Hi! School: Love On

Hi! School: Love On
Promotional poster
Also known as	High School: Love On
Genre	Romance School Supernatural Teen Comedy
Written by	Lee Jae-yeon
Directed by	Sung Joon-hae Lee Eun-mi
Starring	Kim Sae-ron Nam Woo-hyun Lee Sung-yeol
Opening theme	"Heartthrob" by Infinite F
Ending theme	"Chocolate Cherry Night" by Mad Clown and Yozoh
Country of origin	South Korea
Original language(s)	Korean
No. of episodes	20
Production
Producer(s)	Sung Joon-hae
Production company(s)	High School Co., Ltd.
Release
Original network	Korean Broadcasting System
Original release	July 11 – December 19, 2014
External links
Website

Hi! School: Love On (Korean: 하이스쿨: 러브온) is a 2014 South Korean television series starring Kim Sae-ron, Nam Woo-hyun and Lee Sung-yeol of the band Infinite.^[1][2][3] It aired on KBS2 from July 11 to December 19, 2014 on Fridays at 20:55 for 20 episodes.^[4]

Hi! School: Love On is a teen fantasy romance series about an angel who has no choice but to become a human after unintentionally saving a male student in danger. The now-mortal angel then interacts with teenage high school students and learns about love, friendship, and what it means to be human.

Plot

Sung-yeol and Woo-hyun are two 18-year-old boys who are both tormented by the emotional scars of broken families; Woo-hyun longs to see again his mother who left him as a child, while Sung-yeol lives with a stepmother that he detests and whom he blames for the break up of his parents' marriage. Both are considered anti-social by Korean norms, although popular, brave and public spirited Woo-hyun drifts through school refusing to apply himself to his studies; Sung-yeol is studious and does well academically but is dismissive and disrespectful of his parents, aloof and detached from his class mates, appearing cold and arrogant to all. The lives of the two crash together when an angel falls from heaven.^[5]

Woo-hyun's classmate, Kim Jin-young, harbors a crush for him. Fearing for her daughter's grades from her infatuation with a slacker, Jin-young's mother arrives in class and warns Woo-hyun to stay away from her daughter, publicly humiliating her. Unable to deal with her overbearing mother Jin-young prepares to jump from the roof of the school building, where Woo-hyun finds her.

Going about their business invisible to mortals are angels who guide the souls of the dead to the next life, one such nameless angel spends her time in between clients watching Korean soap operas and watching over the lives of mortals, including Woo-hyun and Sung-yeol. For this, she is chided for by a senior angel, "for its always the same story told over and over again just with different people." However the angel believes that by watching she can come to understand what it is to be human, and how mortals can love when the outcome will always be parting, and how they can live if death is all that waits.

Each angel is guided by a black book that contains the name of the soon to be deceased. The female angel arrives on the school rooftop to find Woo-hyun and Jin-young standing on the ledge. There is an unexpected thunderstorm and the name and picture of the soul to be collected oscillates between Woo-hyun and Jin-young as if it cannot decide who is to die. The angel drops her book and in the moment that she takes to recover it Woo-hyun pushes Jin-young to safety but overbalances and falls to the ground; instinctively the angel uses her powers to save his life, however they both pass out as they crash into the bonnet of a car.

Woo-hyun and the angel wake up in hospital, Woo-hyun is surprised that he is unscathed but the angel is shocked, when she realises that Woo-hyun can see her, that he can touch her, that she can feel the ground with her toes, that she has a heartbeat, and that she is in fact now mortal.

Believing her to be suffering from amnesia due to his landing on top of her Woo-hyun takes the angel to the local police station, where under questioning she stumbles on the name Lee Seul-bi.^[6] Pressed she randomly selected syllables from magazines in the police station, from which the policeman (Sung-yeol's father, Hwang Woo-jin) puzzled out a name that made sense. Woo-hyun is about to leave the newly named Seul-bi to the care of the police when Jin-young's mother arrives (with Woo-hyun's form tutor and grandmother in tow) threatening to sue Woo-hyun for trying to entice her daughter into a suicide pact, and with trumped up accusations of violence and bullying. Being well disposed to Woo-hyun from an earlier encounter, Hwang Woo-jin refuses to entertain the charges. Woo-hyun is about to leave Seul-bi to the care of the police, when his grandmother insists that they take her in as he owes her his life.

