Weak Hero Class 1 Recap

Kdrama Weak Hero Class 1 made a big splash globally in 2022 for its powerful message about bullying and the long-term consequences of the little things that can affect a person's thinking.

Based on a webtoon of the same name, this show tells the story of Si-eun.

A high school boy who is only interested in studies and has no friends. Often, nerd characters are bullied very badly in such shows.

But Si-eun is a little different. He innovatively uses his knowledge to show bullies who are actually weak, which is why the title of this show is also like this.

Who does Si-eun befriend?

Weak Hero Class 1 begins with a dramatic scene where Si-eun explodes angrily. He picks up a book and runs to hit a student in the face.

We then see the story from a few days ago. Si-eun always minds his own business and doesn't get in anyone's way, but when a bully from his class bumps into his desk while he's studying for an exam, Si-eun tells the bully not to do it again.

Somehow, this small thing makes the bully Yeong-bin angry. But before he could do anything to Si-eun, some seniors from the baseball team came to the classroom to confront a boy named Ahn Su-ho. Su-ho was talking to a girl who was liked by one of them.

But actually, the girl herself wanted to talk to Su-ho. Su-ho slowly tries to explain the truth to them. This scene is delightful, or using the word "WOW" would not be wrong.

Especially when Su-ho says, "Hey, she is not my type," I started thinking about what he said. Does he want to get beaten up by so many boys? Su-ho is gone now.

They get violent, which is what I was expecting. Ironically, Su-ho is MMA trained and, without breaking a sweat, takes them all out one by one like he is swatting flies.

While fighting, Su-ho accidentally drops Si-eun's pencil pouch on the ground. Si-eun looks at him with anger. But Su-ho just picks it up and puts it back on the desk and says sorry.

On the other hand, a new student, Beom-seok, joins the class, and he is also a nerd-type of guy. Beom-seok wants to make friends with his classmates. But he doesn't know how. He also hides the fact that he is the son of an assemblyman because he thinks that the students will bully him more because of this.

Here, Yeong-bin decides to harass Si-eun by using Beom-seok as a scapegoat.

Yeong-bin and his gang are typical bullies who bully their classmates, take drugs, and go to bars while underage.

Yeong-bin's cousin Seok-dae sells drugs. So Yeong-bin asks him what would happen if he put a fentanyl patch on someone's neck. Seok-dae says that it would make the person feel the urge to sleep, not be able to concentrate on their work, and go out of control.

Yeong-bin then asks Beom-seok to put the patch on Si-eun's neck on the day of the mock test.

Si-eun realizes what has happened to him and starts slapping himself in the face in class to stay awake for the exam. But it doesn't help much. When he realizes that he made a lot of mistakes on the test, Si-eun explodes in anger.

Normally, when Si-eun gets angry, he clicks his pen to keep himself calm. But this time he hits Yeong-bin in the face with a book and puts his pen in the hand of another student who is Yeong-bin's friend Tae-hoon.

Si-eun starts hitting Yeong-bin until Su-ho stops him from crossing the line. But in the state of mind Si-eun is in, he doesn't know what's right and wrong. He even hits Su-ho with a chair. But a teacher comes and stops them.

Si-eun shows the fentanyl patch to Yeong-bin's angry mother so that she can find out the truth. He doesn't bring his parents because he is divorced, and he thinks they don't care about him. Si-eun's plan works.

But Yeong-bin's ego is hurt so he decides to call his cousin and his gang to teach Si-eun a lesson. He had to transfer to another school because of Si-eun, and he couldn't forget about it.

Beom-seok feels guilty about his actions and asks Su-ho for help so that he can help Si-eun. Su-ho says that he has to go to his part-time job, and Beom-seok says that he will give him double the money, which Su-ho immediately accepts and says, “Come on, boss, save her”.

Si-eun tries to think of a way to escape from those goons. But he is alone, and five-six boys are standing in front of him, some of whom are adults as well.

While Su-ho is fighting with Seok-dae, Yeong-bin tells his friends to hold Si-eun so that he can hit him. As he picks up a bottle to seriously hurt Si-eun, Beom-seok gives him a hard push, which makes him fall, and Si-eun is saved from getting seriously hurt.

Seok-dae leaves in embarrassment because he got beaten by some nerdy high school kids.

And that's how the three boys become friends. They also get Gil-soo, a leader (Seok-dae's boss), arrested for making the kids gamble.

Why does Beom-seok change?

In the beginning, it seems like Beom-seok is obsessed with Su-ho, which clearly shows that he has made friends for the first time. Slowly, he starts becoming a little possessive. This becomes even more obvious when Yeong-i, who was from Seok-dae's gang, becomes friends with them, and Beom-seok feels left out.

Instead of talking to his friends, he starts feeling suffocated inside and gets the idea that Su-ho only treats him like a servant, not a friend.

