Heartbeat (2023) K Drama Episode 3

Episode 3 of Heartbeat begins with Hae-sun, who comes across a vampire feeding on a human while she’s taking a walk. It attacks her but she’s saved by Woo-hyeol. He extends a hand to her.

In the present, Woo-hyeol extends a hand to In-hae as well. She begins to take it but then notices the con man running away and rushes after him. Thankfully, a police car turns up and she convinces them to arrest the man. Left behind, Woo-hyeol picks up the wallet In-hae dropped.

At the police station, the police refuse to believe the con man’s assertions that Woo-hyeol is a vampire and In-hae doesn’t bother backing him up. Soon, hoards of other people enter to accuse him as well.

Meanwhile, Woo-hyeol muses about how cold-hearted In-hae is. Wandering on his own, he enters a mall and tries on a huge pile of jackets. When he realises he doesn’t have any money, he uses In-hae’s card to buy everything instead and then continues to swipe her card with abandon.

On the other hand, In-hae is dejected since the conman will serve time but won’t pay her back. She realises her wallet is missing and finds that her phone battery is dead too.

She meets Woo-hyeol on the way back home and In-hae is shocked to find that he’s maxed out her card. She goes into a rage and then tells him to bite her so she can just die. She rants about how she scrounged and saved up all that money and now it’s all gone. Woo-hyeol tries telling her not to live for money. And when that doesn’t work he promises to pay her back. After all, he made plans for his future.

He pulls out a box from under the floorboards below his coffin. A flashback shows that it used to be filled to the brim with gold. But at present, Woo-hyeol opens it with a flourish to find it filled with a whole lot of nothing.

He relays the news to In-hae who didn’t expect any better anyway. She tells him they need to return and sell everything they can including the new pink coat that he loves. In-hae once again states that this house is hers and she won’t live as his butler. He warns her not to sell the house and she threatens him to find a way to pay her back.

She finds a buyer for the coat online and tells Woo-hyeol to meet him the next day and conduct the transaction. She has work and won’t be able to accompany him. The next day, In-hae goes to work and Woo-hyeol finds the coat along with instructions to meet a person in a black puffer jacket and a cap at a railway station. The buyer ends up being none other than Sang-hae!

They get a chance to catch up and afterwards, Sang-hae asks him for a discount for the coat. Woo-hyeol asks if it was he who took his gold. Sang-hae insists it wasn’t. They then visit Dong-seop who gives Woo-hyeol a glass of blood. The two others tell Woo-hyeol how the world has changed and vampires don’t prey on humans anymore. When Woo-hyeol asks them for money both of them complain about their respective debt.

Meanwhile, Do-sik thinks about In-hae even while at work. One of his staff then tells him that the con man was caught. He goes to In-hae’s old apartment and talks to her about it. When a cockroach appears, In-hae jumps around in fear much to his amusement. He convinces her to get a coffee with him while he helps transport her stuff.

When they reach, she moves the boxes herself and refuses his help. Just before he leaves, Woo-hyeol arrives. In-hae introduces him as a family acquaintance who is staying over for a while. The men shake hands and Do-sik remarks how cold Woo-hyeol’s hand is. In-hae makes an excuse and he drives away.

Inside, she berates Woo-hyeol for interrupting her and Do-sik. She then asks for the money from the coat and finds 50,000 missing.  After telling him off, she makes him write an IOU promising to pay her in six months. Or else she’ll sell the house and leave. Meanwhile, Do-sik wonders who Woo-hyeol really is.

Sang-hae advises Woo-hyeol to make an ID to find work and even helps him make one. They visit an employment agency and Woo-hyeol asks for a job where he can wear a suit. They end up being posted as waiters at a funeral home. They lose their job when an exhausted Woo-hyeol sleeps in a coffin made for someone else.

Looking for a job in the open air instead, they get hired as dairy sellers. It goes well until a biker knocks Woo-hyeol’s vehicle over, spilling the drinks. The employment agent gets angry at both of them and refuses to pay.

Meanwhile, Ko Yang-man, who’s meditating on a rock, tells himself that this isn’t the time to sit back.

Woo-hyeol comes home tired but In-hae convinces him to help her clean the house. Afterwards, she asks him how long he’s had the house. He says it used to be a small hut in the middle of a forest 400 years ago. He made it since he is waiting for someone to come back to him. A flashback shows Woo-hyeol and Hae-sun eating food by a bonfire outside their secret hideout.

At present, Woo-hyeol asks In-hae if she’s scared of him. She says she isn’t, he would have hurt her already if he wanted to. She asks him how he found her that night with the con man. He says he just felt it. Later, he remembers asking Hae-sun the same thing. She says that he’s her saviour and her friend.

In-hae opens a golden pocket watch and looks at it. We see that she found it while cleaning her bedroom upstairs. It belonged to her father and has a picture of her with both parents. He had given it to her just as he was leaving the house, promising to return. And he did return each time.

The mark on Woo-hyeol’s neck suddenly burns and he rushes inside to see the chandelier above In-hae breaking off its chain. He grabs her and flies into the air, saving her from the crashing chandelier. As he lifts her he looks at her lips, frowns slightly and all of a sudden, kisses her.

The Episode Review

Episode 3 of Heartbeat is a bit slow and the most exciting thing that happens is the cliffhanger at the end. But there are several moments that still manage to entertain — like Woo-hyeol’s impulsive shopping spree and the vampire friends’ reunion. The montage of our lead pair cleaning the house is a fun segment of the episode. I could see a hint of the romantic sparks that will surely follow.

Won Ji-an plays In-hae with authenticity but there are moments, like when the cockroach turns up in her apartment, where her performance goes overboard. The exaggeration feels a touch too much and doesn’t come across as endearing as it does in the case of Ok Taec-yeon.

Woo-hyeol’s attempts to get a job were a standout comic scene in this episode. The coffin shenanigans in particular had me laughing. It just cements the fact that while Ok Taec-yeon is a fabulous actor, his comic timing and portrayal of humour are a notch above the rest. As for Sang-hae and Dong-seop, they make the perfect accompanying characters to Woo-hyeol’s comic scenes.