Seul-bi moves in with Woo-hyun and his grandmother, working part-time in their rice cake restaurant. Forgetting that she is now mortal Seul-bi is fearless in the face of injustice, authority and things she sees as wrong, traits that Woo-hyun appreciates and the two make themselves responsible for each other's well-being and happiness. Woo-hyun is forced by Jin-young's mother to transfer to a new school, the same school that Sung-yeol attends and the two become both rivals and allies. Curious about high school, and emotionally attached to Woo-hyun, Seul-bi decides to join him in school, where Sung-yeol also falls for her.^[7]

Seul-bi gets her wish of knowing humanity better, in high school learning firsthand the joys and sorrows of being a normal teenager, but she must also face a test unknown to any teenager nor angel, for on the day that she became mortal, the soul she should have led into the next life was Woo-hyun's

Cast

Main characters

• Kim Sae-ron as Lee Seul-bi, originally an ageless, nameless, angel who becomes human. After she becomes human, she struggles to adjust to her new life.
• Nam Woo-hyun as Shin Woo-hyun, an 18-year-old high school student who is aware about his good looks but is failing academically.^[8]
• Lee Sung-yeol as Hwang Sung-yeol, an 18-year-old high school student, a loner, and #1 student in the high school.
• Choi Soo-rin as Ahn Ji-hye, a high school ethics/civics teacher, stepmother of Sung-yeol and biological mother of Woo-hyun. She had left Woo-hyun with his grandmother when he was very young.
• Jung Jae-soon as Gong Mal-sook, Woo-hyun's paternal grandmother, who raised him due to his abandonment by his mother
• Cho Yeon-woo as Hwang Woo-jin, policeman, the father of Sung-yeol.

Supporting characters

Students of Grade 11 Class 3

• Shin Hyun-tak as Kang Ki-soo (18), Woo-hyun's best friend. Works many part-time jobs to help his family.
• Kim Young-jae as Choi Jae-seok (18). School bully. His father abuses him, causing him to act the way he does at school. He has a crush on Da-yul.
• Kim Min-young as Na Young-eun (18). Likes Sung-yeol and Kang Ki-soo
• Na Hae-ryung as Lee Ye-na (19). Likes Woo-hyun, Seul-bi's rival. She often bullied Seul-bi to get her away from Woo-hyun. But this often backfired on her since Seul-bi would never know whats going on and undermine the situation. She is best friends with Young-eun.
• Kim Soo-yeon as Lee Da-yul (18). She dreams of being a singer. but since she has no money, she goes to clubs to find people who can get her closer to her dream.
• Kim Min-suk as Park Byung-wook (18), Jae-seok's lackey. He eventually leaves the group when Jae-seok starts bullying Seul-bi, not because he likes her, but he doesn't like to bully girls and children.
• Baek Seung-heon as Yang Tae-ho (18), Jae-seok's lackey - solo. Likes Joo-ah and always get her the newest novels to get her attention.
• Jung Yoo-min as Kim Joo-ah (18), class vice-president. Has feelings for Tae-ho, but never showed them until Tae-ho's father got admitted into the hospital. Her father abused her when she was young. She works many jobs to stay afloat. She is friends with Seul-bi.
• Chang-jae as Lee Seok-hoon (18), class president^[9]
• Lee Shi-hoo as Go Cheon-sik (18), a coward bullied by Jae-seok's gang but stands up for himself later. In earlier episodes, some said that he may have romantic feelings for Woo-hyun, but the drama between the two did not develop any further.
• Song Ji-ho as Seo Yo-han (18)

High school teachers

• Kim Kwang-sik as Kim Kwang-sik, music teacher
• Han Soo-young as Choi So-jin
• --- as Park Han-gil
• Lee Joon-hyuk as Ha Dong-geun, viper teacher
• Lee Chang-joo as Jeon Byung-chul, senior angel, an angel and friend of Seul-bi who tries to help her become an angel again. it is hinted that he has feelings for Seul-bi.
• Choi Sung-guk as first angel to become human
• Fabien as Phillip, literature teacher

Extended cast

• --- as Lee Yoo-jung
• --- as Han Jung-min
• --- as Kim Yoon-hee
• --- as Detective Park
• --- as Woo-hyun's former homeroom teacher
• Choa as Kim Jin-young, who has a crush on Woo-hyun, which causes her mother, a school trustee, to have Woo-hyun transferred to another school^[10]
• Kim Ye-boon as Choi Sung-gook, Jin-young's mother

Original soundtrack

High School Love On: Original Sound Track
Soundtrack album by Various Artists
Released	December 29, 2014
Genre	Pop, K-pop, soundtrack
Label	LOEN Entertainment