Beom-seok is an orphan who was publicly adopted by the assemblyman for sympathy or publicity. But as we all saw, he was such a mean guy who used to beat up Beom-seok and always tried to make him feel inferior.

When he sees Beom-seok making friends and feels he might get into trouble with them, he starts to beat him up even more.

Also, Beom-seok's old school bullies show up one day. This makes him feel even more depressed. He starts skipping school for a while. But Su-ho promises him that he will save him from those bullies and also make them say sorry.

But when the time comes, Beom-seok hits the bully even though he apologized. Su-ho stops him from being more violent. This angers Beom-seok even more as he now feels that Su-ho just wants to control him.

Beom-seok's mind and heart are filled with a mixture of loneliness and hatred for his adoptive father, and he joins Yeong-bin's friends at school, who are now led by Jeong-chan.

Due to his overthinking, Beom-seok gets so overwhelmed with anger and loneliness that he starts to think that Su-ho thinks he is the king of the world, and maybe he is even dating Yeong-i. This has a slightly homoerotic ending, but we can't say for sure about it.

Anyway, Beom-seok starts making a plan to teach Su-ho a lesson. Beom-seok then joins hands with Yeong-bin, and this time they have a new guy who is an MMA champion himself. Woo-young. He thinks that Woo-young might be able to beat Su-ho. So Beom-seok makes a plan.

What happens to Su-ho?

During Su-ho's birthday celebration, Beom-seok calls him repeatedly. Su-ho doesn't pick up. Beom-seok then tells Yeong-i to come to him without telling Su-ho because he has to give Su-ho a surprise gift.

When Yeong-i doesn't return for a long time, Si-eun suspects something is wrong. He sees Beom-seok's messages in Su-ho's phone and realizes that Beom-seok has kidnapped Yeong-i so that Su-ho can come to save her.

Si-eun deletes the messages from Su-ho's phone. He hides Su-ho's phone and tells him he's going to the convenience store.

In the next scene, Yeong-bin starts hitting Si-eun as he has been wanting to take revenge for a long time. Yeong-i calls the police, but by the time they arrive, Beom-seok has left, and Si-eun's arm is broken.

In the ambulance, Si-eun tells the police that he was alone and later calls Beom-seok to tell him to stop following Su-ho. But when Su-ho realizes that something has happened to Si-eun, he goes after the bullies.

When Beom-seok calls him to a boxing ring, Su-ho himself comes there to fight Woo-young. Woo-young is a bit of a social media star type, so he wants to live stream the whole fight.

In the beginning, it seems that Su-ho is winning. But Tae-hoon grabs Su-ho's leg and throws him in the ring, meaning interference and taking advantage of this point. Woo-young beats Su-ho hard, and Beom-seok also takes advantage of that moment and starts kicking Su-ho hard.

Then Jeong-chan and Tae-hoon also come into the ring to wash their hands.

Suddenly, Jeong-chan realizes that Su-ho is not breathing. Beom-seok cannot believe what he has done, and then his dad's men pull him out of there and handle the situation.

Luckily, Su-ho is taken to the hospital, but he is not conscious and is put into a coma. Meanwhile, Beom-seok's father plans to send his adopted son to Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Si-eun notices that Su-ho is not in school, and after giving his exam, he learns from Yeong-i that Su-ho is in the hospital. He feels very bad when he sees Su-ho almost dead because if Su-ho were not his friend, he would never have gotten into all this mess.

Si-eun also thinks that if he had done something when Beom-seok was lonely, maybe things would have changed. But in the end, Su-ho's life was in danger because of all this.

At the end of Weak Hero Class 1, Si-eun targets all the bullies one by one and beats them up terribly. First, he goes to Yeong-bin and then to Woo-young.

The cherry on the cake moment in all this comes when Si-eun says, Time to crush them all!

Initially, he gets beaten up a bit by Woo-young because he is an MMA fighter, but the little fighting skills taught by Su-ho come in handy, and Si-eun at the end changes his face design and hits his leg with a dumbbell causing him so much pain it's as if his soul is ripped apart.

But when it is Beom-seok's turn to be beaten up, Si-eun is unable to hit him because they have been friends. Si-eun just asks him why he did that, to which Beom-seok has no answer. So he says that he doesn't know how he made such a big mistake.

Finally, after so much violence, only one school accepts Si-eun, and that is Eunjang High School, which looks like a hangout for spoiled kids.

Si-eun's parents come to drop him off at his new school, and now he wants to forget his divorce and help his son. But perhaps for the first time, Si-eun's father consoles him and tells him that whatever he did was right before Si-eun goes inside the school.

At the end of Season 1, Si-eun comes and sits in the new school. Whereas usual, new bullies start troubling him. But this time the matter is going to reach gang wars or even more terrible high school violence. Si-eun is a good boy, so he will always support the right, but if the situation gets worse, then he will not spare anyone.

So this was the full recap of Weak Hero Class 1. Hope you enjoy.