I believe you are right!
And still, it’s implied that RHM (right hand man) canaccess the vamp world when Do Sik tells him to do so. I can’t help but think RHM is part of that world, or the vamp-killing segment. How, how how? is my question each time I see him!

I was going to have a glass wine tonight to ease the mid week blues. I will contemplate on the villainous ways to hold a wine glass.

Actually, I was half expecting her to be a vampire. That she never really died but faked her own death ; )

@attiton @mayhemf hahahahaa!! Wine villainy! LOL!

🤣

And here I thought it was her fakey-sweetsie voice that gave her away but it’s the wine drinking!

Good one. But I'm sorry, I have to stake an earlier claim. She wore a blood red leather coat with matching lipstick at the airport. Who does that!?! Only villains put fashion about comfort on planes.

Also, love how you forgive Do-sik a whole damn wine bar. 😂 Not biased, nooo....

*above.

and that collection of thigh-high boots does not exactly scream innocent

Ah. Excellent clarification. I cede all Do-sik rights to you in perpetuity.

Please just take him and shackle him to a waterbed in your underground dungeon and find a cure for him so he would not harm my baby yoda Woo-hyul nor keep In-hae away from him.

@pikpokpikpok

With pleasure.

He is technically stopping her, though, by talking to Woo-hyeol and trying to get Woo-hyeol to stay away from her. He's trying to get Woo-hyeol to Noble Idiot her, from what I can see.

Also I hope we're still friends! I respect that you want him for yourself and don't want him with In-hae.

@vienibenmio This is a hoot. We are of course still friends. I'm gonna continue...

He saved her freaking life by pushing a feeding vampire aside, and come next episode, Woo-hyeol is going to AGREE with his actions!!

All Do-sik is doing is using his words and protecting his love (he just hasn't met me yet...that's OK). Woo-hyeol is an adult, well past the age to be swayed by a silly young human, and so, clearly, is In-hae.

Did I also mention that, moreover, he's pretty much right about everything he says...it's just not going to work out because *insert tragic love story here*.

He's gonna be the key to the happy ending, folks. He may even pay the ultimate price.

@seon-ha Someday he'll meet you! Maybe you can get that last minute "second lead has a meetcute their true love" scene in ep 16 like Love is for Suckers.

I do agree that he was right to pull Woo-hyeol off of her, but before that he really has no actual evidence that he's going to hurt her (in fact, he has evidence to the contrary with In-hae telling him that she's fine). He also saw Woo-hyeol say "In-hae is in danger!" and run off, which to me seems the opposite of him being a threat to her.

I don't think he's entirely wrong, which is what makes him interesting, but I do think he'd be acting differently, or at least less aggressively, if he didn't perceive Woo-hyeol as romantic rival.

He is also going to try to kill the vampire hero and drink his blood to turn immortal. He is listening to an evil vampire because they are going to end in cahoots. Then he will imprison In-Hae. The signs are all there @attiton! Why are you doing this to yourself!

@hacja, I have but 14 lines of iambic pentameter for you.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me prov'd,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.

Oh, I love this little debate. Beanies doing it right. And where do I land? In the middle. Because writers have made Do-sik a more complex *human* filled with right intentions as well as some selfish ones. Isn't it boring when a 2L is just perfect but also when just evil (tho more on that with 2FL)? And the actor is playing him so well to show all those sides.

I don't think any of us want anyone but Woo-hyul to be end game. But I hope the show does Do-sik right.

How is he "in love with her" when he barely knows her? He knows some aspects of her personality and he's interested in her but "love" seems like a strong.

Thanks for appreciating the “debate,” @indyfan. I’d be lying if I didn’t participate (well, start) it in part because of your threat last week of turning in your Heartbeat Hottest t-shirt since everyone was being so resolutely positive!!

I’m not fibbing about my stance, though. Lots of folks are loving the acting work of Park Kang-hyun (deserved!!!) and the way Shin Do-sik is written (deserved!!!) but are reticent to side with him. That’s cool.

I think at the core of his character is the fact that he’s actually just a guy doing his best with a one-sided love that’s been going on for perhaps six or so years (since college when he would visit her restaurant all the time just to spend time with her)?? And now, he’s quite sure that his rival is trying to, quite literally, kill In-hae. Which is, frankly, not too darn far from the reality of the situation.

If there weren’t our most friendly, attractive vampire, this behavior might be seen as chivalrously persistent. It’s just a matter of context and degree!

This show is SUPER good, even though the amusement park scene happened. Squee.

I grant you Do-sik. He is worthy. However, I warn you, he's not the type to get over his first love quickly.

As for my complaint last recap. I'm kicking myself. I jinxed the show. Oof. Blame it all on me, not some writer running out of inspiration. However, my faith shall now restore the following episodes.

