Bitch X Rich (2023) K Drama Episode 1

Episode 1 of Bitch X Rich starts with Kim Hye-in narrating how her life was very different from the rich kids who were born with a golden spoon. She envies rich kids not because they have money but because they were born to rich parents. A montage shows how the Cheongdam International High School has students who are offsprings of the South Korean elites and had students throwing away their parents’ money like it’s nothing.

One such chaebol (heiress) is Baek Je-na, daughter of Chairman Baek Ju-won. The school’s violence committee representative interrogates Je-na about an agreement sent over by his father asking the school to drop violence charges against her. Just as he is about to punish her with the help of the evidence he has collected, a large number of other students start rushing into the interrogation room.

The students start taking the blame on Je-na’s behalf claiming that they were responsible for the bullying. Je-na tries to bribe the representative by offering to buy him a new laptop from his father’s company and claims that she is a “royal” that studies in this prestigious school. Hye-in narrates that she hates such upper-class people as she walks into Cheongdam International High School, claiming she wanted to be someone like Je-na.

The episode moves three months back in time where Hye-in is a student at Sunwoo Girl’s High School. Hye-in is at a rich high-schoolers house to tutor her as a part-time job. As soon as she enters the house, she is shocked by the interior. The mother of Kang Na-yeon interviews Hye-in for the position of her daughter’s tutor.

However, Hye-in presents her friend Sun-joo’s identity card, lying that she’s a University student and not a high schooler. Na-yeon’s mother claims that Na-yeon needed to crack the entrance exam as she would be joining Cheongdam International High School after ending middle school. Hye-in soon learns that Na-yeon’s mother is very boastful as she claims that grades don’t really matter for students trying to enrol on Cheongdam because the school only allows extremely affluent students in.

Hye-in ends the interview and rushes back to the convenience store for her part-time job. There, Sun-joo waits for Hye-in and the two friends chat. Despite being older than Hye-in, Sun-joo is poor in academics and relies on Hye-in’s help with academics. In school, Hye-in starts suffering from nosebleeds from studying too hard.

The teacher calls Hye-in and tells her that her scholarship had to be transferred to another student who had a much worse financial situation than her. The teacher hopes that Hye-in will be able to make money on her own for the fees of 3.5 million won for the exchange programme to New Zealand. Hye-in is dejected because the teacher has concluded that she’s better off than some other students.

Outside, Hye-in tells her classmates that she had decided against going to New Zealand but does not tell them about her financial situation. That night, Hye-in goes back home and thinks about how her family situation won’t allow her to go to New Zealand. The next day, Hye-in is at Na-yeon’s house to tutor her.

Na-yeon is least interested in studies and starts taking pictures with her designer bags instead. Hye-in is shocked to learn that one designer purse cost 3 million won while the other cost 5 million, but Na-yeon is nonchalant about the price. Hey-in wonders how she could have easily paid for her scholarship with one of the bags. She tells Na-yeon that spending money on bags and clothes is a waste.

Na-yeon decides to tease Hye-in by offering her one of the two designer bags. Hye-in is shocked and immediately agrees to accept the gift because she aims to resell it and pay for her scholarship. However, when Hye-in is just about to take it, Na-yeon snatches it away and mocks Hye-in for forgetting her fundamentals and free-loading designer bags. She mocks poor people like Hye-in and leaves.

That night, Hye-in meets Sun-joo at the convenience store again. The two discuss how life is unfair and Sun-joo tells Hye-in the story of a girl from her class. The next day, Hye-in goes to Na-yeon’s house for her tutoring lesson when the housekeeper tells her that Na-yeon will be late for school. She asks Hye-in to wait for Na-yeon in her room. In the room, Hye-in waits for Na-yeon for a while but starts getting bored. She snoops around the room and he eyes land on the designer bag. She poses with the bag and snaps photos of herself wearing it.

Hye-in posts a photo of the bag on Instagram but rushes to put it back when Na-yeon arrives. Hye-in’s classmates learn that she had applied for a scholarship to make it to the New Zealand exchange programme. She denies it when another student accuses Hye-in of lying that she’s poor when she’s very affluent. Hye-in rushes to the girl’s room and learns that her Instagram post has gotten a lot of likes and comments where people were calling her rich because she posed with a designer bag worth 5 million won.

Her classmates confront Hye-in, asking for an explanation about the designer bag when Hye-in cooks up a lie. She starts going early to Na-yeon’s house and snaps photos of herself in Na-yeon’s accessories and clothes to make up a lie. Hye-in tells her friends in school that she is rich in reality as the episode comes to an end.

The Episode Review

The show seems to be a comedy and not as tragic as expected from the previews. From the looks of it, Hye-in is going to be in big trouble and Na-yeon is bound to catch on to her lies. It is also natural for Hye-in to get into trouble in school because she has been lying around and pretending to be who she isn’t.

I cannot put my finger on how Hye-in will eventually be a part of Cheongdam International High School, but I’m looking forward to seeing that come into play. For now, the show seems a less intense thriller which is drifting more towards being a high-school comedy with a bullying theme running in the background.