Heesu in Class 2 (2025)

A promising yet unfulfilled journey

Prior to touching on any unfavorable points in the adaptation, I would be remiss not to honor the quiet revolution unfolding on screen: Ahn Ji Ho and Lee Sang Jun, rising stars in Korean cinema, have chosen paths less traveled. They performed resistance, stepping into characters whose very existence defies the heterosexist orthodoxy and setting an example for other mainstream performers to follow in their footsteps

The interplay between Ji Ho (Hee Su) and Sang Jun (Seung Won) is, without a shadow of a doubt, endearing. Sang Jun (Seung Won) is a reticent and emotionally guarded suitor, yearning to draw closer to Ji Ho (Hee Su). True to the source material, the glances that linger just beyond propriety, the verbal exchanges, and the physical proximities that tremble with implication accumulate with intentionality and culminate in a long-withheld romantic confession

Seung Won: "I don't like Ji Yu"
Hee Su: "Why did you lie?"
Seung Won: "Because I wanted to keep hanging out with you" (chapters 42-43)
A screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/7ElUfSX

Drama Seung Won, too, nudges drama Hee Su to acknowledge his true feelings and discover the solace and happiness that await him in drama Seung Won's arms

Complementing Ji Ho (Hee Su) and Sang Jun (Seung Won)'s chemistry, the adaptation gains narrative sophistication through drama Hee Su's empathetic disposition. This is exemplified in the first episode (5:10-7:04), where he lends an impartial ear to a woman's self-exploration of same-sex desire/introspective reckoning with her attraction toward another woman. He invites us into a space of uncoerced emotional authenticity

Now, it's conceivable that my observation might provoke debate; however, I'm disengaged by a dissonance between the performers' mature appearances and the adolescent characters they're tasked with embodying. Their mature appearances suggest individuals well into their late twenties, if not beyond

The cognitive dissonance elicited by witnessing adults enacting the affective and behavioral tropes of high school adolescence proves jarring. A more coherent and plausible alternative might've been to transpose the setting into a university or workplace

I can be lenient with these matters. What troubles me is the pacing and the straightwashing of the source material to cater to the squeamishness of homophobic audiences wary of encountering too many rainbows on their screens. The central gay relationship spends the bulk of its runtime vying for visibility and relevance against the privileged "straight" script that overshadows it in both duration and execution. "Straightness" centers the stage by force, reasserting its dominance and softening the gayness for broader consumption. It has no rightful place here

The source material refrains from constructing a non-platonic Chan Yeong x Ji Yu storyline. To fabricate one where none exists, and to do so by excising the secondary gay pairing of Sun Woo and Yoo Dahm, is a move I find dishonest and regressive. A screenshot of Sun Woo and Yoo Dahm from chapter 56: https://imgur.com/a/OInfwbQ

How mind-boggling it is that our same-sex ships/pairings are condemned as corrosive to friendships, while society destroys opposite-sex friendships by defaulting to non-platonic arcs with nary a consequence

Some might rationalize the excision of the secondary gay couple by appealing to their placement in the second season. It's a dubious, flimsy excuse at best. Being classmates and friends, Hee Su's acquainted with the secondary gay couple. Their early introduction could've contributed to the exploration of identity, intimacy, or social belonging and accelerated Hee Su's journey toward self-acceptance. Sun Woo and Yoo Dahm need not have been "useless" or "irrelevant"

Timelines are malleable. The screenwriters were afforded the opportunity to recalibrate the timeline of the source material/fine-tune the sequence of events in order to optimize the seamless integration of two seasons into a compact drama format. Nevertheless, their creativity wasn't exercised in service of non-straight visibility. They delegitimized non-straight modes of subjectivity and relegated them to an inferior, irrelevant, or disruptive status

Those reading might pose the question, "are you a hater?" To which I'll respond in the negative. Neither animosity nor resentment informs my evaluation. That'd be incompatible with my 8/10 rating

My contention is that preserving one of the two gay pairings is not a sufficient or ambitious act of fidelity. It is, in fact, justified for audiences to experience discomfort when confronted with deviations from the source material. The phenomenon is not unprecedented; public discourse surrounding the cinematic reimaginings of "The Little Mermaid" (2023) and "Snow White" (2025) demonstrated how even superficial modifications precipitate public disapproval. By parallel reasoning, it follows that modifications to gay source materials would precipitate scrutiny and disapproval

Questioning the producers' call to accommodate societal prejudices against gay-centered narratives doesn't amount to prejudice or -phobia. The public dissemination of a creative or intellectual work instigates a dynamic feedback mechanism, wherein audience reception, positive or negative, re-enters the production process and compels producers to adapt to the cultural climate and evolve or risk obsolescence

I do appreciate the effort invested in the part-BL/part-gay adaptation. Moving forward, I'd love to see BLs exclusive in focus that center and honor gay love without compromise or dilution

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The correct title: Heesu In the Background Of Class 2.

I loved Hee Su and Seung Won, but if we actually gathered all their scenes it would be the length of a fan made youtube video. They were both sidelined getting supporting characters treatment in their own story.

And no, I do not only mean romance wise. Which characters got more elaborated individual stories presenting them outside of their love lines? Chan Yeong with his Tennis arc and Ji Yu with her music. What about Hee Su and Seung Won? Nothing. I’m sorry, but if you describe the plot of the drama to someone, Hee Su perfectly matches the typical second male lead - in love with the male lead, trying to win him over just to give up when the female lead shows up. Ending up with the female lead’s best friend.

No amount of pretty poetic narration done by Hee Su will convince me he got the proper treatment as the main lead of the story. For me, these lines sounded great, like out of context motivational quotes since the episodes often did not focus on his perspective enough to validate their existence. I mean… even the last episode could not have been all about the mains, we also needed a montage of the love story of the second leads.

If I was to rate just Hee Su and Seung Won, it would be a good 8. They were sweet and fun to watch. The misunderstandings actually seemed realistic for their age. The low key pinning was great. Seung Won was just calm perfection - so many of his simple few words amazed me - the simplicity with the greater message behind them was just right.

But then we have Chan Yeong and Ji Yu. I would not even be that mad if they were not just so painfully boring both as a couple and as individual characters. But to take away from the gay couple, to focus on this mediocrity is just a crime.

Maybe because their characters did not have much to offer, the acting also felt mid. Ahn Ji Ho though - amazing. The hesitation around his crush, the glances he kept stealing, the anger and the frustration when certain things came out to light.

The production value was obviously a lot better than many other k-bls - the bigger budget was clear. Can better production quality save uneven writing? Probably not.

Overall, disappointment. I was one of the people who was not initially angry about the straight couple, but I was still naive thinking they will stay in the sidelines complimenting Hee Su’s and Seung Won’s story. I did not expect them to come to the forefront and stay there till the end.

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