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Ahh, it seems like we’re getting back on track. The X investigation case resumes in this episode and we’re one step closer to finding out who might discover who X is. Along with progress on the X case, we also get character growth and development making this episode a heart-warming and satisfying watch.

School 2017 episode 10: How to Endure the Weight

In the last episode, we left off with Tae-woon and Dae-hwi talking to each other. Tae-woon warns Dae-hwi to not follow through with Hee-chan’s request of getting rid of Eunho or else he’ll kill him. While Tae-woon walks away, Dae-hwi gets a phone call from Hee-chan but refrains from answering the phone call.

Teacher Shim, Eunho, and Hee-chan all get together for a meeting. Since Teacher Shim’s investigating the incident that happened between them, he wants some details. But Hee-chan refuses to discuss anything and would rather attend his private lessons than be in the same room with Eunho and Teacher Shim. Teacher Shim won’t let him go so easily.

Hee-chan and Dae-hwi are studying together when Hee-chan brings up Eunho once again. He wants Dae-hwi to do something about her just like how he did with Bo-ra the school year before, but Dae-hwi is still hesitant on doing so. The drama then takes us back to the year before after the fighting incident that had occurred between Bo-ra and Hee-chan. Turns out that Hee-chan got Dae-hwi involved in the whole mess by making him give her some money to stop her from revealing everything. Tae-woon witnesses this exchange between the two of them and realizes what’s happening. He’s disappointed in Dae-hwi for doing such a thing for Hee-chan and walks away. Back in the present, Hee-chan bribes Dae-hwi with a membership to summer lecture classes that can help him get into Seoyul University (the university of his choice) to persuade him to follow through with the request. What is Dae-hwi going to do?

Hee-chan’s mother visits Eunho’s parents and brother at their house. She wants an apology from Eunho. If Eunho apologizes, then she’ll forget everything and this will all stop. But Eunho doesn’t plan on giving up. She walks in to the meeting and boldly states that she’s confident she can win over Hee-chan in this case. She and her family then ask for Hee-chan’s mother to leave. Haha, gotta love Eunho and her fierce family!

Dae-hwi drops ice cream off at Eunho’s place. What was just supposed to be a quick visit turns into a brief conversation. The two friends check in with each other. Eunho shares her sentiments about the whole dispute with Hee-chan while Dae-hwi talks about his break-up with Nam-joo. Eunho then asks Dae-hwi about Bo-ra. What could have possibly happened to her and Hee-chan that made her not want to talk and just remain silent about everything? Dae-hwi himself remains silent on this question.

Tae-woon calls Eunho’s phone but doesn’t receive an answer because she’s too busy talking to Dae-hwi. Paranoid, he heads over to her place and finds the two talking. Dae-hwi leaves upon the arrival of Tae-woon while Eunho and Tae-woon stay behind and play around with each other (omg they’re so cute!!).

While talking to Tae-woon, Eunho wonders if she should just give up and apologize to Hee-chan. If she does then all of this will be over, there’ll be less stress on her family, and they’ll all be able to move on. Tae-woon won’t give up though even if Eunho does. He’ll do whatever he can to protect her and to make sure she doesn’t lose. Plus, this side of Eunho isn’t what he’s used to; what happened to the strong and confident girl that he liked? Haha. Tae-woon encourages Eunho to be strong in the midst of all this (AWWWWW IF THIS ISN’T LOVE THEN IDK WHAT IS).

The next day at school Eunho and Bo-ra have a small talk in the hallway. Bo-ra suggests that Eunho should just consider giving up but Eunho won’t. She’s not going to. If Bo-ra also wants to stand up for justice and do the right thing, she should help Eunho.

Teacher Shim waits outside of a coffee shop where Bo-ra works (omg Suran’s ‘Wine’ is playing which was produced by my Suga bby!!). She finds him waiting outside for her and asks him why he’s here. Teacher Shim tries to persuade Bo-ra to confide in him and tell him the details of what she witnessed the day of the incident between Hee-chan and Eunho, but she still refuses to. She doesn’t trust teachers. Bo-ra walks away and resumes to working.

Tae-woon and Eunho try to come up with phrases that she can put on a poster to hang up on on the window of the teacher’s office room. While Eunho struggles to come up with slogans, Tae-woon just relaxes. He draws on the poster a raging Eunho while Eunho returns to writing on the poster. Haha. Gotta love these two.

The two lovebirds finish the poster and hang it up on the teacher’s office room window for everyone to see. Teachers and students sign the poster in solidarity with and support of Eunho. Everything is going well until Tae-woon notices a sticky note that writes, “I’ve liked you for a while. Be strong.” Tae-woon storms into the classroom to find the author behind the note. HAHAHA.

