Character Arc
Nam Hae-yi is a diligent, level-headed high-school student at the heart of the family that anchors the drama. Raised within Nam Haeng-seon's close-knit household, she is bright and quietly ambitious, navigating the enormous academic pressure of a community built around college entrance exams and elite cram schools. Her studies and her future are a constant concern that draws the adults around her into the world of private tutoring.
Her academic ambitions make her a natural link to celebrity instructor Choi Chi-yeol, and her presence helps bring the two leads into each other's orbit. Mature beyond her years yet still very much a teenager, Hae-yi grapples with the expectations placed on high achievers, the strain of competition with peers, and her own questions about identity and belonging within her family.
Across the season Hae-yi grows from a student defined largely by exam pressure into a young woman beginning to understand her own worth beyond grades. Her relationships with Haeng-seon and Chi-yeol deepen as the family becomes more tightly bound, and her storyline offers the series its grounded perspective on the human cost of Korea's education race.