Heartbeat (2023) K Drama Episode 9

Episode 9 of Heartbeat begins with Woo-hyeol walking down a street, thinking about what Ko Yang-nam said. He decides he needs to find a way to live at all costs. Meanwhile, Do-sik is driving somewhere thinking about the video his secretary took.

At home, In-hae’s doing the laundry when Do-sik turns up and says he wants to speak to her. He hints that there’s something wrong with Woo-hyeol but In-hae defends him and says she knows him well enough. Back at his apartment, he watches the video again and is sure that Woo-hyeol is a vampire. Woo-hyeol comes home and In-hae can tell something is off.

In the morning, the new guest, So-hi, complains to In-hae about the stairs and the breakfast. Woo-hyeol meets with the guest but his mood is still down. In-hae tells him to let her know if anything is wrong. They then divide the guest house duties between them. She warns him to not reveal his identity to any of the guests. He then asks about rest days so that she can go on dates with Do-sik. She insists their relationship isn’t like that. Also, they have no rest days.

Sang-hae comes to his tarot shop to find government officials tearing it down for being illegal. They tell him to get a permit. Dejected, he drinks with Dong-seop and Rose. Just then, Dong-seop’s landlord comes in and reveals he’s going to give the shop to the next-door vampire tteokkbeokki seller instead.

Hae-won visits the guest house and likes what she sees. While having tea, she and In-hae talk about Woo-hyeol and Do-sik. Woo-hyeol comes back from the grocery store to hear In-hae say she doesn’t want to date at the moment. He meets the two women and Hae-won tells him to take her for a ride in the new car. He does so and she notices that something is off.

They later walk through a field of daffodils and Woo-hyeol says he is sad because he knows they will ultimately wither. Hae-won then narrates how she felt attracted to the mansion since she saw it. She’s curious about Woo-hyeol now, in the same way. He asks her if he can hug her and she agrees. He tells her to wait for him to sort things out so he can fulfil his promise to her.

Do-sik and Secretary Ko discuss the situation with Woo-hyeol. Do-sik instructs him to keep an eye on Woo-hyeol and find out if there are other vampires. Meanwhile, Man-hwi meets with Hae-won but she’s distracted by thoughts of Woo-hyeol. She then asks Man-hwi to look into Woo-hyeol in exchange for money.

Woo-hyeol comes home and In-hae tells him to get back to work. Her jibes annoy him and they get into an argument. In-hae knows that she ruined his plans to become human and he harshly agrees.

Sang-hae is still stuck on the subject of the gold bars. He begins to think something went wrong with the Joo family since In-hae never received her duties. Woo-hyeol turns up at that moment with bags of human food, all set to get drunk. He despairs about his situation and rants to his friends.

A man enters the guest house and In-hae allotts him a room. He rambles about his wife and daughter who live abroad. Once In-hae leaves, he looks at a photograph of a girl on his phone. As for Woo-hyeol, he gets drunk and passes out. Sang-hae and Dong-seop get tempted into trying the human food but they hate it.

In-hae comes downstairs in the morning to see So-hi and the new guest having breakfast. The man goes on and on about his daughter again. Woo-hyeol wakes up, rushes out of his friend’s house and tried to sneak into the mansion but In-hae sees him. She walks away wordlessly.

Meanwhile, Dong-seop begins to pack up his shop. Yang-nam comes over with tteokkbeokki from another place to inspire Dong-seop. When he hears about Woo-hyeol’s food binge, he tells Dong-seop and Sang-hae to take care of Woo-hyeol. At home, Woo-hyeol is making up for the previous day by doing all the chores.

In-hae comes across the new guest drinking alone. They end up talking about how he has become distant from his family and only sends them money. In-hae opens up about how her father went missing and how she still misses him. He thanks her for showing him a daughter’s perspective on the situation.

In-hae’s phone rings with a reminder about the neighbourhood patrol. She goes alone but Woo-hyeol soon turns up.  She’s still mad at him but he apologises and admits he was too harsh. She orders him to not take more time off work and to always tell him where he’s going. Man-hwi enters the mansion while they’re on patrol and snoops through Woo-hyeol’s room. He ends up finding the scroll of Hae-sun’s portrait.

Woo-hyeol and In-hae end up talking about love. In-hae admits to always being focused on money. She claims the chances of her falling in love are near to none — just like the dead tree by the guest house which will never grow flowers. As they reach the guest house, Woo-hyeol begins to feel pain and remembers Yang-nam’s words about his growing symptoms. The next day, In-hae finds that the man left the guest house. She finds a note and some money on his bed.

In his office, Do-sik looks at a box with a tie in it. In-hae gifted it to him as a thank-you for all his efforts. All of a sudden, he gets shooting pain in his chest and collapses. At the hospital, the doctor calls it a cardiogenic shock but he doesn’t know the cause. Do-sik wakes up and asks Secretary Ko for a favour. He brings the old book from Do-sik’s safe.

Do-sik claims it was passed down through his family and has the cure for his illness. A flashback shows a man from an earlier era writing in the book. The writing says that one must find the person in between humans and vampires. Drinking the blood from that person’s heart will make one immortal. Do-sik believes Woo-hyeol could be the solution to his problem.

In-hae comes home to see Woo-hyeol has put flower-shaped lights on the dead tree. He tells her he did it to prove that she can love and be loved by someone. In-hae then asks him if there is a way he can become a vampire. She’s willing to help him. He says he needs her love.

The Episode Review

There is something comical in the fact that Woo-hyeol needs In-hae’s blood while Do-sik needs Woo-hyeol’s. This K-drama is really going all in on the need to drink someone else’s blood. I wonder if it might become an overload but we’ll find out over the course of the next few episodes. The show is really trying to make Do-sik’s mysterious book and illness an interesting point of the story. However, I can’t help but feel a little uninterested.

This plot point is definitely overshadowed by the tension Woo-hyeol is facing — his desire to survive and be with Hae-won versus the need for In-hae’s blood to do so. The lead actors are doing a great job keeping In-hae and Woo-hyeol’s dynamic fresh and interesting. So much so that the other storylines pale in comparison.