@indyfan Yes, it’ll all be fine, no matter what. ‘Tis just a drama, after all…

As for swaying Do-sik’s heart, I’m taking @pikpokpikpok’s suggestion. where did I put my secret waterbed in this dungeon???

He has a centuries-old book that his family has passed down to him saying how dangerous vampires are! His family members die early deaths because of a vampire-related curse. He really believes that they are no-good and has personal evidence that is showing up in his own body.

Man-hwi is the paradigm here. He'd do or say anything to get his way!!!

Do-sik could be condescending and patriarchal, but frankly, he's not doing that. He's incredulous, yes, but has simply been speaking his mind.

The only way we know that the curse is vampire-related is because the family needs to murder one to cure it. Maybe it's origins are also vampire-related but I haven't seen any proof of that. And the book says how to kill vampires and that they need to in order to lift the curse, but it's not a catalogue of vampire-danger. I'm sure he really believes they are no good, but he's sitting with a person he says he likes who is telling him that this person is not like that. And then he gets all aggressive with U-hyeol way before he's had any kind of confirmation (false or otherwise) that he's actually dangerous.

I don't know, I don't hate him by any means, but he doesn't do much but frustrate me at this point.

Actually, unless Amazon's translation is off, the book says that he has to kill a half-vampire (aka harvest his heart and consume it) in order to become immortal. I guess being immortal means you won't die from a genetic heart condition? Also, I'm pretty sure the ancestor writing in the book was the same guy who was leading the posse to kill Woo-hyeol and Hae-Sun and who actually killed Hae-Sun and they were doing so in order to drink Woo Hyeol's blood and thus become immortal.

Just you wait, folks. We all know very little about the whole narrative of that book.

We don’t know, for example, what happens if the vampire hunter sacrifices himself for the vampire. How might that affect and, even, truly break a horrible centuries-long curse for all involved?

We don’t know, but we shall see!!!

I just want to slap the hell out of them.

"shut the f* up, I was enjoying that drama before you came in, kid!"

Why do kids suddenly become synonymous with cuteness? At what age are adults too old to be cute by themselves so they need their own cute support animal/child?

I saw glimpses of what you said. Would have been nice if they went without the kid, if WH didn’t get scared or if they went along with the vampire gang as a fun day out or if they went to another date spot. It felt forced.

I wasn't a fan. But kudos for loving the scene and standing against the tide in one of your first comments.

Glad it worked for you. Heartbeat needs all our luv.

I will support you on this limb. The amusement park segue worked for me because it highlighted of how love is lived and added more dimension to the idea of why he wants to be human. The title, the stated goal has been all about the thrill of love, the heart beating fast. But the merry-go-round scene with its emphasis on how love can create family, and/or someone to age with, and u-hyeol's expression...well, i was buying it. It expanded my idea of what he meant by becoming human and what he felt he was missing out on by remaining a vampire. We have not seen that previously, so it didn't feel like fluff to me.

Ah, thank you @fancypants for saying/doing this, as it give me the opportunity to directly introduce you to @pikpokpikpok.

It’s my take that the two of you will get along quite well in these parts…I don’t imagine you’ll always agree on everything, but I suspect you’ll share similar(ly awesome) hot takes quite frequently.

I loved the amusement park scene too!👍

@mayhemf I would have preferred if it was just the 2 of them, and you are right, if he didn't get scared.. why do the MLs always get scared for comic relief, tsk!

@indyfan I guess it is not the whole part, but just the interactions, and they both stood by to watch the world go by, and appreciate what it is to be... humans with pure joy and happiness. Not sure if kdrama wanna appeal to that unbridled pure joy people tend to forget, maybe a hot air balloon ride or something might be good to break out of the cliches. LOL.

@fancypants YES! Exactly. It was that scene that worked for me (besides her prepping the ox blood for him), not the scaredy cliches, but THAT moment where both were appreciating what it means to love and both of them had longed for a burden-less kinda happiness... it was a subtle understanding of what living is all about. It is different from smiles and laughs during a party, or watching a movie. I love the fact that they weren't on the rides but paused to have the shared moment of appreciation.

@attiton aww thank you for expanding my "network" here, and I love the different opinions here which make me rewatch a scene differently and look out for what I had missed!

Yeah, she clearly didn't know Man-hwi was a vampire, so I don't think she would know what he was doing with people, but I don't think it would be out of character for her to want them "disappeared" and it would explain their past relationship.

If he'd actually said something like, it might have actually been funny , and cat-like, tho.

I think this is a likely outcome for In-hae, but Do-shik’s instructions seem pretty literal. I’m excited to find out where they go with it!