heesu is being mean to his girlfriend. Heesu hurts Chanyoung because both Heesu and Chanyoung think that Seong Won has a crush on Jiyu and Chanyoung is right that it is not Jiyu’s fault that Seong Won has a crush on her and that Heesu should not be taking this out on Jiyu. Seong Won is hurting Chanyoung because his refusal to tell the truth means that Chanyoung thinks that he has a crush on Jiyu, and Jiyu knows that is not the case and is very good friends with Seong Won and so continues to hang out with him and Chanyoung just has to sit there and tolerate what could very likely become a “this man is trying to steal my girlfriend” situation. And he is clearly uncomfortable with Jiyu and Seong Won spending time alone together but they still continue to do so and so Jiyu is hurting Chanyoung.
And Chanyoung because he doesn’t know the truth, hurts Heesu in an attempt to hurt Seong Won by BEING THE ONE TO ACTUALLY JUST SAY THE GODDAMN THING. In this case, that he and Jiyu are an item. Which causes a fracture in the relationship between Heesu and Chanyoung.
And after all of this, Seong Won is left standing alone in the classroom which is where he is going to end up forever if he DOESN’T FUCKING CONFESS.
This whole argument is like…two minutes of the show and it is an entirely invented for the show and I loved it SO much. This whole situation is messy and has been from the beginning and while certain pieces of it, like Heesu slowly realizing that he actually isn’t romantically interested in Chanyoung anymore carry over from the manhwa but the manhwa takes any level of mess and just wraps it up in a clean little bow.
I even love the way the show has been using Heesu’s sisters to show him what needs to happen. His one sister is miserable so often because every week she is falling in love with a different guy and confessing and getting rejected. And that fucking sucks, but not once has it deterred her from continuing to confess. Like even in the face of constant rejection she continues to be brave and continues to be honest and continues to be active in announcing her feelings. And it seems like she maybe will be successful in actually having someone reciprocate her feelings finally. Heesu’s other sister had to be talked in to working to get her man back after he broke up with her. She and Heesu share that passivity after all, Heesu is the epitome of “gives advice but can’t follow it.” He pushes Seong Won time and time again to play an active role in his romantic pursuit of Jiyu. He tells him to take her on a date, he makes them sit next to each other, and yet in his own life he is so incredibly passive because he has been harboring an extremely unproductive crush for years. That’s a hard pattern to break.
I even loved that addition of the Carrot, that Seong Won was able to confess to her and that she was like “I know this is stupid coming from me [a person who was passively trying to share my affection for someone and refused to actually confront my feelings or confess to him and who backed off because I knew I would be rejected] but you NEED TO CONFESS TO HIM.”
gif by @wanderlust-in-my-soul
I have many more thoughts about these two episodes but this post is already getting long so suffice it to say that I am really impressed that while I am getting frustrated with the boys for continuously refusing to confess or be confessed to (LOOKING AT YOU HEESU FOR SAYING YOU AREN’T GOING TO GO MEET CARROT BECAUSE YOU LIKE SOMEONE ELSE. BUT LIKE BOY, AT LEAST GO AND BE KIND ENOUGH TO REJECT CARROT IF YOU DON’T RECIPROCATE FEELINGS INSTEAD OF GHOSTING THEM) (LOOKING AT YOU SEONG WON WHO IS ABOUT TO GET GHOSTED BY THE BOY YOU LIKE BECAUSE YOU KEEP HIDING BEHIND BULLSHIT INSTEAD OF JUST BEING FUCKING HONEST) the reasons that are stopping them are continuously believable and I think they are making choices that make sense based on how they grew up, who their role models for love are, and the fact that they are both queer people navigating a heterosexual world who have a lot more to lose in a confession than any of the other characters in the show do.
Cannot wait for these two idiot losers to finally figure out how to use their words next week!
[woah, we're halfway there! woah livin' on a prayer] gif by @wanderlust-in-my-soul
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