After his acclaimed role as a ghost in the 2016 drama Bring It On, Ghost, Ok Taecyeon is back with another supernatural character as a vampire. Seon Woo Hyeol has been living as a vampire for a long time but doesn’t want to go on this way anymore. He wants to become a human for a very special reason. Woo Hyeol survived the era of Joseon when vampires were called monsters and used to be hunted down by trained vampire hunters. Even though no one is threatening his life anymore, he wishes to turn into a human and has been looking for a way for over a hundred years because of a certain incident.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Does Woo Hyeol Go Into A Deep Sleep?
Heartbeat Episode 1 opens with the royal guards chasing Woo Hyeol after discovering his real identity. Woo Hyeol has his human lover with him, and he tries to be cautious not to hurt her. When things get tough, and they are about to get caught, he uses his powers but still gets shot by a silver arrow, which is fatal to a vampire. He isn’t able to go far with his lover with him, so she begs him to leave her behind, but Woo Hyeol isn’t willing to. Instead, he stays back and kills all the guards before they can kill both of them. Woo Hyeol hesitated to show his scary side to his lover, but he had no other choice. His lover still embraces him after seeing his monstrous appearance, but luck isn’t on their side. A guard is still alive, and he shoots an arrow at Woo Hyeol. His lover notices it and gets shot while shielding him. Before breathing her last breath, she promises Woo Hyeol she’ll return for him and asks him to wait for her. Since then, Woo Hyeol has been waiting for her. He has been living with her memories, and one particular conversation with her cannot leave his mind. Once, they talked about true love, and his lover called it the feeling that makes her heart beat faster. Woo Hyeol’s heart doesn’t beat, and it makes him feel that he has not experienced true love yet. This leads to his wish to turn into a human, but he doesn’t find a method until more than a century later. Woo Hyeol now lives among humans in the Japanese colonial era, where vampires are just a myth no one talks about. One day, he feeds a hungry stray cat who turns out to be a shapeshifter. The shapeshifter has been living for a much longer time than Woo Hyeol, for over a millennium and is wiser than him. He gives Woo Hyeol the solution to his problem, and Woo Hyeol goes into a deep sleep for a hundred years in a hawthorn coffin.
Fast forward to 2022, and Woo Hyeol’s vampire friends, Sang Hae and Dong Seop are struggling with money because of all the wealth Sang Hae lost in gambling and also with finding fresh blood because of increased security measures. Only a few days are left before they can open the coffin and bring their friend back into this world. Whether he will become human or not, they just want to see him again. On the other hand, Joo In Hae, the 4th-generation granddaughter of butler Joo, who was in charge of maintaining Woo Hyeol’s mansion, is also struggling in life. She is a temporary nurse at a school and has just been scammed by her landlord, who ran away with the residents’ deposit money after selling his building. She is broke and about to become homeless when her father’s attorney calls her. Her father has been missing for five years, and the police have declared him dead. Hae inherits her father’s wealth and Woo Hyeol’s mansion as well. However, she has never heard of it or seen it before. She was lucky that she got it when she needed it. She enters the mansion, and the basement draws her curiosity. The average person would be afraid to enter the dark basement of an old, rusty mansion, but In Hae isn’t. She goes to the basement and even dares to open a clearly horrifying coffin. She isn’t afraid when she sees Woo Hyeol sleeping peacefully in it, but she gets scared once he wakes up. It doesn’t cross her mind that someone coming out of a coffin could be a ghost, but she thinks that he is an intruder and takes out her phone to call the police. Meanwhile, Woo Hyeol takes out the mirror to check if he can see his face and gets confused when he can’t. He hurriedly asks In Hae for the date and understands that he is only one day short of completing his 100-year sleep.
Has Woo Hyeol Lost His Powers?
Woo Hyeol is fuming and proceeds to bite In Hae in anger, but instead of him, In Hae bites him first in defense. Woo Hyeol is weak after waking up from his long sleep and faints. Hae checks on him and gets afraid as she doesn’t feel his pulse. The doctor in the hospital declares him dead after attempting to bring him back to life. Woo Hyeol, however, wakes up and surprises everyone. He tries to convince In Hae that he is the real owner of the mansion, but In Hae is not convinced and runs away from him. Woo Hyeol is confused about the new world and can’t find a way back to his mansion. However, some women help him find his neighborhood, and from there, Woo Hyeol happily runs back home. He waits for In Hae to return, and this time, he explains to her why he was in a coffin. Hae absolutely does not believe him, so he tries to show her his powers. To his disappointment, he can neither bring out his fangs nor fly or lift heavy items. He has lost his powers as a vampire in the process of becoming a human, but he hasn’t turned into a human either. In Hae kicks him out of the house, and he is so powerless that he can’t even defend himself from a human. Woo Hyeol has been starving, and now he is looking for his friends who were supposed to bring him out of the coffin, but he runs into In Hae again at a convenience store. He is so hungry that he starts eating the ramen that Hae made for herself.
This is the first time in his long life that Woo Hyeol can sense the different tastes of food and realize that they are much better than the taste of blood. He feels so happy that he passes out. He wakes up only after the store employee asks him to leave. While contemplating where to go, he meets the person he has been looking for: Go Yang Nam, the shapeshifter cat. Yang Nam easily recognizes that Woo Hyeol failed to become a human and asks him how it happened. He is surprised to hear that a human opened his coffin because it is not easy for a human to open a vampire’s coffin. He asks Woo Hyeol to keep a close eye on In Hae and protect her because she could be his way to becoming a complete human. Meanwhile, In Hae meets her college senior, Do Sik, who has bought the building In Hae used to live in. Do Sik seems to have had a crush on In Hae since college, but In Hae still seems to avoid him. Do Sik offers her help, but she refuses to accept it. She has a home for now, and that’s enough for her. With all the ups and downs and Woo Hyeol trying to get his home back, Heartbeat Episode 2 ends with In Hae finally accepting that Woo Hyeol is a vampire. When In Hae bit Woo Hyeol, she formed a connection with him, and he gets alerted whenever she is in trouble. Hae had been chasing her landlord for money, but he attacked her, and now her life is in danger. Woo Hyeol senses the danger and drinks blood that Yang Nam gave him, to temporarily gain his vampire powers. He finds In Hae and saves her from the landlord while exhibiting his superpowers, which finally makes In Hae believe that he is not a human.
