The Heirs

Chapter 20 (Final)

Tan and Young-do look out over the city from the rooftop, each lost in thought over his father. For once they both agree—that tonight the city is cold, and dark.

Tan has his legal guardianship changed to his brother Won, and then they prepare to show a united front to the shareholders in a meeting. But they wait and wait, and only two faithful managers show up in the end. The rest—including all of the chairman’s actual family members—are busy plotting their takeover led by Madam Jung.

Chan-young’s dad VP Yoon tells them they have lots of work ahead of them if they have to chase shares down, and whisks Tan abroad to start shaking hands and getting signatures. Tan understands he is to play the part of the dutiful son, and he wonders how his father lived an entire life doing this.

Eun-sang only hears about the chairman’s collapse the next day from Chan-young, and then finds a note that Tan left for her at home.

Young-do eats a tense dinner with his dad, wanting to know what’s going to happen. Dad is for once a little nice, and assures Young-do that even if he does end up going to prison, life will resume as normal for Young-do, who is to trust only their hotel VP.

Dad puts on a smile and says he’ll be out in no time, reminding Young-do not to shirk his dishwashing duties at the hotel. But the very next day Young-do watches as his father’s face gets splashed all over the television along with news of his indictment.

Dad’s team of lawyers tells Young-do not to worry, and to live his life like before. They do have one message from his father though: “There need to be rules. You can’t cheat.” What. Did Crazypants finally teach his son a good thing? Granted it’s through a lawyer so I find it highly suspect that he really said it, but I’ll take what I can get.

Young-do takes it to heart and goes to see Joon-young, the kid he bullied so horrendously. He finds him at his new school, and Joon-young immediately tenses up at the sight of him, asking if he’s here to torment him some more.

But Young-do says he’s here to apologize, and says he’s sorry—sincerely, contritely. It floors Joon-young, who admits he didn’t think Young-do knew how to do that (me neither), but he says with grim determination that he won’t ever accept his apology. Joon-young tells him that if he’s really sorry, he should live the rest of his life feeling guilty, and Young-do doesn’t argue, agreeing to do so.

Eun-sang sees news of Young-do’s dad on TV, and writes to Tan wondering what kind of misfortune it is to bear the kind of weight that includes seeing your loved ones on the evening news.

She continues to narrate as she says that being the first to arrive at school meant that she often witnessed the fake corpse-outline graffiti that was a staple at their school. But what surprised her was that it wasn’t just one person—sometimes it was Hyo-shin, or Rachel, or even Myung-soo. “And today… it was Young-do.”

She wonders if it was since discovering that the graffiti wasn’t someone but everyone that she stopped being able to hate the other kids at Jeguk High. She asks if there was ever a morning when Tan came to school with spray paint in hand.

Young-do braces himself before walking up to a café window. Inside is his mother, smiling at customers. He gazes at her for a moment, but when she turns to look in his direction, he bolts behind a wall to stay out of sight and starts to cry.

Eun-sang narrates: “Even if it’s too heavy, or too cruel, or too sad, I hope that the only thing you can do isn’t to get hurt.”

Won greets Tan and VP Yoon on their return, and even praises Tan for doing a good job. He suggests they move back into the house together to show people that they won’t leave it empty, so the two brothers finally end up under the same roof.