Character Arc
Kim Ri-an is positioned at the very top of Jooshin High School's social order, an heir to one of the academy's most powerful families whose name alone commands deference from the students around him. Accustomed to being at the center of the elite circle, he treats the school's unwritten rules as an extension of his family's influence, and his standing makes him one of the people with the most to lose if that order is disturbed.
The disruption brought by transfer student Kang Ha places Ri-an at the heart of the season's tensions, as the investigation into a classmate's death and the secrets it threatens to expose put pressure on the hierarchy he sits atop. His relationships with the other central students, and his response to a newcomer who refuses to play by his rules, drive much of the show's class-and-power conflict.
Ri-an serves as the embodiment of inherited privilege within the series, a character through whom the show examines how power is protected and what happens when it is challenged. [flag: confirm character relationships and any late-season reveals against primary sources for this recent release.]