The Woe-TP blues: Eun Sang and Young Do

As a denizen of the Internet, you’re probably familiar with the initialism OTP, which is usually translated as “one true pairing.” People use it when referring to the fandom couple they most desperately want to live happily ever after. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about a clever alternative translation that has been making the rounds on Tumblr: “Only Tears and Pain.”

An OTP can give incredible delight if you’re lucky enough to be sucked in by the right one. For me, I Hear Your Voice was a good example: I instantly loved Park Soo Ha and Jang Hye Sung, and every step the show took toward bringing them together left me giddy with fangirl joy. Things could have taken a turn for the worse; unlike most Korean dramas, it wasn’t immediately clear who would actually be the show’s lead couple. (There were even rumors midway through that the writers intended to kill off Soo Ha, which would have also killed me.) But the pairing ultimately worked out, and I was left in a sublimely happy state of OTP realization.

But that’s not always the case. Falling in love with an OTP is like falling in love with a person—it’s unpredictable, and quite often regrettable. Sometimes you’re drawn to a second lead who will absolutely never get the girl, or maybe you even dream of the show’s villain triumphing in the end. And that’s when the tears and pain come into the picture. Thus, a Woe-TP is born.

I knew from the beginning that I was in trouble when it came to the pairing of Young Do and Eun Sang on Heirs. The show clearly has no intention of getting them together, and by rights I probably shouldn’t even want it to.

Young Do is manipulative and cruel, a brutal bully prone to torturing his classmates so horribly that they drop out of school. But I’ve been trained by years of watching Korean dramas to see this as a starting point: There’s lots of precedent out there for evil characters being rehabilitated in the course of a show. After all, Young Do isn’t so different from Joon Pyo in Boys over Flowers. That drama may not have been edgy enough to actually show Joon Pyo doing horrible things on screen, but it showed us the awful events he set into action—including an attempted suicide. In the end, that character got both redemption and the love of his female lead. So why shouldn’t I root for Young Do to get the same? 

It doesn’t help matters that Young Do is the most nuanced figure in the show’s cast of thousands, or that Kim Woo Bin is doing such a amazing job in the role. He’s dangerous and sexy, full of prickly bravado and sardonic comments. But in spite of Young Do’s wicked charm, neither the actor nor the script ever let us forget that there’s a lot going on behind his scowl.

Young Do is painfully lonely, taking his meals at a convenience store because it doesn’t look weird to eat there alone. This is another similarity between his character and BoF’s Joon Pyo, who was shown eating a solitary breakfast on Christmas morning, abandoned by his family and left with only the staff for company. While Joon Pyo always had his three best friends to keep him human, Young Do is estranged from more than just his family. He only hangs out with one person, the dim pretty-boy Myung Soo, and he mostly seems to do this out of habit, or maybe desperation. He sure doesn’t act as if he likes Myung Soo.

Don’t get me wrong: There’s no excuse for the awful things that Young Do has done to the people around him. But I can see his motivation, buried there in an awful past of parental abuse and abandonment: he’s a broken little boy pushing away the good things in life so they don’t have a chance to push him away first.

So why do I want Young Do and Eun Sang to fall in love? Because the actors who play them have great chemistry, for one thing. Kim Woo Bin manufactures sizzling heat in every scene he shares with Park Shin Hye, which isn’t the easiest task: She approaches her male leads with a brittle, standoffish chill that only a select few are capable of thawing out.

There’s also the fact that both the Drama Overlords and I both love stories of opposites attracting. Eun Sang is about as different from Young Do as it’s possible to be: she doesn’t have the material things he’s accustomed to, but she has a mother who loves her and friends who support her. She works hard; he slacks off. She’s kind and warm when he’s cruel and cold.

Eun Sang’s heart is so big that even Young Do’s worst behavior never quite manages to turn her against him. Young Do, in turn, is continually stunned that someone might actually care about him when he can’t manage to care about himself. As far as I’m concerned, the most heartbreaking scene in this show so far was when Eun Sang asked Young Do if he was okay with his dad’s remarriage during episode 11. Young Do was, for once, shocked into silence, left gaping at Eun Sang as if a unicorn had unexpectedly appeared before him. In her, he sees the possibility of unconditional love, something he’s never given or received.

On some level, Eun Sang and Young Do really do have a lot in common: they share an inner well of snark (see Eun Sang reminding Kim Tan of his lowest-in-class status when he screws up an attempt to barricade her in a room, and Young Do mocking Myung Soo for all his one-sided loves). They’re both clear-eyed and perceptive. They saw through each others’ mask almost immediately—Young Do knew Eun Sang wasn’t the new money she claimed to be, and Eun Sang knew Young Do wasn’t the unfeeling monster he wanted to project. They’ve both always seen the world around them for what it is instead of kidding themselves about its heartlessness. With unflinching honestly, Eun Sang told herself that she and Tan would never work out. And Young Do reminds us again and again how aware he is that the person he’s hurting most with his troublemaking behavior is himself.

I’m also aboard this sinking ship because I find the alternative so unpalatable—Kim Tan is reckless and self-centered, and his desire for Eun Sang never feels like a hunger for connection. Instead, it’s a crusade to dominate and possess her. Young Do would listen to Eun Sang in a way it’s clear Kim Tan never will—he genuinely wants to know what she thinks and how she feels, and is forever trying to find ways to make her talk to him. Kim Tan, on the other hand, only wants Eun Sang to listen. (Remember, if you will, the two liquid dumping scenes from last week’s episodes. Bratty Young Do poured his drink all over the floor Eun Sang was washing to get her to talk to him. In contrast, bratty Kim Tan flipped a table full of drinks to force her to shut up. Both boys spend most of their time making Eun Sang’s life harder, but somehow I always find Young Do’s motivation infinitely more appealing.)

If the show let it, I honestly believe the connection and innate understanding between Eun Sang and Young Do could grow into something beautiful. Eun Sang would bring out the best in Young Do, encouraging him to be brave and honest while finding ways to channel his rage. And Young Do would inspire Eun Sang to look beyond her responsibilities, taking her on breathless motorcycle rides and kissing her until she was dizzy. (See what these two do to me!?!?)

Of course Eun Sang and Young Do will never actually get together. Lee Min Ho is too big of a star to be usurped from his leading man position, and the character of Kim Tan has all the hallmarks of a classic Kim Eun Sook romantic hero (i.e., a small brain and an overdeveloped sense of self-importance). But all the logic in the world can’t stop my reaction to the doomed couple of Eun Sang and Young Do.

Blame it on Kim Woo Bin’s piercing gazes and knowing eyebrow quirks, and how believably Young Do is drawn to Eun Sang. They are my current and greatest Woe-TP, and I love them for it.

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Woe-TP. Noun. A fandom couple that you want to be together, even though you’re sure it will never happen. Heartache inevitably ensues. Examples include:

—Geum Jan Di and Yoon Ji Hoo, Boys over Flowers. This is the cruelest of all my Woe-TP pairings. BoF was one of the first Korean dramas I ever watched, so I truly believed that Jan Di would eventually realize that kind, supportive Ji Hoo was the right boy for her. Alas, Lee Min Ho won the day, just as he will in Heirs.

—Shin Yoo Bok and Jeong Hyang. Painter of the Wind. These two love and respect each other like few other drama couples. Unfortunately, they were doomed to be subtext—they’re both girls, and Korea isn’t quite ready for that kind of happy ending.

—Lee Soon Yeon and Harry Borrison, I Miss You. This drama’s insane writer squandered cozy intimacy and deep affection in favor of improbable psycho-killer hijinks, doing both characters and actors a tremendous disservice.