Tae-woon finds Eunho talking to the guy who wrote the note. He grows jealous at the sight of them two talking and tries to stop them from talking any further. Eunho tries to push him away, but Tae-woon won’t stop. He doesn’t want anyone to talking to his Eunho. Lol. Meanwhile the guy just stands there in confusion, not knowing what to do or who to believe.

Tae-woon drops Eunho home that night. He’s worried that other guys will start talking to Eunho and confessing to her. He even uses phrases that Eunho’s used before to demonstrate his point (“my presence is crazy big”). Eunho smiles at the thought of this and points out that Tae-woon has a good memory. He brushes her away and watches her head home safely.

Nam-joo asks Dae-hwi to talk again. She wants to know why he ever dated her in the first place to which he claims that he dated her because he liked her but that his feelings started to fade when he knew she was lying. It was only because she was trying so hard to keep their relationship alive that he didn’t have the courage to break up with her after a while.

While on campus, Officer Soo-ji notices a brief but intense encounter between Bo-ra and Teacher Jang. She brings this to Teacher Shim’s attention and together the two follow-up with Teacher Jang to ask about this. Why does Bo-ra seem so uncomfortable around her? Did something happen between the two of them that caused Bo-ra to act like this? Officer Soo-ji even raises questions about the fighting incident between Bit-na and Bo-ra and what Teacher Jang really saw that day as she was the first teacher to have arrived at the scene. But Teacher Jang doesn’t reveal anything and remains indifferent. She didn’t see everything on the day of the incident and plus, not every student likes their teacher. This shouldn’t be a big deal.

Teacher Shim gets to work when he finds out that documents that get deleted actually don’t disappear if they’re not past 2 years old. Maybe he can find notes written about Bo-ra by teachers that can be used to help protect and save her. But while looking up the deleted documents, he comes across something else instead. He finds a document written by Teacher Jang with details about Hee-chan’s assault incident against Bo-ra last year.

Teacher Shim and Officer Soo-ji brings this to Teacher Jang’s attention and interrogate her, but she finds no fault in what she did. They find it mysterious that she went from supporting Bo-ra at first to placing her at fault in regards to the assault incident. This would also explain why Bo-ra has trouble trusting her and other teachers. Teacher Shim is furious and he’s going to do whatever he can to find the truth regarding Bit-na’s incident and Hee-chan’s assault incident with Bo-ra.

Eunho waits outside of Bo-ra’s workplace to talk to her. She wants to become friends with Bo-ra so that Bo-ra has a support system and someone to lean on, but Bo-ra has a hard time trusting her. She doesn’t believe in that stuff anymore especially after all that’s happened to her. She rejects the idea and walks out in the rain only to later run into Tae-woon who hands her the umbrella he was using for himself. He walks away in the rain.

Even at school things don’t seem to change. Eunho joins Bo-ra for a can of soda in their school cafeteria in an attempt to befriend her while Bo-ra hands Tae-woon back his umbrella.

Later on that day, Bo-ra run into Dae-hwi while walking across campus. She walks past him without saying a word, but then faints a few seconds after. Dae-hwi takes her to the hospital and discovers that Bo-ra had fainted due to extreme stress and had also been taking antidepressants for the past year.

Bo-ra recovers and returns to school. While looking at all the names and messages of support on her poster, Eunho finds Bo-ra’s name! She discovers Bo-ra walking through the school not too long after and catches up with Bo-ra to express her gratitude for Bo-ra’s support. It means a lot to Eunho to see Bo-ra’s name on the poster.

Hee-chan is frustrated with Dae-hwi for the lack of care and action he’s been taking to get rid of Eunho. Maybe he should just do everything himself. He’ll get rid of both Bo-ra and Eunho. But Dae-hwi grows fearful. He’s afraid that the monster that Hee-chan is right now is what he could possibly turn into if he continues to do all the horrible things that Hee-chan asks him to do. He doesn’t want to be like that.

While in the car with his mother, Hee-chan finds out that the director of the school plans on transferring or expelling Eunho. Since Tae-woon’s been spending time with her all he’s gotten into has been trouble.

While at school, Hee-chan discovers the former principal’s office. He enters the office only to find clues and hints as to who X is all over the walls on the office. After looking through all the clues and possible culprits, he suspects Dae-hwi as the person behind X. The latest thing X did was expose the former principal’s plans with the math competition and the person who benefitted from that was Dae-hwi so he must have been behind that incident.

Hee-chan has another request for Dae-hwi. This time, he wants Dae-hwi to find who out who X is for him.

Hee-chan asks Eunho about her webtoon series which is based off of the X investigation case. Although she claims it’s fictional, Hee-chan thinks there could be some truth behind it. He knows that Eunho isn’t X, but there’s still a possibility that she’s the accomplice of X. After thinking through all his encounters with Tae-woon and just how protective he was of Eunho or how they both got punished for entering the teacher’s office room the night Dae-hwi was X, he grows suspicious. Maybe Tae-woon is X?