No.	Title	Artist	Length
1.	"아까워" (Too Good)	Jung Gi-go feat. Min-woo of Boyfriend	3:30
2.	"쇼콜라 체리밤" (Chocolate Cherry Night)	Mad Clown and Yozoh	3:05
3.	"뜬뜬뜬뜬 뜨든뜬" (C'mon C'mon)	Crayon Pop	3:08
4.	"야야야" (Ya Ya Ya)	Urban Zakapa
5.	"내 맘이 그게 아닌데" (What My Heart Wants to Say)	Lel feat. Linzy of Fiestar	4:27
6.	"너의 왈츠" (Your Waltz)	Afternight Project	4:21
7.	"너를" (You)	Afternight Project	3:53
8.	"아까워 (Inst.)" (Too Good (Inst.))		3:30
9.	"쇼콜라 체리밤 (Inst.)" (Chocolate Cherry Night (Inst.))		3:05
10.	"뜬뜬뜬뜬 뜨든뜬 (Inst.)" (C'mon C'mon (Inst.))		3:08
11.	"내 맘이 그게 아닌데 (Inst.)" (What My Heart Wants to Say (Inst.))		4:27
12.	"너의 왈츠 (Inst.)" (Your Waltz (Inst.))		4:21
13.	"너를 (Inst.)" (You (Inst.))		3:53

Ratings

Episode #	Original broadcast date	Title	Average audience share
			TNmS Ratings[11]		AGB Nielsen[12]
			Nationwide	Seoul National Capital Area	Nationwide	Seoul National Capital Area
1	July 11, 2014	Destiny? Irresistible trouble!	4.0		3.6
2	July 18, 2014	Encounter? Mysterious coincidence!			3.2
3	August 1, 2014 ^1	Excitement? The unstoppable flutter!			3.1
4	August 8, 2014	Baby steps? First step when learning to love!			3.1
5	August 15, 2014	Drawing a line? Drawing a line to cross it!			3.4
6	August 22, 2014	Confession? Always the wrong timing!			2.9
7	August 29, 2014	Suspicion? Wanting to believe that it's not true!			3.0
8	September 12, 2014 ^2	Regret? All you remember is the bad!			3.3
9	September 26, 2014 ^3	Consolation? The hope that I could take all your pain!			3.6
10	October 3, 2014	One-sided love? When you force yourself to look away!			3.0
11	October 10, 2014	Secret? The heavier the truth the better it floats!			3.7
12	October 17, 2014	Favor? It breaks my heart when I can't do it!			3.0
13	October 24, 2014	Choice? The pain of losing all for you!			3.6
14	October 31, 2014	Longing? You who I keep running into!			3.2
15	November 7, 2014	Wounds? I give you wounds but it hurts me more!			3.5
16	November 14, 2014	Sincerity? Something I want to hide for your sake!			3.0
17	November 28, 2014 ^4	Love? I wish I had said, "I love you!"			3.0
18	December 5, 2014	Friendship? You're just another me!			3.5
19	December 12, 2014	Goodbye? Only to be back again!			3.5
20	December 19, 2014	Fate? The distance between your heart and mine: 3 inches!			3.5
Average			-	-	-	-

Note

• ^1 Episode 3 was preempted because of K League All-Star Game.
• ^2 Episode 8 was preempted because of a baseball game.
• ^3 Episode 9 was preempted due to the opening ceremony of the 2014 Asian Games
• ^4 Episode 17 was preempted because of the Grand Bell Awards

References

1. Lee, Min-ji (May 2, 2014). "Infinite's Woo Hyun and Sung Yeol to Become Rivals in High School". enewsWorld.
2. Hong, Grace Danbi (June 2, 2014). "High School Unveils Poster Stills for Kim Sae Ron, Infinite's Woo Hyun and Sung Yeol". enewsWorld.
3. "Woohyun, Kim Sae Ron, and Sungyeol Are Three of a Kind in New BTS Stills for High School: Love On". Soompi. June 10, 2014.
4. Lee, Na-rae (May 15, 2014). "Infinite's Woo Hyun, Sung Yeol and More Attend First Script Reading for High School". enewsWorld.
5. "High School: Love On: Episode 1". Dramabeans. July 14, 2014.
6. Cho, Grace (June 24, 2014). "Photos from filming of High School revealed". The Korea Herald.
7. Jung, Ji-won (August 14, 2014). "Kim Sae Ron Makes Woo Hyun and Sung Yeol Hold Hands in High School Stills". enewsWorld.
8. Hong, Grace Danbi (June 3, 2014). "Infinite’s Woo Hyun Puts on His Uniform and Heads to ‘High School’". enewsWorld.
9. Kim, Hyung-woo (June 17, 2014). "MR.MR's Changjae to Act as Sung Yeol's Academic Rival on High School". enewsWorld.
10. Kim, Erika (July 10, 2014). "Crayon Pop's Choa Acts in Her First Drama Role in High School". enewsWorld.
11. "TNmS Daily Ratings: this links to current day-select the date from drop down menu". TNmS Ratings (in Korean). Retrieved July 11, 2014.
12. "AGB Daily Ratings: this links to current day-select the date from drop down menu". AGB Nielsen Media Research (in Korean). Retrieved July 11, 2014.

External links

• Hi! School: Love On official KBS website (Korean)
• Hi! School: Love On at KBS World
• Hi! School: Love On at HanCinema
• Hi! School: Love On at the Internet Movie Database