Heartbeat (2023) K Drama Episode 2

Heartbeat episode 2 picks up right after In-hae bites Woo-hyeol on the neck. Just as she’s about to walk away from him, she realises that he is lying on the floor motionless and suspects that she might have killed him. Of course, his being a vampire doesn’t help the fact that he doesn’t have a pulse. He is taken to the emergency room and is given CPR, but they are unable to get a pulse. This is an expected outcome, but In-hae is devasted at the news.

As she is taken away by the nurses, Woo-hyeol wakes up under the sheet at the smell of blood but realises that he obviously can’t drink from a human in front of others. His waking up shocks the doctor and In-hae, and after paying an exorbitant fee, In-hae and Woo-hyeol proceed home. However, on the way, the two start to bicker, during which she threatens him, saying that she has no idea about his contract with her ancestor and doesn’t know him at all. Woo-hyeol isn’t ready to accept her claims, but In-hae isn’t someone who easily backs down, and she successfully leaves him behind and rushes back home, leaving him on the street.

With no idea where he is, Woo-hyeol starts to roam the street and wonders who he is now – a human or a vampire? Or is he somewhere in between? As he ponders over these questions, he is left shocked as he discovers how things have completely changed in the world. His most pressing goal, however, is to go back to the mansion at any cost. Meanwhile, back at the mansion, Sang-hae and Dong-seob get the party equipment ready to wake Woo-hyeol up from slumber but are left shocked when they find the coffin open.

As the two of them wonder where he might be, Woo-hyeol tries to find a way to hail a cab but fails miserably. Confused and hungry, he spots a cat on the streets, mistakes it for Yang-nam and starts to follow it desperately. Elsewhere, In-hae packs up her life in her tiny apartment and makes her way to the mansion.

Meanwhile, after following the cat for god-knows-how-long, Woo-hyeol gets help from two passers-by who direct him back home. He is left delirious after finally reaching his mansion, more so when he also comes across his old tailor shop, now run by an ancestor of the man he used to know. Inside the mansion, he fondly looks at all of his things and then decides to spend one more day in the coffin to finish what he started. Unfortunately, something isn’t right about the coffin.

All that, however, needs to wait since he hears someone come in and is immediately left bitter when he sees In-hae making an entry. The two immediately start to bicker regarding who can stay in the mansion, but neither is prepared to back down. Woo-hyeol tells her about his ordeal inside the coffin and how he went through hell in order to become a human, and she foiled his well-prepared plans so close to the finish. In-hae, of course, doesn’t believe his claims of being a vampire (quite obviously) and the two bicker once more about who is the true owner of the mansion.

With no other options, Woo-hyeol decides to reveal his true self to In-hae to prove his point. Unfortunately, since he is neither a human nor a vampire, he is unable to phase into his vampire self and ends up looking foolish in front of her. To make matters worse, he has none of his vampire powers and trying to fly or use magic to control the things around him just makes him look even more pathetic and clearly tests In-hae’s patience. As he tries to hypnotise her as a last resort, he looks into her eyes and sees his reflection.

Intrigued and unable to look away, he leans in to look deeper into her eyes, creeping In-hae out further, and she throws him out on the street, warning him not to come back, claiming to be a vampire. Woo-hyeol pleads with her to let him into his house but to no avail, and to add to his stress, he is left exhausted from the adventures of the day after not having eaten anything for 100 years.

Later on, as In-hae goes to the supermarket to get something to eat, she spots Woo-hyeol looking around a dumpster, searching for Yang-nam, looking no less than a feral cat himself. As the two’s eyes meet, Woo-hyeol begs her for a bowl of instant ramen and is immediately taken by the delicious aroma. He can’t believe the different flavours he is able to taste in the ramen for the first time in his existence and immediately starts to chomp down on the food despite it being piping hot.