While passing through at school, Hee-chan stops Tae-woon to ask him about X. He brings up his idea of how Tae-woon could possibly be X, but Tae-woon isn’t fazed. So what if he’s X? What is Hee-chan going to do about it? (OOOOH YOU TELL HIM TAE-WOON. YOU TELL HIM). Tae-woon walks away carelessly.

Eunho and Tae-woon agree to be cautious around Hee-chan. Especially now that he’s so determined on solving the X investigation case, they should be careful around him. This might mean spending less time together to get rid of any suspicions and doubts people might have of Eunho and Tae-woon, but it’ll be okay. It’ll only be for a short while (I HOPE)

(*update: they actually don’t stop spending time with each other)

It’s the day of the school violence hearing for Eunho and Hee-chan’s fighting incident. Just as the vice principal is about to announce Eunho’s punishment, Tae-woon and Bo-ra both walk into the hearing to disclose their accounts of what they saw that day of the incident. At first the committee members doubt Bo-ra’s witness account, but they change their minds once she shows them a video she recorded the day of the incident of Hee-chan throwing Eunho onto the ground. All the staff and committee members are in shock, but Teacher Shim is excited. He uses this opportunity to announce that he’ll like to re-open the Bit-na and Bo-ra case in an effort to find out the truth between what happened during that incident as well.

Tae-woon shares with Eunho how he was able to persuade Bo-ra to side with them. By revealing his identity as X to Bo-ra, he demonstrated to her how sincere and serious he was about protecting her. If he failed to protect her, she can turn him in to the administration. Of course, things worked out for the better because they were able to prove Eunho’s innocence. Tae-woon smiles at Eunho while saying this which causes her to grow nervous. “Don’t smile,” she complains while she tries to hide from Tae-woon. HEHEHE. Why don’t you want him to smile Eunho? Hehe.

Bo-ra files a report to provide her account on what really happened between her and Bit-na on the day they fought. With the support of Tae-woon and Eunho who stand next to her as she files the report, she gathers the courage to finish it.

Hee-chan grows furious at Bo-ra. How dare she file a report? What is this going to change anyways? Still the horrible and violent person he is, he grabs Bo-ra’s shoulders and shakes her violently, but then is stopped by Dae-hwi who throws a punch at Hee-chan’s face (YAAAAS DAE-HWI TO THE RESCUE). Dae-hwi punches Hee-chan in the face and throws at him the membership card Hee-chan had given to him earlier in the episode.

Dae-hwi takes Bo-ra out to a coffee shop where they have an honest and heartfelt conversation. He apologizes for hurting Bo-ra last year to which Bo-ra forgives him. She understood he was in a difficult position and had no other choice but to do it. They both end on good terms with each other.

Bo-ra is not the same person she was before. She’s now much stronger, confident, and bold. Even when confronted by Bit-na, she’s not afraid. She also confronts two classmates about the dating rumors they spread last year about her and Hee-chan. Everyone watches her in admiration and amazement, praising her for her confidence and audacity. Eunho and Tae-woon watch her in the hallway like proud parents. It was because of them two that Bo-ra was able to finally start believing in herself again after so many years of betrayal by others.

Hee-chan updates Dae-hwi on the X investigation case. He informs Dae-hwi that he’s going to meet with X that night at 10PM after having sent X a text message to meet. Dae-hwi is shocked upon hearing this. Meanwhile, Tae-woon waits for Eunho to head home before going to meet Hee-chan.

Hee-chan’s plan backfires on him though. Instead of meeting Tae-woon who he had suspected was X, it’s Dae-hwi that he meets that night at 10PM (dressed in the large black sweater). Having forgotten that he was recording the entire time, Dae-hwi threatens Hee-chan. What if he told everyone that Hee-chan was the one forcing him to commit all these incidents as X this whole time? What would everyone think about him now? Hee-chan walks away in fear and confusion.

The true X is waiting outside on a bench. He heads to the music room after receiving an updated text message to meet there instead. While walking to the room, Tae-woon comes across Dae-hwi. They’re dressed in identical black sweaters and both have the hoodies covering their heads and faces.

It’s not unti Dae-hwi removes his hood that Tae-woon does the same. The two X’s stare at each other in intensity.

My Thoughts:

OMG am I the only one who’s worried that someone might actually be spying on them or watching them? Or that someone’s on campus and saw the two boys revealing their identities to each other? Don’t the two boys know better than to reveal their faces on school grounds, especially dressed as X?! In the past, someone was always at school late at night and I wouldn’t be surprised if someone saw Tae-woon and Dae-hwi outing themselves as X that late at night on school. PLEASE BE MORE CAREFUL YOU TWO X’s.

