Study Group: Episodes 7-8

by mistyisles

What’s scarier: murder charges or midterms? Our little study group tackle both this week in effort to help a fellow student and, hopefully, improve their own academic ranks. Change is bubbling below the surface, but will they be able to see the fruits of their labor before it all boils over?

 
EPISODES 7-8

Backing up to the schoolwide assembly, the vice principal throws Han-kyung under the bus for her petition against Han-wool, which paints the school as a “gangster training ground.” Which it very much is, but the vice principal denounces the label and demands Han-kyung apologize to the students. Instead, she vows to reform their delinquent ways, just as her late mentor did for her. (Ahh, it seems her teacher was Geon-yeop’s mother, and Han-wool must have had a hand in her untimely demise.) Han-wool’s statement is unpopular, but Ga-min distracts everyone by bursting in and decking Han-wool.

While the students gossip about Ga-min’s audacity, we return to those three fighters Ga-min had to defeat at the end of last week’s episodes. The bleached-blond leader, KIM SOON-CHUL (Joo Yeon-woo), carries around a set of vocabulary flash cards, cluing us into his secret desire to study. But he also has a terminally ill grandfather who wants him to succeed in life, and Han-wool’s backup fighters get a guaranteed job at the construction company owned by Han-wool’s father — no college needed. The tradeoff being that when the gang needs a fall guy, the backup fighters step up, even if it means serving a few years in prison for murder.

And that’s exactly where Soon-chul finds himself: pressured to confess to a murder he didn’t commit. Fortunately for him, Ga-min zeroed in on the “desire to study” in his eyes and rallies the study group to go undercover, find the murder weapon, and acquit Soon-chul of the crime. Ga-min, Joon, and Ji-woo pose as backup fighters, banking on the gang’s bouncers not knowing everyone’s faces, while Se-hyun and Hee-won keep watch via drone.

At first, it goes smoothly. But they hadn’t counted on Han-wool calling a backup fighter meeting that very night, and it’s not long before the trio splits up to avoid being caught. Ga-min flees to the roof, where he’s promptly locked out of the building. Oops. Joon takes on a gangster to keep him occupied while Ji-woo sneaks into Han-wool’s office and finds the murder weapon. But they’re not as sneaky as they’d like to be, and she’s waylaid by a scary gangster known as “the Trainer.”

Meanwhile, downstairs, Detective Na blinks in confusion as Soon-chul announces he’s committed a murder and the crowd of backup fighters cheer him on. Detective Na goes along with it, but as soon as he gets Soon-chul alone he tricks him into revealing his innocence and gives him another chance to tell the truth. Soon-chul takes the opportunity and returns to help Ji-woo face down the Trainer.

They’re no match for him, even with the help of Soon-chul’s two friends. But when all seems lost, Ga-min appears, having BROKEN DOWN THE METAL DOOR to get off the roof. The Trainer puts up a mighty fight, but Ga-min goads him until he runs right into another of Uncle’s Forbidden Techniques (TM). The Trainer goes down, and Ji-woo makes sure he stays down for the count. (Se-hyun and Hee-won run screaming to the “rescue” right about then, belatedly and unnecessarily, and it’s the cutest, sweetest thing.) Then Ga-min runs off to retrieve his notebook, which he conveniently (but accidentally) dropped on the real murderer’s head while stuck on the roof. This means Ga-min arrives just in time to save Detective Na from a nasty knife wound and help apprehend the killer.

In the aftermath, Soon-chul and his friends mend their ways, and the study group kids make sure his grandfather gets his wish to take the TOEIC exam before he passes away. Soon-chul’s part of the story wraps up with a heart-tugging sendoff for Grandpa, hammering in his sage advice about life only being over when you stop learning and always striving to be just a little bit better than yesterday.

Then it’s back to school, because midterms are upon us. Ga-min goes into the exams feeling optimistic, but his face falls as soon as he hears the others comparing their answers afterward. When the group goes out to celebrate the end of exams, Ga-min practically sleepwalks through it and breaks an arcade game because he can’t think straight to even try to control his strength.

His mom worries, knowing he gets like this after every big exam, but Ga-min has a great support system this time around. Se-hyun offers a sweet, if convoluted, metaphor about not being able to see water heating until it boils, which translates to: if you consistently pour enough energy into something — be it water or studying — change is bound to happen eventually, even if you can’t see it coming. That cheers Ga-min up, but it’s the midterm results that really bring a smile to his face. His rank has risen by a full 10 points! In fact, they all have (minus Se-hyun, who has moved from second place to tie for first).

That means Han-kyung has fulfilled the terms set by the vice principal, who now has to uphold his end of the bargain. Han-wool will be facing a disciplinary committee after all. Or will he? Judging by the massive fight that breaks out as he walks away, it looks like he may have found a way to slip out of consequences once more.

Just once, I’d like to see Ga-min go toe-to-toe with an opponent who catches him off guard because they genuinely like both studying and violence. I don’t think it’ll happen in the final two episodes, but I do think it would make for an interesting showdown. That said, though, I don’t really mind that Ga-min is ridiculously overpowered. I think it helps that he’s such an underdog in the one area that matters most to him — because, sure, he’s basically the second coming of Seo Yul a superhero when it comes to fighting, but winning physical fights will never bring him the kind of satisfaction he craves. In some ways, winning fights is just as much an obstacle to his happy ending as it is a means of getting there.

And speaking of things I’d like to see, Geon-yeop has been sidelined these past few weeks, which I can only assume means he’ll take the spotlight for the finale alongside Han-wool. (And hopefully we’ll see a bit more of Hyun-woo, too!)

 
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