After he is done eating, he laments about waking up a day early and being unable to enjoy such delicious human food and asks her to make it right… and then he promptly falls asleep! When the store clerk wakes him up, he goes outside and finally meets Yang-nam, and the two discuss his fate going forward. Yang-nam curiously mentions that a human woman opening his coffin would’ve been a very difficult feat. The thought leaves both of them confused.

The next day, In-hae wakes up to damning news – the construction crew is at her old apartment, and they are breaking it down with all of her belongings inside. She begs them to give her some time to move out, but they refuse to budge. As they throw her things down, she continues to plead with them. In the meantime, Do-sik reaches the apartment complex and is left shocked to see a woman on the ground pleading for his crew not to toss her belongings on the street.

He asks the crew to stop their work and is left astonished to find In-hae on the street. As it turns out, they had gone to the same college, and he might have had a crush on her at some point. In the present, he takes her out for coffee, and they catch up. He offers to help her in any way he can, but she refuses anything from him and promises to move out by the end of the week. Before leaving, he offers her his card and asks her to reach out if she needs anything. Inside the car, Do-sik asks his secretary to look into the recent housing fraud case.

At the mansion, Woo-hyeol tries to open the door but finds In-hae not inside. He remembers Yang-nam’s advice to keep her close since ordinary humans should not be able to open the coffin on their own – proving that she is not ordinary at all. Meanwhile, on her way back home, In-hae spots her ex-landlord fleecing money off strangers once again and follows suit. As she comes across danger, her bite on Woo-hyeol’s neck starts to hurt, and he rushes out on the street after sensing In-hae close by.

Standing in the middle of the road, he remembers Yang-nam’s words once more; that he must hold out on drinking blood for as long as he can and he must protect In-hae at all costs since she is the key for him to becoming human. Sensing that he won’t be able to protect her without his vampire senses, he drinks the blood and immediately gets all of his powers back, which he then uses to track In-hae, who is still chasing the landlord.

Heartbeat Episode 2 Ending

Sensing her screams, Woo-hyeol immediately follows the sound of her voice as In-hae runs deeper and deeper into a rather unsafe part of the city. Eventually, the landlord jumps on her and is almost about to hit her with a rod when Woo-hyeol drops from the sky to protect In-hae. After a rather one-sided fight, he instils the fear of god (or… the devil) into the landlord as well as In-hae as she is ready to believe that he might really be a vampire. In the last scene, Woo-hyeol offers In-hae a hand and asks her to go home with him, as she sits on the floor in disbelief.

Heartbeat is that show that, if you don’t think too deeply about it, will be extremely entertaining to you. Case in point, if you thought that this show would progress in a particular way, you are probably right. In-hae being the answer to Woo-hyeol’s misery, him having to consume blood in order to protect her, their romance already brewing, and them having to share a house together – it’s the classic rom-com with a vampire twist. If you think about it, even the Western vampire stories are some sort of iteration of this formula. It’s not new, but it’s so damn entertaining.

Ok Taec-yeon is just extremely funny as Woo-hyeol and looks great in the funnier moments as well as when he needs to look menacing. Thankfully, there weren’t many scenes of the vampires flying around, so the special effects were mostly hidden. Woo-hyeol feeling around for his pointy canine teeth is adorably funny. It also makes me wonder what it says about me when I find a grown (vampire) man meowing for food to be a laughing matter. It weirdly makes sense in this silly universe somehow. As I mentioned previously, don’t think too much and just enjoy the ride.

That being said, I am really interested to know In-hae’s backstory; she is proving to be a really interesting character. And, with the second romantic interest already introduced, I am waiting for the cute secret lover to be thoroughly heartbroken by the end of the show. But that’s ok. I have a feeling that Do-sik and Hae-sun’s reincarnation are going to cook up some sort of romance together shortly.

All in all, I was thoroughly entertained for 62 minutes. This is going to be such a headache-free watch, and I hope they keep the story funny but progress the plot in interesting directions as well.