So we know that Tae-woon is the original X, but that Dae-hwi had also been acting as X to do certain things like steal the answers to the math competition or to prevent Hee-chan from finding out who the real X is. I think this is so interesting because I had originally expected the show to make one of the two male leads X and although that is technically what the show did, the drama is also starting to show both Tae-woon and Dae-hwi as X so the both of them could be X from here on out which would make for an interesting twist. While I absolutely despise and hate Hee-chan, I do give him props for actually putting some thought into the X case and investigating it. He was intelligent to have figured out the relationship between Tae-woon and Eunho and how the two were not just “friends” (aka love birds), but also partners in crime committing these incidents together which made for a refreshing change because everyone this entire time was getting no where or were just kind of making wild guesses here and there without actually investigating the case. It might be too much to ask for, but maybe now that Tae-woon and Dae-hwi know each other’s true identities they can team up to be the X team and rebel together against the corruption of the school. Eunho can also be there to help them carry out their plans, but also be there to break up any fights that the boys might have with each other along the way (she’s had enough of them fighting and I am too). I’m just curious as to when the journey to bromance is going to start. That’s just what I want to know. Hopefully it’ll start now that Dae-hwi and Tae-woon both know that they’re X.

Aside from the fact that I’m glad we’re back to focusing on the X case, this episode overall was a heartwarming one. Bo-ra finally got the support and justice she seeked and I’m glad that she ultimately prevailed as the winner in the end. Of course, there are still many more challenges and obstacles that she’s going to face in the future and this is just merely the beginning of a new start for her but it was so nice to see this change in her life. She went from being the silent, quiet, and indifferent young lady to a confident, bold, and daring student by the end of the episode. It was great seeing this transition instead of the drama just merely giving it to us and I liked how the drama spend an adequate amount of time setting up this change for us. It spent a few episodes demonstrating her hesitance and fear in speaking up and advocating for herself or others so that when this episode showed her finally mustering up the courage to do something about the injustice that was hurting her it made sense. She’s been hurt and betrayed by so many people over the years that she doesn’t trust anyone anymore so it was satisfying to see her slowly learn to open up again. This character growth was well-delivered and logical and especially after all the stuff that she’s been through, Bo-ra deserves the ending she got. She deserves caring and loving friends who support her as well as a new start away from the toxic people who had hurt her and taken advantage of her. She’s finally at peace with herself and her life and I hope it stays this way forever.

I do think the whole Nam-joo and Dae-hwi love line is a little bit too much. The drama should just stop with this sub-plot and stop dragging it out for any longer than it needs to be. It had been showing us the same things of the ex-lovers so many times now that when they were talking in this episode, I felt nothing while watching them talk. I had no sympathy for them and instead I questioned why the drama was still milking scenes of them together. It’s confusing because the drama didn’t give us that many scenes of them together as a couple in the first place so to now present us with constant scenes of the two arguing after breaking up made no sense. Their break-up would have been a lot more impactful had the drama actually placed emphasis on their relationship and then showed us the actions leading up to the break-up, but because the drama failed to do that Dae-hwi and Nam-joo post-breakup has no effect on me now. At first it was sad, but now the drama should just stop with their post-breakup drama. Dae-hwi and Nam-joo have broken up and they need to either talk things out to fix their issues or just stop talking once for and all. There are other sub-plots or characters that are more deserving of time in this drama – like Tae-woon and Eunho.

Speaking of Tae-woon and Eunho, while I still do very much appreciate and enjoy all their interactions together, I would also like for Tae-woon to maybe just chill and calm down a little bit. Some of his actions are borderline creepy (like visiting Eunho’s place just because she didn’t pick up his phone call) or disrespectful (when he was yelling at the guy who wrote the confession note to Eunho). Like I know you’re in love with Eunho Tae-woon and you’re afraid that some other guy might steal her, but don’t worry. Eunho likes you too so all you need to do is just focus on making yourself more attractive to Eunho and you’ll be fine. There’s no competition.

The other thing about Tae-woon and Eunho that I enjoy beyond just their lovey dovey interactions and moments is the impact that they have on other people TOGETHER. We’ve seen the two do things individually that have helped and saved the lives of others so to see them in this episode work together side by side to help others – in this case Bo-ra – was so satisfying and refreshing to see. They truly were made for each other not just romantically but also in the ways that they use their strengths to balance each other out and then work together to support others. While Tae-woon primarily helped Bo-ra to save Eunho, he did play a role in Bo-ra’s character growth while Eunho herself played a direct role in Bo-ra’s life. It just goes to show that Tae-woon and Eunho are just as strong together as they are individually and that in the end, they don’t need a black sweater or capes to prove that they’re heroes – they just need to be themselves.

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