“What If We Stopped Asking ‘What’s Wrong with You?’ and Started Asking ‘What Happened to You?’“

My nieces had been telling me for the longest time to watch WEAK HERO CLASS1, raving that it’s “one of the best dramas ever!” I dismissed it for a while but then came the announcement of Season 2, and when I saw Season 1 pop up on Netflix, I gave in.

Episode 1 felt a bit strange at first. “This is it?” I thought. Just another bullying-centered show? But I stayed. And slowly, I understood. Weak Hero Class 1 wasn’t just a bullying drama. It was a mirror. A raw, unflinching mirror of youth – angsty, vulnerable, silent in their battles. The drama hit deep. Beneath the fists and flying kicks was a cry for help, a reflection of brokenness that many people hide behind strong fronts.

The lead character Si Eun, quickly caught my attention. e brainy kid, withdrawn and emotionless, but quietly resisting. There’s Su Ho, an MMA fighter with enough guts in school but keeps low key (not to mention Su Ho was so handsome). But what shook me most was the character that most people hate: Beom Seok.

Beom Seok: The Character I Pity The Most

Many viewers dismissed him as weak, unstable, or even vile in the end. But to me, he was a tragedy. A child so used to abuse and neglect that when love finally came, he didn’t know how to hold it.

Beom Seok had been bullied in his former school. Worse, he was bullied twice as hard at home. His own father beat him and belittled him physically, emotionally, psychologically. So when he found friendship in Si Eun and Su Ho, it was like finally finding sunlight after being stuck in a basement for years. But sunlight, when you’re used to darkness, can feel blinding.

He started doubting his place. A small thing like Su Ho not following him back on Instagram triggered deep insecurity. Petty to some, but to a wounded heart, it was proof of rejection. Add to that the voice of the loan shark mocking him “You’re just a minion” and the toxic self-doubt his father instilled in him took over.

The night his father beat him with a golf club was the same night his “friends” bonded without him. They didn’t mean harm, but in his pain, it was betrayal. Salt on an open wound. And in his festering hurt, the monster inside awakened until he did the unthinkable … sending Su Ho into a coma.

I stared at that scene, disturbed not because of the violence. But because I could understand how he got there.

Lessons That Hit Close to Home

1. Social media has distorted our sense of connection.
Beom Seok believed Su Ho didn’t value their friendship just because he didn’t follow him back on Instagram. It sounds absurd until we realize how many people today measure relationships through likes, tags, and online attention.

In real life, people feel rejected when their message is “seen” but not replied to. Or when a close friend posts a happy moment without them. These tiny moments online breed giant insecurities offline.

But connection runs deeper than social validation. Su Ho showed his care through action, defending Beom Seok, checking up on him, even confronting his old bullies. But Beom Seok missed all that because he was tuned into the wrong channel: the one called insecurity.

2. The voice in your head can either heal you or destroy you.
We all talk to ourselves. But for some, the voice inside isn’t kind. Beom Seok heard the same degrading words his father used on him over and over … until they felt like truth.

That’s why community matters. Real, healthy friendship is where we can say, “I’m not okay,” and not be judged. A safe space to just be who we are. A place to silence the wrong voices by speaking truth out loud.

Imagine if Beom Seok had opened up:
If he had just said: “I feel left out. I feel like you don’t care about me.”
Would things have turned out differently?

Many people today feel just like him. They don’t speak because they’re afraid they’ll be seen as weak or dramatic. But silence is the perfect breeding ground for lies. We need people around us who won’t just hear us but help us hear what’s real.

3. Everyone has a context—no one becomes broken for no reason.
Beom Seok wasn’t born a villain. He was a boy with wounds no one saw. Every kick he gave to Su Ho was a cry for help. A punch of pain he never processed. A desperate attempt to matter.
Hurt people hurt people. It’s not an excuse but for some if not many, it explains the pain that shaped them.

Beom Seok didn’t want to hurt Su Ho. He loved Su Ho. But that love, twisted by fear and insecurity, exploded. The scene where he’s crying over Su Ho’s unconscious body broke me. It wasn’t just guilt … it was grief. Grief over what he lost, and over what he had never been taught: how to receive love.

How many people today lash out not because they’re cruel, but because they’ve never been shown what love truly is?
How many are angry simply because no one ever made them feel safe enough to be soft?

Si Eun understood.
Despite everything, Si Eun tried to keep the friendship. He told Su Ho, “Understand him a little.”
Because he knew. He knew what it was like to be numb, broken, angry and just needing someone to stay.

Weak Hero Class 1 isn’t just about high school fights. It’s about how fragile we all are behind the masks.
It’s about the battles people fight in silence.
It’s about Beom Seok … a boy who just wanted to be loved, but when he finally found, didn’t know how to believe it.

And maybe, that’s the saddest thing of all.

Watching this drama didn’t just give me entertainment, it gave me perspective. I couldn’t help but think: how many Beom Seoks are around us today? People who look fine on the outside but are actually carrying invisible bruises? People whose silence is not indifference, but fear? Whose anger is not hate, but heartbreak?

My personal takeaway is this … we need to be slower to judge and quicker to listen. Behind every difficult person is often a deep pain. And while pain doesn’t excuse harm, understanding it can be the start of healing, not just for them, but for us too.

I realized all the more how important it is to be a safe space for others. To check in even when someone pushes you away. To speak life when all they hear is condemnation. To follow up not just on Instagram but in real life.

So here’s my quiet call to action:

Be someone who sees beyond the surface.
Be someone who listens without immediately trying to fix.
Be someone who chooses compassion, even when it’s easier to walk away.

Because sometimes, what a person needs most isn’t a solution.
Just someone who stays, even when the monster shows up.

Let’s be the kind of friend that reminds others:
You are not alone. You are seen. You are loved.

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.”
— Wendy Mass

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience… And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
— Colossians 3:12,14 (NIV)