I’ve seen so much discussion on twitter around who everyone thinks should end up with Sae Ro Yi in Itaewon Class, and it’s honestly so interesting to me because there are so many strong feelings behind it! Like people either absolutely hate Soo Ah or absolutely hate Yi Seo. I’ve seen both of them be described as absolutely terrible people and I’ve also seen them being described as having so much chemistry with Sae Ro Yi.
Honestly, I don’t think either of them should end up with Sae Ro Yi. Neither of them have the emotional ability to be the type of person that Sae Ro Yi can easily find comfort in or happiness with. They assume that they understand him because due to him not being the type of guy to play mind games, and because of that they judge him as being simple or naive. They think he is someone weak. Someone they should help or destroy. They both feel undeserved ownership over him.
Here’s the thing though, despite what I just said, I actually don’t dislike either of them. I find both of them so fascinating because they’re both such morally grey characters. And I find the discussion behind who should be with Sae Ro Yi so fascinating too because in my eyes, Soo Ah and Yi Seo are two sides to the same coin.
They are both selfish in their own right. They are ruthless towards others in order to get what they want. They both want to be successful, to be the best. Their biggest difference is what drives this ambition.
A lot of Soo Ah’s decisions are made out of fear. She knows what it’s like to be at the bottom, to have no money, no home, no family. She knows what it’s like to be weak and to be seen as weak, and she absolutely hates it. Therefore, she will do whatever it takes to not be weak, to not end up at the bottom of the food chain, to not be pitied or looked down on by others, even if she knows what she’s doing is wrong. That is why she threw a classmate’s belongings into the toilet. It’s also why she took Janggo Co’s money to help get herself through university, and why she got a job with them. She weighed her options. She saw that she could have major problems if she turned Janggo down, and she also saw that if she accepted them, it would be the easiest path towards success. Her fear lead her to accepting Janggo and betraying Sae Ro Yi despite all the guilt. (Also, the reason why she hates weak people is because it reminds her of her own “weakness”.)
On the other hand, Yi Seo’s decisions are made out of impulse. She is reckless, fearless, whimsical, and cocky. She doesn’t have the same scars that many of the characters in this drama have, and it sounds like she has some sort of mental illness where she has sociopath-like tendencies. She also has a mom who encourages her to ignore other people’s feelings and to focus only on herself. Due to this, she sees success as something that she already has a grasp on, something she can access whenever she wants to. This allows her to make things into a game and to ignore people’s feelings–because things aren’t high stakes for her. It’s why she posted that video of a classmate bullying another classmate. It wasn’t to help the victim, it was for her own amusement. It’s also why she’s help Sae Ro Yi. She doesn’t actually feel for his plight, it’s because she’s never met someone like Sae Ro Yi before and this has piqued her interest.
While I don’t love that they are–at the moment–being pitted against each other in a love triangle, I do find it interesting that this drama has two female leads who are neither sweet or docile. They are so amazingly complicated and flawed, and I love how the show doesn’t automatically demonize them for this. I can’t wait to see what sort of character development they are going to go through!
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